of all the wonderful things the fall season brings, the sweets are one of my favorites!
a few years back, I got really interested in royal icing and cookie decorating, and started to watch tutorials so I could do it myself.
it allows me to explore two of my passions at once: baking and art. oh, and also eating.
i have nowhere near perfected the art of cookie decorating, but they sure do taste good.
Read MoreWhenever the seasons change, do you ever feel compelled to reevaluate your space? Whether I swap out a giant painting for a simple wall hanging or purge my under-the-bed clothing bins in efforts to “Mari Kondo” my life, it feels good to refresh and rearrange every once and awhile.
Courtney here — and today I’m talking about the tips and tricks I’ve learned to make a small space a little bit more livable.
Read Moreit’s kind of crazy to be saying this, but it’s coming up on the 10 year anniversary of me and my husband Brett living together. if I’m being real, we met about this time ten years ago and moved into a tiny apartment together three months later (!). though I’m well aware that’s a pretty fast track move compared to how most people do it, it’s been awesome and we wouldn’t have done it any differently.
looking back on the past decade, I wanted to share some of my favorite tips for moving in together and living together in general that we’ve learned over the years. we’re definitely not experts and we’re learning every day, but read on for the advice that worked best for us when we took the moving-in-together plunge!
Read MoreWe’ve officially arrived at the part of the pandemic where all the headlines have started celebrating the ‘return to normal,’ and while I love to see it as much as anyone, I’m also - for lack of a better term - kind of freaked out. Kate here, and today I wanna unpack why it’s more than okay if you’re anxious about going ‘back to normal.’
Part of the reason this influx of ‘get ready for back to normal’ content seems so off-putting to me is because it all seems to be presented in a cheeky, lighthearted voice usually reserved for ‘get ready for back to school!’ tips. And I get it - we all could use a healthy dose of light-hearted ANYTHING right now, me included. But does anyone else feel like we’re all just kind of glossing over the fact that this is still very much going on, here and elsewhere??
Read MoreHey, everyone — Courtney here! Raise your hand if you promise yourself that you’ll give yourself enough time to eat a solid breakfast in the morning and then actually never do.
I definitely do this, and always end up snagging a granola bar on my way out the door.
Since most of my favorite granola bars either taste like chocolate candy or cost $3 per bar, I decided to start making my own.
Lightly sweetened with mashed banana and honey, these whole wheat banana oat bars are the perfect on-the-go breakfast. My fiancé and I have actually been eating them for dessert, too :)
Read MoreHey guys, Courtney here. If you’re someone who has struggled to not define your worth by your career and your professional contributions, I am totally with you. I would definitely consider myself to be a multi-passionate person. I currently work in marketing, but within the past five years, I’ve been genuinely serious about being an elementary school teacher, going to culinary school, writing a book, and becoming an actress.
All those things are virtually completely unrelated, but they are all things I consider myself passionate about.
I’ve tried to work through the anxiety of figuring out my career by listening to podcasts, taking career aptitude tests, and reading self-help books. In that process, here is the best advice I’ve heard about following your passion.
Read MoreI think it’s safe to say these days that all of us could use a stiff cocktail, no?
With the weather getting warmer and the summer quickly approaching, I can’t stop craving something refreshing, sweet, and a little spicy at the end of the day. Kate here, and today I’m excited to share my husband Brett’s recipe for Pineapple Serrano Margaritas - two ways!
We have made these almost every week during quarantine, and it’s been a fun way to do something creative and quick in the kitchen together! Plus, they are totally delicious.
Read MoreWith what seems like 8 billion skincare products to choose from on the shelves these days, it can be overwhelming to say the least trying to find what works for your skin and lifestyle. Kate here, and after several requests for this post I thought it would be fun to share my personal skincare routine today!
You might think that with all this time at home lately I’d have hours upon hours to devote to some sort of 16 step elaborate skincare routine, but the truth is that’s never worked for me. I’ve definitely had my share of 12-step K Beauty skincare phases over the years, and while it was fun to try something so elaborate, it really just wasn’t realistic for me.
So I decided to strip it back to just the essentials and see how my skin fared with a more minimalist approach. Crazy enough, I think my skin is better than it’s ever been with this simple and straightforward routine!
Read MoreHey guys, Courtney here!
As a 9-to-5er who travels to the office every week, the way I spend my time during my commute has become increasingly important to me.
Riding 40 minutes to and from work every day on the Metro means that I have a lot of time to listen to podcasts, music, and audiobooks. I unfortunately haven’t found a way to read (or barely text for that matter) given that I get extremely motion sick, but the audio versions have done wonders in passing the time.
Read MoreEver since I can remember I’ve loved testing out every new kind of pen, marker, or paintbrush I could get my hands on, and today I’m taking you guys through the basic fundamentals of one of my favorite art forms at the moment - brush lettering!
If you follow me on my personal/musician IG account you’ve probably seen me post about how much I love brush lettering, especially in watercolor paint and India Ink. I’ve been brush-lettering my song lyrics for a few years now, and after many requests for a how-to series I thought it would be fun to show you guys the basics!
In this post, I’m going to take you through the basic technique of brush lettering, because once you have that down you’re pretty much good to go. I’ll take you through the steps and best practices for creating consistent letters every time.
Read Moreas a lot of you probably know, I’ve been learning French intensively for about a year now. I always had a fascination with languages and wanted to learn a second one, and over the past year I’ve started getting a bunch of questions about my favorite language learning methods.
today i’m sharing my favorite language learning resources and tools, plus the biggest tips and tricks that have worked for me and helped me stick with learning French over the past year!
Read MoreEven though it might not feel like it right now, summer is coming! Lately, I’ve been dreaming of sundresses, strawberry fields, and sparkling rosé on the porch.
Hey guys, Courtney here. As someone who lives for summer, I’ve been trying to bring all the warm-weather vibes to my 700 square-foot apartment — from my kitchen to my closet.
This past weekend, I had three overly ripe bananas just waiting to be transformed into some comfort food, so I found some frozen whole strawberries in the freezer and decided to make a batch of muffins.
Read MoreBefore the pandemic, “morning routine” wasn’t really in my vocabulary. I would pretty much roll out of bed, shower, and grab a granola bar on my way to work. Although sometimes it would leave me flustered and slightly disheveled, I just knew I was never going to be one of those productive-at-5:30am type people, and I decided that was okay.
Courtney here - and today I’m talking about my morning routine. Once the pandemic hit, I realized I needed some structure to my day to keep me grounded. If I don’t have at least some semblance of a plan going into my day, I will sit in bed on my phone or just stare out the window and overthink. That never really gets my day off to a good start (although I do admit that still sometimes happens), so I usually make a small (flexible) schedule in the notes app on my phone to plan out my day.
Read MoreWithout saying your age, how big was the first video camera you can remember? I know what my answer is, and it was definitely not the size of an iPhone…
Kate here, and today I’m really excited to share how I converted my old home movies on DVD to digital files, plus give you an exclusive preview of my new music video for my song, “This Is Home!” It was a really awesome opportunity to do something that’s been on my to-do list forever - convert my old home movies to digital.
Read MoreWhether you’re looking for an easy appetizer or want to make a full meal, charcuterie boards provide the perfect mix of savory flavors to please just about anyone’s palate.
Courtney here — and today I’m making one of my weekend go-to dishes — charcuterie! This delicious display consists of a combination of cheeses, meats, spreads, and crackers so you can mix and match to create different flavors.
If you’re looking for a simple charcuterie recipe and setup, look no further. I’m breaking down everything I put on my board and provide tips for making it look sophisticated without spending a fortune.
Read MoreIf we thought wedding planning was stressful before, trying to plan (and re-plan) one during a pandemic is a whole other story.
Hi guys, Courtney here — and today I’m talking about what has helped me plan a wedding during the pandemic. Like many other engaged couples, we postponed our wedding a whole year to avoid the COVID madness as much as possible. But the reality for a lot of us is, it’s still at the forefront of our minds even as we plan our postponed versions.
I wrote a blog in May of 2020, and it was essentially a letter of encouragement to other “corona brides” to let themselves feel all the feelings and know that their love is still special.
Read MoreThroughout 2020, I picked up more hobbies than the last ten years combined. I guess that’s what happens when we’re homebound for nine months straight, right?
Hey guys — Courtney here, and today I’m talking about my recent fascination with sewing and everything I did to get started.
I have absolutely loved learning how to sew over the last few months and am excited to share my go-to beginner sewing supplies and how I got started.
Read MoreNow that we can all exhale a deep sigh of relief that we’ve officially made it to 2021, I’m getting all the January organizing and house project jitters. Kate here, and today I’m excited to share a little progress on our backyard and patio!
This stucco outdoor fireplace was hands down one of my favorite things about this place from the jump, and I’ve been so excited to dream up what we want to do with this space. I’m feeling extra grateful this winter to live in a place like LA that has that indoor/outdoor lifestyle thing going!
Read MoreOn one hand, it seems totally insane that it’s already time to ring in a brand new year. On the other, it feels like it’s taken about 5 times longer to get to this point than it normally does, because…2020.
Kate and Courtney here, and today we’re sharing 5 of our favorite ideas for a festive New Year’s Eve at home! Chances are most of us will be spending New Year’s at home this year, or at least somewhere or some way that’s almost guaranteed to look different than last year.
No matter what you’d usually be doing to ring in the new year, we’ve got five ideas for five different types of NYE celebrations to send 2020 off with a big fat “SEE YOU NEVER AGAIN" :
Read MoreI’m not quite sure how to even begin a post about New Year’s resolutions while we’re still in 2020, because let’s face it- no matter what the resolutions or goals we made for this year looked like it’s highly likely that they didn’t turn out the way we thought they would.
Kate here, and today I’m (cautiously) sharing my main resolution and goal for 2021. Even though 2020 has been the bad boyfriend that will now make me forever cynical about relationships going forward, I’m still choosing to believe in love (not sure what garbage teen movie metaphor I’m going for here but somehow it makes sense to me?)
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