This & That: Weekend in the Woods

We live in such a crazy fast-paced world in which everyone is obsessed with the idea of being connected. Connect with your Instagram followers by posting a picture of what you’re doing, connect with your long lost high school friends via a status update on Facebook, connect with your boss by email, the list goes on & on & on.

The funny thing is, all this “connecting” you think you’re doing is actually so incredibly disconnecting.

Let’s me set the scene: you’re at an adorable cafe w/ a group of friends. You order yourself a cup of tea & and a warm scone (very cafe-ish, right?). While waiting for your food, you & your friends are laughing and having a jolly good time. Then the server brings everyones food… & out come the cameras.

Each of you snap at least 25 photos of your meals, then you’ve got to decide which picture is your final choice [ cause scones have a good side too ], now it’s time to edit/pick filters/Squareready it/add overlays/etc, & lastly you need a caption that is clever but still cut [ AKA the.hardest.thing.ever ].

By the time you’re finally done & have your picture posted on Instagram, you’re scone is hard as a rock, your tea is lukewarm, & half the people you’re with have to get back to the office.

[ just a few lil’ Idyllwild lovelies ]

So, do you see what I mean? You just missed out on a good hour with your friends all because you needed to snap a photo of a scone you never even got around to eating.

I am sure this whole song & dance sounds familiar, because the truth is, everyone is guilty of it at some point or another, myself included [ x 1000 ].

Which is why I have started to actively make it a point to disconnect… in order to connect. This past weekend was the perfect example. I went to Idyllwild w/ my family for my Mom’s birthday & I almost completely disconnected the entire time (I say almost because I did take a few necessary photos & respond to a few necessary emails)…

…& I gotta say, it was seriously SO amazing. Towards the end, I even started to intentionally let the phone die. I got to relax my technology-burnt eyes, spend QT w/ the fam, whoop ass in Scrabble (per usual) & tackle quite a few things on my Fall bucket list.

I really suggest you guys try it, you will be surprised how freeing it is. Start small by just leaving your phone at home every once in a while & then work your way up to 100% technology free days (at least 1x a month!).

Would you guys be down to give it a go? LMK if you do, I would love to hear how stoked you are after! ;) xx, E

[ Sadly TJ’s is done w/ these yummies for the season, but I highly recommend double checking if your store still has them in stock! If not, the regular dk. chocolate/sea salt caramels are also pretty insane! ]

[ Handmade jelly souvenirs from the mountains, containing two of my all time faves: champs & rose. ]

[ weekend Polaroids <3 ]