paris in film

after seeing my lomo prints, it made me want to look back through all of my old photographs & scrapbooks. I came across all the black & white photos that I took when I visited paris back in college. it was my first time abroad & was an incredible experience that I will never forget. I caught the travel bug while I was over there & have yet to get rid of it!

kara's vintage collection: sunglasses

lomography prints

remember back in the day, before digital, when our cameras only took film? you would load your camera with film & then take pictures sparingly, not wanting to "waste" it on a shot that wasn't perfect. then, months later, you'd turn the film into walgreens & wait patiently for like a week until it came back from being processed. looking through the photos (you always got doubles, just in case!) was like christmas morning, seeing pictures you had totally forgotten you'd taken.

digital is so instant, it takes away that element of fun & surprise like you get with film. so I was excited when my sis bought me a lomography fisheye camera. I loaded it up with film & took a photo every now and again. well it's been over a year & I finally used up the film last week. I loved looking through all of the photos. I didn't even remember taking this camera to puerto rico!

{bike ride around town}

{one of our favorite couples, bob & reba, on the beach}

{bike ride to our favorite local ice cream shop, the dreamette. the chocolate-dipped cones are amazing!}

{I totally forgot I had taken the lomo to puerto rico!}

{puerto rican flowers}

{me & reba at the beach on our cruisers}

kara's vintage collection: heels

a word from my sister:

when I was a little girl, I would stomp around the house in my mama's heels, pretending I was a grown-up. to this day, I still have a thing for vintage heels. my feet are small, so they always fit me perfectly. plus, they are just so classic-looking & go with anything in my closet.

wedding at the tpc

here are some photos from the wedding we attended this past weekend. everything was gorgeous- the weather, the flowers, the food, the bride. and to top it off, michael jackson was at the top of the dj playlist. can't get much better than that.

staycation, all I ever wanted

this weekend some friends kindly let us borrow their condo in ponte vedra beach for a little "staycation". we had such a wonderful, relaxing time. we went to all our favorite beach restaurants, took walks on the beach & got some sun & went to a fun wedding at the tpc in sawgrass. here are a few photos from the weekend.

{friday night dinner & margaritas at tacolu baja mexicana}

{breakfast on the water at barbara jean's}

{searching for shark's teeth}

{a gorgeous outdoor wedding}

black & white irish cream cupcakes

a little belated, but I thought I'd share with you these black & white irish cream cupcakes that I made yesterday for st. patty's day. I used this recipe for the cupcake & the cream icing & magnolia's recipe for chocolate buttercream icing. they turned out really delicious, with just a hint of the liqueur. have a great weekend!

green

japan, our hearts are with you

I know everyone is looking for a way to help the people of japan right now. if you haven't made a donation yet, dutch door press is giving 100% of the proceeds from their etsy store today only to the american red cross. very generous; definitely a good incentive to give if you haven't already. 

spring in the yard

the weather is finally warming up here in florida (yes, it has actually been really chilly the last few months!). a few weekends ago we did a bunch of yard work. we planted some plants, flowers & dug up an ugly old palm & replaced it with a new tree. I love spring!

{our new japanese magnolia tree}

{the first sight of blueberries on our blueberry bush}

{hydrangeas}

irish soda bread

my mom got to visit ireland a few years ago. when she came back, she made us all irish soda bread, which she had eaten a lot of over there. I made some this weekend to get us in the st. patty's day spirit. it's delicious for breakfast with jelly or butter (we like apple butter), or even nutella. I used this recipe.

kara's vintage collection: aprons

a word from my sister:

my mom got me started with this collection. she fondly recalled her mother wearing aprons around the house while cooking & doing housework. now that we have fancy washing machines & color-safe bleach, there’s no real need to wear them. but this doesn’t stop me from collecting them. I love the different prints & fabrics that were used; from gingham cotton to organza with lace. I have an apron for every occasion.

globes

in case you aren't totally sick of seeing all of my sister's collections (yes, we still have a few more), I thought I'd post one of my own: globes.  I love them. when I was little, I had a light-up globe in my room that I was mesmerized by. I would close my eyes & give it a spin & wherever my finger landed when it stopped was going to be where I lived when I grew up.

I've been fortunate enough, thanks to my amazing parents, husband & some great friends, to have gotten to do a good bit of traveling thus far in my life. I can't get enough of it. there are so many places in the world that I would love to visit. I suppose my globe collection kind of represents my dream of winning the lottery & traveling the world (hey, someone's gotta win).

kara's vintage collection: buttons & hatpins

a word from my sister:

I have always saved the buttons that are attached to new garments. I thought it would be pretty to display them someday, but I never really had enough. I was at an estate sale awhile back & found a huge zip lock bag of vintage button for $1. you could tell they were all really old by the color & shape. so I snatched them up & now i keep them in this little glass with my hatpins.

I had never seen a hatpin before until recently; I was fascinated. back in the day, they were used to pin the hat down to a woman’s head by her hair. I love that over time, they became more & more ornate & were used as decoration, kind of like today's headband. 

the getty center

last year while visiting robert in la (we all know who I was really there to see), I had some free time alone, so I made a visit to the getty center. this place is gorgeous. the weather was beautiful & everything was in full bloom. the whole time, I kept thinking I wish we could have gotten married here! for anyone making a visit to los angeles, I'd highly recommend a few hours at the getty center.