5 Favorites

I know I know, I'm awful at posting during the summer. I'm working on it I absolutely and wholeheartedly swear!

It's been a rough couple of weeks with construction, work, and general life happening all at once so I thought I might start up again with a post about 5 of my favorite things of the moment (in no particular order of course):

1. Maurine by Say Hi

I have no idea what it is about this song, but it just gives me all the feels. Lately I've been listening to it nonstop at work.

2. Giambattista Valli's Fall 2014 Couture Collection

Can't stop won't stop looking at these runway photos. This collection is everything I love about fashion, it's playful, elegant, vintage inspired, and straight up awesome.

3. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

A bit fluffier than my usual book choices, but it's got some heft to it at times. Love, loss, growth, and understanding, I highly suggest it for a quality beach read.

4. Food Instagrams

It's literally the widest known fact that I love food, and even more so than that, that I love beautiful food. In the last couple weeks I've gone on a following binge, adding dozens of new people to follow on Insta and droooooling over their phenomenal cooking/plating/all around coolness.

These are some of my recent favorites:

@semivegan

Gorgeous photos, yummy smoothies, fruits of all sorts

@lifeofavegetarian

Best lunch boxes I have ever seen in my entire life

@roadtoeverywhere

Lovely food styling in every single photo and some seriously inspiring meals

@funkyforestfood

SO MUCH COLOR! So much yum

5. The Happier App

I discovered this app a couple weeks ago and have been trying to use it at least once a day since. It's along the lines of this post in the sense that it's all about noticing and remembering the little things in every day that make you happy. I love it!

Room Tour

I've been meaning to do a post like this since I got home for the summer, but never found a time in which my room was clean and I actually had the right light to take pictures. But! At long last here it is, my bedroom in good old Darien, CT.

It's been through many evolutions since we moved here when I was 8, from the same furniture and linens I had since I moved up to the big girl bed in toddlerhood, to the early tween years of bright neon colors on literally everything, to it's current state of clean white meets spatterings of color plus minor hoarder.

While it's always a bit of a mess (even when it's clean) I seriously adore my bedroom. I find solace and inspiration and energy in this room and the memories that I've saved up here. So, without further ado, here's a peek into my little paradise:

 A recent, but long awaited, addition to hold all my big statement necklaces.

 My absolute PRIDE AND JOY, the biggest and baddest moodboard I've ever made.

Left: The creativity corner, consisting of art supplies, half finished paintings, an old guitar, and all my favorite books from childhood and adolescence.

Right: One of many stacks of books supporting the foundation of the room.

A close up on the mashup of personal photos, handmade items, old jewelry, and magazine tears that is the Wall of Awesome.

Souvenirs and photos from Paris waiting to be scrapbooked and my beloved bag of yarn (note: second stack of books).

 My nightstand and stack 3 of books (these are actually currently in circulation).

My rainbow library/chotchkie collection (and more book stacks that are not being counted).

 My second favorite part of the room, the chalkboard. Updated every few weeks with a new inspiring quote to remind me and all visitors to my abode of the important things in life. (To the left, photos from my high school photography career that I still think are pretty ok).

 A truly excellent 15th birthday gift.

Hoarder evidence... I keep at least one shopping bag from every store I go to.

 Left: The Bed. And yes that is a teddy bear and yes I'm pretty sure I'm cool with the internet knowing about it (pretty sure). PLUS! One of my new favorite magazines, Darling. Check it out. It's fantastic.

Right: Stack 4.

 And finally, atop my dresser, more rainbow books, keepsakes, flowers, and photos.

Crazy About Books

As the title implies, I'm pretty into books. I'm ever thankful that at some vital point of my childhood I chose to ignore TV and computer games and sports (might've been better to stick with that one but I turned out alright), and pick up a book, lots of books to be precise. I devoured them, rising well above whatever reading level I was supposed to be at for each grade and sitting up late at night finishing my latest choice. I lived for the Book Sales in elementary school, which, honestly, I'm disappointed had to end once middle school hit. I would run down to the young adult section of the library and stumble back up the stairs with no less than five thick texts in my arms, which, of course, I would return two weeks later having read every one.

I'm proud to call myself a book nerd. I would happily accept books, from fiction, to non-fiction, to coffee table, on every occasion for which a person receives any sort of present (cough cough my birthday is coming up). While I've always had a passionate and undying love for the written word, I've found as I get older that it's much harder to find the time let alone the stamina to read five books in two weeks.

What with all the various kinds of work I now need to do (homework, working out, housework, general work), it's hard to squeeze in reading time. BUT summer is a glorious thing that exists in my mind solely to free me up for reading. As someone who sizzles in the sun the second I step outside as well as literally losing consciousness at the mere possibility of dehydration, I don't get out much once the temperature rises above 85 unless it's down to my pool where I sit waist deep on the stairs covered in SPF 100 so as to avoid dying. Rather than letting my near inability to survive the months of June, July, and August get me down, I take the opportunity to sit inside and READ. At long last I can dig into the pile of novels, short stories, essays, and how-to books sitting on my nightstand.

Since freeing up my time I've so far been able to read:

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton, one of my favorite books from one of my new favorite authors. Her writing is beautifully imagistic, her characters are intricately developed, and the plot line is insanely fun to try and predict.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, a book I've been meaning to read ever since I learned there was a movie (I always have to read the book before I see the movie, it's just not fair otherwise). The mystery and beauty of this book is thrilling, leaving the reader to question and infer from the first page on.

Dreams and Shadows by C. Robert Carvill, something I chose at the library solely for it's intriguing cover. The story follows the intertwined paths of two boys struggling through a world of magic, monsters, and darkness. Ever a fan of fantasy  I loved how Carvill blended recognizable normalcy into this magical world.