Help Me Pack!

I'm so excited that in a couple days I will be headed to Arizona to visit my grandmother, celebrate the 90th birthday of one my great aunts, and visit with family that I haven't seen in a few years.

But in the meantime, I've been falling asleep dreaming of layered-up looks and pack-able outfits.  The trip will be 6 days and 5 nights.  After checking the weather, the highs are 60s/70s and the lows mid 40s.  I will need a fancy outfit for the party, an outfit or two for the plane ride and, of course, many more in between.  My plan is to pack a lot of layered outfits so that no matter what the weather is like, I'll be prepared.

There are a variety of sources out there for help with packing for a trip.  I love this post by J's Everyday Fashion, and I've even done a packing for a (short) trip post of my own in part 1 & part 2, and of course Kendi's 30x30 challenge could serve as packing-inspiration (see Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer).  I found this photo-diagram on pinterest offering practical advice and tips:

Just a few layered-looks to serve as packing inspiration/get your creative juices flowing:

*all photos can be found and linked back to
original source on my pinterest board, Arizona

What do you guys think?

Do you have any advice for packing for a trip???

Are there any outfits I've posted that you think I just have to take with me?

Hello Again

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!  Can you believe it's 2012?!?  I most certainly cannot.  I unintentionally gave myself a 2 week blog hiatus and it was much needed.

There has been a lot on my mind during those weeks and more.  I have been re-thinking my job/trying to find a career; deciding to move to Colorado and then changing our minds and then re-thinking the change-of-mind; and all the while balancing my current job, including moving locations and expanding, as well as my online job and haven't actually taken any pictures in at least these 2 weeks!  I'm also trying to balance this blog, which was created as something fun to do in my spare time, and not letting it turn into work.

That said, I have some resolutions for the new year:

1. Be more active - get outside and do more things, work out and exercise at least 3 times a week
2. Learn to cook - for my boyfriend and for myself - experiment more in the kitchen and learn from the mistakes
3. Find some time to read - pick up a book (not just blogs or magazines) and read it from start to finish
4. Practice Spanish - keep it fresh for a new job and also just because it's a good skill to have
5. Be comfortable being myself - perhaps the most important of all - stop trying to make everyone happy and stay true to myself, don't stress out, don't try to juggle too many things, be secure and confident in all aspects of life including BF time, family time, blogging, fashion and future.  Be happy, stay positive - you only live once!

Annnnd, since I'm behind on photo-taking, here are some candid shots of my holiday fun:

For Christmas Eve at my cousins, I wore my vintage leather skirt
with tights and suede booties and finished it off with a vintage
sparkly pink sequin sweater from my great aunt

Cooking Lebanese food: me, cousin, sister stringing cheese

my Great Aunt Margaret (who owned the sequin cardi) cooking
kibbi and meat pies with my cousin, Paige

Paige and I kissing our eggplant-friend before he became baba ganouj

finished meat pies that I helped make!

Christmas Day:
My dad has a tradition - we all go to this little town in NC called
Horneytown (yes, really!) and take family photos
Our real last name is Horney...so that is why

Though not terribly festive, we were at least coordinating in greens & purples

Under my Anthropologie trench I wore my skinny jeans and a
vintage 70s button down finished off with my favorite vintage boots and
a new scarf - a Christmas gift from my sister

The Horneytown sign is in front of a fire station.
Some of the guys saw us and wanted to join in on the fun!
Here is my sister, Chandler, and I modeling their hats in front of the truck

So, the point of my initial ranting is that I'm back and I'm here to stay.  But I want this blog to remain a fun outlet for me and, in order to not create any additional stress, I want to post when I can rather than a set schedule that may at times be hard to keep up.  I don't want to stress about outfit photos either - I'll take them when I can, and I'll be posting a lot more inspirational and photo-centric posts.  Thank you to everyone for reading, supporting, and generally providing a much needed outlet for my thoughts :-).

How were your holidays?

What are your New Year resolutions??

And can you believe it's already 2012???