thankful checkbook feelings.

I scored these two beautiful chevron pillows from TJ Maxx for less than $20 each the other week, and would you believe it, they're featured on Joss & Main today for $48.95 each!

featured on joss & main.

Such is the power of department retail. You can see the pillows below in my previous post. This basically just confirms that TJ Maxx will always have a faithful customer in me.

all good things in time.

The great sofa expedition is finally over! Meet my dream-come-true sofa, a navy camelback antique found courtesy of our local Craigslist. It's really pushing me to find it some matching soulmate accessories - more pillows, that long-desired area rug, etc. All good things in time.

After lugging the (surprisingly light) new addition to the living room, I had some time left over to work on filling one of the many empty picture frames lying around. I chose this DIY project off of Pinterest and about an hour of cutting irregular triangles (I'm no perfectionist, thank goodness), I had this little work of art for my bedroom!

From various Home Depot paint chips...

 ...to this!

My apartment to-do list now looks a bit like this:

1. Find area rug for living room
2. Print artwork for living room/bedroom gallery walls
3. Finish painting the bright yellow credenza
4. Throw out original coffee table plans and research something that will actually complement the bright yellow credenza
5. Upholster old coffee table into sitting bench
6. Redo living room blinds/make curtains
7. Find entry table for living room

And so it goes.

Credenza Collection

Just browsing through media credenzas (I do like the elevated look - just something about added foot height seems so appealing to me!) and here were some of my favorites online:

..and then, just out of the blue, this Craigslist gem appears in my very own zip code!

The (very minuscule) practical side of my brain reminds me that I don't have a TV. I don't plan on getting a TV. But just a peek after work won't hurt - right? 

lemonade.

thank you tumblr!

I'm frustrated, and my face shows it.

An entire afternoon pitches south, tumbling down in that way all bad days seem to go. With each setback, things get a little worse and I feel more and more like a complete grouch. Seriously, this face would look at home in a trash can. 

As I tend to do when I'm stuck, I make an inventory of my troubles, which usually invites an avalanche of girl-tragedy. Any remaining good will on my part is severely hard-pressed to take a swinging return. But then, when I take a second to breathe and stifle my complaints, I think of this:

"Be careful not to complain about ANYTHING, even the weather, since I am the Author of your circumstances.  The BEST way to handle unwanted situations is to thank Me for them.  This act of faith frees you from RESENTMENT and frees Me to work My ways into the situation, so that GOOD emerges from it."

-Sarah Young 

Well, my relationship with religion may still just be in its baby fledgling stages, and probably best left for another post. But from this quote, I understand that I can't afford to muddle around and feel sorry for myself anymore. Even in this grey, stormy day, there is so much to be honestly thankful for.

I am in college. Beyond that, I am about to GRADUATE, and make my own way into this world. I have been lucky beyond all words to have gotten to where I am, and I owe it to everyone who's ever so much as shared a kind word or thought with me in life. Truly, I am "the combined effort of everybody I've ever known". And truly, it's all a matter of perspective.

I've got just TWO months left of undergraduate memories to make and there is no progress to be made by going around in circles, picking over what I can't do. Instead, it's time for the final push. It's about what I CAN do. Certainly, this isn't the first time I've felt myself on the down and out, and this sure enough won't be the last, yet a little part of my heart knows that this is all just a test. 

And this test is passing. All around me are symbols of the tremendous love that I have gained in these past four years. The hanging wooden tiles above my bed. The painted boxes. The photos clipped and pinned around my desk. The postcards. The letter shirts. My phonebook overflows. I have so much to look forwards to.

"In a perfect Friendship this Appreciative love is, I think, often so great and so firmly based that each member of the circle feels, in his secret heart, humbled before all the rest. Sometimes he wonders what he is doing there among his betters. He is lucky beyond desert to be in such company. Especially when the whole group is together, each bringing out all that is best, wisest, or funniest in all the others. Those are the golden sessions."

 - C.S. Lewis

wanderlust.

155,000+ members strong, from sea to shining sea!

Well, it's been one of those weeks where you go home and throw down your bags and your coat goes on the floor and you think, "How am I ever going to go back to my normal life after that?" But days go on, even when you never really get around to unpacking that suitcase and clothes just end up rotating in and out for weeks after.

Interview Weekend at International Headquarters was such a big adventure, but even though it feels almost sacrilegious to let that go, it's been that sort of week where even all the normal days surprise you with many little adventures. 

In the big adventure, I traveled 500 miles from home and became INSTANT FRIENDS (it's true!) with 17 other incredible girls, a connection so honestly positive and possible simply because we choose, everyday, to Live with Purpose. 

In the little adventure, I walked 5.5 miles to an interview for part-time work, and while the hours ultimately didn't work out, my interviewer and I ended up simply chatting about our shared Greek experiences. 

These past few days, I have been on the move. My soul is caught up in wanderlust. To me, flying is still a Big Deal, emphasis on the capital letters. It is the ultimate independence, especially for a girl like me who's still struggling to get her driver's license. It's still such a crazy thing to me that we can wake up in one time zone and fly across the country to spend the working day in another. Crazy, but so beautiful at the same time.

Final update: I've put down my pride and applied for a student assistant position in the Multimedia Studio at school. YES, I will have NO weekends (hello Saturday 9am-6pm shift!), but also YES, I will get work done, and YES, I will have $$$. And again, pride put aside… $$$ does make the world go round. Or at least send a senior girl to her own sorority formal!! 

On that silly note, goodnight and love from yours truly.

run your heart.

valentine's weekend getaway in asheville, north carolina!

Load the car and write the note. / Grab your bag and grab your coat. / Tell the ones that need to know. / We are headed north.

Big breath. Exhale. Know that, instinctually, that if there was ever a defining moment for putting your game face on, getting your foot in the door, and leading the pack, well, this is it.

I am headed out this Friday to Indianapolis, Indiana for the Leadership Consultant Interview Weekend. When I get back, there'll be the addition of a new great-grand-little to our lovely family line to celebrate! Huzzah!!

i wish i was in dixieland!

When she came to the end of one life it must not be to face the next with the shrinking terror of something wholly different—something for which accustomed thought and ideal and aspiration had unfitted her. The little things of life, sweet and excellent in their place, must not be the things lived for; the highest must be sought and followed; the life of heaven must be begun here on earth.
-Anne of the Island, L. M. Montgomery

After a couple of rotations of my morning Brad Paisley playlist, I had the sudden impulsive desire the peek at my old home in Knoxville, Tennessee. No, not via four-hour vehicular journey. Through Google Maps, satellite edition!

I couldn't exactly remember my old address, but those numerous drillings instilled in all of us during kindergarten did some good and at least I remember old Shannondale Elementary. There it is, the funny tin-covered bus turnaround, the blacktop area only the big kids had access to during recess, and just up the road... well, I'm sad to say that my little Dixieland childhood home is gone! In its place are the cul-de-sac loops and angles of a well-planned suburban neighborhood. It's a little sad to think of all those old trees cut down and uprooted to make way for lawns and pavement, but I hope the new families there now enjoy it as much as I used to.

Just one paper between me and Asheville next weekend!

paying your dues

interlaken, switzerland.

And like that, this application packet is signed, sealed, and submitted! All those words and short-answer passages so carefully manicured and selected for their ability to impress and convey (quick, do I come across better as adventurous or daring, innovative or is it better to be persistent), even the thank-you cards are stamped and ready and near-smothered with grateful love.  

Now we wait. And wait. 

Oh, this waiting game. My poor inbox is pushed to the line with my page refreshing. I imagine my little laptop in person form, a little engineer spouting steam between his ears as he digs through all my email, thinking, okay, it's regular refreshes from here on out, every thirty seconds or so, folks.. OH, sorry, false alarm, that's just a shopping catalog, but stay with me now, we got our fingers crossed and a feeling about the next one... 

Somewhat surprisingly, it's much easier than I thought it would be to find the talking points I've worked for and embraced these past four years. This is an entirely different situation compared to coming out of high school, where I struggled to find ways to set myself out and away from the middling crowd. Suddenly, it's no longer a competition. For the first time, I am simply describing myself - yes, I did do that, and yes, I can do more! - and I'm just plain proud. 

I'm also so proud to know all the women I have asked for recommendations and to know them the way I do. Some of them have been there since the very beginning, on that first day of college where I looked up at those big Greek letters and wondered if I'd ever find a home. Others I met much later, yet have been there ever since as mentors, sisters, and friends.

I guess those last few lines could sound a little strange to someone who didn't know what I am applying for. Well, this is what I've applied to so far:

marketing firms and
advertisement agencies and
design firms and
human resource firms and...

Just too many places! But this most recent application packages, and really, a good part of my heart, rests on this one position - to work as a Leadership Consultant for my little 'ole sorority (it's actually kind of a grand organization to be a part of - but I could go on about this forever).

For now, so as not to push fate into conspiring in depressing and unfortunate ways, we will close this train of thought here and keep hush on further details until (and unless) the process moves forwards (!!). At least I have lots of interesting thank-you gifts to work on while I wait!*

*One of my professors is an expert on Dracula (I'm serious! She kept coming up on Google with all the Gothic Literature research I did in her class, too cool!), so in order to say thank you for the lovely recommendation she wrote me, I painted her a little canvas depicting her favorite literary villain wandering around the Carpathian mountain range. I can honestly say that you will never find me resorting to gift card presents... and if you do, that is a sure sign of psychological distress and an imminent breakdown on my end, so prepare yourself accordingly if the unthinkable ever happens. 

carefree kingdom.

Off to the park for a playdate! 

Bringing my watercolors and trusty film camera for some much-needed outdoor sunshine...or what accounts for sunshine during January in Georgia. Nevertheless, I've got my blanket rug packed and I'm ready for flora, fauna, and friendly folks of Piedmont. 

Happy Saturday everyone!

and it's only afternoon!

edinburgh castle, scotland.

I'm in love with falling in love.

I'm in love on clear days. I'm also in love on rainy days. During lessons. When I'm watching TV. When I eat. When I sleep and when I wake up I'm in love. Because I'm in that age.

It's all spring time and independence in just a few days! For once, going back to school doesn't feel as panicked or rushed as it normally does. I will miss the home life (and my freshly-painted green room!), but I'm ready to start my last semester in college and do it right. Coming along back to school with me are more of my loves: new calendar books, sharpened pencils, and well-used watercolor kits.

I'm also deeply in love with this cover.