Wish List

Keeping with my favorite color theme for this week, here are just a few

of the things I wish I owned right now.

1. LoveBirds Print

2. Yellow Pocket Skirt
3. Gray Japanese Masking Tape

4. Adorable Little Heart Ring



P.S. Today is opening day of major league baseball! I am, of course, rocking my Giants World Series Champion shirt, does anyone else care about baseball?


Love, Julie

What I Wish I Were Wearing: Guest Post {Summer Year Round}

I am so excited to introduce Christina, the first guest poster for my What I Wish I Were Wearing series! Once you have finished reading about her dream Wednesday outfit, make sure you go check out her blog, it is full of posts about things she loves and you should too!

Hi Everyone! I am Christina from Summer Year Round and I wanted to thank Julie for letting me feature what I *wish* I was wearing today! Lucky for me, I work for a company that encourages their employees to dress casual and express themselves through clothes on a daily basis so I rock jeans, skirts, etc. However, what I really wish I was wearing today would be a bathing suit with a cute coverup to walk down to the beach in. I live in New York City and we've been hit with the cold and snow once again; I can't wait 'til the warm weather appears so I can make a few trips out to Long Island and get in some time in the sun!

A bright bathing suit from Net a Porter paired with matching colored sunglasses is a perfect way to spend the day at the beach. I incorporated some color into my coverup outfit by adding in the awesome yellow shorts that just so happen to be as bright as the sun!

Homecoming

I went to school with this talented photographer, Stephanie Foehl, at San Diego State. She actually started her company after we graduated but mostly I liked her in my marketing class groups because she told funny stories about her cats and how she met her Marine husband. 

I am a fan of her company, Fox Hollow Photography, on Facebook and when she posts pictures of homecoming photo shoots she has shot I am always that weird girl sitting in the library/Starbucks/work crying because they are so gorgeous and heartbreaking. I wanted to feature some of the photos here to show everyone a few of these family's beautiful reunions and what an fantastic photographer Stephanie is. (After you are amazed by her photography skills here, check out her website or facebook for the rest of her work!)

I know this is a lot of pictures for one post but I just couldn't choose just a few photos to feature, they all capture so such emotion and love. I wish I had more elegant or insightful things to say about how amazing the men and women in these families are but I think these pictures speak for themselves.

Some of the most touching of these photos are the ones of soldiers coming home to their children. The picture below shows the first time this father is meeting his son.

Photo Finds

How gorgeous are these photos by Chelsea Victoria? Wouldn't they be amazing hung in a bright, sunny bedroom? The best part: she is having a sale right now, buy one get one free!

Mitchell and I had a fabulous weekend in San Fransisco, almost no rain! We spend most of the day loitering around the ferry building eating seafood and drinking champagne and had dinner at a great Italian restaurant somewhere in the financial district I can't remember. Does did anyone else have any fun weekend plans?

Friday Fun

Since it is Friday and in honor of my little herb seedlings, which are just sprouting! (Aren't they cute?) I wanted to feature some delicious looking cocktails made with herbs from Martha Stewart! There are lots on her website and in last month's planting issue of Martha Steward Living but here are my favorites! (click the photos for the full recipes!)

Frozen watermelon cubes double as ice in your drink!

I love any mojtios and these honeydew ones look amazing!

Okay, so these don't officially have any alcohol in them but they are so darn cute... Plus, I know you, you are creative, you will figure out to spruce these right up!

I am very happy it is Friday, even though I had Monday off, this week seems like it has crawled by. The weather promises more rain around here but Mitchell and I are taking a mini vacation to SF so cross your fingers we get at least a few hours of sun! What are your exciting weekend plans? It must be sunny somewhere right?

Homemade Butter

I was totally inspired by this post with instructions on how to make easy homemade butter. I couldn't wait to try so, this weekend I gathered my supplies, did some research, and set out to see if it was as easy as it sounded.

I started with a container of heavy whipping cream, 2 teaspoons of salt, a teaspoon of vanilla, honey (for honey butter), and a stand mixer.

First I put the entire carton of cream and the salt into the mixer and turned it on until it started to look a little whipped. My mom kept me company during the mixing.

 
At this point I added the vanilla and kept on mixing until the cream started to form stiff peaks like whipped cream. (I tasted it at this point because it looked so much like real whipped cream but it was really gross and salty)

At this point, I kept on mixing and mixing and mixing until the whipped cream started looking like bad, over whipped, whipped cream and little pockets of liquid start splashing around (that liquid is buttermilk!). 

Once the butter is all separated I poured out as much of the buttermilk as I could and squeezed the rest out through a strainer.

Once it was all separated, I wrapped the portions in waxed paper and put them in the fridge for half an hour. After I put part of the butter back into the mixer and added some honey for honey butter. Here is my finished product! 

Update: A few people asked how my butter tasted and I have a confession to make, I don't really like butter... Is it sort of weird that I made it anyway? But don't worry, my family LOVED it and said it was much much better than store bought butter. And it really was totally easy to make!

What I Wish I Were Wearing Wednesday

The weather forecast is saying rain for another week and I'm not sure I can take it after the stormy weekend I have just made it through. So instead, I am going to pretend it is the middle of June and this is what I am wearing! 

A pair of Sperry TopSiders, white shorts, and an extensive fedora collection are all on the top of my spring/summer wishlist. How about you? What do you want to be wearing this spring?


Also, I am thinking of making What I Wish I Were Wearing Wednesday a regular thing around here and featuring a few guest posts if anyone is interested! So if you have an outfit you wish you were wearing and want to share it, email me at lovejulieblog(at)gmail(dot)com!

Color Creations

I know everyone is talking about their excitement over the bright colors for spring and I love yellow, coral, and turquoise as much as the next girl but lately I have found myself totally drawn to this muted, dusty rose pink color. There is something very springy about the color and I am noticing it a lot!

I love the idea of combining this color with gray and decorating a bedroom in this color, it would be so calm and soothing.

And these peonies in this rustic room are stunning, the fact this picture was taken during a remodel and can still look so gorgeous makes me so jealous.

So do you love it? Hate it? Not bright enough for spring? What do you think?

Images:
one: KittyRogers Etsy Shop (found via elephantine)
two: Layla Grayce
three: dreamywhites

First Editions

I have a friend who collects first editions of Fitzgerald books. He looks on eBay for good deals and eventually wants to collect them all (although The Great Gatsby is going to be a tough one to find). I love this idea, of collecting the very first print from an author you love and having such a beautiful collection!

I did a little searching myself and found these amazingly cool first editions of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights by Charlotte and Emily Bronte I would just kill to have. I won't break your heart with the prices but lets just say I won't be adding these to my collection anytime soon.

Follow my blog with bloglovin {image}

{image}

This gorgeous set below is the complete works of Jane Austen and while I am partial to the Bronte sisters books (Maybe because I can relate to the big amount of crazy in their stories?), what girl doesn't like a good, old-fashioned, Jane Austen love story? I would definitely take one or two (or all) of these beautiful first editions to display on my bookshelf.

{image}

Does anyone have a collection like this? What authors would you collect if you did? 
I need some ideas!