the truth about your 30's...

i've never known how to express exactly how i feel about this issue...but i'm so glad that erin gates from elements of style did...she could not have read my mind/heart better if she tried. so well written & thought out, and so, so, true...  

read her post, 'on being in your thirties'.

there is SO much going on in your life when you are in your late 20's & early/mid 30's...careers, financial burden, buying homes, dating, marrying, divorcing, pregnancy, miscarriage, etc. and you always feel like you're being judged, one way or the other, by your peers, your family, your self. sometimes all of these things start to interfere with one another too, create rifts in friendship, make you self doubt, even create jealousy and irritation within you...i know that have for me.

thank you erin, really, thank you. you are not alone.

currently reading...

i definitely have an author obsession with gillian flynn. having read gone girl and flying through sharp objects for book group, i couldn't help but start reading dark places. i never in a million years thought i'd like psychological thrillers, but i guess i'm sort of a twisted person at heart or something because i can't get enough!...

summer furniture...

summer, you cannot get here fast enough. and when you come will you please bring me these goodies for the backyard to put around our fire pit...

outdoor bar

wicker chair & love seat

bali club chair with canvas covers

and maybe this pillow or that one

father's day gift...

is shopping for father's day the most impossible shopping trip ever? i sort of feel like i get my father a rotation of the same things year after year, don't you? i am totally smitten with the father's day commission project, such a brilliant idea...

too bad they've already reached their max for this year...but i bet you could commission a project with an artist on etsy. OR, you could attempt to paint one yourself??? 

quotable...

as always, gretchens brilliant truths about happiness!

harvest table love...

i need a custom jeff soderbergh harvest table in my life, desperately, for all the glamorous, rustic, al fresco dinner parties i am planning in my head.

what are you doing friday night?

i'm probably gonna go see this, by myself, because that's how i roll...

...i've only been waiting for this damn movie to come out for what seems like a bazillion years.

i also have z: a novel of zelda fitzgerald by theresa anne fowler on my 'to read' list...as you can probably tell, i'm going through my 'i love all things '20's' phase right now.

the lazy girl cooks...

i know i can't be the only person on the planet who doesn't actually enjoy cooking. i mean, i do like to cook, but it feels like so much time & effort to create something that literally takes like 5 minutes to eat... at least the way i inhale my food anyway. maybe when i'm cooking for 2 on a more regular basis (come july!) it'll be worth it, but right now it falls into that "i'd rather be doing anything than this" category for me.

thank god for any/all recipes that have the words "quick" and "easy" in them. i made the pioneer woman's quick & easy roasted red pepper pasta sauce last night...good god was it easy to make and tasty. i'm telling you, this woman is a freakin' genius. i changed the recipe a little to...

1. only used about 2 tablespoons of butter instead of the 4 the recipe called for- only used them to sauté the onions, garlic & peppers in the beginning

2. instead of transferring the sauteed vegetables into the food processor i just used my immersion blender right in the sauté pan, make it more chunky than the puree she's going for...and less damn things i have to clean at the end

3. never added any broth to it, and just a dash of 2% milk to lighten it up (didn't have any cream on hand)- could probably forgo any milk/cream anyway

4. added some fresh chopped basil from my herb garden, highly recommend that.

best purchase ever...

there are perks to be a crazy person and planning your entire wedding in one months time...you get to spend the rest of the time on crafting projects or hunting for treasures! i dragged my sweet girlfriends (and one super adorable dog) out to worcester on sunday to hit up crompton collective for their vintage wedding inspired weekend event. and despite the fact that we spent a beautiful cinco de mayo afternoon in worcester (although i was pleasantly surprised by the area, not at all what i thought it was going to be like) we had a pretty nice time. 

i got a few great items for our sweet summer wedding...including this bad boy...

not surprising, both my mother and future sister-in-law have volunteered to help test out what candies we should fill it with. isn't it so cool? even after the wedding i think it'll be a fun piece to have in the house...who knows, maybe we'll fill it with little dog bones for the dogs, could be useful.

this just happened...

my cousin is graduating from hobart, my alma mater, in 2 weeks... i have been jealous of her for the last 4 years. no seriously, i wish i was back in college every single day of my life. and then this text exchange happens this afternoon, while i'm trapped inside my office on this beautiful spring day...

just telling it like it is.

upcoming shopping adventure...

my girlfriend and i are heading to compton collective this weekend in worcester to not only check out the store for the first time, but they're also having their 'vintage wedding' weekend of vendors...since that's right up my alley for my own wedding this summer i thought it would be a perfect time to go. i hope it's as great as it looks! will keep you posted on what we find...

mason jars are the coolest, and so is my family...

so yeah, my mom and sister are kind of awesome...is this not the most adorable bridal shower invitation you've ever seen? so.very.lucky....

currently reading...

our may book group book is sharp objects by gillian flynn. you may remember we already read her other novel, gone girl. if these books are anything alike i'll have read this one in less than two nights time! has anyone read her other book, dark places? i think i might be mildly obsessed with this author...

where your money goes...

have you ever been told, 'ewww, don't put that money in your mouth, you don't know where it's been!"??? well, now you can find out...

have you heard about the 'where's george?' tracking that been going on in the US? or how about the 'where's willy?' in canada? yeah, me neither, not until a friend told me about it last week...now i'm kind of obsessed with finding a dollar bill that has this stamp so i can see where it's been. pretty freaking cool huh?

sprouting head of garlic...

much like my blogging lately, i've been forgetting to get things done, especially around the house. i'd like to blame it on wedding planning, but since i'm practically done with all the major stuff, i really have no excuse...i've just been uninspired and lazy.

after about 2 months of having not gone grocery shopping (i've literally been eating who-knows-how-old cans of anything/everything i have left over in my pantry), i decided i should probably join the human race and get some food in my refrigerator. i looked through what i have/don't have and made a list...and realized i had to add garlic to my list because mine looked like this...

then i remembered pinning this 'how to plant garlic' post on pinterest and thought now might be the time to actually use it. being the freak show skeptic that i am, i also wanted to google it to make sure i had the real step-by-step instructions down. i have a few small left over terra-cotta pots that will fit perfectly on my indoor kitchen windowsill- figured i should start them indoor and then maybe transplant them outdoors? now let's see if my indoor gardening is as pathetic and neglected as the rest of my recent self...

going to the chapel...

...and i'm gonna get married...ok, that song is a little annoying, but it was totally playing in my head all freaking day when we went down to visit the (coolest) pastor who is going to be marrying us...

i cannot wait to walk out of these adorable red new england chapel doors in july a married gal! are you dying of adorableness overload right now?

the hardest part of being human= forgiveness...

"forgiveness does not mean that we do not realize the heinousness of the crime. but, in our hearts, when we are unable to forgive, we make ourselves a victim of our own hatred' - cardinal sean o'malley

those were the words from cardinal sean o'malley's mass today in boston; a city still mourning the loss of four of our own, celebrating the heroics of 'boston's finest', and waiting for answers of why? 

as someone who has struggled finding forgiveness within myself, i can't imagine how the families of those who lost loved ones, or those who were seriously injured, even begin on the journey towards forgiveness. but i will tell you this, without forgiveness you are only harming yourself further. the hatred that remains inside of you will pain you and eat away at you for much longer and greater than anyone who inflicted the wrong doing onto you.

boston...

                         

i am a new yorker, thru and thru. always have been, always will be. but boston is my second home. i moved here over a decade ago and haven't left since. i found my friends here, my career, my life, the man i am going to marry...all right here, within 2 blocks of where the bombs went off yesterday. this is my home now.

i'll never forget where i was, or what the day felt like on september 11, 2001...just as i will never forget where i was or what the day felt like on april 15, 2013...in my future sister-in-laws kitchen with my future family.

i wasn't there. i didn't have to hear or see or feel the horror that my fellow americans did yesterday, including many of my sweet girlfriends who were at the finish line to cheer on our friend kate- she was less than 1/2 mile from the finish line. 

i'll say this once- people who kill other people are not heros, they are not brave, they are not martyrs. they are cowards. people who kill 8 year old children, rip limbs from their 1st grade sisters body, send shrapnel into their mothers head, all while they wait proudly for their father to complete a marathon are NOT to be glorified. no god, whichever one to pray to, will open the doors to his kingdom for such people. the real heros are those who didn't run away, but the ones that ran towards.

i am sorry that this happened. i am sorry that we live in a world where we need to be on constant guard for things like this. i'm sorry that such a beautiful day, a day bostonians look forward to all year long, was ruined. but president obama said it right when he said:

"Today is a holiday in Massachusetts, Patriot's Day. It's a day that celebrates the free and fiercely independent spirit that this great American city of Boston has reflected from the earliest days of our nation. It's a day that draws the world to Boston's streets in a spirit of friendly competition. Boston is a tough and resilient town, so are its people."

quotable...

saved the day...

i woke up in a bad mood. i am cold (like seriously, where the F is spring already?), i have cramps (i literally downed a million advil and have a dorky heating pad strapped to my back), i have a migraine (story of my life), i have a crap load of annoying emails to respond to (it's hard to refrain from telling people to F-off on a daily basis), and i have a lot of other things on my mind. coming to work is pretty much the last thing i felt like doing this morning.

and then my co-worker comes in, sets this on my desk without a word, and walks away...

...i have the BEST co-workers in the world. i have never needed a D&D iced coffee more in life, he made my day infinitely better. thank you jesus (that's his name, I'm not thanking the Lord).