a dreamy mid summer weekend.

before every summer begins i envision sitting in my beach chair, warm sun on my skin, sand under my bare feet and endless reading - magazines, beach reads, catalogs etc. time will be endless.   i always leave the beach chairs in the car so hopefully many impromptu beach visits can happen.  there never seems to be enough visits or enough time.  i dream of warm evenings at outside cafes and catching the scent of firewood while toasting smores over an open fire pit.  i plan lots of visits catching up with family and friends.   

but...  this morning i realized that july is almost over,  didn’t summer just start? i've been experiencing this disbelief at an ever-increasing rate: at time’s passing.  when did all of this happen? time is tricky.  days are never long enough. some weeks pass in a blur, but hours stretch out for an eternity. years go by in an instant. each one shorter and shorter.  i try not to think about it but it’ll be some sort of moment where i turn over in the heaviness of sleep  and in those few seconds when i try to return to slumber the spell is broken and suddenly i feel the weight of time. 
at the height of summer, even as i savor the long days and blue skies for which i yearned all winter for, i’m always aware that it’s already on its way out.   here i am at the apex of another summer, feeling the way the last days of this particular month make up a strange equation of endings and beginning’s. at the beach house surrounded by all our family and friends  i think of all that changes and all that stays the same, and happiness swells alongside sadness in my chest.

 

love sent, xo





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first quiet of the morning...

today began with rain. not the violent kind from yesterday, but the soft kind that calls for standing in doorways and inhaling the scent. it's the kind of day that calls for extra coffee, for laughter in the morning and for celebrating because it's friday. two free days coming up. some time to listen to music, read books, mull over projects and hit the beach.
every day, every single day the hours run out far sooner than my ambition. i’m grateful for this, even tho i always feel myself fall short. there never seems enough time for all i want to do. but i am grateful to wake up hungry and eager for the day, and also to find myself at the other side of the day, still hungering for this sweet life, these days, these words, these hours.

happy friday.
have a great weekend!
love sent, xo

tuscany

life just seemed a little more beautiful here.  we ate al fresco every chance we got.

love sent, xo

love has a thousand faces...

it was that kind of evening...

the kind that deserves to be enjoyed well after the sun slips below the tree line. 
may your days include golden hours of joy with all the people you love.

we celebrated with  big bouquets of sunflowers  - thanks mom 

popcorn and cold drinks.

the stuff that dreamy summer nights are made of.

love sent, xoxo

anything can happen under a sky like this...

 “Perhaps you didn’t realize, anything can happen under a sky like this.” That line speaks of hope in a world of concrete gray skies and  to  remember there is always hope for another beautiful tomorrow..

love sent, xo

when you add it all up.

we are the sum of every whim and thought, every move and experience both good and bad in this short time we have on this earth. 

so don't regret anything.

sometimes we express our individuality by doing something on impulse. for some of us it's just how
we are built.  others have to think for a very long time about whatever it is they may want/need to do.
sometimes my impulses are good and sometimes not so good.  but it's me. it's what makes everyone unique.  sometimes i start fires and sometimes i put them out.

i am increasingly convinced that the key to happiness and success in this life is the ability to course-correct.  if you make a mistake you can't wallow in it,  you have to learn the lesson and move on.
learn how to let go of our failures rather than to let them bring us down and to let go of how we wanted it to be so that we can have it as it is.  i don’t want to ruin these days by attaching myself to all the ways that they disappoint me.  if i do that i miss their extraordinary brilliance. 

when i have a good day i write about it and when i have a bad day i write about that too. and on a bad day usually when i have finished the post i can find the silver lining.   this space reminds me that every person that enters your life has some purpose. there will be friends that come and go there will be scrapes and scars, happiness and trials, pain and peace, love and loss, celebrations and heartaches.
memories will be made.

my life is right here in front of me. i have a deep desire to be aware and present in the every day moments.
i remember when i decided to start this blog -  just on a whim. i never thought i would still be making entries several years later.  i don't always stick to things that long.   it was a space to capture pictures and feelings and ideas and recipes and it has worked. i have captured some feelings here that i am happy i documented. feelings that run like a deep river through  my very being.

on this road called life we pick up great lessons in  the form of pebbles, bumps, or highlands. whether we choose to apply these lessons to our everyday life or not, ultimately makes us the people we become. many of us would choose to only remember the negative for those are the lessons that tend to leave the greatest impact,  but i don't like negativity.  i like to be positive. not unicorns and princesses but i like to find the silver lining in all of life's lessons.

i live believing there is always sunshine around the corner.



love sent, xo

martha's vineyard...

it's a day of little things that make life sweet.  i hope you are making some little things of your own.  i will say hello to the ocean for you tonight, and watch the sun set; i'll take a deep breath of island air and bury my toes in the sand, and imagine you are feeling it too.

because it is.

martha's vineyard was just spectacular.  i totally fell in love with it.
i hadn't been back here for so long and now i wonder why.

summer is all about the beach and vacation.  right?
life is a complicated thing. 
there are dreams and obligations and plans and detours -  but so much good.
so if last minute you get the chance to run away for a few days you do - right? 

of course you do. 

 

screen doors are my very favorite and especially if they open into ice cream shops.

 i mean, just look how lucky we are.  this was so cool.

so proud

spectacular views 

edgartown lighthouse

south beach

awesome friends

 doesn't get any better than this

happy vacation....

love sent, xo

summer...

catching days...

the 4th always brings back so many memories. we had such grand celebrations when i was young.  it was the real beginning of summer   it meant road trips out to the country with the car piled with  more people than it could hold.  kids fighting over who got the window seat and coolers packed with food and drink. there was the family whiffle ball league,  the grandmothers threw out the first pitch on memorial day and the season ended on labor day. i had no idea then how meaningful all those days would come to be.  it did teach me how important family is and how much love there was in
that circle. what i didn't realize then was those days gave us life and food for future years, i  am amazed by the memories that endure.  how the 4th brings back all those days,  how the memories burst in my heart like a firework that explodes in the night sky, with sparks that reach out and trickle down then disappear.  how each part of the day brings back a memory, a song, a smell, a person.  now i look at the night sky and i squint to see you there,  i know you are looking down watching us making  new memories and smiling.  i have these little stones of memories, shined to brilliance by being turned over and over in my mind. 

thank you for all of it.

an excerpt from the poem that my cousin moe wrote in 2001. 

the greatest gift of all

"when nighttime finally drew her curtain, one of the last treats we could be certain,
at the closing of this day, the needham fireworks display,
it was the frosting on the cake.  we all piled in the car to make.
that bitter-sweet and sad goodbye, (still even now tears sting my eyes)
hurry up we mustn't dally
who would "win" the grand finale??
as dazzling rainbows mesmerized,  back then, we never realized,
just how much they'd mean today when the smoke had cleared away.
back then we were to young to know, it was the love that made it so.
the fun, the food, the merry choices, the lilting sounds of loved ones voices,
echo in my thoughts this day, as i send a hug your way,
for in my heart i hear them still,  and i know i always will,
as i lovingly recall,  fourth of july and whiffle ball.

love was the greatest gift of all  -mlc"  xo

and our new memories.

hope you had a happy fourth... any good reason to celebrate.

love sent, xo

happy 4th everyone

perfect summer salad...

via a house in the hills.

ingredients:
1 bunch watercress
2 cups cubed watermelon
1/4 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
1/8 cup grapeseed oil
2 tablespoons lime juice
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro
1 teaspoon maple syrup
1/2 lime

directions:
- if possible make the dressing in advance by combining the grapeseed oil, lime juice, sea salt, cilantro, and maple syrup.  i added one extra solid pinch of salt at the end too, but taste and season to your preference!
- rinse and dry the watercress, combine in a large serving bowl with the watermelon and toss with the dressing.
- in a skillet toast the pepitas over medium heat with the juice of 1/2 lime and a solid pinch of salt
- add pepitas to salad and serve!

and a drink to go with it...

love sent, xo

sweet sweet summertime...

this weekend there was finally nothing to do.  no commitments,  no parties, no obligations, just a  free and clear 2 days.  it was just what i needed.
there was time for movies and dinners, and catch up and wind-down. perfect combination.
friday night i finally got to see a movie i have been waiting for.  "before midnight"  has been playing in new york since may but it just arrived locally. 
i loved this theater,  it's old school  and i will definitely go again but the movie for me was disappointing.  i loved richard linklater's  first two movies "before sunrise"  and "before sunset"  so i had high expectations.  there were good lines and a few nice moments but the 20 minutes of arguing in the hotel room did me in.  it exhausted me to listen to their trials.  i am fully aware that in real life this totally happens but i am a hopeless romantic and wished for something more.

you can watch the trailer here

saturdays weather turned out better than they had predicted so i headed out really early to go
strawberry picking. 

it was perfect timing and allowed me the chance to make lots of great strawberry jam, and later in the day a few strawberry mojito's. the strawberry jam dragged up a lot of wonderful memories.  it's amazing how - in an instant, doing something like this can bring you right back to another place and time, you can feel everything you were feeling. the very act of noticing is something akin to wonder.

grandeur is right here.  in the view just outside my kitchen window.  little circles of light bouncing into my life.   as you can see the garden is doing really well.  it must be all the rain and of course all the tlc.

                               sunday was a beach day.  worked out unexpectedly awesome.

dinner was even better.

                                               hope you had a wonderful weekend as well.



love sent, xo