Hi Friends!
I’ve got a big announcement to make and I’m doing it in the most mellienail way possible- via a Youtube music video!
The song is by Phlake, an artist from Denmark who was on the radio all the time when we lived in Italy. It’s super catchy and we’re obsessed. We shot it all on iPhone and edited with iMovie and had such a fun time creating the film. I really hope you enjoy watching!
Make sure you watch till the end when we reveal the big announcement.
We’ll be honest, and we know most of you can agree with this feeling, but life just got in the way this past year for the both of us. We’ve neglected this blog more and more. Good intentions kept us saying things like, “we should blog about that!” but it never happened. Over and over. Something had to change.
This month we got together (over FaceTime) and had a heart to heart; we have not taken our blog seriously since for way too long. We asked ourselves “why?” when it used to be such a source of inspiration and a creative outlet. Talking things over, we realized that we have grown but the blog hadn’t grown with us. Time has gotten away, as it always seems to, and the time for dreaming up new recipes and DIY-ing is few and far between.
So it’s time. Time for an overhaul, revamp, rebirth…whatever you want to call it.
We’ve decided to refocus our goals for this blog. After some brainstorming we came up with a list of where we hope to see OSS go in the future. The list included more photography, more collaborations, and reaching out to readers.
The overarching goal is to still have a place to showcase creativity and experiment artistically, but content is going to evolve, as we have in the past two years. It’s not to say you may not see the occasional mixtape or snail mail post, but we are really hoping to get more focused on what we love and what drives our artistic passions.
Be patient. We hope to not only grow and change content, but to make adjustments to the OSS layout.
This is really exciting for both of us, and we are feeling inspired by this change. Tell us what you think. Have you ever found your blog standing still as you grew as a blogger? How did you handle the change?
Capri, the island once home to Emperor Caesar Augustus’ summer home now inhabited by socialites in villas. It really is a special place with colors so vibrant it almost doesn’t seem real.
We visited Capri in early March, before the summer rush of tourists coming to get a glimpse of the famous Faraglioni peaks. Visiting Capri before the hoards of tourists means no lines to get onto the chairlift up to Mount Solaro and plenty of time to shoot the Mediterranean breeze with the locals.Read More »
Switzerland is stunning. If you were to hold your hands out and make frame shape with your fingers and look anywhere, you’d have yourself a postcard perfect shot.
No exaggeration.
We took a short train ride from Rome, Italy to Brig, Switzerland for the new year. This three day trip was spur of the moment and since Anthony rarely gets three days off in a row we jumped at the chance to visit someplace new. These last-minute kinds of trips are my favorite though with no itinerary or schedule to follow. This meant some of the things we saw like the Aletsch Glacier, were a delightful surprise, but some things we ran into, like a 33 dollar burrito stopped us in our tracks!
I wanted to share some of my experiences so if you are planning a trip to Switzerland you will not be as sticker shocked as I was.
Staying in Brig
Brig is a sleepy little village and one of the first large train stops in Switzerland from Italy. It was a great home base for our day trips. A few miles up the road is the Brigerbad Thermal Spa. A pass was 24 Swiss Franks for a 3 hour visit. This, for us, was just enough time to get thoroughly relaxed but not too long that we got bored. Totally worth the visit if you are passing through the area. FYI: this spa does not provide towels and you must either rent one for 5 Swiss Franks at the front desk or bring your own (something we learned after taking a dip in the pool).
I totally recommend staying in Brig if you are in Switzerland for a short time. Between the trip up to see the glacier, visiting the castle in town, and hopping on a bus to see the nearby traditional village known for its saffron, it really is a great home base for day trips.
Brig’s Castle AKA the Stockalper Palace
A huge cost saver for us was that our hotel had breakfast included. Food is ridiculously expensive in Switzerland. I had no idea how anyone could afford to live here until I read this blog post which gave me a little better idea. While most of our budget went toward eating, having a breakfast included at the hotel and bringing snacks with us on our outings helped a little.
Visiting the Aletsch Glacier
This day trip from Brig is inexpensive and full of amazing views. From Brig, we hopped on the train headed to Morel. This trip was about 20 Swiss Franks a person and included one of the two gondola rides. This was definitely the biggest gondolas I have ever been on, but I wasn’t a bit nervous because the sweeping views were all I could think about.
We spent a little time in the resort area after the gondola ride taking pictures and people watching. From here we took the Gletscherbahn Moosfluh (gazoontite!) gondola to the glacier. This was less than 10 Swiss Franks a person, roundtrip. In total we were a little over 7,000 feet above sea level! As soon as you step off the gondola the glacier is right there. We just sat on the bench and looked at this wonderment hardly able to take it all in. After a little while the fog started to roll in and it began to snow so we stopped into the little cafe next to the lift to warm up. The girl working spoke a little English and told us on clearer days you can see the Matterhorn from where we were!
Switzerland is a beautiful country and the people are so kind. Definitely put it on your bucket list, and I recommend Brig as a great stopping point.
xoxo,
Kate
As I am continuing to countdown the days until our move to Rome, things have been slowly falling into place. After multiple trips to the Detroit Consulate, I finally got my Student Visa in the mail three weeks ago and the hubs received his Italian Passport last week! We also held one successful yard sale (sorry no pics since I was a stress ball that day) in which we made $480! We are having another yard sale next weekend at my friend’s house on the other side of town in hopes to reach another clientele. After that, everything that is currently piled in my living room and hanging by a steel bar in my guest bedroom is headed to Goodwill because I do not have time to try and sell more (less than 60 days until our move people)!
Behold, a packing disaster! These photos are proof of my love for you readers because it is embarrassingly messy. I just keep telling myself that it won’t be like this forever since it’s really the only way I can manage. Anyway, if you think about it, our house is only a small two bedroom town home so really that big pile in the second photo is just a ton of stuff that we are selling and getting rid of (aka: stuff we’ve held on to for years but never actually used). Crazy, but I’ll admit that there may-or-may-not-be soccer cleats in that mess of a pile! I have not played soccer since the spring of 2006 and I’m pretty sure I would break a hip if I tried to play now! Yet, I have held on to these babies since. Goodbye total 90’s (now vintage)…hello life abroad!
On top of all of the boxed up knickknack stuff we are shedding, I have also proudly cut my wardrobe in half! If you know me, you know I am a fashion fanatic. But cutting it half had to be done, especially for my and my husband’s future sanity. Pictured above is a little less than half of my closet. I had already taken some of my nicer things to consignment shops to sell when I took this photo. Crazy, huh? Having gone through this now, I feel like I have learned a ton and can help you cut your closet in half too!
1. Be in the right mindset. I started clearing out my closet a month before my first yard sale. Literally. I also have found that I work better in small doses, or, when I come to a realization of how much stuff I actually have and have to get rid of. You know that kind of mindset where you end up cleaning your entire bathroom, kitchen, and car PLUS do two loads of laundry just because you are in the mood? Yeah, this kind of mindset which in my opinion, doesn’t come around often or easily! You really have to give yourself some time ahead of the game in order to be sure that you can get everything you want to get rid of on time.
2. Give yourself a deadline. For me this was easy. By my first yard sale date, I knew that I had only one month to clear my closet plus the rest of the stuff I was hanging onto for no reason. If you are not moving like I am, but rather just wanting to clear out some of the clutter in your closet and basement, it is more likely to be done if you give yourself a date and stick to it.
3. If it is ripped or doesn’t fit, get rid of it. If you haven’t gotten that seam/button fixed, or the hem adjusted in the last six months, it is time to face reality: it just isn’t going to happen. When I started going through the bottom of my closet to de-clutter, I found a bag filled with clothes that had been either torn or missing a button (clothes that I had also been meaning to fix since ages ago). But to be honest, because I had given myself this rule, I made an exception and allowed myself only one hour to stop everything in my tracks so that I could fix two pieces that meant a lot to me and that I would never be able to part with. After sewing on a button to one and fixing a ripped hem on another, I then accepted these two pieces to the “keep” pile and rid myself of the rest of the bag. It is all about give and take I guess.
4. If you pull at it or it pulls on you, get rid of it. This tip goes along with tip #3. If I know I am going to wear a skirt that I am constantly going to have to tug down, or a button up shirt that seems to unbutton at the bust spontaneously, then I would throw it right into the “get rid of” pile. Also, if it was something I have had for years (like, since high school) and I felt like a high-schooler wearing it (i.e., short shorts, and/or a not-cute, outdated crop top that I still had lying around) then it also went into the “get rid of” pile.
5. Allow yourself a “try it out” day. This may be the most important tip that helped me to get rid of the mounds of clutter in my closet since it seems to be my biggest issue when trying to get rid of anything. Since I gave myself a month in advance to pare down my wardrobe, I decided to give certain pieces of clothing a chance before I officially tossed them in the “get rid of” pile. For instance, if I came across an old skirt, top, or dress and felt like “hmm, maybe I’ll wear that again” or even hesitated to get rid of it, then I set it aside. During the next week I told myself that I had to make an outfit work around the “maybe” piece or it would have to go into the “get rid of” pile. If I didn’t wear it during that week, then I wouldn’t let myself keep it. I at least gave my clothing a second chance and proved to myself that it really wasn’t going to be worn again. Also, if I did wear the “maybe” clothes and was self-conscious during the day while wearing it, I then got rid of it too since I knew I wouldn’t want to feel uncomfortable again and would never pull it back out of my closet after the allowed test run. 
And here it is…my closet after the clutter was gone! The top basket is filled with t-shirts that I wear and the bag below has purses and scarves. Don’t be completely fooled since I currently have my jeans, shorts, and pajamas in my dresser. I also am storing the coats that I’ll be wearing downstairs. Oh, and there are a few more things that are folded and sitting on top of my couch right now that I still need to put away. Okay, so I’m not completely saintly as this picture may depict, but I would say I did a rather good job in getting rid of my clutter and cutting my closet in half once and for all!
xoxo,
Our Sweet Somewhere 