weekend update

This past weekend was a busy one! I:

-celebrated my friend's birthday Friday with a night of fun in Georgetown.

-perused the Arlington farmers market and bought fresh peaches and blueberries (yum!). We also got into a religious discussion about the Bible with the old man selling homemade sorbets, all while enjoying a cup of his delicious raspberry lime sorbet!

-went kayaking with my sisters in the Potomac River down by the Georgetown Harbor and Teddy Roosevelt Island...and wasn't sore the next day!


-watched the weekly Netflix offering: Fool's Gold. It was ok.

-chilled at the new local wine bar for some late night wine and cheese. I treated myself to creme brulee (my favorite!)

- hit up the outlets with my little sister and took advantage of some ridiculously awesome sales at J.Crew!

-got some household chores done

-perfected my swing at Top Golf driving range with my friend and some of her work/school buddies. I actually did pretty good!

-came home Sunday night and crashed. It was a fun-filled, action-packed weekend, but boy am I tired!

Up next: a hopefully seamless, trouble-free, short work week before heading down to Sunset Beach for the 4th July weekend. AND my birthday is tomorrow!!

sitting in style

Perfect for indulging in a good book...in style!


MetroSofa from Flutter via Fiore Fresco

a little sunshine

image from Fiat 500/The Best Car via All Things Bright and Beautiful

martha intrigues me

While perusing Martha Stewart today, I found a few things that piqued my interest...

These sound kinda weird and gross and yet they also sound sorta scrumptious:

Lemon-Ricotta Fritters with Lemon Curd

These seem simple enough:

Coconut-Apricot Macaroons

The paradox of Martha: the recipe sounds weird but it probably tastes amazing.

Bacon-Wrapped Asparagus Bundles with Spicy Dipping Sauce

This! This, my friends, both looks and sounds delicious!

Peach-Blueberry Cobbler

I also found these instructions for making a bouquet of paper flowers. I think I'm going to try it out this weekend and see if they are worthy of sitting on my desk at work! I need some new decor at my desk...

my daily shoe fix

J.Crew shoes I want, but will not be getting any time soon (unless they go on sale)!

Lizzie metallic leather driving flats


Liza patterned peep-toe heels


Corossol jeweled sandals


Callie ballet flats


Cristobal metallic flats

The Thirteenth Tale

This morning, I finished reading the book The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield. I thoroughly enjoyed it! The storyline was very unique--nice to read something completely different for once. A little gothic and eerie at times, but that only added to the suspense and intrigue of the book. At times, I didn't want to put the book down, and when I wasn't reading, I found myself looking forward to when I would be able to read more. I recommend this for anyone who wants to read a good new twist on fiction!


I looked it up and come to find out, the book has it's own interactive website with a bunch of extra features about the author and the story. Overall, I'd say this is one of the best books I've read in a while. And I read A LOT!

i paint occasionally

Another watercolor found at home. This one I painted back in 8th grade art class.


I must not have mastered the aesthetic of proportion yet... look at how skinny that stem is holding up that huge bloom! Oh well...

royal ascot hats

Now...I'm a big fan of fancy hats, but the offerings of the recent Royal Ascot races in England were rather...well...let's just take a look, shall we?

Victorian in Thailand?

If you're going to wear an enormous flower on your head, at least get one whose petals aren't wilting!

Old lady's got balls...

A purple rats nets on her head. (although I do like the colors)
Seriously? I have no words...

Comedy or Drama? Obviously, she has a flair for the dramatic...
Her granny bathing cap is actually starting to grow...

Lessons in primary colors...
Half-flower, half-little red construction/surveyor flags.

Bleu cheese? Really??

Creeeeepy....
Double fisting in style! Work those pink heels girl!

Dapper, stylish, classic, chic. My favorite by far!
images from New York Times and FoxNews.com

victorious!

There's just something so sweet about the feeling of victory!

Since I only ever use my wonderful macbook Pro nowadays, I've decided I want to sell my desktop PC. And in order to save all the files on my desktop before wiping it clean, I need an external hard drive to store them. So I started looking online to compare prices on external hard drives. On a whim, I checked ebay, and found a lot of decent priced items whose auctions were ending soon.

I found one I liked that was ending in fifteen minutes, and at the last minute, without expecting to win, I bid on it...and what do you know? When I hit the refresh button, I see "Congratulations! You're the winner!" on my screen. I won? I won!

A feeling of surprise! joy! glee! swept over me as I realized that I had beat out all the other bidders across the nation to become the new owner of that specific external hard drive. Yes, I was victorious in the bidding war! I got this strange sense of superiority knowing that other people elsewhere in the world were sitting at their computers, waiting with bated breath for the auction to end to see if they had won, and then cursing under their breath when they found out they had lost...to me.

I felt like I was in one of the ebay commercials. You know, where there's some sort of competition and one of the people comes out victorious, proudly showing off their newly-won acquisition. Proof that ebay caters to the competitive spirit in all of us. I mean, it was only a freaking external hard drive, it's not even that exciting...but nevertheless, the taste of victory was so sweet.

i paint occasionally

Sometimes I paint. And when I do, it's in watercolors.

I painted this back in 2005, I think. Don't ask me why I painted Bambi...

weekend update

This past weekend I:

-Caught a baseball game after work on Friday night and watched the Nationals beat the Texas Rangers with my dad. Love those season tickets!

-Went on a mini adventure with my sisters on Saturday and randomly ended up hiking trails on Teddy Roosevelt Island in the middle of the Potomac River in DC.

I guess I could have smiled...

Yes...there is an island nature conservation in the middle of metro DC.
Right on the other side of those trees is the National Mall.

The trail took us under I66--this is looking from the Island over into Arlington, Northern VA.

-Saw Get Smart in theaters and had a good laugh. I've never laughed so hard about birthday cake before.

-Watched both Atonement and Amelie. Just because.

-Painted a flowerpot and then planted flowers in it. Just because.

etsy

Etsy. Not only is it my name without the "B"...it's also the most fabulous website every created! Etsy is an online marketplace for homemade goods--basically like ebay for everything handmade. You can find anything--soap, hats, jewelry, art, patterns, paper, plants, baked goods, pottery, music, clothing, furniture...even taxidermy!

It's a great community for crafty buyers and sellers. There is some amazingly talented people out there. I've bought a few things, earrings and knitting stitch holders, and both transactions were easy and affordable.

Some Etsy lovelies:

pretty pottery from Etsy seller Farmer Julie

Blue and Yellow Batik Large Fabric Thumbtacks from Etsy seller Fabricfarrago

Chic Note Tags from Etsy seller Elle's Studio. Tres Chic!

Vintage Flower Screenprinted Tags from Etsy seller Sugar Street Cafe

And the cutest things ever: clutch purses from Etsy seller BeeGee Bags!

Mrs. Robinson style no. 3

Pearls Pink Lotus

Etsy is fab-u-lous!

viva la vida

They did it again! The new Coldplay album released this week and it is nothing short of a-maz-ing! I think they are truly incapable of releasing a bad album.


I love everything about this album. The songs are intriguing, the music melodic....the whole look of the album is great. I like how they used Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People painting as the album cover and inspiration for the whole thing. The sound is a bit more edgy; a lot more sharp string and percussion accents.

I also like how the CD jacket only says it was "recorded in a bakery, a nunnery, a magic shop, a church."

I love Coldplay---I am so excited about the upcoming concert!

office war

This is funny:



I feel like something like this could happen in our office. Creative vs. Account Management! Media vs. Interactive!

via DesignCrush

party dress

I'd like to add this one to my closet:


Adrianna Papell Floral Halter Dress via NIBS

the Mount

The Mount was the impressive home of great American writer Edith Wharton--author of The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, and The Age of Innocence.

"Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was born into a tightly controlled society known as "Old New York" at a time when women were discouraged from achieving anything beyond a proper marriage.

Wharton broke through these strictures to become one of America's greatest writers... She wrote over 40 books in 40 years, including authoritative works on architecture, gardens, interior design, and travel. Essentially self-educated, she was the first woman awarded:

• the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
• an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Yale University
• full membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters"

This woman was fierce. Not only did she transcend gender boundaries of her time and become an award-winning literary figure, she herself designed and built her home in Lenox, Massachusetts, The Mount.

And what an impressive home it is! The architecture and gardens are elegant and classic; representative of her belief that design should follow the "principles of proportion, harmony, simplicity, and suitability."

It's a gorgeous setting. If I lived in Massachusetts, I'd get married here.







Sadly, the Mount is about to go through foreclosure, and therefore will be closed to the public, unless they can raise $3 million by the end of October. They've set up a fund to help Save the Mount. It'd be sad to see such a beautiful place close down. I wish a millionaire would make a sizeable donation to ensure the posterity of Edith Wharton's legacy and make it accessible to everyone.

I wish I could visit it before it closes down, but alas...Massachusetts is rather far away.


excerpts and photos via edithwharton.org.