Friday Favorites (23)

Well, it certainly doesn't feel like Friday to me because I've practically been on vacation all week, but after two days at work I'm off again and ready for another long weekend! This morning my brother and I are heading to Charlottesville to pick up one of his friends, and then we're all driving to DC for a wedding on Saturday. And this afternoon, my fiancé (that didn't take long to get used to!) is flying in from Minneapolis and the weekend can officially begin!

Here are some links for your weekend:

Cute Stuff

I love so many of these dresses--especially that Ted Baker Briony Dress.

Look at these cute glasses! They remind me of Melissa.

Robyn is so sweet and I just love her outlook on life.

I wouldn't say no to these sandals. And would someone get me this cute thing?

Books and Movies

Loving "Gatsby" Too Much and Not Enough--this is exactly how I felt about the movie. Maybe I shouldn't have read this before seeing it.

10 reasons why picture books are not just for children.

I loved Brenda Chapman's reaction to this ridiculous makeover of Merida from Brave.

I think it was awesome of Danielle to share this piece of fiction with us.

Religion, Culture, Health

I'm so interested in Angelina Jolie's choice to undergo a preventive double mastectomy.

Missing Husband--so beautiful and sad. We can do better than this!

This is everything to me. Like, how I feel about faith and the world in one image.

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What do you have planned this weekend? What awesome thing have you read or seen lately?

Calling All Sponsors | June 2013

First of all, I have to thank you all so much for your sweet comments regarding our engagement. 

You sure know how to make a person feel special. Thank you, thank you, thank you. 

With all the exciting things going on here, I think I'm going to be blogging up a little storm over the next few months. So if you've ever been thinking about placing an ad on Freckled Italian, now's the time! I have a few spots open (it is simultaneously frustrating and cool to always be telling you that the large space is already reserved for next month), so check out my stats and rates right here--you can place an ad from that page, too. 

And remember that you can reserve a spot if none are available to start immediately. Passionfruit is cool like that. If you have any questions at all, please feel free to shoot me an email. Looking forward to hearing from you!

We're Getting Married!

On Monday afternoon, after taking a walk downtown with some friends and before one of the craziest rainstorms I've ever experienced, Rob got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. 

It was perfect and romantic and hilarious and unexpected and kind of a dream come true.

We are so excited. 

Thank you all who have already sent congratulations! 

Your love and support mean the world to us. It's been a pretty amazing few days.

[Photo via Phyllis Peterson--my future mother-in-law!]

Weekend in Photos // More Graduation

Happy Monday! What a full weekend this has been--we started on Saturday morning by getting ready for guests to arrive that afternoon for Sean's graduation party. My friend Tina came with her boyfriend and their little puppy and we had so much fun. Tina is one of my best friends but we just never get to see each other. I'm so glad she's starting a summer position at a law firm in town today so we'll have almost two full months for coffee and lunch dates.

After the party Rob and I headed to Charlotteville for UVA's graduation, where he would walk and make his master's official. We were driving back home last night and we talked about how some weekends require another weekend just to catch up on sleep and relax from so many festivities, and this was one of them. Luckily the two of us both took today and tomorrow of of work, so we'll be hanging out at home, going out to lunch with some more friends, and finally seeing The Great Gatsby tonight! But until then, here are photos from the weekend.

On Pushing the Limit

I went on a run yesterday; the kind where it's muggy and hot outside and you think about huge things while you lose your breath and sweat quickly covers your body. I told myself to run twenty minutes, and I started fast, and then thirty minutes passed, and I told myself to run some more.

It was hot and the sky looked like thunder and my legs felt like bricks and I just kept going. I didn't start out with grand thoughts about life, because I started out with basic thoughts about running, but the former evolved from the latter because that tends to be the way it works when you're running.

I started going to CrossFit last summer and I continued for about two months. During that time, I stopped running because most of the time I was too sore to run, and when I wasn't too sore to run I felt too strong to need to run. It was fine, and then I stopped going to CrossFit, but I kind of had already stopped running, so for a while I was just sort of lazy. When I finally started again, I never pushed myself to the caliber that I used to in my cross-country days, and certainly not to failure like I often did in CrossFit.

I got so comfortable that I forgot what the edges of my comfort zone felt like. But I like being in that space. I need it.

Here's to finding that line, and then walking on it.