Big Friendship, Big Love & Big Grief

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I’ve never really been into Valentine’s Day.

Well, I should clarify, romantically. I am all for fake holidays. I have been known to throw National Cookie Day parties and celebrate National Ice Cream day like the holiday deserves. So Valentine’s has always been a good excuse to buy chocolate (50% off the next day!), send friends cutesy, punny, ridiculous cards that are targeted for children, and obviously celebrate my gals like Leslie Knope taught us. Even the times I happened to have a boyfriend for the occasion, February 14th felt the same as July 17th or November 3rd. In my book, you never need an excuse for a cute card or surprise chocolate. That happens year round.

 

But this year I found myself ordering Valentine’s Day gifts a month ahead of time. I planned an epic galentines (guys and girls!) virtual Netflix party, complete with the same snacks from Target being delivered to all our doors. I scoured Etsy to find the perfect chocolate treat to show up on my friend’s porch. I venmoed some of my favorite ladies a surprise coffee-on-me Saturday morning surprise. Valentine’s, this year, felt as exciting as Christmas.

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SINGLE-handedly Surviving Wedding Season (Again)

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As weddings have taken up so much of my life lately, I figured maybe they should take up a lot of my blog as well. Here’s a special wedding season series – some questions I get asked (or ones I don’t), some things I survived, some truths I’ve been learning. And, an extra bonus: one very special wedding!

“Saturday is opening day!!”

“Opening day for what?” my friend texted back.

“Krysti’s Wedding Season 2016.”

It’s been a running joke with my friends, how many weddings I keep getting invited to. Every time I say “Oh, I can’t that day! I have a wedding” or “I’ll be out of town that weekend, I have a friend’s wedding” the reply is typically “of course you do”.

It’s funny to me, because I know some people who are invited to way more. It’s funny to me, because people assume I’m just so popular (promise, I’m not). It’s funny to me, because it’s the exact same place I was in last summer: 7 invitations, 5 attendances, 0 dates. Soo, same time next year? Read More

Can We Stop Hating on Valentine’s Day?

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Every year around the beginning of February, the same things happen: The gym gets a little less crowded, as people have given up on their New Year’s Resolutions. Pumpkin-flavored-everything fades from people’s minds. The stores get coated in shades of pink. People start making long rants about how they hate Valentine’s Day.

Single or in a relationship, I hear people go on and on about this horrible day. This stupid holiday. This annoying, money wasting, relationship breaking issue. And I’m here to ask… can we stop with the hate? I don’t get it.  I really, really don’t. Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be your favorite holiday. It doesn’t even have to make your top 5. But do we really have to hate it?! It’s a day dedicated to love, after all. Read More

Dressember 18: Simple is Beautiful

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For the month of December – in honor of Dressember – I’ll be blogging everyday! Thoughts on anything from fighting for justice to feminism, from dresses I’m wearing to books I’m reading, and everything in between. 

A friend of mine got me a TOMS coffee mug last year for Christmas (a mug? coffee? TOMS? all my favorite things!). Besides being adorable, it has a little mantra stamped around the rim that I appreciate: simple is beautiful.

Here’s a confession: mornings suck. That’s not really a secret, is it? But the absolute best part of my pre-coffee morning time (which, let’s be real, I try to make as short as possible) is getting to decide what mug I’m going to use that day. About 80% of my mugs are gifts from friends, which I love, and 100% of them have a story that goes with them. So every morning I get to decide which memory to revisit, which friend to think about. Yes, it’s a little weird and I’m very sleep deprived while doing so, but it’s my routine.

My coffee took a little longer to make than usual today (sometimes I boil too much water at a time, sigh), and I was thinking that simple IS beautiful. But we forget that too often. At least I do. A single flower, on its own, can be as beautiful as a bouquet. A short compliment, when genuine, can be just as nice as a long love letter. An hour of quality time with your best friend can be just as great as a whole day spent together. Sometimes we focus on magnitude, on the quantity, and forget about the essence.  Read More

Dressember 13: You’re Actually Horrible

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For the month of December – in honor of Dressember – I’ll be blogging everyday! Thoughts on anything from fighting for justice to feminism, from dresses I’m wearing to books I’m reading, and everything in between. 

I’m currently reading The Problem of Pain by CS Lewis, and (like most of his books) it’s so, so good and so, so dense. Sometimes I can spend 10 minutes on a page. Full honesty: I’ve started this book 3 times this year and could never get through the first chapter. I’m now on chapter 5, so there is hope!

He talks about how we can’t fully grasp the good news of the gospel – the good news that we are perfectly loved – until we fully grasp how utterly horrible of a being we are. Not humankind in general, but ourselves as individuals. It’s kind of a harsh idea, really.  Read More