costa rica

we planned a somewhat last minute vacation with our friends because we found some inexpensive tickets to costa rica. robert then found this amazing house & somehow talked the guy into giving renting it to us for the week for a steal. so while it may look an extremely luxurious vacation, we did it on a budget. we did some grocery shopping & made most of our meals at home. and we did do a few excursions, but to be honest, we really didn't want to leave our casa. it was located in the city of dominical & was way up in the clouds. we had the most amazing view of both the rainforest & the ocean. it was paradise (and it's for sale! it can be yours for a mere $1.4 million. yea.). 

{horseback riding to the nauyaca waterfall}

{bob's perfect swan dive}

renningers antiques

our friend brian has been going to the annual renningers antique sale for years & always comes back with the coolest things. we were finally able to tag along this year & we had the best time. there are countless booths (you could be there for days & not see everything) & everything is pretty reasonably priced. here are some of our finds. 

 {the boys found matching vintage western shirts. $10 each!}

 {brian scored these amazing knoll bertoia chairs for his porch!}

{I really wanted these 1950s dairy queen glasses, but restrained myself}

{it was tough for me to resist these as well}

ok, so quick story on this dresser below. six years ago when robert & I first got married, all we wanted for the guest bedroom was a paul mccobb dresser (actually, robert had been wanting one years before he even met me, if that says anything). if you haven't noticed, we have quite a love for mid-century furniture & have slowly been collecting pieces along the way. but in all these years, we never purchased a paul mccobb dresser. not only are they crazy-expensive, but they are also terribly hard to find. we saw one on ebay once & seriously contemplated driving through six states to pick it up. 

our friend brian is a mid-century modern expert & has never seen any mccobb in all his years visiting renningers. so our hopes of finding anything cool were low. after a full day of meandering through the endless rows of booths, we had given up our search, when out of the corner of my eye, I spot it. there, at the end of the row! my heart started beating as I calmly made my way up to the booth. trying to play it cool, I began chatting it up with the owner. "paul who? never heard of him. it's a pretty good-looking piece and all, but I don't know if we really need it. how much you want for it? well, that's more than I want to pay for a dresser. how low can you go? it is the end of the day and all..." yup. and that was it. the all-but-orphaned dresser became ours (and for an amazing price, thanks to my mad negotiating skills!). we were so giddy on the way home that we all stopped for dinner & drinks at red lobster (I'm not kidding. I haven't been there since the early 90s, but let me tell you, that place has spiffied itself up. "extra cheesy biscuits, please!"). victory on all fronts.

{don't worry- I only dropped my poker face after sealing the deal}

{oh, and the red lobster meal came after all of this delicious fair food}

{a corn dog with powdered sugar, you say?}

{nope, it's a fried snickers bar. sounds gross, but trust me on this one...}

{real frenchies were making the nutella banana crepes, so you know they're gonna be good}

{and this is my new favorite. it's called an arepa. basically it's a sweet corn pancake grilled & filled with mozzarella}

central park in the fall

having been born & raised in florida, I honestly don't think too much about this "fall" season you people talk about. don't get me wrong, I love pumpkin-flavored everything, fall decor & plaid flannel shirts. but the season doesn't hit our state quite like it does the rest of the country. but boy did I get to experience a true autumn while strolling through central park last weekend. the weather was a crisp & perfect 64 degrees & the tress were covered with yellow, orange & red leaves. it was incredibly beautiful & peaceful in the midst of this crazy, busy city. 

{my wonderful friend & tour guide, kristin}

 {kristin is also a master braider}

instagrams from the weekend

here are a few instagrams from our fun weekend in o-town. thanks to the van slyke's for being so gosh-darn awesome.

  {teaching baby nola how to be discriminating in her antique shopping}

{date night! drinks before the mark kozelek show at this awesome bar}

{had an amazing time checking out 9th letterpress' new studio!}

{and got a tour of the fabulous rifle paper co. I love every. single. thing. in here}

{toddler hartz perfecting his press-checking skills at rifle}

backyard wedding

my friend monica got married over the weekend in the sweetest backyard wedding. everyone sat out on the lawn & sipped arnold palmers from mason jars, & chatted over southern family-style dishes like rosemary biscuits & sweet potato salad (1000x better than regular potato salad, by the way). there was also a fabulous dessert bar, which happens to my favorite thing ever, filled with treats like cake pops, mini blueberry pies salted caramel cupcakes & key lime tarts. the bride even made that beautiful cake herself.