Friday Favorites

Happy Friday friends!  We have a fun weekend planned so I'm ready to get it started.  Today I am linking up with Erika, Narci and Andrea to share my Friday Favorites.  We have a fun weekend planned-I am teaching a craft class for Branch and Bloom, G and I are going to a concert Saturday night and on Sunday I am going to the lake with friends.  It's going to be a great weekend.

1.  Brock is coming home in one week!  We are thrilled that he is coming home and have some fun things planned for him when he is here.

2. Another favorite this week is avacado toast.  I have been eating it every morning for breakfast.  It is so good and so filling!

3.  Our dog Lilly LOVES laying by the front windows in our house to look out at people walking by and cars driving by.  If you need to find her ever you know where to look :)

4.  I ordered some fun new cleaning products from Grove Collaborative and I've had fun trying them out this week.  I love the geranium scent from Mrs. Meyers so I stocked up on that one.  

5.  I got this cardboard palm plant at the Farmer's Market about a month ago and it's loving it's new pot.  It has been growing like crazy in our sunroom!

That's it for me this week.  I hope you have a great weekend!!
Xoxo

Blueberries

It's finally blueberry season in NY!!  Every year I like to go blueberry picking at least once and last Saturday morning my friend Rachael and I went and picked blueberries.  I picked 6.5 lbs in about an hour.

The blueberry patch that we go to is about 1/2 hour away from our house.

It's still early in the season so some of the blueberries weren't quite ready yet.  But the ones that were ripe were very juicy and delicious!

We had so much fun during our morning at the blueberry patch.  I hope I can get back there at least one more time before the season is over.

We like to eat fresh blueberries but I also made blueberry pancakes on Sunday and a blueberry pie with our blueberries.  I also used some of them to make blueberry margaritas for our trip to the lake on Saturday.

Blueberry Margaritas
2 cups blueberry compote.  Recipe for compote here.  (note I did not add the lemon juice because I added lime juice to this recipe)
1 cup tequila
Juice from 6 limes
Crushed ice
1/2 tsp. coarse kosher salt

Let compote cool and then mix it well in blender.  Add tequila, lime juice, salt and crushed ice and blend thoroughly.  I poured the drink mixture from my blender right into my Weck juice jar to take to the lake.   **if I make margaritas at home I salt the edge of my glass since we were going to the lake and I didn't want to mess with that I just added a little salt to the recipe**  You can leave out the salt completely if you don't like salt in your margaritas.

Here we are enjoying our drinks!  These margaritas taste just like summer.

Enjoy!!
Xoxo

What's up Wednesday {7.26.17}

It's What's up Wednesday where once a month we share random things that we've been up to this month.  I feel like we just did this and it's already time to do it again--the summer is flying by!!  I don't participate it this every month but you can read my June WUW here and one from March here, and one from January here

What we are eating this week...We always grill a ton in the summer---steaks, chicken, burgers and vegetables on the grill.  It's so easy and it doesn't heat up our kitchen!!  It's also blueberry season in NY.  I went blueberry picking with my friend Rachael on Saturday.  I got 7 pounds!  So far I have made blueberry pancakes, blueberry margaritas and a yummy blueberry pie.  I am going to post the recipe for the blueberry margarita tomorrow.

What I'm reminiscing about...All the FUN we've had this summer! Summer of 2017 has been great. It's going by way too quick but we are trying to enjoy every moment.

What I'm loving...Quiet family time, dinners at home, time with friends-summer is the BEST!

What we've been up to...Ava just got home from a week at the beach in Florida with her two BFF's.  Her friend Sam (on the right) moved to Florida and Ava spent a week down there visiting Sam and her family and seeing their new home.  She had a great time!

I just spent a weekend in Saratoga with my friends and we had a great time!  

What I'm dreading...thankfully nothing right now

What I'm working on...We have a craft class for Branch and Bloom at the library on Saturday morning.  We are going to teach people how to make terrariums.  I have been working on getting things organized for Saturday.

What I'm excited about...Brock is coming home for a week in August!  We can't wait to see him and spend time with him.  He starts classes at Arizona State on August 17.

What I'm watching/reading...I am not watching anything on TV right now.  We are too busy enjoying the outside and all the summer activities.  I read two books this month and I am going to do a book review post on Monday.  You can read my book review post from June here.

What I'm wearing...dresses, dresses and more dresses!  I have been living in TJ Maxx dresses this summer.

What I'm doing this weekend...Friday night we are looking forward to a quiet night at home, Saturday I am teaching a craft class on terrariums at the library and I am going to a concert and Sunday my friends and I rented a pontoon boat and we are going to spend a day on the lake!

What I'm looking forward to next month...Brock being home and Ava's going away party are the two big things on our calendar for next month.  

Happy Wednesday!
Xoxo



























What else is new...We are getting Ava ready to go to the Czech Republic.  She leaves at the end of August.  She

A weekend in Saratoga

I spent a fun weekend with my girlfriends in Saragota.  We like to go to Saratoga once a year for a fun getaway. You can read about our trip last year here.   This year we did shopping, a concert and a trip to the Saratoga races.  We packed a lot into our day and a half getaway!

We started out Sunday afternoon with a Linner (late lunch/early dinner)  at Salt and Char.  We got to sit outside on the patio which was so great.



















My friend Sabrina and I split a wedge salad



and then we split a wagyu/mushroom burger and fries.  Everything was delicious!   I would highly recommend this restaurant and I'm hoping to go back soon with Graig.




After lunch we did a little shopping in Saratoga and then I went with my friend T and her two sisters to the Florida/Georgia Line concert.  The concert was at SPAC (Saratoga Performing Arts Center) and we had lawn seats.  I saw Dixie Chicks at SPAC last summer and it's always fun to go to a concert there.


Only T and I went to the concert so I sent this picture to our other 4 friends to show them how PACKED the concert was.  There was so many people and it was so HOT.  We managed to get to the front of the lawn seat area and we stayed there for the whole concert. It was a great show!

For one of the songs they wanted us to hold up our phones with our flashlighs on which I thought made a neat picture.



Monday we woke up and it was pouring rain.  We had planned to go to the race track but instead  we  did a little shopping at the mall.  We went to a delicious place called Boca Bistro for lunch.

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After lunch it had finally stopped raining so we went to the racetrack.  I was planning to wear a dress and a cute hat but it was chilly so I had to wear capris and a long sleeved shirt :(  I did a whole post on the Saratoga race track last year.  You can read it here.






I love these ladies so much I am so glad we were able to get away for a fun weekend!



I hope you have a great week!
Xoxo

Cocktail party

Last Monday my friend Rachael had a cocktail party for her sister Dani  who was in town for the week.  It was a great way for all of Rachael's friends to be able to see Dani. 

  Our friend Erica is a bartender and she is starting a little business where she will come to your cocktail party and teach people how to make drinks.  Her first official party was Rachael's last week!  It was such a fun night!  And I know she is going to have much success in her new business ❤️

Here is Erica in blue with my friend Monica. 

Erica had recipe cards for us with our drink recipes so we could make the drinks she taught us to make at home.  

She also had all of the shakers, stirrers and glasses that we needed to make our drinks.

Here are some of us with our first drink.  A margarita!

Cheers!

I

This was my favorite drink of the evening-the Bonaire

Bonaire recipe

Juice from one lime

Splash simple syrup (to your taste)

1.5 ounces vodka

2 splashes POM juice

Wedge of lime 

Fill glass shaker  with ice, put ingredients into glass shaker  in the order listed above and shake vigorously.  Pour entire contents of shaker into a short glass. Place lime wedge on edge of glass and enjoy!  

Here is a picture of the whole group.   It was a fun night!

Xoxo

Crafty Wednesday {wooden signs}

I haven't done a crafty Wednesday post in a while because I've been busy having too much fun to do crafts this summer.  A few weeks ago I did make some wooden signs with some friends.  These were super easy to do and I think they are really cute.

 A long time ago we did a Craft Night for Branch and Bloom and made chalkboard trays.  The post on those is here.  We had a bunch of leftover wood from that craft night and I have been wanting to use it up for another project.  So I decided to make personalized wooden signs.



The wood I used was 18 inches long and 12 inches wide.  When we made these for our craft class we had the wood cut at Home Depot.  They will cut the wood for you for free which is so great!  I have a saw at home but it's so much easier if they cut it for you :)  We have had so much wood cut for Branch and Bloom that I swear the poor Home Depot workers hide when they see me coming-ha ha!

The wood was already stained from our craft night so I just taped the edges with painters tape and used white craft paint to paint the insides.  After two coats of paint I peeled off the tape while the paint was still wet.

I used my Silhoutte machine to cut out the letters.  I download free fonts from www.dafont.com and the one I used for this project is called Watermelon script.  I used black permanent vinyl for this sign.  

I also cut out letters for my two friends and they made signs too.

This was a fun and easy project...my favorite kind!

Happy Wednesday!
Xoxo