'Favorite Place' Necklace

Since college graduation I've been looking for a piece of jewelry where I could incorporate some memory of Miami U.  The other day I came across this website, Sydney Buchanan, that sells fine silver jewelry. I found an adorable pendant necklace where you can add longitude/latitude coordinates on one side and whatever else you want on the other side, like a date, for $112. I'm more of a gold lover so I do have one little critique of the necklace-- I wish the chain was gold instead of silver, but that's obvi fixable. I would love to use the coordinates of my college house, Dubois Not Books, and inscribe my graduation date (5.6.12) on the other side. Now that I found the perfect necklace all I need now is a job so I can buy it!

My college house, Dubois Not Books, and the Jill Massey Favorite Place Necklace

A Birthday Celebration!

June 1st not only marks what I consider to be the start of summer (who decided on June 20th to be the "official" date? rando) but it is also one of my best friends 22nd birthday! We spent the day going to Quail Country Club for some appetizers and drinks served by our favorite waiter (holla, Sue) and had some wine at Ali's before going to Downtown Willoughby. For my birthday coming up in the middle of the month the ultimate treat for me would be to finally receive a job offer.  Fingers crossed!

 

Enjoying some NY Manhattan Cheesecake and pinot grigio! 

 Some gorgeous earrings Ali got me from Florence, Italy purchased from the store Fiori del Tempo! Only Ali would be giving someone else a gift on her birthday.

 

Drinks of choice for the pregame. Ali's favorite beer that she had in Dublin, Ireland and Chianti Colli Senesi served at one of our favorite restaurants in Florence, Italy, Golden View , on the Ponte Vecchio.

Nothing better than DOCG Chianti!

My pals. Hehe, ignore the candles. 

                               

 One of the bars we stopped at, The Willoughtby Brewing Company, that serves their own crafted beer!

New Reads

Other than flying between Chicago and New York for interviews (someone please hire me!) I've had quite a bit of down time since graduating college. Also, with three of my best friends from home taking a few weeks to travel Europe I literally have had all the time in the world to start doing all of the things I didn't have time for in college. After all the countless times of my college roommate telling me, "you should read this book!" and hearing her passionately talk about the different books she has been reading I decided it's finally time to get back to my old hobby of reading.  So to help satisfy this new need to read every book in sight I went to the store and bought the Kindle Touch and started downloading new books as if they they were about to become extinct.

I've been trying to kill two birds with one stone by laying out at my Country Club pool attempting to get somewhat of a tan and catching up on my extensive list of "must reads" that my friends have given me. So far I've read The Prophet by philosopher Kahil Girban (Thanks, Dec!) and Bossypants by Tina Fey. At first you'd think these two books would be completely unrelated but I found them to be similar in that they both give insight about living the best life possible, something I am so eagerly trying to do/figure out. Good reads and I recommend both, however I was more of a fan of Bossypants because of the humor in almost every page.

Currently, based on my fabulous 'lil friend Kelsey's recommendations, I am starting to read The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell and The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.  I'm excited to start reading--both books are suppose to be amaz!

    

Life Influences

Each and every one of these photos has had a huge impact on who I am today.  It makes the future look a wee bit brighter knowing that I not only have these experiences under my belt but also these people in my life.

Ciao!

xx, Victoria

The Opening Ceremony...

An 'opening ceremony' is the official opening of a building or event. However, my blog, The Opening Ceremony, is celebrating the start my post-college life and the new journey I'm about to take in whatever city (crossing my fingers for NYC!) I begin my career.

Hope you all enjoy!

xx, Victoria