My Favorite Way to Make Long Distance Suck Less

Long distance relationships suck. They really do. But H and I have worked really hard to find ways to make it suck just a teensy bit less. One of our favorite ways is writing letters to each other. At first, it seemed a little silly. I would always end up telling H what I wanted to tell him in the letter before it even got to him! But now, I love getting and sending letters because they are a guaranteed smile in our sometimes lonely days.

Sometimes though, life gets in the way, and I don't have time to sit down, write a letter, go buy stamps, and take my letter to the post office. That's where Treat, a new branch of Shutterfly, comes in.

On Treat, you can pick out a card and write it, all on your computer. All you have to do then is put in the recipient's address and it'll send it off! And it turns out to be the same price as a cute card and a stamp would be anyway. And the cards are adorable--this is the one I sent H last week!

How sweet is that? You can add in your recipient's name and even a photo of the two of you, so that they can fold over the card and frame it or pin it up somewhere when they're done!

And if you're not a letter-writer, Treat makes birthdays sooo easy! I'm one of those people who loves the idea of writing all my friends birthday cards, but I always forget! Now, I've just popped all their birthdays in the handy birthday reminder section of my account and it reminds me to send them a card! Or you can even write a card and schedule it to be sent up to a year later!

Anyways, I was just introduced to Treat and wanted to share it with you! Let's be honest: Treat is pretty cool and we all need it in our lives.

Big eight-arm octopus hugs to Treat for letting me try out these cards! All opinions are totally my own, because who doesn't want to send a card with an octopus on it? No one, that's who.

Why Long-Distance Relationships (Sometimes) Rock

(This picture has nothing to do with this post, but it looks kind of pretty right? Taken in Marseille, France.)

Welp. Sometimes life has a way of getting ahead of you. I had glorious plans for my blog this summer--I was going to get back to posting (nearly) every day, commenting on all my fave blogs (I promise I'm reading, just silently) and staying in the game. 

But I kind of forgot that I sort of have stuff going on. You know, life. I promised a June Recap on Wednesday (umm, like five days ago). But H came to visit and we had five glorious days of pretending to be tourists, eating yummy food and having feel-talks. 

Having H come visit is and was so wonderful. He's my best friend and the one who knows the most about me in the whole world. So obviously, having him 800 miles away from me two months out of the year and 450 miles away for another 9 months of the year sucks. But long distance has been really good for us in a lot of ways.

We form separate lives. In North Carolina, H and I have a lot of mutual friends, which is great. But sometimes, I just want to go shopping and he just wants to watch movies and drive around with the boys (or whatever they do). 

We've learned to communicate more effectively. We both work a lot and because of the service around where I live, our phone calls are infrequent and often cut off in the middle. Hearing his voice is so much more special to me now that I don't get to hear it all the time. 

We've learned to trust each other, so much. The first time we lived apart, I struggled with jealousy about a certain female friend of his (who, by the way, was totally on the prowl). Since then, we (meaning I) have learned to trust him and ourselves and our relationship. 

Lastly, receiving handwritten cards and letters = the best. I think that's self-explanatory. There's something so familiar and homey about getting them and recognizing his weird handwriting and the way he never dots his 'i's.

Also, I have more time to catch up on Netflix without date nights. Kidding. 

Anyways. Rambling over. 

This has been a sappy post about H, thanks to my dad for buying him a plane ticket to visit me and to H for loving me. Love you poopface. Sorry for writing a blog post about you without asking you first. 

Snippets 02.

ONE. I really, really like gardening...in theory. I've tried my hand at keeping up this little window box with some pansies and some kale and for awhile, it was going really well. My kale was growing tall and blooming with these pretty yellow flowers. My pansies were blooming and making me feel like a successful old lady. But then these big ol' bugs showed up and I have no clue what to do about them. I can't even figure out what they are, for are my googling. Like this is 2014, I should be able to do anything if I google enough. Anyways, my pansies are dying, thanks to these poopers. Sad day. 

TWO. Last weekend, I paid a visit to my future school! I'm not sure if I'm going to share exactly which school it is, but probably at some point. Anyways, it was really nice to scope out the whole living situation and trek through campus. This (very bad iPhone picture) was taken in a walkway through a ravine that cuts through from my future room to the student union (and food court, so you know I'll be walking this stretch often!). I just thought it was such a gorgeous little area tucked away in a busy, urban campus and I'm so excited to have this near me next fall!

THREE. H and I have had a series of lovely dates lately. Last week, as a particularly belated birthday dinner, we made fancy pizza. H picked up some fancy mozzarella and pesto and freshly-kneaded dough. We cooked up some chicken and fried up some quality bacon (YUM). It was just a really good-tasting and good-feeling meal and a genuinely good time with my main man. On another note, I'm a notoriously picky eater and H took me to a local Cajun place today and I tried approximately four new things. Which is about how many new foods I usually try in a year. Please be proud of me. 

What's been going on with y'all lately?

Free Printable Love Notes

Hey lovebirds! It’s about to get reeeeeal mushy in here…I hope you’re as excited as I am for Valentine’s Day! Unless you’re single. In which case, you do have a guaranteed right to eat a lot of ice cream and watch copious amounts of netflix…so you’ve got that going for ya. H + I actually are celebrating our Valentine’s Day tonight with pancakes (I LOVE PANCAKES) and a concert because I’ll be out of town next weekend. This actually is part of his present so I’ve told him not to look at the blog today, but that little booger probably will.

Today, I wanted to share a quick little printable that you can use for your beau (or your cat would probably appreciate it too, you single ladies. Or for reals, you mom or dad or best friend.)

This style comes in a couple phrases (click link>right-click>save as):

• I admire how you…
• I love remembering the time when we…
• I love you because…
• I first knew I loved you when…

This style can be downloaded with the phrases (click link>right-click>save as...):

• You are so cute when you…
• You are my favorite…
• I’m so proud of you when you…

I hope you use these often + remind your loved ones how much you appreciate + care for them!

Okay the mushiness is done. Byeeeeeee!

weekly wishes #22

So I've decided that the first sentence of a blog post is officially the most awkward sentence in the world. Usually I just say 'hi, friends' or something like that, but I kind of feel like I'm just greeting my computer + that's just weird. So super random survey, how do you start your posts? I need help...

Wow, I'm beyond weird today. 

For real, let me just get to it. Last week, my goals were to spend intentional time with my family + get some cleaning done! I made the first goal because my family is very sociable + likes to spend time together (I know, and they think I'm the weird one). When I hole up in my room, people tend to get mad at me. And it's not because I don't like them, I'm just an introvert. So I made sure this week to spend time with people on my own terms. That means generally not in big groups + doing non-stressful things. Like my grandma and I spent time reading together and my sister and I organized our jewelry together. Things like that.

And let me tell you, I aced my cleaning goal! I did make a goal to do 30 minutes a day, but I never really timed it. But I pretty consistently kept things put away in their proper place + spent a little time cleaning up areas that got out of control, like my desk or bathroom cabinet. 

In the process, I found that I hoard pencils, hand sanitizer + makeup. I have four bronzers. Four. I don't even wear bronzer... I also have over 200 pencils, and six bottles of hand sanitizer. That's just weird.

(p.s. is that font so Seventeen magazine or what?!)

Point is, I did good. 

So when I was brainstorming goals for this coming week, I sort of made the mistake (uh, I mean brilliant decision) of asking H for ideas. So in case it wasn't obvious, we have H to thank for the first two...

+Well first some background. I hate just about any social situation in which I have to make small talk. I hate meeting new people (except like through blogging or other common interests). I hate dancing. The last time I was at a situation that incorporated just one of those (dancing), I had a panic attack. Obviously, I'm not in a hurry to relive that experience. But unfortunately, weddings incorporate all of the above. And even more unfortunately, H has a cousin getting married on Saturday and I just might die (okay, okay, I'm happy for the guy; it's not unfortunate). It seems kind of silly to make a goal not to die, but I'm gonna do it anyways. And I'm going to dance with H, that's part b. Oh, sweet baby Jesus in the manger, this might be bad...

+Send H a random compliment every day of the week. Haha of course, this was all his idea, but I'm happy to oblige. And while we're at it, let me introduce you to the amazingness that is Daily Odd Compliments. You're so welcome.

That's all for my goals for the week! But since we're on the topic of awesome things, let me share with you a non-literal rockstar who is quite possibly the most awesome blogger around, Z of Sometimes Z Takes Pictures (off whom I totally ripped yesterday's post).

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Start Here: Favorite Posts of 2013: January - June // Seven Reasons I Am Not an Adult // Outfit Post - Tulletelage