What's your favorite farmers market?? AND -- have you entered the bloviersary giveaway!! Stop everything you're doing and do it right now!!!
I'm celebrating the second blogiversary of Finding Joy in All Things this week. I'm hosting a giveaway and you can enter by leaving a comment on this post! Ever the eager travelers, Paul and I went to Seattle and Portland last week to celebrate fourth of July and a family wedding. This was the first time I had been to the Pacific Northwest in the middle of summer, and I think I have found my favorite time to visit. The weather was amazing, the flowers gorgeous, and the farmers market fare mouth watering. Since I can only dream of being able to sample this fare weekly, I'll just drool over these photos .... These berries were unbelievable. And only $3 a bunch!! We were tempted to get one of each, but we limited ourselves to blueberries, marionberries, golden raspberries, and strawberries. That was limiting ourselves. A marionberry is a blackberry created by the USDA and University of Oregon. It's only found in the Pacific Northwest, and I'm pretty fond of it. I'm telling you, these flowers were just amazing. Everywhere I looked out there flowers were growing like crazy, and their colors were soooo vibrant. The weather is just perfect for growing them out there. It wouldn't be Portland without something a little funky. I've been a fan of kombucha for a few years now, and I was very excited to see some homemade kombucha being sold at the market. I had a sample each and bought a bottle of the pomegranate. Tasty, tasty!
What's your favorite farmers market?? AND -- have you entered the bloviersary giveaway!! Stop everything you're doing and do it right now!!!
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I'm celebrating the second blogiversary of Finding Joy in All Things this week. I'm hosting a giveaway and you can enter by leaving a comment on this post! the means and opportunity to travel to visit friends and family
an evening spent walking around downtown Seattle my first day at my new job (eek!!!) sunshine and beautiful weather harvesting and sharing veggies from our community garden plot taking a mental health day to relax and enjoy summertime an afternoon spent lounging in a park overlooking Lake Michigan having a nice, quiet neighbor move in downstairs randomly meeting neighbors at our church picnic being part of a really great Milwaukee community reading such nice comments on this post my health and the health of my family making it to the next stage of roller derby rec league -- and all my friends, family, coaches, and teammates who encouraged and supported me -- bring on the hip checks! Happy second blogiversary Finding Joy! I can't believe another blogging year has already come and gone so quickly. Writing this blog has been a huge source of joy for me the past two years and has really shifted the way I see my world. I find joy and happiness in much smaller things and tend to be more thankful for everyday life. As a person who loves to journal and take pictures, blogging has been a great hobby, and it's been an added special bonus that others read my posts from time and time and seem to enjoy what I write. Other things about blogging that I love: Writing your own blog means getting to use words like blogiversary. And getting to share virtual birthday cake ice cream with all your favorite blog readers. And getting to giveaway a copy of your favorite popsicle book. That's right. To celebrate two years of blogging at Finding Joy - and to thank you all for following along and reading my musings - I'm giving away a copy of People's Pops and a popsicle mold so you can enjoy lots of frozen goodness all summer long! To enter, simply leave a comment below and give me some feedback! Let me know what you've liked at Finding Joy, what you want to see more of, what you want to see changed/improved, etc. I love hearing from you!! Winner will be announced next Thursday, July 17th. BONUS! To have your name entered more than once, let me know if you follow me on any of these social media sites: instagram, facebook, twitter, bloglovin, pinterest. You can also start following me now and let me know below. Extra name in the drawing for each site you follow. Thank you so much for your support and your comments and all your love this year. You help make writing this blog so much fun :)
And....I've been hinting at this for a couple weeks now, but the day I announce the blog winner will also be the day I launch my new website design! I am sooooo excited to share it and see what you think of it! Thanks for celebrating my blogiversary with me -- and hope you have a fabulous weekend. Paul and I took a trip to Hartford, Connecticut, a few weeks ago to visit his old stomping grounds. We stayed with some of his old friends and visited a few of his favorite spots. The iris were in bloom while we there, and we got in just before the summer weather really took hold. It was beautiful. We tried visiting the art museum, but it was closed. I still thought the architecture was picture worthy though. We also stopped by Mark Twain's house (that's lego Mark Twain above). I hadn't realized Mark Twain had lived in Hartford because I always associate him with Hannibal, Missouri. This was the house he had built to help establish himself in the upper class, and he lived here with his wife and children. We took one of the guided tours and got to see the room where he wrote some of his most famous books. The tour guides were a little quirky, but what history buff isn't a little out there? Until next time Hartford!
July is slowly making its way onto my top favorite months of the year list. Possibly because it starts off with a holiday, and definitely because it's a full month of summer. You really don't need goals in summer because there's so much fun to be had, but for consistency's sake, I'm sharing a new four simple goals list. 1. Give my best at derby: I've mentioned that I participate in a recreation roller derby league. The league is separated into three levels. 101s: the ladies who are mastering the basics. 201s: the ladies who have passed the minimum skills test and can begin learning to make contact with other skaters. 301s: the ladies who have mastered basic contact and can scrimmage with other leagues. I'm finishing my second 10 week session as a 101, and I have my second skills test coming up this weekend. If I can pass my basic skills test, I can become a 201. I can't quite skate fast enough (I'm 1.25 laps short of the 25 laps in 5 minutes requirement), so I might not pass this session. My goal is just to give my best and as they say in derby - "to leave it all on the track."
2. Launch blog update: I've been making great progress on a blog update for the past few weeks, and I'm getting very close to being ready to launch a new blog update. I'm setting my sites on my second blogiversary (this Friday!!) for officially announcing a launch date. I am so excited to share my new look with you!! 3. Send photos to friends: After becoming the unofficial photographer for my group of friends, I have failed to follow through on an essential photographer role: actually sending the photos to people! 4. Take time for myself: We have plans for every weekend this month and have something scheduled for many weekday nights as well. Being this busy is natural in summer, but it can be draining as well. To balance out the busy, I'm going to take time for myself - postponing lesser responsibilities as necessary to do things that help me feel calm and peaceful. time spent with family and friends that we don't get to see often enough
having the perfect summer trip/weekend a 4th of July that reminded me of my childhood: complete with barbeque, poolside drinking, and firework displays inspiration from the prettiest community gardens delicious farmers market breakfasts hiking through the real life Wildwood having the time to be present for fun family events having a car that can handle Milwaukee's numerous potholes coworkers who support you during bittersweet transitions urban hikes having Molly Moon's and Salt & Straw in the same week friends and family who open their homes to us having an apartment I'm happy to come home to My family came to visit Milwaukee a few weeks ago, and we had the best time. One of our adventures was heading up to Port Washington for lunch and exploring the town. I love Port Washington's pier and lake front. Looking through these pictures again makes me smile :) I wish they could visit every weekend. Aren't my parents the cutest?
So was anyone else aware that June was only about five days long? Because seriously, this month went by in the blink of an eye. Why is it that the prettiest, warmest months always seem to go so much faster than those cold, dark months? It's one of those mysteries that I'll never be able to figure out. Without further complaining, here is my check in for my four simple goals for June. 1. Travel healthy: I was out of town for 9/30 days this month, and I found having this goal in the back of my mind was helpful for keeping myself healthy. I brought my water bottle everywhere with me, took lots of walk breaks, didn't use vacation as an excuse to eat tons of sweets, and even exercised a few times. I'm pretty proud of myself for really sticking to this goal.
2. Plan garden recipes: I bought an A to Z vegetable recipe book through my CSA which has been helping me come up with creative ways to cook all the veggies coming from the CSA, the garden, and the farmers market. Our CSA also has a helpful idea page on their website each week with suggestions for how to cook the vegetables in that week's share. I'm happy to report, having good recipe ideas has helped us avoid composting/wasting our veggies. Progress! 3. Upload photos: Big fail! After setting this goal, I promptly changed my mind and began working on something else. Instead of uploading photos I've been putting a lot of work into my blog redesign. I'm hopeful I'll be able to launch it next month!! Get excited for an awesome new look at Finding Joy in All Things! 4. Be present: This is one of those areas I'll always be working to improve at. There were a few times this month when I purposely hid my phone away, ignored chores, and postponed other responsibilities so I could just sit and be. And a lot of this "being" happened on our porch. Paul and I agree it's the best part of our apartment. Oh porches and summer, you really are the best combination. French inspired picnics at German inspired beer gardens
a visit from one of my favorite curly haired friends being told by Lady Gaga to show off my monster paws enjoying a Sage Wisdom cocktail in a snazzy bar with snazzy folks a great weekend talk with the 'rents watching the transformation of our porch garden catching up with an old friend at dinner on a second floor patio overlooking downtown getting a glimpse of how rockin my new job will be having a full, wonderful life my husband who finds us good deals on new cars, gets our laundry done for trips, and encourages me to follow my dreams A few weeks ago during a work trip to Baltimore, I checked out the National Aquarium in Baltimore's inner harbor. I was a little disappointed I didn't get to touch any sharks or sting rays, but otherwise I loved it. The all windows entrance was pretty stellar. And a few of the exhibits lended themselves to some pretty cool photographs - especially the tanks of jelly fish.. I remember visiting the Florida Aquarium as a teenager and loving the aquarium so much I decided to be a marine biologist. And then I realized I was scared of the deep ocean, didn't really like salt water or getting stung by jelly fish. So the whole marine biologist thing didn't happen. But I sure do love aquariums.
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