Loving Love

I love love. Ergo, I love days that celebrate love. Ergo, I love valentine's day. Ergo, I am dedicating this blog to all love and love-inspired things (and the occasional red side table or random thing that really doesn't outwardly have anything to do with love other than the fact that i love it). Celebrate love today! 

West Elm's Hearts for Haiti - 10% of the Proceeds go to the HAND/EYE fund

Sweetheart Bib Necklace, Anthropologie $398

Lucky Number Knob, Anthropologie, $8

J.Crew Merino Chiffon-Placket Cardigan, $78

AURÉLIE BIDERMANN Pop silver-gilded heart necklace, $885, net-a-porter

Bright Morning Teapot, Anthropologie, $128

Diane von Furstenberg Striped knitted sweater, $245, net-a-porter

Printable Anatomical Heart Card, $2.50, Etsy

Jimmy Choo Rosabel grained-leather tote, $1750, net-a-porter

Tall Order Giraffe, Anthropologie, $30

J.Crew Plaid Eliza Tee, $118

IKEA 'Lampan' Table Lamp, $6

Amazon, $13

Happy 50th Anniversary!

Happy 50th Anniversary to my Grandparents!

"That we arrived at fifty years together is due as much to luck as to love, and a talent for knowing, when we stumble, where to fall, and how to get up again."
- Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, Ossie and Ruby, In This life Together

Thank Goodness for Great Girlfriends!

"Never forget the days I spent with you. 

Continue to be my friend, as you will always find me yours."
---Ludwig Van Beethoven

It's doesn't happen everyday that someone full of passion and love and life enters yours.  I met Heather during her first week of law school.  I was a 2L and she was a baby 1L.  Throughout that first year, we did a bunch of political stuff and travelled to many fundraisers together.  This past semester, we have become bonkers close.  I'm pretty sure that we are a rare breed of women.  We are fiercely independent, have huge hearts, and live with reckless abandon.  We live and love passionately.  Heather, you make me know that's it's okay to be exactly like we are.  I have loved our dinners and never-ending chats!  I hope the conversations never end!

I have a draft blog post that I wrote a few weeks ago entitled, 'Why Heather is the Strongest Woman I know.'  Heather's fiance is currently deployed to Afghanistan.  I have absolutely no idea how she is able to live and do law school everyday.  Her strength is phenomenal and enviable.  I'm pretty sure there is no way I could do what she does- heck, i broke down in front of her just thinking about it.

Heather, I am extremely sad that I'm not going to see your face everyday anymore.  But, I cannot wait to celebrate your marriage with you in the spring, and hopefully I will see you in Europe before then! :)  I love you so much and feel that my life is fuller because you are in it!

Love.

Let love explode and bring the dead to life

A love so bold

To bring a revolution somehow

Maggie.

My sister, Maggie, is pretty much the coolest person I know.  

She may be 5 years younger than me, but we absolutely communicate with similar heart, wisdom, and independence.  She's creative, loving, and just down-right awesome.  I'd love to go through the millions of things that make maggie "totes awes," but unfortunately articles 2 and 2A of the Uniform Commercial Code are calling my name.  
I leave you all with a video my sister and I find absolutely hilarious...

Good Luck finishing up your last week of your sophomore year of college!  I can't wait to see you soon (well, not that soon... but you know...)

Live. Love. Laugh.

I had a conversation today with someone.  And it stuck with me.  Perhaps it was because my throat was a bit sore from yelling.  Perhaps it was because of the words he used.  But, perhaps it was because the subject matter we spoke about got just a little too deep for comfort.

He told me that in the world of this law school, in the midst of our post-grad reality, two of my friends managed to become the epitome of "frat boys" and that somehow I had become their sorority girl follower.  He called our behavior and "immaturity" a feat for law school and scoffed that in my last months of "university-living," I would choose to spend my time even conversing with these two.  He said that he lost respect for me after I told him that I was having fun.

After we finished the "conversation" and after the letters, "G.K.Y." finally stopped flashing in my head, I calmed down and write the following now:

Yes. To most everyone in this world I am superficial.  Not in a bad way, but in the way where not many to see the real me.  Most only see the surface.  I am perfectly okay with that.  I am okay with my surface personality and I am VERY OKAY with who I am.

As I type this post, I am not baring my soul.  I am not telling you what I really feel about this situation.  I'm not taking down the wall.  I don't use this blog as an outlet for emotion, and I never will.  I will use it to show you shoes I like, things I love, things I hate, and to tell you about my hilarious friends.  I take pleasure in making people happy. I like to look pretty.  I like to make people laugh.  I like to hang out with all sorts of people for a few weeks/months/years and make memories to cherish.  I like living.  I never want to have to conform.  I never want to apologize for my choices.  I'm never going to.  I am who I am, and I'm not perfect, but I'm PERFECTLY HAPPY with me.

The point of this blog post is to just say this: If you're doing something that makes you incredibly happy, no matter how small or how big it may be, keep doing it.  Our lives are measured in moments and memories, and how dull our existence would be if we tried to fit them into some pre-supposed outline?  I almost let someone get me down today because he tried to convince me that his way of thinking, and his self-proclaimed "right" way of life, was the only way.  The superior way.  But it's not.  And this isn't to say that my way is the only way to live, either.

But I know this: living and loving and laughing has never led me astray.  

waiting.