bartram's gardens

Ethan and i spent the entire weekend on a massive hunt for a wedding reception place. i never thought i was going to get obsessed with wedding planning, but it turns out i am! well, maybe just about the reception place (hopefully just about this). it turns out i actually have alot of requirements, like having some garden/outdoor space and not being too fancy. anyways, our searching took us to Bartram's gardens in southwest philly. its this crazy little garden on the banks of the river, way down in a place you would never expect it, literally right next to the projects. apparently, bartram was this country's first botanist and he traveled all over the eastern US collecting specimens, sending many of them back to England, and putting other's in this garden. the garden was just lovely, and although we decided it wasn't right for our reception, it was well worth the visit!

daydreaming in ohio

one of my favorite places, the backyard of my parent's house in ohio. right after paris, ethan and i stayed up 24 hours straight to drive back to ohio to my parent's house. we wanted to get there as soon as we could to see my family, and also our two cats and dog (our own little zoo!) we spent three wonderful days there and there are more pictures from our trip to come.

my little sister

this is my little sister, Elissa, isn't she the cutest?!? in these pictures she's wearing a dress from the shop, which is perfect because i wanted to tell everyone that the shop will be re-opening this week! I've got some really great fall stuff that i've been saving up all summer, so keep your eyes peeled!

also, Elissa and I are starting up a new shop, which we're going to keep a secret for now, but i'll be able to tell you more about in just a little while!!! i'll keep you posted!

the last day in paris

we were pretty inspired by our visit to the l'orangerie, so on our last day, we decided to go and see the real thing: Monet's gardens in Giverny. We ended up missing the first trail by just a minute or two, so we stopped by Sacre Coeur first, and then took the trail out to Vernon.

In Vernon, we rented bicycles and rode along a very scenic path with great views of the country side. right before we got to Giverny, we passed some bushes with the most amazing blackberries, which we picked and brought with us for our picnic. Monet's gardens were amazing and lovely, although it was a bit crowded for our liking. but we got some amazing pictures, and we climbed a hill at the edge of town and ate our bread, cheese and blackberries while looking over the whole countryside!

internet snafu ( and the Louvre and Monet)

so i wasn't able to post for the last two days of our trip, but now that i'm back in the states with a decent internet, i'll catch up! i'm glad i can too, cause we got some great pictures on the last couple days. On Saturday afternoon, Ethan and I met up at the Louvre, but never actually went inside, and instead decided to wander down to this museum called l'Orangerie. We were so glad that we did, because inside were these two amazing elliptical rooms with all of the walls covered with enourmous paintings by monet! he created curved canvases specifically for the room so that you would feel totally immersed in the feeling of the waterlillies. so spectacular!

shopping!

Usually i don't do too much shopping when Ethan and I travel cause he's really not much of a shopper, but this afternoon he was at work, so i visited some lovely stores in the city. The first is Marie Papier, an amazing paper and stationary store. In the wedding of my dreams, my invites would come from here!





Next, on to Dalloyau, for some pastries and fruit confits!





finally, a stop at free'p'star, a vintage store recommended by Alix on her blog. it was a crazy, crowded little store just packed to the brim with vintage! in the end, i didn't get anything, i think i was too overwhelmed, but it was very fun to look through all the racks.




oh and last night i was ambitious and put in some rag curls, this is the result! not so bad, maybe my best curling effort yet...

musee moyen age

today, we made it to one and a half museums: first the museum of the middle ages and later attempted to go to the musee quai branly. here i am on my way to the museum of the middle ages.
at the museum of the middle ages, there were the most fantastic tapestries that had just the cutest little rabbit and foxes on them. all of my pictures came out fuzzy, but i found some good ones here and here.



this gorgeous dress is from this always fabulous lady, who really has the most amazing taste in clothes ever!



la dame et licorne (the lady and the unicorn)



the cutest little sad bunny!




later on, we tried to go to the musee quai branly, which has art from africa and asia, but i got the day wrong, and they weren't open. however, it has the greatest gardens, so i got some good pictures of ethan in the bamboo forest and in front of the wall of plants!

musee d'orsay

Ethan was at his conference all day today, but we met up for a quick lunch at the musee d'orsay. there is the best little cafe there, with an entire wall taken up by a giant clock, and they serve the most wonderful tea.

by the seine

after such an exciting day the day before, we took things a big more slowly yesterday. but, because the weather was so wonderful, i knew that i wanted to eat dinner outside by the seine. so after getting a cafe creme at le soufflet, we bought some wine and groceries and headed to the banks of the river! there were so many people eating along the banks, even on a tuesday night! just as we were finishing our food, a huge group of students, who looked like maybe they were in their first week of college sat down right next to us, so we decided it was time to move on down the river and see what else was going on. i'm so glad we did, because we came across a whole group of people doing the lindy hop by the river. it was great to watch them, and it made us think that maybe we should take some dance lessons before our wedding :)

In Paris!

so i feel like i've been running all over the world, to woods hole, northeast pa, baltimore philly and back again. now i am in paris, and somehow things seem both slower and faster at the same time. i've had more time to slow down and enjoy little things, like drinking un cafe in the Jardin Luxembourg, but at the same time things seem to be speeding to a blur because on our first day here, Ethan and I got engaged! Of course, i'm so excited, and the ring is amazing, a beautiful platinum Edwardian era ring. now i'm just looking forward to finding a perfect (hopefully vintage!) dress!




in the meantime, i'm going to enforce some structure on my life, and i'm going to post one picture each night for what i've worn that day! i'm doing two today, one for yesterday and one for today... here they are!