luck of the irish

2011: Dublin, Ireland | 2012: Lynchburg, Virginia | 2013: Paris, France | 2014: Rome, Italy

Happy, happy St. Patrick's Day.

This day is stirring up some mighty lucky and lovely memories of my marriage. Travels and parties and smiles fill my mind like shamrock confetti. This day has been very good to us. I have always adored St. Patrick's Day, because growing up as an O'Neil it was a rather fun and celebratory part of my heritage. My dad would always capitalize on our surname, and we'd all eat corned beef and cabbage and wear way too much green. It was the best.

Dusty came into my life in high school, and he was brought into the Irish fold. He would come over and enjoy our over-the-top celebrations. One year we had Irish soda bread, Irish cream coffee, Scottish eggs, Guinness stew... we made the Dublin population jealous with our enthusiasm.

2009: home sweet Arizona.

I find myself feeling incredibly nostalgic today. Every St. Patrick's Day so far in our 4 years of marriage has been a magical mystery tour of new places and experiences. 2015 has been a year of change and heartache and adjustment, reacquainting ourselves with adulthood and life in Arizona. So it's fitting that we're here, calmly celebrating with family. It's a great time to wear green and look forward, to cherish each other and share confetti-filled dreams.

P.S. Some Irish music/bands to listen to today: 

New: Bear's Den | Kodaline | Needtobreathe

Favorites: P.S. I Love You soundtrack | The Corrs | Enya | Flogging Molly

Or you can go full Celtic and listen to songs like I'll Tell My Ma, Black Is The Colour, Drunken Sailor, Scarborough Fair, Molly Malone (Cockles and Muscles).

beautiful things

post: why we camp,

This has quite possibly been one of the darkest weeks of my life.

It's difficult because it's almost entirely internal. I can write about it and try to express it, but I place a mask on my face every single day as I go to work and interact with others. I focus on small things and make jokes to my friends and watch comedy shows and movies constantly. It's a very lonely feeling, a very personal struggle. I tend to cry on my way home from work and before I go to sleep. Those are the moments when I have time to myself to grieve. To be quite honest, I have been listening almost exclusively to Enya (a sure sign of brokenness) at work and hardly getting anything done. These days are very blurry and strange. I feel very tired. But I also know that life must go on and time is passing by whether I want it to or not. I realize I'm taking this very hard, and I must pull myself out of it somehow. 

Grief, prayer, acceptance, tribute, hope, love. 

Back in November I wrote a blog post called Stamps of Life. Something led me to reread that piece this morning, and I am now a puddle. Oh, my little November self, if only you knew. Thank goodness you didn't, because you were able to write something that your February self needed very, very badly. 

Here are some of my stamps of life. 

Beautiful moments, scenes of love, colorful pictures of memories that last and transform. 

Oh, Lord, you make beautiful things. Beautiful things out of the dust.

chapel hill

post: wanderlust wednesday

fall in virginia

bazille and camille by claude monet

parliament building in london, england

spring in virginia

ceiling details in florence, italy

smokey the cat

post: cypress gardens

epcot center, disney world

bike in paris, france

blowing rock, north carolina

the cayman islands

post: to be a writer

animal kingdom, disney world

dalkey, ireland

kilkenny, ireland

remix: bright tights

 original posts:

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7 // 8 // 9 // 10

Now that it's officially Fall, I thought a nice little cool-weather remix was in order. (Despite the 90-degree days we're still living in here in AZ).
Last year I had so much fun during the Fall and Winter months swapping out my tights. The brighter, the better. I haven't really employed any patterned tights at this point, since most of my clothing is pretty pattern-heavy, but I do love playing around with colorful tights!
Tights are my key to making my dresses last all year round. I don't quarantine my skirts or dresses or any particular colors to only one season - I think there are ways to remix and utilize my favorites no matter what the weather is!
At this point I would have to say my favorites are orange and purple. I'm excited to pull them out and start remixing them again - even if I have to wait until Thanksgiving for cooler temps!

wanderlust wednesday

Killiney Hill. Southern boundary of Dublin Bay, Ireland. March, 2011. 


I have no doubt that I will return to Ireland someday. It has bewitched me, which is why I am sharing, quite fittingly, photos of the "Witches Hat" obelisk atop Killiney Hill.
My husband and I returned to Ireland together a few months after our wedding. We had been once before with my family in the winter, which was all snow and enchantment and exploration. That's where we got engaged, in the stunning, blustery gardens of Powerscourt Estate.
This trip, just he and I, was in the spring of 2011, a little over a year later. It was an entirely different world, and took us to many new places. It was our very first traveling experience without adults. Oh the bravery and the folly and the whimsy! And most especially the gosh darn GPS who (we named her Julie) was intent on our destruction.

Our first day there we took our little rental car and parked at the base of Killiney Hill. We hiked up the wooded walkway, the sunshine streaming in rivulets through the branches, taking our time. Once we reached the top, it was incredibly quiet and the views were cool and hazy. We spent over an hour just sitting in the grass, soaking up the view and allowing the Witches Hat to tell us her many stories.

my style addiction

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I think it's safe to say that my style addiction is mixing prints and patterns!

I love accidentally finding bold ensembles that somehow seem meant to be. I know it's risky and it's a style choice not everyone would make -- but I love mixing things up and seeing the way stripes compliment florals, and the way polka dots love being absolutely everywhere.
There are rules, of course -- but mostly I think they're meant to be bent.
I generally like to stick with:

1. Two prints only -- unless you're feeling super crazy.
2. Treat polka dots like neutrals because they should always be invited to the party.
3. Choose prints within the same color scheme.
4. Mix big patterns with little patterns.

These are not all-inclusive, of course -- each pattern-mixing outfit I wear usually sticks to one or two of these rules, not all of them at once. I'd also say that I often treat stripes as a neutral as well, and basically any black and white pattern. I love the way a black and white striped sweater looks with a loud, colorful print.

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I think it's the experimenting that I love the most, and the way my eyes are drawn to ensembles while scrolling through my closet. It makes me wish I had a closet like Cher from Clueless. 

I think patterns were meant to be mixed, colors to be scrambled and worn and paraded.

What do you think about pattern mixing? Would you do it? And if so, what rules would you stand by?

If not -- what is your style addiction?

#mystyleaddiction