New York in a Nutshell

Wednesday
Arrived in the city around 7 p.m. Took cab to Will's apartment in Battery Park City, unwound a bit, ate pizza, chatted, went to bed early and slept beautifully.

Thursday
Slept in, showered, and got ready to take on the city. Walked up Broadway into Soho, visited the CB2 store and various other treasures, tried to find the New Museum but was unsuccessful (partly due to my old NYC map!), walked over to Chelsea and met upwith darling Mili who went to Stanford avec ma soeur, got delicious Pinkberry. I helped her clean out her closet and was ruthless! Said goodbye and headed back to Battery Park City. I must admit that Manhatten has lost some of its appeal, and walking around only made me miss London that much more. Didn't sleep very well this night for some reason.. Maybe excitement over the retreat?

Friday/Saturday/Sunday
Yayy the day has finally arrived! Finished up packing and took the subway to Grand Central. What a gorgeous train station! I'd always heard about how glorious it is, and it reminded me of the romantic train stations in Europe. Successfully boarded Metro North train to Wassaic. Arrived at a VERY gloomy Wassaic station, but my excitement over the retreat made me giddy nonetheless.



The entire weekend was fabulous and more rewarding than I ever imagined 48 hours could be. What an incredible group of women. Students, mothers, daughters, writers, professionals.. We bonded in such a short period of time, and i don't think anyone was ready to say goodbye on Sunday. I know i wasn't! I walked away from the weekend feeling rejuvenated, inspired, calm and at peace with myself. On Sunday we all shared our top 5 take-aways from the weekend. These were mine:

1. I don't NEED to change anything about myself. If i want to change, that's great. But despite what others may tell me, i don't need to.
2. You can never stop learning about yourself.
3. I am special.
4. I can pull myself out of this depression.
5. Kimberly Wilson is still my #1 girl crush. (HOLLA!!!)

Maybe it looks dorky, cheesy, and a bit self-centered to everyone else, but i cannot tell you how important these are to me. So yay for a wonderful weekend, yay for all the amazing women i connected with, and yay for Kimberly Wilson!

Retreating

Bonsoir, mes amies. After a ROUGH couple of weeks, I am finally off to spend a lovely week in New York. I'll be in the city wed and thurs night, in Ancramale at the cozy farmhouse (see above) fri-sun, and then back in the city for a couple more nights of fun before returning to Austin. Am planning to use this time for loads of relaxing, sleeping, journaling, reflecting, and of course, beaucoup de yoga. My body is craving it. I'm tres excited to see Kimberly Wilson again, and i hope that this retreat helps me figure out how to get out of this funk. I hope you all have a fab weekend. Namaste.

Easter Tea!!

Happy Easter, my darlings!! Had a wonderful Easter Sunday - afternoon tea with the London girls (see pics below!), design magazine browsing with M, church @ the Stone w/ S and M, and now just cleaning and hopefully getting to bed soon. Last night I babysat for my 2 favorite kiddies, and it was by far the highlight of my awful week. Let's hope this one's a better one!

Estate Sale Extravaganza

Yesterday afternoon I paid a visit to the Murphy house to say hi to the kids and to take a walk with H. During our walk we passed by an estate sale, and being the girly shoppers that we are, had to go in. The first chair I liked was priced at over $2,000 so I pretty much knew that furniture was going to be out of the question. But digging a little deeper, I found a room full of old books and in particular, a second edition Merriam-Webster dictionary. About 8 inches thick and very, VERY heavy, and only $7.50? I HAD to have it. Also found two beautiful silver trays in the kitchen pantry for $2 and $4 and tons more old books for pennies - literally. I love love LOVE digging for treasures, and it reminded me of flea market shopping with Claudia (from The Paris Apartment) in Paris. Those were some of the best days of my entire experience abroad! I wish I could go back just for a week post-BAR to do some more flea market digging and Parisien living. I still want to venture out to Indonesia as well, but Mom is very nervous about that one. Maybe i'll do the South of France? I miss London so much, it wouldn't hurt to go back....

Bonjour from Austin!

Hello dear friends! I'm in a great mood for several reasons... (1) i'm in Austin, (2) i got a little sun today (love that my patio opens out to a pool!), (3) i made a successful Craigslist sale today, and (4) i've been rearranging like a madwoman! I know i know, it's ridiculous. But until i'm completely happy with my setup, i won't stop. I've been reading Apartment Therapy: The Eight Step Home Cure, and although i'm not actually doing the whole "Cure" i am taking tips and getting inspiration, one of which includes getting rid of some of the more bulky and excessive items in my apartment. I think I went a little IKEA bookshelf crazy when i moved in and have since realized that a lot of it is superfluous for my needs. Thank goodness for craigslist!

In other news, i have some very exciting news but won't be sharing until later. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thinking it's time for a petit nap... until later, darlings.

xoxo
C

Anthro Love

I LOVE Anthropologie. I use to DETEST it. When my girlfriends would gasp, "omg we HAVE to go to Anthropologie!", i would roll my eyes and make some snide comment about how overpriced and unoriginal the clothes are. I still mostly agree with regard to the clothing line. Yes, the items are cute, but they are ridiculously expensive and sometimes just a little too boring and "cute" pour moi. But their home decor stuff? Absolutely dreamy........

I love love LOVE it. These days i can't help but walk into every Anthro store i pass just to see what new, different, and innovative ways they've designed the store and arranged their furniture, bedding, kitchenware, etc. I would describe the style as.... boho chic i guess? It's definitely more bohemian and less modern than my apartment, but it's still full of color and eclectic charm. What i love most about it is that it's not minimalistic or TOO orderly. It's comfortable, lived-in, and charmingly cluttered. Seeing as how i will never be a clutter-free person i think that's why i love their design concepts so much.

I spent this afternoon at Mockingbird Station and NorthPark mall in Dallas. After perusing West Elm and scoring dining chairs for $9.99 at Urban Outfitters (woo hoo!!), i decided to kill some time at the mall in order to avoid traffic. That mall has an enormous Anthro, and lucky for me, they were in the midst of changing their home decor. Their current design theme places a lot of cute kitchenware in these mini, robin's egg blue, cardboard crates. The kind that holds berries and maybe even eggs. Anyway i asked one of the people working if they were for sale, and he laughed and said no, just for display. Later as i walked by he asked me if i really liked them that much. Yes, of COURSE i liked them! They were the most perfect shade of blue. He laughed, shook his head, and then handed me a few to keep. YAY! He wasn't quite convinced that i'd find good use for them, but i was in heaven. Free stuff from Anthropologie?! Score! I then chatted him up... apparently he's the regional design guy, and i asked, purely hypothetically of course, how one might get a job like that and if a law degree would be unfavorable. (DUH.) He said i really just needed experience in the arts or some way to demonstrate that i am creative. Interesting... Lawyer by day, design stylist for Anthropologie by... rest of the day?

More Projects & Partay!

Here are pics of some new apartment projects (fabric-covered corkboard behind desk, new "curtain" for TV stand, newly hot pink tufted vanity stool, patio "garden"), Will's birthday party, and a very tired, adorable kitty.

Breathe and Reboot

Phew. The show is over, spring break is dangerously near, and i am pooped. It seems my body can't seem to get enough sleep despite doing nothing for the past 5 days but sing, eat, and sleep. Starting to feel tres guilty about my ridiculous lack of attendance in some of my classes and cannot wait until the rest of my early classes officially "end." Had a final last week, another this week, and a paper due on Thursday. Friday i drive to Dallas, and Saturday morning Momma and i fly to Cali. Can't WAIT to see my sister's new house and new puppy!! Plan to spend my short time there de-stressing at the spa, playing interior designer, and figuring out a way to steal Sofie (aforementioned puppy).

Quick weekend wrap-up: great shows, Will's delightful visit, tons of partying @ the Pink Palace on Saturday night, way too much booze, some end-of-Medley tears, and lots and LOTS of hairspray (my poor hair...). Got about 4 new interior design clients this weekend, which i'm tres excited about because i've run out of rooms to decorate in my apartment. I love having these outlets for creativity. Also plan to make a Medley scrapbook in the next few weeks and eventually a law school one. Hobby Lobby's got some fab sales going on this week. :-)

After having completely treated my body like crap for the past couple of months, i'm hoping that all this new "free time" will allow me to start engaging in regular yoga, exercise, and cooking. My body is aching for it. I hope you all had a great weekend. Wanting very much to hibernate this week as it seems that Texas is welcoming a second winter, but hope to stay active and productive. Thanks to those for coming out to the show!!