Happy Friday! + weekly roundup

happy-friday Happy Friday! Thank God for the weekend, right? I have family in town for a while and plans to unplug, take my sister to our new church and work on this little apartment of ours a bit. Before I step away for the weekend I wanted to thank you for all of your sweet comments/emails/tweets yesterday. I'm so excited to let you in and share a little more of my daily life in 2014 and I definitely wouldn't even be considering it without your support!

In other news, there were a TON of amazing things happening on the internet on this week. Here's what I loved:

Stephanie Sterjovski shared a few of her dreams for 2014 Gaby from The Vault Files discovered her word for the new year... and it's a good one rewatching this super fun Jenna Lyons interview for the 50th time 30 things every woman should have and know via My Cup Of Te SMP Living's features on Taylor Sterling and her gorgeous home Don't be pretty - be beautiful in 2014 via One Fine A if Carrie Bradshaw had an Instagram (so good!) tips for shooting outfit photos from Jana Williams & Matchbook Magazine's January issue

Just Bewteen Us...

c5c4d6dc773311e3a24212df786a068e_8 While the beginning of a new year is always an exciting time (fresh starts and endless lists of inspiring resolutions abound) it can all be a little overwhelming. It's so easy to get wrapped up in trying to be better. The past week or so has been go, go, go up here in my head and I'm starting to get a little winded. There are so many pressures that we put on ourselves for the new year. Pressure to be smarter, more fit, tidier, more organized, a better wife/girlfriend/mommy/sister/friend/blogger... and it's a lot!

We put so many things on our own plates and sometimes it helps just to break it all down a bit, doesn't it?

Last week I asked you guys to answer a few questions and I was a little surprised by the answers (but I heard ya'll!). It sounds silly but it never actually occurred to me that you might want to hear about my life on my blog. We all like pretty clothes. I know several of you enjoy J.Crew just about as much as I do and shiny things make your little hearts pitter patter just a tad. It just never occurred to me that you might also be interested in hearing about what it's like to be starting your own family and navigating your twenties. This year I'm going to make an effort to open up and share a little more of what it's really like around here!

Growing pains... let's talk about 'em for a second. I love this little blog of mine. I love it to pieces! It has become such a happy space and I am so motivated to grow it and see it become more successful (even if that's not what you're supposed to say). I want nothing more than to pour all of my time and energy into making everything bigger and better and easier to navigate but that's just not practical. I'm so proud that (with a few exceptions) I posted every.single.weekday of 2013 but it was a lot of work and a few other areas of my life suffered. I want to feel empowered to miss a day or two here and there without explanation (forgive me, won't you?). I want to go out to dinner with Mr. Jackson or take an extra long bubble bath with Lo instead of working on my blog post for the next day and I'm going to do that from time to time. On the flip side, I have something BIG in the works that I know will take a lot of work... you win some, you lose some.

In other news, my mom and sister are visiting Alabama for the next week as they make their way to a new home in Washington D.C. (my dad is driving from their old house in California). I think a little bit of sister-time is just what I need to get over this little hump!

Chelsea & The City On Instagram

instagram-december-chelsea-and-the-city December is always such a fun month for us! With my birthday (I turned 23 this year) and everything that comes with celebrating Christmas (meeting Santa, decorating our tree, baking cookies with Lo, etc...) the month was filled to the brim with festivity. My favorite thing about being a young family is definitely creating our own traditions and that's why the holidays are such a special time of the year. This December we frolicked through the Christmas tree farm, decked the halls, sent our very first holiday cards and added the sweetest sparkly "J" (because I'm just THAT sure that I'll be a Jackson sometime soon) to our ornament collection. I couldn't have asked for a better month!

for more shenanigans, follow me @chelseaandthecity