Doing whatever I want.

When someone asks me: What have you been doing all summer?

I tell them the TRUTH: Whatever I want.

In the past, I have spent my summers volunteering, teaching, or doing something that fells like fun but its actually work, I just tell myself it is fun so that I am tricked into believing that I had a restful vacation.

I've just had 12 consecutive weeks off.

Every single day I tried to savor the morning the most. During the school year I am out of bed by 5:45, but in the summer I was in bet until at least 7:30, sometimes 8:00. It was marvelous. I must hit another level of R.E.M. between 6:30 and 7:00, that I don't normally even get a chance to experience....I'm going to miss that hard morning sleepy time.

Every single day, I tried to savor the evenings and stayed up past 10. This may not seem super late...but when I have the freedom to watch one more episode of the Tudors on Netflix, instead of turning the T.V. off at 9:30, it feels pretty sweet. Evenings haven't been rushed. I can cook dinner at my leisure, and still have time to relax afterwards. Even if I chose to go to the gym at night, I still had plenty of time to do whatever because I wasn't hurrying to prepare a sack lunch or iron a pair of kakis.

Every single day, I savored my free-time lunch. During the school year, I have a limited amount of time to eat lunch and a strict schedule. I also have a very regulated time frame at which I can use the restroom.  It is very liberating.

Every single day, I tried to enjoy the free afternoons.....I actually fought the urge to take a nap every day. Ha! I met up with friends for an afternoon cupcake+drinks date...in the middle of the day....and I drove to a coffee shop for an iced coffee with free WIFI and blogging. Or I hung out with Martha and we made crafts or sat by a pool somewhere.

 So maybe I did not meet all of these summer goals:

Read 10 books. (only 7)
Grow a Wild Flower garden. (HA! it was too hot to grow anything)
Workout/Zumba 4 times a week. (It was about 2-3 times average)
Ride bikes. (TOOOO HOT!)
Art Walk Dates. (YES! Braved the heat for all of the Joplin art walks and one in K.C.)
Analog Film: Take and Develop. (I haven't been in the dark room a lot...but I do have a few rolls processed)
Paint. Draw. Collage. Art. (Perhaps I could've done a bit more of this, but I did make some cute stuff for Martha's Shop. and I painted my desk)
Bake Bread. (Only one loaf, but I did it!)
Blog + Write. (Done! I spent a lot of time working on my Retro Vacation Series)


And I did a few things I hadn't planned:
Went to the farmer's market for fresh peaches and baked a pie.
Had a fun girl's night out at Glazed.
Went to a blackberry farm and made lots of yummy blackberry desserts.
Crafted something new out of scrabble tiles for Martha's Shop. And framed some lomography photos to sell.
Revisited my hometown firework carnival for the 4th.
Baked the most delicious Almond Joy Cookies ever.
Grew a gorgeous veggie garden. (A lot of my succulents died!)

 This week is a busy one. With the first day meetings yesterday, and open house last night...tonight we have more meetings and an education committee meeting at Spiva...and tomorrow is the first day of school....with art walk on Thursday night. By Friday I will be exhausted!! But at least I am well-rested. And I am excited for the new school year.

That one time, when I baked a peach pie and it tasted like summer.

Last week I went to the local farmer's market and got a big bunch of fresh peaches. I have a hard time buying fresh fruit because it never gets eaten before it goes bad. But all I could think about was making the perfect peach pie. And that is just what I did.

I was actually a little obsessed with making a pie. All because of pie week and this story. After I bought the peaches, I had to run all kinds of other errands, but I could not wait to get home and bake. I don't know if I was more enthralled with the idea of eating the delicious and beautiful dessert or the process of baking the pie and being proud of the finished product.

First, I looked up a recipe. I pretty much always use allrecipes.com I read in one of the reader's comments that I should blanch the peaches to remove the skin. It worked perfectly. Then I sliced up the peaches. Then I added the cinnamon, flour and sugar.

I had intended to make my own crust, just like in the story above, but I just didn't have time that day so I used a pillsbury crust (shhhhhhh). After pouring the pie filling into the crust and sliding it into the oven, the whole house smelled like warm peaches.

I had just a little bit of filling and a little bit of crust leftover so I made a mini pie in a dish to enjoy hot and fresh since I was saving the pie for the 4th of July.

The hot, fresh mini pie was the perfect.

The next day my friend Martha came over and we spent the day working on new art projects for her shop and for some classes. We ate lunch. And then it was pie time.

But since I only used 10 of my peaches peaches for the pie.....

I also made peach sun tea.

And ate fresh juicy peaches.

The peaches were also used in a special hot sauce concoction with peppers from the garden.

One very special peach even made its way to a park bench in front of the Nelson Atkins for a special nutella and iced tea picnic on Sunday. But half of it got dropped and was quickly overtaken by ants.

And last night, I ate the very last peach, in a bowl with some home-whipped cream, topped with cinnamon and sugar, and mixed with fresh blackberries.

Summer is my new favorite.

Fluffy Pop

Today: Summer rainstorms in the morning are the absolute best, especially when you have no where in particular that you have to be.

This is my 5th week of summer vacation....(I still have 7 more weeks off!!!)...my summer vacation is going perfectly so far. The laundry/dishes are caught up, the house is clean, I've been cooking healthy meals and making it to the gym several times a week...I'm working towards my goal of reading 10 books this summer.

I've also been creating a few items for my friend Martha's mobile shop. Fluffy pop makes its debut at the Joplin art walk tonight and I am so excited!! I think this shop/mobile art gallery is exactly what the art walk needs. I enjoy walking around downtown and talking to friends, but this show is going to amp up the coolness factor of the entire scene. Trust me.

If you are out and about in Joplin tonight, stop by the shop and buy some cool jewelry, a vintage dress, or a painting. If you don't live around here, you can check out the mobile shop over on the fluffy pop blog: http://fluffypop.com/?p=109 

Hope to see you out at the art walk tonight. I think this rain will be gone by this evening and it will leave cool temperatures for wandering around downtown!!

Photo Collage Friday {Number Fourteen}

These are all sky photos taken on my iPhone. I created this collage on my iPhone as well. It has been so sunny and hot here in Joplin, I really wanted to combine all of the beautiful sky images I have captured lately...especially when they reflect a bit of rain (which everyone is praying for daily).

Only one more week until I am back to school. I wish summer could last a little bit longer!!

Summer Reading

 This summer, I've been totally addicted to trashy romance novels!! 

It seems that when I get in the mood to read, I am not motivated to accomplish anything else. 

I will proudly boast that I have spent more than one morning, in bed, reading until almost 11:00 a.m. after staying up until after midnight reading. 

I have spent hours and hours with my nose in the books this summer, and it has been wonderful. 

What have I been reading, you ask? 

I am so glad you asked, I will tell you....I've been completely addicted to the Fever Series by Karen Marie Moning. 

I finished 4 of the books while I was in Arizona in June....and had to download the last book on my phone because it isn't out in paperback yet and I had to know what happened! 

As soon as I got home from my trip I went out and bought every single one of the Highlander Series books...and I just finished that series as well. 

The thing I've gotten from both book series, is an escape....they allow me to travel to Ireland and Scotland, and visit castles and fall in love with sexy time-traveling, magical, mysterious men. It is an escape I have desperately needed. 

Sorry for the pathetic picture. I am writing this at 1:24 a.m. and I don't have any other photos on my computer, or the motivation to go take another picture, besides...its too dark now anyway.

I can't decide if I should start a new series or devote a bit of that energy to blogging/crafting/cleaning....hmmmm.....

What are you reading this summer? I'm thinking about the Hunger Games, do you know anything about those books?

A high definition kind of life.

Sunday someone asked me, 'What have you been up to this summer?' and I actually fumbled around because I have been busy, but I couldn't pinpoint or summarize what I've been doing in one concise description like 'teaching' or 'working'...

I have worked a little bit, teaching one day a week at the art center. 

I have gone to the gym a bit. 

I helped move my mom. 

I went on a couple of trips. 

I had a little photo exhibit....but....what have I been doing with my time? 

Have I been frittering it away? 

Nope. 

I will brag a bit that I have had one of best summers ever. 

I've frittered a bit here and there...but I've stayed busy with froyo and waterpark dates, creek excursions, darkroom parties, weddings (3 this summer!), Harry Potter cake pops extravaganza-day, craft nights, and family cookouts. 

Things that normally seem mundane and boring have felt special and fun, like going shoe shopping at the mall and getting my haircut. 

Perhaps life was in black and white before the tornado and now it is in high definition color. 

Now my free time feels freer....food tastes tastier...and life just feels easier. 

These days, I savor everything.

Of course it is still painful to drive across town and see dirt lots where homes used to be.

It is scary driving down Main St. from 20th to 32nd at night because there are no street lights or illuminated signs or the dim glow from a porch light in either direction, for miles.....I cannot go anywhere without a visual reminder of what happened and is happening around town as lots are cleaned, debris is removed and preparations are made for new construction.

I think those things are a constant reminder that life is short, and bad stuff happens...(it is hard to relate to other atrocities in the world right now because I am, we are still grieving and recovering in Joplin).

While people still tell stories about where their coworkers rode out the storm or how someone lost a beloved pet, 'tornado' is not the only thing we talk when I get together with my friends. We are starting to move forward and talk about books, t.v. shows, and gossip....just like we used to do 'before' the storm.

And I think nearly everyone who was affected will look at their life as it was 'before' the tornado and 'after' the tornado. 

Maybe I am just on a 'vacation high'....a little too happy....a little too cheerful...or perhaps this is just part of the recovery process, but all I can say, is that right now, life is good. I find myself appreciating every beautiful flower, every pretty rainbow, and every delicious meal with genuine gratitude.

I wrote this post Sunday night and set it to auto-post Monday evening around 6:30....well, around 6:35 I was leaving the gym and I saw this magnificent rainbow....my post never went live and I think it was missing this image....I took this photo on Main Street in Joplin, (yes, I did drive out of my way to get this shot) The rainbow was starting to fade as I was racing to a spot where I had a clear view of the sky....which just happened to be on a very badly damaged section of the street. I posted it to facebook with the caption Hope for Joplin.

This photo was taken with the hipstamatic app on my iphone.

Photo Collage Friday {Number Eleven}

Summer favorites!! My summer is OVER half OVER!!

I am loving every ounce of my freedom. I am trying to do responsible things like drink lots of water, cook healthy meals, work out at the gym...but I am saving plenty of time for fun stuff too!! Here are some of my favorite photos of the summer so far. ENJOY!!

Snow Cone Love

One of my favorite things about summer is enjoying some shaved ice with a little bit of colorful, sugary syrup. It reminds me of being a kid. My favorite flavor....peach and cinnamon....tonight I had blue raspberry and pineapple, it was delicious too. Last week I had one called 'that's what she said'....it was yummy!

 My snowcone matches my fingernails.

 There are literally a thousand flavors here....

 That's what she said.

 Ooh, my new wallet....it looks so cute on this picnic table outside the snow cone stand. The wallet is from fossil...by the way...

 It has been so HOT this summer...I almost want to try them all, just to cool down.

Snowcones change the color of your tongue...and they are yummy have an afternoon at the pool. ;-)

All of these photos were taken with my hipstamatic app on my iPhone. I'm addicted.

Hello! I took a little adventure out to Arizona last week to visit my brother and I didn't have an internet connection beyond my iPhone...it was a major technology vacation for me. It was really nice to read, lay by the pool, and spend quality time with my family.

I have so much to share later this week! For now, check out my Death Valley blog post over on the Birds of a Feather Blog. Also, check out my posts from last week here and here.

Happy Monday!!

p.s. It is about to storm....I am getting caught up on the Bachelorette....and I went to Zumba for the first time tonight!