Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens,
Brown paper packages tied up with string,
These are a few of my favorite things!
So in honor of my birthday (27!), a silly post today: I’m posting a few of my favorite things. I’m inspired by so much that I see, and as I was looking through some of my Flickr faves, I realized there are definitely a few themes that come together.
I spent several summers during college in France, primarily Paris. I studied French, as well as fashion and fine arts. After an initial visit to France to visit family as a teenager, I was irrevocably hooked. If it’s French, odds are, I’ll love it. Nobody does style like the French. I look back on my time in France as such a delightful experience, and undoubtedly a huge influence in my design career. I look forward to future trips someday. I would love to push little boats around the fountains in the Jardin du Luxembourg with Jude.
(image: Kirsten Dunst in Sophia Coppola’s Marie-Antoinette)
Speaking of my love for France and all things French, I really enjoyed Sophia Coppola’s Marie-Antoinette. Visually, it is unmatched. Colors, textures, fashion, textiles — even the food is to die for. It’s an absolutely gorgeous movie, and a visual love letter to the chateau at Versailles. My favorite scenes are of the Trianon and le Hameau, where Marie-Antoinette would get away from the rigours of palace life. Anyway, worth a rental, especially if you’ve got a big ol’ flatscreen TV.
print+pattern
It was also inevitable that I would fall in love with prints and patterns. I grew up in the most fabulous, colorful house ever. My parents’ favorite colors were kelly green and royal blue, and their interiors entirely reflect that. They hired an interior designer who was inspired by what we would now term the Hollywood Regency style, with lots of chinoiserie accents (gorgeous bamboo shelves, I love you so). My parents were unafraid of color, and as a result, so am I. I’ve never met a color I didn’t love, perhaps with the exception of mauve. Because let’s face it, mauve is such a hospital color. I gravitate towards color, I totally crave it.
The kelly green carpet that runs through their home was the perfect setting for all of my childhood dollhouses, stuffed animals, and My Little Ponies. A Barbie House really looks better with the most luscious green carpet you’ve ever seen. Nobody makes carpet like that anymore.
stripes
Since it’s my birthday, and I am anticipating a fabulous cake, we should discuss cake. I love cake. I love all kinds of it. I would almost get married all over again just to have the cake testing again. And I am just amazed at how creative cake decorators can get. Nothing delights like a whimsical, fabulous cake. Check out these purse cakes below that we saw at the Wynn Las Vegas.
This cake was inspired by an Oscar de la Renta gown from a few seasons ago. Nothing better than fashion inspiring food, non? That dress was amazing in person, a gorgeous mustard faille. Anyway, someday I’ll take a cake decorating class just for fun.
Three years ago today, I never would’ve expected that I would be sitting in our pretty little house, tending to a very unhappy teething baby on our third wedding anniversary. Three years ago today, I was having my hair and makeup done, and then hurrying to the church to shimmy into my dress.
Three years ago today, we cut into our beautiful cake and giggled like teenagers. We had just said our vows, and did not know what was to come, for better or for worse, sickness and good health, but we knew that we were in it together. And while the good and the bad have both come, as well as the sickness and the health, we are stronger than ever. The past year in particular has been full of many ups and downs: the early birth of Jude; plenty of health problems, both ours and of our family members’; moving to a new house; and enjoying the delights of a growing baby boy. Each thing comes with its own trials, but with its own distinct blessings as well.
I love you, honey. I knew from the beginning that you and I would be good together. Being with you is God’s biggest blessing and I am thankful for every day that we have together.
I will s ay, I wish we were getting on a plane for Hawaii tomorrow, like we did three years ago! And I’m wishing for some wedding cake, too… yum!
pencil shavings 
