Spring & Summer Intentions

Durham Bulls baseball game summer 2014, homemade peach ice cream at Kiwila Farm, Kure Beach summer 2015, St. Croix August '15, North Carolina summer storm, Raven Rock State Park summer '15. 

1. Swim in the lake or river or ocean
2. Walk to get ice cream at least once
3. Watch a baseball game
4. Take underwater photos
5. Go strawberry picking
6. Take a road trip.
7. Make s'mores
8. Carve our names in a tree in Fayetteville, NC
9. Spring Clean.
10. Go to the antique festival.

I am combining my spring and summer intention lists for this year because well I think its going to be a rather busy spring/summer over in these parts and I don't want to make to make lavish goals or plans but here are a few things that I would love to do this spring/summer. If I only get a few accomplished then that will be okay too any progress is good progress! 
love, Carlee 

Updated June 2nd 2016

The Stranger: Albert Camus

This book was goodish. Idk. The ending was weird and it definitely felt unfinished but that is obviously some of the appeal. The book is only 100 pages long or thereabout so it is a rather short book and it is hard to get to know the characters even the main character. I read this book because it is classified as one of the best books of the 20th Century and has pretty good reviews everywhere. It's not that I didn't like it. It just felt like a book that an English teacher would f*cking love and read way

to much into but the author actually didn't mean anyone to come to those conclusions and the author wasn't even finished with the book to begin with. Okay so thats all my own thinking but it just felt unfinished like I said. I guess that is why people can read so much into it and draw all shorts of conclusions because there is a wide open ending.

Maybe if I read the book at a different stage in my life I would have drawn sometime powerful or awesome from it but this time I did not. It was good and an easy read and I liked there the story was going at most of the points. I just wish it kept going. I just didn't really get much out of it like I think most people do which is okay.

Take my review with a grain of salt of course. And like I said this book isn't that long so if you read 100 pages and don't get anything out of it, it's not really that big of a loss you know.
love, Carlee 

DC cherry blossoms

This past weekend we ended up taking a semi spontaneous trip to Washington D.C. I say semi spontaneous because we didn't actually have plans to go until two days before. We were originally going to go to Asheville NC which is about a 5 hour drive from us. So instead I was like DC is also five hours and the cherry blossoms are at peak bloom. I was just thinking this is probably a once in a lifetime experience. When are we going to only be 5 hours away again, have the peak bloom fall on a long holiday weekend? Probably never so I wanted to make the most of it. Besides there is so much to do in DC that I knew we wouldn't be bored if we went for a long weekend. 

We mainly went for the cherry blossoms and so did everyone else haha. It was so beautiful and it smelled gorgeous! But it was crowded. We ended up walking around the entire Tidal Basin on Friday and Saturday. That is why some photos are the weather is cloudy and some of the photos it is pure sunshine. It was beautiful both days. 

The actual cherry blossoms festival isn't until next weekend but since the blossoms were at full bloom. There was live music, a ton of food trucks, tents with gift shops inside, and other exhibits. It was really fun. We ended up biking a lot as well and going to a couple museums. We went to the Watergate Complex and explored. We also went to the Holocaust museum and in the main exhibit you get little ID cards of someone who was in the Holocaust and you get to go through the exhibit and at the end learn what happened to your person. We ended up both surviving the Holocaust which was cool but we were one of the lucky ones. It was a very emotion museum. We also went to the Spy museum and you had to memorize a new identity for it and if anyone asked you were that person and not yourself. It was rather fun. We had a wonderful time and it was so exciting to see the cherry blossoms just light up the whole DC experience. 
love, Carlee 

Hoodie: Gap

Tank: Sugarplum 

Jeans: TJ Maxx

Sandals: Toms.com 

Disposable Camera || Roll 6

When it was snowing cats and dogs in Washington State when we were home for Christmas so of course we had to play in it. 

When Clark and his friends played in a video game tournament at NC State University. Yeah, my husband is a nerd haha. 

From when my family was in North Carolina visiting us. I love love love the color and look of the beach photos. 

The 5th best ice cream place in the world is Leopold's Ice Cream in Savannah GA. And this photo with Clark's thumb half covering is the only proof I have of the experience! SO GOOD. 

At Raven Rock State Park with my two favorite guys. 

Another disposable camera roll to share with y'all! This is actually a disposable film camera and not an app on my iPhone like the last two "rolls" have been. I love look of film photos even in the disposable camera sense. They just have a different feel to them and it is so cool that you take the photo and don't get to see if again until it gets developed. I know, revolutionary;) haha. I am currently working on another disposable camera roll but the flash stopped working so I basically have to make sure all my photos are take outside because there needs to be tons of light if not using a flash. Hopefully they turn out good still. Anyways, love these photos!

love, Carlee 

My first quilt!

I made my first quilt! So my mom got me a sewing machine for my birthday in mid February. It was a total surprise but I was very excited about it. Because sewing is one of the crafts that I have never dived into. I was nervous to dive into it because I know absolutely nothing about sewing and sewing machines! Like zero. So I spent a lot of time on Youtube and even Googleing what certain terms where like bobbin? haha. I was trying to use my instruction manual to just set things up and it was so hard to do anything because I had no idea what the language was. But I learned and the more I practiced it, I know I will get better and better. I am excited of the progress I have already made.

I chose a really simple pattern to start with because hello first quilt. I pinned some patterns and this one seemed simple enough. The main reason I did this one was because I didn't want to do squares because I was worried that it might not line up perfectly because I was so new at sewing. I chose Easter prints that way I can pull the quilt out every spring and enjoy my first quilt! I like holiday themed stuff so this was fun. It was also really fun to pick out patterns that went together. I wish someone I knew was having a baby so I could make them a baby quilt.

I watched this video all the way through and re-watched certain parts over and over to get started with my first quilt because like I said I really didn't know where to start. It was really helpful for doing the strips for the binding and then the binding itself.

The only regret I have is choosing a striped pattern for the back. Because I sewed along the striped seams on the front and I thought that everything matched up good but I was a tiny bit off. So the seams on the back are a little off from the stripes. But now I know to choose a solid color or a simple pattern. That way my seams don't matter on the back side. I am also having a little trouble with the tension of my thread. I go for sometime and it is perfectly fine and then there will be a missing loop on the back. It is frustrating but I just need more practice I think and to learn more about the machine it self. But this was a good starter piece and I am really happy with it!

It should also be noted that this is not a tutorial of any kind but just me sharing something I made that I am proud of! Have a wonderful Tuesday.
love, Carlee

Red Lip, Classic

Hey all, how is it going? Happy Monday. Life has been good lately. I am thinking about signing Knox up for an obedience class. He is a pretty good dog and fairly mellow but he needs to be better about walking on a leash and when meeting strangers and other dogs. He just gets way to excited when seeing other people. It is only once a week for 4 weeks so not bad but I think it will be fun and it will be nice for me to learn certain commands that will help him. Mainly I want to do this so I don't feel like a loser when we go out to a park or downtown when were are lots of people and my dog is pulling on the leash because he is so excited.

I feel like there is so much good TV on right now. I just finished House of Cards and Big Love (okay so this show ended like 4 years ago but I just streamed it all on Amazon Prime) and I finished up The Bachelor. Clark and I started watching The Walking Dead. Clark loves it and I like it to but my mom is the one that wanted us to watch it so bad. It is her favorite which is really weird haha so we are giving it a chance and we are on season 3 so you could say we are fans. I am excited for Ink Master to be on Hulu again. I don't have any tattoos and I don't think I will ever get any but the artistic ability that goes into really well done tattoos is super impressive. Anyways, now I seem like I just watch TV 24/7 but I mostly have it playing while I print cards or mugs or type up blog post or paint or sew or clean. So yeah, stop judging haha.

I have been spring cleaning lately. But right now I am at the point where all the clutter is pulled out but not organized or put back away. Like all the stuff under our bed is pulled out and I have been throwing stuff away. Like we have 7 throw pillows, 5 which I have stored under the bed because we don't use at all. I am thinking we don't need 7 pillows!!!!!!! So I am thinking of getting rid of 3 or 4 and keeping a few. Also the covers come off so I am thinking I might just get new covers because I don't like the current ones. But also we just don't really keep throw pillows on our couches or bed so idk. So many random thoughts for a Monday!
love, Carlee

Dress (worn as skirt) & Sandals: Macys

Shirt: Forever 21

Chocolate Coconut Easter Nests

Super simple recipe! And these totally remind me of my childhood. My mom and I always make "haystacks" (what we call them) at Christmas. Which is just chocolate and coconut. And she would always make these nests at Easter. Which is basically the same just add chocolate eggs or jelly beans (although I prefer the chocolate) so it all agrees with the taste buds haha.

You'll Need:
- Colored chocolate : I used green and purple
- Coconut
- Chocolate Eggs : I used Whopper Robin Egg Malt Balls (you can also use jelly beans)

Direction:
-Melt one color of chocolate in a bowl in the microwave for 1-1:30 minutes. (You can do this in a double boiler but with small quantities I found the microwave easiest)
-Stir in coconut into melted chocolate. Make sure all the coconut is covered with the colored chocolate and nothing is pecking out.
-Use your thumb to make a hole for the eggs to go. I placed the eggs in the chocolate right away so they stayed in their firmly but you could probably wait until after they cool. Just make sure to make a hole so they have a place to go. Once the chocolate is cool is it fairly hard.
-Let cool. I put mine in the fridge to speed up the cooling process.

I chose green and purple chocolate, which I found at the craft store. I was deciding between pink, yellow, green, blue and purple. Obviously you can choose all the colors but that would have made WAY to many for me.

And thats all there is to it folks. SUPER easy like I said. And they are very yummy. Personally I still like them a little warm but for these photos I had to let them cool. But they were still great. A fun Easter recipe and I am always down for something that reminds me of my mom and my childhood. Nostalgia for the win. Am I right? haha

love, Carlee

Purple petals

I will not stop with the floral bloom photos until I have to or until Clark stops being a good sport about me asking him to take photos. But he is a good guy so that isn't going to happen. I won't stop for anything well until the flowers fall of the trees and everything turns green. I love the green as well though. I know spring will be over and gone so soon this year, it was almost 90 degrees today. Which is crazy for March even for North Carolina. I was honestly thinking "man I could get into the pool today and it would feel refreshing. And it's March!" 

We took these photos on Sunday evening. Clark started Whole30 on Monday (I am mostly doing it too but not so strict so technically not) so we had one more cheat meal and we got Red Robin to go. (I know, I know so damn fancy of us. haha.) Clark was craving their chicken strips. We also got milkshakes and I got a chocolate one and while we were driving home I set the cup down on my skirt and the bottom had chocolate milkshake on it and it got all over my skirt. Which I did not like. But I got the stains out! I feel like a real adult now that I can get a chocolate stain out. 

I know that I took photos with this same tree two years ago and I found the post. And just look - this tree was blooming mid April two years ago! So much proof that this year is record breaking warm. Okay, I will stop talking about the weather. Well at least for now, I can't promise anything for next post ;)

love, Carlee

Tank: America Eagle

Sandals: Target 

Skirt: Old Navy

Jean Vest: Forever 21

One More Thing: B.J. Novak

This was a good book. 4 out of 5 stars I would give it. I have been wanting to read it for a while because B.J. Novak is the author and I basically love anything that has to do with The Office and he was a writer on the show The Office as well as the character Ryan. So funny. At first I thought this book was a memoir kind of like the Mindy Kaling books. But this book is actually fiction. Only discovered it was fiction because I found it in the library under F Novak. So I was now, mentally prepared for a fiction book. It was a fast read because it is a book filled with short stories. Some of the
stories we very funny and witty and some I didn't like so much but they were still entertaining. Now I wish he would write a memoir type book.

Read this book if you are a fan of B.J. Novak. It is funny. I am not sure if I would have picked up the book if I didn't know who the author was and I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much if I didn't know who B.J. Novak was and like his work. So consider that if picking up this book.

Favorite short stories from the novel:

I Never Want to Walk on the Moon

Sophia

The Man Who Invented the Calendar

Monster The Roller Coaster

Quantum Nonlocality and the Death of Elvis Presley

One of These Days, We Have to Do Something About Willie

If You Love Something


love, Carlee

Spring has sprung

Spring is here! It is really here and it might pass us by in about 30 minutes. The weather has been so warm here. Like multiple days a week in the 80! And I think all the trees and flowers are like holy shit we need to bloom now it is so warm out. We were driving around this weekend and there are so many trees in bloom and it seems to happen overnight. Were as the last couple years seem to be gradually spread out over a few weeks. All around looks so beautiful but I am a little worried that they will all be here for a couple days and then gone for the rest of spring. Which will probably be the case. I am just going to try and enjoy all the blooms while I can! 

Clark and I went downtown this weekend. I wanted to pick up some books at the library and we got smoothies as our favorite little coffee shop. Nothing like warm weather and flowers to bring out my smoothie craving. Also my egg salad sandwich craving is also high this time of year! It always is right around Easter. Anyone else experience this?

You'll probably see many more bloom pics coming up. Nothing like pretty scenery to inspire new photos and locations! 
love, Carlee

Shirt: TJ Maxx (Lucky Brand)

Shorts: Old Navy

Sandals: Belk

Disposable Camera || Roll 5

I still LOVE Disposable Cameras! I know I haven't shared a photos from a disposable camera since last August so it really has been like 7 months which is crazy. But honestly, I really do take my sweet time when it comes to taking photos with a disposable camera. So these photos were actually taken with an app on my iPhone called Disposable Camera App by Photojojo (it is no longer a running app.) The last photos I shared from this series were from the White Album app also a disposable camera app on the iPhone. I thought that it would be fun to do the project with the app on my phone because I always have my phone with me so I will likely take more photos. Well I did and I didn't. Its funny because even with the app on my phone it look by about 6 months to get through 27 exposures just like on a regular disposable camera. So with these apps you open the app and it opens the camera and you take a photo and you don't get to see it until it is developed just like actual film photos. Unlike film photos they have the look of iPhone photos which is okay. But part of the reason I do like the disposable camera is because of the look of the photos. So after this round I am back to taking photos with an actually disposable camera which I am excited about. I actually have film it that is being developed right now so the timing on these photos and the film photos will over lap a little. But I am excited to get those back and share them within the next week or two. 

These three photos are from our time in St. Croix last August. I love the first photo of Clark sitting on the dock!

Both of these photos are from Diary Queen. It turns out I like pulling out my disposable camera or app while at Dairy Queen haha.

From two different walks with Knox.

This photo is from Clark's birthday when I bought him a bunch of balloons and had them in the car in the morning as a surprise!

This photos was taken in October when we were helping our friends rack leaves before we had a Halloween party at their house.

Clark being super silly as always before going to the movies.

This might be my favorite photos from the whole pack. This is Clark's regular barber and while Clark is making a really silly face. I think it will be nice to have this photo and remember the barber that Clark saw for three years while we were here in Fayetteville.

And a silhouette of my mom at Christmas time.

Now, the quality of these photos don't look so good because they are photos of the photos and also because they are more matted paper and not glossy photo paper which I don't really like. One good thing about the disposable camera app on phones is that mostly all of the photos turn out pretty good. Where as with an actually film camera it can take a while to know how much like you need or when to use flash. But that is apart of the charm as well.
love, Carlee