FROM: STELLA

TO: LAURA

1. It’s snowing in my hometown right now. My mom just sent me this beautiful snow picture from our backyard. Can’t wait to be home for the holidays! 
2. I went to see the movie Coco this week. It is incredible. It’s an animated kids movie so you can take the whole family, but it’s great for date night in your 20s too!
3. I am still working on my travel post about the amazing trip we took to Italy for Thanksgiving this year. My travel buddy, Allie from The White Apartment, just did her post and all of her photos are gorgeous – check it out! She also has great posts from the last two Thanksgiving’s that we’ve shared. In 2015 she and her husband hosted us in San Francisco and last year we hosted her and Xan in LA.
4. I have finally started buying Christmas presents. This year my family is being super budget conscious and trying to do $10 or less for each person. I thought it was going to be crazy hard but am actually having a ton of fun trying to find deals!

FROM: LAURA

TO: STELLA

1. I got to see a screening of Call Me By Your Name this week (actually care of Stella, thank you Stella!) and it. blew. me. away. Such a beautifully told story and captivating in every way. I bought the book as soon as I got home from the screening and am eagerly anticipating starting it! (Side note: my nightstand is overflowing with my “to-read” list: Miami, The Worst Years of Our Lives, Grit, Tomorrowland, No Shortcuts to the Top, and Option B all desperate to be cracked!)
2. This Emerson student played one note in each and every of Massachusetts’ 351 towns on ukulele and strung them together to make an amazing song and video! So impressed and so jealous of all the road tripping that must have happened to make it a reality.
3. I stumbled upon a stupidly cheap flight this week, so my fiancé and I booked an impulse trip to Barcelona in February! So naturally I’ve been digging into all the things we should see, eat, and do there. So far on my list: the Sagrada Familia and Park Guell, Gaudi’s Casa Batllo, the superblock of Poblenou, this pastrami speakeasy, the Sant Pau Art Nouveau site, the gothic quarter, Montjuïc, and Port Olimpic. Also loving this post on sightseeing in BCN on a budget!
4. Our backyard has a wall of bamboo on one side which is great for privacy but terrible for weeding. I recently pulled out a bunch of dead stalks and am now on the hunt for DIY projects involving bamboo!