Beach Bag Essentials

I love the beach; it is really one of my favorite places to go in the summer.  There is something about the sun, the sound of the water lapping upon the shore and the wind rustling the leaves of a tree.  A palm tree is my favorite. None the less where ever I am I have the same essentials in my bag.  

I love my Land's End tote to carry everything.  Its sturdy and washes easily if necessary.  A monogram is a must.  Other essentials include a cover up, towel, a water bottle ( I have a camel back glass jar),  a wide brimmed hat or a baseball hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, goggles if you plan on doing any major swimming.  Also I love to read so I always have my paper white Kindle.  I use it in the hot Florida sun, and I can always see perfectly well.  This is also my place to relax so I try not to have my phone ringer on. I use it to take pictures if really necessary.  Otherwise if I need to check the time the Kindle has a built in clock.

Enjoy your summer beach time.

As always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

3 Petites choses en juin

Well since summer vacation started I find myself spending time trying to do those things I haven't been able to do during the school year.  One of those is walking with some of my girlfriends.  While I always walk in the morning not many people like to get up at 5:20 to exercise in the dark.  However with the early sunrise I can usually find some willing friend at 6 am.  

Of course I've also been trying new recipes.  Sometimes my children are the inspiration and help behind the recipe sometimes not.  So recipes are good some are just okay.  This recipe for Southern Living's Humming Bird Cake was fantastic. My daughter wanted to make a 3 tired cake and it did not dissapoint.  Next time I might reduce the recipe to a single tired cake so the 3 of us who ate it are not eating cake for way too many days.

The second new little thing I did this summer is community yoga in the park.  I'm ashamed to say that for all of the years, 13 total, that  I've been practicing yoga I've never been to an outdoor community class.  It was great.  There were well over 100 people there, and it was so nice just to listen to the sounds of nature as I did my yoga.  This is something I will do again.

The last little thing is our new bird's nest.  Now usually we have a robin's or dove's nest in our trees, and I never tire of seeing the new little eggs.  However this year the dove decided to nest in one of my hanging baskets. It does make watering the baskets a little tricky since she rarely leaves.  

I hope you've been able to find little ways to enjoy your time.

As always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

Grad Party Bruch

 First of all I want to apologize for the misspelling of holes in this case.  

So this past weekend we celebrated our eldest daughters graduation from high school.  She is headed off to UW-Madison this year fall.  As we were deciding on the date and time for the party I came up with the idea for the brunch.  Breakfast is her favorite meal of the day so I thought what a wonderful way to honor her.  I did a lot of the catering from a local bakery for the croissants, cupcakes muffins and donuts.  A few days before we roasted a half of ham on our BGE.  The day before we sliced the ham very thin so our guest had the choice of a ham and cheese croissant sandwich.   I did try a new recipe for the breakfast casserole.  Everyone liked it and I made it the day before.  It worked out really well.  I also substituted mozzarella cheese for the swiss.  I was able to stagger bringing out 2 casseroles so they stayed warm over the course of the party.  

As always with love from the Midwest,

Beth