a walk down memory lane

last week i was tagged by the lovely lynn from the actor's diet with a really fun series: the 7 links project.  if you've never read lynn's blog you should go check it out.  there's all sorts of great stuff about food, LA hot spots, adventures as a working actress, and experiences overcoming an eating disorder.  talk about the benefits of blogging! lynn has definitely used her's as a way to help others, and in real life she's as sweet as can be!

 i'm so excited to play along with the 7 links project.  the idea is to join with other bloggers in sharing some lessons i've learned and highlighting some of my greatest posts from the past.  there are 7 categories, as listed below.

my 7 links:

1. most beautiful post
 i totally think my happiness truck post was the most beautiful.  not only did it include beautiful photos from the most beautiful shop in the world, but it also encaptured my beautiful dream for making life really really ridiculously beautiful for everyone.  that's 4 whole "beautiful's!" {also, dictionary.com informed me that i completely made up the word "encaptured." i hope you don't mind.}

2. most popular post
the most popular one was by far the post on my mental illness.  for those of you who don't know, i have clinical ocd.  it is a daily struggle for me to cope in a world full of germs, which i perceive to be extremely "dangerous."  it was a pretty big leap for me to talk about this part of life in a public forum, but i'm so glad i did - i received so many emails and comments from many of you sharing your own struggles and thanking me for helping them understand loved ones with mental illnesses.

3. most controversial post
i really thought this was going to be the post where i shared my husby's & my decision to do a domestic partnership instead of a legal marriage.  as it turns out though, you all were very supportive of us saying no to marriage, and my most controversial post turned out to be the one where i shared how much i dislike food.  you all thought i was crazy and i loved reading all of your comments {don't worry, everyone was nice even if they did get all riled up}.  the ironic thing is, i now work at a residential home for people with eating disorders, where i have to eat meals with the patients and model a healthy relationship with food.  oh life.

4. most helpful post
i'd say this was also my ocd post.  i'm so glad my honesty was able to help so many others understand mental illnesses better and feel like they aren't alone in this world.  however, since i've already given the link to my ocd post, i'd say one of my other most helpful posts was the busy girl's guide to staying healthy.  in a busy world we could all use a few more ideas on how to stay healthy and sane, am i right?

5. a post with surprising success
my most surprisingly successful posts were often the ones i wrote out when i was feeling a wee bit cheeky, like the post where i wished for ridiculous yet awesome things and made reference to skee-lo.  apparently you guys like it when i write late at night, whilst feeling slightly bitter and especially sarcastic.  good to know.

6. a post that didn't get the attention it deserved

our kazoo sing-a-long!  we worked hard to count out 60 kazoos by hand at the party store, but it was all worth it when we handed them out immediately after tying the knot.  50 people playing kazoos as our first act of celebrating our union? best thing ever! plus, i died laughing while typing the kazoo song books, complete with special kazoo translations which went like this:

7. a post i'm most proud of

ok, i'm going to cheat a little bit, but all of my posts about my wedding were ones i'm most proud of.  dannon and i were only engaged for 4 months, and we only used the one month before our wedding for the actual planning.  i was never one of those girls who planned her wedding growing up {i was never even sure i wanted to get married ever}, so we definitely came up with everything in a very short amount of time.  sure there were things i might have done differently had we more money, but i'm pretty freakin proud of all the creativity, hard work, and meaningful experiences we included in our wedding.  we did a hand-binding, kazoo sing-a-long, picnic basket dinner, lawn games, dancing, and i threw a rubber chicken instead of a bouquet, just to name a few of things i loved about our special day.  it was a ridiculous amount of fun, which was exactly how we wanted to kick off this new phase of our relationship.  i can't believe it was almost a whole year ago! 

so those are my 7 links!

aren't you all proud of me for not mentioning the elephants? :)


and i would love to pass this sweet walk-down-memory-lane project to the following 4 fantastic bloggers, just because i hope to see some of their top links from over the years too:
+ brandi of not your average ordinary
+ tiffany of dancing branflakes
+ erin of pughs' news
+ lillian of unstitched
+ and anyone else who wants to play along!