summer's end

dress - vintage (london), belt - thrifted, shoes - steve madden

Although I think we're going to have a lovely fall, with warm days turning into brisk nights, a sort of bright and energetic fall, I'm already missing summer. But I think I'm missing the summer that I didn't have, the summer I only glimpsed in fleeting moments like this, twirling alone as the sun went down. I think I spend too much time being wistful, dreaming about things to come or times that have passed, while I miss what's going on right now. So while I will certainly be posting some end of summer dreamy nostalgia posts, hopefully I'll simultaneously be looking forward to fall and enjoying all that comes with that. It is a great season.

desert sun

I don't know why I never can blog in real time, you know, actually post things close to when they happened, but here I am now talking about my mini-trip to E.WA. It was really nice to just get away, away from the stress of having to things. It was nice having people feed me and take me places and show me things and to just chill and say, read a magazine or whatever. It was great to see my cousins, they are getting so gorgeous and grown-up it's just insane. The girls are starting high school and middle school this year and it's like...I remember when they were babies. Shamefully, considering that they're only four hours away, this was the first time I've really spent time with them in quite awhile, so it was good to sort of get to know them again. Arielle, the older girl, is turning out to be such a beautiful and sensible girl, I know things are going to be great for her. And Emma is so mischievous and fun, she cracks me up.

dress - target, sandals - gift from a, purse - thrifted coach, denim jacket - thrifted, lipstick - revlon cherries in the snow

In the evening of the one full day I spent in Benton City, Arielle and I went on a little walk on the trail behind their house. I think it's an old railroad? It was beautiful, hot but with a dry breeze. It's dusty in a fragrant way and even though it's not super flat (there's a mountain behind their house and some trees and stuff) it feels HUGE. I kind of felt like I could take deeper breaths than I can at home and I looked up and out more. I don't know if that is just the landscape there that made me feel that way, or the vacation mentality, but it did me so much good.

It makes me realize that I really need to take time and do the things I want to do and see things I want to see. There's so much SO CLOSE and I don't get out and explore. I mean, this was just two days in the middle of the week that I had off, and I often have those two days off, but I NEVER do anything with them. I need to start, every chance I get. I'm still super into world travel (seriously thinking about going to Iceland for Iceland Airwaves or Georgia, the country, to visit my friend Aly) but I kind of forgot about traveling in this country. I want to go on roadtrips and visit the South and all sorts of other things. I need to go back to NYC and I need to go to California and I just need to see this whole great big amazing country I live in.

thriftscores: dishes

I went to the thriftstore recently and found a BUNCH of really great stuff. I've been paying a lot of attention to the homegoods section of my local Value Village because lately they've been having some nice stuff. It's always one of my stops and I often find silly mugs, but lately I've been finding some incredible dishes.

First up is this absolutely amazing tray and dish set with orange flowers. Oh man, I saw this and my heart about stopped. I snatched it so quickly because seriously, how had no one bought that already. It's by Schmidt Porcelana out of Brazil and I think it's vintage though I'm not sure. It certainly looks it. I'm guessing it's some kind of hors d'oeuvres serving set and I almost just bought the large one (I'm planning on using it in the kitchen to hold commonly used spices and condiments) but I couldn't bear to break up the set so I bought the six little guys too.

Next are these adorable mini Pyrex baking dishes. They are SO small. The little red ones are probably about 2 inches square and the blue rectangles are like twice that. I love the solid color look on these Pyrex, instead of a pattern. I think it's kind of neat.

Finally, here are some of the fancy dessert plates I've been collecting. I like pretty mismatched dishes but in this case I've been buying twos. I kind of like the set of six I've collected, they look rather nice together.

I also bought a dress to alter and a few chairs. Hopefully I'll show you those soon.