PUBLIC MARKS with tag somethingbeautiful

""she held dear her collection of moments and memories." how true it is. our lives are a patchwork of moments....."

We have a birthday tradition in our family we’ve been doing since we were kids. We go around the dinner table and each person takes a letter of the alphabet, and we say something nice about the birthday girl/boy. A is for Artistic! B is for the Beautiful! We go around and around the table until we get to Z

and i said yes....

artist and professor horst glasker painted these 112 steps in wuppertal, germany to convey a different emotion or behavior associated with relationships. some examples are "to forgive", "to cuddle", "to offer resistance", and "to seduce."

{ my keeping lists: tea + checked out library book slips}

“For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.” -Vincent van Gogh

Finally, jewelry designer Blanca Monros Gomez handmade our rings in her Brooklyn studio. (Read the full story here.) My ring has the engraving, "All my love," and Alex's ring says, "All my life."

ballons & yellow gown

white roses

1. Buy coffee for the guy standing behind you at the coffee shop. 2. Open the door for someone before entering yourself. It doesn't matter if you're a girl and he's a boy, or you're a boy and she's a girl, or you're both boys, or you're both girls. You can do it. 3. Send a quick email to someone you haven't heard from in a while. It can just say, "Hey, I was thinking about you. I hope you're well." Trust me, it will make her day. 4. Send a small, handwritten note -- via regular mail! -- to someone far away. It can just say, "Hey, I was thinking about you. I hope you're well." Trust me, it will make his day. 5. Give someone flowers, just because. They don't have to be expensive. The blossom above was part of a grocery-store bouquet that cost $3.99. The recipient really isn't going to care that it wasn't expensive. I promise. 6. Invite someone to your home. Have something baking in the oven for them when they arrive. 7. Light a candle and think of someone who is going through a rough time. Silently offer them good thoughts/prayers. 8. Pick a charity. Give something. 9. Buy a magazine subscription for a friend out of the blue. 10. Give blood. 11. Prepare someone's tea. In my opinion, it's a wonderful act of love to not just put the hot water and a teabag in front of a friend, but actually prepare and steep the tea for them. 12. Tell a child -- or someone who is struggling with self-esteem -- how great you think they are. And mean it. 13. The next person who serves you a meal at a restaurant, or helps you in a store, or sells you your morning newspaper, look him in the eyes, smile, and say "thank you" with as much sincerity as you can muster. 14. Give someone a heartfelt hug. Just because. 15. Start a hopeful revolution: leave a hope note somewhere. Extra points if you leave it on the windshield of a stranger's car. 16. Offer to cook a meal for someone. 17. Offer to give someone a break -- babysit, hire a maid service for them, or even straighten her house yourself. 18. Clean out your closet. Give the gently-used clothing you no longer want to a shelter. 19. Take a photograph of something beautiful. Send it to someone, with the note: "This reminded me of you." 20. Give someone something of yours -- a book, perhaps, or a small trinket -- with no expectation of return. 21. Blow out a candle. Make a wish on someone else's behalf as you do it. 22. Make a short list of the things you love about someone you love. Leave the list where they can find it. 23. Make a date to have coffee or a glass of wine with an old friend. 24. Say "I love you." Mean it.

Still, I wanted to tie in our fair / carnival / summer party-bbq theme a bit so I made this bunting (banners or flagging or garlands, whatever you want to call them) to go along the aisle. We shopped for a couple months to find cool patterned fabrics in our wedding colors.

i found a fence she passes everyday and left this message spelled with paper cups.

"love how time seems to move differently at the beach. how i can sit on the beach for hours and the day seems to melt by like honey. how i can spend an entire day looking out over that ocean, laying in that sand, eating sandwiches smushed from the cooler, painting, swimming, gathering rocks (don't get me started on the beach rocks!), walking, talking, napping, reading, looking out at the ocean some more, and suddenly the sun is starting to set and the day has gone by in what feels like an instant. i love that. all of it."