Friday Favorites

Happy Friday friends!  We are ready for the weekend!  We are ready for the holiday weekend.   Today I am linking up with Erika, Narci and Andrea to share my Friday favorites.

1.  Today Ava and I are going on an overnight trip to the Adirondacks with my dear friend Sabrina and her daughter.  We always have a great time.  We planned this little getaway in April when we went with them to D.C.

2. Wednesday almost everyone in our little town went to theHospice  Concert.  The concert is a fundraiser for Hospice.  It's always a fun night!  Three groups performed-Brett Young, Night Ranger and Daughtry.  Ava went for the first time this year and she had a great time! 

3. Ava and I had our first lake day of the year yesterday-yay!!! My friend Inez bought a new boat this year so we took it out for a ride yesterday. 

4. People in our town have been painting rocks and leaving them for other people to find.  I found this one this week at the high school.  ❤️

I hope you have a great weekend!

Xoxo 

What's up Wednesday!

It's What's Up Wednesday!  Once a month Mix and Match Mama, The Larson Lingo and Shaeffer Told Me To host this link up.  I am excited to participate today!

What we are eating this week....Well I made the Pioneer Woman's Asian Noodle Salad and it was SO good!!  I am going to make it again this weekend for a 4th of July party we are going to.  

What I'm reminiscing about....The Hospice concert.  I had so much fun last year!  You can read about it here and the concert is again tonight!  The performers are Daughtry,Night Ranger and Brett Young.  It's going to be a great night!

 

What I'm loving....I am loving that it's summer and we are enjoying lots of family and friend time and quiet dinners at home.  We have some fun little trips planned this summer and I can't wait!

 

What we've been up too....It's graduation party season in our town.  We went to 5 graduation parties last weekend and we have two more this weekend. They are SO fun!!  Our Brock graduated from high school two years ago today.

 

What I'm dreading...nothing right now #thankgoodness!

What I'm working on....At work I am planning for the next school year which starts again in late August.  For Branch and Bloom I am busy working on getting things ready for our Craft night in July.

 

 

What I'm excited about....I am so excited that it's summer we have lots of fun things planned and I can't wait to start having fun!  Here's a picture from fireworks last week at the Country Club.   Fireworks happen every Thursday night and it's one of my favorite summer traditions. 

What I'm watching/reading.....I just finished watching Handmaid's Tale on Hulu.  It was a great show and I can't wait for season 2.  I also just did my June Book review.  You can read it here. 

 

 

 

What I'm listening to....Daughty, Night Ranger and Brett Young to get ready for the concert tonight!

What I'm wearing....I have been wearing summer dresses almost every day this summer.  I just got this dress from Old Navy and I am loving it!  I wore it to graduation parties on Saturday and got lots of compliments on it.

 What I'm doing this weekend....Ava and I are taking a little trip Friday-Saturday with my friend Sabrina and her daughter.  We are going to the Adirondacks and Saratoga, NY.  

What I'm looking forward to next month....Brock is coming home for a week and we are planning Ava's going away party.  August will be a happy month for our family. 

 

 

 

What else is new.....I love, love, love my planner and this year (I get an academic year planner because I work at a College and that's how I organize my life) I got one from Erin Condren and this is the first week I am using it.  So far I am loving it!!

 

Happy Things {May}

I am REALLY late with my happy things post for this month!  I don't know what happened to June but it FLEW by!  Each day I write down one happy thing that happened that day and then at the end of the month I do a post about it.  You can see my past happy things posts below

January
February
March
April 
and in 2016 I did a whole huge post at the end of the year.  Your can read that here.

1-Officer Transitions at Work
2-School Delayed, Y closed due to bad storms
3-Got packed and organized for Cape Cod Girls Trip
4-7-Cape Cod Girls Trip-so fun!!
5-6-Ava's Rotary Retreat for Study Abroad
8-Garden Club lunch at Otesaga
9-Made a good dinner at home barbeque pork and potatoes
10-Great yoga class!
11-end of year lunch with students
12-Family dinner at home on the back porch
13-First trip to the farmers market in Coop!
14-Mother's Day-Ava had bball games, dinner and zookeeper's wife with Graig and Ava
15-Started Whole 30
16-taught 2 great fitness classes
17-Walk after dinner with friends
18-Swiming at Vicki's
19-Got flowers for the front porch with Sabrina
20-Farm Retreat Day!
21-Sick day :(
22-Still sick :(
23-Finally feeling better
24-Fun lunch with friends
25-Planted my herb garden-basil, dill and rosemary
26-Went to goat yoga :)
27-Farmer's Market with friends. My favorite way to start the weekend!
28-Amy's Memorial Day party
29-Memorial Day party at Donna's
30-Quiet night at home with the family

Our weekend

We had a full weekend of parties and fun!  I knew this weekend was going to be busy because we had  graduation parties to go to and I had a private party for Branch and Bloom.

This is how I felt this weekend-it just FLEW BY!!

Saturday morning Rachael and I did a private party for our Craft Business Branch and Bloom.  The 6 cousins wanted to make monogrammed wine glasses.  They had such a good time and so did we!!  It was a simple craft to do with them and it took about an hour.  Each guest  made a set of 4 wine glasses.  It was good practice for us because our July craft class is going to be monogrammed wine glasses.

After the craft class Graig, Ava and I raced to our first graduation party of the day.  Two of Ava's friends from basketball were there too so she took a picture with them.  We stayed at this party for about an hour before heading to our next party.  

 

Ava's BFF and basketball teammate graduated from high school so we stopped by her party next.  They had a fun photobooth so the girls took pictures.

 

At our next party the family had food trucks do the food and it was such a fun idea!  Graig and I shared a wood-fired pizza and it was delicious!  The other food trucks offered ice cream and french fries which we also tried.  

Of course all of the moms had to take a picture :)                   

 

Two of Brock's best friends were at one of the parties so I took a picture with them and texted it to Brock.  Brock will be home in August and he can't wait to catch up with his friends.  

 

Sunday Ava and I had lunch with Steff, Ava's  host sister from the Czech Republic.  She is finishing up her year in NY and we were thrilled when we found out was so close to us.  I am so glad that we were able to meet her.  She brought us postcards so we could see the village Ava will be living in.  It's tiny-only 400 people!  

 

To end our fun filled weekend I helped two friends with a fundraiser for the high school volley ball team.  You can pay to have your friends yards "flocked" with flamingos.  It is so fun seeing these "flocked" yards all over town and it's been a successful fundraiser for the volleyball team.  Each girl takes a turn "flocking."  Last night we did 5 yards.  It was so fun!

 

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday friends!  This week flew by and we are ready for the weekend!  We have a busy weekend and I'm thrilled it's Friday.  It's been a long week.   Today I am linking up with Erika, Narci and Andrea to share my Friday favorites.

 

1-We have 4 high school graduation parties this weekend. Our high school has graduation on Saturday and then the parties start on Saturday afternoon.  I always love going to them.  They are so much fun.  Here is a pic from Ava and her friends at one of the graduation  parties that was held last weekend.

2-Saturday morning my friend Rachael and I are teaching a craft class for our business Branch and Bloom.  The ladies in the class want to make monogrammed wine glasses.  So we have spent this week getting our materials ready to teach the class.  I think it's going to be great!  

 

3.  I had this wooden wall hanging made  for our living room.  It is so heavy we are going to wait until our contractor comes later this month to hang it up. 

 

4.  My new planner starts Monday-yay!!!!  I love new planners ❤️  and this year I splurged and got one from Erin Condren.  I use my planner every.single.day  so its totally worth it to me to have a nice one. I ordered some fun accessories to go with my planner.  I can't wait to start using them!

 

 

5.  Last night  I went with friends to the Country Club to watch the Thursday night fireworks.  This is a tradition for us and we love going so much!  The baseball camp by our house has fireworks every Thursday night during the summer. We get food and drinks and hang out and talk and wait for the fireworks to start.  It's such a fun summer tradition.

 

 I hope you had a great week!

Xoxo 

June Book review

I love reading books and I've done a few book reviews this year highlighting the books I've read.  You can read them here, here and here.

In June I've read 4 books and I want to let you know about them and share my thoughts on them in case you are looking for some good books for the beginning of summer.

 ☀️😎

 

 

Last month my book club read What She Left Behind which is actually two stories one is about a teenager (Izzy)  in foster care today and the other is about a young woman (Clara) who is committed to an insane asylum by her father.  

Clara was committed because her father didn't approve of her Italian immigrant boyfriend.  Clara spends most of her life in the insane asylum.   The two stories are intertwined because Izzy and her foster mother are researching the insane asylum and the people who lived there.  The story takes place in NY which is where I live.  The author references many NY landmarks throughout the book which I thought was very interesting and fun!  

It was honestly heartbreaking for me to read this book because Clara was a normal girl who had a bright future.  Her only "crime" was falling in love with someone her father didn't approve of. In the back of the book they lost why people were sent to the asylum in the late 19th century.  Here is the list.  I would have been committed for sure 😬

  

 

I read Lilac Girls because my friend recommended it.  It is a historical fiction booked based on real people and events.  The book tells the story of three women, one from Germany, one from Poland and one from America, during World War II. The Polish woman Kasia is in an all woman concentration camp, the German woman is a doctor at the camp and the American woman,Caroline, works for the French embassy.  I could not put this book down it was a great book.  I love that it told the story of real people and I always love reading about World War II.  This book is a beautiful story of love, hope and courage.

 

My Dad recommended Summer at Tiffany.  This book was a true story about two college women from the University of Iowa that worked at Tiffany during the summer of 1945.  They were the first two women ever hired by Tiffany to work on the sales floor.  This book is about their incredible summer in NYC-meeting celebrities, dating, and celebrating VJ Day in Times Square.  It was a charming book.

 

I LOVE cookbooks and I bought A FarmGirls Table about life on a North Carolina  farm. This book is full of beautiful pictures and delicious, easy to prepare recipes.  I love this cookbook so much I bought a second one to give to a friend for her birthday. I have already made the raspberry-rhubarb jam from this book and it's delicious!  I hope to make some other recipes soon.

I hope you have been reading good books and if you're looking for a few more check these books out.  They're great!

Have a good week!

Crafty Wednesday {herb garden}

Hello!!!!! It's been a while since I've done a crafty Wednesday post.  I thought I would show you a little herb garden that I planted this year for our kitchen. 

 

 This is actually my second herb garden of the season.  We made a mini one for our May craft night. You can see that post  here.

 

 I made a herb garden for our kitchen so I could use fresh herbs when I cook.  I have basil, dill and rosemary in mine since those are the three herbs that I use the most. I got my herbs at a local greenhouse.

 

To plant my herbs I used a metal container I got in the summer section of Wal-Mart.

 

They have all kinds of cute metal containers. Here are a few others they have this summer. I think these are adorable.  I don't remember the exact cost but they are under $10 each.

I have already used my herbs to make baked chicken, lasagna and chicken salad.

 

This is a quick and easy craft to make for yourself or a friend. 

Happy crafting 💜💜💜

Xoxo

Angie  

Our weekend

Ava had her last tournament of the AAU season over the weekend.  She had a great time playing with her team and she learned a lot from her coaches.  

 My friend Rachael and I made a flower arrangement for Art in Bloom. Art in Bloom is a floral arranging exhibition where floral arrangers create an arrangement highlighting a piece of artwork.   We have made arrangements for Art in Bloom the  last 4 years.  You can see our past arrangements here.  This year our art piece was an elephant made out of recycled material.  This one was our most challenging piece yet.

 

Saturday my friend Rachael hosted a summer brunch.  She had tons of delicious food and drinks.  I love getting together with these girls!  

Sunday we went to our first graduation party of the season for Gabby who graduates from high school on Saturday.  It was a great afternoon!  Here is a picture of the kids from the party. 

And here are some of my friends that were at the party. 

 I love them ❤️. 

We also celebrated Father's Day Sunday.  Happy Father's Day to Graig! He's a great Dad to Brock  and Ava.  We are so lucky he's ours ❤️❤️

And Happy Father's Day to my Dad ❤️❤️