I've made a handful of regrettable decisions in my life; who hasn't? I've chosen people to be friends with that were toxic and leached off of my stability. I acted flippantly with many boys' hearts (Biggest Flirt in high school four years running right here). I know that over the years I've said things that, were I to recall them, would leave me cringing deeply. I most certainly chose the wrong college to attend. I ...

A couple of years ago, I wrote a post all about conquering gift card clutter. And upon reviewing said post I was all, "This is great, Annie, good job." Yet, the matter can not, I regret to inform you, be put to rest at that. The gift cards loom large and in charge, and too many clients overwhelmed by too many gift cards recently has convinced me of the need to rehash the subject. So ...

Today's post topic is a slight departure from the norm around here. Never the less, I find Gabriele Galimberti’s work, Toy Stories, completely fascinating, and therefore blog-worthy. Toy Stories is the result of Galimberti's efforts to capture children around the world showcasing their most prized possessions. His artist statement reveals that Galimberti spent two years traveling to more than fifty countries. "From Texas to India, Malawi to China, Iceland, Morocco, and Fiji, I recorded the spontaneous ...

  We were a rather haggard looking bunch, my family and I, as we walked through the neighborhood on a hot, summer day. My mom was hardly visible beneath the sheath of cooling gear we'd dressed her in. An oversized khaki vest, which, if you didn't know was meant to keep a person cool thanks to its pouches for ice packs, you might mistake for fisherman-wear. Her face was obscured entirely by a nude-colored sunhat. ...

When we get our hearts broken, when we lose someone we care about, when we lose our jobs, lose our vision, lose our faith, we can feel our running-stitched seams--the ones that hold in all that weird, fluffy emotion stuffing inside--being severed. And when this happens, we become consumed by the pain of our missing stitches. Inevitably when we're in such an undone state, the world won't seem to let us be. Up pops a ...