“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”

— Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

I hope 2015 was a year that asked questions, because I don't have very much room for any more uncertainty these days.

2015 was a bad year.

• My parents split up and moved out of the house that used to be one of my favorite places in the world.
• Rob and I were in a car accident.
• My mom got cancer and had two surgeries.
• I took a step back from blogging and came back uninspired; feeling like I was flailing about in a sea of uncertainty while my peers raced ahead steadily.
• I tested positive for a BRCA gene mutation that increases my risk of breast cancer up to 84%.

And yet, it was a good one, too.

• We rescued a puppy and fell in love with him (as I'm sure you could tell from his ridiculous first birthday party).
• I was invited to speak at my alma mater about creating an unconventional job with an English degree, which I will always look back on as the first big honor of my career.
• We celebrated our first year of marriage in a city that finally feels like home.
• I teamed up with Courtney of Sweet C's Designs to pitch my first really huge blogging project and found myself on a sponsored trip to California to put our plans in action.
• We made a handful of really great friends and managed to maintain some old traditions in new ways--including sushi and bowling the day after Thanksgiving and a Love Actually girls night after a visit to a local holiday market.

I'm looking forward to so many new things in 2016--more travel, reading a ton of books, studying Spanish again, learning a few new skills (I have my heart set on hand lettering), and hopefully less heartbreak.

We all have so much to be thankful for, don't we?

“Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to run on the light.”

— J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Happy New Year, friends.

Christmas is this week, which means New Year's Eve is just around the corner! This year I wanted to post some ideas for an easy at-home New Year's Eve celebration, complete with small plates (so you don't have to cook) and a super simple photo booth backdrop, because it's not a party without a photo booth! 

Rob and I tested it all out last weekend because I just love you guys so much, and I wanted to be sure everything went according to plan.

We poured La Crema's Sonoma Coast Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, as well as their Monterey Pinot Gris, which paired really well with a wide variety of small bites like smoked salmon and charcuterie. I personally love a meal composed of tapas, so this is perfect--and since New Year's Eve parties tend to be later in the evening, I think you can get away with serving less food since most people will just be snacking. 

You can very easily make your own photo booth backdrop with a poster board and some tissue paper--check out the full tutorial over on the La Crema blog! I used some festive metallic tissue paper that I think feels very New Years-y.

This was my first time using a selfie stick and it's my new favorite thing. Rob and I were totally cracking up! And I don't know about you, but I'm not usually one to print out photos, so I just popped the photo booth shots into a collage maker so we could still get that quintessential photo booth strip. Don't forget the props! It's not a photo booth without a big fake mustache.

What are your New Year's Eve plans this year? If you make a photo booth for your party, let me know--I want to see pictures! (And don't forget to visit the La Crema blog for my full New Year's Eve menu and photo booth DIY tutorial.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of La Crema. The opinions and text are all mine.

Photos by Rémy Thurston for Freckled Italian.

Good morning from Charlotte! Rob and I got home last night and it felt so much like a Sunday--I'm excited that we have a full weekend to unwind and do laundry and really relax a bit before we get back to regularly scheduled life on Monday morning.

I can't believe 2015 is upon us. I'm not usually into making very specific New Year's Resolutions, but this year I really want to do my best to prioritize my life and stop making excuses. I want my health and fitness to stop sitting on the back burner when things get busy or stressful. I want to make even more of an effort to see my friends who live in different cities. And I want to make the most of life in Charlotte by exploring more and getting to know the city with the aggressiveness that we had while we were in Minneapolis.

What are some of your New Year's Resolutions?

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I have just a few links to share with you this weekend--there aren't many of them so I didn't categorize them like I usually do. I hope you enjoy them and as always, feel free to leave me a link you loved in the comments below!

• I just updated this post with some new photos: DIY Glitter Pumps (So perfect for a wedding or New Year's Eve!)
• 6 Things I Wish I'd Known About Marriage When I Was 26
• This woman had me laughing out loud. Such a wonderful commentary on what life really looks like when it's inspired by Pinterest: What Happened When I Lived According To The Pinterest Popular Page
• 9 Important Tips for Sometimes Writers--I love the reality of number 9, "You don't have to write every day."
• How fun are these little Kate Spade glitter earrings?
• Leigh Anne Tuohy, Racism, and the White Saviour Complex. We all know Leigh Anne Tuohy has a good heart, but do you think maybe she could scrounge up a little sensitivity and common sense while she's at it? How embarrassing for those two boys just minding their own business.
• We're working hard on the finishing touches of the first volume of The Eighty Twenty Magazine this week, but I wanted to share this post which includes a video with some behind-the-scenes sneak peeks! I'm so excited to see this thing come together and I hope you all love it as much as we do.

Photo: one of my favorites from my bridal shoot, by V.A. Photography (again!)