The Time Has Come

I have posted over 1,800 posts over the last 5 years. I’ve shared things I love, a few things I utterly hated, my life’s ups and a few downs. I’ve had amazing experiences, opportunities and I’ve met some WONDERFUL people along the way. Who knew my blogging life would flourish as much as it did? Or that I would blog for this long?

The time has come for me to say goodbye.

It is time for me to end this blog officially. I’ve taken more hiatuses this  year than I ever did (I remember a time when I couldn’t imagine not posting even when I was on vacation) and I’ve felt that the time is right to let I Am DWJ/The Art of Accessories go. I think I will always be @theaofa in my heart but I don’t feel the need to post here anymore. Things are so different from when I started blogging 5 years ago and I’m okay letting others do what I don’t want to anymore. Who knows what I may do in the future or if I will blog again. I’ve learned to never say never.

Maybe it is because I’ve gotten older, my focus has shifted a bit, or perhaps I just have been delaying the inevitable. Either way, I thank you for reading this blog even if it was just a single post or if you’ve read them all. I have loved every single comment, email, contest I’ve thrown and photo I’ve taken for this blog. I’ve learned a lot about myself, what I want in life, where I want to go and how to get there. And without this blog a lot of those realizations wouldn’t have been possible.

It isn’t like this is a complete goodbye or that I’m disappearing forever. You can always find me posting my pictures to Flickr and Instagram. I’m sure I will continue to tweet silliness and share more things I love via Twitter, and you never know I might actually care about Google Plus one day. And maybe now that I’ve stopped blogging I will restock my Etsy store this fall, we shall see. Even though this is farewell here, I hope you will continue to stay in touch and that we will still be friends because you’ve made my life so much richer. But for now, I want to sit at home, cook, knit and not worry about blogging or what my next post will be. I think it is definitely a time for me to move on.

Thanks again for reading and I will miss you – so keep in touch!

Always stay colorful,
DWJ

P.S. If you haven’t noticed already, I’ve moved all of my blog over to a free wordpress site so I can keep it live for however long I’d like. Feel free to read the archives.

Life Lately

Life lately has been just a bit exhausting. Work takes over and I never feel like my weekends are long enough. Even when I take vacation I’m still doing something like painting the house or running crazy errands. Now I’m trying to figure out how to get my driver’s license renewed before the end of the month. Because no one wants to sit in line at the DMV for hours just to take a new picture.

What has added a bit of pep to my step has been our impulsive buy of a new car for me! On Friday night my husband upgraded my Nissan Versa to a brand new Nissan Juke. This is only my third car but I haven’t had a brand new one since I got my first car when I was 20. It’s pretty nice to have navigation, bluetooth and a moonroof again. Oh and that new car smell is awesome. Hopefully over the weekend I can get a few projects on my needles, take a few pictures of some beauty essentials so I can do a few posts next week. And if not, well be cool…like my adorable godson.

(Who can resist a baby wearing sunglasses?)

Baby Blankets Galore

This week I finished my 11th baby blanket since I started knitting 2 years ago – 2 years ago! And I’m about to cast on my 13th blanket in a few days. I wanted to learn how to knit for years and finally took the plunge 2 years ago and have been pleasantly surprised by how much I love it and how easily I taken to it.

I started an Etsy shop and let the listings expire because I actually get better business via personal referrals. This last blanket was commissioned by a friend for her sister-in-law. Typically when someone wants a blanket, or if I’m making one as a baby shower gift I just ask the colors and then do my thing.

My girlfriend told me pink and grey were the colors, I added a bit of white and decided since the pink was such a wonderfully saturated color (Hello, Caron Simply Soft in Neon Pink) I could do a simple garter stitch striped blanket. No fancy techniques, no crazy stitch patterns, just simple knit stitches but in alternating colors and widths for stripes. I even did a little color blocking and mixed up stripes between pink and white. I was also surprised at home much positive feedback the simply stitched blanket received on Instagram.

I also recently completed this honeycomb stitch blanket as a gift for my girlfriend who is having a baby boy. She told me her nursery colors would be mossy green, light blue and a light yellow. I tried to figure out a way to capture her colors and still make the blanket interesting.

That’s when I stumbled upon the honeycomb stitch and decided a multicolored polka dot blanket was going to be my next task. I thought it would be daunting but it turned out to be so easy! So much so that I want a version for myself in full size – although that would take so much more time than a baby blanket!

I know because it took me two months to finish this simple double seed stitch blanket for a coworker who was moving across country. All in all I think that baby blankets are my favorite things to knit. The recipients are so worthy of something soft and snuggly infused with a bit of my love while I knit – how could I not love making baby blankets? So as I get more pregnant girlfriends and more private orders/requests I’ll keep on knitting them. If you’re interested, you can take a look at almost everything I’ve knitted in the past 2 years via Flickr and if you’re interested in me making something for you, send me an email at knitting at iamdwj.com.

I Want to Go Places

I’ve been slowly cleaning off the hard drive of my 7 year old Macbook and trying to save all of the photos I have onto one huge storage drive or upload to Flickr. This weekend I uploaded pictures from when I went to Anchorage, Alaska in 2008 for work. Yeah, for work. I was sent to the most boring conference on the planet that was in Anchorage in late September. I went because they wanted me to and because I realized I’d never go to Anchorage on my own most likely (my husband went for a competition in college).

It was cold and I was alone but I had to admit that Alaska was beautiful. My husband told me to take a tour, go see a glacier and to not stay cooped up in my hotel room. He was right and I made friends with other conference goers and ended up enjoying myself.

I went to a glacier, took a tram to the top of a very big mountain, came close to a bear – it was an experience I can always look back on and smile and it has me thinking about other places in the US I’d like to go. Yellowstone, Moab, Sedona…they aren’t my typical vacations but maybe I’m beyond doing what’s typical and should explore more. I definitely think I need to start planning to go places…

A Beauty Buying Hiatus

I’ve made a decision. For the next 6 months (until January 24, 2014) I will not buy a single beauty product. No lipstick, gloss, eyeliner, shadow, blush, mascara, foundation, pressed powder or nail polish. Nothing. Why? Well, as a person who blogs about beauty (and other things) I get sent a lot of products. Some I talk about and some I don’t. I also give a lot of it away. But even with giving it away, I’ve got a ton of stuff. And I have a bad habit of buying stuff that I want just because (like random lipsticks when I go to CVS at lunch or a new eyeliner just because I saw a Sephora). I’ve got enough lipsticks and eye shadows to wear a different one every day for a year without repeating. I’ve got more than enough blush to lash me a lifetime so I’ve decided I need to do a cleanse. I need to make a change.

This doesn’t mean you won’t get anymore beauty posts. I still have lots of stuff I need to share and talk about. I still get things for review but I just need to stop buying and holding on to so much stuff. I’ve only got one face! So here’s to purging, cleaning out my beauty closet, focusing on finding products I absolutely love and not buying more just because it’ is sparkly and pretty. Wish me luck!

Making a House a Home

Hi! I’m back! I’ve taken a nice long hiatus and I finally feel up to blogging again. Sometimes we all need a vacation. I thought I’d share a few of the pictures I snapped on my cell phone this weekend since I repainted the first floor of my house! You may remember seeing colorful splashes of my house before.

Like the very bold orange wall that I used to take outfit photos in front of, this was in my kitchen. I also had the wall covered in framed prints of vintage travel posters for cities my husband and I have gone to together. Well…the pumpkin orange, apple green and butter yellow days are gone!

After 7 years of bright and colorful I decided I wanted a bit more serene but still bold color palette of teal, mocha and mint. That’s right, mint! My ceilings aren’t white, they’re a lovely shade of mint that really pops with the teal.

We also added some stripes to the entry way along with new striped Flor carpet tiles. My favorite carpet tiles have to be the ones we added in the living room.

We picked out Hide & Batik in Quartz by Flor and love the color palette and the cool pattern. I’ve got a few more changes and updates to make and I’ll share those soon but I’ve been so excited and in love with my new living room I had to share it now. And thanks for still reading!