tissue paper carnations

i stole this entire idea (down to the milk glass vases and color of the carnations) from one of my favorite bloggers, joi of nuestra vida dulce. she has the best ideas and puts lots of love into her creations. hop on over for the how-to and to see how joi styled her kitchen with them. i love them and the pop of pink in my blue and white kitchen is perf! thanks, joi!

glimmy glam glam

lulu's gilt-y pleasure grey top, $71

while perusing new arrivals at lulu's the other day i also came across this little gem. a bit pricey for lulu's but it seems the glimmy glam glam detail would make up for it. cute with skinny jeans and some stacked heel or over the knee boots, no?

bought for hawaii: equator pink shorts

lulu's equator pink shorts, $29

love. perfect for casual dinners or beachside breakfast in hawaii. paid an arm and a leg for 3-day shipping so they get here in time but the $29 price tag for the shorts makes me feel better about exorbitant shipping costs. will likely pair them with wedges and a silky top for dinner.

recipe: a cucumber cocktail

my new favorite bar/restaurant here in austin is called contigo and they have the. best. cocktails. my ultimate favorite is the el pepino, an incredible combination of cucumber, mint, lime and tequila. i like it so much that i decided to give it a go here at home and i think mine came out pretty darn good. sure, it was a lot of work but totally worth it for a fancy, refreshing cocktail at home.

how to (warning, this recipe is totally ambiguous...): peel and blend a cucumber, turning it into a slushy pulp. drain and reserve the tasty part - the cucumber water - with a fine strainer and toss the leftover pulp. juice a few limes into a glass, throw in a spoonful of sugar and a few leaves of mint and muddle together. add ice, tequila and a bit of bubbly water and top off with the cucumber water. garnish with a sprig of mint and a slice of cucumber.

backyard lounging

while nick and i are still a few months away from hiring a landscaper (we're waiting for spring), there have been a few backyard touch-ups this summer. we were looking for a couch and comfy chair situation to replace the $79 target table and chairs but when we saw this double chaise on sale we knew we had to have it. can't wait for the temps to drop so we can sleep outside. the chair cushion was on backorder so the one you see here is placeholder for 4-6 weeks.

the next order of business was finding some good throw pillows to adorn the chaise. even though i loved the red and blue options ($9 per pillow from homegoods), the white stripes were too bright white.
the final winner?

$13 per pillow options from pottery barn outlet.

i still want to make some smaller ones in navy and white chevron, but i'll have to put that on the DIY to-do list. you'll be the first to know if i ever get around to it!

miles of macrame

when was the last time you owned anything macrame? if it was any time between 1983 and 2007, i'm not sure we can be friends. but since today is not within that time period, i was lucky enough to find this little gem of a macrame purse for $9 minus 30% off at the austin antique mall. it could use a little clean up but it will be perfect for a weekend of music, sundresses and brewskies during ACL in a few weeks.

prepping for hawaii: dreaming of dvf

nick and i are soon heading to maui for our annual labor day week of vacation. while i'm in very limited clothes shopping mode, i have been keeping my eye out for hawaii must-haves. after seeing diane von furstenburg's ethyl dress on blair of atlantic-pacific, i knew it had to be mine. i rarely splurge on clothes more than $150 so this took a lot of nail biting and obsessing before i bit the bullet.

but there was a problem. since it was from the spring 2011 line and popular with people way richer than me (here and here), it was nowhere to be found. after fruitless trolling of dvf.com, ebay, craigslist and multiple blogs, i finally gave the dvf 800 number a call. halleluja, the very last one in dvf's posession was in desert hills, ca and it was in MY SIZE. meant to be? YES.

i'm waiting with baited breath for this beauty to arrive so i can tuck it away for a good dinner out with nick in maui. it better be worth every one of those 4,000 pennies.

check out atlantic-pacific for some amazing shots of the dress in action.