• Eating: leftover red velvets!
• Listening to: La Roux & Major Lazer (the remix album). And just when you thought I was going to stop talking about her!
• Wearing: One of my absolute favorite vintage tops, floral chiffon with shoulder pads & pleats, tucked into a linen pencil skirt over mustard T-strap heels.

Hello, cheri!

As most of you know, last Thursday (the 16th) was my birthday! Unfortunately, it was also my busiest day of the week, with classes from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. However, it was made sweet by way of lunch with a long-time friend & coffee after class with the girls. We all talked for too long (in the best possible sense), then skipped home for a quick viewing of the SATC final episode (it never gets old). All in all, a very good day.

Saturday night was an evening of cooking-in & cupcakes, two of my favorite things. Then we celebrated at quite the out-of-the-ordinary show, Scratch Track, after I interviewed the band for the paper. They’re really great guys, doing what they love to do & having so much fun in the process.

But before all of these things, I had a birthday celebration of sorts at home. Maybe it was a month before the actual day, but that didn’t stop us. One of the things I’m most grateful for in my life, out of all of the many things I’ve been blessed with, is my family. In every sense of the word, my family is a family. We cook & eat together. We laugh & play together. We live together (literally, on the same plot of land). We celebrate together.

I miss the constancy of our gatherings when I’m away, but that’s what makes those relationships with people I know I can count on here, so far from home, so meaningful. Here’s a big bunch of love to my family, & to my “family” here in Tennessee! I don’t know what I’d do without you.

{Photos: 1. birthday cheese cake 2. flowers from the garden 3. grandparents are the best 4. candles and cousins 5. birthday lunch of fried oysters, crab cakes & asparagus.}