pretty pretty pennsylvania

This view is of the gardens behind my "home" here in the 'burbs of Philadelphia. I fell in love with this area...my month here started out shaky...but I ended up falling hard. It was such a gift to experience the spectacular explosions of brilliant color this autumn. I've decided that I only want to live where the leaves change every year. There really is no other way.

This has been one enchanting month.

The gardens behind my housing. Spectacular.

Red and yellow.

The park across the street.

Yellow leaves make my heart sing.

Such great shapes. I love that all of these different colored leaves came from the same tree.

Streets full of crunchy crunchy leaves.

The prettiest lil red leaf.

wonder wall

My fiance came to visit me a couple weekends ago in Philadelphia...and I haven't seen him since the end of September! We spent two glorious days exploring the city, enjoying each other, and eating (and drinking!) ourselves silly. He used to live here, so it was fun for us to reminisce about his old life, and our past adventures here.

We stumbled upon this excellent installation on South Street, The Magic Garden's. I must have stood there for 20 minutes just taking in the intricacies of the mosaics...

it was a wonderful 20 minutes.

happy birthday loverboy!

photo from here

Today is my future husband's birthday! He fills my heart with such joy. Today, I'll be dreaming of Angel Food cake, our birthday cake tradition. Next year, I might make two.

autumn sunflowers

There is something so honest about a sunflower. I've loved them forever. Since my relationship with Van Gogh began in 4th grade. I've been hooked on their wild petals, big fancy faces and sturdy stalks. Such a happy flower.

Took these at a flower farm in Rhode Island a few weeks back.

fantastic fences

One of my favorite things about New England, well, the North East as a whole actually, are the quaint charming fences that ramble along the sides of the road. Sometimes they are stacks of stones, sometimes they are white-washed a pristine white, and sometimes they are wild with flowers and undergrowth. I like those the best...when the wildflowers grow. Like this one...found down the road from my future in-laws home.

scarves

I've stumbled into unchartered fashion territory here in the northeast...and I'm loving it. I'm discovered that SCARVES are amazing. And I rock 'em as much as I can. You know, when I'm not wearing scrubs rushing around the hospital - so basically only on weekends :-)

Love.

le coeur humain

1892 Original bookplate

My life is revolving around medicine these days - it's pretty amazing stuff. As are these vintage finds at Le Coeur Humain, a lil Etsy shop that sells original medical sketches, book plates, and goodies from years long ago. What a fun way to decorate an office. Or a hallway. Great gift for the organ obsessed.

1880 - the Uterus

Every time I see a uterus I think of my little sister. May sound odd - but the girl is PASSIONATE about her Ob/Gyn studies! She's a third year MD student...and works sooooooooooo hard! I'm so proud of her.

1892 - Anatomy Book plate

I remember the first heart I ever held in my hands. It felt so substantial. So strong. And yet, so fragile. Amazing this lil guy keeps us going.

paint chip art work

This is up there on the "creative" list. Wow. I think I'll stick with studying surgery because this looks more complicated than an fixating a calcaneal fracture. Mad props...found at Sending Postcards.

cardboard wall sculpture

This idea is pure bangarang. I remember seeing an exhibit sorta like this at the MET a couple of years ago (completely forget the name of the artist...whoops) and the idea always stayed with me. The design at the museum used small circles of varing sizes and it took on the appearance of bubbles. I loved it.

And this is such a GREAT way to make a visually stunning wall! Using left-over cardboard cylenders is so clever...and with the holidays coming up, this gives you a reason to keep those wrapping paper rolls! Gotta remember this. Via Growing Up Creative.