Basil

A few months ago, Elliott brought me a basil plant from his dad's store.  I repotted it and it has really taken off! Like a lot of plants, you have to cut them back so they'll keep producing! We can only eat so much basil and I have yet to make pesto-I have everything except those darn pine nuts, so the only thing left to do to avoid wasting it is to dry it! Mom brought be a drying rack back when she was doing all that "spring cleaning" so we are on our way to stocking the herb rack for the winter!

 One of our favorite summer appetizers is a Caprese Salad made of El's homegrown tomatoes, fresh basil, mozzarella, and a splash of balsamic

Wednesday Recipe

Since summer has "officially" begun (June 21 I believe), I've decided to do a summer recipe series featuring just that- my favorite summer recipes! Most will be very few ingredients with whatever's fresh in the garden! I'll post them on Wednesday's to help get over the hump in the middle of the week. Enjoy

Springtime

Springtime has come and gone and summer is here! It is hot but we were able to enjoy some cooler weather this spring. I love when the days get long. It makes me so happy to come home from work, put on my gardening gloves, and play in the dirt. My flower beds always need to be weeded and our neighbors won "Yard of the Month" in May so we have a lot of pressure...(I really don't care, I actually meant to nominate them and if you only knew the countless hours she spends in those flower beds. We've seen her in the front yard at 10pm-No lie). Anyway, I haven't updated any of my planters and the pansies and petunia's were starting to fade so my Master Gardner mother came to the rescue! We went to the nursery and picked out some caladiums and impatiens (I have a very shady yard). and this is what we came up with!

Mom also brought me this great crate she found and we bought these old casters at the ReStore.

  Once Elliott puts them on for me it will sit by the backdoor filled with old flip flops, boaters, and gardening clogs. I originally saw this idea in a Serena and Lily catalogue, pinned it to my pinterest account, and then made it a DIY project! This is a picture I had taken awhile back from the catalog!

you get the idea...Thanks Mom!

My mom was also busy going through some old boxes and I was the recipient of some treasures found in the attic. She found these great dessert cups which are perfect for a yummy parfait (post on that to come).

Among the dessert cups were various wine glasses, martini glasses, and a punch bowl- I better get to entertaining! I also got these two little planters which I've always loved,

these two BIG planters,

and my favorite childhood books! I can't wait to have a nursery to put them in.

Elliott has also been hard at work in our vegetable garden. This winter we fenced in our garden area (our dogs love to dig) and brought in some dirt. He worked in the compost and leaves to make some really great soil for our veggies! Tomatoes are his all time favorite thing to grow-he does all sorts of varieties and especially loves his heirlooms.

 keeping Ruger out!

 Liza snuck in

 young cherry tomato plant

first pickin' of green beans

Charleston

So, I finally made it back to Charleston! Since Carolyn's wedding is approaching and she is busy finishing up rotations for school, we decided to bring the bachelorette party to her! (and NONE of us were opposed to having a girls weekend in Charleston!!) Half of us arrived Thursday and the other half arrived on Friday and we had a wonderful weekend of great food, shopping, and celebrating Carolyn tying the knot! Friday night we had dinner at MUSE.  The food was incredible!

After dinner, we bar hopped and ended up at Trio which was a blast...it was like a great college bar downstairs with a fun band and a techno club upstairs. Earlier Katherine had made friends with the bellhop at our hotel and got all sorts of tips so we were able to enjoy the Pedi-Cab ride home with Kat's new friends!

Saturday we headed to the beach at Sullivan's Island and then had a late lunch at Poe's Tavern...another great meal. Afterwards, we headed to the rooftop pool at the hotel to lounge around.

Saturday night we threw a lingerie shower for Carolyn and enjoyed gourmet cupcakes from Cupcake and these adorable cookies that KP made!

After opening all her goodies, we headed to Coast to start our "Mojito Crawl" since that is Carolyn's favorite drink.  We all enjoyed different kinds of mojitos...my favorites were Strawberry Rhubarb and the Mango Mojito. After a few more stops on our Mojito Crawl we ended up at Trio again and danced all night to great live music.

Sunday morning we headed to brunch at High Cotton. KP and I split the crabcakes benedict. I wish I had taken a picture of it because it was incredible! It was served on a slice of fried green tomato and of course, brunch wouldn't be complete without Mimosa's and Bellini's.

After brunch we walked around the market and did some more shopping.  By around 4 it was time to head to the airport so we headed back to the hotel to grab our stuff and take one last picture.

In front of the fountain at our hotel, Charleston Place Hotel

I had the best time and was so glad to get to be a part of the weekend! One night, we were planning everyone else's bachelorette weekends based on locations we all want to visit and came up with (in no particular order) Austin, Vegas, Napa, NYC, and LA....then we all decided we'll start saving now for whoever's next!!!