Author: Natalie

Gosh I love me a good adventuring day 🙂 It’s my favorite! 

I look like I’m adventuring on a safari–but fear not! I was merely traipsing around suburbia. 

I’ve coined the term “Adventuring” for one of my absolute favorite activities–the discovery-day, with no set plans, no set destination. Only adventures.

You might end up at an adorable old-fashioned thrift shop and find jeans, a vintage nightie, and a perfect white button-down.

You might end up at a wonderful antique store with a basket of old letterpress letters (love)!

Depending on where you live, you might even end up at the beach! 

My adventuring has had me meeting well-known artists, eating amazing local foods, encountering folk dancers on a small New England green, and more!

Try it this weekend 🙂

1.) Make snacks and drinks part of your day. I love an ice cream from a random ice cream stand, or an iced coffee from a little mom-and-pop coffee shop. You can discover lots of wonderful little places, and snacks and drinks are easier on the budget than whole meals. Take the time to sit on the front step and take in the surroundings.

2.) Bring TWO tote bags. Bring an empty one to carry in your purse until you need it. You’ll want to slip your sunglasses in it, literature you pick up from that cool artists open-studio you found or a business card from the funky little bakery. In the other tote bag, keep some ‘supplies’ for the day in your car. I suggest sunscreen, bug spray, a change of comfy shoes or flip flops, a hat, bottled water, a ‘just in case’ snack, a book to read, and a notebook and pencil. 

4.) Take photos–or skip ’em. Sometimes I want to capture every detail of my day. Other days, I want my heart to capture all of the memories, so I leave my camera behind. Sometimes I dig out my notebook and pencil and sketch instead. Do whatever feels right at the time!

5.) Stop at Quirky Places, Tourist Stops, and All of Those Things You Said You’d Do One Day. Stop at that cute diner. The florist with the beautiful flowers out front every day. Pop into the record store, even if you don’t have a record player. Stop at places like the Postage Stamp Museum or the Toaster Museum or that roadside stand that claims to have the World’s Largest Hamburger. Because you’re adventuring, right? So be adventurous.

6.) Be incredibly kind to everyone you meet and enjoy the spirit of the day. Enough said! 

I really hope you have as much fun as I do while adventuring. I wish I could show you more pictures, but I’m an internet scaredy-cat, and don’t want to show you all exactly where I live. BUT I was thinking today of the impromptu little stop I took to this cute Iowa town on a road trip last year. I was so happy to find this little Dutch town, its Tulip Festival statues, Christian bookstore, coffee shop and windmill. What a fun interlude in a long road trip! You never know what you’ll find.

(And it makes me smile to look at those happy pictures on a gray day)

🙂

Have a great weekend, and I’ll catch you on the other side!

xo!

High-waist jeans and clogs just scream “1970” to me. 

My mom used to rock that look so well, including the Farah Fawcett hair.

Wonder if I could get my hair to do that these days? 

Ya think?

Not much to say tonight, my friends! I’m working on a project, contemplating baking some scones, and even thinking about a cup of coffee at 8pm. Hmmm….

xo!

I am in love with my Swedish clogs. 

I think I’ve mentioned my Swedish background before, and how anything Swedish delights me. I’ve wanted some Swedish clogs of my own for my whole life. Now, some twenty-odd years (and $2 at a tag sale) later, I’m enjoying them immensely.

I picked up this little chambray J.Jill dress from the same tag sale. The lady had some cute style, right?! 

A flower pin, another crown braid and a vintage bag (the colors are much more true-to-life in the above photo).

 Now, after weekend of tag sales, farmers’ markets, and blueberry picking, what’s a girl to do? Bake a pie, of course!  Blueberry-Black Raspberry Gluten Free Mini-Pies to be specific!

Mini-Pies have long been one of my ‘things.’ I adore the making and eating of them. They are just so cute! 

I won a contest way back when with a mini-pie recipe I created (not this one), and ever since, every time I make them I have memories of making dozens (dozens!) of practice pies in the days before the contest. The miniature pie pans can be difficult to find sometimes, but I’m pretty sure I found these at the dollar store of all places.

2 cups blueberries

2 cups black raspberries (not blackberries)

3/4 cup sugar

4 TBSPs cornstarch

A few dashes of cinnamon

A few dashes of nutmeg (for that good Swedish flavor!)

Butter

1 or 2 batches of gluten-free pie crust (depending on if you want one crust or two…I love this recipe)

Cut one batch of pie crust dough into 4 pieces. Roll each piece into a small circle, and gently place it into your pie pan. Fold under the edges and flute/crimp as you wish (if you are adding a top crust, just let the extra dough hang over the edge and crimp the top and bottom together later). Repeat for each remaining piece of dough. In a bowl, gently mix the berries, sugar, cornstarch, and spices. Ladle into each pie dish, spreading evenly among the pie dishes. It is a good thing if the berries nearly overflow. Dot small bits of butter on top here and there. At this point you can cut out four circles from a second batch of pie dough for tops if you wish. I highly recommend putting all of the small pies on a large baking sheet for easy transfer to the oven/cleanup. Now bake at 400 degrees for approximately 40 minutes. Check your pies starting at 20 minutes, because depending on your oven, your pie dough, and your pans (mine are nonstick and slightly dark), the small pies may be done earlier. The pies are done when the interior is bubbling and the crust is nice and golden-brown.

What guest wouldn’t just LOVE a tiny pie all to themselves? 

Certainly no one *I* know!

But who is talking about guests here? 

Well, I did give ONE mini-pie away. 

Then I ate the other three. 

Oops.

xo!

The birds on my blouse are innocent, colorful, cute. Playful, fun, quirky. 

More like messy and aggressive. 

The mama bird dive bombs me every time I come close to the porch. 

It is rather frightening to have one angry, angry mama robin squawking and coming within inches of your face. I understand the terror of Hitchcock’s The Birds so much more now. 

I’m not sure why anyone let me watch that movie at age 11, by the way. 

Hmmmm. 

Just sayin’.

Nonetheless, this blouse, vintage necklace, and clogs are adorable, don’t you think?

Style Secrets: Necklace: vintage; Blouse: Tag Sale; Pants: Gap; Clogs: Tag Sale

xo!

Someone told me I looked like I should be walking down the streets of Paris in this outfit.

Until then, I can walk around the streets of my New England town and say, “Oui,” and “Non,” and shake my head a lot. That seemed to be how the Parisians do things. Oui?

Fingernails a’la TiffaMade! Gah I love them. So like the colors of the macarons at Laduree.

For my hair, I tried one large victory roll on the back. It’s sort of like a reverse Gibson tuck. 

Maybe it’s a Natalie tuck. Or a Natalie roll. It’s a Natalie Tuck & Roll. 

There.

Sounds so sophisticated, non? 

😉

Style Secrets: Necklace: Target, Blouse: Kohls, Belt: Claire’s, Skirt: BCBG, thrifted, Heels: Consignment store 

From the Springs to the Beach…

Just a little bit, “Ladies Who Lunch.”

Style Secrets: Sweater: Marc Jacobs, Tank: H&M, Necklace: Vintage, Skirt: Forever21

Helllllllllllooooooooooo!

And then, because it certainly isn’t hot enough in my apartment {hah!}, I decided to turn on the oven and bake! How could I not with these beautiful wild blueberries? They just pleaded to be folded into a ginger coffee cake, with their buddies Scharffen-Berger chocolate chunks {the good stuff}. I’ve got some pretentious blueberries on my hands, don’t you think? And then this coffee cake demanded to be served with the “good stuff” ice cream for dessert. As if being #1 for breakfast wasn’t good enough! Hmpf. See if I make you again, Blueberry-Ginger-Chocolate Coffee Cake!

xo!

 Mrs. Lilien has had me on a Palm Springs kick. Palm Springs is calling me and my vintage swimsuit to a swanky Palm Springs hotel with a swanky pool. Of course, this vintage late-1960s Barkcloth, with the most amazing design, cupcake buttons, and…yes…sequins, is coming with me. But I might have to check a bag…this thing weighs about ten pounds!

I love all of the visual weight from the pattern and texture, yet it fits beautifully so it doesn’t look overwhelming. Vintage MUST fit well or it’s not worth your time, my friends. 

But Palm Springs? Palm Springs is always worth your time.

This pattern reminds me so much of the new Kate Spade Florence Brodhurst design: 

Doesn’t it have a lot of similar elements? Everything old is new again! 

Have a GREAT Monday, my dears! I’m so excited for this week and I hope you are, too. It’s mid-July, high-summer, and I’m ready to make the most of every second of it.