Latest Posts

Anxiety

Defy Your DNA: On Hair Loss, Stage Fright, and Change

November 16, 2017

Zara sweater (similar) & jeans (similar) | Jimmy Choo ankle boots (similar)

There are some things that live in your DNA - like, say, eye color, or a taste for Yodels - things that are guaranteed to be a part of your life practically from the moment of conception. (Kidding about the Yodels, but only a tiny bit: Yodel-loving is definitely part of my personal genetic makeup.) Some of these things can feel like an essential, even necessary part of who you are, but even so: that doesn’t necessarily mean that they have to define your future. Not if you don’t want them to.

Take, for example, my stage fright. The stories I can tell about the ways that my anxieties about speaking in front of people wreaked havoc on my life and my career are too many to count.

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Lifestyle

Pretty Much

November 15, 2017
ramshackle glam kids jordan Reid

This is not the face of someone without a diabolical plan.

In lieu of an actual, information-containing post today - because I have to spend the day working on an insane number of side projects (including logistics surrounding a verrrrrrryyyyy exciting project that I'll be able to formally announce in a week or so - hint: book book book book book), allow me to present to you a series of outtakes from the holiday gift guide shoot I did with Kim Ebbets last night.

Just trust me and scroll down slowly. It's so good.

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DIARY

Not Here For This Shit Anymore

November 13, 2017

I started being treated like an idiot in the seventh grade. I'd transferred out of a school where I was so nerdy and ostracized that a pair of "popular" twin boys took to leaving death threats on my parents' answering machine, and entered a school located all the way across town, where nobody had any idea who I was. I had a blank slate. Over the summer before I entered my new school, my bangs grew out, I shot up a couple of inches, the beginnings of breasts appeared, and I started to emerge from that tragic awkwardness that plagues middle-schoolers of the large-toothed sort.

Boys noticed. I noticed them noticing. I loved it.

I also spent a lot of time observing my new environment, and specifically the girls who seemed like they had a handle on it all; like they were important. I noticed that it wasn't cool to be smart, or to do well on tests, and so I started lying. I moaned over my grades when I was actually getting solid As; I asked for homework help that I didn't need; I giggled and pretended not to know what James was getting at when he and his friends came over to me in the cafeteria and he handed me a banana and told me they wanted to see me eat it.

I ate it.

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Decor

10 Spectacular Bathrooms With Encaustic Cement Tile

November 10, 2017

Hellooooooo my love (via).

Yesterday morning, I had this post all written in my mind. I was going to talk about how, after I finish our garage renovation, I'm going to start thinking about redoing our bathrooms (hoorayyyyy home equity line of credit!). I was going to rhapsodize about cement tile (and specifically Villa Lagoon's tile, which we used for our entryway redo and which is gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous).

...And then guess what happened yesterday afternoon?

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Makeup & Beauty

Glow Girl (And A Sweepstakes!)

November 9, 2017

This post was created in collaboration with Conair. Click here to check out the Sweepstakes (and enter to win a Glow Box valued at $300).

Yesterday was one of those mornings: I couldn’t find the lunchboxes, and made “the wrong kind of breakfast,” and everyone refused to put on their shoes until the eight millionth time I “asked” (screamed at) them to, and I definitely did not brush my hair or put on makeup and mayyyyybe left the house in the same sweatpants and sweatshirt that I’d worn to sleep in the night before because I was already super late for an appointment and making a cup of coffee was vastly more important than being clean and/or presentable, so that was that.

Anyway, I arrived at my dermatologist appointment (ON TIME, thanks to a straight stream of green traffic lights, woooo), and sat down on the examining table. When she walked in, she did a literal double-take at me. And do you know what she said???

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Lifestyle

Links & Love & Stuff

November 7, 2017

YAY FALL. (That vest is vintage and real fur, but here's an insane, luxe faux version that's similar, except better because it's insane and luxe and faux.)

This is exactly the time of year to invest in a cozy, wonderful pair of pajamas. Here you go. Also if you don't own these boots yet, go ahead and do yourself a favor because you will wear them every fall and winter for the rest of your life (mine are going on seven years old, and still look practically new.)

Everything about the idea of sending my children to middle school strikes fear into my (apparently still 13-year-old) heart. (Being Left Out Hurts: Moms, Stop Social Engineering, via Today.)

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Lifestyle

Time To Talk About It

November 7, 2017

I'm putting up a link roundup today and it's all pajama suggestions and fun reads, and...I just can't hit publish without posting this first, because pajamas are not where my head's at.

You know, I was brought up believing that guns - all of them - are bad. Nobody should have a gun; all they do is perpetuate violence; et cetera.

That's not what I think anymore; I've formed my own opinions about guns and gun owners. I can't think of a single reason for any human being to own an assault rifle, but I'm friends with many people who own shotguns or pistols, and I understand and respect their choices. They are - without exception - extremely knowledgeable about their guns, having been raised to respect them for what they are: deadly weapons. They would be more than happy to submit to a background check at any point, because why wouldn't they?

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Lifestyle

The New-Parent Sex Situation (Spoiler: It Ain’t Good)

November 6, 2017

Let's talk about the post-baby sex situation, shall we? Spoiler: It ain't good. I know it; all of my parent friends know it; you probably know it. And still: it's easy to feel embarrassed - even ashamed - about how much (or, ok, how little) you have sex with your spouse once a tiny, screaming human arrives on the scene.

When sex suddenly starts feeling less like an awesomely fun pastime and more like an exhausting obligation, it's easy to wonder whether something's wrong with you.

Can we clear the air, please?

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Lifestyle

Oh My God, Virgil. Oh My God.

November 3, 2017

Do not be deceived by appearances. He is a lunatic.

There are aspects of Virgil that are lovely and sweet, and aspects that haven't changed since the day he first arrived in our home, put his head in my boot, and peed. Let's just say that he has his quirks, and one of them is a hatred for any and all mail carriers that is - and I mean this with zero exaggeration - completely insane and utterly pathological.

I don't understand it. He sees the SAME. PERSON. EVERY. DAY. And yet every day (EVERY DAY!!!) he reacts to the sight of our mail carrier like she is one of the horsemen of the apocalypse, and has just arrived on our doorstep with the intention of making him into a throw rug. He somehow grows six sizes larger and turns into a horrifying attack creature, snarling and spitting and clawing at the window, absolutely desperate to do something to her that definitely involves her death. I even know when she rounds the corner at the very end of our block, because he has a very special bark that he reserves only for her, and what that bark means is I WILL END YOU, LADY, IF IT IS THE LAST THING I DO.

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