Lately...

Apparently, our air-conditioning unit is not all that wonderful, because it has frozen over, which is exactly what happened last year...on and off, all summer long...starting right about this time. And the funny thing is, I can't usually tell if it's working or not because I'm so cold-natured that Manley will come home from work horrified that it's 95 degrees inside and look at me like the delirious old lady I am one day destined to become. I don't know what to say! I love the heat. I flourish in it like a wild crepe myrtle. 

Colleen's wedding was so beautiful. It was the most beautifully crystally sapphire blue-skied day I've seen in a long time. Those pies above? Wowzers. Amaretto pies made by my friend Hannah's family restaurant in Chattanooga. Hannah made the ganache frosted cupcakes and the sweet Saint Germaine cake (the one with the deer on top!). The reception took place at Samary Plantation, about 45 minutes south of town, and folks were just pinching themselves the whole time. The whole place is straight out of a dream. And there were horses! 

I made the yummiest supper last night. It was just these red lentils, and I served them alongside fragrant tarragon and lemon quinoa. The lentils were so easy! You basically just boil them until they're all smashy and soft, and then you cook onions and garlic separately (I sauteed mine in the cast iron with lots of butter). The recipe says to puree the lentils in a blender, but I just squashed them around with a wooden spoon until they were the consistency of sweet potato casserole (and very much the color of it , too). Then you just stir in the onions and garlic. I really like lentils and I've cooked with them quite a bit...all different sorts...but I've never cooked smashy red lentils and certainly didn't know what I was missing!

I got two plants in the mail today that I'm really excited about...this snowball that I'm hoping will grow heavy and frowzy next to our front door, and this cultivar of confederate jasmine, which is supposed to do well in middle Tennessee. I don't feel like I'm going to make a habit of ordering plants online or anything, but it's easy to get overly enthusiastic this time of year. Tomorrow is our official, on-the-calendar day to start digging in our yard, and this is the most excited I've ever been about that kind of thing. My mother tells me it grows on you, a little bit each year, pun probably intended. Well. I'm happy to let it :)

Happy weekends to all of you!!!

Shop update

Just wanted to let you know that both of these paintings are now (finally) in the shop! March's Flowers is here, and April's Flowers is here. As with the others from this series, they are 16" x 20", watercolor and gouache on thick, textured 300lb Arches watercolor paper. They work framed or unframed (super pretty leaning on a shelf or mantle, but will also fit in a standard 16 x 20 frame). Once the paintings sell, I will be offering them both as prints. I hope they can go to really good homes like January and February did! xoxoxo and have the most splendid of days, friends! 

15/52: Jessika

This one is unique because, before Wednesday, I didn't even know this lovely lady! She came down from NYC to be a  bridesmaid in the wedding I was in this weekend, and we bonded pretty instantly. In fact, we spent almost the entire rehearsal dinner realizing that we have all the same favorite childhood movies, which are probably too embarrassing to list here (but I will say that we both know every word to every song in The Chipmunk Adventure, circa 1985. 87?). 

Jessika is my favorite type of lady, the kind that seems to belong to a more glamorous time. She writes letters, takes herself on dates to quirky museums, and is just as puzzled by most technology as I am. Plus she has beautiful auburn hair and a sparkling smile. In short, she's a doll :) 

 *This post is part of the 52 portrait series: a portrait, once a week, every week, in 2013.*

Chocolate dream cake

Around here, we have been mesmerized by the unfolding pageantry of an exquisite spring. Oh, how I love April!!! Every day feels so especially new. I want to carry it with me forever and ever--every purple twilight and every silver dawn. Every snow-white cherry blossom. Glory be!!!

My friend Colleen is getting married tomorrow, and I have the supreme honor of standing by her side. It's going to be a beautiful weekend for a wedding. About as perfect as they come. I hosted a bridal shower for her on Wednesday night, and I made this cake, and it is without any speculation the best chocolate cake I have ever, EVER baked and the recipe is right here! The title says it all. I'm going to call it the "chocolate dream cake". So luscious and rich, and the texture is almost....silky? Pure chocolate perfection. I wish I could give you my frosting recipe, but I sort of just threw it together. It's basically butter beaten with confectioner's sugar and sour cream. When I make chocolate cake, I almost always have to balance out all that rich sweetness with something a little savory, like sour cream or cream cheese. I like chocolate layers with frosting that is light, tangy, and very, very "whipped". 

I love cake more than any other edible thing. Even if it does make me feel like a stuffy cake person in a sea of "pie people". Manley is definitely a pie person. Most of the people I know are self-proclaimed pie people. And of course I love pie, too. Pie is a fine and lovely thing. But the sheer fanciness of cake will win me every time. 

And speaking of fancy, this dress has been the subject of my daydreams all morning...

I pinned this room on Pinterest recently, and can't find the original source, but AH! perfection. So airy and warm at the same time. 

This too.

And this entire home.

One more thing! If you live anywhere near Nashville and are an artist, photographer, or maker of some sort, applications are open for this summer's Porter Flea until April 19th. My friend Katie organizes it, and it's unreal...every event is better than the last, and this one is going to be EPIC, taking place at the abandoned Cornelia Fort airpark here in East Nashville. I've never participated as a vendor, but I'm totally applying this time. It's going to be so much fun! 

Wishing you a bright and beautiful weekend filled with all things wonderful!

14/52: Rachael

This is my gorgeous and talented baby sister, Rachael. Isn't she stunning?  One of the truest things I can say about my sister and me is that we are very, very different. Night and day. (I'm probably "night"). She's a born performer...I would rather be behind any camera. She has NEVER met a stranger...I tend to cower in crowds of folks I don't know. She's actually good with numbers. And she most certainly inherited the musical talent in our family...I mean...it all got funneled into her!!! 

But we are sisters. We have navigated this world together from the very beginning. The bond we share most deeply was forged during what seems like a hundred endless Alabama summers, when we entertained ourselves by creating worlds within worlds within worlds. Oh dear, if you could only see some of the "movies" we made, or the "books" we wrote (or the neighborhood children we convinced to take part in our harebrained schemes!). Life seemed so mysterious then...like no matter how old we got, we would never be able to figure it all out. Well, we're a little bit older now, and I'm happy to report that neither of us still really have it "figured out". But we know where we came from, and we know we belong to each other. 

 *This post is part of the 52 portrait series: a portrait, once a week, every week, in 2013.*

April

April!!!  We made it. Such a flamboyant, lovely month. As I write this, the eastern sky is lit up with the showiest stripes of peach and lavender and fiery gold. The trees are all froth with lace. I like riding my bike around the neighborhood and noticing how people plant things the same way: usually a flowering fruit tree in the middle of the front lawn, to the right of the front door if you're looking at it from the street. If a central path leads up to the door, there's a knockout rosebush on each side. And forsythia always, always by the curb. We have a planting weekend scheduled ourselves for later this month, and thank goodness, because our little yard needs some serious help! And thank goodness my mother is coming to help, because I am the worst gardener in the history of gardening. We've lived in this house one year today. I think we've reached the point where we've stopped fussing with it so much and have just started to live. Well, there may still be some fussing. But relaxed fussing. Does that exist?   

Click here for the large-sized  calendar, and then you can right click on it to save it to your desktop. Happy April!!!

13/52: Liberty Pearl

I can't think of a more fitting name for this beautiful girl, my sweet Liberty Pearl. Liberty for the freedom of her spirit, and Pearl for the treasure that she is. She belongs to my dear best friend from high school, and has forged her way through the middle of five other children, developing quite an identity in the process. She is feisty and independent, sensitive and blithe. It only took one look into her twinkling blue eyes for me to realize we would be kindred spirits for life. Such a beauty, that girl. 

                                                   *This post is part of the 52 portrait series: a portrait, once a week, every week, in 2013.*

Dream Weekend

1. Oysters for breakfast at The Veranda  2. Pretty Colleen in her Palm Sunday finery  3. Sunshine on a vine  4. Crawfish sausage and fried chicken sliders  5. Bottega Favorita  6. A sweet serenade  7. Five Points Birmingham  8. More sunshine 9. Cheese! 

Last weekend I took my friend Colleen to Birmingham for a little bachelorette weekend. The blushing bride-to-be and I had such a delicious time traipsing around the little city, antiquing and shopping and eating and drinking until our bellies were full and our bodies were happily exhausted. Birmingham always feels so fancy to me, it always has. So different than Nashville. But I love them both. 

Thank you so much for all the iPad feedback a couple of weeks ago. Turns out there are a lot more iPad people in this world than I realized! I've been really working to figure out how to make it more viewable on those, and it took some rearranging, but I think I finally got it. If you are on an iPad and still having trouble seeing this, please let me know! 

Wishing all of you the sunniest, brightest, most joyful Easter weekend imaginable! xoxoxox

12/52: Raine

I figure since you just met Jonathan and Tish, it's only fitting that I introduce you to their darling daughter Raine. This little one brings so much cheerfulness into the world with her wild-eyed grins and hilarious one-liners! She keeps us all in stitches, all the time. Precious, dear, exuberant, sparkling Raine. So much joy in my life because of this little girl :) 

*This post is part of the 52 portrait series: a portrait, once a week, every week, in 2013.*

The Silly Goose

For the past few weeks, Manley and I have spent quite a bit of time fluttering around town in an attempt to photograph all of his architecture projects for his firm's upcoming website redo. It has been a lot of work, but what a WAY to fall in love with our city all over again! And in the springtime, at that! Most of my sweet husband's projects are right here in East Nashville, and one of my favorites is The Silly Goose. I love everything about this place...the potted succulents, the drippy chandeliers, the assortment of fruity iced teas, and just look at this menu!!!

Our neighborhood is growing and changing so much. Manley and I aren't originally from here, and it still feels strange...when I step back and think about it...that we are investing so much of ourselves in one place when we have such deep roots in another. But witnessing the flourishing of a place makes you feel like a part of it. The whole community gets woven into the fabric of the landscape. And that makes it feel like home :)