I hope you are having a wonderful day, friends! How are you doing this week?! Tthe promise of Spring is just around the corner! Isn’t that such a gift? No matter what the past year or last few weeks or days have held, the hope and promise of Spring is on the horizon. Even when so many factors are outside of our control, the sun will continue to rise, the birds will chirp away in delight, the buds will grow and bloom, colorful flowers will blossom, and warmer days are ahead. Spring is my absolute favorite time of year, and despite things (still) looking so very differently, it’s hard not to feel some sense of hope and renewal.

greeting cards from Cultivate What Matters | A favorite small business of mine is Cultivate What Matters (of Powersheets fame, amongst others!), and they just launched their new Encouragement Collection! I have used and loved their greeting card boxed set for many years now, and another beautiful variation just launched. You can choose from three slightly different, gorgeous, high quality, versatile greeting card boxed sets (citrus, blooms, and confetti), and you get 24 cards for $22! Y’all, seriously: buy one (or three) of these greeting card sets now! I mail cards all the time (maybe twenty per month), and I adore how versatile the set is (six different designs in each set), the colorful and happy designs, the festive envelope liner, and just how convenient and beautiful these cards are. I about to go through my fourth or fifth box of these and am poised to order more; you cannot beat the price at less than $1.00 per card!

making reels | A photographer or videographer, I am not! But I have had a lot of fun making Reels (very short videos) on Instagram in the last couple weeks! I am essentially zero video editing skills or any knowledge of how to do that, but I really do appreciate that Instagram allows a novice like me to put together and edit a short video. I made one about grandmillennial wedding inspiration, one about our date night dinner tables/the table setting process, and one about baking raspberry cupcakes. It’s so much fun to do, stretches me creatively, and feels like a big accomplishment (for someone who would otherwise not even know where to begin!). They take me maybe ten minutes to edit and throw together, and I love that videos can capture so much.

birthday celebrations | I celebrated my birthday a few days ago (check out my ideal (birth)day post here!), and it was such a sweet and special celebration. I’m pretty much one of the last people in the world to celebrate a pandemic birthday (take me back to last year’s glorious dinner party and festivities without a care in the world!), and my family and friends went out of their way to make me feel so loved! We got to meet my parents at a park halfway between their home and ours over the weekend, we enjoyed a deck hangout with two of our best friends, and friends dropped off cards/flowers/birthday sweets on our porch, and I loved so many FaceTimes and phone calls. Rob decorated our house for my birthday, we both took the day off work, we kicked off the day with my favorite almond croissants and coffee, enjoyed a Cava picnic lunch outside, went on an a beautiful, arduous, fun hike at Umstead Park (which Rob declared as our best hike and one of the most fun adventures we’ve had yet!), picked up pizza from our favorite local spot, had a fancy dinner table set (with pink tulips!) for pizza, champagne, and banana pudding. It was a simple but really sweet birthday together!

baking raspberry cupcakes | Baking is such a joy for me, and I had such a fun time dreaming up these cupcakes to drop off to one of my best friends to celebrate her virtual baby shower! I’m so glad that I had such a sweet excuse to bake in celebration of her baby girl, and my friend also told me she’s been craving carbs, fruit, and anything jammy these days. Enter: these raspberry cupcakes with a fresh raspberry tucked inside, vanilla buttercream icing, sparkling sugar dusted on, and then topped with the perfect raspberry touch! I managed to save a couple for the two of us, and goodness, these cupcakes were so delicious. It’s really special to bake something to share with loved ones, and I love the little touches we were all able to do to love our friend well during this exciting season! This group of best friends from college has been doing virtual baby showers for eight years now, so we’re quite the experts, I think!

hints of Springtime | We recently had two days that were especially glorious and felt like the happiest hints of Springtime! Can you tell I live for Spring?! With a high around 72 degrees and abundant sunshine, Rob and I spent copious amounts of time outdoors those days, went on long walks, and even played tennis both days. It felt so good to feel the sun on my skin, read out in the yard on a picnic blanket, and pretend like it wasn’t still technically winter. PS: Target has some cute and affordable sundresses out right now (my sister and I both got this one in gingham and blush, and I also got this one in red – seen below!), and it’s hard to resist the pull of a $20 sundress and dream about picnics in the sun while wearing them!

What about you?! Have you discovered or tried anything new and noteworthy over the past few weeks?! Do any of these five resonate with you? Do tell, if so!

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