lately

lately, i've been thinking a lot about the fact that seasonal depression is a real thing. ;) haha. i'm not going to drone on and on, but i think maybe my funk was more than just a funk. but things are looking up, especially since the groundhog saw his shadow. spring is soon! and i'm staying busy, which helps.

i made a quick collage of things that have been happening lately that i don't think i blogged about? or instagrammed (mostly), so i'll share them for posterity's sake.

1. it's been so cold lately that i had to buy a furry hooded puffy coat. dramatic. usually my peacoats get me through just fine, since i layer like crazy, but not for a little bit there. my southern blood, i guess. also can we just talk about the fact that i didn't edit that picture at all and it's really scary? haha, really scary! man.
2. that's our new bathroom floor! it's so pretty. and the tile on the walls is pink. ;) i'm kinda obsessed and i think austin is kinda over my obsession. i take pictures in there like everyday, for no reason.
3. i finally hung the prints we got in nashville at hatch show print in our kitchen. i'm not sure why i never hung them in our old apartment, but it just didn't feel right. i was saving them. what a dork.
4. becca gave me this print for christmas, and i love it. it's such a sweet sentiment. also the frame was hidden under our couch at our old place, so it was unearthed when we moved.. i love it.
5. i caught a pretty awful stomach bug on sunday night, and this was a picture i took when i got to work on monday afternoon.. after 2 spotty hours of sleep. :( rough times. i only just recovered fully like, late last night.. and i can seriously tell how much weight i lost just by getting dressed. ugh. i never get stomach bugs like that, and i know i was a dramatic baby about it. glad i got the sweetest boy and sister to take care of me. :)
6. avery and i had a really good naptime this week. this is one of my favorite pictures ever, guys.

so, now that we're officially moved in and unpacked, i realized that i have a sewing room! for the first time ever. :) if that isn't reason enough to find out what's wrong with my sewing machine, i don't know what is. also, i want to make a quilt from this fabric sooo badly. and i'm really feeling like i COULD. especially since i know austin's mom would be willing to help me. :) so, i'm going to go in there today and look at the machine.. wish me luck!

what are you up to these days? <3

radvent, day 5

radvent, day 5: decorate

i don't spend a lot of time thinking about decorating our house. sometimes i think about ways to change things around, but i usually put it off since we'll be moving soonish. there are some really sweet parts of our house that i love due to the decor, or the placement of things, but mostly i love our house because we live in it. the decorations are just evidence of our existence, i guess.

arguably the girliest part of my dresser. ;) everyone uses their perfume bottles as decoration, and understandably so.. they're so, so pretty.

the pile of presents keeps growing and we keep adding ornaments to the tree (see the little cinnamon ones? those are from bekuh. and there's a new little starbucks cup from austin's bandmate). i really really love sitting in front of this guy every day, and i know i'm going to be sad when it has to get put away. :( i may be becoming a christmas decorations person after all.

austin's record room isn't really decorated per se, but i love everything in it. our stacks of books, randomly placed chairs, and his little knick knacks about the bookcase are this perfect combination of all of the things we love to use.

this pillow serves as extra seating when there are too many people in the record room. and he's a perfect example of our year round halloween decorations. ;)

i'm sure the older that i get and the nicer our places are, the more decorating will matter. we've definitely started collecting nice decorating things, but i never want to force it. i'm so happy living where i am, so excited that we are creating this little home for ourselves, and so proud of the things we've collected thus far.

<3

i'm obsessed with alternative movie posters

i've discovered this whole new genre of art lately.. i mentioned it briefly here, but i only just recently began to scratch the depths of the world of alternative movie posters. pretty sure i'm already planning a wall dedicated to these cool things in our future home. here are some of my favorites:

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austin and i both love this one. unfortunately, i don't think it's for sale. womp womp.

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i may buy this one.. i'm a little obsessed. it'd obviously have to go in like, the music room.. nowhere i have family hanging out or anything. but man oh man. it's so good.

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there's a ton of twin peaks art that i've favorited on etsy, but most of those are just references to the show.. not posters made for the show, and i kind of like the idea of just being like "yes, we enjoyed twin peaks" rather than "THE OWLS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM YOU DON'T GET THIS PROBABLY" idk.

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okay, this is the last one by the same artist and also the last moonrise kingdom one.. i'm still a little obsessed with having something moonrise kingdom-inspired in my life. even if i have to re-pierce my ears just to wear lil beetle earrings, it'll happen. ;)

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the royal tenenbaums. secret: my dad accidentally threw away the dvd that came with my criterion collection version of the royal tenenbaums, so i cut the case picture up to frame. it's richie with mordecai, and i love it (actually, this is it.. i just cut it into a square). it's on our frame wall in the living room, but i wouldn't mind referencing this movie somewhere else, too!

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austin already said no way to this one, but i couldn't resist sharing it. what a sweet movie and cute print.

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i can't decide if the wes anderson focus in this list is my fault, or if it's because wes anderson movies are just so easy to make art out of. probably a little bit of both, honestly. there's only one wes anderson movie in the world that i'm not a huge fan of.

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i love the look of this one! and the movie. even though it's the most depressing of all of my favorite movies.

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this one's cheating, because it's a book.. but it was made into a movie, so whatever. i think i might buy this for austin.

there are SO MANY more that i've favorited on etsy, but this could get redundant really quickly. :) especially considering how many more of them are wes anderson-related..

<3

i don't have instagram, but that doesn't really stop me

i find myself snapping little pictures on my phone all of the time. some of them are for practical reasons, like needing confirmation on an outfit, but others are because the moment is 2 cute 2 b 4gotten.

1. avery fell asleep on me and i couldn't resist her lil chubby legs
2. i had lunch with my mama at a place in town last week, and our sandwiches came out shaped like little hearts :)
3. mine and austin's drinks at lunch were pretty, summery, and complementary.
4. a favorite christmas gift finally found a home.. i've since given him a couple of necklaces.

5. i needed confirmation from becca that i didn't look like an insane person in this outfit. i couldn't find my left black flat, and doc martens were my only option. i've since cleaned our closet, and found it.
6. has anyone else seen the newest issue of bust magazine? i love every copy of this magazine, but this month tavi is on the cover. her interview and the pictures are perfect.
7. mixing bathing suit patterns at work. i loved this one.

hopefully one day i'll have instagram, so this nonsensical picture taking won't be in vain. ;) <3

just a picture of some flowers

today, i came home to some flowers. they were really pretty, and i know they won't last forever.. so i took some pictures. i didn't even have to edit them.

austin and i haven't gotten to spend much quality time together lately, and, for a couple of days, things were a little bit tense. living with someone is a pretty serious thing.. something i'm not sure i realized when we made the leap. relationships are hard enough as it is, and we probably weren't 100% ready. we've really grown into it, though, and i love my roommate/boyfriend/best friend situation. :) i can't stress enough how proud of our relationship i am, and how perfectly we round each other out. this is even more obvious in the not great times than it is in the good.

even if sometimes we get a little mad and confused and hurt, i always know we're gonna get through it alright, and i'm so glad we get to go through this together, good times and bad.

<3

redecorating

since our roommate moved out, austin and i are living completely, actually on our own for the first time ever. lately, that's just meant that we're incredibly lazy and leaving our shoes and belongings in rooms that used to be shared with other people.. but i'm hoping to change that.

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i've never actually been able to pinpoint my own personal interior design style, but something really clicked when i saw rachel's dining room tour. we don't have a dining room (nor do we really have a need for one), but i think i can use inspiration from this throughout my house.

i have some serious plans for the personal photographs and pretty prints from etsy in our room to be spread throughout the house. i'm mostly just excited to start scheming, because we'll probably be leaving this house when our lease runs out in a few months, and i'll get a fresh new start.

1. penmanship pillow/ settle down
2. custom doily blanket/ willow
3. salt and pepper shakers/ anchor
4. shooting target/ jack rabbit
5. coasters/ bear rug
6. custom painted record/ lyrics
7. vegan antlers/ i haven't actually decided on colors!

i've already started a tiny collection of home-goods-i-gotta-have on etsy, and as you can see, my taste is sort of all over the place. but i'm hoping it'll all come together somehow.. eep.

are there any incredible room tours that i need to see? i generally avoided them, so it's like this whole new world has opened up. <3

pretty things around the internet

hi guys! i hope everyone is having a good week. i've been running myself ragged - i had to set aside my day off for errands (minus a sweet lunch with old coworkers.. i miss them all of the time), and i haven't been able to sleep in any day this week.. i know, poor me. but these late retail nights really take a toll on a girl.

this week, i finished "the particular sadness of lemon cake" and started margaret atwood's "the year of the flood." i'm really excited for this one - margaret atwood is one of my favorite authors, and i've tried to space out reading all of her books, instead of reading them all at once.. so that they last longer, obviously. that's normal, right? ;)
even though finishing books is actually one of my favorite things in the world, i was kind of sad to finish "the particular sadness of lemon cake." although it was absolutely not what i was expecting (at all..), the  storytelling really pulled me in. i found myself understanding rose and even anticipating her actions. a couple of the book's subjects hit kind of close to home, too, and the way she handled them was the exact opposite of the way that i did.. something i really like finding in books. i recommend it. :)

here are some things i've been saving to share all week:

bekuh wrote a post about a date night austin and i shared with she and ryan. her photography is so incredible, i love seeing even my life through her eyes!

a cup of jo is one of my favorite blogs. she is always introducing the coolest things, like this. her blog was also the first place that i saw the trailer for mindy kaling's new show (SO excited).

i've had wedding fever lately (for literally no reason), and james of bleubird just posted her enchanting wedding video.. i can't get enough of her pretty life. :)

i have this ugly baby blue dresser (you may have seen it in the background of a post or two) since before i can remember, and i could never decide what color to repaint it. now i'm thinking yellow.

<3

currently

the southern humidity-filled heat has finally hit here at home. i found myself complaining in a pretty serious way to austin on a drive to his parents' house. i really cannot describe how much i hate hot weather. thank goodness for my new short hair, though, right? eep.

currently, things are calming down and looking up. :)
(again, inspired by danielle of sometimes sweet) - currently, i'm

planning: a sweet little skype date with my best friend in chicago, becca! this was a perk that came with my mac that i had totally and completely forgotten about. she only just left town, but i get so used to her being here that it never gets any easier when she has to go back.

attempting: a more serious way of writing. one of my little treats to myself from my trip to charlottesville was a pack of three pretty little rifle paper co. journals. when i was in college, i was writing pages upon pages of essays, journal entries, and opinion pieces, and i miss that. i don't think i'll ever share many of these little bits of writing, but i'm glad that i have a pretty place for them now. :)

supporting: my friends at sewn together records are putting together an album of local bands covering local bands. having been attending shows since the age of 12 (TWELVE?! that will only get weirder to think about, won't it?), i couldn't be more excited to own such a cute and meaningful chunk of history. however, in order to do this, they need to raise the money.. so they started a kickstarter to do it. take a look, and listen to the trailer - maybe consider a donation! all of the music they collected for it rules.

dreaming: of buying my sweet niece a dollhouse! i know it's pretty early to be thinking about it, but i figure with all of the options, i need all the time i can get to choose one. i love the idea of something like this, but something bigger would probably work better for a longer period of time. we'll see! she's only one, haha.

saving my money for: a new comforter! maybe this one (it's almost never in stock when i actually have the money for it) ? our roommate, sam, is gearing up to move out in a week or so, and it's making me want to redecorate every square inch of our apartment (not that it's exactly decorated to begin with..).

so now, i'm sitting on the couch, eating baked beans, watching gossip girl, and catching up on the internet. i'm a happy girl. <3