“I wish I could make bouquets with the gold of my heart because words alone are unable to express the fullness of my gratitude.”

// Tess Guinery - The Moonflower Monologues

Hi there! Unsurprisingly, it’s been a veeeeeery long time since I posted anything here - sorry, friends. Our holidays were good, but also filled with lots of anxiety and draining things. We’re learning how to better take care of ourselves and each other, and that usually involves drawing in and being quiet.

Rest assured, all is well, and the year ahead (Happy 2020, by the way!!) is looking clear and lovely from this point of view!

I don’t know what’s ahead for this space (or my Instagram for that matter), but if any of you are out there wondering about it, I promise it’s on my mind too. I have lots of things I want to do here, but I also have a whole, real real life to live out there. Thanks for being patient, and I hope you’re loving living your real life too!

Anyways, let’s get started, shall we? Here’s a phone dump with some highlights of the past 2 months for ya :)

1-4) We went to San Francisco for the annual Etsy Holiday Emporium with our friends, Kim and Jeff, and it was rainy but so fun! As usual, we found more things that we wanted for ourselves than for those on our Christmas list, but it was a successful trip nonetheless. Also, HOW CUTE IS THAT FELT WREATH?!? It’s made by Feed the Fish Co., and I looooooove it.

5-7) Our Winter that looks more like Fall part one.

8-9) Part two

10-11) The only “Christmasy” photos I took this year. With only 3 weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the holidays snuck up on us and hit us hard. We had lots of fun, but we hardly stopped to think about it all!

12-14) We drove back to Oklahoma for Christmas this year! Of course, one of my first stops was my old favorite, Cuppies & Joe. I worked the whole time we were in OKC, so it was a good excuse to hit up the best coffee shops :)

15) Merry (late) Christmas! love, us

16-20) We didn’t get to spend a ton of time hanging out in Oklahoma, but we did get the chance to see the 5 (minus Sean, Sheila, and baby Cyrus - we missed y’all!) for pizza and drinks, and we rode the OKC streetcar! That was my first time taking public transit in Oklahoma…woowwww.

My sweet friend from high school, Cassidy, got engaged over Christmas, and I briefly got to see her (and the ring) for a quick congratulations! Aaaannnnd we had a little New Years Eve party! As you can tell from that photo, we are very cool :)

21-45) On our way back from Oklahoma, we stopped in Santa Fe for a few days to celebrate our anniversary! It was lovely (as always), and we all loved playing in the snow (especially Bozeman).

Santa Fe, I’ll love you forever and ever.

46-47) A moment from the drive home, and a moment from home when Bozeman tried on his Hogwarts bandana (a Christmas gift from one of my lovely coworkers)!

48-49) Shortly after we got back from Oklahoma, we went to LA for Colin’s work (yes, we are tired). While he was at a conference, I went downtown to work from this beautiful coffee shop. After work, I had coffee with my sweet friend, Victoria, who used to work at Everlane with me too <3 It was the loveliest. She also picked the coffee shop, sooooo victoria++

50-53) After coffee, V dropped me off near Union Station so I could eat some (amazing) Mexican food and catch my train. I went from there to our Airbnb in Venice Beach, where I met Colin, Kari, and Anthony! We spent the rest of the weekend there.

54-61) We spent the first day in Venice beach getting lots of food and coffee, shopping (including the sweetest flea market), and exploring the beach. Fun fact: Kari, Anthony, and I all bought Birkenstocks that day 😆

62-63) We saw this cuuuuuuuuuuuute matcha shop while walking around the first day, so we had to stop by on the second morning. I mean, it’s called Cha Cha and their branding is beautiful (obviously).

64-68) The rest of our day consisted of breakfast at The Butcher’s Daughter then exploring the beach again. That trip was so relaxing and inspiring - I already want to go back to SoCal.

69-72) I took BART to Oakland to see my friend, Annie, have a quick work meeting, and go to book club last week. I love East Bay, and this little Blue Bottle location was v cute!

73) Ahh!!!! My lovely work friend, Daylan, and his sweet fiancé were in San Francisco last weekend, and we got to spend an evening going to dinner (and getting Dandelion Chocolate) with them, and I loved every minute of it!

My coworkers are some of my favorite people around, but since we’re all remote (and we live all over the country), we don’t really get to see each other in person. That just makes it even more special when we do get to meet up.

74-76) Some typical at-home moments from this week featuring my new mug that was a Christmas gift from Brian and Morgan (y’all, I love it and you so much)!

This weekend we have plans to buy a ukulele (inspired by my new favorite show ever, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series…go ahead, judge me all you want, I don’t carrrrrrre), start learning how to play said ukulele, and run lots of errands.

I hope your weekend is sunny and sweet (or at least sweet)!

xx

M