excuse me people, but 

SUMMER is officially HERE!!!!

we’ve had consistently fabulous weather this past week- and i’ve been enjoying every minute of it.

besides graduating from college (finally!! woohoo!!), i’ve had a beautiful picnic at the river, grilled on the bbq outside more times than i can count, started to notice my freckles and tan coming back, and discovered that gin, meyer lemon and rosemary make for pretty much heaven in a glass.

some other highlights:

-i’ve been doing a lot of crafty projects around the house lately, which i’ll try and show you later this week. excited to share with you!!

-now that school is over, wedding planning is in full affect. get READY.

-the lovely photos on this person’s flickr. 

-industry of one’s interview with amy merrick, who seems like the sweetest person and does such wonders with flowers and a vase.

-matchbook landscapes by krista charles, via miss moss. so many good ones!

-freshly dried oregano from my herb garden. can’t wait to use it on pizza.

-my best friend and i have been daydreaming about renting one of these by the amazing shelter co. 

-want to visit here in san francisco and here in portland (thanks halley!) ASAP

hope the beginning of your week is just dandy.

xo.

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i’ve been a lazy photographer lately, i know. 

that’s actually another item on my summer list, to pick up a camera and shoot everything i see. 

not just with my iphone, which i hate to admit i’ve been using too often for blog images on here.

it’s just so easy, you know? and although it could never, ever compare to film, sometimes i am surprised by the quality of the photographs i take with it. 

like this one from saturday.

lovely, right? 

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hey! it’s already friday, thank goodness for that.

i’m ready for the weekend…

i know i haven’t been posting on here as often as i should, but i’ve been gearing up for finals, which is next week and will be my LAST WEEK of school, FOREVER (unless I go to grad school, of course, but you get the point). 

and also, as usual:

so excited so excited soooo excited for summer!!

while we’ve been getting little “teaser days” of sunshine and warmth over here, i’ve already been discussing plans with friends and looking forward to crossing off some fun items on the annual summer “to-do list”. last summer, i managed to do a lot, but still, there were some things I just never got around to, and I’m determined to do them this time around.

one of those things is to put my bookmaking skills to good use and create my own wild herb/flower/foliage journal; something that will house the specimens that my friends and i plan to collect, dry and press, and hopefully name and learn about. 

as some may already know, i have a huge fascination with oddities and tiny treasures, be it crystals, feathers, pinecones, shells, bones, or anything of that nature….so the journal idea should come as no surprise, given my strange curiosity with small objects.

there are so many more things i want to tell you about that i plan to accomplish this summer (and that doesn’t include my wedding!). 

i would also like to share a bit of what has been inspiring me lately, which i think you’ll enjoy.

all this and more- next week, so if you promise to stick around then i promise not to disappoint. 

hope your weekend is filled with some fun in the sun.

xo

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i’ll be honest.

i’ve been avoiding this, writing on here i mean.

although i do talk about my life here, i think there are some things that i’d rather not share with anyone and everyone, things that are meant to be kept sacred. 

…but then some things are hard to ignore, and i feel like i need to address this before moving on. so here goes:

john’s father passed away recently. it was unexpected, and it was awful, and heart breaking. there was, and is, deeply felt sadness.

but there was lots of love too. and family. we flew back for the funeral, and it was unbelievable, the amount of people that were there to honor john’s dad.

so many people.

and not just family and friends, but others whose lives had been touched in some deep way by his existence. he managed to do that a lot. 

he was a man with a big personality, who loved life, and was continually generous to the people he loved. he was always that way with me, from the beginning, making me feel like family right away. i was really looking forward to calling him father-in-law.

he was greatly cherished, and he’ll be deeply missed. 

….and that’s all i’d like to discuss on this topic here. i’m ready to move forward and post some not-so-personal stuff. but it didn’t feel right to go ahead without mentioning it, without honoring a man worthy of honoring.

talk to you soon.

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