food! a delicious self-torture sampler

{each photo links to its shop}

there. what did i tell you. not just food, DESSERT.
edible wedding favors, etc. can't bring myself to look any longer.

ohhhh. lemon cleanse, when will you end.

when life gives you lemons: a lemonade sampler

{each photo links to its shop}

so i'm headed home tomorrow, and my beloved is on day five of a cleansing lemonade detox. color me puzzled. last week i got home from work one night and there were giant bags of lemons all over the kitchen. ?wha??... had never heard of such a thing, although it's evidently popular, and i refuse to link to it because it might just be a bit unhinged, and i fear for all of us. plus i didn't find him particularly toxed in the first place (visualize, if you will, little floating air hearts circling my head... yes, i have it bad).

all this kvetching to say: i plan to join him in this crazy venture tomorrow. and i really, reeeallly love to eat. i'd like to say i love adventuring with him *more* than 3 squares plus snacks... (and coffee... oh god, the coffee...)

prediction: by friday i will be posting food. all kinds of food.

(god, i'm such a wuss! i just get so *angry* when i'm hungry. hopefully i won't go on some wild-eyed lemon-cayenne jihad and hold up the ice cream parlor behind our apartment building.)

speaking of lemons/lemonade, please allow me to veer briefly into serious (and warning! Depressing) public-service-announcement turf. as always, please feel free to skip.

one of the many reasons i took time off from the blog was that my stepfather died unexpectedly just before christmas. he was 48, much younger than my mom;* this year would have been their 10th anniversary. have been trying to help her untangle a scalding hot mess of troubles since then, which is why i'm here in florida. so much i could tell you, it would break your heart -- it breaks mine.

will simply say this from my soapbox: one of the best ways you show you love each other, in any long-term relationship but most especially a legal one, is to make sure you have an up-to-date will, plus a living will with your health directives. i know, it's a downer. it sounds lame, or you're young, or it's expensive -- please, if you can plan a wedding you can do this. even if you don't own stuff or have/intend to have kids, but especially if you do. make a plan together for what would happen if you weren't there to help your people figure it out, and write it down. do it for love.

end soapbox! we will be ok, with some hard work. there are some big damn lemons life bowls you over with some days -- and still there's so much beautiful in the world. please take care of each other!

*my mom will absolutely kill me if she reads this part. good thing i have a will.

navy + black bridesmaid dress ideas

{each photo links to its shop}

gulf coast sampler: down by the sea

{each photo links to its shop}

in florida this weekend, helping my mom (and most assuredly *not* basking by the shore). one day i promise to tell you (if not here, then in my yet-to-be-written book) the story of my mother's tiki bar beach wedding. you absolutely cannot make this stuff up, friends.

back shortly, promise!