sale: skinny laminx!

for christmas last year, my very crafty aunt gave me a beautiful set of handmade potholders and a tea towel from one of my favorite etsy sellers, skinny laminx. for those of you who aren't familiar, skinny laminx is run by heather moore, who creates beautiful textiles from fabric of her own creation. i love heather's work and have been thinking lately that i need to add some more pieces from skinny laminx to my meager collection, so when i read on sfgirlbybay that heather is offering 50-cent shipping (!) on tea towels until july 6, i knew i had to make a purchase--and i'm excited to report that this tea towel in raspberry and napkin in marigold will be arriving in sarasota very soon. they're totally going to brighten up my kitchen, and i can't wait to get my hands on them.

{ images via skinny laminx }

loving luphia.

tina of the lovely blog luphia loves just opened an online shop called luphia. based in the u.k., the shop prides itself on its stock of "effortlessly chic" items, and rightly so--aren't these pieces lovely? i especially covet that delicate white dress--i'd pair it with some strappy black sandals and a little clutch. perfection in dress form. to see more of tina's lovely frocks, tops and accessories, be sure to check out luphia. and p.s.: luphia ships internationally! i may have to order a little something for myself...

swallowed in the sea.

there's something about this photo by flickr user bobbi fabian that draws me in--it's like i can't look away. i love the blues and greens and the juxtaposition of man and nature so much.

happy monday, lovelies--let's make it a good week, ok? xoxo

{ via mary ruffle }

mama always told me, be careful who you love...

when i heard that michael jackson had passed away on thursday afternoon, i couldn't believe it--it didn't register right away. but when i woke up friday, and turned on the morning news programs to find intense, sometimes-creepy media coverage (though i am a journalist by trade and am sympathetic to the need to provide comprehensive coverage, i do not enjoy seeing covered bodies being wheeled anywhere on a stretcher), it hit me. and i felt so, so deeply sad.

anna at door sixteen wrote a great post about mj on friday night, and i echo her sentiments. jackson was one of the few artists who could get me to drop everything and just dance. he was our generation's elvis; he was the soundtrack to many of our childhoods. when the iconic, industry-altering music video for thriller came out, my dad taped it and kept it on vhs--as recently as five or six years ago, he busted it out and we had an impromptu family dance party. i will always think of him as an amazing artist--but even more importantly, a compassionate, misunderstood human being--who had the ability to bring my family and friends together and make us dance.

{ video via cottage of stone }

what are you doing this weekend?

what a sad, strange week it's been--not just for the entertainment industry, but for several people i know personally. i feel like we're all a little off-kilter right now, so i hope everyone gets a chance to regroup and find a little light this weekend.

and on that note, what are you up to for the next few days, my dears? i'm laying low tonight--some popcorn, oscar and what not to wear are calling my name--and then having a low-key saturday and sunday, as well, but ones that're hopefully filled with lots of friend time (and maybe a little work).

kisses to all of you, and i'll see you here on monday! xoxo

{ photo: jen gotch }

website (a.k.a. random thursday post).

kittens. i need your advice. lately--well, really since going freelance--i've been thinking i need to make a website of my very own. the problem is, i have no idea how to go about doing that. so i thought i'd ask you, the best readers in all the world: any advice?

thanks in advance! xoxo

{ image by tsilli }

heaven--i'm in heaven...

full disclosure: one of my dreams in life is to own a little coffee shop/bookstore by the beach. i'd like nothing more than to bake pastries, write my daily specials on chalkboards, serve coffee and tea and talk about books with customers (who i'd know on a first-name basis, of course).

so when i came across these photos of heaven, a cafe located in bovina, new york, i totally swooned. heaven reminds me a lot of zummo's cafe, a sweet little coffee shop that i like to frequent when i'm visiting family in pennsylvania, and it's totally the kind of shop i'd like to own one day. seriously, how cute is this place?

{ via the beautiful blog all the mountains }

the f.a.n. club.

a few weeks ago, my dad went up to scranton, pennsylvania to clean out my grandparents' house (more on that house, which is so important to me, another time). my grandmother, who is 88, lives in an assisted living facility, and my grandfather passed away last april, so the house had been sitting there, waiting to be gone through, for months--sad, i know. my dad came back to florida with a bunch of things: a piece of furniture for my brother; a bunch of my grandfather's world war II mementos, including his medals (he was a brigadier general); some dishes and other housewares for my mom and me; and a box of photos, which is where i found this picture of my grandmother and her friends.

sometime in the late 1930s, which i think is when this picture was taken, nana, my great aunt alice and eight of their girlfriends formed a group they called the "f.a.n. club." these 10 girls did everything together; you can tell how close they were by looking at this picture, which i love. my aunt alice is seated second from left, and my grandmother is seated third from right, next to the girl with the bow in her hair. the photo was taken at the lake one summer; the girls would save all year to rent a cottage for a week (a week only cost $30!) and one of their mothers would go chaperone and cook for them.

it makes me so happy to see how happy my grandmother looks. wasn't she beautiful?

xoxo.

orla love.

score! i took a trip to my local target tonight and discovered that the orla kiely stuff is half off. i got this large green canister ($9.98, down from $19.98) and these two mugs ($2.98, down from $5.98). i think i'm going to go back tomorrow to get the other mug patterns, too; it's always nice to have a set, right?

p.s. sorry for the blurry picture!

playclothes.

don't you love these pretty, bright pieces from british shop nadinoo?

32 flavors and then some.

speaking of summery, ice cream is right at the top of that "quintessential summer things" list, too, so i was so happy to read about the new lola's ice cream & sundaes book on 101 cookbooks the other day. british chef morfudd richards (what a great name) runs her ice cream shop, lola's on ice, out of an overhauled mr. frosty (above), and the recipes in the book include things like apple and cinnamon sorbet, gin and tonic (!) sorbet with candied limes and winter fruit ice cream. the book is gorgeous--one that will not only have every other page dog-eared for its recipes, but also will look perfect on a bookshelf. you can read more about it here and order a copy of your very own from amazon on june 29, when it's released. (and you better believe i will be doing just that, as well as purchasing an ice-cream maker attachment for my stand mixer this summer.) i'm so glad heidi posted about this lovely book.

summer, summer, summertime...

love this: etsy-er maryink makes pretty organic cotton t-shirts with sweet designs on them. and really, is there anything more summery than a t-shirt and shorts? i think not. i'm so smitten with the keys print. delightful.

what are you doing this weekend?

happy, happy friday! what are you doing this weekend? i'm heading northward to visit my parents (father's day), brother (21st birthday) and fabulous friend mel (26th birthday/bridal stationery party). plus, i'm saying goodbye to my friend s. before he moves to boston for grad school. it's going to be an awesome, action-packed weekend.

i hope you all enjoy your saturdays and suundays--i'll meet you back here on monday. thanks for reading, as always. xoxo!

{ image: candace meyer }

memories...

my dear, dear friend s. took these wonderful photos of our alma mater and i couldn't help but share them with you. aren't they beautiful? i especially love the light in the first and third--it makes me feel so nostalgic and brings me back to a time in my life when, for a little while, everything was just perfect.

xoxo.

all a-twitter.

so, as i mentioned yesterday, twitter has become my newest online obession. it's super addicting, it allows me that voyeuristic peek into other peoples' lives that i so enjoy and it's allowed me to get to know some of you all a little better (hi, guys!).


anyway, for some reason i started wondering what the twitter offices looked like, so i did a little googling and came across these great photos. can i just say that i would love to work for twitter if it meant going to this office every day? (hear that, twitter hq? any need for a writer, editor or marketing gal? ha!) the rooms are so airy and open, and as someone who works in a creative field, the photos make it seem like the space exudes an air of creativity--i feel like it would be easy to toss around and discuss BIG IDEAS in a place like that. plus, i love those eames rockers.


how do your office environments affect your work--mentally and physically? do you love your office? share!

{ images by iluvpepero. click on the link to check out the full set on flickr. }

something pretty (more hair talk).

i discovered the online shop bambako via my current obsession, twitter, and i'm so happy about it, because owner abigail ricarte's pieces are lovely and fuel my other current obsession: fancy headbands. i especially loved reading the story of how abigail founded bambako, and think i'm going to make her shop mantra, "make it beautiful," which comes via martha stewart, my new life rule, too.

{ images via bambako }

braid wednesday.

last week, joanna posted about a flickr group called braid wednesday, and i thought it would be fun to share here, too. my aunt, a ballet-dancer-turned-dance-studio-owner with the most perfect posture ever, used to french braid my hair all the time when i was little--i remember sitting on my grandparents' porch in the summer watching the adults sip iced tea while my aunt wove sections of my hair into a plait. there's something so sweet and feminine about braids, i think, and lately i've been contemplating braiding a section of hair at the front of my head and pinning it back, a la lauren conrad, who is one of my fashion favorites--i love her classic, feminine style.

what do you think? do you love braids as much as i do? isn't the flickr group quirky and fun?

sale envy.

holly (of the wonderful decor8 and the even more wonderful, in my opinion, haus maus) had a tag sale at her new hampshire home this weekend. it's times times like these that i wish i lived in the northeast--wouldn't you love to have gotten your hands on some of these treasures?

{ images by holly, via haus maus }

sarasota, soothe my soul.

so, after complaining bitterly about the heat yesterday, today i thought i'd show my city some love and share a few photos of sarasota that i took over the weekend. whenever i'm having a rough day or just need some perspective, i love knowing that i can go to the beach or the bay, which are five minutes away, and be completely refreshed. does the water do the same thing for you?

the john ringling bridge--i never get sick of this view. i've kayaked under it and been thisclose to dolphins and manatees--amazing.

boats on the bay.

love the colors of the sky and water.

green and blue--my favorites.

what's your favorite thing about your city?

{ images by me }

hot child in the city.

you guys, i don't mean to complain, but here in southwest florida it's been almost unbearably hot lately. i'm talking "run from your air conditioned house to your air conditioned car if you have to go outside because otherwise you'll break a sweat immediately" kinda hot. and maybe it's because i'm just not used to it yet (i was born and raised in florida and the summer heat always kind of sneaks up on me, even now), but man, it's warm. needless to say, i've been chugging water like you wouldn't believe, wearing the minimum amount of clothing possible and daydreaming about having a pool of my own to jump into whenever i want.

anyway, on a less whiny note, when i saw this pretty dress on the anthropologie website i couldn't help but think that it's perfect for white-hot summer days that eventually turn into sultry summer nights. wouldn't it be cute with a pair of strappy gold flat sandals? i think it would, indeed.

what's your beat-the-heat strategy? please share!

pretty, pretty pictures.

good morning! how were your weekends, everyone? i hope they were fun and sun-filled. how are your weeks looking? i have a busy one ahead: lots of work, my little brother's 21st birthday on wednesday (eek!), and then a trip to my parents' house this weekend to help bride-to-be/friend extraordinaire mel send out her wedding invitations. (and speaking of birthdays, mel's birthday is thursday, so i'm going to bust out a cake that i've been dying to try.)


anyway, this morning i wanted to share with you some images from the french blog sugar pop tarts, which is about "beauty, sensuality and fashion." the images are probably not safe for work, as you may have guessed from the description, but they are beautiful and definitely sensuous. click here to read more; i think you'll enjoy.



have you discovered any great new blogs lately? if so, please share!

{ all images via sugar pop tarts }

what are you doing this weekend?

happy friday, my dear readers! it's the weekend--did you have a productive week? i feel like i did, which is always a good thing.

what are your plans for the weekend? i'm super excited because my dear friends shun and kaitlin are coming to sarasota and we're going to spend saturday and sunday hanging out, enjoying a great savor sarasota dinner and generally just painting the town red. shun is moving to boston in july, so this is a kind of last hurrah/goodbye party type thing. we're going to laugh, talk, drink wine and take tons of pictures. i'm excited.

what's on your agenda? whatever it is, i hope you have a wonderful saturday and sunday. see you back here on monday. xoxo!

{ image: andy sewell }

en vogue.

friday eye candy: love these photos of vogue editor sally singer's manhattan apartment. that cat! those shoes!

{ via the selby }

summertime and the living is easy...

why, yes, i think i would like to dress just like this all summer.

{ via black eiffel }

past perfect.

i have a fascination with the 1920s--the great gatsby is one of my all-time favorite books, and flappers were so glamorous, weren't they?--so i'm really loving these photos of the annual jazz-age lawn party on governor's island, n.y., by the sartorialist. i wish sarasota had an event like this!

ruby slippers.

when i get married, i am totally going to wear a pair of outrageously awesome, colorful shoes like these with my wedding dress. there's something so fun about the idea of having that little surprise under your gown. (and wow, "little surprise under your gown" sounds rather dirty when taken out of context.)

{ via snippet and ink }

just keep me where the light is.

i just love caroline lubbers' blue bedroom, which was featured on design*sponge yesterday. it must be so nice to wake up to that light every morning.

i scream, you scream...

so, i have been on a major ice cream kick lately. what can i say? it's summer, it's 85-degrees-plus every day here, i live by the beach, and there's really nothing more warm-weather-friendly than an ice-cold cone. my fave flave is mint chocolate chip--but i only like the green kind. how about you? what's your favorite ice cream flavor? even better, do you make your own ice cream?

{ image from here }

what are you doing this weekend?

happy friday, my loves! can you believe we're one week deep into june already? i cannot--it's still kind of boggling my mind that we're halfway through 2009.

what are you up to this weekend? a bunch of my friends are randomly out of town, so it looks like it's going to be a quiet one for me--maybe a trip to the farmer's market, a little shopping, a walk on the beach. the possibilities are wide open.

{ image via the lovely creative mint }