Olympian Olymics

Normally my Olympic viewing consists of the opening ceremonies and a few of my favorite events (gymnastics and diving) but I've been really into it this year and have had the tv on in the background for most of the weekend. Obviously I'm cheering for team USA, but I really like watching the medal ceremonies where the athletes are just so excited and happy while their national anthem is played. It just makes me want to yell "go world!"

I found this fun Olympic themed Grant Snider comic via Automatism and I had to chuckle.

Modern American Girl - Meet Molly

We're already at the end! I can't believe there's only 5 more Modern American Girl sets to go. I'll have to think of what to do next. I'm thinking either Boxcar Children or Chronicles of Narnia - 1 set for each character. But I'm open to options and requests!

Ah Molly. I had mixed feelings about her as a kid. I loved her stories and her as a character, but she didn't have the pretty dresses and hair like the other dolls.  It's funny, I actually loved her stories more as I grew older and became more of a World War II buff. In fact, I happily re-read these all in college when I took a WWII history class.

 I decided to make Molly a hipster. I don't know why, it just sort of happened and I kind of love the idea. An American 40s hipster. Who wears stars and stripes (ok so that was really because the Olympics are starting tomorrow, but hey it works). Or maybe she's a Captain America fan girl. I was thinking about doing a hula costume since in this book they dress up for Halloween before her brother Ricky soaks their costumes with a hose and ignites a whole sibling rivalry ending with a shower of underwear, but I decided against it. Sigh, these books are great.

See all Felicity

See all Josefina

See all Kirsten

See all Addy

See all Samantha

Life Lately

It seems like life has been pretty crazy since we got back from the honeymoon, but here's a few snapshots of the little and happy things in life!

Came home from work one day to find these beauties in the bathroom. Yay for surprise flowers from the husband!

I can't get over this peace, tomato, and avocado salad. I've been using the leftovers as a salsa/sauce for grilled chicken, fish, and pretty much anything I can. 

Kace and I got Chinese take out the other day (one of my favorite things ever) and watched old episodes of Psych on Netflix. It was fantastic. A little relaxing at home without worrying about what needs to be cleaned or organized was just what we needed.

My future brother in law has been in Wisconsin training for a new job, so we met up with him last weekend and visited Door County. We are now well versed in all the wineries of Door Country with free wine tasting :-)

Lastly, on Friday I took a trip to Chicago for work, and what's a visit to Chicago without stopping for Garrett's Popcorn?! Madness, I tell you!

I'm linking up with Life Lately over at The Weekend File today, so stop over and visit those fabulous ladies who have joined in as well.

Perfect Summer Salad

I have a tendency to go crazy bookmarking every site I think is cool/informative/useful for future reference and then never going back to look at them. While cleaning out my bookmark menu, I found this New York Times list of Simple Salads from a few years ago. I decided to make #2 - Tomato, Peach, and Onion salad, topped with lime juice, cilantro, and olive oil.

I decided to add an avocado (because what goes better with cilantro and lime?) that I had on hand and added few shakes of hot sauce.

It was incredibly easy to prepare. Cut the tomato, peach, and avocado into chunks. Slice the onion into thin strips and chop the cilantro. Toss in a bowl. 

Drizzle some olive oil, lemon juice, and lime juice over the top and mix well. Add some red pepper flakes or a few shakes of hot sauce for a little extra heat. The result is a perfect blend of sweet, savory, and spicy, with the flavors complimenting each other wonderfully. (Bonus, if you have leftover salad, blend it into a salsa. It's amazing as a sauce on grilled chicken!) This tomato, peach, avocado salad is definitely a new summer staple in our house. 

Modern American Girl - Changes for Samantha

How awesome is this coat? Unfortunately it's Burberry, so it's millions and millions of dollars. Or something like that - either way, this lady isn't buying it anytime soon so instead I'll have to drool over it in this set.

In the last of the Samantha books, she gets to be really awesome and sneak Nelly and her sisters out of an orphanage and into her uncle's house. I thought the whole thing was pretty cool - hiding people in upstairs bedroom, sneaking out of a scary orphanage under the eye of the mean headmistress lady, AND buying real roasted chestnuts from a street vendor. This was huge. I mean, chestnuts roasting on an open fire? But in real life? How awesome is that!? Anyway, now that cloaks/capes/caplets are back in, I may try to make a version of this to wear around and be awesome.

See all Felicity

See all Josefina

See all Kirsten

See all Addy

Neon Trees

shirt: Target, shorts: American Eagle, shoes: Toms

sunglasses: Ray-Bans, bracelets: Forever 21, purse: Nordstrom 

Last Hawaii post, then back to real life. On one of our last days in Maui we explored Lahaina and explored the giant banyan tree. This park is so cool, it's a square block that started out as one tree. Over the years it grew and the branches reached all the way to the ground, becoming stems themselves. The whole square looks like a forest, only it's all one tree! So cool.

Life's been pretty hectic lately. It seems like all I've been doing is spending long days at work and attempting to clean and organize my messy apartment. As soon as I get one room organized another one becomes a disaster zone. I think we're just moving boxes from one room to another hoping they'll disappear. I'm rather tired of it so I gave myself a deadline and will have everything done by this weekend!

We say Aloha

Are you sick of Hawaii posts yet? No? Oh good me neither! Seriously though, this is one of the last, I just wanted to share some highlights that didn't fit in with an outfit post. 

Perfect sunny days and ocean waves

Exploring the giant banyan tree in Lahaina 

Chilling at poolside bars

SO MUCH good food

Cinnamon buns for breakfast? Don't mind if I do!

Gorgeous pools and sunsets

Gelato!!! 

Courtesy of Kacey - our last breakfast

Ocean view sunsets and wine from our patio. Why did I come home???

This is why we can't have nice things

shirt: H&M, skirt: LC Lauren Conrad for Kohls, sandals: Asos, bacelets: Forever 21 and Aerie

Back to Hawaii for this post! I love this shirt so much that I decided to feature it again and dress it up a bit. Funny story about this night in Maui. We went to a fancy pants restaurant for happy hour and tried to pretend we were classy but just ended up making fools of ourselves. Unfortunately for us, we ended up having to leave our table and move to the bar (after already eating the bread and drinking the water in the glasses), spilling drinks all over the place, and generally mortifying ourselves in front of the staff who were laughing at us. Luckily, once we were at the bar we chatted with the bartenders and witnessed a customer throw a hissy fit because his table wasn't sufficiently in the shade. By the end of the night we congratulated ourselves on being completely forgotten by the staff as they gossiped about this other guy, and decided never to return lest they realize what frauds we were. Instead we walked down to the beach and saw our first real Maui sunset, which made things a whole lot better!

Aquamarine

{1, 2, 3, 4}

I've mentioned this before, but I just love aquas of all shades. I'm trying to find an old console or table to paint minty aqua and turn it into a tv stand for our new place. I did some major cleaning today and I'm quite proud of myself. We can actually walk through the living room without banging into boxes, hurrah! Wine and chocolate to celebrate! That's what people do when they accomplish major cleaning, right? Can we make that a thing? I think that needs to be a thing.

Modern American Girl - Samantha Saves the Day

This post had pretty good timing this week with the 4th of July being yesterday, wouldn't you say? True, this isn't exactly patriotic (where's Molly when you need her?) but it's still nautical themed, so uh close enough right?

In this book, Samantha gets to be pretty awesome and actually saves someone's life. I never exactly understood why she wore a white long sleeved dress to climb around an island in, but times were different back then. I thought this book was so cool - they went to a hidden island and explored, but then almost died in a boat accident exactly where her parents had died. I don't think I fully realized that until I was a bit older but wow, how's that for scary? But they made it through and saved the day, so it was all ok.

On a happier note, I found this dress and thought it was too perfect to pass up for this set. I still don't think I'd choose a white dress if I was going to be in a rowboat and exploring, but let's just say she's in the Hamptons and was wearing her swimsuit and just threw this on as a coverup. That's believable, right?

See all Felicity

See all Josefina

See all Kirsten

See all Addy

Happy Fourth of July

Source

Happy 4th of July! I hope everyone has a fantastic day. I'm going to be relaxing on the lake, eating, drinking, and watching the fireworks. What is everyone else's plans?

Fresh From The Sea

Sadly the honeymoon came to an end and I'm back at work and real life today. I have a few more Maui posts, but I want to drag them out a bit - it makes me think that I'm still on that wonderful island.

Mama's Fish House in Paia 

View from our table

Desserts - normally my favorite part but everything was delicious! 

One of our favorite memories from Maui was going to Mama's Fish House in Paia. This place is widely known as the best seafood restaurant on Maui and was easily our favorite place to experience. Mama's is located on this amazing stretch of beach and we could enjoy it all from our table. My friend's brother-in-law is a sous chef there and he treated us like kings. After some amazing shrimp appetizers we had the main course (ono fish and duck - both delicious) and somehow found room to put away a dessert or two. The staff even found out it was our honeymoon and brought me a lei! This was seriously the best dining experience I've ever had - and we finished off the lunch with a tour of the kitchens (so cool!!) and a walk down by the beach. I already wish I could go back!