I just discovered a site called Wayfare and haven't been able to stop looking at it all morning! 

It's a travel blog and magazine that feature trendy spots, unique finds, tips, and gear.  You should check it out. Be warned, however, that it will add to your bucket list (there's lots of U.S. adventures too)! 

The quote and image above is from their recent, and first, print magazine.  I think its very fitting,  I feel like traveling and experiencing new cultures changes you in a way that few other things will. 

While I was checking out Wayfare, I saw a recent post where they featured the designs of Herb Lester.  He has a line of travel maps out that I REALLY want.  They look so cool! 

I recently discovered Flow Designs on Etsy.  She's a Boulder based jewelry designer.  Check her out!

I'm just figuring out what RSS feeds are and how to connect with them, and I figured there might be others that are equally clueless, so I thought I'd share. 

First, RSS stands for Rich Sits Summary, or is sometimes referred to as Really Simple Syndication.  It is a service that is used to track recent updates on websites, such as blogs and news reels.  This RSS feed contains full or partial content of recent updates, from sites that you chose to subscribe to.

In order to view this feed, however, you have to have an RSS Reader.  Most of the online giants have their own (i.e. Google, Yahoo, etc.).  Most sites, especially blogs, have a symbol like the one I included above. 

Once you download an RSS Reader and subscribe to your favorite sites, you'll have a current view of all the new posts or updates on these sites without going to each one individually.  I've included an example of what my feed reader looks like below.

Here is some useful information on RSS Feeds:
Wikipedia
Using Google New RSS Feeds

Here's a helpful how to video showing step by step how to subscribe.  Please note that it may not look the same on your computer, depending on  your browser and feed reader, but the general concept is the same.
RSS Tutorial

Good luck!

I have hosted the blog A Broad Abroad for 4 years  now and despite the traditional connotations the word Broad can derive, I liked the name and didn't care.  Jason came across this yesterday and it made me laugh. 

Its a book by Mark Twain about his experiences while traveling abroad, most of which he experienced on foot - hence "tramp".  I think I need to read this book!

Stay tuned for tales from my tramp across Germany - it really does sound bad!

I've decided to start a new website!  I have been blogging on A Broad Abroad for 4 years now (wow!) and it has been so much fun.  I started the blog when my husband and I moved to the Middle East as an easy way to share our experiences and adventures. 

Since then, we have moved back to the States and are currently living in Colorado.  I still wanted to continue to share over a blog, but the theme of A Broad Abroad didn't always make sense with the type of posts I wanted to write.  SO, I decided to make this fancy new site that allowed me to continue to explore and share my diverse interests.

I hope you'll continue to follow me on this adventure!

I really need to watch Ellen more.  Check out the Dance Dare clips.  The one of Emma Stone cracks me up!

Now that the holidays are over and everything is pretty much back to normal, I have to figure what my world is going to look like in the new year.  I'm now unemployed and am not sure what I want my next move to be.  After my last job didn't turn out the way I had hoped, I find myself a little frustrated and feeling like I need something to revitalize me.

While my epiphany awaits, I've signed myself up for some photography classes and am going to start exploring other areas of interest.  I'm trying to enjoy the time off while I can and am making some headway on the little things I never have time for (I've had two successful attempts at curling my hair, I've been going on runs every other day, we joined costco and I'm avidly working on my talent for cooking on a budget, and although I haven't started organizing - I've got a great start on a to do list :)

I love and am passionate about design, but I just need to find another forum to practice it in that is more fun and rewarding!

So here's to a new year of adventures and discoveries!

I'm a little late with announcing this.  I had blinders on with Christmas I think, but we found out we'll be moving to Germany at the end of the summer!!  

We're going back abroad!

Below describes some of the merriment I plan to have:

We gave the half bath at my mother-in-law's house a refresh over the holiday.  It was QUITE a task!  We kept running into issues at every turn.  We had problems with the plumbing, we uncovered a horrible ceiling patch job when we removed the popcorn off the ceiling, the paint we bought ended up requiring four coats instead of the intended two, the hardware to the sink and toilet were completely corroded, etc.  But its done, thankfully!

Here's some photos of the process and the finished product.  It was hard to photograph because it was so tiny!

Somewhat before the work started.  I didn't get in there with the camera quick enough before the wallpaper ripping started.  It came off really easily on the walls away from the light, but the stuff closer to the light was tough.  We think that maybe the heat from the light over time just set the glue.

The color selection begins.

All the wallpaper we have access to is off.  Now the sink and toilet need to be removed so we can access behind them.

The sink was not only caulked to the wall and floor, but was tipped back to the wall so it was caulked in a leaning position.  We kept running into really poor craftsmanship as we moved through the process.

I didn't get a photo of it, but next to the light fixture, the previous installers had cut in wiring from the light fixture to the light switch and instead of removing the wallpaper to patch the holes they made, they just applied netting and spackle OVER the wallpaper.  So all that needed to be fixed in this process.

The screws were so corroded on this old toilet that we had to drill into the screws to break them apart.

We scraped the popcorn ceiling off using vinegar and water.  It was a really messy job because the plaster gets glue-like as its being scraped off, but it came off fairly easily.  Unfortunately we discovered this hideous patch job in the process that had to be carefully sanded, patched, and plastered.

After removing the sink, we could finish removing the wall covering.  We also had better access to the plumbing fixtures, which were very corroded from age.  We replaced all that we could without making it a major plumbing job.

Nothing like painting at midnight :)  Apparently red is one of the hardest colors to get good coverage with.  Who knew?!  To make matters worse, we were painting directly on drywall, which I had never done before and it wasn't accepting the paint very well.  If you tried to do more than one pass with either the roller or the brush it would start to clump and pull itself off the wall.  It was horrible.  We ended up needing to do 4 coats of the base color red.

After finishing the 4 coats of base paint, we taped off vertical stripes with a laser level.  The base coat was an eggshell and the stripe is a high gloss paint.  The stripes are subtle and were really hard to photograph.  I think the effect turned out really nice though.  I had never done this before, so we were figuring things out as we went.

Finished!  This isn't the ta-da photo that I wanted (the room, again, was really hard to photograph).  To my defense though, this was taken at 6:15 in the morning.  We had worked through the night.  I had just installed that shelf seconds prior and we were 15 minutes late to leave for the airport!

We installed a new faucet, drain, shelf, glass shades for the light fixture, towel rack, toilet and sink plumbing hardware, a new toilet, a GFCI outlet, new white switch and outlet covers, and purchased new accessories (towels, soap dispenser, basket for TP, and scented oil).