monday music: valentine's day mix

Valentine's Day mixes are my favorite. How could they not be? With so many love songs to choose from, it's easy to come up with a very long list of songs that are perfect for this day. Eight songs seems like such a small number when you have so much to choose from, but I decided that these were the right tunes for today. Some happy, some sad, all dear favorites of mine. Happy Valentine's Day to all of you! I hope it's a sweet one for you.

sunday pieces

Happy Sunday! This morning got off to a very good start when the boy gave me an early Valentine's present; truffles! Not only did he make them himself, he got creative and topped them with a bit of sea salt as a finishing touch. They're pretty amazing.

When your day starts out with chocolate, how can the rest of it go anything but well? I did a bit of shopping for the first time in a long while, and then we went out and had a lovely dinner. We finished off the weekend with something that seems to be turning into a yearly tradition.

Casablanca never gets old. I can't think of a better movie to watch around Valentine's Day.

the great escape

On the last day of January, we escaped once again to the magical greenhouse. It was such a pleasure to step through the door and be transported to a tropical, blooming environment. Quite different from the cold snowy world we've gotten used to lately. This time we came home with an orange tree, a little lemon tree, and a geranium to bring some green into our own space.

a glimpse

I don't think of myself as an overly frilly sort of girl. In fact, though I have a number of pretty dresses handing in my closet, they get passed over in favor of jeans and a t-shirt 9 times out of 10. And yet, there's nothing that brings out my girlish, frilly side like wedding fashion. Ever since it was announced that Anthropologie would be launching a wedding line I've been dying to get a peek of what's in store, and now I finally have! The official launch date is next Monday, but these pictures give us a glimpse of what's to come from BHLDN.

I can't wait to see more.

aftermath

(top photo by the boy. bottom photo by me.)

Ice storms can be scary, messy things, but the aftermath is something entirely different. My ride in to work the past two mornings has been stunning. Every branch and twig is covered in a layer of ice, and when the sun shines... oh. All the forests have become silver and magical. I wished that my rides were taking me someplace different, where I could walk in the woods and listen to the trees bend inside their casings. All this may sound silly and overly poetic, but it's nice to find something beautiful and exciting about this time of year, when winter is wearing thin.

So here we are at Friday, and these are the things I'm thinking about.

The two new albums I just bought on vinyl. So excited to give them both a listen.

These pictures have me dreaming of far off places and dream vacations.

I have almonds soaking in the kitchen so that tomorrow I can make homemade almond milk for the first time. Since I've been trying lately to go mostly-kinda-sometimes-almost-vegan, almond milk is my favorite thing to put in tea. Here's hoping the homemade version tastes good too.

I really like this dress.

The cookbook I just added to my collection is full of delicious recipes and I can't wait to try them.

The big question of the night in our house is what sort of weather tomorrow will bring. Snow? A wintry mix? More ice? We shall see.

Happy weekend!

daily food

Breakfast today...

film

I've had a bunch of film developed lately. Mostly the pictures are from the winter months, but before we got all these crazy snowstorms. We're due for another round tonight, and then ice tomorrow. Sheesh! It's funny to see these photos and remember what the ground looks like.