Turn on Your Love Light

If jetting off to the east coast for these weekend autumnal weddings becomes a habit, I might get spoiled by the beauty of New England. This past Saturday, I found myself in Connecticut's Litchfield County in a town called New Milford, along the Housatonic River. After a day or two of chasing the fall foliage and hiking on the Appalachian Trail (to be blogged about soon), I traveled to the Candlelight Farms Inn to celebrate the wedding of Karen and Dom.

When we first pulled up to the farm I thought it was one of the most beautiful places I'd ever seen. Surrounded by green fields, dense forests and birch trees, there was a main house, a barn, a gazebo, a silo, and farm animals running about. Not to mention a lake off in the distance. I knew it would be beautiful, but this was beyond beautiful! I also knew that our friends would be full of cozy loving feelings for the happy couple, just like the previous weekend. Of course, expectations were exceeded by the real love and energy you can only feel in the moment. I could feel it, alright. I could smell it in the air and see it on everyone's face. Just look at this display of sheer happiness:




Karen's bouquet looked elegantly wild. I remember when she first showed me her dress in June...I knew it would be perfect.



Gorgeous barn with an all-around good message to live by - in fact, can I just live here?



Oh well, maybe I'll live here? The inn was dreamily old fashioned, like something out of Anne of Green Gables.



The trees beyond the barn were turning but they hadn't quite turned yet.



Amazing picture taken by my friend Sarah Barnes...but how did I miss these planter work boots?



The bride's Appalachian trail tattoo she got after hiking the trail - I'm obsessed.



Enjoying cocktails with the previous weekend's newlyweds, Chip and Hanna. They seemed so relaxed and blissful - I was very inspired by the good energy they were giving off into the night.



As to be expected, the Bates banner flies again! I'm nestled in on the left. To my right (yer left) is my beautiful friend Cait, who's wedding I was a bridesmaid in 4 years ago! How time flies...



During dinner, Karen and Dom set up a slide show documenting their lives as children when they didn't yet know one another. The slide show then progressed into their time together as a couple. This picture made me smile thinking about all their outdoor adventures.



Speaking of smiles, this is probably my favorite moment of the night (aside from the Hora and the band performing Lady Gaga songs). I know the picture is out of focus, but it doesn't matter! It's pure in-the-moment happiness and joy. Even as the sun was setting, they got caught in the light.

Thank you Karen and Dom for a magical weekend. I love you both, xo.

Whirlwind Wedding Weekend #2

Borrowing from the title of a Mad Men episode, I am officially "the jet set." Here I am back in San Francisco after yet another amazingly beautiful weekend on the east coast. This time, I bookend-ed a lakeside wedding in Connecticut with a jaunt in New York City to celebrate my birthday! Anyway, I got back from the east coast late last night (after a 3 hour delay at JFK, yes!) and am looking forward to staying in town for a bit. Will be posting soon about my Empire State adventures, as well as my visit to the top ranked town in New England to view fall foliage. Home, sweet home for now!

p.s. For those of you wondering, yes, I did come back to San Francisco the week in between Maine and Connecticut. It's crazy, I know, but yes, I'm crazy, I know...

The Way Life Should Be

When I was younger I was, let's just say, a difficult child. Stubborn, some would say. I was a picky eater, I slept in my sister's room for the majority of my childhood, and I didn't like loud noises - I was that kid. I also had an aversion to sleep away camp, or really, camp of any kind. I look back now on this refusal and think, what was I thinking???

I asked myself this very question this past weekend, during my stay at Kingsley Pines on Panther Lake in Maine. Kingsley Pines - a camp to kids in the summer and, during the rest of the year, an event space for grown-ups who know how to have a good time. Rope swing any one? Sign me up.

The event, of course, was Chip and Hanna's wedding - my close friends from college who got married Saturday evening! I've been looking forward to their wedding for a long time, not simply because they are both such wonderful people and I am so happy to see them together, but because all of our college friends would be there feeling all the same cozy, loving thoughts. I'm so grateful to Chip and Hanna for inviting me to such a lovely and fun weekend! They gave me the summer camp experience I never had...

First of all, we bunked in these:



We woke up each morning to the quiet lake:







We then proceeded to swim, canoe, eat yummy food, play games, guitar and laugh and sing and dance our socks off in celebration - until the wee hours of the morn.





Hanna and Chip took me on a very special early morning paddle, around the clear majestic lake.





That's me showin' off my mad tennis skills! (if you think I'm crazy for hittin' the court in Moccasins, you should have seen me a few hours later - swingin' in heels!)



Ian, the prince of Mount Desert Island, poses for the camera while jumping off the rope swing!



Don't you love how the the life vest matches the sunglasses? That was definitely a theme throughout the weekend, exhibit A:



Great idea for party favors: personalized mason jar mugs we drank refreshing beverages out of all weekend.





My friend Matt and I get fancy on the dock!





Chip, the most talented guitarist I know! As always, he plays music for us all night long, while we sing along around the camp fire.





A weekend in Maine, with my best friends, celebrating a wedding? There would be no kicking or screaming, there would be no dragging. Well, maybe not until I had to leave...

Congratulations Chip and Hanna, I love you both! xoxo

Happy One.

It's been one year since my very first post on Poem, Sweet Poem!

Blogging has its ups and downs (sometimes the posts flow naturally out of you and sometimes there's nothing to say) - either way I'm thrilled to have kept it up and grateful to everyone who reads. Short post today, but I'll report back soon on the amazing weekend I just spent on the east coast for my friends Chip and Hanna's wedding. Still groggy, but when you've gone to Maine and back in three days it's to be expected. Back to work today!

Remembe-red

I didn't forget about you...Poem, Sweet Poem.



Or you, or you, or you. It's just that I needed a few days to gather my thoughts.



Some time for quiet, some space to think. A clear path to regain the balance I need to cultivate my wishes, desires and dreams.



Sometimes I need to pause and check in - to see if I'm living life on auto-pilot. Once I've realized, o whoops! there's that auto-pilot again - it's time to slow down.



So that when I return to the routine it can be with kindness, compassion and clarity.



All I want is to give, to put out into the world a good word or two.



A round about way of saying, I missed you.

Monkeying Around

Hope everyone had a relaxing, refreshing and rejuvenating weekend! I think about my blog a lot, and sometimes it's hard when I don't have time to post - which has felt like a lot of the time lately. This week, I need to focus on the balance between work and play, so I'm going to take a short break from the sweet life of poemsweetpoem. Be back soon, though - I wouldn't want to stay away too long, xo!

Fall Here

Happy to see
autumn so close.

Happy 9-02-10

Thanks, Karen, for pointing that out to me...it was obviously a must-blog.