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]