Santa Cruz, California
Halter | Skirt | Hat | Sunglasses
My friend Elise is one of those people who will invite you and your kids over for an afternoon of flower-wreath-making for no particular reason, just because she happens to have everything you need to make a flower wreath on hand. She knows how to draw those pretty cursive chalkboard stencils that you see outside restaurants and at kids' birthday parties. She has drawers full of crafting supplies, and she actually uses them.
My birthday cake, about to be frosted in my daughter's favorite color ("peeeenk").
If you've liked the tablescape shots I've been posting lately - mostly featuring Noritake China's Cher Blanc and Sandefjord patterns - I am about to make your first day back at work after a long weekend (ugggg) way better. We're giving away a $350 gift card to Noritake China (plus signed copies of both of my books, Ramshackle Glam and Carrying On), which you can use to pick up some of the items you've seen featured here...or anything else on the site that you're into.
Alisa + me + babies | Our newly redecorated backyard
The fact that I love our house is a bit of a lucky surprise – purchasing a home that you’ve only seen on a FaceTime video is…well, a questionable decision, at best. But I do! I totally love it.
The one thing about our place that I wasn’t quite sure about when we decided to buy it: its size. It’s about the same square footage as the house we moved out of, which had been starting to feel a bit cramped for our growing family. And yet this house feels way more expansive to me – partially, I think, because it’s all on one level, but mostly because of our outdoor space.
{ Vintage Glasses (similar) | Noritake Cher Blanc Platter }
Reason Number 2,457,244 why Trader Joe's is the best thing that has ever happened to life, ever: they have beautiful fresh flower arrangements that are actually affordable, and also seem to be preternaturally long-lasting. Which is wonderful, because spending twenty bucks on a grocery-store bouquet that falls to pieces within 24 hours is both the worst and something I tend to not do (because it literally feels like ripping up a twenty-dollar bill and throwing it out of my car window). And while the idea of being one of those people who trots off to the florist for some lovely fresh blooms has its appeal...I mean, lol.
But I do a lot of entertaining, and also take a lot of photographs of said entertaining, and I've discovered that having a few fresh flowers laying around is kind of huge in terms of making your table (and home, generally) feel lovely and fresh and inviting. And they're really useful for adding texture and color to images, if you too are a table-photographer (see this post for evidence).
