Summertime Itch - A To Do List

Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of summer to me, even though it doesn't officially start until June 20.

Once that glorious 3-day weekend starts, all of my thoughts go to summer activities I've been itching to do since it got cold last year. Usually, I'm able to get all the summer basics in before September. Stuff like heading to the beach, eating outside, grilling as much as possible, and going on summer night walks. But, every year, there seems to be some summer staple I miss out on doing because I don't think about it until too late.

Not this year.

To start me off on the right foot, I thought of a list of things I absolutely want to make sure Dan and I get to do before the weather turns cold again. To remind us, I wrote out these "summer goals" onto a chalkboard I'm going to place in our entryway, where we'll get a reminder every day.

1. Carnival
2. Drive in
3. Bike path
4. Make limoncello
5. Picnic
6. Beach volleyball
7. Pool
8. BBQ
9. Garage sales
10. Boat ride
11. Canoe
12. Summerdance
13. Mini golf
14. Movie in the Park
15. Make ice cream
16. Outdoor brunch
17. See fireworks
18. Book club
19. Garden (I'm growing herbs.)
20. Bonfire/s'mores
21. Farmers market
22. Wineries/Breweries
23. Make fresh fruit pancakes

Thrift Store Find Series: Upcycled Tray

This project is one of my favorite DIY projects. I started with this tray from the thrift store.

With a couple coats of white spray paint and a leftover linen scrap, I turned that ugly tray into a really pretty piece of decor.

Then, I carefully measured one of my linen scraps. I ironed it, then mod podged it to the tray. I gave it two coats.

I think it came out nicely.

It's Grilling Season!

Even though it doesn't feel like summer today, this past weekend was quite a scorcher. Or, as I like to call it, perfect grilling weather.

We made our meal almost entirely on the grill.

Dessert was made in the oven though.

We had fresh strawberry rhubarb crumble.

I was warned that rhubarb is quite tart, so I thought I'd change up the recipe a bit to add some sweeter strawberries into the mix. My modified recipe substituted 1 pound of rhubarb for 1 pound of strawberries. Just as an FYI, 1 pound of rhubarb is about 2 1/2 cups of chopped rhubarb. I also left out the hazelnuts, because we didn't have any. Oh, and I substituted whole wheat flour for regular flour.

I think the extra sugar added into the filling compensates for the rhubarb's tartness. Next time, I wouldn't add the whole 1/3 cup of sugar to the filling. The strawberries are already pretty sweet.

Warm Weather Wreath

After Easter was over, I took down my egg wreath and since then, my front door has looked a bit sad.

Late April, May, and June don't really have holidays (aside from Memorial Day), so the decorations in my house (and on my door) during that time tend to be a bit sparse. I decided to make a simple wreath to convey the warmer, lighter season ahead. Here's what I came up with:

I already had the grape vine wreath and the yellow wooden T, so the only thing I needed to purchase was the flowers. I found them on sale for around $5 at JoAnn's. It came in one big bunch.

Putting the wreath together took no time at all. I weaved the flowers to be intertwines within the grape vine branches. I didn't have to use any kind of adhesive.

Love the way the wreath welcomes you in.

Happy Friday! Enjoy the beautiful weather!

Thrift Store Find Series

A lot of people have asked me what kinds of items I find at the thrift store and what I do with what I find, so I thought I'd start a little series highlighting some of my favorite thrift store items.

I'll admit, I really enjoy going to thrift stores. But, I'm the first to say that they aren't for everyone. You really have to sift through a lot of junk to find a treasure. Often, I go there with a specific need (or two, or three) in mind.

Sometimes, I just sort of look around and see if there's anything that catches my eye. A few weeks ago, this pineapple caught Dan's eye. Yep, I said pineapple.

I apologize for the dark picture. It was taken from my phone.

The pineapple looks like it was once a candleholder for a really skinny candle. Not really our taste at all.

The reason we both found this pineapple so amusing was that we really like the TV show, "Psych." Every episode has a pineapple hidden somewhere in one of the scenes. We try to find it while we watch the show, but more often than not, we forget about it until the end and then blurt out "We didn't find the pineapple!"

When Dan pointed out this pineapple, I knew we had to have it. For about $1, we took it home. As mentioned earlier, it was kind of ugly, but Dan had a great idea. We spray painted it white.

Mother's Day Recap

Happy belated Mother's Day to all. I hope you had a fantastic day!

We started out, as become our tradition, at the Y-Me Mother's Day Race. My mom, Dan, my in-laws, Phoebe, and I completed the 5K.

Thank you to everyone who donated!

Here is my mom and I at the end of the race.

I contributed by baking some lemon cupcakes with coconut frosting. They smelled delicious when I was making them and I couldn't wait to dig in. I'll admit, the cupcakes came from a mix, so I don't have any baking directions this time. I just followed how the package said to make them.

Once we were all quite full, the athletic half of the family went for a bike ride (yep, after completing a 5K!). My mom and I took it easy and headed for some serious shopping. The haul: mom got a new lamp found on clearance at Homegoods. I got a dress and some frames at TJ Maxx.

It was surely a fun day had by all! I hope you got to enjoy the beautiful day with your mom!

Mother's Day Walk

This is sure to be a busy, but fun weekend.

The part I'm looking forward to the most is the Y-Me Mother's Day Walk. My mom and I have been starting our Mother's Days with this walk for the past three years.

I'm happy that my in-laws joined in the fun a couple years back too. Now, Mother's Day is a fun way of joining both families together for an important cause.

I try to raise money too. Combining all three years, I've probably raise close to $700! I'm hoping to get up to a total of $1,000 for four years worth of walks this coming Sunday. If you'd like to support this wonderful cause, please visit my donation page for more information.

Have a wonderful Mother's Day weekend, and Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!

A Savings Tally

The other day, I was checking out my savings progress sheet, and I became quite proud of myself.

Starting January 1, up to now, we've saved a recorded total of: $512.11!

All of that came just from couponing (clipping coupons from the Sunday paper and printing coupons available online) mixed with buying items when they are on sale. I was quite impressed.

Here's to hoping for continued savings!

Creamsicle Cake

My dad's birthday was last week. We celebrated on Saturday, and as usual, I volunteered to bring the party cake. I went with a flavor I knew he would love - creamsicle!

This cake needs only 4 ingredients:

Start by pouring the cake mix into a bowl. Add 12 oz (1.5 cups) of pop. I stirred it a few times with a plastic spoon, then used a hand mixer for about a minute.

I decided to make a 3 layer cake, so I poured a third of the batter into each 9 inch cake pan.

Bake each layer for about 16-20 minutes, turning once half way.

Let the layers cool completely.

Pour the cool whip into a bowl. Zest the other half of the orange and squeeze the juice out of it. Add to the frosting.

Put one layer of cake on a place. Scoop a generous layer of cool whip on top.

Blind Wine Party

Recently, Dan and I hosted a wine party for our friends. We decided it would be fun to do a wine tasting, with everyone bringing a bottle to share. I had come across the idea of a blind wine tasting, meaning you wouldn't know what wine you would be tasting, and I thought that sounded interesting. We're not a group of wine snobs, but the idea that we'd judge a wine just on its taste appealed to me.

So, I set up the wine bar with brown paper bags with numbers on them.

At the end of the tasting, you had to rate the wines. Your favorite was #1 and your least favorite was #8. We tallied up the scores, and it turns out, a less than $10 bottle of wine won - The Usual Suspect Cabernet Sauvignon by Big House Wine Company.

Of course, there were prizes. First place received two wine bottle stoppers and second place received some note cards.

With all that wine, I made sure we had some food to put in our bellies too. We had standard fare:

A cheese platter to eat with crackers, salami, and a baguette

For decoration, I kept it simple and used the wine corks I had been saving to fill the bottom of glass candle holders. Unfortunately, I didn't remember to take photos. Boo.

I also put those spray painted wine bottles to use.

Two greeted you at the door for the "Red & White" party

Everyone had a fun time, and we turned an eight wine tasting into a four hour affair. We'll definitely have this party again!