shout out.

A big heartfelt thank you to Ashley from the Paper Nest Co for putting my mini garland on her blog. Alongside tons of other wonderful etsy vendors. It's such a great post, full of baby shower ideas for boys and girls. You should go check it out, seriously, it's cute!

And you can check out her Valentine's Giveaway!

xoxo

try hard every day.

currently working on this

{via}

xoxo

le weekend.

this is what my weekend looked like:

• friday night girl time with Marisa and Marina. Lots of wedding and baby talk. But don't worry, none of us are gonna have a baby anytime soon (fingers crossed), we just think they are too cute.

• a nice saturday run, it was a beautiful day.

• bowling for Matt's birthday. I hadn't been bowling in years and boy, am I horrible at it. I still had lots of fun though. It was "Extreme Bowling" which means black lights, a fog machine, and horrible pop music that I loved every second of.

(the brothers proffitt. i would tell you to listen to their podcast because it's absolutely hilarious, but they haven't done one for months and months)

(a little bowling action, i know the picture is dark but it was the only

action shot that kind of turned out from the night :/ )

(matt blowing out his birthday candles, all 26 of them!)

(truly one of my bests, eric)

• Worked all day on a few custom etsy orders. And made cute little tags to send with my pinwheels.

(i really like them, and they have a nice little contrasting blue color on the opposite side)

(my work space)

• and now time for a little reading before bed!

xoxo

obsessing over

red hair.

lately I've been drooling over red hair. and well by lately, i mean for the last year. I am really itching to dye my hair a reddish-brown...

Some of the ladies I dig who have red hair:

Katie from Skunkboy Creatures.

Jenny Lewis.

and of course a little Mad Men inspiration from Christina Hendrix.

So what do you guys think? Can I pull it off? Do you think I should go for it? Please, let me know.

& sometimes I really miss my short hair...

(circa 2008)

especially after seeing Rachael's super cute, super short new do. But I don't think it's quite time for me to chop my hair off just yet.

happy saturday!

xoxo

mmm cookie time.

I love to bake and thanks to Alycia at Crowley Party I made some very delicous homemade oreos. And all my friends loved them.

and they were super easy.

real, moist chocolate cookies.

sandwiched with delicious cream cheese frosting.

they were so yummy, but so rich that just one was enough for me.

I wish that I could just bake and craft all day. And then send them in the mail to all my friends. Here's the recipe, you should really try them for yourself.

xoxo

sneak peek.

Here's a little peek at what's to come from the etsy photo shoot by Haleigh.

I cannot wait to show you more! Coming Soon.

xoxo

special day.

go give a big happy birthday to my dear friend Rachael at Lace and Likes!

tiny letters.

I absolutey love sending letters. If you know me personally (especially from college) then you've probably received some kind of letter or package from me in the last 6 or 7 years. Actually just the other day I went to the post office to mail off some packages for my friends, some containing baked goods, some containing little handmade ditties.

So when I came across the World's Smallest Post Service the other day, I wanted to die from the cuteness of the whole thing. I just want to send one to everyone I know. And I really want one for myself, I would proudly display it among my other special trinkets. I can't decide which I love more, the tiny letters or the tiny packages. I wish I could recreate this, maybe I'll try but I don't think I'll do it justice.

I love brown paper packages tied up with string.

but the post office no longer accepts things wrapped around the outside of packages.

xoxo

le weekend.

I let myself sleep in today as long as I wanted, for the first time in a long time, and I think I way overslept. Oops. Now I'm still tired. This weekend is all about taking it easy for me, I've been running and running too much lately.

I've already had a wonderful Friday. I went to an "all american" bbq for my friend Leah, who is leaving for a semester abroad on Monday. It was so much fun and I'm so glad that I got to tell her "Bon Voyage" in person.

I don't really have any plans for the next two day...so we shall see what this weekend holds.

living out of a suitcase.

**warning: this post contains an obscene amount of pictures**

One of my friends told me last week, "You've gotten to travel to a lot of places in the last 5 years." When I thought about this, I was thinking to myself that I'm pretty lucky. I've had the opportunity to go quite a few different places. From 2006 to 2010 I've gotten to go visit 6different countries, a few different states (one of them twice!), and have gone on countless trips to Northern California and the Bay Area. I have the bug, the travel bug. There's not many times when some says, "I'm going on a trip [insert state, country, etc. here]" when I don't think to myself, "Man, I would really love to go there, maybe I can hop on board their vacation and go with them."

Ireland, August 2006

I went to Ireland for a week with my BCF (best cousin forever) Sarah. We stayed with a friend of my dad's right outside Dublin. We also roadtripped it across to Galway for a couple nights.

(in front of Bono's house! if you know me, then you know that I love u2, so

I had to go see his house. I know, I'm a little lame)

(us in the park)

(our beautiful day drive in the country side. everything was breathtakingly gorgeous)

(sarah walking rosie. we met the cutest old man and when we asked him

to take a picture of us he gave us his dog and said we could take a picture with her instead)

New York, March 2007

I went to New York for my 21st birthday with one of my high school besties, Marisa. We were super touristy and tried to fit everything we possibly could into our one week there: statue of liberty, empire state building, moma, guggenheim, Mary Poppin's on Broadway, Rent, Serendipity, etc.

(us in Central Park)

(at the top of the empire state building)

(in awe of Monet's work, this might have been my favorite part of the trip)

Ukraine, June-July 2007

I went to work at an orphanage with a group from my university for 3 1/2 weeks over the summer. Sally became one of my best friends on this trip.

(downtown Kiev)

(playing around with a few of my favorite kids, they were seriously the cutest.

ever.)

(everyone at the orphanage. those kids stole my heart)

(we stayed in a little town, in the middle of nowhere. outside of this little town all you could see was fields for miles and miles.)

(Sally and I in Kiev)

(this obviously is not in Ukraine, but we stopped in England on the way back for a day

and Sally and I made it our goal to go to Abbey Road. it was an adventure to say the least)

New York, New Years 2008

My roommates and some of my best friends (a total of 11 of us) went to New York for New Years our last year of college. We had a friend who had just moved out there and we decided it would be a perfect time to visit. And we were right. It was one of the best times of my life.

(all of us at Rockefeller Center, I know its blurry but its the only one I could find)

(we all stayed at someone's uncle's apartment. it was lucky. it happened last minute

and it meant we didn't have to pay to stay anywhere

and it was the perfect size us. a big thank you to "the boss of money")

(we're big beatles fans. so going to strawberry fields was a big deal for the wombies)

San Francisco, countless times throughout the years

I go up north to visit one of my besties Lauren, at least once a year. And now my old wombie, Allie, lives in the city too. So the last few years I've gotten to go up quite a few times. And it's always such a great trip.

(one of my first SF trips to see Lauren, summer 2006)

(one of lauren and my favorite things to do in the city is go to north beach and

get lattes at la boulange yummm! fall 2009)

(watching fireworks on July 4, 2008)

(floating the russian river, summer 2010)

(out on the town with Erin, Lauren, and Allie, Spring 2009)

Chile, September through December 2008 & again in March 2009

(this was a 5 minute walk from where I lived for 3 months)

(Arauco, this was one of my favorite days in Chile)

(we went on lots of "hikes")

(with my 2 best girls, Kari and Sally, at Punta de Lobos, the famous surf spot)

England, January 2009

(we went to a beautiful castle one day)

(Sussanne and I "discovering Lichfield," which really doesn't take all that long to discover)

(Westminster Abbey, which never ceases to amaze me)

Thailand, February 2009

Went to Thailand to work with college students, "teach" english camps at a church, and help out with a smoothie shop ministry. We met the greatest people who took us all over on their motorbikes, which was a little scary sometimes but always fun.

(Scott and I at a waterfall, this was such a fun day)

(visiting one of the many temples. all of them so ornate)

(my team with all our new thai friends, hiking up to the waterfall)

(Susanne loving the elephants. we went for a ride on these elephants too!)

Las Vegas, August 2010

I went to Las Vegas as part of Erin and Chad's wedding party.

(classic "I'm in Vegas" picture with 4/5 of the wombies!)

(Jamie, Chad, Erin, Tobin, and I sweating from the desert heat in front of the eiffel tower)

(dancing in the clubs was so much fun because I was with some of my favorite people,

this picture just really captures the night wonderfully in my opinion)

St. Maarten, September 2010

One of my besties, Lauren, called me up one day and told me her boss was letting her use his timeshare in the Caribbean and invited me to come. There was no way I could pass this up.

(drinking coconut juice. yum!)

(Guavaberry Rum is everywhere on the island)

(gettin lots of sun at one of the many beaches)

(snorkeling day)

(our last day, i basically just threw this one in so you could see how tan we were! it was awesome)

Oregon, New Years 2011 (this trip also includes a pit-stop in the Vegas!)

A group of us went up to visit our great friends (including Rachael) who'd moved over the summer and have a dreamy New Years. The trip was only 4 days, but felt like a week. We lived it up and enjoyed every second.

(getting ready for midnight and dancing to Kanye)

(double exposure, downtown)

(exploring downtown Bend)

(our last night, eating at Common Table)

(their gorgeous little house that I was in awe of the entire time we were there)

East Coast

I am currently in the process of planning a trip to the East Coast with my friend Eric. We're looking into going in April and so far our destinations include: Boston, New York, New Haven Connecticut (Yale), Princeton New Jersey, and Philadelphia. I seriously cannot wait, I wish we were going next week.

xoxo