January Wrapup

January is over - finally! The winter months are always soooo long. This one was okay actually, as far as Januarys go. I spent the month redecorating my apartment, getting back into crafting, and trying to spend as many nights as possible out with my friends instead of hibernating through the winter as usual.

Favorite posts from January:

• Rearranging
• Colorful Hallway
• DIY Heart Wreath

And some goals for Febrary:

• Save money and work more - I have some exciting travel plans for this year and I need to make sure they actually happen.
• Get organized - Everything in my life is a mess right now, so I should probably work on that.
• Have fun - Nights out have definitely made this January go by faster than usual, so I'd really like to do the same for February.

What I Wore: Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition is one of my favorite words. It's also one of my favorite ways to dress - like this girly vintage dress with this fake leather jacket. Also, it's currently about 60 degrees in Michigan in January, so things are just contradicting themselves all around.

Outfit details: vintage dress and boots , Modcloth jacket and earrings

Similar: 1/2/3/4 *this post contains affiliate links

DIY Heart Wreath

Here’s a super easy tutorial for a wreath that you can use to adorn your door for Valentine’s Day, while recycling some of your old Christmas decor.

What you need:

• wire hanger 
• red tinsel garland (about 4 feet) 

Using either your hands or some wire tools, shape your hanger into a heart, leaving the actual hook in tact. Fold the garland in half and drape it over the top of the heart. Then begin wrapping it around the wire until that side of the heart is covered down to the bottom. Repeat on the other side and tie the garland in place.

Hang on your door or wall and enjoy! (told you it was easy...)

January Wishlist

I'm in full money-saving mode right now, so all non-essential shopping has been postponed indefinitely. But here are some of the things I'd buy if I had unlimited funds.

1. to brighten up the plain white walls 
2. to stay comfortable and warm 
3. to relax on the couch with 
4. to play my favorite classics 
5. to fight the winter blues

*this post contains affiliate links

What I Wore: In Progress

I've been really lazy with taking photos lately... as you can probably tell from the ONE PHOTO in this post. The rest of them looked really bad and I was just not into it on this particular night. But anyway, I am working on taking more photos and doing more projects for this blog. Also, you might notice some changes around here. I'm working on a new design, but I still have some work to do. So please forgive me if some things don't exactly ~match. It's a work in progress, as always.

Outfit details: F21 dress, Modcloth skirt, vintage belt, Von Maur tights, borrowed jacket

Similar: 1/2/3/4/5 *this post contains affiliate links

Lately

Lately I've been:
...working on a lot of DIY projects for the blog. I finally have the craft bug again - hurrah!
...wishing for spring. Walks, ice cream, baseball, not turning into an icicle every time I leave the house - that all sounds great to me.
...watching One Tree Hill. I know I'm a little late to this party, but I'm on season 3 on Netflix and it's getting pretty dramatic. Anyone else watch it??
...wanting to get back into drawing again. I found some old sketchbooks while cleaning out my apartment, and I think I'm going to go pick up some pencils later.

What have you been up to lately?

Colorful Hallway

Ever since I moved into my apartment, I've had some problems deciding what to do with this hallway. It takes up a lot of space, but it's a little awkward to decorate. I had these Pantone note cards lying around that I also didn't know what to do with. So I decided to pair the two together. (please excuse the mess on my floor - I was crafting and it got a little out of control)

I also did some more easy decorating with washi tape. I had already done my bookcase, but I decided to employ the same idea to my TV stand.

Do you have any quick decorating ideas you've used recently?

DIY Light Display Box

After Christmas, I always have so many extra boxes lying around. Of course, I have a lot of things I could put into said boxes, but I usually prefer my existing method of organized chaos. So the dilemma becomes what to do with the empty boxes. Here’s one idea. A Light Display Box

What you need:

• cardboard shoe box 
• battery powered led light strand 
• tissue paper 
• tape or glue 

Start by taping your strand of lights around the inner rim of the box. Place a sheet of tissue paper under your box and make cuts from the corners so that the paper can be folded into the box. You can use tape or glue to secure the tissue paper around the inside of the box. I made the paper a little messy so that you couldn’t see the tape. Also, you’ll need to make sure that the battery switch for the lights is easily accessible once everything is in place. The lights should all be inside the tissue paper but still visible when turned on.

 Place small items you want displayed inside the box and turn on the lights for a cool effect. Now you’ve found a cool use for your old boxes AND some Christmas lights – win/win!

Outtakes

Sometimes pictures of yourself turn out really weird and awkward, and pretending like they're not is silly.

Outfit details: sleepy: jeans/angry: happy halloween/pidgeon toes: lazy winter/lazy eye: mixing it up/standing weird: america

On Sharing

This weekend was a pretty good one. My friends and I had a "spa night" with face masks, cucumbers over our eyes, and lots of talk about reality shows that I won't name here.  Then we went out to brunch the next morning and our very first aerial yoga class, which was surprisingly fun and slightly easier than I expected.

photos by katelyn

But throughout the weekend, I made a conscious effort to leave my camera at home and not tweet/instagram everything I did or thought (Golden Globes commentary not withstanding) and just simply enjoy life without telling a bunch of people who probably don't even really care about it.

I think that most ~bloggers (/anyone on the internet) has struggled at some point with how much of their lives to share publicly.

Part of the reason I love blogging and social media is that it gives me a super easy way of documenting things that happen through the course of life, so that I always have a way of looking back and reminiscing later. But always sharing the details of life and documenting everything can get a little tiring and quite frankly, kind of annoying.

Sometimes documentation makes certain events even more fun, and I'm not going to pretend like I don't love instagramming stuff, but I think there has to be some kind of balance. I don't want to spend my entire life behind a camera just so I have something to blog about.

Now let's be honest, there's nothing that juicy happening in my life. So this post isn't about my internal battle about sharing some deep struggle I'm dealing with. But I know some that have dealt with this type of situation. I'm mainly just talking about the day-to-day stuff: what should I share about my life? What would I rather keep to myself? And who cares about it anyway?

So I guess I'll just blog whatever I feel like blogging, tweet what I feel like tweeting, take pictures when I feel like taking pictures, and not stress about it the rest of the time. I'm sure there has to be some better method than that, but that's the best I can come up with.

How do you deal with balancing sharing vs. over-sharing?

Rearranging

Do you ever just get the urge to move around everything in your home? This tends to happen to me a lot. And after my Christmas decorations had to come down this week, I really felt like it needed a change.

 

I only rearranged my living room a bit, but I'm pretty happy with the way it looks so far, I think. I still have some changes I'm thinking about, and I actually have a little room for some extra furniture now, so I'm keeping an eye out for some antique chairs and a side table to round out the room.

Now my kitchen needs to watch out...

What I Wore: Mixing It Up

I've been really bored with my wardrobe over this fall and winter, which is strange because it's usually my favorite time of year. So I'm trying to make a conscious effort to work with what I have and make new combinations instead of shopping for new clothes. In fact, I might need to go on another shopping hiatus until my birthday in March. Really interesting, I know...

Outfit details: Modcloth dress, sweater, hair pins, and purse; Target tights; Keds shoes from Madewell

Similar: 1/2/3/4/5/6 *This post contains affiliate links

2012

I kept my new year's resolution post pretty simple yesterday, so I'm going to keep my 2012 recap post pretty simple as well.

2102 was a good year. I moved to a new place, got a new job, and had some fun new experiences. In 2011 I feel like I did a lot of growing, and 2012 was more for getting comfortable with my life and what I've made it. But mostly, 2012 was for surrounding myself (both online and off) with the absolute best people on the face of the planet. So thank you all for reading this blog and talking to me on Twitter or Tumblr or wherever. I'm glad to know you. And I'm so thankful for all my friends and everyone else in my life. If absolutely nothing changes between now and January 2014, I'll be perfectly happy if just for that reason.

Here are my top 10 favorite posts from 2012: Nerdy Heart Necklace / Birthday Photobooth Props DIY / Seneca Crane's Beard / Apartment Tour / Crochet Collar / Deathly Hallows Photo Display DIY / WWII Victory Rally / The Importance of Girl Friends / Cloud Livin' / Muppet Hats, Vol. 2

What was your favorite part of 2012?

2013

Hello 2013. I guess this is the time when I'm supposed to be setting goals and resolutions for the year ahead. But as I was browsing through posts here from previous years, I realized that I don't always follow through on these things (who does, really?) but that some things have actually worked out better because of it. I have absolutely no clue what 2013 has in store for me. I could set a really ambitious list or just one really important goal, but then a completely different opportunity could present itself and keep me from accomplishing what I originally set out to do. I don't want to limit my opportunities throughout the year based on what I said I would do back on January first, and I don't want to look back on this post later and beat myself up over not accomplishing what I originally set out to do.

So I've decided that my goal for 2013 is to simply be open to new opportunities, to take what comes to me and deal with it the best I can. I want to have more fun and not stress out over every little thing. I don't want to be always starting a new project or finish an old one just for the sake of finishing it. I don't want to have every day planned out by the minute. And I don't want to constantly worry that I am not doing enough.

In terms of this blog, I just want to have fun with it. The whole point of starting this was to just have a place to write and share things that I do and make. I don't really want that to change, but certain parts of this have become more of a chore. Starting today, I'm no longer offering sponsorships on my sidebar, because I really just don't want to put the time into managing it and I don't feel that it really adds much to this blog at this point. I might bring it back sometime in the future if I feel it necessary, but right now it just isn't.

I still have a lot of things I'd like to accomplish this year, but I will save those for my 26 before 26 list in March (wow). Maybe this year I'll try to eat healthier, but maybe I'll continue to eat late night Taco Bell regularly, and that's fine. Maybe I'll do something super exciting with this blog, but maybe I'll just keep doing what I've always done, and that's fine. I didn't accomplish all the goals I set for 2012, and that's fine. I need to just stop stressing so much and do the best I can. That's what 2013 is for, I guess.

What are some of your goals for 2013? Anyone else just not feel like setting any?