hippie chic home

images from elle decor, habitually chic, elements of style

wishing this was my home.

vintage photo

Lori's grandparents. 

I don't know what I love more - that when I met her grandmother at the age of 90 something, she looked exactly like she does in this photo, or that her grandfather's tie is wider than his face...that thing is amazingly chic.

Who loves the beach?

Bear does. Fascinated by the waves coming in. He's in heaven. Me too.

gorgeousness

images boubouteatime, J crew, Paris Vogue

summmmmmmer looooooooove.

hope everyone is enjoying the happy, hot weekend!

i would like to be.....

thandie newton. think that's possible?

image from a girl named bong

Twins

Luca and his aunt Michelle are twins!

other people's desks

image from here.

Obsessed with this desk! The chairs are perfection. The antlers! All perfection!

this kid is having a baby...

soon!

I cannot wait to meet my new nephew. I can hardly sleep, the anticipation is killing me!

pink! for Selene

image from lovers in vain

Everyone, please please please send my sweet selene some wonderfully healthy energy.

FEEL GOOD!xx

horse hearts from Lysa in Cypress!

would you rather...

image from my trip to barbuda 2008

image from boubouteatime

...be on an empty beach alone or a jam packed beach with your friends?

Right now, I'm choosing the empty one. Tomorrow, i'd like a large soiree with lots of water playtime and hot summer sun on my skin.

What about you? Which would you rather?

happy long weekend!

images from because I'm addicted

The official start to summer is here, happy long memorial day weekend to you all!

Do you have any wonderful plans? I'm attending a wedding in a few short hours and then I plan to lay myself on the beach with my bear and teach him all the fabulous parts of summer - sun, water, sand, lobsters, friends and family.

Enjoy whatever it is you do!

xx

The full moon

And on the other side of America, the same moon loomed over Los Angeles.

Take a walk

One of my favorite parts of living in NYC is being able to walk for
hours & be entertained endlessly. You just never know what you'll see,
where you'll end up, what the sky will look like.
Last night Luca and I toured around the piers under the full moon. It
was stunning.
Where do you like to walk to?

how hilariously cute is this video?

freedom

Last night as I was putting Luca down for bed he was struggling, as he sometimes does, between the world of dreams and the party he thought he was missing by passing out. So I decided to tell him a story.

I told him to pretend he was a bird, flying with all the friends he could find up in the sky. Swim in a sea of dolphins, race to the top of a tree with monkeys, slap your seat belt on and drive 110 mph on a racetrack, slide down a rainbow.

And do you know what? The kid stopped fussing, stared at me with those breathtaking blue eyes and laughed. Squeezed my face, tickled my shoulders, snuggled into my arms and passed out.

I know he dreamt of all the things I mentioned. Insane of me to believe he understood? Perhaps. But I'm full of faith that this bear gets it all. Such a smart soul...

where would you like to wake up tomorrow?

"I'd like to wake up where I always wake up - just later.

Note to Jojo Strohmenger: please sleep til 9am."

-Rachel Strohmenger, mom to jojo

record the day

This is one of the greatest ideas I've seen in a long time. It's a blog called record the day - here is what the girl behind the goodness has to say about it:

These are the things I love. I'm always jotting things down, keeping images from magazines and scraps of whatever excites me fastened to record cards. They used to get left floating around in the bottom of my bag, occasionally deposited around the house or tidied away into drawers. Now they are here.

Don't you just love it? Go to the site and find all of her little creations.

vintage photos

fully obsessed with this photo of my father from 1970. He's such a man. Love it.

give me something...

image taken in Tanzania, by Brax Cutchin

I got an email last night from a reader, Jessi, asking me a list of questions. I love questions. I do. Thought I'd share, and maybe in return you can all share with me. Perhaps?

If you read this blog you know a lot of this already, so i'll start by apologizing for not coming up with too many unknowns, as Jessi had requested.

I live for love. I've been heartbroken in a way I don't think many people ever experience. This made me feel lonely. Scared. Which is partly the reason I started my heartbeat blog and definitely the reason I became obsessed with photographing hearts all over the world. The war was the first topic on the news every day, my heart was aching to the point where I was losing weight and unable to sleep night after night. I lost part of my self. The greatest part of me. The love. I was walking with my best friend, Alan and noticed a wall that said "love love love" in gold script. It made me happy. It felt new. It felt hopeful. I decided right then and there that I needed to concentrate on love. Let go of the past. Let go of the sadness. Let go of my mistakes and live for the day. For the moment. That moment. And the moments ahead of me. I started opening my eyes to the world, I got out of autopilot and into super duper inspector mode. I started seeing cracks and branches and handwritten declarations of love. I started smiling more. I started noticing more. I had something to live for. Something to walk towards. It was, or rather is, a love story indeed.

I'd be lying if I said it was something that happened quickly. It wasn't. Years, years went by, and pain could be ignited at any moment, flickering at first and suddenly BOOM! a fire so devastating, i'd be left dealing with it for days.

Heartbreak is a lot of things at once. Life-altering. Soothing. Outrageously painful. Comfortable. Confusing. Regretful. I constantly felt out of control and tried gripping on to people and things hoping to feel new. As if ignoring it, the pain would go away. Being surrounded by those who didn't know about it would make it so it didn't really exist. It burned holes in my stomach. I lost my faith.

It was worse than death. Death is final. You can somehow come to peace with it. But heartbreak wasn't. There was a glimmer of hope, never full closure. Always something...

But then you meet someone and they show you how you are totally capable of loving again. You can do it. And you do. Perhaps it's not even a person. Maybe it's an animal. For me it was a whole country, a sea of people. Tanzania. The children. The mamas. The fellow volunteers by my side. They silently, unknowingly chanted the words of encouragement I needed. You can do it. You can do it. And I did. I loved. I loved like never before. With an open heart. I opened my heart. A broken, open heart so wise that only other broken hearted souls ever fully understood it.

I sang and laughed and danced and prayed. I cried. I loved. And I laughed some more.

Years later I take myself to that place. And what I wish for the world around me, for my child to learn and love, is that when shit knocks you down, stay down for as long as you need. But allow yourself to be helped up. Take that hand.

And always laugh. scream into a pillow if you need to. punch the wall. buy yourself a new shirt or heels or giant ice cream cone. You deserve it. Buy one for a stranger and smile at them. Pet a dog that isn't the cutest one of the bunch. put your arm around your friend and tell them they look great. tell them you love them. tell them you appreciate them. take scissors and cut a love letter into shreds and only keep the one word that really matters. chop veggies til your anger is gone. read stupid jokes until one really makes you crack up. stare in the mirror until you know who you truly are. Look into someones eyes til you see their soul. it's not impossible. find someone and look. let them in. tell them off. tell them you're sorry. mean it. gain weight and love it. lose weight and be proud. read something that brings you joy. write something that will help others. believe. deeply believe. believe in truth. don't deny the world of your goodness. whatever it may be. but we all have goodness, so share it. and sing. sing your favorite song and dance ass naked. get naked and love it. love love love.

please.

summer breeze

image from a place to escape.

This sticky air has me aching for this weekend, FINALLY summer is here. Beach time.

Natasha Poly helps give me a little extra boost to get my bum up and burn some hard core calories.

watch this!

where would you like to wake up tomorrow?

image from fffound
"hmmm where would i like to wake up tomorrow?.. id like to wake up happy and with someone i love and who loves me back, and when it comes to love who really cares where you are. oh, and with a giant bowl of yogo berry (original flavor with strawberries and chocolate chips) yummmmm."

-dylan, my fabulous intern

dancing barefoot

after a bellini dinner with two of the most beautiful girls in NYC, Chrissy & Jenna, and a sleepless night with a stuffy nosed Bear, I've been left feeling like I'm spinning on a merry-go-round.

I sat through a little meeting feeling like this song, dancing barefoot by U2, has taken over my being. Like my head is in the music video, twirling around on a beach with sand and sweat flying around me. But my body is here, at work, trying to sort out budgets and photo shoot ideas. whoa!

would you rather...

Saw these two delicious photographs on Luxirare and began to salivate. She made a simple apple look just as scrumptious as the buttery, sugary, apple turnover she created with it.

Beautiful images of even the most simple objects never cease to amaze me. Food photographers have serious talent. I tip my hat to them all...I could never do such a job.

which would you rather eat?

thanks to anthony for sharing this!

my next baby bundle of love will be laying his weary self in this amazing KOO bassinet/rocker. how chic slash smart slash simple?

you can get yours at lunar.com.

Queen of hearts

I received such an incredibly thoughtful gift from the great Georgina
- a giant queen of hearts card.

It's on my desk looking over my shoulder, reminding me to think with
my heart at all times.

dreams

image from coco kelley

do you remember all your dreams? it's rare these days for me to wake up and know what land I played in while asleep, but this morning I woke up with the clearest vision of where I was.

And now I cannot help but wish to sleep again so I can get back to that wonderful place.

tell me your dreams...

bucket list - the Super Bowl

Remember that bucket list I briefly wrote about last week? well add super bowl to it...and now that NY and NJ will be the site of the 2014 game, I might actually be able to cross it off my list.

N.F.L. Chooses New York-New Jersey For 2014 Super Bowl Site

National Football League owners, lured by playing the sport's
biggest game on the largest stage, combined with the promise
that snow would not grind the event to a halt, awarded the
2014 Super Bowl to New York on Tuesday afternoon, making the
New Meadowlands Stadium the host of what will be the first
cold-weather Super Bowl.

The New York-New Jersey bid beat out proposals from Tampa,
Fla., and South Florida -- two traditional hosts -- in part
to reward the Giants and the Jets for building a new
billion-dollar stadium together, a tactic the N.F.L. has used
when they have placed the game in Detroit, Dallas and
Indianapolis.

Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/sports/football/26nfl.html?emc=na

i want....

...to be on a huge ferris wheel, looking over the world below. I want to be close to the birds in the sky and relax as I sit still and spin round and round.

just when you think....

image from amlul.com
I'm always amazed by people. You can give your heart and soul to someone and in return be rejected. You can bend over backward only to be under appreciated. You can love passionately but without warning be told you're failing. Life can hurt.

But then there are those open, honest, giving and grateful people. And that's who this post is about. Those that inspire you. Understand you. Love you for you. Those that are mad to live, not mad at life. Inspirational beings. Bursting with excitement.

And to all of you in my life that have this balance, I thank you. You are the reason I wake up happy each day.

I received a beautiful email from Lobo today that prompted this little rant. Lobo, my Lobo, I adore you.

why am I singing this song nonstop? I need to get something else stuck in my head...suggestions?

...Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live...

-LOVERS IN VAIN

collage from the fabulous boubouteatime - sunshine is my soul

"Your baby is just beautiful, and those eyes are like small moons."

-anthony m

that line, from Anthony's amazingly kind email, melted my big heart. how beautifully poetic (and true!). thank you!

Anthony is the one that had THIS insane diving experience with eagle rays in Turks and Caicos last year.

hot

image from the sartorialist

Only an Italian man could look this chic, this sexy, this elegant in all white. His entire vibe is just beyond...

I simply cannot raise my arms

image from the amazing blog fashion castaway, found here.

After feeling healthy, in shape and tan from my cali trip, I went home last night and decided to continue the goodness by going for a long walk, taking the stairs in my 14 floor apartment building (with Bear in my arms) AND working out to my new Tracy Anderson video.

Well, now I'm incapable of lifting more than my pinky. And I love it.

I'm a runner, always have been. To do yoga or even take a brisk walk leaves me feeling totally inadequate but the workout I got from Tracy's video blew my mind. You must try. Especially if you have a child. Luca was hysterically laughing the whole time and I even used him as my weights in a few different moves.

If you're totally over the gym or just need a new way to entertain yourself at home, get the video, trust me on this.

Early morning love

Hearts on 13th street.

go for a run

image from a girl named bong
if you don't have the energy, just look at this photo of 41 year old jennifer aniston. if that doesn't get your butt into some workout gear, nothing will.

I want....

to have a secret party in this little creation. I want to eat and drink and dance and play all night long inside and around it. I want to....so bad....

image from domino magazine

check out my most updated heart beats.

so excited and proud of my newest entries. people really never cease to amaze me with their open love and affection for life. enjoy.

"tell me something about your heart"

what a day....

from zanitas blog

Coming off of a delayed redeye is never easy. I raced to the office after seeing Bear for only 15 minutes. Now my heart is hurting as I try to concentrate on work and not on his adorably cute face and GIANT eyes as he spotted me for the first time since Thursday....