the weather has been beautiful lately as we transition into fall.  the windows are open and the air is nice and cool. now's the time to take advantage of the quiet, spend time outdoors, and savor the last bits of our last summer as just dog parents.

baby girl's room is so close to being ready for her.  i couldn't resist posting a few pics of her bed.  her room has such a chill vibe that we are loving, and i'll confess we have slept in there a few nights just for fun.

 we're also trying to get as much out of the summer veggies as possible before they stop producing.  a new, amazingly delicious recipe we've discovered is habanero carrot pepper jelly.  it's easy and so tasty with some cream cheese on a cracker.  the two of us have already eaten an entire jar!  it's just the habanero gold recipe out of the ball book, but with carrots substituted for the apricots.  so good.

 i've gotten a new pottery mug every september for three years now.  i'm thinking it's a good tradition to keep going, so here is this year's pick.

 great falls!  eric shows belle some kayakers.  look at that little butt roll!  god she's adorable.

 my man from the mountains is looking very mountain man lately.

 do anything and everything outside while you can.  that's our motto.  we met up with some friends for an outdoor artjamz painting session.  eric went with an aboriginal painting, while i did a zebra.  it was a lot of fun, and now we have two more paintings to store in our basement :)

 these two are heading to iceland soon (beyond jealous over here), so mark painted a volcano.  hope you guys get to see an eruption!

i celebrated turning thirty-one over the weekend with some quality garden time, farmers markets, good food, friends, and crafting.  and as a special gift, the pools closing coincided with my birthday weekend, meaning that saturday was dog days of summer!  (we go every year, here are last year and the year before)

the markets are vibrant and lively - you can feel summer coming to an end.

 bella helps with the harvests and then the sowing of cool weather veggies.  it looks like we're going to be eating a lot of pesto this winter.

^^a cross stitch i made for our new nephew, emil.^^  we got out to colorado for a couple of days to meet the adorable new addition to the family, and this project was so perfect for relieving flight anxiety.  i think i'll do one on every trip from now on.

 dog days was a blast, as usual, though belle didn't do a lot of leaping into the water like she normally does.  it's hard to believe she's almost ten.

 ^^my pick for best in show this year^^  must. eat. all of the water!

 we even managed to get some swim time in, ourselves!

 a few nights ago we were lucky enough to spot this cicada molting in our back yard.  its wings came out in ridiculously vibrant colors.  i've always loves collecting their shed exoskeletons, but have never been able to see it happening.  really cool.  a few days later a praying mantis kept following me and trying to land on me.  i'm taking both of these encounters as signs of positive transformation, rebirth, and inner calmness/inner strength.  all things that will be very helpful in the coming months ;)

while 30 was a fantastic year, 31 is shaping up to be miraculous!

giardiniera: italian for gardener

somehow lately i've turned into a crazy garden lady.  every day after work i go out to pick ripened tomatoes, peppers, and carrots, and check on the progress of the other veggies.  i also pull weeds, trim off dead branches, and de-flower the basil (ha).

it's become a labor of love as everyday i learn more about normal growth, the proper ways to harvest, and how to manage garden insects (my answer so far is spiders - they're the best).  the ever growing stalks keep me creative as i continuously have to invent new ways to prop them up.

^^this is an onion flower.  did you know onions made flowers?!  it is so pretty that i left it when i harvested all of the others, and it's still blooming.^^

the onions were all ready at once a few weeks ago, but everything else is just starting to be ripe here and there.  on friday, when i came home, i found belle in the garden (i know chicken wire isn't that much of a deterrent, but it's kept them out so far) helping herself to anything and everything!  our biggest loss was the broccoli, which she had completely pulled out of the ground and devoured.  she also helped herself to a couple of tomatoes, but we have lots to spare, so not as big of a deal.

it seems that when she got to the peppers she would pull one off, realize it was hot, and continue on just pulling them off and dropping them.  we had jalapeños and anaheim peppers lying all over the garden bed.  i love to cook some spicy food, but what was i going to do with 14 peppers??

and then it came to me.  spicy pepper relish (aka giardiniera).  like the kind you get on your sandwiches at potbelly or snarfs.   i crave these spicy pepper mixes and would eat them on everything if i could.  and thanks to belle it was looking like there was a good chance i'd be able to do just that.  between the garden and our fridge we had hot peppers, bell peppers, carrots, and celery, so i picked up some green olives and cauliflower and we were set!

full confession, i have never canned or pickled anything before... and after chopping up all the veggies, i googled how to do so and got a bit of a surprise.  it is much more complicated than i imagined.  thankfully, canning has become more popular lately so there are many resources out there.  i mean, i bought a canner at bed, bath, and beyond, and had multiple options to choose from.  thank you, hipsters.

^^this is a canner with my jars in it.  i had no idea.^^

i will say, it was adorable that i was approached by two separate older ladies who asked if i needed any help or advice.  they said they were happy to see someone still out there doing it besides themselves.  i talked to each of them for about 20 minutes and even got one of their phone numbers.  never thought i'd have a contact called Joan the Canning Lady.

overall it went pretty well.  the peppers are very tasty and i didn't even have to call joan :)

i'm so happy we planted the garden.  when we started i was a little skeptical that anything would actually grow, especially from seed.  but it has!  so now i've bought seed for our winter vegetables and am ready to plant as soon as there is space.

here's a before of the garden.  it looks vastly different now that the tomatoes and corn are both taller than the fence.

ah summer.  my favorite season is finally here.  dc completely skipped spring.  it was just cold for a really long time, then a little chilly, and now it's in the 90s.

weekends these days are the best.  they're all day fun in the sun.  last weekend norah came over for a pool party.  she was so cute splashing around her little pool.

 weekdays have also gotten more relaxing.  the days are long so you feel like you have so much more time to get things done.

a very nice summer afternoon routine has begun to develop.  i get home, switch my pumps out for crocs, and head outside to check out our garden's progress.  as usual, it looks like everything has grown five inches overnight.  with all the rain we've had the growth is getting out of control! then, like clockwork, the ice cream truck goes up and down the street and i once again get its song stuck in my head for the evening.  the girls like to run around the yard, do some rolling, and eat some grass.  the other day we made clover necklaces and crowns for the girls' heads.  they were happy enough to help pick the clover flowers, but didn't really like wearing them :)

at some point after checking all of the garden beds and playing in the grass, we head up to the porch to sit and enjoy how quiet and peaceful our yard is while drinking some cool lemonade.  it's so easy to sit and do absolutely nothing until it's just about time to throw dinner on the grill.  to top it off, after dinner the fireflies have started coming out, twinkling over the darkened lawn.

why can't it always be summer?