Washi Tape Heart Pins

You guys, I am looking SOOO hip right now as I type this. I am actively upping my hipster cred. I'm sitting in a Starbucks in Seattle, sipping a latte, typing on my iPad, wearing a leather jacket... My trip is still going well. Hawaii was beautiful and wonderful and now I want to live there for a brief time. Just until the island fever gets me, or I grow tired of the never-changing weather. Seattle is also gorgeous so far, and I've decided that I need to live somewhere mountainous. 

This is a craft I actually did quite a while ago, when I helped a friend with a baby shower board. I actually made these little hearts really quickly and kind of on a whim, but I'm really happy with how they turned out. So friggin' cute. Check out the details on ThinkCrafts, and leave some love over there. I check for comments on my posts there, really! 

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March Maven Box Reveiw

Yes, this is a review from March. Yes, it's well into April at this point. Time just keeps getting away from me, okay? ;) I'm officially a week into my trip, but it feels like I've been gone forever... I really don't consider myself a "needy" kind of girlfriend, and I really didn't think that not seeing boyfriend for 3+ weeks would be THAT hard, but holy crap, I am feeling so needy. It's not as bad when I'm out with friends or keeping busy, but sleeping alone is so sad! I hate it, and I'm officially that needy girl... I put a countdown on my phone for when we reunite in Vegas -- ha!  

I'm typing this on part one of my flight(s) to Hawaii (we have a layover in Seattle), and I'm hoping that I miss boyfriend less when I'm soaking up the Hawaiian sun and sipping an endless stream of mai tais. On a semi-related note, I got a spray tan yesterday to avoid being the palest person on Oahu, and now my hands are orange. Cuuuute... ;)

But let's talk about my latest obsession, Julep Maven, for a minute. I wrote up a post a while ago giving the run down of the whole Maven program, how amazing it is to get new, exclusive nail polishes in the mail each month, and how much I love the products. Now I want to show you one of my latest boxes: the March Maven box. The month's collection centered on bright, spring time shades and new lip products to smooth and soften your winter-ravaged pout. Yet again I couldn't decided which style to chose, so I ordered the "ultimate upgrade," which included all 9 new polishes, the luxe lip gloss, and the lip scrub. I also added on Julep's other two new shades: Tania and Rae. 

I will say, that while I really do love all the colors, it felt a touch early for a spring palette up in Michigan. Michigan is only now seeing a little warmth and sunshine, so painting my nails bright, poppy colors felt strange at the beginning of March. I was surprised that one of my favorite colors from the collection was Soraphine, a sheer white polish. I used it as a base and top coat for a pastel tips mani that I shared on my Instagram a while back. (Speaking of which, I am obsessed with Instagram; are we friends?!) I also love Tania, the "mermaid teal glitter," and Rae, one of the "colors of the year." 

I'm looking forward to getting more wear out of the polishes this summer, and the lip scrub is okay, but the real rock star of this box is the luxe lip gloss... This stuff is AMAZING. It's made with pumpkin oil and all kinds of other good-for-your-lips stuff, is a perfectly subtle shade of peachy-nude, has a metal tip applicator that cools as it applies, and most importantly, makes your lips feel like buttah'. I'm telling you, if your lips get dry or rough, you need this balm/gloss in your arsenal! It is the one lip product I opted to include in my 1-quart bag of liquids for my trip. 

I'm still obsessed with Julep Maven. I still tell all my friends about it. My collection is getting ridiculous. 

Get a free box when you sign up to be a Maven here --> Sign Up! <-- and="" at="" checkout.="" code="" enter="" nbsp="" p="">

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Ombre Chevron Embroidery

I'm posting this from Chicago, the first leg of my big giant trip. It hasn't really set in yet that this is it, I'm on my trip. I'm catching a bus to St. Louis in just over an hour where I'll be visiting some family I haven't seen in ages. The good news is that my first bus here was nowhere near sketchty, which is what I had feared. Two lessons I've learned so far: for jeans to be truly mutli-purpose they must be a good, unfaded dark wash, and that to secure a good, non-motion-sickness-inducing seat on the bus, you must show up plenty early. 

Anyway, a while back, I posted a chevron embroidery project I stitched up, and I'm still pretty smitten with how it turned out. I bought the pattern on Etsy and switched up the thread colors, and then it sat on a shelf for months because I wanted to "finish" the back and never bothered to look up how. Do you ever do that to your projects? Neglect them because you're waiting to make them "perfect?"

Regardless, that cross-stich project gave me the stitchin' bug, and as with most projects I wanted to come up with my own version. I did some searching and ended up downloading the "StitchSketchLE" app on my iPad and messing around with designs. I wanted something simple, because I'm a simple kind of girl, but you can also use a stylus pen to freehand draw something! You can save and email the pattern file to yourself for printing, and then voila, you've got an original cross-stitch design! 

So I used three shades of green thread, though the difference between the last two does not look terribly obvious in these photos. I also gave up on "finishing" the hoops and just cut the cloth in a sloppy circle and called it good. I'm trying to really embrace imperfections. Tell me I'm not alone in that struggle... Do you have a hard time calling a project "finished?"

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