Good morning, friends. I know it has been a while, but after my month long hiatus, I’m back! Some major life changes have been taking place over the end of summer and I’m so happy to announce that I’ve taken a graphic design position at Studio-R, a local events graphic design firm downtown. I cannot begin to describe how excited I am about this opportunity and to dive into the full force of fall wedding season in Charleston.

This morning, I’m so thankful for this opportunity and I’m looking forward to this next chapter in life. Since I was in high school, I’ve loved graphic design and I distinctly remember the point last year when I thought, what if this could turn into something full time? After this past year, I have immense respect for all freelancers out there, especially the ones with other full time jobs trying to support/grow whatever their passion is. I love the graphic above by Note to Self and think it’s a fun way to stay encouraged about seeking out what you love and pursuing it whole heartedly.

I also want to say a huge thank you for reading my blog. When I started this blog three years ago, I knew I was drawn to this creative community, but I had no idea what was in store for me. Three years later, I’m changing careers and really and truly my passion for graphic design reemerged after beginning this blog. Do you remember my very first post?

Hope everyone has a happy labor day, and if you’re in Charleston the best two months are upon us, September and October! Here’s to celebrating summer and some exciting changes!

My parent’s are coming into town for a long weekend and I couldn’t be more thrilled. Here’s to hoping we make 5% progress updating our little casa and getting lots of chill time on the beach! Happy weekend friends!

Here are a few little things from my pinterest boards and the interweb that I just can’t keep out of my mind…

Loving these illustrated liners via Moglea. {such a cool company}

I love the colors and feel of this, print by Hallie Torrey, via you are my fav.

Fuzzco’s new branding and design for The Ordinary. Can only imagine how good this place will be…

{photography by alecvanderboom}

For the outdoor enthusiast… wedding invite by Tupy Boutique, via Fellow Fellow.

living room inspiration via Olivet.

Anna Spiro Wallpaper for Porter Paints via House of Fifty.

And last but 1,000% not least, this couldn’t go unmentioned for much longer on my blog, Lulie‘s collaboration with the amazingly talented ladies of Stitch Design Co. for her site redesign is seriously perfect. Lulie + Stitch equals one dreamy and fun collaboration! So so so proud of her! What a dream… can’t wait to see what’s next! America and beyond… 🙂

Well friends, it’s true, our friend Claire is about to take over the healthy eating world. And for good reason. She’s smart, she’s qualified, and she’s vegan. If you’re anything like me you have a desire to be healthy, but just don’t necessarily have the self discipline to not do what you want, and you need a little direction.

Claire offers such an informative and humorous approach, and she is literally making it easy for us to choose healthier options on a daily basis. From recipes, to restaurant reviews, to the inside info of what we’re putting in our bodies, she’s a professional and is freely telling us what we should be eating! Dreamy…

I got to help design a header for her blog, so hop on over and show her some veggie lurve! Also you can follow her on facebook and twitter. It’s worth it. You’ll thank her later.

*She’s also a part of a bigger online community of health professionals and food experts over at getlocalfoods.com, so while you’re at it, you should check them out too!*

Last week Chris and I both took off three whole days from work and headed out to IOP with some of our besties. There was lots of america celebrating, hot dog eating, daiquiri drinking, fun had by all. My happy place is when old friends return (plus meeting some new friends) and hanging on the beach all day and all night. I love america and there is no place better to celebrate than in charleston. for three days. in a tiny pink castle. let’s do it again. 🙂

{Illustration and Design via Scout’s Honor Co.}

Hello my friends! Summer is just rolling on, and I’ve been meaning to blog about 100 different things, so I just decided to put down my normal to-do list and just blog for the next half hour.

So two online news articles over the past weekend caught my attention, and then literally, my favorite blog featured one  of the articles, and on NPR this morning they featured the other article. I would say both of these are getting pretty good publicity this week and for good reason, because as Americans we are all striving to find balance in this oh so busy world that we’ve created for ourselves.

The first article is “The ‘Busy’ Trap” on the NY Times and the second article is “Why Women Still Can’t Have it All” on The Atlantic.

The subject of time management first came to my attention by the oh so genius Cassie Dodds, who looked at all her 20 something babies in her small group, fresh out of college, and decided that we needed to spend at least a year and half talking about ‘margin’ and balancing our time. She is genius for foreseeing what she felt we needed to hear most because unbeknownst to us, we were about half equipped and just beginning jobs, marriages, and the like.

I guess these articles really speak for themselves, but what I love, I mean what I really LOVE, is that full blown America is catching on to this. Everyone from big ups on Wall Street, to doctors, to ladies that run Martha Stewart, are realizing just how emptying life is when we are on the constant go and never settle to reflect or spend time doing the things we love the most.

I’ve always felt like a bit of an old soul, but there is just this huge part of me, that doesn’t want to be connected 24/7, that just wants to spend time around a table with my good friends and family, and wants to be outside every day. I feel like I’ve learned so much from working full time these past three years, and it’s really lead to me to this place where I feel like I have my whole life before me, and the main underlying question is this simple:

“How do I want to spend my time?”

I’m in a season where I think of this often. At the women’s retreat this past year, I literally remember one statement, and it’s that we have time, we have all the time in the world in fact, we just have to decide how we want to use it. Saying yes to something, inevitably means saying no to something else (oh the self-discipline), whether you make that conscious decision or not.

If you ask anyone (well most I feel like), many of us would say the ideal would be if we didn’t have to work, we would then have so much time to ____ (fill in the blank). Or if you have found your dream job, sometimes that is even more challenging, because it’s easy to get so out of balance since you love what you’re doing so much. I’ve found this to be true even with just the bit of freelance graphic design I’ve done, because I’ll fill all the extra hours of my day  because it’s what I enjoy and I feel the need to get “ahead”.  So whether you’ve found your dream job or not, how do we balance what we invest into work and life period?

It’s a constant journey of finding balance that is ever changing, but I thought I’d share since I related so much. If you have any tips or tricks for being more self-disciplined or if these articles resonate, let me know :).

{photo via the oh so talented Max Wagner}

ps. I love how the author of the NY Times article, ran away to an undisclosed location to unplug… don’t you just feel like that some days?

Oh how I’m loving my early mornings these days. Thanks to this little guy above, he’s not a lot of work, but he sure does like to start his day early. This past week was entirely too busy for the pace I like to keep. I’m not really sure what happened, other than work, and maybe a little more work. But with all that said, if I didn’t have some quiet mornings before the days began, I think I might lose it a little.

Right now everyone is sleeping, including the little Marbler, and I couldn’t be more at peace with where I am. It’s just one of those moments this morning where you realize just how much you love your family and how thankful I am for them. I just realized that I’m beyond thankful for these quiet summer mornings, for warm coffee, and my cozy little home.

I get the vibe that this week is going to be a lot more relaxed which makes for a very happy sunday! Hope you’re enjoying this great summer weekend!

I had the great pleasure this week of taking two days off and going to visit my best friend in Georgia to meet her sweet baby, Fisher! Let’s just say it was good for my soul to leave work behind for a few days and hang out with my family and the Mccleskeys.

I wasn’t totally sure what to expect on my way to Gainesville, but when I got there, I instantly became smitten with little Fisher. If you know me well, then you know this is a big deal for me. Normally 2 week old babies make me quite nervous and I always decline to hold them. I feel like I’m probably not the most maternal person to ever walk this earth (maybe an understatement) but I wondered the whole way there if seeing Allison and Fisher would make  the whole baby thing a little more normal for me.

I’m seriously so proud of Allison, she is such a champ and she’s seriously the most calm, cool, and collected new mom you’ve seen. Just the atmosphere in their house was super laid back and just filled with lots of love for little baby f. Here are a few favorites from the day… that little man is such a blessing and I just want to squeeze him!

I cannot wait to love on this little man and watch him grow up. I wish they were my next door neighbors so I could snuggle with him every day! Baby F, you could not be more lucky to have the parent’s you do! You’re my favorite little bean!