wishlist wednesday

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7

Style Idol - Vanessa Redgrave

suburban serendipity

A few days ago I had to go to Old Navy to buy a pair of flip-flops for my Disney trip (last time I was at a hotel with a swimming pool I totally forgot about footwear and had to make the impossible choice between wearing very nice shoes to go to the pool, or walking out of my hotel room completely barefoot) and when I got out of the car there was music in the air. It's one of those standard American shopping centers with an Old Navy, a Kohl's, and a Red Robin. The kind where you have to get back in your car and drive from store to store because they're spaced so far apart (I'll save my "indoor shopping malls were so much better than this!!" rant for another day.)

I walked around a little to try to see where the music was coming from, and saw a man playing an accordion outside of a Modell's sporting goods store. One of the things that I love about cities is how many times you're treated to someone playing their music outdoors, but I hardly ever get to experience that kind of beautiful serendipity in suburbia. It was so lovely.

dress - modcloth | sweater - amazon

shoes - bait footwear

DIY easter bunny apron

This year will be my first year hosting Easter dinner for my family, and you know me.. I am going overboard. I'm so obsessed with the idea of forming new traditions with this dinner, so every decision has been something that I want to last for years to come. I got Beatrix Potter plates and carrot patterned cloth napkins, some incredibly cute wicker bunny decorations for the centerpiece, and little carrot shaped drawstring bags that I'll fill with goodies for each guest. Every year we go over my grandmom's for Christmas breakfast and I've always loved seeing the same decorations come out each year, the same sugar bowl, the same pastries from a local bakery. I want my family to feel that way about my Easter dinner. Ten or twenty years from now they'll be like "Yay! The Beatrix Potter plates!" or "I was looking forward to your vegetable pot pie all year!" I will definitely take photos and share details about my dinner afterwards, but today I wanted to show you a really easy quick DIY I whipped up!

I wanted a cute apron to wear on Easter while I'm cooking, since I'll want to be dressed in my Finest Pastels but I do not want to get food all over them. This apron is so incredibly easy to make -- and the only tools you need to make it are hot glue and scissors!



Materials needed:

Plain cotton apron (I got mine at Michaels)
Grey yarn
Wooden buttons
Pink and cream colored felt



Cut out two bunny ears from the cream fabric, and then two smaller bunny-ear shapes from the pink. Hot glue the pink shapes onto the cream shapes to form your ears!

Then simply hot glue the bunny ear pieces onto the straps of your apron (I attached the bottom of the ear to each corner of the apron, and then ran hot glue along the length of strap that the ear would be covering.) Hot glue the buttons on for eyes, and hot glue strips of yarn on to make a nose and whiskers. You could definitely sew this on, too, if you have the right needle for it! I just wanted to whip this up quickly and hot glue was easiest!

And voila - you have a cute little bunny apron for Easter!

six seasons

Every once in a while I randomly pick a month in my blog archive and re-read some of my old posts. I've said this so many times, but my blog is kind of like a diary to me and there are so many memories that I've shared here that I haven't written down anywhere else. Tonight I clicked on May 2013 and realized that was when I went to The Office convention in Scranton (six years ago?? REALLY?) Reading this post was the most wonderful stroll down memory lane. I had forgotten some of the details, like Rainn Wilson giving Dwight's speech on stage or how surprised Greg Daniels was when I asked for a photo with him. I'm constantly in the middle of rewatching The Office, but reading my post and reliving that amazing weekend just makes me want to go back to episode 1 and start all over again for the thousandth time!

sweater - amazon | skirt - modcloth

shoes - bait footwear | shirt - sammi's closet sale

video: packing for Disney World!

If you're curious what I decided to pack for my trip to Disney World, here you go! I actually decided what to pack as I was filming this, and ended up adding a few things after I was done.. oops! Assuming I make good on my promise to film a video in Disney you'll likely be seeing what sartorial choices I made and whether or not I decided to dress Cute or Lazy, lol!

This is probably the most fun I've had making a video so far, so I really hope you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed filming it! And if you do, please consider hopping over to my channel to give it a thumbs up and hopefully subscribe :)



ps. I linked to all of the t-shirts and dresses in the description box on my youtube video :)

wishlist wednesday

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7

Style Idol - Goldie Hawn

I scream, you scream

This weekend me and my dad went out for our first ice cream of the season (or sorbet, in my case) and it was just so nice! I love that every year there's always that one day, usually a week or two after the official start of spring, when it actually *feels* like spring for the first time. Like magic the weather changes overnight. You needed a winter coat to go out the day before, but today a light sweater or jacket would almost be too much. All of the trees were barren when you fell asleep, but suddenly there are pink buds everywhere you turn. People are coming out of their houses and walking around the town like bears coming out of hibernation. The fountain on the Princeton campus was turned on, and the line for ice cream was at least 25 people long.

I know that as soon as I see my first thousand-legger crawling above my bed frame or as soon as a giant wasp chases me away from my mailbox I'll start to bemoan the arrival of spring, but for now I want to hold onto this feeling and enjoy the change in the seasons. There is just something so beautiful and refreshing about the start of spring that I don't think I ever really appreciated until I got really sick last winter. Now I'm not taking it for granted, and I'm fully enjoying this annual renewal of life and beauty and sunshine.

dress - vintage | collar - amazon

shoes - karmaloop | belt - old

my top five: movies I'd want to see at TCMFF if I was going

This time each year for the last five years I'm usually packing my bags to head for Hollywood, where the annual TCM Film Festival (TCMFF) is taking place. I decided to forgo the trip this year and go to Disney World with my family instead, mostly so that I'd be having so much fun next week that I wouldn't even notice all of my friends hanging out in tinseltown watching movies without me! But I can't say it's worked 100% -- I am definitely having some withdrawal and there are a few movies being screened this year that I really wish I could see at the festival. So here are my top five movies I would want to see at TCMFF this year... if I was going.

1. Day for Night - I'm being greedy because I actually already saw this at the Film Society at Lincoln Center two years ago, but it's one of my favorite films by my all time favorite director, Francois Truffaut. And the star, Jaqueline Bisset, will be present for a discussion before the movie! This movie is a pure delight, and a beautiful ode to the art of moviemaking -- if you love movies as much as I do, you should check this out even if you won't be at TCMFF!

2. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - I think this is going to be absolutely DAZZLING on a big screen! I can't even imagine! The colors in this movie already pop off the screen when you're watching an old worn out VHS tape on a tiny tv screen at home. And Marilyn Monroe's "Diamonds are a girl's best friend" number is going to be just gorgeous. Plus I'd imagine that this is going to get a really fun audience and few things are as exhilarating as watching a movie you love surrounded by people who are enjoying it just as much as you are!

3. Indiscreet - This 1958 pairing of Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant is one of my go-to movies whenever I need a pick me up. I forgot myself for a minute when it was first announced on the schedule and got VERY excited about seeing it, and then came back down to earth and remembered I won't be there. But I hope it gets a jam-packed audience because it really deserves it. It's so underrated and not as well known as it should be.

4. Love Affair -  Oh, how I love this movie!! Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne have a sizzling but comfortable chemistry and play so well off of each other. An Affair to Remember is a remake of this film, and as much as I adore it (A LOT) I think I actually prefer Love Affair. That's how great this movie is.

5. Ocean's 11 - I am such a sucker for a good heist film, and this one is a BLAST!! I've been obsessed with this movie since I was 13 years old, and my first cell phone voicemail message was Frank Sinatra's character saying "Hello, you've dialed the right number. Now please hang up and don't do it again." Words can't describe how jealous I am of every person who's going to be watching this poolside at the Roosevelt Hotel, with Angie Dickinson in attendance no less!!

I'm sure once I board my plane for Orlando all of my FOMO will stay behind in New Jersey, but the days leading up to the festival are definitely a challenge if you aren't going to be there! I'm really going to miss some of my friends, and BOY am I going to miss food from Mel's Diner (someone please get the eggs verde so I can live vicariously!)

video: episode 1 of Re-clutter!

I've had this idea skipping around in my head for a while, but the recent trend towards minimalism and decluttering really made me want to sit down and finally get this started. I would consider myself a maximalist, since I love pattern and color and being surrounded by things that I love. I feel so much more comfortable in homes where people have poured their personalities onto the walls than in ones that still resemble a model showroom. But I think a lot of people mistakenly believe that organization is only achievable through minimalism, and that's just not so!

In my new series, which I'm calling "Re-clutter" (like, the opposite of declutter) I'll be sharing tips and tricks for organizing and tidying your space without throwing everything out or sacrificing personality. I'm planning on sharing one new Re-clutter episode each month, and I'll still be doing my other videos weekly. I'm so excited about this project and I hope you enjoy it!!

And as always if you do like the video please head over to my channel to give it a thumbs up and (hopefully!) subscribe :)

be kind, rewind

My old VCR bit the dust (a thrift store copy of E.T. is what finally did it in) and OH MY GOSH are VCRs expensive now. Do you remember when you could buy one at K-Mart for like $20?! (Am I really dating myself here??) I wish I had stocked up when they were that cheap, because their scarcity has made them insanely pricey now. I've been checking Amazon and Ebay every so often trying to find an affordable replacement, and last week I finally found somebody selling a 13" TV/VCR combo for a steal. Every other listing on ebay was *at least* 5x the price of the one I managed to snag so I feel incredibly lucky! It arrived in the mail yesterday and I christened it with a tape of Barbara Stanwyck movies that I recorded off TCM when I was a teenager. It's such a relief that I can still watch all of my tapes now, including all of our old home movies! My dad found one from our 1995 trip to Disney World and Nickelodeon Studios that I can't wait to watch!

dress - dangerfield | cardigan - amazon

shoes - bait footwear | necklace - vintage

wishlist wednesday

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8

Style Idol - Betty Grable

bagel bites

Yesterday me and my brother had the first of what will hopefully be an annual "90s Day." I bought all of our favorite childhood snacks -- bagel bites, cosmic brownies, lunchables, yoohoo -- and we spent all day watching the movies and tv shows we loved to watch when we were little. We revisited three cartoons (ironically two are from the '80s but they got the most VCR action in our house in the mid '90s) The Brave Little Toaster, The Land Before Time, and Mulan. And then we also watched our two favorite disaster movies, Twister and Dante's Peak. And a couple episodes of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (which, shockingly, has apparently never been released on DVD!)

Kyle claimed the couch and I got cozy on a giant pile of blankets and pillows stacked on the floor. We stayed off our cell phones all day, and our parents surprised us with chocolate Pop Tarts and Capri Sun! To quote Pooh, it was my favorite day. I think the only thing that made it better than the actual '90s is that we have cats now and Arrietty stayed cozy by my side the whole time.

There are so many books and movies about how sad it is when people lose touch with their inner child and I think that message really got to me when I was a kid. I've always been so scared of being "too grown up" and I actively try to keep my wonder, excitement, imagination, creativity, and enthusiasm. I know I probably skew too far in that direction and I make for a pretty pathetic "adult", but I wouldn't have it any other way.

dress - thredup | shirt - vintage

belt - amazon | shoes - bait footwear

my top five: web resources

Does "web resources" make me sound like someone who hasn't learned any new internet terms since 1996? Probably. But I'm not sure what else to call it! I've wanted to do a post like this for years (I actually have more than 5 items for the list so I'm going to have to do a part 2 soon!) rounding up some of my favorite go-to websites. Maybe everyone has already heard of them, but if not hopefully something on this list will help lighten your load or make life a little easier for you :)

1. Convert Case - You can paste text into this site and convert it into lowercase, uppercase, sentence case, etc. It's perfect if you accidentally left caps lock on while you were typing, or if you're doing graphic design work and want to test out text in all caps and lower case without having to re-type whatever you were working on. I use it constantly. Especially for custom buttons where I copy customer text from Shopify, and convert it into all caps before pasting it in Photoshop. That way I know for certain the text will be *exactly* the same as the customer entered it and there's no room for me to mistype it :)

2. RhymeZone - I do use this to find rhymes, but they also have homophones, similar sounding words, synonyms, phrases that contain the word you searched for, etc. There are just so many awesome uses for this. It's perfect if you like to write poems or if you've just written the word one time too many and need to say picture show, film, motion picture, or flick instead.

3. If This Then That - This is a website that generates recipes for internet behavior. For example, IF I post on my blog, THEN I trigger an automatic post to Pinterest. Or IF I log a movie on my letterboxd account, THEN I trigger an automatic tweet about that movie. It's a great way to be able to automate some of your social media if you want to share across platforms without having to manually post everywhere. I have recipes set up to share my blog posts to Pinterest and Facebook, as well as a cool one that downloads every photo I post to my Instagram onto my Dropbox account for backup!

4. Shoptagr - This website lets you bookmark items on websites and get notified when they drop in price, or come back in stock. It also can alert you when an item you like is running low in stock so you can snatch it up before it sells out. I tend to use this for items where my size is sold out. That way I don't need to stalk the page, refreshing and waiting to see if it's ever restocked. If it comes back, I'll get an alert. I also use it for pricey items that I 100% can never afford at full price.

5. Difference Checker - This website detects the difference between two pieces of text. This is great if you sometimes go back and forth with edits. I most often use it to detect changes in contract text on the rare occasions that I have to draw up a contract with someone. A lot of times someone will slip something in that I would never have noticed if I didn't have this website to compare for me. I like to think I'm eagle-eyed but I'm not *that* eagle-eyed.

I will definitely do a part 2 of this post because I am too neurotic about breaking my "top 5" format but I have a few more that I really need to share, lol :)

video: the x-files tag!

I feel like three weeks in a row means... I'm a vlogger now??

Yes, that's right, three videos in three weeks! And I feel like each one has been a bit of an improvement in my ability to talk to the camera. I even came up with a fun idea for a series (!!) that I'm hoping I'll have finished for next week's video post!

I had SO MUCH FUN with this video because it's about my favorite tv show, The X-Files. I found two tags that people on youtube had created and combined them into one list (I typed out the questions below in case you want to make your own video, too!) Don't forget if you like my video to hop over to my channel so you can like and subscribe! :)

1. When did you start liking The X-Files?
2. Are you a Mulder or a Scully?
3. Do you ship Mulder and Scully? Why or why not?
4. What are your favorite types of episodes - the myth arcs or the stand alones?
5. What is your favorite episode?
6. What is your least favorite episode?
7. Who is your favorite guest star?
8. Original series or reboot?
9. Favorite season?
10. What fan theories do you think should be canon?
11. Scariest monster?
12. What did you think of the movies?

taking chances

I wish I was more comfortable taking chances. I take them constantly, but I wish I felt confident or at least a little less stomach-churning-anxious about them. I don't even mean big chances. I mean all the little ones you take every day. Emailing someone and being unsure of their reply. Trying a new food. Taking scissors to your bangs for an impromptu trim. It all stirs up my anxieties and makes me uneasy.

All this to say.. I took a chance this month that I was so nervous about I almost threw up the day I did it. I feel like most people are going to stop reading when I say this but... I started a Patreon. Please stay for a second! I think the word "patreon" scares everyone off. But you don't have to support it, I just want to talk about what that experience has been like for me.

I honestly, truly, 100% did not expect to have one single patron. I'm not entirely sure why, but I have a very low opinion of my online self worth, and I don't really think anyone genuinely likes me or my work. I do get some sales in my shop here and there, and I do still get some blog traffic, but my brain always tricks me into thinking that I'm kind of washed up as a blogger and artist, and no one cares. Or that because my shop has been declining and my blog traffic has decreased, that has somehow erased *all* sales and *all* traffic, which isn't true. Anyway. I went into the Patreon assured that nobody would support it. But then some people did! By some magic miracle I have 26 patrons. I am flabbergasted.

If you are one of those 26 people who has thrown support my way this month, you literally have no idea, NO IDEA, what you have done for me. Although the patreon was really meant to help prop up my waning income, it's done more for my mental well being than I could put into words. I feel so supported and even though I'm not a hugger I just want to wrap all of you up in a big snuggly bear hug!! To know that there are people out there who like my work and want to support it and help me to keep doing what I'm doing... I just don't have the words. Thank you.

To anyone who is thinking about taking a chance like this - just do it. Even if it makes you want to throw up from anxiety. If I didn't take a chance and put myself out there, I'd never have known the warmth of support that I feel now. I think that I've taken less and less chances ever since my career started sliding because I get more and more afraid of what I assume will be certain failure. But maybe that's when we NEED to take more chances.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading. Like I said, you absolutely do not need to support my patreon. If you are reading this blog, I appreciate that so much! Views and IG likes and Twitter retweets, everything is a form of support. But, if you *do* want to support my patreon, you can click here. I've been sharing time lapses of my drawings, my one-second-a-day videos, sneak peeks at new products, a video of my trip to DC with my family, free printable art prints, and more. Plus all $5+ pledges will get a hand-written thank you note and a free sticker! I send out all pledge rewards on the first of each month so if you sign up after April 1st, the next mailing date will be May. Just saying ;)

shirt - forever 21 | skirt - asos | sweater - old navy

shoes - amazon | tie - flapper girl

wishlist wednesday

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7

Style Idol - Mitzi Gaynor