Menus

One of the little things that I've been thinking about, as an opportunity for a little DIY (or maybe even with some professional help) is menus. There are so many really inventive ways of doing personalized menus for your guests. Some of my favorites are below.

Little tags....

paper bags....

Just awesomeness....

Check up this round-up on 100 layer cake of their favorites. What cool menu ideas have you seen?

images from 100 layer cake, snippet and ink, and 100 layer cake.

Girl Crush

I don't even know this woman, but I WANT her taste!

Image from Vanessa Jackman

Spring is Coming

There is a beautiful collection of cherry blossom pictures over on SFgirlbythebay today. I'm getting so excited about spring....less excited about a DC summer....

photo from little starling photography

The Hills are Alive

Like everyone else, I'm a huge fan of Marc Jacobs' fall 2010 Louis Vuitton collection. It's been getting rave reviews from practically everyone. But when I saw it....it reminded me of something. Something that I love....something with awesome singing and costumes that emphasize a woman's waist.....

Like this little flowered number....

Perfect for dancing with Christopher Plummer!

Or this daytime suit, it's the perfect thing to wear to your job interview as a governess of 8 unruly children.
Okay enough with the side by side comparisons. The show and the music are lovely, and I'll watch both anytime.




Did you grow up on the Sound of Music?

photos courtesy of Style.com

A Little Bird

Told me my bachelorette party is going to be in New York!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

image by phil poynter, via Coco + Kelley

This Ukranian Life

I recently downloaded the This American Life app for iphone. For $2.99 you get access to every episode plus a bunch of extras including early Ira Glass stories and even some Dave Sedaris readings. I highly recommend. But all of this is by way of telling you about this amazing episode I was listening to the other day called "the house by loon lake." In the episode, the narrator describes his experiences with an abandoned house in a small town in Massachusetts in which, mysteriously, the house's contents seem to have been left just as they were when the house's occupants abandoned it. He finds old letters hinting at illegitimate children, newspapers describing a Nazi invasion, and spectacles sitting neatly on a wallet. For some reason, and maybe it's just because I am so interested in history, I was really taken in by the story. I just love the idea of a life size time capsule, preserving a lost way of life. Maybe that's why I am so fascinated whenever I see pictures of Chernobyl. Being a bit of a Soviet history buff, I can't help but be interested in a preserved soviet era town. Sadly, I've heard that vandals have taken or destroyed a lot of the town. But the pictures always have such a wonderful eerie quality to them.

Am I alone on this one?

Photos Courtesy of Andrzej Karon

Hat Hat Heat!

I have always been very particular about my hats. Ordinarily, the main issue with hats is that in our normally hatless modern society, the act of wearing a hat, in and of itself draws too much attention. I might feel that way because I grew up in a region where you only really wore hats skiing since it never really got cold enough to wear them during the winter. But actually, my particular problem with hats has nothing to do with standing out. In fact, I LOVE wearing my big fur Russian hat (and by Russian I mean bought on a snowy day from a man with gold teeth in Moscow). For some reason, I've always just had a problem with hats that might.....look like they're from Jamaica. To avoid looking like a Rastafarian, I have a strict non-floppy beret only policy for round hats. But I've started seeing a few pictures around that have made me think differently.

A few weeks ago, I saw Naomi of Rockstar Diaries (an avid hat wearer from what I can tell) wearing an awesome hat.

Then today, I saw this on Garance Dore:

I don't know...maybe they're just beautiful women and it wouldn't matter what they had on their heads. But I've been perusing these guys over on Urban:

Thoughts? Is it too.......playing hackie sack in Berkeley (or juggling in France as it may be)? or can it be done with the right clothes?

In the Mood for Love

One Saturday night over the summer my girlfriends and I watched a gorgeous film called In the Mood for Love. In addition to being a beautiful love story, the film is also just plain beautiful. I love the printed dresses and their contrast against the flowered wallpaper and cigarette filled rooms. So, I was so happy when I finally caught up on my design sponge reading and saw Amy's post, living in: in the mood for love. It definitely gave me ideas of how to use all that jadeite from P.O.S.H. that I've registered for. Ugh, so pretty. I think I'll have to netflix it again.




Are there any movies that you wish you could just step into and live there (although maybe without some of the social/ personal issues faced by the characters)? I think Baz Luhrman's Romeo and Juliet would be another one (and there's actually a living in post on that at Design Sponge too) as would Discreet Charm of the Bourgoisie and the Lives of Others.

Sharp Ideas at Vogue

I was stunned when I opened my latest Vogue and saw this amazing home. I love the bright colors and the mix of old and new pieces. I always love the idea of clean white spaces and modern (i.e. Swedish) design, but I just love "stuff" too much.

I WANT those couches! Also, how come my stacking of books never looks like that?

I think PB would die for a bath like this

Who would think stacked firewood could look so awesome?

What do you think?

photos courtesy of Vogue

The Publican

I know, I know, all Chicago. But we just had such a good time....and I've been super busy lately and not able to keep up with my 94 blogs and just general web surfing. Plus, I think I was needing a little wedding break (it really does ebb and flow). Only a few more....

PB and I love food, and we were super excited to get reservations at the Publican. In choosing which restaurants we had to go to we were swayed both by some great reviews and a perusal of the menu, which revealed both oysters and pork belly, for me and PB respectively. On a sidenote, aren't oysters awesome? They're delicious and they make jewelry!

I'm not sure what this bulding was, but it was gorgeous. And I'm pretty sure we took this picture while crossing the bridge on which John Cusack lists Laura's cutuest habits in High Fidelity.