modcloth sale alert!

Modcloth is having one of their huge massive sales right now! yay! It's perfect timing for me because (I am not even kidding) I was cleaning out my closet last week and found five $20 bills in a coat I haven't worn in a few years. A hundred dollars!!! I don't even usually use cash so I have no clue where it came from. It must have been a gift from the shopping gods, I suppose ;)

eggplant pigtails

A little sneak peek at my bedroom! :)

Right before the new year I re-dyed my hair and it came out so dark! It was one of those really cold icy days and I was still getting over being sick and I was dead-set on dying my hair, so when I saw that I was out of the conditioner I use to dilute the hair dye I thought "oh what the heck" and just applied it as-is. And wow does it come out dark when it's not diluted. It was basically black with an ever-so-slight blue/purple tint. I mean, this photo was taken after it had faded a bit with a few shampoos and it's STILL super dark. Right now it's getting a little closer to what I consider acceptable lightness (ex: if you follow me on instagram you can see what it looks like now, here) but I'm really looking forward to when it fades even more. It's funny, I have naturally dark brown hair and lived with it for 17 years but as soon as I (accidentally or on purpose) end up with a dark hair color now I hate it so much.

If you're curious, I used punky colors in violet. I like it most when it's almost completely faded, and it looks kind of grayish-lilac. When it first goes on, even when I dilute it, it's a little too blue. I bought some punky colors purple and I'm going to try mixing them for my next touch up :) I'm also going for a haircut this week and taking along a photo of Phryne Fisher from Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries -- is anyone else hooked on that show (and her hair?!) I love it! She's like a living flapper doodle!

dress - modcloth | blouse - thrifted | bow - topshop | shoes - c/o bait footwear

try a little kindness #1

I've really been enjoying reading the comments on the January giveaway post! So many fantastic random acts of kindness -- I get the warm fuzzies every time I approve new comments :) If you have a chance definitely read through some of them, both for ideas and for renewed faith in humanity.

Part of my new kindness resolution includes this new weekly series, kind of like Friday Favorites except everything is related to being kind :) Each post will include a free printable, a happy news story and ideas for random acts of kindness to perform during the upcoming week. Ready? Here we go!





First up, my first free kindness printable! The quote is from the series Derek (if you haven't watched it yet, it's on Netflix and I highly recommend it!) and I just thought it was the absolute perfect one to start with! Kindness really IS magic. You can download a free high-res PDF of my illustration here (just right-click and save!) and it's also in my society6 shop here.



You may have already heard about this but just in case you didn't, it's a pretty awesome news story! One web developer decided to give a homeless man a laptop, 3 textbooks and 1 hour of coding instruction each day for two months. The result? His student is now the proud author of an app that debuted last month. It's a carpooling app and it hit #1 in the travel category after only being in the iTunes app store for five days! Isn't that awesome?! You can read more about them on their Facebook page here.

And some random act of kindness ideas that are super easy and free --

1 - give a compliment to a stranger
2 - leave a positive comment on a blog that you usually only stalk
3 - call your mom and thank her for something
4 - let another car into traffic ahead of you
5 - collect your old towels & donate them to your local animal shelter

If you have any ideas for random acts of kindness (inexpensive or free acts are preferred) let me know in the comments and I'll include them in my next post! :)

good things

2013 was the second year in a row that I kept a "good things" jar. (You can see my 2012 post here.) The idea is really simple -- just keep a jar somewhere in your house and whenever something nice happens, write it down with the date and slip it inside. On New Year's Eve, open your jar and you're reminded of all the pleasant things that happened to you that year!

Some of my big highlights from 2013 included adopting Arrietty (actually that was THE highlight of the year. She's amazing!) meeting Steve Carell, going to Disney World twice, meeting Sarah and Polly, getting my apartment and seeing Niagara Falls. I also wrote down a lot of little happy moments like baking cookies with my family last month, decorating my grandmom's christmas tree, when my dad & I surprised my mom with a gag gift of a year's supply of paper towels for her birthday, the first time that both of my cats snuggled up with me and we all fell asleep together, the first time I successfully made a soufflé (and it was delicious!) The little things are the ones I enjoy reading the most because they're usually the ones that slipped my mind. It's pretty hard to forget that you met your favorite actor or that you adopted the sweetest little cat on the planet, you know?

I already started my 2014 jar! If you haven't tried this before I definitely recommend it. I don't know if it really comes across here, but I struggle with being a naturally glass-half-empty sort of person and things like this definitely help me to look on the positive side. At the end of 2012 and 2013 I had jars overflowing with beautiful moments and happy memories. It's really the best way to start a new year with a good attitude and sunny outlook on life :)

ps. I reopened all of my shops yesterday if there's anyone out there who wanted to know that information.