aunt annie

Yesterday Aunt Annie passed away at the age of 102. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you're probably familiar with my spunky, adorable Aunt. If not you can see an interview I did with her here, or read some stories about her on my Aunt Annie tag here.

Aunt Annie was, without a doubt, the coolest person I've ever met. She had SO many amazing stories from her 102 jam-packed years of life -- like the one time she found a gun in a pair of pants while working at a laundry, or the time she rode on the back of a motorcyle in Havana, Cuba, with a man she had just met! I loved hearing her tell stories about her life, and I'm so glad me and my brother started taping our conversations over the last several years. My mom said yesterday that Aunt Annie had the fullest life of anyone she's ever known.

Into her hundreds (!!) she was still ridiculously feisty. At one Thanksgiving she was joking that she wished she had a flask strapped to her thigh and for a while she had a note taped to her door at the nursing home that said "Stay the hell out of my room. And I mean it! -Ann" I love that she signed the note.

She's one of the only people I've ever met who genuinely asked how your life was every time she saw you -- not just "how are you?" but detailed questions about work, school, family. She was legitimately interested in how everyone was doing. And she loved giving gifts (and re-gifting anything anyone ever gave her that was black. She hated the color black!) and usually showed up with a giant plaid plastic bag filled with various grocery items and knick knacks whenever she came to visit.

When she was little she used to drink vinegar, and her whole life she ate practically nothing but junk food. She got married later in life to a man 10 years her junior and then divorced him because he didn't let her go dancing often enough. Up until the last time I saw her, she continued to say that looking back on her life, she wouldn't change a thing.

She was hilarious, kind, spunky, mischievous, ornery, and beautiful inside and out. I'm so lucky to have had her in my life, and I'm going to miss her so much.

massive shop my closet update!

I just updated my shop my closet store with a ton of new dresses, coats and accessories (there are over 70 items in the shop!) A lot of my favorite things are up for grabs this time so I hope they find good homes :) If you're interested you can check out what's for sale right HERE.

ps. It's part of the Sweet and Lovely shop so if you want to throw in something from the store for good measure, they ship together... plus you can take 10% off Sweet & Lovely items with code BRILLIANT.

her nose stuck in a book

I made it a goal this year to read two books a month, and in February I read four! yay! I'm going to blog about them soon (I loved all of them! One was actually an audio book, though, and my second time listening.. so I don't know if that counts?) but I'm just so happy to be reading so much. I love books but I feel like I don't read them as much as I'd like to .. until now ;)

I gave up on the first book I started for March, I found it so poorly written that I couldn't continue, even if I was slightly interested in the plot. I used to force myself to plow through and finish every book I started but that just doesn't make any sense. If you took a bite of a rotten apple, would you force yourself to eat the whole thing, hoping it might become less rotten as you chew? I switched to a different book last night and I'm enjoying this one much more!

Also, unrelated, this is my first outfit photo with my new iphone camera remote (yup, I use my iphone for outfit photos!) I used to use a self-timer app but this is so much better! I love it! :)

dress - vintage | shoes - bait footwear | hat - forever 21 | wig - ebay

It's the most wonderful time of the year

As you might know, Pi Day is one of my favorite holidays (March 14 = 3.14 = pi!) and this year is the best Pi Day EVER because Mental Floss actually commissioned me (me?!) to do two paintings to be sold exclusively in their store. Ahh! The first one is called "Life of Pi," which shows little Mr. Pi in various stages of life -- infancy, teenager, graduation, love & marriage, kids, and old age. But as we all know, Pi never dies.. it just goes on forever ;) This design is available in the Mental Floss store on t-shirts and as an 18" x 24" poster!



Mental Floss also commissioned this painting, Pizza Pi!! This one is my favorite :) Also look what they wrote for the description.. I'm blushing!

"When the moon hits the sky like a big pizza pi and you happen to know an incredibly talented artist who specializes in punny prints - well, that's amore! Kate Gabrielle, whom we met when we began selling her wonderful Puns Intended prints agreed to paint this pizza pi in the sky design exclusively for Floss."

This painting is available on tote bags in the Mental Floss shop here. Working with Mental Floss has been one of the best things to happen in my whole life. I've been reading the magazine for years and I'm SUCH a huge fan. It's all just super exciting.



And finally, my Cutie Pi brooches are back just in time for Pi Day! I only have a limited amount ready to ship in time for Pi Day so if you're interested, snatch it up quickly ;) I'll have more in stock after the holiday if you're just interested in wearing it for normal everyday math/pun appreciation.

It's available in my sweet & lovely shop here. (psst! 10% off with code BRILLIANT)