hump day.

i think that june has arrived about a week early here in maine and i'm loving it - where is the best place to get a non-hootchie, inexpensive/dirt cheap and comfortable swim suit for a tall gal? this is my new mission...more to come ;)

[image via someecards]

p.s. i luff you.

happy [belated] birthday to my lovely sera!!! 27 years young and bringing happiness to my world since 1999, i hope you had a great day and party and i'm sorry that i missed being there to celebrate with you.

you are my technical guru, grammar maven, sounding board, partner in crime and so much more...we share every inside joke imaginable...we've chanted together, 'nuff said.

thank you for being you (the pretty lady on the left!) - MWAH! xo, phin

lil vacay.

randomly went to the mountains this weekend with my friend tara and her family. they have a cabin just outside of rangeley, maine and it is dubbed "the lodge" by people who refuse to call it "camp" because it is 4-star ready. it was a long weekend full of fun and food, YUM, did we eat and get stuffed to the gills. we also went on a kick-butt hike to the summit of saddleback mountain and surprise - There Was SNOW! how crazy?!?! needless to say while we did not contribute all of these wine corks to the jar above...we added quite a few, so today i am in recovery and laundry mode, will be back tomorrow with something new - MWAH!

announcement.

fleurs on flickr

"beauty in the stems & petals that surround our daily life - new angles, bright colors, blurred perspectives, sky backdrops."

i started a flickr group today because i have been taking pictures of flowers since the sun starting melting the snow around here and i am taking too many to post and share on this space, so now you can find the outtakes and surplus on fleurs...please feel free to join and share your pics from gardens and groves all over the world!

[photo by kristy for thingsihearttoday]

friday hearts.

"let us read and let us dance - two amusements that will never do any harm to the world."
– voltaire

it's the start to a long weekend and while i have spent much of the week reading posts and marking down links, it's friday and i am too sleepy to deal. so stay tuned and i will post this weekend with all my favorite food, design and randomness that i enjoyed this week. take a load off this weekend and i hope you have monday off too:)

[photo by kristy for thingsihearttoday]

bowie.

"nothing? nothing? NOTHING? nothing, tra la la?"
~jareth

last night as i arrived for a vent session (since dubbed "sloppy talky" by me and tara), i was walking through the parking lot on the way to meet her when i kicked a marble of all things which rolled down the ramp twisting and turning and making a whirling, clicking noise until it came to a stop. it was like a teeny tiny version of the crystal ball in labyrinth...i really wanted david bowie to pop up and sing and dance and lurk around on the spot where it came to rest which was near where someone had recently spit (nice.) and even though i spent all that time daydreaming about what it could have been in an 80s movie, i walked away. five steps out of the garage i made myself turn around and go take a picture of it, i mean who loses a marble in a parking garage? no one would believe that story without proof...plus, the marble looks like the earth and i kinda wanted to kick the earth yesterday anyway, so there.

[photo by kristy for thingsihearttoday]

dear diary.

“fear is a slinking cat i find beneath the lilacs of my mind.”
sophie tunnell

O-fficially one of my favorite days of spring...THE LILACS HAVE OPENED! i rushed out before the rain set in to pluck a branch for my room, for my sanity really. lilacs are my happy place, their perfume and plum stained petals bring me back to spring days spent in vermont farmhouses with the windows open and afternoons laying on quilts with best friends. it was bennington where i learned that sometimes picking flowers is enough, sometimes just sitting with your chosen family and letting the minutes pass is all there is. it is may and more than any other time of year, i miss my sweet family, how i wish you were just a walk away.

a little song for my lovelies ejk, sv, dw, am ~



[photo by kristy for thingsihearttoday]

more peas.

these days as i cry over $4 gas (i live in the country where you have to drive to get most places), i AM trying to cut back on the unnecessary, but i still have a hard time passing up a good deal...like the one i found on etsy tonight. i was just looking for inspiration when these green jadeite beads popped up and i impulsively clicked (quickly!) before the pictures changed...$4 & my most favorite shade of green, it was meant to be! PLUS, they remind me of peas - which i'm allergic to (sad because i heart peas), but i also spilled peas all over the floor this morning when i was getting my lunch out of the fridge...so synchronicitous and therefore - DOUBLE meant to be ;)

while i was searching the rest of this etsy shop, i found these fun bows which i quickly justified getting because i am certain that i will find a project for them once they arrive and the price was right...i definitely enable myself! if you're looking for funky & varied styles of beads, check out atomicveggiecom for great deals and sign up for their mailing list here.


[photos via atomicveggiecom on etsy]

monday fleurs.

with the coming of spring, i am calm again.
~ gustav mahler

[photo by kristy for thingsihearttoday]

summer luffin'.

ok, so while i slap myself on the wrist for being a bad blogger this week, i have to pat myself on the back for being a good daughter instead...a little more important since i was too broke to get my mom anything more than a card for mother's day last week :) my mom is an amazing lady AND a beloved dance teacher to boot! this weekend is her 35th anniversary show, congratulations mum! if i could commit to something for the next 35 years and know with every fiber of myself that i would still enjoy it, than i would sign up right now. i will be back tomorrow (if i don't pass out from the exhaustion of 3 shows and this cold i'm trying to fight off) and hope to share some of my favorite things that i just heart as of late.

in the meantime, here's a song i heard the other night that i am now obsessed with! it makes me wanna roller skate (which i do NOT do...i have the roller-rama pictures to prove it!) and it's such a summer-ish song, i immediately think of being at a disco (because in this dream i am either in europe or the 1970's) OR (in modern day dreams) i'd be driving around in a convertible on a hot summer night, top down and car dancing while stuck in traffic and not caring...like a soft drink commercial! i liked it so much that i texted myself so i wouldn't forget to remember it later for my songs i heart today: summer mix edition, ENJOY!

it makes me sad...

...that these are called bleeding hearts because they are SO darn pretty. these lovelies are from my grandma's garden, happy hump day!

[photo by kristy for thingsihearttoday]

randomness

have you ever been channel-surfing and fall into something completely fascinating? it happened to me yesterday. i was flipping during the evening hour where i either get stuck in a politics fix or watch wheel of fortune. during a commercial (and found on ovation tv no less!) i stumbled onto how to draw a bunny, a documentary film on the life and work of artist ray johnson. if you have any interest in delving into the completely insane world of an kuckoo/genius artist, see this and be strangely drawn into the conspiracy theory that his suicide was actually his final piece of performance art, complete with clues left behind in a spooky treasure hunt (snippet below) amongst his vast collection of work found in his home after his death. [holy-run-on-sentence!]



my favorite part of the doc is when his friend and fellow artist, peter schuyff, recalls when he asked ray the price of one of his collages. schuyff offered him 3/4 the price because he didn't have the full price at the time...johnson sent him 3/4 of the collage in the mail - he cut 1/4 of it out! what a crazy! i love this guy, i hope you do too.

double duty images.

ok, so if you thought the last double duty was funny, then take a deep breathe...announcing the vaginal mirror (!) - (complete with razor and...leash?). this was so random & i heart it SO much! i sent the ever-lovely brandi, one of my big apple hosts, a link to a post that i had seen for ceramic mugs by christin johansson - reminiscent of the mug that she made my almond milk latte in while i lounged in her brooklyn hammock;). she then sent me a return link of the artist's current/other work via mocoloco...holy trail of breadcrumbs to get to this! so while i suppose, if a vaginal mirror were to be commonplace, it would look like this...i think that it looks like one of those looking telescopes that you find on boardwalks and cruiseships that you put quarters into. only difference is the view.

[image via mocoloco]

take time.

it's friday, another weekend that has crept up on me quickly and while i'm hoping for good weather so that i can get outside and plant some posies, i wouldn't mind being lazy in the rain. i have a stack of starred items in my google reader that i need to revisit and computer work to do for my mom's dance recital (it's next weekend...eek!). here are a few finds that earn BIG hearts and above is the most molten sunset from this evening just before it disappeared behind the farm. happy weekend:)

--> i heart office supplies, and these are my soon-to-be-new obsession...in addition to my already unhealthy love of sharpies;).
--> my loveliest lovely emilia was featured here and for good reason...great idea.
--> synchronicity is running RAMPANT around here and i nearly fainted to find this on my friday favorite ...it was just two days ago that i told my mom that we had to dig out our recipe that our danish exchange student used to make
--> i need this book and a business plan
--> a gluten-free travel guide for when i make it to italy...someday
--> it's really not easy being green in this video, it's sad

[photo by kristy for thingsihearttoday]

word up.

feeling uninspired today and nostalgic for words, i leave you with a quote which seemed appropriate for the day that i'm having...goodnight.


"there is no greater impotence in all the world like knowing you are right and that the wave of the world is wrong, yet the wave crashes upon you."
norman mailer (1923 - 2007), armies of the night

[quote via quotations page]
[photo by kristy for thingsihearttoday]

cut-it-out.

i often find that when i loose my hours browsing etsy shops, i am automatically drawn to jewelry shoppes. it's no wonder then that i was drawn to zippan designs with it's clean cut cut-outs. the designs are whimsical, delicate and just simplistic in the best possible way. besides silver, she also works in wood - a clear labor of love, these beauties are hand-finished after cutting each piece with a fine saw blade...wow.

[broken heart]
i don't have a broken heart, but if i did i would wear this and enjoy the fact that the chain is reminiscent of the paper clip necklaces of my youth!

[Unicorn]
also, makes me feel like a kid again, just like my faux-airbrushed unicorn tank that i heart.

[diamond cut out studs]
these are the kind of studs i can get into...my checkbook is fond of diamonds in the cut-out-non-diamond persuasion ;)

[images via zippandesigns]

bueno.

happy cinco de mayo! too bad it's on a monday ;( drink'em if ya got 'em!

chop, chop.

i am that girl who watches the food network, then tries to have knife skills and a discerning palate in the kitchen. so when i saw this new book today on cool hunting, i was so excited, my inner chef was smiling:) this comprehensive manual comes complete with instructions, techniques, maintenance & 750+ illustrations - oh, & it's ambidextrous so righties AND lefties are both welcome! i'm going to put it on my wishlist right now, and i expect i'm not the only one. find it here & here.






[illustrations by Alan Witschonke via knife-skills-book.com]

paper covers rock.

i have always been perplexed by the rule that paper wins over rock in the fabulous tie-breaker/game rock, paper, scissors. however, this rock (outside of the pre-school where i teach) has trees actually growing up and around the rock...putting it in a half-nelson, if you will. paper (as a tree) puts the strong arm on rock. i get it now.

[photo by kristy for thingsihearttoday]

checking in.

i have been absent, BUT i have a doctor's note. luckily my foot silliness turns out not to be an infection (despite doctor's best efforts to convince me, the culture didn't grow!) and so now the likely reason that my foot swelled to the size of a melon is some kind of bite..."it presents like venom" the fourth doctor said on my fourth trip to the hospital, Thanks! that was my original idea, but i am on antibiotics, elevating the foot when possible and trying to get back into the swing of work, blogging, laundry, etc. i must give a big shout out to all my friends in new york who i didn't spend much time with, next time i am steering clear of the botanical gardens AND the subway;)

so while i have been away what have i been up to besides panic attacks over not having insurance? well yesterday, use your words, the project that emilia and i collaborated on ended...today i miss it already. lately i have been having breakfast envy...every day! and another one bites the dust, one of my favorite bloggers has made the leap into the unknown to stop working for the man and start something for herself, good luck & kudos! i downloaded the sneak peak from a band i adore. i also made a rad cake for my nephew brody's 5th birthday (pictures to follow). my magnolia, which is annually wrecked by rain as soon as it buds, bloomed and still blooms against the very blue skies of spring here after thankfully short lived rain. please enjoy my favorite shade of pink & a perfect blue, welcome spring!



[photo by kristy for thingsihearttoday]