weekly recap + summer travel!

i’m so excited about this summer for so many reasons – but the main one is my annual trip to pennsylvania to see bethany, bff and one-half of the genius team that is roniroli. every year since we were sophomores in college, we've met up and taken a road trip to go see a john mayer concert – last year’s was in hershey, pa., and this year’s is in camden, new jersey, which happens to be about 10 minutes away from philadelphia. john’s tour seems to be a bit random this year; he’s staying away from the south (probably rightly so, since it’s boiling hot here in july, but i was kind of hoping for a charleston or savannah stop) and not doing a whole lot of dates. that’s ok, though – i’m beyond excited to take advantage of the philadelphia design guide from design*sponge and look through joy’s “philly + local finds” archives, and i’m hoping that bethany and i can find a room at a cute little hotel in the city.

my family – both sides – is from scranton, pennyslvania (yes, home of the office!), so i’m fairly familiar with eastern pa., but the last time i was in philadelphia, i was either at the airport or about eight years old (my aunt and uncle had a beautiful loft right in the city). still, i remember thoroughly enjoying doing all the historic stuff, and i’m looking forward to spending time going to museums, browsing the shops and enjoying the food with one of my very favorite people in the whole wide world.

for those of you who are familiar with the city, what are your must-sees? any insider tips? please share! i’ll be posting much, much more on this topic as the date approaches and of course will take zillions of pictures when i’m actually there. here’s to looking forward to summer!

and here’s to looking back on this week:

• monday: a quick taste of my wonderful weekend with my mom, a colorful dining room from always-reliable pottery barn and ina garten’s delicious banana sour cream pancakes.

• tuesday: “stuff i love today”: movie edition, “going green”: erin and al rosas, and beautiful, saturated colors (with tights!) from elle magazine.

• wednesday: thoughts on the 2008 sarasota film festival.

• thursday: style file: charlize theron and obsession: anthropologie wedges.

• today: our usual weekly recap and thoughts on philadelphia.

that's it for this week; see you on monday for some yummy food-related posts. happy weekend! xo.

loving: anthropologie “pygmalion” wedges.

today’s “obsession” item falls somewhere in between our $1,000-plus prada bag and our $15 target shoe: anthropologie’s pygmalion wedges. at $168, they’re (sort of) in my price range, and i love the something extra that the sprinkling of sequins gives the canvas, as well as the pretty purple interior. kind of perfect for our movie-themed, glitterati-filled week, no? (fyi, anthropologie has a fantastic selection of pretty, summery wedges right now.) see you tomorrow for our weekly recap post!

loving: pottery barn + saturated color.

i need to go to catalogchoice.org and have my name removed from the multiple catalogue mailing lists i'm on -- thanks to my aforementioned anthropologie habit, i now get everything from boden to j.crew to crate & barrel to companies i've never heard of. however, while sorting mail the other day i was struck by pottery barn's most recent catologue; it was full of beautiful, bright colors and interesting patterns. this dining room, in particular, stood out to me. i'm loving the green-striped chairs, curtains and valances against the dark wood and the beautiful blue wall, and i think the white accents are fresh and clean. (of course, my favorite part of all of it is really the stacks of books in the right corner.) maybe i'll be lucky enough to have a dining room like this some day; until then, i'll look at this picture and dream about that prospect. [photo courtesy pottery barn. coming up: this week's recipe!]

lundi.

what a wonderful, relaxing weekend it was. it began on friday with my mom's arrival and lunch at yoder's, a mennonite restaurant (note: if you go there, don't leave without a slice of butterscotch cream pie), and continued with an interview with a soon-to-be-famous actress in a suite overlooking the ocean on the eighth floor of the longboat key club, dinner (with my brother and his friends) at mattison's in downtown sarasota, trips to the farmer's market, sarasota news & books, the newly expanded sarasota olive oil company and casa italia (where we picked up packages of pasta and bottles of olive oil), a movie at burns court (miss pettigrew lives for a day, with amy adams and frances mcdormand, which was excellent), dinner at canvas cafe, breakfast at the serving spoon and a stroll through morton's market. then, after my mom left this afternoon, my lovely friend t. and i went to a screening of audrey tatou's new movie, priceless, which was terrific. (audrey played the main character in amelie, one of my favorite films ever, so i jump at any chance i get to see her movies.)

so that was the weekend, and now i'm looking forward to the week ahead. coming up today, we'll have our usual weekly recipe as well as one other small post, and i'm still working on this week's "theme." i'm thinking, since the sarasota film festival is going on right now, hollywood/the movies might be a good one. so stay tuned.

[photo above: "koi in a fountain" dessert plate from anthropologie.]

weekly recap + the weekend

i’m only going to do one post today, guys, because my mom and little brother are in town (separately, interestingly enough) and i may have to go to a sarasota film festival event tonight (will keep you posted on any star sightings – charlize theron and stanley tucci, among others, are expected to be here this week). it should be an excellent weekend: my mom and i have plans to take full advantage of sarasota in the spring, which means eating at outdoor restaurants, going to the beach, shopping – all sorts of fun stuff. and then my friend t. and i have tickets to a film festival movie on sunday, which should be wonderful. oh, spring things…

anyway, this week was a great one for the blog, i think, and i hope you agree. here’s a look back at what happened:

• monday: weekend recap, a post on my favorite dessert and heidi swanson’s delicious split pea soup. (note: i made the spring minestrone from grace’s last “in the kitchen with” on design*sponge, and it was yummy – except i accidentally used white basmati rice instead of brown and it kind of turned into risotto. which is fine, except it’s definitely not soup. anyway, i kicked the flavor up a notch (a la emeril) with an extra clove of garlic and the juice of half a lemon and it was really delicious. i can’t wait until my copy of super natural cooking arrives next week!)

• tuesday: “stuff i love today”: calming edition, “going green”: beautiful textiles from plover organic, and the cover of the newest anthropologie catalogue, which i fell in love with due to its saturated color and beautiful lighting.

• wednesday: a guest blog from dear, dear friend shun – a must-read. be sure to check it out if you haven’t.

• thursday: a home tour of a lovely sarasota cottage, style file: america ferrera and pretty, simple dwellstudio for target textiles.

• friday: our weekly recap. photo above: tasty cupcakes from wired whisk bakehouse, which are just as delicious as they look (although, for some reason, i couldn't keep the camera straight). yum.

[see you next week – i hope you have a wonderful, wonderful spring weekend! xo.]