spurts

I'm a pretty average length for a girl. about 5'4" give or take some days and shoes and TOMS. I really can't reach much? and tell the tall co-workers that the only reason why we hired them is to get cases down for me from high high places. I like to make people feel needed. Ya know.

My mom and I paid a visit to my grandmother's house a couple weeks ago when she exclaimed, "Have you gotten taller?!" and I sheepishly replied, "No, Grandma... I think you're getting smaller..." It's a real thing, guys. Your grandma's are SHRINKING. How else does the term "tiny old people" apply?? After we went home I asked my mom, "um... HAVE i grown?" to which she pointed out that she used to be taller than I am pretty recently and now I'm taller than her.

But get this. My mother hasn't shrunk.

I grew. Two whole inches. I'm 25. 

I'm part of the crazy small percentage of people that can actually say they grew well into their 20's. Like when one boob is smaller than the other and it totally catches up in college, or you've always had that weird instep but now your feet are no longer 8 and 8.5 in shoe size.

It's pretty weird... but also, PRETTY COOL.

(I still need the tall people I work with to get cases down for me, though. So it's a pretty weak victory in the grand scheme of things. womp womp.)

life according to my iPhone

herro! it's almost Christmastime around these parts (actually around ALL parts it's almost Christmastime haha) which means things just get busier. Thank goodness my iPhone 4 has a sweet awesome camera so I can capture moments otherwise I'd just be... babbling. Like normal.

top: the sun through the trees at my sisters apartment was so pretty it stopped me in my tracks, and my fancy new Starbucks water bottle to make me want to drink water super fancy this new year. In reality I have to trick my lazy brain. Right now it thinks this is a treat. Don't. tell it. anything!

middle: I made a couple shortbreads ready tonight. I combined a few recipes, including Tracy Shutterbean's Earl Grey Tea cookies, my mother's traditional shortbread and the 5 million other shortbread recipes we have laying around. ALSO I totally tweeted Tracy because I didn't have an ingredient and she responded with an addendum! Blog-lebrities on Twitter are a GODSEND. You can't tweet Martha Stewart and be like "What up girl!? I'm out of all-purpose flour for these cookies can I use Swan's Down Cake Flour?" she's off being indicted or decorating the entire White House with only twine and paper clips on hand. But I CAN tweet Joy the Baker (squee!) and Tracy knowing they'll help me out. It's like we're friends, which is really my only dream.
I chose those charms at Renegade Holiday for a 'defining' necklace. I like having jewelry that kind of accents my personality, you know? The ball of yarn is obvi, my love of crafty things (next is a muffin pan!) and the key is to remind me God is the only one that holds my heart. After a slew of heartbreaks this year I really need to hold onto that fact.

bottom: my bokeh-ed Christmas tree. I literally go in my living room, take off my glasses and stare at my tree. It twinkles and sparkles in my astigmatismed eyes : ). On the right is my freezer. We stockpile butter like it's going out of STYLE during the holidays. We have no less than 20 pounds of butter in my freezer at any given time from the month of October clear thru February. I'm seriously thinking about buying stock in Land O' Lakes. We're serious cooks/bakers up in this house y'all. WHAT UUUP.

If I don't post beforehand, Merry Christmas to you! Take this time to relax for at LEAST three seconds and remember why we celebrate.

D.I.Y not?

hey! i like long hiatuses between posting! with no information about what's going on in my life! no big! let it go! Okay but for real I've been in a deep creative rut. I have no one to talk about creative stuff with! Most of my friends have equally creative husbands to bounce ideas off of and while amazingly awesome for them, I've just kind of sunk into complacency. It isn't good and I'm not sure what to do about it. I really miss having creative conversations about... anything! anyways...

I was wrapping presents today, which is one of my very favorite things to do around Christmas, besides watching overdose amounts of White Christmas. I love making things pretty and nice and I always cut out brown paper bags to make the "to:/from:" tags because SERIOUSLY why would you buy them?! It always gives a nice handmade touch. Trader Joe's bags actually has cut out to/from tags, which got my brain a-chuggin - why can't I make my OWN to:/from: tags? Duh! Designer. Illustrator. Mouse. BRAIN! COME ON! I'll be printing these out on brown paper bags I'll cut down to letter size. I'm sore excited!!

I also love wrapping my presents with yarn and other bits I find around my house. Seriously. Who needs wrapping paper anymore?! If you make your own totally post them so I can see!

Also if any of you are free after the holidays just to chat over coffee? Please let me know! I gotta get out of this rut. It is sincerely cramping my STYLE.

{about life}: you've been poked!

via Swissmiss (love her!)

Somehow I made a mental decision to take a hiatus from blogging but didn't tell myself and coasted RIGHT into December! Right past black people Thanksgiving (because, yeah, it's different!). Right past, yet somehow making it through the horror that is Black. Friday. (African American Friday?! no...) Well hi! I had a whole bunch of post ideas that have gone RIGHT out the winder (as my grandma pronounces 'window') and I've decided to post when I feel I need to. Hopefully that's sooner rather than later. I'll also post more photos so that in the in between times I don't take a break for something like two whole silent WEEKS.

well i'm gonna leave you with a quote from my late boss. he's the best. : )

dressing a salad

It's weird to post about salad dressing and be serious about it but in all honesty this post is for Kate. She visited me a few weeks ago and we baked tasty good things like quiche and pumpkin bread buuuut somehow we also had fried chicken and salad. I don't even... anyway. The salad dressing is pretty quintessential "Gail" if you know my mom at all. It's a basic lemon vinaigrette that happens to taste good on EVERYTHING you put it on. I haven't tried it on cereal... but I would. It's THAT good.

Well, Kate texted me for instructions/ingredients and I told her what I thought it was. When I reported back to my MOM what I texted KATE she... told me it was correct and incorrect all at the same time. Then she let it go. Then she brought it up the next day some ingredients I forgot. Then she dropped it. Then she admitted, finally, THE NEXT DAY, that I needed to give Kate CORRECT ingredients for the vinaigrette.... and THEN said it really didn't matter to be honest. She's miiiildly obsessive. And I pretty much love the stuffing out of her. 

So... even though I am acting on command from my mother this is seriously the most simple and amazing salad dressing ever. My favorite salad is romaine hearts, finely chopped, dried cranberries, walnuts and radishes. on a good fall day I'll add a tart, crispy green apple. and add this simple yet effective vinaigrette? this salad SINGS. 

this... coming from a girl who thinks french fries are hardcore vegetables. (kidding! mostly...)

Ah! addendum. already haha... My mom likes to see little flecks of green in the dressing, it gives her subtle satisfaction of sorts. She will put either dried parsley (which you cannot taste) or dried cilantro (which gives it a very, VERY subtle boost in flavor) in the dressing. Also that "sqwidge" is more like a teaspoon or less. Dijon can be very overpowering so you have to make it a team player. Actually all the flavors threaten to overpower one another which is why it's so brilliant in it's simplicity. You can definitely leave out the onion powder if that isn't your cup of tea but don't leave out the garlic powder. Just sayin'. You'll want it present. 

This is the ONE dressing that makes me CRAVE salads and saves me money because I will never buy vinaigrette again. It's perfect for in between the constant carb loading holidays and a good reminder that good food doesn't have to have golden arches on it. : )

Happy eating!

The Villafuerte Wedding (finally! tang cups!)

So you know my love of hipster friend weddings right? Please refer to Katherine's amazing wedding for proof. All my friends keep getting married and having babies! For the most part I'm cool with that cuz a) i like to dance and b) i love babies! it just... works out.

Well I have yet another insider scoop on an awesome wedding. Can I share something with you? (read: "...with you, Sarah?") I was wary of this wedding. Sarah had a VISION... like no joke this girl is brilliant because to talk about it I was confused. It seemed like a lot of cool elements that made me really happy and then really sad cuz I didn't understand how they were coming together. Guess what?! Didn't matter cuz I wasn't the one getting married! And they did come together! it was GORGEOUS and totally Sarah.

The wedding was AMAZING! Take... equal parts fabric from all walks of life, plates from everyone you know's house, lyrics from hipster love songs, Hollowine (oh yes.), a secret chapel hidden in the trees, and the most beautiful custom made dress you've ever seen (for real this is a beautiful dress Sarah literally DREAMT up. I can't even...)and WA-BAM. Sarah and Manuel twenty-eleven. Sarah took "do it yourself" to a whole other level. There was handmade bunting, wood burned tree (with the ink pads so you put your finger print on it?! so cool!), her cake stands were tree stumps! Gah. It's hard to explain. I feel like I can't do it justice.

Her ceremony was at Funks Grove and it was the most idyllic place I've ever been. There were leaves falling slowly the whole time, it felt like a dream. And of course while I was there I tried to justify my place in the world and how life in general functions and tuuuurns... but the place makes you do that! It's all golden trees and white picket fences and love! WHY. It wears off after a few days. Don't worry.

Also I was "in" the wedding and had no idea. Like I had a little corsage made for me! Her Aunt Chris walks up to me and hands it to me and I'm like 'oh! um... no?' and she looks at me and goes, "You know your name is Abby right? You're the only Abby here." *crickets* sometimes... I'm kind of slow... hahaha

My camera was my iPhone and I did all the editing/photo framing on Camera + and Photo Frame (both $0.99 in the App Store. WORTH IT) I think it turned out pretty cool! The video is still a work in progress but it's almost dooone yaaay! I'll be putting all the photos you see smashed together up in a Facebook album too... unsmashed. let us move on : )

Sarah looked so beautiful it almost didn't make sense. She looked like Adele meets someone way more awesome that I can't think of haha... and I'm still HARDCORE in love with her dress.

Oh wait! That's not all. I didn't even get to the DANCING. First of all Get Me Bodied by Beyonce is... probably the best dance song ever made. There's instructions! You can't NOT dance. It's like... a commandment to dance. Love it SO HARD. Annie and Brent are probably THE MOST coordinated white people I've ever met. Okay... confession? I'm not a good dancer! I'm all shoulders and hips and booty bumpin'. Sometimes that gets you no where. But I DO bring da noise. Sometimes I bring da funk just to keep it interesting. But they... brought the house down. Highlight? Me and Katherine changing into pajamas before leaving... theeen hopping onto the dance floor for Ms. New Booty. Cuz you can't not dance to that. So much fun.

Quick letter to all my friends, I friggin love you. I love you and your amazing weddings. Please keep having parties in the future. Please don't forget to invite me. I will show up with my iPhone ready to party.

blast from the past!

I'm not a girl who saves things for ever and ever. It's possible I throw away birthday and Christmas cards a week after getting them. I mean, please, can someone tell me what exactly you're supposed to do with those? Look at them with longing and nostalgia? Ack. Well somehow something stood the test of time...

MY CABOODLE. 

yeah. i said it. not only is it a Caboodle is a KIDZ Caboodle. When I was little my sister had this amazing black and turquoise one with so many compartments! when you opened it there was a mirror and then the sides stacked THREE HIGH on EACH SIDE to reveal tiny drawers, little compartments, and areas of imminent surprise. and then the BOTTOM was CAVERNOUS... filled with anything you could DREAM of! Make-up, hair accessories, more hair accessories and old bobby pins! *wipes tear* man. you never know how good you have it til you don't have a Caboodle anymore. Luckily I still have mine. It's pink and orange with a yellow handle. A 90's girl's DREAM. No joke I still use it to hold hair stuff but I think the last time I cleaned it out was circa... 1994. because I got my Caboodle in 1994. yeah.

Since deciding to go natural I picked up a few things at the store and realized most of the stuff in my Caboodle (man, it's ridiculous that I still use that word AT ALL) is pretty outdated. I had no idea.

BEHOLD. figures 1-7.

1. the category of the butterflies. this was right around 7th to 8th grade for me. I got butterfly hair accessories as birthday presents, I had a butterfly that changed from clear to purple in sunlight, they were in my barrettes i mean they were EVERYWHERE. and i friggin LOVED IT. What I would do is put my hair in a bun then stick a winged butterfly at the top of the ponytail/bun and it would flutter... all day. in my hair. people would compliment me. I no joke started hair trends in grammar school. Private school kids are NUTS.
2. Ribbons. i don't even understand why I have these and then I remembered high school band. *shakes head slowly* I mean I know where I'm going with this but man do i NOT wanna go there! I was super into pig tails and two pony tails. When we had games I would wrap the ribbons all up in my hair and feel amazing. People would marvel. People would MARVEL. (in a good way! for shiz!)
3. Headbands part 1 - people still wear headbands today. I still wear headbands all the time because of my CRAZY HAIR but these in particular made me look like I was trying out for a coveted part in EVERY EXERCISE VIDEO EVER MADE. Look at your life. Look at your choices.
4. Tiny trinket trends - here lie three things that were made to make your hair look awesome and cool but I never used. Those little jeweled pony holders there? Okay somehow I must have forgot about being black but those things NEVER held my hair. I couldn't get them around a ponytail not even once. Why. When did I forget that my hair is NUTS. The flowers... omg those flowers. They came in a pack of 400 I swear to bob I maybe used one. They were supposed to hang at different points in your hair and like... i honestly don't know. I don't even remember or understand what the little "u" shaped things are. I made no sense!

5. a torture tool - this handy dandy thing is supposed to help you learn how to french braid. also I really wanted the Topsy Tail. this was the next best thing. I used it on my dolls all the time but never on myself. I just... figured out how to french braid my own hair without pulling out my own hair because of this thing. that counts for something right?!
6. SCRUNCHIES - they DOMINATED the 90's. this is only a sampling of the amazing selection I had. I used to layer them, I perfected the sock bun WITHOUT USING A SOCK (heck yes). Side bun? SCRUNCHIE. Low ponytail? SCRUNCHIE. Naked wrist?? PUT A SCRUNCHIE ON THAT WRIST.
7. Headbands part 2 - this one is made from a bra strap. i bought this with that knowledge. this was a paid for product. i can't say anymore about this cuz it hurts too much. it hurts. too. much.

not pictured:
clips! i used to LINE the pockets of my school uniform of clips of all shapes and sizes. no joke this started a trend. girls everywhere at Calvary Academy were wearing clips on the pockets of the skirts and the pockets of their shirts. I was the REAL DEAL y'all.

For a girl that really never holds onto things from her past, this was a hilarious journey I went on. Turns out, I was pretty awesome back then. w00t!

p.s. - Happy 300th post to me! aaah! haha

color head-to-head

I saw these two rooms on Design*Sponge today and I absolutely swooned over them. As soon as I saw the picture on the left I was like, "THAT'S how I wanna design my home!" then I saw the picture on the right and said "THAT! is how I need to design my HOME!" arg. dilemma.

What would you choose? Like colors to make a cohesive, rich and deep color palette? Or would you choose colors to compliment each other for a quirky, fun, but lived in feel? I love them both because they both have unique statements and personalities. The outside porch looks inviting like you just NEED to cuddle in all those blankets and read a book with a cup of milky tea. The living room looks like lots of Scrabble is played there, impromptu dance parties are had and love is present. Seriously. Love is totes there. So hard to choose!!

Well the good thing is... this is the same house! Whoever this is? Please make room. I'm coming to live with you. Obvi.

What's your preference? Analogous? Complimentary? Do you just enjoy saying the word "tertiary" like I do (often)? or do you take it to a neutral level and work within those limits? There's so much you can do! I can't wait to own my own home... be too daunted to do anything and eventually run to IKEA for help. YAAY! Thank God for Design*Sponge.

haiku for the single girl

Hope I never need

Haiku for the Single Girl

To get me through life 

it's good for a laugh

i might cry afterwards though

Geez... penguin classics.

Thank you, Cup of Jo,

for recommending this book,

but it's not out yet.

what to love.

I have probably already mentioned this a billion times but I need to make sure you're heading over to Gathered Heart. I took a gander over there and realized she is on the verge of exploding. For shiz, the girl has flawless taste, a detailed eye for design and she's hilarious so obviously... best combo ever. Add her to your Google Reader, Reading List, Top Sites and what have you. You won't be disappointed! And you'll get to say you read her before she became ridiculously popular. Cuz that's happening very soon-like.

You'll thank me later. All 15 of you.

Also if you aren't listening to Oh Land right now, you need to do so. She is like Kate Havnevik, Imogen Heap, a hint of Regina Spektor and a tiny sprinkle of Ingrid Michaelson. You'll totes like her.