the big city

location: Provo, Utah

here is what some of its temporary college student occupants do for kicks and giggles:

 some of us slide down ridiculously steep grass hills covered with plastic tarps slathered in soap suds

{ and yield large bruises on our upper thighs as painful reminders of our stupidity }

some of us jump out of perfectly good trees

...

{ some with slightly more grace than others }

while some of us watch those others of us fall out of those trees and prefer to stay dry with our pride intact

and still others of us feel the need to make a ridiculously big deal out of a simple kickball game

{ because, if we're being honest with ourselves, we all know fun comes hand in hand with face paint }

just livin' the life

meet bella

 this is my Bella

aka: the 5th child in our family

she is small

she is fluffy

and she is louder than your average terrier

also she is camera shy

{ oh and she's an intellectual }

awww

i feel so loved

the raid

coming home means some things...

1. mom's cooking

2. almost guaranteed sunny days and 72 degrees

and 3. new music

the playlist I've accumulated from this visit has been especially lucrative with such gems as The New Pornographers' new CD, She & Him's newest album and my current obsession, Josh Ritter's newest musical masterpiece:

The Curse is favorite

and always stuck in my head.

it's about a mummy and the archaeologist he falls in love with and then leaves for another women when she gets old.

no laughing until you listen to it.  

which you can do here. 

fried

I swear a boa constrictor sheds less than this...

I promise I promise I promise to wear 35 SPF forever and always after this if you will please stop itching!

the help

summer reading #2

if I'm being honest I'm pretty sure I read all 450-ish pages of this book in, well, 7 days.

3 women, 3 narrators, telling about what life was like between white middle-class women and their black help in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s,

quite the page turner.

review here.

the kitchen

"No matter what happens in the kitchen, never apologize."

- Julia Child

Well tonight I pulled out my butterfly bedazzled apron I sewed myself in 8th grade Home EC and got to making black and white cookies (which isn't exactly French, but New York will just have to be close enough for now)
and guess what?

They weren't perfect.

Surprise, surprise I know.

The icing dripped everywhere, the cookies were lumpy and i forgot to preheat the oven,

but I'm not apologizing.

I refuse to do it, because even if they don't look brilliant they taste it.

bon appetit!

P.S. Julie & Julia.  How completely and utterly adorable are Meryl Streep & Stanley Tucci?? I'm in love.

to be missed

1. chestnut trees in full bloom in the park

2. big red obnoxious double-decker buses around every corner

3. creamy, delicious, heavenly English yogurt

4. yellow rolling hills of rapeseed all over the British countryside

5. sweet honeycomb ice-cream

XOXO London

it was fun

yes.

Roma

I told you I'd get around to it eventually.

That I would never forget about my Roma.

I bet you didn't think I really would.

Well I'm doing it.

Here goes.

rome.

here's what she looked like:

here's what we looked like:

all smiles

Dear Southern California,

 Please stop trying with this whole late-afternoon thunderstorm, downpour thing.

You're making us look like mid-western posers.

Our previous tradition of 72 degrees will work just fine for me if it works for you.

Love, 

Carly

crispy

the first beach day...

salty.

sandy.

and crispy legs.

flashback

{you might be getting a lot of these in the near future}

flashback #1

It's Raining Men

The song played by our little Arab taxi driver on the ride from the Paris train station to our hotel

Sure I didn't know what "exit" was in French (sortie we figured out), but at least we could communicate on some level thanks to 80's pop music

two days in a row

At the dentist that is.

Guess why.

Cavity.

My first ever.

Darn those English sweets.

p.s. venice

The way to navigate Venice: 

To walk everywhere and get repeatedly lost on streets whose names change constantly and don’t appear on any of the maps your hotel so kindly tried to give you.

Truer words were never written.

But really who minds getting lost when everywhere you go looks like this?

summer reading

remember when that phrase used to strike fear into your little elementary school heart?

well, yeah, me neither.

but I do know it's one of favorite parts of June, July & August now.

my newest preferred bit of text is by a fellow named Bryce Courtenay:

who would have ever thought I'd like a book about a boxer?

at 500+ pages it might be a bit intimidating, but it's worth every minute.

enjoy!

P.S. suggestions for another summer read would be greatly appreciated, please and thank you.

laundry

after spending two+ months abroad sans a good washing machine I have now come to appreciate good, clean clothes.

this also means I'm washing everything I own right now which has taken over our washer and dryer for the day.

I tend to put things in and maybe, sort of forget about them till a couple hours later which tends to lengthen the process.

 
as of now I have nothing to wear except my swim suit and a few dresses...

yesterday was the swim suit.  

today was the dress.  

tomorrow is Sunday.

hopefully something will be clean by then.

post script

Cross this off my bucket list.

This has been the background of my computer on and off for the past 3 years:

And everyone would ask me:

"Did you take that?"

"Have you been to Italy?"

My answer to both questions to both questions can now be yes:

I am the happiest.

oh venezia

you are

color

windows

and laundry drying slowly on the line

 I will miss you

but not your 90 degrees and 95% humidity

the tour

ok lets backtrack.

the last 2 weeks = London, Paris, Venice & Rome

First: Showed the girls around in my London town which of course included 

telephone booths

Portobello Road

& tea 

Next we go to Paris where we

loved the Eiffel tower

explored Versailles 

got lost in the Louvre

& found the middle of the city 

 Venice and Roma will have to get a post all to themselves because the bright California sun is shining and I must go out and enjoy it.

arividerchi