Her life was in a hurricane of love and real embrace

[image from Neutral Milk Hotel]

It's hard for me to sum up what's been going on for the last year. I have been very focused on a job that was pretty stressful, but I recently accepted a position at a new company, so I'm hopeful this means that I will get back to "normal" sometime in the near future.

That being said, here's a summary of what's happened in the last 11 months:
 - My super good friend Jessica finished up her PhD program and we are now roommates in an awesome apartment with our pets who attempt to coexist.
 - My parents moved 10 hours away to Huntsville, AL, but I have managed to see them pretty frequently (though unfortunately one visit was due to my dad's heart surgery).
 -  I traveled to LA for a week last May to visit my brother and his family, and to celebrate my nephew's second birthday. We also went to Disneyland twice in one week and it was AWESOME.
 - Harrison and I went on a little road trip to NYC to visit our friend Carly; Ginny, Taylor, James and I got together for a great A-schoolers reunion in Philadelphia, and I spent a lot of time traveling for work.
 - Jessica accompanied me and my extended family on a crazy Carnival cruise to the Bahamas. Thankfully, our friendship survived the trip and sharing a small room for a week.
 - I worked with my good friend Brian to create branding and design a website for a local real estate company Charlottesville Town & Country Homes.
 - My favorite shop, O'Suzannah, expanded their shop and now has a whole new space dedicated to kids and baby.
 - My friend Rachel bought her first house! And has definitely inspired me to start saving for a future home of my own.

Now that we're all caught up, let's see what happens in the coming months!

xo
- Jen

Jenny Owen Youngs

So tonight Jessica and I went to see Jenny Owen Youngs at the Southern, and it was awesome. In addition to being the sweetest person ever as we spent forever buying excessive amounts of merch (see trex sticker below) she also killed it on stage, and was incredibly endearing. If only she had played Hot in Here...

[From the Jenny Owen Youngs Shop]

Adrian Tomine: Scenes from an Impending Marriage

Jessica was up in New York about 2 weeks ago for the New York International Gift Fair, and Adrian Tomine just might have been there signing copies of his new book. And because Jessica is totally amazing and knows my deep and abiding love for Adrian Tomine, she snagged me a signed copy. I LOVE IT! Also what a great idea to give this to their guests as their wedding favor!

Happy V-Day

Hey all, so this year instead of making valentines for all of my friends, I sent out a request that we all create a playlist of our 23 favorite love songs and send out that playlist to each other. Some people are making physical copies of their mixes, but some are creating playlists in Grooveshark or using other ways to share their playlists across the web. I set the deadline for this Friday, and I've already had two friends share their playlists and they are fabulous. I am so excited to see what everyone puts on their lists!

But for now, I will share with you all my playlist of 23 Love Songs, which you can listen to over here on Grooveshark. There are actually a few tracks missing here, since I couldn't find "Oh Yoko!" by John Lennon or "Benefits of Lying with Your Friends" by the Apples in Stereo on Grooveshark, but still I'm pretty pleased with it. Enjoy!

Great Gifts Holiday Shop!

Dear friends, as usual I am terrible at posting in a timely fashion, especially lately as work picks up and so does the holiday frenzy. But oddly enough this post has to do with both work, and holiday shopping.



Sarah Carr, The Bridge, and many other tireless volunteers and organizers have pulled together an awesome month long shop (!) that will be open every day in December at The Bridge PAI, beginning this Friday, December 3rd. It will feature the work of about 40 different vendors, myself included, and I encourage everyone to go check it out. I can't wait to see all the awesome goodies up for sale!

Between prepping for this gift show, visiting the family in North Carolina, and my regular job, I have been a little distracted, but in a good way! Being busy usually means I'm surrounded by friends and social activities, and this week will be no different. A much needed ladies' knitting night tomorrow, followed by an impromptu business trip to NYC early next week (and I'll be going up a day early to visit Miss Romeo, among others). I am not ready for the new york cold, but sitting in my barely heated apartment for the next few days should be training enough. In serious need of a space heater over here, people.

Until next week when I will hopefully have new york photos to post...xoxo.

Kristin+Matt

I'll be away from the computer more than usual this week, because well, this is a very exciting week! My best friend from home, Kristin, and her fiance Matt will be tying the knot this Thursday here in Charlottesville at the Clifton Inn. I am so excited to be there to see them start the next phase of their life, and their wedding is sure to be as classy and wonderful as they are. Congrats you two! I'm so thankful to call you both friends!

Babies and other adventures, pt.1

So I have been fortunate enough to spend some quality time with my brother, his wife, and my niece and nephew lately. They live out in LA so getting to see them a lot is a bit rare, but two visits in one month! Crazy! So I was out there in LA for labor day, and we had a great time, spent 12 hours at Disneyland, played on playgrounds. You know. The usual. I also got to spend some time with my good friend Elyse who is out there getting her masters for being a totally rad animator. I went to the Hollywood sign and the Griffith Observatory with her and her family and that was a ton of fun. Please note on that Hollywood sign shot that there is a helicopter circling as someone was in the middle of getting arrested for sitting on the "O".