everything coming up roses

saturdays are always the best day. jeremy and i always have off from work so we get to sleep in, make breakfast and cat some tv. we are currently watching carnival.. we only just started it, 3 episodes in and its great. it finally won us over ali! i made my first soft boiled egg today! but the yoke was a little over cooked. maybe a bit shorter next time!
i spent most of the day on my computer resizing images from past posts to fit my new layout. i still have some to go, im only going back to about halloween but its a bit of a process for sure! and i was in my pjs all day until later when we went out to go get my late late birthday gift. we had been a bit short on cash through the month of december, so part of jeremys gift to me we got today.
crabtree & evelyn rose perfume! i also picked up the lotion because they had a buy one get one half off sale, so why not! i have been wanting this stuff for a while. it really reminds me of my childhood. growing up i had a couple of bars of rose soap in my dresser draws to keep things nice and fresh and it brings back memories!

i cant stress enough how much i love the brown and black combo. i think it may be one of my favorite pairs to wear together and i do it most often. i need to gather some images of me wearing these colors, i bet i can make a post out of it. i could live in black and brown.. with a color pop here and there.
denim blouse- gift from my friend courtney
black belt- thrifted
brown and black skirt- thrifted, going to be going into the shop actually. its such a gem i hope one of you snatches it up!
brown socks- thrifted
shoes- uo

re opening

as you can see there are some changes here. all is not finished yet, theres a bit of tinkering to do. every time i redesign my blog theres all these new options and ways to change things. its really great. making the borders wider being one of them, so now i have to go back and reformat as many posts as i can handle! probably just back a month or two.. but man thats gonna be annoying! but im happy to have more space and to brighten things up a bit.
thank you Michelle Henriques for letting me use your great image as my header. check out her flickr at bones in the water. sorry if im getting a bit crazy with the cats. i realized tonight just how dorky that video of my cat is in my last post. ali and steven came over and we watched it and laughed. but im sorry, i think everything my cat does is cute!
anyway, here are some images of a beautiful tea flower opening from christmas night. they really are quite amazing. i took a little video of it, but i havent edited it yet.. and i may not. i need to cool it with the videos!

house and garden

yesterday before work i went thrifting to one of my usual spots. i didnt really want to go there at first, i was planning to go to the salvation army which i dont go to as often because its a bit further away. but like usual i didnt have the time to make that treck so i went tot he place i went to like 2 days before that. i didnt think i would find much, but i actually came out with a full bag! half of everything i got was for the store, and i have to say im really excited abou my next update. im going a bit of a different direction with what i choose to fill my shop with. this time around its a bit more sophisticated i think. i cant wait to share it all with you. i have a photo shoot planned with hannahi think next weekend, so the week of jan 16th you can expect to see these pretties hit the shop!

all the shopping i did for myself actually came out of the little boys section! when i have the time thrifting, i really do like to check EVERYWHERE! you really never know what your going to find, and in this case i came home with two new pairs of trousers. who cares that some little boy once wore these to his aunts wedding, they fit me like a charm. who woulda thunk it!
these pants are one of the pair i came home with, the other is a navy blue. i was really surprised at how great they fit. i really suggest you all try! this navy blue shrunken cardigan is also another little boy gem. let me tell you, i had a cart FULL of great sweaters that i had to narrow down, boys sweaters, best kept secret in thrifting! i have a few nice striped ones headed to the shop as well!
this amazing blouse i thrifted in the summer or spring. i think i posted about it when i got it cause it was just so amazing. it lacked buttons and button holes though (obvi a handmade gem that was never quite finished) so i just sewed on some snaps and it was perfect. its the best shade of very pale yellow with little jalopy cars all over!
some brown socks to match my brown belt all thrifted somewhere down the line. oh yea that reminds me, the mens section is the best area to thrift socks. a billion great colors, some thick some dress socks, all really cheap. im learning that socks can really make an outfit! and the shoes my new favorites from urban outfitters and i got on sale for $20 and iv literally been wearing them every day.













last night i bought myself some roses from work. the color was just too beautiful and i thought they would be so nice to place about our apartment once i dry them. i also picked out a new calendar the other day. i always wait until after the new year cause then they all go on sale for lie 50% off! this one is all vintage house and garden magazine images from 1916 and 1917. ill be sure to show each month off, they are really beautiful!



here is fred on the kitchen counter being really cute. imovie is really fun actually. i only learned the basic things like slow/fast motion and adding music, but i feel i dont need to know too much more to be able to make some simple videos a bit more exciting. so that means you can expect more :)

a look inside

this is my best friend ali's room i was telling you about. it really is a dream. its funny thinking of the way it used to be in high school. her walls were blue, but you couldnt really see them because they were completely covered in pictures, posters, polaroids, maps, and well.. just covered. candles and candle wax all over everything. it was great. it was dark and lived in, a little nest. i loved it even then.
but that was the problem, it was dark.. and we were growing to love light. and it was just cluttered and she needed to minimize the possessions in her live. so then i helped her clean it and we painted the walls white and she started fresh. this was a few years ago and shes still really keeping with beautiful simplicity. im envious of it!
ali is also a great collector of curiosities and oddities and beautiful ugly things. so here are a billion photos of the little bits and bobs of her beautiful sanctuary.

a foggy beginning

here are some photos of my new years eve weekend through the lens of ali scarpulla. i have more to share from my own camera and the kind courtney who along with her boyfriend are teh most amazing hostest/host in the world. ill let the photos do the rest of the talking.














and dont forget to visit ali's other flickr free bliss

hair how-to's: heidi braids

so i have gotten a few requests recently to show how i do some hair styles i wear most often. these braids being one of the more recent ones. i only did a video like this once before and it was way quick. this was my first time using imovie to edit the thing, ya know, speed things up here and there, add some music, cut out the part where i forgot the bobby pins and had to go to the bathroom to get them.. :)
so it may be a bit wonky.. i dont usually film myself either so sorry if im weird! i had no idea how to use the program, only opened it like once before and was intimidated by it. but thanks to anja for the helpful imovie tips email from months ago. i dont think i ever thanked you, but it was helpful.. so thanks!

george makes a little appearance during my second braid. hes sitting right next to me on that same spot as we speak!

two things.. i know i say at the beginning to "wing it" with your part.. i didn't know mine came out so crooked hah, so obviously if you want a nicer part, use a mirror and a comb or something!
i also see at the end i missed a bit of hair. thats from when like two years ago when ali was moving to brooklyn i cut off a little braid of my hair to give to her. now it does stuff like that sometimes. woops!

hope you enjoy! please let me know your feedback, if is should do anything a little differently, because i plan on doing more of these! and anything you wanna see, just say so!

lightwitch

my new years weekend was amazing! kind of last minuet plans brought us to western massachusetts to visit our great friends courtney and chris. it was surprisingly spring like all weekend, but man did it look like a winter wonderland. one of my favorite places they take us is the quabin reservoir which is right don the road from their places, and also suplies the water to boston! its HUGE! and so beautiful and now iv gotten to see it an all different seasons, winter is quite amazing.
running around this natural wonder with ali, kris and courtney was so much fun. three photographers and one little ol' me who wore the wrong kinda shoes for climbing all over rocks and sand! i have more to post about this trip, this is just an outfit post mostly. courtney was kind enough to take my photos for me. be sure to check out her flickr for more photos of that day, and keep going back because there is more fo the weekend to come.

scarf- h&m
black blazer- thrifted
large sweater- salvation army
beautiful black blouse- gift from ali for my birthday, favorite thing ever!
pink knit skirt- thrifted
black tights- h&m
sparkle socks- marshals, kate spade.
new favorite black boots- got these at uo.com the other day. got them in the mail just before the weekend and i wore them literally all weekend! they were on sale for $20 and they are so cute and very comfy. i could wear them for hours!