La Dolce Vita

2010-02-21T18:21:00.003-05:00

we ordered a dining room table and chairs today. does this mean i'm an adult now? we're having easter at our house - i can't wait!

2010-02-21T18:16:00.001-05:00

we introduced socrates to the dog park today. so far we know that it takes her some time to get warmed up to people - mostly men. we had no idea how she was with other dogs. wow - she loved it. she ran her little heart out. such a sweet dog.

2010-02-13T09:15:00.003-05:00

sweet little love.

2010-02-09T08:54:00.006-05:00

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oh - how i long for spring. as soon as the snow melts i'm buying a big bunch of beautiful tulips. consta and i have cooked and ate for the last 3 days. with 30 inches of snow on the ground and another 10-20 coming today - we really have nothing else to do.

we walked to canton square last night and ate a Mama's on a Half Shell. Yum! We always order the calamari appetizer. it's hands down the best calamari we have ever eaten. Consta ordered the scallops and I got fish and chips. They brought me an entire beer battered cod! Holy smokes! It was great but way too much. We should have split. Lots of left overs though.

today i'm heading over to the library to pick up some work out dvd's (i'm dying here) and a yoga dvd. also, book club pick of the month this week is Girl with the Pearl Earring, hopefully they have that too. i also need to walk to the grocery store and pick up some milk. thank goodness for living in the city. not sure any place on the east coast is drivable.

2010-02-01T07:46:00.000-05:00

the artwork we have in our office are two muted watercolors of koi fish. how fitting these would be.

2010-01-31T21:16:00.003-05:00

i'd like to introduce Socrates, the newest edition to our family.

2010-01-31T21:00:00.002-05:00

these are incredibly clever. check more of this designer's work out here.

2010-01-30T09:24:00.004-05:00

oh the goodies i ended up with yesterday!

i needed a mental health day yesterday afternoon. i left work early and headed up to mcclean, virginia. they have a west elm at the tysons corner center and i've been eyeing up a storage bench.

i wanted to check it out in person first. i've been a little leery about ordering west elm furniture online. i've visited the store a few years ago and the wood appeared to be pretty cheap and the fabric and cushion material was flimsy. they were pricey too!

they've done a complete 180 and i'm blown away. everything in the store was gorgeous! the cushions were firm, they're using organic linen, velvet and silk. the wood was stunning. i feel like i can comfortably order online again.

2010-01-27T20:04:00.003-05:00

ok - i'm posting again officially. hopefully i'll keep up with it a few times a week. it's a resolution after all. :)

last year was HUGE and now a small recap:

My Aunt passed away in a horrible car accident in February. It was a complete tragedy to my family. She is incredibly loved. The mentally handicap, I believe, can be a gift from God. I have never met a more innocent and sincere and happy person in my life. I love her deeply and am sad that Consta never had a chance to meet her.

My best friend married a wonderful, kind man in April.

Consta purposed to me a week later in a sculpture garden.

I graduated with my MA in May. Then - wedding planning began.

House shopping took over. After grueling it out for 2 months and seeing EVERY house in Baltimore we fell in love with a sweet little house in September. We walk away after we received the long list of repairs. Heartbroken we kept searching. We found an even better house in October and moved in at the beginning of November.

Our first project as new homeowners was to tear up carpet and lay hardwood floors on the second level. We tried, and realized that sometimes you just need help. Not everyone HAS to be incredibly handy. We hired someone.

Oh - and then there is the secret. I might tell you sometime. But the close of the year is something I will never forget.

It's crazy how beautiful and blessed a life can be, but it always seems to be balanced by something tragic. I get the need for balance. It's just a bummer though.

2009-10-16T16:09:00.001-04:00

i do love dishtowels. a weird obsession i know.

2009-10-14T18:17:00.002-04:00

it's been a very long time since i've post anything. no fear. i'm still here. i promise i'll get to it in a few weeks. for now though - flowers.

2009-09-09T20:03:00.002-04:00

house shopping again :) too bad i can't find anything that looks like this in the US - it is called the Manhattan afterall. I can't imagine how much the shipping would cost.

2009-09-07T12:30:00.003-04:00

i think this wallpaper from ballard designs is so pretty and subtle. it would add a ton of texture to an accent wall.

2009-09-05T11:41:00.001-04:00

i'm in love with this tile from ann sacks.

2009-09-02T18:40:00.004-04:00

i've started day dreaming about the furniture we'll buy for our future house. i want something cozy but still clean-looking. i've always favored blue but, for some reason lately i've really wanted yellow and clay colors. maybe it's influence from the wedding.

here are some of things i've been looking at:

pottery barn

crate and barrel

2009-08-28T18:38:00.001-04:00

flickr

i miss my lovey.

2009-08-13T16:59:00.002-04:00

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i think that i eat pretty healthy. in fact, people at work say i'm "different" because i eat yogurt, fruit, lean meats and fiber crackers on a daily basis. the truth is i'm not a big green veggie fan. sure, give me sweet potatoes anytime (esp. loaded with marshmallows, haha) but greens, no thanks.

recently i've decided to go to a nutritionist. he suggested that i give "green smoothies" a try. it sounds gross but i broke down and had one. i'm so delighted that it turned out sooo good.

there are a ton of recipes online but i did this one:

2 cups of spinach
1 banana
1/2 cup of low fat vanilla yogurt
1 tsp flaxseed
dash of cinnamon
1 packet of truvia

you seriously can't taste the spinach. i think next time i'll try to include some ice so it's extra frothy. i'm not sure my blender can handle it though.

next on the list to make:
apple and cinnamon
mint and cocoa
pineapple and banana

2009-08-12T22:34:00.003-04:00

wow. these bags from eclu are gorgeous. in fact, i hear them saying "birthday present" :)

2009-08-06T19:21:00.003-04:00

on the agenda this month - designing and sending out save the dates. i made progress tonight and found stamps :)

2009-08-04T17:37:00.001-04:00

i can't wait to make these grilled chicken and avocado napoleons. giada seriously made my mouth water and it seems simple enough to make.

2009-08-04T17:26:00.004-04:00

a friend of mine invited me to join her book club, tits and titles (haha). anyway, our first book is Pride and Prejudice. i wish that could have been a November read so i would have been able to buy Coralie Bickford-Smith's version of the jacket. these classic book covers are so graphic and inspiring.

2009-08-01T10:24:00.002-04:00

look at this charming little house in pikesville. consta and i are going to look at it tomorrow. it needs a little tlc but, think of the possibilities. i hope it won't be too late for us to make a move - if that's what we decide to do. we have a long way to go to be on our way to buying a house. ugh, like we need a real estate agent and pre approval first, haha.

2009-07-24T21:43:00.002-04:00

harvesting rainwater is one of the easiest ways to cut back on the stress of the environment. it's completely effortless and saves you lots of money in lawn maintenance.

i'm pretty impressed with the selection of rain barrels that are offered here.

2009-07-24T21:29:00.002-04:00

i'm really in love with this dress from shabby apple. i'm only a little worried about the length being a bit too long for my legs.

2009-07-20T21:01:00.002-04:00

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sometimes i read about the love between other people and my heart swells. consta and i are so much in love - we just perceive it different ways sometimes. different "love languages" if you will.

still, i want my breath taken away.

2009-07-16T19:44:00.001-04:00

i have no idea how to d/l this video to my site. but wow. really...yikes.

Hair Troubles

2009-07-16T19:23:00.002-04:00

i'm a bit crazy about my body image sometimes. i've worked really hard my entire life to maintain a slightly chubby, but still reasonably fit body. i know that i'll never be thin and i'm ok with that. there are still parts of my body that make me pout. i almost never wear tank tops because i hate my flabby upper arms.

i'm pretty determined to lose this and i found this onehundredpushups site. i'll track my progess and let you know how it turns out.

2009-07-13T17:23:00.001-04:00

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls - Another fabulous book found this year. Man, I am on a roll.

2009-07-12T17:24:00.002-04:00

image and video

row, row, row the boat
gently down the stream
merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
life is but, a dream.

i'm the third from the back in this photo - in green.

2009-07-10T11:50:00.002-04:00

image

i've been a little stressted the last few days trying to think of some wedding colors. i'm usually pretty good with coming up with color schemes but for some reason i feel all non committed to any of the ones i've tried so far. i think to make the wedding more summery i'd like to use some yellow. i'm really loving the arrangement above.

*sigh* all of a sudden - a little less stress. :)

2009-07-09T06:50:00.001-04:00

ha! a mark weber comic as a save the date? how fun!

2009-07-07T23:36:00.004-04:00

i've been sucked into the twilight craze. i realize, about a year too late. my new years resolution was to read 1 new non-school book per month. i've been doing great so far. i started twilight last week - i finished the 4 book saga tonight. yikes!

it was great. the whole thing - cover to cover - couldn't put it down. i plan to move onto midnight sun. the manuscript that was leaked. basically the first book but written from another characters perspective. It's only available as .pdf online through stephanie meyer's website.

after midnight sun, i'll move onto the host, meyer's next series.

really, i know it seems crazy to love a book about love between a teenage vampire and a human. if you do nothing else this summer - read it. you won't regret it.

2009-07-06T10:29:00.003-04:00

Balance Photography

I'm back from vacation and took Monday off to handle some of the business (sleep) that I've missed since I've been gone. I'll do my best to post some photos today or tomorrow.

We just received the contract from the photographers!! Woohoo! Another thing to scratch off the list. I'm so happy to be going with Balance Photography. They really produce some beautiful photos. They capture some very private moments, i love it!

2009-06-26T20:12:00.003-04:00

Consta and I are off to meet my parents in sunny California tomorrow. Seriously, check out this amazing (I know your jealous soggy Maryland) forecast!

2009-06-26T19:55:00.006-04:00

holy smokes cs4!

i went to a mini cs4 seminar at work today. they showed us a lot of the great new features involved with the software including this sweet little feature:

say I want to make the image above a bit smaller in width, but I liked the length of the photo. I don't want to get rid of anything, so I want to keep the boat, sunset and birds. How do I do this? Hmm...I could Transform the photo (below) but, then I end up with an anorexic sun and a really short boat.

Instead, I use Edit > Content Aware Scale. I end up with the image below where everything stays in proportion.

Of course I could not wait to test this out at home. The first image I chose was a random photo with a little boy I know. I realized that photoshop needs to be able to tell the background from the "main" parts of the image. It ended up making poor Luke look like a wrinkled old man.

It's still a really great new tool. Probably my favorite from the day. I'll try to remember to post more of these as I test them out.

2009-06-22T16:28:00.005-04:00

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this dog is mostly how i feel today.

i'm drained and tired. home buying is being put on hold - again. it's all because of a pretty big financial problem that should have been taken care of a year ago. i'm annoyed and completely tired of waiting - i'm even more tired of waiting for parents to grow up and stop relying on their kids.

this is suppose to be a time when consta and i come together and get giddy about getting our first place together. i'm excited about moving in with him and packing his lunch everyday. maybe not the most glamourous of things but, i'm looking forward to it.

unfortunately all it seems to do is annoy him when i talk about it.

i seriously don't know why i get excited about this anymore.

2009-06-20T14:41:00.001-04:00

some serious great deals at banana republic. i made out like bandit!

2009-06-18T18:45:00.003-04:00

Consta and I decided that we're finally going to start looking for a place of our own. I expect it to be a long, draining process. I know, I'm so optimistic. Despite that house prices and interest rates have dropped, property taxes are up.

flickr

2009-05-27T21:34:00.003-04:00

consta and i have been color disputing. as much as i love the navy, khaki, yellow and white for a summer wedding near the water - i can't have him feeling uncomfortable wearing something he hates. it's crazy to think i can't find anything that would go with black, but HOORAY! i found a gorgeous bridesmaid dress tonight from watters - at least i think so. i have no idea if the girls will like it, or how much it costs. there is a place near my house that carries it so i plan on calling tomorrow for the price. it comes in this pretty mocha color and a lovely jewel tone blueish-green.

2009-05-23T07:48:00.004-04:00

ahhhh!!!! i saw some of these really cool bouts made out of objects in a magazine. i can't remember where i saw them, but i was visiting 100 layer cake and saw her post for fritts rosenow bouts. i'm so excited that they have ones made out of playing cards!

yes, i know. it's the small things in life that make me happy.

2009-05-22T16:10:00.003-04:00

i can't wait to try tyler's ultimate upside-down french toast. it sounds really really delicious, and looks even better. i wish we had smell-o-vision capabilities.

2009-05-20T11:51:00.001-04:00

i think i'm going to treat myself to a new ipod. i need something to motivate me to get back into the gym and start running. this might be just the ticket.

2009-05-18T05:12:00.004-04:00

I'm calling today to book The Easton Club for our wedding next year. We're hoping for June 26th. The place is doing a ton of reservations - hopefully, they'll be as beautiful as they sound. We're still going to keep looking because this place is a bit far but, it really is exactly what we want.

2009-05-13T19:21:00.005-04:00

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hooray!! i joined the baltimore rowing club!

2009-05-13T06:44:00.003-04:00

i plan on starting my own herb garden when i move. my mom never cooked with fresh herbs and now that i've started to cook with them, i can't do without. these little markers are pretty darling.

2009-05-10T19:59:00.003-04:00

i had a really relaxing weekend. i saw beauty in the beast with my parents for mother's day. consta brought me breakfast in bed. and i got these pretty little red flowers (poppy's maybe?) from the florist for free! :) so many happy in so little time.

2009-05-06T20:05:00.002-04:00

Here is another portfolio piece. I'm finally counting down my last days as a graduate student. I loved my time at UB but i'm getting this antsy feeling of freedom. FREEDOM from homework, and late classes and stressing to be creative - instead of just being creative.

2009-05-03T16:01:00.003-04:00

I've decided that home smells like newspaper and espresso. The ultimate relaxation.

2009-04-08T19:24:00.003-04:00

The story Phillip Toledano tells about his father is beautiful. Even more beautiful to me because it reminds me of my friend Mark and his wife, Kathy. Both who nurtured their parents for the last years of their life. What a precious gift to be able to savor the last few years, months, hours of a persons life.

2009-04-07T17:42:00.002-04:00

another portfolio piece: Nancy Drew book cover series

the left side is the front cover. the right side is the white labeled jacket on the portfolio removed.

2009-04-02T18:32:00.006-04:00

i'm weighing if i should get a subscription to the New Yorker... (think i'll ask for this for a birthday gift) anyway, i was browsing the cover art and think these would be perfect for a game room. get them here.

2009-03-30T22:16:00.003-04:00

Another portfolio piece.

2009-03-30T18:58:00.003-04:00

Here is the Amnesty International Ad I did for my portfolio.

2009-03-26T05:26:00.002-04:00

these vintage fishing floats are really very pretty. a perfect reminder that summer is right around the corner.

2009-03-25T18:23:00.002-04:00

april showers bring may cupcakes. :)

2009-03-24T20:30:00.002-04:00

i seriously can not wait to decorate my house. future house. future home. a few years ago i bought white square plates with a thick border on them. for the salad plate i bought a round sutler yellow plate. it really warms the dishes up. beautiful, i think. so i was browsing online today at design sponge and came across this beautiful dining room. i think this could be mine. i especially love the drapes.

2009-03-20T22:59:00.002-04:00

i'm completely in love with dish towels. they're so pretty. i'll be getting these chick towels the weekend after easter when they're on sale. :)

2009-03-18T19:04:00.004-04:00

Check out mom's new BC.

2009-03-10T17:13:00.003-04:00

in school we are required to submit a portfolio before graduation. i've started to put some polish on some of the pieces i've been working on. i'm creating an ad about the death penalty in the US and using amnesty international as my "client". I wanted to get a feel for some of the other ads they've used in the past. as i was browsing i came across the ad above.

if there is nothing i take out of the program at UB it's to make sure that there is always a concept. wow, does this ad do this. it gets the message across, it's strong and uses it's surroundings to convey even more of a message. bravo to this designer.

2009-03-05T19:16:00.002-05:00

i made this for my last class assignment. i really like the way it turned out :)

2009-03-05T19:03:00.002-05:00

i was relaxing in starbucks during my lunch. I go there, sometimes just to sit and get away from my dull, lifeless, no color, no windows office. they don't really seem to mind. today, a particularly long day for me and there it was on the back of my latte "the way I see it #26". inspiration on a cup...and it sort of sums up how I'm feeling about my job right now.

"Failures hard, but success is far more dangerous. If you're successful at the wrong thing, the mix of praise and money and opportunity can lock you in forever." -Po Bronson

Thank you Starbucks for the reminder, but in the tough economic times I'm thankful and incredibly appreciative of my monotonous job. I know I can do something great that will help the world. If nothing else, I feel like I'm moving in the right the direction.

2009-02-26T05:18:00.003-05:00

in an effort to make every piece of my portfolio beautiful i'm using the following guideline:

"you can't shine shit"

2009-02-18T23:16:00.002-05:00

I startled myself awake at 330 because i was dreaming about people shooting at each other. I stayed awake because my dog was crying. She hurt her leg somehow last night. It seems to be doing better now. I've been panicking all day about the amount of things i have to do by next Monday. 20 things on my list...all time consuming. I thought my day would be horrible.

When in fact, it wasn't. I'm really tired but was able to conjure up enough energy on the ride home from school tonight to sing and dance in the car. Sometimes that is really all i need to make myself feel better.

2009-02-11T21:41:00.003-05:00

Happy 1st Anniversary to my blog! :) I love looking back of all the beautiful things that i've posted. It's a great idea to put lovely things all in one place.

Also- I always sternly put my foot down about how I will not be celebrating valentine's day. I like to believe that the person you are with should show you how much they love you all the time, not just on one "you have to do it" day of the year. I still believe that....but i can't help getting really giddy that Consta and I will be spending our very first valentine's day together this year. We're just spending the day together and nothing could be more perfect than that.

2009-01-20T08:35:00.002-05:00

Consta and I had our photos taken at Boordy Vineyards in late November by our friend Leah. She is an amazing photographer. Thanks so much Leah!!

2009-01-12T20:33:00.002-05:00

Consta and I have been thinking more seriously about buying a home. We plan on looking sometime mid fall. The exciting thing is finding all the beautiful things I want. First on the list is this utensil holder to match my canisters.

2009-01-09T19:18:00.004-05:00

My best friends boyfriend...AHEM...FIANCE :) bought her a really great bag for Christmas. It glistens when it hits the light, but still a solid color. The best part is it's made out of seatbelts. So you know it has to be durable. When I asked her where she got it she pulled out this little card with the name HARVEYS on it. Apparently the company includes a compartment in their purses so that people can pass out their cards. What a great way to advertise!

I saw this carry on bag that I'm pretty much dying to have right now. The handle off of my duffel broke and I'm in desperate need. I took a second job recently to help save for the house. But if I can scronge up some extra pennies this is first on my list.

2008-12-30T19:30:00.003-05:00

i love thinking of new year resolutions - it's the fresh start and sense of accomplishment. this year, i'm keeping the list and setting goals for myself. these aren't in stone, but here's what i'm thinking so far:

1. Graduate.

2. Take a cooking class (specifically knife skills, and meat).

3. Get into an exercise routine (again).

4. Organize Photos.

5. Learn Dreamweaver and web design.

6. Begin to start a client base for freelance projects.

2008-12-10T14:12:00.005-05:00

As the semester comes to a close I thought I would post my personal favorite assignment of the semester. We were given the task to create our own font. It was first time doing this, and although a bit challenging I love the way the end package turned out.

2008-11-16T20:33:00.002-05:00

fa la la la la. i love christmas. consta's family trimmed their house this weekend. everything from a beautiful tree, to garland and stockings on the railings and wreaths on the door. i know it's not even thanksgiving yet. but, it's nice, it really gives you a chance to enjoy the holiday.

these paper cuts are from re-found objects. i'm adding these to my "hope they're not sold out after christmas" list. :)

2008-11-16T20:12:00.003-05:00

consta laughs at me because i tend to gravitate towards random things while shopping. mostly books, hats, jewelery, cookies...anything that's sparkley, tasty or puts me in a good state of mind. so of course i was "online browsing" and found this necklace and pretty cocktail ring from fuss jewelery. at least i was just browsing. :)

2008-11-11T22:06:00.003-05:00

I've never been huge into wearing hats. Maybe because I can't seem to find one that fits quite right. I am pretty in love with the newsboy hats. I found some adorable ones in Laila Rowe not too long ago that actually looked good on. I might leave this as a NY purchase next week. :)

2008-10-26T15:28:00.003-04:00

When I'm lucky to get a seat next to Sam in class typography suddenly gets twice as interesting. Probably because I'm too busy looking over his shoulder than paying attention. He's a really fabulous illustrator. Worth checking out here and here.

2008-10-23T23:32:00.001-04:00

There is just something about a guy in wash jeans and a black sweater. It makes my heart go pitter-pat. Of course, that's what consta was wearing yesterday. *sigh* i love him.

2008-10-20T16:50:00.003-04:00

how fancy. i need one of these adorable helmets to go with my scooter. they have in other styles/colors at YAKKAY. :) whenever i get a scooter, of course.

2008-09-25T18:06:00.002-04:00

I had a super fabulous birthday week. Seriously, a week.

It started the Sunday before when Consta's mom cooked me up a really yummy greek meal. Wednesday my friend Wendy took me to lunch at Chili's. Friday my parents took me to Sakura's and then followed by one of my favorites: pineapple upside dow cake. mmm, mmm.

Saturday mom took me to tea in Ellicott City. It was great. I've never been to a tea before. We had a large list of tea's to choose from. I got a vanilla chai latte. They call it "Latte da" there. :) It was great for a cool day. They brought out little tea sandwhiches, crackers, scones and desserts.

Saturday evening Alex, Consta's nephew, had his birthday party at Pump It Up. Despite the small battle wounds we suffered from skidding down the plastic moon slides it was tons of fun.

We finished the evening with drinks at Brewer's Art with some of our great friends.

Thanks to everyone for celebrating with me!

2008-08-19T05:32:00.002-04:00

i saw this little gadget in real simple a few months back. if i took more photos i would feel the need to buy it right away. unfortunately i rarely remember to bring my camera anywhere so i'm thinking this little guy would be completely useless to me.

it's a wireless memory card, Eye-Fi, that fits right into your camera. if your house has wireless internet (which i think most would by this point) you would just walk into the front door after a day of shooting fabulous photos and they would automatically copy your pictures to your computer. or better yet, you can set the device to upload to whatever photo-sharing website you use.

buy it here.

2008-08-11T21:12:00.001-04:00

Dr. Suess' Venetian Cat Singing "Oh Solo Meow"

Someday i'll find a print of this. *sigh* but for now, this small web image will do to make it a happy night. :)

2008-08-10T19:57:00.002-04:00

i hate putting outfits together. actually, i love it, but i can never find things that go. i googled "fall clothes" and i found polyvore. you can put together your own finds or you can look through others. the site is filled with really talented people. the best part is every piece of the outfit is linked to the website it's from so it's purchase on demand. :) above are some examples of what you can find.

2008-08-09T08:26:00.003-04:00

mmm these look scrumptious. i'd really love to learn to make them. from what i read, macarons are testy little cookies. i'll keep on the hunt for a good recipe. or..maybe i'll order some from paulette.

2008-08-08T22:37:00.003-04:00

i ran across this rug tonight at the world market. it reminds me of fall..i love the colors. from what i imagine my future house to be i'd like to combine clean lines with comforting warm organic shapes. it would be perfect pretty much anywhere in my future house, haha. I'm not sure where'd i put it now though, and i'm thinking consta might think it's a little to feminine too. ;0)

2008-08-08T22:15:00.002-04:00

i really can't get this baby off my mind. i want one so bad. you can check others out at genuine scooter.

2008-08-01T19:41:00.004-04:00

Flowers make me smile. I've been in love with peonies for only a short while. I saw this sweet card created by Paper Garden Boutique. It was made using a stamp from Impress.

2008-07-29T17:12:00.001-04:00

This may be the sweetest Save the Date I've ever seen. Great idea! :) Traced back to My Aim is True.

2008-07-22T16:25:00.006-04:00

these bags are really cute. it's a laptop bag that doubles as a tote. and it doesn't scream, "i have a laptop, steal me!" plus it's big enough to stash a bunch of stuff in. it's from nanda.

2008-07-21T20:41:00.002-04:00

i saw this gift idea in real simple. it's a cookbook kit from give simple that comes with software to type up your own recipes, paper to print it on, and a pretty little binder to keep it in. i bet i could create my own template. it would make a really great gift for someone. :)

2008-07-21T20:38:00.003-04:00

i was browsing etsy because it's one of my favorite pass times and i found this little beauty. i wouldn't mind adding one of these to my collections.

2008-07-20T20:12:00.003-04:00

wow! what a busy weekend.

Consta and I went shopping today for his mom's birthday. We bought her a griddle from Williams and Sonoma. While I was there I saw these pretty little canisters for Sugar, Flour and Tea.

2008-07-12T12:49:00.003-04:00

I saw this lamp in the Better Homes and Gardens July 08 issue and absolutley fell in love with it. It's just really pretty. It's called Ceramic Rise and Fall Lamp from marston-and-langinger.com.

2008-07-10T20:53:00.002-04:00

Photo borrowed from Flickr

i've been trying to make new foods that incorporate veggies. tonight i tried brownies with a combo of carrots and spinach. it doesn't sound great, but i figured i could try anything once. and they were quite tasty.

i believe this is one of jessica seinfeld's recipes.

ingredients
3 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate. i didn't measure this exactly...but i used a little more than a 1/4 of a bag.
1/2 cup carrot puree
1/2 cup spinach puree
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tbsp. trans-fat-free butter
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 large egg whites
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the over to 350 degrees. Coat 8x8 baking pan with cooking spray.

Melt the butter and chocolate over a low flame.

In a large bowl, combine the melted chocolate, vegetable purees (make sure these are really, really puree'd), sugar, cocoa powder, and vanilla. whisk until smooth and creamy.

Whisk in egg whites. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt.

Bake 35 minutes and let cool.

2008-07-08T22:31:00.002-04:00

i'm completely in love with this photograph. it was taken of the baltimore inner harbor in 1955 by Aubrey Bodine. He really took some beautiful photographs of what to me seem to be a great documentation of baltimore at the time.

my heart is won in several areas of the photograph..the first, of course, the water. the domino sugar sign a landmark of baltimore is shown in the distance. the big industrial ship pushing against the beauty of the waves.

this one is called journey's end. i'd love to purchase a large print. but for now it's on my wish list.

2008-07-07T21:30:00.003-04:00

i'm really loving this vintage wire desk tray. too bad i don't have an office. :/ you can buy it from see jane work.

2008-06-30T21:35:00.004-04:00

i'd really like to go to the summer jazz concert series at the baltimore museum of art. it includes a three course dinner on the terrace. with live jazz in the sculpture garden. it's a little pricey...but it seems very nice.

2008-06-29T17:12:00.002-04:00

one of my favorite part about Sunday is getting brunch. I love trying new yummy places in the city..and finding some really great spots that we just can't get enough of. today we were jonsin' for some crepes..sophie's crepes are the best we've found in the city. I've tried looking for a website for them but I'm not finding one. they have two locations on charles st. although the one near the everyman theatre is the only location open on the weekend.

they make they crepes right in front of you. they make it look so easy... i got a kevin bacon, created of course by kevin bacon himself. it was turkey, bacon, cheddar cheese, tomato and 1000 island dressing. yummy. :)

2008-06-25T05:28:00.002-04:00

i'm working on my final project for my summer class. besides being so time consuming it's kind of fun. i'm rhetorically comparing/contrasting Volkswagen ads from post ww2 until today. i want to show the evolution of the ad with the changing market and vast cultural differences.

2008-06-19T19:59:00.003-04:00

i got a promotion at work today! hooray! i've decided to put half of the extra money each pay towards my retirement and the other half into the house savings. man am i exciting, or what?

i'm going to splurge a little on myself first. I've decided to buy a bag of vanilla chai tea from vaccaro's in Little Italy and a pretty bunch of peonies.

2008-06-18T18:50:00.004-04:00

i'm adding this to my christmas list. i know, i know..it's getting too be a pretty long list. i just found this company i break plates in the last issue of urbanite. i can't wait to see them at artscape in july. now if i could only decide which one i like the best. i think this one is coming in a high first place.

2008-06-18T17:30:00.005-04:00

pretty cakes. (michelle - hope this helps. she can do anything that you dream up. some of these cakes aren't hers but, are like the ones she's done. i don't have all of her photos on the internet yet. you can get some more cake ideas here.)

2008-06-13T22:25:00.004-04:00

oh my miracle. i think i might be able to finally stomach brussel sprouts...or any kind of sprouts. after eating this tiny little "miracle berry" your mouth will turn into an oasis of sweet. that's right, everything you eat after the berry will be sweet, at least for a few hours anyway. i'm seriously considering going to one of the miracle fruit parties. anyone up for a road trip? i've also emailed mad flavor science to find out how much it would cost to ship to maryland.

2008-06-11T17:00:00.001-04:00

i'm adding table topics to my birthday/christmas/just 'cause you love me wish list. they have several additions but i'm thinking i'd probably like the original addition the best. the questions are open-ended and are really great conversation starters. i think it'd be a great game...especially with a few drinks. :)