Yesterday my mom sent me the photo of her in the middle. She was 24 there!
We all kind of have that “smirk/head tilt” down, don’t you think? I love that we look even a little bit like her here. She will always be the most beautiful woman in the world to me!
Love you, mommy.
Noelle
4 years ago Pat proposed to me right here! Today, I have a cold, so after he made me some tea and toast, I crawled out of bed and we hugged in this spot to reminisce.
Back then, we were building our house and this fireplace was just a pile of stones. We were holding hands as we imagined what our first house was going to be like when he got down on one knee.
We were engaged for about 10 minutes when we took this picture. Then we ran out to buy our first champagne glasses.
(I accidentally deleted my entire photo library in 2009, so this picture of a picture will have to do.)
Noelle
dear mom,
wow, you look like you had your hands full!
thank you for your patience, having to do everything twice and doing it with such love and grace.
happy mother’s day!
xoxo
noey + joy
It’s been about a week and I’m sure most of you have heard by now, but I wanted to congratulate my sister Joy and her fiancé James on their engagement with this funny picture I took upstate last week. This adorable poem reminded me of them.
Love you guys! So excited for you!
xoxo
Noelle
Nothing in this world is as cute as my Grandparents were together.
Boys, theres still time to make something for your Valentine.
Noelle
Remembering our grandmother today. She used to love this song.
Up in heaven, she’s teaching all the angels to sing it…
Pack up all my care and woe
Here I go singing low
Bye bye blackbird.
Where somebody waits for me
Sugar’s sweet, so is she
Bye bye Blackbird.
No one here can love or understand me
Oh, what hard luck stories they all hand me.
Make my bed and light the light
I’ll be home late tonight
Blackbird bye bye.
{image via 100 Layer Cake}
Today is special! One year ago, my sister married her best friend. They planned an unforgettable wedding with the loveliest fall decor + the yummiest food. Those who were in attendance still rave about that cocktail hour. Ooh how I dream of that spiked hot apple cider…
Since then, they’ve been nesting + building happy memories together. I’m very excited to congratulate them on their 1 year anniversary! To Noelle + Patrick,
“May your lives always be filled with JOY!”
xoxo ~ Joy
My love-at-first-sight experience with this place was like a movie scene. I was heading out to grab dinner in my neighborhood. I walked by Sugar Freak, fell on my face mid-double take + forgot all about that other restaurant.
Because Sugar Freak looks like…
There’s just a twinge of guilt when I mentally cheat on my apartment, dreaming daily about this interior design. I want those mismatched chairs + pillows. I want a lamp made from milk bottles + that shabby chic hutch. I want to gut an old TV + turn it into a kitchen cabinet. I want a bucket sink in my bathroom!
Is it shallow that this place was so pretty, I didn’t care what the food tasted like?
That’s only a little bit true. The quaint setting is the perfect place to sip refreshing drinks + savor every tasty bite of homestyle goodness. The menu is Louisiana cookin’, serving yummy classics like spicy jambalaya, mac-n-cheese + all kinds of po’boys. The chess pie dessert, it’s served in a mason jar.
Bradley Hawks of Amuse * Bouche wrote a great article in this month’s issue of Boro Magazine, featuring Sugar Freak as well as 14 other new restaurants that have recently opened in Western Queens, which he calls “The World Kitchen”… it’s apt.
~Joy
Smile at your sister is my new favorite spot to stop by and visit for a while. They recently wrote about our lady friend and animator Julia Pott, asking her about dreams, life and love:
” … my first career aspiration as a child was to be a balloon. it seemed like a very feasible choice but as I got older I started to think about the ins and outs of becoming a balloon and I lost the ambition. after that I went straight on to wanting to be an animator and never really explored anything else …”
Please read the entire interview here, it’s so worth it.
Noelle
I have fun friends and we enjoy any excuse to dress up. This means theme parties and we really get into it.
A Retro Housewife Bridal Shower might be in the works for a friend of mine. My advice for the maid of honor would be:
1. Get this “How to be a Good Wife” bridal shower game on etsy for $8. Inspired by an actual article from Housekeeping Monthly in 1955, you get a PDF customized with your details. Just buy, download and print yourself.
2. Print 1950s housewife illustrations and add these hilarious captions from Anne Taintor. My favorite is, “The secret ingredient is resentment.” Stick them in white frames and voila – centerpieces.
3. You need to look the part and NO WHINING ABOUT IT. This is fun, remember? Here is are some retro worthy dresses over at ModCloth. Don’t forget your red lipstick.
4. Color scheme. I think you should choose cherry red and turquoise.
5. You’ll need this “Sweet Dreams” paper banner from Catbird because it’s turquoise and I love it..
6. Play 50s music and serve pie instead of cake. To really go over the edge, bake it yourself.
7. Put a few simple blooms in old coca cola bottles to add to your framed housewife centerpieces.
8. You’ll be drinking champagne, obviously. Champagne cocktails became popular in the 50s … bonus! Or try something else old fashioned, like um, an old fashioned. Martha Stewart recipe here.
9. Paper lanterns, streamers, honeycombs – anything you can find in you color scheme will tie this together. You can get these honeycombs on amazon for $1.29 each.
10. HAIR. This is very important and goes along with #3. Some call the 50s a simpler time but those girls really gave a shit about their hair. Here is a how to.
And since everyone knows today would have been Lucille Ball’s 100th birthday, why not draw inspiration from the funniest 50s housewife there ever was? Watch 6 amazing moments of I Love Lucy on the Google homepage.
Now get to it!
Noelle
