7 Small Things to get into the Holiday Spirit

December 11, 2020Leave a comment

I’ve been a Christmas girl as long as I can remember. December is truly one of my favorite months (behind October, obviously), and Christmas Eve is one of my favorite days (behind my birthday, obviously). But this year just feels…weird? As much as I love this season and my decorations that have been up since mid-November, it just feels a little bit harder to feel the joy right now (and I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling that).

With the pandemic, social distancing, and just the lack of “normal” traditions, I’ve been trying to find small ways to feel merry & bright during an otherwise bleak and sad Christmas season. Below are some of my holiday simple joys I’ve been enjoying this month. While this year is far from normal, hopefully you can find some sparks of hope, happiness and joy too. (And just a reminder: whatever you’re feeling this season, your emotions are 100% real and valid. No need to feel guilty for not feeling joyful right now. Allowing yourself to just be is valuable, too.)

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Likes & Favorites: Quarantine Edition

May 6, 2020May 6, 20201 Comment

Hello and welcome to Likes & Favorites: Quarantine Edition. For those of you who are new around here, Likes & Favorites is a category of Ampersand where I round up all the things I’m liking (and, you guessed it, favoriting). You can find all my Likes & Favorites from over the years right here.

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these so it’s long overdue. I’m here to make your quarantine easier/more enjoyable with the roundup of some of my favorite things below. Every item on this list I personally love and have recommended to people (multiple times). Enjoy~

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How to Stay Sane in Quarantine

April 1, 2020April 1, 20208 Comments

Hey. I’m back. I know, it’s seems like forever since I’ve written. To be honest, it was so long, I forgot my WordPress password. I almost didn’t renew my Ampersandblog.net domain (& did at the very, very last minute). It’s not like I intentionally stopped blogging for any particular reason–it sort of naturally happened. I wasn’t feeling super inspired by anything & was doing a lot of writing (offline ;)). And I didn’t want to force it you know? Blogging has been a hobby and I didn’t want to feel stressed out by it.

But we’re here now! Amidst all the things going on the world, I’ve been drawn to comforting, easy, familiar things (as we probably all have), and I felt like I wanted to blog again. So thanks for bearing with me, for those of you who asked if I still blog, for reading anything I write at all. We’ll see if this becomes a regular thing!

We’re all in quarantine, doing the social distancing~ thing so figured I’d share some tips that have helped me stay (somewhat) sane during the past two weeks. By no means an expert (& always looking for new tips!) but hope this helps even a little bit!