Flowerpatch

I have been making all sorts of accessories throughout the summer and thought I would share with you all. (Those of you who have been in Boston with me all summer know of my obsession with crafting)  I just created a new blog  jlmflowerpatch.blogspot.com -----so check it out!

If you see something on there that you like but want in a different color, let me know. I love to customize to your hearts desire.

The Help

I just finished this book & I'm obsessed.  I've read several great books this summer (7 to be exact) and The Help is by far the best thing I've read all summer! Go buy it from Costco, rent it from the library, borrow it from me....you NEED to read this book. Seriously. Thanks CharLee & Andrea for reccommending it to me. Dave will be happy to have me back in reality instead of with my face stuck in this book!

i am a tourist

Meg (Dave's little sis) came to visit us last week and it was so fun to have her here. We drove to New Hampshire on Sunday and met up with friends from the office at Hampton Beach.

This picture pretty much sums it up....The girls standing around gabbing, while the boys are in the ocean playing with the football.

On Monday, or was it Tuesday? hmmm all my days are all mixed together out here. Anyway, another day we took the subway downtown where we wandered around the Boston Commons, the Public Gardens & of course made our way to all the shops on Newbury Street.  I think we spent the majority of our time in Marc Jacobs trying to decide which rain boots and umbrella to buy.  Don't worry, even the sales assistant started making fun of us for using the word "cute" WAY too may times. Well, they were CUTE what else does he want me to say!!!!

These are the ones I ended up buying. See. Cute. I know.

Later on in the week, we drove to Newport,  RI.  Of course it rained the ENTIRE day. At least we got good use out of the umbrellas. The town runs along the coast and is famous for the many "summer cottages".

And when I say cottage, this is what I mean....

We found a small little trail that lead to a lighthouse & I think I may have been more intrigued by these chairs randomly placed throughout the area.

 Castle Hill Lighthouse. And again, I was obsessed with these chairs.

 

The next Sunday we drove to Cape Cod and took the ferry over to Nantucket. In my opinion, Nantucket is a MUST! This was my second time on the island and it was just as great as I remembered.

And the Nantucket trip wouldn't have been complete without walking to the lighthouse on Brant Point.

Rockport

If you ever go to Boston, you for sure need to make the 45 minute drive to Rockport. Its the cutest little beach town just north of Boston. (I sound like a travel agent.) But first, Dave & I started our day with a BBQ with all the peeps from his office. Below is a picture of the pond in the park.  It reminds of a scene from The Notebook.

Then we drove to Rockport.  I did a little research on the world wide web and found out that several movies were filmed there, including Grown Ups & one of my favorites--The Proposal! Does this look like A-laskaa?  Well it's not,  it's good ol Rockport, Mass. Before filming, they put up fake pine trees to make it look like Alaska.

This dock with the red barn is in the movie a few times.

Remember the scene where "Margaret & Andrew" go into town to get her new phone and she needs to use the internet? They walk into the store & she puts the nickel into the machine and hears the old school internet dial tone. The computer was sitting in this corner where I am sitting. 

After strolling the streets we stopped and got some ice cream. We shared, but I ate 95% of it. What can I say, I like ice cream.

This kid (I mean my husband) works sooooo ridiculously hard. I am amazed by him every single day. I am so happy that Independence Day was on a Sunday this year so that he could have the day off and we could be together for the holiday.

Tacos al Pastor

A couple of months ago I was getting my oil changed and picked up the Southern Living magazine to pass the time.  I found a recipe for Tacos al Pastor  (which Dave is semi-obsessed with) and so I ripped it out of the magazine. I finally made it Monday night & it was muy delicioso, so I thought I'd share the recipe with you all. Don't let the list of ingredients discourage you, its really pretty simple to make. 

Ingredients: 

1 lb pork tenderloin, cut into 1/4 in cubes

1 (8 oz.)can pineapple tidbits in juice, drained 

1 medium onion, chopped

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 Tbsp. Mexican-style chili powder

1 tsp. ground cumin

1 tsp. ground oregano

1 tsp. pepper

1 tsp. chopped garlic

1 Tbsp. Canola Oil

6 - 12 soft corn tortillas 

Additional toppings: chopped jalapeno, grated cheese, fresh cilantro leaves, chopped radishes, lime & cucumbers (drench chopped cucumbers in fresh lime and let sit before serving)

Combine pork and first 9 ingredients in large zip lock plastic freezer bag. Seal & chill 4 to 24 hours. 

Cook pork mixture in hot oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, stirring often, 10 minutes or until pork is done. Serve mixture with warm tortillas & desired toppings. 

 

**This recipe doesn't taste EXACTLY like the authentic Mexican Tacos al Pastor because the meet does not come from the  flea infested streets of Mexico, my pans are washed with soap after every use & I wash my hands.  But if you want to try it the authentic way, go right ahead!   

June

Most of my days go something like this: wake up around 9AM, watch Ellen, go to the pool around noon, read a book for a few hours, watch the Kardashians give terrible advise to each other & fight over Bruce's credit card (ya I'm hooked to their ridiculous reality show), go for a walk, make dinner and then FINALLY Dave gets home around 10:00 PM. We try to do something fun on the weekends since that is the only time Dave doesn't have to work. A few weeks ago we went bowling New England Style. Its called candlestick bowling & its slightly different from regular bowling. #1. The pins are smaller #2. The bowling ball is more like a skeet ball #3. You bowl a total of 6 times per set #4. Its really HARD! We bowled 2 games & I only saw one person get a strike....in the entire bowling alley! (I might be exaggerating a little)



Since the beach in only 20 minutes from our apartment, the girls went to Revere Beach about two weeks ago.
As always, our hair looks amazing.
In my attempt to find a beach less crowded than Revere Beach, Dave & I went into South Boston to check out Carson Beach. It definitely was less crowded, but for good reason. The sand at the shoreline was more like mud, and there were crab shells all over! And so, the search for a nice private beach continues. I think we'll head to Maine this weekend.
Last Saturday, we went downtown into Little Italy and ate at the famous Mike's Pastry. I don't love pastries, so I got lemon gelato and it was perfect.

Boston Commons

On Saturday we took the subway to Boston Commons and wandered through the Public Gardens. Don't mind my frizzball hair in all the pictures...my hair will never cooperate in this humidity!

Entrance into the Public Gardens.

Trudi & CharLee. Their hair looks good.

And of course we had to go shopping on Newbury Street. So many fun shops. Too many people. I don't do large crowds in small spaces. It gives me anxiety.

We wandered down this street by accident while looking for a restaurant that the iphone app said was only a 5 minute walk. Well, that was 5 minutes in a car! 47 minutes by foot. Luckily we only walked 4 or 5 blocks before realizing our little mistake. I'm glad we walked down here though because I love these old neighborhoods.

Fenway

"Sweet Caroline....Da da da " I can't get that song out of my head after this weekends Red Sox game! Dave and I went to the Red Sox v. Royals game and had so much fun. Our seats were aMAZING - 3rd row - right by 3rd base

I made Dave walk all the way around the park just so I could get this picture. I hope I'm not the only annoying wife who drags her husband around just for the picture!?! I'm lucky Dave is such a good sport.

Bwaaastin

BOSTON here I am! Dave and I were apart for 1 month and I will NEVER do that again. I am so happy to be in Boston with my babe. Dave works all day while I go out and have all the fun. Yes I feel a little guilty, but not enough to make me stay home. On Saturday I went with a few of the girls downtown. We ate at a fun Mexi Restaurant called BORDERS. I will definitely be back! But I will remember to bring my parka and moon boots because it was freeeeeeeeeeeezing inside. We wandered around Harvard campus.

Trudi, Andrea, me & CharLee in front of the Harvard Library.

One of the many gates into Harvard.

I think this building is the City Hall, which doesn't make sense to me because it is within the gates of Harvard. Im sure I'll be back.

Charles River.

I love Boston and can't wait to do more exploring over the next few months!

1:21 AM Post

Well its me again. I keep going on this on-again-off-again relationship with my blogging. Maybe this time it will last longer than a couple weeks. In my defense, I have been BUSY...too busy. Dave left to Boston about a month ago and it feels so lonely in this house. (Side note: New York didn't work out and so he went to Boston instead. Strangely I'm really happy about the sudden change in plans.) In effort to keep my mind off him not being here I have tried to keep myself busy. Just a few things I've done:

Learned how to mow my lawn with a push lawn mower - luckily my neighbor walked out and helped me!

Used weed-b-gon to get rid of all the dandy lions

Dug up all the dandy lions by hand when the weed-b-gon didn't work

Finished painting Dave's office - Ceiling included

Painted an old dresser mustard yellow

Bought a new coat rack and painted it cream

Organized our closet

Bought fabric with Meg to make flowers galore!

Had the oil changed in Dave's car

Went to my little brothers prom

Swept out my garage

Oh ya...and working about 45 hours/week

my little baby brother

Jenny's Bridal Shower

Meg & I having too much fun in JoAnns

my trial run of flip flops I made

I cant wait to get out to Boston with Dave and do nothing at ALL! (oh ya and kiss and squeeze and love my husband that I haven't seen in almost a month!)

The Blue Box

Old armoire....

A few hours later.........Just like new!
Thank goodness for Anthropologie where I found my matching knobs.

Besides picking from the never ending wall of colors that show up completely different on your wall than on the sample, I love paint!