hope and the new year.

i love celebrating the new year. i love clean slates, fresh starts, and blank canvases. i love that, come january 1st, i feel a renewed sense of hope in all the possibilities that lie ahead. given my tendency to break new year's resolutions, i made a list of goals instead--goals i can work towards with the most incremental of steps.




here's my list:

take photographs like a pro. do something creative every day (borrowed from papersource). write notes on personal stationery. buy my favorite books & read them out loud to my husband. spend more time in prayer. write/blog frequently. make my handwriting look like a font. throw parties for every occasion. make (& eat) red velvet whoopie pies. get the non-profit up and running. celebrate even the smallest victories. read my new york times on the actual day that i receive it. save more & spend less. become an active volunteer. learn to take a deep breath. enjoy cooking meals & baking goodies. love like He loves. make a place for everything. work for God's glory.

happy and blessed new year!!

FreeRice.

This website is absolutely brilliant: http://www.freerice.com/index.php. It is an interactive site where you can answer questions--I like to work on my vocabulary, but there are other subjects, too--and for each question that you get right, 10 grains of rice are donated (via the sponsors whose banners are advertised at the bottom of the screen) through the U.N. World Food Program.

maple.

Beautiful photography is one thing that never fails to make my heart happy. In debating whether to decorate with photographs or paintings, photographs won hands down. I love these prints by aliciabock to offset the deep maple-colored velvet curtains I just ordered from potterybarn. Nostalgic and vintage, these photographs will be the perfect accent for ivory and ebony-finished furniture.

the perfect gift.

This is my next project {this is glamorous and rockett st george}:

wish list-ing.

I just discovered the beauty of creating wish lists. I love making lists (to-do lists, goal lists, grocery lists)... I even have a special list-making note pad... so why not a wish list? The best is that crossing things off this list has tangible results.

A preview of my fall (mini) wish list:

What could be better than stationery in my two favorite colors right now for keeping in touch with close friends?

I would wear this blouse to work or with white linen shorts on the weekend. I love the flexibility of california weather where even fall clothes have a hint of summer.

This necklace is the perfect balance between delicate and statement. I would wear it to dress up a white tee with my joe's and tan suede mocs.

A fall wish list would not be complete without a statement bag.  Made of buttery leather and with a cool, stream-lined shape, I don't think this is a bag I would ever retire.

{anthropology}

apartment love.

Just got these adorable mugs for the apartment (thank you, anthropology).  I put them on our cookbook shelves/buffet to add a hint of color to our neutral-focused room and to show off my new initial.

the office.

{somewhere in middle america}

{the SCOOP}

The other day--after countless hours perusing design blogs, I came across a couple prints that I decided would be just PERFECT for our little office inlet. Of course I had to buy them {etsy:queensorder & LookyLoo}. These are the guiding mottos for my dream-job search right now (interests: international development, new media, event design and design in general), but I'm sure they will also be a little dose of encouragement when grad school time rolls around.

Can't wait to put these up!!

love.

{thanks to mary ruffle and this is glamorous}

Dear God.

I want to pray like this.

Troubles, troubles.     
 That's all you hear from me, right?    
But who else can we simple people take our troubles to?          
    You know, sometimes I wonder,
who do you take your troubles to?                
 Anyway. Motel and Tzeitel have been 
married for some time now.                
 They work very hard. And they're as
 poor as squirrels in winter.    
 But they're so happy, they don't know how
 miserable they are.             
 Motel keeps talking about a sewing machine.                   
          I know. You are very busy now.
 Wars, revolutions, floods, plagues, all those 
little things that bring people back to you.     
But... couldn't you take a second
 and get him his sewing machine?                     
    Huh?          
Yeah, and while you are in the neighbourhood...                
    As you can see, my horse's leg...      
Am I bothering you too much?                                                                                                       
        I'm sorry. I'm sorry.                                                                                        
As the Good Book says...             
  Why should I tell you what the Good Book says?

Up.

In less than a month, I will be married to the most amazing man in the world. And exactly month from today, we will be leaving for our honeymoon. In less time than I can even comprehend, I will promise to share my life forever, set up my first home, sink into a new routine with my best friend, and begin a new marked phase in life.

This past weekend, I saw Up with my wonderful soon-to-be family, and not going to lie, I totally cried. It showed, in a stream of images, the continuity, constancy and everyday joys that make up a marriage. I forget, as caught up as I am in making it to the next big milestone, the subtly beautiful moments--picnics in the park with wind-blown hair and long conversations, driving in the car together, holding hands in wordless comfort, sweet kisses goodnight-- that bring me to tears when I reflect on them.

So here's to Up, my new favorite movie. To new adventures. And to a life lived with love.

The One.

I adore journals. I recently filled up my last journal, one that David had bought me almost two years ago from anthropologie, and began my quest for a new one. I never buy a journal until I find the perfect one, one that I think fits my life/personality/taste at this point in time. 

Journaling has been my escape since childhood, as evidenced by my 13 completed books, in various styles and covers (like the Dr. Seuss Oh, the Places You'll Go one I started after my high school graduation). I began my search at Flax, the fabulous, little stationery store in Westwood, with no luck. Next stop was sugar paper, a boutique paper shop in the Brentwood Country Mart. The lime green dotted cloth (apparently hand-bound) journal was beautiful... and $49.50.  My final stop was the UCLA store, which I stopped at on a whim. There I found the perfect Amy Butler Lucky Flowers journal which happens to be printed with soy ink on recycled paper.

Being in the organic-obsession phase that I am in right now, I knew this was the one. The corals, oranges, and teals mirror the accessories in my soon-to-be apartment, and the brightness of the prints remind me of just how fantastic and blessed my life is right now.