TGIF!

It’s Friday! Well, truth be told, I’m writing this on Thursday night from below the dryer waiting to be blonde again. I have that song “Friday” stuck in my head, and it’s keeping me company with the incessant whirring. Not the Rebecca Black version (Yes, I had to google her name), but the spectacle version of Black’s song Colbert did on Fallon. Do you remember that?

Anyway…

Now that we’ve all had a little dance party, here’s this week’s installment of my TGIF! link list. Enjoy!

SNL killed it last weekend, but this song topped the list. Also, does anyone feel like their Facebook feed has just turned into one long “Drunk Uncle” sketch? Yeah, me too.

With the rest of America, we’ve been watching Master of None on Netflix. The writing is fantastic, but the episode that stuck in my head the most was episode 2: Parents. Did you know those are Aziz Ansari’s parents in real life? I’m assuming yes because earlier this week Aziz made the internet cry with this post about his dad. Here it is in case you missed it.

My dad took off most of his vacation time for the year to act in Master of None. So I’m really relieved this all worked out. Tonight after we did Colbert together he said: “This is all fun and I liked acting in the show, but I really just did it so I could spend more time with you.” I almost instantly collapsed into tears at the thought of how much this person cares about me and took care of me and gave me everything to give me the amazing life I have. I felt like a total piece of garbage for all the times I haven’t visited my parents and told them I wanted to stay in New York cause I’d get bored in SC. I’m an incredibly lucky person and many of you are as well. Not to beat a dead horse here and sorry if this is cheesy or too sentimental but if your parents are good to you too, just go do something nice for them. I bet they care and love you more than you realize. I’ve been overwhelmed by the response to the Parents episode of our show. What’s strange is doing that episode and working with my parents has increased the quality of my relationship to my parents IN MY REAL LIFE. In reality, I haven’t always had the best, most open relationship with my parents because we are weirdly closed off emotionally sometimes. But we are getting better. And if you have something like that with your family – I urge you to work at it and get better because these are special people in your life and I get terrified when my dad tells me about friends of his, people close to his age, that are having serious health issues, etc. Enjoy and love these people while you can. Anyway, this show and my experiences with my parents while working on it have been very important in many ways and I thank for you the part you all have played in it.

A photo posted by @azizansari on Nov 11, 2015 at 8:43am PST

While you reach for the tissues, how about a little game of Wheel of Freestyle with Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda?

This week marked the end of Mark Bittman’s run as on Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times. He’s moving on to the vegan meal kit company Purple Carrot (…totally a real thing). Click here to check out his most popular recipes for the site and here to read his most popular columns. Personally, these carnitas braised in witbier will always be a go-to at our house.

And finally, I found this green screen selfie in my phone this week, which reminds me: We’re going to be on Mornings with Fox 43 on Monday morning. So if you’re in the Knoxville, tune in!

That’s a wrap. Happy Friday, y’all!

TGIF!

I know, I know. Could that photo be anymore 2009? I just get ridiculously sappy this time of year about going out to breakfast in the morning and trudging through the leaves in my bean boots. These are the moments I will savor when it is 38° and raining (but not snowing) in the middle of January. Tennessee really knows how to do Fall–winter not so much. Anyway, that’s what’s happening in our neck of the woods, here’s what I’m digging on the rest of the interwebs…

When I first started following @thedogist on Instagram, I got ridiculously excited and told all my friends. Having a bad day at work? Check out @thedogist. The line for coffee is ridiculously long? Check out @thedogist. I couldn’t get enough of his pup portraits. Well, Elias Weiss Friedman was recently profiled on CBS Sunday Morning, and it turns out he’s published a book.

[image source: The Dogist]

Click here to order The Dogist on Amazon! (I’ve already bought a couple extra copies for Christmas gifts.)

In that same vein, photographer Caroline Fontenot and writer Jess Graves have collaborated on a site: Southerners & Their Dogs. It’s been around for a bit, but I just ran across it because of this fab image. Definitely worth a bookmark!

Hope you don’t have plans for the next few hours because if interior design is your thing, allow me to point you to Pandora’s box: Lonny’s seriously in-depth map of Hollywood’s designers and their squads.

Lena Dunham released the first full episode of her new podcast, Women of the Hour, this week, and it totally exceeded my expectations. The first episode was on friendship. Between readings of the first letters between Lena and her pen pal, writer Ashley Ford (who has a super sultry voice), were conversations between BFFs young, old, and famous.

Other highlights from the podcast was an advice segment with Emma Stone and June Squibb and a profile on Edna St. Vincent Millay. (P.S. Millay has become a favorite of mine, and I got to see the very narrow house Lena mentions when I was in NYC earlier this year with the Madcap Heiress. So cool!) Click here to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

Finally, this performance knocked my socks off. Check it out!

TGIF!

I am fully aware that it is not a full moon. Nevertheless, this week the inside of my brain has resembled the dinner scene from Beetlejuice–a seemingly choreographed form of unruly with a really good soundtrack. Is that just me?

However, while I haven’t posted in a few days, I have spent time mapping out the next couple of months for Hannah & Husband. This is such a nice creative outlet, but I just needed to reevaluate exactly how I wanted it to fit in to our lives–especially as Rivermont projects evolve and the holidays take over. I’m pretty stoked about making this webspace a bigger priority and trying some new types of content in the next couple of months so more to come. For today, our usual Friday round-up…

Here are my favorite, random goodies from around the interwebs this week. TGIF!

The new Bill Blass site launches on November 1st, but you can register now to win some of the new line. Now that Chris Benz has taken over the creative direction of the iconic sportswear brand, I’m excited to see where it goes. His premise is simple: capsule collections at different price points to help customers build a wardrobe. So far, I’m loving the bright colors I’ve seen, and I’m praying those orange shoes come in my size!

The great Alton Brown was profiled for the Bloomberg Business “What I Wear to Work” series. I was most interested in his button strategy.

A British study recently concluded that Southerners have the sexiest accent.

As if that wasn’t enough to convince me that my first European tour is already long overdue, Southern comfort food is on the rise in Paris. Who wants to fund &/or translate “Hannah Belle’s Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking”?

It is no secret that we love Wayne White–for the record: another southerner. (Remember this documentary?) Well, this week Design*Sponge posted a tour of the home White shares with his wife, cartoonist Mimi Pond. As you would imagine, the details are fantastic! My favorite: It’s a toss-up between a wooden sculpture White made for their dining room and Pond’s collection of 1950s knick-knacks.

TGIF!

Happy Friday! The doodle above is a from a page in my new sketchbook. I’m breaking it in while thinking on a new project. I’ve also been doing some doodling for a project at work this week that I’m really stoked about, and I think you’ll like the end result a lot.

This afternoon’s assignment. #inktober #doodle #happyholidays #mariahcareyforever #illustratorforhire

A photo posted by Hannah B. (@hb_belle) on Oct 6, 2015 at 1:40pm PDT

Per our usual Friday tradition. Here’s a set of articles, videos, and general fabulousness that I found poking around the interwebs this week.

Transatlantic Divide: Expat Complaints Cut Both Ways | WSJ.com This one sent me down a little rabbit hole of Sabine Muscat’s blog posts for WSJ. One quick quote:

As it turns out we are all similar that way: If we don’t find the things we used to take for granted, we assume that something must be amiss.

A friend posted this on my wall, and I have now played it at least 5 times since. #sweaterweather

After posting about the original autumn flavor, I saw this clip: John Oliver on America’s obsession with Pumpkin Spice from last October.

There is a new book that I saw via Slate titled Lunchtime. It’s a collection of photographer Charles Traub’s street style portraits from the 1970s. They are epic! My personal icon from the series is the lady in pink gloves. See selected portraits on Slate and buy the book by clicking here.

The Idea of North, a Lawren Harris exhibit opens this weekend at the Hammer Museum in LA curated by Steve Martin. Harris is mainly known in Canada, and this is really the first major exhibit of his paintings here in the US. There was a great interview with Steve Martin on latimes.com this week about the exhibit, Martin’s own art collection, and even how technology affects our perception of art.

“…the experience of going to a museum is analog. You’re right there, face to face.”

Read the full interview here.

And, if you’re interested in collecting art yourself, check out our series “How to Start Your Art Collection.”

TGIF!

Husband's Childhood Bottle collection | Hannah & Husband

I’m pretty obsessed with Husband’s childhood bottle collection that I put up on our porch.

It has been raining cats & dogs this week! Rain at Rivermont is pretty terrific. All the green outside our windows brightens up during the showers so I couldn’t resist snapping the pic above before I left this morning. (As a side note: When did label design get so uncool? I just can’t stop with these vintage bottles!)

Per the usual TGIF! post, there are some links to some of my favorite things around the web below. Happy Friday!

A huge thank you to the Knoxville News Sentinel and Lesli Bales-Sherrod for sharing our Rivermont journey in yesterday’s issue. The fact that the paper was *pink* made it even better! Click here to read the story.

There was an article this week in the New York Times titled “Stop Googling. Let’s Talk.” It was so interesting to think about how our conversations have actually become more shallow because we feel the need to bail at any moment and move our attention to the phone. Studies show that we have less of a capacity for empathy and our basically losing a part of ourselves because we are so tech-focused.

“The capacity for empathetic conversation goes hand in hand with the capacity for solitude. In solitude we find ourselves; we prepare ourselves to come to conversation with something to say that is authentic, ours… It is often in the moments when we stumble, hesitate and fall silent that we most reveal ourselves to one another.”

It’s not that the article was terribly surprising, but it did make me think a little bit deeper about how I want the screen to be present in my everyday life.

Also along those lines, the TED Radio Hour podcast just did a two-parter called “Screen Time” that is worth a listen.

And finally, if you’d like to check up on people that will make you really question what you’re doing with your life, the Wall Street Journal checked in with this year’s MacArthur Genius Grant recipients. Since Chris Thile’s win in 2012, I’m always curious to see what these extraordinary minds are into. This year one of our favorites, Lin-Manuel Miranda, won. He’s the creator of “Hamilton.” which we’re dying to see, and also the guy that did The Radio Drama Episode on This American Life.

Go forth, read, and have an amazing weekend!

TGIF!

Happy Friday and Happy Weekend! The mornings and evenings are starting to bring the slightest chill, and I just know that Fall is on it’s way. I have been spending quite a bit of time with this Pinterest board dreaming about Fall baking and wearing layers… LAYERS! Bring on the red, plaid, and hunter green I am so ready.

Autumn is Lovely pinterest board | Hannah & Husband

Click here to follow my “Autumn is Lovely” pinterest board.

Speaking of Fall, check out the trees in this Biltmore pic that just arrived in my inbox! We’ve, of course, had Asheville road trips on the brain thanks to the Urban Oasis posts I’ve been working on. Well, my friend Jess emailed me this week to let me know that she and Sara were featuring Asheville on The Weekender, which is a column they write for Travel Channel. For each destination, they pair fab hot spots with cool things to bring. Click here to check out their Asheville post!

And, per our usual Friday fare, here are some fun links to kick off the weekend!

John T. Edge wrote a beautiful piece for Oxford American called “Debts of Pleasure” after wondering who the black waitress was in a 1949 Bissinger photo from the Café Nicholson.

I want this tshirt. (The Bitter Southerner)

Stephen Colbert Shares Why He Thinks Women Should Be in Charge of Everything (Glamour)

We just binge-watched Veep, and now I love Tony Hale even more than before.

TGIF!

Why don’t people take portraits riding barrels anymore? Oh, to live in the good ol’ days 😉 (Photo from Flickr)

Hello & Happy Friday! I hope you have a fabulous weekend planned. Ours should be a good balance between working on the house and time with friends doing summer-y things.

It will also involve a lot of listening to a new album that came out today: Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats. They remind me of the Blues Brothers in all the best possible ways. Perfect weekend listening.

Take note: My friend was dancing at her desk when I heard the song S.O.B. the first time. It’s basically the perfect Friday, office dance-party tune. If you have a child and are reading this, you’ll probably want to wait until nap time. If not, check out this video…

I hope this gets your weekend is off to a fabulous start!

TGIF!

Hello & Happy Friday! Since I haven’t done a round-up of random links in a few weeks, I thought it was high-time to share all the things I’ve had bookmarked. Here goes…

The other night I took my cooking to a new frontier: The Grill. We’ve had so many amazing goodies in our CSA basket, and there’s something about veggies in the summer that’s just begging for that little accent of charcoal. If you look at the peppers and onions in the picture above, you’ll see that they make a circle. That’s because I used my new favorite kitchen doohickey: the fire wire. It’s a long, flexible kabob skewer, and you can order one here for under $10.

It is rare that I listen to an album from start to finish, but today I listened to Jon Batiste’s Social Music.

It.

Was.

Phenomenal.

If you have Amazon Prime, you can listen to it here, or the album’s on Spotify. His version of St. James Infirmary is absolutely incredible, which is rare for a song that is covered by everyone in the genre. If you recognize his name but aren’t sure why, he will be the house band for Stephen Colbert’s new Late Show.

We are big fans of Wayne White (who you may remember from this post). Recently, The Bitter Southerner did an excellent profile on the artist that’s definitely worth a look–even if it’s just to swoon over the photography by Kendrick Brinson and David Banks.

Finally, it’s national tequila day! Here’s a little something to get your celebration off to a good start.

Happy Friday!

TGIF!

Hello & Happy Friday! Below are some very unrelated TGIF! links that I bookmarked over the last couple of weeks. Enjoy!

If you have kids or live in a world around them, you must read this essay our friend Yale wrote for Harry’s Five O’Clock about raising two daughters. The premise is summed up well in this line:

It is my responsibility to display that substance in such a way that my daughter (and her sister, when the time comes, and I hope to God it’s not soon) sees it as the sine qua non of what constitutes a “stand-up man.”

The Jealous Curator has become one of my happy places on the internet. Danielle Krysa has a beautiful aesthetic and shares the art she’s admiring each day. She recently gave a fantastic Creative Mornings talk on “Humility” that anyone in a creative field might find inspiring.

However, the real link is to this podcast she’s started. It’s called “Art for Your Ear,” and while her original plan was to be a bi-weekly show, she’s decided to post a new podcast each Saturday. Click here to read about her first episode with artist Martha Rich and click here to subscribe to the show.

Fast Co. Design posted an article this week called “How Nostalgia Fuels Creativity” that I found pretty fascinating. The idea is that nostalgia makes us feel more open and, as a result, it’s easier for us to be creative. In a way, I think the research is saying that nostalgia can create a safe place to allow our minds to work. Definitely worth a read. I’d love to know what you think of the premise.

I get Seth Godin’s email delivered to my inbox every day. This one titled “Is it meeting your needs…” really resonated recently–as in, I copied it into a notebook to weigh things against in the future.

Finally, I’m just really excited for this…

TGIF!

I’ve been overloading instagram with floral goodness lately. #sorrynotsorry

Whew! Serious TGIF! this week, y’all–who else desperately needs a weekend? As much as I hate to admit it, life totally took over this week. This means two things:

1. While I have sorely neglected Hannah & Husband posts, I have a backlog of stuff that will be super rad for next week.

2. Today’s links have to be extra fabulous, which they totally are.

It’s a ’77 450SL. Click here to see more on @jamesaslaughter’s instagram.

As I’ve mentioned, Springtime is in full force here in East Tennessee. I have been spending most of my time on the front porch reading and fawning over the rose bushes while Husband works on the car. Also, I have an unquenchable desire to watch Mel Brooks movies lately.

I just can’t seem to get that song out of my head! Anyway, here are a few fab links from around the interwebs to round out your week. Enjoy!

We have been following photographer Foster Huntington (& his glorious treehouse) on instagram for several months now. However, this week Brain Pickings posted about a previous project of his called The Burning House that I found fascinating. The premise is this: Foster asked people from all walks and backgrounds what objects they would take if their house was burning down. The results are varied and beautiful. Click here to view the tumblr. Click here to buy the book.

This is a favorite: selections by Kristi Dahlstrom

I already can’t wait to see this documentary! Then yesterday, Carroll Spinnery did an AMA. Confession: It is the only AMA, I’ve ever had the patience to read because comments on these things make me dizzy.

If you’re new to the concept as well: AMA (or Ask Me Anything) is an interview conducted by the internets on reddit. You can follow the blue line on the left to differentiate question from question.

As a former art school student (& lover of art history), this buzzfeed just made my day exponentially more awesome: A Day in the Life of an Ugly Renaissance Baby. Bonus? There’s also a tumblr.

Day. Made.

Have you seen Kevin Delaney on The Tonight Show? It’s kind of old news, but we just saw this clip last week. He’s kind of amazing. As is his beard. As is science.

Watch this…