how to make time to read.

Warning:  this post highlights my extreme nerdiness. I hope you'll accept me all the same ;)

I grew up a voracious reader. I sometimes attribute it to my inner only child, but once you handed me a book, I couldn't put it down. I was the girl who rode her bike to the library and would spend hours combing through the shelves. Weirdly, this memory made me realize how much things have changed. What parent would allow their child to just ride herself to the library at age 12? I digress. 

The same thing happens when I pick up a book today. I literally get engrossed in whatever story I'm reading, so much so that {cv} would rather me finish the book than put it down. The only problem? Since I started blogging, I have noticed my free time to read has diminished greatly. I love traveling because I actually have time to read. Much like eating better, I know reading is good for me--and I desperately want to do more of it.

I'm being sneaky with the title of this post because I'm really coming to you for advice: What in the world can I do to find more time to read? While I was in Jamaica, I breezed through two books and realized just how much I missed it. I really want to make the time to read--without feeling like I'm missing out on something in the blog world. (Hello, FOMO.) As a blogger, I am the first to admit that I have a hard time shutting down the computer. By the time I crawl into bed after a long day, my eyes are already half-mast. Any help for this nerdy girl would be very much appreciated! Have a great Thursday! xoxo {av}

how do you stack up?

Hi friends! As I look ahead to our big move, I'll admit I'm anxious about filling a whole home after five years of apartment living. I can't stop pinning gorgeous little vignettes of a well-decorated home. The photos below show my love of these perfectly styled stacks...

images: top left | top right | bottom left | bottom right

It all seems a bit intimidating {and expensive!} to decide what books earn a place of honor in our home. If I had an endless budget, these beautiful books would be gracing the coffee tables and bookshelves of our future abode. They may be eclectic, but that's who we are ;)

where to find them: 100 Years of Fashion Illustration | Roadside America

Design Sponge at Home | The New York Times 36 Hours | Taschen's Paris

The Polaroid Book | Paris versus New York | Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years

You won't find me buying books just because they'll make us look snazzy--I want our future stacks to represent the things we love. {Ok, maybe {cv} won't love the fashion ones, but I will!} Do you have any tips on how to create such gorgeous stacks on a budget? Have you been building yours for years or do you splurge every once in a while to create the look you want? I can't wait to hear what you're doing! 

Many thanks in advance for your advice! I'll see you back here at midnight for a very glamourous Friday's Fancies in honor of the Oscars! Want more info? Add yourself to the mailing list by clicking here! 

P.S. A very happy 59th to my dear daddy, {jn}. He doesn't look a day over 45, so I hope I got his genes ;)

swapaholics {re}capped.

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a relaxing weekend--and if it wasn't relaxing,
I hope it was fun in the very least ;) Here are a few photos from my very first swap--
and my little brush with fashion blogger royalty, Jessica Quirk from What I Wore!

LEFT: The Boston Fashionista found this crazy zebra jacket + amused us all by trying it on :)

RIGHT: Najeema {from A Stylized Hysteria} rocked the swap and found some killer pieces!
{photos by {av} + logos via The Swapaholics}

If you've never been to one of The Swapaholics events, you're missing out. Not only is it quite a rush,
it's a little like Christmas morning when you finally get to look through all the pieces you grabbed.
The idea behind a swap is to bring a bag of your unwanted goodies in the hopes you'll leave with
a bag of loot you'll actually want to take home. Whatever is unclaimed goes to Goodwill,
which is a pretty fabulous formula to me.

I found a few pieces I think you'll see after I have a little fun with them {can you say DIY?}.
Overall, I was super pleased with the swap--and would most certainly go again! If they ever do
one in your neck of the woods, you should definitely get in on the excitement! :) 

The other highlight of the day?!

Not only was Jessica as beautiful {and humble} as they come, she was so kind to share a few

tidbits of fashion advice {we talked shoes!}.  Her book, What I Wore: Four Seasons, 

One Closet, Endless Recipes for Personal Style?, is a must-have for any fashion lover. 

Click here to find a retailer near you! Trust me, every girl needs to own this book...

for the impeccable style advice and for the gorgeous eye candy drawn by Jessica herself.

Have you ever been to a swap {or swapped with friends}?

What's your favorite fashion-related book?

I hope you all are having a fantastic Monday so far! 

Thanks for reading--and I'll see you tomorrow! xoxo {av}

an {old} guilty pleasure.

I've made passing mentions of this
embarrassing fact in previous posts,
but I'm coming clean today...

See the plentitude of Gossip Girl novels amidst
the Hemingway? Yes, it's true. I may or may
not be a secret fan of Cecily Von Ziegesar's
fictitious accounts of a few NYC socialites...

Beginning the summer before college,
Gossip Girl novels served as my guilty pleasure reading. To date myself, this means that
I've slipped into the crazy world of the
Upper East Side for almost eight years now.
{That number is positively frightening. I'm still getting over it. Anywho!}

I read the GG novels in college to distract me from tomes like Moby Dick and Theodore Rex.
They took me only a few hours to read--and they were a few hours I joyfully sacrificed from
pouring over real literature. When they announced the Gossip Girl novels would inspire a TV
series debuting the fall after I graduated, I was {secretly} elated.

{top row: left - right ~ middle row: left - right ~ bottom row: left - right}

Though the TV show differs a great deal from the "extensive" plot line of the books, it's always surprising {and often humorous} to see what turns the TV show takes. All these things aside, I've come to appreciate the immaculate New York fashion and the perfectly coifed hair. I also have become a HUGE fan of the episode recaps on the New York Magazine website. I feel a little less juvenile for being a fan of the show after reading about the satirical scores they assign following each episode.

I'll admit: the plotline is certainly taking a turn for the weird right now {Dan + Blair? WHAT?! And will Lily ever quit lying?!}, but honestly, each episode provides a {mildly} entertaining 40 minutes of television, even if you only watch it for the fashion! And I promise I do read more critically acclaimed and thought-provoking books! It just feels better to come clean with all of you ;)

This begs the question: do you have any guilty pleasure reads? {I sure hope I'm not alone here!}

In less than 24 hours, the calendar will once again read Friday and most of you know what that means...Friday's Fancies!

Each week, bloggers dream up the outfit they'd wear for their Friday night festivities if money were no object. {Want to see a few examples of past posts? Click here!} It's a fabulous way to keep your wallet in check and still get to admire the "finer things" in life ;) I hope you'll join in with the Friday's Fancies faithful and link up!

I'm crossing fingers this guilty pleasure post won't cost me any readers ;) I just hope I'll find someone else out in the blogosphere with other funny reading habits! Until tomorrow, my dears!
xoxo {av}

on the fence.

{all images are screenshots from the corresponding links below}

1 - Pottery Barn Bird Nest Bookend  2 - stevenrolfkroeger Crank Bookends

3 - Restoration Hardware Vise Bookends  4 - CB2 cube bookends  5 - IKEA Skribent bookend  

6 - Fringe Designs White Owl Resin Bookends  7 - Art Ori Falling Bookends  

8 - CB2 the end bookend

In the age of the eReader, I find myself wondering whether kids will even know the word "bookend" in 25 years.  You won't find any Kindles or Nooks in our apartment though...we're hooked on books. {I've posted in the past about my love of perfectly messy bookshelves. Clearly, I'm book-obsessed.} 

Anyway, I've been in a design quandary for quite some time now. I find myself being pulled
between the more traditional elements--and the more modern.
Can one ever find a balance between the two? 

Where do you fall? Do you like traditional design or do you favor modern design?

I'd adore your input! I find myself torn between vintage-y elements and clean-cut lines...

Hope you have a happy Tuesday--I can't wait to hear what you think!

xoxo {av}

P.S. Today, I'm thinking about 3.15.2003...
#2: you're still in our hearts--and always will be.

pink phenomenon.

My adoration for the colors purple and cobalt blue shouldn't be a surprise to my long-time readers, but it may be a surprise to my newer ones {yay!}. But here's the truth: I've never been a huge fan of pink. I don't really know why, I just haven't gravitated toward the color like most women do. I admit that I do find beauty in the hue...as in this photo that jcd from cornflake dreams so kindly sent me this week:

{source}

It's funny though, a few of my favorite pieces of clothing are pink...like my engagement shoot dress from Banana and my beloved J.Crew Jackie cardigan. From there though, I struggle to find anything else I love in pink, other than maybe cotton candy or this pink Holga.

{image via weheartit}

{image via weheartit}

I've always been intrigued at my lacking interest in the color pink. So, when I heard an interview on princesses and the color pink on the Diane Rehm show this week, I couldn't turn it off. 

{As a funny sidenote, I'm a huge fan of NPR because it helps to fill all the time I spend in my car. It literally helped me stay awake on countless drives from North Carolina back to DC during our long distance days.}

The interviewee was Peggy Orenstein--the author of Cinderella Ate My Daughter, with a byline which reads: "Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture."

{source}

Though I cannot claim to have read the book {it's currently sitting in my Barnes & Noble online shopping cart}, the interview got my brain spinning. Orenstein argues that {my beloved} Disney may have contributed to this trend. In 2000, the company noticed an opportunity in the world of princesses and jumped on it. In nine years, Disney generated $4 billion by creating 26,000 different princess products {source}. Her hypothesis projects that girls are growing up faster because of this thrust toward pink at such an early age. Ok, not just pink, but the whole "princess" genre.

All of this hit me pretty hard...I finally figured out why I had NO attachment to the color pink. Born in 1985, my parents didn't have the ultrasound technology to predict what breed I'd be, so they didn't bathe me in pink from the beginning. We moved shortly after I was born and my bedroom just happened to have primary colored polka-dot wallpaper, paired with a giraffe border. No princesses. No pink. In fact, the only princess-y thing I remember owning was the marvelous Pretty Pretty Princess game. I loved that game!

{source}

Putting my own self revelations aside, it got me to thinking. What will life be like for my potential future baby {v}'s?? If we have girls, will we be expected to pink-ify their lives? 

Before I get slaughtered by the pink lovers out there, I like pink. I just don't love it. 

I appreciated being able to choose my favorite color, unlike the current generation who seems to be handed the color pink.

I'm sure I could be stirring the pot here, but what are your thoughts? 

Are girls growing up too fast? Could the princesses in pink be to blame?

Thanks again to Brooke, Kelsey, KLB, Jessica, Ms. Z, and Ashton who joined me in sharing their Friday's Fancies yesterday--and an even bigger thank you to Jillian for posting her second edition! I hope these ladies will join me again soon...and that you might consider linking up too :)

Hope you all have a fantastic Saturday--I'm really looking forward to a rendez-vous with Kristen from A Kapple A Day, one of my favorite fellow bloggers! 

Until tomorrow! xoxo, {av}

P.S. Don't forget to enter the lovely Minted giveaway...plenty of opportunities to win! And you're a goofball if you haven't entered this fabulous jewelry giveaway too...

the art of messy.

Happy Tuesday! It's been awhile since I last discussed our future dream home...and with so many great examples of new homes in the blogosphere lately, it's hard not to start dreaming again. I know many of you are already in this next life stage, so maybe you can offer me a little assistance with my decorating dilemma.


You see, I adore books. Thankfully, so does my husband. This could also explain why we have so. many. books. {We literally have three six-foot bookshelves full to the brim. eeks!} I am scared to imagine how antiquated our future kiddos will think a "library" is--especially since I'm almost certain elementary textbooks will be on Kindles in less than ten years. sigh.


But anyway, back to the topic at hand...our bookshelves. We may have a few friends visiting this weekend and I desperately want to nail the "perfectly messy" bookshelf look before they arrive. You know what I mean...

{All images via Southern Accents}

Don't you love the look of these bookshelves? I'm scared to think rooms like these won't exist fifty years down the line. You better believe I'll be pushing for a library in our future dream home...if, of course, I can master that "perfectly messy" look.


It seems simple. There need to be elements of symmetry--but, seemingly, there need to be elements of asymmetry too. I know there need to be other objects in the mix, but how can you avoid looking too kitschy? I never thought I'd be asking how to be "messy" in a blog post, but if any of you can offer tips here, it would be much appreciated!

Have a great Tuesday night y'all--stay cozy! xoxo {av}

I heart books.

I've always had a love-hate relationship with the library.  At age 12, I literally spent my summer in the library.  As a point of reference, age 12 wasn't my shiniest or happiest year of life.  I was the ultimate geek--and my love of the library was a manifestation of my dorkiness.  


At age 20, when I was a student at Georgetown, I avoided the library like the plague.  Yes, this was counterintuitive, especially when Lauinger Library was a place to see and be seen, but I digress. 


All these things aside, I am a huge fan of books...the kind you can hold in your hand and turn the pages, not the kind with pages which turn on your Kindle screen.  I can guarantee that dream home of mine will contain a library, which is why I pretty much fell in love with these beauties the second I saw them on Anthropologie.com.

photo: Anthropologie

At $16.99 a pop, these Clothbound Penguin Classics for Children would add a lot of color to that future library of mine.  For now, I'll admire them from afar, but hopefully one day, I'll be able to share these real books with our future little kiddos who live in our dream home.

photo: Anthropologie