June 28, 2013

eat / shrimp pasta

I am pretty new to the seafood train (pathetic for someone who grew up in Charleston, I know) and recently added shrimp to my list. I’m still acquiring the taste; it’s not like oysters which I now crave, but I made it at home this week which is definitely a big step. I found this easy pasta on Pinterest and it came out great! I like how easy and relatively inexpensive shrimp are. I think I start to see more of them in my dinner rotation.

Any other good shrimp recipes I should try?
Also, don’t forget Google Reader is disappearing on Monday, so don’t forget to switch over the Feedly or something similar! 
Happy weekend!


June 26, 2013

decorate / my gallery wall

You may recall that my living room gallery wall currently looks like this:

Most of the “art” is temporary as I just wanted to get the frames on the wall. Everything except the two dog note cards and the “Ellie” frame is intended to be temporary. I actually ended up really liking everything and plan to expand the wall instead of replacing the Julia Child quote, JCrew model, etc. 
However, my geometric kindergarten style painting is just not cutting it at all. I’ve been itching to replace it and finally ordered this baby:

I CAN’T WAIT for it to arrive in the mail! 

June 25, 2013

wed / father-daughter dance


{photo via source}

Moment Junkie is a daily blog for me and many of the images make me just plain happy.


June 24, 2013

quote / angel in the marble

Did everyone have a nice weekend? I loved being in Hyannisport and the lovely weekend made the sunburn totally worth it. 
I heard this quote a long time ago and kind of forgot about it/how much I liked it. This beautiful poster for the Leeds Arts Festival caught my eye and reminded me of the power of the Michaelangelo quote and the beauty of his work. 

Be sure to click through to the source for more versions of the poster!


June 21, 2013

travel / hyannisport


Happy Friday!! It has been QUITE a week. I am amazed I managed to push myself this hard, but it’s all good things and I am certainly not complaining. I am so excited to head down to Hyannis this weekend for some relaxing girl time at my friend W’s place. I’m sure I’ll be Instagramming away, so if you’d like to follow along, find me here.
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

June 18, 2013

listen / zedd


I can’t stop listening to…
Clarity by Zedd featuring Foxes. It’s catchy, upbeat, and just good. What are you playing on repeat?

June 16, 2013

celebrate / father's day


Happy Father’s Day to my buddy pal. Thanks for always listening, giving the best hugs, reinforcing that I could be anything or do anything (and also that I should have a plan), setting a wonderful relationship example with Mom, moving me back and forth between Boston and Charleston, and all those times we baked together (and our mutual scone mishaps).

I love you!

June 14, 2013

sip / grapefruit fizz

It’s June 14…it’s supposed to be summer. And I woke up this morning to a lot of rain and temps around 60 degrees. But at least I’m not running up my electric bill with the air conditioning. Some fabulous girl friends are here from Dallas and New York and I can’t wait to hit the town this weekend. I might just have to go with a summery drink in homage to the kind of weather we’re supposed to be having. Maybe something like this grapefruit fizz from We Are Not Martha:

And most importantly, Happy 26th Anniversary to my wonderful Mom and Daddy! You two are perfect for each other and I’m so lucky to have your marriage to look up to. I love you both!!

June 11, 2013

decorate / my gallery wall

A little while back I posted about affordable art and shared some art prints I had my eye on. Well friends, I bought a stack of Ribba frames from Ikea about six weeks ago and they finally made it to my living room wall. Only a couple prints are permanent (the rest are probably placeholders until I can buy all the prints), and I’ll be buying prints as my budget allows.
Behold:

Clockwise from top left:
1. grey dog in boots—This is a card my mom sent me (the set of note cards is from Rifle Paper Co.)
2. diy quote—I love this Julia Child quote and created this with glitter stickers and paper from Paper Source. This one is a keeper, I think!
3. calligraphy “Ellie”—This was my place card at a friend’s wedding last October. The calligraphy is so beautiful and I simply mounted it over this Paper Source paper.
4. “i believe in…”—Inspired by Cupcakes and Cashmere, I wrote my own manifesto and typed it up! I think this will eventually be layered over the zebra paper. See Emily’s here.
5. Let’s just pretend I’m not sharing my terrible art non-skills with everyone. This is just something I painted last week. My first print purchase will be for this frame. 
6. a page from the J. Crew style guide
7. zebra print paper from Paper Source
8. another dog note card from my mom
You can’t tell from this picture but that wall is about 11 ft long and 10 ft high. Now that everything is hung up, I’m thinking that I might add frames moving forward which would accommodate both the prints I have picked out and the filler art that I really like.
For more focal wall ideas, check out this great video from Emily Henderson!

June 8, 2013

inspired / vintage party


{source: piinnkandnaavy, via prepfection}

The color, the pattern, and the party!


June 7, 2013

eat / summer pasta salad

Summer is here and I am SO glad to see tomatoes back in season. Every time I flip through my saved recipes on my iPad, I want to make all these wonderful tomato based recipes from Bon Appetit last summer and can’t due to sad tomatoes in my New England grocery stores (I miss the South!).
I’m sure many of you saw this summer salad floating around Pinterest the last few days, but I couldn’t resist sharing. Once my back stops hurting me endlessly, it’s the top of my recipe to-do list! 


What are you dying to cook this summer?

June 4, 2013

decorate / bar tray

Ladies and gentleman, the bar cart bug has reached me. I like to think I was ahead of the curve as I have admired the bar cart in my grandparent’s home as long as I can remember. It’s most likely teak (all the furniture is mid-century modern and authentic…I always tell my grandpa how “in” his decor is, haha) and has two levels and a handle if I remember correctly. What always dazzled me was the assortment of cut crystal decanters not unlike the one below with their sparkling stoppers, magic looking liquids, and silver necklaces declaring the name of the contents. 


I have always wanted a cart of my own and it seems the current home decor trends are marching in the same direction. I probably will tackle this project in the fall and have my eye on a couple affordable carts:

{Ikea $49 / source}

{CB2 $49}

Or maybe a simple tray. I love the West Elm ones. 
And of course I’ll use the handy Matchbook Magazine Bar Cart Essentials list.
Do you have a bar cart? How and when do youse it? For more ideas and cocktail recipes, check out my Drinks and Bars Pinterest board!