le marche st. george

You've probably seen one or more of these photos scattered throughout my work in the last few months, but today I'm compelled to publish them all in one place. Together they show the collective magic that is Le Marche St. George, a cafe and small market located in Vancouver, Canada. It's the kind of place we all romanticize about owning one day. A cafe where the guests come for the people just as much as they do the coffee. A place where the owners travel and hand-select luxury goods to sell in small quantities. Where the texture on the walls authentically screams of weathered age, and where the marble top tables transport you to 1920's Paris. The ceiling-to-floor shelves stocked with local staples -- coffee, jam, pickles, and crackers.

I sat here for hours my first time in Vancouver. I sipped on a cappuccino. I split my flaky croissant piece by piece to nibble on its airy richness. Beside me sat a foursome of middle-aged women. They talked about using their bikes to get around and someone they knew who developed diabetes. Mothers with strollers made their way up to the door. I watched it all through speckled light cast through the trees. Little shadows danced on their children's faces as they waited patiently in their strollers. The table in front of me was a beautiful still life all its own. 

This experience welcomed me to Vancouver. It gave me pause -- moments to gather my thoughts, realize where I was, and get ready for something new. Who I was, there at that cafe, preparing for it all, is not who I turned into after the experience. That trip, those adventures, the way they changed me was like being branded on the brain with a scolding hot iron. My eyes will never see the same. Everything holds a different hue than ever before. I hold that moment at Le Marche St. George in my heart as a glimpse of who I was, a person on the brink of something new.

hidden tuscany

My heart breaks thinking about this trip. It breaks over the fact that we had to leave - that we couldn't stay tucked away forever in that hilltop villa. What bliss. What beauty. We were all so happy there.

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More photos and insights from the trip here & here.

weekly scenes: here, there, and everywhere

Here, there, and a little bit of everywhere. The ease with which we skip around the world today is a miracle. Just in the last month, I feel so lucky to have gone the places I've gone and to have met the people I've met. Fifty to one-hundred years ago, it would have been unfathomable. The fact that I can be in Philadelphia during the week and head up to New York state for a weekend - how I can fly to Vancouver and make my way up the coast within a week - it's not something to take with a grain of salt.

The ubiquity of travel makes the world accessible, and our generation is lucky to experience it. We can meet people on every continent, in every city, with more ease than ever before. This new age of travel is breaking down walls, and the planet is becoming a global society. 

It makes me feel like a part of something bigger; a huge community that inhabits the world. The experience of traveling across the continent and to a different country all by myself, tapped me into it and opened my eyes.  It's stunning and comforting to know that there are so many people we can get along with, connect with, enjoy, and learn from. Many a time we focus on the differences, but when you let your guard down, you begin to find the similarities. We all have more in common than you think.

Everywhere we go, there are amazing people. Interesting, creative, intelligent. We can share things with a complete stranger, and we can connect with someone who, appearance-wise, is an entirely different kind of person. When moments like that happen, life realizes meaning. Your heart grows just a little bit bigger with each interaction. It opens up a world in which we can go anywhere without really being alone.

This global community has not always existed. It's a phenomenon of our time, and something I, myself, am excited to live through. We should not let it go unnoticed how special this moment in time really is.

Here's to all the amazing people I've met, shared a moment, and spent time with on my recent travels.  You all put a smile on my face.

finger lakes escape

All my photos are my babies. I love them dearly, and when it comes to putting together a concise article or post, I tend to get emotional over cutting ones out. I want to include them all! But unfortunately, it's not really best practice. It ends up looking like someone who can't edit their work - which to a certain extent, I am guilty of! It can just be hard for me to pick one shot over another.

So today, I'm sharing a few shots from our recent trip to the Finger Lakes that did not make it into my travel guide over at Free People. Even if they weren't right for the post, I had to give them a home some where. So here they are.

Go read about our full Finger Lakes adventure at blog.FreePeople.com today!

snapshots from a shared blogosphere

Today, I’m excited to announce a new project that I recently took part in. We all know (or you should) how much I love food, especially international cuisines. So I’ve teamed up with a group of bloggers around the world to stop and drop on the same day, at the same time, to photograph what we were eating. 

The Lineup:

Jessica, San Francisco, 8:00am

Me, Philadelphia, 11am 

Julie, London, 4pm

Judith, Seoul, midnight

It’s amazing what a cuisine will say about a culture, and this project has me itching to go eat my way around the world. Food is something people want to share with each other because it’s a deep rooted and meaningful piece of ourselves. The memories you have from being young, the meals your mom used to make, the restaurants you visited with your best friends in high school - traditions and memories develop around food, and the way in which each culture does it is unique. 

Here in Philadelphia on a Saturday morning, I had four friends walking in the door. As they arrived, I was putting the finishing touches on a brunch spread I had prepared using my favorite local and organic ingredients. For me, two things are important when it comes to food: home cooked and ethically-sourced. It’s not necessarily the most common way to consume food in this country, but it is one that is held in high regard. People here love a home cooked meal. And people here love food they can feel good about. Also, it should be noted that brunch is a very American thing…a brilliant custom if you ask me.

The Menu:

Baked Ricotta: made with Wholesome Dairy Farm’s Grass-Fed Raw Milk and Dutch Way Dairy Heavy Cream

Maitake Mushroom & Egg Scramble: mushrooms sourced from Greensgrow Farm and Sandy Ridge Farm eggs

Homemade Bloody Mary’s: made with tomatoes sourced at Greensgrow Farm, home brewed pickles, Clover Creek Cheese Cellar Pirate Blue Cheese, and Sky Vodka

Rosemary and Sel Di Gris Popovers: made with rosemary sourced in Philadelphia’s famous Italian Market, Sel Di Gris purchased from The Meadow in NYC, King Arthur Organic Flour, and Wholesome Dairy Farm’s Grass-Fed Raw Milk

Home-brewed Iced Tea: with ginger, chamomile, cinnamon sticks, clove, rose hip, and Walt's Swarmbustin' honey. 

Peach Preserves: made by Fifth of a Farm

We sat around the table for a good two hours. There were several foreigners in the group - something that is very common in our melting pot of a country - and the conversation went from talking about one person’s country to the next. That’s the lovely thing about brunch, you sit and enjoy the food, and then you sit some more and enjoy each other. It’s a long drawn-out custom that is perfect for the weekend, and a good way to enjoy the company of friends. I should also mention that at my house, dogs are always welcome, so we had three dogs playing underfoot and providing us with plenty of intermittent laughs. 

And that is how we Philadelphians do it. Head on over to Thread & Bones to see what was simultaneously occurring in the culinary worlds around the globe.

camping on the beach with fp me

As many of you know, I work for the brand, Free People, and as of as of late it's been a very exciting company to be a part of. This summer our whole marketing team has been traveling all over the globe, promoting the brand and putting together amazing campaigns. 

Last week was finally my turn. I spent the week traveling, starting off in Brooklyn, and then on to California for an FP Me beach & camping event. We pooled together 25 local FP Me girls, and organized everyone's dream beach day. Surfing with Sage Erickson, Volkswagen buses, epic Pinterest-worthy setups, camping - we didn't skimp on anything to make sure these girls had a great time.

I was there documenting it all, and with the beautiful scenery, people, and setups, it was just too fun to keep snapping. This was also my first time in Southern California (I don't count the visit when I was 10), and Mother Nature's presence here is simply different. In one direction, ocean, in the other, mountains. Succulents grow wild, and everywhere you look, palm trees shoot into the sky. My favorite thing was studying all of the strange plants. More to come on the wildlife of Southern California, but I have to say, as an East Coast girl, I must have looked like I'd landed on Mars.

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For more coverage of the FP Me beach camping event:

Read my post on the decor

Read my interview with the caterer, Iva Lee's

And sign up for FP Me!