August

Do you ever feel that the beginning of August brings with it the beginning of fall? It's no wonder with the Target aisles full of dorm room swag, Mead 5 Subject notebooks and pencils. As a kid of educators and a lover of school myself, August quickly ramps up with back to school festivities and then the fresh start of school itself.

This year I don't want to rush into fall, because there a great few weeks of summer still ahead of me. TWO vacations! a birthday! a wedding! another boating weekend! delicious bbq & racing pigs! in seasons foods! it's all gonna be so good and I want to enjoy it all. I want to continue to work on my summer list. Look, we have yet to walk to get ice cream! There's lots yet to do.

vacation with matt to the upper peninsula
buy a bicycle and ride it. 
camp
pick blueberries
have a cookout for friends
picnic in the park
purge and organize the craft room and main floor closet and library
rock boat weekend
mini vacation with momma
do a picture a day
spend most of a day floating on a lake, at least once
fireworks
celebrate birthdays with love and fun and we still have matt's coming up
fresh, local, simple foods and dinners, hello lover august
grow our own stuff
wrap a light string around the apple tree
chicago in the midst of it
get out of the house once a day
walk to get ice cream
visit as many great lakes as possible
make a list like this
make a book to record it all

I'm not the only one trying to hold on to the last bits of summer. Sheenas' beautiful canola background calendar is now gracing my desktop.

Wanderlust is something I'm enjoying a few little bits of this summer. I enjoyed Port Huron and views of the Blue Water Bridge with my momma two weekends ago. Cheboygan last weekend was fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun, sun on the boat, boa-!

heading to hack-ma-tack via the cheboygan river.

Next week I'm off to visit my bestest in ChicagoOak Park. We have grand plans of a real girl's weekend with wine and cheese on the porch, junk food and movies, wandering her town and two full days to catch up!

Then it will be Matt's turn. Five uninterrupted days of vacation in the Upper Peninsula, visiting family soaking ourselves in the lake, a trip to a waterfall or a mine may be in store, definitely some beers and really good food. Much needed relaxation, for reals. Then we'll be home to celebrate his birthday the next weekend. Plans are brewing.

Matt's birthd-eve 2011

I really want to enjoy every bit of it and make the most of the 23 days we'll both be home throughout the month. Make it my goals to enjoy the house, cook fresh food, open the windows and work in the yard a bit, sit outside and enjoy the last few weeks of summer. I think it can be done.

goodness, i love that font. found on elise' blog

her august list.

SUMMER 2012

really this could be any summer to do list. 

but i'm pretty excited that it's this one right here.

thanks for the prompt from lauren.

thanks for the photo inspiration from elise.

SUMMER

the promise.  it's here!!!

 downtown bay city

elise & paul's manifesto

kyla's summer intentions
ali's summer manifesto and project
lisa's summer checklist 2011
elsie's summertime goals 2011
summer to do (snagged lots of ideas here) 2011
kyla's summer love goals 2011

my foot / my list

vacation with matt to the upper peninsula
buy a bicycle and ride it. 
camp
pick blueberries
have a cookout for friends
picnic in the park
purge and organize the craft room and main floor closet and library
rock boat weekend
mini vacation with momma
do a picture a day
spend at least one day floating on a lake, at least once
fireworks
celebrate birthdays with love and fun
fresh, local, simple foods and dinners
grow our own stuff
wrap a light string around the apple tree
chicago in the midst of it
get out of the house once a day
walk to get ice cream
visit as many great lakes as possible
make a list like this
make a book to record it all

birthday card, roses

more goodies

jo's essential summer blanket
when in doubt
cheap summer ideas
road trip tips with kids
beach tips with kids
(really i think these can almost always be modified for adults)

one day this will be on the list.

last year's List

Swim in a GREAT LAKE. DANCE in the rain. Have backyard BONFIRES. Stay up late and listen to a THUNDERSTORM. Take more PICTURES with my love. 

What are you most looking forward to this summer?

weekly rundown

i thought i might do a fill in the blank post again this week but Lauren and family are welcoming little miss Fern Winter. i wasn't so sure about the name Fern, not that it matters at all, but with the middle name Winter, well i just love them together. congrats!


just three pictures this week via instagram... linking up with Jeannett at Life Rearranged

so how was your week? i'm not sure where mine disappeared to, but i'm thankful it's the weekend! i need some sleep. i started reading The Hunger Games, and i've been reading it in to the late hours of the night. it's so hard to put down!

my boys

i'm debating whether i should invest some mulah in elise's blog 2.0 workshop. i got really geeked about the idea at first, but then i started to debate if learning wordpress design would actually improve my blogging direction (skills, regularity. "mission"). i need to keep considering this. i need to decide if i want to actually be a blogger or just enjoy blogs from an outside perspective.

packing up christmas last weekend.

just over 300 days until it's to unpack it all!

i am on pinterest. finally. i played around with it tuesday night. i'm excited to use it collect all the blog posts and beautiful images i've bookmarked over the last two and half years, or so, in a more visual way. and also revisiting those bookmarks to see what may be projects i'll actually do! do you pinterest? is pinterest a verb? have you found lots of images with no original source? in my first 10 minutes i found two.

smitten kitchen does it again, yummm!

scallion meatballs with soy-ginger glaze & carrot sesame miso soup

links:
a reaction from the oatmeal to SOPA/PIPA.
how cute would this little plant be for a vday gift. they have a hot stuff one too, hehe!
i love this dress, The Dainty Squid: what I wore; a modern little red.
two gems from meg this week.
pretty food.
you can always count on Bright.Bazaar for some great color!
BASIL. PESTO. HANDMADE. ah, kinfolk. you're delicious. it's far, far to long before we have any basil that looks like that that can be made into pesto. i've only ever made pesto in the food processor, so i'm kind of excited to try this.

hello there

I've been scarce, no doubt. 

Overwhelmed with the blogging world maybe. Unwilling to come down from our sweet little vacation, that could have been three days longer.

I'm here though. Thinking about where I want to take this blog and the blogs I read. Do I post these same thoughts every month?

I have posts in mind. Hopefully I'll get them to you soon.

You can see some of my favorite posts of the past here. 

You can see a variety of instagram/week in the life/summer shots here.

Finally, I'll leave you with my girls, Sasha & Melanie, the BEASTS of So You Think You Can Dance. I called it from the very beginning. This week is going to be so good.

miniVACA

Piggybacking off our amazing family trip, Matt and are spending Monday and Tuesday up in the Mackinaw area. Our goal is to find a hotel with a balcony and a view of the bridge.

We'll be computer free. I'm so looking forward to it. I think sometimes my brain starts to buzz from the electronics. 

Every Summer

 Sometimes it's gray and chilly.

Sometimes it's hot and sunny.

 There are always some sick dance moves.

 And some awesome hair.

(but no Josh, after a solid 15 years the kid's decided to opt out. weird. :)

Today is our annual, amazing boat trip on the Cheboygan Chain of Lakes (you can get almost all the way across the tip of the mit.

I can't wait.

Paris Fashions

Five years ago to celebrate my graduation from Delta my mum and I took a wonderful trip to Paris. I was so nervous about to wear I worried about for months beforehand.

This was my birthday outfit, twentyONE baby.

Jordan of Oh, Happy Day recently posted about a look for Paris, and it looks like I was on on the right track. (It's Paris, classic fashions probably don't change too much.)

linking up with Pleated Poppy.

ps. I love Gemma's sweet French cat.

It's a SUMMER LOVE FEST!

Have you noticed how Lisa Leonard redoes her mantle every season/holiday? She has some really neat ideas and great pops of color!  

Great summer feel right?

Well I do something similar with my dining room table (and usually the buffet, but I'm not super pleased yet.).

white table cloth, pretty place mats {placemats is two words?}, chip&dip bowl, juice carafe with flowers. nice and bright!

Of course I'm loving hula seventy's 100 things to love about summer. 

some favorites: 1. daisies 6. lightning bugs 7. sidewalk chalk 10. sunflower fields 20. carnival food 31. barbecues 66. the scent of fresh cut grass 54. roller coasters   and 55. ferris wheels

And it's Friday, so it's time for!

 props to prego (yay!) Lauren

1.   My plans this summer include  birthday weekend, then our first TOTALLY free weekend since April, BOAT WEEKEND, then it looks like a relatively free and easy August. Not that every weekend hasn't been lovely in it's own way but it's overwhelming to have plans every weekend for MONTHS! 

uncle's Wedding Invitation Photo/the big red boat's first summer on the water. Summer 2006.

2.  The best summer I ever had was I still think back to the summers growing up on the lake, seven or eight, I loved that time, playing mermaids all day, bonfires at night, boardgames on rainy days. lovely. I think this summer is shaping up to be a pretty solid one though too, in love, lots of fun (even though we're kind of busy :), and yeah. It's just good. 

on the ferris wheel last saturday. can you tell how f'ing hot it was? poor kid was miserable. <3we soon left the park for beers and appy-apps.

3.  Summer is  my birthday, fireworks, boat rides, days at the lake, outdoor dining, SUNSHINE, love, green and blue, everything, what we survive Michigan winters for, dresses, FLIP FLOPS. 

 flip flops on a Lake Michigan beach. summer 2010.

4.  My favorite summer food is ribs, corn on the cob, green beans slightly charred on the grill, hot dogs, S'MORES, burgers, TOMATOES, mmm Summer. 

 let's hope they make an appearance before October this year!

5.  The best way to quench a summer thirst is with  crisp beer right out of the fridge our cooler. I'm particularly loving Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat, there's a hint of blueberries. mmm. I'm definitely looking forward to margaritas on the dock tonight at tikitaki. non-a, lemonades and iced tea please.

 pannekoeken & raspberry mint lemonade. summer 2011.

6.  My summer uniform consists of flipflops are such a staple, I'm telling you as long as I have flips on, I'm happier. Skirts, dresses, shorts, the ushe.

7.  The best thing about summer is  the sunshine, the freckles, the more carefree, let's take it slow attitude it brings, and of course the good summer eats. <3 so much love for and about summer.

freckled knees. summer 2010.