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For the new year, Mav and I decided we were going to start exploring more of where we live. This is our second year in the city and our 5th/6th year in New York State and we definitely have not even scratched the surface of seeing all the cool things there are to see! Our first exploration of the new year followed a trip to Vassar (Go Brewers!!) and was one I had been wanting to make since I was still a student: Beacon!!

Everyone would always talk about how Beacon was changing and becoming a more hipster-y artistic place with delicious food and cool sights to see, but I somehow never made my way over there. This visit proved that everyone was exactly right!

We started off down by the water, which was actually very lovely and peaceful. There had been a recent freeze, so we sat by the rocks and got to enjoy the sound of ice cracking and shifting under the warmth of the sun. After all of this thoughtful reflection, I decided I needed a snack (preferably one of the sweet persuasion) and we stopped by this adorable gluten-free bakery called Ella’s Bellas! I purchased a couple of cookies (?) and a lemon poppy-seed muffin that I had been craving for what felt like years, and everything was so delicious! Next we wandered in and out of various shops and stores and admired the character of this charming town.

This first stop on our adventure list made me really excited for all of our future travels and discoveries. There’s really so much to see in the (immediate) world around you, and I cannot wait to explore and share with you!

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On this edition of Pinterest Win or Fail.. Song Lyric Wall Art!!  I just moved into a new place and am looking for a way to jazz up my plain walls, so I thought I would look for some room decor.  I pinned this D.I.Y. Song Lyric Wall Art a long, long time ago.  When I was looking for a craft to do and clicked this link, I saw that it was from one of my most favorite blogs of all time, A Beautiful Mess.  If you don’t follow A Beautiful Mess, you are missing out on an entire world of extremely fun D.I.Y. projects like this one, but also a ton of beautiful photography, blogging, and interior design photos and tips AND also yummy recipes for food and drinks.  They’re amazing for a million reasons, so it made complete sense to me that this craft was of their creation.

THEIRS:

MINE:

 

So, if you read her suggestion on the blog post which you totally should do, here, you’ll see that she suggests doing spray paint instead of the white acrylic paint.  I took this suggestion, and I honestly should’ve probably done more than one layer of spray paint but I kind of liked the look of the faded picture in the back.  I’m thinking I’ll probably get a black frame for it so the letters stand out more since some of them bled a little.  Overall, I say this was a win!!  Doing the paint by number actually ended up being extremely relaxing and therapeutic, I highly suggest doing them for fun!  At first I felt like doing a paint by number takes away from the relaxing aspect of just putting paint on a canvas, but I found that I was still fairly relaxed since I knew I was just painting over my picture.

What do y’all think?? Win or Fail??

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It’s so funny to see how quickly things trend and spread over social media. There’s so much potential to use that for good, but I feel like so often it’s the bad stuff that spreads like wildfire?? This year you may have noticed a variety of the same type of gift giving post that asked you to buy a gift for someone you didn’t know, and then ask others to get a gift for the person who told you about the gift tree, and it would progress on and on into what seems like an infinite chain of holiday cheer! I was super excited to get going but my super smart, loving boyfriend had me pump my brakes and pointed out my naivety (in the sweetest, nicest way).  He showed me how this was actually a pyramid scheme that would end up cheating people out of gifts and that was the exact opposite of the infinite chain of holiday cheer I had visualized!

 With this in mind, I started my own random gift giving project entitled #PROJECTANGEL. Angel stands for Ariel’s New Gift Exchange. Lemons. (Not to be confused with every villain is lemons) and was a good, honest, 1 for 1 gift exchange with someone you didn’t know that allowed you to receive a surprise package in the mail around Christmas time! All of the positives from the online challenge without the scheme-y part! In retrospect, I should’ve been more strict with the deadline for the gifts so I could make sure everyone received their gift on time (and also to make sure I had time to receive the pictures to get this post up in a reasonable time ?). Overall though, I was extremely excited about how the exchange went and was shocked at how perfect some of the gifts were! A friend who is obsessed with coffee got a mug proclaiming this fact, a friend who is moving got a beautiful vase for her new apartment.. and so on and so forth! 

I’m really excited to hopefully turn this into a tradition and do my part to contribute to holiday cheer! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and I can’t believe that the time has come and gone! I’m posting a video tomorrow that is more about the new year and things, so make sure you subscribe to Up in the Air TV on YouTube so you don’t miss out! 
Stay Inspired,