The City of Brotherly Love…

Last Monday, Emmy, our mom and I flew to Philadelphia, PA to help her get moved in to her new apartment.  It was a bittersweet trip.  She will be there all summer, so it was nice to have the week to see Philly and spend some time with her.

Our flight there was through Atlanta, so we used our 1 hour layover to get bagels, coffee and tea from Starbucks.  Have you ever noticed how much fun it is to people watch when you’re running on about three hours of sleep?  You should try it some time.

We got there around lunch time, so we got settled in at my cousin’s apartment and then went to The Gold Standard.  I had the black bean burger and it was ridiculously good –

After we ate, we walked back to the apartment to rest up.  Then we took the trolley into town and got groceries at Trader Joe’s (which is amazing!) and made dinner

After dinner, we sat out on the front porch of the apartment and picked fresh strawberries from the garden.

On Tuesday, my mom wasn’t feeling well so we stuck close to home and spent lots of time outside and exploring around our block.

I came across this Martha Stewart entertainment book at the apartment and found something interesting inside…

On Wednesday, my mom was still feeling pretty crummy so Emmy and I went into center city and explored around.  We had a picnic at a park in Rittenhouse Square and then walked around for a while.

We went looking for the movie crew for Dead Man Down that our cab driver on Tuesday pointed out.  We found it and also found Dominic Cooper running down the street being shot at – it was very exciting!

There he is in the tan jacket – I had no idea I was standing this close to him until I walked across the street and realized that was him!

Since the movie is set in NY, everywhere you looked there were New York taxis, street signs, business signs and licence plates on parked cars.  We didn’t get to see Colin Ferrall, who is the star of the film, but they’ll be there all month so Emmy might get to see him!

Emmy and I walked a couple blocks and went to H&M, JCrew and Anthropologie!

Then we came home and ate a really good tofu stir-fry and sat on the porch watching the rain.

On Thursday, my mom was feeling so awful and was having symptoms of a heart attack.  We had to call 911 and rush her to the ER.  This was very scary, not only because of her symptoms, but also because Emmy and I really had to take charge and do things we’ve never done before.  After an exhausting 6 hours, they ruled out any serious conditions and thought that she was probably just coming down with something on top of dehydration and exhaustion from traveling.  While she was having many different test done, Emmy and I ran errands and drank lots of Starbucks.  About an hour after we got back to the apartment, our cousins, Kristen and Nate (whose apartment we’d been staying at) got back home.  We ate salad from the garden with homemade honey mustard dressing (dijon mustard from France, honey from our front yard) and tofu hoggies from a small Chinese grocery store a couple blocks away and then went to get gelato and sorbetto from a place pretty close by.

grape and pineapple mint sorbetto

After we went out, we moved Emmy into her adorable apartment – we all love it!!

On Friday morning, we walked around the block one more time, packed up are suitcase and the hardest part, said goodbye to Emmy.  There were minimal tears (a miracle in itself) and lots of hugs.  We’re going back to see her in July, so it really won’t be that long, but it’ll feel much longer.

The plane ride home was quick and easy and it was good to be home.  This was a very exciting trip (with the exception of the ER visit) and I’m counting down the days until our next trip.

My Life in a Nutshell….

This week is theater week for my ballet company’s spring performance.  That means rehearsing in the theater for 6+ hours a day, everyday, until the show this weekend.  In my spare time (ha!) I’ve been doing school, surfing pinterest (of course) and icing my feet quite a lot.

this was as close to an outfit post as I could get this week - stylish, right?

flat shoes and pointe shoes waiting to be sewn, water bottle, To Kill a Mockingbird and a sewing kit - all theater week essentials.

No-Bake Boston Creme Pie – I’m definitely trying this after theater week is over (http://www.thekitchn.com/-cookbook-recipe-137474)

Amazing chevron door via my pinterest – the inspiration for my summer project (more on that later)!

Definitely painting my nails one of these shades when the show is over (via my pinterest)!

I won’t have time to post again until the show is over, so have a great rest of the week, everybody!

Fresh Slates

Sometimes in life, you get blank walls that need to be covered, and sometimes you get walls already plastered in old posters that could desperately stand a little re-decorating. in either situation, i wouldn’t mind having a few of these around.

I saw these in the Churchill war room's gift shop in London before they became all the rage, and have been wanting one ever since.

I have a serious thing for wall maps, and I like how simple and classic this one looks. I love the colors too.

I'll file this one away under "for when I have my own walls to decorate."

The world's coolest wallpaper. Wait...since when is wallpaper cool? Since now! This print reminds me of some illustration in a childhood book of mine, I can't put my finger on what it was but it seems very familiar...

feeling childish….

There are some days where things just tend to pile up all at once.  On those days, I tend to get stressed, snippy, grouchy, irritable and downright mad!  So here’s my antidote:  set up a teepee from bamboo and some old sheets.  Put a typewriter, lots of books and an electric fan inside and have a photoshoot!  So, here are the pictures I took as well as some of my favorite images from the web of earthy, organic, wonderfully awesome interior design expeditions!

Come Fly Away….

– Eliza

Well, emmy beat me to the punch here…oh well!  While she was busy running from raindrops and having a session of kitten therapy, I was busy readying the house for out-of-town-company and redecorating my room.  My current obsession is interior design (or as some people like to call, home decorating).  Which ever way you call it, it’s a very fun way to show off your creativity while reinventing the space you live in.  You can completely change the mood of the room by just sticking a vase of flowers on the table or hanging something new on the wall.  My resent redecorating challenge was the latter.

For years and years I have had the same bulletin board and framed poster hanging on the wall over my computer and trust me, it HAD TO GO!  I’ve had an idea of what I wanted to hang there for a while but never got around to actually doing it.  But finally, the time had come!  So, I took down the bulletin board, carefully removed everything that was on it, either stored it or tossed it (most was stored and will probably be tossed when I get around to cleaning out my junk holder, aka my desk.  But that’s another matter altogether that will be addressed in the near future), took down the poster, printed out some really pretty fashion prints, trimmed them to the right size, stuck some tape on the backs and slapped them up on the wall!  Then I decided to removed the giant tissue paper pom pom and hang up a vintage bird cage that had been looking for a place to call home in my room for a long rime.  The final step was to print out some vintage VOGUE covers and photos from the 1950s and hang them in various places in my room.  Viola!  All was complete!  Just after I finished doing this, I went out on the porch to read Julie & Julia and a few minutes after that my mom came running out and said that there was water pouring from the second story onto the computer.  So (long story short), we mopped up the floor (and the ceiling), dried off the computer (which miraculously still works), got our neighbor to temporarily fix the air conditioner (which caused the whole debacle), changed clothes, got everything together and left for the airport with a few minutes to spare.

We got to the airport just in time to pick up my cousin-aunt (she’s really my cousin but feels more like an aunt) and we came home for some fresh butterbeans from the garden, fresh homemade bread, fresh cucumber salad and honey from our bee hives!  We had a great day despite a few hitches along the road!