Penpal project

I got a package from sweet Marta in the mail on Saturday  ...

{penpal project}

Wrapped perfectly, as always - I'll never get over her handwriting. These postcards are a collaboration between Marta and Summer, both of whom are seriously talented.

{postcards, wrapping}

I love getting personal mail, but I've gotten worse about sending it over the years. I used to have actual friendships that relied on letters because long distance calling was expensive and email didn't exist. Remember that? I would write long letters and then put fun stuff in the envelopes, like glitter. I'm sure people looooved getting those glitter bombs - that stuff sticks around for weeks. (I actually own over 30 different shades of fine glitter but D made me swear to retire them when we moved in together. He is not a fan.)

I'm going to make a vow to send more random mail this season and I can't wait to get these guys out into the world. If you want your own, they're available here. And when I wrote Marta to thank her for the sweet surprise, she offered a little discount for you guys. Enter HEARTOFLIGHT at checkout to get 15% off penpal project orders for today only. Blog friends are pretty wonderful.

When Friendship is Lifelong

I've been lucky in the friend department, and I'm the first to admit it.



Good Monday morning, Sara Celi here.



In my life, I've had the luck of knowing a select group of women almost as long as I've been alive. We have friendships that span decades and over the years have grown to mean more to me than I could ever express. I can count out their names on two hands, and after 28 years on earth, I can confidently say I think I'll know these women forever.

This past weekend, I visited one of them.

Tasia Cowan and I have been friends since I was 3 and she was 2. I know, it doesn't even sound possible, because at that age it's hard to know how to be a friend. We played together through our childhood, made it through adolescence, and shared the pitfalls of high school. We stayed friends even after her parents moved to Michigan, she left for Hanover, and I left for WKU.

Now, Tasia lives in Indianapolis.

I'd promised for months I would come visit her, so this weekend I made good on words. I drove north Saturday through the blinding rain, and got up to the city in the mid afternoon. She seemed so eager for me to have a good time, and I did.

Tasia took me all around her neighborhood, and to her favorite boutiques. Of course, I picked up a few key pieces for my wardrobe, but mostly I just enjoyed talking and reconnecting with her. We have the kind of friendship that picks up right where it left off.

For dinner, we met up with several friends at Zionsville hot spot Noah Grant's. If you're ever in Indy, no visit is complete without at stop at this chop house and sushi bar. The meal tasted delish, and meeting Tasia's Indy friends was such fun. Our night out with them was great! We also had a chance to meet up with Tasia's brother, Cage. I've known him as long as I've known her, so it felt great to see him too!

On Sunday T and I enjoyed brunch before I headed back to Cincinnati. I have to say I'm so proud of her. She's grown up with me, and been a part of my life since I can remember. Now, she's happy, successful, and amazing. I'm lucky she's been a good friend!

The weekend, briefly (out of town friend edition)

D and I got to play hosts last week! Our dear friend Beth was in town, so we had hours of talking, drinking, eating and active TV watching (you know, the kind where you all chime in to mock the dialogue) to participate in. We've known Beth for 11 years, almost to the day, and despite never living in the same state, we manage to get together at least once a year.

We celebrated our reunion with some bubbly. I love having champagne on hand for impromtu celebrations.

{bubbly & peonies}

We spent a lot of time cooking and then sitting on the patio.

{kebabs}


{fresh parsley dips + pita}

{a moscow mule and some lovely early evening light}

The weather cooperated by being gorgeous.

Not pictured - a delicious dinner at Osteria Mozza, going to see The Hangover (amazing), vigorous debate as to which Golden Girl each of us would be (Beth = Dorothy, Dustin = Sophia, I am Rose), buying some art at our favorite annual show.

the one where phoebe and mike get married

I always remembered from years ago (how do the years pass by this fast?!), the cute alley-way snowstorm wedding that Phoebe and Mike had on Friends. And practicing my magic on a few more screengrabs, I finally was able to capture some scenes of the decor! Again, I find myself drawn to mismatched (yet somehow matching) chairs and decor - strategically placed, of course! The hanging lanterns and the icicle tree is pretty too. I love the rough city vibe of this old winter wedding - I guess it's truly considered vintage now!

the white tree - it's purty!

cute mismatched chairs!

And also, can you believe, but I still like Rachel's bridesmaid dress even after all these years! The others's dresses...not so much!

Gingerbread junkie

There are few things that make your apartment smell as delicious as baking gingerbread. An annual gingerbread house party is a serious tradition in my family, and we usually make giant houses using the custom cookie cutters designed by my stepfather.



This year, due to time restraints, we scaled it back and used the Martha Stewart gingerbread house pattern. The houses are teeny tiny and cute. I used her dough recipe too, and I highly recommend it. Very spicy and it rolls out great. Just make sure you chill it well or you'll end up with a big sticky mess.



We do not glue our houses together with royal frosting, because we are hardcore and we use caramelized sugar. That's right - boiling hot syrupy sugar, which will give you burns like you have never experienced. It is probably one of the strongest substances known to man. I think they would use it to build real houses except it is too dangerous. I wish I could find the picture of me from last year, holding our house upside down by one wall to demonstrate the sturdiness. Amazing. I won't even tell you how to do it, because I don't want to be responsible for your injuries.

The houses all set up, with an excited child as a blur

The decorating in progress

Of course, this means I knocked out my two biggest holiday traditions in one weekend. Do any of you lovely readers have fun traditions you participate in every year?

Holiday traditions make me happy

Back in high school, my girlfriends and I started an annual holiday party. It's always potluck, with a gift exchange and a craft activity (with the exception of one super lazy year while we were all in college when we just ordered pizza and watched Crocodile Hunter).

I am incredibly proud to announce that this Saturday we had our 10th annual party! We kind of rock. Despite all attending different colleges and now being spread out in different cities, we've managed to keep it together.

Here was my gift for the exchange - a toolbelt apron (tutorial to follow in the near future) stamped with one of my linocuts and some of the meal planning/grocery shopping notepads I've been making. (This trio of hand creams was part of the gift I got for the gift exchange and I've been LOVING it).



Here is the apron in action. You knew I was going to pose in it before I gave it away.



For the craft this year, Kris taught us to make pomanders. Mine is now proudly hanging over my dining room table.



I totally phoned it in this year and purchased desserts from TJs so I have no fun recipes to share today. When you see tomorrow's post, you'll know why I was too busy to be whipping out homemade pies.

Wreckage and wine

Busy weekend here. Saturday D and I paid a trip to an architectural salvage yard. It's the same one featured on Top Design a few weeks ago. We didn't get anything, but we had lots of fun poking around.

Lots of old windows and doors.

I coveted these mailboxes, but the thought of having to get a locksmith to open each one was too much.

Sunday I slept in a bit and enjoyed some morning tea.



Followed by a very leisurely afternoon at Saddlerock winery with a couple of girlfriends, tasting the new wines, eating cheese and baguette and catching up. The weather cooperated and it was absolutely gorgeous.



Lovely.

New York re-cap

New York was lovely, although the weather didn't entirely cooperate. We got one super rainy day, and two incredibly hot, muggy days. Nevertheless, we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. It's actually pretty easy to summarize the weekend. We visited three museums (MoMA, the Whitney (awesome Buckminster Fuller exhibit) and the New Museum), we spent a lot of time walking around the city and talking, and we did a LOT of eating. Pizza, awesome dumplings, lots of bagels with coronary inducing amounts of cream cheese. I'll spare you twelve million pictures and just share a few.


Pork banh mi - the tofu was also delicious


Rice pudding from Rice to Riches, which has about a million flavors and toppings

We spent Sunday in Red Hook, researching the area for an architectural competition D is working on. We stopped by Steve's Key Lime Pies and proceeded to sit down and dig in (with spoons, because that's all they had available).



There are things you shouldn't share with anyone, and the fact that the three of us polished off an entire key lime pie in about 10 minutes is probably one of those things. In our defense, I'll say it was delicious, and also probably wouldn't have transported well.



New York was lovely (and yummy) and visiting with old friends is always amazing. This was our 10 year friendaversary, so it's only fair that we did it up right.

Wedding weekend

So the wedding was lovely, which was no surprise. Mercy just glowed with joy, and she was absolutely serene. My favorite highlight of the day? Cruising around strip malls looking for a nail salon willing to take the six of us (including the bride) who didn't manage to get our nails done ahead of time. Good thing there were a lot of strip malls and every single one had a nail salon. We were rejected 4 times before we found a place with a french manicure genius who managed to crank out mani-pedis on the six of us in a mere 45 minutes. I stand in awe of her skills.

And now I can share a couple of the projects I've been working on without worrying about spoiling any surprises.

First up, bridal party shirts. We wanted something to wear while getting ready, so I made a design in Illustrator, ordered some American Apparel v-necks (deep enough that we could pull them off without messing up our hair) and used iron on transfers.



The make up and hair stylists loved them, because I also put each girl's name on the front, which made it easy to call us over for touch ups. Here they are all wrapped up and ready to be handed out.



And the slightly more involved project...little butterflies for the centerpieces! Mercy's location was a lovely old estate, and she wanted a simple garden party effect. I designed several different types of butterflies in Illustrator, had them cut out of thin acrylic on the laser cutter (this is where having an architect for a boyfriend really pays off) and then spray painted them two different shades of pink, with hints of champagne.


Spray painting the lighter pink ones


Showing the scale (keep in mind that my fingers are somewhat freakishly long)

And here are a few of them in action, in the centerpieces designed by Kris. The tables looked magical, with the lights flickering for the whole evening.


Clusters of different vases, each wrapped with different fabrics - so simple and stunning

Other than that, I didn't take a single picture of the evening because I was too busy enjoying it all. Now I have to wait impatiently for the professional photos to come back. The wedding was wonderful, and I feel so lucky to still have my girlfriends from high school in my life - we are all so different, but once you get everyone in the same room you can actually feel the love. Long term friendships are pretty sweet.

Happy Hour at Border Grill

What with all the vacationing, and thinking I was going to die from a mysterious vacation induced illness, it's been a while since I had a chance to catch up with Em (whose lovely blog is what inspired me to start my own) and we've both really missed our usual weekly girls' night. So we decided to meet immediately after work and hit up one of our absolute favorite happy hour spots - the Border Grill in Santa Monica.



We both booked it to the restaurant because you have to get your happy hour order in before 7 pm. I knew I would break down into a hysterical mess if I missed my green corn tamales, so I battered my way out of my office a little bit early, ignoring my coworker's attempts to delay me. It was so worth it.

Excellent food and drinks + several hours of talking and laughing with your best friend = a really good Thursday night.

Bridal shower recap

Get ready for a longish (and gratuitously personal) post here - the big bridal shower was on Saturday and it was a blast! The bridal party is huge and mainly made up of my dear (and supremely talented) girlfriends from high school, so we had a lot of fun putting it all together and making it special for our lovely bride to be.

Friday night Stace and I were back in my apartment, prepping for all we were worth. Here we are icing dozens of glass slippers and tiaras for favors (yes, those are bikes behind me in the dining room - we live in a small apartment!).


The maid of honor outdid herself with the planning. Guests were greeted at the door with this little table. The bells were for a game, there were blinged out name tags, and the favors are all packaged and lined up in those little trays. The gorgeous flowers for the whole event were done by Kris (aren't we lucky to have a friend/fellow bridesmaid who also happens to be the amazing head floral designer of The Treasured Petal?).


Here's the food spread...


And, of course, the dessert got its own area.


Here is the room, set up and partially filled with people busily filling out quizzes.


And, a close up of the gorgeous flowers (notice Jasmine hiding out in the middle - each table was themed with a different Disney princess).


Here is a collage to give you an idea of the overall feel - be nice, because it's my first attempt at one of these.


And here's the beautiful bride, front and center, with all the rest of us surrounding her.
I really do love my girls and I can't wait for the wedding next month!