the.times.they.are.a.changin

I started packing today - a process that always stirs up silly feelings about memories and "how life will never be the same" as it is right now. I always have mixed feelings about moving, because there's always the thought of what you're leaving behind. That isn't so much tangible things when what you're leaving is Charleston, IL - our house is crumbling down around us a little more every day, and the only activity here is Wal-Mart. Charleston always felt a little bit like a "pause" in life - Darrell was still in school a year behind, and I was already working full time, albeit in a college town. Some days it felt like we had only halfway started life. Monday thru Friday meant work, while Saturday and Sunday meant frat parties and kegs. Leaving here together, we're really going to be on the same page.

Still, when I think about the intangibles - the fact that there will never be another "first house" again, I get a little nostalgic. This will always be the place where we learned to live together.

We have a lot to look forward to in our second home. While our first house was as cheap as possible, the kind of rental where at least one thing is always broken, our second place together is new and shiny, and we'll be the first ones to ever make it our own. The preparation for moving is daunting, it seems like I've been dreaming about moving to the city forever, and now it's so close to happening that we are really getting excited. We have lots of friends close to St. Louis, and too many plans for summer already - trips to the lake, trying out Bikram yoga, the farmer's market on Saturdays, recently opened wine bars, and (probably going to be our most frequent summer activity) baseball games at Busch stadium. What better time to go to a new city and explore than right at the start of summer.

All this crazyness is going to pay off - life wouldn't be any fun at all without change.

"Maybe if they all could be combined - art, rock and fashion. Those were always my favorite things."-Stephen Sprouse

small.victories

So, today is a big day for me. I completed a personal goal today. You see...I love braids. Yes, prepare yourselves, all guy friends reading this - I'm about to get incredibly girly.

I grew my hair out so that I could wear more braids. French braids, Heidi braids, braided buns, my own hair braided and pinned across as a headband, long side braids, you name it. I must've braided ten strangers' hair at Bonnaroo (music festival) this past year, and I literally plan to hang a sign offering to braid hair for $5 on my tent his year. But try as I might, I could not make a damn fishtail braid. My hair would end up a tangled mess after 10 or so tries and I would storm out of the bathroom with a topknot bun. So today, when I was reading the Free People blog and they were gushing over Sasha Pivarova's pretty fishtail braid from their April catalog, I was just irritated by it - until I watched their video tutorial, in which a woman completes a long fishtail braid with only two hands! And here I thought you needed five.

It's like magic. Here's to small victories.

i'm wearing: top-forever21, jeans-gap1969, moccasins-minnetonka, jewelry-lowluv&forever21

"Maybe if they all could be combined - art, rock and fashion. Those were always my favorite things."-Stephen Sprouse

"you don't have a soul. you are a soul. you have a body" - c.s. lewis

This spring weather has turned me into the morning person I was NOT all winter long. When there's snow on the ground & 8:30 am isn't much brighter than 8:30 pm, it can be quite difficult to crawl out of that warm bed, but lately the sunlight comes through the window to help me wake up in a much gentler way than the buzzing of my alarm. It makes it a lot easier to greet the day with a smile, get dressed in something fun, and get to work. Most of my day ends up being spent trying to be as creative as possible, so I keep the music on and and windows open, hoping to be inspired to make something beautiful. Of course, coffee helps too.

"Maybe if they all could be combined - art, rock and fashion. Those were always my favorite things."-Stephen Sprouse