Now on "The Road to the Good Life"

We've moved! The blog's moved in with a few others over at The Road to the Good Life, and cubes and I have traded in our cozy Edwardian apartment for one on the other side of the Mission.
 

 

After the boxes get unpacked, look for your favorite columns -- bi-monthly Details to Love, monthly Fashion Friday, bi-monthly Thursday Purseday, bi-monthly Tuesday Shoesday, and monthly What Inspires Me -- to resume over at The Road to the Good Life.
 

Ciao Bella!

Eden

 

Credits: All images taken by Eden Hensley Silverstein for The Road to the Good Life.

In Transition

During our hiatus, we're quietly remodeling the blog.

Until we're back from our honeymoon (end of May), new content will be a little sporadic. Also as I work on organizing and editing hundreds of pages of blog entries into a riveting rendition of Our Story for our parents, as well as for our wedding album, you'll see archived posts begin to populate on the "new" blog. With the exception of corrected typos and poorly credited images, the posts will be identical the original content. The post here on the "old" blog will include a jump there to the "new" blog. 

Our editorial calendar will be also changing. Don't fear; your favorites - Tuesday Shoesday and Thursday Purseday - will still be here. Fashion Friday is going to become a monthly rather than semi-weekly series, look for it the first Friday of the month. What Inspires Me and My Favorite Things are going to merge into In the Moment, a round up of what's inspiring me at the moment; it'll be appearing on Mondays because everyone needs some eye candy to start their week off right. We'll also be introducing Friday Food for Thought with illustrations or quotes from my collection of vintage home economics texts and cookbooks.    

Ciao Bella!

Eden

What Inspires Me: My Muses

I'm inspired by my surroundings. Store windows. Product displays.

By what I chose to read (or flip through). Menus. Cookbooks. Print magazines.

Catalogs.

By what I pick up: product packaging, vintage postcards, and more. By what I read or see online, blogs, online-only magazines, websites, advertisements, videos, and more.

Over the past year and a half, I've been snapping photos and clipping pages to serve as inspiration for our wedding album (as well as our gift to our parents). Sunday, cubes and I will be celebrating our 6-month wedding anniversary and the month after going on our honeymoon. In January, I set a goal for myself that before we left for our honeymoon our wedding album and the gifts for our parents would be completed and in our hands; I'm rapidly running out of time. For the next few weeks, I'm going to focus on those projects. While I do so, A Timeless Affair, will go on a brief hiatus. You can bet when we return I'll have lots to share! We'll also have a new URL - more on that later once the hosting transfers are all complete. Thank you all for your support and see you soon!

Credits: Images taken by Eden Hensley Silverstein for A Timeless Affair.

In the Moment: Continuing Our Story

Today we pause from our recaps. Did you know we're going to be celebrating our six month wedding anniversary this coming Sunday? Time has gone by so quickly. And that's got me thinking about how we want to document our story going forward.

Before we got married, I carefully catalogued and saved Tweets, Emails, and Facebook status changes. Most of our love story was chronicled online.

This past weekend, the medium for recording our story became physical. How? While wandering through a barn, we found this Underwood typewriter.

The typewriter immediately tugged on my heart strings. I pointed it out to cubes and then said let me think about it and we walked on past. I thought about it maybe all of five minutes when we stumbled on a pair of nightstands. When the salesperson asked if there was anything else we were interested in, I responded, there's a typewriter too! Long story short, it now sits on the table in our entry hall.

As cubes was playing with the keys, I quickly slipped a sheet of paper in only to discover there was still some ink on the ribbon. And an idea was born. We'd create an Exquisite Corpse.

Our Exquisite Corpse Begins

We type whatever is on our mind or has caught our fancy. We hope that when guests come over they too add to the Exquisite Corpse. I have no idea how the story will unfold, but it's a neat project and one with a tangible result. I'll be filling the typewriter with various acid-free, handmade, treeless papers to keep the story colorful and long lasting.

How are you chronicling your love story?

Thursday Purseday: In need of an outfit

How do you plan what you're going to wear for the day? Do you carefully lay out your clothes and accessories the night before?

I wait until I wake up, until I'm in danger of being late to figure out what I'm going to wear. This morning I woke up wanting to sport buttery carmel accessories, specifically these shoes and this purse.

Shoes by Joyce of California, circa 1970s, Purse by John Romain, 1967; More photos on Flickr.

The problem? I'm not sure what to wear them with. I've come up with a totally not work appropriate and very unique style (grey ribbed tank top with greenish Italian torn up jeans) that I might try another time, but so far I'm drawing a blank for work.

What outfit would you pair with these shoes and purse?

What Inspires Me: Shells, Part 2

I think shells are a delightful accent, especially when they've been collected by the couple or remind them of a first date spent sitting on a nearly deserted beach enjoying a sunset.

The shells in our house are from my travels across the US - California, Texas, Alabama, and Florida. There are other shells in the collection that were purchased from the Shell Shoppe in Morro Bay when we visited my grandparents. As I said earlier, the shells you find in our place are part of my story, not our story. (If you follow my food blog, you'll get a glimpse at my collection next week.)

If shells are part of your story and you'd like to include them in your wedding, here are some things other couples have done.

Credits (from left to right): Styling by Flowers on the Green, spotted on Sparkle & Hay; Martha Stewart Weddings by Sandals Resorts - Seaside Serenade Package, spotted on I "Do It" Yourself; Photographed by Erin and Fredrick of Aregrayline Photography, spotted on Delightfully Engaged. 

Credits: Left - Photographed by Henry + Masci Photography, spotted on Glamour and Grace Weddings. Middle Top - Design & Styling Alchemy Fine Events & Invitations (via Lollipop Event & Design), photographed by John Schnack, spotted on Alchemy Fine Events Blog; Bottom - Photographed by Brett Harkness, spotted on Love My Dress. Top Right - Photographed by Jonathan Wherrett, spotted on Polka Dot Bride; Flowers by Wedding Flowers by Nichole, photographed by Geneve Rege, spotted on Ruffled.

Credits (from left to right): Photographed by Brett Harkness, spotted on Love My Dress; Cake by Veronica's Sweetcakes, photographed by Henry + Masci Photography, spotted on Glamour and Grace Weddings; Cake by Casual Gourmet, photographed by Geneve Rege, spotted on Ruffled. 

Did you incorporate shells into your wedding? How?

What Inspires Me: Shells

Pottery Barn's Summer Catalog arrived in the mail yesterday and I'm in love. If you've ever been to our place, you'd notice shells tucked into all sorts of corners. On a shelf in our linen closet. On top of built-in drawers. On a ledge above our shower. (We didn't incorporate shells into our wedding as shells are my thing, not our thing, as I grew up less than a couple of miles from the Pacific Ocean.)

If you're planning a summer beachside wedding, flip through the pages of this season's Pottery Barn catalog. There's some neat ideas that you could use for an escort table display or for your centerpieces.

Pottery Barn's Summer 2011 Catalog

Where do you draw inspiration from?

If you're looking for ideas of how shells have been used in weddings, check back this afternoon for Part 2 of this post.