a break

After a very traumatic weekend...involving an emergency room visit to Children's Hospital, and after much thought on neglected housework and neglected family time...I have decided to take a break from blogging for now. I'll be back at some point...rested, relaxed, and renewed! For now, I'll be living the luxurious life of housework and caring for a toddler with a cast to her shoulder for what I'm sure will seem like an eternity. She's hardly missed a beat since the 'break'...but it's hard to see her in that tiny little cast. Don't forget about me...I'll still be prancing around in my Prada flats and nautical stripes (even though it's winter) but, I'll be logging more downtime than logging on. I'll be back soon...xoxo!

image credit: the toddler and her tiny pink cast

happy feat

Okay, so you remember the to-die-for fire ant dress by Charlotte Taylor I posted about a couple months ago...well, I took the toddler for Pinkberry on Wednesday and it was such a beautiful faux winter day that we decided to walk around a bit afterwards. With the toddler in tow and not really looking to purchase anything, we stepped into several stores before doing what I knew would be the hardest part of the day...we ventured into Anthropologie. Now, if you don't have a toddler who likes to literally touch every single thing she sees, and when you tell her to stop touching she quickly, in the sweetest voice ever, says, "it's okay mama"...then you don't know how delicate a task it is to browse around a store with an infinite amount of breakables. We weren't headed in any direction upon entering...we smelled some candles, smelled some perfume...gazed at the cool bicycle strung with lights hanging on the wall...looked at some neat knobs...cuddled the stuffed fox...and at some point we rounded the corner into the Sale Room. And there it was...hanging out flat against the row...the sweetest little blouse by Charlotte Taylor. It was my size...and I remembered from months past it was more than I wanted to spend. But, apparently not only was the sun shining brightly that day, so was my luck! I took those little penguins home for $22! Imagine my excitement! I can't wait to take those little guys out on the town...it's their kinda weather too...sunny, cold...and happy!

image credit: anthropologie

Thursday's things

Katie Daisy

I am absolutely in love with these wonderful illustrations by Katie Daisy! They are so cute and innocent in their brushstrokes. I would love to do a collage of these little confections in little frames on an accent wall in our den...or maybe in the toddler's room!

Katie is originally from a small farm in Illinois and draws inspiration from rural life and simple pleasures. She has a shop on Etsy called The Wheatfield where you can pick up some of these great works...and the price is just as sweet as the art! Now, how will I ever decide which ones to get...maybe I need them all?

p.s. I don't know Katie, and therefore this isn't a sponsored post or a post to try to get you to spend your hard earned money...just a post about an artist I've recently fallen for and thought you might like her too.

image credit: the wheatfield

Thursday's things...

Yesterday, one of my favorite bloggers, Joanna Goddard from A Cup Of Jo, did a post about her recent bedroom re-do. For a while now, the husband and I have been wanting to downsize our bedroom furniture. We live in a small 1950's house that is certainly gasping to catch it's breath beneath the weight of all of our accumulated furniture. When we first moved in about 9 years ago our "stuff" only filled up one small truck...and so, we felt the urge to fill up our new found space. Now, we're so claustrophobic we can hardly stand it. We have a huge bedroom suit and everything is match-y match-y, which I have come to loathe. Joanna touches on this match-y match-y thing a bit in her post and reveals a bedroom of things that are special but individual and cheery in their own way. She and her sweet family live in New York, making my house palatial by comparison, yet she was able to make her space seem huge and cheery to help thwart the dreary, cold, damp winter days. I've now got the inspiration needed to try and de-clutter our bedroom and downsize our overbearing furniture...the rest of the clutter will have to wait. We spend such meaningful time in our bedroom, sleeping, playing with the toddler, watching t.v. before bed...why not make it the space we truly want? Check out the pictures of Joanna's bedroom re-do. I love the pillow and the headboard, and the shades...and well, everything!

image credit: a cup of jo

team USA

Tonight, the husband and I will embark on a new endeavor, something sure to change our lives, a road that will possibly lead to gold medals and back flips galore. That's right, the toddler will take her first gymnastics class tonight! Depending on her mad skills, I may begin to refer to her as "the gymnast". I'm not being aggressive am I? I mean, I know she technically is still a toddler/preschooler but I'm certain she'll be incredibly good. This is normal, right? It's not too soon to start packing for the Olympics is it? Also, anyone know if Bela Karolyi is still coaching? Okay, okay...I'm not completely crazy...just really excited for the toddler...er, gymnast to have an activity that includes swinging like a monkey and flipping like a ferret to help her get the wiggles out...and maybe sleep past 7am! Also, she is ridiculously cute in her leotard! Now, where's the podium?

image credit: sportsgirlsplay

Thursday's things

There are few things as heavenly as bacon and buttery crackers. The husband being from Mississippi is well versed in this party staple as they are considered a delicacy...no party complete without them. This past year I purchased the cookbook "A Southerly Course" by Mississippi native Martha Hall Foose. Excited to start cooking up a bunch of classic southern fare, I thumbed the beautiful pages and returned over and over to the simple Bacon Crackers, little bowties of deliciousness! I mean, bacon and bowties...can't get more Southern. Each recipe in the book is prefaced with a little short story or tidbit of sorts to give you some notion as to why we Southerners love it, why it's served, where it's served, and how it's served. So, when I read the little bit about Foose's devotion to friends, specifically Foose's friend, Neck Bone Red's*, requests for the bacon bauble, I knew they would be divine. (*nicknames are also synonymous with us Southerners as they tell a story of their own while keeping discreet our proper names should, well...we need some discretion). Alas, I set out to make these little beauties. Then, low and behold...while attending my inlaw's annual Christmas fete...as the caterers passed appetizers of...you guessed it, bacon crackers, I struck up a conversation with the husband's childhood babysitter. (Whom I must say has somehow escaped aging as she looks younger than either one of us.) While gushing about my love for those little corseted canapes and her beautiful gold dress, oh, and name dropping "A Southerly Course" with the former babysitter...something very special happened. She said something that made me so supremely happy to be a Southerner, to be from a place where everyone "knows" everyone or at least someone who knows them who once babysat for someone's husband...Good lord, could it be true? It was...I was standing there amongst the twinkling Christmas lights, hearty laughter, and flickering candles talking to none other than Neck Bone Red herself! And so, this winding story of bacon crackers and friends and babysitters and nicknames and cookbooks and the South is a testimony to what makes food good. It's not just the food itself but the people associated with it...it's the history, and the simplicity of it that provides the backdrop in which memories are made. And well, I suppose in some ways, bacon bridges the gap from one generation to another. Make some bacon crackers for someone, if not bacon crackers specifically, make whatever it is that brings you close with your friends and family. You'll make memories, maybe some new friends, and you'll be fuller than you've ever been.

image credit: A Southerly Course

bowties, bourbon, and bcs

So, the BIG game is today in the Big Easy! What to wear, what to wear? Well, as a girl from the South this is a perfect opportunity to dress up. This is what we do. We make game day classy...mixing chandeliers with bowties and bourbon with Coke. We wear plaid in our team colors, we wear houndstooth, we wear skirts and dresses and suits and sport coats. We wear our team spirit with pride and our hearts on our sleeve. It's a red (crimson, actually) carpet of fashion where everyone knows that Louis Vuitton and pearls go with everything and a shoe that both looks good and feels good is a myth. And so, no matter the score at the end of the game...we'll have fun and we'll look good doing it. Besides, a little bourbon never hurt a Louboutin! May the best team win! RTR!

image credit: pinkpreppylillylover

Thursday's things

It's days like this...and by "days like this" I mean, 70 degree days slipped in on us...nestled amongst the freezing, dreary winter days that make us do something sure to break our hearts. Days when the sun shines so brightly and the warmth is palpable we dare to dream that we're on the cusp of Spring. Though I know we're barely into winter days and that there will come a time in the near future when we'll hardly remember Spring. But, today...I did it. I imagined that we were about to welcome Spring, which...er, snowballed into dreaming about long days at the beach with windburned faces and hearts aglow with that new found love of Spring. Alas, just like any new love...the excitement will eventually fade as the temps creep back down into the teens. And so, the mistletoe is barely put away and I'm already dreaming of dipping my toe into the waters of Spring! Also...it didn't help that the new J.Crew catalog came today and it's filled with enough bathing suits and bright colors to light all your winter days!

happy new year

We did it...we made it through 2011. We celebrated the high spots and weathered the low spots and somewhere between the ebb and the flow we made great memories to be cherished for a lifetime. Winter snows, summer camp house trips with friends, long weekends at the beach, weddings, birthdays, bachelorette parties, a football season for the record books, so many things to be thankful for at Thanksgiving, presents and sweets galore at Christmas, and a weekend of celebration with great friends to usher in the new year...here's to hoping that 2012 is as exciting, fun, and meaningful as 2011 was! Cheers!

image credit: linda & harriet