This summer I want to.....

1.  Try one  (1) recipe from my "Adventures with Food - New Things to Try" Pinterest  board each and every week.

2.  Go to Fontana Beach so often that I use up my entire bottle of SPF 50 sunscreen and my beach hat shows signs of wear and my "Complete Works of Jane Austen" gets lovely beach markings.

3.  Perfect the art of making iced blended coffee at my place of residence.

4.  Love my patio...even if remains unpainted.

5.  Garage sale with Trudy.

FLIP-FLOP WEATHER....almost

By my door, I have a basket of flip-flops.  It's just a plain Jane wicker basket full of flip-flops.  Today as I placed the flip-flops in the basket, I thought about each pair....

Four pairs are from Old Navy from the dollar sale ~ who doesn't love the $ flip-flop sale?

One pair is from Ruthie for my 30th birthday

Another pair is from a friend who moved far away

One pair was purchased for a VD pedicure/manicure outing { A sweet gift from my bestie's husband to the two of us because he knows how much I hate VD. (Collective sigh.) }

The zebra-print pair was purchased after a terrible, horrible day of work when the only cure for said bad day was a pedicure.  I still remember how it was worth EVERY penny.

I have a coral pair of flip-flops not in said basket.  These were from another VD / birthday outing with Ruthie.  After we purchased them, coral became the new IN color.  Apparently we are trend-setters and we really didn't know it.

A Simply Fabulous Friday Night

After some plotting and planning, last night came together fabulously!!!  My best friend's husband treated us to manicures and pedicures for VD.  It was absolutely delightful!!!

First the plotting and planning...
We were supposedly meeting for coffee, thrifting, and plotting to take over the world.  I thought our plots and schemes for a complete world take over were just hypothetical.  Thursday night while chatting about our Saturday plans to meet Gloria, I was standing in Old Navy purchasing two pairs of silver sparkly flip-flops for our top secret Friday night outing. 

Have you ever had to convince someone that you should switch-up how you always do something in order to pull off a surprise???  It was not to be.  In trying to establish a meeting location close to the spa, nourishment (i.e. supper) was not to be had until after thrifting...thus my second approach, let's meet at coffee.  Coffee wins.  Coffee always wins.  :)

On a side note:  Sara and I have determined that after 3 p.m. all coffee establishments should serve decaf...and ONLY decaf.

We ordered our coffee and then I announced, we have one stop to make per Curt's instructions - thus the element of surprise.  Sara, then, said, "Sooo I take it we are not going to Twice as Nice" - too which I replied, "No.  I hope I'm not breaking your thrifty heart."  (I didn't, by the way...)

4:50 p.m. - we left said coffee establishment.  While sitting at the stoplight waiting for our turn, we both said (almost at the same time), "Did we order decaf???"...thus the 3 p.m. decaf law.  At this point, we chalk our coffee ordering error up to fate and determine to finish reading our books upon arriving home and in a highly caffeinated state.  (Sigh.)


5:00 - Enter spa.
5:05 to 5:15 - Select colors...  There were sooo many colors to choose from!!!!  Sweet Chocolate for my toes and a purply-pink for my fingernails.  Sara chose a more neutral color topped with sparkles. 
5:
7:15 - Exit spa with the most beautiful toes and hands
7:20 - Applebee's for supper

If you don't have a best girlfriend who is...

better than a therapist,

commiserates with you,

loves you unconditionally,

orders the wrong coffee with you,

draws you closer to Jesus,

and listens...really listens...

if you don't have this, you are truly missing out on one of the God's greatest treasures.

Scamperable

I'm fairly certain 

that my white eyelet skirt 

is considered scampering attire...

June 15th

Today is National Flip-Flop Day!!!!

Celebrate accordingly... :)

Fireflies and flip-flop strap tanlines

Tonight while driving home from a lovely evening with my two friends, I saw fireflies.  Surely a sign of summer, these delightful insects bring about a smile to my ridiculously cute face.  Their twinkle remind me of days gone by when I would race around the yard, scrambling to grab at these treasures, shove them in a Mason jar, screw the lid on tight, use a screwdriver & hammer to tap holes in the lid, and then sit and stare as these magical bugs lit up our nights.


Fireflies, for me, are summer.  Pure and simple.


Another sign that it's summer...flip-flop strap tanlines.  It's funny that the tops of our feet can get tanned.  I always forget to apply sunscreen on the tops of my feet.  I remember my shoulders, my face, my back, my arms, and on occasion my legs.  But never do I remember the tops of my feet.  This morning as I was sitting on my bed contemplating what to wear to work, I glanced down and saw this sure sign of summer...a faint 1/2-inch tan line that was across the top of my feet.  It made me smile.


Lastly, when I think of summer, I think of the lake.  Sitting on a dock, dangling my toes in the water, reading something fabulous.  I remember spending a summer babysitting some miscreants.  The only reason I took the job was because they lived on a lake.  It was fabulous.  The boys were older so they always wanted to hang-out at their friends house. I was at their house (in the words of their mother) "in case someone got hurt."  Thankfully I don't recall anyone getting hurt.  That summer was monumental for me...I remember reading North and South and getting a nice tan.  Oh to have carefree teenage summers...(sigh)...  Actually NO -- I do not wish to re-live my teenage years.  They were fine the first time around.  If I could go back though, I would tell myself a couple of things...


A) that boy that broke your heart (for the 1st time) isn't worth the tears you shed;
B) stop working so hard to sit at the "cool" kids table -- your real friends are the geeks and nerds that love you because you are YOU;
C) it's ok to cry and be compassionate -- no matter what the Greep boys tell you;
D) stick with Spanish II...it will come in handy when you work at the sewer plant [LOL!];
E) one day it will be super cool that you were in the marching band;
F) geeks are cute [as you always have suspected];
G) you will get your heart broken by boys, but God will always be faithful and loving;


and lastly...


H) read more Classics!!!

Knitting, sorting, and springing-ahead

My knitting project - 20 dish cloths - is completed.  Today I actually completed the 21st dish cloth which was a "Thank You" gift for the purchaser of the 20 dish cloths. 


Having given away my top secret stash of dish cloths plus the newly knitted ones, this leaves me with zero knitted dish cloths.  Sooo today, I picked up my size 7 knitting needles and began working on new ones.  I love having knitted dish cloths on-hand for little "Thinking of You" gifts.  And I am serious when I say (and I don't mean to sound conceited) -- once you use a knitted dish cloth, you won't want to use anything else to scrub those dishes and wipe down the counters.  Seriously -- knitted dish cloths will change your life.  Trust me on this.  If you'd like to experience the life-changing bliss of using said knitted dish cloths, send me your address and I will totally knit one for you and put it in the mail.  I'm nice like that...plus I love to knit for other people.  How cool would it be if we could start a knitted dish cloth revolution!!!  You know you want to be a part of this.  :)  


Other than knitting...let's see...I'm attempting to sort through my spring/summer clothes.  This is taking me a bit longer than I had anticipated, mostly because I still have my winter clothes in the closet and on my shelf.  Weather Bug is saying we are going to have some chilly days...so I don't want to pack up all my sweaters and warmer clothing...but I am soooo ready to put on some flip-flops.  


Spring has sprung!  The snow has melted and been absorbed into the ground!  I'm fairly certain the grass is delighted with the added moisture!  I saw some buds on my lilac shrubbery -- many thanks to Alicia for the lovely birthday present many years ago.  I am looking forward to a vase-full of lilacs!  (Sigh.)  I can almost smell them.  Goodness - I could always pull the top off my Yankee Candle and get a good whiff of lilacs, but alas -- I shalln't take such drastic measures.


I suppose that's it.  Oh wait...don't forget that we lose an hour of sleep of this weekend!  I like to think of it NOT as losing an hour of sleep...but as GAINING MORE DAYLIGHT!!!