we went to the museum today

today ended up much busier than i anticipated!

started off at church for pulse prayer with a ton of my favorite people.

then off to the currier gallery for a relaxing afternoon

{more on the killer brett weston exhibit later}.

i didn't take many photos because you can't use flash in the gallery and i didn't want people to get mad about the unflattering lighting.

lunched with some girls who are truly sweet and funny . . . ended up running errands together all afternoon and hitting the gym together.

{still bumming rides and mom's car while mine sits unused. still needs new tires and security prevents me from withdrawing funds from

my mad-money account for another three days . . .

i refuse to use a charge or checking . . . i know, i'm stubborn.}

oh, and today is halloween.

i'm rather indifferent.

just makes me all the more anxious for thanksgiving and christmas!

anyway, almost time to skype with sister . . . guess that's all my time for tonight.

{happy weekend!}

a little note to my dear sister who comes home in a few short weeks

you are the reason i will never want to live alone

i feel complete when we are together

i don't really mind all that much when you steal my socks

our late-night whispers on christmas eve are my favorites

i still get excited when i think of snowy nights and

hot cocoa with you

you remind me that our hearts are not quite as old as our bodies

i will always wish my feet fit into your tall suede boots

{but, alas, this shall never happen}

it's your fault i can never look at snails the same way again

you introduced me to chai tea lattes- for this i am forever indebted

summer + late night drives + angels and airwaves = legend

i am continually challenged by your ideas

there are few people in this world who understand my humor and

you are one of them

i look forward to the days when we are funny {perhaps a bit snarky}

old ladies who wear muumuus and bare feet with red toe nails and annoy our grandkids with statements like,

"when we were young . . . "

you are part of my heart

love you, sister.

a cold winter approaches . . .

but i am full of warm, toasty family love.

sister called me in the middle of work

{i was in sam's club buying 15 bed frames for the

8-thousand refugees arriving this week}. . .

just to say she missed me.

totally made my day.

which was great because my car battery bit the dust

and

i need a new timing belt.

needless to say, $500+ dollars spent that i did not intend on spending had put me in a slightly discouraged mood

{though i won't complain too much because this is probably the first work i've had to have done on it since i bought the heap- and by "heap" i mean brand new- 4 years ago}.

i really detest car troubles.

all rants aside,

she cheered me up tremendously.

speaking of sister . . .

can you believe this adorable sibling polariod???

mom and i found it last night while paging through a couple old albums.

you can barely see our little faces but, yes, that is sister, me and brother

in our brown 1980's living room chair

{at least my parents had the good sense not to decorate in mauve}.

i am still blown away by the fact that we were once

small enough to all fit on

one chair together.

finding my inner grace kelly

i hope everyone had a splendid weekend. i know i did.

~~~

i've been trying to think of an excuse to post these incredible images by

howell conant for a while.

i finally just decided to put them up for no reason at all.

i mean, wow, right?

~~~

last night at pulse, bestest and i were on a lovely panel of ladies that shared on a few different topics regarding relationships . . . with men and fellow women.

it was really cool to talk to just a group of girls {that's right- no boys allowed} about some sensitive material that the church rarely addresses in a relevant way to 20-somethings. yay for us!

so, i guess postings of grace kelly,

who definitely exuded confidence, class and beauty,

are quite appropriate today.

~~~

jury duty selection today.

again.

late round for me. hurray.

crazy work week ahead.

wish me luck. say a prayer.

via starbuck and jane

brrrrrrr . . .

hello, new hampshire weekend, you are bone-chilling and wet.

keeping warm in a men's flannel shirt today- definitely look like pictures of my mother in college

{why is men's flannel so much better than women's???}.

spent the morning window shopping with mom.

drank a delicious hot cider at portsmouth brewery.

ordered tickets to see spoon, passion pit and phoenix at the orpheum with bestest in december.

currently wasting time watching glee on youtube.

meeting a dear friend later for some caffeine and conversation.

probably baking cookies later tonight and posssssibly sitting in front of the tv {i'm thinking it's a good night for 'funny face'}.

happy weekend!

today is totally a day brother and i would have spent driving around to bright eyes {probably cassadaga, his favorite}, perusing the bookstore and catching a late night movie.

miss you!

this is how i spend my boring moments in the car each day

i like to plot activities.

favorite artist shows.

weekend vacations.

afternoon excursions.

sometimes they come to fruition. other times not.

right now, my fantasy is to take a friday and monday off of work and take one of those book one of those "last minute packages" from travelocity

to paris.

with bestest, of course.

my intentions are to

1. eat our way through the city

2. take silly tourist pictures at every popular site-seeing destination

3. get lost in old bookstores

4. splurge on just one realllly amazing accessory or piece of clothing only found in paris.

do you think if i offer to blog about our long-weekend adventures,

travelocity might just wave the cost of each trip?

one can dream!

~~~

worked at the matthew west show at church last night.

pretty cute.

kids dancing in the aisle.

babies snoozing on their daddy's shoulders.

quite a few young people from pulse too.

{a family from rhode island told their kids they were going to a homeschool convention, only to arrive at the concert with band t-shirts in the trunk- surprise!- those kids were sooooo excited!}

we kinda had some fun.

~~~

oh.

and it's almost the weekend!

via audrey hepburn complex

let's hear it for the boys

1. i reaaaaally miss my brother

2. some boy looks that were just too cool to ignore.

i really do love men's styling.

3. when asked about using the word "stoned" in his new release,

john mayer answered,

"well, maybe you can take out 'stoned' and replace it with 'disco stick.' Maybe that would be more appropriate."

ha.

via refinery 29

say yes to the dress

this is a weird stage in life when none of my close friends are engaged.

but i wish someone would.

if only to indulge my love of beautiful gowns.

so delicate and pretty.

via *a glamorous little side project

my latest obsession

but first:

last night i picked up a new refugee family at the airport with one of my coworkers.

it was a long night.

so long, that i was starving by the time i was able to head home {which is a half hour from where i was}.

what is a girl to do when she has hunger pains at 1 o'clock in the morning?

give in to a milkshake craving, right?!

fyi:

milkshakes are bad for the lactose intolerant.

must remember that.

~~~

back on topic . . .

i am definitely a girl of obsessions.

bands.

accessories.

blogs.

foods & desserts {helloooo, cupcakes}.

behold, my new favorite:

french macarons

salivate over laduree and pierre herme for the most lovely little pastries in paris.

aren't they the prettiest?

i am going to try out a recipe at home soon to see if i recreate these darling cookies. it can't be too complicated, right?

wish me luck!

via audrey hepburn complex and la tartine gourmande

dear future-husband

dear future-husband,

a recent allergy attack leads me to believe you should have fair warning:

i sound like an elephant when i blow my nose.

or a trumpet. maybe that is a closer comparison.

either way.

i apologize for all future public embarrassments.

.a

preppy shmeppy

every now and then i wish i didn't love jcrew as much as i really do.

i guess it's because, somewhere along the way,

"preppy"

became synonymous with

"safe"

"clone" and "uptight."

not to mention "uncreative."

ugh.

i guess, though, it's time to grow up and get over that . . .

and certainly the hippest queen of

"i don't care what i look like and still pull off awesome"

erin wasson can help a little.

thanks, jcrew, for validating me.

in other news . . .

it snowed this weekend

{not enough to stick; enough to get excited about}.

of course,

all just in time for me to wish the weather was nice so i could wear

something

like

this:

i guess sometimes life isn't fair. ~~~

side note: i didn't realize "shmeppy" was even a real word until i checked it with urban dictionary {never can be too careful . . . with my luck it would be some kind of arabic swear} and lo and behold, it's actually a slang term. quite fitting too, if i do say so myself.

1. Shmeppy Stylish, High, Marvelous....yet still preppy. Stylish as in up to date, usually wearing the latest from Lilly Pulitzer, Ralph Lauren, Lacoste, Brooks Brothers...but wouldn't be caught dead wearing last seasons. High as in smoked that mary jane...and marvelous as in they consider themselves Chauncey and Uber Exclusive. May be referred to as God's gift to men or women. Basically A winner.

~~~

anyway.

great week planned.

dinner with bestest.

operation christmas child box packing.

working matthew west venue for pulse

{i don't know his music and suspect it's probably not up my alley,

but i've been surprised before}.

happy monday!

via refinery 29, jcrew, all the pretty birds

the weekend weekend weekend!

i had the most splendid saturday.

well, i did work first thing in the morning.

but after that . . .

went grocery shopping

cleaned my clothes off the floor

created another mess 5 minutes later

made honey roasted endives and parsnips

watched bride and prejudice {super cute and cheesy} while making honey roasted endives and parsnips

found new black leather boots read a whole saveur on a bench in barnes and noble drank a yummy soy chai planned the annual black friday outing with sister ~~~ i looooooooove saturdays.

10 seconds of zany

i'm officially on a quest to take life less seriously.

enter 10 seconds of zany.

personal ten seconds of zany are clearly intended to be less dignified than audrey's beatnik breakdown . . .

but i enjoy the wreckless abandon of self preservation.

also check out this fun blog by tripp crosby {apparently his name is not actually tripp- whatev}. stumbled across it this morning- watched/read so much i was almost late for work {whoops}!

introduced to this wacky way to let loose at catalyst.

ah. gotta love.

happy wednesday

it also appears to be a happy winds-day.

gotta love a.a. milne.

~~~

i hope you adore this as much as me:

"piglet sidled up to pooh from behind.

"pooh," he whispered.

"yes, piglet?"

"nothing," said piglet, taking pooh's paw, "i just wanted to be sure of you."

~~~

hooray- the work week is halfway over. how does it all go by so quickly?

i hope you have a happy winds-day!

via le love

omgosh i miss cupcakes so much.

cupcakes have been off the menu for roughly a month.

actually,

all desserts have been banished

{exceeeeept the sorbet i had friday night in atlanta and the phenomenal itty-bitty slice of apple sauce-raisin cake that bestest made on sunday . . . guilty!}.

well . . . the dessert fast has worked. phew.

mrs. scale and i are getting along again.

back on the wagon until bestest's birthday in november.

and then until christmas.

speaking of decadence {or avoiding it, rather}:

watched marie antoinette again this weekend.

what would i do without my fave girlie movies at 5:30 in the morning on saturday?

i just adore sofia coppola's vision of versailles in pastel.

this definitely did not help the cupcake cravings.

or my desire to skip around paris in a tutu {seriously, i'd do it- with a soundtrack of plastic bertrand following me around too}.

~~~

today, i spent the majority of the day sitting in a room waiting to be selected for jury duty.

once again, i was overlooked. one more selection day to go and i'm home free. the great thing about selection days is that there is tons of time to read. i've been taking old issues of saveur magazine, devouring the recipes and articles about delicious delicacies from around the world.

read the most fascinating article about an elite group that celebrated the new millennium by sharing a meal to die for in the halls of versailles.

can you imagine dining in the middle of the hall or mirrors? i can't even fathom.

i'd be so excitednervous that i would dribble champagne on my dress and drop food on the floor.

more from a fantastic few days in atlanta

did i mention we were stranded in the airport for the entirety of wednesday?

spending the day in logan was kind of a cosmic joke since we nearly missed our flight that morning.

airtran said an electrical surge on the plan would delay us "momentarily."

i guess "momentarily" means 8 hours in plane world.

we did have colossal fun with this mirrored wall outside legal seafood.

airtran ended up putting us on a different flight & we got into atlanta way late that evening.

talk about a nail-biter of a day!

totally hit up cracker barrel . . .

pancakes with blackberries is the best when you're totally famished.

yum.

~~~

all of our travel woes were definitely worth it . . .

so thankful for my few days with friends at catalyst.

what a gift to be able to worship our Creator with one another amongst 13-thousand people!

black label

i really love the new ban.do black label.

i can't wear any of these to work.

and certainly can't find a good justification for purchasing a headband for 200+ dollars.

but i definitely can appreciate them.

how lovely!

~~~

mom and i snagged tickets to see the star wars score performed live to the film this november.

full orchestra and choir.

this is going to be ridiculous and amazing.

i might cry.

{i am so happy i can be a nerd with my mother.

we are pretty much two peas in a pod}.

~~~

things i missed while i was in atlanta: obama awarded the noble prize

{omgosh!} and

irving penn passed on.

mr. penn's work is among my faves . . . nearly died over the loads of his work featured in the model as muse exhibit

this summer at the met.

~~~

feeling very out of the loop, but hopefully it will soon subside.

i know these people!

scoped this on the catalyst backstage site.

pretty cool, huh?

didn't even know the photog was behind us!

a photograph that defines a friendship

don't bestest and i look so glamorous?

~~~

well, we made it back alive {and well, despite what the photograph above suggests} from catalyst conference in atlanta.

it was an amazing couple of days-

met incredible people doing amazing work at home in the states and abroad.

inspiring words from some pretty stinkin' cool speakers . . .

can't decompress everything right now, but it will happen.

ridiculous seats--- bestest, jill, ben and i right behind dave ramsey; two rows behind andy stanley.

beautiful worship that touched my heart in a wonderful way

{how terrific is it to sing hymns with 13-thousand other people???!!!}

heard this guy on thursday . . . he was fantastic!

such honest words and venerability.

picked up his album while we were there and now it's

earned the honor of being my new cooking soundtrack

{made carrot soup tonight and it came out the best it has so far-

must be the music}.

love it.

~~~

quite a few interesting stories . . .

electrical surge on airtran flight from boston to atlanta . . . stranded in boston for what seemed like 8-thousand hours.

hotel gave away our rooms even though we checked in before 11 pm-

bestest and i slept in a hospitality suite with a cockroach, no phone and no tv with which to watch jim and pam get married!

~~~

can't wait to look back at my notes and review it all.

we learned this song last year at catalyst and i still love it so much

my soul finds rest in God alone

my Rock and my salvation

a fortress strong against my foes

and i will not be shaken.

though lips may bless and hearts may curse

and lies like arrows pierce me

i’ll fix my heart on righteousness

i’ll look to Him who hears me. o praise Him, hallelujah

my Delight and my Reward

Everlasting, never failing,

my Redeemer, my God. find rest, my soul, in God alone

amid the world’s temptations

when evil seeks to take a hold

i’ll cling to my salvation.

though riches come and riches go

don’t set your heart upon them

the fields of hope in which I sow

are harvested in heaven. o praise Him, o praise Him

hallelujah, hallelujah, ~psalm 62, aaron keyes

not by sight

now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. ~Hebrews 11:1

via papertissue