Life Lately & A Short Vacation

(My new settee that I absolutely love)

Happy Friday everyone! Hope you all had a great week and an even better weekend ahead.  Here are just a few snaps that I have taken with my cellphone over the past few weeks.  I have two phones, one for work and one for personal but the latter shattered last week (into a pretty shape pattern nonetheless) so it makes editing photos that I take with it pretty hard/interesting to edit.  Lately I have been playing with the filters on some of my favorite apps. I love VSCO Cam and I recently downloaded Photoshop Express.  Do you have any favorite apps to edit photos?  

And on that note, I am taking a little blogging vacation next week.  After all it is August and just like you want to savor summer before it leaves us, plus I am hard at work on something I cannot wait to share with you.  Have a wonderful weekend and I will see you next Monday!

(Playing with filters at Table 87 in Brooklyn, terrific coal oven pizza)

Little Bits of Happiness No. 11

(Living out a fairytale in Italy)

Happy Friday everyone! Today I am going to keep it short and share some photographs from my Instagram feed, which has been a long time coming. You can follow me here! I hope you have a great weekend.  

(An iconic photograph from Portofino, Italy.  Photos still to come!)

Little Bits of Happiness

(Glorious 'Juliet' from this post)

Happy Friday everyone! I am so glad I made it through the week, I am definitely still in recovery mode and a heavy dose of medication left me in a bit of a fog this week.  Thank you again for all of your thoughts and prayers.  This weekend I am off to Ohio where my mom is having a family bridal shower in my honor. I am so excited to see my family and see family friends I haven't seen in years.   I am leaving you with some photographs that I have recently shared on Instagram, be sure to follow me here!  Have a great weekend!

(My new favorite local coffee shop, Henry's Local Cafe)

{Le Week de Paris} Paris Instagrammers to Follow

If you are anything like me you might follow a vast array of people on Instagram.  I follow the fashion elite (Miroslava, LSD), photographers (Nicole Franzen, Alice Gao), food stylists, florists, fashion bloggers, just to name a few.  My newest group of accounts to follow is the eternal traveler, what I wish that I could be, in particularly the Paris lover and there are many of them.  Here are some of my favorites that always have me inspired and ready to pack my bags at a moments notice.  Do you have any that I should know about, please do tell!

Little Bits of Happiness

(A beautiful view from the rocky shores of Massachusetts)

(A new gem in Williamsburg, The Bakeshop by Woops is like therapy for the eyes located on Driggs & N. 7th)

(I didn't think that wedding dress shopping would be this hard, this is a third round of dresses!)

Little Bits of Happiness

(Dried billy buttons - or balls of sunshine, as I like to call them)

Sometimes life moves so fast, especially living in New York. I feel like you are always looking for the next best thing.  It is always important to stop and enjoy the little things in life, even as trite as that might be, it's true!  Here are a few things that are making me happy right now. 

(Colorful ikat bowls with gold trim at C Wonder)

(A perfect summer salad - sweet corn, tomatoes, avocado and smoked chicken)

(Reading the September issues on the terrace while sipping coffee)

(Eating16 Handles Frozen yogurt with my boyfriend on a hot summer night)

(Strolling down a picturesque Brooklyn Heights street without another soul in sight)

(Splitting fish tacos from Pinche Taqueria in Soho with my boyfriend)

(A beautiful vignette at Anthropologie featuring vintage packaging)

(Our dog Mickey, whose face I cannot resist)

Places to Go: Bar Bruno

(Bar Bruno, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn)

We recently discovered Bar Bruno, a cafe/bistro in our neighborhood. I loved the nostalgic decorations like the red rimmed tables, black lacquered booths and chairs that have the feel of the 70's, but with beautiful decorative tin ceilings. We went for brunch on a Saturday. I loved the laid-back environment and the food was delicious, a spin-off of traditional brunch fare but with a Spanish twist. I had the Vegetarian Quinoa Burger - a very healthy way to start off a weekend that was filled with holiday cookie baking and of course, cookie eating. 

(Sun-drenched seating)

(The vintage bar - I love the ornate tin roof)

(A delicious quinoa burger)

The Search for the Perfect Tree

The day has finally arrived that I am catching up with the rest of society - I now have an iPhone, the iPhone 4S to be exact.  After years of having sub-par phones, I now have a true smart phone that I almost feel not 'cool' enough to own. The first (free) app that I downloaded was Instagram.  Is it bad that this was one of the only reasons that I really wanted this phone for this app and the first ever 8MP camera lens on a phone?

Well, I got to really test both functions on our trip to Maple Row Tree Farm in Easton, CT to search for the perfect Christmas tree.  This is a beautiful farm with row upon row of fir trees situated on rolling hills with the larger foothills in the background.  We ended up settling on a mid-sized fragrant Fraser fir tree. The Christmas decorating and festivities can officially begin!