a day of hope and rest

hello lovelies! i hope you're having a wonderful long weekend and that you're taking special care to take good care of yourself and be alone with your thoughts for just a little while. i always find days like this good for reflection, because it's a very obvious landmark we revisit every year. although it can sometimes be stressful and bittersweet to realize how quickly time passes, i try to hold on to hope and the promise of looking forward as my foremost emotion.

a few moments alone in a cool bath or shower, a quiet walk at sunrise or sunset or a few minutes outside stairing skyward, i love to take these days to think back to where i was a year ago - who i was at that moment, what i was doing, and how my life has changed and stayed the same. and i think about this idea to hold onto about hope:

"the road that is built in hope is more pleasant to the traveler than the road built in despair, even though they both lead to the same destination."

-marian zimmer bradley

i hope it resonates for you like it does for me. have a great day and i'll see you tomorrow.

photo from country living

my cup of tea

well, we've finally gotten to friday. i am the happiest ever that this long weekend is here. what are your plans? we don't have too much scheduled, and will definitely be finishing the hanging of our gallery wall, sitting outside and spending time with family.

another thing i am for sure doing is organizing my jewelry - a few years ago, i fell in love with the martha idea of using antique teacups for jewelry organization, and i started a collection of pretty english china from antique stores, tag sales, my grandmother's china cabinet (with her blessing, obvi). in our old house, i had it all organized in my vanity, but since we moved, i haven't gotten it together to do it again. well this weekend is it!

i also plan on taking a nap or two, like this. what's in store for you?

photos from martha stewart and country living

stand and deliver

so i know some of you, just like me, love the idea of bar carts as functional and aesthetic flair for a living room, dining room...i'll even go out on a limb and say office or bedroom too. well a few months ago, i lamented how there is a real dearth (yeah, i said it, dearth) of affordable options that don't look totally cheesy and like they come out of a flat box.

well, it's as if cb2 heard my complaint and came up with the formosa tray table (to be real, they might have had this before my complaints, but just go with me). for under $50, this is a great, chic solution to this much-needed fabulosity of a bar cart, and its pared down scale makes it a great (and portable) fit, even in the smallest of apartments.




it's also a way more stylish fill-in for a snack table which there is just really no place for in a well-dressed home. some other uses that come to mind...night stand, key table, side table...


this is no one night (table and) stand.

all photos from cb2

cat naps

aren't afternoon naps the best? up until pretty recently, they weren't a practice of mine, but after years of hearing my friend kelly sing their praises, i started and let me tell you...best new discovery ever, and i hope the summer that starts this weekend is full of them.

here's my favorite scenario for a weekend summer day: wake up early, procure a big iced coffee, visit a farmers market, run errands, chat on the phone, hit a few tag sales...and then home. i'd love to sit outside and have the breeze lull me to not-quite sleep, and then retire inside to a dark, cool room and drift away. then i love to wake up slowly, no alarm clock involved and have an air-conditioned, tv-watching night in.

what's your favorite kind of summer day?

photo from easy art

a bright idea

i love how these colorful chairs punch up the muted rooms around them. in the photo above, the red of the chairs is so perfectly chosen so it's not overly matched with the red in the painting, but still connected to the other bold source of color.

here, the tonal blues play with the eye and probably look more similar in some lights than they do in others. having them arranged around a circular table evokes the feeling of movement and a color wheel, so the varied tones feel just right.

and how could you not love an acid yellow chair in a black room? obsessed. i love how the room is softened by such a minority partner...usually the tone of a room is set by the majority and then countered by a few small details to add edge or balance, but here the opposite is true.

i love the idea of a bright chair in a room for many reasons, but also because how many times have we all seen a great chair at homegoods or somewhere similar, possibly in a bright color, but it has no match or no real purpose that you can think of. next time, think of it as an experiment and place it in any room at all...it could change everything! you know how sometimes one piece can set the direction for a whole room?

to make the look yourself, choose any color you've been obsessing over and paint the ikea ivar with it...for under $20 plus the cost of paint, you have yourself a room-changer.




make a whole set if you're feeling really ambitious. maybe in different colors. okay, getting way too exciting here.

for more chair obsessions, see this and this. oh, and this.

photos from habitually chic, apartment therapy, living etc. and ikea

dressed up in love

WOW. amazing, right? i think this deserves a listen to this song, from the last satc movie (the song from the new one bores me).

so happy for j hud!

photo from she finds

happy pink day!

which is to say, happy birthday to my beautiful, talented, smart and hilarious sister molly. tomorrow night, we'll be celebrating at a pink party, dressed in pink and sipping pink drinks. see, i told you we're sisters - there is no half way.


what they say about sisters is so true - there is no connection in the world like it. for siblings in general, there is nothing like having the bond of coming from the same past. it gives you a frame of reference, a lexicon, and a memory bank that only you and they share. we were each others first best friends, first partners, and a safe learning ground for so many things. except for the time i pretended to be dead while babysitting...but that's another story for another day.




the fact that you can't choose your family is very fortunate, because over the years as molly and i have each grown and changed in many ways, we've sometimes grown closer and sometimes grown slightly apart, finding our own edges and limitations. but if we hadn't been sisters, we might have grown further the way friends often do. it's all taken us here, and i feel so blessed to have a sister who is my best friend and a best friend who is my sister...

i think this song from wicked says it well about siblings, except for all the stuff about saying goodbye. never.

all photos linked with sources

waves of color

is this not the best print you've seen in a long time? obsessed! it's the ula from crate and barrel and it's on sale right now!!

being in the orange/pink color moment i am, i'm partial, but honestly, i love the blue/green colorway too. what's nice about a print like this for table linens is that they can successfully spruce up an otherwise regular set of dishes.

take, for example, the white dishes i love to talk about which are on sale right now, by the way...

say i were to go in the pink/orange direction here with the napkins...i'd use my trusty white dishes and the salad plates below for a completely punched up look.

and then switching modes, i'd pair the blue/green colorway with the salad plates below for an entirely different look. i love the way the curvy lines of each piece play off of each other...like waves for the little fish to swim in!



that's why really vibrant patterns like the ula are so fun...you can do a million different things with them and the possibilities are endless. it's also another great argument for a set of really dependable, plain jane white dishes. but you know all about that already...

orange and white salad plate photo from pottery barn, all other photos from crate and barrel

don't rain on our parade

there are so many romantic images of couples walking in the rain down a soggy street in their own little world.

except in the real world, one or both ends up dripping with rain. so i'm loving the idea of a lovers umbrella...have you seen these? so totally sweet and also practical! what a great engagement or valentine's day gift - really, a great gift for a great couple any time of year, don't you think?

i totally want one!

for more rainy day style, see this post.

photos from day in light, rio maier, photo.net and umbrellas.net

walk a mile in my shoes

well, in preparation for our trip to paris (and we all know how that ended), all the women in my family were in hot pursuit of comfortable shoes for walking that didn't look completely dorky - we didn't want to spend our precious time in paris in sneakers or anything orthopedic looking - feel me?
so we each found a pair (or three) that we loved for style, comfort and ease, and although we never walked that 10 miles in a day around the city of light, our new shoes are getting quite a lot of use stateside, so i wanted to share them with you.

above, the cutest little sneakers i've ever seen, right? they're uggs which my mom bought in the white/tan version at bloomies - tres parisienne, n'est-ce pas? love the blue striped ones too.

and both my mom and molly discovered dansko - do you know about them? they both swear by the comfort of the pairs above and below, and others i know love their clogs.

i'm kind of loving this pair...hmmm.....

and my best find were fitflops - love them, love them, love them. SO comfortable (after a day or 2 of wear), stable, pretty - one pair in black patent and one in gold sequins! (if you're lucky and live near a shoe box location, check out their sale table for $25 pairs!)

what i love about them is that although they're such a comfort shoe, then can be worn with nicer outfits too (not like, dressy, but not just totally casual either).
mitchell has this version and is obsessed. in fact, he's the one who badgered me into trying them in the first place...so thank you.

aren't comfortable shoes like, one of the most important things in the world? i just feel like life is too short to spend it in foot pain. when i look at people wearing shoes that couldn't possibly be anything but evil on their feet...ugh, perish the thought.

ugg photos from bloomingdales, fitflop images from fitflop, dansko images from the walking company

back in a flash

my oh my, coming home from a vacation is not easy.

it's a good problem to have i guess, really. the hardest part is having spent a week with everything being easy and with the goal of pleasure and relaxation in first position. also, spending so many days surrounded by your closest circle...people who love you, whom you love...it's so personal and so intimate, and then we're thrust back into the very unfiltered world.

more than the palm trees and the cool towels passed around at the daybed-filled beach, i miss the company of my parents, siblings and all our chosen partners. and that says a lot because those daybeds were RIDIC.

i think entering my office this morning was the first time i've been in the glare of flourescent light in over a week.

i know i'll adjust (right???) but for the moment, i think i need to just miss it all. can you relate?

i'll share pictures as soon as i can, and i hope you all had a wonderful week.

for another (more thoughtful) honey living post on coming home, read this.

photo from webshots

spring blush

one of the changes i've made to my morning routine this spring has been a lightening of the makeup i wear to work. rather than using eyeliner and a couple different shadows as i often do, i've switched to just using a single shade of pink shadow (might actually be a blush, technically) on my eyelids. it feels so simple and light, and i like the way it looks too. the simplicity of it is what i really treasure.

do you change your makeup or routines for the warmer weather?

photo from bare faced minerals

blue like the pale blue sky

i love how perfectly pale the blues are in this room. it's like they're just a teeny tiny bit bluer than the white they're up against. i think i've often thought of blue as a cool color, and it is, but i'm only recently becoming acquainted with how very soothing and airy it can be when it looks like the sky.

photo from house of turquoise

stretch it out

how great is this weathered wood floor lamp from west elm? i love its scale, how its like a table lamp style but stretched out extra long. it's so simple in its design, really, but has such a huge impact. it reminds me of the floor lamps below i saw in a local shop.

i love the earthiness of the wood on both styles and could see them easily fitting well in several different kinds of spaces - they would of course be a natural fit in a cozy, woodsy home, but would also have a great softening effect in a home much sleeker and more modern.

it makes me wonder about several styles of table lamps that would probably be really great stretched into floor lamps. like what? funny you should ask...THESE:

top and bottom photos from west elm, white lamp photo from cb2, other photos from crate and barrel

wrapped in wishes

since the baby shower i threw a few weeks ago, i've had baby gifts on the brain, and one of my all-time favorites comes to mind. it's called the 100 good wishes quilt from red envelope and it's one of the nicest baby gifts i've found. it's inspired by a chinese tradition and is meant to symbolize the energy, good fortune and loving wishes of the gift givers. isn't that lovely?

silk-screened in a cozy font onto soft quilts in pink or blue are all the wishes you'd bestow on any life, at any age (i love that they include "uniqueness!") and it can be customized with the baby's name and birthdate as well. i adore this idea...isn't it sweet?

all photos from red envelope

a word to the wise

i love this. i've always loved conan, and now that i read this, i love him even more. it's so true about working hard and being kind...amazing things have to happen, because you're creating them. and i think cynical people lack that perspective and therefore have lives that are worthy of their negative thoughts. that's it. just sayin....

image from the essential man

sour and sweet

how's this for life giving you lemons...our flight to paris was cancelled due to volcanic ash...seriously? oui, seriously. so rather than joining the thousands of people at the mercy of an angry geyser of lava, we decided not to try and force this trip right now.

instead, we took those lemons and made margaritas -- we went to mexico!

yet another lesson from the universe that the best laid plans (even those of the seventeen page variety, for example) can disappear in an instant. as my bff bethenny (a margarita maven herself) says, "we plan and god laughs."

but it's also a reminder that the unravelling of a plan can yield another great one.

btw, mazel bethenny!

don't forget to check in each morning for a new post while i'm gone.

photo from exeter township