just breathe.

looking forward to normal food (and cooking it), painted walls (they'll be done tomorrow! pictures to come soon), an organized home office (ah, freelancing...), organized stuff in general, and the longest bath ever when all this moving nonsense is done. isn't this image delicious?

{ photo from apartment therapy, via pretty little world }

memememe.

the oh-so-lovely kerri tagged me to do this survey, and since i'm a bit of a survey whore, i'm happy to oblige. so, i have to do the following:


"with as much creativity as you can muster, show your heart in 1 picture, 1 poem, 1 song or piece of music, 1 phrase or quote, 1 item of clothing, 1 place (and just for fun) 1 disney princess. if you want to join in, tag 6 more blogs."

here goes.

picture:


spring fever.


poem: i'm totally copying kerri--i love this e.e. cummings poem, particularly these first four stanzas:

i am a little church(no great cathedral)
far from the splendor and squalor of hurrying cities
-i do not worry if briefer days grow briefest,
i am not sorry when sun and rain make april

my life is the life of the reaper and the sower;
my prayers are prayers of earth's own clumsily striving
(finding and losing and laughing and crying)children
whose any sadness or joy is my grief or my gladness

around me surges a miracle of unceasing
birth and glory and death and resurrection:
over my sleeping self float flaming symbols
of hope,and i wake to a perfect patience of mountains

i am a little church(far from the frantic
world with its rapture and anguish)at peace with nature
-i do not worry if longer nights grow longest;
i am not sorry when silence becomes singing

song:

(though i have to admit i prefer the album version.)

quotation:

"i must learn to love the fool in me--the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries. it alone protects me against that utterly self-controlled, masterful tyrant whom i also harbor and who would rob me of human aliveness, humility, and dignity but for my fool." --t.i.r. (thank you, joanna.)

item of clothing: jeans!


place: beach!


disney princess: ariel. the little mermaid is my fave.


p.s. want a sneak peek of my new place? here's a shot of that damn matte red wall, which thanks to my dear friend r. will be completely repainted by thursday. also, please forgive the craptastic quality of the photo; i took it on my blackberry at like 10:30 saturday night. (oh, and i have nothing whatsoever against red walls, but this is very orange-red and flat and all my stuff is blue and green, so...yeah.)


{ all photos by me }

happy friday.

happy, happy friday. i forgot to tell you all that i'm moving this weekend, but i should have my internet hooked up and be back and ready to go monday. what are your plans? xoxo

{ image by blasius erlinger via captivate me }

like a breath of fresh air.

i couldn't not share: this picture is pretty much how i feel right now. life is full of possibilities, don't you think? xoxo

{ photo by francesco lagnese, via abbey }

happy, happy weekend!

i'm out of town today and monday, so i'll see all of you on tuesday. have a fantastic weekend--what are your plans? when i get back to sarasota, i plan on copying the girl in this photo and going barefoot in the sand for awhile. xoxo!

{ photo by littlegirlblue }

petals and waves.

did you know that leanne marshall, the winner of last season's project runway, has a blog? it's called petals and waves, and i love it--especially all the purple that's been featured on it lately. leanne was my favorite designer (from the very beginning, in fact) last season, so i'm excited to get some peeks into what she's been up to lately. yay! (p.s. i covet that gray coat.)

{ images via petals and waves }

blue skies and fluffy white clouds.

i have been obsessed--obsessed!--with these photos of nicolette camille's apartment ever since i saw them on design*sponge a few weeks ago. they make me want to run out and buy a can of sky-blue paint so i can immediately slap it on the walls of my new place. gorgeous. and how fun is the cloud wall? i may have to shamelessly copy. (p.s. does anyone know a good source for a berber wedding blanket like the one in the first photo?)

how are your thursdays going, my dears? oh, and on a totally unrelated note, did you watch american idol last night? do you think the right person went home? xoxo

home inspiration: peony photographs.

after reading joanna’s post about how feng shui experts believe that peonies bring love into your life (how romantic is that?), i am itching to get my hands on one of kari herer’s gorgeous peony photographs. i am a lover of peonies to begin with, and i think kari’s lovely photos would be a great addition to any home. (plus, i am single-single-single right now, so, hey, anything to jumpstart the love life, right? i kid, i kid…sort of.)

do you all practice feng shui? full (and kind of random) disclosure: i am not a very neat or organized person. my friend a. once jokingly told me that i need to marry someone who "accepts me for who i am"--meaning, accepts my messes. i, in response, told him that i am a successful young person who just happens to live in squalor, and we both laughed really hard. but i'm almost 26 and i don't want to get a reputation as being the human version of pig sty, from charlie brown...so maybe i should start studying up on feng shui and, um, actually putting what i read in real simple magazine to use.

{ photo by kari herer. i enjoy the pinky-purple peonies against the dark wall here, don’t you? }

a little more "green" for you.

i love this song--brendan james' "green." i downloaded it as a free single of the week on itunes a few months ago and love it--it reminds me of rolling green hills and stone houses like the one below. perfect for st. patrick's day, i think.

happy st. patrick's day.

i hope your days are filled with green! xoxo

more umbrella love for you...

even though the sun is shining brightly here in sarasota, it's an umbrella-y day, isn't it?

{ photograph by elizabeth messina }

happy monday.

just some morning eye candy for you via this gorgeous blog. how much do you love those umbrellas?

what are you doing this weekend?

i'll be packing, spending time with friends, sleeping in and hopefully making it to the beach. i am on the verge of a case of full-blown spring fever and want to spend as much time outside as possible. how about you? anything exciting?

also, like the rest of you, i am head-over-heels in love with the gorgeous blog cannelle et vanille. the photographs are amazing and the recipes are drool-inducing. yum. so, inspired by that--and also by molly's wonderful book--i think i'm going to attempt gateau au citron on sunday. the recipe looks like it's a cinch and the cake seems so light and spring-like. yum.

have a happy, happy weekend! and p.s., thank you for all your lovely comments this week--you are the best.

{ sunshine-y, lemon-y image above by jen gotch }

deep thought?

over the past few days, i've been hearing versions of this statement over and over and over again: "you are what you love." and i've been trying to think of one thing that i love that totally defines me. maybe--probably--it's many things, though (i like that idea best of all).

what about you? do you believe that we are what we love? who and what do you love?

{ image via christopher david ryan--it's one of my all-time favorites. }

cherchez la femme.

love this photograph of reese witherspoon on the cover of elle magazine. she looks so fresh and all-american, and i love her messy ponytail.

wishin' and hopin'.

i'd really love to be lounging on this bed right now, listening to ray lamontagne with the windows open and a soft breeze blowing through them.

(i am lucky, however, to be eating my lunch in my apartment, listening to ray lamontagne with the windows open and a soft breeze blowing through them. click on the link to see ray performing "trouble" on snl.)

{ image via this delightful blog. }

springing forward.

last weekend, i went to visit my parents. they still live in the house i grew up in, and no matter what's going on in my life (and lately, that's a lot), it's always a comfort to come back to something so familiar, to a place i know so well.

while there, i got to catch up with my dear friend s. we had a delicious lunch at a local restaurant (salmon for me; crab cakes for him), then got coffee and took a long walk. it was a perfect florida spring day--about 75 degrees and sunny--and we talked and laughed and snapped pictures and had a wonderful time.


after that reunion, i headed over to borders and picked up a copy of a book i've been wanting to read for quite awhile: molly wizenberg's a homemade life: stories and recipes from my kitchen table. for those of you who don't know, molly is the writer behind the amazing blog orangette, one of my must-reads. and i kid you not when i tell you that i read her whole book in a few hours. i can't remember the last time i did that. it made for such a nice, relaxing evening. i highly recommend it and can tell you that molly's book is lovely and light and very true to her blog's style.

i'm off now to go eat a cadbury creme egg (guilty pleasure, and so sweet it makes my teeth hurt, but so worth it!) and get myself organized for the day. have a lovely morning, my dears--and tell me, have you read any good books lately? xoxo

{ book photo via orangette; yellow tree photo by me. }

j'adore.

i love these stylish parisians...images one and two via the sartorialist; three (i covet those heels and would love to go to work every day looking like that) via garance dore.

hot and fresh.

happy monday, my loves--i hope you had relaxing, rejuvenating weekends. how do your weeks look? xoxo

{ photo by petrina tinslay }

movin' on up.

i’ve mentioned a couple of times in the past few days that i’m moving out of my tiny-but-well-loved studio apartment at the end of the month. full disclosure: i’m not entirely happy about this, but my lease didn’t get renewed by my idiot landlord (ahem. sorry), and you know what? that’s fine. i’m getting more space (a bedroom!) for a cheaper price in a still-downtown neighborhood, and that’s a good thing.

what’s not a good thing is the hideous, tomato-red living-room wall in (what will hopefully be) the new apartment, painted by the former tenants, and the ugly, circa-1970s mural hiding in the closet near the kitchen. i’m also not a huge fan of carpet, which this place has, but the landlord is going to replace it for me and i figure i can lay some huge, bright-and-cheery rugs down on top—i’m sure it’s going to be white or taupe. (the photo above of holly’s new nampshire living room is my inspiration.)

aside from that, i’m trying to think of paint colors and ways to make my new space my own. my current crop of stuff is blue and green and beachy, and i’m perfectly happy with it—however, since browsing through nicole’s flickr photostream, i’ve sort of been in love with the idea of having a purple room (above). my friend s. has a pink-walled bedroom and it’s feminine and romantic, so that’s also a possibility. and i know, without a doubt, that i want to have a chalkboard wall somewhere. seriously. (have you seen bee’s chalkboard office? it’s glorious.) i have this vision in my head of having a little housewarming party and my friends writing notes on the chalkboard wall—i really like that.

what have you been inspired by lately? and p.s., happy, happy weekend! xoxo

{ images via holly and nicole }

friends and neighbors.

my dears, here are some new (at least to me) blogs you might find interesting:

gypsy lynne—she lived in the same town i grew up in before moving to texas. isn’t her house pretty?

hashai—i was tipped off to this blog via a post of anh-minh’s. great writing, beautiful pictures. you’ll love.

it's mary ruffle—i especially like reading her posts in the morning; the photos are like coffee for my eyes.

reading my tea leaves—just a delightful little blog. i especially like the "week in objects" posts.

{ image via it's mary ruffle. }

speaking of style...

i love this photo of emma roberts dressed as audrey hepburn, which appears in this month's glamour magazine--its 70th anniversary issue. hepburn is a timeless beauty and irreplaceable legend, of course, but i think roberts looks lovely, and the pink balloons remind me of joanna's beautiful engagement photos.

{ image by brigitte lacombe for glamour }

don't you love this?

"style is the perfection of a point of view." --richard eberhart

{ image: sart. of course. }

sweet like candy to my soul...

this past sunday, i decided to do a little baking--one of my favorite pastimes. in my opinion, there is nothing better than making pastries from scratch and letting the delicious smell of baked goods waft through the house. it's comforting. and because sunday was a dreary, windy, gray day, for me it was especially so.

anyway, i have an obsession with cupcakes. have we talked about this? yes, i think we have. and i'd been saying i wanted to make ina garten's chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing for a couple of weeks, to the point where my friends began asking me when they were going to materialize. so on sunday, i went to the grocery store, picked up the ingredients and got baking--and the result was fabulous. the intense, not-too-sweet chocolate of the cupcake blends perfectly with the melt-in-your-mouth, peanut buttery goodness of the frosting. be aware: these cupcakes are not for the faint of heart. they are delicious, though, as all of ina's recipes seem to be. (if you're looking for something breakfasty, her banana and sour cream pancakes are delish.)

the picture above is of the finished product; below you'll find a link to the recipe. some notes: i ran out of vanilla, so the frosting didn't get any and still tasted fine. i forgot to add the kosher salt to the cupcake batter, and they were also fine. as far as cocoa powder goes, i swung by whole foods and picked up rapunzel organic's unsweetened variety and it was great. i've also been swearing by king arthur flour lately. if you decide to make this recipe, i really hope you enjoy it!

click here for ina garten's chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting.

{ image above by me. }

yay!

affordable pieces from ban.do, purveyor of uber-cool hair accessories. this beauty, which features a vintage band and a bit of sparkle, is only $35 and part of the new line heart by ban.do. the girls have also expanded their line to include a couture collection, black label, and of course there's the line that started it all: the original ban.do. to shop, click here. hooray!

{ tip-off via oh joy!; image via ban.do }

saturday in sarasota.

just a snapshot of my weekend.

how were yours? what did you do? xoxo

{ image by me--my blackberry takes great pictures! }