bottle you up.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013



just about the nicest words i ever did hear. keeping them close to my heart forever and saving them for a rainy day.


i am so grateful for these kind words... spoken on a chilly day in november on the streets of new york city post lunch date. love you!

*original photo found here.

be mindful.

Monday, November 25, 2013

i watched this video today and found it incredibly helpful especially for a girl who has struggled with mindful eating herself, particularly on holidays.



what i found most profoundly true:
we must honor our digestive system. we can be so abusive to our digestive system. a lot of great holistic doctors say how the digestive system is the soul of our being. it's like our spirit. and if we're blocking our digestive system we're blocking our creative source.
let's remember these wise words this upcoming season and vow to treat ourselves well so that our creativity is always thriving. i know i'm going to work on it because i can relate to feeling blocked when i'm too full. also, if you haven't checked out the spirit junkie, i highly recommend it. she's the modern day guru.

happy early thanksgiving, my grateful beings! 

pinch me moments.

Sunday, November 24, 2013



so that one time when i lived in new york and got attend the victoria's secret fashion show...


...the story i'll think back on and smile and feel lucky and grateful to have had that experience. celeb sightings, taylor swift performing, and probably the most beautiful human beings on the face of the planet walking the runway. this rivals the two thousand nine grammy's {yes, it was documented the second month i started it's all happening...!}.

i remember in college we would huddle around the tv at theta for this momentous night in early december {a religious routine!} and motivate each other to be healthy, and to somehow, someday look like a victoria's secret model {so silly!}. and then, a few weeks ago, i found myself sitting in the audience staring at the a-listers in the front row thinking to myself, how did i get here? 


taylor kicks it off with british invasion.

alessandra ambrosio poses for shipwrecked.

karlie kloss puts her hands up during snow angels.

adriana lima waves during snow angels {and that's adam under her arm!}

the grand finale!


i think the lesson here is really in embracing it. don't ask questions. just go forth. hang on to what you're good at. persevere. stay strong. stay grounded. say yes. take chances. soak it all in. and live. live life for all that it's worth.

it was a night to remember forever and i am so so grateful. pinch me!

p.s. you can tune in on tuesday, december tenth to see the live show on cbs. also! check out the media running on stylelist as well as the countdown clock starting december fourth. so excited!

detox soup.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

something is in the air. is it just me? 'tis the week of detoxing. ever since last saturday i've been doing a little makeshift cleanse. lots of juices and smoothies and soups. my body needed it. do you ever feel that way too? 

while it's taken a bit of a toll on my bank account, it has also reset me in a way that i oh so desperately needed. out with the old, in with the new as they say.


tonight i made a recipe from the goddess of gluten-free, ms. gluten free goddess herself.

i'm calling it detox soup. i put my own spin on it by adding kale and subbing the water for low-sodium, gluten-free vegetable broth.

it's absolutely de-lish! make sure you have an immersion blender, that is key, and not always the most common kitchen gadget {i remember hunting the aisles of target for the best bargain when i was in the market for one, and i think it netted out to about thirty dollars. side note, these are the days i covet a vita-mix!}.


tonight reminded me of the nights standing up in my bite-sized kitchen in san francisco cooking soup, post yoga, starting the endeavor way too late, and boiling into all hours of the night.

coast to coast, i guess some things never change. miss you, california.

p.s. for more soup inspiration see here and here.

this is the voice.

Monday, November 18, 2013

you guys. the voice. the voice! is it just me or are you as into this show as i am? oh, please say yes! it's one big happy family, and i want to be a part of it.

maybe its adam, maybe it's the coaches' chemistry, maybe it's cole or caroline, but whatever it is, monday and tuesday nights are some of my favorites these days {yes, even mondays!}.

last week, i was lucky enough to get to go to the victoria's secret fashion show {more on that pinch me moment later} where i was just feet away from mr. levine himself. i watched him gaze at his love walk the runway and really all i wanted to do was go ask him about turning chairs, what's in his starbucks cup, and who does he really want to win the voice?

today i am grateful for the little things in life like adam levine and the voice.

p.s. do you remember these swoon worthy gentleman? well, adam should be added to this list immediately. in fact, did you hear the rumors he's going to be 2013's sexiest man alive? yes, please!

p.p.s. an old tv obsession here.

*thank you, pinterest, for this gem of a photo.

on feeling like your old self.

Saturday, November 16, 2013





i feel like i met my soul again today.

hi soul, nice to see you. it's been a while.

not much happened to be honest. whether it be the candles burning a familiar and comforting scent, the dilly dallying, the fresh pressed juice, or just getting lost in a cup of jo for hours, i found my soul again. i knew we would find our way back to each other somehow.

today was quiet. today was still. the kind of day where you don't follow a jam-packed agenda, but instead, just take care of yourself. much needed, my loves.

i'm so grateful that i've found one of these days in nyc, for a while there i didn't think it was possible.

p.s. you may notice a pretty new font in the header and a link revisions in the top nav. i hope you enjoy and that it makes things easier for you, my sweet readers. xoxo

*photo by our fave max wanger.

how wild it was, to let it be.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

i'm quite the meticulous reader. i like to make sure i read every. single. word. and so, i end up going back and re-reading pages a lot, and hence, take a rather long time to finish a book {at least that's one of the reasons}. i'm also somewhat of a book juggler. i like to have multiple going at once, which often times leaves me a third of the way through for months. exhibit a, gone girl. yes, guilty as charged, still trucking {many have taken priority!}.

anyhow, cheryl strayed's wild was one that took {a short} three months to finish {lots of plane rides this summer!}. cheryl is one of my favorite writers of all time as you might remember from when i saw her in person and when i gushed about her other book. in wild, she tells her story of hiking the pacific crest trail from california to oregon alone while she was twenty six. it's an unfathomable journey and yet she makes it seem achievable, as i felt like i was with her every step {literally} of the way, waiting to see how it would all unfold. she's an inspiration, and while my {new york} adventure is much less scary than hers, i couldn't help but find a few parallels along the way.

i thought i'd share some of my favorite quotes that left me in awe of her words.
i knew that if i allowed fear to overtake me, my journey was doomed. fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves, and so i chose to tell myself a different story from the one women are told. i decided i was safe. i was strong. i was brave. nothing could vanquish me. insisting on this story was a form of mind control, but for the most part, it worked. every time i heard a sound of unknown origin or felt something horrible cohering in my imagination, i pushed it away. i simply did not let myself become afraid. fear begets fear. power begets power. i willed myself to beget power. and it wasn't long before i wasn't afraid. 


and, as part of her last chapter, a good life lesson...
it was the the dream of a common language. i'd carried it all this way, though i hadn't opened it since that first night on the trail. i hadn't needed to. i knew what it said. its lines had run all summer through the mix-tape radio station in my head, fragments from various poems or sometimes the title of the book itself, which was also a line from a poem: a dream of a common language. i opened the book and paged through it, leaning forward so i could see the words by the firelight. i read a line or two from a dozen or so of the poems, each of them so familiar they gave me a strange sort of comfort. i'd chanted those lines silently through the days while i hiked. often, i didn't know exactly what they meant, yet there was another way in which i knew their meaning entirely, as if it were all before me and yet out of my grasp, their meaning like a fish just beneath the surface of the water that i tried to catch with my bare hands - so close and present and belonging to me - until i reached for it and it flashed away.  
it was all unknown to me then, as i sat on that white bench on the day i finished my hike. everything except the fact that i didn't have to know. that it was enough to trust that what i'd done was true. to understand its meaning without yet being able to say precisely what it was. to believe that i didn't need to reach with my bare hands anymore. to know that seeing the fish beneath the surface of the water was enough. that it was everything. it was my life - like all lives, mysterious and irrevocable and sacred. so very close, so very present, so very belonging to me. how wild it was, to let it be. 
she learned to let it be. to accept what was and trust her life exactly as it was. let that be a lesson for all of us. it's a must-read, my friends!

p.s. they are making a movie and reese witherspoon is starring as cheryl!
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