our new family member

if you follow me on instagram, you have probably seen that we adopted a new puppy this month, baxter. this and a few other things could help to explain the silence here on the blog in may and june. baxter is a four month old lab hound mix with a sweet temperament who stole our hearts. sampson, our other baby, is still warming up to him, as he has been an only child for four years, but i think in time they will be best friends. aren't his little spots the cutest? we are so happy to have him as part of our family now! do you have any tips for handling and introducing two dogs? it has been a really difficult two weeks with getting some bad news, but puppy cuddles are helping me get through.

lately, i am reading this book for book club. have you read it?

[natalie came to visit this month! it has rained everyday in tennessee, but we trying to spend every dry minute here.]

[at the end of may, we celebrated my husband joshua's 29th birthday at gray's in franklin.]

{i took a modern calligraphy course with my best friend at the skillery nashville.]

[we have been enjoying summer in nashville's 12th south and made a stop at the biscuit love food truck.]

[we went to the outdoor movie night at the belcourt theater to watch 'singing in the rain']

[and of course we celebrated our wonderful father on father's day, here is us in 1989.]

much love to everyone this weekend.

madeline

dream state

we have had a beautiful week in tennessee. walking around the yard today was reminiscent of a dream, the sunshine filtering through the trees, the lush green grass, and the perfect blue sky. the images that came to mind immediately were from sofia coppola's virgin suicides. have you seen it? the film is full of scenes with dappled sunshine and suburbia landscapes. i can even hear air's playground loveplaying in my head. or maybe arcade fire's the suburbs.i love taking pictures and keeping a record of this beautiful time of year, much more to come this week. how was your saturday?

all photos are my own.

first signs of spring

{flowering hawthorne branches}

spring has quickly become my favorite season. working in an cubicle eight to five has made me appreciate the extra hours of daylight at night and the approaching color in nature. the yard is so beautiful this time of year; i am so thankful to live somewhere so beautiful with such a deep connection to nature. i get to watch the plants that my grandmother planted here come to life every year. yesterday was the first day of spring, and i am thankful for it's arrival - bringing us all out of the winter blues. here are some blooms to brighten your day from our home. the first signs of spring peaking out...

{wild daffodils and lavender}

{forsythia and tulip tree}

{helleborus blooms}

happy friday!

NYC part III

it seems odd that the first day of spring i am posting photos of a blizzard....for the last installment of our new york pictures, i present HERCULES 2014. both of us are born and raised in tennessee, so we have never seen snow like this. it started snowing the night before and we woke up to a winter wonderland. we practically ran down to central park to find families and children sledding - everyone seemed so happy! i had to include this next shot of josh stealing a child's sled and wiping out...he says sledding down the hills that day was one of his favorites memories of the trip.

we explored a personal favorite, the metropolitan museum of art (met). i love the eqyptian wing shown below; the windows were even more beautiful framed in snow. i wanted to post a few pictures of the cute apartment we rented in the upper east side from airbnb. we had a little kitchen and living room to kick up our feet after longs days. our host was very sweet and it was overall a good experience.

we knew our travel home might be delayed due to snow and ice, but i don't think we were prepared. we had to stay in the city an extra day after all flights were cancelled for a week...we hitched a ride with my dad the next day. 36 hours later, we were happy to be home to see this little guy. nyc, chantal and paul - we love you.

NYC part II

today i want to share more from our new york city trip. i posted this week about our first two days in the city - times square, central park, grand central station, and new year's eve.

on our third day in the city, we spent the morning at the high line and walking all around the city. it is such a nice change of pace to walk everywhere when you live in suburbia! we toured the museum of modern art (moma) in the afternoon and stopped by the beautiful hudson hotel bar for a drink. i loved this spot so much i will be posting a spotlight on this later. we stopped into sofia wine bar for pizza; this place seemed like a place we would hang out if we were locals. to finish the night, i fulfilled my life long dream of visiting the top of the empire state at night. the whole time envisioning all the famous movies filmed there....

on on fourth day, we started by heading out to brooklyn, we crossed the brooklyn bridge in 4 degree windchill (!?!) and walked through brooklyn heights. while downtown, we walked by the freedom tower and saw the new calatrava path station going up below. visiting the 9/11 site was so moving, 13 years laters. the blizzard (hercules 2014) started very quickly, but this did not stop us....we toured my best friend's architecture firm and headed down to chelsea for dinner at jean gorges' spice market. we walked down to chelsea market, which unfortunately was closed due to the blizzard, and ran into a favorite, fish's eddy. the blizzard was crazy to witness - our first one!

nyc part II | madeline made

i will be sharing our final photos and about the apartment tomorrow. happy friday.

madeline