It has been so hot and humid I am trying to embrace it. I keep telling myself... "It's summer... it's supposed to be like this".

I have been making things with the shells from the beach to remind myself of this mantra. I saw in MS Living a piece where they stamped stones, leaves and shells, and thought I would stamp some shells and string them as a garland like the other one I made.

I stamped out the word S-U-M-M-E-R for this garland. Now I lay on my couch under the fan and stare at it.

Pictures of the project are on my project gallery.

I noticed someone wearing a pair of Dr. Scholl's wooden sandals and it brought back memories of my mini pair I had as a kid that matched my mom's. I loved those!

Now they have these super fancy versions called Starstruck. Apparently all the rage in Hollywood. Cute!

I haven't had a cat since I was a kid and even then it was an outside cat. So I am learning new cat things everyday. Like cat vocabulary.

Vest Buttons - the spot markings on a cat's tummy... check out Stewie's in the above pic. They are referred to on this site about tabbys but is disturbing due to the little stretched out cat hide illustrations!

Making Biscuits - the kneading action cats make with their front paws when they are happy. There is a small mention of it down the page on this site about cats .

The Rips - when your cat starts tearing around the house at breakneck speeds chasing after invisible mice (got this one from Joel)

I found these Celestial Seasoning's Zingers To Go at Wegmans and they are nice to take to work and put in my water bottle. Very portable little packets in green tea flavors like peach and blueberry. They are all natural and calorie free, but I confess sometimes I put sugar in to make them even tastier.

More importantly, while I was on the Celestial Seasoning's website, I discovered that they make frozen desserts too! Flavors like Cinnamon Apple Spice and White Peach!

I saw this construction sign when we were driving through the city. Notice something strange? Sidekalk? How did that happen? What cracks me up is they went ahead and used it anyhow... "Bah! They'll know what we mean!"

It must be my month for tables. I found this one at a yard sale for three dollars. Not as good as free, but after a scrub down with Method wood cleaner, it is an interesting little table.

I like the "handle" on the back. I am guessing it was a telephone table with the cubby hole for a phone book?

Aaron just got a new MacBook and do you think he is using it for it high speed processing or wireless connectivity? Oh no... we play with the iSight built in camera and Photo Booth for hours. The results using the squeeze, dent, stretch and bulge effects are pee-your-pants-funny.

Someone in my neighborhood put this table out for garbage pickup and I rescued it. It didn't look like this when I grabbed it... the bright green paint was my doing. It's a lot like the pink table that was one of my first projects on this site.

You don't see this tiered style of side table much anymore, but it works great as a catch-all for our mail and other papers. I posted some pictures of it's creation in my project gallery.

This may be revealing how often I frequent the dollar bins at Target, but I was back again and this time I got a bunch of accoutrements for a lobster bake. Plates that illustrate how to eat a lobster, a butter melter, bibs, seafood scissors, picks...

Now I can't wait until Wegmans has their lobster special again!

My friends Abby and Eric got married today. Abby was a beautiful bride and I am so happy for them.

I uploaded a few pictures to my gallery... including Aaron and Matt dancing to Jon Bon Jovi whoops, Brian Adams... disturbing.

One wedding down... two more to go this year.

Aaron and I had stopped at a yard sale in the city and I noticed there was a huge garden in the lot next door. Further inspection revealed that it was a community garden. I think that is so cool.

Someone had an impressive onion crop in there.

Joel's family is thinking about getting a Cockapoo, so I was browsing around a page about hybrid dogs. I have been seeing more and more of these mixed pooches. Reading the site, I was amazed at how many pug mixes there are! They never quite look like what I thought they would look like. I thought a Dachshund/Pug would look like a stretched out skinny pug... but no, it comes out something all it's own.

I have pictured here a Bugg - Boston Terrier/Pug, a Bassugg - Basset Hound/Pug, a Daug - Dachshund/Pug, a Puggle - Pug/Beagle, a Chug - Chihuahua/Pug and... what I really think are Ewoks, but they claim are Brugs - Brussels Griffon/Pug

Besides these you can also find...
Frenchie Pug - French Bulldog/Pug
Jug - Jack Russell/Pug
Miniature Bulldog - Bulldog/Pug
Muggin - Miniature Pinscher/Pug
Pug-A-Mo - Pug/American Eskimo Dog
Pug-Zu - Pug/Shih Tzu
Pugapoo - Pug/Poodle
Puggat - American Rat Terrier/Pug
Puginese - Pekingese/Pug
Pugshire - Pug/Yorkshire Terrier

Could the names be any funnier? The funniest name I ever heard was Chiweenie - Chihuahua/Dachshund.

Mini Airstream Campers

I always loved the design of the classic Airstream campers. I have to admit I didn't know they still made them or better yet, made these super cute little ones! This model is called Bambi! Hah! Too cute!

And look inside! I could live in there. Or at least travel across the country in it. Six foot four Aaron would not be too thrilled but I would stuff him in anyway.

The zucchini season has arrived at the house of Ljc. We have made Lucky Olive's broiled zucchini and zucchini bread out of the monster you see Stewie eyeballing here.

It looks like another bumper crop of zukes this year so I am looking for more recipes to add to my collection.

Anybody out there have a good zuke recipe?

Yep. That's right. Your eyes are not deceiving you. I got to meet Martha.

What can I say? She is very striking in person. Tall. When she speaks, everyone listens.

What an exciting day that was. I was presenting some scrapbooking photo tips to her and her team... and I was almost sick over it. But it was great.

There are going to be more great things to come. It's so exciting I can hardly stand it!

I found these really cute charms in the dollar bins at Target. They pop open so you can add pictures then hang them on your cell phone, zipper pull... etc.

Here is a useful tip for when you need a tiny picture for something like this... such as a locket. The index prints that you get with your photos are the perfect size!

My whelk shells from last years beach trip are finally ready. What have they been doing for a year? Well, when I found them on the beach there were still bits of "critter" inside and the only way I could find of getting the bits out of there consisted of A. burying, B. Freezing, C. Boiling, or D. Microwaving.

Seeing as how I didn't want my kitchen or freezer to smell like dead sea critter I went with option A. The shells have been buried in my backyard for year... I am not going to go into detail as to why this works but I imagine some bugs had a tasty meal this winter.

Anyhoo... the shells are all cleaned and are now displayed on my dining room table.

We were having a late supper and decided to make a quick pot of egg drop soup from a package. It all seemed good until I noticed the directions indicated that one must only stir in ONE DIRECTION. Which direction?... clockwise or counterclockwise? What would happen if part way through I haphazardly started stirring in the other direction? I was very curious... but we were too hungry to risk it.

Aaron and I stumbled upon an Eastern European market in the city and decided to go in to poke around. When we got in there I realized it was the same Sweets of the World that used to be on Culver.

I bought some sugar cubes (because aren't they nicer to use when you have tea?) and they gave me the cutest little wrapped up piece of chocolate. I am not sure what the wrapper says but my guess is "Kids look cuter when they eat this chocolate."

I just couldn't have raspberries sitting around and not make jam.

Shruti and I have been trying to pick cherries but the weather has not cooperated. Today after work we had our chance and wouldn't you know, cherries are done.

So we picked raspberries instead. All under the watchful eye of Whittier Farms two loyal employees... Gobi and Tiger. They are supposed to be keeping out rabbits and deer, but they spent more time watching us pick and consume raspberries.

I uploaded a few raspberry pictures up to my Gallery.

There was a delicious chocolate cake with two mastodons on top at Aprille's bridal shower . (they were actually wooly mammoths because mastodons are hard to find, but who's counting?). Mastodon's are sort of the theme... I will leave Aprille to explain that one in her wedding blog chronicles.

Anyhoo... the funny part is that one of the mastodon's looked just like the picture Tina posted of Lauren with fake hair.

Today was Aprille's bridal shower. This is her and Joel (not to be confused with our office Joel) opening my gift. I loved themed gifts. I went with a pizza kit comprising of a pizza pan, slicer and pizza plates.

When I went to wrap it, I couldn't find a box big enough. So I got an unused pizza box from Pontillo's and put it in there! I was hoping for one brief moment, Aprille thought I got her a cheese pizza for her shower!

I have a couple more pictures of the shower uploaded to my gallery. I loved the lighting in the Aprille/Joel shots.

Today Tina's neice Mya turned four, so I made her a pink and green ladybug cake.

I started off taking detailed pictures, but as it got later, I was running out of time and had to skip a few steps. I uploaded pictures of the ladybug being made and the birthday girl enjoying it to my project gallery.

I was at Tina's when I noticed she had vanilla apple Method hand wash. "Where did you get this!?" I wanted to know. "My aunt" she said. Then I was at her sister's house and Sherri had pumpkin spice Method hand wash. "I have never seen this scent! Where did you get it?" "My aunt got it" she tells me. I have scent envy. I need this aunt to get me some hand wash.

And so the Method obsession continues. I see on their website they now have pomegranate and eucalyptus mint hand wash... FOAMING hand wash ( I love FOAMING hand wash!) and hand sanitizer. Wheeeee!

I picked up this bottle of birch beer on one of our Saturday trips to the dairy. I loved the retro design of the bottle.

When I googled it... turns out The Pop Shoppe is a Canadian company that started in 1969, closed in the Eighties and re-launched in 2004. I am not sure if what I drank was from the Pop Shoppe or if the bottle was just being recycled, but I am keen to try their Lime Ricky and Pineapple flavors.

I saw this sign at Wegmans and yes I trooped the whole way across the parking lot and lawn to take this picture. I think it's a great idea.

Tina asked me to make her signs that say "My lawn isn't dead... it's just eco-friendly". Apparently she is the only one in her neighborhood that isn't watering her lawn religiously every evening.

My parents have been helping us work on our patio. Phase two of operation Homemade Patio is taking even longer than phase one. It is going to look great but what a long, hard process.

I saw this floating hot dog vendor up on the lake. I think it's pretty clever. The pontoons are painted to look like hotdogs and the propane tanks are giant ketchup and mustard bottles.

My parents are up for the holiday and to help with our patio. Today we went on a catamaran ride on the lake. I made mom wear pressure wristbands so she wouldn't get seasick. They worked!

For some reason I decided that I really wanted to hang clothes outside to dry. I think it reminds me of summer, because my mom always hung her clothes out to dry in the summertime.

So Aaron strung a line from the house to the garage on hooks the previous owner left behind. I washed a load of towels, hung them up and the yard smelled so nice.