Spring Faves 2018

Hey y’all! It’s March and spring is in full swing down here in sunny Florida. I love this time of year for so many reasons. The weather is glorious, flowers and fresh food are blooming everywhere and everyone seems to be in an all around great mood. I wanted to share with you guys some of my favorite reads, products and general STUFF that I enjoy this time of year.

 

In my opinion, the best thing you can do during this time of year is tend to your garden, or start one. If you have no ambition to start a garden, or maybe no spare time, the best thing you can do as an alternative is attend your local farmer’s market to get some great, fresh goods. In Florida, all my favorite things are coming into season starting in March. Leafy greens, strawberries, beets, radishes, and then soon it’ll be avocados and peaches and magnolias and…well I’m getting ahead of myself. You get the picture. My point is, don’t sleep on the great deals you can get at your local market. And please, for the love of all things good and holy, please DON’T tell me you can keep plants alive. With the proper TLC, I am a firm believer that anyone can grow!

Right now I am loving botanical based hair and skin products! I tend to be super busy this time of year because I have so much going on and so many farmer’s markets to get to, so here are the products keeping my skin alive:

I use Checks and Balances by Origins in the morning and this AMAZING Rose Cleansing Milk by Sephora before bed. Also, my skin is VERY dry, and I have found a holy grail moisturizer: When Hope Is Not Enough. Just DO IT! This stuff has seriously been a game changer for my skin. And as far as hair goes, this Death Valley dry shampoo by R+Co not only is great for when I’m crazy busy, but it smells soooooooo great. Not enough O’s in the world to express how much I love it. Get it here.

Spring is also a perfect time to refresh your space. Get the windows open. Out with the old and in with the new, in lots of ways. For me, vintage is always in style, and one wonderful old school trend that I love is coming back into style: enamel pins! I have a small but mighty collection, and it’s growing! Pins are a great accessory to any outfit.

At home, my refresh has been all about Hearth and Hand by Magnolia for Target. Everything they have put out so far has not only been adorable and functional, but also heirloom quality! I have invested in many pieces that I know will last me a long time, maybe forever if I’m careful. They add a simple elegance to any room. I could talk about the magic of Magnolia for days.

My current favorite things to listen to are instrumentals and folk. Here are a couple of my right-now favorite albums:

And as far as books are concerned, JEESH there are so many:

I love the Edible Wild Plant guide! It has come so in handy while I am out foraging and adventuring. Speaking of adventures:

My husband got an SUV back in October and we have been taking it everywhere! I make the back into my own little cozy cabin, because even adventurers need rest. Read about our road trip to Saint Augustine in my previous blog post!

Finally ^ glitter lattes. They’re a thing.

Hope y’all enjoyed reading about what I’m into currently.

X0X0

Spring in Saint Augustine

Hey everyone! March is here and spring is springing up all over the place. Spring is my second favorite season (only to autumn) and I LOVE to travel during this time. The weather is beautiful in Florida February through May and wildflowers are so abundant on the sides of highways which makes for beautiful road trips. This road trip was sparked by one event in particular, a Fleet Foxes concert at the Saint Augustine amphitheater. My husband and I had been waiting ten long years to see them and we didn’t want to miss a chance to finally experience this concert in such a wonderful and beautiful city. We arrived in town and went right to the food, naturally.

Our first stop was at Salt Life Food Shack. Some of you may know that my husband is an avid fisherman and so stops like this are crucial. We had a decent meal, we were just so hungry from the journey that anything would have been great. Then we went out to the beach. I always miss the Atlantic and forget that it’s just three and a half hours away from me and the Gulf of Mexico.

Unfortunately, the waves were huge and the water was still freezing, so we didn’t stay for long. Luckily the beach wasn’t a far drive at all into town, and then to our Airbnb. We stayed at a little place on Grove Ave. which was just about a ten minute walk into town.

We got acclimated and ready for the night. I was so excited to see Fleet Foxes, but in addition, I was so very excited to go to one of my favorite restaurants in the WORLD, The Raintree. The restaurant is a stunning old Florida mansion converted into an upscale, gorgeous space. And the food is even more amazing. Our favorites are the escargot and the crème brûlée. Just look how happy we are:

After dinner we headed over to the St.Augustine Amphitheater for the concert.  This venue was BEAUTIFUL! More like an outdoor club really than a convert venue.

And the show! Let me tell you guys, I have been to a hundred concerts at least in my lifetime and I would say this had to be a top three show. If you haven’t listened to Fleet Foxes, please go give them a listen. Their music is for everyone!

The next morning I was up early and ready for some exploring. Our first stop was Maple Street Biscuit Co. YOU GUYS OMG DO NOT SLEEP ON THIS PLACE! They have a few locations and MAN this food is great. Side note, check out my Instagram @astoldbyflowers for lots of videos of the food we ate and places we saw on this trip because I didn’t manage to take a lot of photos, just videos in my Insta-stories. Next we went to Relampago Coffee Lab, which was luckily two minutes away from Maple St. This place was another stunning converted home. We had three drinks: a chai latte, a lotus blossom (black tea with lavender and steamed cream) and a white mocha lavender latte. Each drink was even better than the last and probably some of the best drinks I have ever had in my LIFE. I’m not even exaggerating, they were amazing and the barista was extremely sweet.

We started into the city and just took in the sights, hit up all my favorite shops and landmarks. I want to just leave a few of the links to the shops I love down here:

Red Pineapple

The Rosy Cheek

The Way We Were Vintage

Declaration and Co

Obscura

Among many others. Also, the antique shops on San Marco Ave are definitely worth looking into! You’re hard pressed not to find some great stuff in Saint Augustine.

After a while, we headed to Juniper Market  which is a stunning little market that happened to be right by our place!

I had the pimento and bacon grilled cheese and a goji berry lemonade. Both were to die for. It’s also a great place to pick up some items to take home!

We went back to the Airbnb for a little rest and then headed back out for dinner. We had plans to go to a few places, but there’s so much to see there that sometimes you have to just break away from the plan and have dessert before dinner at The Hyppo which is a Saint Augustine staple for me. The have the best popsicles in the world, hands down!

And then we went to another St. Auggies classic for dinner, A1A Aleworks. A beautiful place with a beautiful view, and I have never had a bad meal there. My favorites are the mango chicken and the jambalaya. It was pretty cold and we had done so much, we were plum tuckered out and headed home.

On Sunday we checked out early because we wanted to get a good seat at The Ice Plant, a vintage, prohibition style bar and eatery inside the Saint Augustine distillery. We had brunch, naturally. I had the french toast, hubs had chicken and hoecakes. This was one of my top five meals of ALL time. And for sure the best brunch I have EVER had. Everything was perfect including the service. We couldn’t have asked for a better last meal before the journey home. We heard the distillery tours were free so we hopped on board. The facility was actually really beautiful and we learned a lot. I was very impressed! And we got to sample a ton of their spirits so I was feeling GREAT upon our exit.

The tour is free, I would highly recommend it, especially for fans of craft cocktails and high quality liquor.

We headed home after, feeling totally blessed and fulfilled and full of ideas for what to do next time we make it out to the other coast.

Stay tuned next week for the much awaited SPRING FAVORITES blog post!

X0X0

A Short Essay: Our First Year of Marriage and the Things I Didn’t Know Would Happen

SO this essay was posted by me November 8th of last year, exactly one year after our wedding. It is much different than my first essay which was mainly about the wedding. This is more of an overview of our first year. I will be posting the final installment of this series next week on Nov. 8th, which will be how we made out with our second year as husband and wife. Enjoy!

“When we decided to get married, my life became consumed with having the perfect bridal shower, the perfect parties, the perfect wedding, and I had them. When the wedding was over, and the honeymoon too, I went into a sort of wedding shell-shock if you will. The months of planning were over, it was all over. After I finally got a grip (about a month later), I decided to put a heavy focus on the true meaning of marriage and to make ours the best, to make each day perfect marital bliss, and I have to say it has been for the most part.

But marriage is not what I expected in the least bit. I had no idea that me (or my husband) would be so changed by it. You can prepare for a wedding, but you can’t prepare for the lessons that marriage quickly teaches you. People say that the first year is the hardest, but there are a lot more things that they don’t tell you that they probably should tell you.

Once you’re married, your burdens are cut in half and your joys are multiplied. You have someone to share the weight of the world with and you have someone to build you up twice as much as you can build yourself up. You get to build a life with someone in a way that you couldn’t before because there’s a certain type of partnership that is built upon the commitment of marriage. You become more than a shared last name, you become a family. There is no doubt that the first year of marriage is in fact hard (sometimes really really hard) but it’s only because you spend so much time learning how to adjust yourself to your partner in this new way. It’s about becoming selfless and sometimes even about compromising but somehow never having to compromise your own happiness. I’m thankful that I found someone who is willing to give me respect, who is willing to learn how to communicate with me (which I’m sure is challenging), and above all, who is willing to share my burdens.

All I could have ever asked for is a marriage that is more beautiful than my wedding, and Tyler gives me that on a daily basis. It may not be constant happiness every moment of every day (nothing in this world is perfect), but I am happy in my marriage every single day, and I am consistently thankful for my marriage. The essential point that I’m trying to get across is that everything is flawed, but everything is a lesson in marriage if you open yourself up to learning.

In this first year we have accomplished personal career goals and goals as husband-and-wife and I couldn’t be more proud of the life we have started together. I spend so much time feeling grateful and just so thankful and joyful, it’s a feeling that I was never able to feel fully before my marriage, but now I feel it constantly and I just can’t begin to explain how happy I am to finally know this feeling. It’s something that comes naturally to me now and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. I love you Tyler and you keep me so optimistic about our future and thank you for being my best friend and happy first anniversary. We did it!”

Our trip to everywhere.

This autumn my husband and I decided to take a trip across New England from New York to New Hampshire to see, and frankly marvel at, the leaves and all the fall goodness the South fails to provide. Am I saying the South is fall-free? No way. But there is something about fall in New England that strokes the soul in a dazzling way. I think it would be best for my first blog post to include the first part of this vacation which began in a little part of the big city.

Our flight in was stunning as we were able to watch the sunrise over the cloud bank at about 6 AM. We flew JetBlue which is always a great choice. We arrived in Brooklyn early and had a lovely drive in. We set up our things in the home of my long time best friend and instantly set out to get to the heart of the city. We used Uber and cabs some of the time to get around, but mainly we used the subway as it is the cheapest form of transportation and the quickest and the easiest! We arrived in Union Square park and we were greeted by the single most amazing Farmer’s Market I have EVER seen. SO many Dahlia’s, so much lavender, so much deliciousness. I was in awe. The mix of feelings of being in my favorite city and having all my senses stimulated at one time is a something I will never forget. We came across this beautifully open and decorated cafe called The Pavillion where we had a delicious, and much needed brunch after a long morning of flying and cabbing and subwaying and tiring ourselves out. To walk off lunch, we strolled through the nearby Flatiron district which is a place I hadn’t spent much time in during my previous trips to the city. I have to say it was BEAUTIFUL and booming. One thing I instantly noticed and loved was that there was cabbage, kale, and lettuce planted all over the city. Apparently that’s a fall thing up north? Anyway I thought it was interesting and noteworthy. We stumbled across Eataly, which is owned by one of my favorite chefs, Mario Batali and it was a little but overwhelming. Another bout of sense stimulating goodness waved over me. I knew I was going to eat there but it was crazy busy, as it was lunch hour, so we left. But there will be a happy ending to that story later.

We went on back to my friend’s apartment and after so many months of being apart, the hug life was real. We decided that night we would climb the Brooklyn Bridge after some pizza. We happened to be lucky enough to stumble across the original Grimaldi’s Pizzaria which I have enjoyed here at home, but let me just say you haven’t had the best of it unless you have the OG. It was so greasy and yummy. With tummy’s full and my eyes wide like a child’s staring out at the glowing lights of Manhattan, we climbed. I litterally was jumping with joy when we reached the top. If you ever have a chance to climb the bridge at night while you are there, I highly suggest it. It’s once in a lifetime (maybe more than once). There was also a full hunter’s moon so I was in rare form, but I know it was awesome.We woke the next morning feeling refreshed and decided we would head over to the very famous West Village foodie spot, The Spotted Pig. Famous for celeb peeping and yummy, yummy food. We had an awesome breakfast. I had what is called a Dutch baby (a super thin and crunchy pancake) with the most delish bacon I have ever had. My husband opted for the French toast with bourbon bananas which was also great. They make coffee fresh in a French press which I adored because that is how we make it at our house. All in all a very worth it stop, and super cute atmosphere. A few blocks up we were making our way over to the Chelsea high line, something else I had never done in NY and we came across 66 Perry St. also known as CARRIE BRADSHAW’S ACTUAL APARTMENT. One more thing I can cross off my bucket list. Many photos were taken, there were possibly tears shed. After that glorious moment,  we hit the High Line. With its beautiful views and the lovely weather, we were both swooning. After spending about an hour up there, we went underground to head uptown to the MET. For me the highlights at the MET were this Dream photography exhibit and more importantly, an artist had created a GLORIOUS model of the Alfred Hitchcock Psycho house on the roof overlooking Central Park. The view and the installation were both so amazing. I am not sure how long the house will be up there but I would suggest you see it if you are into horror, which I very much am. We capped the night off at dinner made by my friend. She made a gorgeous autumn veggie Mac N’ Cheese, a recipe I will be happy to share as soon as she sends it to me! We stuffed our faces and passed out as you can imagine after a long day of chowing and walking and experiencing NYC.

Sunday came and it was finally time for SOHO!! But first, we needed breakfast. We ate at Campbell Grocery which was right up the street from our apartment and OH MY GOD it was by far the yummiest breakfast I have ever had. I had the grits and apple cider and my husband had chocolate milk and the bacon, egg and cheese biscut with fig jam. I know this breakfast may sound simple but the quality of the ingredients and the way they are combined makes it…heavenly. If you are in Brooklyn you absolutly must, MUST go. We had this same breakfat a couple other days as well. I would eat it every day if I could. When we got to SOHO we found this awesome bookstore called Housing Works bookstore. There we found loads of discount books and yummy coffee in a super cute environment. This was a must see for me because if you know me you know I am a librarian and bookworm. We walked a few blocks over to my #1 must stop at store in SOHO, Uniqlo, a Japanese clothing brand which has no stores near me that I am obsessed with. They have great sales, great styles and their clothes are insanely soft. We were there for quite a while, splurging just a bit. After comtemplating how I was going to fit a new wardrobe into my suitcase, we walked down to Laduree for none other than those famous Macarons. On the way we danced in the street to the sounds of a jazz band (reminding me quite a lot of our trip to New Orleans) and I was gifted some lavender flowers by the kind souls at L’occitane which promptly found themselves in my hair. The Laduree store was stunning of course and the Macarons were as well. I had the Rose, the violet, and the Marie Antoinette (the best). It was evening by now and the sun was starting to set and we were looking everywhere for the famed and awesome Evolution store. We walked through Washington Square Park, stopped at an architectural gallery and finally wound up coming across it. Apparently it used to be much larger in its old SOHO location but I was still impressed. If taxidermy and creepy things are your thing, GO. Finally, feeling chilly and exhausted, we went home. On the way we had some FABULOUS Ribeye Pho at Mama Pho in Brooklyn by our place. We devoured it and quickly  passed out. 

Monday morning was finally here!! I was most excited for this day because it was time for my visit to the Lush Spa. But before that, I needed nourishment and a little bit of culture. We subway’d over to Bryant Park (my personal fave park in NY) and ate breakfast there. We then went to the NY Public Lubrary which I had never really explored and it was so much more beautiful than I could ever have imagined! Please please stop there if you are a lover of books or general appreciator of lovely things. And it is free! I could have spent all day there but my appointment was nearing so I needed to grab a cab and head uptown. I arrived at the spa in the nick of time and was promtly greeted with a glass of cucumber water and sat by a window listening to some calming, lovely music. Then my masseuse, Patty, came downstairs to collect me and bring me up to where the magic happens. I was greeted by a stunning British style kitchen. It was so much more beautiful than I could have imagined. Flowers everywhere, a farmhouse sink, beautiful dark hardwood, the works. Patty explained to me how my treatment would go and what I would experience during, and it was all perfect down to the last itty bitty detail. I had the “Hard Day’s Night” treatment, which is a passive stretching, Thai yoga massage to the tune of re-made Beatles songs. The songs were so beautiful and the massage was choreographed to the music. I don’t want to exploit every detail of my experience because there were so many specifics that would ruin the surprise for people who want to have this treatment themselves. After the massage I wandered dreamily out to the kitchen where Patty greeted my sleepyhead with Engish tea and jam cookies which I swear were the most delicious things I had ever tasted. I chatted with Patty a bit and finally it was time for my bath. The bathtub was a beautiful white clawfooted tub with shiny metal, beautiful fixtures and the bath was warm and ready. The most awesome part was that there were probably 50 lush products around for me to use and try out! I used some of mostly everything they had to offer. Seriously, I probably used 45 out of the 50 or so products. It was super magical. After I was all washed up and smelling like a daydream, I went downstairs to shop around. I was gifted the Golden Slumber bath bomb after my treatment, so I was set on bath bombs, but what I did not realize was that all the Christmas goodies were out. One of the associates whose name eludes me (she was like the Lush fairy and she was so precious) decided to give me a tour of all the new Christmas products! She made me some samples and let me try out all the delicious holiday goodness! It was just the perfect cap on my Lush experience and if you ever have a chance to get ANY treatment at this spa I can’t express enough, DO IT DO IT DO IT. It is worth every penny and moment of your time. I would go daily if I could. That night we went downtown to Wall St. to meet my friend at the more low-key downtown location of Eataly for dinner. This location was more spread out and a lot less hectic than the other one which was a happy surprise for me. We had a delicious meal with a stunning view. I had the prosciutto pizza and my husband had the lemon ricotta ravioli. OMG this food was out of this world like I knew it would be. We went home for the night and I truly had a golden slumber after a long, hard day of spoiling myself.

Tuesday was our final day in the city and at this pont we had been uptown, downtown, to the East and West Village and even made an annoyingly necessary walk through the dreaded time square, so we decided to wander. We went over to Harold Square and did Macy’s and we happened to find the OG Big piano from the movie Big! It was a great end to my time in New York. We were so worn out from our trip, we mostly hung around Brooklyn for the rest of the day and had dinner at a burger joint called Hello BKLYN and had some GREAT burgers and fried pickles. It was the perfect end to a perfect trip.

There is a SECOND half of this post which includes our trip to Salem, MA and New Hampshire and it will be posted later this week. Thanks for reading!