What I'm Reading

In the past few months I've read some of my favorite books of all time, so I thought I'd share my current reading list with you guys because I feel like these books are incredible and if you haven't read them, go pick them up now!  I didn't do it on purpose, but all of these books center on the idea of human connection and how humans are hardwired for connection.  Each one focuses on the idea from a different perspective, but I love each one and how inspiring each one is in it's own way.  

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
-By Brené Brown

If you haven't seen Brené's Ted Talk on vulnerability, stop reading this post right now and go watch it. It's in the top five most viewed Ted Talks with over 24 million views on the Ted website.  I've only just started Daring Greatly and am on the second chapter now, but knowing Brené's work, I can't wait to get further into this one.  Kristina, my Wildbride partner, finished Daring Greatly on our Wildbride Retreat tour and highly recommended it.  She said it felt like a mini therapy session every time she picked it up, in a good way.  So much food for thought and life change.
 

The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help - By Amanda Palmer

Amanda's book is refreshing and so inspiring.  Amanda's writing style is super easy to read and it really feels like she's talking right to you.  Dan also read this one and really loved it.  I was challenged and inspired to do more asking.  In the past couple years I've been more intrigued by the idea of asking and rejection, trying my hand at rejection therapy now and then.  The Art of Asking kind of goes deeper into this idea.

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
- By Elizabeth Gilbert

You're probably familiar with Elizabeth Gilbert.  Eat. Pray. Love. anyone?  Yup.  Big Magic is a refreshingly honest look at living a creative life as an artist, writer, etc.  It's encouraging and frank and is a great read for anyone who aspires to, or is currently, living as an artist either full time, part time, or as a hobby.  The chapters/sections are super short (some are under a page long), and it feels like a very quick read.  She writes in a very colloquial way, which made me feel almost like she was talking to me, not like I was reading a book.  Dan read this one after I finished it and he really enjoyed it as well!

How to Win Friends and Influence People
- By Dale Carnegie

I'll be honest, I'd heard about this book in the past a few times, but the (comes-across-as-sort-of-douchey) title put me off from getting this book.  It was suggested to me by another photographer who told me it was a must-read, one of those books that everyone should have to read, and that it helped him immensely with connecting with clients.  I immediately hopped over to Amazon and ordered it and I'm so glad I did.  It's now on my list of books that everyone should read, and honestly I feel like this should be required reading in high school or college.  I suppose at it's root it is a book about how to win friends and influence people, but more than that it's a super practical guide for understanding human behavior and how to best interact with other people in conflicts and difficult situations and how to honor one another through words and actions.  It's now one of the most underlined books on my shelf and I already feel like I need to read through it again to really grasp the concepts and put them into practice in my life.  

5 short hairstyle ideas for curly girls

Having natural curls is, most of the time, super awesome.  It's basically pre-styled every day, I don't have to wash it very frequently (and when I do, I just use water and conditioner), and it has natural body.  But it can also feel limiting when it comes to styles.  Other than a brief stint with shorter hair, of the bob/long-bob variety, a few months after I got married, I've almost always rocked long locks.  Now, don't get me wrong, I love big, long hair.  Part of me feels, well, not very "me" without my big hair, and I remember immediately regretting it after I did my post-wedding chop.  

But it's hard to keep from window-shopping, if you will, when it comes to other haircuts now and then.  Especially when you've been avoiding washing/detangling your hair for 3 days and keep it in the same messy ponytail for said days.  You might just find yourself getting on pinterest and doing a little pinspiration searching for more low-maintenance cuts.  

Finding inspiration for haircuts can be difficult because when it comes to cutting hair, you need your inspiration to have your hair texture. While I have naturally curly hair, oftentimes searching for "natural curly hair" can come up with much different textures than my own.  And other times it'll result in hair that obviously has no curly texture and is clearly curled with a curling iron.  These inspirations have a somewhat similar texture to my own, give or take a bit of curl or thickness, so into my pin-vault they went!

1. The Long Pixie
I love this look because it's clearly super easy to wear without any styling. Maybe a scrunch here or there and it's good to go.  It has great shape, and it's sexy!

2. The Curly Bob
This length is similar to when my hair was at it's shortest, post-wedding.  I remember not liking this style on myself, but I did have bangs at the time, and I feel like this style sans-fringe is a much more fresh looking style.

3. The Boy Cut
This style is one that I've had my eyes on for years.  Karla Deras, from Karla's Closet, is one of those original style bloggers from way back in the day when I first started blogging and she's rocked short, curly hair for years.  I remember always being envious of her curly, short locks, which felt carefree but chic in every post.  She's had a variety of shorter styles, but this one is a super-cute style that reminds me of a classic boy-cut.

4. The Long Bob (with bangs!)
I always find myself coming back to this style as one I love.  It still has some length and movement, but it also doesn't have the weight of long hair. Plus, cutting off all my processed ends sounds kind of lovely, my tips have been around through far too many hair color changes.  From red, to teal to blonde... they'd probably be happy to be put out of their misery.

5. The Undercut
I've never had a cut similar to this one, save a short time in elementary school when I eschewed any and all things girly and convinced my mom to let me get a boy haircut.  Lets just say it was not anywhere near as cool as these girls' undercuts.  I've dreamed of this haircut many a time, but is so drastic, I've always chickened out.  I love the longer, curly top, maintaining a bit of feminine spunk. Maybe someday I'll take the plunge!

Do you have any curly hair inspiration?  Favorite curly haired bloggers?

Sources: 1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6

Creativity and the importance of inhalation

I didn't really anticipate waiting till I was over halfway done with this pregnancy to let it out into the "wild," but I'm really glad I chose to just let this time be for me.  I always knew that being pregnant would be something somewhat difficult for my brain to wrap itself around.  Years ago, when I was style blogging daily, I figured I'd announce pretty early on, that way I'd get to blog through the whole thing.  But the timing of this actually ended up being during a time when I was taking a creative "inhale," stepping back from sharing so much of my life.  If you guys have read Amanda Palmer's The Art of Asking (which I highly recommend), you're familiar with her concept of creative inhale and exhale periods.  Basically, in order to keep creating externally (like, stuff that other people can see and experience), you have to take periods of creative inhalation.  Times when you are letting yourself be quiet and recuperate.  Let your creative juices build back up.  Constantly creating can completely drain your ability to keep creating and letting yourself take a step back for some self care time is so necessary.  I didn't realize that constantly running my blog, solo, for almost 7 years was probably unsustainable.  I would feel bad about myself for not being able to keep up the pace of posting and creating that I had in the early days, and I also couldn't figure out the focus of the blog once I started doing more than just outfit posts.  "Lifestyle" was what it fell under but I could never quite get a grasp on my focus, and as I continued, it felt more and more scattered.

It's important to me now, knowing that constant creative exhalation unsustainable, to build in creative inhalation time more consistently in my life.  No one likes feeling burned out, especially when you're burned out on something you actually love.  As I head back into a season of re-entering a creative exhale, I'm staying super mindful of giving myself the inhalation time that I need to recharge my creativity.  Especially with having a kid in the near future, this will be even more important.  

There's a lot of talk in the blogosphere about balance.  Finding it, trying to figure out if balance is even possible, keeping it.  When I think about balance, I think it is possible, but I also keep in mind that balance is never something easy or something that can happen without intention.  If you're walking a tightrope you have to focus on balance constantly, especially at first.  I can't imagine trying to walk a tightrope and being able to do anything else.  Balance takes a lot of focus and intention.  Eventually, like actual tightrope walkers, being able to balance comes more easily.  You've taught your mind and body what balance looks and feels like and it's easier for it to do it second nature.  I sure don't have this balance thing figured out, and as soon as this bebe is born a whole new wrench will be thrown into my balance which I'll have to factor in.  I'm trying to approach balance as more of one of those things that is a practice, not something you find and keep (or lose).  

Delightfully Tacky has been many things over the years. It's changed and evolved, waxed and waned.  It has always been important to me that this space be focused on something I'm passionate about.  With this re-launch, my focus is living a creative and joyful life.  And more importantly, being joyful and creative, not just looking like it on social media.  I want this space to answer the question, "how can I be more creative and joyful today?" not just for me but for you guys too!

So, longwinded as that may be (you guys know how I can get), welcome to the new Delightfully Tacky!  I'm excited for this space to be inspiring and fun, empowering and lighthearted.  I feel like  a bit of a dinosaur in the blogging world these days, but I'm happy to be a part of this community and can't wait to be an active contributor again!

We're moving to...

As if launching a blog, and announcing I'm pregnant wasn't enough big news for one day, I've got one more.  We're moving to Alaska!

A few months ago when I was still on the road in the Brave the plan was to come back home and move into the Brave with Dan.  Well, turns out things didn't quite work out that way, and while I still have dreams and plans of some day being a full time RV family, for now Alaska is the best choice for us for a variety of reasons. 

My parents live in Anchorage and since Dan's family no longer lives in the Tacoma area, we don't have any family support down in Washington any more.  Coupled with some health care reasons, moving to Alaska made the most sense for us, at least for my pre-natal care, birth, and newborn months.  We don't know if this will be a permanent move, for all we know we'll be back in the Seattle area some time next year, or maybe somewhere completely different.  Our living situation beyond a year from today is pretty up in the air, but for now being close to my family and having that support is most important.  It's hard to move, especially with so many unknowns, but we're taking this leap and seeing where it takes us.  I have no clue where we'll be one year from today!

And on top of that all, we're actually moving today.  Yeah.  Our little Honda CRV and our 5x8 Uhaul trailer are all packed up and later today we are driving away from our cute little Tacoma house and heading up the AlCan.  Of course it'll take us 5 or 6 days to actually get to Alaska, but if you've been following on snapchat and instagram you've been getting some behind the scenes teasers about what's going on.  Packing up, cleaning the house for our renters who are moving in right after we leave, and loading the Uhaul!  We're hitting the road!

We will be living with my parents (#lifegoals).  They have a small apartment over their garage, so we'll have our own space, which is nice, so over the next few months I'll be working hard to make it our own, get it feeling like a home, and creating a little den for our little one!  I'll share some before photos of the space soon, I'm super excited to give it a fresh look!

Guess what!

I'm growing a human!  Yup!  I'm 23 weeks along and we are super stoked.  I didn't really intend on waiting this long to publicly announce it, but time flew by and I was waiting for the blog to be live again to make the announcement, so here we are well over halfway through with this pregnancy!  I'm actually 21 weeks along in the photo about and 15 in the photos below.  I've been taking weekly progress/outfit photos ever since week 8 so I'll be putting those up a couple times a week until we catch up to where I am currently.  I didn't want to dump a ton of maternity photos on you guys at once.

If you're wondering, no Delightfully Tacky isn't going to become all things pregnancy/mom.  Obviously it will show up in some ways, like maternity outfits and putting together the baby's new room, but I really want to keep the focus of this space more on creativity.  Honestly, I want Delightfully Tacky to be less personal, in some ways.  I still love writing about life and thoughts but all that stuff that doesn't really fit here.  My solution was to start a different blog where I can feel free to write about more personal stuff, more lengthy, word-vomit posts, and stuff about becoming a parent and anything related to that part of my life.  Having a fresh place for just that stuff feels so great and I'm excited to be able to blog about life without feeling the pressure of having to look a certain way to bring in sponsors or new readers.  It'll be way more casual and journal-like.  If you want to head over there and read along, the new blog is called The Brave Life.

But anyway, Dan and I are excited and have many thoughts and feelings about the whole thing.  We won't be announcing the sex online (at least that's the plan for now), mostly because I'd like to keep some things for myself.  Sharing life publicly on the blog for so many years has made me appreciate having some special secrets for myself.

We have some (sort of) baby related news that I'll be sharing later today.  Lots of big life changes!