Wishful Wednesday: Back-to-School Nostalgia

It’s hard to believe that fall is almost here. School is starting, the days are getting shorter, soon the leaves will start turning. And even though nothing is changing for me and for the time being I’ll stay right where I am, I feel a pang of back-to-school nostalgia that makes me long for shopping trips for school supplies and a new fall wardrobe.

Though the unrelenting weather won’t let me put away my warm-weather clothes for some time yet, I’m entranced with so many fall things I’m seeing on shelves. Here’s a list of a few things I’m lusting after right now…

Color Category Dress, Anthropologie

Marcie Large leather tote, Chole

Frye Paige Tall Riding Boots, Piperlime

Vintage cotton stripe baseball tee, JCrew

Velvet Schoolboy Blazer, JCrew

Along the Warf Stripped Jacket, LA Posh Style

Two Tone Scarf, Zara

Family Weekend

This past weekend was such a whirlwind. My family (and extended family) came to visit and they all stayed with me because I had the apartment to myself while Jered was out of town for a wedding. There were eight (!!) people staying in our two bedroom apartment—but we had such a fun time.

I hosted my first dinner party of more than four people on Friday night, we explored the city and I got to pretend I was a tourist for the day on an architecture tour and at the Chicago Bean and then my aunt had a beautiful brunch at her place on Sunday. It was lovely. I was sad to see them go.

Sisters and cousins...



This is the traffic jam I was caught in on the way home from the suburbs... Stand still for more than an hour. I think it's time to leave Chicago...



Be Mine EmersonMade

I stumbled across a profile piece on Emerson Fry of EmersonMade in the NYT yesterday and I have been obsessing ever since.


Everything from her travel journal with husband and photographer Ryan Fry, which includes destinations like India, Thailand, Italy, Patagonia and Portugal, to her New Hampshire farm and to-die-for clothing line has set my heart all aflutter and I have a full-blown girl crush on my hands that I don’t know quite what to do with.


And get this: not only does she design all her pieces, she models them on the website as wll.


Not only is her clothing so up my alley, but the way she has decorated her home is insanely gorgeous. I want to copy everything she has done.


Here are a few photos for you to lust after as well...



Those are mini bikes on her dress...

Love her signature bun

Love this vest and her jeans look like they fit like a dream

Pattern of mini swimmers

Every entryway should have no less than one rifle, a pair of hunter boot and a leopard print coat

Intentional clutter

Monogramming

This is her dog. His name is Pedro

Four posts



Dream kitchen





Literarily Inspired

Every summer I try to envelop myself in as many exciting reads as I possibly can. Excess beach and vacation time lends itself well to picking up a good book and just getting lost— without any interruption. One of my favorites thus far has been A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick. Set in the year 1907, the book is about a wealthy Wisconsin widower and a young woman who answers his ad in search for a “reliable wife.” As it turns out, neither character turns out to be who they said they were, and the book is filled with exciting twists and turns, deceit and mystery. Above all I loved the descriptions of the lavish things of that time and it got thinking to the ways I could add some of that 19^th Century glam into my own home…  




Love this dark living room with the Oriental rug and antlers in the window

 


Dark purple flowers on a black desk



The drama of this bedroom is so perfect



This owl lamp from West Elm now sits on my boyfriend's dresser in our bedroom



Dark bathroom with lots of perfect accessories

A little place of inspiration...

For the longest time I have wanted to start my own blog. I just returned from two weeks of the most incredible summer vacations in both Northern Michigan and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I felt so inspired while I was gone and my hope is to bring some of that inspiration to my everyday life. Can’t every day be like a vacation, filled with beautiful, inspiring things, delicious foods and exciting endeavors? I absolutely think that’s possible and so my hope is that this blog will be the space for that. I’ll leave you with some of the things that inspired me while I was away. 

When you get far north enough Lake Michigan starts to look like the Caribbean

I have three sisters and they are my best friends in the entire world. Here we are in Michigan with our boyfriends

Jackson Hole, WY is one of the most beautiful, serene places I've ever been

Wildflowers on a mountain hike