Curious Bird

I'm back from a weekend away. It was nice, although not the best weather for my plan to run around and snap lots of photos. Rain and my D50 aren't friends and never will be. But it was lovely spending time with my best girl in a great city.  A delicious brunch in Brooklyn, perusing Cog and Pearl, and our trip to Spout Home for a few new plants were definitely highlights.  Now it's time to get back to work. I'm still getting used to the time change...it always takes me a few days.

Not sure how this week is going to look with regard to posting.
In the meantime, have a good day.

-Leya

Here are some of my recent flickr favorites. As Spring approaches, I'm definitely finding myself drawn to more and more color (and apparently candy sprinkles). 

I'm off to New York for the weekend. No agenda, except for a long-awaited trip to Muji and some exploring with my camera. Or should I say cameras...I've dusted off my Holga and am taking it along too.  Speaking of, I recently found a very helpful site for anyone wanting to learn more about Holga photography. They are really fun little cameras -- cheap and easy to customize.

More Soon,
L.

:you tell me:

Another shot from our recent trip to Mexico.

Enjoy your weekend, friends. 2008 is almost here.

-leya

home sweet home

We're back from an amazing holiday trip to Mexico. It was a great time filled with lots of warmth, excellent meals and daily adventures. We hope to go back down there sometime soon because there is tons more exploring we want to do.  As you can imagine, since we've returned, I've been feeling kind of nutty and having a hard time getting back into the swing of things. Going away for Christmas to someplace warm and then returning to cold, wintry Philly (on a red-eye flight. ouch) has been a bit of an adjustment. We can feel everything slowly ebbing it's way back to normal around here. I'm not sure I'm quite ready for it, though.

Some highlights of our trip include:

Long, tasty meals. I never quite realized how good a spritz of lime can make everything.
Beach Hair
People-watching
Sunsets
Snorkeling trips (it's a beautiful world under there)
Playing about 100 hands of gin rummy
Meeting fellow travelers. For some reason, we always meet people from Oregon and since we used to live in Portland, we usually have lots in common.
Renting a scooter to explore an island a little more
Margaritas with lots of salt around the rim
Dustin speaking Spanish for both of us
Drawing on the beach
Evening naps before dinner
Seeing Bjork while in a little fishing village. She was buying trinkets in a shop I wandered into.











{more photos here.}

Taking it easy this week.
Be back soon.

l.

our holiday adventure begins...unless this wicked storm causes our flight to be canceled

This year for the holidays Dustin and I are doing things a little different.  We're going on an adventure to Mexico, just the two of us. Our plan is completely open except for a couple of musts, which include:  taking a trip to a bird sanctuary {really want to see a toucan and a scarlet macaw}, eating lots of tasty food, and reading at least one novel each.
Photos and stories when we return.

Have a wonderful holiday!

Adios,
Leya

p.s. I made these for us because we're traveling on red-eye flights. I fully admit that I'm a craft geek.

my cabin fever has broken

Hello out there,

Sorry for checking out for a bit there, but completely out of nowhere, I just spent the last three days sick in bed with one of the nastiest colds/flu viruses in recent memory. It was the pits, complete with body aches, fever-induced chattering teeth and dramatic writhing and one of the worst sore throats ever.  Dustin was super sweet taking something like fifty trips to the store for Kombucha, soups of the noodle variety and random potions and elixirs. I owe him big time for taking such great care of me. It was hard work.  I also owe a couple of friends who checked in on me via email several times a day. Thanks, ladies.

After days stuck inside, I needed to get out of the house and out of the city. Dustin very much agreed, so today we took a trip to the ocean, also known as the "Shore". It was perfect medicine, just like I hoped it would be.









I'm back to my old self now and so thankful to be here. If you emailed me recently and haven't heard back, now you know why. It'll take me a little longer, but I'll be in touch soon.

-Leya

round two

Hello,

We just returned from a lovely weekend away celebrating our getting hitched. This time we whooped it up with all of our family and friends who couldn't travel to our wedding in New York in September. Dustin's parents graciously hosted this sweet little shindig in their backyard, complete with our favorite kind of cake: carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Happen to recognize the design? 

Lots of travel delays later, I'm finally home and ready to get back to regular blogging. Wish me luck.

More very soon,
Leya

and then we did exactly what we wanted to

Hello,

As you know from my last post, I had loads of fun at the wedding, but I have to say the days following weren't too shabby either. Dustin and I are both huge fans of getting away. We love to travel and explore together and if we could, we would plan getaways just about every other day.  We always enjoy the city with it's great food and never ending excitement, but as much (or maybe more) we love being in the country.  For our honeymoon we choose to rent a little house on a sheep farm in the Berkshire Mountains.  It was so lovely.
We enjoyed the foggy view from our porch, the fresh eggs and homemade scones left for us, the lovely hikes nearby, slowly cooked meals eaten outside and most of all being together pretending we lived in a quaint little house in the mountains for a whole week. Maybe someday...

Thanks so much for all the sweet words about our wedding. In a perfect world I would get back to each and every one of you, but being the busy bee I am, I don't think that's possible. So thanks. Your kindness and congratulations mean the world to us.

More soon, friends
l.

wishing weekends like that could last a little longer

hello there. we've returned from a very sweet weekend away. it was a great time full of sunshine, lots of good food {and wine} with friends, and many wedding questions answered. now we can sleep a little easier knowing we have things under control, at least for now.

back to the work table I go...

cheers,
leya

1000 miles later...

After a five day trip down South to lovely Virginia (Charlottesville, mostly) and then on to North Carolina, we're home once again. The trip was lots of fun and quite a whirlwind of activity. We saw everyone we planned to see, although we didn't get to explore any real nature in the form of camping since we overplanned a bit on this trip and simply couldn't squeeze everything in. Actually, it got pretty cold where we intended to camp and camping in the cold pretty much means going to sleep at 8pm in order to get warm and not have to be five inches away from a smokey fire. We'll get up to the mountains once Spring comes. It's coming, right?

Highlights of the trip:

*O Suzannah in Charlottesville {great shop, but I can't seem to locate a website. darn}
*Artichoke Pate' with toast points
*a ton of great fabric was scored
*AND a new sewing book
*a visit to Carolina Thrift
*listening to this, this and this on the drive.
*seeing babies and hearing plans and names for two who are very much on their way.
*being able to invite faraway friends to our wedding {in person}

Well, that's it for now. I have a few photos on flickr with more to come. 

Be well,
leya