To quote one of my favorite villains, The Joker, "Why so serious?" These are words I hope to live by in 2016.

I've been a person of extremes my entire life. When I involve myself in something I quickly become obsessed - knitting being the perfect example. Before designing knitwear full-time, I worked in an unfulfilling career in technology and distracted myself with all things relating to fashion and beauty. It's something hard to ignore in NYC. You're surrounded by endless style, accessibility to every type of fashion and usually get first dibs on all kinds of products. I spent all of my spare time and money acquiring all sorts of goodies... a very popular past time for a 20-something. Before the internet, I would spend almost every evening and all weekend surrounded by fashion magazines, piling up tear sheets with products I wanted to try and accessories I needed to have.

But when I began knitting and entered the world of maker, I started to rethink what fashion meant to me. And in true form, I swung hard in the other direction. I quit my day job and began designing knits full-time. And once I started working for myself and from home, "high" fashion and beauty fell off my radar. It had no place in my new life. I had no need for it superficially, but I also had no need for the distraction. I enjoyed what I was doing for the first-time in my life.

And here I am, 42 years old and thinking, "Wow. What happened?" I'm still happy with designing, and I love my life, but I feel like I completely abandoned my former self and all the things I loved. I basically threw out the baby with the bath water. And now in this new year, 2016, my goal is not to swing so hard in either direction and to introduce a lightness to my endeavors. Maybe I'm burnt out. Maybe I'm bored. Maybe I'm going through a mid-life crisis. In any case, I hope to find a middle ground for all of my loves: designing, making, fashion, beauty, food and fitness.

Today's focus: Swatching Sunday Knits' Angelic, Marc Jacobs Primer, Chanel Lip Balm, Nars Blush/Bronzer Duo in Orgasm/Laguna.

As I reenter the world of beauty, I've been enjoying all those beauty vlogs and blogs everyone has been talking about the past few years. Not only am I learning about all the makeup that's come out on the market since I left like BB creams, highlighting / contouring, and strobing (still unclear), but I'm so impressed by how beautiful these beauty blogs are - no surprise there really. I'm definitely learning a thing or fifty from them.

I hope you'll enjoy the content I'll be posting in 2016 - a reflection of a more well-rounded version of me.