Category Archives: Liz’s Life

City-Themed Stationary

Posted in Gift Ideas, Liz's Life by

This Thursday is my sister Amy’s birthday- she’s a St. Patrick’s baby! We’re not huge on presents in my family, but I wanted to get Amy something small to help celebrate her day.

In the age of texts, tweets and wall posts, I have been on a kick to bring back some elements of old-school communication. One of these is the hand-written note.

I love the personalization a note brings to a relationship. Plus you’re able to show off your personality with a design all your own or even your initials.

I went on Etsy and scrolled the thousands of handmade stationary they have available until I landed on these from Gooseberry Press shop. My sister lives in San Francisco and has friends all across the US, so I thought they were a great fit.

These cute cards are also available for Chicago, Washington DC, Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, Las Vegas and Napa. They cost $2.75 – $4.00 per card, so you can mix and match your favorite designs. You can browse all the stationary here.

Happy Birthday, Amy – Love you!

Photos From Around the World

Posted in Daily Musings, Liz's Life by

Some friends, Laura and Ryan from the blog “Round We Go”, recently completed an “around the world” trip, which they memorialized through the photo journey in the video below. It’s so breathtaking, I had to share it with you guys.

I am so happy our friends got to have this incredible experience and also grateful they are sharing it in such a beautiful way. Watching this reminds me of two things:

1. There is SO MUCH to see in this world. Must. Plan. More. Trips.

2. Our time on this beautiful earth is short, and I want to make sure I live every moment I’ve been blessed with to the fullest

What one place in Laura and Ryan’s travels would you most like to visit? And I must reccomend their blog http://roundwego.com/ they are both amazing writers.

A Perfect San Francisco Saturday

Posted in Daily Musings, Liz's Life by

This weekend we took a couple days off skiing to go to San Francisco to see my parents who were in town visiting my sister Amy and her husband Mike. Amy and Mike are one of those couples who rock at entertaining and hosting guests, so I wasn’t surprised when they had the perfect Saturday planned out for us.

We started the morning off with a trip to the farmer’s market in the Ferry Building. The sights, sounds and smells were a lovely way to start the day.

We grabbed a quick bite of “Mexican Breakfast” food, which consisted of sauce-drenched tortilla chips, eggs, beans and avocado.

After the Farmer’s Market in the Ferry Building, we headed into China Town for Dim Sum at City View Dim Sum. If you haven’t tried Dim Sum before, it’s a very unique dining experience.

Basically as soon as you sit down, waitresses will wheel around carts of various Chinese foods, like dumplings, chicken feet, sticky buns etc. You pick what you want and eat it Tapas style with your table.

It was a great way to sample a lot of different Chinese cuisine with everyone weighing in on what they liked and disliked as we went.

From there we walked through China Town and caught a bit of a parade taking place to help raise money for a local martial arts group.

We made our way through San Francisco’s China Town until we got to our next destination – tea tasting! Luke happens to be a big tea fan, so he was especially excited about this part of the day.

We were greeted by a boisterous man who asked that we call him “Uncle.” He led us through the tea-tasting experience all while touting the health benefits of tea. To prove his point, he asked us to guess how old he was. My dad guessed 60.

Turns out he’s 80!! Whoa- if tea drinking makes you look 20 years younger, then sign me up!

We tasted about eight teas in all and at the end felt like we had made a new friend – Luke especially.

Rounding out our day of “Asian appreciation” in San Francisco, we all headed to Suchada Thai Massage. This was our first experience with a Thai massage and I have to say it was the most unique and experiential massages I’ve ever gotten.

The massage itself is almost painful, but in a good way. Your masseuse literally walks on your back, uses their elbows to dig into knots and stretches you in ways you didn’t think you could stretch.

There were times I felt like I needed to tell them to stop because it was so uncomfortable, but right when I thought I hit my threshold, they moved on. In the end, I left feeling totally loose. I could tell they did a lot to help my back and neck.

On the way home we stopped for some pictures by the water.

Thanks for coming to visit mom and dad and thanks for showing us a great time in San Francisco Amy and Mike!

My First “Test” Since College

Posted in Liz's Life by

Update: I passed! You’ve got a level 7 (beginner expert) skier on your hands, folks!

I’ve always enjoyed being a student. As dorky as it sounds, I enjoy the process of learning.

I should probably also admit that I was that annoying girl in college who always raised her hand to answer questions and participate in discussions. I know…many of you probably have rolled your eyes at people like me. :)

Since moving to Lake Tahoe, I’ve taken on a new subject – skiing! My classroom is no longer filled with stationary desks and a projector, but now it’s a 4,800 acre mountain.

When I started at Heavenly, I labeled myself an “upper intermediate” skier. I quickly realized – after skiing with my colleagues, who are all what they call “rippin skiers” – that my level was more like “beginner intermediate.” :(

Being a naturally uber-competitive person, I felt compelled to do whatever I could to learn how to ski better and improve my ability. I convinced my colleague who is also a part-time instructor to ski with me on the weekends so I could pick her brain. Some other work friends tagged along.

She had us do all sorts of crazy drills like skiing on one ski, skiing without poles, skiing with our arms out in front of us like we were ready for a bear hug. I’m sure we made some people laugh as we went by, but I think it really helped!

Today all my practicing will be put to the test when I participate in a “ski ability test” at 1pm. In order to continue to ski on the job – which I need to be able to do to get photos for the website and social media – I have to pass a level 7, which is a “beginner expert” level.

The word “expert” sort of makes me break out into a sweat. Wish me luck guys! I’ll let you know if I pass or not.