#119 Off to the West Coast!

via 

It's raining.  It's really really raining!! New York weather might make me go crazy.  First, it's a million degrees and feels like you are inside a dryer when the hot breeze hits you.  Then, it decides to hail, rain, thunder and lighting like we're in Hurricane Irene again!  Not cool.  Thankfully, I'm off to San Francisco tomorrow!  High of 65 degrees and sunny all weekend.  Sounds pretty perfect in comparison!  I can't wait, it will be my first visit to SF and lots of friend reunions!  I've got my bags packed!

via coco+kelley

#117 Heat Wave & Anna Faye

Photographe by Richard Rutledge, 1947

The heat has been dizzying in the past week in New York.  I've been a bit irrational and was tempted to buy more dishes and the Dude had to stop me and threatened to put a moratorium on buying any more kitchenware until a larger kitchen came into being.  At that moment I realized I'm turning into my Grandmother, Anna Faye. She loves dishes. She has more than anyone in their right mind would ever need. She could probably start a service renting out vintage dish sets that serve 20+ guests.   Now that she's getting older she has started pawning off her collection on me, which is kind of awesome! I have no idea when I will ever need a milkglass luncheonette set that serves 18, but if I accidentally break one, it's no biggie.

The dishes in question were at Target and were extra cute striped melamine plates that would go perfectly with this set of flatware feature in this month's Rue! You should get them if you are in the market for summer dishware and I will come over and help you mind the BBQ.

via Target

via Rue June 2012

This weekend I'm going to do some exciting furniture rearranging and try to get rid of things around the apartment I no longer need. If anyone out there need a printer/scanner that has been hanging around since 2004 that only works with Microsoft XP or later, it's yours. 

Stay cool!

#108 Minus 4 = Today's Temperature (104!)

Today's high is a record breaking 104 degrees.  The last time it was this hot in New York City was 1957.  It's just too darn hot to think about much of anything right now except for swimming pools & popsicles...

Marilyn Monroe's 50's version of fun in the sun

via pinterest

Dior's 2011 version of summer style

via R29

yummmmmy!

via {this is glamorous}

#105 Happy Weekend of Studying!

Most people's summer weekends do not involve studying for exams unless they are still in school.  But mine do!!  (I'm trying to sound positive and excited about this)  I'm going to become a licensed architect.  This requires seven exams.  Imagine taking your SATs 7 times, except all the information is about architecture.  The boring parts of architecture mostly.  Contracts, scheduling, programming, codes, utility easements, setbacks, and soil types--and that's only the first exam!  The most exciting part I think is the history portion.  It gives meaning to the way we have come to build today.  Ever wondered how surburbia started? Check out Howard's plan for the Garden City.   

Wish this is what my weekend involved:

photo via

But it will probably look like this except with a more hunched over back and coffee jitters:

photo via sophisticated simplicities

And I will be doodling drawings only half this witty to cope with the boring study material:

(p.s. the decorative one will always win in my opinion)

Check out this guy's awesome drawings!
photo via all the buildings in new york

#103 Mellow Yellow

I seem to be on a color theme right now.  Oh hot pink, oh grey, oh red... I never get enough.  The official color of summer is yellow, though.  Summer as I know it from the South has not arrived in New York yet.  We've got rain and 70 degree weather... definitely not my idea of Summer, but it will come soon enough and be completely hot & miserable, I'm sure.  For now, Summer is still a quaint dreamland of yellow, seashells, sandals and barbeques...

photo via design*sponge

sigerson morrison wedge

photo via refinery29

 Joseph Albers "Homage to the Square" painting

photo via google

#100 Re-Booting

Getting worked up for SUMMER!!!  Lots of projects & plans in the works.  I'm studying to become a real architect and determined to build more furniture for my apartment with a few crafty projects and painting on the side.  With the weekend almost here, it's time to get all my to-do lists together and supplies organized to get started!

photo via design*sponge

And everyone knows you need "Project Shoes" when you start a new project!  ...these beauties would be very inspiring :)

photo via Loeffler Randall

#78 Daydreams & Pickup Trucks

Looking back, I'd say I spent a large portion of my free time this summer daydreaming about apartments and being way to hot.  Now that I've had a taste of fall with temps in the 60s and cool breezes making jackets a necessity, I'm worried I didn't spend enough time outside... but then I went to Alabama for my birthday weekend & remembered what happens when I leave the air-conditioned heaven that is my bedroom when it's a million degrees outside: sweating...and bugs...yucky. 

photo via {this is glamorous}

 The other thing I was reminded of when going home was trucks.  I think I saw more trucks than cars.  My family has two trucks & two SUVs... oh yeah, and one car... but it's more for decoration (it doesn't run).  I kinda miss trucks and rolling the windows down and driving over curbs because- "It's ok, I'm in a truck!"  No need to lock the doors because there's nothing to steal.  Reminds me of high school and everybody's crappy--I mean super sweet cars. 

  photo via dance with voices

Missing Alabama already, and I just got back to New York.

#77 Summer Sunsets

I'm currently obsessed with sunsets.  Their magic is hard to fully describe with a photograph because the feeling you get of being a minuscule part of the universe when you look into the sky doesn't really come across.  I'm obsessed to a point where I want to try and paint an entire room the colors of the sky at dusk (or maybe start out with one wall).  Sunsets make me happy.  

Happy, happy, happy...

The sky from my new Brooklyn hood...

photos via oh joy! by Johnny Miller

 The sky from my old Manhattan hood...

#75 Summer Celebrations...or How To Prepare for Another Year of Being Alive

Nothing beats August birthday parties, BBQs and Southern adventures.  They are always rejuvenating and a last hurrah before the cool weather sneaks its way in, taking over the summer and turning to fall... 

Except in Alabama where summer lasts into November... & sometimes January.

Happy Birthday to all my fellow Leos!

photo via oh joy! by Our Labor of Love

photo via coco+kelley

photo via dance with voices

#71 Friday Aqua Blues

IT'S FRIDAYYYY!!!!!!!!!!  WOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!  

Time to pick paint colors (one of my absolute favorite things in the whole world), buy a "big girl" bed (to replace the twin-sized one) and get ready to move into a new place (finally)!  I feel like jumping on a bed!!! And then go play in a sprinkler outside and eat watermelon and play board games and then make milkshakes and cookies and then jump rope and take a nap...  In other words, I'm so carefree and happy I feel like i'm 7 years old again.

photo via Domino

photo via sail to the moon

photo via herman miller
I will def need to save up for this Eames rocker...

#70 A Fourth of Fun

The Fourth marked the first unbearable day of summer heat in New York City... and summer fun!  I woke up craving peaches, fireworks, friends, air conditioning and rolling down grassy hills.  At the end of the day, I'd satisfied all my cravings and then some.  Each detail etched into my memory.  The awful slimy feeling of sucking up a weird gummy thing the dude put in my peach smoothie.  Laying in the grass with eyes closed watching the bright spots of sunlight wavering just beyond my lids as it filters through the trees.  Sweating and picking Mexican corn out of my teeth while watching the sunset and relaxing with friends.  The sound of distant fireworks & counting how many seconds they're delayed to calculate the distance (proof I'm a total math nerd).  Last, but not least, riding the G train like a pro and remembering how I thought I would never see the day that the G would somehow enrich my life.   Life is funny like that.

photo via AL.com

Craving the site of the peachy water tower along the drive to Auburn & picking up fresh peaches and home-made butter pecan peach ice cream for a snack...

photo via persimmonandpink

A reminder to myself to stop complaining and find the beauty in each day.

#67 Sweet Sweet Summer

It finally feels like the beginnings of summer outside.  Shades on, shorts on, hats on, hair up, looking cool.  Love it. 

photo via Refinery 29
 

photo via Late Afternoon
 

photo via Refinery 29

#65 Since I'm On The Subject...

...of back cleavage and such, I also adore this colorful tank with intricate cutouts: 

 via shopbop

#64 Summer Skin Rules

The other day I was walking down the street, toodling along.  When I was stopped in my tracks.  There was a girl sitting in a restaurant with her back to the window.  She was wearing an amazing dress similar to the one below but in white.  It was a wonderfully beautiful sight for two reasons...

1.  It's a sophisticated way to show off some skin.
2.  It's actually warm enough to wear skin-baring dresses!

Lesson learned here?  Keep it classy, kids.

photo via shopbop

#63 School's Out!

I'm FREE!  Freeeeeeeeeeee!  Even though I'm no longer in school myself, I moonlight as a tutor and let me tell you-- SCHOOL IS OUT.  It's summer time, finally!  Stressful finals are over and done with... life is good.  I'm yearning for a huge slumber party, like the ones you'd have on Friday nights with all your best friends present to make memories...and fools of yourselves.  

photo by Tim Macpherson

photo via Triflin Dictionary

photo via Triflin Dictionary

#62 Hot Hot Hot

It's hot... I'm really hot... itchy... need A/C... or the beach... and a bike... I like shorts.

photo via Refinery 29

photo via sophisticated simplicities

Sorry for the randomness.