..jean jeanie..

I was looking for a pair of sturdy shorts to wear the other day, and I found myself gravitating toward a pair of nonexistant jean shorts.  I realized that I haven't had a pair of comfy and cool cutoff jean shorts in a really long time!  I wouldn't stand for it!  So, I took one of the six identical Old Navy jeans that I recently inherited from my Grandma Sharon, a pair of scissors, and voila, new pair of shorts.  My cat Mogget was being a camera hog :) What a cutie.

And here are a few other lovely ladies sporting their cute cutoffs..

images via we heart it

..sweet summer..

This weekend has been absolutely lovely so far.  Last night I finally made a carrot cake that I have been thinking about for about a week.  I got the recipe when I was browsing the Dujour Magazine blog.  I pretty much followed the recipe but I added some fresh ginger to the cake and some lemon juice to the icing.  It turned out fantastic!  It is really moist and yummy.  

 Today, Mike and I did a little work around the house, then we sat around most of the afternoon.  It was the perfect day to be lazy, hot and humid with thunderstorms on the horizon.  It is kind of nice not to do anything sometimes.  Mike made us a huge meatloaf for dinner last night, so we had leftovers for lunch and dinner.  We make a mean meatloaf so I don't really get tired of eating it repeatedly.  I will have to share our unique recipe in the blog sometime.  

I started to get restless after a while so we decided to go thrifting.  I found some pretty good stuff at both shops that we went to.  I got a couple of table cloths, one for a kitchen curtain, and one for a picnic blanket.  I am pretty excited about both, though I am not yet sure how well the one will work as curtains.  I also found a handful of other goodies; a bunch of scarves, a summer sweater and dress, a couple of belts, and a local theater tee. 

I got to add a few new things to my wardrobe recently.  My shirt is yet another from my Granny's old closet that I so frequently raid.  And, these shoes were my Grandma Sharon's.  She was a stylish and beautiful woman.  I am lucky that I have had such lovely women in my life.  

I finally cleaned off the front porch, so that is where Buddy and I took my pictures today.  By the time I got around to taking photos those threatening storm clouds I mentioned had already made their way to the house (yay for rain!).  We got intermitten rain and sunshine and ended up having a big rainbow.  Sorry no picture of it.  I didn't want to get the cmera out in the rain.

..wistful weekend..

Ahh, that all weekends were long ones.  I took a paid day off on last Monday to extend the weekend and ended up with Tuesday as my day off this week!  So, I had a lovely four day weekend.  Saturday we drove up to Eureka Springs for our friends' wedding at beautiful Blue Spring.  Congrats to Jason and Julianna!  I was amazed by the park, it was so cool, the pics don't do it justice.  Other than the blazing Arkansas heat, everything was lovely. 

 We stopped on the way home to feel out how hard it would be to transplant some local wildflowers.  Next trip we will bring a shovel.

 By this point I had shed a few layers, and my heels :)

Since Mike has been getting into growing things that are indigenous and useful, we have decided to start keeping an eye out for some hardy plots of Echinacea, so we can transplant and/or harvest seeds.  Echinacea is a natural immune system booster and can be used for mild localized pain relief.  If you have any of the plants handy it is actually kind of cool to test out the latter.  You take a pinch of freshly harvested seeds and chew them in between your front teeth for a few moments then spit them out.  The tip of your tongue will have a strong tingling sensation.  Unfortunately, at this point in the summer it seems that much of the plants are starting to succumb to the heat.  

On Sunday afternoon, Mike and I headed out to Cove Lake to camp for the night.  Somehow the weather was just perfect and we had a really nice relaxing time.  My stupid little camera has been flaking out a bit, so we didn't get many good photos, but you can take my word that Cove Lake is really nice. The swimming area is well maintained, there is concession most days in the summer, and they have bathrooms with showers in the concession building.  Sounds a bit luxurious for camping I know, but don't get your hopes up too much.  The actual camp sites don't have individual water spouts and they don't have electric hookups.  I kind of prefer roughing it a bit at least. 

So, we tried to fish, swam a bit, made hotdogs and smores, then hit the sack.  In the morning we had a early swim, packed up our stuff and hung out on the grassy beach a while before we headed back home.  And, yay! on our way home, we found some echinacea that we were able to take a few starts from and plant at the house.  I love them almost as much as all the butterflies and bees do.

..all around the mulberry bush..

This summer my husband, Mike, has been on a mission to find anything edible out in the wild.  The land we live on is quite expansive.  We found a good amount of blackberries growing around the bottom of the hill, we have located several hickory nut and pecan trees, and by a stroke of luck Mike found a Mulberry tree just yards from our house!  Ahh, this is so awesome we have had fresh blackberry/mulberry cobbler two nights in a row.  Mike went down the hill with the lawn mower too, so we can get down to the blackberries with ease.  The lovely flowers are what he picked for me while he was mowing.  What a sweetie.

..good day sunshine..

I have really been into yellow lately, though I don't have a lot of it.  I did find some pretty sunny yellow seersucker material that used to be a sheet, and I was thinking of making dress or skirt. I also have a couple of shirts that I found at the Goodwill store a while back.  This one is really cute, and it is the first time I have actually worn it.  I rolled and tacked the sleeves to make it a bit more casual.  I ended up with a primary colors theme going on though a bit light on the red.  I found my beaded Native American headband and have been wearing it as a bracelet.
This weekend is really flying by.  Mike and I spent a lot of time in the pool the past two days, and it is definitely starting to show.  We are both very pink today.  I think pale is beautiful, but I can hardly resist lounging in the  a bit pool when the hot summer days get here.