Flush with spring

I know Paris enjoyed an early, warm spring, filled with blooming flowerbeds and trees. And just as I was leaving New York on Monday, I felt a pang, knowing the glimpse of daffodils, forsythia and dogwoods that were coming into their own there would be petering out by the time I return in 10 days.

But so it goes. Here I am in London, where the sun is shining and I have a few days' work before training down to my beloved. Hooray for spring break in Paris! Can you believe it's been 16 months since I've visited? Over three years since I moved home to New York? Five and a half years since the prospect of living in the City of Light entered my radar?? It just makes me think (again): life is amazing. Time passes so quickly, and yet you look back on everything that has happened, all that has changed, things you never dreamed would happen... and they do.

I write this, just shy of two months from my wedding. Five years ago, I thought I might meet a French pastry chef in Paris and be resigned to eating eggy brioche and fruity tarts for the rest of my life. Instead, I have a midwestern man with the sweetest soul with whom I'm building what keeps promising to be a most beautiful ever after. (For the record, he loves splitting all those brioche, tarts, pain au chocolat, muffins, cakes, croissants, doughnuts, you name it, with me... a win-win.)

Our wedding plans are pretty well established. Most vendors are secured, decisions made, just a few details remain to be worked out. It's going to be a fun but casual, (hopefully) sophisticated party that sets the tone for our life together.

And life together has been wonderful so far. It's great to be in love and even better to know you're blessed. I love our apartment (before and after photos coming soon, I swear). I'm loving my job. I've had a girls' weekend in Miami, visits from my family, good health, good meals and, finally, good weather. As the saying goes, life is good!

I hope for you, too, wherever you are, in whatever state the daffodils and dogwoods are. Thank you for sticking with me when I blog so sporadically. Life has a way of getting away from me back in New York, but I'm excited and inspired to capture everything these next few weeks. Bis! xo