I love DIY mugs.

My little sister, Catie, and I had some sisterly bonding time over the weekend. It was pretty great to see her considering she's been basically working full time and we've been on opposite work schedules! We did some wandering around Target, some closing ceremony watching (who is Tinie Tempah?), and some DIY mugging. 

I think I've found a new hobby - DIY mugging is what I'm going to call it from now on. It's addicting. It took days and hours and lots of internet searching for ideas on what we/Catie/I should do to make our mugs pretty and in the end, I/we/she ended up just coming up with something on my/our own and wound up pretty happy with what we decided to do! Now I want to make MORE + MORE + 500,000 more. 

I think part of the reason why I love it so much is because it was so easy. All you need is colorful Sharpies - or Catie used paint - and an oven to bake the little muggies in at 300 degrees for 30-35 minutes.  

Now I've got something to drink hot tea/coffee in at work! 

I love being gutsy.

Gutsy: Showing courage, determination, and spirit. 

It's hard to change habits and parts of myself that have been the same for so long. When I break down the definition of 'gutsy,' I think I am all of those...sometimes. I can be courageous. I am definitely determined...usually (but I give up at times). And I think I show plenty of spirit.

The only problem is I can't be consistently gutsy. It's either I'm VERY gutsy...or I'm the opposite of gutsy. What is that? Lame? Cowardly? Shy? Timid? I want to be consistently gutsy. Gutsy all the time. But not in an overbearing way, of course. Or maybe I should! Maybe if I was gutsy all the time in an overbearing way, I'd be happier. That would mean I wouldn't be a people pleaser and I'd probably be a lot happier overall and probably have more confidence - which I could always use more of. Confidence and gutsiness probably go hand-in-hand, though. Not only would I be happier, but I definitely think the people around me would probably benefit from me being more gutsy. I'd be better at making decisions for my boyfriend and friends and family. I'd be an easier person to be around, I'd like to think. And more fun. 

As a lover of the Happiness Project + Gretchin Rubin, I feel like I'm always trying to find new ways to be happier. It's not that I'm sad or unhappy, I just feel like there's always ways that I could be happier. And as a lover of plans and making lists, I feel like I need to make a 

list of ways I could be more gutsy. So, here we go!

1. Dare myself to try new things. Like restaurants, obviously. Food. Food. And other things like yoga?

2. Dare myself to go new places. Like restaurants, hahaha. Just kidding! 

3. Dare myself to talk to new people. Oh, to get over my shyness would be so exciting. 

4. Step out of my comfort zone one time each day. This could be a million different things. I could go on and on.

5. Speak up, speak up, speak up. No waiting for other people to speak up. 

6. Make decisions. Asap. No waiting for other's approval. 

All of this is a lot easier said than done but it's something I really want to work on. Or maybe it looks easy to be done. I can't decide. Either way, I think I might make it a rest-of-the-year goal to try to be more gutsy. We'll seeeeee how it goes.

I love parties. Weeeee.

This weekend, Catie + I had the house to ourselves so we had a bunch of people over. Or...she had a lot of people over and I just had Paul and Shannon over. It was a good time. Lots of hard ciders (for me) and apparently just a lot of balloons for everyone else. Catie has a really solid (and awesome) group of friends that I really like so I'm pretty thankful for that. Great food and good buddies and lots of Olympics watching.
On Saturday, Paul and I went to his cousin, Amanda's, going away party. Her family decided they were going to host some backyard Olympics. Magically enough, Paul and I ended up on the same team. Team China. Myyyyy favorite. We won the bronze in jump rope - which was pretty great.
Fun parties. Fun fun fun. 

I love(d) July.

In July I:

• saw a lot of pretty summer sunsets. And took plenty of pictures on my phone of them.  I can't help it.
• made cupcakes for Heather at work that looked like something else...I'm still embarrassed. I FIXED THEM, though, and no one said anything. Maybe until now. I could never own my own cupcake shop.
• had my first Lime-a-rita. Love at first sip.
• celebrated Amanda + Jess's graduations...and lol'ed forever about Amanda's Ryan Sheckler narrating impression.
• loved the beach. A lot.
• saw firefighters kick in a door...dramatically. And apparently for no good reason at all.
• finally saw the Promise Ring live! Hooooraayy.
• stopped running...oops. But started doing pilates. Running will make a comeback in August, though, I hope. 
• realized that summer is speeding by.

I love Emily Giffin.

Shannon and I were very yolo on Monday evening and took a trip down to Bethesda, MD to go to our first book signing + see Emily Giffin!

So much great happened. I'm so glad we decided to go. Emily's hilarious and so normal (she's one of us) and talked about celebrities (and their relatives) like they were other normals (just like us). It's so awesome to put a personality and a real life person to the person that writes the books I read. 

Obviously we got to meet her, because she was signing our books. Awkward me had no idea what I would say to her but I decided that I would just ask her "CAN I INSTAGRAM YOU?" And I got this amazing picture out of it. No regrets. 

Anyone that's read Something Borrowed + Something Blue will care about this - she said that I'm a Darcy, or rather, look like one.

After the signing, we went to Georgetown Cupcake since it was just a few doors down. Bethesda is cute.