post-birthday breaky

after partying all night long {read: staying up way past bedtime and talking} we headed to breakfast at the chef, one of my favorite manhattan restaurants.

{husband and caitlin. she came in from boston}

{hubs and i. lets not talk about how tired we all look}

the food was great, but the highlight was really caitlin's gift for josh:

some assembly required:

fresh-squeezed orange juice success!

{how i convinced my ultra camera-shy husband to take this....}

and you might not know it, but caitlin is adorable and she made these for me:

 told you, adorable!

brand update

i just took a whole armload of bags over to t.la.re to sell during the holiday season.

if you live in kansas and are in the manhattan area, go take a look! this little store is full of vintage and handmade goods and i promise you won't be dissappointed!

and if you're not a local, you can always check out my etsy!

{faux bois tote}

{country picnic clutch}

{owly tote}

{vintage lace clutch}

reasons to love manhattan #3

the sky!

and don't bother me with silly details like the fact that everyone has the sky.  i'm telling you, if you want big wide open spaces, move to kansas. this time of year i really start missing michigan and all it's trees and beautiful color tours, but it's hard to beat all this:

bright skies:

and some gorgeous sunsets that seem to stretch on and on:

reasons to love manhattan #2

kstate football!

saturday i attended my first wildcat football game. {and sadly my last, because football games are outrageously long and my system can't handle being outdoors for more than 15 minutes. literally}

but, besides the sneezing and watery eyes, it was awesome!

 {our favorite player, #8 daniel thomas}

 i may have mentioned it before, but wildcat pride is pretty fierce here, so you can imagine the crazy excited energy going on in that stadium.

so even after the game was delayed for over an hour because of lighting and heavy rain {which we waited out in the stadium} it was full by the time play resumed.

{during the rain}

{and after. completely packed!}

i think you should all come visit so i can take you to a game and you can experience thousands of people doing the wabash cannonball {our unofficial school song}

{and oh yeah, we won! we're 0-4!}

reasons to love manhattan #1

wildcat pride!

it's football season! and to celebrate, last weekend the city kicked off with "purple power play on poyntz" the annual street festival held in historic downtown {on poyntz street}

and we painted the town purple.

more accurately, more purple than it already was.

and this weekend we did it all over again for the annual band march. 

 there's always something for a wildcat to do around town, and i'm trying to soak up as much spirit in our last year here as possible!

i'm no clothes horse

it's 5:45 AM and i'm up. why?

excitement! 

and i usually get up at 6 anyway. but today i'm up 15 minutes early. skipping those last 15 minutes i usually cherish so much. i just can't sleep anymore. because i have my very own photo shoot today. 

yup. me, a photographer's studio, and my violin.

you see, there's this magazine here in manhattan, {manhattan magazine} and they're writing a story about me! and i'm pretty excited about it. ok, super excited about it!

it's all about me as a violin teacher, and i'm kinda hoping some one reads it and says to themselves, "i must have this adorable person teach my child!"

but back to this photo shoot.

the photographer told me to bring a couple changes of clothes, and as soon as he said that i had the terrible feeling {probably not so unfamiliar for many of you girls} that i have absolutely nothing to wear. pure panic. {ok, gross over exaggeration- i have tons of clothes and didn't quite panic. but i was close}

so in this almost-panicked stated, i took photos of outfits, sent them to sisters {big, little, in-law, and pseudo} and made them spill about what worked and what didn't. i also made a trip to the mall, but came home empty-handed, because at the end of the day it turns out i don't really need anything new, so why buy it? of course, that didn't keep me from making a huge mess in the process and dragging out my entire closet!

i can't wait to see the whole story, and as soon as it's published i'll be sharing it with you!

i love it...i love it not...

i have a love/hate relationship with manhattan kansas.

which i don't really think is unusual when you move to a completely new and unfamiliar place. it's actually pretty arbitrary how i feel about it on any given day. like a little girl plucking petals from a flower to discover if her crush loves her or not, my feelings about the city have less to do with the city itself and more to do with me.

but lately it's been all love love love.

mostly for reasons i can't explain or pinpoint. it's the beginning of my dibilitating allergy season {and i won't even tell you how much it costs to refill my inhalers} so really i should be dreading the coming months, but i'm finding myself looking forward to the fall. it's getting cooler {finally!} and the sky is so beautiful. all the time. i find myself cloud-watching any chance i get. school starts next week and i'm excited to get back to my routine- blogging, working, practicing, and maybe a little yoga.

i think it's going to be a good year.

bad thai {as opposed to pad thai}

confession time- husband and i like to eat. we like food. but we don't like to make it. so, we don't spend our extra money on movies or shopping, we spend it eating out. and it's nice- like little dates when we get to catch up and just talk and be together.

one of our biggest problems with manhattan is the lack of cuisine variety. i mean really, it's been hard. we like international foods and generally don't go for burgers and pizza {both of which we have a plethora of in town}

lucky for us, they do have one excellent thai place. it's been our favorite from day one, and we literally eat there almost once a week. and if you had told me last summer that i would eventually grow sick and tired of eating thai food i would have said you were crazy. i love me some good thai!

until recently.

for the last 2 weeks i have absolutely refused to go there anymore. why? i'm just bored. i need something new!

which means that i no longer like our favorite restaurant, and it's causing problems.

because when you don't want to eat at the best place in town, where do you go from there? i don't know. so husband and i are now trying to find a new place to eat. but he's not so excited about it {and i'm not too thrilled about how the search is going, either}. in fact, i'm getting big puppy-dog eyes everytime i say "anywhere but thai". it's sad. and i've never been able to resist those big blue eyes before.

until now, that is.

beat 'em up! beat 'em up! ksu!

in a town that could never be accused of lack of pride- where an opportunity to plaster something {anything!} with the power cat is never passed by, there still somehow seems to be an explosion of purple here lately.

march madness has hit us, and it's hit us hard!

last night's game against xavier was amazing. the town literally went nuts {i'm using the word "literally" here literally} as soon as we won, people opened their doors and screamed, college students were running around campus in hoards, aggieville went nuts, and fireworks lit up the sky. it was a ruckus to be heard around the whole city of manhattan.

and then today npr pronounced the game "the best in the tournament"

yes my friends, it's good to be a wildcat <3

here they are!

in all their glory. 

my newest batch of bags all on display at t-la-re.

i've been playing around with a couple new patterns- larger bags with adjustable straps and sides that expand with snaps.
{i'll show you some photos later}

it's kinda fun seeing them all together.

one of my newest bags. i really like the bright colors.

i'm also toying with the idea of making a bag mixing the navy/white flowers and the navy/white houndstooth. i think it could be great, i just haven't perfected it in my head yet.

boot love

i've had my eye on these babies for a couple weeks, so saturday i went over to one of my favorite places to pick them up. 

we're in love.

 

they're by regina lynn designs {local artist} and one of a kind- just the way i like it.

vintage adventures

i went exploring in vintage manhattan today and it was great! so many little finds and places i want to spend the day exploring in. i have a million photos to show you (and even more i wish i had room for) better yet, come see me and we can explore together!

second thyme around

the grand ol trunk
this place is huge and organized. it's amazing :)
i love looking through trinkets

vintage patterns!
this little treasure reads "recommended for knits"
i may have laughed out loud.

the bookstore
did i mention that all three of these shops are right next to each other?
that's how we do it in kansas- economical!

every nook and cranny is filled with books, and it's so well organized

the music room

tons of old magazines and life magazines.
(the owner said this is all the life magazines they have left from boxes and boxes full.
they're a hot item)

a room full of vintage books. i love the bindings

here are the goodies i came home with
(just a couple small things)

i love the orange ribbon boarder featuring composer names
(and of course the whole stringed instrument thing)

vintage postcard of the jerfferson memorial and dogwood flowers (one of my favorites!)

the stamp says "mailed in the pentagon"
to libbie, from mable and walter.

i have more to share, but it deserves it's own post, so you'll just have to be patient!