beautiful revolution

source

There was a time, once upon a time, that I didn't leave the house without makeup.

There was a time when I put on coverup and mascara to go to my college gym.

There was a time when I was consumed by looking "put-together."

My sophomore year of college, a few friends and I issued a challenge... No Makeup March in which we could not wear anything-- not even colored lipgloss-- for an entire month.

To some of you, this is no big deal. But to me-- the girl wearing mascara and running at the gym-- this was a huge challenge. I didn't feel pretty without makeup and to go an entire month was ludicrous.

Yet, I took the challenge and for one month, I washed and dried my face and left for the day.

At the end of the month I was completely changed. While I was excited about wearing makeup (and especially covering zits) I realized that no one thought less of me because I wasn't all "made up." I realized I didn't need to have mascara on at the gym. I realized that I could be beautiful without it.

I bring all this up because as a woman, I am constantly bombarded by advertisements to get the latest product, images of women perfectly airbrushed and fit and I begin to believe that I need to look like that. I begin to believe that I am not good enough and I stop loving myself as much.

I bring this up because February -- the month of love -- is the perfect time to embrace imperfection and remember the importance of loving myself -- with makeup or without.

Amy of A is for Ampersand is celebrating a month of loving ourselves on her blog. It's a beautiful thing and perfect for Valentine's Day. Join her? Join me? (I promise you can still wear makeup.)

Sign the revolution on her blog today. :)

 xo, erika

what i wore - thrifted dress

This was once a polyester dress with a white collar. A little below the knee and a little too big. I wish I had a before photo, but you'll just have to be content with the after:

dress//thrifted   cardigan//TJ Maxx   necklace//urban outfitters   belt//thrifted  tights//?   boots//Macy's

five things friday: books, kale and the puppy

My week, although I had Monday off, seemed long. Apparently getting back into the swing of things after the holidays is rough-- even if you work between Christmas and New Years.

But a few good things kept me going this week..


1. I'm a total book nerd and I'm one of those people who will get caught up in a book and read until midnight. The Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers is one of those books. (I also joined goodreads.com-- find me there!)

2. a bridal shower sunday with dear friends and lots of food.

3. eating healthy and cooking brussel sprouts for the first time! I'm on a major veggie kick right now and made kale pesto and a kale smoothie. nom.

4. chill evening at home with the puppy, trashy tv (The Bachelor) and wearing sweatpants.

5. finding lefse at the grocery store! I'm one-quarter Norwegian and I grew up eating lefse for breakfast. It's a flat bread made of potatoes and I love it rolled it with with butter, sugar and cinnamon.

five things I loved from the internet this week.

1. this cracks me up. I'm not sure what that says about me, but I think it's hilarious. (warning- you need your volume up for this one)

2. this blog post about seattle is brilliant.

3.  the beauty of slower (and steady) business growth by acute designs

4. glitter shoe diy on a beautiful mess. swoon.

5. the kale pesto i made-- highly recommend it!


what was good in your week?

xo, erika

linking up!

etsy christmas list (part I)

I have a bajillion favorites on etsy and honestly I would be happy if all of them came home with me. Unforunately the bank account doesn't allow for that so I may have to rely on some other people to purchase them for Christmas for me.

This is the first (of probably many) etsy Christmas lists. swoon...

mixin' & matchin'

Source: freshome.com via Betsy on Pinterest

I'm writing about mixing and matching home decor over on Sloanbook today. go check it out. :)

xo, erika 

p.s. will someone convince me to have a facebook page for the blog or shop? i think i should, but am still on the fence...

fall love-- link up!

I love fall.

for gorgeous sunsets & sunrises and crisp air and changing leaves

for rust and brown

and scarves and boots

and baking pumpkin treats with the husband:

and of course, eating what we baked: pumpkin cornbread. delish.

• 1 cup flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoons ground nutmeg
• ½ cups brown sugar
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 2  Eggs
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• ¼ cups olive oil
• 1 tablespoon molasses 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and grease an 8×8″ baking dish.
 
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, spices, brown sugar, and cornmeal.

In a small bowl, lightly beat the eggs, and then stir in the pumpkin, oil, and molasses.

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until combined, and then pour the batter into the pan, smoothing out the top as much as possible.

Bake 30 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm (with honey!)
recipe found here

linking up for the fall followers' fest... go check out all the other fall-themed posts! :)

and of course,  happy friday.

not your mom's jeans

 tee: H&M  jeans: Gap  shoes: Marshalls

In high school it was the age of Christina and Britney, midriffs and low-rise jeans.

I remember that my t-shirts could not go over the top of my jeans-- they just had to meet perfectly.

Some of my high school teachers made girls raise their arms to see if their shirts were appropriate.

I am so thankful those days are over. Not only because high school can be terrible, but because super low-rise jeans are working their way out.

I've been on the hunt for a good pair of higher-rise jeans for ever. Often when I shop I know exactly what I want and I just have to find the place that makes it.

sometimes no one makes what I want.

For awhile I thought this was the case with the high-rise jeans. I didn't want the retro flare, or the super trouser lookin' jeans or high-rise skinny jeans. I wanted a nice boot-cut dark denim higher-rise jean. And I didn't want mom jeans (no offense moms out there but you know what I mean...)

And I finally found 'em after weeks of searching.

And I love them.

And I may wear them every day.

You woudn't judge me for that, would you?

Do you ever search and search for the perfect thing-- your ideal jeans, skirt or purse?

xo, erika

p.s. if you've never seen the SNL commercial for mom jeans, get yourself over to hulu and watch this.

five things friday: a little overwhelmed

cardigan & top: Old Navy   jeans: Forever 21  boots: Nordstrom

I'm not going to lie and tell you this week was easy.

This week was actually really hard and I've been really tired and overwhelmed and have felt, for most of the week, that I could never finish anything I was supposed to do or do anything I had on my plate very well.

Do you have those moments?

On top of that, my eye will NOT stop twitching. That in itself, is driving me a little crazy.

But still, I can see the good through the craziness and am so thankful for the people in my life who remind me what is important.

1. Teaching Sunday School to 5 and 6 year old girl. They are so sweet and cute and say the funniest things. The gem from this week? The little girl that told me that she was being something "real scary for Halloween... Michael Jackson the zombie."  ummm OK.

2. This tree outside my house.

 
 3. My husband being so gracious and understanding. Thursday he told me to take a nap and he would make dinner. swoon.

4. Having time to work on some things for the shop... like this:

 5.  And this little cheerful guy. What a funny little doggie.

Things I love from around the web:

1. Biz Ladies: Guide to a Successful Product Launch via Design*Sponge

2. Tips for Blogging with Your Handmade Business via Sunshine and Carousels

3. DIY Clothespin Bulletin Board by Michaela Noel

4. Casey rockin' one of my headbands and making me feel famous :)

5. this beautifully honest post by Lindsay

did you write something or see something wonderful online? you should share it :)

also. happy friday to you from the bottom of my heart.

xo, Erika

what i love: getting cozy

Winter is on its way.

I can tell.

Last night I lay under my comforter listening to pounding rain and this morning as I walked the little doggie the wind howled and whipped at us.

I think it was telling me to go back to bed.

At work the day alternated between quick bursts of sun and periods of pelting sideways rain.

Time to put away the flip-flops, flats and floaty tops for real. It's October.

What I'm loving this week is all the cozy items on Etsy:

1. beautiful oatmeal cowl 

2. mustard (love!) cable mug cozy

3. happy knitted fingerless gloves

4. butter yellow crocheted beanie

My goal is to go the entire month of October with only turning on the heat a few times so those cozy little items will definitely come in handy. :)

xo, erika

linking up:  

happy two years and a guest post from the husband

(FYI: grab some iced lemonade or a glass of wine- this is a long post with lots o' photos)

In lieu of writing a blog post today, my lovely wife Erika has asked me to write something instead.  She said to keep it around 200 words.  That’s like six sentences, so this might be a tid bit longer.  Our 2 year wedding anniversary is today and her prose to me was to "write something about the wedding."  Kind of a broad topic, no?  I'm not entirely sure why she thought I would be a good choice to compose this blog post, as she is a substantially more gifted writer than myself.  My only thought as to why is that she wanted to go upstairs to make more crafty things for R&W.  Or to watch The Bachelorette. Either way, I'll certainly do my best to keep y'all entertained.*

So, our wedding was hot.  Like hot with two "t's" hott.  Seattle summer temperatures generally range from 70-80 degrees, with a 5 degree cushion on either side of that.  If the weather stays within that 20 degree window, all is right in the world in the eyes of Seattleites.  Any sort of variance from that however is cause for uproar, complaining, and threats to move to Canada.**  The temperature on our wedding day was 98 degrees.  When we booked our outdoor wedding, our biggest concern was that it might rain.  Turns out that occasionally happens in Seattle.  Also turns out, that would have been a blessing.  What we ended up having was the hottest three week stretch in the history of Seattle (well since they started keeping records 110ish years ago).

Erika's company line about the wedding is that she "doesn't remember much."  I think the fact that it was nearly 100 degrees (no A/C in the reception hall mind you, this is Seattle after all, and apparently it never gets above 80, so why would any building be equipped with A/C?) and the fact that we each talked to over 10,000 people that day probably contributed to her memory loss.***  I on the other hand remember it like it was yesterday.  In fact (this is a true story.  I swear.) two nights ago I spent an hour looking at our wedding pictures at 2 am.****

Full disclosure before I continue.  I’m a complete sap at weddings:  weddings for people I barely know, weddings for people that I love dearly.  It doesn’t matter.  I’ve never actually cried at a wedding (other than my own), but I always get the big lump in my throat every time the bride walks down the aisle.  Every single time.  It’s mildly annoying.

Before I got married, random people I knew would talk about their own wedding days being “SUPER AMAZINGLY AWESOME!!” and “SPECTACULARLY WONDERFULLY FANTASTIC!!!”  And despite what I just said in the previous paragraph,  I would quietly laugh at these weirdos and say to myself, “Self, while weddings are great and all, there are surely other things in your life that will always be better than your own wedding.  Like watching the Huskies win the National Championship, the Rose Bowl, or really,  any game at all.”  Turns out I was the weirdo.

Now I’m not an emotional fella in terms of tears.  I can express feelings and talk and have good hard conversations and all that jazz, but I’m not really a crier.  Since I began high school (11 years ago), I think I’ve only cried for deaths and break ups.  Neither are fun.  At all.  I’ve certainly never cried tears of emotional joy like a girl. ;)  With all that said, I cried at my wedding.  Not a lot, but some.  Tears of joy for sure.

My goal now is to not get too sappy and gushy on y’all (see * #1), but we’ll see what happens.  I can honestly say that the day I married Erika (July 26^th, 2009 for all of you keeping score at home)***** was the best day of my life.  Hands down, no question at all.  I will not debate this with anyone.  There is something about marrying your very very VERY best friend that is SUPER AMAZINGLY AWESOME and SPECTACULARLY WONDERFULLY FANTASTIC.  

I remember pretty much everything about that day.  I ran in the morning, just like I do everyday.  I went to my usual Starbucks and got my usual drink (the baristas were shocked that I was there since they knew I was getting married.  Honestly, why would I not drink coffee on my wedding day.  I do need to be awake for the vows correct?) The day was hott with two t’s.  We took pictures for about infinity hours before the wedding and got into every pose imaginable to man.  Don’t get me wrong, it was super fun to hang out and be goofy with my soon to be wife and our very best friends, but we took so many pictures that I was pretty sure I was going to end up with a permasmile.  We had ones kissing, smiling, whispering, eyes closed, eyes opened, standing, sitting, hugging, looking serious, and one of me playing quarterback with my groomsmen as the offensive line.   

After we finished the photography portion of the program, Erika and the girls went and secluded themselves into her little “Bride Room."  I think what it said in our wedding plans we drew up was “Erika goes and hide."   While the girls were “hiding," us guys drank lots of water and no alcohol prior to the ceremony.  Although I’d always pictured having a beer with my groomsmen an hour before the wedding I just really didn’t want anything to go awry.     
Along with being the super fun groom who nixed the beer idea I also required that all six of my groomsman keep on their full tux for the 5 p.m. outdoor ceremony.  There would be no removing of jackets or rolling of sleeves for the ceremony.  This was my wedding and I wanted it to be classy and perfect.

As all of the guests arrived, I’m quite certain they were silently (or maybe not so silently) cursing us for getting married on one of the hottest days in the history of Seattle.  As everyone sat down, the groomsman and I, along with our Pastor, moseyed up to the altar.  I could feel the sweat rolling down my entire body, which was outfitted in a full tuxedo, vest, and jacket.  Yikes. 

Once Erika started walking down the aisle, the heat was almost unnoticable to me.  She was captivating and I didn’t really care if it was 10 degrees or 100 degrees.  She was (and still is) gorgeous and I was about to marry her.   

The ceremony started and things were going just fine.  I said my vows and was thoroughly enjoying the moment of celebration with Erika, our families and our friends.  Unfortunately my brother-in-law Andrew (groomsman number 5 of 6) didn’t feel the same way at all.  In fact, I’m pretty sure he wanted to be anywhere else in the world at that moment.  You see, during Erika’s vows, right in the middle of her telling me that she’d stand by me in sickness and in health, Andrew got down on one knee, and puked.  Apparently all of that water upset his stomach (clearly he has a sensitive stomach) and when the upset stomach was combined with the heat of the day and the massive quantities of suit material his delightful brother-in-law required him to wear, he could take no more.  

After the puking, things went fine.  Everybody laughed, he felt better, and we sealed the deal with a kiss.  The reception was awesome and crazy all at the same time.  We were whisked around by parents and friends and the photographer,  making sure we talked to everybody that came.  We ended up not getting to eat our own cake until a year and a half later, which we’d forgotten that we’d left in Erika’s parents freezer (delicious by the way).

 
It was certainly the best day of my life and nothing will top it.  If you haven’t tried marriage, I highly recommend it.  For me, one of the best things about being married is the fact that I can secretly hope some day some guy says or does something one day that offends her so I can punch him and defend her honor.  Extremely dorky I know, but I bet if you peered inside the brains of 10 guys, all 10 would say beating some AHole up for saying something to his girl would be something he’d love to do.  As for me I’m 5’10 and 140 lbs. so I might just have to settle for a punch instead of a full beatdown.

I don’t really know how to end this random story of a hot wedding, vomit, and many asterisks, so I’ll just say this: Being married is one of the most rewarding, challenging, exciting, annoying, fun, and wonderful things I can imagine.  I know Erika would say the same, although she’d use bigger words and potentially more emphasis on challenging when it comes to me folding laundry. (I folded tonight honey!)  I am truly honored to be married to such a wonderful woman.  I thank God everyday for the blessing He gave me in my wife.  She is truly a prayer answered and a beautiful person to spend time with.  I love her more than anything and would do pretty much anything for her.  She is the most loving, loyal and admirable person I know.  If we are blessed with a daughter someday, I would hope and pray she could be half of what Erika is.   

Happy anniversary sweetheart.

*I spent this past weekend (Thursday-Saturday) driving from Seattle to San Francisco and back with one of my very best friends.  He’s from Tennessee and says y’all a lot.  The drive is 14 hours (830 miles) each way.  Trip totaled 61 hours and 2 minutes.  We spent a lot of time together.  Sometimes things rub off.

**The whole threat to move to Canada is actually only from my liberal friends when a conservative gets elected.  And from my conservative friends when a liberal gets elected.  I clearly embellished there.

***It was really more like 400 people, but still, it was more than usual.

****Upon my return from San Francisco at 3 am early Sunday morning, I went straight to bed.  I got up 4 hours later to run and go to work.  It was not a good day to say the least.  I got off of work at 5, came home, made dinner and went to bed at 6 pm.  I thought I’d sleep through the night.  My body had different plans and I woke up at 9 pm ready for dinner and  some quality time with Erika.  She was ready for bed.  Oops.  So I watched SportsCenter and looked at our wedding pictures and played Angry Birds until 3 a.m.

*****That’s a baseball reference for those who don’t follow sports like their life depends on it.  When fans keep score at home (a bunch of random symbols that you fill in on a sheet that says which guy hit the ball where and a bunch of other random things that don’t matter at all), the announcer of the game will often say random things that maybe you didn’t notice during the game, just in case you were keeping score at home and wanted to keep your scorecard correct.

Happy Fourth (from the 50th state)

Happy Fourth of July.

 Happy Independence Day.

Happy Freedom.

Happy Hot Dogs and Burgers on the Grill.

Source: julieblanner.blogspot.com via Erika on Pinterest

Happy Sparklers and Fireworks.

Source: marieardenpinkliving.blogspot.com via Erika on Pinterest

Source: None via Erika on Pinterest

Happy Family and Picnics.

Source: toast.co.uk via Erika on Pinterest

Source: rodeo.net via Erika on Pinterest

Happy. 

(Happy Fourth from Hawaii! I'm having fun and am only a little sunburned now. The joys of being a redhead.) 

:) Erika

love letter

 

Yeah. 

I know. 

It's a little strange. But to those of you out there who have used a crock pot-- you know what I'm taking about.

Throw some stuff in, turn it on, and come home hours later to dinner. It's brilliant and I'm not sure why it sat so long in the closet in its box after I got married. I was missing out big time. 

So yesterday the husband was sick and I knew he needed something hearty. 

Enter the pot roast plus some carrots, onions and beef broth. (Plus a little splash of worchester suace.) Voila. Dinner for days.

Now where are my apron and pearls?

valentines day

I hated Valentines Day growing up.

First of all, I usually got sick that week and during the classroom party was at home on the couch stuck with daytime television. (And we didn't have cable.)

And, secondly, as I got older, there was the whole competition to see who got more roses, more cards, more chocolate...more LOVE.

Most of the time it felt like I was the one on the sidelines, knobby-kneed, freckled and unlucky. Duped by Hallmark into thinking that Valentine's Day meant that it was about how much I could get, rather than how much I could give.

This year I'm excited for Valentine's Day, and not just because I'm married and guaranteed a gift.  I'm excited to make things and mail things and show others that the holiday is much more than a greeting card company invention.

I'm sharing a few {free!} things out there to celebrate Valentine's Day with you all. Enjoy!

--> I love love love this free DIY download from adorable stationary site Twig & Thistle.

Download the printable PDF at twigandthistle.com

--> Here's another free! (and paperless) way to share your love to all of the interwebs (first spotted on jenloveskev):

screenshot of withoutyouitsjustnot.us

A piece of the back story:

"I started this project for three reasons. First, to show my wife how much I love her. Second, to give others a simple way to do the same for their significant others. Third, and probably most important, is to help show people how good it is to love and be loved. My hope is that when people start participating and posting flyers, others would see the flyers and notice the movement."

How great is that?

And the final freebie, maybe not for your honey, but for anyone, from Amanda at Calico & Co:

image care of Calico & Co

Create five postcards and post 'em around your hometown, on your bus, at your grocery store to share a little love during February. There are even downloadable postcard templates.

What are you doing for Valentine's Day?