go for baroque

i am just obsessed with vera bradley's new print, baroque. can you believe? you go, vera. as her site says, this is a fully modern print but with strong roots in the classical, which to me, makes it just about perfect.
i adore the black-and-whiteness of it all, especially with the elegant flourishes throughout, but the punch of a sharp, sharp citrine color...it goes over the top. OBSESSED.
this new development makes me totally question my previous intention of beginning a new, matching but mismatching vera bradley wardrobe since mine is falling apart after over a decade of checking it at airports (wouldn't do that again) and dragging it everywhere (i would lift and place this time around). although i suppose i could see throwing in a piece or two in imperial toile one day.



and then maybe just one piece of puccini. you know, down the road...

oh boy, here we go again.

all images from vera bradley

we do

today marks three years since mitchell and i got married. in some ways it seems like many more years than that, and in other ways that seems just about right.

i often think about how if we were to get married again today, it would be so much deeper-rooted and steeped in importance than it was three years ago, though of course to us at that time, it couldn't have been any more important.

i guess that's a good direction to be moving in...to be loving and caring more today than yesterday, and more tomorrow than today. i feel very lucky to say that's true as we weather the hard times and cherish the good times on the river.

not so scary decor

i've never really been into a lot of halloween decorating, unless of course there is a halloween party for said decorating. but i've actually seen a couple things so far this year that are pretty cute.


first, how awesome are these furniture leg covers from pier 1? i love the idea of a normally decorated room with these covers on the chairs or tables. they would be such a funny visual to come upon unexpectedly and i love a sense of humor in any room.

i also love their glitter candelabra - i think it would be so pretty on any winter table, halloween aside, especially in a candlelit room where it would glitter and shine in the fickering light. i think i just talked myself into this one.

then on my last homegoods visit, i found these luxe looking pillows which, in the right space, could also stick around after halloween. though i'm not much of a skull-and-crossbones girl, the sparkle and shine of the beading on this pillow and its price of $16.99 gave me pause.

i also loved the purple and black wreaths they had, and it gave me all kinds of ideas for a deep, jewely purple christmas color scheme. i can imagine it with accents of gold and a bright teal, but definitely using a few shades of dark purple as the base. they'll probably even be on heavy sale at homegoods after halloween, because they're only thinking of it for halloween. had to go and be jewish, didn't i?

do you decorate for halloween?

cariño!

cariño just sounds like a fun word, doesn't it? so yesterday i shared some pictures from the screening i planned, and today i wanted to share the afterparty. with only two weeks notice, i was able to find a terrific venue - a new restaurant called cariño (which means love or dear in spanish, fyi), just a few blocks away from indiescreen. they were the only place in the area i found that was willing to section off some space for a group of 75-100 and not charge a rental fee, and once dani and i visited and met with the lovely owner, it was a done deal.

another one of their owners who also wears the mixologist hat made two special drinks for us as a nod to the film's title - one was called "lady," a hibiscus-infused margarita, and the other was called "lily," a cucumber mint agua fresca. they also brought out chips and salsa for everyone when they arrived. it turned out to be a huge crowd, much larger than expected, and as they all walked up the street together, the evening kicked off with a champagne toast that dani treated everyone to, and everyone had a great time.

budgetarily, i had $80 to spend on everything i bought, for the screening as well as the party. the popcorn, popcorn bags and lollipops came to exactly $40, so i had $40 left for flowers and i was careful to spend it wisely. originally dani wanted to do lilies, as another nod to the title, but regular lilies smell too strong and callas are too expensive, so i went another way. for $40 exactly, i got a dozen cream roses, 2 small bunches of cream gerbera daisies and three big bunches of baby's breath.

as i often do, i grouped them into a bunch of small arrangements in my footed glasses and was excited that i got to try out something i'd been wanting to - tying the stems nice and tight with twine so it's visible in the glass. love that!

then i drove to brooklyn with them very sloooowly with only a little water in each vase so they wouldn't spill. they spilled. just a little. i pulled over to the side of the road to move the boxes around and almost left my handbag on the side of the grand central parkway.

once i arrived - with flowers and bag in tow - i was really happy with the way the flowers looked lining the tables carino had arranged for us. each table had a single arrangement, and no two were exactly alike. the tables were covered in craft paper (love!) and there were white tealights all over, as well as green glass bottles filled with water - i always like guests to have unlimited access to water at parties. it's nice to not have to ask for just a glass of water, and carino believes the same thing - it's standard procedure for them, so that was great. i loved the fact that so many of the things i would have requested were par for the course with carino, and i look forward to planning another event there at some point.

i love the way all the glass looks - the glasses, the bottles, the votive holders and the vases - so shiny and glimmery.

love! or should i say cariño!

salty and sweet

a couple weekends ago i planned a screening and afterparty for an independent film called lady lily (adventures in god's country). i wanted to share the pictures i took at each of the events of the night, and i decided to break it into two posts because the images are so different.

the screening was at a very cool new screening room called indiescreen in williamsburg, brooklyn. the filmmaker, dani, had already secured the location when i came into the picture, but the venue didn't have their liquor license yet. they were supposed to, but there were delays, so we had to figure out how to handle the crowd expected for the screening. we decided on an afterparty in the immediate area of the screening room, but didn't want to serve the guests nothing at the screening itself, so we decided on soft drinks at the "bar" (which dani treated everyone to) and fun movie snacks.

i never turn away from a retro theme looking me in the face, so i pushed for old timey bags of popcorn and colorful lollipops and dani happily agreed. i got the bags at a party store which luckily had them, because i didn't have much time, but i did discover lots of online sources here. i got the popcorn at pathmark where i looked like a deranged popcorn fiend, buying out their stock of jumbo sized popcorn bags that are placed so far back on such a high shelf because they don't actually expect anyone to try and get the ones at the back. i got the ones at the back.

i used the highly adorable and mod-looking tolsby frames from ikea to hold the sweet and salty signs, as well as signs on the bar that let guests know that their hostess was treating them to soft drinks and that there was to be a champagne toast at the afterparty following the screening, along with the address of the restaurant.

my biggest concern was that i wouldn't have enough popcorn bags made up (i had plenty of popcorn and bags on hand in case i had to quickly make up more) or that no one would eat it, so i was happy to see this final sight before i packed up and moved on to the afterparty venue.

that's a wrap.

a cut above

when i gasped upon seeing these kimberly mcdonald earrings, i knew they were meant to be shared. and meant to be owned. by me. well, until then, let's just observe and weep.










using interesting geodes and rare gemstones, kimberly mcdonald's designs are unique and eyecatching - classic and edgy in the same moment. i love how she uses diamonds in conjunction with the other materials - so thoughtful and restrained to not go totally rogue where tradition is concerned. sometimes they're dainty and pave, sometimes raw and uncut.
and she's a firm believer in reusing materials, rather than continuing to deplete natural resources, which makes each piece even more lovely and one-of-a-kind, which is so special. here is what she says:

there is such an abundance of material out there, we need not continue to harvest many of the materials needed to create. i like to think of each creation as an extension of what nature has given us and we strive to preserve the integrity of the material and its unique energy. we also strive to reuse rather than reap. jewelry was initially created to carry symbolic talismans and stones of energy or import. i believe it should still have that meaning and that we can accomplish this without pillaging nature.

amen sister.






and can i just say...OMFG.



kimberly's designs are sold at only a few places which are here.

images from rockras, la mag, pierce mattie public relations, modern jeweler, polyvore, jewelsnob, browns fashion, life-content, kaboodle, the cut london, holt renfrew, beauty lab ny, jewelsfile, gem gossip, elle

falling into fall

i hope you have a wonderful weekend and get to enjoy some comfortable fall weather. i can't believe it's already the middle of september, can you? fall always feels so hopeful to me - probably from the idea of a "new year" when you're school age (and jewish, since our high holidays are to welcome in the new year) and you know the holidays are around the bend...it's just a nice feeling, every year, regardless of what i have going on.

one of my favorite things about fall is how wonderful it feels, looks and smells. it's such a multi-sensory season, inside and out, and i love that feeling that i'm surrounded by and immersed in it.

especially this year, i'm looking forward to spending lots of time on my balcony, around my neighborhood and otherwise outside, since the summer was so hot that i wasn't enjoying being outdoors. now is a great time for farmers markets like this one and this one, and you can search out the ones available in your area here.

well have a good weekend, friends. see you back here on monday.

pretty in pink

isn't this gorgeous? my sister molly (a pink lover like me) sent it to me and i'm obsessed. not only is the combination of pinks intoxicating, but i love the overhead view of the table - it's really an amazing way to look at a tablescape, and one i definitely have to employ going forward when trying to photograph events and parties.

having the blooms sectioned off by color here reminds me of my always preferred strategy of keeping like with like in the flower world - even if i'm stuck having to grab the dreaded "mixed bouquet" from a grocery store, it's no problem because i separate them into like bunches and create several small arrangements. to me, this looks so much better than to leave them in all their jumbledness and throw them in a vase.

but the insane pink colorblocking in this picture...i'm going to need to try that, STAT.

image from martha stewart