ice cream in the evenings

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hello to you! 

i haven't been here in a whole week!  yowza!  hope you are all doing well and enjoying the lazy bits of mid-summer like i am.  we've been driving around the lovely local landscape in the evenings, trying to relax a bit.  i say trying, because it's been hard to force ourselves to just "be" with so many "big things" coming up.  (see first paragraph from this post)

one of those things to cross off the list will come tomorrow when i have my knee surgery... ugh. i'll be fine, just not something one exactly looks forward to!  my poor husband is in the homestretch of the dissertation writing, so my mom is going to bring me in and then i'll head home to my parents house for a few days of recovery.  i know my mom is pretty happy about the care taking role (& so am i), that's what moms are for right?! looking forward to a few days of relaxing, but i'm hoping i won't be down for the count for more than a couple of days.  i have a hard time sitting still when my to-do list is a mile long! 

i wasn't here much last week because i was hard at work in the studio with a wedding commission and another dog commission.  commissions are wonderful, just pretty challenging for me, so they take a lot of my time and concentration.  i'm thrilled with how they both came out, so i'll show you those soon too.  

i'm hanging out/working/writing/list making from the Smith campus today.  jesse has moved into his new office/lab space, so i've set up shop here for the day.  i am able to spread out and get a lot done!  looking forward to august when we be living right in the neighborhood!  

i'll be back soon~ 

xo & be in touch!  i always love hearing from you! 

*s

the day to day life...

{image via ink on my fingers}

{photograph by kaylynn deveney}

a few years ago i came across an amazing book called  The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings.   i have always kept the book in easy reach so that i could look at it often, i do this, knowing that each time i look at it i cry because it is just so beautiful and touching.  my favorite little book has been packed away (with the rest of our lives...) for the past 6 months, and i found myself missing it.  so that is why i was so happy to come across this interview with the author, kaylynn deveney, earlier today over on susannah's blog.  

looking at the book, reminds me of my two wonderful grandfathers, who have both passed away.  my dad's dad reminds me of Albert the most.  my grampa ahearn used to write little notes for himself right on the walls of his barn. the notes helped him keep track of the comings and goings of plants in the garden, for instance, here's a picture of one of his notes that marked the date of the last tomato.    

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8 reasons why,

i love july.  (& it rhymes!)  

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 1} my favorite beach.  2} we watched the fireworks from here last year.   5}  birthday cakes with flowers & friends...my 32nd is coming up on the 21st.   7&8}  fireworks and celebrating 3 years (!) on the 8th. 

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just looking at these july pictures makes me oh so happy.  it's been a bit of a hectic summer so far... i don't see it getting much easier due to the fact that we are still living out of boxes, an upcoming knee surgery, followed directly with a thesis defense and then (breathing in and out) we move.  yikes.  i'm going to do my best at trying to savor the little bits of summer goodness in between...  

we spent yesterday in the car... driving in the rain.  it was tiring.  and since we had gotten up before 6 am (totally accidently because the clock was set wrong... that's another problem with living in other people's houses....)  AND had a broken muffler, well, that made the trip all the more fun.  when we finally got back to massachusetts, i was planning on popping in here to say hello and posting my {8 reasons} but i completely collapsed when it started getting dark out... i think we were asleep at 9.  the good news is i'm totally refreshed with a good nights sleep. hooray.  

tonight, we'll visit with a good friend who we don't get to see very often because she lives in France... we'll laugh over sangria and pizza here.  other than that, the holiday weekend is looking pretty quiet... just exactly what i need!  my plan is to sit in the garden reading this alongside my stinky dog friend (he got skunked while we were gone!)  but i love him anyway and i'm totally looking forward to it. 

happy holiday weekend to you if you are in the States!  

see you next week!  

xo,*s

ps:  i LOVED "away we go"... did you see it too?  

picnics in paris...

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hello july!  

it's officially my favorite month!  i love july for so many reasons... i'll get to those soon...

but for now, we are on the road again... back to upstate NY for a couple of days.  we just can't get enough of the 5+ hour car rides!  it's another working "vacation", but i hope one of these days we'll be heading out a real vacation.  if i could choose a magical escape, i'd take this exact one!  i seriously got all weepy just reading about it in the paper over the weekend!  real tears streaming down my face, really! that image of the pink balloon... oh my gosh, so perfectly dreamy... it just got me.  so yes, that would pretty much my summer dream get-away.  a girl can dream... someday we'll make it happen, i just know it.  (i've been promised...) 

happy to see my studio featured on poppytalk on monday.  can't wait to share my new, light-filled, tin ceilinged, hardwood floored studio space come august!  but, for the next month,  i'll be working out of my little, packable "studio."  i'm actually all set up today on a beautiful screened in porch at our friend's house to paint, while jesse, my ecologist husband, is out & about in the nearby woods working on his research.  (i we could be in paris with the pink balloon, but i'll take this for now!)  

hope you are having great week so far, i'll see you here tomorrow for more.  

xo*s

ps: isn't this photograph dreamy?! i found it in my collection of old photos and thought i'd "picnik" it up a bit. (ha! picnics/picnik...)  anyway, that's how i've been editing/adding to my photos lately~  it's so user friendly and lots of fun!  if you haven't checked it out already, i highly recommend it!  

5 things for today

it's a lazy, rainy, humid summer afternoon here.  

this is what i am up to: 

1.  loving my favorite bits of random inspirations (above)

2.  sipping homemade iced mint tea with lemonade ice cubes (so good!)

3.  feeling the cooling breeze of the fan (can't wait for our new apt with tin ceilings and overhead fans in each room) 

4.  listening to the typing of keys (my husband entering data, the end of the PhD is near!) 

5.  smelling the lingering sweetness of summer rain (no thunderstorms yet...)

after a long day (and week) of work, we're off to make a pizza and see this.  (looks good doesn't it?!)  

happy weekend & i'll see you on monday!  

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