Etsy Feature: Bruklyn Belle Vintage

I have been loving my friends an extra amount lately.  After you get married, it seems that you and your new spouse make this unspoken pact that you will be hermits together for the next year. (It is in this same pact that I agreed to stop shaving and Adam vowed to grow a scraggly beard.  If you are going to be hermits, you might as well go all the way.)  But then, after you emerge from your cave, smelling like old feet, you start craving friendships again.
This is where I am at in my life at this moment - just emerging from said cave, pasty white and in need of people.  One of the first people I began spending more time with (post hermit) was my awesome, totally foxy, fashion-forward, lovely-music-playing friend Bruk.  (Again, real friend.  Not blog friend.  Also in my wedding).
Bruk's tenacity inspires me.  I pretty much feel like she could do anything.  She has a beautiful Etsy shop called Bruklyn Belle Vintage (for which I may or may not have modeled in the past, ahem.)  You should go there.  Just a warning: you might not be able to handle it.  She has a knack for finding amazing vintage pieces, and as I said before, she is super foxy.  You might just buy everything in her store.
You've been warned.

For The Love of Cake

I am so tired of this diet.  No sugar, no flour, no gluten, no dairy, no garlic, no eggs, no fun.

But I can't quit.  So what do I do?  I live vicariously through this blog. (And through my husband - who routinely stuffs food in his face, not of his own free will, but because he is made to do so by a certain crazy, starch-starved wife).

I want to eat things like this:

Rich and Ruffled Chocolate Celebration Cake

Campfire Chocolate Cake with Marshmallow filling

So, please, do me a favor tonight.  If you can eat wonderful, sugary, gluten-filled pastries, do it.  With me in mind.  For the love of cake!

On Being More Conscious

This is the blog of my foodie-friend, Kendra. (Not just a blog friend.  Like, my actual friend.  As in she was in my wedding.  She's super awesome, and a fellow pseudo redhead).  It is called "Bridgetown Food Collective."  It is very focused, beautiful, and inspiring.  It is mostly about food; and it touches on how we can change our communities by what we eat.

Also, I stole this from her blog.  But it's okay, because she stole it from Jesse Rosten's Vimeo.


Growing is Forever from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

Bravery

Confession time: in case you don't know... I'm a super big nerd.  I love mythological creatures.  I think that dragons really existed.  I daydream about seeing (or being) a mermaid.  I believed in Santa Claus till I was twelve.  And I love a good science-fictiony book. (I would say "fantasy book"... but that would conjure up all kinds of unsavory images).
Phew.  With that confession out of the way, I can move on.
I am re-reading Chronicles of Narnia for the billionth time (all out of order.  C.S. Lewis would probably scold me.  I started with The Voyage of the Dawn Treader because I was so peeved by the most recent movie that I just simply HAD to read it to make sure that the book was no where near that bad.  Thankfully, it was as wonderful as I remembered - and was just unfortunately hacked to bits by Disney.)(See what I mean?  N-E-R-D.)  This time around, I am realizing more and more that these beautiful books are all about bravery.
One of my favorite quotes from "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" is:

"Peter did not feel very brave; indeed, he felt he was going to be sick.  

But that made no difference to what he had to do.  

He rushed straight up to the monster and aimed a slash of his sword at its side."

I always thought that bravery was feeling victorious and pumped up.  But the older I get, the more I realize that most of the time, we don't feel brave.  That, however, doesn't change the fact that we must act.  

Because if we don't act, we'll miss our adventure.  And then we won't have any good stories.  And where's the fun in that?  I'll tell you... nowhere.

What To Do?

I want to do something to my hair.  I love long, flowing, luscious hair... so maybe I should grow it out.  But I also love short, spunky, sassy hair... so maybe I should keep it short.  What to do?

 (Photo from weheartit.com)

(photo from The Darling Life)

(I will never have my hair as short as the picture above ever again.  I cut it this short the day I graduated high school; and, due to my oddly shaped head, it was a very bad idea.  But... you get the point.  Fun short hair.)