ASK SARAH : ADVICE FOR PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE?

Hi Sarah,  I absolutely love your blog and your style! I’d love your advice on a somewhat personal issue. You’ve written some really great posts on anxiety and the future and I thought you’d be a good person to turn to. I’m a 30-year-old woman and have been with my boyfriend for over 4 years. Lately, I’ve been feeling really anxious about marriage and having a baby. My boyfriend is fine with the way things are, but I’ve just been feeling like we have to make all these important life decisions and that he has all the time in the world to make them. I’m a planner, and I don’t like all the ambiguity about where we’re going to live, if we’re going to get married and if we even want children. Do you have any advice on how to handle this? I’m not even sure I want to get married or have kids, but I guess I just wish I could feel more laid back about our path. It feels like everyone else in the world is making these decisions and we’re just trucking along as is. Any advice you can offer would be so appreciated.  – Emily   {answer after the jump}

hi emily,  thanks for the kind words!  your email really couldn’t have come at a better time!  lou and i have been having some pretty heavy conversations about our future and it’s so completely overwhelming i can’t stand myself!  some people are fortunate enough to KNOW they want to get married, have kids, live in a certain city, etc.  but, like you, we struggle so much because we just don’t know.  and we’re reaching that point where we’re being forced to make some hard choices or we may not have choices to make, or at least may face many more challenges and risks.  

here’s what i can give you for advice though- make sure your boyfriend is at least open to the ideas of marriage and kids.  you have a few years still to figure it out, but you don’t want to wait a few years and find out that he really knew all along what he wanted and you have different dreams.  so really honest conversations about it are critical.  and i think he’ll be more open to chatting  about these things if you’re clear that these aren’t decisions you need to make now, but they’re things you have to at least talk about now!

similar to you i also feel unnerved by not knowing what the future will bring, but having lots of discussions about how we see our lives or the options we have takes some of the pressure off.  it helps me see that we’re on the same page (lost, but at least lost together!).  

once you’ve had those chats with him i think you’ll feel better, and the two of you may discover something in the process about what it is you envision for your lives together.  you’re smart to be thinking about this, it’s important to look down the road in order to craft the kind of life you want to have for yourself!  and you don’t want to wake up one day and realize you avoided the hard questions or didn’t spend the time really thinking about what you want.

does anyone else have any advice for emily?  all thoughts are welcome and appreciated!  xx- sarah 

photo of my friend elizabeth’s daughter via jose villa

VEGAN RHUBARB CHEESECAKE

YES, YOU READ THAT RIGHT!  it’s vegan, gluten free, healthier cheesecake and let me tell you, it’s bomb! i made it to celebrate our anniversary.  because nothing says “i love you” like a pretty homemade dessert, right?  or maybe it says “i love sweeeeeeeeets and i’ll take any excuse i can to make them!!”  either way, my fellow dessertaholics, make this- it’s easy, healthier, and freezable (yes, i have eaten it just short of completely frozen and it’s SO good!)  you’re going to love it!  and make haste because we all know rhubarb season will be gone in a flash!  xx-sarah  {more after the jump}

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STREET STYLE INSPIRATION: OVERALLS AND POLKA DOTS

this is a lady who knows how to do overalls right!  i love the femininity she brings to the look with the polka dot blouse, necklace and bright red lips!  taking note of this for future overall styling around here!  also, if you’re interested in recreating this look i’ve found some options for you below, and you will be happy to see the items cover ALL price points!  what do you think?  would you wear this?  xx- sarah

 

 

 

photo via

CLOTHING WITH A CAUSE

today’s style post is all about the tank top i’m wearing, produced by a company i am SO inspired by! sevenly produces clothing/goods to raise money and awareneess for different causes, a new one each week.  $7 from each purchase goes towards the week’s charity.  and they’re raising bucket loads of money!  this weeks cause is ESPECIALLY close to my heart.  they’re raising money for 4 paws for ability, an organization that strives to place service dogs with children with disabilities and veterans that have lost limbs.  sevenly is selling the cutest necklaces, tee shirts and dog leashes, among other things this week.  so head over and check it out!  xx- sarah

i can’t leave this post without also mentioning these sandals that i haven’t taken off since they arrived and this lily aldridge X velvet jacket that is JUST the right color, shape, weight (and softness, it’s SO soft!).  i’ll be wearing it for years, i just know it!

SHOP THIS OUTFIT: shirt: sevenly, shorts: jcrew (old, but similar herehere and herejacket: lily aldridge for velvet (also, on sale here!), shoes: sam edelman, sunnies: mosley tribes, watch: marc jacobs, bracelet: mercedes salazar 

MUSINGS : TAKE SMALL STEPS

hi everyone!  as promised, i’m going to start sharing some of my random thoughts, life lessons, and general contemplations about whatever comes up.  this series is going to be called musings, at least until i think of something better (WHY ARE TITLES THE HARDEST THING EVER?!).  and if you have anything specific you want me to ramble on about, you know where to find me!  {here, silly!}

today i want to talk about something that’s been on my mind lately, and what i’ve realized has opened up a world of doors for me.  i used to look at a goal or ambition and become insanely overwhelmed thinking about all of the daunting details involved with achieving it.  i’d get so defeated that i’d often give up before i started.  point A to point B would often seem SO far away and almost impossible to imagine getting to. what i’ve learned since then is that the best way to get where you want to go (or become who you want to be) is one small step at a time.  

for example, i spent all of my 20’s wishing i knew how to cook, wanting to be one of those people that could swoop into a kitchen and whip up something incredible with whatever was on hand.  but i didn’t see a direct route to become that person, so i was overwhelmed and just sort of accepted that it wasn’t meant to be.  i thought maybe i just wasn’t that person.  but i’ve since realized that that person didn’t wake up one day, breeze into the kitchen and throw together an amazing meal.  they started at a beginning somewhere and took who knows how many steps to become kitchen fluent before they EVER just spontaneously threw together an incredible dish.  and after my fair share of time in the kitchen following recipes, browsing cookbooks, experimenting (and failing) i am now proudly a person who can improvise in the kitchen!  {more after the jump}

so my advice is this: whatever it is you want to accomplish, forget about how long it will take you to get there, don’t focus on everything that will be involved in doing so, and instead sink all of your energy into doing any small thing that will get you closer.  

do you want to be a person who travels the world?  start a savings account, create a vision board of photos of the places you want to go, start journaling and write about the places you want to visit, get a part time job and squirrel those extra pennies away for your travel adventures, subscribe to a travel magazine, plan a garage sale to get rid of some of your stuff and put the proceeds into your piggy bank.  just tackle something every day that moves you in that direction. focus on the small things you can do to get you onto that flight to nepal. don’t worry about the big picture, life/momentum/the universe will take care of the rest. i promise, one day you will wake up and realize YOU ARE that person that travels the world.  

what do you think?  have you experienced similar anxiety when looking at a something you want to accomplish/become and then let that anxiety paralyze you?  what have you done to move past it?  thanks everyone, i hope you like this new series!  more soon.  xx- sarah

CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT SPREAD

this past weekend i decided to tackle chocolate hazelnut spread (aka nutella). when lou and i were doing our 5 year anniversary remembering i had some flashbacks to a trip i took to italy shortly after we started dating, and one of my fondest memories of the trip was eating fresh baked foccacia with nutella and fruit for every breakfast.  heaven in breakfast form!  {more after the jump}

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