2.28.2012

Sunday Dinner

Sunday Dinner

BKE low top
$48 - buckle.com

J Crew cotton skirt
$128 - jcrew.com

MIA flat heels
$50 - buckle.com

Post earrings
$30 - anthropologie.com

2.26.2012

This really got to me today...



A favorite Joni Mitchell song of mine. This rendition, got me deep. <3 Nicole

Weekend: Chill Look

Weekend: Chill Look

James Jeans cuffed jeans
$130 - piperlime.gap.com

Sperry Top-Sider boat deck shoes
$90 - piperlime.gap.com

Leather necklace
$298 - anthropologie.com

Kate Spade cat eye sunglasses
$128 - piperlime.gap.com

2.22.2012

MY BEAUTIFUL GIRLS

My eldest. Captive in her thoughts. Drawn to the imaginary world. Sensitive to the world. Delicate as a flower. Prances happily. Cries tragically. Loves LARGE AND FULL. Never forgets. Sings to herself. Has a depth in her eyes that spans many lives. Appreciative and grateful, always. Everyday is a fashion show/art show. Likes to live life as a play-- creating roles for herself and everyone else (she even tells me my lines). Dramatic little bud, growing into a little bedazzling lady. She's amazing. (4 years old)

Precise. Quiet schemer. Face to face huger(cheek to cheek smashing). Mechanical mind. Nurturer. Motivated and determined. Climber. A true kind heart. Gives out pity pats in other's grief, without a thought. Runs to hug and wraps her legs around my tummy like a monkey. Growls like a tiger. Dances to the beat and mimics dance moves perfectly. Natural rhythm. Tickling cures her sadness instantly. Blanket goes everywhere-- a ritual twirl in the fist and in the mouth, the other hand gently rubs the silky end on her face. When she's really happy she scrunches her nose and makes the funniest sound-- something like a squeal/whine hybrid sound. She peers right through your soul and sees YOU, and LOVES YOU. (19 months)

~~~
Personal Tid Bits:

Last night I realized there was definitely a God. A force of LOVE that we try to mimic as much as possible in our imperfect lives. When either of my little girls is going through a rough patch of change, I want to fix it, fix it perfectly-- quell their pain. I can't gather enough perfect by myself, and they know that I Try and my intentions are always good, but then I find myself in an inadvertent prayer, pleading for the ability to know what to do and how to do it right. I am at an alter, in my bed, crying in the pillow, exalting to a perfect love? I need help and the only thing I feel instinctively, is there is a source of this perfect love, that'll intercept and comfort me, and give me the patience, strength, and the ability to understand how to be in certain instances. The void is there, the faith is there, and that is the schematic of prayer I Think. I look back on my prayers and feel in the times that I was fully in the prayer, giving it all up to the perfect love: God, I quickly am at peace. I decided I can't be the best parent without God's guidance. xo, Nicole


2.20.2012

Spring: Color Blocking

I am hopping on the Color Blocking trend, that is heavily saturating the stores, with this cute, cute, cute, tote! It's soft suppleness, tends to make you forget that it's not actually leather, and to some that's a good thing. I adhere to the minimalist fervor, this color blocking philosophy elicits. Plus, this is a clearance item-- I know, what? ($17.99). I have links above, but I just walked into my local Old Navy and purchased it a few days ago. Think: Book bag, Mommy Bag, Beach Bag, Camp Bag, Art supply Bag, Bag Bag (haha!).

The wallet was sitting right under the purse. I was instantly drawn to the textile whimsy and that it was canvas (makes me dream of Spring-time). As a seasonal, or all around wallet trade-in, this is dynamite! (is that a little too wacky of an adjective to use for a wallet?)

What are some of your favorite Spring Trends?

2.15.2012

Shit Girls Say - Episode 1





I cried. I cry when I laugh! How are we this transparent?

30th Birthday: Feb. 10,2012

Flowers from my husband with a card that read, "Happy 29th." Funny, real funny. We all know I am repeating my 29th birthday from here on out.

Cupcakes, also from my husband. I love cupcakes for any reason what-so-ever. Nom. Nom.

A long table filled with my Marietta friends and their accompanying dates and poisons.

This is my birthday meal I decided to order: Lobster Linguine. It looks splendid as a picture, but honestly it failed. The Lobster was imitation (what do I expect in Ohio), but what got me down was that it was cold. Warm noodles, cold Lobster, untorn at that, eh, kinda gross. O well.
~~~
None of the drinks and food mattered anyway, just side items to a great night out with friends. I got exactly what I wanted, a gathering of friends and laughing. We even muscled through a band that was pretentiously described as being almost every influence and genre in the book and that's what they sounded like: muddled rock that vibrated our skulls. We migrated to another bar/eatery in Marietta. Much better. Light and bright, acoustic guitar playing, and a Birthday mixed drink that tasted like a watermelon Jolly Rancher, in other words, probably really heavy on the liquor. I am a woos. I drank 1/4 of it before, Jill, a new fun friend, brought me over a shot. I am a woos again, and only managed to drink half. In all honesty, liquor makes me feel like a train wreck, and having to get up with my kiddos the next day and try to be competent, not worth it. So, I finished the evening, baby sipping a Michelob Ultra (my favorite beer, because it doesn't taste too much like beer or anything). I could tell I was getting to my unflattering stage, past the funny ice-breaking rambles, into the slowly rotting tired brain nonsense: enter comment about the weather here, for example. My friend Julia dropped me off. I was happy as a clam and drunk as a skunk. Good times.

2.09.2012

Last Day being 29 years old

Words are flowing out like
Endless rain into a paper cup
They slither wildly as they slip away across the universe.
Pools of sorrow waves of joy
Are drifting through my opened mind
Possessing and caressing me.

Jai Guru Deva. Om
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world

Images of broken light, which
Dance before me like a million eyes,
They call me on and on across the universe.
Thoughts meander like a
Restless wind inside a letter box
They tumble blindly as they make their way across the universe.

Posted by PicasaJai Guru Deva. Om
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world

Sounds of laughter, shades of life
Are ringing through my opened ears
Inciting and inviting me.
Limitless undying love, which
Shines around me like a million suns,
It calls me on and on across the universe

Jai Guru Deva.
Jai Guru Deva.
Jai Guru Deva.
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world

~ The Beatles - Across the Universe

Today I woke up (my last day being 29), after a night broken by a few restless cries--Midnight-ish, 2 a.m.- ish. Not that I wasn't happy to be in the presence of idle time, awake, aware, and lathering in the atmosphere of still feeling, but ever still going, buzzing, clicking, spinning, a slow rock, like a mother does to her baby under the night light moon beam. And so the deep night brings me into the deep thoughts...I am on a planet suspended and fitted in the fabric of gravity and energy. The symphony of the universe never stops, it's always playing, exploding, imploding, enveloping, stretching, soaring, spreading out like a continual spill...hungry for expansion, for growth-- to where? Where is the universe going? Where am I going? Let's just say I lingered with my coffee today a little longer, sat on the couch a little longer, tried to slow down the pace, so I could just revel in my last day of being in my 20s. There was a spike of anxiety and sadness midday. I had to call my sister, Hanna, to just vent. Vent the, "But I don't want to grow up," sulk. Rambled to my husband, and then decided I wanted to go get Mexican food and a Dairy Queen, peanut butter parfait (wow, those things are huge). I am going to end the evening with a movie of my choosing and then wake up 30. Saying I'm thirty tomorrow is going to have the same strange feeling as when I said, "I'm married. I'm a wife," a few years ago. Just like then, I'll get over it and into it.


(Do what makes you prrr. Find your prrrpose! ~ a thought I had today)

My friend, Kim, organized a Happy Birthday card system, where each card has a number on it 1-30, and I am receiving them in the mail, from 30 of my closest friends. To orchestrate such a gesture is lovely and I am truly grateful to have such true and beautiful people in my life. I am tearing up reading all the memories my friends have reminded me of. Time is changing me, but, "Nothing's going to change my world," as The Beatles sang. I don't see my world of love ever changing, it's perfect. Welcome, 30.