On Fridays in the summer I only work half days, and my mom and I usually hang out because she's a teacher so she's off in the summer too. After I finished work, we met up and went to Rocky's which is an antique store that sells a TON of great estate jewelry - most of my favorite jewelry is from there because it's high quality an unique! They do a Christmas in July sale every year where all of their silver jewelry is 70% off and we've gotten some AMAZING deals over the years.
My mom got a couple of necklace chains and these two really pretty sand dollar and starfish pendants that she put together on one of the chains. She picked out this beautiful calligraphy-style "L" initial pendant and loved it so much that she got it for me along with a pretty chain. 😍 I found this gorgeous big seashell pendant and picked out a collar necklace to put it on and I absolutely love them together - I've been wearing them for the last three days! The pendant and the collar together were supposed to cost almost $250 but I only paid $41 - I LOVE a good deal, especially on a cool piece of one-of-a-kind jewelry!
 |
| Outfit linked here |
 |
| Before my mom arranged the flowers... |
 |
| ...and after! |
After Rocky's, we went to this adorable pick-your-own flower field and my mom picked the most gorgeous assortment of flowers! She's so good and making flower arrangements and has such an eye for it, she always has the most beautiful arrangements around the house.
After we got our flowers, we headed to this place called The Barn - if you're local you need to check it out! They're open one weekend per month April through November, and it's a literal barn full of vendors that sell mainly curated antiques and decor pieces but also some handmade items. At first glance everything seems very "shabby chic" which isn't really my style, but once you start to look you can find beautiful things to suit any decor style. Each month has a seasonal motif, and we saw some really beautiful things this time around. I held back and didn't get anything, but I saw some really pretty things (and some cute animal figurines like this bronze armadillo 😂) and my mom and I have gotten some gorgeous decor pieces there in the past.
After The Barn, we were HOT (the heat index was in the 90's and the barn isn't air conditioned so it was super stuffy!) We headed to get one of our FAVORITE treats - Italian ice from Scotty's which is a food truck. A few years ago when they opened my mom RAVED about how good their Italian ice was, and while I love Italian ice I thought she had to be overselling how good it was. UMMM, WRONG - it is incredible!! It has a smooth, almost creamy (not icy!) texture, and it's made completely from scratch with real fruit and tastes SO fresh. I got a double scoop with lemon guava and mango, and my mom got the "mangonada" which is mango ice with chamoy and tajin layered in between scoops. It hit the SPOT on such a hot summer afternoon!
 |
| Image via |
After that, we went back to my parents house to chill since we'd been running around all afternoon. We opened a bottle of Fille Des Etoiles (which is a sparkling rosé) from Cave Ridge Vineyard that we had picked up last summer when were there for my birthday. It was definitely not my favorite wine I've ever had (large bubbles and bitter) but we still had fun drinking it. 😂
When my dad got home, we ended up all sitting around and rolling pennies - RIVETING Friday night (I actually really enjoy rolling coins though. 😂) My mom has been working on cleaning out her parents' house and they had SO many coins saved, so she's been working on rolling them to take to the bank. Some of them are so old that I'm sure there are some valuable ones in the mix, but none of us know enough about coins to determine which ones are anything special! Kenny met up with us and helped after he got off work and we all hung around for the rest of the evening.
On Saturday morning, my brother and I met up at my parents' house again and we all went to Ratliff farm to pick blueberries! My mom and I try to make time to pick blueberries there every summer, and it was fun to have my dad and brother join us! Their bushes are just BURSTING with berries this year, it felt like we barely picked at all but got about 10 pounds in less than an hour!
Ratliff's was actually originally a Christmas tree farm and it's where we ALWAYS used to go as a family to cut our Christmas trees each year. In recent years, they've closed the Christmas tree part of their farm because they ran out of mature trees and the upkeep is a lot of work. My parents were talking to Mr. Ratliff while we were paying for our blueberries and he said if we called them at Christmas time he'd let us come and buy a tree even though they're not open to the public anymore, which is so special and exciting!
I decided to make my favorite cake recipe with some of the blueberries we picked, so when we got home I drug my brother to the grocery store with me to get the ingredients I needed. HE ended up dragging ME to Goodwill first, and he got a fishing rod there which we proceeded to carry around the store with us - it definitely prompted some funny conversations with strangers, one of the employees said "See that? THAT'S how fresh our seafood is!" 😂
When we got back to my parents', my dad and my brother both had to leave for different obligations, and my mom said I was welcome to stay at their house to bake my cake because I much prefer their kitchen to mine! I still had some groceries to get and I was also going to pick up some supplies back at my house, and by the time I had done all that I decided to get the cake started at my house and then just come back to their house the next day to finish it off (basking a cake from scratch is TIME CONSUMING so I often break it into a two-day process).
Kenny was out of town Saturday and Sunday, so after I worked on my cake I just had a chill evening watching Netflix and sipping a bramble!
On Sunday morning I had housework to catch up on, so I did that and then went back to my parents' to finish off my cake. I ended up doing lemon cake with blueberry filling (slight tweaks from the recipe I use) and mascarpone frosting, Once I was done, my mom and I cracked open a bottle of my favorite $5 vinho verde from Trader Joe's and enjoyed some cake and it was glorious! Not so glorious - my dad used to have a major sweet tooth, but he had COVID in November of 2020 and ever since it changed his taste buds so he doesn't eat sweets at all anymore! I hate not being able to share my baking with him anymore, but my mom and I brought a couple of slices of cake to my parents' neighbors across the street so I'm glad they can enjoy it!
After that, my mom and I went on a short walk around the neighborhood. There's a cool wall with a heart-shaped stone in it that I've always loved, but it's been covered with ivy for many years. I was delighted to see that the owners of the property had cleared all of the ivy off! We also ran into a friendly long-haired black cat who I've met before (as seen in this post!), he's so sweet and let me hold him. 😍
When mom and I got back from our walk, I headed home for the evening. I picked up some of my favorite sushi on the way home and had another chill night in getting ready for the week ahead! I had such a wonderful weekend and I'm SO grateful to get to spend so much time with my family - it is not lost on me that many people are not as lucky to be able to be so close with their parents and siblings, both in physical proximity and in their relationships emotionally.
I hope you had a great weekend too! My work week will be interrupted (yay!) with a trip to Portsmouth tomorrow - Kenny and I are going to Sad Summer Fest to see The Maine (my favorite band if you didn't already know!) and I'm looking forward to a little mid-week getaway sine Kenny was gone this weekend. I haven't been to Portsmouth in many years but my parents were just there last month and my mom was sending me a ton of recommendations of places to go, so I'm looking forward to it!
xoxx, Laura
This post contains commissionable links.
No comments