Thursday, June 4, 2015

It's Here!! Summer Lovin' 2015

Happy Summer, Friends! 



Well, it's cold and rainy today in Northern Virginia so this picture of the sun that I found on The Google is the best I can offer.  The real sun is supposed to show up again this weekend which would be helpful because the image above might be copyrighted which  means a possible lawsuit, I suppose. That probably wouldn't make for an ideal start to the summer..

It seems that I completely skipped a Spring Lovin' post because during the spring I don't have time to love anything much except for baseball. The Cliff Notes version of a Spring Lovin' 2015 post would list oxiclean, smelly cleats and yelling, DID YOU LOOK NEXT TO THE FRUIT BOWL? when searching for someone's cup.




(Oh, you thought I was just being "funny, exaggerating blogger girl"?  No, ma'am.  That is what I saw on the kitchen table last night when I got home.  Still Life Art by Drew Skinner 6-3-15)

Anyway, T minus thirteen school days until summertime.  No alarm clocks.  No homework.  And blessedly, no more packing lunches.

And the people said, "Amen, Hallelujah. Crank up the margarita machine."

Here are some of my favorite things for Summer 2015.

Summer Tote
For me, a purse for the summer has to have essentially two criteria.  It must be big enough to hold everything I might need for an entire day which includes but is not limited to a snack, 1-2 diet Cokes, a water bottle, 2-3 bottles of sunscreen, hairbands, a hat, an epipen, sunglasses, bug spray, deodorant, books, magazines, and sixteen different lip balms/glosses/sticks/what-have-you.   Secondly, it probably needs to be on the cheaper side because if somebody's goldfish crackers get soggy at the pool and stuck in the bottom of a Prada bag that can put a damper on a gal's day. 



The Sak Cambria Large Crochet Tote comes in a ton of different color/pattern options and is marked down to $59.40 from $99.00 which is some sort of percentage off that I don't feel like trying to figure out, but it sounds like a good deal.


This Multi-stripe Tote from Old Navy is on sale for $19.00.  It used to be $24.94.  I worked the math on my calculator for you and that comes to a savings of $5.94.  Not just $5.00.  You get a whole extra 94 cents.  Y'all, I believe that is called STICKING IT TO THE MAN.

Summer Lip Balm/Stick/Gloss/What-have-you

Clinique Black Honey Almost LipStick has been on all kinds of beauty must-have lists for as long as I can remember.  I am late to this particular party, but I bought it last week and I love it.  It's very sheer - so much so that at first you think it's clear, but after a few minutes, a subtle color shows up.  I think it's perfect for summer when you might not want a heavy color.



Summer Dress
Besides the fact that everyone loves a summer dress, for many people summer time means a whole mess of wedding showers and/or baby showers which require a cute summer dress.  The ship has sailed on those types of parties for me, but it seems that a new ship is arriving called the graduation party.  This makes me equal parts proud of my friends' children and confused because I promise you it was just yesterday that the moms on the block all met up to watch our first crop of neighborhood babies hop on the bus to Kindergarten.  Oh my gosh.  DO NOT BLINK, friends. DON'T DO IT.  And don't think about the fact that your very own first born is a mere 24 months away from graduation.  DEAR SWEET LORD.  DO NOT THINK ABOUT IT.  Just get back to the dress.




I bought this Triple Eyelet Shift Dress from JCrew in both black and white recently because I couldn't decide.  Drew chose the white, but Sister chose the black.  With all due respect to Drew's ability to match his Nike Elites to his Nike Shorts to his Nike shirt, I went with Sister's choice.  Also, my best friend's girl is going off to college and I need to be a strong, steady, rock solid support system for her.  A big mess of black mascara tears on my white dress would kinda blow that whole plan.


I'm a sucker for green any time of year so I really like the Verdant Garden Mini Dress from Anthropologie.

Espadrille Wedge Sandals


There are a gazillion options for espadrilles this summer with varying heel heights and price points.  I love these Adam Tucker Bethany multistripe sandals. I think these Toni Pons Lloret-5 wedge espadrilles above are my favorite though.   They come in taupe, red and black.  Toni Pons also makes these striped ones and they are awfully cute, too.


Summer Tunes
My ears have a gigantic crush on Ed Sheeran's music.  I think his new CD might be the perfect music for a summer night on the porch.  It's possible I watched his performance at the Grammys with John Mayer about five times.  Also, speaking of crushes, I think my whole self has a crush on John Mayer.

Farmer's Market



One of the best parts of every summer is the Farmer's Market.  I am determined to have my kids branch out in the vegetable department this summer.  They are not great with vegetables and I have to admit that due to some PTSD, I've not been good about encouraging them in awhile.  When Kyle was about 3 or 4 I told the pediatrician that it was really difficult to get him to eat vegetables.  The pediatrician's brilliant plan was to give Kyle a few minutes to name one new vegetable he would try that very night and if he couldn't come up with one, then the doctor would choose one and he had to promise to try it.  Kyle clamped his mouth shut and stared him down.  The doctor chose broccoli.

You wanna know what will scar a mom for quite some time and throw a wrench in her carefully laid plans to raise her children up with a deep love for locally grown produce?

Cleaning up a table full of broccoli vomit.

Anyway, in the ten years since that medically sound advice, I've done the best I can, but I have a renewed sense of purpose this year.  My friend, Elizabeth, has the most beautiful posts about the farmer's market and shares some amazing recipes.  I'm hoping to GO HERE frequently this summer.

So I think that's it, friends.  What are you lovin' for summer this year?  Leave a comment.  Leave a link.  Just no broccoli recipes, please.

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