Grateful | September 30, 2013.

I am Grateful.  

What a great last weekend of September!  So much sleep, so much sun, so much perfection in the final episode of Breaking Bad.  

Pictures of the Week.

{Mini pumpkin!}

{Practicing for Molly Jacques' Skillshare Class - it's going better than expected!}

{Tuesday dinner with my mom and sis in my hometown}

{Gorgeous farmers market dahlias}

{These guys made it out of storage!}

{No words other than: perfect.}

Links Worth Sharing.

• A Dia de los Muertos Bridal Shower?  - SO fun!  via Julip Made
• What a great idea:  Design*Sponge has designs inspired by the Emmy Red Carpet!  Here's Jessica Pare & Kiernan Shipka of Mad Men.
• Eat Drink Pretty's Pumpkin Cookies sound divine!
• The lovely Munich Madel fills us in on What they Don't Tell you about Munich's Oktoberfest.

Have a wonderful week.

xo. di.    

*images property of Diane Crary

Fall Fridays | Emmy Favorites.

{Anna Gunn in Romona Keveza; Christina Hendricks in custom Christian Siriano}

{Kerry Washington in Marchesa; Elisabeth Moss in Andrew Gn}

Hi Friends!  I'm back in Chicago and getting all caught up on life.  I cannot wait to also catch-up on sleep this weekend.  I'm bone tired.  How was your week?  

I didn't get super excited about a lot of the Emmy fashion on Sunday, but the four ladies above stood out to me (in particular Anna Gunn - wow.  And such a well-deserved win that night too!).  Who was your favorite?!  

Have a wonderful weekend.

xo. di.

*images as noted above

In the Park.

This part of the park was just calling my name last Saturday evening.  I wandered, I sat and read, and I photographed, as the sun began to set.  It was beautiful.    

xo. di.

*images property of Diane Crary

Grateful | September 23, 2013.

I am Grateful.  

A palette-cleansing breather of a weekend before an intense work week.  I slept 11 hours on Friday night.  It was glorious.

Pictures of the Week.

{Sunrise over the park #iphonepic #nofilter #seriously}

{Required reading}

{Sunday afternoon at the Lincoln Park Zoo}

{A stop-in at a Chicago Oktoberfest celebration}

{Cutest $12 I ever did spend}

Links Worth Sharing.

• Wait Classy Girls Wear Pearls has me fully ready for fall with her Trip to the Apple Orchard.
• Ricotta, Honey & Provolone Crostini via A Cup of Jo - sounds delicious!
• Can we talk about Clint Eastwood's son Scott for a minute?  He made quite the debut in his Town & Country spread this week.  - via Tom & Lorenzo
• Tyrion & Cersei Lannister were on Sesame Street.  I'll bet the Count always pays his debts too.  via Warming Glow
• In love with Coco+Kelley's pick for Room of the Week this week.

Have a wonderful week.

xo. di.    

*images property of Diane Crary

Fall Fridays | Stress is Here!

OMG this week.  Killin' me softly.  And loudly.  Every which way.  Bless you, Friday, for being here, and for giving me a 48 hour reprieve before my first major business travel starting Sunday and lasting all next week.  Getting to sleep in my childhood bed and having my mama there due to said business travel occurring in metro-Detroit does help, but stress looms large.  

Speaking of, I might be lighter than usual on the posting next week due to the aforementioned traveling.  I'll do my best though.  We have The Emmys (my most controversial awards shows - I haz strong opinions!  about TV!), the second to last Breaking Bad, the beginning of "the season of the Mother" on HIMYM, as well as the start of Molly Jacques' Skillshare class.  That's a lot of things in one week!  So I'll be taking lessons from Lena and Murray and trying to relax.  

Have a wonderful weekend.

xo. di.

*image property of Diane Crary

Gone Fishin'

What do you do when it won't stop raining over Labor Day weekend?  You load up a cooler of beer, you head out on an aluminum boat, anddddd you last 20 minutes before you're soaked to the bone and no amount of beer will make it worth it.  OK, so I made it 20 minutes before they dropped me back at the dock and I went to take a nap on the couch in front of a fire (I iz what I iz!), but my sis, her husband A, and C continued on, boasting of their respective fishing prowess ad infinitum (and yet, they came back empty-handed).  

xo. di.

*images property of Diane Crary

Wedding | Photography.

As you might imagine, the first few months after getting engaged involve a lot of trolling through wedding blogs, getting those first glimpses of inspiration.  Do enough "research," and you start to recognize a photographer's work before you even scroll down to the credits.  Elizabeth Messina is one such talented photog.  I credit her work with light for totally changing how I feel about capturing people (in pictures!  not in real life!), and in particular - as it is her forte - weddings.        

I mean, see what I'm saying?  

When I started researching photographers for our wedding, how they captured light in interesting ways was my top criteria.  That's a large part of why we're working with Jen of Luna Dulce Photography, but more about that some other time :)

Elizabeth Messina's work has also inspired me in my own very amateur photography.  And that's how I ended up impulsively purchasing Elizabeth's The Luminous Portrait about a month ago, at pretty much the minute I learned she'd published a book on capturing light.  I've been reading it in pieces here and there (lots of information to take in and process!).  Can't wait to work on implementing her advice.       

xo. di.

*all images by Elizabeth Messina: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7

Grateful | September 16, 2013.

I am Grateful.  

For a restful and productive weekend in Chicago.  And the return of decorating with pumpkins!  Not quite as grateful for the relentless rain on Sunday, which postponed our engagement pictures - but what are ya gonna do?!

Pictures of the Week.

{Farmers' market dahlias on the coffee table}

{Newly-obsessed with these golden & glittery Pottery Barn pumpkin candles}

{So many pumpkins}

{Our favorite books, for something I'm still working on}

{Our sad little shoes, all ready to go for our e-session}

Links Worth Sharing.

• Wait But Why has some very funny, very poignant thoughts on Why Generation Y Yuppies are Unhappy.  Shoot, I might be a unicorn gypsy.  
• Amateur Calligraphers, take note: the incredible Molly Jacques is teaching a Skillshare class later this month: The Art of Modern Calligraphy.  I've already signed up!
• I said on Friday that I haven't loved any collection from this fall's NYFW, but my favorite has been Naeem Khan's Spring 2014 collection, aptly titled "Madrid to Buenos Aires." - via Tom + Lorenzo.
• Did you see The Everygirl's feature on Amelia Canham Eaton's (of The CHICago Life Blog) Chicago Apartment?!  It is dynamite.  Particularly love the green fern leaf wallpaper, which is a sentence I never thought I'd say!  She's also a 3rd year at my law school alma mater :)

Have a wonderful week.

xo. di.    

*images property of Diane Crary

Fall Fridays | NYFW.

I have lots of random things to say today:

• Happy Friday the 13th!  Spooooky!
• Happy First Fall Friday of 2013 as well!
• The World of Harry Potter is still expanding!!!!  I am beyond excited, obviously.  Just do a search for "Harry Potter" on this blog to understand why :)
• We're in Chicago this weekend (yay!) and I have lots of good stuff planned, most importantly our engagement pictures on Sunday (whoop!).  Fingers crossed the 30% chance of rain goes completely away. 
• Have you been enjoying New York Fashion Week from the comfort of your computer screens like I have?!  While I have liked a lot of the designs, I haven't loved anything the way I normally do.  But Fashion Week is likely the reason I came across the top image here this week though, from Christian Dior's 1949 Haute Couture collection (see it in glorious action here and here).  That petal skirt, ugh, I want.  And I was immediately struck by how much it reminded me of Glinda's bubble dress from Wicked.  No way that was a coincidence, right?  Love how 50-year-old fashion can inform today.          

Have a wonderful weekend.

xo. di.

*image 1,2,3

Hibiscus.

I seem to be unable to keep up with this week!  The days are flying by, I'm flying around, it's only Wednesday and I am tired.  It is also, as you all well know, the anniversary of 9/11, a sobering day no matter how many years have passed.  So here are some pretty pictures I took on my walk with my sis on Sunday in her town of Plymouth, Michigan.  

xo. di.

*images property of Diane Crary, filtered through VSCOCam

Grateful | September 9, 2013.

I am Grateful.  

For a weekend I didn't want to end at my sister's and her husband's.  Mom, sister and I wedding dress-shopped*.  We watched  college football.  We laughed.  We drank beer.  The boys went to the Lions game.  The girls took a walk around Plymouth and embraced the lazy Sunday mentality.  Breaking Bad tortured C and me last night back in Chicago.  And now it's Monday.

*No selection yet, but some serious contenders!  Want to do a little more hunting before any final decision.  

Pictures of the Week.

{First cider & donuts (and my mom's banana bread) of the season!}

{Isn't Plymouth so lovely!}

Links Worth Sharing.

• Go read Long Distance Loving's post on Why You Should Always Eat the Cupcake right. now.
• Remember my post on untranslatable words?  A Cup of Jo has some more, with fun illustrations!
• 2 stellar online magazines that knocked it out of the park with their September issues: Matchbook and Sweet Paul. 
• Oh my is all I can say about PaperFashion's first NYFW Fall 2013 Illustration.

Have a wonderful week.

xo. di.    

*images property of Diane Crary