Valentine season is upon us and love is in the air! Wait, is that love or just oppressive forces of American consumerism telling us that the only way to show your love is to buy a ton of meaningless crap, none of which anyone needs? :)

Well, one nice part of the holiday that doesn't revolve around marketing campaigns is it does encourage you to connect with those you love. A nice way to connect (especially with your long distance friends/family/secret lovers) is through a good old-fashioned hand written card, don't you think?

Stupid Card // Be Kind // Wouldn't Last // Thank You

I have a recent obsession with Emily McDowell - her cards are beautiful, whimsical, and (most importantly to me) funny! 

Browse through her stuff for design inspiration! She also has awesome tote bags. (If I didn't have an entirely too many bags, I'd go for this one. (See note above about American consumerism.)) My second-favorite part of Valentine's Day? Candy heart consumption, natch.

Jollifiers: Fun Free Apps

Happy Friday! Wishing you a fun-filled first weekend of December! I am going to Stephen's company Christmas party tonight, meaning I had to buy XXXXXXXL tights this morning at Target and pray to God they're long enough. They won't be. Even on the back of the tights it said I was basically buying tights for people who were, you know, essentially obese and were between 5' 7" - 5' 11". BECAUSE EVERYONE JUST STOPS GROWING ONCE THEY HIT FIVE ELEVEN. Duh.

Flashback Friday to when I wrote an entire diatribe against pantyhose. I actually tried on a jump suit to avoid wearing the annual Christmas party tights this year. The jump suit was (shockingly) not long enough in the torso. Aka it was like buying a $100 wedgie from Shop Bop. I passed. Ill-fitting tights it is. I'll never understand why the entire fashion industry (which chooses to use exclusively tall models) doesn't make clothes that fit IRL tall girls.

ANYWAY. Jollifiers is just when I share little things that bring me joy in my life :) Aka NOT TIGHTS.

This week, I wanted to share a few fun (and free!) apps, I have these on my iPhone or iPad, but I assume they work on Android products as well:


1. DUOLINGO: Learn a language!

This is an awesome app with the cutest little owl coach where you can take language lessons in the form of games! If you've always wanted to learn a language, this is a fun way to start. You can set goals for how many minutes you want to spend per day on your language. I'm working on Spanish (to be honest, I've kind of been on a long break from it at this point...) but hope to get back into it soon.

(I can't remember who told me about this one...maybe Clark. If so, thanks Clark! If not, thanks whoever and hi Clark!)

2. WUNDERLIST: Conquer (and share!) all types of lists.

I believe my friend Meaghan told me about this one -- it's the coolest! You can make lists and then share them with others. For example, Stephen and I have one "Groceries" list. Gone are the days of "remember to write that on the list when we get home" or "oh shoot! I forgot the list on the fridge!" On our most recent grocery store trip, we just split up and actively checked off items. It was then really easy for me to find him -- I went to the aisle of the only thing left on the list :)

It can also be used for fun thing as well! I have a "Movies to Watch" "Places to Go" and "Books to Read" List. Obviously, you don't have to share your lists. My Movies list is shared with Stephen since we'll watch those together, but my books list isn't since I'll read those alone :) A very fun app that I highly recommend. Thanks for the recommendation, Meaghan!

3. OVERDRIVE: Audio books......for free!

My friend Fran told me about this one (thanks, Fran!) Lots of people have heard about Audible, where you can pay to listen to audio books. Well, Overdrive takes that concept and library-izes it. Literally. This one's free but you need a library card. You find your library, find a book, enter your library card number, get it for 7 days, and listen away.

The app just automatically "takes it back" from you, so you don't have to worry about returning it. I checked out Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and listened to it on my drive back from Chicago a few weekends ago. It was a cool way to get exposed to Tolstoy without actually reading Tolstoy ;)


That's it for today! Any other cool apps I should know about that I don't? Free is good, but I'm also willing to drop like $1.99 for something exceptionally cool ;) Happy weekend, friends!

p.s. My favorite app? Probably instagram. I'm on quite the gramming kick lately. (Mostly cat pics.)

Tywin also wants you to have a happy weekend, and also doesn't understand tights. (I'm fully expecting him to basically claw them to pieces, as he sometimes does with my jeans. haha)

Jollifiers: T-Shirt Quilt

Do you have a gigantic pile of T-shirts slowly taking over your bedroom? Well, I have an idea for you!

I haven't blogged much about objects on here because it doesn't come naturally for me to muster enthusiasm surrounding a product (I'm all about splurging on experiences though, like, you know, eating dessert) -- but I was recently reading this post over on Cup of Jo that uses the term "jollifier" which are things in your home that make you smile when you see them.* And I liked that concept! So I thought it might be fun to start doing the occasional post on my life's little jollifiers (to share ideas of things you may want or even gift ideas for the holidays.)

So my problem (insane amount of gym tees) officially turned into a "jollifier" (object that makes me happy) this weekend. My mom's friend, Joan, hand made me a quilt with a bunch of my old tee shirts. It turned out beautifully (especially considering what she was working with)! What a great transformation! Here it is:

It's pretty big! On a king bed for these photos. It was made to use on a couch as a throw blanket. A pretty nice weight, not too heavy, not too light. My first custom quilt!

The stitch used is called the "meandering" stitch. Isn't it fun? Free-flowing but still consistent and professional-looking. Learning all this quilt lingo** made me want to pick up a needle and thread. (Of course, I own neither of those things.) Also, sorry to rub in your face that I was the Beaver County Bantam Basketball 5th Grade Champion in 2000 (or Y2K as we cool people called it.) When you accomplish something that special, it needs to be immortalized and bragged about to other lesser-accomplished beings. You wouldn't understand. (Unless you, too, possess a shirt of such splendor.)

Yesterday was not the best day to celebrate my Steelers fandom, but every day is a great day to celebrate my Rock Solid AAU basketball team, my Bucknell Bison-ness, attending Madison elementary school in Iowa, and a mediocre track career at Hopewell High.

I just love it! If you (or a friend/family member) have an overwhelming number of tees, this is a GREAT thing to do with them. It also encouraged me to donate a bunch of old ratty shirts, because the exercise of choosing the shirts for the quilt made me reflect on which were my favorites, and which probably needed to be donated (or turned into rags) years ago.

LET'S GO PENS!

The quilt took a few months to make (As I said, made by a friend - thanks again, Joan!), but there are many services on the internet that offer t-shirt blankets as well. Most of the internet ones are ~$500 so I'd recommend googling local quilters in your area who offer custom-quilt services. I searched around Madison and quite a few local quilters offer this service. It may be a little too late to order one in time for a Christmas gift, but it's never too early to start the process. If you're thinking of making your own (more power to you!) a few tips: note how she made all squares the same size. She did this by choosing the biggest one, and then adding borders to smaller shirts. Also, she sewed them all together and then sent them to a quilter to do the meandering stitch.

No matter what time of year you get yours, it's such a nice thing to have around the apartment - filled with memories.

The whole thing! 20 T-Shirts. This shot involved standing on a chair (and almost hitting my head on the ceiling fan.)
The things I do for you. ;)

--

p.s. I just started reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering by Marie Kondo, and she is also all for only having items that "spark joy."

p.p.s. Just so you know, I'm actively reading 3 books simultaneously (so when I said I was reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn that is also true. :) I've been slowly reading multiple books. Strange method, but keeps things eclectic.)

*Term coined by Deborah Needleman who wrote The Perfectly Imperfect Home. (which I haven't read)
**I learned two quilting terms. I forget the other one. But that is certainly one heck of a meandering stitch.