Pretty Dried Things

I'm not much of a seasonal decorator. I prefer to mark the shift from summer to fall with things like thicker comforters, extra cups of hot tea, glowy candles on the coffee table while I read, chili and cheese quesadillas, wool sweaters and my favorite pair of red leather boots.

But a few days ago as I enjoyed a crisp walk around the neighborhood, I was inspired by all of the cozy little changes I noticed on front stoops and in windowsills of the houses on and around our block. Plus nature herself was in absolutely lovely form, showing off orange berries on deep green bushes and golden leaves that danced through the air.

To Try: Orange Lipstick

It's only August and the days are still hot, but in the early morning hours I've been getting a small taste of fall. I live for these cool, crisp mornings and they make me eager for cool, crisp days, the kind where you need a sweater from dawn to dusk and you're the perfect temperature all day long.

With every season change I usually like to do/try/wear something new. This fall, I would love to try orange lipstick. Which I realize sounds like the most garish thing ever when I write it out, but just look at how striking and lovely this burnt orange lip color is!

The Most Perfect Summer Lunch

Start with real mayonnaise, crusty bread, and juicy, ripe, colorful farmer's market tomatoes.

Toast the bread and slice the tomatoes thickly.

Spread a good layer of mayonnaise on the bread while it's still warm and then top with ruby-red slices of tomato.

Sprinkle with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper.

Bring your tomato sandwich outside and relish each perfect bite.

Repeat every single day of the late summer tomato season (believe me, you'll want to).

Another endorsement you can trust for this simple yet sublime summer meal.

And one more: "This is better than pizza." -my husband

Remembering This Summer

During college my summers were constructive and purposeful and memorable. My first summer after freshman year I went to a seven-week-long music festival in Western New York. The next summer I had an internship in DC, the next summer an internship in Hoboken, NJ. Each summer I was in a different place and with different people, accomplishing something unique and interesting for those few months in between school years.

In between my two years of grad school I was working hard on our cookbook with my family and planning my wedding at the same time. It was a beautiful summer filled with summer tomatoes and gorgeous recipes and lots of paper and ribbon and happiness.

Once there are no longer school years to divide and define, time starts blending together a little more, don't you think? It's not bad, just different. Other things make certain seasons or even months or weeks stick out in our memories. And I have a feeling that this summer, with its particular smells and moments and emotions, I think it'll be one that lasts and lasts.

I'll remember this summer for its joy. As we drove a short two and a half hours last weekend through the Blue Ridge Mountains and Northern Virginia's wine country up to a family reunion, I felt so much joy at finally being close to family. To be able to drive to see loved ones--amazing! This state, in all of its beauty, brings me joy and I'm proud to live in a place with history and old stone buildings that have been around for centuries and plaques on the side of the road that are fun to stop and read. Waking up in our sweet little house brings me joy. As long as my home is a place of beauty and peace and rest, a place where my family and friends feel safe and protected, a place filled with love and wholesomeness and honesty, then I've succeeded.

I'll remember this summer for our little screened porch. I catch myself sitting here and looking out at the trees with an involuntary smile on my lips. It's such a place of calm for me. I'll remember these summer mornings on the porch with a cup of tea and this blog and the birds and the streams of early sunlight peeking in. To have a place that is part of my home yet also a part of nature is magical.

I'll remember this summer for the ways God has proven faithful. These past few years were hard. I've sort of blocked out some of it but when I make myself remember how lonely some of those months were, it makes me exceedingly grateful for the here and now. The way forward was lit by faith alone.

As we grow deeper into our new lives and establish routines and build relationships, as it always happens, I'm sure a bit of the novelty and newness will wear off. Not that we'll take it for granted but there will be a settledness and a normalcy and a regularity to all of it. There's a beauty to this too.

But this time we're in right now, this summer of intensity and heart-swelling gratitude and deeply felt love of place and home and family and friends, I'll remember it for a very long time.

DIY Simple Stockings

This year, for the first time ever, my husband and I are spending Christmas alone together at home (last year we were in Napa Valley on our belated honeymoon and the year before, we were days away from getting married!). We're leaving early the next morning to see our families, and we can't wait for that time with them, but it feels so exciting to be celebrating this special holiday together at home, just the two of us.

Our house is feeling cozy and festive with our little tree and the simple Christmas decorating we've done, but something was missing--we didn't have our stockings! Like a lot of our things, they are packed away in storage many miles away. Both of us have a special attachment to our childhood stockings so I didn't want to make entirely new ones for us, but it just wouldn't quite feel like Christmas without stockings. So I whipped up some makeshift ones using things I had around the house, and I think they'll be perfect for our first Christmas at home as a little family.

I started with (clean!) wool ski socks--the perfect size, and that red stripe across the top is oh-so-jolly. I found some green velvet ribbon in my crafts closet and strung it right through each sock and tied it in a bow. These pearls, which come with a sticky backing that worked well on the wool, were leftover from another project and I had just enough to make a "K" and an "S." 

And that was it! Completely simple but totally sweet--just my style.

Finding The Holiday Spirit

Alabama doesn't have winter, but it sure does have incredible sunsets.

I woke up this morning and suddenly, for the first time this year, it felt like the holiday season. I don't know what it was--maybe the grey overcast sky? Or maybe it was that I did some Thanksgiving shopping and preparation yesterday (we're hosting my sister-in-law and her family!). This is the second year we've lived in this crazy, balmy climate, and I've noticed that the weather makes it difficult for me to get into the holiday spirit. Come November, it doesn't feel like Thanksgiving and Christmas are on the horizon. I've been so well programmed to associate these holidays with the crispness and coziness of winter, which we just don't have here.

But when I woke up today, I half expected to see a blanket of snow on the ground, soft flakes falling slowly. I know it was wishful thinking but it was such a pleasant early morning daydream and I had a cozy and familiar feeling as I walked downstairs to make tea. There's something in the air today that's stirring that holiday spirit inside of me--despite the absence of the winter that I love--and I'm grateful for whatever it is.

A Day Trip To Seaside

Yesterday over breakfast my husband remembered that he has today off from work, and he proposed we take a little trip. Of course I jumped on the idea! There are a few places within fairly close driving distance that we've been wanting to see, and one of them is Seaside, Florida. It's only about two hours due South, it's another one of those fascinating New Urbanist communities, and it just seems like an absolutely adorable, quaint, Florida town (thanks Dad, for the recommendation!).

So we're setting off early this morning to Seaside for a day trip! We plan to go to some antique shops along the way, eat seafood for lunch and dinner, and breathe in the crisp fall air coming off the ocean. Seaside is also known for being a very artistic community so we may pop into one of its many art galleries. And perhaps a bike ride along the beach? We'll have to see how much we can fit into one day.

I hope you have a beautiful weekend!

p.s. Do you recognize the town from this movie?

The Perfect Fall Accessory

I think it was in college that I first started to really love scarves. It was around then that they transitioned from being a purely functional piece of clothing that I wore while skiing into an accessory I couldn't be without as soon as the air turned chilly. There's something about wearing scarves in the cooler months that makes me feel feminine, pulled-together, chic, and of course cozy. I adore them.

I have quite a collection (my newest one is the navy and white scarf, a gift from my aunt, who works at an adorable shop in Newport that carries these) and it's always nice to learn fun new ways to tie them, to keep things fresh. So I was thrilled to discover this cute and quirky video called "25 Ways to Wear a Scarf." There are some really creative styles in here! My favorites are "The Celebrity," "The Waterfall,""The Key Tie," and "The Hidden Knot."

If you're like me and wear a fall uniform of boots, skinny jeans, and scarves, then you'll appreciate this video. Enjoy!

Wintry Cravings

Image Source

I've been thinking lately about seasons, the changes that come with each one, the way the outside world has a way of seeping in, making us feel something.

I've always thrived on the change of seasons. I loved growing up in Upstate New York because the seasons were so dramatically different from one another. The chill that came over the air in late September, the first snowfall, the airy breath of spring come April. They were each so beautiful and the changes felt so good and wholesome and vital, necessary for time to keep going on.

We've been living for over a year in a place with minor seasonal changes, and while I know many people would appreciate the temperate falls and winters here, I find myself craving and missing the stark contrasts that I grew up with. We've been making our Christmas plans and we will be spending time with both of our families in a place even further south of here, and while it will be delightful and we're looking forward to it, I do find myself feeling a tiny bit sad to spend another Christmas without snow. (Last year, we were in California for Christmas.)

I often feel like I have to defend my love for cold, crisp, snowy winters. I have to explain why they bring me much happiness and peace, and a feeling of coziness. There's the thrill of watching a blizzard rage outside as you sit by the warm fire. The majesty and quiet beauty in waking up to a world covered in white. We got married on December 30 and when, on December 28, big, beautiful flakes of snow began to gently fall, blanketing our quiet village in the freshest of white, welcoming our guests into a fairyland, I felt that the Heavens had given me a precious wedding gift.

I wonder if this is genetic. My Dad definitely understands the things I'm describing. He taught me to love the winter and to enjoy it (we went skiing, sledding, ice skating), to wear layers and bundle up, to breathe in the cold energizing air and notice the loveliness of the sleeping winter landscape. Now, I have such a connection to this under-appreciated season that photos like the one above make me homesick. This wintry entryway kindles such a visceral reaction in me. I can almost feel the chilliness, and my wool sweater around my neck. I can smell the pine trees, and I can sense that Christmas or perhaps Thanksgiving is right around the corner. I crave hot chocolate and I want to fill my lungs with the natural world and then sink into the warmth inside.

Some people might see this image and shiver a little, but I think it's so inviting, peaceful, serene. Something in me responds to it and craves the things it promises.

I may have to wait another year until I get my winter. But perhaps the anticipation will only make it sweeter.

Fall Booties

I'm really in the writing mood this morning, and had started to write a new post when I realized that today is the day I need to renew my military ID. If any of you have had to do this, you know about the fun I'm in for. I'm getting a late enough start as it is, so I'm saving my original post for later and keeping today's short and sweet. I truly am thankful for the privileges my military ID affords me, but I wish it didn't take hours to get a new one!

Anyway, the air has gotten slightly cooler here, especially in the mornings, and I can't wait for the true drop in temperatures that will come around mid-October. October really is a beautiful month in Alabama. I got so excited for fall the other day that I took out some of my favorite booties and tried them on with a pair of jeans and a sweater. Yes, the air conditioning is still running in our house, but it was fun to pretend.

(Blue wedges from Nine West last year; Oxfords from Saks Fifth Avenue Off Fifth two years ago)

Here are a few other pairs of gorgeous booties that I'm dying to add to my collection. They're both way out of my price range, and I really don't need any more boots, but these are so lovely just to look at. To me, booties mean fall, crunching leaves, jeans, scarves, and wool sweaters. Daydream with me?

Perhaps I'll break out a pair of booties tomorrow in honor of the first official day of fall, even if it doesn't exactly feel like the fall I'm used to. Happy change of seasons to you! Have a great weekend.

Basil and Lemon Sparkling Cocktail

On 95-degree days, when the air outside feels like hot soup, sometimes drinking plain water just doesn't cut it. Regular old water may quench your thirst, but it doesn't always have that refreshing factor that's so important on the hottest of summer days.

So I came up with this fresh, rejuvenating cocktail to satisfy that craving for something cool and tasty and a little more interesting than simple ice water. I kept it alcohol free but you could easily add a little something if you wanted.

Lemon and basil (which I massage a little bit to release the flavor) make such a terrific duo--sour, sweet and herbal all at once--and the bubbly water just makes this drink taste special. You could of course use a sweetened sparkling water (like a tonic) but I prefer the clean taste of Pellegrino.

Will you try it? I hope you do, before these long, hot summer days run out...

Summer Is Big Hats and Sunglasses

Photo of me in D.C.'s Eastern Market / Taken by that boy I had a crush on (and still do) / Summer 2008