As Justin & I attempt to ease back into the week after a very exciting but exhausting weekend at his brother's wedding (honestly, who knew being a guest at a wedding could be as exhausting as shooting one?!), we thought we'd show you some of the behind the scenes fun Justin captured with his new toy, the Olympus ep-1!
Enjoy! And more blogging goodness coming your way soon so check back in!
J&M
Aren't we cute? And of course my shoes had to get their very own shot (what? that's normal!) They are purple in real life.
Happy Friday everybody! The weekend is almost here! In just a little bit, we will be heading out to Mystic for the big rehearsal dinner at Derek & Melinda's wedding.
But first, I wanted to talk shop with you. Well, more like talk shopping with you. As you saw yesterday if you're following along on facebook and twitter (and if you're not, why the heck not?! :), I have officially started shopping for Fall. I know, I know right....stop the presses! But this is exciting news... because Fall? Yea, it's my favorite season! And there are NO clothes I love trying on more than cozy sweaters, cute boots and cord skirts. Can I get an Amen from the congregation?! AMEN!
Sooo, that being said....I put together a little design board of some of the stuff I picked up recently and some of the things that are most definitely on my wish list. Here ya go, happy shopping!
From left to right & top to bottom:
1. This flirty ruffly top from American Eagle. Grabbed this one to take to Nashville with me, but it will also go great under....
2. This military shirt Jacket. Pair with a cord skirt and cute boots and you're all set.
3. This flirty ruffly dress also from American Eagle. Also works with the military jacket or just by itself with the boots.
4. I can't wait to sit out on our porch wearing this striped scoopneck T and eating clam chowder on a crisp afternoon. Is it Fall yet?
5. Just picked up my new Mac lip liner in Whirl (mostly because I was out), but it's always nice to start a new season fresh.
6. Anything in the scent of "Leaves" from Bath & Body works. They have soap, lotion, spray and my favorite: this mini candle.
7. These short boots from J. Crew are at the top of my wish list. Loving them!
8. Just picked up this sweet pink & navy v-neck from Abercrombie. Fully intend on pairing it with skinny jeans and riding boots.
9. Honestly can you ever have enough hoodies? Fell in love and brought this one home from Abercrombie and when I got home to look it up for this post, it is-- no joke-- named the "Mary" on the website. I'd say that's fate.
10. And finally, these Oxfords from J.Crew are a must have for my shoe collection. But maybe when it's actually Fall. And I've saved up a few more pennies! :)
Now who wants to go get apple cider? :)
Fall-ing in Love,
M:)
Between running non-stop for our Nashville Workshop (that we leave for tomorrow at 5am, btw!), running our business and making time to, y'know, run a few loads of laundry... pretty much all we've been doing lately is running. And when you spend all your days going mach five with your hair on fire (which is pretty much the standard operating protocol in Justin & Mary world) life does start to get a little bit.... blurry.
Your eyes get blurry from bolting upright in bed every morning at 6am to tackle the next set of to-do's. Your brain gets blurry trying to figure out what's been done and what still needs doing, so much so that you find yourself constantly asking "wait, what I was talking about." And your days get blurry trying to jam-pack a life time's worth of work in to each twenty-four hour period.
And just to prove my point, as soon as I stopped typing that last sentence I literally just thought to myself: "wait, what was I talking about." Honestly, you can't make this stuff up.
See? Blurry.
So last night for just one night, we downshifted from mach five into a good, steady idle. We sat on our front porch and flipped through magazines. Sure he read photo magazines and I read Southern Living and we couldn't help but toss out just a few more ideas for the workshop. But remember I said down-shifted....not trade the whole dang car in. We ate crab cakes and arugula salad with Annie's Goddess dressing, and we watched the boats sail by. I breathed in. And I breathed out. And tried with everything to get life to slow down for just one sweet second. After that, we walked to the St. Bernadette neighborhood carnival, and ate funnel cakes and lost miserably at the shoot water into the clown's mouth game. Twice. Both times to four year olds. And then we took pictures just for fun. We took pictures of us having fun.
But just so we didn't forget entirely what life feels like right now, we made sure that they too were just a little bit... blurry.
We walked along cobblestone streets and he held my hand. I wore a pink pashmina around my neck even though it was the dead of summer because it seemed like the fashionable thing to do. And given the choice, I always prefer the fashionable thing to do. The air was thick & heavy, and it clung to my cheeks as a fog started to roll in off the river. I pulled the pashmina in just a little closer, as we ambled down alleyways and sidestepped stumbling blocks. I took his arm...and we talked about life.
Not life as it was, mind you, working for the summer at a law firm in London. A firm that would "refund your plane tickets when you have to cancel your vacation" and where junior associates often slept under their desks. No, not that life. But life as it could be.
Yea, we talked about that life a lot.
We talked about a life where we would both work from home. A home with a fireplace and candles burning and cool citrus basil lotion at the sink. And tea. There would be a lot of tea. Peppermint and Sleepy Time. And cinnamon apple in the fall. There would be cranberry walls, and a big silver "M" that hung over our dining room table with star garland wrapped around the centerpiece. There would be quilts and blankets and wedding pictures in silver frames. And we...well, we would be happy.
And for all the parts of this life that we talked about, dreamed about...the part that came up by far the most was of a little golden fur-ball to make it all complete. And clearly when dreaming about life as it could be, it becomes absolutely imperative to name pets you don't even own yet right away. Clearly.
So we walked on. And we debated.
I threw out Beau, Bailey, Brady, Brody, Fin, Quinn, Reese, Rider, Riley, Porter, Miner, Sawyer, Sampson and Sam. But he wasn't having any of it. He looked over at me and quietly said just one name. Cooper.
Oh I don't know. I mean, Cooper? What kind of a name is Cooper for a dog? Don't you think Bailey or Brody would be more fitting? But no sooner had he said it, than we looked up and saw that we were walking right past a sign for "Cooperage Traditional Ale." And just like that, it was settled. Cooper, it would be.
And you know what else? Two months later I had left that firm and we had a little golden furball home with us. Named Dashwood's Cooperage Ale.
So what's the moral of the story? How do you know when it's time to go from life as it is and start chasing life as it could be? Well, it's easy...
Life with J&M
