“Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.”
― Oprah Winfrey

Darlings, it’s New Years Eve! We’re back in London after two weeks stateside, breaking out the bubbly and hunkering down for a pleasant evening of movies and goofing off to ring in 2019.

2018 has been a wild year. The world has sometimes been alight with wild optimism…and sometimes it’s just felt alight altogether. While much of is has been hard, more of it has been hopeful for me and I cannot really wish for more than that. And I wish the same for each one of you lovely minions who stop by this random corner of the internet to chat with me. I appreciate and value you more than I can say.

Here is the last favorites list of the year of the lovely and silly things that made my December merry and bright. I’ll see you next year, kittens.

Travel

Yes, once again I am lamenting at how little traveling we do given our extremely advantageous geographical circumstances. Poverty is dreadful. But thanks to the overwhelming generosity of our family, we were able to visit both sets of parents and siblings after two years away. It was restorative in the way that only travel can be. I sincerely hope we find a way to build more of it into our budget in 2019.

Luxe Square Turtleneck by Everlane

I bought these sweaters some time ago, in navy and gray, and they were basically my Go To uniform in the month of December. One of my personal smaller goals is to upgrade my casual clothing to something a 30-something reasonably successful woman would wear…instead of living in sweatshirts and pajama bottoms all weekend long. And it’s not that I don’t own nice casual clothing, it’s that I default to lazy way too much of the time! Everlane has long been a supplier of reliable basics in minimalistic-chic colors and I can easily recommend the brand. These sweaters were thin enough to be easy to pack but high quality enough to make basic jeans and boots feel Put Together, and the modern shape makes them interesting. I get compliments whenever I wear them, and I wore them a LOT this month. Hopefully they keep them in stock and introduce new colors when I’m allowed to shop again.

Sephora

Okay, sue me, I bought stuff whilst on holiday. In my defense, I got a gift card for Christmas from a brother who truly knows the innermost workings of my soul and I bought nothing that wasn’t planned for in advance. It was a perfectly acceptable holiday indulgence (she justified)! All joking aside, it was a real pleasure to enjoy a favorite shopping spot which is inaccessible to me in the UK, and it was a greater pleasure to do so in a way that felt much healthier than the frantic binges of years past. Let me know if you are interested in a rundown of the fistful of goodies I brought home with me, I will oblige with another manifesto on lipstick if requested!

Revisiting Old Haunts

We spent two weeks visiting family this month, which was a long expedition to the States. While my parents do not live in an area that Jeff and I shared at any point, we were able to revisit several of our old  favorite spots in Utah. Without exaggeration, we ate the state–or at least the Salt Lake valley! We hit The Dodo, The Red Iguana, and Ruth’s Dinner, all required dining the next time you are in SLC and highly recommended by Team Small Dog.

My Dog

Our family dog Mika is 14 years old and it’s clear that she’s not going to last much longer, so I was very grateful to be able to pet and cuddle with my puppy a lot this past trip. I don’t anthropomorphize dogs…but I do love them and think they are their own unique personalities. Dogs are the only creatures on earth that have co-evolved with humans for as long as they have and we are a better species with them around. Mika has brought a lot of silliness and joy to my family and even from afar,