Summer... Bummer

 Well folks, I did my best to stop it, but it's here anyway.

  Just in case you haven't noticed, today is  June 21st, 

the most un-wonderful day of the year.

It's the first day of summer. 

I hate summer. 

Ok, maybe hate is too strong a word. I hate liver.  Summer, on the other hand, is more like a green bean.  I can stomach it, but I don't enjoy it.   I just endure it until it's off my plate.

That's because I live in south Georgia. Do you know what summer looks like in south Georgia?

This. 

With regularity. 

As a younger woman, it didn't bother me.  I was a school teacher after all. Summer meant two things: time off and tan on. (I was all about the suntan back in the day, and I have the wrinkles to prove it.)  As a young mother, I enjoyed it even more. Summer meant adventures with the girls and lazy days by the pool. Yeah, summer was pretty cool back then.

Nowadays, it's just hot. 

Nowadays, I look at the date on the calendar and the temperature on the thermometer and snort.

Here we go again...

Last summer, I tried to *fix it* by creating a Sand Pail List of  activities to do while the heat was on.  It was a pretty fun idea and worked well until the unfortunate debit card incident turned into No Buy July.

And just in case you've forgotten, there was  August...

So here's the thing: While I was planning to do the whole Sand Pail List again, I have changed my mind. I'm fickle like that.  You see, as I made that list, I started thinking.

 I'm always thinking. 

Was there a single adventure on that list that couldn't be done, and more  pleasantly so, in the fall? 

Why no, there wasn't.  

I'm not teaching anymore, and the nest is empty.   I have just as much time for adventure in the fall as I do in the summer, and I can do it all without sweat stains. If orange can be the new pink, and 50 can be the new 30, why can't autumn be the new summer?

 I think I'm onto something here.   

So this morning, I decided to dump the sand pail and leave summer fun to families with full nests. This year, I'm going to give myself permission to stay inside where the living is easy, and the temperature is a sweet 78.

I won't be taking on any huge indoor projects, either.  This summer, I'm going to sweat the small stuff and work on all those little projects and crafts that have been banished to the back burner in the name of grand schemes.

True, it doesn't sound as fun as picking Georgia peaches or going on a riverboat ride, but it's still an adventure if you give it a name. That's the rule. I know because I made it up.

I'm calling it Sweat the Small Stuff Summer,
 and the adventure begins today.

(OK, maybe Monday. I have something big to celebrate first.)

Can anyone relate? 

Or am I the only one in Blogville
with summer bummer syndrome?

Something Borrowed... Something Blue

I'm on a sand pail roll, people, 

a sand pail roll. 

In the course of one evening,

 I managed to do three more items on my
sand pail list. 

That's because for our anniversary this year, 

we decided to take a picnic.  

That's #1...

At the beach.

That's #2...

We waited until the evening to avoid the sun, the heat, and the crowds, and headed to the nearest beach.  Then, we followed our traditional pattern.

Sir Lotsa Hair carried the load...

Lady Blogalot carried the shiny red Kodak.

We cloistered ourselves near the dunes for a little more privacy.

After all,  we didn't want some 

Nosy Nellie  peeping in on our private moments.

People do that kind of thing you know...

Don't ask me how I know...

Apparently, young chicks and old hens all have the same romantic notions. We saw a total of four weddings from our hideaway that night.  The Nosy Nellie in the dunes even managed to capture three brides at once.

All wanting evidence that their marriage started out on the rocks....

If you're thinking that item # 3 was a sunset on the beach, think again. We live on the east coast, you see. The sun doesn't exactly set over the water.

Instead, we packed up and headed into Savannah 

before the blue hour. 

That's #3.

We watched as it turned blue...

. 

And bluer 

And bluest.

Just plain awesome in my opinion...

And finally, we called it a night.

As for this sand pail review, I give picnic at the beach two thumbs up for an anniversary celebration. The Man of the House did too.  (Of course, he also liked grilled watermelon so we probably shouldn't put too much stock in the manly opinion.  I think he mainly likes the idea of a cheap date.)

So weigh in, folks.

Are you a picnic person, 

or would you rather dine inside and at a table?

Would you picnic at the beach
or would you rather not have sand in your shoes?

Dollar Tree Noodling

Am I the only one with a precarious pile of cheap, old, beach towels taking up space in a closet?  Honestly, I don't know where they all come from.  We're overrun with them around here, and we don't even have a pool.

 Thanks to Blog Land, I've figured out a way to reuse them.  

Just cut them into strips and wrap them around a
Dollar Tree pool noodle 

for an beachy door wreath. 

That way, you can join the other bloggers who have gone completely

 off their noodles at a crafting party.   

                                                      

It's embellished with some terrycloth flowers made from washcloths which also came from the Dollar Tree. The petals were just adhered to some card stock with spray mount to keep them from being floppy.  

In a big surprise, I used yet another painted Dollar Tree 
sand pail to finish it off.

They love me at The Dollar Tree.

You might want to put on some sun shades for this one. 

I warn you, the colors are kind of   

bright and hot. 

But it's summertime in southeast Georgia, people.

Bright and hot are the only two colors we know.  

Total cost:  

One dollar each for the noodle, pail, towels, and sunglasses

 for a total of $4.00.
Don't you think it looks like I spent at least $4.50?

****
See other noodle tricks at the  Noodle Party  

And Some Like It Cold

If you read my previous post, you know that after nearly 28 years of marriage, I discovered that the Man of the House does not like watermelon. Apparently, it's just too watermelony for him.

You also know that I tried and rejected the notion of grilling the stuff.  Popular opinion seemed to be with me that watermelon is a dish best served cold. 

Therefore, Miss Whimsy and I decided to use up the remaining fruit while the husband is out of town by trying some recipes from the cold side.

We started with watermelon sorbet.

Now this recipe?

 It gets four thumbs up, 

two from me and two from Miss Whimsy.

We loved it.

It's cold and refreshing, and it's really easy too.  

Just make a simple syrup
with 1 cup sugar and 1 cup (boiling) water. 

Blend syrup with 8 cups of watermelon chunks

Add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice until it's thoroughly mixed and slushy.  

Then spread it in a 9 x 13 pan and freeze for 8 hours.
(Covered)

When you're ready to serve it, just cut it into frozen chunks 

and puree them again until it looks like sorbet. 

 Mine kind of looked like frozen slush, but it tasted like sorbet, 

and that's what matters.

Then, set a watermelony table for two
for no other reason than fun.

I don't have any watermelon dishes so I just layered  red, white, and green

and then seeded it with a little black. 

 A painted pot for the center.

Some watermelon napkin rings...

And colorful stemware. 

I actually have some watermelon glasses that I borrowed from the Duchess,

 but they were busy showcasing our other cold watermelon recipe.

Watermelon Coolers
(From the May 2012 issue of All You Magazine)

(I cut this recipe in half, but here's the whole one)

Freeze 8 cups of watermelon chunks
for at least 30 minutes

Blend together (in small portions) 

                                                        -watermelon chunks
                                                        -2 cups of ginger ale
                                                       -6 ounces frozen limeade
                                                       -1/4 cup water


I actually only gave this one thumb because I'm not a huge limeade person.  Miss Whimsy, on the other hand, gave it two thumbs and a big toe to make up for it. She loved it.

Therefore, I will definitely make it for her again.

So there you have it. Not one but two recipes and a watermelony table all in one post.  Not too shabby for a lazy, hazy, crazy day of summer.

Sharing with
 Let's Dish! ,  Tablescape Thursday, and
On the Menu Monday

Some Like It Hot

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but we're hard core grillers around here. We'll grill just about anything if someone suggests it, and we grill four seasons of the year, rain or shine. When it's raining, Sir Lotsa Hair pulls his trusty Weber kettle just under the garage roof and makes like a lightning rod.

That's how he managed to grill last night in the middle of a monsoon. I thought with all that water, it would be a good night to try grilling some watermelon. 

'Cause it's on my  Sand Pail List, and I'm kind of themey like that.  

I had seen the suggestion in a magazine which I thought was the June edition of Better Homes and Gardens, but after turning every page, I couldn't find it there. I couldn't find it in any other magazine around here either. Either I dreamed up the whole thing or ripped it out for safe keeping and then lost it.

I do that a lot.   

Instead,  I googled recipes and came up with this one

Grilled Watermelon

Cut watemelon slices about an inch thick

Remove rind and salt both sides.

Place slices on a rack above some paper towel for 20 minutes.

Rinse salt from surface and brush with olive oil.

Grill each side 3 minutes.

Miss Whimsy took a bite and said, "Interesting and different..."

I took a bite and said, "Meh"

The husband took a bite and said that he liked it. 

Of course, he went on to say that he didn't usually like watermelon, but he liked it this way because it didn't taste watermelony. Well, that's just silly. Isn't it the job of a watermelon to taste watermelony?  It's not tofu. It has its own distinct taste, and that taste is watermelony.  

(By the way... what? 

I've been married to the man for almost 28 years 

and didn't know that he didn't like watermelon?

 I just thought he was being generous.)

So here's the review. Even though I'm a huge fan of other grilled fruit, I personally like my watermelon cold.  Maybe the incredible disappearing recipe from Better Homes and Gardens was better. I don't know, and I'm not sure I'll try it if I find it.  

I did, however, like the way grilled hunks tasted on our side salads.

Of course, just about anything tastes good with feta, red onion, and balsamic vinegar, but it's still worth tossing some slices on the gill to change up the taste of a salad if you want.

I am hereby putting grilled watermelon in the sand pail and calling it completed. While searching for that recipe, though, I also saw one for watermelon sorbet. I'm going to put it on the Sand Pail list to try when the husband is out of town.

That is, if I can remember where I put the page when I ripped it out. 

So when it comes to fruit, do you like it hot, or do you like it cold?
I'd love any and all suggestions or recipes.

Teachable Crafting Moments

I didn't intend to write this post; it's so easy peasy that it hardly seemed yakkable. Stick with me to the end, though, and you'll see why I did.   

You see, I'm working on some sand pail projects that I mentioned in the Sand Pail List post, and  I get my cheap sand pails at The Dollar Tree. The colors aren't really pretty there; they have every wacky color combination known to man.  At first, I started digging through the piles to find some colors I could work with. 

Then, I remembered that said digging is not necessary.  The original colors are irrelevant. 

I'm going to cover them, inside and out 

with Krylon Fusion spray paint anyway. 

Just in case you're not familiar with it, Fusion  is the spray paint that allows you to paint over plastic without it peeling off.  It bonds to it. 

Around here, 

white Fusion on the craft shelf

 is like white sugar in the pantry.  

Obviously, I do a lot of cheap plastic crafting. 

Fusion comes in colors too, but most of the time I just spray with the white

 and then paint over it with any color or any type of paint that I want.

That's because once it's bonded, it's paintable. 

And once it's painted, it immediately begins to look

 less cheap and plasticky, 

don't you think? 

  

I painted the inside of this one with craft paint.  

I gave the outside another coat of white (satin)  paint.

That's because I like a flat or satin base for decoupage.

Admit it. 

That's kinda cute.

I got that tissue paper at The Dollar Tree

The shovel and handle were painted with some

 Fusion raspberry

that I had lying around.   

I painted and played around with other shovel and handle colors 

since you can mix and match. 

As I was dinking away at my sand pail project, I started thinking. 

I'm always thinking...

Here's the actual reason for this post: 

Wouldn't sand pail transformation be a great 

teachable craft for children? 

 Think about it. 

 The steps are exactly the same as the ones in a transformation of another sort,

the transformation of the Spirit.  

In the beginning, we're nothing but an empty vessel...

a Dollar Tree sand pail if you will. 

Then God gets his hands on us. 

He doesn't choose us because of what we are.

He chooses us because of what He intends for us to be.

But first

He covers us with that cloak of righteousness

inside and out.

It's the bonding agent, don'tcha know.

Only then 

does He begin the process of redecorating our lives according to His plan

 and for His useful purpose.

 There are lots of creative purposes for sand pails.

What each one turns out to be

is all up to the Creator. 

*****

Even though I'm so late that I'll be on the boney backside of The Picket Fence, 

I'm sharing at Inspiration Friday

Inspiration Wanted: The Sand Pail List

Even though I've heard of bucket lists, I've never actually made one.  I do play a monthly "to do" game that I yakked about HERE.  In the June issue of Better Homes and Gardens, I read a little article about making a sand pail list for the summer.  It's a list of things that you would like to do in the lazy, hazy, crazy days.

Note that...

These are things that you would like to do. It's vastly different from a list of things that you have to do or need to do. I have enough of those lists already.

Around here, our lazy, crazy days start in early May and linger right on through October. By the time our two day fall arrives, I'm generally glad to see them go.

However...

This year, my theme color is yellow and my theme is Finding the Sunshine. This year,  I am determined to enjoy the summer in a more intentional way.

So here ya go. These are my first items on my sand pail list.

 It's still a work in progress.

I might change this post during the day, in fact.

Go to the beach

I only live about an hour from the beach, but last summer and the summer before that, I never even bothered to go. Even though I don't love the beach, I would still  like to go at least once to say that I did.

Go on a picnic

I'm talking about a real live pack-a-cute-basket-and-make-an-adventure picnic. I love them. It's just plain ridiculous that I haven't taken one in years.  I blame the south Georgia heat and bugs for it.
 I might have to take a road trip northward for this one.  

Dine alfresco for breakfast or brunch.  

This is different from taking a picnic, of course.  We rarely even eat an evening meal outside anymore, mostly due to the aforementioned heat and bugs.
 We haven't had an alfresco breakfast in about a decade.

What's up with that? 

Do some moonlighting

Gayle over at Solitary Moments recently posted a collage of moon pictures and talked about the beauty of the moon as the ultimate light that shines in the darkness.
 Now, I'm a moon kick.
I want to spend some time by the light of the silvery moon. 

 Maybe I'll take a moonlight swim. 

I said maybe...

Watch the sun rise

and 

Watch the sun set

and 

Chase down the blue hour 

all with a shiny red Kodak. 

(Perpetual list item...)

Ride a bike.

This will involve fixing our tandem bike or getting new ones, but I'd still like to do it. 

Ideally, I'd like to drag Sir Lotsa Hair along with me, but I'll take a Farm Sister or Whimsical Daughter if I need to. In my head, this is not a solo adventure.

Pick some peaches.

This is Georgia, and I just think a person who lives in Georgia ought to pick peaches. 

I've never picked peaches before so I'm putting it on the list.  

Grill watermelon.

I saw that in the same magazine and want to try it. Peach picking Georgia people
ought to know how to grill  watermelon. 

Explore our local walking trail

We have one that meanders from one side of town to the other. I probably paid for it in taxes so I think I ought to at least enjoy it. It starts by a thrift store
and ends by a coffee shop.
If that doesn't inspire me, nothing will.   

Craft some sand pails.

I'd like to see how many cheap crafty things I can do with those dollar tree sand pails. 

So far, I made a centerpiece.

I'm on a roll...

And that's all I have for now.
I'm open to inspiration and suggestion since I'm nothing if not a copy cat. 

So tell me, what kinds of things would you put in your sand pail? 

*****

Sharing my sand pail centerpiece

 at Let's Dish with Cuisine Kathleen