Unveiling

Hey y'all! Long time no hello! Just wanted to let you know I've been closet blogging for a little spell, and am just now starting to give up on the hope that it will ever be perfect enough to tell people about...so here it is, unveiled and imperfect. Thanks for hanging out at Mac and Me, and feel free to stop by the new digs if you like! Mac and Me will stay here for a spell, but I will no longer be posting here. All the content from this blog and my previous one (yes, I've had way too many) have been rolled into the new, so don't fret about having to say goodbye!

See you soon!
Love,

Erin

Happy 24th

pinned here from here

Today my husband asked me what day it was. To which I replied that four months from today is Christmas Eve. After which, he called me Rainman.

I can't help it. I love the anticipation of Christmas. Pom-pom wreath, anyone?

5 Minute(ish) Outfit: TOAST

As promised, one more stale '5 minute outfit', and then on to better things.  Sadly, none of the above items from TOAST are available anymore.  On the plus side, I can always hope that the shorts I'm stitching up these days will come out a little like the ones pictured here...

5-Minute(ish) Outfit

Catching up on some '5 Minute Outfits' sitting in my folder...The above items are from Anthropologie, or anyway they used to be.  It seems I've let this sit so long that much of them are no longer available.  (Available items are labelled).  However, I'm pretty sure this is just to amuse myself anyway and no one (including me) was planning on rushing out and purchasing anything. 

Since Beth asked me a whole long while back what I use to make my collages, I will take this opportunity to tell you that I use Picasa...and I love it. 

In other news, I'm on my lunch break at the nearest coffee spot and I feel like if I stand up, I just might barf.  Not good! 

Happy Monday, everyone.  One more stale outfit to come, and then hopefully more relevant(?) stuff is on the way.  (But no promises here).

A Bit Random

So, somehow in my blogging absence, I surpassed the 10,000 hits mark.  I can't imagine why 20,100 eyeballs would come to rest here for a second or two, but I guess it's cool.  I have been taking breaks off and on from posting here, mostly because I've been struggling to know what it's all about and what my words or (often borrowed) photos could possibly have to add to the pool. 

The past year has been a strange one.  I don't feel like the same person that left home 2 years ago.  And honestly, I miss that person sometimes.  I think I was a better friend.  I felt things more deeply.  I engaged life more often.  I appreciated beauty more.  I experienced wonder.  Heck, I looked a lot younger too.  These days, I just feel old and tired.  I don't feel like a particularly good wife, or a particularly good employee, or a particularly good friend or daughter or granddaughter.

I think I've come unplugged.

There are a few possible explanations.  Exhaustion.  Maybe depression.  But mostly I think...a choice to disconnect because everywhere I look I see something tragic.  I'm not being melodramatic, it's just that it's been a really, really tough year for most of the people I love very much.  I feel helpless and sometimes I shut down.  My own faith has been in a crisis, and rather than getting back up and fighting, I think I've just decided to sit life out for a bit.  Or I thought it would just be for a bit. 

Anyway...The past few weeks I was reading the book of John, and what struck me more than anything is that we tend to want the wrong things.  I have wanted healing for my friends and the restoration of what's been lost to them.  Clearly not wrong things...unless you stop believing that God is still good despite all that you see, and you choose to stop engaging in life and relationship with Him.  I didn't realize my faith was so weak.  I didn't realize I trusted Him so very little.

I've been asking myself a lot lately what I want.  Do I want a relationship that lasts forever in which I can fully engage?  Or do I just want a 'good life'? ... Do I want to fully trust in Someone?  Or do I just want to keep trying to be so good in and of myself that I need nothing and trust no one?  What would it feel like to want what my soul already knows it wants, but my heart and mind so quickly forget?  What would it feel like to have that one giant desire completely, utterly, absolutely, eternally fulfilled? 

I don't know, but I want to find out.

My Weekend Project

This weekend I've been a school project widow.  So, do you think I used all that alone time to sew?  Nope.  But this is from a few weekends ago, so hopefully it still counts.  A pattern I remade from a 1970's swim trunk pattern.  I think they're the comfiest pair I own!  (Sleep shorts, not swim trunks).

In other news, I soooo don't want to go back to work tomorrow.  Is anyone with me on this?  Be thankful, E, be thankful.

Play It Loud Friday

The post in which I confess to you what I listened to on my Friday evening commute and conjure up a funny story from the week that was.

Today I got to leave work early, so I wasn't feeling as much of a need to blast some Friday freedom music on my drive home...And besides, Mac switched me cars and his a/c is still broken so riding home on the expressway with the windows rolled down was a little bit music-prohibitive.  So instead...I present to you last night's Play It Loud, wherein we stayed up past our bedtime (okay my bedtime) to hear a friend's song being played on a show we'd never seen.  It was way worth it.  Here's the song... 



I've included another song below because this guy's really good and the video has some footage of Austin which will no doubt look a little familiar (in the opening shots anyway) if you've ever come to visit me!  South Congress feels like home...the part of home that makes me feel a little anxious, but home nonetheless.  Anyway, on with the music!


Impressed?  Then get yourself some free songs!  And one more thing, this made me laugh.

You are going to need that laugh up there, because the only 'funny' story I can think of from this week was getting up the nerve to go to a consignment clothing store, only to have almost all my clothing rejected as not the 'teen style' they were looking for.  I...guess...that's...a compliment?