Hearts, Love and Gift Ideas Abound

Kyle and I usually ignore the schmaltzy forced nature of Valentine's Day, but this year I plan on embracing it whole hog.

Apparently 3 weeks early.

Here are some things I think many lovely ladies (and men for that matter) could appreciate (I made this in Illustrator, but I feel it lacks balance... let me know your take; I'd love the feedback):

One: You're A Fox card from Rifle Paper Co.

Two: Valentine Pad Printed Bowls from West Elm

Three: Felted Gift Cards from Terrain

Four: Love Stamp via Etsy

Five: Elderflower Syrup from Terrain

Six: Heart Shaped Measuring Spoons from Terrain

Seven: Mo Smells Red by Margaret Hyde

Eight: Pink Striped Straws from Shop Sweet Lulu

Christmas Card Failure

I have a confession to make: this was the first year I dropped the ball on sending out Christmas cards in nine years. Nine years!

It started my freshman year of college. During my free time between classes, I'd often meander through the UCSB Bookstore looking at books and tchotkes and sweat pants. It was a relaxing and enjoyable ritual, and I always got a bit excited when the week after Thanksgiving rolled around. Why? The arrival of the holiday cards, of course! It would take a few days to weed through my favorites and eventually select "the one," but I truly looked forward to it and loved sending them out to my family and friends.

Once Kyle and I got married in 2009, I figured it was acceptable to start sending out photo cards. He cried and moaned and bellyached the entire time (although you couldn't tell from the finished product):

It was such an intolerable experience the year before (what with all the arm twisting and pathetic pleading on my part), I decided to make Moe the star of 2010's Christmas card. He's much more photogenic than either of us anyhow and he thoroughly enjoyed his photo shoot at the beach.

Really, just a great looking dog, am I right?!

And finally we come to 2011. I thought my holiday season was already crazy and stressful, so why not put myself through mild hell and try to get Kyle to take another "family" photo? Why not?

A friend agreed to suffer with us, and after hundreds of shots of Kyle complaining and making the faces you'd think only a preschooler could come up with, we had a winner! I even went so far as to design the card... all I had to do was print it on cardstock and seal it in envelopes. That's all I had to do.

If you haven't caught on (and I am a little worried for you if that's the case), no printing or sealing or mailing happened this year. I even gave myself some wiggle room by making it a "New Year's" card. Alas, the farther we plod into 2012, the more ridiculous it seems to send this out. I think my holiday card ship has sailed.

It doesn't mean I can't share it here though, right? I figure enough of the people who would have received it via the US Postal Service read this blog, and I'll allow those who don't to just believe they didn't make the list this year. Serves them right, the unsupportive bastards!

I kid. I kid! We all know I excommunicate all from my life who don't read Running Into Screen Doors... because there is some Pulitzer Prize-worthy writing going on up in here. Pulitzer Prize-worthy.

Happy weekend, everyone, and of course, happy 2012!

Our Festive Christmas Decor in Photos

Yes, occasionally people fall off the face of the earth, which is what happened to me over the last three weeks apparently. I am having major regret that I wasn't able to celebrate the holiday season to the best of my ability, like I normally do, but such is life. My class is finally over, Kyle has a few upcoming days off and I'm getting into the spirit of this special time of year!

Even though we've been at our new place a month, there's still an entire room to be unpacked (yikes!). This, of course, does not mean my Christmas decorations were relegated to said room. Priorities, people, priorities. Granted, doing a quick house tour before showing off my festive decor would probably make more sense, but we're playing catch up and a house tour looks like it won't be in the cards until 2012.

Thus, a speedy and effective Christmas decoration tour of the house of Sutherland (apologies for the slightly blurry shots. We're still trying to figure out the fancy pants camera we bought a couple months ago):

The tree in all its glory. There were some sans Moe,
but you know I can't resist that little guy.

A mixture of gilded pinecones, framed Christmas artwork, ornaments
and Christmas books from childhood.

The wish tree from our wedding I refuse to toss.

Mini glitter birds to decorate the tini branches.

I got some great use out of these pinecones this year.
I originally spray painted them for a baby shower (I still plan on posting about)
and they came in handy for Thanksgiving and Christmas!
Paired in a crystal bowl next to a Diptyque candle... Heaven.

One of my favorite decorations. It's a frame my grandma put together.
There's a Christmas art project from each of her 5 kids during their childhood
(my mom made the Santa in the middle).

Nothing says Christmas like 3 St. Nicks and some Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris.

My tree is bird themed even though in real life I feel birds are rats of the sky.

One of my favorite ornaments. I bought a couple in Vienna a few years ago.
They're simple and pretty.

I love my Santa garlands. Also a find from Vienna.

I hope you've all been having a lovely holiday season and that you are looking forward to what's to come in 2012.

Reflections on December 1st

First off, I've been thrilled at how many people have posted the video of Zach Wahls on Facebook in the last two days. If you believe in love and you believe in equality, what more is there to say, really? I'm happy I know many people who think this to be true.

Second, December 1st marks World AIDS Day. For the first nine years of my life, I was lucky to have a godfather, Chuck; we always called him our "fairy godfather". He'd send me and Ginny stickers in the mail just for the hell of it and would always call to ask about 'his girls.' I really, really loved him (and still do). He died of AIDS in 1993, and my sister and I talk about it now, how when you're a kid and you think you'll live forever, you can't empathize with your parent when she loses her best friend, which is what happened to my mom. It must have been awful for her.

In the early 90's, a lot of people were dying from this disease, and since huge advances in antiretroviral medication treating HIV have lowered death rates in our country significantly, it doesn't get talked about as much. To me, this day is always a good reminder that there are people throughout the world, men, women, children and babies, who do not have access to proper medical care, and die from it all the time. ALL THE TIME.

Finally, it has been an anxiety riddled week, which has bummed me out slightly because to me, this really is the most wonderful time of the year. December 1st (which is today, if you haven't had a chance to look at a calendar) is typically the day Kyle and I get our Christmas tree. I bake cookies, we listen to Sufjan Stevens' Songs for Christmas and decorate like chipper little elves (I may be the only one who resembles a chipper elf during this process, not gonna lie).

However, we're still only done unpacking half our stuff, and until we clear it out, we have to wait to get our magical tree. And start merrymaking festivities, of course.

So at this point I feel I should mention Kyle's mom, Cyndi. I have to say, I really hit the jackpot when it comes to mother-in-laws. She's a very thoughtful person and could tell how stressed I was, as well as bummed to not be enjoying the holidays in my usual style.

Lo and behold, she turned my frown upside down with a little gift yesterday:

Santa Gift Tags from Rifle Paper Co.

Red and white baker's twine (you can get it here).

Kraft paper

Cyndi surprised me with these goodies because (1) she knows how much I love Rifle Paper Co., (2) she also knows how much I love wrapping my Christmas gifts with kraft paper and beautiful twine and (3) she knew I needed cheering up and went out of her way to do so.

And truthfully, it kind of reminded me that at the core of the holiday season, it's not about decorating or music or elves or gifts...

It's about celebrating with the ones you love.

Tooting my Aris Horn

Yup, tooting my own horn to once again stall out my last Africa post. Over the summer, I had the pleasure of helping Trey Russell of Aris on The Coast redesign his website, and I have to say, it turned out fabulous!

 Austen and Ryan over at Unique Eye Marketing not only helped reconfigure the site, they also filmed this clean, artistic intro video which you can watch on the homepage as well.



If you live in south Orange County and haven't had a chance to pop in, do yourself (or the lady in your life) a favor this holiday season. For the woman who loves Alexandre Birman shoes, L'Agence clothing, Barton Perreira sunglasses, Simon Pearce crystal and Diptyque candles all in the same place, Aris is heaven on earth.

If heaven had a stylist, I suppose.

Hope you're having a simply fashionable Tuesday everyone, just like Edde, Aris' resident manager/pug extraordinaire.

I haven't forgotten...

... about this blog!

And don't worry- there's still one more Africa post in the pipe, so get excited (or groan, if you're over hearing about it)!

A couple excuses (because they're always fun):

• Two Thanksgivings and a 90th birthday party for Kyle's Grams.
• Getting a new place and moving into it!
• Trying to finish this course before the end of December. 
• Preparing for a girls weekend (!!!!) with my sister in NYC this weekend.
• And, you know, life in general.

To keep myself from feeling like too much of a blog slacker, here's some Pinterest pinsperation for you while I attempt to not have a nervous breakdown.

This is all well and good, but my new house
is looking AWFULLY sparse without the things...

A little chaos currently at the new abode.

Has this claim been substantiated?

Can someone please tell my husband this?
The complaints I received for the amount of books I own
was a little ridiculous. This is not Fahrenheit 451, people!
And I refuse to buy a Kindle!

Not on the street corner or anything, but you know...

I need a pair of swimming pigs to call my own.

Bed is my mistress currently.

Apparently, Sheniqua is the one hustlin'. This made me L-O-L if you will.

If you love procrastinating on Pinterest as much as I do, you can follow me here.

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving filled with your nearest and dearest.

And We're Off!

Today's the day... Africa, I hope you're wearing your big girl panties, because here we come!

As promised, a Halloween inspired post before we head out to the airport, over and then out of the country (I'm so giddy and pumped full of caffeine that I can barely even type this).

I've always loved a good game of dress up.

I'm pretty certain we thought we were uber-glamourous.

Costumes, makeup, accents, theme parties... the whole nine. I love it, I love it, I love it! Thus, when it comes to Halloween and getting dolled up, I'm always down. Furthermore, I'm a UCSB alum and if you know anything about my alma mater, it's that we know how to do All Hallow's Eve the right way. En serio.

Photos you won't be seeing: my costumes from sophomore and junior year. The first was Tom Cruise from Risky Business, which of course means all business on top and no pants on the bottom.

Junior year's was rather inspired and the way it came together was almost serendipitous. My friend Matt and I were trolling State Street in Santa Barbara when we decided to go into Salvation Army. There I found a great Red Cross volunteer coat that reached to just upper thigh level. I paired it with knee high black leather boots, black booty shorts and a garter belt.

When my grandmother saw the pictures a month later, she said, "Well, you looked cute honey, but I think you forgot your pants."

Halloween 2002: Viking towel guy, German girl, Austin Powers

Halloween 2005: Abraham Lincoln and 80's girl (?)

Halloween 2005: Me as my roommate and German boy

Halloween 2005 (I dressed up 5 nights in a row that year): A whole lot is going on here.

Halloween 2005: As pizza girls, we carried jello shots in the boxes. Matt plays Bob Barker (scarily well, might I add).

Halloween 2008: Flapper and a little cat.

This pumpkin looks like Chevy Chase, am I right?

Halloween 2009: Sherlock Homie and Amelia Earhart (with Dog as her Co-Pilot)

Halloween 2009: Some amazing costumes to be admired.

Halloween 2010: Sherlock Homie (eye roll... AGAIN?), Miss Piggy and Grumpy Bear.

A zombie leg created fun whilst waiting in line.

I actually found a Kermit on the street! I have no clue who this guy is.

The whole gang, Halloween 2010.

Thanksgiving 2010... Yeah... I really meant it when I said I love to dress up.

Needless to say, I don't have the balls to go pantless anymore.

Another thing we'll be missing this year is the annual pumpkin carving party we throw. It would have been our third annual, but I'm kind of ok with, you know, us leaving for Africa in a couple hours.

Did I mention how excited I am already? Yes? 

I'm excited.

2010's clear cut winner. It turns out Matt is not only an amazing lawyer, but a talented artist as well.

"Ladies Fingers" soft pretzels I make each year (with marinara blood, naturally).

Our Halloween tree and some delicious banana cupcakes!

The spread. One of my faves? The "Don't Drink & Fly" napkins.

Trick or Treat, everyone, and see you on the flip side...