Posts in Personal
What to Consider Before You Get Bangs

At some point in the past ten years, you were sitting on your couch with a mug of hot chocolate or a bag of popcorn in your hands, watching New Girl, thinking, “Zooey Deschanel rocks those bangs— maybe I could pull them off too?”

And before you know, you’ve got ‘em. And you either love them, hate them, or can’t figure out what it is you don’t like about them. Am I right?

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Marriage Challenge | Read Together

What you may or may not see of my marriage behind the Social Media curtain, is that Brett and I are very independent/individualistic spouses. It’s important we schedule time together (especially without work) and it’s important we schedule intentional and meaningful experiences together and with other people— or else our time together becomes sitting in front of the television or work-filled!

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Family Friendly Thanksgiving Activity

If you're a family with small children, this list is a great way to introduce your children to PUMPKIN PIE! Oh, and it’s a great way to introduce them to considering what they are grateful for. It's also a great way to talk with them about how sometimes life is hard and we struggle to know how to be grateful. Maybe sometime down the road, when they are at a Thanksgiving meal with strangers, they will be advocates for sharing gratitude and for sharing vulnerably when life isn’t peachy and sweet. Vulnerability tends to reflect vulnerability, and maybe that’s not such a bad thing for a group of strangers to share around a good meal.

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New Normals | November

We’ve had a lot of people ask us what our new normals are now that we live in New York City. Our friends outside the city are asking— Is it really as colorful and fun as your Instagram makes it look? How are you adjusting to the faster pace? Do you take taxi’s everywhere you go? 

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Falling For | A New Series on Weddings + Relationship Resources + Small Business Resources

I’m in the wedding industry, I’m seven years into my marriage, and I’m five years into owning and growing The Vow Collective. I’m obsessed with weddings, relationships, and small businesses.

Similar to my Pop-Culture and Window Shopping Series, I’ll Have What She’s Having, I want to share with you information or resources you and I both might find valuable to our lives— specifically in the realm of relationships, weddings, and business resources.

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Kaylin + Patrick

We took a few minutes to write out some of our favorite moments from the day. Moments not everyone saw. Moments we felt made Patrick and Kaylin people of great character. Moments we think they might not even remember. Here’s what we loved most about their wedding day:

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We're Moving

After so much waiting, praying, pro and con weighing, and decision-making… we’ve finally decided to move to New York City. Brett will be starting a Classics doctoral program at Columbia in August. While I haven’t fully landed on what I’ll pursue while we’re there, I’m pumped on the options I have (continuing my business will definitely be something I will keep doing… I love working with star-crossed lovers on their weddings and vows).

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Galentine's Giveaway | You CAN sit with us

One of my favorite lines from Mean Girls (one of my all time favorite movies and musicals) is when Gretchen yells at Regina “YOU CAN’T SIT WITH US!”.

That line is so iconic. And hilarious. And Ridiculous. And you’ve probably had it yelled at you before by someone sarcastic like me.

But the “you can’t sit with us” mentality is totally something I see in my generation and the generation I mentor.

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Short Impactful Sentences | Enneagram 9

Words for my life. Based on my enneagram nine.

This is a prayer. And a self-affirmation.

That I wouldn’t fall into busy-ness, but that I would seek out sweeter and deeper quiet. That I would work really really hard to be quiet in my mind… not numb or asleep to my feelings or circumstances.

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Aunt Stacie

or two people who have walked the earth together for twenty-five years, I was afraid of being in two very different life stages for once. We’ve stumbled and struggled through middle school braces, high school drama (in the theatre and out of the theatre if you know what I mean), and similar college experiences. For the most part, we dated our husbands at the same time, got engaged in the same year, and got married within a year of each other. When you’ve lived such similar life paths, how do you relate when it feels like you started taking two very different paths?

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Combatting Seasonal Mood Changes
The Strangers We Are | Six Years after our Wedding
A lot of Things.

Not an hour ago I overheard a customer assuring a Barista that she didn't need to know what she was going to do with her life. That she'd figure it out. The thing. 

And I'm over here screaming internally- YOU'RE DOING IT RIGHT NOW. YOU'RE DOING THE THING FOR THIS MOMENT. It's your thing until you move onto the next thing. And I really believe, for some of us in this world, there will be multiple things we're called to do. And that's okay. Some people don't think it's okay. But I think it is. For some of us, having multiple things is a necessity. 

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A Freshmen's Essay on College | Finding Yourself

Meet Kaylee. On Tuesdays and Thursdays this past year, I mentored a handful of Freshmen women at Texas Tech. In Christianese, I've been discipling them. Reading the Bible with them, working through their life stories, unburying some of life's joys and hurts, laughing and crying at all of Freshmen years' ups and downs, and watching a lot of The Bachelor with them. A few months ago I was hanging out with Kaylee on a Tuesday and she mentioned how college was different from what she expected, so I asked her to share some of her profound truth nuggets for future college freshmen. 

I bolded my favorite part, because it's TRUTHHHH. 

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Make friends with nobodies, don't be the great somebody

What do you think of when you hear the word “hospitality”? Is hospitality the perfect host with a perfect house that mimics a perfectly put together Pinterest Board? Is hospitality a woman’s thing? Is it something the Bible tells us to do? Is it just for Christians hosting Christians? Who are we really called to be hospitable to?

I’ve fallen in love so much with the topic of hospitality I gave a workshop on it this spring at a Navigator conference (I work for the Navs on Tuesdays and Thursdays!). 

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Let me introduce myself

What's here?

Marriage magic. Soul thoughts. Pop-culture obsessions. Style days. Decor & aesthetics. DIY's. Beauty finds. Childhood and teenage journal entries. Coffee films.

What's not here?

Recipes and babies. The kitchen and I tolerate each other, and my body and I have agreed not to birth out a baby until.... some point in time that is not now. 

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