HAVE A COLORFUL WEEKEND!

Do you guys have anything fun planned for this weekend? I am headed to Connecticut today to go sailing, check out this craft fair and generally relax. Next week I am looking forward to sharing my tales of selling at Brimfield and all the fun plans I have for the rest of the summer. In the meantime, go out and enjoy some sunshine!

(The images above are a totally random selection of colorful photos I have stumbled across recently and couldn't wait to share; top to bottom, image links here, here and here.)

TIPS FOR THE BEST VALENTINE'S CARE PACKAGE

I have a secret super power. No, it's not laser vision or the ability to fly—though that would be awesome—it's the power to put together a kick-butt care package. What's that you say? That's not worthy enough to merit super hero status? I believe my friends and family would beg to differ. In this era of instant, impersonal digital communication, nothing beats getting a good ol' care package (summer camp style) from a loved one full of goodies.

If you are interested in joining me in super hero status with your dearly beloved, click through to learn my tips and tricks . . . . 

HAPPY 2014! GOALS FOR THE NEW YEAR

Hello friends! Happy New Year! Did you have a good holiday? I spent a week and a half hanging out with my family, eating too much, lounging by the fire and all around making merry. Not a bad vacation I would say! I have a couple pretty photos of my activities to share with you in the coming days, but until then I wanted to take care of an important early 2014 activity . . . Writing New Year's resolutions (or revolutions, ha!).Groan, right?Well, not necessarily. Normally I don't make resolutions at the start of the year because I find them hard to keep and usually overly critical of ourselves (think about it: the average resolution basically says we are too fat, too tired, too boring, etc. when we are all just trying to do our best!). Instead I am putting together a goal list which, semantically speaking, seems like a more positive approach all around. So here is my list of goals for 2014—things I want to keep I mind to help me be my best, kindest, most productive and happy self. . . 
one | WORK SMARTERWe all do it. In any given day I have so many things on my to do list that I find myself endlessly multi-tasking or getting distracted by minor issues (I spent several hours the other day trying to track down a New York City phone book from 1965 for my dissertation, to no avail. It was a true 'rabbit hole' project that sucked up my afternoon and made me want to reassess how I was spending my days). This year I want to endeavor to work smarter, focusing closely on a given task and getting it done efficiently and effectively (using this method has helped me a lot; as has making accomplishment lists with this app). This especially goes for working on my dissertation—which needs nearly all my energy this year—but also accounts for maintaining a work-life balance. If I work smarter on my school-related tasks, I will be able to better focus on spending quality time with friends and family.
two | PLAY HARDERWhich brings me to number two. Being an only child, I often find myself falling into the abyss of self-sufficiency. I can go weeks without seeing my dear friends or spending an evening on the town. This year I want to prioritize my friends and family more, setting aside time regularly to see and catch up with all my favorite people. Just say no to be a hermit!
three | STIR IT UPThere was a time a couple years ago when my husband had a slightly less crazy job and we were actually managing to have 'family' dinners together frequently on weeknights. During that time I made it a priority to make a big home-cooked meal several times a week. These days, having dinner mostly on my own, I find myself shirking a proper evening meal for snacks or random frozen foods. I love cooking (and would like to think cooking loves me!) and want to try to make at least one or two 'nice' dinners a week. That shouldn't be too hard, right?
four | GET LOSTI live in one of the most vibrant, exciting and busy cities in the world but I don't take advantage of it! I find myself stuck in the library or my apartment studying (see #2) and more often than not learn about the cool new exhibition/show/restaurant/pop up shop long after it's over/closed/uncool. If I am going to live in NYC I should take advantage of it, no? So this year I want to hit the town more. Go exploring. Get lost and discover a new neighborhood/cafe/park/store. Otherwise I will regret not doing this in the future when I live in a boring suburban town, right? :)
five | BE KINDIn keeping my accomplishment list (see #1), I have started adding a daily addendum: a random act of kindness. I would like to think of myself as a nice, thoughtful person but it can't hurt to try to do more. This year I want to reach out to friends with random little surprises (see #2) like care packages when they are sick, funny emails when they are feeling down or just a random call to say hello. This goes for strangers too; New York so often has the reputation for being unfriendly or downright rude so each day I try to hold the door open for someone, pick up something they dropped or offer them my place in line to help counter that (erroneous!) rap. Be nice—it's contagious.
six | GO BOLDWe all have moments of doubt: can I really do this? Am I qualified? Is it going to be an epic fail? Whether it's a new blog feature, reaching out to a colleague you admire for advice/mentorship or simply starting a new project you've been thinking about, I say go for it! This year I am going to interview a ton of really famous artists for my dissertation (Lynda Benglis, Yoko Ono, Ed Ruscha and more) and I am going to be brave and bold and leave them thinking that I am bright and will represent their work thoughtfully and thoroughly. I am also going to re-learn calligraphy, make a quilt (like this one) and master trapeze sailing on our new boat. What crazy new things will you take on this year?
seven | JUST DO YOULast but definitely not least: I want to just be me. We all spend so much time thinking, if I could only be a little bit skinnier or look a bit more like that model/actress/athlete or be a bit richer then life would be better. What we don't think about is all the awesome things we already have going for us (brains, health, family and friends, etc.). This year I am going to focus on my blessings and try not to compare myself to the other people out there—bloggers who seem to make every post perfectly pin-able, friends who travel to exotic locales every other week, classmates who have five jobs and write a million articles at the same time. This year I channeling my inner two year old and focusing on myself. :)
What are your goals for 2014? I would love to hear them in the comments! Let's support each other and make this year one to remember.  

HAPPY WEEKEND!

What are you up to this weekend? I am attending a Friendsgiving with all my favorite college friends on Saturday and then having a holiday spectacular day with my hubby on Sunday. What's a holiday spectacular, you say? It's basically an epic day of holiday shopping, sightseeing and snacks that we do every December. In my mind it's almost as exciting as Christmas itself! 

We also got our tree this week (above), so decorating it is on the top of our list this weekend (that and sending out Christmas cards, photos of those to come!). What are you up to? Anything festive?

If you are laying low and looking for some fun distractions, check out these fun things:

This video parody is too funny.

I want to put these on every holiday package I wrap this year.

Football players are stylin' and profilin' these days.

Slobbery stop motion.

Texting + exes + crazy song lyrics = awesomely awkward.

A beautiful (and interactive) graphic about the art world.

I just signed up for this class; so excited!

Clampersand. Love it!

How to recognize the work of famous painters; I don't necessarily agree with these tricks but they are funny!

Because English.

Pretty gift list; I'll take one of everything, please.

Keep the grammar police at bay; check out these helpful and clear tips.

What a nice print; perfect for a city girl.

Before you speak THINK!

These videos are making me drool.

Happy weekend, friends!

BLOCK SHOP SCARVES

Isn't it cool to have talented friends? A fabulous friend, Lily Stockman, designed these beautiful block printed scarves and I am drooling over them. They are so gorgeous, in fact, that they are completely sold out of her online shop. If you like to torture yourself like me, though, you will go and check out all the designs here. Fingers crossed these babies come back in stock soon!

You can also check out Lily's wonderful fine art portfolio here and blog here.

HAVE A COOL WEEKEND

What are you up to this weekend? I am headed to my parents' beach house in Connecticut to have my bachelorette party!! Though there have been jokes about strippers dancing off our deep water diving board, I am actually looking forward to a fun, relaxing weekend hanging out with my bridesmaids. Here's to sunshine, cocktails, gossip, good food and even better company! Hope you have something equally fun planned . . .

In case you don't (or even if you do!) here are a couple of links to keep you busy until I return on Monday:

Speaking of beaches, can you tell where these are? I couldn't but now I have a bunch of new wishlist travel plans!

You thought my Olympics obsession was over, but now that the Games are done my withdrawal has set in and I am compelled to have you check out this beautiful post at the NYTimes.

This looks sleek, practical and cool; no wonder it's got a gazillion backers on Kickstarter!

This cheat sheet is a godsend for Mac nerds like me.

Stupidly missed the early bird special buying these sweet set, but it's so reasonably priced I may still have to snag it.

This shop must be "stamping out" (wink wink) the competition with their awesome designs. Everything in it is now, officially, wishlisted.

Too expensive for my DIY bride blood, but this app is a great idea and has some surprisingly lovely graphic design behind it.

This, however, is much more my style. I used this tutorial for my invites (only I did it in bright red!) and have to say it worked quite well. Simple, cheap, and effective. Next time I will have to try gold!

This brilliant event (pun fully intended) is next week in New York. Who's with me?


Have a great weekend all!


(photo by artist Ian Baguskas, sold on 20x200)

FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES

If you are like me and spend hours watching ESPN, you have seen this awesome commercial for Corona. I have always thought it was cool—who wouldn't want to have a sweet rooftop party like that?—but this weekend I discovered something that made it off the charts cool. Can you see the nattily dressed DJ on the second rooftop? It turns out that is actually my high school classmate, James, who fronts this awesome band The Knocks. How sweet is that?!


Learn more about the band and download the song in the commercial (Make It Better) here.

WEEKEND UPDATE: CHICAGO

A long post for a long wonderful weekend in Chicago . . . visiting friends, celebrating the marriage of two of the best people ever, exploring Millennium Park in the sunshine . . . who knew the city was so, well, luminous?

Hope you all had a great weekend!

(As always, you can see more of my photos here.)

THE WEDDING FILES: PROUST

I was super excited to see swissmiss's post about Proust recently. Proust is a new service meant to help us learn new things about the people nearest and dearest to us. Who was their first crush? What is their favorite food? What would they do if they won the lottery? You can answer these (and many more) questions and send them to friends and family to answer. Then your answers are compiled into a digital book where you can add photos, videos and links. Pretty cool, no?

So, as a bride-to-be, I got to thinking that this idea would be great to addition to my wedding website. Wouldn't it be fun for the bride and groom to each answer some of these great questions—first impressions, first date story, favorite thing about the other person, etc.—and then have our friends and family answer similar questions about us? Speaking with the lovely Sarah, Content and Community Manager at Proust, she has informed me that some the advanced features I am looking for, which would enable me to drop this feature right into my site, are not yet available. But she noted that they are working towards making the 'books' of the compiled answers publishable in hard copy form. Wouldn't that be a great thing to have at your wedding? A book of wonderful stories about the happy couple, told by all your favorite people. Amazing.

Learn more about this great new service and sign up for Proust here.

DARLINGSIDE

It's about time I featured some music around here. And it's even more about time (its my blog, I can be as grammatically incorrect as I like) that I featured the awesome boys behind Darlingside.

I have known all five of these burly men for over six years now and I can attest to the fact that they are as talented as they are handsome. The moniker of "string-rock quartet" is quite apt as Darlingside incorporates, in any given song, the guitar, the bass, the cello, the violin, the mandolin, and lots of string instruments I can't even name. Combine that with swoon-worthy piano stylings and vocals and you got some fabulous sound. Seriously, these boys rock.

Still need convincing? Check out this video by "Ralph Tenderbottom" (aka Don from the group) as his runs a story for the "local news" on the "adorable" boys of Darlingside. And check out their awesome website (complete with free download of their latest single) here. They have a bunch of shows scheduled for all over New England in the new year--you won't want to miss it!

Suitably impressed? You can also download their first album on iTunes. Just search "Darlingside" and click on the 'January EP'.

ONE LOVELY BLOG!

My favorite curator, photographer and blogger recently gave me a great honor: the "One Lovely Blog" award! Hooray! Unfortunately I have been remiss and have delayed thanking Jessica for her kind gesture! Thank you Jessica! Check out Boston Handmade's blog here and Jessica's lovely work here.

In the spirit of the pass-it-on-style award I will now announce my honorees for "One Lovely Blog" spilling my (not so) secret sources for all of the cool things I write about here:

• ~>o<~
• Black*Eiffel
• Milk, Eggs, Chocolate
• Fine Little Day
• HeySusy
• Inchmark
• Oh Happy Day!
• Something's Hiding in Here
• Swiss Miss
• My Polaroid Blog

For nominees, the way this works:

* Upon accepting the award, post it on your blog together with the name of who granted the award with a blog link.
* Pass the award to 10 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

MY FRIENDS ARE INCREDIBLE

What pray tell are these gorgeous vistas pictured above and what traveling/environmental/photographic whiz is responsible for such awesome photographs?

These mountainous shots are of Patagonia and were taken by my amazing friend Annie.  She's been traveling all over South America for the last several months and has some great photos (here) and cool stories (here) to show for it.  I can pretty much guarantee your enjoyment (and possibly some added awe/travel jealousy).

GO EPHS!

I am going back to Williamstown this evening to introduce my boyfriend (a Harvard grad) to the crazy awesomeness that is a Williams College Homecoming.  Thankfully the weather report predicts sun, my instincts predict a giant beat-down for Wesleyan (I am sorry, ahead of time, all you cardinals fans.  Bring your ice packs because you'll be sore!) and my costume belies a night of Halloween/Homecoming debauchery.  The best part, though?  All my favorite people in one place!  Here's to a festive weekend!