on A COLORFUL WORLD

color outside of the lines, friends. be bold!

have a good weekend :) xo

ON the Most Delicious Dinner Ever

Blog readers, friends, internet peoples: do not become alarmed. This will not become the type of blog with recipes on the regular. I am not a recipe gal. This here meal above that you see? No recipe. None. So rest easy, friends. My blog is not about to get themed up or anything. Great, let's move on.

SO I MADE THIS! For dinner. Like a DIY, but you can eat it. It's called 'cooking', you guys ever hear of it? Anyway, I had dinner with my best girls a couple of weeks ago and two of us ordered the same dish, only I ordered mine sans chicken, add eggplant, please. But the base of it was the same, and I said, "umm, Kerry, you can totes make this!" and then we had a good laugh, me and myself. But I did!
Okay, here is what was in it and how I made it, but this is not a recipe!

Gnocchi
Cherry Tomatoes*
Asparagus
Brussel Sprouts
Just a toss of Marinara Sauce**

Okay, make the gnocchi. If you don't know how to boil water, stop reading right now, let the dream die. In a separate frying pan, heat up the brussel sprouts (mine were already cooked, so if you have to cook yours, sorry you are on your own). On the side, you should rinse the tomatoes and then chop them in half on a cutting board. This is super fun and it's a good time to pretend you have your own cooking show. Great, okay, now they are both magickally done so throw the brussellys into the gnocchi and let them all become good friends. Then in that same frying pan (do not get a new one! you'll have to wash two!) put the chopped-in-half 'maters and asparagus (again, this had been cooked previously) and stir 'em all up together. This makes a fun sizzling noise due to the tomato juices. When that's all done, toss those bad boys into the big pot with the gnocchis and the brussels and mix it all up and then throw in some tomato sauce. Scoop some into a bowl and eat it. That's it! You did it! You cooked! Celebrate by not doing the dishes and waiting until someone else does them for you. Enjoy!

*At first, I wrote CHEERY tomatoes and I wanted to leave it because it delighted me ever so. But, you know, spelling, blah blah. But I want to note that you may select cheery tomatoes should you prefer them over cherry. 

**If you happen to have more than a toss left in your sauce jar, feel free to add more. Some of us only had a toss left for with which to toss.

ON closet crushes

I've just rearranged my room for the gazallionth time. In my itty bitty, 7 ft by 11 ft room, there isn't that much to move and change, and yet, I still try. No matter how many times I switch things up, the one thing I cannot change is the lack of closet space. Oh, how I long for multiple closets. Large, vast, spacious places to hang, store, organize and stack. 'Tis the dream. Don't even get me started about the closets turned into offices. I swoon over craft closets, and small spaces to create in. And imagine? Closing the doors at the end of the day to all of the work you've done and leaving it hidden away until the morning. Sounds dreamy.

What's your closet space like? Do you have a little closet office? Send me pictures so I can be jealous :)

ON a little print for you

Hello lovelies! I wanted to make myself a little printable but halfway through, I realized it was for you, too. I'm so inspired by text, fonts, words, sayings, quotes, the way words are strung together in specific combinations and how just one word being different can change everything. Mm, delicious! Words are a huge reason I'm an actor. I love telling stories.

I don't exactly have any idea what I'm doing when it comes to making things like this.. but I don't particularly see that as a reason to not try. This seems to be my modus operandi lately: think of something I want to do, teach myself how to do it, check it off the list, next item. I'm fascinated by design and fancy this my next thing to tackle. So here we are, the result of finding a quote I liked, seeing it in my mind as a print, and then creating it. Bam! So tell me: what can you try today that you want to do, but don't "know how to do"? Leave it in the comments, please&thankyou.

Email me if you want me to send you this image! xo

EDIT: My perfectionist mother has informed me that in my excitement over creating this, I added in an incorrect apostrophe in my first version. The grammatically correct print is now up :)

on PINK, pink everywhere (& my camera is back!)

when i was 17, i got this great idea to paint my bedroom pink. it was light blue-ish at the time and i thought no. no more of this. it's time for pink! so i went to the local home depot and picked out a disney paint color called 'princess pink' (could not make that up if i tried) and had my three male bff's at the time paint my room whilst i sat on the floor and talked. most people do that at 6, right? demand a pink room? princess pink, none the less. not me, i waited until 17.

so a handful of years (and one very pink college dorm room) later, i outgrew it all at once. all of it, the whole pink kabob. my room was re-painted mint green (i mainly sat and talked through this one, too) and the pink really left my life. when i moved into my latest place, i saw the blank wall in front of me and thought: light pink. a grown up pink! and no one was more shocked than i was.

being back in my room now, post LA, i was unpacking and cleaning up when i noticed something: PINK everywhere. the wall, my flowers next to my bedside table, lady's new travel bag and her favorite toy, her new collar, the jeans that i can't stop wearing, the dress that i longed for while away, and the latest painting i painted. (while i was painting it, i was chatting with a friend who was over, and told her that it needed pink, but i wasn't sure where to add it yet, however the painting would tell me where to put it. just in case you weren't sure if i was totally nuts or not.) just so much pink.

and you know what? i like it a whole lot :)

p.s. i know i included two pictures of the painting bc one has the pink wall in the background and the other has that cutie baby face little girl all snuggled up in the background and i sort of couldn't resist.

p.p.s. my camera and i have been reunited! this means a 50/50 chance of actually getting quality pictures around these parts! holler!

ON when you really need shorts right that minute

this is important information, as you never know when you'll find yourself in need of shorts right away.

for example, you may find yourself in 80+ degree weather and just not want to wear another dress.

but you haven't any short skirts. and you haven't any shorts. WHAT DO YOU DO?

Step 1: dig through your clothes until you find jeans

Step 2: make sure you're okay with never having those jeans again

Step 3: find scissors and cut off a large portion of the jeans

Step 4: voila, you have shorts

i completed this purple on purple look with a multicolored plaid shirt. it was flannel.

let's all process that: i cut up jeans to make shorts bc it was so hot, then added flannel.

i still got it, folks. i. still. got. it.

here is my favorite thing about this: i wanted shorts, i cut up my jeans. bam. that's it.

i didn't sit there and analyze and hem and haw over if i should or shouldn't.

i just did it. which is exactly how i make all of my best decisions.

watch out clothing items, none of you are safe from getting chopped up now!

ON a home away from home

when i'm traveling and looking at places to stay, it's imperative that the design speak to me.

most people go with budget, location, size, etc. for me? all about the energy/look of the space.

the first time i walked through the door, it felt like i lived here. which, when you're traveling, is the absolute best feeling to have. a little home away from home to create, learn, dream & play in :)

in related news: can you handle how much sunshine exists here?!

it felt impossible to get any pictures that weren't full of light. LA, i love your sunlight!

i can't wait to have my real camera back in my life, in the meantime, iphone it is!

ON My First Dinner Party (or, how I learned that parties require chairs)

Right before Christmas, I hosted my very first grown-up dinner party.

Want to know how grown up I am? As I planned this get-together, it didn't dawn on me that I did not currently have neither a table, nor chairs. Nor basically any other dinner party necessities.

I also managed to burn my first attempt at the main course. Which was pasta.

Gentlemen, if you will all form an orderly line, I'll be happy to entertain all of your wife inquiries.

All of that being said, everything came together easy peezy and it was a great night with great friends.

How do you throw parties? Last minute? Take lots of time planning them? Do tell. xo

On This Time Last Year

This time last year, there was lots of gatherings. Friends and family and a puppy with his stocking.

There was crafting and decorating and so many trees. There was White Christmas lots of times.

And there was ribbon tied in bows, on presents and naturally, in my hair. Because what is the holiday season without ribbon in hair and smiles on faces?