Jan 6 2015 : roundA beauty from Rockefeller Center when I was in New York back in December ... Have a couple of posts due from that trip, but since I've been a horrible blogger they are still sitting out there waiting to be posted. Some day.. 
lunch by the lake
Had the pleasure of enjoying lunch at the Lake Murray Marina while in South Carolina. Completely lovely way to soak in some vitamin D while taking a conference call. Wish I could to this everyday! 
rome : piazza navona
I am finally working my way through the zillions of photos from my trip to Italy and rather than doing one giant post, I have decided to focus on the special places / moments during our trip. So we began our trip with an evening wandering through the Piazza Navona. It's a vibrant place to be - lots of people just sitting and enjoying each others company over food, drink and some of the most beautiful architecture and fountains. I absolutely love the details in Italy - flowers on the balconies, decorative house numbers, the color of shutters and doors and little moments of religious figures on the building facades. I really wish I knew why they do this - to bless the inhabitants? And how do they decide what the figure will be, how prominent it will be and where it is placed?
Oh and did you know that property cost increased with the number of windows a building has .. so if you look around, you will notice windows are painted onto buildings (see fourth row photo below) this was their way of saving money. Crazy fact I never knew before!
More to come... 
photo a day : 39 of 52
week thirty nine in photos - sloooooowly working my way through processing my photos from Italy between a crazy work schedule and life.
fav word
crisp, triangle
angle, best
celebration (from Orvieto - traditional jump shot)
photo a day : 38 of 52
I have to admit I'm loosing steam on the FMS photo prompts ... I'm seeing some repeats from earlier in the year (annoying) and that makes for real hard motivation to reinterpret the theme again. Not to mention that I have been horrible posting here on the blog... might have to rethink my choice of photo challenge in 2015. With that said - here is week thirty eight.
healthy, I don't like
key, person
even, beginning
photo a day : 37 of 52
Week thirty seven a mix of real time and Italy ... ahhh
father, broken
orange, repetition
how I feel today, fall
out of place (great graffiti found all around florence)
photo a day : 36 of 52
Week thirty six coming to you from Italy - what an amazing week and fabulous photo inspiration!
10am - tea at the bottom of the Spanish Steps (rome)
in my cup - gelato, of course!
stripes - black and white marble columns in the duomo (siena)
button - great brass buttons (florence)
DIY - street vendor hand paints his business card for every customer (florence)
upside down - gelato cone lost (tragedy really!) (siena)
I need ... - to learn that I must pack proper travel shoes (new nikes purchased - florence)
photo a day : 35 of 52
week thirty five in photos spans from Chicago to Rome!! Yay!
fragrant, breakfast
mail, dull
travel, dessert
nearby
laudree NYC
Finally. Finally made it to Laudrée New York! It's the little things that make this girl so damn happy. I have been begging friends who live in NY to bring some to me when they visit - but hasn't happened yet. I have been to Jersey three times since the new year - too far to go for macarons (even for me). So finally had a meeting in Manhattan and promptly after hopped in a cab to Laudrée! It's a small store, very busy and they rush you through the line, so there wasn't really time to linger and take it all in. But, I got me a dozen all snug in a box and headed home! Hands down the best macarons around!! (p.s. did you know they are flown in from Paris daily!?!)
(side note - we did pick up macarons at Macaron Cafe in NYC and those were pretty darn good - better than Dana's Bakery I thought - though I like Dana's flavor combos)
Spring in the south
Overnight business trip to South Carolina where it was 70° and sunny. The trees are blooming!! Made it super hard to return to the Chicago freezer.
