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{ sit / sip / style }

So, I really think we’re gonna make it to Europe in the spring. Which I pretty much have been dreaming of constantly since the last time I was in Europe in 2010. So my mind has been wandering to all the awesome places we could visit and trying to figure out how much we could cram into two weeks. Today, I’m thinking of Paris (and let’s be honest…my brain is still in fall mode, not spring)…an afternoon in a cozy sweater sitting by the river, sipping a tasty apple cocktail and looking at the changing leaves.

This will be my husband’s first trip to Europe (outside of an airport layover or two)…so, where must I take him?!

Filed in:Daydreaming
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  • Susan MedynNovember 15, 2013 - 11:08 am

    Vienna, Prague, oh my go for months! Was there 3 weeks this Spring for an exhibit I was in and want to go back.ReplyCancel

    • Annabelle MintzNovember 15, 2013 - 5:37 pm

      Susan – I adored Prague, but have never been to Vienna! It is SO hard to choose, we are going to try to go for as long as possible 😉 Thanks for the suggestions!ReplyCancel

  • Adina | Gluten Free TraveletteNovember 15, 2013 - 1:02 pm

    San Sebastian, Spain!ReplyCancel

    • Annabelle MintzNovember 15, 2013 - 5:39 pm

      Adina, Spain is definitely on the list – haven’t narrowed down what part yet 😉 Thanks for chiming in! I have never been to San Sebastian, but we watched a documentary about the camino and it looked beautiful. GAH, there are just too many awesome places in Europe.ReplyCancel

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{ Minted calendar / images by Annabelle Mintz: 1, 2, 3, 4 }

We’re back again with Minted for our second installment of my favorite things in preparation for the holiday season! (Did you miss the first one? Check it out here.)

To remind you of the favorite things we happen to be discussing: a few of my favorite things include: buying gifts for people (one of the best parts of Christmas by far), wrapping presents (related), and calendars (because you know they’re cool). Up there pretty high on my list of favorites as well has to be traveling and going on new adventures, so this week’s favorite things are travel-themed. I love that Minted calendars have lots of customization options, perfect if you want to remember all your adventures from past years, or gift a memento to a globetrotting friend of yours. Just upload your own vacation photos, pick a simple design, and voila!

So, once you’ve got that gift figured out for the globetrotter in your life, here’s another Christmas wrapping DIY, this time with a little travel vibe!

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First step, gather your supplies! This one might be even easier than last week’s DIY – I am all for the easy-peasy when it comes to do-it-yourself projects. Grab your paint pens + festive ribbon from last week, plus an old atlas that you don’t mind ripping up a little. This one happens to be from my 4th grade geography class, so I think it’s ready to find a new life wrapping presents.

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Pick a page from your atlas – I chose this Northeastern Canada page, pretty much randomly. Cut the page out of the atlas, and proceed to the wrapping of your gift.  You’ll have to pick a gift that’s smaller than your atlas, obviously, or do some fancy patchwork!

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Then it’s time for the festive ribbon and paint pens to get their groove on.  (Side note, you may want to wrap your present in some of that leftover kraft paper from last week if your atlas pages are thin and the paint pens might bleed through). I initially wanted to write in white like I did last week, but my atlas colored are just too light for the white to show up, so I had to go over it in black. Other fun options might be a gold sharpie or paint pen? Or, if you’re stuck on the whole white writing thing, you might just go back later and add a band of kraft paper so that you can use the white pen after all.

P.S. Tune in NEXT WEEK for the final installment of my favorite things, and also a chance to win your very own customized calendar from Minted and get ahead on your Christmas shopping. So exciting!

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Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links and was sponsored by Minted; however the opinions expressed here are my own and not affected by my affiliate relationship with Minted, because that’s how I roll – my desire is to bring a high level of creative and unique content to this blog, so thank you for supporting the brands that help me make that possible.

Filed in:Creativity | DIY

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I think, for the most part, I’ve figured out the keys to social success in Colorado. It involves mainly three things: you must have some sort of outdoor hobby, you must have/like dogs, and you must like beer. Boom, anywhere you go, you will find people to talk to. I was never a beer drinker before moving here, but since it’s so much part of the state’s culture, I’ve learned to appreciate a good brew.

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We’ve been slowly working our way through this map of Colorado breweries, and a few weekends ago, made the trip to Coors in Golden, Colorado. It’s actually one of the largest breweries in the world (and definitely the most well known outside of Colorado…aka they have TV commercials) so it definitely had a different vibe than many of the other places we’ve visited. Upside: it’s a free tour, with plenty of free beer, and you do get to see on a very large scale the details of how beer is actually made – if that sort of thing interests you.

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The tour starts with a little bus ride through the town of Golden, then you’re dropped off at the brewery and given a handheld audio player that walks you through a guided tour of the brewery (plus your free beer wristband), and end up in the tasting room, where they have many Miller-Coors brews on tap (including their sub-brews like Blue Moon). To be honest, Coors is not even close to my favorite beer, but the experience was still pretty fun with a good group of friends. Plus, we got to check one more brewery off the very extensive list of at least 150 breweries in the state (seems like a hard number to pin down exactly, not to mention new ones seem to be opening all the time). It’s definitely got a touristy vibe, but there’s a reason it’s such a popular tour (it’s the free beer) and it’s just a short drive from Denver, so I think it’s worth the trip.

P.S. Is that vintage Coors ad hanging in the tasting room not one of the funniest things? Target market for Coors = your grandma!

Filed in:Colorado | Everyday Adventure | Travel

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Can you believe it’s already November? Seems like this year is starting to fly by, and you know what that means…Christmas is right around the corner! As much as I don’t want to start thinking about the end of the year already, or the winter weather that comes with it, I must say that I do love the Christmas season. So on that note, I’m super excited to bring you another collaboration with the super awesome people at Minted – and we’re going to talk about some of my favorite things. I’m not sure when that song from the Sound of Music became a Christmas song, but maybe it’s the brown paper packages and the snowflakes? In any case, a few of my favorite things include: buying gifts for people (one of the best parts of Christmas), wrapping presents (related), and calendars (totally unrelated and a little nerdy…yet true). Minted has some awesome calendars with plenty of customization options, and they’re prefect for holiday gifts!

So, you’ve picked out the perfect calendar (see above) for your friend, the art-lover. Now, here’s how to wrap it!

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All you’ll need is some kraft paper or butcher paper, a white paint pen, scissors, pretty Christmas ribbon, a ruler, a pencil and an eraser! And some minor language skills…

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First step is to cut a piece of kraft paper the size you’ll need for your gift wrapping purposes, then use the ruler and lightly make lines across your paper. Once you have the lines, just start writing with the paint pen – what you write is totally up to you! I decided to write the words “Merry Christmas” in three languages, English, Spanish and French, on my wrapping paper – since after all this is a travel lifestyle blog. We gotta get our multilingual on, right? Keep going until the whole paper is full of words! I alternated what language I started with each time, so that they ended up staggered across the paper. Also, I had to use two coats of paint pen to get a good solid white. Make sure you let it dry completely when you’re finished, then gently erase your pencil lines.

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Then comes the wrapping! It takes a little trial and error of sliding your paper around so that when you flip it over, the writing looks how you want it to. Finally, make use of your festive ribbon to add some Christmas color! This is my kind of DIY – the super simple but looks super pretty kind.

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And there you have it, brown paper packages tied up with ribbon, all ready for Christmas!

What are some of your favorite things about the Christmas season? Are you a plan-ahead-er or a last-minute-er?

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links and was sponsored by Minted; however the opinions expressed here are my own and not affected by my affiliate relationship with Minted, because that’s how I roll – my desire is to bring a high level of creative and unique content to this blog, so thank you for supporting the brands that help me make that possible.

Filed in:Creativity | DIY
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Since one of Trina’s favorite places yesterday was downtown Chicago (it’s one of my favorites too!), I thought it would be appropriate to do another little throwback post to our Chicago trip in August. There are so many picturesque spots in Chicago, and this one is pretty iconic: Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park.

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It ended up being totally freezing and windy when we got downtown, so I had to pop into Target and buy this sweater (looks like they only have the plus size left on the website).  It’s not what I would typically pick out – but you would be surprised how HARD it is to find a decent (warm) sweater in Chicago in August. This is the best I could do, and at least it was cozy enough for me to survive the day. And it’s covered in hearts – so there’s that.

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Buckingham fountain is just a short walk down from Millennium Park, which has perhaps now superseded it as THE city park, but it’s worth a visit just the same – classic examples of old vs. new in those two parks. I’m such a city person – I love that there are so many things to explore in such a small area, so much variation, like you could never exhaust it’s possibilities. Chicago has such beautiful architecture, so many amazing restaurants – I realize I’m completely biased when I say that it’s one of my favorite places on earth, but I’ll say it anyway.

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My adventure list is growing ever longer and longer – there are just too many good places to see on this planet, I feel like I’m adding something new to the I-hope-we-get-to-visit-there-soon list all the time. And then there’s the let’s-go-back-there-asap list. But all the places I visit or wish to visit bring me back to this one and I guess that means no matter where I’m living, it will always be home.

Filed in:Everyday Adventure | Travel

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