July 1

"I had that familiar conviction 

that life was beginning over again 

with the summer."

- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

"As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea 

and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, 

and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell 

and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, 

I lost the empty feeling 

and began to be happy 

and to make plans."

- Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

photo taken in Rockport, MA, Summer 2011

“You are not weak

just because your heart feels so heavy.”

- Andrea Gibson 

photo via Tumblr

Come Drift With Me

I found this print on Etsy; 

and I'm obsessed, 

eager to add this perfect little piece

to my own precious, little apartment. 

It's just another reason

why I'm loving this site 

more and more; 

and just another reason 

to log on and see what new treasures 

are discovered. 

“As soon as you stop wanting something, you get it.”

- Andy Warhol

Start Fresh

“Finish each day and be done with it. 

You have done what you could. 

Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; 

forget them as soon as you can. 

Tomorrow is a new day. 

You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered 

with your old nonsense.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson 

photo via Tumblr

After a weekend spent with best friends, 

celebrating an engagement for one, 

a birthday for another, 

and the simple fact that after so many years, 

we are still so close, 

despite miles and crazy schedules, 

I am left feeling incredibly blessed, content 

and ready to conquer the week busy ahead.

I ate too many chips, sipped too much champagne, 

we shopped, and didn’t stop talking the whole weekend, 

catching up on news and gossip, work and weddings, food and fashion.

We may live states apart, 

unsure of our next get together.

We may have lots to do in our own individual lives, 

time going faster month after month.

Monday may be just around the corner,

but I feel so lucky knowing these ladies 

are just a phone call away.

photo via Tumblr 

Wises Words for this Wednesday

image via Pinterest

Think Happy Thoughts

"If you have good thoughts 

they will shine out of your face like sunbeams 

and you will always look lovely.”

- Roald Dahl

photo courtesy of Tumblr

Happy Friday

"I have to be alone very often. 

I’d be quite happy 

if I spent from Saturday night 

until Monday morning 

alone in my apartment. 

That’s how I refuel.”

- Audrey Hepburn

photo found on Pinterest

Give me the strongest cheese, the one that stinks best;
and I want the good wine, the swirl in crystal
surrendering the bruised scent of blackberries,
or cherries, the rich spurt in the back
of the throat, the holding it there before swallowing.
Give me the lover who yanks open the door
of his house and presses me to the wall
in the dim hallway, and keeps me there until I’m drenched
and shaking, whose kisses arrive by the boatload
and begin their delicious diaspora
through the cities and small towns of my body.
To hell with the saints, with martyrs
of my childhood meant to instruct me
in the power of endurance and faith,
to hell with the next world and its pallid angels
swooning and sighing like Victorian girls.
I want this world. I want to walk into
the ocean and feel it trying to drag me along
like I’m nothing but a broken bit of scratched glass,
and I want to resist it. I want to go
staggering and flailing my way
through the bars and back rooms,
through the gleaming hotels and weedy
lots of abandoned sunflowers and the parks
where dogs are let off their leashes
in spite of the signs, where they sniff each
other and roll together in the grass, I want to
lie down somewhere and suffer for love until
it nearly kills me, and then I want to get up again
and put on that little black dress and wait
for you, yes you, to come over here
and get down on your knees and tell me
just how fucking good I look

Kim Addonizio

And when you’re needing your space
to do some navigating
I’ll be here patiently waiting
to see what you find

‘Cause even the stars they burn
some even fall to the earth
we’ve got a lot to learn
God knows we’re worth it
no: I won’t give up

Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.

Nora Ephron

I don’t think any day is worth living without thinking about what you’re going to eat next at all times.

Nora Ephron

i used to think i’d look back on loving you as the hardest thing i’d ever done.

but truth is, loving you was easy. was in fact the easiest thing in the world.

it was the attempt not to love you that nearly killed me. the attempt to rationalize and to make sense of what was never meant to make sense. the attempt to ignore and silence and make little what was as big—as vital—as anything in this life can ever hope to be…

Meg Fee, of the wild and wily ways of a brunette bombshell  one of my favorite writers on the blogosphere

One of the keys to a happy relationship is letting go of the little stuff. You can’t let it get to you.

Jessica Biel, in the August 2012 InStyle

You can find romance in front of a fireplace in the mountains, or at the beach. Romance is everywhere.

-Jessica Biel, in the August 2012 InStyle

People who hate waste so much of their life hating that they miss out on all the other stuff out here. I do not choose to live my life that way. What is done is done. I’m looking to the future…If all my heart was filled up with hate and regrets and what ifs, then what else would it have room for?

Jaycee Dugard, from her memoir a stolen life

You have love, you shouldn’t have doubt.

my person

I just want someone who wants to hang out all the time, thinks I’m the best person in the world, and wants to have sex with only me.

Hannah (Lena Dunham) on GIRLS