Girls in Boots

You know you're in Texas when not just a few girls show up to a fancy event in dresses and cowboy boots (& look really hot in the process!)

Gawd, I miss my friends.

(I was out last week for Lacey + Jay's wedding. It was lovely. I ate a LOT of Mexican food.)

top photo by me, all others by J.

Amish Country

We took a weekend jaunt to Pennsylvania to visit our friend Leanne a few weekends ago. We stayed in her family's beautiful house in the country, ate food made by Mennonites, went apple picking and of course imbibed in a few tasty beers in Philly with the boys.


Such a great way to take in the fall weather—thanks for an awesome time Lee's!

Love is Waiting SHOP!

My friend, Heather, and her husband, Aaron, are in the process of adopting a little boy from Ethiopia! Heather is a super talented designer and Aaron, a super talented musician. They just launched the Love is Waiting Shop to help fund the expensive process of bringing their little guy home forever.

Check it out & support the Hale's on their journey!

Absolutely beautiful work, Heather!

36 hours

gloriously spent with the most difficult decisions being whether I wanted to swim before the next meal, after, or both.


The only "to do" list involved drinking cocktails, clearing the table from amazing meals and changing out of a wet swimsuit. Our friends generously shared a weekend visiting parents in a perfect cabin on Lake Champlain.


thank you Delhagen's for such a relaxing weekend!

Justin & Cara's Wedding Invites

Finally able to post this wedding set that I made for Justin & Cara. They got married this weekend under a tree in Belize—they send me a photograph of the tree so I could make the silohouette on the front of the invites... so perfect, sweet and romantic!
Everything on the inside was hand lettered—just incase you're a type-nerd like me and need to know these things.


If you've been following the news you know that hurricane Alex paid a visit to Justin & Cara's wedding on Saturday (pretty sure he didn't RSVP!) We haven't heard from the newly weds or any of our friends that made it out there yet but if we know them it was an amazing time anyway!

Congrats you two & if anyone reading this has heard from them please let us know that everyone's okay!

*Just heard that all is well, thank goodness!

Memorial Day in Massachusetts

We had a lovely and relaxing time in Massachusetts with friends. (O, how the Atlantic coast speaks to my soul!) Such a nice time that I almost forgot that I'm knee deep in a portfolio site redesign, the job search and to make things slightly more exciting... moving. again. Don't worry it's only about 9 blocks away. Wish me luck!

1 million Memorial Day kisses to my sister and all of the service women & men out there. Thank you.




*I'll be posting some invites that I never got around to as I shoot them all for my new site. Bear with me and stay tuned!

Warmbelly Brews: Snow Day Stout

J & our friend Jeff have been doing some homebrewing the past few months. They started on the first snow day of the year (they're both teachers) with an eggnog milk stout. The first time I tried it it tasted like Robitussin (but I was very sick at the time...) I tried it again about 3 weeks ago and it was so yummy! Nutmeg-y and not too dark for a day in late April.


I designed some handlettered low-fi labels for their first batch that they dubbed "Snow Day Stout." Next up on their roster is a triple ale and then a big batch of a spring saison but they have to taste them before they name them so we'll see what the guys come up with! I'm really excited to be a small part of this fun collaboration!

Cheers!

Secrets Burst: A Reunion

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of working with my friend, Katie, on a poster for the final reading of the Secrets Burst writing group. This group of friends and colleagues has been writing and sharing their work together for a few years now and much of the group has or will be dispersing across the U.S. — hence their "final reading."

I was in Texas busy with my sister's wedding last week so I'm embarrassed to admit that I forgot to post this until now (as the reading was actually last week...) many, many apologies to Secrets Burst and anyone that would have liked to attend!

As always, thank you Katie and Secrets Burst for letting me be apart of the fun!
See the poster that I did last year here.

Late afternoon hike

A beautiful hike in the snow on Saturday. How do you get sore arms from hiking? Fall. More than a few times. On the snow & ice like a 4 year old. And then laugh hysterically about it every time (even when it hurts... especially when it hurts)!!!

I only got to take a few quick shots before my camera went dead but I probably wouldn't have had time to really have fun and get some good ones since we came out of the trail head right as it got too dark to really see... phew! I was secretly more than a little nervous that we would get caught in in dense woods after dark.

Welcome to 2010!

Already missing October...

I hope everyone had a lovely Halloween, NYC Marathon, daylight savings time—weekend! whew!

Happy 23rd Birthday to my darling sister! (23!? I can't believe that's right!?) I hope it's a good one and we wish we were there! xo!

Settling into Fall

I went to D.C. this weekend to spend some time with two dear friends, we had a fantastic time and I'm already missing them both terribly!

After over a month of denial that it's no longer summer I'm finally accepting and settling into fall. I really do love fall on it's own but it feels like a sentinel for winter which I'm never excited about.

I've been spending the cooler, darker evenings at home—cooking and working on a series of projects that the frivolous summer did not have time for.

*and yes, Lacey is touching Kennedy (what a nut)! Happy (early) Birthday Lace!!! xo

a photo for this day.

I received an email from Brandi (who I have never met face to face though I'm happy to be getting to know) a few weeks ago requesting a photograph of my shadow during an adventure. This is what I sent to her. I should play with J's tripod more often, it was really fun!

General Washington, Ben Franklin & the gang!

Our trip to Philly this weekend was wonderful. We saw lots of historic landmarks and the weather could not have been more perfect (on Saturday, at least). I think my favorite was Elfreth's Alley, the oldest, contunually residential street in America.


It all looked so colonial, I felt like I was Felicity. (Yes, the American Girl. Yes, I read all of those books as a child. All of them.)

After a day chockfull of history & walking when I spotted General Washington's Tavern Porter at the Foodery I was all over it. (Who knew I was so patriotic!) Turns out it's (supposidly) from General Washington's original recipe & awesome. It was brewed maybe 15 miles away from where I was at the time and my next trip to Philly will include a tour of Yards Brewery.

*A big thanks to Jeff & Leanne for showing us around Philly!

Chicago to Philly!

I just realized that I never shared any photos from our weekend in Chicago almost a month ago! (whoops!)

We're heading to Philadelphia this evening for the weekend with some friends.

Enjoy the warm weekends while they last!

Canning: part 3

I finally had some friends over for a little canning party on Saturday. It was a lot of fun and we ended up meeting at the Greenmarket in Grand Army Plaza to pick up some fresh goods before hand. We made these spicy okra, these spiced pickles and another batch of more traditional pickles via a mix that Caitlin brought. We also ended up with too many okra for what our original mix made so we decided to make some okra with the spicy pickle mix. I'll let you know how everything turns out!

The zucchini pickles from 2 weeks ago are really amazing, by the way. They are very mustardy, which I love. We still have a big jar left but I can't wait to make more.

We had every intention of making jalapeño jelly as well but found fruit pectin to be a little difficult to find that afternoon. I got some and we're all set to try our hand a the jelly later this week. (I'll share the recipe then!)

your mom's a pickle! or, Canning: part 2

Over zealous and unprepared. That's what happened when I went to the farmer's market on Sunday afternoon. I wanted to do some canning this week. I had some old salsa & peanut butter jars but apparently those aren't safe for true canning. (the kind that lasts for years...)

J starts school (his second year of teaching!) next week, we're leaving town on Friday for Labor Day weekend in Chicago — this translates to: busy week, not a lot of time for frivolity or canning adventures. In an attempt to not loose the zucchini I got I decided to do these zucchini pickles tonight. The farmer's market didn't have summer squash so mine are all zucchini. I also haven't picked up the proper jars yet so I'm hoping that since these are going in the fridge and will be consumed within the next few weeks that we'll be safe from some of the frightening food poisoning that I've been reading about. I have to say, the process was simple and so were the ingredients and they smelled amazing! I can't wait until we get back from Chicago to try our pickles!
On a somewhat unrelated note, we got a surprise in the mail earlier this week. Our dear friend, Winston, has returned to Texas (after living in NYC for the past 6 years) to start a farm. He sent us some good ol' Texas dirt & a Lone Star bottle cap. I put it on display in a mason jar with the letter he sent us and the Bob Hope stamp off of the package for our own little Winson time capsule of sorts. Thanks Winston, we miss you too!

*p.s. my 6 year old camera may have bit the dust. I've been using J's camera for over a month now, it's not going so well. Any recommendations on an upgrade. Something better but not super fancy?