Yellow

Today I'm inspired by the color yellow.

Yellow is the color of the room I slept in at a friend's house in Switzerland.  It's the color of the summer breeze that ruffles the little hairs at your temple.

Yellow is the sound of a little kid's belly laugh.

Yellow is the taste of the first bite of a croissant fresh from the oven at that boulangerie just down the street from your apartment in Paris.  Which is funny because yellow was also the color of the baker woman's hair.

Yellow is your fingers absentmindedly tapping out a tune on the steering wheel on a late afternoon drive.

Yellow is a cat nap in the sun.

Yellow is the grains of sand you find at the bottom of the suitcase you just pulled out of the closet, reminding you of the last time you were at the beach.

Yellow is the perfect balance of sweet and tart.

If yellow were an musical instrument, it would be an acoustic guitar.  Or a xylophone.

Yellow is found in spring, summer, and fall, but rarely in winter.

Yellow is the color of a Thursday afternoon.

Yellow is a big grin at an inside joke.

Yellow plays well with others but is good on its own too.

Yellow is honesty and confidence and optimism. It likes to be comfortable but isn't afraid of adventure.

Today, I feel yellow.

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Images: lighthouse // two girls // wildflowers // living room // fire escape // striped hallway // beach umbrellas // taxis // balloons // billy buttons // vintage peacoat

Inspired By: Valentine's Day

“There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable.” - C.S. Lewis

IT'S VALENTINE'S DAAAAAAY and I'm so excited! *insert jazz hands* 
It's a little weird how much I love it. And yet every year, I just have a blast.

I wake up and say, "Ellie. You're in love today. With YOU! Get out there and treat yo self! " 
And I do. I buy myself flowers. I make myself cookies. I put on my favorite shoes & walk around with a goofy smile on my face because of how awesome I am.

That sounds so incredibly narcissistic. Bordering on drastically pathetic.
But it's my thing. 

In fact, I'm not really sure how to share this day with anyone. I mean, aside from letting you have a cookie. But I'll try...so here's all the things that inspire me about this pretend holiday.
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Eat:

Valentine's Day is dark chocolate and tart berries and if you're not indulging in a bit of sugar on this of all days then I have nothing more to say to you.

 

Read:

Don't worry, no romance novels here, just some real letters from real people.

+ Love Letters of Great Men & Women by C.H. Charles
+ This incredibly sweet letter from John Steinbeck to his son


Hang:

Sweet and simple illustrations are the loveliest of all:

Listen:

Nothing inspires my imagination more than classical music. Here are a couple of sweeping scores from movie soundtracks that fit the mood perfectly. Excuse me while I replay dramatic moments from my love life to these songs.





Smell:

When giving or buying flowers, it's important to consider the meaning behind them, and not just how pretty they are.  The language of flowers is real, you guys. So real that if you show up with an armful of yellow roses, I'm never speaking to you again.  In Victorian times, you could have a whole conversation in a bouquet of flowers. They practically invented passive-aggresion: my mouth is saying, "here, I got these hydrangea for you" but my heart is saying "you're frigid and heartless." On the other hand, show up with a few stems of ranunculus and it's a swoon-fest.
Drama!

Whether you're happily in love, bitterly single, or completely ambivalent, I hope this Valentine's Day was worth your while. If it wasn't, leave me your number in the comments below & I'll sing off-key beautiful songs to your voicemail to cheer you up.

You're welcome, world.
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Sources:
Top image (sans text) by Geronimo Balloons
Cherry Syrup Waffles by Helena Jungren
Vegan Berry Tart by Have Cake Will Travel
Swedish Chocolate Cake by Top With Cinnamon
Dancing illustration via Pinterest (could not find OP)
Cherry illustration by miss Capricho
Ranunculus 1 via Tumblr
Ranunculus 2 via Kiss the Groom

Inspired By: Winter Trees

There is nothing more blatantly cheerful than a sunny day in a park, bursting with green leaves and birdsong.  And yet it is a stark winter landscape that constantly evokes poetry in my heart. There’s something about the contrast of dark bare trees against the white landscape that speaks to me.  The trees put on their brilliant fall garments for but a moment and then they’re gone, branches bare and shivering in the wind.  It looks sad at first, as though they left the house with nothing to wear against the elements.  But then the snow comes and drapes their thin knobby shoulders in a beautiful coat of white and you realize it wasn’t sad.  With new perspective, you see them with their branches uplifted, patiently waiting to catch the falling sky.  They become graceful statues, arms outstretched as if to say, “Look at what the winter gave me.” Even the proud firs with their ever present needles, seemed pleased with the gift of snow. Sometimes in the depth of the season every inch of bark is encased in ice and it becomes a glittery coat of armor.  The trees stand silent and strong, like frozen sentinels guarding the fields til spring and my heart swells with gladness at their steadfastness, despite the elements.

As if it would be any other way, as if they are creatures who think and move and would pick up their roots and head south in the weather. But if they could choose, I like to think they would stay where they are and it is comforting. As much as I would like to take you all into the woods for a chilly walk where we could marvel together in the silence and beauty of winter trees, that is impossible.  Instead, here are a collection of images and words that inspire me almost as much as a nature stroll.

“I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape—the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show.”

—	Andrew Wyeth

“I couldn’t live where there were no trees— something vital in me would starve.”

—	L.M. Montgomery, Anne’s House of Dreams

A tree says: My strength is trust. I know nothing about my fathers, I know nothing about the thousand children that every year spring out of me. I live out the secret of my seed to the very end, and I care for nothing else. I trust that God is in me. I trust that my labor is holy. Out of this trust I live.

-Hermann Hesse

"Never are voices so beautiful as on a winter's evening, when dusk almost hides the body, and they seem to issue from nothingness with a note of intimacy seldom heard by day."

- Virginia Woolf

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Inspired By: Frosty Fall Mornings

This morning’s commute felt unusual in that it’s the first time in over a month that I made the whole drive in the daylight. Because of the time change, the sun was already over the horizon by the time I left the driveway. Usually it’s only just risen when I’m pulling into the parking lot. Once I got over the feeling that I was somehow terribly late for work, I got lost watching the lazy dance of the Earth waking up. The now-bare trees were a black silhouette against the watercolor sky of aubergine, orange, pink and blue. The grass—finally green after a dry summer—was shrouded in frost, giving the hills a glittery gray cast in the distance. The color palette shifted quickly but subtly as the sun crept over the trees, changing the scene entirely. The harsh black trees relaxed into a chocolate brown and the fields turned gold, shining wetly in the sunlight. The orange sky faded, as the blue grew bolder. Before I knew it, I had arrived at work, amazed at how fast 50 minutes passed.  I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not at my most sparkling before 8 am so I’m thankful for a long quiet drive, even more so when I can actually see the landscape around me.

Inspired By: Books

On a cold gray day like today, all I want to do is curl up by a window with a pile of blankets, a cup of tea and read a book or two in the gloomy light. 

Whilst thinking longingly of the pile of reads next to my bed, I put together a little inspiration board about books and reading. 

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"The first thing reading teaches us is how to be alone." - Jonathan Franzen

“In college, I used to underline sentences that struck me, that made me look up from the page. They were not necessarily the same sentences the professors pointed out, which would turn up for further explication on an exam. I noted them for their clarity, their rhythm, their beauty and their enchantment. For surely it is a magical thing for a handful of words, artfully arranged, to stop time. To conjure a place, a person, a situation, in all its specificity and dimensions. To affect us and alter us, as profoundly as real people and things do.”

—	Jhumpa Lahiri, My Life’s Sentences

"If you think reading is boring, you're doing it wrong." -unknown

“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.” ― Lemony Snicket

Read anything good lately?

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