Okay, so speaking of sponsors and totally missing the whole month of February (did it just fly by? Where'd it go???) I thought I'd do a little spotlight of the lovelies who have been gracing my sidebar for the past month. Lets start from the top:

Twila's Vintage

If you guys haven't clicked over to Twila's, you must, it's full of super cute little vintage dresses. Her shop always makes me salivate for more vintage dresses...

Ruche

This has been one of my favorite online shops for a long time. The pieces they stock are just so cute and unique, very vintage inspired– which, as you all know, is right up my alley. They always have really great pieces, and their lookbooks are just too gorgeous.

ModCloth

If you haven't been to ModCloth, I don't know what rock you've been living under. They have hundreds of great items, and I can spend hours just window shopping. We've had a couple ModCloth items in the Delightful Dozen swap and there are more to come, needless to say, we are fans.

Noble Town Vintage

I'm sure you guys are familiar with Noble Town after my giveaway a few weeks ago. You all should keep her shop bookmarked though, because she's got cute dresses coming in all the time. I have one dress from NTV and if I had unlimited funds, best believe I'd have way more!

Busy Bee

Busy Bee is one of my newer sponsors. If you haven't entered the Busy Bee giveaway yet, make sure to enter for one of her beautiful headbands. She's got really gorgeous headbands, and even some super cute ones for babies! Wouldn't that make a cute new mommy/baby gift? Matching headbands!

KDikio Vintage

Kdikio just did my last giveaway, so I'm sure you've heard of her shop. She's got a great array of vintage jewelry and other accessories. If you're looking for a unique piece to accent your outfits, Kdikio is a good place to start your search.

Baby Says Boutique

Baby Says Boutique has some really gorgeous items. Tieka just posted an outfit with a dress from BSB and I totally fell in love. BSB has a great mix of new and vintage items. She also has some nice accessories, so don't miss out...

Emily Lynn Design

Emily hand makes all her designs. She prints handmade block prints onto American Apparel scarves and she hand-makes all her jewelry herself.

Clyde's Rebirth

I adore Clyde's Rebirth jewelry. The way she reworks the pieces she uses in her jewelry is just really interesting and beautiful. Her jewelry is both feminine and edgy at the same time. It may be just me, but I'm a big fan of unusual, chunky jewelry, so I love her stuff.

Wildcatters

Last but not least! Wildcatters has some great personalized items. You can pick initials you want to imprint onto her tiny ID tag necklaces, or you can choose one of her other beautiful pieces, like the Medicine Pouch necklace or the crossed arrows Bravery necklace.

Sponsors!

Okay, so February totally threw me off with the whole 28 day thing and now March is tomorrow! If anyone wants to start (or continue) sponsoring Delightfully Tacky, shoot me an email! Stats and other info are located here.

...the sun couldn't rise without you, darling.

This post is going to be a little (okay a lot) more personal than my usual posts. I keep my personal life out of my blog mainly because I like this to be a sanctuary for me. When I'm blogging, I don't have to think about the rest of the world, it's a perfectly wonderful place full of nice people, pretty pictures, and encouraging words. And, honestly, this blog has been the one thing that has kept me going at times, the one thing I look forward to when I feel like everything around me is crumbling.

Back in June, the love of my life decided that I was no longer the love of his life. I immediately moved out of Spokane, where I'd lived for four years, and sought sanctuary with my family on the west coast of Washington. I promised myself I wouldn't cry, and I didn't. I didn't cry for months. I refused. Then, when we came back to Alaska, everything fell apart. Not literally, I mean, my life is perfect, really. But, when the person you thought was going to spend forever with you on this big adventure of life leaves, it's not something that just goes away. Coming to terms with him leaving, well, I'm still not sure I have. The things he told me... I just don't know how someone says those things one day and then another day does not mean them anymore. I'm not asking for anyone to feel sorry for me or tell me someone even better will love me someday.

Anyway, it's taken months for me to reach this point. It felt like I was in a horrific car wreck, and I was stuck in traction. I pushed everyone out of my life because I was too proud to admit I failed. Figuratively, I didn't want anyone to see me in that condition, strapped to a hospital bed, covered in casts. He got out of the wreck unscathed. He moved on, I was crushed- incapacitated by grief. My favorite human being no longer desired me. Four months later I was crying myself to sleep on a daily basis, sobbing into the blankets, stifling my cries– he was in Germany, dating a new girl. I could hear him calling her "darling" and "girl," "cutie" and "sweetie" like he used to call me.

It still hurts sometimes. But I've healed. The casts are off. I'm doing great in my physical therapy. I'm walking on my own. You guys have been a major part of that. All your kind words lifted me up on a daily basis. Every comment made me smile.

Anyways, I don't want to be a downer, but I've finally been able to get to a point where I could do this and I wanted to share it with you guys. I have kept all his most wonderful texts to me since I met him in 2007. I've never been able to delete them, and I still can't bring myself to, but I can finally look through them again without completely falling apart. I've wanted to take macro shots of my favorite ones but it hurt too much until now. I don't really know what these mean to me right now, I'm sure some day it will make sense, but I thought I'd share them with you guys. These aren't all of them (that would be a huge post and many would not make sense to you guys. I mean, my text inbox can only fit like 4 new texts before it's full, so I have a LOT of saved texts. I'm a pack rat, even digitally...), but these are the most meaningful.

I feel like the Brave project is a huge part of the healing process. I can't wait to get out on the road on my own and do something entirely for me, something I'm truly passionate about and that makes me completely and totally happy. It's going to be wonderful and I just can't wait. And I can't wait to bring all of you with me!

Rosemary & Thyme

Today was a b-e-a-utiful day. It was so sunny and bright and there was a handful of tiny snowflakes gently fluttering down. I decided to finish off my roll of 120 in my Holga that was leftover from NYC, so I drove down to a Brave that has been sitting by the side of the road for years and took some pictures of it. I dropped off two rolls of 120 this afternoon so hopefully early next week I'll have some good photos.

top/thrifted :: scarf/pashmina :: leggings/F21 :: boots/minnetonka

I started a tumblr (again) last night. Last time I started one I got annoyed and deleted it within a couple hours. I see so many cool pictures online, though, that I thought it'd be a good place to post the ones that inspire me. If you want to check it out, it's halfway somewhere.
I don't know what I'm going to do when the Olympics aren't on TV anymore. It's amazing because there's always something cool on TV with the Olympics. I remember when I was younger I used to take my flexible flyer sled and pretend that I was a luger. I would pack down our sledding hill and pour water on the top of the hill, making grooves in the ice for a starting section and then we'd pretend we were in the Olympics. We had a starting line and timers and everything. Of course, there weren't any S-curves or anything, just going straight down the hill. I feel like every kid wants to be an Olympian at some point.
Oh, and go check out Mel's Delightful Dozen post! She styled my striped skirt and I love it! If you guys want to keep tabs on all the Delightful Dozen, become a fan of the DD Facebook page!

Busy Bee Giveaway!

Hello, fair readers! It's Friday! What could be better? I'll tell you what, a Friday and a giveaway! That's right, today marks the beginning of the Busy Bee giveaway...

The lovely Lauren from the Busy Bee Shoppe is offering this beautiful headband to one lucky reader! It's got three sequined gold flowers secured to a gold and cream braided band with elastic backing.

If you haven't been over to the shoppe yet, go check it out! There are a lot of different styles of headbands available, and she also has some really cute headbands for babies (and I know some of you have some tiny cuties... or cuties on the way!).

To enter, just leave a comment on this post between Wednesday, March 3 at 12:00 pm. If you don't have a blog where I can reach you, make sure to leave an email address!