summer scenes

prescott farm in middletown, rhode island

todd oldham's kid made modern line of watercolor paints from target

a friend's birthday party at the beach

k+r with some treat action

and to balance out the treats, some fruit action

more books from the book sale in maine

summer salads

i have been trying to round up a bunch of go-to salad recipes to make life easier in the summer. these require very little oven use so sharpen your knives and get ready for some healthy ingredients. these have been my favorite so far this summer. do you have any that you want to share? would love to hear what your favorites are.

1. the best pasta salad recipe from jamie oliver.

2. chickpea, feta, and parsley salad.

3. quinoa and shrimp salad with lemon vinaigrette.

4. summer's last hurrah panzanella.

5. white bean salad.

6. broccoli salad.

7. beet, orange and feta salad.

image by david loftus for jamie oliver.

travelogue. san telmo museum. san sebastian, spain.

contrasts. old and new. delicate and rough. colors opposite on the color wheel. european cities are brimming with contrasts. the san telmo museum in san sebastian, spain is an example of one of these contrasts. the new addition to the museum was a joint effort between nieto sobejano architects and the artists leopoldo ferrán and agustina otero. the 16th century structure now features a cutting edge building extension made from aluminum panels and a green wall that invites growing vegetation to sprout. 

josh and i couldn't decide if the architecture was more potent during the day or night. the perforated holes danced with light at dusk and during the day the green vegetation was in stark contrast to the grey aluminum walls. 

read more about our trip to spain and france last fall here. and more about san sebastian here, here, and here.

blog love

i'm sure you are all ten steps ahead of me in terms of discovering design/lifestyle/inspirational blogs. but, i wanted to share and give props to some of the blogs that i have been reading lately. 

design tripper/ explores the intersection of travel and design. 

eye swoon/ creativity. food. design.

the wilder things/ new england gal. design. antiques. fashion.

simply classy me/ argentinian woman living in chile. inspirational photos.

kate lewis/ a painter and mom. follow her through her painting process.

design skool/ musings on design. personality not perfection. 

nordic design/ scandinavian design, interiors, architecture and lifestyle. 

la la lovely/ lifestyle blog focused on motherhood and design. a fun midwest mom with four cuties.

photo from meghan mcewan for designtripper.

eye candy

photo by william abranowicz for la times magazine. home of dewey+stephanie nicks.

sculpture by henk visch titled 'ships at sea' via style carrot.

my all time favorite blogger, joslyn taylor of simple lovely's house that i adore

festive and lovely felt garland by erin dollar on etsy

love the simplicity and sophistication of this entryway. via it's a wild world.

some design candy to lead you into the weekend. simple, yet intricate work and design caught my eye. hope you enjoy!

thank goodness the heat has expelled. rain has moved in and you know what that means. i get on a cleaning kick. so organizing toys and getting rid of stuff is on the agenda. not that exciting, but it needs to get done. 

hope you find some peace and relaxation this weekend. you surely deserve it.

painted rocks

martha stewart multi-surface satin acrylic paint from michaels and paint brushes

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rocks we stole collected from the beach

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beautiful painted rocks

some summer crafting with my twin girls who are three. they really got into this. easy. simple. and hours of entertainment when we were beating the 90 degree heat earlier this week.

this weekend

hope you all are doing well and having a good summer! we are trying to enjoy the small moments this summer. dance parties after dinner. reading library books on the couch. outdoor concerts when the hot sun of the day has passed. eating fresh vegetables from our organic c.s.a. finding a great bossa nova jazz radio station. 

this weekend we headed to tiverton four corners for the cultural survival fair. we found some goodies. ate yellow curry while listening to the music made from a didgeridoo.  on saturday afternoon we had fun at a friend's house while the girls 'slipped and slid'. on sunday we headed to the kite festival at brenton point.

hope you have a great week!

celebration for josh

when we were in maine, my sweet parent's surprised josh (my husband) with a  dinner in honor of him passing all the landscape architecture exams. he is officially a licensed landscape architect. if you have a significant other or a friend that is an architect-you know that it's like jumping through hoop after hoop to fulfill all the state requirements and get a p.l.a. after your name. 

jonah's crab claws with curry sauce and cocktail sauce outside with adult beverages and cornhole. and then the party was moved inside because the mosquitoes were biting up a storm for a lobster dinner and a lemon cake bomb. and boy was that the best cake i have ever had. i think we all had leftovers for breakfast the next day.

i am so proud of josh. he is such a hard worker. the most creative  person i know. and makes me laugh so hard. and while he was working full time and studying his tail off for all the exams the last couple of years, he never neglected the girls. he would come home after studying at the library in time to put them to bed, tuck them in and read them story after story. i love him more and more each year i am married to him. so cheers to josh!

book sale finds

we got back from maine on sunday night and i have so much inspiration from that area. lots of artists, fresh seafood and locally grown food, creative shops and a killer landscape that i could stare at all day long. we stayed at a friend's home in port clyde, maine. port clyde is the southernmost town on the st. george peninsula in the midcoast of maine. it's about two hours north of portland, maine and about a two hour drive to bar harbor, maine. you may recognize marshall point lighthouse (seen in my last post) as the lighthouse tom hanks ran to in the movie, forrest gump. port clyde has a general store, a little beach and lots of fir trees. 

we took day trips to many towns around port clyde. one of the best things about vacations is having down time to explore. on one of our day trips we saw signs all over rockport, maine advertising a book sale. i am such a sucker for a book sale so we followed the signs and ended up at a huge recreational center. the book sale was in the hockey arena. i was in heaven! it was the largest book sale i have ever been too. needless to say we spend hours in there and found some vintage books,  books for the girls and even some records for my brother. they even had homemade cookies for the girls to eat while josh and i looked around. above are some of our finds.it's all about the covers and the graphic design of those covers.

maine.

i'm going to give it a go on some creative writing:

maine. she's like a woman who ages gracefully. with flowing gray hair. no cosmetic surgery. laugh lines and wrinkles that add to the character of her face. not manicured. but timeless and unpretentious. no glitz or glam. she's free from boundaries. her fir trees are aplenty. her islands are isolating yet evocative. painterly. and raw. she's not about show. she just is. 

travelogue. barcelona, spain. part three.

wanted to share some more photos from the trip my husband and i took to spain and france last fall. these are from barcelona, spain. barcelona is full of energy, color, tapas, and design. it's so hard to pick just a couple out, so hope you enjoy.