02. I rarely ever shop in actual stores anymore, but when I do I prefer shopping alone.

03. In real life, I swear like a sailor :X

04. I am terrified of praying mantises. THEY'RE JUST SO CREEPY.

05. Even though I'm full Mexican, I can't handle spicy foods.

06. I am lactose intolerant. Which sucks, because I love cheese & ice cream so I'm constantly having to pop Lactaid pills. Glenn calls them my "grandma pills."

07. When I was younger, my family used to *force* me to sing Linda Ronstadt's "Los Laureles" at every family function. Sometimes, they still do.

08. I have never been wakeboarding, snowboarding or skiing. Not because I don't want to, but it's just never happened, for whatever reason.

09. Before I was a fancy nerd I was a plain nerd, too. In high school I took mainly all AP courses and took college English my senior year. I loved school until I got to college, then I hated it.

10. Most of the time I only ever eat half of whatever is on my plate. I'll always pack up leftovers but rarely remember to eat them.

11. My favorite movie of all time is Jurassic Park (the original).

02. If you had to be on a reality tv show which one would it be? Toddlers & Tiara's--so I could personally punch every single one of those mom's in the mouth.

03. What's the story behind your name? My mom actually wanted to name me Sarah, after her best friend and use Elizabeth as my middle name, but my dad said he liked Elizabeth as a first name better. I didn't get a middle name, and nobody calls me Elizabeth, except my mom when I'm in trouble.

04. What was the first concert you went to? Ha, I stated this as my first random fact, above. Sadly it was a Ricky Martin concert I attended with my godmother when I was around 12 or 13. LAME.

05. Who inspires you most right now? Currently I'm really inspired by the work of Kacie Yates.

06. What was your first job? My very first job was working as an admin assistant during summer school at my high school (told you I was a nerd).

07. What famous person do people say you look like? I used to get Emmanuelle Chriqui a lot when I was thinner, lol.

08. When you were first asked what you wanted to be when you grew up what did you say? A news anchor. I actually pursued journalism & a Communications degree in school for a long time.

09. What magazines do you subscribe to? None anymore, but I used to be obsessed with Real Simple.

10.What was your favorite color as a kid. How about now? When I was a kid, pretty sure it was pink. Now its seafoam green.

11. What's your favorite way to celebrate something? With champagne of course!

I happened to be one of those lucky nerds and received my letter "F" and a thoughtful note from Mary Kate late last week. "F" is also my last name initial so its an extra sweet surprise.

Thank you, Mary Kate!

Bedroom details
Comforter - Target
"Oh My" Pillowcase - Stuff Kara Made
Twinkle lights - CVS drugstore
Antlers - ebay + DIY
Yellow *flowers* - DIY {similar tutorial}

Early Saturday afternoon I hopped in my car & drove the hour & a half to meet/visit my friend Hillary in San Francisco. I'm always so nervous meeting "internet" friends for the first time but I knew I shouldn't have worried--we got along famously and had a blast snacking on tapas at Thirsty Bear, talking design, catching {and missing} buses and heaps of girl talk. It's so refreshing to meet another like-minded female creative; we are a lot alike! She's the best & I adore her.

Turns out Saturday was also Chinese New Year and the city was abuzz preparing for a massive parade that evening. I didn't think much of it, until it was time for me to leave. I don't know whose idea it was to block off the main streets leading to the freeways {major city event planning fail} but I literally drove in VERY SLOW circles for an hour. People filled the streets and pretended there weren't cars there trying to get around. I'm terrible at driving in busy cities as it is, let alone one that I don't frequent that often. At one point my little 4 cylinder car was stuck on an incline for 10 minutes and I srsly thought my car was going to die. Ultimately, I panicked and had to ask a passerby how the hell to get out of there, and luckily Hillary was able to guide me through the detour over the phone. Phew.

After my SF driving nightmare, I literally got home and was there for 5 minutes before heading out to see my friends Jack and White perform at their EP release show. Music is and has always been something that brings my group of friends together and I'm really happy that even after all these years, that simple fact remains. Such fond memories with these people.

The next day Glenn & I headed over to his parents' house to have lunch & visit the fur babies aka Walter's best friends. Please love how Walter just lounges to the max during car rides.

This is Walter & his BFF Smokey just hanging out on top of the couch like a couple of cats. Smokey only has three legs, one eye and can still kick Walter's butt when he gets too rowdy. Srsly, look how buff he is.

Here's one of Glenn's step-mom Steph & I, before lunch at The Yardhouse. Isn't she pretty? I call her MIL {mother in law} even though technically that's not the case. Yet. And yes, I'm wearing my beloved MAE hoodie. Not everyday is a fashion blogging day.

After our visit with the parents we trekked up the hill to Colfax, to visit Glenn's cousin Drew aka his best friend. Colfax is just far enough away to escape city life & just veg out. Aunt Debbie made tacos and we all watched the season premier of The Walking Dead. Did you guys watch? It was so good!

01// A super thoughtful & insightful article on friendship.

02// Carmen's Top 5 Fake Jobs made me laugh pretty hard.

03// So cool! Katie shares a screencast of her latest owl doodle. This inspires me to better learn Illustrator.

04// Brooke gives us a little behind the scenes look at recording an album in her home. I miss my friends in these photos!

05// I'm really loving this look on Mara. I have a long cardigan in that color too and she's inspiring me to try new ways to wear it.

Hello, strangers. I took this week off from blogging because I needed a little break and have been busy {as always}. But I'll be back starting tomorrow, with a fresh round of Link Bytes.

In the meantime, scroll on down my sidebar and check out the new sections I added. I don't know where my brain went but I realized I hadn't made share badge widgets to match my {now, not-so} new blog design. I whipped up a couple; feel free to grab one if you'd like. I also installed a couple of fancy plugins for my two obsessions: Instagram & Pinterest for those of you who want to keep up with me on those spaces, via my blog.

I hope everyone is having a good week; see y'all soon! XO

01 // I'm loving Eli's literary take on fashion.

02 // Diana does it again & shows us her latest jaw-dropping home decor--a pink chalkboard door! {hey, that rhymed}

03 // I got inspired by Erin's antler painting party & ordered my own deer antlers from ebay this week. I can't wait to break out the paints this weekend & share the results!

04 // The cutest baby-on-the-way video announcement I have ever seen. {via}

05 // I was recently reminded about this great site for unique products. It reminds me of Twitter but for really neat, kooky things.