With the first day of fall come and gone I think it’s about time I officially said goodbye to summer. Although the weather is still holding on, I must admit I’m pretty excited for everything autumn has to over. Yet this summer has to be one for the history books and as I was gathering photos that I thought really captured the season, it became that much more apparent.
We moved into our new house in March so we had a summer filled with exploring our new city, flowers in are gardens, and lots of delicious baking. We made countless meals in our kitchen in sheer excitement over the fact that more than one person could easily be in it without being squished. We made candy sushi, way too many desserts, and started building new memories.
But above all this summer, we got married at the tail end of it. I’m still eagerly waiting for the arrival of all of the photos and videos, but our photographer kindly gave us a few teaser shots to tide us over until then. It was a fairy-tale wedding I never thought could be possible. I still can’t believe it and only when I finally see the video then I’ll be able to no longer deny that it really did happen.
There will be many, many photo heavy wedding posts to come, but I just knew I couldn’t say goodbye to this summer quietly as if it didn’t mean anything to me. This was the summer that started the rest of our lives together. A new home, a marriage, and many memories I won’t soon forget.
When I rediscovered enamel pins a few months back, I went a little mad. I scooped up so many over the past weeks that a check-in was due. I love picking up a new pin from a place we’ve visited or getting one that somehow speaks to me. I also switched my pins over from the large tote bag to something smaller with more structure. That way my collection is easier to show off without carrying around such a massive bag.
The top
corgi pin and the
introvert pin were both gifts from Alex on my 24th birthday. We’ve been talking about getting a corgi for months now and it definitely will be happening spring of next year. This little guy is keeping my eagerness at bay as I await the arrival of our own furry pup. Nothing screams Kayla like an introvert pin. I like to imagine that’s what I’ll look like when I’m older. Still socially awkward and much rather spend time by myself.
The two
planner addict pins Alex and I created ourselves to sell at Oh, Hello. The mint green one we made exclusively for The Planner Addict box this month and I couldn’t be more proud of our efforts to expand our brand. We have a few more pins in the works for fall too!
The
puffin and otter pins are both from the same shop and were the first two pins that kicked off the obsession. I wanted something that represented something Alex and I love, so why not our favorite animals? I think it’s safe to say that the shop they originated from is a constant source for pins I’ve added to my wishlist.
I found the little
unicorn through my wanderings on Amazon and knew any pin collection wouldn’t be complete if there wasn’t a unicorn involved in one way or another.
The remaining pins I picked up during our recent travels. Apparently it’s quite common for zoos to have pins so I suspect a growing collection of similar pins as we tend to frequent zoos when we travel. I also snatched up an Upper Peninsula one when we went to Pictured Rocks a few weekends ago.
I’ve always had a thing for collection and I love that this one is so portable. Now to just tame the beast and stop buying so many!
Yours till the enamel pins,
Kayla
Things just don’t seem to be working out with this blog these days. I don’t know what it is about it, but I’m just not as inspired as I’ve been for the past years. I’ll get a burst of creative energy and go back at it for a few days and then sputter out again. Things can’t continue like they have been, but I just don’t know what that means for the future.
I’m changing as a person. The wedding is fifty some days away, we’ve bought a house, and our life is just different. I feel myself becoming interested in other things and wanting something I can’t quite put my finger on just yet. This blog seems to have been frozen in time and too much like how it was when I first started it. We’ve grown apart and it sucks.
I’m not giving up on this blog. So far from it. I just know I haven’t been giving it the attention, love, and dedication it deserves. This little blog takes most of the credit for my continued adventures, so I need to figure out a way to fall back in love with it. The worst part? I can’t believe it’s happening to me. Time and time again I scoffed at other bloggers in ruts while happily typing away on my end. Yet here I am, not necessarily in a rut, but just not as happy with what this blog has become lately. I feel different and this blog should feel different too.
So I don’t know what needs to change. I know I need to make posting a priority again, but I don’t know how to continue posting. It’s something I could definitely use help on as well as just needing to take time to sit down and really brainstorm out the future of this space. Maybe I’ll just write my thoughts for a while and let the love affair return. Not put too much pressure on a posting schedule and get back to why I started blogging in the first place.
All my love,
Kayla
Guys, it happened to me. I’ve been blogging for nearly six years now and I finally hit a wall so big I stopped blogging for over a week. Now to most a week break seems completely acceptable after blogging nearly every day for such a long time. But for me, I didn’t feel like myself.
Blogging has been such a huge part of my life and the catalyst for a lot of the other amazing things in it. I started this particular blog right after I started dating Alex. He helped me take my first post photos and I honestly think this blog caused him to fall in love with me in some way. I know how silly that sounds, but my dedication and passion for this blog helped him see how dedicated and passionate I am in all aspects of my life. I stuck with this blog when no one read a word of it. He was a part of every second if it and knows who I was before people tuned in and who I remain now that there are you lovely lot reading these posts.
Blogging lead me to YouTube which lead me to planning. This blog started this whole crazy journey and then I somehow lost it for a few weeks. And I didn’t like it one bit yet I struggled to figure out how to start again. I’m still not sure how to jump start it back up to the fervor and passion it was at before this trip up. But I’m not patient enough to sit around and hope inspiration smacks me on the head and I feel like blogging a mile a minute again. This blog has done so much for me over the years that it deserves a little effort on my part to get the gears turning.
So I’m going to take photos. Tons of photos. Photos of everything, anything, and in every possible combination. Through that mess I’m sure to collect there will be blog posts waiting to be written. Just writing this post has me already itching to write more, photograph more, and get back at it.
Isn’t that always so curious? The thing you’re having trouble doing is the thing that’ll make it easier for you in the long run. Having trouble writing? Write.
So although the momentary lapse of posts seemed just that, it was a big deal in my world. So let’s push it all aside, pretend like it didn’t happen, and get back at it.
Are there any posts you’d like to see? Help a girl out!
xoxo Kayla
Do you ever just completely forget something from your childhood and stumble upon it again years later in an exciting triumphant way? No? Just me? I have this terrible habit of just absolutely forgetting what I had once deemed important things from my past and being pleasantly surprised when I fall back in love with them all over again years later. That’s definitely the story with enamel pins.
Growing up I had this little collection of gold textured pins from my grandmas that I was constantly toting around. There was a palm tree, ice cream cone, and a handful of others that I loved. I would never actually wear them for fear they’d go missing in seconds, but I often rubbed my fingers over their textured surfaces and stare at them like I was guarding a treasure trove. And then I forgot all about them.
I honestly couldn’t tell you exactly how my enamel, label pin rediscovery happened. It’s safe to say Instagram had something to do with it and all of a sudden I was over on Etsy falling down the rabbit hole. I had to have one. I found myself at
Boy Girl Party’s shop and ordered two pins before I could talk myself out of it. They shipped just hours later and were at my doorstep within 48. And they’re perfect.
I got the
otter one as they’ve surpassed elephants as my favorite animals and the
puffin because Alex loves them. They’ve found a happy little home on my Oh, Hello tote and I’ve felt like a 90’s kid again carrying them around with me like badges of honor. And of course I want more.
I love this sort of thing. Something that’s fun for fun’s sake and doesn’t really have a point, but makes me happy. I’m definitely in a “back to grass roots” mindset these days and have kicked up my childhood loves into full gear. Just take a look at my My Little Pony collection or the Rugrats figurines I pulled out of one of my old toy boxes a few weeks ago. All this growing up business makes me want to grow back down and what better way than to embrace some quirky good obsessions?
So if you ever stumble upon some good enamel, lapel pins, point me in their direction!
xoxo Kayla
Like most things I waited for the hype surrounding Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up to die down before I grabbed a copy. I know that if I rode the hype train every day I’d be broke and in possession of too many things I didn’t really want. So the waiting game is my best method to guaranteeing I don’t just want something because it’s popular. This book I definitely wanted.
Now if you are one of two people in the world who haven’t read this book yet, then let me tell you it’s a pretty drastic, all-in guide that most won’t take everything away as gospel. I myself left some ideas to the wayside knowing that they just wouldn’t work for me. That’s totally ok. You have to find what works for you. This book just really makes you figure that out. Here’s what it taught me.
- If it doesn’t spark joy you don’t need it. Of course at first I thought this was a bit nuts. I thought that there would be so many things in my life that didn’t spark joy, but I definitely still needed. Pots and pans for example; not world changing things. Yet I sat down with all of my things and asked myself the question, and I started to see that some things (even pots and pans) made me happier than other things. So the things that made me happy I kept.
- You don’t feel regret for getting rid of things. I thought I would. I paired down my memory box quite a lot to photos and items that really spoke to me. I thought for sure I’d feel regret the next day about throwing out photos from old birthday parties and journals from the fourth grade. But I don’t. Kondo talks a lot about holding onto the past and the fear of the future guiding people into keeping things they don’t really need. She also speaks about how we shouldn’t hold on to things to remember every single event in our lives. We’ll naturally remember the really important ones and the other memories of events have already served their purpose. They’ve shaped us to be who we are now. I completely get this and feel so much lighter for only having the mementos that speak to me.
- Objects have feelings. And I don’t mean that in a Sesame Street kind of way. Objects have a purpose and a life span with a person. A house wants to shelter you and keep you safe. Clothes want to protect you and keep you warm. It’s important to have respect for these objects because they’ll be able to do their job better. It’s when they no longer have respect that they no longer serve a purpose. So that sweater you just never wear anymore deserves to feel respect from someone else. It needs to move on.
- To appreciate my things and thank them for what they do for me. And it’s made a crazy difference in my happiness. I say goodbye and hello to our house every time we come and go and it gives me a relationship with my home. I thank old objects for what they’ve done for me before I donate them or throw them away. I feel so much more in touch with my belongings and my emotions doing this. It just feels right to do.
- I was already ready for the change. I just needed a push to do it. I had already started getting rid of unnecessary clothing and random objects. I just needed the final shove to tackle everything else in my life. Kondo made it feel so obvious, like I was already doing it but just not to the best of my ability.
- Everyone’s peace with their belongings is different. What I feel like is enough isn’t necessarily what you’ll find to be enough things. There isn’t a yard stick to measure your success in decluttering. You’ll know if you half-assed it or have gone to your limit.
I have a feeling I’ll return to this book a year or so down the line and have a completely different relationship with it. It really makes you think about what your belongings actual are to you and how to interact with them. Things no longer feel like things and that’s a crazy feeling.
Have you read this book? What did you think?
xoxo Kayla
