Life by Design: Carly Heitlinger

Carly Heitlinger, creator of The College Prepster blog, is a busy woman with multitudes of fans of her preppy style, and we’re tickled pink that she took a moment to share some of her quick thoughts on how she designs her days. Her autumn adventures around New York City and New England are our favorite of her instagram posts, so it’s the perfect time of year to welcome her to our blog. We’re so glad you’re here!

Baublebar Charm necklace

Our senior designer, Sauce, says that when you’re an artist or designer professionally, “every choice is a design choice.” Do you see that in your personal life outside of your work?
One of my favorite quotations is: “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.” To me, it means that we have ownership over our lives and we can build it however we envision!

College Prepster Desk

What would your best day be like?
A day spent outdoors with a good book and a picnic lunch!

Do you make an effort to design your routine and your life around the things and moments that give you joy?
I’m pretty realistic about what has to get done for the day. Especially working for myself, a lot of what I do isn’t glamorous. But I try to include a few things I love, whether it’s reading a couple of chapters before bed or taking my dog for an extra long walk in the afternoon. 

Sleepy Jones

How did you answer “What do you want to be when you grow up” when you were in grade school?
For a while I wanted to be a lawyer and then a judge– I even had a board game around court cases!

Every person is a little weird in some way or another, and those weird things are important parts of what give us our personalities. For instance, I collect books with white spines and sleep with my baby blanket, and those objects feel significant to me and to my story. Tell me about a weird thing that’s essential to you.
I used to hate to read! My elementary school placed a lot of emphasis on “incentivized” reading, which bugged me. Then we had so much assigned reading in middle and high school that I never had time to develop a love for reading… It wasn’t until college that I carved out time to read for enjoyment. Reading is such a huge part of my life now! It’s how I unwind, relax, and recuperate at the end of long days!

Thank you so much for dropping by, Carly!

You can keep up with Carly here: blog, instagram, pinteresttumblr, twitter, facebook

Marriage Mondays: Marianna & Micah Whitson

If you’ve read Garden & Gun, Southern Living or Design Sponge in the last 4 years, you’ve probably seen the letterpress prints by Old Try, each of them about home, many of them an homage to their ties to the South. We first were huge fans of their work, and in short order discovered Micah, Ben and I shared the same alma mater (Ole Miss—hotty toddy!), and found ourselves calling and texting each other on game days and sharing speaking engagements at the Ole Miss art department. Earlier this year we released our first collaboration, The Marrying Type, a marriage certificate which is a kind of marriage of what we each create at Lucky Luxe and Old Try. We’re proud to be friends of the Whitsons not just because they’re truly some of the good people in the world, but because the work they make has an earnest, Americana quality that makes people proud to be where they’re from. It’s a unifying work they do, and the world needs more of that, doesn’t it? Today, we’re spending some time talking about marriage with Marianna and Micah, which is something we’ve never covered in our friendly conversations so I’m excited to read along with you readers. Welcome, Whitsons!

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Raleigh print photo by Old Try

Tell me about how you met and how you felt about each other that first day. What eventually happened that made you each believe you would get married some day?

Marianna: We met on Micah’s first day at work at McKinney, an ad agency in Durham, NC. I had been there for a couple years already, working as an art buyer.  Micah was starting as a junior art director, having recently left portfolio school in Atlanta.  I thought that I’d like to move over to the art direction track, so a friend and I were working on some pro-bono ads on the side. Micah’s boss thought he could help us out on the project and introduced us.  

Micah: Since I lived in a new town, in a new state, and knew nobody, I gladly took up Marianna on her ‘If you need anything, just let me know’ offer. She was in the same apartment complex one building over, so the first night I went to knock and ask for a hammer. Then for directions to a grocery store. Then on the third night, a vacuum cleaner. She was shy and would hand me what I was asking for and then shut the door. On the forth night I returned her vacuum, and she, once again, shut me out in short order. As I left, I said ‘I will win that girl’s heart.’ And I did. 

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Disclaimer from Micah: This is a frat-tastic Halloween costume 

Tell me the things that mattered most to you about your wedding day.

Marianna: In planning, the most important thing was the photographer!  Working as an art buyer, I really love photography, so I knew I’d want someone great. We booked Ken Luallen as soon as we had a date – a friend used him and we loved how the photos turned out.  It was important to make the day ours too, so we tried to keep a balance between what our families wanted and what we wanted.  On the day of, it all goes by in such a blur.  I liked having alone time together, right before the ceremony (for a “first look”) and right after.  We also had a really talented friend sing during our service and sing our first dance song which was really special.

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Planning a wedding can be stressful. It’s expensive. Your feelings all become so elevated about the event, and before you realize it’s happened, your relationship and the actual marriage can get put on the back burner almost like a reward for getting through the enormous party. How can a wedding become less about planning a party and more about the new family that’s beginning?

We tried to be pretty laid back about planning.  We were living in Boston and planning a wedding in North Carolina.  It could have been a little crazy, so we were proactive in choosing a location that would help with everything.  They had a planner on staff and were in charge of all of the day-of things, which was nice.  With that (mostly) out of our hands, we had more time to devote to preparing for the marriage.  We did premarital counseling at our church which was really helpful in talking about some tough topics that should be addressed going into a marriage.  Looking back, the crafter in me would have loved a more DIY, but it was probably also a blessing that Pinterest wasn’t around then so we could be more focused on the foundation of the marriage instead of the little things no one will really remember in the end!

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How are you involved in each other’s career goals?

Marianna: That question is a little complicated.  Old Try is really Micah’s baby, but for a few different reasons, it ended up being my day job instead of his. I’m currently doing the day-to-day of it and taking care of our 18-month-old daughter while he works at an ad agency. As far as my career goes, it’s a bit on pause at the moment, both in terms of what I am doing daily and in terms of knowing what I want to be doing in the future. It’s just where we are in life at the moment.  I know he’ll support me when I have a direction and the timing is right.  And I support him by running the daily Old Try stuff and taking care of things at home!

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What advice would you give to a newlywed?

Marianna: I’d say the biggest advice I had is for the almost-wed. And that is to get your butts on the same page financially. Otherwise, it’s gonna be rocky. Enjoy every second of your wedding day (it goes by so fast!), but focus on the marriage itself. Spend lots of time traveling and doing things together so you have shared common experiences – once kids come along, you’ll miss it.

Thank you so much, Marianna and Micah!

Keep up with Old Try here: website, instagram, facebook, twitter, pinterest

Life by Design: Jackie Greaney

I’ve been a longtime follower of Jackie Greaney’s instagram, and I suspect if you have a weakness for all things all-American, plaid, L.L. Bean, New England cottages, and black labrador pups, you’re probably one, too. The world Jackie curates via her photos and posts is idyllic without being saccharine, genuine without being pretentious, and it makes such a friendly space in the internet world, you want to be part of it and never leave. Just ask Town and Country Magazine, who also love Jackie. Ben and I had breakfast with her in NYC this August and felt like we’d been friends for years.

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—I don’t know how we made new friends before instagram, which makes the world feel like one big college dorm sometimes, doesn’t it? Today we’ll sit down with Jackie and discuss how she designs her days, and I know you’re going to love getting to know her. Welcome, friend!

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Our senior designer, Sauce, says that when you’re an artist or designer professionally, “every choice is a design choice.” Do you see that in your personal life outside of your work?

I think that when you have a certain aesthetic sensibility, you just sort of naturally gravitate toward the items and places and experiences that satisfy it. As I get older (30 is just two months away!) those choices, and knowing my preferences, seems to just get easier and easier.

Favorite Room

What would your best day be like?

A late summer morning spent exploring in a small, coastal, New England town that I’ve never been to before. It starts with french toast and bacon and includes a visit to a forgotten, over-stuffed vintage shop and a stroll through the historic district while snapping a million photos. 

Do you make an effort to design your routine and your life around the things and moments that give you joy? 

Surely. For us a lot of that joy comes from jaunts outside of the city, and making those jaunts a priority. If we can’t afford to stay in the cutest or most well-designed place, we’ll book something cheaper and I’ll bring bedding or accessories from home that make it feel more like “us.” You’d be surprised what a couple of throw blankets and a cozy rug can do for a raw cabin, for example.

How did you answer “What do you want to be when you grow up” when you were in grade school?

A teacher. My second grade teacher told my parents that she was “worried I was after her job.”

Question 5

Every person is a little weird in some way or another, and those weird things are important parts of what give us our personalities. For instance, I collect books with white spines and sleep with my baby blanket, and those objects feel significant to me and to my story. Tell me about a weird thing that’s essential to you.

I cherish my own space. My boyfriend Sebastian and I have lived together in New York City for 4 years, but within our apartment, we have always had our own bedrooms. I love that we can share our lives and our living area while also maintaining rooms that are defined (and designed!) as our own. The setup also means we get to skip all of those “pick that laundry up off the floor!” conversations. If I don’t like the state his room is in, we can just go to mine (and vice versa).

Thank you so much, Jackie!

You can keep up with Jackie here: instagram