go Hokies!!

College football is back!! Today is the first Hokie football game of the season! Virginia Tech takes on East Carolina in Charlotte. We're watching the game here then heading down to the beach to enjoy the beautiful weather while sitting under our Virginia Tech canopy. :) 

LETS GO HOKIES!!!

finally vacay!

I'm heading back down to the beach tonight for a long holiday weekend with the fam. Thank goodness! I am in desperate need of some R&R thanks to the past two weeks being extremely busy and stressful at work. Here's hoping that all this hurricane mess doesn't ruin my plans completely.

These photos by photographer Chris Everard are dreamy. Wish I had a hammock like that at the beach!




pics by Chris Everard via Sarah Kaye Representation

soundtracks

I appreciate really great movie soundtracks. The type of soundtracks filled with beautiful instrumentals that play to the emotions with sweeping melodies and grand orchestrations. I recently came across the soundtrack for Brideshead Revisited and it's score is one such soundtrack. Absolutely beautiful.


Other favorite soundtracks that are so wonderful I could listen to them all day:

Pride and Prejudice



Becoming Jane


Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe


Braveheart


Gladiator


Little Women

september in Prague

Always enjoy getting the latest J.Crew catalog in the mail--their September issue was shot in Prague and I'm loving the perfectly styled images that give off a carefree, simplistic, European feel. It certainly gets me excited for the fall.












all images from J.Crew

holy smokes!

definitely almost just burned the house down while trying to boil water!! We cooked steaks on the stove two nights ago, and I guess some of the sauce was left underneath the burner, because one minute I'm boiling water, the next there are giant flames flaring over the stove top! It didn't help the chaos when the smoke alarms started blaring and I couldn't figure out how to turn them off. Thank goodness I was able to put the fire out, but for a second there I was seriously freaked out thinking I was going to burn the whole building down!

fare-thee-well Olympics

The Olympic torch has been extinguished and the summer games are now over. I really truly enjoyed watching the games, but I'm kinda glad they are finally over, because I have done nothing too productive over the past two weeks since all I was doing was watching the Olympics.

The closing ceremonies last night were another visually stunning performance, but they didn't quite compare to the opening ceremonies full of anticipation and excitement.







Can someone please tell me what the heck Michael Phelps was doing in London!?! He should have been in the Birds Nest in Beijing, celebrating the conclusion to his historical feat at the games with the rest of the U.S. team! I thought it was pretty lame that they made him miss the closing ceremonies and rush over to London only to walk out and briefly answer a few questions. The guy was only on screen for two minutes. I felt London could have done a little better.


I don't know how London is going to top Beijing. China went all out to host the 29th Olympiad, and although there was some shadiness going on (cough, underage gymnasts, cough), the games went on almost perfectly. I will say, I've never been so engrossed in the Olympics before, but something about these games (and maybe Michael Phelps) had me watching religiously.


Fare-thee-well Beijing Olympics. I'll miss your regal Olympic musical themes and Bob Costas' carefree commentary. I'll miss watching gymnastics and swimming and cheering on Michael Phelps. It's been an exciting two weeks. Now what am I going to do with myself now that there's no more Olympic coverage to watch on my tivo?!








via nbcolympics.com

say what?

This is why I'm a fan of Jen Lancaster.


image from Sports Illustrated via Jennsylvania

shopping banana

As Summer winds down, the stores are starting to bring out their Fall clothing collections and that only makes me want to shop, shop, shop! After checking out Banana Republic's new stuff last week, I currently have my eye set on this chic wool coat. The picture doesn't do it justice. I tried it on and it fit perfectly and looked really cute--even the sales girl stopped what she was doing to admire me in the coat in the mirror! :) This could very well be my next big purchase.

bocce ball

I bought a bocce ball set this weekend and enjoyed playing a few games with Hunter and his parents. It's such a fun game to play during the warm summer afternoons with a cool drink in hand. I especially look forward to playing it at the beach!

image from Flickr

golden boy

He did it!!! Michael Phelps made history by winning 8 gold medals in all 8 of his final events during this year's Olympics (and in the process, set 7 world records). Incredible! His 7th gold, the 100m butterfly race, where he beat Cavic by only .01 of a second was ridiculous! Congratulations, Michael. It's been quite exciting watching you make history!


via nbcolympics.com

beautiful blue

I'm headed to Danville, VA this weekend to visit the boy and his fam. Here's to a fun, relaxing weekend!


striking blue fireplace via Set Design Thinking

scanned romance

The scan feature on my printer was broken for the longest time and I finally got it working again so now I've been scanning in a bunch of magazine tear sheets and snippets that I've collected over the years. When flipping through a magazine (which I am constantly doing), if I see an image or design or colors that stick out at me, I cut it out and save it.

These Ralph Lauren Romance ads were always my favorite (and not just because I love the perfume/cologne either). Yea, they're sensual, but I really love how sweet and timeless they look. The black and white, the innocent love; they're just so... romantic. Which works perfectly for selling Romance.