​I hope everyone is having a wonderful week! Can you believe that it's almost June?! Holy sha-moly. I can't. May has gone by SO fast. Like, it feels like it was JUST the first of May and we were all like, Woohoo! Spring is here! Well, now SUMMER is almost here! WHOA MAN. Anywho, since it's almost June, here's a free printable calendar with all sorts of important dates on it, like National Fudge Day and National Doughnut Day. Very important. You can print it out right here! Now, I'm going outside to enjoying this beautiful day! Have a fantastic weekend, everyone!

I'm addicted to artwork. I have so many pieces collected from places I've traveled, antique stores, a lovely collection from a dear friend (here's one of her watercolors -- I absolutely love it), and things that have caught my eye on websites like Etsy and Society6. Most of them are currently packed up in the basement, just waiting until I finally have the wall space so I can frame and hang them! One of these days.

Society6, Etsy, and Minted are a few of my absolute favorite places to look online for artwork (here's my favorite zebra print from Etsy). I love browsing through and imagining collections. Since summer has been on my mind lately, here's a grouping I put together! I started with oranges as my base (I'm kind of obsessed with orange lately. Not sure why, it's never really been a particular favorite of mine, but now I can't get enough of it!) and then added accents of turquoise/blues/greens. Feels kind of summery, no?
​
From left to right:
tangerine / pineapple / summer heat / pattern / float

​1. Happy Memorial Day, everyone!! Thank you to all who have served and are serving our country -- "land of the free because of the brave." I hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend! And -- here's a little history on the origins of Memorial Day.

2. Apologies for the long absence, yet again! Sheesh! This past week, I was awfully sick with a cold and an ear infection -- not pretty. On top of that, I started another new job. It's going to be a busy summer! Yesterday was my first day assisting with delivering/setting up floral arrangements for the new job. One of our tasks included setting up a chuppah -- on the beach. On the super, duper windy beach.

​Oh. My. Goodness. Pretty much everything was working against us. The beach slopes downward, so the chuppah is kind of slanted (okay, not just kind of slanted...really slanted!). The wind was INCREDIBLE down on the beach. Those posts are unwieldy enough trying to move around under regular conditions. Try moving them around when it's super-duper ultra windy! Some of the posts weren't fitting where they were supposed to, etc, etc. It was a challenge. But we did it! Good thing we didn't need to put a canopy on top. That would have definitely been in the ocean in about .2 seconds. After running around delivering boutineers, corsages, and floral arrangements (and assembling that beast of a chuppah), I was exhausted and ready to just veg out. My plan once I got home was to make dinner and watch a chick flick. (I do love chick flicks. The cheesier, the better). Which brings me to...

3. The Ugly Truth is a terrible, terrible movie. I think I saw the movie in an article like, "Top Ten Chick Flick Movies" or something similar. So when I was mentally running through chick-flicks, figuring out what I wanted to watch,  I was like, "Oh yeah, I remember I kinda wanted to see that movie." I mean, I loved 27 Dresses (one of my all-time favorite chick-flicks) and it has Gerard Butler. Yeah, the premise seemed kind of dumb, but a lot of chick-flick movies don't really have the most impressive premise. So, I decided, why not? Seems like a good vegging-out movie. ACK -- so terrible!! First off, WHERE IS GERARD BUTLER'S ACCENT??! WHERE. IS. THE. ACCENT. The movie had pretty much lost me right then and there when I realized Gerard Butler didn't have his lovely Scottish accent. 

​WHERE'S YOUR ACCENT, GERARD?!?!

Secondly, Gerard Butler's character Mike is SUCH A JERK. How does Katherine Heigl's character Abby fall for such a crass meanie? I mean, I get the whole opposites attract thing. But, seriously? He has no redeeming qualities. Yes, he did turn down the offer from CBS so that he could stick around for his nephew and be a "father figure," so that's good and all, but seriously. And okay, I (sort of) understand Abby's warming up to him after that conversation about CBS, his nephew, and Mike's chain of messed-up relationships. But then -- THEN -- after the elevator scene and Mike returns to Abby's hotel room but Colin answers the door and Abby tries going after Mike, he's such a JERK! Again! Completely undoes the very little that he did in the previous scene. You totally screwed up and missed your chance, dude. And don't even get me started on the hot-air balloon scene. So. Much. Wrong. Mike tells Abby he loves her, BUT also calls her a psycho in the same sentence. ?!?! Then, Abby launches into a diatribe about not being a psycho. Mike tells her he loves her again. Abby continues her diatribe. It's pretty cringe-worthy, watching that scene unfold. When Abby FINALLY addresses Mike's statement about loving her and asks why, his response: "Beats the [crapola] [<-- my word, not Mike's] out of me, but I am." Oh, how romantic. A real keeper, that one. </rant> 

Ah, okay. I feel much better now! And I need to watch a good chick-flick ASAP! 

​Today's free printable is scripture from the book of Ruth -- another goodie! It's part of the main scripture from this past Sunday's sermon. Which was a very good sermon on elements of strong relationships, by the way. I definitely recommend watching it or reading it, which you can do right here! The whole sermon series on the elements of relationships has been excellent (you should totally check out all the sermons if you can!). Anyway, the book of Ruth is such a good story too. The love and dedication Ruth had for Naomi, and vice versa, is really amazing. And heartening. And inspiring! 

Also, to go along with Ruth 1:16, here is Chris Tomlin's I Will Follow. The lyrics are inspired from this passage (at least I'm guessing they are. I could be totally making that up, but the main chorus is very similar to Ruth 1:16). It's one of my (many) favorite songs. The lyrics are incredibly powerful and hold a lot of weight. They're easy words to say, but not necessarily so easy to do. Quite often, we feel like it's all up to us to figure everything out and to pave our own path. But, as Tomlin sings, "All your ways are good, all your ways are sure. I will trust in you alone." A good reminder that we don't have to worry and figure everything out, just as long as we trust (although I still do that a lot. One of the many things I need to work on!)

BUT, back to the original point of this post -- the printable of Ruth 1:16! You can go right here to print it out!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

​Today, my walking route took me by a couple of ponds. I love the ocean, but I also love ponds. I love the fresh smell of the water mixed with the smell of the pines. I love the way the water sounds as the small waves break against the shore. 

​It's so lovely and peaceful.

​There are plenty of lovely trees along the rail trail. Which also means I walked through way more winter moth caterpillar webs than I cared for (one is too many, in my opinion).

Darn those winter moth caterpillars. They're absolutely EVERYWHERE now. They're crawling in my car, and I'm pretty sure I've picked at least four of them off of me today. And one on my sneaker. They're like glitter, only far less pretty. And much more destructive. What eats winter moths caterpillars? We need some caterpillar predators around here, STAT! 

​ANYWAY. There was lots of gorgeousness going on to negate the grossness of the caterpillars. (How many times can I say -- er, type -- "caterpillar" in this post?!)

​Isn't that such a cute little house on the far right? I love the red front door. And it has an adorable little balcony.

​And then there's this house that's right across from it. It's been under construction for quite a while, but it's looking pretty done now! Love the screened in porch on the side.

​And it has a sweet chimney. Gorgeous stonework!

The one thing I don't understand is the small landing underneath the window on the far right and the slider next to the window. Was it a door initially? And whoever was building the house (or having it built for them), was like, "Oh, I'd rather have a window there. But leave the landing. Oh, and the slider." And having a slider for an exterior door like that would be kind of odd. I mean, how do you lock it? Granted, there aren't any bands of hooligans running around (none that I know of anyway), but still. I would want a locking exterior door. 

Anyway. Besides the strange landing and slider, I approve.

​Hope everyone's having a beautiful Thursday!