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This year, H finally convinced me to visit Pakistan, and I in turned convinced my brother to join us. The trip spanned about 2 weeks (3 for H) in December, and we travelled as a pack of 7 (my in-laws, me + H, and my brother). We flew into Karachi and visited Lahore during our trip. To call the trip life-changing would be an understatement for me. My brother and I hadn't been back in 16 years, and hadn't spoken to a lot of our family since then. Additionally, this was my first time meeting much of H's family in person. With countless family visits, introductions, parties, weddings, and sightseeing trips, the trip is probably best summarized in the video below!

pakistan 2018: the highlights

Wednesday, December 26, 2018


I made this quick and super simple DIY birthday card for my father-in-law earlier this week. I've attempted watercolor lettering in the past and have decided it's one of those things I'll need to take lessons for because it's incredibly difficult. In the meantime, I've found a little cheat to make it look you have awesome painting skills and incredibly steady hands. All you'll need are washable markers (Crayola works), a thin paintbrush, and water. 


On a card or paper that is watercolor proof, letter using the markers. Next, dip the brush into water and lightly paint in the letters using water. If the water beads and sits on the paper, give it a few minutes to soak into the paper and create a watercolor effect. 



After the water dries, you can go in and redo the lettering to add even more of a watercolor effect. The end result leaves you with a beautifully lettered card that leaves everything thinking you've got major skills (which, you do). 

DIY watercolor lettered card

Sunday, November 25, 2018



After struggling to find a way to organize my delicate necklaces without having them get tied together and spending forever undoing the knots, I came up with this super simple DIY necklace hanger. It's an easy way to keep your jewelry untangled and serves as a eye-catching display (and yes, I have not one, but two serotonin molecule necklaces).

Materials:
- Wooden plank (I bought mine from Michael's for about $3)
- Nails (as many as you think you'll need; 1 per necklace and an extra to hang the product)
- Hammer
- Acrylic paint(s) of your choice (I also used a paint pen for the cheetah spots)
- Mod podge to use as a gloss
- Twine or yarn



I started with painting a base on the wood. After it dried, I went back over it and painted ombre cheetah spots for an eye-catching design. Although I painted the spots after I hammered in the nails, I would recommend finishing painting completely before you proceed with the nails. I hammered the nails a bit haphazardly and randomly for some variation. Lastly, I went back and outlined the cheetah spots with a black paint pen to make the design pop out more. To create a glossly look, I recommend going over the final product with Mod Podge (but only after the acrylic paint has completely dried so you don't smear it!)


I hammered a nail on the top back of the wood and used twine to create a loop so that all I would need would be a push pin to hang the final product. After everything dries, your necklaces will be ready to store and display without getting tangled!

DIY necklace hanger

Friday, November 16, 2018


After a long (too long) break from colored pencils, I bought a fresh set of Prismacolor colored pencils about a year ago. The next task was to find the perfect picture to sketch, which was really difficult. I wanted to find something detailed that would be a fun challenge to sketch with vibrant colors. I immediately saved this photo I found on Instagram with sketching it out in mind. 

a place to sit among a plethora of plants

Saturday, October 20, 2018

Inspired by the pearl takeover that started last year (slides, sweaters, jeans, and bags) and feels like it's still going strong, this DIY pearl headband is super easy to make and harkens back to statement headbands a la Blair Waldorf circa 2009. Nearly 10 years later, headbands are my jam again, and the more blingy, the better. Lele Sadoughi offers a beautiful pearl headband, but if $150 isn't something that you can justify for a product that you could make yourself, you've come to the right place!

DIY pearl headband

Sunday, October 14, 2018


When it comes to art, I would say that 100% of the time, the way I imagine the piece turning out is not how it turns out. Although it sounds frustrating, it's actually one of my favorite things about creating something. It starts with an idea, and then the process takes you where it wants to take you- kind of like being in therapy. Art is a conversation, and you don't know where it will take you. This piece was of course no exception.

blue gems

Saturday, October 13, 2018


Inspired by the following French influences in my life as of late: a Phoenix concert and subsequently having their music on repeat all week, H recently finishing a podcast on the French Revolution (and telling me a ton about it), and following Paris Fashion Week highlights.

style breakdown: feeling Parisian

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Ok, so after I passionately shared how I didn't want to promote (large, corporate) brands on my blog when talking about style and fashion, I realized there would have to be a caveat when talking about style as a part of seasonal transitions because most of what I post is pulled from websites and not my own pictures. Unless I purchase all of what I'm talking about, there's really no way to avoid it. With fall coming up very soon, here's a list of some things I'm feeling for the upcoming season.

1. Asymmetrical earrings: This trend kind of has a tendency to come and go, and often sticks with small, delicate earrings (liked a moon and star). However, I love the idea of taking it one step further and having mismatched large(r) earrings.

Image from Amazon

2. Padded headbands: It's been 11 years since Gossip Girl first aired, about 8 years since I got over my subsequent headband phase, and now just a few months since I've rediscovered my love for them. Velvet padded headbands are a stylish way a la Blair Waldorf to herald in the cooler weather.

Image from Free People

3. Giant gems: This really speaks for itself. The more colorful, the better.

Image from Roxanne Assoulin

4. Multicolor baguette rings: If too much color is too much for you, single colored baguette rings have their own elegance to them. Stacking single colored rings also makes for a statement piece. Etsy has a pretty sizable selection of handmade and/or vintage ones.

Image from Etsy

5. A good, structured blazer: One of the most difficult things to find in terms of finding one that fits well, has a nice pattern, and isn't more than a quarter of your month's rent. The more it looks like it was something your dad wore in the 70's, the better. Preferably more browns than blacks/grey. Bonus points for elbow patches. Double bonus points times infinity if it's actually your dad's blazer from the 70's that you had tailored to fit you.

Image from Neiman Marcus 

What are you feeling for fall 2018? (she echoed into the void that is her blog's comment section)

what i'm feeling for: fall 2018

Friday, September 21, 2018



After taking the ferry back from Hvar to Split, the plan was to drive from Split to Dubrovnik for the last city on our list (kind of). I had added Mostar in Bosnia as a maybe on our list if we had the time and weren't super tired. We didn't have the time, were super tired, but still decided to make a pit stop in Mostar, and it was one of the best spontaneous decisions of the trip (minus the incredibly scary drive down the mountains in Bosnia to Dubrovnik, but more on that ahead).

croatia 2018: the drive to dubrovnik (+ a stop in bosnia)

Thursday, September 13, 2018


We have been fortunate enough to have a rather large balcony that came with our apartment. Unfortunately, however, it has come accompanied with an in-your-face view of the parking garage. To find a way to make use of the space in a way that invited more green and distracted from the concrete eyesore across a patch of grass, I've placed a variety of plants on the balcony (21 plants to be exact). While I've spent most of the summer learning which plants can stand Dallas summer days with highs of 107 degrees, there is one plant in particular I've found very suitable for a beginning gardener: the tropical Mandevilla. Keep reading to see how I created a very simple DIY trellis to make even more room for this beautiful plant's voracious vining.

DIY garden trellis

Monday, August 27, 2018

style breakdown: (surprise) dinner

Sunday, August 19, 2018


After close to 24 hours in Split, we took a ferry with room for our car and headed over to the island of Hvar. By the afternoon in Split, we were wiped from walking around in the heat and took the 1.5 hour ferry ride as a prime opportunity to caffeinate and nap. The ferry brought us into Stari Grad (one of the oldest towns in Europe), and we began our ~30 minute drive to the city of Hvar, where we would be staying overnight.

croatia 2018: hvar

Monday, August 13, 2018

After much deliberation, I have decided (with the help of an Instagram poll), to start a sartorial section on the blog! I was, and have been, conflicted for some time about whether or not to add a style section to the blog. There's a lot of things I wanted to consider if I did decide to pursue it, and I want to briefly explain them on here as I add this part to the blog. 

style breakdown: murakami at the modern art museum of ft. worth

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Split as seen from the line for the ferry

croatia 2018: split

Saturday, July 21, 2018

Our day in Plitvice Lakes was the day that I had been looking forward to the most on our trip, and it did not disappoint. The park was even more beautiful than what I had seen in pictures as I was planning the trip, and is probably the most beautiful natural scenery I have ever seen. If you're ever headed to Croatia, or anywhere near it, this park is an absolute must on the list of things to do.

croatia 2018: plitvice lakes national park

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

St. Mark's Church

This year, H and I (mostly I since it was my turn to pick our destination, although H will disagree) decided to visit Croatia! I had a very difficult time deciding where to visit, with a close contender being Iceland. However, Croatia was an appealing option for many reasons. Most importantly, we have a limited time frame which for me means a maximum of 5 weekdays off, for a total of 9 days of travel time. Picking an international destination for this period of time of course means factoring atleast a total of 2 days to actually get to and from the destination. After visiting Japan last year and realizing that 7 days in a foreign country would almost never be enough time, I set out to find a more manageable trip that could also been just a week long. Additional benefits were the price point, good weather, not really knowing anything about the culture (positive for me since it's a chance to learn), and a good mix of natural beauty/outdoorsy things, which is what I prefer, and historical things, what is what H prefers.

The trip itself was an especially exhausting one partly due to my lack of complete planning, and partly because of coming down with a sinus infection while on the trip. Other highlights included us realizing we could accidentally burn out our breaks if we didn't drive properly with a manual (thank you to the friends who told us about that) and H learning how to drive a manual while on a mountain, a freakish thunderstorm on our drive to Dubrovnik, and a mysterious rash H came down with. I will be dividing our Croatia posts up by city and in chronological order, starting with the city we flew in and out of, Zagreb!

croatia 2018: zagreb

Saturday, May 12, 2018


I never could think of a title for this piece (atleast not yet), but when I started it, all I knew was that I wanted a red background.

geometric art

Thursday, April 5, 2018


Weddings are a perfect excuse to practice some modern calligraphy (really, who needs an excuse anyway though). I did this custom order for a friend and her fiancé, who are getting married later this month. The idea was simple- have booklets at each table in which guests can leave messages for the new couple (the year number coincides with the table number). Each year, they will have a little booklet full of message from loved ones to read on their anniversary. I thought this idea was so cute, I wish I had come across it for my and H's wedding!

DIY wedding anniversary journals

Friday, March 9, 2018



Ever since getting back into painting at the end of last year (more posts to come on that later), my itch to paint more and more has taken on a life of it's own. That combined with working a month of night shifts recently has meant painting all night on my nights off after H goes to bed. Having a huge chunk of hours to just paint is a refreshing change of pace, even if it comes with sometimes deafening solitude since everyone else is asleep. I took advantage of the extra hours when I can't leave the house since nothing is open, and worked on this project for one of my co-residents and her sister. I've never done a piece specifically for someone, so this was an exciting first.



The only request for the piece was the actual woman in the middle (as inspired by another piece, but curvier). The rest was up to me. I wanted to make sure she was the focal point of the piece, but with such a huge space (the canvas is 3' x 4'), I wasn't sure what to do for the background that wouldn't distract from her. I'm always partial to colorful pieces, so I wanted to incorporate that in the background as much as possible. I opted for a geometric pattern to contrast and help the woman stand out, while keeping it colorful. Measuring and sketching out the background on a grid was painstaking, but so worth it.

I titled it "Unapologetic".




a piece for a friend

Saturday, March 3, 2018

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