hello weekend

Happy Friday, peeps! (Remember when people said 'peeps'? Do people still say 'peeps'?!) I feel like I accomplished a lot this week and it's such a good feeling. Don't you love that? We're getting ready to launch a new ministry for high school girls at church and there's so much to do to prepare! I can't wait to get started on it all. More work on that this weekend, for sure. It's turning out to be hot and humid today, so we're semi-hibernating inside next to two fans right now, and we have plans to visit the Children's Museum tonight with Matt. Then tomorrow some friends are getting married at Goddard Park...  I can't wait to get dressed up! What are your plans for the weekend? 

- don't have long hair? make a fishtail braid bracelet instead!
- you can make your own ice cream cart. for reals.
- I love downloading new free fonts
- get yourself to a post office to buy these pretty stamps
- more pretty (and free!) iPhone wallpapers (and no, I still don't have one)
- some pretty cool printables for kids, via How About Orange
- you might find these grocery shopping tips to be helpful
- what a cool graphic of this Audrey Hepburn quote
- I want to make my own painted canvas sketchbook
- temporary tattoos are pretty old school but these authentic looking ones make me want to order myself a set

Have a good one!

image by me, from a recent playground visit - look for a guide to the best toddler friendly playgrounds in Rhode Island soon!

tea with Rose | Teavana

Our tea tour continues, this time at Providence Place. We'd been to Teavana a couple times before and knew we had to include it here... with so many choices there's something to please everyone. Just look at all those tins!

As I've mentioned before, I almost exclusively drink herbal tea so when the girl working at Teavana asked what I'd like I told her that I wanted something caffeine free. She informed me that rooibos tea blends don't contain caffeine, and that she had actually just brewed a new blend for one of the store samples - citrus lavender sage combined with opus rouge rooibos. One sip and I was sold. 

I forgot what http://telloandrose.wordpress.com/ chose, so you'll have to read her take on Teavana right here. 

After we made our purchases we had to stop at J.Crew to do a little shopping. Ezra and Hillary hid out behind some pants while I browsed above them.

While these Vans were a little big for Ezra, he definitely proved that he can rock them. 

Note to self: will have to pick up a pair when he's a little bigger.

All in all, this was my favorite stop on the tea tour yet. I may even head back to Teavana to get myself a couple ounces of tea to brew at home, and at about $10 an ounce, that's saying something. I'm already looking forward to our next cuppa.

brownies and bananagrams | date night at home

Hello all! How was your weekend? Ours was nice - not too hot like last week, but now we're getting hit with a major thunderstorm. Matt was supposed to shoot an engagement session but it has to be rescheduled, so I'm thinking an indoor date night is just the thing for us to do tonight. Here's what we'll need...

a candle for mood lighting / cream soda / music, preferably Little Broken Hearts 

bananagrams / brownies, the most important thing of all (besides Matt)

How do you make a night at home special?

hello weekend | a few links + the weekly menu

It's been a hot one so I haven't been blogging much... not sure exactly how those two things correlate, but I think that's the reason things have been slow over here. I hope to get back in the swing of things soon. A few things are going to change around here though - I hope to have a slight redesign completed in the near future and I'm going to devise some sort of summer schedule that I can stick to. Also, the menu of the week posts shall be no more... I'm still going to write about food from time to time and may even do a menu post once in a while, but I've found that writing about what we eat each week for five or so months in a row gets a bit boring. I know it's not Monday, but here's the last one for a while - 

black bean and butternut squash burritos - We love any combination of black beans and orange veggies. 

spaghetti with braised kale - Simple, and the kale brings up the health factor since you're eating plain pasta.

crepes with goat cheese, wilted spinach, and toasted pine nuts - I declare my first time making crepes a smashing success. Just be careful of keeping the heat too high... I had to turn the burner down a bit to get good results.

falafel pita pockets - Another first for me, and they came out great, too! The falafel mixture was easy to prepare and they cooked quickly. Definitely serve with yogurt - so refreshing! Along with all the fresh veggies, of course (we had sliced yellow peppers, shredded carrots, green lettuce, and cucumber rounds).

shrimp scampi over couscous - A nice twist on a classic. My recommendation: use fresh shrimp, not frozen... the flavor is so much better!

And the link list to get you through the weekend, whether it's a heat wave or thunderstorms. I'm hoping for some of each. Okay, well maybe not a heat wave, but warm weather with some scattered showers would be nice... 

- how to host a tea party
- a popsicle party is in the works!
- super cute birth announcement
- such a cool mood board... love that Orla Kiely print
- making playdough will be a fun project when Ezra is a little older
- loving this round up of neon accessories
- have you ever made root beer? (I have!)
- I wish we had something like this around here!
- happy thoughts on getting dressed
- lovers of fabric, take note - inspiration from Denyse Schmidt
- just put visiting a peony farm on my life's to do list
-  a picnic on the first day of summer is a tradition I can get on board with

image via Seven Eleven Studios

go fly a kite | Brenton Point, Newport

Have you ever flown a kite? I only have a few times but Matt and I want to find a great kite flying location so we can go this summer with Ezra. Brenton Point in Newport is one of my favorite picnic spots and it's always full of tons of people flying kites. There's even a kite festival there every summer... I think we'll check it out this year. We'll be the ones flying a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles kite :)

image by Paul Octavious via 20 x 200