, originally uploaded by seven spoons • tara.

Do you have a For Me, For You necklace? I would love love love for you to add a photo of you wearing it (can be straight forward, or abstract like Tara’s lovely photo above) to my new flickr group!

It makes my day like you wouldn’t believe when people send me photos of them wearing their necklaces, and it’s so strange to make something and then send it out into the world and have NO idea where it ends up!

And in related flickr group fun, I’m excited for the Bloganistas flickr group, where bloggers show off what they’re wearing. Seeing some of my favorite bloggers personal style is pretty fun.

Someone decided that for their New Year’s resolution, they would make an infographic for every episode of This American Life. This (mysterious) person says the idea is to “expand and add context to the stories and information contained in the shows. Basically, anything I am curious about while listening to the pieces.”

Clearly a person after my own heart.

via meg via andrea

I know Christmas is long gone, but do you think Santa will notice how hard I just worked on my taxes tonight and bring me this vintage brass elephant collection? Maybe. Because they’re just the perfect mix of style and adorable.

My second unofficial, not-so-meaningful as my first new year’s resolution is to master the art of layering, like Iman has. I’ve always tried rather half-assed, but the insane cold snap is making it an even more important skill to master.

UPDATE: For those of you wanting to steal her look, I just stumbled across a Refinery29 post about her outfit! The bag is Mulberry, le sigh.

Also on the subject of simplicity, I am swooning over this Coffee + Tea Maker designed by Naoto Fukasawa. It brews coffee and tea, which is perfect for households like mine with conflicting beverage preferences, and it’s possibly the sleekest coffee maker I’ve ever seen. Now if only we could do something about the price…

via Design Crush

I was never much of a slipper person until recently (maybe it’s a part of getting older?) and while looking for a nice, simple pair I came across more hideous, fluffy, pink disasters than you can shake a stick at. Muji to the simplicity rescue, as usual. Oh how I adore a good buffalo check. Bonus: they’re washable. Of course I had to stock up on other random “necessities” while I was there like a tiny calendar and little containers for who knows what, and totally contemplated this rad giant ice ball maker. They get me every time.

I went to Urban Outfitters to spend a gift card I got for Christmas and had a hard time deciding between these two lovely silky dresses (not actually silk, but it feels close enough.) In the end I went for the one on the right because the ruffles replace my non-existent chest, whereas the one of the left was a little too lackluster on my figure. I’ll be wearing it with skinny jeans (or tights under leggings?) until this weather is less icicle-legs inducing! I love this trend in fun patterns right now, my closet of solid grey needs some jazzing up.

Because you get what you pay for, our dining chairs a friend sold us for next to nothing have mysteriously started to split in half. Literally, right down the middle. So we’re on a hunt, and I want to avoid ikea chairs. But my vintage search is just expensive insanity here in NYC, so my top contenders right now are some at West Elm. I love these two new styles they have, the maybe too spacey but pretty awesome wrap chair (kind of love the idea of a bright yellow chair in my otherwise calm-colored living room), and the stackable chair. But up there more in price is the oval back chair that I have been lusting after for a long time now. Ah, what a beauty.

Because my vacation was so short, relaxed, and uneventful, I didn’t take too many photos. And then I decided to take a break over the weekend and let these photos be my Monday post. My trip to Seattle was full of family, sunshine, adorable little ladies, best friends, and a lot of martinis. I realized how hard it is to be far away from those you love, but also how nice it can be as well:) New Years eve was quite and lovely, and since I got back I’ve been in extreme denial about going back to work.

I don’t normally make resolutions, but for the past month or so I’ve been trying to be less negative, and I think the new year is a good push to keep up with that. While I was back home I noticed how being negative – sarcastically and not so sarcastically, is a strange crutch that runs in my family, and it’s such an ugly trait I wish I could shed a bit. It’s my default when I have nothing else to talk about and when I’m trying to be funny – in person and on the internet. I’ve learned to love my life more than ever in the last few years, and I think that besides making changes, just looking at things differently and keeping my whining mouth shut unless venting is totally necessary will do a lot of good creating better vibes around me.

Happy new year, internet. 2009 was a good year for me, but I’m down with making 2010 even better.

ps. a few notes for those who don’t click the photos: Audrey’s awesome sweater is from Oeuf, my Christmas gift to her as I have a weakness for tiny striped things. It’s possibly the best thing that ever existed on the planet earth. My necklace is my Christmas gift from Billy, we’re not sure who the designer is. No boy has ever given me a fancy necklace before! Swoon.