Wishing you a warm Valentine's weekend full of love, flowers, and plenty of chocolate!

P.S. A Valentine's Day post I wrote two whole years ago.

Photo from my styled shoot with V.A. Photography.

You guys, it's Valentine's Day week and Rob has agreed to model for a sponsored post on my blog. Romance is everywhere! I am so going to marry that guy.

Rob's style is casual and laid-back, which I love. He has a lot of really soft tee-shirts and a collection of great-looking sweaters. He's almost always in nice jeans, unless he's in a pair of flannel-lined khakis, which he got for Christmas and loves. Because he's such a tall guy, we're always on the hunt for shirts that are long enough, so when Hanes offered to send us a pack of their ComfortBlend tees (available at WalMart), I jumped at the opportunity. And so here we are.

These tees are super soft and durable enough to wear on their own, but since it's winter in Minnesota, he's been mostly wearing them under his sweaters. They have a wide variety of colors, but the Navy Heather (shown above) is my favorite.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

When I was in college, writing was a dream that seemed attainable. I already did it every day--academic papers kept me sharp and well-read, and my creative writing minor had me pumping out quality personal essays on a regular basis. And then there was the feedback--the constructive criticism that made me better every time. I never knew what I was going to "do with my life" (sometimes I still don't), but I knew that I would always write.

This might sound ridiculous, but this blog doesn't always feel like a place where I write. I don't like that. It feels like I'm not being true to myself in some way. I love sharing my life with you guys, but I want 2014 to be the year I start writing more things I'm proud of--things that feel more like complete pieces than blog posts. And I want to start getting better again, because when I sit down to a blank Word document, I realize just how rusty I've gotten.

Back in 2011, I vowed to write a piece of creative nonfiction every week. It was obviously an ambitious goal, or else I would have done it. But I would like to try again.

These posts will be labeled "Old Friend from Far Away" (because the writing prompts are all taken from the book--get it here), and I'm not sure how I'm going to go about them. I once made a list that I think was easy to follow, so I'll go ahead and do that again. I've spoken with a few people who would like to follow the prompts and write along, and I'd love that.

• 02/17: What's been on your mind? What have you carried and gnawed over? (OFFA, 154)
• 02/24: Tell about periods when you haven't read. What were you doing? Where and when do you read best? (OFFA, 160)
• 03/03: Often we are pulled between two places...Tell us about them. Give us the pull, the conflict, the desire. (OFFA, 204)
• 03/17: Write about your mother's jewelry. Write about her shoes. (OFFA, 153)
• 03/24: What is your anchor, what you trust and know and can come home to over and over in your writing? (OFFA, 238)
• 03/31: What is the third thing? There is you and there is writing. But you can't write about writing. It's ingrown. You and writing must gaze out at a third thing. Of course, a fourth, a fifth will appear, but for now the two of you look out together. What is there in this world? (OFFA, 42)
• 04/07: A lunch you loved. (OFFA, 209)
• 04/14: A memory of a Popsicle. (OFFA, 209)
• 04/21: A memory of sunscreen. (OFFA, 209)
• 06/23: A self-portrait in third person. (OFFA, 214)

Thanks for reading. Thanks for writing.