A simple spring bouquet brightens and lightens a wooden bridge in California…

I wish I was spilled on cushions, listening to the claps and snaps of ocean water on a huge, glossy sun-drenched boat…

Perching peacefully on a sandy beach sounds parfait too.

With summer just weeks away, I do believe that boat excursions and beach picnics are on the horizon.

Yeeeessss.

For Derby Day, we boogied on over to an Austin field to watch a game of polo (croquet on horses, as I see it), sip mint juleps and watch the Kentucky Derby on a few big screens inside a big white tent.

(The next best thing to being at Churchill Downs, right?)

It was a festive, fluffy day…

Am utterly in love with these new Proenza Schouler wedges.

I don’t particularly like this next picture, and not just because you can see bug bites on my legs…

What I do like: The fact that it captures the hooves in motion and gentle curve of the wedge.

And wedges, by the way, are the best type of shoe for a tall person. The bulky foundation stops you from teetering and offers husky support.

You can’t say that about Manolos.

For our one-week getaway, we took a breezy drive through the shores of Louisiana, Alabama and Florida.

We ate, we drove, we ate, and we drove some more… until we reached Seaside, Florida, a pretty, all-American beach town on the Gulf of Mexico.

Seaside is about 12 hours from Austin, about the maximum I’d trek for a drive-to destination. Twelve hours isn’t that bad, actually, especially when you have slow, easy Gulf Shore towns to entertain you along the way.

Sought out this soda fountain in Foley, Alabama…

I had read the place serves an amazing key lime milkshake. Well, it definitely wasn’t “key” lime, as you can tell from the ghostbusters green color. But it was limey and seriously delicious.

On to Seaside…

The deck on the back of our beach home…

Filling our day with naps and strolls on the sand…

On our way back home, a quick stop in NOLA…

Can’t visit New Orleans without stuffing yourself with beignets at Cafe du Monde…

Last stop: This gut-busting sandwich shop on the edge of town…

The first non-seafood meal we had in 10 days!

Yes, it was a leisurely, fish-filled, water-lovin’ trip.

For our one-year wedding anniversary (today!), we had planned on flying to Barcelona for two weeks to eat jamón, sip Tempranillo and Albariño, laze in bistros on Las Ramblas, and wander through Gaudí’s hulking masterpieces.

Alas, Barcelona was not to be.

A few weeks ago, we made a whopping purchase and desperately need to save all our pennies in the next several months.

So for our ann-y, we’re keeping it cheap and, instead, are road tripping down the Gulf Coast—across the bayous of Louisiana, through Alabama’s seaside hamlets, to Florida’s bright, tropical, pasteled beaches.

For the next seven days, we’re out to eat the best Cajun food around, hit up seafood markets for fresh Gulf Shores shellfish, lose ourselves in marshy, Spanish moss-dripping towns, and spend lots of time cocktailing on the sand.

It’s no Barcelona, but that’s OK.

There’s something about the slow, swampy South that always feels like home to me.

Intoxicating and bizarre, with eccentricities and character-stuffed food, these crazy Southern pockets are just… heaven.

Lazy, lush, calorie-high heaven.

Purnie, our little fishy bundle of snorts, isn’t so little anymore.

This past Saturday, he turned the big 1-0.

In dog years he’s a senior citizen, but he’s a lively guy and you really can’t tell he’s a day past five.

Since toilet papering our home is his favorite hobby—and apparently his favorite afternoon snack, as evidenced by chomped up nuggets of TP—we gave him a “White Trash” themed birthday celebration. I hung a mobile made of TP and beer cans from the ceiling—yep, beer is another favorite snack of his—and dished him up a scoop of doggie ice cream and a few licks of Budweiser.

Purnie even got to play with the TP after the mobile came down! Only this time, he didn’t get in trouble for it.

Happy birthday, Purnie Ernie.

Want More of the Purnster?
Check out last year’s birthday party.

My galpal Lydia, owner of 8 Sweets bakery, is an insanely creative cookie-maker. Using snazzy culinary-graphic design magic, she can plaster an image of anything onto scrumptious, pretty cookies.

For my girlfriend’s handsome little boy’s first birthday last weekend, I asked Lydia to make something special in her all-time favorite cookie flavor, orange cardamom.

She delivered the most adorbs cookies I’ve ever seen.

The design, the precious scallop around the image… perfection! People were afraid to eat them because they looked so dang good!

After the first bite, though, you just have to devour the rest of the cookie. Orange cardamom is delicious—the cookies had a touch of citrus, but mostly they’re buttery, with undertones of something complex.

Lydia even threw in some chocolate-chip-Oreo, chocolate-dipped cookies—double score!

Easter lilies + candy-filled eggs waiting in the morning, courtesy of my sneaky, surprising hizzy…

Later on, glazed ham, corn pudding, smashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, cornbread, jello salad and, of course, cool rosé… undoubtedly the liveliest, most colorful wine to toast with on an upbeat spring day.

Hope your Easter Day was peaceful and special. XXOO

I’m dreaming of an enchanted, cushiony picnic in a lawn of flowers on a warm, tranquil day…

Mmm, drinking wine beneath a lattice of vines on the veranda of a farmhouse doesn’t sound too awful either…