Best of Summer - Our Favorite Projects

Even though there are a few weeks of Summer left, September is here and our thoughts are turning towards Fall.  Before we jump into layered ensembles and pumpkin spice everything, we want to celebrate all of the fun things we did over the warmer months.  We had SO much fun creating new recipes, cocktails, and DIY projects this Summer so here is a quick recap of some of our favorites:

A backyard picnic with DIY fry cones and mason jar table settings // Three delicious recipes for homemade vinaigrette // Our favorite ways to serve a gin cocktail // We love summer tomatoes- especially like this or this // A sparkler photo tutorial

A Summer fave- Hair Chalk DIY // Summer camp inspired crafts like thread-wrapped arrows and twigs // Rope-knot friendship bracelets // Colorful bobby pins // Free-form pesto that can be frozen and saved for the Fall and Winter

Summer flew by too quickly but we'll soon be enjoying backyard bonfires and have a whole new set of projects inspired by the coming season so stay tuned!

Roasted Tomato Spread

When we were given the Roma tomatoes I froze for later, we were also given a gallon bag of cherry tomatoes.  Secret:  we're not huge fans of raw tomatoes at my house.  We love all sorts of tomato-based foods, but the texture weirds us out.  To deal with the second gallon of tomatoes, I followed the advice over here and roasted the bag of cherries.  I halved and deseeded (the texture thing) the tomatoes, added several cloves of garlic that hadn't been peeled, and tossed them with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  I then roasted them at 325 for 45 minutes.  After 45 minutes I put everything into my mortar and pestle, removing the papers from garlic first.  I smashed everything up and stored in a jar.  We've been eating it with tiny mozzarella pearls spread on fresh bread. 

Why | What | Wear Back to School

You may have noticed our absence this week and as Liz shared last week we've gone back to school!  The first week of teaching is always a little crazy and we are working on finding that balance between work and play, but we've got some more fun stuff to share with you this week- so stay tuned.  In the meantime, here are some things I'd love to have and wear as I head back to school for the fall.

bag// chair// necklace// top// pants// clips// shoes// dress// glasses// 

Lately. Week 5.

Hello!  Kat and I both went back to our fall-through-spring jobs of being high school teachers, but we've missed you this week.  We'll be back next week with new projects and posts, but until then check out what we did to celebrate the end of our summer and get back to work.

1/Marlowe was lovely enough to have us to her lake house. 2/Short pants on stone beaches 3/Making garden-fresh salsa.

4/Allison had us over for a ladies' craft night. 5&6/Skiis and sing-along at the lake house.

7/Making fresh spaces. 8/Welcoming great new friends to the world.

We're so excited to be celebrating our friends (new and old) and looking forward to what this fall is going to bring.  Say hello in the comments and let us know what you're looking forward to in this season change.

What To Give: Birthday Brother

Today our little brother is turning 22!  I can't really say little anymore since in the last few years he has far out-grown all of us girls and moved to the big city.  He's coming to town tonight for a birthday dinner and I can't wait to celebrate with him!

We wanted to start a new series on gift-giving for the special people in your lives so I thought today would be the perfect time to start.  Today's What To Give edition is for the quirky, younger brother in your life who has the best taste in movies, used to want a pet penguin, and makes it hard for you to pick grown-up gifts for. 

We'd love to shower our brother with all of these gifts!  Solid cologne by Aromi/ Faux Bison Skull Taxidermy/ The Stargazers Painter Pocket Tshirt/ Wes Anderson Movie Posters by Ibraheem Youseef/ Dinosaur Planter and Air Plant

Happy Birthday Andrew!! xoxo