love this one.

i've been looking through my photos

trying to pick out some good ones

for the new house

i just found this and i am so struck

by its gentleness

and serenity

i hope you can see it too.

somebody's feeling better...

we are all so, so glad

to have our little buddy back

happy tuesday. 

you may ask yourself

 you may ask yourself what it feels like to be a new homeowner, have a sick dog, then experience an earthquake followed by a hurricane? it feels kind of exhausting, but on the other hand, it has really deepened my patience, my sense of humor, and my perspective on a lot of things. so: not so bad, you know?

a year ago this weekend

home depot: where all your dreams come true.

i wrote that very sweet post about our house shortly after i found out it was ours (and i added the last paragraph when all was said and done, as i'm a little superstitious about saying something's done before it's actually done). but, you know, the actual to-do of the whole thing is...well, it's a lot to do. and, whether it's true or not, i'd like to think that i survived one of the most difficult weekends of my life last weekend.

today is wednesday.

here are ten important things i've learned:

tuesdays with tank...the dog days.

our little buddy has had quite an under-the-weather-week which started last week, which continued into the weekend, which resulted into an urgent (and early) saturday trip to the vet, which didn't yield results, which resulted in a trip to the pet ER last night...which always sends his parents into a panic because we feel just so...responsible for him. first allergies, then it ballooned into...something else (have you ever wanted to just un-smell something? i want that so very badly). this was all pretty exciting when there was a herd of painters, plumbers, cable guys, and other assorted handymen running around the new house this weekend, and when our savings account was looking a little anemic after closing the house. woof.

but, tank is a champ, and even though the poor guy's not totally out of the woods yet, we're hopeful that he'll pull through for us. here he is, looking probably very much how he feels, in the new house. he has already staked a special spot on the stairs as his very own lookout and hangout.i think he's going to really like it there, even if the first impression wasn't exactly as we hoped it might be.

happy tuesday.

as much as i could love a place, i do.

it was a couple of years ago when i laughed at brad when he asked me to go to annapolis for the night.

"come on," he said, "you'll love it."

lazy sunday roast chicken

maybe it was because it was rainy, or maybe it really was fall whispering to me this weekend, but i had the urge on sunday to just make dinner. like, real dinner. in the oven. i walked over to eastern market and found the perfect little roasting chicken, ten new potatoes, some herbs, a lemon, and a bulb of garlic and got to work. 

tuesdays with (tiny) tank!

here's a little gem i found last week

i can't quit watching it.

if you thought tank was cute now...

check him out as a puppy.

happy tuesday.

enjoy.

to know and feel too much

 

the other night 

while i was avoiding all the dishes

and all the dusting

and all the vacuuming

i did something i should've done a long time ago

i introduced tank to dylan

here we are

listening to this classic: 

happy friday,

happy weekend to you.

a highly decent date night in

a little cold rose, 

a sandwich to share

(with plenty of good mustard)

some sausage and cheese 

and crackers 

thanks to p&c market near lincoln park.

sometimes it's the

really simple stuff

that, with the right company,

that seems really rare

and wonderful and fancy

treat yourself today. 

happy thursday.

a room for baby notario...unveilled!

when i started the class at the corcoran this summer, i found out that for our final project we had to design, finish, and furnish a 1-story floor plan. my mind immediately jumped to my friends who were just married and expecting a baby and living in a really cool apartment in a chic neighborhood in dc. they knew they were going to stay in the apartment for a couple years (but not forever) and for that reason they wanted a room that wasn't very-very baby but rather it was pretty sophisticated, matched the rest of their apartment, and didn't require them to accumulate a whole lot of extra baby stuff.

what i didn't plan on was that a couple weeks later, they'd tell me they were moving to tampa and buying a house and going to live there instead -- i think i just yesterday picked my jaw up on the floor, but that's neither here nor there. my project remained unchanged, because even if it wasn't for them...i thought someone might be able to use an idea like this one. i wanted the space to match the rest of their house which had a soft sophistication to it, using organic elements to enhance the colors and style they had chosen. 

so here it is:

tuesdays with tank...the luna ball.

it may be hard to believe, but that sweet little face is capable of destroying ...well, just about anything he puts his mind to. he's gone through the requisite shoe phase (but only the expensive ones--not the ones that were already worn out), various rugs, along with stranger things like hangers, remote controls, computer cords, the list goes on, etc. 

it may also come as a surprise, therefore, that when he gets a toy that he has every permission to chew on, that he destroys it in sometimes as little as a few seconds. if he can't destroy it, he loses interest in it. 

until one day when brad brought home the luna ball:

bethany beach weekend in pictures

it took so long for friday this time

yesterday, i lucked out with 

breakfast with my sister-in-law

and then i lucked out with

champagne and oysters for dinner

with brad and our friends

and today i woke up to 

a beautiful cool morning

and tonight

we're going 

to the beach.

(the music i discovered from an episode

of jersey shore a couple years ago.

posting it in honor of its 

triumphant, shameful return to mtv.

welcome back).

happy friday, happy weekend.

sometimes

sometimes you just need 

to drink a glass of wine

and order a pizza

and sit with a dog in your lap 

and a friend by your side

and watch some crappy tv. 

because you just do.

last day of school

 

unbelievably, today is my last day of summer class at the corcoran. in may when i started, august seemed to be impossibly far away. here we are, anyway!

for our final project, we had to ink a complete floorplan for a 1-level home, complete with furnishings and appliances and bathroom fixtures, and on top of that we had to complete construction documents with elevations, a light plan, and beyond that we had to create a design for at least one other room in the house. 

tuesdays with tank: dog bed days

when we first got tank, to say i was hell bent on getting him a great dog bed was and understatement. brad didn't share my zeal, but much to his dismay after my repeated pleadings, he relented and i began my cross-spectrum dog bed research, from wal-mart to neiman marcus. after a lot of hemming and hawing i chose the orvis, and then the real debate began: round or square? cedar or styrofoam filling? memory foam? seriously, memory foam? tough chew cover or regular cover? i finally decided on the classic dog nest with a herringbone cover and polystrene bead stuffing, monogrammed with his name. when it arrived in the mail, it was all i could do not to run home that instant and have tank give it a try.

it wasn't love at first sight as i had hoped, with the dog bed and tank, but we worked at it and eventually he called it home. he would dig his little nest out and plop down rump-first right before he dozed off for the night, that is, until he persisted that we let him sleep in our bed with us, which while we never thought we'd do it, is kind of awesome, except for the fact that i swear to you tank grows 12 sizes at night and now we need a bigger bed. but that's neither here nor there.

all of this is to say that the dog bed i had so diligently researched and procured is now making a lovely bedside mat for me. which, if that's all i lost to get the world's most awesome puppy cuddles, is alright with me.

happy tuesday.

be thankful.

i had a day the other day.

you know the kind--

where everything that can go wrong

does

and it's easy in those moments

to stop and to give up

and to wallow

why me?

why now?

but what good is that

to give up?

it isn't--

you know what i did?

i started to count the things

around me that i was thankful for

and almost immediately after i had begun

i felt overwhelmed at how much i had

to be thankful for

and i'm pretty sure

that even in the darkest hours

of the darkest days

there is still something 

for which it is worth being thankful.

try it. 

tell me what you see.