Discovery Garden @ Legion Park

This morning my nephew had a field trip to this small park in Hollidaysburg, and we were invited along. John and the girls hit the wonderful playground and I grabbed my phone and visited with some of my favorite northern summer flowers in the Discovery Garden. I love all the tropical foliage and flowers in my yard in Key West, but the flowers I saw today are old favorites, some of the first plants I purchased and planted when I made my own garden. I talked to some of the ladies volunteering their time to keep the garden in shape. They asked where I was visiting from and I said 'subtropical zone 11.' :)

Lavender

Bee Balm

Honeysuckle

Coconut Lime Coneflower

Nicotinia

Chive Blossoms

Shasta Daisies

Hydrangea

On the Road

We left Key West Saturday morning around 7 am. One night near Savannah, then two nights in Frederick, Maryland, our old home town. In a bit (as soon as my husband gets back from his run with my venti skim latte!) we will reload my Jeep and the box on the roof and head to Altoona, Pennsylvania, where I grew up. We haven't seen my family since this time last year, so we are all excited. It's been fun traveling, knowing that we will see family and friends and revisit some of our old haunts. But let's face it....traveling with two kids, an old dog, and the clothes, toys, books, snacks and everything else that goes with them is pretty exhausting. I am thankful for our great friend Barb Powell, who will take charge of our old dog while we head farther north. I am thankful for the friends who showed up at La Paz (our favorite hang out from days gone by) for the last two evenings to have a margarita and some chips and salsa with us. I am especially thankful for my dear friend Wendy Cox, who picked me up yesterday morning for breakfast at our fave Greek diner, and then took me to Wegman's, Dancing Bear, Nordstrom and Hanna Andersson, making me laugh the entire way. And Wendy gets special thanks for taking John to Bushwaller's for a beer while I took the girls back to the hotel. I don't miss the places here so much, but I sure do miss the people! Email and texts and Facebook updates and photos keep us connected, but I love dropping right back into that 'space' you go to with old friends, talking and laughing like you are just continuing the conversation from last time you saw each other. Alright, off this computer.....that latte should be arriving soon and I've got to get two grubby girls in the tub. We can't see Mom Mom and Pap looking like street urchins! Can't wait. :)

Almost-No-Cooking Party Menu

This second week of summer was busy! Lots going on, plus getting the house ready to leave town, laundry ready to pack our bags, AND have a little going away party for friends. Since I love to cook, and I'm known for cooking, I can stress myself out about what to make when we have guests. But with the pace of this week I realized that I wasn't going to have time to do much preparation, plus, I didn't want to have a big kitchen mess to clean up. I ditched my original menu. At first I considered ordering pizzas and appetizers from our local go-to for that sort of thing, Big John's. Instead, I decided to see what inspiration I could find at GFS, Key West's answer to Costco. Mini hot dogs in puff pastry, check. A frozen Buffalo Chicken dip that could be placed in the oven frozen and baked in just 35 minutes. Tortilla chips (regular corn and blue corn) and a jar of fresh salsa from the cooler. I also found a nice sized wheel of brie. Off to Publix for the remaining ingredients - watermelon chunks, water crackers to serve with the brie and some macadamia nuts to top it. I found a Toasted Coconut sheet cake in the freezer there. The bakery lady wrote on it for me, and assured me it would be thawed perfectly in about 45 minutes. (It was!) When I got home, I turned on the oven and added the still frozen dip. I put the wheel of brie on a baking sheet, topping it with chopped fresh mango, brown sugar, and chopped macadamia nuts. I made a pitcher of margaritas, and had the watermelon, salsa, chips and salted cashews on the table when guests started arriving. I put the brie in the oven with the dip, giving it about 15 minutes at 375 to melt a bit. Both were big hits, and I would definitely purchase the dip again. Eventually I baked the hot dogs in puff pastry.....those always go in about two minutes! And the guests (most of whom I didn't know....co-workers of the guest of honor) brought some yummy additions - fried chicken, Caprese salad on crackers, chili con queso, extra chips, apples and caramel dip, beer and wine. We sliced the cake and I brought out chocolate cup cakes for the kids, also from Publix. It was a really fun party - casual, comfortable, fun and delicious. I need to stop stressing about entertaining and just do it more often!

Feelin' Crafty - Decoupage Cigar Boxes

This is the perfect craft for the non-perfectionist who loves magazines and happens to have some empty cigar boxes lying around from a project at school. That would be me! I had been saving all my Coastal Livings since we moved here, plus I subscribe to several other magazines and tend to pick them up at the grocery store. I started cutting them all up and grouping them in plastic bags....beachy, Key West, girls room, food, etc. Then I started cutting up the tons of catalogs I seem to get ( even though I am always opting out of receiving them! ). So I've got lots of themes ready to go. The first project I did was to cover cardboard initials with Key West-y images for a beloved teacher leaving school. I hope HH thinks of her buddies at Sigsbee when she puts them in her new office in Washington state. The ones I am working on now will go north with us....for my mom and sisters. I also covered a shoe box and a cigar box with cut outs from Hanna Anderson catalogs to hold hair accessories and trinkets for the girls dresser. I have plans to cover an old watering can with cut out flowers, and to do a recipe box covered with food images. The paper is adhered to the box with Mod Podge, available at every craft store. It serves as the glue and the sealant, giving the finished item a light sheen and slightly antique look. You can do decoupage on furniture as well.

More from Big Pine Key

The first week of summer flew by with our commute to and from Big Pine Key for art camp. I enjoyed my time poking around, and the girls really enjoyed camp. I will definitely sign them up next year. My previous blog post lists a few shops I found in BPK and here are some more. Out of the Blue Gallery, the big pink building right in Route 1, has lots of gifts, books, cards, and jewelry. It has a room of consignment items, and even a small hair salon upstairs. There is an art co-op gallery in the Winn-Dixie Plaza that has some really great art work, priced much lower than it would be in Key West. They also do framing. And next door to that is a little dress shop....I forget the name, but the owner carried some cute stuff, including locally made jewelry. On the girls last day of camp, I drove down to Summerland Key to check that out. I had to stop at one of my old favorites, Sugarloaf Food Company. I got a double latte and a box of goodies....excellent baked goods here. The Key Lime Coconut bar is to die for! So is the Key Lime shortbread. New owners are taking over and the woman I chatted with said they don't plan to change a thing. Good! My four mornings in Big Pine Key ended with having to stop to let a Key Deer prance around on the side of the road, before heading back into the trees. Pretty cool. :)

Some of the kids handiwork.

Love this place!

So delicious.....the cookies went home for the girls and John.

Hey buddy!

Island Dreams...a find in Big Pine Key

I dropped off the girls at Kim Wallen's Kdubz Designz studio on Big Pine Key this morning for a two-hour art camp. It seemed silly to drive the 30 miles back to Key West to turn around and head back to pick them up, so I decided to tool around and see what I could find in the area. First off, some coffee! I found a bagel shop, Island Bagel, in the Winn-Dixie plaza. A yummy latte and a quality multigrain bagel with artichoke, olive and garlic cream cheese can be found in BPK! Some of the other moms with kids in the art camp trickled in, so it turned into a little breakfast gathering. After that, I looked for a shop I follow on Facebook. Just past the light, on the right side if you are heading south, is Island Dreams. Beachy decor, outdoor rugs, kitchen gadgets, custom bedding, cocktail napkins, scented candles....a fun little shop to browse. A great source for hostess and teacher gifts, too. Two doors down in the same little plaza is Bare Soles Sandals. Tons of styles, including several brands I hadn't seen before. When you live in flip flops year-round, it is good to have lots of options! I will definitely shop there the next time I need some shoes. We will head back to Big Pine tomorrow morning for another day of camp. This time the moms are meeting at The Cracked Egg Cafe after drop off. Looking forward to it. :)

Summer Smoothies

A great way to get some fruit, protein and antioxidants into your diet, all in one sip. We make them quite often to use up fruit when it's past its prime. Even more so when there's no school since making smoothies covers a snack AND an activity. I like to add frozen fruit instead of ice cubes, and some Greek yogurt for protein. This morning we made a family favorite, blueberry banana. Three extra ripe bananas, orange juice, blueberry Greek yogurt, and about 1 cup of frozen blueberries. Blend to combine, adding more juice to reach the desired consistency. The girls love to drink them in the pool. It is gorgeous in Key West today with sunny, blue skies and a nice breeze, so I had no problem heading outside to enjoy my smoothie. It is something I plan to do quite often this summer.

School's Out!!

My kids do not have school again until August 19th. The good parts? No wake ups, no homework, no back packs and water bottles. The bad parts? No set schedule, two girls to keep happy and entertained, and a heck of a lot of snack requests. It is hard to maintain that fine line between summer fun and chaos, at least for me. I have a clear plan for the next few weeks while we are here in Key West. Two mini art camps next week with Kim Wallen of Kdubz Desigz in Big Pine. Then some sessions with our summer tutor Mrs. Clinton....a lovely former teacher now home with her young daughter and a son on the way. We will hit the road with empty travel journals and reading lists and books and the new tablets the girls don't know they are getting. My job for these next two weeks is to get things in order to travel and to be away from home for a month or so. And to prevent too much TV, too many treats, and too many late bedtimes and late wake ups. But it's Friday afternoon and the girls are tired, and frankly, so am I. So I'll start my high-minded plans tomorrow....they can watch Disney Junior while I have a margarita with the hubs. :)

Greek on the Grill

One of my favorite meals is a Greek salad. I love the combination of crunchy lettuce, cucumber, tomato and onion with salty feta cheese and olives, mixed all together in a nice lemony vinaigrette. Add some chicken, or some tuna or shrimp. Or even a drizzle of hummus. Yum! I love to use those same flavors and textures with grilled meat or seafood. The other night we grilled some thin-cut New York strip. While it was resting to redistribute the juices, I tossed some flat bread on the grate. It only needs a minute or two per side, but it really enhances the texture and flavor. We loaded up the warm flat breads with sliced steak, chopped romaine, sliced tomato, cubed feta and a generous dollop of tzatziki sauce. To make the sauce, combine plain Greek yogurt with shredded cucumber, salt, chopped garlic, and lemon juice. If I have fresh dill I add that as well. Last night we turned plain old burgers on the grill into Greek burgers by topping them with everything we had put on our New York strips. I think we have yet another new favorite! It's also delicious on grilled chicken and shrimp.

The GOTCHA Cake

When we were going through the adoption process with Mari, I did not care for the term 'gotcha day.' Some people used 'family day' and other names I forget, but the word 'gotcha' seemed to me at the time like something you would shout while playing hide and seek. But after we got Mari, and added Josie to our family a few years later, I really started to like the term. The day we got 'ya, so glad we got 'ya....so much meaning and emotion in just a few words. We started celebrating the girls' special day with a cake, spelling GOTCHA out in various ways. At first I made the cakes, but as they got older they liked to pick one out at the grocery store or bakery. It was always interesting to explain to the person writing on the cake about GOTCHA. "We are celebrating the day we got them, they are both adopted." Then a light bulb would go off.....oh, I see! Yesterday was Mari's 'gotcha day. Eight years ago we met a chubby little 7-month old sweetheart in a hotel lobby in Guatemala City. After signing some papers and making plans for the next day's visit to the US Embassy to finalize things, the adoption reps left and we took her upstairs to our room. We had no idea in the world what we were doing! But anyone who has children, by birth or adoption, knows that none of really KNOW what we are doing through any of it, right? I decided not to bake or buy a cake for yesterday since we have all been sick (especially Mari, still on antibiotics for sinus and ear infections). That did not go over well. So later today we are going to bake a cake together. A fun Saturday afternoon activity stuffed with more meaning than the girls are capable of understanding at this point in their lives. Here are some shots of our cakes from past years....enjoy.