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)

"Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.”

oh emily post. sometimes you seem so outdated to us. and sometimes you seem so right.

since we were children, we have been writing thank you notes for anything. and everything - the obvious paper required events (birthday and christmas gifts) and the not so obvious (a friend hosting a dinner, a boyfriend's parents taking you to dinner, a family member hosting you for a few days...or anyone hosting you for any period of time).

we've been brought up to believe that, while some customs may be outdated, a hand written thank you note never goes out of style. it's like a strand of pearls - classic and everlasting and worth handing down generation to generation.

today we recieved a thank you from kate spade for signing up for their newsletter. (i say 'their' and not 'her' because ms. spade no longer owns kate spade. tears.)

kate spade is utter perfection. it is emily post meets j crew meets the real world (meets a good stylist). we are loving the tiffany inspired blue with the red (pretty sure it's red, we have some color blind people on the other side of your screen here....it could be pink...) which is one of our all time favorite color combinations. and thrown in with yellow - how perfectly spring?

kate spade does no wrong, especially with their paper goods. so it simply made our day to recieve a thank you from ks. even though it's not handwritten. it's still perfeclty sublime.

no?

our kate spade paper picks:

the ps card. loving the blue. loving the white. loving the perfection.

fortune placecards. half off. order them. immediatley.

big card, small party. we need these. the green. the stripes. the wit. need it. have to have it. would you like to come for a dinner party? if we sent you this card, we think you would!

be sure to visit kate spade for selected paper goods and crane & co for the entire line.

an american in paris

after finally seeing 'the september issue' (documentary about anna wintour and the '07 september issue of vogue) we've decided that today's french word of the day is 'mode' -- for fashion.

 and instead of just finishing the post with some pictures from vogue or covers from vogue, we thought it would be better to share some of our favorite fashion bloggers we're loving these days.

okay, okay, we love them every day.

keep in mind the key word here is *some* of our favorites....there aren't enough hours in the day to catalogue every one of our favorites. besides, what would we have left to share if we put them all out at once!

we hope you enjoy them as much as we do! 

 

 

 

 

*the sartorialist *fashionista *frugal fashionista *cupcakes and cashmere *where did u get that *fabsugar *a glamorous little side project

be sure to love them all!

typography tuesday

mulling over our options for this weeks' typography feature, we came across a lot of great things we wanted to share with you. all of them have been put on the backburner since receiving yesterday's urban outfitters' e-mail for their spring break collections. 

 

first, we love anything vintage. we love anything that looks like it's vintage. we also love anything involving vacations, staycations, roadtrips, and music. and of course, paper.

urban's graphics, always satisfying and inspiring, certainly have our hearts aflutter thinking about spring break. 

and definitely tempting us into their online shop. what little minxes.