wait for the avocado

more photos

this weekend my mom and i spent a lot of time in my tiny kitchen.

we dirtied a lot of coffee mugs and made gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches.

i'm obsessed with vegetarian bacon, apple, and gruyere on sourdough,

and i can't wait for the avocado to ripen

so i can try it with some slices of pepper jack,

but pear and muenster may be the perfect combination.

seriously.

it should run for grilled cheese president.

what dishes/foods are you crushing on right now?

xo alison

sugar and eggs

more photos

this weekend so far has been about simple things that make me smile

like leaving classic grey converse unlaced by the door

splitting a spinach + feta frozen pizza from trader joe's with myself

and putting flour and sugar and eggs and a couple other simple ingredients together

to make the best pancakes, like, ever

(seriously. it's true.)

and then eating them with my mom

whose in town for the weekend

(hooray!)

how are you?

xo alison

how's the weather

more photos

it's been raining all day.

the twinkle lights have been plugged in since noon.

outside smells like melted salt and firewood.

i managed to fit in a walk during the only break in the downpour.

i'm not used to really wet januarys

(i'm more accustomed to the cold, snowy kind)

but i love slow mornings and cool weather and gray skies

so this one is starting to grow on me.

how's the weather where you are?

xo alison

i like

more photos

i like

sexybookclub meetings

and the shins on vinyl

and raspberry vanilla cream bars

and spending my saturday night in

with clever friends

and pennywise wine

and conversations about really bad erotica

what do you like today?
(besides the pens extending their winning streak to six
after taking down the caps in OT)

xo alison

the best thing

more photos

i broke out the coconut oil this weekend

along with my favorite slinky black robe

and thick, soft socks

(that aren't actually mine.

i mean, i didn't steal them.

they just mysteriously appeared in my closet

which is something that has happened to me, sock-wise

my entire life)

(i'm totally not kidding)

anyway, something about having an extra day off

actually hinders my motivation to do all my classwork.

this whole weekend i kept wandering over to netflix

and a story i'm working on,

not to mention tumblr and pinterest and twitter.

my camera was also another big distraction

as well as really gorgeous fruit

and an awesome hattrick by geno

but i did manage to find it---

the allusive thing called motivation

after a few hours getting lost

in abigail washburn's voice

and the contents of my wine cooler,

which is pretty much the best thing about my apartment.

i mean, how could it not be?

there's wine in there.

what are you up to this week?

xo alison

p.s. for those who asked...sexy book club is a little thing some of my pittsburgh friends and i have where we read a smutty romance novel and get together and talk about it. basically it's a way to read something other than what we have to for our classes, which for the most part is usually long, dense, and difficult. it's light and fun and very giggly. and there's alcohol.

comes my way

more photos

it's always weird for me when i hear a different version of a song 

that was very prominent in another time in my life

i just experienced that with 

efterklang's modern drift from their recent daytrotter session

i really dug that song when i first heard it two years ago

and have ever since.

i immediately loved the piano and the lyrics and the 

moving, moving, moving rhythm.

it's a perfect car ride song

because it just goes, goes, goes

and i listened to it quite a bit that year,

and hearing a new daytrotter-y version of it got my thinking

about how much has changed 

since i latched onto modern drift in early 2010

2010 was a year of very big decisions for me

2011 was a year of enacting those very big decisions

and now it's 2012

and i'm just living

just doing my reading for classes

making coffee

planning sexy-book-club meetings

re-watching buffy

obsessing over the pens

writing

walking

and listening to a new version of efterklang's modern drift

on this unforgivably cold saturday 

in january

2012

my point is that i've always been a planner

always been thinking two days, five years, broad strokes ahead

(and i still am to a degree

because i have a lot left in my life i want to accomplish)

but it's just nice to have a few months of downtime

to enjoy the current place my life is in

before the next wave of decisions comes my way.

basically i'm enjoying this time i have right now to just

oversee + legislate + regulate my life

before i have to start campaigning again this fall

how's your weekend?

xo alison

wine & diving

veronica mars. spring weather in january.
finding comfort from the endless stream of penguins injuries
through project happiness wine & diving into my reading schedule.

hello, 2012.

xo alison

winter break // part three

birthday shots.

more photos // here too

i turned 23 on december 20th.

like i said in my last post it was a day filled with all my favorite things:

my mom & bro, shopping, good french fries, local coffee,

and watching the pens win from eleven rows behind the home bench.

over the last few years my bdays have either been really amazing

or downright cosmically terrible (like a sitcom level of calamity),

so it was especially lovely that my 23rd ended up being especially lovely.

here's hoping it's a sign of how the rest of the year will go :)

-A