A few months ago, Tea from Ekskluziv reached out to me and invited me to stop by the next time I was in Roanoke to try out a complimentary shampoo, cut, and style at their new salon. I immediately made an appointment to visit while Rob and I were in town for a wedding and had a great time chatting with the staff and getting some new layers.

Last month, I was going to be in Roanoke and was desperately in need of a trim and some color, so I eagerly emailed Tea and she managed to squeeze me in with Sarah, my stylist from before. Sarah is so lovely to work with and knew exactly what I was looking for after just a brief consultation--I always want to go darker and richer, so she added some golden tones to the color to really warm everything up. It was so great and it felt wonderful to get my hair back to a darker shade after not coloring it all summer.

Ekskluziv is the prettiest little salon and it's located in downtown Roanoke on Kirk Avenue, and they have such a wonderful team. If you're ever in town and need a cut, color, or style, give them a call (and tell them I sent you)!

"At Ekskluziv, our goal is to discover the inner beauty of each and every guest. By providing you with an enjoyable and educational opportunity, we will help you look salon styled each and every day." 

Follow Ekskluziv on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Labor Day has always been a special time for me--when summer is winding down and fall hints at us in the early morning. My birthday is in a few days and I always feel as though I get to start over in some way, especially this year with boxes still waiting to be unpacked and so many new things from our wedding registry that were waiting patiently for this move before they could finally be opened and used.

This summer was a good one, and while I find myself already missing Minneapolis, I'm so looking forward to this autumn in Charlotte--our first fall as a married couple, sleeping in on chilly weekends and drinking hot coffee and joking incessantly about an upcoming winter that won't be nearly as cold and long as the last, even if I know I'm going to miss all of that snow.

Wishing you a wonderful Labor Day, friends.

I was never someone who thought about "blogging breaks." I just blogged, and over time it went from being a new hobby to a little money-making side project, until last year when it became my "full-time" job (I say "full-time" with quotations because while I feel like I've had some success, there are still days where I have a hell of a lot of time on my hands and think, "okay, what am I doing?"). Even when I would take a vacation, I missed it. My laptop was always with me, ready to be opened and my camera was on my shoulder, ready to shoot; ready to document and share and generally be on top of things.

So it's been a few weeks of less posting around here and I feel a lot of pressure. From whom, I don't know. But I have anxiety and routines are important for me, so it has been extremely difficult to keep it together and still feel self-employed during this transition.

I'm writing this because I guess I didn't realize until a few days ago how rough August has been for me. I didn't know I wasn't supposed to believe the moving company's estimator who came to our apartment in Minneapolis and said he didn't think our stuff would take longer than five days to catch up with us in Charlotte--a declaration that made the three weeks it has actually taken feel to me like several months. (I say this like our stuff is finally moved in, and not sitting on a broken-down truck somewhere in North Carolina as I write this.)

And then things in your personal life crumble a little and suddenly you wonder what's happening to you. It's my story, but it's not, so the details really aren't even mine to tell; and life isn't always sunshine and rainbows even though you never wanted to be the blogger who wrote the ambiguous post declaring that life is more than sunshine and rainbows, but here you are telling people about the clouds overhead.

All of this is to say that I'm still here, even if you aren't hearing from me that much right now. I'm just taking my time, even though it feels ridiculous to be so busy and overwhelmed when your job is barely demanding. Rob and I will actually get our stuff and I'll sit at my desk and regain a little bit of control over my day. Our friends will visit and some weekends we'll drive to Roanoke and Richmond and DC or Charlottesville and hug the people we love and one day we'll look back on that terrible move and the really hard August, hopefully with a smile.

But until then, I would just really love to have a chair.