a pretty polka dot dress. / thinking about ALT 2012.

uh oh. the Boden catalogue came.

am seriously in love (obsessed) with this polka dot dress from Boden. i'd like it in every color with some cozy thick tights for wintertime. Boden brings out my greedy side. (and whenever i use the word greedy, i think of the Bernstein Bears book all about the gimme gimme's.)

perhaps it would be perfect for ALT 2012 design conference, which is another thing on my wish list. i'm still thinking about how awesome it was this year and all the ahhhmazing people i got to interact with. i really made some great friends. there is nothing else like it; networking with talented people (who get how rad blogging is) is hard to beat. i couldn't believe how easy it was to chit chat with complete strangers / cyber friends, exchange ideas and relate with their small business / crafty / bloggy / entrepreneurial goals. the conference as a whole was inspiring and motivating.

thoughts? anyone planning on going? wanna do lunch?

i loved ALT and wrote about my experiences here.

letterpress posters

i love these new posters from the ever famous keep calm gallery.
so much so, i might just clean off my bulletin board for this one.
it is high on my wish list of things i saw in blogland.
wouldn't it be sweet in a nursery or a little one's room
or perhaps hanging in a nice bathroom. to remind you every day.
that you're okay. in fact, you're better than okay. just as you are.
become the real you.

am feeling lucky.

a thousand thanks miss kelly. can't believe i won a giveaway! hooray hooray. my boy is going to love these soft cozy knitted beauties. simple and so sweet. merci.

p.s. you have one more day to enter this week's m.writes giveaway. and another is lined up for monday, so check back if you're feeling lucky.

map it out

i laughed aloud (and so did dan) when i spied this map of America on a darling blog i love to read, delish. it's the official map of The New Yorker's Idea of the USA. genius. it's the perfect gift for those of us obsessed with a.) new york or b.) maps in general.

view the close up map, and you'll see that my new place of residence, idaho, is shown as a dot in oregon! love it. denver is only a dot in utah, south dakota is a dot in north dakota and little rock, kansas and oklahoma are all dots in missouri. awesome.



this funny map reminds me of the time i was getting a makeover in a swanky salon in pennyslvania a few years ago. the seemingly bright & intelligent makeup artist asked me where i was from.

i told her, 'salt lake city, utah.'
and she said, 'huh? where's that?!'
i said, 'it's in the west. utah hosted the winter olympics,'
after a blank stare, i said, 'you know, it's near... vegas.'
'oh cool, i looooove vegas. so is there even a beach in utah?'
seriously, she asked me that.
'umm. no, but we do have Lagoon.'

i walked out of that place with smoky cat eyes and not a thing in my hands. just a tip, if you're on commission, just pretend you know your geography. hee hee.

though i must admit, (as my family well knows) my map of the world would look a bit funny if i had to label all the countries without looking. sometimes i am excited to have a kid go through the fifth grade.

sweet.

am glad to see this book, Cake Love, all about baking divine cakes from scratch, receive excellent reviews. i purchased one of those icing spatulas at smith & edwards (strange i know) and have been dying to try it out.

simplify.

this patagonia canvas bag would be perfect for library books.

babes and bags

one of the greatest things about being pregnant is thinking about a whole new little person. and what it's doing and how it's growing and what it might want. sometimes i hear myself saying, well that's because the baby likes it. not something silly like a manipulative motive. me? manipulative? never. but you know, once in a blue moon, the babe will want lasagna. and lasagna it will get. even if we have to drive to that darling deli, Cucina, all the way up in the avenues to get it. sure it might turn into a date night. even better. the babe likes date nights too. and the curly fries at the diner last weekend, the babe devoured those too. yeah, the babe has great taste. sometimes the babe wants me to go to sleep early. and other times the babe wants me to sleep in late. sometimes the babe lets it be known that it wants me to skip out on an afternoon of work and see who's on oprah. you know what they say, you can't spoil a child under one. today i think the babe has a hankering for a pb and banana sandwich on wheat, made by dan. this babe is the best thing that has happened to me. i can't wait til we get to meet.

yesterday i got to hear it's heartbeat and it even gave the microphone some kicks. it was excellent. it's a strong little babe in there.


and speaking of beautiful babies...

if 100 dollar bills grew on potholes (or potheads, both of which i have been bumping into today) i would drive to mona, utah and scrape them all up. then i would purchase this fabulous chloe Anoushka Leather Wrap Hobo shoulder bag. i usually don't swoon over crazy expensive made in italy type of stuff like this. but this one is special. and i will be keeping my eye out for knock offs when i head to nyc next month or perhaps Target throughout the summer months. come on Isaac Mizrahi, don't let me down. it's gorgeous and perfect, with plenty of zippers, yet still no nonsense design. lovely, lovely. for those of you with a tree blooming wads of cash growing in your backyard; be my guest; the bag is exclusively at saks. i'll be ordering mine in aquafresh turquoise; because if i'm gonna pay $1500+ for a bag, it may as well be beautiful, bright and bold. i mean if it's good enough for miss rachel bilson. yeah, methinks my babe would really love this bag.

images seen on who/what/wear.

winter sale

with this new snow storm, 

these jcrew jackets went on sale just in time. 

spring is still oh so far away. 

etsy find: letter pillows

i adore people who can sew. it is one of those skills i have on the back burner with all the other things i think i should learn sooner than later but not right now. the back burner is really quite a handy place to store things which if dwelled upon would make me feel ultra guilty. therefore the back burner is an excellent place to toss things you just can't get to. yet. making homemade bread is on there too. so is learning a second language and buying fancy furniture. running a marathon and scrapbooking my life away is sitting there patiently. along with organizing my tupperware so that all the bowls meet their lovers, i mean lids. yeah, the back burner is the greatest.

onto Yvonne of Yvestown, the sweet sewer and lover of pastel colors, cottage-esque scenes and all other lovely things. i can imagine having tea and cookies in her light-filled floral, polka dot home. am excited to see that she has stocked her little etsy shop full of these adorable monogram pillows.

downright adorable.

handbag + shoes : shoptwig

if i could, i would.

letterpress my {future} life

i dream of new planners with blank lines and familiar numbers referring to new days and new plans with old friends. i probably need a lovely calendar {free of graffiti} that will sit and make me happy each and every day i see it. just choosing from the choices is bliss.

two loves mesh as one; calendars & letterpress.

clean fresh lines with satsuma press

colorfully sweet with linda + harriett

love little patterns at little tree press

map out your year with lizard press

fancy + floral at joie studio

oh so simple + lovely at green chair press

gorgeously saturated inks at ilee letterpress

anthology of sketches

i want to begin a collection of creativity. books to grab off the shelf in hurried need of inspiration. i'd peek into a world outside my own; colliding colors & words on the page. i may just pick start with this cluster of unbelievable round - the - world sketchbooks.

i recently flipped through them while browsing in my parents' favorite bookshop in nyc. Rizzoli (on 57th Street just off 5th Ave) is spilling over with beautiful books. this library emits the most quintessential atmosphere a bookshop could ever have. i would have liked to go there on a 6th grade field trip for one of those read-a-thons we were always having. this is a definite stop for the classic bookworm, especially if you're on the hunt for unique coffee table books. this place is brimming with them!


down the block a ways is ever-loveliest Kate's Paperie. wherein you can pick up this, this, a few of these, and a dozen of these. i would love to color coordinate, filing all my paper into these beauties.

two shops (to die for) within a couple blocks. ooh, yes, i heart new york!

surprising invitations

we waited. we wondered. we went. we wanted. we wandered. we wished...

we did the ikea experience. {at the end of that mind boggling maze they should sell bright yellow tees, emblazoned with, i conquered ikea across the chest.} i had once thought dan had had his fill (after living only a few blocks away from the beloved store in the OC) i thought he might never step foot in that place again. yet he surprised me. a perfect {random} surprise date night which consisted of:

• enjoying orange chicken, ham fried rice & pad Thai noodles at one of those cute hole in the wall places that specialize in neither Japanese, Vietnamese nor Chinese cuisine, but a strange and delicious combination of all three.

• browsing through Sam Weller's bookstore. the best in town. {finding the little miss series of books made me jump inside with joy. i thought about buying them for the new tiny twin nieces, though i decided against it. cute, yet completely impractical knowing they are the type of little storybook you dread when a toddler toddles over with one in hand, because they have way too many words for one page. perhaps a better gift idea for a little miss chatterbox who just graduated.}

• strolling through ikea, spending a fabulous celebratory $10 stipend. {jam packed full of cutesy, stylin' young moms who were either a.) pregnant or b.) had child(ren) in tow. the floors gleamed, cafeteria still crowded, parking lot surprisingly sparse.. i loved it - open, airy and cheap things all about.}

• we capped the night off with a sweet midnight treat at Dee's, sitting by old friends, having good laughs and a very strange waiter. it was a classic Dee's experience which is exactly what we were craving.

sidenote: i wish i had found this amongst dusty maps and wooden coat racks at a flea market rather than on the walls of ikea. i just couldn't buy it. it's the snob in me. i don't think i can get over the fact that hundreds of walls in hundreds of homes are donning the exact Audrey canvas. though it really would be the perfect accent for my {future} powder room/walk in closet. wallpapered in a wide, fancy black n' white vertical striped paper, this room will be posh & pretty. a perfect place to doll up, relax, read or try on pairs of shoes that will be stacked in boxes way up to the ceiling. perhaps i will become one of those ladies that 'just can't decide' and must buy a dozen new shoes in the quest to find thee shoe.. while never getting around to actually taking the others back. a cushy black n' white toile armchair will sit in the corner and a glossy black coffee table for my pedicured feet. pink budding peonies will be delivered on demand for this very room. inevitably, the lush carpet will be strewn with magazines (which i have dog-earred for ideas on which designer to choose for my next party frock). do normal people really live like this?

for now, she {she being miss Audrey} would be a tad out of place in my my-husband-is-a-law-school-student digs. someday.. i'll talk myself into joining the masses and invite audrey to join me in my parlor for pink n' white checkered chocolates, made exclusively at the chocolatiers down the cobblestoned block. in honor of her surprise arrival, of course.

sephora summer spree

lovely looks straight from the mecca of makeup to my email inbox.
choose one and recreate it with a few tips from Sephora.
you want a weekly dose of luscious lips, creamy skin and barefaced ads?
sign up here. {if only the 3 free samples could come into that mailbox too!}

blissful wishful swap

you know when you see something in a shop window.. think it's pretty and immediately want it, desire it, love it... but then every time you happen upon it, you somehow talk yourself out of actually purchasing it and place it back in it's darling display {because you know you really, truly don't actually 'need' it but the 'wanting' it keeps bringing you back}?

that is exactly how i felt about this little blank book designed by jill bliss. i've seen it in a few shops here & there (most recently in LA at the Reform School) and thought it was downright perfect - handy dandy, with a distinct design & splendid in every which way. but i have so many blank books in my house, adding to the collection every time i bind another quote journal, it becomes a very sad justification why i should in fact not buy journals just on a whim.. so i let my mind forget about it. attempting against my greedy feelings of the gimme gimmes.

sometimes things work out mysteriously.. the happiness of it all is that today of all days, this very journal (the one i've been almost-gonna-buy-it every-time-i-see-it) arrived in my postbox. my journal swapper, Jennifer sent it to me and i couldn't be more happy. how did she know? fate i suppose. i ripped open the pretty package and said, 'oooh... i've always wanted this!' {suddenly becoming a giddy ten year old on Christmas Day.}

thank you! i am thrilled with my newfound journal {it will be my favorite summer paperback}.

ps. i loved the postage art too. i couldn't help but notice the stamp featuring Rainbow Bridge of southern Utah. i adore details. little did you know that my husband and i enjoy visiting that beautiful site. thanks for your extra touches. a very successful swap indeed. two down, one more (mellow) to go..

inspiration binder

• what could be a more lovely centerpiece?
• i would love to feature these for brunch.
• cherish this idea, wonder when i will make it..
• adore these goods - so bright & cheery.
• such delights to find inside a hidden basket.

follow your dreams

"Beyond living & dreaming
there is something more important:
waking up."
- Antonio Machado

sunny toile bedding in time for spring.
wake up to buttercup + cream every morning,
thanks to pottery barn.

roadtrip

next week we'll be in southern california. hip hip..

cheap manicures, crazy traffic, hip boutiques, wild blooming birds of paradise, lovely skies, overpriced cupcakes... here we come. i am picturing a dreamy/relaxing week away from the hustle & bustle of life in general. dan deserves a fabulous spring break and luckily i get to accompany him. i can't wait to find glorious new places and reunite with ol' favorites.

here is my wishlist shopping/dining itinerary.
feel free to fill in the gaps with your own favorite california hot spots, i'd appreciate the input.

old friends:
plum's cafe (coconut french toast w/ papaya & strawberries)
zara/sephora/nordstrom (five stars) @ south coast plaza
urban outfitters @ the lab
trader joe's (i love this store)
anita's burgers
crate & barrel
wahoo's tacos
el torito grill (best mexican restaurant)
ikea (think of it as a head start..)
panera bread
in n' out
mentatsu (dan's favorite ramen shop)
american apparel @ huntington beach
anthro & forever 21 @ fashion island
roger's gardens @ corona del mar

can't wait to meet:
the reform school
the crab cooker @ newport
sprinkles cupcakes
pinkberry (delightful website)
beach berries
sugar paper
the original pantry

it's a wrap

love j crew. it sings spring to me.
am loving the scarves & this cute tuxedo shirt.
the head wrap is a favorite easy hairstyle.
me-wishes i lived near the shore so i could throw
a clambake and wear one of these.
perhaps i'll have to sport mine to lagoon.
i crave summer; see for yourself.
three cheers for pretty & preppy.

miss milly & more

how much more twee can you be.
this coat is what i call: 'el - cute - o'.
i've landed upon a glorious website. ripped from the pages of a magazine and plastered right there on your screen, you will jump for joy.

not to be missed:
shop by number
just browsing
new kids
audrey h.
out & about
strictly snobbery
a 2 z

for this coat..