life lately

cats are dog bed hogs :: coral beads :: birthday cake

shellac nails :: new bedding :: knit headband

cat+cycling doc :: spring outfit :: jamba juice

le pup

Introducing: Sir Winston Oxford Beauregard  

(yes, that is his AKC registered name)

Though he is more affectionately known to us as Winston.

what is wisdom?

"The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool." 

Shakespeare | As You Like It

As of 10:30 this morning, I officially lost all of my wisdom in the form of four teeth.

(And am now rocking an amazing ice pack of the strapped to the face variety.)

Columbia

Yesterday Candice, Julie and I explored everything downtown has to offer.

We ate at Mr. Friendly's in Five Points, and I had the most amazing pork chop of my life. It was topped with pimento cheese and an apple wood bbq sauce with mashed potatoes and collard greens on the side. It was so delicious. I only managed to get a picture of the fried green tomatoes appetizer because the pork smelled so good, I was halfway done before I thought to take a picture of it. Then I drove them around to all of the interesting things in Columbia. And Candice snapped a picture of my poor conehead, Stella. 

It was such a fun afternoon; another outing is in order.

charleston

Yesterday I drove to Charleston and back for my father in law's law firm. My destination? The courthouse on the corner of Broad Street and Meeting Street downtown. Knowing the parking nightmare that is downtown Charleston, and armed with a map of the public parking garages, I planned to park in a garage on Queen Street a few blocks away from the courthouse. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of visiting the most beautiful city on Earth, it's right on the ocean. There are beautiful beaches, the most amazing historic buildings, parks, The Battery right along the harbor. But it's also a maze of really narrow - think late-1600s narrow - one-way streets. Finding parking even a few blocks away from your destination is a somewhat lofty goal. Finding street parking anywhere in the city is practically impossible. Don't even try. But I digress.

As I made my way to the center of downtown, I got caught in a right turn only lane with no hope of going back. I turned. And then, along with a bus, battled out the extreme narrowness and craziest excuse of a two-lane road that is King Street. Eventually, I found myself on Broad Street. Then something amazing happened. All of the planets and stars aligned. A woman left. I took her spot. On the street. In the heart of downtown Charleston. It was only a fifteen minute meter, so I looked around to get my bearings, and tried to figure out if I could make it to the courthouse and back in fifteen. I knew I had to be close, but was I fifteen minutes on foot round trip close? I looked up and around, and realized I was parked right in front of the courthouse. Lit'rally right in front. I got a spot on the street in front of the building I wanted to go to. In Charleston. People, this.does.not.happen. It was a parking miracle.

Moral of the story: Charleston is beautiful. The parking craziness is well worth it. You should be planning your trip right now. Seriously. Stop everything and come.

time for a change

I want to change my hair. Beautiful thing about hair is that it's so easily changed. You cut it; it grows back. You dye it; you can dye it again if you hate it.

Here's two colors I found that I love:

both images via pinterest

Which color do you like/think will look best on me?

Walkürenritt

image via http://www.brevardmusic.org/

A little post over at my friend Grace's blog reminded me of a time, years ago, 

when I lived in North Carolina for a summer.

Yes, the summer of 2006 I lived in the foothills of North Carolina in a little town called Brevard. I spent six weeks at the Brevard Music Center having the best musical summer that's ever happened. It was ideal. Music everywhere. All the time. That may or may not have been directly related to the fact that the only place air conditioning existed on the campus was in the practice rooms. Incentive much? Aside from that, it was a magical place of the first order. Really. For a week and a half leading up to the opera company's performance of The Sound of Music, I would wake up each morning to the resounding ending chords of the reprise of "Climb Evry Mountain" floating in through the trees with the glittering morning sun.

Each morning we were awoken by a trumpeter playing "Reville" and we were sent to bed each night with an equally as talented trumpeter's performance of "Taps". It was lovely; mostly because it was slightly mysterious, as the trumpeter was always stationed far enough away by the lake that the sounds wafted in with the cooler night air. You never really knew where it was coming from. And then one morning, it was different.

One morning, as we slept peacefully in our cabins on the hill, the low brass got themselves together a little choir of about three tubas, four or five trombones, and four or five euphoniums. They planted themselves right outside of our front porch at 6:00 am, and played Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" with all the gusto and volume they could muster. I don't know if you've ever been startled awake by a full low brass choir playing at fortissimo, but they could have been playing Debussy, and I still would have almost fallen out of my bed. Moral of the story: don't sleep where there are enough brass players to conspire against your slumber.

“Perhaps there is a spirit in books that lets them live beyond their actual bound bodies." - Jonathan Rosen

The 1880 edition of Edgar Allan's poems that I found today.*

Today while driving around the west side of my fair city, I stumbled upon a used bookstore that rivals my love affair with Sam Wellers. And while Sam Wellers is the end all of used bookstores, Ed's Editions now has the top spot  in that space of my heart reserved for used bookstores. Sorry Sam, you're just too far away now for any kind of relationship to continue.

And although you can't really tell from their website, Ed's is everything a used bookstore should be. It has the smell, the old bookshelves, the ancient leather-bound books that I want to grab by the armfuls regardless of whether or not I like it or what language it's in and take home. It's housed in this quaint old storefront that's probably been around as long as some of the books. Amazing double doors. Lots of little rooms at all different levels. I think that may actually be a requirement of good used bookstores - those little steps that take you from section to section. It is, in a word, perfect. I'm anticipating a long relationship of frequenting the place, so if you can't find me, 

you might try looking for me among the shelves.

*And now, thanks to Ed, I've got my eye on an early edition of the complete works of my good friend Shakie. So look out. I'm coming for you.

house hunters

Don't you love how all the houses in England have names? Delightful names, at that. Watching House Hunters International makes me want to drop everything and move there. 

Because, honestly, who wouldn't want to live in a house like this?

source: churchods

Especially when it's named The Gate House on Walton-on-Thames.

All I'd have to do is learn to drive on the wrong side of the road. No big deal, right? 

And ... the Duggars.

Today my good friend Candice and her husband came into town to spend the day playing around Columbia with me and Spencer. We went all over town and saw all the fun, unique, historic sights. Great food. Even greater company. Just one word for the day: magic. Oh, and the Duggars.

photo courtesy of my friend, candice's iPhone

We took Candice and Reid to see the state house and happened upon the remnants of the Rick Santorum rally. A midst dodging the crazies while walking around the grounds, we found ourselves at the Confederate flag. That's when we saw Jim Bob and Michelle. What the random? Naturally, we had to go say hello and take a picture. And I have to say that they are just as nice and sweet 

in person as they seem on the show. Really. 

The day ended with Cheerwine floats.

Like I said. Magic.

monday afternoon

 

this is what happens when my mom and i wait to pick up my brother from school

target practice

tonight we went to the shooting range and shamelessly catered to our southern demographic. and it turns out that i'm a pretty good shot too.

traditional target and the zombie pizza delivery guy. gotta practice for that apocalypse sometime.

jai ho*

Was reading through some old (read: ancient) blog posts and ran across some links on one of my musings to some pretty amazing things that happened in my life (read: happened Winter semester 2009). Those few months were perhaps the most magical time that has ever happened in the history of the world. Seriously. We're not sure how we passed our classes, or why we did what we did, 

but we know one thing for sure: it was magic.

Anyone remember this?

Or how about this?

Remember when we listened to this on repeat? And this one too?

And we cannot ever forget the awesomeness that was ten at ten.

It will forever top the list of everything that is awesome.

From no boys allowed forts and adventures in the wee morning hours of finals week to the best friends a girl could ask for, it.was.the.best. 

*in honor of the jai ho lap, of course, because who could forget that magic?

this one time we moved from ut to sc

moving van lights :: chloe watching the world go by :: spanish fork canyon

stella sleeping in the car :: moab, utah :: cuddling cats at my feet

e + a in provo.

yesterday i was in provo, and had lunch with this lovely girl. we chatted about life, love, confusion, and the gilmore girls episodes that are our lives. she taught me a useful indonesian phrase ya sudah that i've already used at least twice. long story short, this girl is amazing , and i will miss her dearly. such good times spent during one magical semester that have carried over to a most cherished friendship. so, e, ya sudah for now. come visit soon.

(on a side note, i did visit other equally as amazing friends in provo, but was too dense to pull out the camera to document those visits.)

homeward bound

Once upon a time two people from South Carolina met at BYU, fell in love, got married, graduated, and moved to Salt Lake City. Six months later, that wonderful man got a job offer in none other than Columbia, South Carolina. It's been fun, Utah, but we're heading home. Soon. Two weeks from now soon. In an instant, our world has been turned upside down and become consumed by a sea of boxes and packing tape and figuring out the logistics of moving ourselves (and our two cats) across the country. There will be people I'm going to miss so dearly, thinking about not seeing them makes my heart crumble to pieces. I can't even form the word goodbye right now. But we're headed home. Home. Where family lives and my heart resides. To that place where everything makes sense. "No, my life began and continues to exist in the antithesis of a city. I live on a dead end street. Trees surround my house. We can’t see our neighbors. The air is humid, but clear; no city smog exists here. Summer afternoon thunderstorms happen almost daily from June until September. Thousands of stars illuminate the night sky, and also at night, symphonies of crickets, cicadas, and frogs provide the accompaniment to the rhythmic creaking of our front-porch rocking chairs. It is quintessential countryside – the perfect small town." Home. Home. Home. Home. Here we come.

 

Do it yourself: rope bracelet.

Today I went to J. Crew and bought a cute skirt on clearance just so I could do this:

I saw this amazing tutorial for a do it yourself: rope bracelet made from the handles of the J. Crew bag. I modified the big knot at the bottom of the bracelet a little, but my way worked just as well. It was wonderfully simple to make, and the tutorial I found explains it all so well. 

(which is especially great for the artistically challenged, such as myself)

life according to some pictures

1. storm clouds. 2. rubber ducky and the rain 3. my fuzzy kitchen helpers

4. my new hair cut. 5. the city at night. 6. the mountains before the snowy season.

7. the temple all lit up. 8. rain (can you tell that i love it?) 9. my kitty loves me.

just a lazy sunday afternoon

music: "helplessness blues" by fleet foxes

what better to do on a sunday afternoon than drive up a canyon?

vive le tour

all pictures via versus.com tour all access

the 2011 tour was everything i anticipated it would be. suspense. heartache. victory. huzzahs. congratulations to mark cavendish for the phenomenal stage win today. congratulations to the schleck brothers for their courageous efforts that got them to the podium. and a most heartfelt congratulations to cadel evans for a well-deserved win. you rode beautifully. to phil and paul: it's been a pleasure listening to you every day. until next year, boys. my highest respects to every single rider who finished the race, and for those who had to bow out early. i admire you all. can hardly wait until next year.