Boo on Spring Forward (and a Texas Style Council mixer!)

Happy Tuesday everyone! Anyone else seriously off-kilter after the "spring forward" time change this weekend? I absolutely love the extra hour of daylight in the evening, but waking up at 7 AM to still-pitch-blackness throws my mornings all off. So much so that I didn't blog yesterday. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. :)

Over the weekend I attended a couple Texas Style Council mixers, and as always, it was refreshing and fun to spend time with local bloggers, talk shop, eat treats, and meet cool new people. Friday night's party was at Langford Market on 2nd (a sweet little boutique you should definitely check out if you haven't yet!), and of course I snapped a few photos to remember the evening by.  Tomorrow I'll be sharing more from my time with Lilly Pulitzer and the shop hop in the Domain. It was so much fun.

Hope you have a wonderful day! See you tomorrow...

from left: Britt, Kristen, me, my SIL Kelsey, and Shanna

pretty Nikol! 

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That day I met Sarah Tucker…

It’s such a strange experience, to be in the flesh with someone who you’ve stalked on the Internet for so long. I began reading Sarah’s blog when I first started SOML, and vice versa, and honestly, she’s felt like a part of my life for more than a year and a half now. She’s been off gallivanting around Europe and back around to Florida, capturing her beautiful life in photographs and sweet words, and I’ve immensely enjoyed getting to know her. Meeting up in real life was the perfect cherry on top. She’s just how she seems on her blog… gorgeous and sweet as pie. She made the two hour trek to Orlando and took Kristin and I down to Winter Park for some lunch and shopping, and the day just couldn’t have been more perfect. (well, I suppose it could have been cooler and less humid, FLORIDA.)

Here’s some photographic evidence from the day… if I didn’t have these pictures, I might have believed it was all just a nice dream. :)

 

After lunch we headed to THE Rifle Paper Company store… like kids in candy shop, we were. :)

bought this one for Matthew <3

And there you have it! Our fun little afternoon in Winter Park. Thanks again for a lovely first IRL meeting, Sarah!

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Best of Instagram, week 5

It’s been a weird weekend.  This is one of those circumstances where shit is going on in REAL life that is simply too sensitive to blog about—the things that make life imperfect, the things that hurt, the things that can’t always be captured in words and pictures.  Do you know what I mean?  One thing I don’t ever want to do here is paint a picture of perfection that doesn’t match my reality, so that’s why I’m telling you that NEWS FLASH: life is hard sometimes.  It’s not always puppies and rainbows, and for anyone else who’s going through some hard stuff, I just want you to know that it’s OK.  We’re all in this together.  You’ll do the right thing, and you’ll be OK.

One of my biggest pet peeves in social media is when others (whether on Facebook, Twitter, or blogs) are cryptic and vague, and here I am being cryptic and vague.  So for that I apologize.  All I can say is that everything really is OK—no one is about to go jump off a cliff or slit their wrists or anything, but I think that sometimes the fibers of life that can be so beautifully intertwined can also become maddeningly knotted.  It’s like when your jewelry all sloshes around in a suitcase for a while and then you find it in a big tangled mess that has to be carefully undone.  I don’t know about you, but sometimes untangling those chains just makes me feel a little like screaming and crying and punching someone in the liver all at once.

But it will be OK. Life is beautiful, and life is good. Even when it’s not.

Now here’s my week in Instagram.  :)  Link up below!

1. Chamomile-vanilla tea… good for the soul.
2. The disaster that was our bedroom while I was filling frames.  I’m fairly certain that this gallery wall will be the death of me (literally—I almost fell off the ladder trying to reach the frames at the top).

3 & 4. On a dinner blate with Ruthie Hart… have you ever laughed AND cried AND felt like the person you just met has been your BFF your whole life?  Me either.  Until this past Wednesday night.  Ruthie, I just adore you and had so much fun at dinner! :)

5. Cupcakes for Matthew’s birthday (which is today!).  I used a cheap Wilson decorating kit with bags and metal tips for the icing, and they turned out SO pretty!
6. Tomato-Basil Parmesan soup… HEAVEN. (but NOT healthy)

7. Something I wore + Gracie face. :)
8. My sweet baby boy. (and his precious ball)

 
9 & 10. Dinner last night for Matthew’s birthday…such a nice evening. :)

Happy Sunday, my friends! It’s gonna be a good week.

 

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Another epic “blate”

Last night I had the absolute pleasure of meeting Celine of Starbies and Sangrias, my future fellow Austinite and doctor BFF.  We met at Clive Bar downtown (a really cool spot), and she brought her husband and I brought my mace gun (which I test-fired into the bathtub before I left then proceeded to nearly choke to death on the fumes).  Better safe than sorry.

The below is what happens when you mix a couple of crazy bloggers who just met with a little bit of alcohol (and the Pocketbooth app on the iPhone):

(sorry these are so tiny!  they were too blurry if I made them bigger… boo.)

No but seriously now, here’s a normal, less awkward picture:

Lesson here? Blogger dates are the best. Go on one.

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