In the heat wave we've been having dinner on our upper deck. It makes an everyday dinner feel like a party! I'm about to get out of the city for a while and live a quieter life for a few weeks, visiting family up north. Be back mid-August!

The first blueberry pie of the season! My husband bought a ton of blueberries at the farmer's market yesterday, and after a very hot week, it cooled down enough to turn on the oven and make a pie.

It's been a slow month for blogging for me...I've just been busy doing other things (or doing nothing some days too, which feels great). In the super hot weather this week, I knit a hat. It was too hot to be in my studio, so just knitting on the couch felt great. Now I'm a bit addicted again to knitting and will start another hat soon. I also got a new bike, a road bike, and it is so fast (compared to my old hybrid/mt. bike) that I am addicted to riding it, even in this hot weather.

Hope you all are enjoying summer and taking it slow as well (if that's your thing, of course). Thanks for reading even though I haven't been posting much...I will be back much more in the fall, and until then will try to post at least once a week.

It's been a hot week here in the city. My kids are away at camp and visiting grandparents and it's quiet here. I've been working away in my studio for long uninterrupted periods of time.
Lots of purple in the garden in July: hydrangeas and clematis.
Today: rain, making granola (changing up my old recipe a bit), sewing, reading...maybe a rainy walk.
Have a great summer weekend!

Maine = lobster = summer. On our last night, we sat by the ocean in Bar Harbor for dinner. Neat and tidy lobster rolls for my daughter and I and the real deal, full, messy lobster, shell and all for Charlie and Will.

Happy fourth of July to all who are celebrating this weekend!

We spent a sunny morning biking around the carriage trails in Acadia National Park, making a loop from Jordan Pond up to Eagle Lake, then Bubble Pond, then back down to the Jordan Pond House just in time for lunch. We got to sit on the lawn overlooking the lake having their famous popovers and tea. Really was a perfect day, even though the kids were not so much into the biking at first. Eventually, they did warm up and have a good time, but I'll be honest, the first hour there was lots of walking the bikes up hills and lots pleading and begging and cheerleading on our parts to just try riding the bike, please!! Well, no one promised family vacations would be easy and all's well that ends well, I say. A bit more on Maine tomorrow.

Also: Justine from Designskool featured our gray house on her blog this week. I love her take on it!

And: I'm thrilled to have my red stripe tote bag included in the Poppytalk Lookbook for July!

I've been away in Maine for the last couple of days vacationing on Mount Desert Island. We stayed in Acadia National Park, camping for a couple of nights. The weather started out as torrential rain for our six hour drive north, then tapered off to drizzle and fog for the next day. The last two days were sunny and glorious. But honestly, it was nice to see the island in both rain and shine. It's gorgeous either way. I'm feeling a tiny bit blue to be back in the city, and I think I will need another nature hit very soon! More Maine photos tomorrow....

I spent yesterday afternoon making jam. It took about a hour, maybe two tops. I didn't use a recipe with pectin or do the whole sterilizing/sealing jars thing figuring I'd only be making about 3 jars and they will be eaten in the next month or so...we used half of the first jar this morning if that's any indication!

I used a recipe from my favorite Gourmet cookbook (the huge one with the yellow cover if you're wondering), which is also available on-line here.

And then my favorite easy biscuits. So good with jam, but also can be used for strawberry shortcake. Similar recipe is here.

Yesterday my work was featured on Poppytalk! Thank you, Jan and Earl!