obligatory repost of awesomeness

found on jo

this is baller.

Last weekend I went to the zoo here for the first time in about 10 years or so and couldn't believe how much fun I had. I've never loved the idea of caging animals that should otherwise be in their natural habitats, but I think they can be good for education purposes. Adding to my enjoyment was the deep discussion I had with my friends about (****nerd alert) what animal form our Patronus and Animagus would take. Wolf or seal for me.

AUTUMN.

Its tights and boots-wearing season again. And football games and hot drinks. And I'm excited.

This Sunday there was an American flag planted for each 9/11 victim in St. Louis' amazing Forest Park. It was a gorgeous day and so moving.

The farmers market in Tower Grove Park in Saint Louis is my favorite place to be on Saturday mornings in August and September. For 20 bucks this morning I got peaches, tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, peppers, a chorizo breakfast taco, an amazing scone from this British baker who lives in StL, and honey from a local beekeeper.

time to start blogging again

No more excuses...gotta get back in the groove. It has been a gloriously rainy, misty day, which I don't love in excess, but a welcome change to weeks of no rain. The perfect way to end the second week of school...so tiring since the kids still aren't quite in the routine I'm craving. And the perfect night to stay cozy and bust out the hot chocolate.

(beautiful pic)

sweltering

It is so hot outside. Super hot. Sweltering hot. Too much hot. And it is the first week of school. Sleepy. No dozing time in the morning. On the hottest days ever, when you're wishing it were freezing, and on the coldest day ever, when you're wishing it were sweltering....I think I will always wish it were colder.

source: google image 'sweltering'

easy art

love, love, LOVE this idea from Oh Happy Day - now to think of what phrase to choose....

moi

Today I was randomly helped by two other Michelles, one in a furniture store and one on the phone making an appointment. I don't usually run into too many, gladly...don't want a too-popular name.

so long to summer

Another summer come, and gone. Long days but short weeks....where does it all go? The past few days it has been so windy and perfect and wavy and puffy cloudy and blue and green, that green, my favorite green where the sun soaks through the trees and lights up the underside of the leaves. Back to mid mid midwest, but I am actually looking forward to it, to forward motion, school, preparing, changing around and sprucing up my apartment a bit...before I know it, it will be the holidays in a flash and these photos will have to sustain me through winter...

odds and ends

I've become obsessed with googling harry potter actors since, obviously, HP7part2. The twitter/tumblr/youtube invterviews are a dangerous rabbit hole of hours of time-wasting. Draco has a twitter, peeps! (photo cred: from there)

I've also reread the series from books 1-6 (I reread 7 right before the movie....not sure if I'm going to do it again or not). Books 2 and 5 used to be my faves. Now it is 3 and 5 for sure.

I am not quite able to process that july is over. 2 weeks until i go back to st. louis. it's not school that i actually dislike. it's the in-between, transitioning. I gotta work on that.

Feeling the need for a change next summer.....as much as I love the up north, read tons of books, host lots of friends/fam, beachy, summery lifestyle, I need to switch it up a bit next summer. I think a travel is needed, and not just the quick 2 day trips to visit friends.

I am a terrible blogger during the summer

not that I'm a great blogger the other nine months of the year. but I'm too busy working, reading, laking, biking, and not checking my email 8 times a day. to suffice, some fun summery images.

via

Loving my new/old purse found at a resale store in detroit for 8 bucks. first purse I've owned in a while.

life on a lake

Over the weekend I had a college reunion/get together type thing with some of my college roommates. A few were missing from the epic house we all lived in, but it was predictably awesome to reminisce, swap adult-life stories, and act a fool.

2,3,4 july

warm days, orange sunsets, personal/illegal fireworks....the best kind.

click em for bigger.

"What is one to say about June, that time of perfect young summer,
the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months,
and with as yet no sign to remind one that
its fresh young beauty will ever fade."

-Gertrude Jekyll

I came across this quote in an old blog post....while July and August are the wonderful dog days of summer, and this June has been unseasonably cold, I'm always a little sad at the end of June...means summer is moving too fast.

lately

I don't know where June has gone. Two weeks of chilly, cold, wet weather sort of made everyone hole up; now it's like people are coming out from the woodwork. I've been doing everything but blogging: making salsa verde for chicken enchiladas (and general consumption), drinking lots of smoothies, and trying to sneak out with the camera when the sun decides to come out.