I like to capture a colorful life but, I have to admit, I don't always live a colorful life on a day to day basis. How so? Well, my closet is mostly filled with black, gray, and lighter gray. I stare at textbooks with barely any use of color most of the day. And I sit at a desk or in front of a computer, soaking up as much color as I can to compensate for everything else. If this sounds like you too, I'm glad I'm not the only one. But maybe there's hope for us, right? There's gotta be. I've jotted down some quick and easy ways we can both start to put some intentional color into our every day. 

Thoughts | Caught in the Middle

Now that we are a few days into the new year, I can't help but notice how hard it is to let go of 2015. When I sign my name, my hand automatically scribbles down "1/5/2015" on the date line. When I look at my milk's expiration date, I happily smile to see "2015." But then, I luckily realize -- nope, that's expired. It's like I'm caught in the middle. Not completely past 2015 but not completely into 2016. Although difficulty adjusting into the new year happens, indeed, every year for me, I began to think a lot more about why this is so...

Travel | Follow that pink coat

This month I decided to celebrate the holidays a little differently. For the first time, I'll spend them away from home. I was a bit nervous about the idea at first. I absolutely love Christmas in California. It's warm, relaxing, and my mom always cooks a bombtastic meal. Every single time. I also get to wear my pajamas all day and not feel one ounce of shame about it. However, now that I'm married and living this whole adult life deal, I thought it was about time I expand my Christmas traditions. So, this month, I'll be traveling across Europe and spending the holidays with my husband and his family in the Czech Republic! The weather will be colder, the language harder to understand (have you ever tried to learn Czech?!), and possibly a lot more beer at dinner time. But life is an adventure right?! I'm ready to dive in.

In the meantime, you can follow my colorful journey as I trek across Paris, London, Geneva, and Prague! My unifying theme will be #followthatpinkcoat as I capture colorful sites wearing this perfect pink coat I found from Asos. There will also be travel posts on the blog for each city coming this month, as well as daily updates on my Instagam (@creativekipi). Let's go for a colorful adventure this season, shall we?! 

How are you celebrating the holidays? Feel free to share below - I'd love to hear! 

Life | Giving Thanks

Celebrating Thanksgiving is one of my favorite things to do -- how can you not enjoy a day devoted to family, friendship, food, and good fortune? Even though everything in life can never be perfect, this day urges us to reconsider why we should even wait for that to happen. I am so thankful for the love in my life, the progress I've made towards my career, and the creative outlets that inspire me everyday. Thanks for being a part of my colorful journey, and I hope the day felt like a thousand sunflowers! 

Travel | Santorini, Greece

A few weeks ago I had the absolute joy of traveling to Greece and experiencing, perhaps, the most pictured landscape around the world: Santorini! Although, understandably, this is a hot spot region for tourists particularly during the peak season (June - August), most tourists tend to stick to the most popular areas, namely Oia and Fira. However, with a little adventure you can easily explore the rest of the island in a couple days and find a plethora of private beaches and romantically secluded spots to catch the idyllic sunset over the water.

Keep reading for some of my top travel tips to Santorini...