robert's birthday cake

this year I kind of skipped out on robert's birthday. I was out of town. on a trip that I myself planned. not thinking about the date of robert's birthday when I scheduled it months ago. it saddened me a whole lot more than it did him. I don't think boy's really care much about celebrating birthdays like we ladies do.

so anyway, I really tried to make it up to him by giving him some great gifts, making a delicious italian meal & by baking a cake of his choice, which happened to be "marble cake". sigh. I'm not gonna lie- I was seriously disappointed with his choice. I mean, who chooses "marble cake" over a delicious vanilla cake with buttercream frosting? or a rich chocolate lava cake. or red velvet. heck, even carrot cake sounds more fun than "marble".

and then I found this recipe, which saved the day & got me excited about "marble cake": mocha hazelnut marble cake. so there. I made it & it was delicious. sorry for judging you, marble cake.

“hembakat är bäst” {"homemade is best"}

as if ikea isn't cool enough, they now have a new baking book called, “hembakat är bäst” {"homemade is best"}. isn't the food styling brilliant? evelina bratell did all of the styling & carl kleiner photographed the book. these images should hang in a modern art museum!

metallic pumpkins

I love the look of these gold, silver & bronze metallic pumpkins spotted here. what a cheap & easy way to add a little pizazz to your ordinary fall decor.

yard sale goodies

our good friends moved across the country to san diego this past summer. while we're excited to have somewhere fun to visit, we really miss having them around (a lot). but the good news was that joy of the blog oh joy was having a big yard sale in san diego. she has the most fabulous taste & also happens to be my same size; so I made my friend megan head out to the sale in the park to get me some goods. she bought me some really cute stuff- note cards, cute paper, fabric & the most adorable shirt with a big bow. yay for friends who live in awesome cities!

on the roof of the MET

when I was in nyc a few weeks ago, I visited the coolest exhibit on the roof of the metropolitan museum of art. It’s called big bambú & it’s basically tons of fresh-cut bamboo poles strung together with nylon rope. but it’s massive- like about 50 feet high. the artists (twin brothers doug & mike starn) have been adding to it each month. it’s extremely impressive, especially set against the beautiful new york city skyline.  

sunday pancakes

I was feeling domestic last weekend. so before church on sunday, I whipped up these berry lemon buttermilk pancakes for my hubby. quite a nice change from our usual canned pillsbury cinnamon rolls. recipe from here.

a beach brunch wedding

my good high-school friend josh got married this past weekend. josh & I have been really good friends since ninth grade. our birthdays are just days apart, so we always shared joint parties because we had all the same friends. he married a sweet girl named cassy, who by total coincidence, I knew in college.they had a very sweet brunch wedding at the beach on saturday. there were lots of cute little details that cassy put together herself. robert & I took a few pictures & thought I'd share.

congratulations josh & cassy! 

{starting the morning off with a bloody mary}

{many different cakes. I probably shouldn't mention they were vegan & didn't taste so great. but they sure were cute!}

{a "just married" banner on the bride & groom table}

{don't you love it when the bride seats you with people you adore, like my dear friend heather?}

{I noticed the flower girl running around barefoot & then saw her sweet little shoes on the table.}

{mr. & mrs. joshua butler}