dog days already?

Posted on by
Reply
With the national heat wave even reaching northern Michigan and a punchy orange nasturtium blooming in the garden, it feels like the middle of summer already. So I decided to check in with my summer list and see how I was doing so far.
  • pick lots of strawberries and blueberries to enjoy and put up for a long winter
  • enjoy a huge, fresh sandwich from the Village Cheese Shanty in Leland
  • feel good after running the National Cherry Festival 15K – this is coming up more quickly than I thought so we’ll see how good I feel… This Saturday!
  • I know I said (err, wrote) at some point about how I WAS NOT going to make marshmallows from scratch (so utterly Martha), but with it being s’mores season and all, I’m inspired to make some marshmallows, roast them (a bit burnt is my style), then sandwich them with some really good chocolate between a couple graham cracker pieces. Wondering if I will notice a difference. What do you think? I haven’t done this yet, but Chris made me an amazing s’more last weekend with the most gigantic marshmallow on the planet. Have you seen those in the stores? Crazy.
  • spend lots of evenings on the porch with dear Chris. Ongoing. More to come!
  • wear a pretty sundress while playing bocce and sipping a fancy cocktail
  • swim, swim, swim, swim. A lot. I’ve been swimming, but certainly not A LOT. More to come.
  • eat lots of salads and grilled meat. Yes!
  • enjoy my annual corn dog and maybe even an elephant ear or funnel cake… oof. We took in our fair share of the National Cherry Festival last night and I enjoyed my annual corn dog, a few fries and four of us shared an elephant ear. Delish!
  • make progress on my Dairy Lodge Diet. I’ve been slacking lately and I need to get back at it!
  • take Wren to her first Northwest Michigan Fair. “Goin’ to the fair, goin’ to the fair, goin’ to the Northwest Michigan Fair!”
  • frequent our local farmer’s markets and art fairs
  • have a big garage sale and get rid of some stuff (err, junk). Saturday, July 24! The word is out.
  • visit Werner’s vineyard. He makes my favorite local wine: Left Foot Charley’s Pinot Blanc. Lovely!
  • pickle something from my garden. Chris spotted a cucumber the other day so maybe soon?
  • make some kind of jam. Strawberry?
  • be overwhelmed with harvesting all the veggies from my garden. This would be a good problem to have. We’ll see… so far, so good. With this heat the spinach is going to seed and the lettuce is going crazy. The tomato plants are almost as tall as I am, which isn’t saying much, but it’s a little scary.
  • enjoy the summer sunrises as much as the sunsets
  • stay up late to be awed by the Perseid meteor showers in August
  • picnic, picnic, picnic. Doesn’t everything taste better when you’re eating it outside?
  • erect our hammock and enjoy a few lazy moments
  • read a book. The whole book. Wow, what an idea! Got any suggestions?
  • run through the sprinkler
  • chase the ice cream truck
  • be barefoot most of the time. My feet are dirty…
  • make Wren’s play kitchen – similar to this one
  • create bouquets from our zinnias and bells of ireland
  • dance with the little birdie at the Cedar Polka Fest. She is going to LOVE it! MISS! 🙁
  • get on the water in someone else’s boat… anyone?
  • take Chris out to eat at Siren Hall for a date night. It was absolutely lovely. The food was amazing and the company even better!

  • take in a few films at the Traverse City Film Festival. Schedule comes out this Friday. Looking forward to it. I love the TCFF.
  • do a weekend camping trip and eat hot dogs, plain potato chips, a bottle of Faygo rock & rye and german potato salad from a can
  • sleep outside
  • enjoy a campfire and cheesy camp songs

How’s your summer so far, lovelies? Are you beating the heat? Is this expected to break soon? Please say it is because I don’t want to run ten miles in this on Saturday. Yuck. Here’s hoping for 70s again… Cheers!

inspirational nest

Posted on by
Reply

Back to the grind, anyone? Need a colorful pick-me-up after a fun holiday weekend? Look no further than my friend Sandy‘s getaway nest. It’s featured in the current issue of Midwest Living. Here are a few photos from the article. What do you think? Isn’t it funky, fun and inspiring?

Sandy’s cottage is located in a smart development called the New Neighborhood in Empire, Michigan.

Want to see more pictures and Sandy’s budget-friendly, creative decorating tips? Click on to the full article in Midwest Living, lovelies.

WPA art posters

Posted on by
Reply

Isn’t Maurice Merlin’s piece from the late 1930s timeless? I spent a few moments between work e-mails and phone calls perusing the Library of Congress WPA posters in their digital collection. Now there’s a fun place to get lost for a while! Have you ever found yourself there? When you have a few minutes, click on over.

When I typed in “summer,” it revealed this lovely poster, which tugged at my heart strings. The illustration of the children. The idea of FREE art classes, including lithography!? Sniffle. Excuse me while I grab a Kleenex. Enjoy your afternoon!

porch envy

Posted on by
Reply

I love our porch at 605. The sitting. The people-watching. The squirrel-watching. The $.99 Goodwill side table. The hoping-to-see-the-hairless cat-watching. The banter. We also love to wander the neighborhood and  gawk at all the beautiful summer-friendly porches and lovely lazy seating arrangements, but we hardly ever see any people. Why don’t people use their porches more? I was theorizing that it was because people have migrated to their more secluded backyard decks and patios where they can sip a cold one and gossip with more privacy. Maybe, but Chris thinks people have migrated to their flat screens inside. Sad, but probably true. What do you think?

Even though our porch is one of my favorite parts of 605, it doesn’t stop me from having a bit of porch envy.

This Baltimore porch has me panting. Grey with a pop of orange, yes! Maybe it’s door envy? Whatever you call it, I’m inspired.

What inspires YOU today, lovelies?

Happy Tuesday!

drinking like a Montessori

Posted on by
Reply

This week started out with me sniffling in the car while trying to distract myself with the book Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It: And Other Cooking Projects. Recipes for crackers, marshmallows, strawberry jam and even limoncello couldn’t quite make me stop thinking about my little birdie’s first (partial) morning at “school.” I knew she would be fine (well, at least part of me did) and I knew in my heart that she would thrive in the Montessori environment, but I still had a hard time leaving her. Someone could’ve handed me a million bucks and I still would’ve been sniffling in the car, checking the clock every few minutes until the two hours had passed. It made me think of what Wren’s Grandpa Jon likes to say about parenthood: once you have children, you wear your heart on the outside. Sigh.

So how’d she do? Well, according to her Guide, she did OK for the first hour and then another baby started to cry and that upset her. Babies. They can be so empathetic! So for the next (almost) hour, she was sniffling too. Never full on crying, trying to hold herself together, be a big girl and all. Egads, that didn’t make me feel any better. So she goes back again today for another round and with a work meeting on my agenda, I won’t have the opportunity to sit in the car and sniffle so things WILL be better, right? I’m not exactly sure what Murphy’s Law of Parenthood has to say about that logic, do you? Don’t answer that.

Two mornings a week didn’t sound like much, but it’s been weighing heavy on my heart. Eventually, I know she’ll love it and I’ll be sad because she’ll cry when she has to leave school one day. Can’t win, can we?

So in the meantime this week, we’ve been having a very fun, wet week with a cup. Who knew that learning to drink from a real cup could be so much fun!? At school, the kiddos only drink from real cups. No sippy cups allowed. But she’s only 13 months old?! Yes, a cup. It’s been amazing and hilarious to watch her progress this week with the cup. It’s empowered her; she is so proud of herself with a real cup just like Mamma and Dadda. In the beginning of the week, most of it ended up on her lap. Like a bath at the dinner table. But now, more of it ends up in her mouth. So very cool!

And how cute is a baby drinking from a real cup? SO CUTE. Right?

By the way, if you’d like to find a beverage option that’s suitable for all family members, I recommend to check this out!

I’m sending lots of good karma into the world today, hoping it will bounce back (is that how it works?) and make Wren a happy little birdie today at school. Will you send out some good karma too, dear readers? Pretty please? With a cherry on top?

I hope things are happy and healthy in your nests. Have you been enjoying the first real week of summer?