Lately November style

This is a bit belated but we've had a busy November :)!

We saw our friends Alex and Sarah and their beautiful twin boys for the first time in ages for a delicious dinner and good conversation. 

And they gave Lina a belated birthday gift of a pedal racer! Slightly dangerous but hours of fun! 

We went to the art openining of a local brighton street artist who I know through youth groups I work in. It felt very Brighton! 

Then we got to see the band Phox perform at the green door store at an intimate gig. It was great to be able to support a local Wisconsin band and have a short chat with the band after :) we were joined by friends and had a great night. 

Then Saturday we decided to do some Christmas shopping and pop into some of the antiques markets. Lina wanted to find a shelf for our kitchen but I managed to talk her into taking this bad boy home! She wasn't convinced but I saw the potential. DIY pictures to come! 

Then had dinner at a local vegetarian restaurant, Iydea. Really great food! 

And the Christmas shopping took us to a cute artistic local shop, Little Beach Boutique, and we found some unique gifts! 

On Sunday I popped by the etsy Christmas market in the open market. 

This was a couple weeks ago already but  lots of gems :) I'll leave you with a photo of splinter! More on our crazy busy daya this past weekend soon.

X becky 

Halloweenie

I ended up getting into Halloween this year! It was good fun and luckily I had very little candy :) 

At work we had a pretty great moment in one of the groups I help to facilitate. We were having a workshop on oral health and had a dentist coming in to speak. As it was the day before Halloween the group all put on vampire fangs and tried to act totally normal. It was a good laugh in a space that is normally very emotional and intense. 

Brighton gets in to halloween with the street artists also making the city more spooky. 

We went to a strange creepy night at the Brighton ballroom. Lina originally wasn't interested in dressing up and I couldn't decide for ages what to be but when it came to the week of Halloween we both got excited to play dress up! 

We celebrated with our friends Bel and Ella and their two mime friends :)

The next day we had a big sleep in but managed to get ourselves out of the city to visit Ditchingly Beacon for some fresh air and a short hike. We always mean to get out of town and into the South Downs more often but it gets hard with just one day off a week together.  

It's getting cold and way too dark lately but It's nice to have some moments of sunshine :) 

I've worked a lot the last two weeks but am looking forward to two gigs this weekend and a work free weekend coming up! 

X becky 

Around here...

Hi friends, I hope you're having a great autumn and have gotten some rest after the busy going-ons of summer! Here are a few of our goings on for the the last few weeks.

We went to Concorde 2 for the first time to see The Neighbourhood. It was after a very long work day and week but I'm  really glad we went. The music and atmosphere were great although I found them a tad pretentious.

I attended a domestic abuse conference in the next area over and visited Worthing for the first time. The conference was right on the beach! 

We've been having low key Saturdays by having lunch on the beach and spending more time at home since both of our work weeks have been a bit stressful lately. 

Friday nights on the other hand, have been busy with catching up with friends. 

We saw a good folk gig last week.  Loving that we are getting more live music in our lives! 

Some more Saturday wanderings :) 

And a very tasty burger and creepy movie night with Bel and Ella. We watched a really old Jodie foster movie that was creepy in all of the worst ways! 

It's November already! Time continues to slip by but in glad I've been able to make sure there are always bright moments and I'm getting better about knowing my limitations and also making time for quiet and relaxation as well!

I miss everyone back home in the states a lot lately but hope that getting into the christmaa spirit soon and writing cards will help me to feel a bit more connected! 

I've also be working card on creating holiday cards and new art pieces for my etsy shop so please check them out :) 

Halloween pictures to come soon!

X becky 

Recently.... On time!

This past weekend Lina celebrated her 31st birthday. It was a weekend of friends, a bbq, lots of table tennis, and a cozy rainy day indoors. Our friends, Huw and Vaida, came to visit from Wales and Kaziemieras came down from London, and of course we got to see our good Brighton friends as well :) 

We had a windy by tasty BBQ on the beach to start of the celebrations with friends, as usual :) 

And played games and had cake back at the house later on. 

The next morning the sun was shining so we went to the beach to play some proper table tennis before Lina had to go to work. Surprisingly, I was the overall champion :) 

 

When Lina finished work we had a wander around town and went out for dinner.. And there was a street party for a folk and cider festival outside our flat. We got to listen to some good music from both downstairs and from the comfort of our living room :) 

 

There is never a visit without some sort of games :) Craniam in progress!

The bank holiday Monday was a gray and rainy one. We chatted, ate, and even went for some ice cream with Huw, Vaida, and Kazimieras until they left to head back to Wales and London. We then had some down time to watch TV and relax until the evening. 

Then we got to meet our other London friends, Jen and Jo, at a local bar, The Mesmerist, for a catch up. It was so nice to see them in Brighton and we of course had to take advantage of the photo booth!

 

This week we went to dinner and drinks to say goodbye to our friend Sarah who is leaving Brighton and moving to Berlin. It sounds like it will be a really great move for her but we will miss her lots! Sarah is a big reason that we know the people we do in Brighton and has spurred many of our adventures. She is a caring soul who brings people together and she'll continue to share this love now in Berlin!

September is shaping up to be a busy month as well as I'm working some extra shifts and we have a wedding in Lithuania! We're both aching for a bit of down time but are also loving getting to catch up with great friends and using every day to the fullest :)

x Becky

Friendly times

So here's yet another slightly belated post about summertime by the sea :) We were lucky enough to have a visit from our friend Ryan, who is having a European adventure and made a pitstop in Brighton. It was great to get to show him around our home, introduce him to some of our closest Brighton friends, and Lina and Ryan explored the country-side on bicycles. One of our favorite summer-time activities in beach bbqs so we made sure to share this with Ryan! It's also really comforting to get to catch up with someone from back home and chat about shared memories and friends- I forget sometimes how much I miss having those type of connections.

We also went to a pub quiz at the Irish pub downstairs. With the help of Bel and Ella we managed to come in around 4th place! That was definitely the best we've ever done and we were well proud of ourselves :) 

 

We've gotten way caught up in watching The Fosters! I was working on a new piece while indulging in our new love of this show.

Then we celebrated my friend Helen's birthday, complete with cat mask! It was good to get to spend a bit of time with Helen and her lovely friends. 

                      

(forgive the blurriness!)

Summer is winding down but we are still milking whatever we can out of it! It has been a bit cold and rainy the past couple of days which shows us the weather we are in for soon- on one hand it's cozy to spend the day cuddled on the sofa while it's raining outside, on the other hand I'll definitely miss all the outside time and having so much going on.

Coming up next- our canoeing trip! 

x Becky 

Brighton pride!

We celebrated our second pride in Brighton since moving down from London! This year I made a conscious decision to not take part with my work or my volunteering and just enjoy the day with Lina and our friends. We started the day with a bubbly brunch at Bel and Ella's. They had a few friends visiting and it was good to catch up with people we met at their wedding last summer. We then headed down to see the parade. 

After the parade we had a break in the park then headed to the pub. We had some downtime and some lunch and basically chilled out until the evening. 

We spent the evening outside our favorite pub, the Marlborough, at the street party. There was plenty of dancing, some drinking, and chance meetings with friends. We had a great time with Bel and Ella and their friends, Alex and Elysee, who showed us some new Australian dances :) 

Also thought I should include A couple of my snapchats. One of the only negatives was definitely the bathroom line. 

 

Pride always brings up lots of emotions for me and is usually a huge amount of fun. This day didn't disappoint. We are lucky to be living in Brighton which is definitely the most safe and inclusive place I've been so far. The community spirit is stong and the we are lucky to be in our Lgbt+ bubble. It's important to remember the theme of pride, freedom to live, and how difficult it still is for most of the world- including most of the UK and the USA. I'm also not naive enough to believe that there are not issues around homophobia and transphobia in our little inclusive bubble or there are not issues in the local Lgbt+ community itself. I'm just glad for this day to celebrate who we are and come together as a community to stand up for others who continue to be silenced. 

So here was a bit of our pride celebrations this year and I'm blessed to have great people to spend it with :)

X Becky