reading

I read a ton last week. It was the most that I have read in awhile . On Monday I started Love Walked In. Great book. Next was The Mercy of Thin Air. I loved it. On Friday I read The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, which was one of the most amazing things I have ever read.

I am currently reading Heat, and so far so good...

new york

We had a fun evening in NYC last night. I took the kids in and SJ met us at the path. We had the kids end of school dinner at a mexican place at the south street sea port. After it was a trip to SJ's office. The kids love seeing where he works. They also wanted to make sure he hung all of the pictures that they make for him. We looked at the amazing view for awhile and then made our way home.

beach

First beach trip of the summer was a success. Another trip planned for next week. Off to NYC later today to meet for dinner. The kids are excited and are looking forward to the train ride.

new

Last night I added a new set of cards in my etsy shop. I am planning to add at least one new set each day for the next few days. It is all new papers, and I love them all.

beds

I am getting close to the time when my flower beds reach their peak. Just a few more weeks...

zoo

Today I took everyone to the zoo. It was a perfect day for the zoo, warm and sunny but not hot. They had a blast. The zoo just got a new giraffe, Gus from Texas, and everyone wants to go back next week when he is brought out.

After the zoo I drove over to 19th and South. There is a great new fabric store, (opened earlier this year) Spool, that I wanted to stop in. Nothing is ever easy for me, that being said, they changed their hours and now are not open on Tuesdays. This kind of thing happens to me all the time. I am sure it will be another six months before I get a chance to even try and go back.

After the failed stop we went to the Reading Terminal for lunch. I love it there.

Whenever I go into the city I leave feeling sad and always wonder how I the heck did I wind up in the burbs?

ten

Things have started to pick up a bit for me on etsy. I have been busy working on new packs using all of the paper I recently bought. I am planning on adding a bunch of new packs over the next few days. Keep checking back.

weekend

We had a nice weekend. It was the first weekend in what seems like forever that we were not crazy busy. We went into Princeton and picked up some good sandwiches for a nice picnic at the Princeton battlefiled. We had a family game of kickball, boys against girls. We were planning to go into Philadelphia for dinner, but it got late, so we decided to just do an easy dinner at home.

We played a lot of tennis today and then went to friends for a casual bbq.

I have a busy week planned for the kids. Princeton for some shopping, a trip to the zoo and reading terminal for lunch, the beach, and into NYC.

spoiled

I think I am spoiling the kids. They eat well, I think better than most. They are starting to have high food standards.

I have tons of fresh sage in the garden so, last night for dinner I made them potato gnocchi (my favorite recipe is the one from Thomas Keller's French Laundry cookbook) with a brown butter sage sauce. Then they each picked what veggie they wanted to have from the garden. For dessert they had the strawberry ice cream that we made earlier in the day. Everything was a hit.

bread and jam

The jam came out well (it made a ton), but I thought everyone needed something to spread it on. So last night I made some oatmeal bread. I have been making it for the past few months. It is easy to make and really good. This morning the kids had slices warmed with butter and strawberry jam as a big treat. It was a hit!

strawberries

We went strawberry picking this morning. We came home with about 8 pounds of berries. About half will be eaten over the next two days, the rest will be made into strawberry ice cream and strawberry sauce for the french toast tomorrow morning.

production

It has been an amazing spring for our vegetable garden.

little girls

I wish they could stay little forever. They did a smashing job at their show.

recital

Off to the girls ballet recital tonight.

yart sale

Have you ever been to a yart sale? It is really easy, you do not even need to leave your house. Just click here.

from the garden

We had our first batch of peas yesterday. As is the case with a lot of the produce we grow, now made it into the house. The kids pick and eat them while they are playing outside. Hard to complain about that.

storm

We had a great storm last night. The sky was amazing. I sat outside and watched for as long as I could.

hot

It has been to hot here to do much of anything. I have not gotten much work done, i have not posted much. It is 90 degrees downstairs in the house, I do not even want to know what it is upstairs. We try to stay out of the house as much as possible.

this is a test

I am doing a test. I am trying to figure out if there is an ideal time to list on etsy. I am going to list an item every few hours throughtout one day and keep track of how many views they get.

fresh

Yesterday we finally had our first dinner with some produce from the garden.

etsy

Things are slow on etsy. I need to figure out a way to sell more there. Any ideas?