Charming

 I love restaurants, cities, buildings, fashion, movies and design that deserve to be called charming.  It doesn’t happen very often but meeting a charming person is even better.  My grandpa is the epitome of charming.  He acknowledges when you enter a room and gives his full attention.  He calls his wife “sunshine.”  When we take forever to get ready and finally make our way downstairs he says, “it was worth the wait.”  He tells us about his dreams where his name is always “Diamond Jim.”  He is constantly learning – even new technology (he recently bought a Mac iPad).  I grew up admiring his love of life and the people in it and am so grateful to know such a charming man.

Great Color!

What is this color?  I have no idea what you would call it…citrus, maybe?  It's definitely too beautiful to be called plain old yellow.  Well it’s amazing whatever you call it!  I don’t own anything this color but I’m starting to think I really need to.  If I look half as good as Michelle Williams and Lea Michele do in this color I know it needs to be in my closet.  It definitely helps that the design of their dresses is flawless (thanks to Vera Wang and Zac Posen) and I absolutely love the red lips.  Gorgeous!

Band Names

 My husband and I have satellite radio in one of our cars and I must say I am a big fan.  Not only do we have access to tons of music that’s not available on normal radio but we get the track and band names for every song that’s played.  It’s a great way to discover new artists and provides ample entertainment (we play ‘Name That Tune’ all the time).  The thing we notice is how many random band names there are.  I would love to know the story behind some of these names and how in the world they come up with them.  Is it just something that they thought sounded cool?  Is there a story behind the name?  Maybe it’s an inside joke that we aren’t in on?  Fascinating!  I told my husband he should write a book about how bands come up with their names – that is definitely something I would read.  Death Cab For Cutie?  Modest Mouse?  Foo Fighters?  The Beatles?  Got you thinking didn’t I…

My Five Favorite Things About Summer - #5 LONG DAYS

How great is it that we get the sun until 9:30pm!  This makes me so happy because I’m a night owl and seem to get my second wind just as everyone else is winding down.  I love the idea of playing all day long, eating a late dinner and still having sunlight to play more.  In the winter I feel like the day is gone before it gets started but thankfully in the summer, we get that extra sunlight to accomplish all these summer activities we have on our to-do list.  What a gift!

My Five Favorite Things About Summer - #4 WATER ACTIVITES

Whether it’s just lounging by the pool, on a boat at the lake or building sandcastles at the beach – I love all water activities.  In fact I’d love to combine all three for the greatest summer ever!  Our love for water must start in our youth, when you’re young really any water will do.  My summer uniform was a swimming suit just in case I came upon any sprinklers, water balloons, slip-n-slides, streams, or water guns.  Then as we get older we seem to watch from the sidelines, well I say not any more.  This summer let's get wet!

My Five Favorite Things About Summer - #3 BBQ’s

Ahh…the smells of summer!  Nothing is better than friends and good food.  Hamburgers, hot dogs, potato chips, watermelon, grapes, pasta salad, corn on the cob, brownies, root beer floats, popsicles and ice cream sandwiches - that’s my idea of a classic BBQ.  Enjoy one of my favorite dogs…

"The Balmfy Dog"

Grilled all beef hot dog (cut in half before grilling)

Mustard

Cut up Claussan pickles (other pickles don’t stand a chance 

    against Claussen pickles, found in the refrigerated 

    section by the lunch meat)

Toasted bun

My Five Favorite Things About Summer - #2 SUMMER READING

Is there anything better than a good book?  One that takes you out of your mundane life and puts you into a whole new world.  You know it’s good when you’re completely engrossed in the lives of the characters.  You think about them all day long and about what could possibly happen next.  These are on my 2010 summer reading list:

Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (sequel to 

The Hunger Games, I highly recommend)

Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

My Five Favorite Things About Summer - #1 THE HEAT

It’s the first thing we think about when we think of summer – the heat.  Just the thought of sunlight on my face makes me sigh.  I’m a strong believer in everyone needing 20-30 minutes of Vitamin D a day and the easiest way to get it is to soak up some rays.  Let’s put a smile on all our faces with some heat on our skin.

Seinfeld

Why is it that everything in life relates back to Seinfeld?  The show about nothing.  Way too many times I’ve said, “it’s just like that episode of Seinfeld” and then proceed to tell what happened.  This only turns out to be a good comment when the person has actually seen that particular episode otherwise the comedy falls short.  But really I love this show; it’s so stupid it’s funny.  And the fact that Jerry Seinfeld cannot act at all really adds to the overall greatness of the show.  Yes, I know it was cancelled 12 years ago but thanks to reruns I can watch the madness anytime I want.

Play the Seinfeld trivia game (I got 14 out of 20, I don’t know if I should be proud or if it’s just sad)

Song Of The Day

I LOVE MUSIC!  So occasionally I am going to share my 'song of the moment.'  Discovering new music is one of my favorite things and I hope you enjoy it too.  Here is my song for June 10th.  Cheers!

The Morning Benders - Dreams (Fleetwood Mac cover) 

The Simplest Key Lime Pie

I love easy recipes that taste like you spent hours slaving away in the kitchen.  This is seriously the best simple key lime pie recipe I’ve found.  I keep mine in the freezer for weeks and just eat a little here and a little there.  Yum!

1      8oz tub cool whip (thawed slightly)

1      14oz can sweetened condensed milk

1/2  cup freshly squeezed lime juice

1      6oz  preprepared graham cracker pie crust

lime zest, optional (about 1 tablespoon)

Combine the cool whip, condensed milk, lime juice and zest blend until smooth.  Pour mixture into crust and smooth surface.  Freeze overnight or until firm.  Garnish with whipping cream if desired.  Freeze up to 3 months.

Source: Robin Miller Quick Fix Meals

Makeover

Hey listen up all!  Memoir has had a major brand makeover.  Check out our new look at:

MEMOIRBYAMY.COM

Amazing right?  Thanks Shayna, you're so talented!

A Different Time

Sometimes I wish I lived in 19^th century England.  It was such a fascinating time.  I love the way they talked and how important a reputation was.  Women worked hard developing talents to be considered ‘accomplished’ (even if it was just to find a good husband).  They dressed up for everything and took month long vacations.  What a life.  Although we have come a long way since then with women’s rights and class distinctions, movies and books about this time period remain my favorite to watch and read.  

“No one can be really esteemed accomplished who does not greatly surpass what is usually met with.  A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing and the modern languages to deserve the word.  And besides all this she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions or the word will be but half deserved.”

                    - Miss Caroline Bingley, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Wall of Frame

My mom always told me when I wanted to change up a room to switch out the throw pillows and it would make the whole room look different (great idea by the way).  My idea of changing up the décor is printing and hanging new photos.  Sometimes you just need a change.  I love this decorating idea.  The statement is in the color choice, thin white frames, large white mats and great black & white photos. It’s so fun to see a boring wall become a great focal point.  Make sure you choose awesome photos that inspire you and hang the frames in an artsy and creative way – it really makes all the difference.

Summer Staple

Popsicles completely remind me of my childhood. I don’t know why but I haven’t embraced them like I did in my younger years. Well that’s about to change because it’s almost summer and you feel like you can do things you normally wouldn’t, case-in-point, popsicles! They are definitely a summer staple and I would like to give a shout out to the classics…
Big Stick – watch out for bright orange lips when you’re done
Firecracker – very patriotic, required for the 4th of July
and the all-famous
Twin Pop popsicles – the blue ones disappeared way too fast and we were always left with a bag full of orange popsicles

A June Moment

The word ‘June’ doesn’t quite match its month. You know what I mean? June sounds dark and rainy not sunny and green like the weather dictates. Sometimes I feel like certain words contain a mood in and of itself. Like there is a color, a feeling, even a song for each word. June does that for me. It’s like those rainy days when your driving in your car – you have nowhere specific to be, the sky is gray, the dark clouds leave a shadow over everything then that perfectly June song comes on the radio and that’s it. Everything aligns and you have that perfectly June moment. No one else would understand because it’s different for everyone. That’s what I like about it; it’s just for you. And for me – I enjoy every second.