toast to you, toast to me

where would you spend your ideal new year's eve? i think i'd like to attend a swanky party here...and yeah... i think i'd wear vintage.

goings on

{our new home}

{our new sheets}

{christmas in asheville}

{christmas in asheville part II}

new year's dress

do you have one? i don't, but i want this one. i think it would be perfect.

on a different note, our furniture arrives today, in OUR NEW HOUSE! it is adorable, i love it, and we even have a perfectly sized fenced in frances yard. now all we need is a name for the house, because i don't think i like living in structures that aren't properly named.

{dress, dvf, via shopbob}

paper powerhouse

there's just something fascinating about architects... i mean, these are people who create art that shelters us. obviously it's not all good art but let's just push those tract homes aside for now and talk about someone legit. the lovely shigeru ban creates these super fab structures out of paper! if you love architecture and you love paper, you will love this stuff! i know i do.

image found {here}. rad book found {here}.

you really must watch this.

my new favorite beer.

first i must preface this post with this : i have not actually tried this beer. but i don't care, i love it all the same. any micro-brew called the duck rabbit is a friend of mine ... especially with their cute little logo.

while we were away ...

frances and i made a trip yesterday, a trip to asheville to see my parents and take advantage of a house completely decorated for christmas. i am here to bake and she is here to absorb all of the attention (and food) that she doesn't get when she isn't around her grandparents. its been quite fun.

a sneak peek into the holiday goodies my mom and i are preparing together (in her multiple ovens and with her most amazing array of kitchen gadgets) :

-chocolate chip cookies (duh)
-chocolate macarons (hoping)
-cranberry scones
-parmesan scallion scones
-apricots soaked in cardamom syrup (despite the fact that we could not actually obtain green cardamom pods we are improvising)

i might leave asheville a good 5 lbs heavier than i arrived. oh the joy of the holidays.

oh and i forgot to mention the most important part of our time away. mas may have secured us a home ... an actual little house with a circle drive (umm .. sort of) and a big yard for the frances. we might even be able to move in this weekend. happy christmas to us!

{frances stole an early christmas present that might be a tad large}

long over due

i must admit, i have been sitting on the updated images for the cevd website for a couple of weeks now. what can i say? nothing i know. but here is a sneak peek of what is to come on the site in about a week.

{the rsvp and envelope from the most wonderful mrs.kellie's wedding}

{a papel inspired paper set}

ps - isn't ashley the sweets? i am so happy to have her around, and you guys ... she is on blog duty every thursday! yay!

{all photo styling by chelsea who has a pretty amazing tartan table on the blog right this minute, and all photos by lisa warninger ... duh, who else would i trust with my pieces?}

thursday at the shop

well hello. please allow me to introduce myself. my name is ashley {ajb}, and I am the lucky girl in charge of cevd's flagship shop in los alamos while she and mas are out searching for the perfect abode in nc. if any of you lovely readers are in the area please do stop by to say hello in person.

just a side note meant to entice you all to visit me at the shop... it's raining! i am loving it and if you were here, you would love it too. it doesn't happen very often in this area so when it does, i get absolutely giddy. any day where one can dress like the morton salt girl is a good one in my book.

um, well, yeah

here i was talking about being back in the swing of things and then the weirdest thing happened ... we moved to our second temporary lodging location only to find that THEY DON'T PROVIDE INTERNET ACCESS. what the hell? who doesn't have at least ethernet cords?? i'm not picky i don't NEED wifi, even if i like it the best, but no internet at all?!

anyway, we are still hunting for our house ... the first one fell through ... something about a better offer? i don't know who wouldn't want mas and me to live in their childhood home (aka super cute house), we are the ideal tenants for cute houses! we love cute houses. what better offer could there be?!

+ happy wednesday, i got you some balloons. very, very cool balloons. {via flickr} it is wednesday right?

assuming we have a kitchen

our holidays have been different this year. we spent thanksgiving in chicago waiting for our cars' (yes both of them) windows to be repaired (chicago+public lot+downtown+cars filled with stuff+out of state plates+three days sitting =prime break in condition) and then had a grocery store turkey dinner ... a nice grocery store mind you ... but not nearly home cooked. now it seems as though we will be sans home* for christmas as well. this makes the whole gifting situation kinda tricky for us. you see a couple of years ago we decided to forgo the regular wrapped goods and went instead in the direction of baked yumminess from our own kitchen. it works incredibly well especially since our families fall into the category of - we buy everything we want when we want it anyway making it practically impossible to buy for - and very few of them cook at all any more. so the home baked goodness is actually is seemingly perfect ... and it is so.much.fun. for me.


we are brainstorming for our boxes this year** and so far we have one not to be missed item. i don't think you will be surprised, and you should be excited, when i tell you that number one on the to bake/make list is chocolate-bacon-peanut bark. yeah, enough said. i know.

{recipe found here}

* we are heading to asheville to my parent's house for christmas so we aren't completely homeless, but we are living in a hotel until then so ...

** this is entirely dependent upon moving up to a hotel room with a kitchen, which we need, because i am DONE with meat and fried.

southern pines, north carolina.

i'm back, for a while, i think. you see we still are homeless but things are looking better than they were about a week ago. we found a house we adore, now we just have to play the waiting game ... which is my least favorite part. especially when it means that i am stuck with the same three sweaters and two pairs of shoes that are neither weather appropriate nor regular life appropriate (sue london ballet flats and vans with red hearts on them). no matter, i am thoroughly looking forward to the second christmas we will have once we finally receive all of our housewares. it will be a ton of fun.

{the house we are hoping for, isn't it a delight??}

for now though we are living in a limited wardrobe while wandering the area. and when i say the area you should know that i am not speaking of fayetteville exactly but more southern pines. we found a tiny town that reminds us of where we grew up and we think we might be incredibly happy there. and they have a fresh market, which isn't the whole foods/trader joe's combo that we were hoping for, but hey let's face it, in a small city in the south we are lucky to have anything other than a food lion.


oh and did i mention the fried pickles? and the cute little ice cream shop that was more than willing to add a dollop of eggnog ice cream to my coffee while recommending a local pizza and thai place? people are so nice in the south. how in the world did i forget that?