We had our first cookout of the year on Sunday, and another one today to celebrate July 4th. It’s been a great week for hanging out with friends and family; this time last year Adam and I were in Hawaii, and we’d just found out that H was on the way. It was such an incredible time, so I don’t know…I was feeling really festive this July. Several teachers from school came on Sunday, and they caught me up on everything I’d missed while on maternity leave. H loved just hanging out on the patio under an umbrella. We tried putting her in the crib for a nap, but she didn’t want to miss the party! So she took all her naps on me that day, lol. I’m not complaining.
This week was also the first time I’d really put out a coordinated spread since our 2010 Christmas party, and I tried to use a lot of tips from Amy Atlas’s Sweet Designs. I didn’t take photos of today’s table until the end of the day, and they aren’t anywhere near as great as the photos Adam shot of Sunday’s table. So I’m posting Adam’s photos from our Sunday cookout here. I had so much fun putting this together, and I love how it turned out.
I made strawberry pies-in-a-jar for Sunday. I actually made cherry pies-in-a-jar today, too. This is my new favorite party trick. I use my favorite pie recipes but cut out the dough to fill my mini Weck jars. The crust and filling for a regular pie are enough for 12 mini pies, and you bake them in the oven at 375 for 50-60 minutes. They are easy and so delicious. I love the gooey, exploded nature of these. Perfect summer cookout food!
I did kind of a strawberry color scheme (the berries of my obsession lately). Red berry colors and a little bit of green.
Read more on Holiday Weekend Cookout…
So in September of 2010 I started taking photos of my work outfits after leaving one district and starting in another (this was the job I just left last June). I kind of just wanted to see if I could go a month without repeating outfits, but I kept it up. Then in 2011, I took a photo of myself almost every single day; the results are the above photo. This turned out to be the year I became pregnant with H, so the outfit photos became a diary of my growing baby bump. I stopped the photos after she was born in March of 2012 because, you know, newborn.
