Shoestring Blissful

Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of designing the logo for Shoestring Blissful, my friend Leeland’s new business venture.  Through Shoestring Blissful, Leeland offers affordable, stylish wedding inspiration for New York weddings.

I love to spend smart, save always, and splurge when necessary. Shoestring Blissful is blog and website devoted to beautiful, budget-happy weddings in New York City.

-Leeland Allen, Shoestring Blissful

This lady knows what she’s talking about.  Her wedding a year ago was the best wedding I’ve ever been to (mine included).  I pitched in a bit with her programs and menus, and it was a gorgeous, casually elegant, thumping great time.  Listen to Leeland.  Even if you’re not getting married in NYC, she will inspire you to create a wedding that is absolutely Shoestring Blissful.

Visit the website: http://shoestringblissful.tumblr.com

Swoon over photos on Instagram. @shoestringblissful

Follow on Twitter. @shoestringbliss

Get inspired on Pinterest. @shoestringbliss

Confidence

I was listening to the lovely podcast She Does last week when it featured an interview with documentary filmmaker, Kalyanee Mam.  Near the end of the podcast, in a moment so brief you might have overlooked it, Mam said something so incredibly true and profound that I had to write it down.

When you really love what you’re doing—when you really care about what you’re doing—you don’t even have to exert confidence, it’s just who you are.  It’s just being. But when you’re not sure of who you are and where you belong and what your path is, sometimes you impose confidence on yourself which becomes very artificial and I see it in people and it’s not confidence, but arrogance.

I think when you’re really truly at ease with yourself, there’s a lot of comfort and humility and compassion for others who may not be as comfortable as you are.

Kalyanee Mam

This is so powerful and so, so good.  How many times have I imposed confidence on myself in times that I felt out of place?  MANY.  And how many times must have I looked like an arrogant ass?  I’d rather not think about that.

Blogging…Is This Still A Thing We Do?

I can easily pinpoint the end of my cookbook collecting days. It was the day I joined Pinterest. Actually, it was a few months after I joined Pinterest, once I figured out what I wanted to use it for and realized that it was the world’s most enormous, easily-accessible recipe collection.

The end of blogging, that’s a little harder to narrow down, but it surely started its downward slide when Google killed Google Reader and reading blogs became less convenient. Then Instagram blew up and—at least in my case—I began to fulfill my need to share information about my life with anonymous strangers and a handful of friends by Instagramming altogether too many photos of my dog with witty little captions.

Online Spectacles

Not to brag, (OK, maybe just a little) but I tend to get a lot of compliments on my glasses.  This leads into the inevitable “where’d you get those” question and my overly-thorough 20-minute presentation on the how, where, and why of buying eyeglasses online.

The last time I was giving this eyewear dissertation, I said, “I really should write a blog post about this”, thinking that it would be helpful so I can stop overwhelming the listener with facts and tips, and it would give me a place to leave the links to the websites I recommend.  So here we are.  Let me start by giving you some tips and bits of information you’ll need before ordering, then I’ll give you some of my favorite online spec sites.

Sail Away

I may have mentioned this before, but I have a particular preference for a very specific genre of literature: the couple-sells-everything-buys-a-boat-quits-their-jobs-and-sails-the-world genre.  If they’ve been written, I have either read them or put them on my to-read list.

The stories are all essentially the same. One or both of the couple is unsure, things get bad and then they get worse, unbearable boredom and/or seasickness, there’s a whale/dolphin sighting, friendly hospitable islanders take the couple in, they realize how much they love sailing, they reluctantly head home, lives are changed forever. And yet, I finish one and can’t wait to start the next.

Hey There!

There are certain times of the year when I feel more talky, and other times when I want to crawl in a hole and talk to no one.  Fall seems to be a talky time, and since I feel bad monopolizing the front page of the joint blog I’m a part of, I thought I might come back here, now and again, for some longer form, rambling thought posts.  Sound good?

While I get busy writing some new posts for you, please take a moment to read some of my posts on IMHO.

One Year

INVOGORATING

Purge

Amanda and the McNuggets

Puppy Blues

Please Try Not to Remember Me

IMHO

Hey, guess what?  I’m blogging!  I am, just not here.

I’ve teamed up with two friends to start IMHO, a joint blog with a pop culture slant.  Go check it out.  I might be back here now and again, too, but for now you’ll find me over there at least twice a week.  We hope you like it!