INSPIRED BY: PINKS AND GREENS

I noticed that I've been pinning a lot of photos with pink and green hues recently and thought I should do a round up to share.  You know what else is pink and green....watermelons! Probably for that reason, it's one of my favorite color combinations for summer. 

baby nursery

flamingo sign & mint necklace from amerrymishap

kilim carpet from Baba Souk

framed wall paper & rhubarb, grapefruit and thyme cocktails

sesame cucumber carrot salad 

watermelon wrapping paper & ice cream cone wrappers

watercolor mural

pink ruffle shorts from polpettine via petite backstage & floral fabric by Pat Bravo for Art Gallery Fabrics 

from Cannelle et Vanille

ROBINSON FAMILY PHOTOS

Here are some photos that I took of the Robinson family back in April.  I loved being a part of this sweet family's morning routine for these photos; sleepy baby faces, good morning hugs, hair brushings, gathering in the kitchen and telling stories. 

P.S. Remember when we first met Evelyn?!

SUMMER BUCKET LIST

I have had a canker sore on the inside of my bottom lip for the past couple of weeks. I'm calling it a having-too-good-of-a-time-and-not-enough sleep sore. It's not catchy but that's what it is, more or less. 

At some point last week I remember thinking to myself that I had gone several nights with not enough sleep and hey I didn't feel horrible, maybe I've entered that age bracket where I need less sleep? And then my body was like, nope, and out popped a sore, and I could feel the week catching up to me and my body creaking to a slow stop. Nooooooppe. 

Weekdays are non-stop motion for work, chores and workouts, and weekends are lots of play, but also with a side of work and chores. I maayy have put an overflowing amount of stuff on my plate for these next few months. But I don't care, that's how it's going to be. I love summer so hard, I appreciate the people in my life, and I'm gonna take advantage of that extra sunlight. I'm pretty sure my body is solar-powered, so that should work out.

(Ahem. No one be surprised about that inevitable post where I'm like, umm can we hold up and pause everything so I can catch my breath? Okay, thanks. )

Basically I'm acting like I have a summer vacation, with all the stuff that's on my bucket list. Don't worry, I'll schedule some major downtime in there somewhere.  I didn't have an actual bucket list until I started writing this post, but now I've resolved to make one. So here it is!

1. Downtime: whatever that shall mean for me at the given moment. I would like finishing the book I'm reading to be a part of this.

2. Self-imposed no phone no internet times

3. Blueberry picking, peach picking, grape picking 

4. Several trips to the river

5. At least one trip to the beach

6. Many afternoons at the pool

7. Bourbon cocktails 

8. A lot of fruit crumble and crisps 

9. Get in great shape, hit some fitness goals, i.e. be able to do 10 double unders and 10 hand stand push ups 

10. Lexington weekend in July

11. Ellicott City weekend in August

12. Take Sloane to the Baltimore aquarium

13. Be fully present to enjoy the time that my parents are here

14. Do an excellent job on a freelance project coming up.

15. Get a night away with Ken for our anniversary

16. A massage

17. A lot of dance parties with Sloane

18. Discover areas in Richmond I've never been before.

19. HS girls reunion and meeting Hilary's man

20. Get comfortable with making pasta noodles from scratch. 

And I am already well on my way. This past weekend, I got in a blueberry crisp, a dance party with Sloane, and an afternoon at the pool, with the bonus being the really beautiful and fun wedding of our friends Diane and Tyler.  (Congrats guys!!)

Let's do this, summer!

STRAWBERRY RHUBARB COCKTAIL

If you were wondering what I did with the strawberries we got from strawberry picking, I went with a strawberry pie. Specifically, it was a strawberry balsamic pie from the The Four and Twenty Blackbirds Pie book and it was delicious. I had it for several breakfasts, straight out of the fridge and the pan with a fork... naturally. I also made a cocktail.

Once I decided I wanted to try to get strawberries and bourbon together and make strawberry bourbon babies, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I settled on the classic combination of strawberry and rhubarb. This rhubarb simple syrup is sooo good, I kept dipping my finger into it to lick off.  Oh there are so many possibilities with this rhubarb syrup - Mix it with club soda for rhubarb soda! Put it into some champagne for a rhubarb bellini! Drizzle it over some plain Greek yogurt! Yes, yes and yes. 

I thought the cocktail might be too sweet, but the lemon and mint give it the lift it needs and the rhubarb stands up nicely to the bourbon. It is refreshing and the kind of drink I would sip on all night long at a backyard party.

Strawberry & Rhubarb Cocktail
adapted from SAVEUR

Ingredients (for one drink): 1 lemon, 3-4 strawberries, 3-4 mint leaves, bourbon & rhubarb simple syrup.

1. Make rhubarb simple syrup: Wash and then cut up one rhubarb stalk into 1/2 inch pieces.  Put the pieces in a pot with 1 cup of water and 1 cup of simple syrup. When the mixture is boiling, turn the heat down to low and simmer for 20 minutes.  Drain the mixture and you will have a pink rhubarb simple syrup. You will only use 1 ounce of this for one drink, so bottle it up and save the rest for later.

2. Muddle 3 lemon wedges, 3 mint leaves, 2 strawberries and 1 ounce of rhubarb simple syrup in the bottom of a cocktail shaker. Add 1-1.5 ounces of bourbon and ice. Shake and strain into a glass filled with ice. Garnish with mint and strawberries if you wish.
 

FATHER'S DAY 2014

This guy. It seems like he's getting better and better with age. I suspect it has something to do with his humility and willingness to learn and grow. He also has this iron-clad determination and a passion like a volcano. I feel lucky to say that this is the kind of man I want to lean on and go on all my adventures with. 

And what great qualities these make in a dad! A willingness to learn who your daughter is and grow in wisdom to guide her, iron-clad determination to be there for her no matter what, and passion to share and show her all of life's joys. Sloane says she feels lucky, too; I can tell by the way she yells 'papa!' as she runs to him.

Thanks Ken, for being the kind of husband and dad that makes us become better and better. 

THIS AND THAT

You know that adage that says you have to put in the time at something in order to get really good at it? I buy it.  You’ve heard about Malcolm Gladwell’s “10,000 Hour Rule”, right? He claims that the key to success in any field Is to practice a specific task for about 10,000 hours. It’s from his book, “Outliers”, in which he says that success is due to a myriad of different factors.  One of those factors is the environment you were born into and the opportunities and access you are given over the span of your life. But in addition, you need to put in those 10,000 hours in order to become really good at a particular thing.  He uses Bill Gates as an example; Gates had access to a computer during a time when they were not common. But he also spent 10,000 hours programming on it.

I haven’t actually read the book, I just have read a bunch of different articles about it and I took away from it what I needed, which is that 1) I have access to many resources and 2) I’m ready and willing to log in to 10,000 hours to get good at a few particular things. (By the way, if you were about to do the math, that’s 10 years of 20 hours of work per week.)  I’m not actually counting, and I don’t necessarily believe 10,000 is the magic number, but I absolutely believe that you have to put in the leg work and time to get good at something.  One of those things that I want to get good at is writing.  That may be one out of the many (many) reasons why I keep this blog. I want to have the practice and the impetus to keep writing. The truth of the matter is that I would be writing no matter what; whether it be in a notebook, a Gmail draft or scribbles on scraps of paper, it’s just what I do, but I trying to be more pointed about it.  I also am pining and working in hopes of adept at photography. It’s not really for any particular purpose or end goal; it’s just that I get so much dang satisfaction out of it and I have these visions in my head that I want to play out. As I’m putting all this down, I’m also realizing that there is something inherently awesome about working towards becoming good at something creative. I just asked myself the question, “If I had a genie in front of me, would I make the wish that I would instantly be excellent at writing? Or taking photographs?” And my answer was, “NO WAY!” The idea of instantly becoming an expert writer or photographer completely takes the joy out of what it is about these things that I love so much. The process of creating and incrementally improving and growing is such a joy, despite the inevitable struggles and self-doubt that also pop up along the way.

I’m hoping that it’s not everything that it takes that long to get good at. Because there are some things that I am hoping to get savvy at way before that many hours. Like, I want to get really good at braiding hair. I want to get excellent at making pie dough, and cocktails.  I want to get good at pull-ups. By that I mean, I want to be able to do a pull-up (unassisted). I would love to get good at sewing. What do you want to get good at? I hope you’re naming them and more importantly, doing them.

Not really related to anything else I’ve been saying up there, but here are some disparate photos from my iPhone from this past week. Sometimes, when I’m feeling fancy, orrr pummeled by the week, I will take Sloane and myself out to the local wine shop on our way home from work and daycare on Friday.  They have a free wine tasting there every Friday and they lay out crackers and cheese to go with the wine.  Sloane gets crackers, Mommy gets wine. Sloane took these photos of me (and my knees) outside of the shop.

June has been the perfect month to eat outdoors. Roasted broccoli has been our go-to vegetable as of late; in this case, we roasted them and ate it straight from the pan.

Rusty has been getting these long walks, accompanied by Ken and Sloane. Sloane has been getting tons of smooches by me.

We threw Meghan a baby shower, we each brought something and all the food was so.good. I made cheese stuffed pretzal bites with rosemary salt.

Sloane loves that she gets to go Simone and Eden's house so often.

We decorated onesies for Meghan's little man!

Meghan, the glorious mother to be! All those babes and not phased one bit.

Thank you guys for all your love and support regarding my last post and the scare we had. She is up and at 'em, spunky snd happy as ever!