speaking of ginger...

...why is it so darn delicious?

i just can't get enough it. with sushi. in cookies. candied. and even with my rum.

thats right, this beer girl has turned cocktail. try the drink that turned me (well, until i inevitably OD on it one night and ban nit from my drinking repertoire like 98% of all alcohol)and i'm sure you'll understand.

just mush a bit of fresh ginger in your glass, add a half an ounce of gosling's* black seal rum and top off with gosling's* stormy ginger beer. garnish with a lime wedge and enjoy.

*yes, gosling's is not optional. trust me, i've become a bit of a dark and stormy connoisseur. thats right,  a connoisseur. fancy right? thats me, fancy. in fact so fancy that i'm going to try this recipe for a white and stormy that i found in my southwest spirit magazine on my last trip to exotic cleveland, ohio. oh la la.

ixnay on the easter egg.

finally, spring apparel isn't candy coated and plastered in pastels (but seeing as its dior, it is probably plastered in cash). regardless, i'm loving the throwback colors almost as much i'm loving dior's modern day spin on ginger.

i couldn't have said it better my self.

via 

 "one of my new year's resolutions is to say "yes." yes to love, yes to life, yes to staying in more."
                                                                                                        - liz lemon

looking for something more eloquent? a fancy notion perhaps? well skibble on over to my lovely and dear friend kerry's blog - where she always puts just about everything in perspective, including staying in.

he's in on it too.

no, not steve martin, but the father of this  bride.

i knew my mom would be at it with askew-ed faces and lines such as "are you sure?" , "but you have to have..." and the always well received, "you can't do that". but my dad?! the creative, laid back guy - never!

or so i thought. then one day a few weeks ago he went to bat for her team.

you see, i'm not your traditional bride. i won't be walking down the aisle in a sequined ball of tulle. i won't throw my bouquet, wear a garter, or feed the love of my life cake.  and for the love of god, i will not be piling my hair on top of my head in some twist, bun, or whatever the hell this is.

so when i showed my mom  and dad a picture of how i wanted my hair i took their response of silence as a respectful "that is so you", but when i whipped out a second picture with my dad across the room and he responded with a "oh, is that the real picture?" i knew the silence was more of a "you can't do that" than the appreciation for my individuality that i had hoped for.

hmpf.

almost there.

dress - check

shoes - check

veil - check

accessories - uh, about that....

...help! because quite frankly i can't make up my mind and dreaming about forgetting to buy jewelry for the big day and the sheer panic that ensues immediately following is getting quite old.

there is this little (or to be more accurate, really large) gem(s) from jcrew, which i owned for two days



until i exchanged it for a layered look of one of these

and two of these (one in ivory one in a dusty pink which matches my shoes)

but i still can't help but drool over these lovely creations



designed by lulufrost, which a girl can own and wear forever and ever. and then give to her equally fashionable daughter. (they also happen to cost about half  the price of my dress which isn't as lovely.)

readers (if you are in fact out there) now is the time to speak up. whats a girl to wear?!

do you believe in soul mates?

cute, compact, and crafty; what don't these clutches from Emerson Made, have? oh thats right - my closet to call home.  we'll have to fix that now, won't we?

after all, emerson herself is a girl after my own heart. her and her husband left the (big, bad) city behind them to follow their dreams on a farm. its there where emerson created her very own (and very adorable) line of apparel, accessories, footwear, and homegoods explaining, "EmersonMade is a company that believes in celebrating the uniqueness of the individual, the joy of being alive and all the smallness that makes up the Big Beautiful."


 sah-woon.

the road to suburbia is a smokey one. story 3 of 3.

via

(that yellow fire extinguisher is clearly not mine.)

growing up in the public school system my birthday always fell during fire prevention week. instead of a week of anticipation, invitations, and (of course) parades, ponies, and tiaras i was exposed to a week of films, presentations, and essays on burned buildings, charred memories, and the risks of almost anything bursting into the flames.   instead of worrying what i might get for my birthday, who was going to sleepover, and what i was going to wear - i worried about all the crowded outlets, locked windows, and unorderly magazine piles which could (easy and obviously) cause my life to go up in flames.

why don't we have ladders at every second story window? what is our escape plan? where will we meet when we get outside? how fast can i stop, drop, and roll? and for love of god, who is going to get the dog?!

uncool public education. and very ineffective. and i know this because when our stove randomly burst into flames (and why wouldn't it?), saying i "panicked" and/or "froze" would be putting it lightly.

"what do you we do?uh, i think we call 911! jason, you call! where are my shoes? my wallet? my cell phone?" i screamed.

"you call 911. i'm going to get help," jason calmly said as he moseyed out the door and down the stairs.

"help? help? we don't need help. what we need is a new apartment!" i thought as i STOOD IN OUR APARTMENT  calling 911.

yep, thats right. i stood in the apartment as it filled with black smoke, my eyes started to sting, and i couldn't breathe quite right. it wasn't until i was sticking my head out the window for a breath of fresh air that i realized that the only way out was practically blocked by flames and that this was not how i was taught to react in school. i grabbed my wallet, threw on some shoes, and ran out the door.

when the flames where extinguished (thanks to jason and the local hardware store's fire extinguisher, not the fire department.) and our apartment and everything we owned was covered in soot and smelled like burnt popcorn we decided it was time to leave the city and its bugs, rodents, and slow'ish reacting fire department behind us.

"jason, i want to new place to live by the time i get back," i said as  i left that night for a 10 day business trip  rolling my once red, now grey'ish (and smelly) suitcase behind me.

and because he is amazing. because he makes me so happy. and because he didn't like it anymore than i did, he found us a sweet little apartment in the suburbs of new york city.

*pinch