All Grown Up

Sorry for my disappearance from the blogosphere yet again, but I had another life changing/busy week. I moved in to my first "real world" apartment last weekend which was so much more exhausting than I thought it would be. Then I spent this week running around between different activities and a busy week at work. After sleeping in the past 2 mornings, I finally feel caught up and am truly settling in to my new place.

I would love to say I'll be able to write more, but I have a hunch that I won't really get a whole lot of time until I finish up work for the year. Maybe I'll try getting back to my original format of a short post about one thing to be thankful for rather than my long thankfulness dumps I've been doing lately :)

Anyways, here is what's been going on lately:

Bought this beautiful wreath over Thanksgiving for the front door of our apartment.

Moved in! Helloooo new room :)

Made this scarf/purse holder with my dad over Thanksgiving. It was so much fun using power tools with my dad in the garage and making this pretty & functional piece.

Had this beautiful walk to the L and a much shorter commute to work each morning.

Finally found the type of sparkly nail polish I'd been looking for for 3 weeks.

Peeled my first grapefruit. I couldn't eat the whole thing (it was so much bigger than I realized it would be!) and was a lot more difficult to eat than I expected, but it was still so delicious!

Christmas decorations invaded Chicago. Every bar and office building is decorated to the nines in addition to the beautiful trees on Michigan Avenue. Chicago really knows how to do Christmas right.

Had my first office Christmas party. I may have been the youngest person there but oh well, it was still fun. Oh, and we had these hilarious napkins :)

Bought a White Elephant gift that went over even better than I thought it would. I may have been at a "grown up" Christmas party but the remote control car was still the most popular gift.

Experienced all the Christmas decoration joy at Butch McGuire's. Direct quote "This place is so great! Look at all the Christmas joy!"

Made delicious waffles with Kathryn to celebrate our first real weekend in our apartment. Chocolate chip waffles with baked apples, honey & walnuts...yummm

Walked around TBOX (the 12 Bars of Xmas) since it was in our neighborhood. Everyone walking around with their boxes of cereal was hilarious & we found this lovely sidewalk art of crushed Froot Loops. 

It's hard to tell in this picture but Clark Street was packed with happy drunks decked out in holiday gear.

More costumes. I spy with my little eye Tony the Tiger :) Keeping with the cereal theme I guess.

Went for a run in the cold around the new neighborhood.

Found this beautiful door on Lakeshore during the run. Of course I had to stop to document it.

Continued settling in to the new place. Here is some of our holiday decor & yummy scented pinecones.

I honestly can't believe I live in a beautiful apartment in a neighborhood I love in Chicago. I know I have a lot more growing up to do, but it feels pretty good to be where I'm at right now.