Journey of Doing

09/09/2025

I was super bummed yesterday when I thought we hadn’t gotten any snaps together for our anniversary… but I remembered that Eduardo had insisted on taking one when he walked us over to dinner 💙💙 He was so proud to introduce us to the restaurant team and show us the newly renovated space.

07/09/2025

For year 12, I promise to be a more patient version of myself. 💙 To be a bit more kind and appreciative of all you do for me. To laugh more. To maybe not take everything quite so seriously all the time. To remember all the feelings of this day and put them into practice for our daily lives, no matter what life brings. 🥂🥂 to 12 years and all the adventures they’ve brought. 💙

31/08/2025

A nod to the 10 years of an unofficial agreement that my feet must touch Florentine 🇮🇹 soil at least once a year.

A little later this week, we will have been married for 12 years, but it took a little while for Tom to realize that I was right about Florence (and travel in general). 😂🤣

Cheers to 10 (12) years of kindness and 💙. 🍷🍷

17/08/2025

August is the month of comparison!! We’ve done two side-by-side horizontals on - 2020 & 2014. 🍷🍷. (We also gifted a 2010 horizontal to our favorite restaurant manager to share with her family in Brazil and bring us notes! 🤗🤭☺️. Good wine is meant to be shared!)

I got a little impatient and insisted on opening the 2020 ! It was beautifully complex with multiple spice notes. (It’s going to be a lovely fall or winter Brunello when it grows up.). I can’t wait to see how this ages. (Basically… it gets the same feedback from when I purchased it a few months ago! 😂)

The 2020 needs more time but is still beautiful. (If you drink it now, give it about an hour to open. It’s a treat that reveals itself on it’s own time! It ended up pairing very nicely with dessert - something I didn’t expect. 🥮 This is the second bottle I’ve opened in the past few months. It does not disappoint.

The 2014 Donna Rebecca paired beautifully with grilled meat. While a lot of wine people disdain this vintage, the Rifolfi is a rich and brooding Brunello. It is a great winter wine… which explains why I bought them on a cold, rainy night. 😂

The 2014 is less rich and complex. It offers itself up as a nice, summer Brunello. It’s actually the wine we tried on a blind tasting because Gian Mario wanted to prove that you should look beyond the vintage ratings. It’s about what winemakers can do with the 🍇🍇 in “bad” vintages. It’s been a great introductory Brunello to friends who are just getting into red wine, too.

VERDICT: Hold your 20s. Drink your 14s, and if you live somewhere that it’s still 100 degrees, maybe try the CdB14. ☺️

27/07/2025

As the sun sets on yet another summer, I find myself with so many mixed emotions. This was not the summer I had planned. There were so many bright spots, so many challenges, and so many things I didn’t expect. 💙

I look forward to the new year with much anticipation, good and bad. The work we are trying to do is more important than ever. The people I get to work with are some of the most inspiring people I know. Nothing worth doing is ever easy. 💙

And so it goes. Let your bygones be bygones.

…and LFG. 💙

19/07/2025

I realized tonight that I wore the same dress for dinner on the last night of our trip… that I wore on the first night of our trip.

❌ I accomplished very few of my personal summer goals.
✅ I worked a lot this summer.
🙅‍♀️ I took far less photos that I hoped, especially of the two of us. Body dysmorphia is real and manifests itself in so many places when I don’t feel good about things. My creativity is tied to brain space…. This becomes more clear every day, week, month, year.
🪑 I have assumed my role as Coalition board chair and hope to drive more meaningful conversations this year.
🐉 Tom has assigned Mortimer the Dragon to me. I find it wildly entertaining and a tiny bit insulting… but who else has an imaginary dragon friend in a Bowie they can call on?! 😂😂
👯 I get by with a lot of help from my friends, today and every day. I really am grateful for every single moment.

30/06/2025

Not all of our travel is glamorous. 🤫 When we arrived in the , Tom had a worsening ear infection, despite me getting him a teledoc and prescription in Saint Malo. When we arrived, I told him that we needed to see if our hotel could find us a doctor. Mathilde at sprung into action. She called doctors and when she couldn’t find an immediate answer for us, she walked us to the local pharmacy, registered Tom for an appointment and stayed with us for moral support and to translate. She kept me laughing, kept Tom moving forward, and still made sure we had everything we needed, at the pharmacy and at the hotel for the duration of our stay. 💙

While this wasn’t exactly what we had planned for our first trip to the Loire, it’s exactly why we will come back here. The kindness showed by the entire staff at the hotel was beyond what we could have imagined. While Mathilde insisted that she did what anyone would do, I know that’s not true. She did what kind humans do, and I am so grateful to exist in a world where people like her exist. 💙

We stay a lot of special hotels, but I dare say this is one of the most special in France. It’s about the people, not the place… though it’s definitely a great place to ride out a heat wave AND an ear infection. 👂☀️😌

Mathilde gave me to book to do more research during my downtime though. ☺️😂

30/06/2025

We're almost to the end of this month's for France! Y is for yule log or Bûche De Noël as it is more commonly known in France. One of my favorite when we visit Paris at Christmastime is learning to make the . If that's not your style, you can always try the annual specialty from head pastry chef at the Ritz Paris at Bar Vendome or Le Comptoir of the Ritz Paris! These Christmas cakes are truly a work of art, and Francois Perret's annual creations are what got me interested in taking pastry classes, too! I was sad to read that he will be leaving the Ritz this year, but I know the tradition will continue with whoever takes his place.

https://www.journeyofdoing.com/learn-to-make-buche-de-noel-in-paris-at-christmas/

One of my favorite French desserts is the yule log. Click for details on how you can learn to make Bûche De Noël in Paris at Christmas!

27/06/2025

So maybe I'm cheating a little bit today... but X is for eXtra. France is a place where you can be a little extra! Obviously, everyone has their things that they like to splurge on. I've put together a few splurges that I love in Paris - from souvenirs, to restaurants, to experiences that I'm glad we spent a little extra money on because it made our trip even more memorable!

Even if you don't have an unlimited budget, there are a few splurges in Paris that you can make to elevate your trip and make it special!

26/06/2025

We're almost through the and today I'm sharing wine (and food!) experiences that you should have in Paris. Whether you schedule a formal wine tasting class or let Laurent at Wine Therapy provide you an informal tasting, whether you take a cooking class or a food tour, there are a number of ways to learn more about French wine and food culture... and I fully endorse every single one!

Each of these experiences has made me a better traveler in some way. It's helped me try new things, encouraged me to go new places, and made all of our trips a little bit more enjoyable... and we've even made some friends along the way! 💙💙

https://www.journeyofdoing.com/wine-and-food-tours-in-paris/

Review of 8 delicious wine and food tours in Paris, including wine bars, cooking classes, food tours & tasting experiences!

25/06/2025

Well, we're onto V and V is for vineyards to visit in France! While I could talk about wine in almost every region we've visited, I think some of the most special places have been around Bordeaux. Sharing more about some of our favorite vineyards (and a hotel in a vineyard!) through this post on Saint Emilion today!

Click for a review of the Chateau Grand Barrail Hotel & Spa in Saint Emilion. This luxury hotel is a truly special place in the vineyards!