summer reading

every once in a while, i rediscover how wonderful reading is. it's such a treat...how is it allowed, and pretty much free? i'm reading the corrections right now (it's taking me forever but i'm enjoying the slow burn) and every magazine under the sun.

what are you reading right now?

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baby-gami

how ridiculously adorable is this book? it could be a perfect gift for a new dad or grandpa for father's day. or we could all just pore over it and think about how cute it is.

with amazing pictures, difficulty level (like a cookbook!) and instructions, it makes it look actually doable! there's the after-bath cuddle wrap, the snug wrap and the front sling, among 17 others.

totally adorbs!!

long weekend

this is the kind of weekend i'm hoping to have. the forecast is finally clear, and i'm smack in the middle of the corrections by jonathan franzen which is undeniably gorgeous and chilling, equal to his other masterpiece, freedom.

i also plan on drinking lots of water, iced tea and iced coffee, sitting on my balcony, watching birds, seeing our youngest friends (she is 2, he is 4) and spending quality time with mitchell, my grandmother, one of my best friends from high school and some good, soon-to-be-clean laundry.

long weekends are amazing...they're just so LONG, and can fit so many things, so many different moods and modes. have an amazing weekend full of as much or as little as you want it to.

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everything is going to be ok

i believe it, do you?

and i love the cover of this feel-good book enough to pre-order it.

funny girl (and she cooks!)

i'm kind of loving jessica seinfeld these days. gone are the days of being accused of stealing the fruit puree idea, and here to stay is her fab personality and great, healthy ideas. when i was home from work for a few weeks, i joined the oprah-watching world and there jessica was - comfortable, self-assured, and much-adored by jerry, her proud, watchful and totally not overshadowing husband.

in today's goop, jessica and her new book are featured. watch the video gwyneth links to - one of many short, supereasy looking ones on jessica's new website, originally shot for jessica's friend who wanted to learn to cook. and also read the short interview with jessica for some excellent tips and a glimpse into her world.

i love how in the video, jerry is just hanging in the background looking like a hungry husband wondering what's for dinner. nary a close up of his face nor a peep out of his hilarious genius of a mouth.

want the book. for me and for gifts. want her to be my friend. and jerry too.

image from seattle times

bonjour paris!

bonjour mes amis!

well, i have held it in too long and i have to share it with you, my wonderful readers. i am incredibly lucky to be going to paris on saturday for five amazing nights with mitchell, my parents and my siblings and their significant others. it's an incredibly generous gift from my parents in honor of their 35th anniversary, and i couldn't be more excited. in my absence, i plan on having one post scheduled each day and i can't wait to share with you everything i know i'll have to share upon my return.

i have been busy constructing a loose itinerary with a very detailed guidebook for us all to use which combines all the recommendations we've gotten as well as all of frommers' and fodors' wisdom. and i highly recommend rick steves' paris - he has guidebooks for many places, and he's so user-friendly and chock full of great information and tips, and even offers updates on the website.

SO in preparation for our trip, i am going to have one travel-themed post each day this week, in addition to a regular post. i welcome any tips you'd like to share about anything!

photo from thunda funda

baby love

i have to share the most precious pictures in the world with you. i can not take any credit for them whatsoever, as they're taken by an omaha photographer kelley ryden featured on the today show and they were brought to my attention by my kelly. so you see? the only credit i can take is that i am posting them for you to see and enjoy.

kelley and her twin sister (who poses the babies) only photograph babies in their first two weeks on earth because that's when they're the sleepiest. how cute is that? all these pictures and more are featured in their book sleeping beauties: newborns in dreamland. how incredible a gift would a session with these photographers be for the very beginning of a new beginning?

here's a great video clip about the photographers showing how they work. definitely worth watching.

can you believe?

all photos from www.msnbc.com

taking our sweet time...overbooked

i have been cooking up a new feature for honey living called "taking our sweet time," meant to be something you can do in a small amount of time (think 15 minutes or so) that can change your daily life. of course this could be almost anything, but the way i'm thinking of it is as far as organizational things that are always there, lurking, needing doing, and often getting pushed off. those things are often the type where once you do them, you realize how easy they were and how liberated and fresh you feel to have it done. so here we go...

i have been driving myself crazy recently with my array of personal accoutrements - book i'm reading, datebook, notebook for personal stuff, notebook for blog stuff, notebook for counting weight watchers points...ENOUGH. i realized it yesterday morning when i felt the emotional equivalent of an eyeroll when i had to reach into my bag to find something. too much!

i don't know why i had resisted, but somewhere along the line, i got away from the idea of having it all in one place...well, bad idea. i'm now back to the one place, in the form of a pretty raspberry filofax (or "filo," as my high school self called them). i have a section for each category of my life with pretty lined paper and plenty of post-its to go around. to accomodate my new style, i'm going to go back to the one-week-at-a time point booklets which i can just slide right in the little pocket, rather than having a little book. sometimes it's little ways of rethinking the routines we get into that help to turn a problem on its side and come up with a different way of seeing it.

seriously, it's like a breath of fresh air. all in once place, organized, space-efficient, raspberry! doesn't it just look so much prettier?

what's in your bag? if it's a lot, does it bother you? could you condense?

end to end

aren't these cast-metal animal bookends from west elm sweet? only the rabbit is available online anymore, so the west elm store we pass sometimes when we visit friends in new jersey is calling my name - these birds would look so perfect on my future bookshelf, i just might have to nab a few.

i also love the a/z bookends from target - sort of whimsical, but cutely literal, very "it is what it is," since all the books they're "ending" are full of letters....get it? okay, i think i made my point.

and i love the way the owl bookends from pier 1, with their known tendency to be wise, is also a nice nod to bookishness.

the fu dog bookends from cb2 - LOVE their fire-engine color! - are a really fun nod to the sometimes very serious use of fu dogs in chonoiserie-inspired (or eclectic) design.

these are all such cute ways to add personality to a collection of otherwise lifeless objects on a shelf. it also makes me think of using other objects i already have as bookends - think of all the boxes or trinkets you have lying around that could probably be unexpected and welcome on a shelf of your best-loved books.

photos from linked sites

posh papers

aren't these crossword and sudoku books the prettiest?

i "hinted" that i wanted one for valentine's day (and by "hinted," i mean "flat out said") and i very happily got one! the company, posh, also puts out word search, logic and brain games editions, all just as pretty as the next.

mitchell got me the crossword book with the amazing floral print below which i'd like to upholster my whole life in. what's so nice is that these books are such a stylish, neat way to keep busy, and they slide easily and compactly into your bag. because of how colorful and pretty they are, they're like an accessory all on their own.

and of course when all the puzzles are done, i'll have the prettiest bookmarks in the world.

non-original photos from www.target.com

happy weekend!

what do you have planned this weekend? we're going to continue to work on some of our little projects at home, and saturday night we're having a valentine's day dinner at barolo, a very special italian restaurant in soho. we were lucky enough to have a gift certificate to use there (thanks mom and dad!).

please take a second to "follow" me (link on right side under profile) and be sure you're a fan on facebook which is right above that. i just added the follow gadget and am hoping lots of you choose to use it! i love having you all as a community with all your comments and emails and suggestions.

and now for some fun...

have you seen this ridiculously adorable surprised kitty clip on youtube? you must.

and while you're there, check out this too cute for words little boy "singing" i'm yours.

are you lost on lost? or should i say is lost lost on you? i have been watching it for years, and have seriously never doubted my intelligence the way this show makes me doubt it. here is a really helpful, clever and even funny summation of seasons 1, 2 and 3 in 8 minutes and 15 seconds. 8:15, as in oceanic flight 815....aaaaaaahhhhhhhh.

have you read the help? i just finished it and here is the only thing i can say...you know how when you finish a book, you feel like you've lost a friend? i feel like i have lost three. read it.

are you baking something sweet for your friends, family or sweetheart for valentine's weekend? if you need some ideas, you should click over to bakerella for some great ones, or at the very least, some gorgeous and delicious photos. the design on the top cake in this picture was inspired by a pottery barn pillow! amazing. and look at this AMAZING cake from valentine's day last year! it's ALL cake!

ALL. CAKE.

and even if you didn't upload a photo in the contest to win a free rebecca minkoff bag, i have been given permission to give out the discount code you can use for 25% off selected styles. here is the link for shopping, and the code is tweetmybag. if i were in the market, i'd go with the dove grey and pink nikki. and you can still enter the contest through sunday!

and i have to share these pictures with you...they're of mykonos. i mean, REALLY. it seems other-worldly, given all the snow around these parts.

can't you just see hanging out here, all dressed in billowy white clothes?

now are you convinced?

i always like to think of what my dad says...it's nice to think about the fact that even when it's cold and raining and the furthest thing from a vacation, these special places still exist. it's comforting to know, isn't it?

mykonos photos from www.yatzer.com, all others from linked sites