My weekend

This past weekend I needed to do some work around the house.

My dad built these two planters for my new herb gardens.

The first thing I needed to do was screw on the finials and prime them.

Aren't my drop clothes so classy? 

I had to repaint my front door the same day so I used that paint for my planters.

It took two coats of black paint to cover them.

I used garden webbing inside the planters so the water could go through and the soil would stay inside.

I trimmed the extra webbing off and filled them up with soil!

I decided to branch out on more herbs this year. I love going to Pike, if only my yard looked like their displays.

Right now I am leaving them on my front porch, I really like them!

This guy is full of basil, rosemary, and mint.

This one has chives, parsley, and oregano.

While at Pike I also picked up some pretty little flowers for my front porch.

I also had my sister-in-laws baby shower to go to this past weekend.

Mom and I drove down to Macon for the shower.

My mom made the baby girl an amazing vintage inspired quilt.

So sweet!

Mom hand embroidered all the pictures in the white squares.

 I also tried out my new popsicle maker!

I will be making many more popsicles this summer.

These were strawberry banana and so refreshing!

Lunch Date

Have I mentioned how much I love summer? I am a completely different person from June 1-August 1.

I love that I am able to meet friends for lunch and have people over.

I normally eat a quick lunch when I'm home alone and don't really think about it.

Today was different and I loved it!

My friend that I teach cooking camp with came over to finalize our plans and we made lunch.

Here was our menu:

Fruit salad

Corn and barley salad

Peach panini

I want it all again right now. I shouldn't have sent her home with the leftovers!

Fresh fruit; watermelon, grapes, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries.

Barley and corn salad

1 cup cooked barley

3 tbsp. olive oil

corn from 3 ears- I used fresh bicolor

3 scallions, sliced- about that....I lost my mind and bought shallots when it called for scallions, I think either one would be very tasty!

1 cup cherry tomatoes- I bought one tomato and cut it up because I don't love tomatoes

salt and pepper to taste

1 bunch arugula, chopped

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

Juice of one lemon

1. Cook the barley as the label directs. Drain and rinse under cold water and transfer to a bowl with 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

2. Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet. Add the corn and cook, stirring occasionally, until it begins to char. Add the tomatoes and scallions or shallots in my case and cook, stirring, until they just begin to wilt. Add salt and pepper to taste.

3. Stir the corn mixture into the barley. Add the arugula, lemon zest, and lemon juice and toss.

*Perfect for a summer cook out, can make ahead of time and serve cold or fresh and warm.

Bacon, peach, and arugula sandwiches

8 slices thick-cut bacon

1/4 cup basil

2 tablespoons olive oil

Parmesan cheese

Pine nuts

8 slices of thick bread

2 peaches

Arugula

{I did not follow this recipe completely because I don't eat mayonnaise, instead of making the pesto mayonnaise we just made homemade pesto. It also calls for toasted bread but we used my panini maker}

1. Cook the bacon in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel to drain, then cut each slice in half.

2. While the bacon is cooking pulse the ingredients to make the pesto; basil, olive oil, pine nuts, and parmesan cheese.

3. Assemble- spread pesto on one side, then put peach slices, bacon slices, and arugula down. Top both sides of bread with butter and grill on!

*FYI- you won't eat just one. All three of us had more than one and to be honest I wouldn't have turned down thirds. Don't judge, you must try these.

It was a lovely summer lunch with a sweet friend and her baby boy.

My puppy boy had to get neutered yesterday. He made a bad name for himself at our local vet, it's a good thing he is precious or they might not let us ever come back!

I had to take him back this morning to get this lovely accessory.  Poor guy is being such a good sport!

Father's Day

I have been blessed with a very special dad.

He is a great role model in my life- he is incredibly patient, selfless, loving, funny, creative, and talented.

I admire his ability to accomplish anything and never give up. He was such a special dad growing up and he still plays a big role in my life. I love working on projects with him and learning from him. He has built two of my beds, my screened in porch, put bead board up in my kitchen, and SO much more.

This past weekend we spent time together at his "happy place" which is my parents lake house at Lake Hartwell. It was a weekend full of eating, boating, fishing, and swimming.

As usual we tried a lot of new recipes and over ate.....

Well, this not not new in our family. This is my dad's famous fried spaghetti.

It is incredible. I don't know how he does it but he does it well.

Saturday night we had this meat, I think it is pork. ( I realize that sounds ridiculous but I don't eat meat and don't cook it much either).

I made this grilled corn succotash with lima beans, onion, and basil.

We also tried these roasted soy and honey sweet potatoes.

They got mixed reviews, they were too sweet for me.

 For dads father's day meal we had ribs (no picture because they don't interest me)!

I made these basil pesto rolls out of crescent dough and parmesan cheese.

 Our pasta dish was marinated tomatoes (in balsamic), spinach, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan cheese, and basil.

The rolls were so good!

I love fruit. Summer is my favorite time because I can make a meal out of it. As I sit here and type this I am eating a huge bowl of fruit for dinner and loving it.

When I saw that fresh cherries were on sale I knew I wanted to make a dessert with them at the lake.

I ended up using a lot of fruit for the mixture; strawberries, peaches, and raspberries.

  

For dads dessert we had homemade shortbread biscuits with fresh whipped cream and fruit.

Monday morning I made my peach and cherry frittata and mom made these individual monkey breads, really sweet but good!

It was a lovely weekend with my parents at the lake. 

I hope everyone had a great time with their families!

Baby blocks

It's full on summer time at my house now...

Sadly, it is almost half way over and I feel like it just started.

I am sleeping in, drinking coffee at 10am, and my favorite part- working on projects around the house.

I had these wooden blocks that someone had given me and I knew I wanted to make something special for my friends nursery.

The blocks were plain so I painted them with some old white Annie Sloan paint.

It took about 3 coats to cover them.

I then cut out the words I wanted on each block on my cricut out of vinyl.

I put the vinyl on the blocks and then painted over all the sides in Annie Sloan graphite.

I painted 2-3 coats and then peeled off the vinyl.

Once I was able to get all the letters and numbers off I sanded the sides of each block to give it a distressed look.

The final step was to attach a yellow ribbon around one of the blocks because his nursery is grey and yellow, so adorable!

I was pretty pleased with how they turned out. I will definitely make more when other friends have a baby. The hardest part was getting the letters spaced and even on the blocks.

Now I am off to run 7 miles and repaint my front door, once I finish watching the Bachelorette of course....

Did anyone catch Ryan's white tank top? Oh. my. nasty.

Four Years

Four years ago today I was 22, had just graduated college, and was getting married!

Today was quite a day.....

It started off a little rough with having to take this guy to the vet early this morning.

He was not himself the day before and was really pitiful. I woke him up this morning and his eyes were all red and teary. I had to drop him at the vet and they called a few minutes later saying that he was so upset at the vet and yelping and scratching that they couldn't even give him a full exam. It turns out...the vet diagnosed him as "traumatized." I promise I am not making this up- never thought I'd hear that from my vet. Who knows how it happened but we got some medicine for him and he spent the afternoon as his Grandma's while Andy and I celebrated our anniversary.

 We started our celebration with breakfast at the Flying Biscuit.

My goal for today was not health as you can see from my plate-o-carbs.

The best picture we could get in the car by ourselves, headed to the Georgia Aquarium!

 Our next stop was Alpine Bakery for dinner and dessert.

I have to admit that I was secretly hoping Kim Zolciak Bierman would be there.

I had salad and pasta and it was delicious.

Although....nothing compares to what comes next.

 White Chocolate Raspberry Cake

This was our wedding cake so it was the perfect excuse to have a slice.

Once we got home from dinner the husband turned on the NBA finals, shocker.

I headed upstairs to finish my surprise gift for him.

I knew I wanted to do something thoughtful and different this year so....

I ended up printing 25 pictures from the past 8 years we have been dating or married.

I sewed the pictures onto scrapbook paper onto the brown cards.

I then decorated each one with some scrapbook stickers and such and wrote a little note/memory in each one.

Then I attached balloons and arranged them in our room.

He was really surprised, and was even willing to pause the game to respond to "hey babe, can I show you something upstairs?"

I also gave him a book that I had written inside and explained the goal for our next year of marriage.

Poncho is always there to see what is going on....

We wrapped him up!

 My husband surprised me this year with this amazing rose gold monogram necklace.

I may or may not have sent him some e-mail hints months ago....

Happy wife, happy life

Right??

I am so thankful for today.

We are both blessed to be celebrating four years together.