Wednesday, March 31, 2010

dry your tears

i think my kitchen life is about to be changed. and yours too, if onions make you cry. thanks to one of my favorite bloggers, jackie fo. i give you onion goggles. seriously? best. idea. ever.

i'm not going to lie, though...i will first try my very own aviators to see how that works out - i feel like if they hug your face enough, it could work...

photos from www.amazon.com

following the flock


i love when the universe silently guides us.

these past couple days have been hectic for me - at home, at work, even in my mind. with the passover holiday, my work days have been shorter and busier and my evenings have been condensed and later than usual. everything feels a bit frantic...can you relate?

so i felt particularly thankful when, this morning, a little family of geese mosied their way across the street, stopping all traffic and freezing time for a minute or two. in those moments, i was reminded that you can't control everything, and that there are things in the world that just require time. and that they can be the best things (if you let them).

sure beats screaming at a gaggle of geese, doesn't it?

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

a purple cast

purple lovers assemble! loving these new le creuset colors exclusive to sur la table. i have a place in my heart for specific colors in this cast iron cookware, because i did a whole william sonoma registry when i was engaged only to get the le creuset dutch oven in "flame", which lives on my cooktop even now, two kitchens later (at the time, "flame" was only available at WS).


what's nice about the le creuset pieces is that aside from their undisputed quality, they make nice serving pieces and countertop adornments and can easily be selected to mix and match with other serveware and dishes. this makes them worth the investment, to me, because they serve more than one purpose, and they last FOREVS. like seriously, as in generations.

what do you think, could you see having cookware in these colors? i especially love the plummy cassis, in which most of the pieces are available.

photos from www.surlatable.com

Monday, March 29, 2010

upstream

aren't these fish adorable? it was a folk art set that wisteria carried a while ago...i was saving them to share with you when the summer wasn't such a distant thought...but now wisteria doesn't have them anymore! should have seized the moment when i first found them all those snowy months ago. i guess we'll just have to look out for similarly handmade, happy pieces like them in salty beach towns this summer. i'm in!

so since i can't offer a link where you can buy these fishies, i'll offer you these dreams of summer where these fish would look right at home. i know we're only just at the beginning of spring, but i love the feeling of knowing we have the spring AND summer ahead of us...so much to look forward to!












fish photo from www.wisteria.com, all other photos from www.countryliving.com

in the (gym)bag

i'm loving these fun, bright workout duffles from old navy. there's something kind of 80's fab about the whole look, and i'm sure we all know that any modicum of fun that can be attached to the gym is a good thing. for only $15 each, it's an even better thing.
small details like the side-drawstring action make them a little different, and there's a separate compartment on the bottom for dirty clothes. love that!






i love the words "get active, get going" printed on the side of all of them, but for some extra motivation (and an extra $4.50), there's the motivational print workout duffle, in pink or black.




get active! get going! or at least...get a cute bag!

all photos from www.oldnavy.com

Friday, March 26, 2010

happy weekend!

what do you have planned this weekend, lovely readers?

we'll be celebrating the first birthday of a smiley little girl whose parents we knew when they were kids themselves -- well, mitchell knew her mommy and daddy when they were 14 years old...and now they have two kids. it still feels magical to me, even as we approach a time where lots of our friends have children.

for her present, i'm making a stop at one of my favorite childrens' gift places - little miss matched. do you know about it? so adorable - and all about not being too matchy, which i love. in addition to other cute clothes and accessories, they sell socks in "pairs" of three - each with a different design so they can be mixed and matched. one of my favorite items is their set of 9 which yields 36 combinations!
i'm particularly excited because getting to said birthday party requires passing an west elm store, which i have not yet inspected in the flesh. so there's that too, and we will be leaving with extra time for that. i can't wait to see certain things in person, like this, this and this. oh, and these lights too.


how gorg would this glass link chandelier (above) look over a really rustic farmhouse table like these?



sigh...

okay that's enough day dreaming for one day. see you back here on monday!

flower photo from www.houseofturquoise.com, socks photos from www.littlemissmatched.com, light photos from www.westelm.com, table photos from www.restorationhardware.com

writing on the wall

isn't this such a special, different idea? it's an inscribed glass shower enclosure, found in a home by swiss architects felber szèlpal architekten. yes please!

if i were to have a shower like this, i know exactly what i'd want inscribed. it's an apache blessing that i first discovered through the jewelry of jeanine payer, which you might remember from a post i did a while back. here is what it says:

may the sun bring you new energy by day
may the moon softly restore you by night
may the rain wash away your worries
may the breeze blow new strength into your being
may you walk gently through the world and know its beauty all the days of your life


wouldn't that be a nice sentiment to begin and end your days with? in connection to the idea of beautiful bathrooms, to me this tops the list. what would yours say?

photo from www.apartmenttherapy.com

Thursday, March 25, 2010

heading for hong kong

while we're on the subject of mani/pedis (and when are we not?), what are your thoughts about opi's hong kong collection for spring? thanks to vampy varnish, i have some on-the-nail pics to show you.

for one thing, i'll say that seeing all the colors together definitely gives me a hong kong vibe, though a few of them (like jade is the new black and suzi says feng shui) i have a hard time picturing ever wearing. but that's totally just me, because i love these colors on other people.


i've seen good things written about both the pinky shades - panda-monium pink and lucky lucky lavender...


and i've heard great user-reviews of meet me on the star ferry and chop-sticking to my story (which looks way different on the nail than in the bottle - below, it's second and above, it's bottom row, third from right...what's up with that?).


i love the way a good man-darin is hard to find looks, as well as dim sum plum and red my fortune cookie - perfect, creamy, opaque brights...they remind me of tropical punch, one of my favorites last summer.



though it's not a color i'd normally try, i'm kind of interested in bling dynasty, mainly because of how it looks on the nail. there's something sort of cleopatra-meets-ming that i sort of love.

but i don't feel that way about pearl of wisdom which just seems so sheer and boring. though maybe for summer, it would be a low-maintenance way to add a little glam...

what are your thoughts?

top photo from www.opi.com, remainder of photos from www.vampyvarnish.com

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

angora in springtime

i have to tell you about the essie color angora cardi - they describe it as a creamy, deep, dusty rose, and i'd have to agree, though i'd also classify it as a cousin of both mauve and lavender...i think it's a slightly rosier version of essie's soiree mauve, described as a creamy plum mauve. what i'm really loving about it is that it's neutral but warm, rich but not dark. seasonally, i think it is totally universal, which is a great color to have in the arsenal, you know? what are you go-to universal colors?

photo from www.essie.com

pour me

i love the idea of a simple water carafe for the bedside. it can also be such a nice touch in a guest room, a bathroom, an office, even to have by your side as you relax through the evening. it's easy to get into using and reusing crunchy, noisy, cheap plastic water bottles, but carafes are such a greener and more elegant option.

these are some of my favorites from pottery barn (above), and pier 1 (both below). starting at $7, they're a luxury worth splurging on, don't you think?



photos from linked sites
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