Home Is Here

The thing about home is it the perfect blend of a concrete and abstract idea. Where is home? Home is where the heart is. Home is where they have to accept you. Where we love is home. Make yourself feel at home.

Can you have more than one home? Can home be a time? A person? I feel at home on the road, in my bed, in the studio, with my best friend, in my car, in the kitchen, at night, in a book, and in the woods. I felt at home in my apartment, but it seems like that time has passed. I felt at home in Texas, but that too seems to have passed.

A problem on my mind lately is how do you make a home for two? Playing with this idea has really brought to mind the secret bond between the abstract and concrete meanings of what a home is. Both people have to feel comfortable, but more than that. Both have to feel responsible. Ownership. Respect. Unity. Represented. Making a home is more than having a floor plan, it's having a game plan . . . and patience and understanding.

I cannot even begin to express how excited I am for graduation and everything that comes after. But being at home is like being happy: if you make it your destination you will never be satisfied. Home is about time. It's about finding home in your heart, right now.

So. On with the show! Because I feel at home in the kitchen, even when it's someone else's kitchen and I want to throw things because I'm so lost and at home at the same time, I have rounded up a few recipes for a day of home eating.

PS. One thing that the northern states have definitely done right is comfort food recipes.

Breakfast:
Sheepherder's Breakfast - fry up onions and hash browns in a skillet until brown, then dig holes for each egg, cover and cook until eggs are done.

Sheepherder's Breakfast

And, of course, coffee.

Coffee, Delicious Coffee

Lunch:
Winter Minestrone with Garlic Bruschetta (click image for recipe)

Winter Minestrone from Crave

A Cheese Danish to follow (click image for recipe):

Cheese Danish from Country Cleaver

Dinner:
Brown Sugar Crock Pot Ham (click image for recipe):

Brown Sugar Ham from The Crockin' Girls

With Polenta-Crusted Potatoes (click image for recipe):

Polenta-Crusted Potatoes from Simple Bites

And Peach and Cinnamon Cobbler to finish it off (click image for recipe):

Peach and Cinnamon Cobbler from Deen Bros.

A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body. - Benjamin Franklin

Accidental Babies

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The Emerald City of Oz

I think it's very fitting that the Pantone color of the year is emerald with Oz The Great and Powerful set to come out this March. Emerald is also my birthstone, and one of my favorite colors. In celebration of such a glorious color, I put together this outfit for you to enjoy, incorporating my fabulous new emerald pants from Target! Enjoy

Vest top by Forever21
Striped cardigan by American Eagle Outfitters
Emerald high-wasted slacks from Target
Earrings from Forever21

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky. - Rabindranath Tagore

I See Pink When I Turn Out The Light

Well, well. This is a big week, my friends. Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday and Valentine's Day. I bet most of y'all didn't even think about the first two holidays. Oh well! Is it really a big week? No. But Lent is one of my favorite traditions I have ever taken part in, so I'm excited. If you're taking part in Lent as well let me know what you're doing for your ... Lent-ing? (it sounds like a good word to me)

In celebration of the more famous, or infamous depending how you look at it, I have collected a bunch of images from my Outside board on Pinterest for . . . TRAVEL TUESDAY! With a Valentine's theme.

Enjoy!

Strawberry Shortcake - Bentonite Hills, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah. Photo: Joshua Cripps via Flickr

Pinned from: Fly Me There, by Junxx

Pinned from: Cabin Fever, by Barbara Smalley

The Mourne Mountains, Newcastle, Co Down by mcilrathf on Flickr

Monet's Gardens at Giverny by snap713 on Flickr

Pinned from: An Infusion of Lavender by Bonnie Jackson

by Steve McCurry

Pinned from: Adorable by Heather Mettra

Mystical Stairs, Blue Ridge Mountains, North Carolina; Pinned from Destinations by Jammie Friday

For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move. – Robert Louis Stevenson

Moats and Boats and Waterfalls

For this Home Wednesday I thought I would round up a few images from my own home of little things that bring me join in my place. These are all taken from my Instagram. Follow me @WhitneyGoller.

Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts. - Oliver Wendell Holmes 

The Thrill of Movement and Location

It's Travel Tuesday! I am actually really excited about this because I haven't posted about traveling or places I want to go since the summer when I posted my images from my 2 road trips ( found here, here and here) and when I wrote about wanting to see Ireland (here).

Lately my life has been all about "the next step"; with applying to graduate schools and even just dreaming about where I would like to live, I have gotten a little too caught up in living in the future more than once in the past weeks.

I would like to show you why, though. I am listing for you schools to which I am applying, and what travel aspect I look forward to for each destination.

First up:

The University of Texas


Austin City Limits: the longest running live music television program. Austin is the Live Music Capitol of the world, and I would love every second of it. Not to mention that The University is known for having one of the most beautiful campuses in [at least] the country.


Washington State University


First of all, the city of Pullman is nestled in a thick of trees and mountains. Second of all, there are sites like these all around: this is the Palouse River Canyon.



Oregon University


Another city within a forest within the mountains. Eugene, Oregon is surrounded by sights! And some of the most celebrated National Parks are within driving distance, like Mt Rainier, and Olympic, as well as a longer drive to Yosemite. Not to mention that it's only 2 hours up to Portland.

Willamette National Forest, directly east of Eugene. Actually, you should just see all the beautiful pictures from this amazing forest: check out the Google image search here.

The University of Colorado


Are you seeing a trend yet? I really would love to live in the forest with instant mountain access. I would choose the mountains over the beach any day. Boulder is a beautiful city, in a beautiful state. Plus, Colorado is known for its arts community as an ENTIRE STATE. Wow. Plus, Boulder is located right on the boarder of one of my favorite spots I visited over the summer: Rocky Mountain National Park.

This is Odessa Lake, right in the middle of this mystical national park.

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago


SAIC. Talk about a school known for its arts. Chicago is a booming city itself, but the School of the Art Institute of Chicago definitely has a top reputation in the country. Honestly, if I got in to this school . . . I would feel extremely overwhelmed.


East Tennessee State University


This is not the last university within a forest within the mountains, but it is in my absolute favorite mountains I have visited thus far. I love the Blue Ridge, the Smokies, the Appalachians ... whatever you want to call them. They are beautiful and magical.



Bald River Falls, found in the neighboring Cherokee National Forest.

Burren College of Art


Ireland. Need I say more? Burren is a land of rock on the western coast of Ireland. Ballyvaghan, Ireland is located across an inlet from Galway. I get goose bumps thinking about this place. No really. I have them right now.


Burren National Park.


Where would you vote to live? I sort of hope I only get in to one school so I don't have to decide between all these amazing programs and places.

Don't do it for anything but the love of movement and location, Or the battle is lost. - Movement and Location, The Punch Brothers