fantasy shopping spree!

so at first we didn't feel like fantasy shopping. and then we realized - wait! that's borderline blasphemous! so we shopped a little. and dreamed a lot. and ended up with a set that is so out of reach for us it's kind of funny. 

what did you shop for today?

shop it (if you dare): Jason Wu Twist front dress, 760 GBP || Hamilton-Paris Blouse with beaded neckline, 560 GBP || Designer Tops & Blouses, Matthew Williamson Spring Collection, $695 || Diane von furstenberg trousers, 205 GBP || True Religion Julie skinny jeans, $170

the (very) long way home

so, when we started this blog, we promised ourselves that every friday we would take the long way home from work. enjoy life. take our time. take a back road. stop at a store. grab a bottle of wine. enjoy some music. and try not to not freak out about the traffic.


but this weekend we certainly took the looonng way home.


friday, we took our dear friend alexa to the train station and then went to dinner at flirt. (we suggest the down under roll. mmmmm)


then we drove down to dc, arriving at 2 am. and hailey begged and begged and begged until all parties involved conceeded to drive past the white house. she wanted to take great pictures of the white house lit up in all its peaceful glory while the majority of the city slept.


driving in circles, hailey kept saying, it's right here i know it's right here! (if we were outside, we're sure she would have been stomping her foot). and in fact she was right. except that the white house wasn't lit up. we guess nobody was home? so we didn't get any good pictures for you.


(so we'll share this one:)

so then we decided that it was okay we didn't have pictures to share from 2 am, that we would get fabulous ones for you on saturday.




well.


there was a lot of rain on saturday. and wind. and hailey broke her umbrella (and then thanked the gods she was intelligent enough to bring her rainboots). there was so much rain that we had to leave our cameras behind so we have no pictures of the city to share with you.


but we went to the international spy museum, which was fantastic, and highly recommended you go when you're in dc (there's a great shop and cafe....filled with spies??? perhaps.)

we'd all really like to be spies now.

we enjoyed the beer sampler at gordon biersch's.  and then went to shamrock fest. 

which is really why we brought our cameras, to share with you the s*it show that it was supposed to be. 

but because of the rain....there are no pictures to be had. and no crazy stories to tell (except one crazy girl rolling in a huge puddle of water with a short denim skirt on and a white tanktop...which it was far too cold to be wearing let alone rolling in the water with). 

after the shamrock fest, we got ready at the hotel, and went to capitol city for dinner.

it was a pretty early night because we HAD to come home to go into the city to see lies maculan's installation in chelsea (which we heard about from the ever fabulous refinery 29.

we wish we had great pictures and a review to share with you, but the george washington bridge needed emergency repairs on the lower level. 

so if you don't know anything about the tri-state area or the gwb or people in this area who drive in the rain, let us share a few tips with you.

the first is that we've never once hit traffic so bad we kicked ourselves for not checking the traffic.

today we did.

when you take the gwb, all trucks have to use the upper level (since 9/11). so when the upper is backed up we take the lower (though we prefer the upper for the great views).

and there's always traffic, but mostly it's doable. 

and people in this area don't know how to get their heads out of their asses what to do with themselves when a drop of rain falls, let alone a storm that wipes out power across the state, shuts down highways for tree removal, crushes power lines, and causes a water advisory counties wide. so it was a mess.

so we spent 3 hours trying to get to the gwb, which we when we started getting close to the bridge realized that it would have taken another 2 hours just to get to chelsea. which would have been 5 hours in the car (after driving 4 home from dc earlier). we could have gone to dinner in atlantic city and come back for that time investment. 

so we turned around and ended up at the mason jar, five minutes from where we started our journey.

long way home - success.

emotional result - absolutely miserable.

so that's our weekend story.

what did you do on your long way home???

we are going to require several china cabinets

to house all the dishes we know we are going to collect over our lifetimes. 

but isn't that what life is, a collection?

a collection of people, moments, memories, and treasures - note, not stuff, junk, crap, things....treasures. 

when we look around, we see people we've collected and loved dearly, moments and memories we hold close to our hearts, and treasures that surround us that make us smile, drool, and our hearts aflutter. 

we have pieces of art that are, frankly, irreplaceable. we have candle sticks and lamps and little knick knacks that have become part of our lives. and we are, without a doubt, living in every room we touch. because things we've collected along the way have come to live with us, and memories surround each and every piece. a painting that was a gift for graduation. an art piece from an uncle. a trinket from a trip to a far away place. 

so all of life is a collection.

and we know that one of the things that we will without a doubt start to collect, that may or may not completely take over our lives is dishes. tableware. kitchen utensils. eating utensils. whathaveyou.

just as long as it doesn't over take our book collection, i think we're okay.

(but you know pieces will most certainly end up as decoration on our book cases....yes. cases....there shall be cases upon cases of bookshelves (like that grade-shool-election promise 'rows upon rows of vending machines))

but we digress.

thanks to our new favorite blog (post about our new favorite blog in the coming days) sunday suppers, we were exposed to the brook farm general store. we are most certainly going to have to pay a visit to this wonderful little gem in brooklyn soon (promptly after we make a list of all the places on sunday suppers that we just HAVE to visit)

and so we have dishes. 

three hand thrown stoneware plates in a milky shade of white: $39

classic french bistro glasses, set of 6: $24

and who could resist the set of 6 stainless straws?! : $18 (ps - if you're looking to buy us a gift this would be utter perfection!)

we also find it hard to resit the glass water jug....but we love all vessels in clear glass!: $25


ps - brook farm general has a blog!

get the look

some spaces are so drool worthy, we cannot help but want to redo every room in our house one hundred times over. 

when we stumbled upon the city sage's post on the hunt, we knew we had to use this picture for our next get the look:

 

for the wainscotting, we chose ash from restoration hardware from the slate collection.

we've found several lamps that would suit this room:

pottery barn: $269 

 

pottery barn: $149  

west elm: $99 

 

sundance: $175  

now, we know this tub isn't exactly the one in the picture. but our feeling is that no claw foot tub is wrong. and that restoration hardware does no wrong. so the more we stare at this tub, the more we drool and find it absolutely necessary for our next bathroom renovation.

  

restoration: $3110-$3410  

we like these restoration curtains ($99-$139) in white, with these pottery barn rods ($69-$89) in antique bronze:

and our favorite piece, besides everything else in the bathroom:

 

the train rack from restoration: $279 in the chrome finish.

then we'd like to top it off with restoration's turkish towels ($8-$46) in white:

 

of course we need a 5 gallon water jug to  accessorize our look:

$22.95 

 

and we'd like to put our new jug in this vintage farm basket for $43.

what do you think?

paperless post

last week we brought to you a beautiful e-card thank you note from kate spade and talked about the importance of a hand written thank you note. and then proceeded to show you everything we've been drooling over when it comes to the kate spade line of paper goods.

but what if we could get the most gorgeous letterpress that isn't on paper?

well you can!

brought to you by paperless post....

you recieve an invitation addressed to you!

and it unfolds just like a real invitation!

and just think of all the possibilities!

if you're anything like us, we love sending beautiful invites for something as simple as a sunday dinner.

but now, whether it's last minute and on the fly or planned well in advance, you can send utterly gorgeous e-invites to all your friends!

we love this virtual letterpress!

fantasy shopping spree - updated spring wardrobe!

in our world, there's no better way to start a week than with a fantasy shopping spree. this week, waking to sunshine and chirping birds (endearing only for a few minutes before they became irksome) inspired our fantasy shopping spree to be a more tangible one. a spree in which we plot our spring wardrobe acquisitions.

the endeavor took on a life of its own. 

SO we apologize in advance for the sloppy nature of this week's post. we got a little overzealous. 

but we hope you love our choices!

we're loveeeeeing blush pink, ivory, and lace. standard favs at herlongwayhome. we're also loving stripes (another standard), dresses, skirts, and lots of patterns that can be mixed and matched.

what are you adding to your wardrobe this spring?!

 

(shop it)

 

(shop it) 

 

(shop it)

 

(shop it)

 

(shop it)