Friday Favorites

Happy Friday everyone!  I have a whole new set of Friday Favorites, some loverly lovelies!

One: The Escape Artist, from ellemoss

Two: Blue Sunprints, by IndianaBlue

Three: Aloha slouch bag, by aandvdesigns

Four: I Heart Howlite, from mcnovelties

Things on my agenda this weekend: make a new set of books (and photograph them), go see the new Indiana Jones movie, take a long, long walk through our Madison arb, make a curry, and clean my apartment (golly its such a mess).  I'm breaking out the summer skirts and putting away the woolies.  It feels good!

Anniversary

Hello my friends and family! It's incredible, I feel like I've been away for ages, I've missed you all heaps! Heaps I say!

My anniversary trip was remarkable! I've posted a number of pictures for you all. Andrew and I drove over to visit with my Grandmother in Petoskey and stopped on Lake Michigan's shores along the way. Gorgeous, sunshiny. . . such a perfect travel break! Andrew and I wrote each other poems in the sand (our anniversary "cards" to each other). After our visit with Grandma we traveled to Mackinac Island. I couldn't have asked for more perfect weather! The ferry whisked us over to the Island with whirring speed. We plopped our luggage down at the B&B and began our "vacation." We walked to the Grand Hotel, paid the fee for the tour, sat on their world renowned porch, it was great. We rambled over the Islands trails and parks, spotting trilliums and wild tulips and daffodils. It was great! The next day we toured the island by bike and visited the lesser known parts of Mackinac (let me just say, the reason these spots aren't as frequented by tourists was because it involved HILLS, lots of hills). Lots of sun, lots of fudge, salt water taffy, rich food, and heaps of google-eyed looks and giggles!

What did everyone do this past holiday weekend? I'm so anxious to hear!

XOXOX

Three things

I have so many bits to share with you this morning! First, darling Art Kitten has tagged me:

Seven random and irrelevant things about me

1. I spent my last year of college studying abroad in Birmingham, England!
2. I don't own a single pair of plain white panties.

3. I know how to ride a horse, string a bow, paddle a canoe, swim the butterfly, and belly dance.

4. I hate snakes. Bugs, spiders, rodents I can handle. Not snakes.

5. My favorite movies as a child were: Never Ending Story, The Goonies, and Princess Bride.

And second, the wonderful Wunderbug has outdone herself and created the most attractive interview! I love how she handled the photos! Come see, come see!

And thirdly, I'll be away from the computer for FOUR WHOLE DAYS! I'll be thinking of you guys, taking heaps of pictures and collecting stories of the weekend. I wish you all a truly relaxing and rejuvinating Memorial Day weekend. Sending love and kisses!

*image from thewindhover

Mackinac Island

This holiday weekend will find Andrew and I visiting Mackinac Island for our *drum roll* one year anniversary! To say that I'm excited would be an understatement, I've been doing my little excited wiggle all week, twittering about how it's only 4, 3, 2 days away. Last year we spent our honeymoon on Mackinac Island, staying at a Bed and Breakfast on the island. If you've never been, let me enlighten you: picture a small island, eight miles in circumference, accessible only by ferry in the middle of Lake Huron, by the Mackinac Bridge. It's magical and darling and filled to the brim with cottages, restuarants, nature reserves, museums, mansions, horses, and fudge shops. They don't allow any motorized vehicles on the island, so everyone gets around either by foot, bike or horse. Honest to god, they make all their heavy deliveries via horse-drawn wagons. You can hear the clop, clop, clop of the horses and you think you've been transported to another time. It's fabulous! Of course when you're on Mackinac Island you eat more fudge and ice cream than you should, buy touristy sweatshirts, and ride ancient rental bikes that click and hum. I'll be posting pictures on Tuesday, no doubt! These pictures are from last year's trip!

Already?

I can hardly believe we're already well into the week! Whoosh! I've been wanting to post something all day, but keep getting pulled away from my desk. It's a good kind of busy, that satisfying, wow I'm getting a lot done type of busy. Anyways, here a few yummy things to share with you:

Paper + Cup (check out the awesome invitations on their home page, drool worthy)
Snippet & Ink (another incredible website full to the brim with pretties)
Butterflymilk (Just on the front page of Etsy; I have a soft spot for these types of collages)



And the image is from Country Living's feature on designing a room with color! Isn't it marvelous?

YooHoo!

Saturday morning, sitting at one of my favorite coffee shops in west Madison, listening to the milk steam behind the bar. My regular is a medium skim latte which they deliver in big cobalt blue mugs. Feist is piped over the speakers and the other patrons are boisterous and comfortable. Andrew's pulled out his history books to research bits for his new story. My amateur writer! I love Saturday mornings. You can just see the stress and anxiety build-up slip and slink from my body. It's the greatest feeling.

My blog seems to have been a bit mix-match this week, so I'm going to do my Thursday YooHoo today. For a few months now I've been enjoying, with delicious abandon, Blaze Danielle's blog and shop. This is her Coffee Drinker print and her Jane and Doe print from her Etsy shop. It's so child-like and delightful. I love the print of the purple dress!

So, what is everyone up to this weekend? Sometimes I wish we could all gather together at a coffee shop and catch up, proper like! We'd order our drinks, snag the comfy chairs, or sit out in the sun on the patio and gab. Gab! What a great word! It's not serious stuff, not gossip, not mindless chatter, it's fun gabbing! Let's gab!

Wednesday Favorites

Thank goodness for lunch breaks! From the moment I stepped into my car this morning I've been madly dashing to one thing to the next. So a moment to call my own, to sit at my desk and type a short blog entry, to consume my meager Lean Cuisine, and whiz through Etsy just a bit, well, THANK GOODNESS! I come home after work in a zone. It's kind of funny, actually, because it takes me almost an hour to decompress after such full days. I'm rather slap-happy and Andrew has no idea what to do with me! Any one else have days like this?

Here are my Wednesday Favorites as I didn't get to my Friday Favorites last week:

1. Yellow shapes pouch from oktak
2. Picnic purse by spongetta
3. Vintage blue and yellow hand bag from retorfied
4. gaillo weekender by DrikaB

Saturday Morning Farmers Market

As I promised, and only a day late! The Saturday morning farmers market down at the capital! Ms. Peach, I would be calling you up early next Saturday morning if you were in town!

I can say with great glee that the Apple Pie I bought from the Amish folk was delicious! I have a pecan pie still in the fridge, and Susie and her family will have to tell me how the Strawberry Rubarb and Raspberry pies were, as Andrew and I couldn't have eaten four pies by ourselves. Or maybe I should say "shouldn't" have eaten FOUR pies. Yum, yum! Also, check out Mister Bee Man, isn't that hat the coolest? I can hardly imagine wearing it during a hot summer farmers market, but some marketing is priceless. I ended up buying a stick of beeswax from him!

Also, quick note: Keepsake Couture has interviewed me on her blog :) Come see!

Saturday: Solo

I almost feel bad. Almost. I woke up early, early this morning to take Andrew to one of his Law School finals and decided to splurge my morning and "do" State Street (instead of going home and "doing" my apartment, goodness it needs to be cleaned). State Street runs between the University and the capital building down town Madison. It's filled to the brim with great little boutiques, lots of character, and fabulous coffee shops. Also, on Saturday mornings there's a HUGE farmers market that circles the capital, which, by the way, is a lot of veggies, flowers and delectable goodies *grins* So, while Andrew's working through his four hour final (gross), I'm walking up and down State Street, tasting the free samples at the farmers market, soaking up the morning sunshine, buying honey and pies. And all solo. This is another point in which I *almost* feel bad, I'm one who loves her alone time, and after starting a job that has me interacting with people, lots of people, from 8-6, well, I'm ready for some alone time. I'll be sure to post the pictures from the farmers market when I get home tonight!

In the mean time, I'm going to post a few of my new creations! My Canary Dahlia Journal and my little Pink Parisian Notebook!

What are you guys up to this weekend?

YooHoo!

Good morning! I'm writing early, early this morning! I had plans on posting my new journal creations, but alas, I haven't discovered the knack of putting the camera back on the charger after I'm done using it. Tisk, tisk! But, hopefully I'll have something to show this weekend.

This will be my Thursday YooHoo: sarahjanestudios, Addie and Ella play tea party!

Confession: for my seventeenth birthday I put on a tea party! I had a handful of girlfriends who thought it was the most brilliant idea, another small handful who thought I was being ridiculous, a tea party? at 17? It was fun though! We all dressed up, had an assortment of tea sandwiches, hot tea, lemonade, scones, and cream puffs. It was the prettiest ordeal too, with all of our floral dresses and skirts and elegant tea cups and saucers. I think we watched That Thing You Do afterwards, which wasn't entirely Tea Party-ish, but fun!

Cozy Up's Contest

The most exciting thing happened this morning! I actually won a blog contest! I never win things, quite honestly, I never do, so this is such a delightful surprise! THANK YOU darling Cozy Up for your generous contest and for sharing your amazing work with us :) I'm so excited to see it in person!

Dutch Festival Suprise

At last! I get to post about my surprise weekend! So, after miles and miles of country roads, in po-dunk Iowa, with no concept of where I was going, or what awaited me at the end, my little Bug arrived in Pella, Iowa, for their annual Dutch Festival. A little history: I am almost half Dutch, my maiden name being Goozen of western Michigan, and have celebrated my wooden-shoeness for years. I had no idea that such a festival existed, and had no idea that Andrew knew so much about my heritage! We arrived just as everything was being set up. There were scores of little people and big people walking around in their white caps, vests, and wooden shoes. There were booths selling heaps of Dutch pastries and little trinkets and tulips. We saw The Duchesses dance their folk dances and even came across a display of all of the Tulip Queens of the past 50 years. It was amazing to see what a Dutch face looks like (I didn't know). I suddenly discovered where I get my high cheek bones and distinct nose. It was GREAT! We walked all over the place, got plenty sunburnt, and took tons of tulip pictures! It was such a surprise, and the idea that Andrew had been planning this for months tickled me pink!

Slightly slap-happy

I'm sun burnt and travel weary which makes me incredibly slap happy and sing-songy, and probably, to the average Joe who knows nothing of my slap-happy antics, terribly annoying! But, here I am, humming to myself, some song I heard yesterday from my little niece, applying facial lotion, thinking about pretty pretties. I am such a fan of Anthropologies pretty pretties right now, so much so that I had to post these for your enjoyment! I just discovered that one of my co-workers is in love with Anthropologie too! She was making her tea in a tea cup from Anthropologie yesterday. It made me happy as I feel rather like a girly girl amongst all of these engineers at work! Oh, and while I'm thinking about it, I need to post my birthday surprise photos tomorrow, because that is why I'm sun burnt, travel weary and sing-wongy. Yeah, wow, I am really tired. I can't explain the pretty pretties tid bit I just wrote, because it really has nothing to do with my birthday surprise. But, there you have it. Oi. I'm off to go take a nap!

Friday Favorites

It's Friday, which means I get to roll out another Friday Favorites! Whoot, whoot!

1. Portland Garage Earrings, by SueLieu
2. Bird Stack, from olivemoonprints
3. The Goddess Journal, by UberArt
4. Pear Costmetics Pouch, from kaylah7

Thank you all for my birthday wishes, they made my day so lovely *hugs all around* My night was wonderful. Andrew came and picked me up, all decked out in his nice duds. Then we went to Muramoto for sushi (I love sushi) and asian margaritas. After that, we scooted over to another great spot for drinks and dessert with friends! Susie even brought me flowers *mwah* they were beautiful! I tried taking pictures at Muramoto, for posterity sake, but Andrew grumbled the whole time. What a grump. I'll try and take some pictures this weekend though!

I'm hoping to snag some time this weekend, with my journal, and a cup of tea, to sketch out some of my thoughts on this upcoming year. Does writing things like this out help you too? Do you have a spot you keep all of these ponderings and wanderings?

Birthdays

Birthdays. Birthdays are marvelous days. Not just because you have friends and family calling you up and wishing you birthday greetings. Not just because you receive little notes in the mail sending you love across the distance. Not just because your love gives you birthday kisses in the morning, even though you look afright. Birthdays, for me, are special days in which you get to stop and gather up what the year has brought you, like an arm full of flowers. It's a unique New Years day, for you, just you! It's a day to think about where you want to be in the coming months, what you want to accomplish, what you want to create. My fingers begin to twitch when I think about all of these things, I want to start writing it all down in my journal.

I've had such a full year: was married at the end of May, moved to Madison, survived a year of law school with my husband, started Red Otter, started my blog, ended an old job, started a new one, grieved a death in the family and celebrated the birthdays of my little nephew and niece! Whoosh! So full! Thank you all for being apart of this year with me!

Sending you heaps of love today, on my birthday!

*this image is from the Tweed Museum of Art