life lately february

2015 has been a mix of joy and sadness so far. we lost my husband’s grandmother to cancer in january, so it was a difficult month, but mixed with great joy to visit with family and celebrate her life. i spent a week in houston for my sister’s baby shower (due in three weeks!) and helping to pull together the nursery. in february, my beautiful mom turns 60 and little baxter turns 1!  i have been able to say yes to more projects which has been really exciting. i don’t know about you, but i am so ready for spring!

here is life according to my instagram feed…

{the nashville flea market}

{the nashville flea market}

{houston sunshine}

{brunch at josephine and visits with family in town}

{a farm in beautiful leiper’s fork}

hope you all are having a great week!

madeline

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travel : hawaii planning

i am so excited….we finally planned our much-needed vacation this year and our destination is…HAWAII!  we plan to go to maui and spend most of our time there. we want to experience both the western ‘desert’ side in wailea and eastern ‘tropical’ side of the island in hana.  my parents often tell me about how they visited maui when my mom was pregnant with me and now i will be returning again. it is hard for me not to plan a lot of things to do and see, but i know we both need time to recharge; so i will do my best not to type out an itinerary….

 

do you have any hawaii recommendations? i would love to hear what islands you recommend, where you stayed, beaches to visit, or any other tips you might have!

 

images kauai 1 / lanai 2 / maui 3

 

MADELINE

our new family member

if you follow me on instagram, you have probably seen that we adopted a new puppy this month, baxter. this and a few other things could help to explain the silence here on the blog in may and june. baxter is a four month old lab hound mix with a sweet temperament who stole our hearts. sampson, our other baby, is still warming up to him, as he has been an only child for four years, but i think in time they will be best friends. aren’t his little spots the cutest? we are so happy to have him as part of our family now! do you have any tips for handling and introducing two dogs? it has been a really difficult two weeks with getting some bad news, but puppy cuddles are helping me get through.

 

lately, i am reading this book for book club. have you read it?

 

[natalie came to visit this month! it has rained everyday in tennessee, but we trying to spend every dry minute here.]

[at the end of may, we celebrated my husband joshua’s 29th birthday at gray’s in franklin.]

{i took a modern calligraphy course with my best friend at the skillery nashville.]

[we have been enjoying summer in nashville’s 12th south and made a stop at the biscuit love food truck.]

[we went to the outdoor movie night at the belcourt theater to watch ‘singing in the rain’]

[and of course we celebrated our wonderful father on father’s day, here is us in 1989.]

much love to everyone this weekend.

madeline

drink : grapefruit basil paloma

 

to celebrate cinco de mayo, we made grapefruit basil paloma cocktails last night. they were so delicious that i wanted to share the recipe here with you! it’s a variation on the original paloma, “the dove.” it is a citrusy, fresh take on a gimlet or margarita and the tequila base makes it perfect for this holiday. i substituted the typical club soda for st. germaine liqueur to give the cocktail a floral tone and added my favorite summer herb, basil.

 

grapefruit basil paloma

1 part grapefuit juice

1 part blanco tequila

1 part st. germaine liqueur

squeeze of lime

muddled basil leaves

throw all off this in a shaker with ice, muddle basil and lime, and shake.

pour, garnish with basil, and enjoy!

 

this drink is equally as great with gin or vodka, so the liquor is interchangeable. let me know if you try this one.

enjoy and happy cinco de mayo!

 

 

xoxo

madeline

 

my sister’s new blog

i have the best sister. in. the. world.

{sisters, madeline and natalie circa 1987}

 

we have been so close our whole lives, but now she is halfway across the country. to stay connected, we skype, call, and read each other’s blogs. she started a new blog this month, wild communion – go check it out! she is a super talented massage therapist and health/paleo guru. she blogs about health, wellness, and he life in houston, texas with her husband (and my brother in law). she is also the prettier sister and extrovert of the family. i can’t talk her up enough….she is my favorite.

first signs of spring

{flowering hawthorne branches}

spring has quickly become my favorite season. working in an cubicle eight to five has made me appreciate the extra hours of daylight at night and the approaching color in nature. the yard is so beautiful this time of year; i am so thankful to live somewhere so beautiful with such a deep connection to nature. i get to watch the plants that my grandmother planted here come to life every year. yesterday was the first day of spring, and i am thankful for it’s arrival – bringing us all out of the winter blues. here are some blooms to brighten your day from our home. the first signs of spring peaking out…

{wild daffodils and lavender}

{forsythia and tulip tree}

{helleborus blooms}

 

happy friday!

NYC part III

it seems odd that the first day of spring i am posting photos of a blizzard….for the last installment of our new york pictures, i present HERCULES 2014. both of us are born and raised in tennessee, so we have never seen snow like this. it started snowing the night before and we woke up to a winter wonderland. we practically ran down to central park to find families and children sledding – everyone seemed so happy! i had to include this next shot of josh stealing a child’s sled and wiping out…he says sledding down the hills that day was one of his favorites memories of the trip.

 

we explored a personal favorite, the metropolitan museum of art (met). i love the eqyptian wing shown below; the windows were even more beautiful framed in snow. i wanted to post a few pictures of the cute apartment we rented in the upper east side from airbnb. we had a little kitchen and living room to kick up our feet after longs days. our host was very sweet and it was overall a good experience.

we knew our travel home might be delayed due to snow and ice, but i don’t think we were prepared. we had to stay in the city an extra day after all flights were cancelled for a week…we hitched a ride with my dad the next day. 36 hours later, we were happy to be home to see this little guy. nyc, chantal and paul – we love you.

NYC part II

today i want to share more from our new york city trip. i posted this week about our first two days in the city – times square, central park, grand central station, and new year’s eve.

 

on our third day in the city, we spent the morning at the high line and walking all around the city. it is such a nice change of pace to walk everywhere when you live in suburbia! we toured the museum of modern art (moma) in the afternoon and stopped by the beautiful hudson hotel bar for a drink. i loved this spot so much i will be posting a spotlight on this later. we stopped into sofia wine bar for pizza; this place seemed like a place we would hang out if we were locals. to finish the night, i fulfilled my life long dream of visiting the top of the empire state at night. the whole time envisioning all the famous movies filmed there….

on on fourth day, we started by heading out to brooklyn, we crossed the brooklyn bridge in 4 degree windchill (!?!) and walked through brooklyn heights. while downtown, we walked by the freedom tower and saw the new calatrava path station going up below. visiting the 9/11 site was so moving, 13 years laters. the blizzard (hercules 2014) started very quickly, but this did not stop us….we toured my best friend’s architecture firm and headed down to chelsea for dinner at jean gorges’ spice market. we walked down to chelsea market, which unfortunately was closed due to the blizzard, and ran into a favorite, fish’s eddy. the blizzard was crazy to witness – our first one!

i will be sharing our final photos and about the apartment tomorrow. happy friday.

 

madeline