Deciding and packing what to wear to Alt Summit takes a little more planning than other trips--spending the week at a conference with 600 fabulous bloggers can be a little intimidating. As tempting as it is sometimes to go on a mini shopping spree every January, I try not to buy anything new and just assemble a few outfits with my favorite pieces instead. I wanted to be comfortable but also look put together..I think it went well!

Top: LOFT | Jeans: Levi's

Boots: ShoeMint | Bag: Coach

Bracelet (similar): Banana Republic

Watch (similar): Michael Kors

This silk top is great with a pencil skirt or dressed down with jeans and booties. I've had that brown bag forever and it's perfect for toting around notebooks and a laptop. This is something I'd wear to meet a friend for lunch or to spend a morning working at a coffee shop in Uptown Charlotte, so I thought it was a great choice for my first full day at Alt. What do you think?

Photos by the lovely Emily of Anna Delores Photography.

Like pancakes and whipped cream, I never knew I would miss mashed potatoes until I went Paleo. They were always just sort of eh for me--I'd eat them if they were in front of me, but I really never went out of my way to make them myself.

The other day I bought a head of cauliflower with no real idea of what to do with it, so I decided to cook it quickly and blend it up in an attempt to serve a mashed potato-like dish at a dinner party Rob and I were hosting. I threw some truffle oil in and finished it off with Parmesan, and the result was simultaneously sophisticated and totally comforting. A perfect winter dish!

Paleo Mashed Cauliflower with Parmesan & Truffle Oil

Ingredients: 

• One head of cauliflower, washed and chopped
• Six to eight cups of water for cooking
• One clove of garlic
• 1/2-1 teaspoon truffle oil
• Two tablespoons of grass-fed butter
• A splash of full-fat coconut or almond milk (optional)
• Several tablespoons of Parmesan cheese (also optional)
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions: 

1. In a large pot, bring water to a boil. Add the cauliflower and cook for about ten minutes, or until the florets are fork-tender.
2. Remove from heat, drain water and set cauliflower aside for the moment. (If you're using a blender, you can blend the cauliflower now. Otherwise it's going back in the pot to be mashed with an immersion blender or a simple wooden spoon.)
3. Over medium heat, saute the garlic in a bit of the butter. Turn off heat and return the cauliflower to pot. Add the rest of the butter.
4. With an immersion blender, blend the cauliflower until it is at your desired lumpiness/creaminess. If it's too thick, feel free to add a splash of coconut or almond milk (or more butter, I won't judge you).
5. Season with salt, pepper, and truffle oil--do the truffle oil a bit at a time as it can easily become overpowering.
6. Transfer mashed cauliflower to an oven-safe dish, top with Parmesan, and place in the oven on broil to brown the cheese (it only takes a few minutes--stay there and watch it to ensure it doesn't burn). Serve and enjoy!

"I could tell you what water is made of: two parts hydrogen, one of oxygen. I could describe what it feels like to dive into a lake on a hot summer day or the briny feel of sand and salt at the beach, but the task here is to find your own pool of liquid and give it shape...

You have to find your own dynamic structure, one that fits your story and what you personally have to share.

...You can't tell every minute of your life--or put in every darling experience. You can't eat everything on the table. You choose a portion, some fruit...and put it on your plate. You choose a time, a subject, a place, you give a shape to what is unruly. You lend it a form. The form is not a trick. It develops out of what you want to say and how you want to say it.

--Natalie Goldberg, Old Friend from Far Away

I came back from Salt Lake City feeling a little overwhelmed by all the things I want to do and how far I feel I still have to go. I often find myself wanting to share every part of my life while simultaneously treasuring the long, slow brunch I shared with my husband in a dark tavern on a lazy Sunday afternoon; or the hot cup of coffee I drank while I sat down to talk to a new friend for the first time in my favorite coffee shop. The hour-long walks I sometimes take by myself or the quiet cups of tea I often drink in the afternoon sunlight of my living room. They don't make it to my Instagram feed and yet they are valuable moments in my life.

Last year I felt like I was almost "there" in some way (but what does that even mean, really?), and this year, though I've come so far in so many ways, it feels as though there has never been a longer road ahead of me. Do our standards get higher as we go on? There is so much that I want to create, write, or share and I haven't even begun yet. And then there are the things that I might never let you read, that will stay typed out on old pieces of paper stapled together through old writing workshops, or scribbled quickly and furiously onto the pages of a leather-bound notebook in the drawer of my bedside table.

2015 is quickly becoming for me the year of less is more, or rather, do less with more. More effort, more intention, more love. More creativity and more practice. More thought. More laughter and more adventure. And, somehow, more structure. I will stretch myself but not too thinly. And I will be truer to myself in the process.