Hello November! Last month was full of travels, straight back to a full work schedule, and house shopping. If you followed along on Instagram you saw that I celebrated my 30th birthday in Paris, traveled through to the south of France, and then across Italy. It was my first trip abroad and we packed in A LOT over the course of 3 weeks. Friends and family keep asking me about the trip and I still don’t know if I’ve fully processed everything we saw and experienced, so I’ve been answering with a lame and vague, “It was great!” and not much else. I’ve been trying to set aside a little time each day to write about each place we were so I can share each city in a separate post. There are a lot of great moments from the trip, but I will tell you my 3 highlights from Italy and share some photos NOT on Instagram yet down below!

Taking that much time off meant we flew back and immediately went back to work the next day. Winter is coming (GOT fans, where are you?!) and living in the country with a long commute to work means you have to leave some vacation days set aside for when you inevitably get snowed in. We’re also still searching for a house, so I will gladly jump at the chance of working long weeks since I have a fondness of old houses in need of lots of TLC and money to restore them. We have one in mind currently, but we’re in the fun negotiation phase so keep your fingers crossed for me!

Since I was MIA on the blog for all of October I’m thinking of some Halloween/Christmas fusions for recipes and crafts towards the end of this month. What would you like to see? And who would like a home tour on the blog of my dream shack when/if we close?

Alright I’m doing my best at keeping this fairly short for now. As promised, a few highlights from the Europe trip include:

Beppe – the 83 year old owner of the bed and breakfast we stayed at in Corniglia. He didn’t speak any English and did his best to understand my terrible Italian. He showed us everything in the entire apartment, lifted my massive luggage up the steps while proclaiming, “Forte!” (strong), over and over, and even made a joke about Chris being too tall to stand up in the bedroom loft. He was adorable and I’m unofficially adopting him as my Grandpa.

Hiking from Corniglia to Vernazza along the Cinque Terre trail. We went through olive groves, passed by farms with chickens, wild lavender and grapes growing, took in the most stunning views of the hillsides and Mediterranean, and enjoyed our first Italian pizza when we got to Vernazza.

Taking a pasta making class in Rome. We learned how to make three different types of pasta from a professional chef in the most beautiful loft space that once was an old pasta factory. Not only was it the most delicious pasta I’ve even consumed in my life, but the people we met in the group were amazing as well. It was the perfect night of delicious foods, wine, conversation, atmosphere, and communion. And I picked up a new skill and some recipes that I get to share with you all!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Get out and try something new!