Still an angel after all these years

(don't you miss homemade Halloween costumes?!)

Your Thirtee Won

I had all sorts of clever ideas for my 31st birthday post today, but this one takes the cake. Literally.

photo courtesy of Cake Wrecks

If you haven't seen the blog that details fantastic confection disasters, check out Cake Wrecks for a good laugh. That's my birthday wish.

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Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris

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Washington, DC

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Washington, DC

Type the sky

Lisa Rienermann's typed sky project:

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Washington, DC

Meet Otis

I'm not a cat person, but meet Otis - he's one cool dude (via Desire to Inspire's series "Pets on Furniture")

Weekend views

Found a new favorite vendor at the Georgetown Flea Market this past weekend with tables filled with vintage cameras, photographs, watches and costume jewelry...

Feeling blue

I can't decide which I love more, these fabulous Marais USA pumps or the vintage blue suitcase?

photo courtesy of Darling Dexter

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Washington, DC

Identity crisis

Friends, I'm having an identity crisis of sorts.

As I've mentioned, I would blog if no one ever visited my site. But that doesn't mean I don't appreciate all of you and don't want my blog to reflect me.

I love bubbles and color and patterns (which reminds me of my old site.)*

But in reality I'm not as "crafty" or "home-y" as my last blog background. So I spent the fist half of the LSU game testing out new templates and colors.

What do you think? Too boring? Do any of you have any advice? Or suggestions where I can get a new header? Or should I scratch the typewriter "V" completely and just write out my blog name a la The Sartorialist and A Cup of Jo?

Be brutally honest. Leave a comment or email me at visforvoila@gmail.com.


* Senior year of college I painted bubbles all over my bedroom walls instead of painting the room. They were fantastic.

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Washington, DC

America's little darling

I caught the tail end of WETA's "Shirley Temple: Little Darling" the other night. While she became much more than just a child star, does it get any cuter than this?

photo courtesy of Flickr

My cousins' cousin

My 1st cousins' 1st cousin, Sarah Drew, just wrapped up her second appearance on Grey's Anatomy. Didn't catch it (or the past 3 seasons), but she was April - second from right. She's the sweetest person you'll ever meet, and a wonderful actress (credits include Mad Men, Everwood and the movie Radio).

And if you happen to watch Modern Family, then you'll see my aunt and uncle's pool (credits include CSI Miami. Seriously.). Even the pool has more of a movie career than I do, although I'm still holding out for my 15 minutes of fame.

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Washington, DC

Practical should be my middle name

Did I ask for gems or a trip through Europe? Did I beg for a fancy new winter coat?

Of course not! I'm getting my very own dustbuster for my birthday (yes, friends, they still make dustbusters).

Well, I actually got it early (the birthday isn't until next week) because the apartment need a good twice over before the family came last weekend. But I am still going to thank the husband a million times for getting me the very thing that I wanted more than anything else in the world.

It works like a dream. 31 is going to be a good year.

(Oh, and I got these classic little shoes early too- I've already confessed I am spoiled rotten, but now I must confess I like to pick out my presents and open them early. It's one of my favorite things.)

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Washington, DC

A glass of Cupcake

photo courtesy of detnews.com

I admit it, I first bought a bottle of Cupcake Chardonnay because the label was perfect for a friend's birthday. Good thing I did the old "one for you, one for me" and came home with a bottle of my very own. It's a delicious as it looks (and surprisingly, not too sweet). If you can get over the fact that it's not the ritzy Cakebread label, then pick up a bottle and try it for yourself. 88 points by Wine Spectator for a $10 bottle ain't so shabby.

And while you're at it,enter to win a trip for two to Monterey, CA, compliments of Cupcake Vineyards.

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le Marais, Paris

Uncommon Objects

If you were drooling over all the beautiful (and some times bizarrely so) things in the New York Times' article on An Artful Clutter and you just happen to live in Austin, TX, then you, my friend, have hit the jackpot.

Check out Don Weir's retail space at Uncommon Objects and bring home your own artful clutter (and vintage western shirts.)

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Les Puces, Paris

Easy as brownie pie

My entire family was in town this past rainy weekend (parents, siblings, siblings-in-law, nephews). It was a zoo. And I loved every second of it.

On Saturday night we had dinner out, but all packed into our apartment for dessert. I served a family favorite: brownie pie. The best part about this recipe is that you probably already have all the ingredients in your kitchen:

Mother's Brownie Pie
1 stick butter
2 squares of baker's chocolate
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup flour
dash of salt
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cups chopped pecans or almonds optional

In a sauce pan, melt butter and chocolate squares. Take off heat, stir in sugar. Beat eggs in a separate bowl and add to saucepan (careful not to cook the eggs). Stir in flower and salt. Pour into a greased 8 inch pie pan* and cook for 25-30 minutes at 325 degrees

Serve with vanilla ice cream, raspberries and homemade whipped cream. Voila!**

*Just like my mother, I only have a 9 inch pie pan, so we add half more of everything for a total of 1 and 1/2 sticks of butter, 3 squares of baker's chocolate, etc...

** Perfect for breakfast the next day as well, in my opinion.

Around the (tin) world

photo courtesy of the New York Times

Boy was I off when I thought a giant vintage tin globe, available in one of our favorite neighborhood shops, would be coming home with us. It was only after we found the perfect place for it in our apartment and were giddy with excitement did we realized it would never be ours. Out of the question. We have to eat! And pay the bills! (We wouldn't have been able to do either.) I guess I had forgotten to look at the price tag the first go around...

Until I can bring a giant tin globe home with me (and all sorts of other wonderful things), I'll enjoy a recent NYT slide show of An Artful Clutter. Have anatomical models ever looked so chic?

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Washington, DC

Vintage ironstone

My mother gave me my first piece of vintage ironstone this year - a large white oval platter aged to perfection. I like to think those nicks, brown spots and lines show the years of hearty meals shared around a family farmhouse table (rather than from life in a confined city apartment like it is living now). The sturdy, yet refined platter is one of my favorite pieces.






photos courtesy of Etsy

iSnap - Through a reader's eye (and meet Miss Sassafrass!)

Isn't she the prettiest three footed turtle you've ever seen? Miss Sassafrass lives, and plays, with my magical mother-in-law, Sugar (which of course is pronounced Shugah) in Mississippi. I see a children's book in her future.

Jackson, MS

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Washington, DC

Thank you, Gourmet

We've all known the news for over a week. And it still hurts.






And yes, frozen peanut butter pie with candied bacon:



photos courtesy of Gourmet Magazine, R.I.P.

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Les Puces, Paris

It's a swap

You can only imagine my excitement when I came across a photo swap on the blog For the easily distracted...

It's like having a photography pen pal - you take a roll worth of pictures and then mail the film to the person you've been paired up with. They develop the film and post the pictures on their blog. Brilliant!

To join in on the fun, visit Rhianne's blog and sign up by October 18th.

Now I just have to remember how to take a picture on a non-digital camera (which will be excellent preparation for my soon to be Diana camera).

C&O Canal

I got a good dose of Vitamin D this past week spending my lunch breaks outside. Shots of the C&O Canal below...

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Crosswalk Man
Washington, DC

Honest Scrap

Well isn't this just lovely... Erin of This Lovely City has given me the Honest Scrap award. I'm honored, thank you Erin...

What is the Honest Scrap Award, you ask? Well, basically the rules are that your acceptance speech details 10 honest things about yourself and you pass the award on to 7 other inspiring blogs.

I'm a cheater (Oh, Erin, how could have known!!) so I'd like to pass this on to all of you, with the ONE rule that you let me know when yours is posted (now I insist, no breaking rules!)

1. I would still blog even if no one ever visited my site. Seriously. It's like keeping a diary of all the whimsical things that pop in and out of my life, minus all my emotional, complex feelings that I like to forget anyway.
2. That being said, I love a good dose of attention. Ask the husband.
3. Oh, and I have completely silly, sarcastic and self-deprecating sense of humor. If that combination is possible.
4. I still read wedding blogs and magazines and watch Say Yes to the Dress. While eating chocolate in bed. That just might explain the post-wedding lbs.
5. I am convinced cops are out to get me - even when I am the passenger.
6. I tell people I'm allergic to all seafood so they won't look at me dumbfounded when I tell them I just don't like it.
7. Oh, and seeds. I don't do seeds. Did I mention bananas? Yep, don't eat those either unless they are in loaf or muffin form.
8. I was not raised to be a picky eater, by the way. Sometimes people just don't like things no matter how hard they want to, no matter how hard they try... and their parents try... and even their siblings try (I distinctly remember being cornered a few times). I think there is a life lesson to learn here.
9. I'm obsessed with birth order.
10. Whew, I don't think have the stamina for these types of things like I did in my 20's!

Have a happy weekend y'all, and Geaux Tigers

Denim on denim on denim

This made my day.

Denim on denim on denim, with a little acid wash thrown in. And don't forget the piano key belt. I wouldn't expect anything less from Flight of the Concords.




























photo courtesy of The Pursuit Aesthetic

iSnap - Through a reader's eye*

photo courtesy of KWC

Washington, DC


* Feel free to send me your own iSnaps and I'll post them for everyone to enjoy. Email me at visforvoila@gmail.com. And If you would like your image turned into a Polaroid for the post, just let me know.

We Define Cool

If you're ever passing through Savannah, Georgia, and need an affordable, clean and colorful place to lay your head, check out the Thunder Bird Inn.

You might just recognize it from my iSnap yesterday.

A recently renovated roadside motel with a classic marquee sign (which modestly states "We Define Cool") is reminiscent of another time and place - more Vegas than Southern Belle. A man that looks like Elvis will check you in and tell you all about the continental breakfast of Crispy Creme donuts the next morning. In his British accent I might add. And if that's not enough, you'll have a little moon pie waiting on your pillow (especially appreciated after a night of karaoke and dancing at Chuck's Bar). That sure is cool in my book.




photo courtesy of Adam Ewing

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Savannah, GA

Heavenly Vaults

It may have been the 4 a.m. wake up call for the 6 a.m. flight the other weekend, but I was more than intrigued by a review in Dwell Magazine of David Stephenson's Heavenly Vaults : From Romanesque to Gothic in European Architecture. Thought you might be too...

"David Stephenson's new book of photography is a love letter to the intricate, seemingly sui generis vaults of Europe's Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals and churches. Half the wonder of these soaring architectural feats is that they were devised and built at all. The other half comes with the realization that we will never build this way again: It takes too long. It's too expensive. We don't know how.

These buildings, some nearly a millennium old, are charged with the grandeur of God, as though their architects, suddenly doubting that it could be read in nature, decided to codify it in stone. The skyward vaults suggest their faith's holy order, the majestic possibilities of men working to glorify their creator, the intimation, the endurance of infinity." (October, 2009)"

photos courtesy of Princeton Architectural Press