The Holiday Blues

Every year I go home to Georgia for Christmas, but the other holidays can be hard.  I always call my mama's house on Easter, where the entire family has gathered, and she passes the phone around so I can say hi to everyone.  I love getting to talk to them, but it inevitably leaves me feeling a little depressed that they're all together and I'm thousands of miles away.  Would that I could just wiggle my nose and transport myself home for every occasion.

My auntie Pat posted these picture of our family's Easter celebration yesterday:

my sisters

(Jennifer--on the left--is my cousin, but we grew up like sisters.  Lil sis Kate on the right)

sweet Nana on the left and my mama on the right

this year Nana will be 80, Mama will be 50, and I will be 30!

Uncle Mike & pretty cousins with spread of food

Uncle Ted on left, brother-in-law Andy on right

love the twin crossed legs, boys

Jennifer's son, Ethan, and our Auntie Pat

Ethan hunting for eggs in Mama's back yard

I would have loved to be there with them.  I miss everyone exponentially on holidays.  But although it was sad that I couldn't be with my family on Easter, I did the next best thing and headed up to the Freitags to watch Milo and Jude hunt for eggs:

the Freitags on Easter + the view from their backyard

Milo furiously hunting eggs

me and my little love

JJ and Judebug, both sporting seersucker

Thank goodness for the Freitags aka my home away from home!  It was a gorgeous day outside, and those boys always put me in a better mood.  Plus, after the uncles and aunts and cousins went home, Cari and I did something very Easterly: we watched a very intense, violent movie about post-Apartheid South Africa.  ;)

Notice anything about the cast?  Particularly the guy standing in the middle?  Yes, ladies & gentlemen, it's Tim Riggins.  And despite the fact that he had to lose 30 pounds to portray strung out combat photographer, Kevin Carter, he was just as fine as ever in this movie.

All hotness aside, it was a great movie, although devastating.  The story centers around four photographers who are trying to take the best pictures of the violence going on around them.  Kevin Carter (played by Taylor Kitsch--it's a true story) eventually took the following photo of a starving child in Sudan being stalked by a vulture:

from

Although Carter won the Pulitzer Prize for this photo (taken in southern Sudan in 1993), it was obviously surrounded by controversy.  The public questioned him: did you just leave that girl to die?  What did you do after you took the picture?  Unable to face these questions and the ethics of his job in general, Carter kills himself.  And while it was tough to watch Tim Riggins go through all that . . . it was worth it.  

Sorry for the downer.  Probably should have ended with Jude toddling around in his seersucker suit clutching plastic eggs.  What did y'all do for Easter?

You Know You Want It.

Many of you know about my sister's lovely shop, Very Fine House:

She collects & sells all kinds of vintage housewares (at really affordable prices).  Because she and my brother-in-law are in the process of moving (they're buying their first home!), she's trying to get rid of her inventory so that she can start anew after the move (in the interest of moving as little as possible).  


Therefore, she is offering readers of Bicoastally 20% anything in her shop!  Check out some of the items she has for sale:

mounted six-point antlers

century old music book (117 years old!)

large blue letter B

bird glass set

vintage stationery set

vintage red suitcases

M cookie jar

Click on her shop link to check out all the other things she has for sale.  Everything is 20% off!  Just use the code BICOASTALLY at checkout. :)

Happy Thursday!  We're almost there!

A very special happy 26th birthday

to my beautiful, sharp, talented, standup, witty, lucky, brilliant, impish, firecracker of a sister, Kate!

my college graduation/her high school graduation

photo by our stepmama, Amy Hutsell Kiefer

 She wrote a children's book!

she drinks old lady cocktails

she had the most beautiful wedding

W. Scott Chester Photography

and she married a pretty terrific guy

(also, she has amazing hair)

they are parents to a very big dog!

photo by my brother-in-law, Andrew Lee

and sometimes on New Years Eve, we are shimmery sisters

this is the Katest of all Kate looks

and this is the second Katest look

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATE!  I love you!

And Speaking of Giveaways . . .

This is my sister, Kate:

(from brother-in-law's photo blog)

She just opened an Etsy shop called Very Fine House, where she is selling vintage housewares like this:

vintage bird glass set

and this:

working normende condor transistor radio

and this:

blue grey letter A

and this:

vintage stationery set

So go check out her shop!  Her prices are great and her taste is impeccable.  And guess what?  My dearest Micaela is hosting a giveaway of two coveted items from my sister's shop!  Head over to Micaela's blog to see what Kate is giving away and to  enter! I love this partnership of two ladies I love. ♥

Check out my famous sister!

So my sister, who is very smart and beautiful and leads a pretty charmed life, has impeccable style.  Her wedding was no exception, and now it's been featured in Brides Magazine!  Check it out!

Here's a preview of pictures from her amazing photographers' blog:

all images from wscottchester blog

Kate and Andy's October, 2009 wedding was at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Atlanta, Georgia (where we're from.  ish.).  There was an edgy photography exhibit up, and Kate and Andy scattered lovely, vintage details all throughout their ceremony and reception.  For instance, Kate spent months scouring antique stores for old, glass doorknobs and embellishments to weigh down the big, white balloons that lined the aisle.

The bridesmaids' dresses were the color of her shoes, pictured above, and our shoes were the exact same as hers, only in taupe.

Our daddy is a chef, so suffice to say that the food and drink were extraordinary.  Prettiest wedding in all the land.

Congrats, sissy!

Hair Envy

So there's this terrible catch 22 in my life:

I do nothing to my hair, and it remains dishwater blonde with uneven, slightly frizzy waves

-or-

I highlight, blow dry, and straighten/curl my hair, and it looks pretty in the moment, but then in the long run, it gets FRIED.

It's a dreadful conundrum. For the past eight years or so, I've been opting for the latter. I love my highlights, and I looooove my hair stylist (if you're in San Francisco, go see Lauren Kolb at Glama-Rama in the Mission!). But after years & years of all this harsh treatment, my hair is less shiny, less thick, my waves are totally muted, and the ends are pretty scary.

So I stopped dyeing it. I haven't put any color in my hair in almost a year (hello, dullest, plainest, most dishwatery blonde ever!), and I'm reeeeeally coveting a Brazilian blowout, not only cause it would make my hair look immediately more awesome, but because it would mean that I could get away with not blow drying/straightening it for 3-4 months. SWEET!

My sister is part of my inspiration for not dyeing it, cause her hair is au naturale and it looks like this:

she got better hair genes

And I found this old picture of my dad, stepmom, sister, and me from several years ago (when I first started highlighting my hair), and my waves were so much prettier!

before I tortured my locks

But in the meantime, I'm antsy and filled with the urge to dye, chop, straighten, take the iron to it, etc. Or, I want hair like this:

So I guess what I'm saying is: I want hair extensions. Ha.

Tell me your hair secrets! Products, techniques . . . what makes your hair look gorgeous???