Sproing!

Check out my oh-so-Springy nails! I decided I was sick and tired of waiting for Spring to get here, so Wednesday I painted these bad boys up with pretty little cherry blossoms. My toes match, too, and (despite the 40 F temps) I wore my flip flops for the first* time this year.

The main polishes are from Julep’s Maven box, which I tried out for the first time this month. I got the Bombshell Box, which had this gorgeous almost-red fuschia color and the pretty gold-leafy color you see there. I’ll be honest, the Maven box is a little pricey for me, but the polishes go on really nicely and lasted without chipping a couple of days on me (which for me is a lot). I’m skipping this month, but will keep an eye on future boxes to see what they’ve got. (Full disclosure: if you click that linkie and sign up, I get reward points.)

Since Wednesday, I have been wearing skirts and flip flops and driving with the sunroof open and — most importantly — have gotten my annual Spring sinusitis. I declare Spring officially sprung!

* Okay, technically the second, but that one day when I was sick and had to take the kids to school and didn’t have the energy to put on my boots doesn’t count. Man, did I get some looks that day.

The Taste of Summer

Summer is my favorite season, no questions asked. I love the sunshine and heat and warm nights and cooling off in the pool or the ocean and especially, I love the fresh fruit. We live in a fabulous modern age of strawberries in February, but they are truly not the same as the strawberries of July, plucked fresh off the plant, nor are the peaches you buy in January anything like summer’s fresh peaches so ripe they practically burst when you bite into them, dripping sticky juice down your chin no matter how fast you eat. And fresh summer cherries, sweet and firm and plump, the perfect size to pop into your mouth – I can eat a pound at a time (and have, but I don’t recommend this…you’ll have a tummy ache). The downside is, I get so excited about all the fresh fruit that I end up buying more than I can possibly eat before it spoils.

So when I found myself with some peaches and cherries that were getting close to passing over from perfectly ripe to rotten mush, I decided something must be done. And then I decided that something was a cherry-peach cobbler. I used my go-to cobbler recipe, only instead of berries, I used the peaches (sliced to about 1/8”, not peeled) and cherries (halved and pitted). The result is a delicious summery cobbler, fantastic as a breakfast treat or as a dessert…especially delicious under a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Delish.

Found It on the Internet Friday #9

Love, love, LOVE these skirts! The ease of a circle skirt without the bulk at the waistband/belly area (because really, who wants that?). So far I’ve made two, with two more cut out and ready to be sewn. This one is totally my favorite:

Clearly, this one make me feel fun and saucy.

I also have one that’s a little longer, made of the same solid red that’s the waistband on this one. The two to make are a purple raw silk and another print, this one with a black waistband. And I’m sure there will be more when those two are done…these are so easy to make and look great on. The one big change I made is that I didn’t bother with the buttonhole. Not because I was being innovative, but because I couldn’t find my buttonhole foot for either of my sewing machines. I’m not fond of sewing buttonholes by hand, so I tried the all-but-buttonholed skirt on and found that it looked great just twisted over (where the inside edge meets the top, bring the bottom sash end up over the top and just keep wrapping). Since that made the skirt even easier, I plan to keep doing them that way.

• Original idea found at Simple Simon & Co.
• Additional useful tutorials at Made, Ruffles and Roses, and Bored and Crafty