Summer "To-Do" List

These are things that I would like to do by the end of the summer. And by end of summer, we'll say end of August since summer seems to linger here in Florida.

play my guitar on a regular basis

set up my office

make something useful with my sewing machine

get up early at least twice a week

start riding my bike again

start taking more pictures with something other than my phone
{hinges on finding my camera}

start journaling again

read CBR {Community Bible Reading} more consistantly

meet together with friends on a regular basis

That should be good for now. I'll keep you posted on how things are going!

What I Wore Wednesday {Week 7}

Today's What I Wore Wednesday is brought to you by hair items!

I promised you some more pictures from the Women's Retreat and here they are!

Friday night:


{Make your own ice cream Sunday bar!}
Flower from Thirty-One Gifts

Sunday morning:


Flower headband from Target

From St. Augustine:


Rose hairclip from Claire's

Aaannnddd...drumroll please...from today:


My new headband from "oh, sweet joy!"

Holly-dog and I enjoyed the beautiful afternoon on the swing for a while!


That's all for now. Off to rehearsal!

Busy, busy, dreadfully busy

In the last month, my life has been crazy. Let's see...

Easter weekend we had 2 surprise birthday parties for the same awesome person! Below is a picture from the 2nd party. It was a 1950s theme.



Then, of course, it was Easter morning! We had two services and got to play some great music.


Easter Morning


Me & Ben

We also had Easter dinner with some fabulous friends.

The following weekend was our church's Women's Retreat on Clearwater Beach. I worked on the folders for the Retreat:


In Process


Finished Product!

It was a great retreat. I spent Saturday afternoon looking at this:



I also brought along some of my favorite items from some of my favorite shops:


Covered Notebook from The Pleated Poppy & Blue Floral Travel Mug from Monogram Chick

{I'll post some more pics from the Retreat tomorrow with a "What I Wore Wednesday" post.}

The weekend after that we went to ANOTHER surprise {belated} birthday party for a friend who was back in town. It was Mayfaire weekend here in Lakeland. Ben & I went down to Lake Morton on Saturday morning and took Holly-dog with us. She had a great time.


Ben & Holly-dog

We ran into our friends, Patty and Mickey, when we were about halfway around the lake and she let me borrow her hat since they were leaving and she didn't want me to burn myself. I need to find a hat like hers...




That night, Ben & I went back down to Lake Mirror for the Festival of Arts & Athletes. It was a beautiful evening and we had a great time, even though we didn't stay too long.


Lake Mirror at Sunset

The next day was Mother's Day and we went to Orlando to take my mom and aunt (& dad and brother) out to dinner.

This past weekend we went to St. Augustine with a group of friends for the Woodmen of the World Florida Jurisdictional Conference. We are all in the lodge together. Friday night, we went to dinner at the Creekside Dinery. {I'm borrowing some of these pictures from my wonderful friend, Gretchen, who actually knows where her camera is.}


Creekside Dinery (courtesy of Gretchen)


Me & Laura (courtesy of Gretchen)


Allie & Jen (courtesy of Gretchen)

We stayed at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine. Here are some views from the condo we stayed in and the hotel where the conference was:


From the front of the condo


From the balcony (through the screen)


From the pool at the hotel

On Saturday afternoon, all 9 adults and 3 kids braved downtown St. Augustine only to get stuck in a thunderstorm. It was still beautiful, though.



That night, we had a banquet that was a 1920s-1940s theme. I only have one picture from that night. I wish that I had gotten one of me & Ben, but this one of me and sweet Amelia is pretty great!


(Credit to Gretchen again, in more ways than just the picture taking!)

So, that's what I've been up to and why I've been hiding from the blogosphere. I've actually been out DOING things! Who knew?!?