pink kisser

to be quite honest, when i started hearing talk of the onslaught of color this season, i got a little bit scared. i live in neutrals. nearly all of my closet is made up of olives, navies, blacks, browns and grays. i like to take risks by layering them together. unless you count the red on my fingernails and lips, i don't do color. (well, not since my elle woods phase my freshman year of college, anyway, which may have created my current fear of color. there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. my freshman dorm room is a key example.) the spring 2012 runways reminded me of skipper's spandexed teen-girl wardrobe back in the day. too much neon. something about it seemed so eighties. so third grade. so unsophisticated. but then, on my way home from a spring trends lecture at neiman marcus in february, i bought a hot pink and orange cropped top (not at neiman marcus, mind you). i wore it the next day, and i felt kind of awesome. then i got a mint green manicure. then i bought a neon yellow button down. slowly but surely, color started to find its way into my wardrobe. and i have to admit, while i still generally prefer to mix it with a tamer piece, i really like it. i don't feel young or unsophisticated. in fact, i feel fresh and feminine and cool.

all of this color has certainly inspired my make-up routine as well. i've always been stumped on how to make my beloved bold lipstick work for the spring and summer months. until about two weeks ago when i was suddenly wildly inspired by bold, pink lips. i bought a couple of cheap tubes last weekend just to try out the look, and i have to say, it's kind of fabulous. i generally gravitate toward more orange-toned hues, but the pink was actually surprisingly flattering on my fair skin. i totally love it.

so the moral of the story here? sometimes trends that are intimidating are actually really fun to ease into. lipstick is probably about the most non-committal way to ease into color, but, hey. i'm trying here, people.

1.kate spade image credit via emily 2.image credit 3.image credit

happy easter

 "He planted His cross in the midst of the mad and roaring current of selfishness, aggravated to malignity, and uttered from it the mighty cry of expiring love. and the waters heard Him, and from that moment, they began to be refluent about His cross. from that moment, a current deeper and broader and mightier began to set heavenward; and it will continue to be deeper and  broader and mightier till its glad waters shall encompass the earth, and toss themselves as the ocean. and not alone did earth hear the cry, it pierced the regions of immensity. heaven heard it, and hell heard it, and the remotest star shall hear it, testifying to the love of God in His unspeakable gift, and to the supremacy of that blessedness of giving which could be reached only through death - the death of the cross."  - mark hopkins

what kind of love tells me i'm the reason He can't stay inside the grave?

image via epm