fleeting

Summer Goals makes me want to do so many things before the warm weather slips away. What a beautiful collection of summer longings. I'm slightly in love with this mix they linked to. You should listen.

p.s. The picture above was taken by the boy and it's one of my very favorites of his.

surviving summer

I'm not going to lie, moving during a heat wave is not an enjoyable experience. I'd love to tell you that we are now settled in at our new home, but the truth is we're camped out at my parent's house, waiting for the floors to be refinished. The past few weeks haven't exactly been relaxing, but we have managed to squeeze some fun in between the packing and re-packing. Here are the things that have helped me beat the heat and enjoy the season.

I'm convinced that massive amounts of pesto is the key to a truly enjoyable summer. I was lucky enough to score a large amount of fresh basil in the past week, so I've become very familiar with this recipe.

Pesto

1/2 cup pine nuts

3 cups loosely packed basil leaves

3/4 cup olive oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 cloves garlic

3/4 cup parmesan cheese

Blend ingredients in food processor and enjoy!

After realizing I had no cool sleepwear, I went out and bought these shorts. I'm absolutely in love with them, though this picture doesn't do them justice. They are loose enough to be cool and comfy, but with a stylish 40s flair.

Somehow over the past week I have become completely addicted to this comic. At the hottest points of the day I can be found camped out in front of a fan with a dish of ice cream, reading.

Ok, so going blueberry picking in the hot sun didn't exactly keep us cool. But it was a beautiful place to be. Now there are two big bags of blueberries sitting in the freezer, waiting for the day we can stand to turn on the oven and bake.

We've been really enjoying our trips to the farmer's market over the past few weeks. Highlights include fresh garlic, iced coffee, and the most delicious flatbread pizza I have ever tasted.

moving days

Someday, I will be done moving. And when that day comes I will be blissfully happy and will have much to share. Until then, I am lost amid a sea of boxes and far too busy carrying large pieces of furniture all over the place to have much time for posting. But I very much hope that you are doing something fun on these sweaty summer days. Something like going to the beach, which is what I will be taking a needed break to do tomorrow. So, until things have calmed down and my internet is turned on, farewell!

fluff update

It's amazing to see how fast fluff can turn to feathers and chicks become birds. The little flock is growing up at an amazing rate, and learning new tricks every day.

In case you couldn't guess, these are more pet birds than livestock. My brother raises the chicks and sells the eggs, but he also names them and socializes them so that the sight of even a grown chicken perching on his shoulder is not an unfamiliar sight. A few have been trained to fly to his arm and some have been known to fly onto his head as a greeting when he steps into the chicken yard. It all starts with the handling they get now, when they're small, so that even the few roosters we've had have been friendly instead of vicious.

It's not exactly hard to spend an evening on the porch getting to know these handfuls of fluff and feathers.

monday music: mark ronson & the business intl

It's surprising how tiring sitting in one place and moving a paintbrush around can be. Not even ten o'clock and I'm already thinking how nice it would be to go to bed. But before I do that, I can at least post this fun video for you lively night owls to look at. It's as fun and full of energy as I wish I was right now.

pickings

I think it's high time I shared some exciting news. After months of highs and lows and much uncertainty, the boy has bought a house. At the end of this month when my lease runs out that is where we'll be living. So much of our free time in these past two weeks has been spent exploring our new home and its surroundings. There is an overwhelming amount of painting to be done before I'm tempted to share pictures of the inside, but our new garden has all sorts of exciting finds. Strawberries, blueberries, and a whole lot of raspberry bushes were a few of the things that made me happy. We've been busy adding our own editions to the garden, so hopefully we'll have something to show for it soon.

I love these growing months.

monday music: arcade fire

It's a good day when you get to wake up and listen to two brand new Arcade Fire tunes. "Month of May" and "The Suburbs" (title track) are off of the band's 4th album, due out in August. You can download the single on the band's website, or you can stream them here.