It's all about the seasons...

I love anything that celebrates all seasons, so imagine how tickled I was to get this set of mint condition vintage trays in the original box at an estate sale this weekend.I also spent some time finishing my spring mini-book before getting to much further into summer. Ever since doing my autumn book last fall, I try to do a small scrapbook for each season, capturing the highlights for myself and my family.

So many wonderful things this spring!

Yes, please....

With summer beginning I'm looking for some fun activities to do with the kids at home. Today we decided to make the "perfect lemonade". I found the recipe on Simply Recipes and it turned out....well, perfect! ingredients....
1 cup sugar (can reduce to 3/4 cup)
1 cup water (for the simple syrup)
1 cup lemon juice
3 to 4 cups cold water (to dilute)
method....
1 Make simple syrup by heating the sugar and water in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved completely.
2 While the sugar is dissolving, use a juicer to extract the juice from 4 to 6 lemons, enough for one cup of juice.
3 Add the juice and the sugar water to a pitcher. Add 3 to 4 cups of cold water, more or less to the desired strength. Refrigerate 30 to 40 minutes. If the lemonade is a little sweet for your taste, add a little more straight lemon juice to it.
Serve with ice, sliced lemons.
Serves 6.
The kids were very proud of their creation. So, how does it taste?
Yum! Yum!

P.S. With all the rain we've had the last few days, the garden is looking good. Here are how tall our sunflowers have grown. We started them from seed.

5 senses Friday: farmer's market edition

It's always fun to play along here with five senses Friday. Most of my images today are from our first trip this season to the farmer's market downtown Mpls. Sound: so glad to see this guy happy and giggling again. Things are much better now that daddy is back!
Taste: yummy sweet sugar snap peas. Smell: sticky sweet smell of fresh kettle corn.

Sight: walking to the park at the lake nearby.

happy faces.

beautiful plants.a little art making with the morning light shining in.

Touch: dry grass under my feet. we need rain bad!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Summer journal....

I'm having a fun time in Rachel's summer art journal class. I'm a huge fan of mini books and have found them the best way for me to keep up with my photos and my journaling. I'm such a theme based person that they're perfect. I've created books at the end of a season before to celebrate and document all that took place, but this is different. Below is my summer journal that I am beginning now, at the beginning. So I will scrapbook and journal as the season goes along. It won't be as much a reflection, but more in the moment.
So far we've stated our intentions for the season.
Followed by a list of things that surely must be involved if this summer is to be grand.

This is really getting me excited about the summer ahead and helping me to prioritize what is important. Even if that means just paying less attention to the time and more to where the sun is in the sky.

What a summer it's going to be!

Worlds away....

We looked at this old globe for days, drawing an imaginary line from Minnesota to Japan. I'm happy to say that my husband made it home safe and sound from his 10 day trip. He went for his tai jutsu training. That explains why it's been a bit quiet around here. I've been holding down the fort, along with lots of help from my parents. Thanks mom and dad! Now we have images from that far off land. I love seeing photos of places that feel worlds away. So much imagery to take in and fresh perspective. Hope you enjoy them as well!

From temples to perler beads...a little bit of everything. I found these images so inspiring.
Kashiwa

Kamakura Tokyo dome in Suidobashi

Coffee and Booze?!?


beautiful gardens



glimpses of Tokyo

So glad to have him back home!