eleven holiday to-do's this year

Hey friends! If you've noticed I've been throttling back a little on the posts lately, I'm sorry! Truth be told I haven't been feeling all that well, plus I have this bout of exhaustion that I just can't kick no matter how much sleep I get. (For those that don't know, I'm waiting on a diagnosis confirmation of celiac disease and in the mean time I'm continuing to ingest gluten despite its ill effects on my health. Needless to say it's a real barrel o' monkeys.) At this point I'm way past the mourning of gluten phase, and I'm ready to just kick that pesky witch out of my life forever and never look back. It's not worth feeling crummy all the time. (And you have no idea how much that pains me to say, given my unhealthy obsession with Chick-fil-A chicken biscuits.)

My appointment with the doc is on Tuesday so hopefully soon after that there won't be much more of this weak, whiny crap. It doesn't suit me well AT ALL. I prefer to have copious, borderline-annoying amounts of positive pep and energy. THAT is my jam. So if you guys can just bear with me until then, I promise to get back to the fun stuff!

no-tech turkey day

Almost five days spent off the grid, and boy did it feel good. Jason and I left for Washington, D.C. to visit his family last Wednesday morning (at 4:45 am to be exact... yikes!) and a part of me had every intention of documenting our whole thanksgiving production. I pictured myself capturing fallen leaves on neighborhood streets and family candids throughout the weekend. However, the second I touched down in D.C., all I wanted to do was just be.

mystery diagnosis solved (hopefully)

Okay, so I've got some good news and I've got some bad news. The bad news is that my mysterious skin rash is back (Darnit!) The good news is that I think I finally know what's causing it.

As some of you may know, back in the spring of this year, I had a bit of a freak skin condition that had doctors stumped. It appeared out of nowhere and caused tiny bumps to appear all over my arms and legs that itched more than you can even imagine. After several appointments, multiple doctors' opinions, and endless disproven diagnoses like bacterial infection, viral infection, drug eruption, spider bite, and my personal favorite, "you just have sensitive skin and you're seeing things," I resigned myself to the fact that this mystery would never be solved. I took powerful meds to make the rash go away, and I crossed my fingers that it would never come back, destined to be just an unexplained freak occurrence in my life - one that would hopefully fade into a distant memory. (For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, feel free to get caught up to speed by reading the full mystery tale here.)

picture this palette 02 | grape + mint

While I was working on my interview with the lovely ladies from The Jam Stand, I was inspired by their cute jam labels and happen to come across the inspiration photo on Pinterest. Can we all just agree that mint and any color is a dreamy combination? I love seeing it paired with various shades purple, like the luscious dark purple of the blackberries or the more subtle lavender flowers on the mantle. Also, that outfit is what I imagine myself wearing when I'm in fact rocking a t-shirt, jeans, and wet-hair-messy-bun.

What do you guys think of the purple/mint combo? Berry awesome or berry not? 

(And no, I'm afraid the horrific puns will never stop...) Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

inspiration  // on your wall // in your home // in your closet [blouse, jean leggings, clutch, necklace, booties]

handmade happiness | the jam stand

Handmade Happiness is a series featuring young entrepreneurs who have taken their passions and talents and turned them into full-time gigs. For more info on why I wanted to share these stories, start here!

First off, thanks to everyone who shared their excitement after yesterday's post about starting this series. I think professional happiness is a huge part of leading a fulfilled and joyful life, and I hope that some of you out there are inspired by stories shared here.

We're kicking things off with two jazzy jam-makers from the Brooklyn area! I met Jessica Quon and Sabrina Valle at UF when we were all in the same sorority, Delta Gamma. They were a few years ahead of me, but I was always struck by how bubbly and fun they were - personalities that would definitely shine through in their future business endeavor.

new feature alert | handmade happiness

"Your dream job does not exist; you must create it."

You all may have seen that friendly little reminder floating around Pinterest and what not. And to some it may seem like just another of the many inspirational tidbits that graze our consciousness daily, but this is one mantra I happen to believe with all my heart.

holiday diy | magnetic advent calendar

Before I get to the good stuff in this super easy and festive DIY, a disclaimer must be made.

Here I was, putting together this whole project on Sunday night, completely excited to share it with you all because I had FINALLY thought of something completely original and 100% my own. Because, as you know, most of my crafty posts around here are what I call copycrafts - me taking someone else's DIY and putting my own spin on it. I always give credit where credit is due, and I have no problem giving all the glory to the great creative minds that have gone before. But this idea, this one I really thought was mine. I had a bunch of old tins lying around in my studio from a DIY attempt that I had long lost interest in, and simultaneously I was trying to think of a new spin on the traditional advent calendar. Then a lightbulb went on in my head when I realized these tins were just big enough for a small chocolate treat (the staple of all great advent calendars from my childhood.)

let this be the week | you make time for family

Making time for family might be a no brainer for some of you out there, most of you even. And I'd like to say that I'm one of those people that will drop everything to spend time with my family, no questions asked.

But if I'm being really honest with myself, the truth is that family is usually the last thing I make time for. Maybe it's because I think they'll always be there or because I know that they love me, but it's the easiest thing to feel like I don't have to "work on."

Until recently. Last week I had a reminder of just how important (and fulfilling) family time can be, and while this may not be your typical cheery Monday post, I still feel it's important to share, not only for me (hello, blog therapy) but for all of us with aging family members because it's something that we all will encounter.

a (functional) friday fave | a better rss with feedly

First off, I just want to say thank you so so much to everyone that took the time to comment and encourage me on Wednesday's post. I've got part two: the branding struggle headed your way soon, as well as some fun crafty content and sneak peeks of some projects I'm working on.

For today, how about we ring in the weekend with a little technology tip of mine? Clumsy crafty happy... geeky? I figured that part was always assumed...

my latest funk, part one | the comparison struggle

Self-doubt is like a snowball. You start with one little pebble of imperfection and, before you know it, you find yourself with a towering boulder of inadequacy.

It started Monday, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. Normally I would just blame it on daylight savings time (5:30! It gets dark at 5:30! How am I not supposed to be depressed about that?!) but this felt like something more, and somehow I knew it had to do with this blog.

let this be the week | you stop griping and start voting

[gorgeous image via fellow fellow]

I think I speak for all of us when I say I'm more than tired of the barrage of hateful/short-sighted/tense political exchanges I've seen on social media throughout this election. I would consider myself a very open-minded and tolerant person, and yet even I find my blood pressure rising simply from seeing one ignorant post or comment.

imagination at work | disney's wreck-it ralph

I don't typically share many of my movie reviews on this blog because we see ALOT of movies and I'm pretty sure you guys would get sick of that really quickly. BUT sometimes I see a movie that is so good, so inspiring I can't not share it with you.

Last night Jason and I went with our friends, Sean and Brittany, to see Disney's Wreck-It Ralph. The secret's out: WE'RE HUGE NERDS. We have literally been looking forward to this movie for months. Animation? Disney? Video games? It's like a perfect storm of geeky amazingness and we had to be there on night one. Obviously. (Fun fact: At one time Jason really wanted to work for Pixar so he did the full tour thing and really considered going to animation school. Am I the only one that thinks that's so nerdy it's cool? When we first started dating and he told me that, he scored major points. Any guy that is as amazed as I am by the creativity and imagination that it takes to make their movies is okay in my book.)

a friday fave | retro-modern prints from restyle

Things are a bit crazy around here for a Friday, but I still wanted to bring you guys a little bit of happiness today. (Though, let's be honest, the fact that it's Friday is all anyone really needs to be happy, right?)

Last year for Christmas, Jason bought me this print from ReStyle Shop on Etsy, and I've been in love with their style ever since.

i don't know my boyfriend's last name

So some of you may know by now that my crazy boyfriend is up to no good again. He announced today that he'll be selling his last name to the highest bidder for the duration of 2013. If you want the full details, you can check out the website here or read this blog post to find out why he decided to do it.

Rather than harp on how an idea like this came about, I thought I'd just share a little bit about what it feels like to be on the girlfriend-side of an idea like this - to be the sounding board and the cheerleader and the voice of encouragement (or caution, depending on the day and the idea.)

When I met Jason in 2010, the doors of IWearYourShirt had only been open for about a year and a half. The business was at that point where it was stable and growing, which was surely validation that wearing t-shirts was a legitimate business idea. but I can still remember when I learned about it for the first time and I thought, A guy who gets paid to wear t-shirts? This is crazy. (If only I had known how many times I'd say that phrase again...)