January started out beautifully - warm, sunny, and full of long bike rides (we even made a film about it). I spent some time with my best friends during a quick trip to Chattanooga and I came to a realization that my ideal day involves being in the kitchen. I continued to fall in love with Charleston during long walks and I spent one funny night wearing a pink mustache.


February was a month of baking and more baking.  I was beginning to miss warm weather and dream about our beach house. There was an epic snowfall in the lowcountry as we drove to Savannah for a weekend trip. My family visited Charleston on Valentine's Day, and my sweet dad got excited about heart wind chimes. I spent lots of time lounging on sun porches and drooling over salted chocolate cakes at Baked.


March changed my life as I made caramel salted brownies for the first time. I was over-the-moon excited about the debut of Southern Flourish and my first published articles! During a trip home, I met my oldest friend's angel fairy baby and cried happy tears. I ate lots of Indian food, slept with the windows open, and spent lazy afternoons on rainbow blankets.


April was an amazing month that began with a blissful trip to California. We fell asleep to wind chimes in Malibu, died over the Santa Monica farmers' market, ate incredible food, swooned over breath-taking landscapes and hiked up to sacred monesteries. We started eating dinner outside and sometimes ate only cupcakes for dinner. We spent our first day of the year on the beach (in shorts and tees!) and Tyler decided he was going to bike across America.


In May I happily finished school for the semester and happened to be home during the devastating Nashville floods.  My sweet Cupcake family had a fun party and I started a fire in my kitchen making s'more brownies. Tyler and I attended his best friend's beautiful wedding in Alabama, where we found cool antique shops and came across a boiled peanut boat. I left Charleston for the summer but had a perfect last night with art and motorbikes.  I visited a friend's lake house and canoed a lot.


June was spent frolicking around Europe. In the span of one week I visited Nashville, Raleigh, Brooklyn, Helsinki (where we made life-long friends), London, and Edinburgh (and was featured in Skirt Magazine!). We toured a castle in Scotland and lived in a castle in France. We took a road trip through the highlands to the Isle of Skye that will forever be sacred to me (made a film about that, too!). We stayed with friends in Bristol and Bath, England watching the world cup and laughing a lot (sleep deprivation = delirium). We stayed in Provence, France, where I decided I could live forever if I learned to not spend all my money on cheese. We became regulars at Cafe de France, took day trips to Gordes and Roussilon, and stayed up into the wee hours of the night with incredible people. We ended the trip in Paris (stayed in Montmartre) where we devoured macarons and were unexpectedly touched by the sight of the Eiffel Tower.


July was the ideal follow-up to our Europe trip; I spent the month at my family's beach house in Nags Head. I cooked and baked with inspiration from French food and we ate like kings. I missed Paris, but also felt so content and cozy with my family as I hit the legendary two-week mark. My sister and I spent many evenings on our dock watching the sunset. The end of July was bittersweet, as we had a send-off party for Tyler, Landon, and Mike to say good-bye as they began their 4,000+ mile bike trip.


I spent most of August at home in Nashville. I met the biking boys in Chattanooga and then they spent a week in Franklin eating mushroom truffle oil baked pasta and drinking wine in the pool. I turned 21 and drank my favorite drink to date; a champagne cocktail with lavender honey and orange zest (and then blood orange mimosas the next day). I revised my caramel salted brownies and made a film about my life in Charleston.


September was prime season for the most awesome apple in the world. I continued to fall in love with Charleston as I developed an avid addiction to heirloom tomatoes and finally found the perfect bleu cheese. I spent lots of time with my amazing friends who share my love for impromptu dinner parties and lavender cupcakes. We had a beautiful garden party for Southern Flourish and I was on the cover! It was still warm enough to kayak at sunset and drink lavender lemonade. We listened to music under string lights and drank red wine. I lived in a tree house, moved out of the tree house, and then declared Hope & Union and Bin 152 my second homes.


I began October with an intense desire to get my life under control after the chaotic living situation. I took solo trips to the beach, made dinner for my friends, and then took a road trip with them to Nashville (and discovered the magic that is Burger Up)! A week later, my mom and sister visited Charleston. We lounged by the ocean and had a lazy brunch. I flew to California but my trip didn't go as expected even though my dad and I had a blast and fantasized about moving to Ocean Park. Tyler and I broke up (amicably!) and I was (and still am) touched by your kind words.


In November, the people in my life made me so happy (and I felt so grateful). I lounged on porches waiting for Bill Murray to walk by and I met my parents in D.C. for the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert rally. I went to the fair and ate grilled banana bread in the middle of the night. I lusted over France and Skye and had too much fun with my friends. Isabel visited Charleston for her 17th birthday and then we took the train to Nags Head for a blissful, coastal Thanksgiving (and Izzie made the sweetest film about it).


December has been the month of cheese and Prosecco. I did my first outfit post and fainted twice in public (I'm weird). Then our Christmas Extravaganza 2010 and beautifully-lit palmetto trees made me happy. I went home for the holidays, ate spice cookies and got new eyeballs. I gave gifts of sweets in mason jars and had the most amazing Christmas with my family (including a lovely Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas day brunch).

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2010 has been a fabulous year. I feel so very grateful. Thank you for your constant love and support - it means the world to me. Happy New Year. xo

1. Our first view Christmas morning (that prompted me to frantically wake up my younger sister).
2. Bill + Nan Nan + downtown Franklin + lots of red.
3. Mary adoring her piggy bank.
4. My pretty pink home.
5. A very glittery Santa Clause. 
6. The best Swedish tea cakes/Mexican wedding cookies/whatever you want to call them.
7. Stained glass window and snow.
8. Best friends reunion!

Nan Nan always hosts a beautiful Christmas day brunch where we stuff ourselves to the brim with a breakfast casserole, truffle roasted potatoes, spiced apple cider, egg nog, and sugar cookies (that we decorated with her the day before).

At the risk of echoing Charlie Brown, every year it becomes increasingly apparent that the best thing about Christmas is getting to be with all the people you love. Lately I've just been in such a state of heart-swelling contentment that I can't help but gush.

My mom's stunning Christmas Eve party is nothing new, but it never ceases to amaze me. She transforms our house into a magical candle-lit wonderland that makes everyone perpetually giddy. This year, we had a sit-down dinner with truffle carrot soup, apricot stilton salads, mushroom farro, crab cakes, and coconut trifle (and prosecco and gluvine, of course).

In keeping with all our traditions, sing-along time started around eleven and we broke out the kazoos and tambourines. My dad is quite the entertainer (and our friends are quite the rowdy, singing, bell-shakin' bunch). As far as I am concerned, Christmas Eve is the best night of the year.

Waking up to snow on Christmas morning was one of the many things that made this weekend special. Having my family in town makes me happier than I can even express; it is loud, crazy and chaotic, and that is precisely what I love.

This weekend involved lots  of snuggling, eating, drinking and chatting (usually we sit at the dinner table for hours after we finish eating, usually multiple conversations go on at one time, and usually you have to shout to be heard). We barely left the house and I barely left Isabel's new heated blanket. It was perfect.

1. Classic downtown Franklin.
2. Family photo shoot with Roy Orbison.
3. Our traditional Christmas Eve Eve Fondue Night.
4. Pretty barn that I have driven by at least a thousand times.
5. Afternoon turned into night spent talking with Mary.
6. Pumpkin pie with maple whipped cream (that I finished off for breakfast and lunch).
7. Sweet angelface girls.
8. Chocolate peppermint whoopie pies (someone help me).
9. The presents I wrapped only look slightly lumpy this year!
10. A mini mini Rockefeller plaza.

December is truly the greatest. Merry Christmas Eve! xo