love is blonde

My DC-BFF and I took a trip to New Hampshire and Vermont this weekend to visit our gal pal (OH-BFF) and her husband. Longtime readers may remember our antics from years past during weekend trips to Akron, Ohio. They pretty much revolve around two things: booze and crafts. (Oh, and staying up all night chatting like eight-year-olds at a slumber party.)

This weekend we did more cooking than crafting, and perhaps a little less drinking than usual, a sure sign of our impending thirtysomething-ness. The New England countryside was stunning, with all the lovely fall colors on display even this late in the season. In fact, the lovely town of Woodstock, Vermont, was so cutesy-wootsy, that we lingered too long on our walk around town, which caused us to nearly miss our flight home. Our ensuing 80+ MPH drive to Manchester airport and luggage-dragging full sprint to the terminal resulted in the teeny, tiny little problem of leaving our camera bag with the USB uploading cord behind. Whoopsies.

Side note: If you happen to pick up a black Ford Focus with Tennessee plates from the Hertz booth at the Manchester airport this week, can you look in the center console for our camera bag and send it to us? Thx!

Anyway, never fear because I found some very, very similar pictures to share!

Here are my DC-BFF and me, all dressed up in cold-weather outfits. Man, those bonnets really kept our ears warm when it dipped into the high 30s!

Here are our hosts for the weekend. They live about 12 miles from the nearest wagon crossing stoplight.

The first night in town, we drove across the border over to Vermont to have dinner and drinks at a local pub. Oddly, this image only shows guys at the bar, but us three girls were definitely there; we must have just all gone to the bathroom together with this was captured.

The next morning we woke to pouring rain, but we still went out exploring nearby towns, even stopping to buy horse feed fleece jackets. How very Vermont-y! (But seriously, the fleece jackets were from a store that also sold horse feed in the next room over.) I’m sure if we could have seen past the pouring rain it would have looked just like this.

After a brief, self-guided tour of Dartmouth’s campus, we headed back home to milk the cow make frozen margaritas and slaughter a lamb cook vegetarian, low-glycemic-index pasta for dinner.

We ate our homemade meal in their lovely dining room adorned with seasonal table decor. Some things really are timeless!

As I said, the following morning’s sightseeing was so lovely that we almost missed our chance to move forward in time 200 years fly home.

I hope you enjoyed the paintings photos from what I was truly a really fun, really pretty weekend. Stay tuned, because I even came up with a few blog post ideas, or at least I hope to post some recipes from our culinary endeavors later this week.

The worst part about Sunday nights is how quickly they turn into Monday mornings. The best part about Sunday nights is our tradition of  “family dinners.” We only have one family member within 100 miles, so we use the phrase loosely; it’s usually my DC-BFF and occasionally a few other friends.

Together we plan the menu (full honesty: 75% of the time it’s homemade pizza or tacos), pick up ingredients, then chop, cook, clean, and best of all – eat together! Sometimes we even get really wild and eat at the dining room table instead of the coffee table. We get to catch up on gossip from the week and plan when we’ll hang out during the week ahead. And since my DC-BFF doesn’t have cable, we usually manage to sneak in an episode or two of trashy television without too much complaint from the husband.

Tonight we branched out from pizza/tacos and made a really yummy quiche. It’s so easy: storebought pie crust, any veggie you can imagine, eggs/milk, cheese, salt, pepper, then bake until it looks done. No recipe needed. Tonight we included: zucchini, mushrooms, bell pepper, asparagus, spinach, bacon, and two kinds of cheese. And we made enough for leftovers for weekday lunches.

I know that someday we may not live here, or our friends may not live here, but until that time comes, I hope we have many more Sunday night family dinners together.

I know it’s only Wednesday, but I already have the weekend on my mind.  One of my best girlfriends is coming to town tomorrow and we’re having an Official Girls Weekend. If history is any indicator, it’s going to be really fun. Tonight, in preparation, I bought some wine.

Oh, come on, you didn’t think three bottles would be enough, did you? How about five?

Yes, yes. That seems more reasonable. Except that we ladies are not about reason. We are about staying up all night talking and laughing! Which is why I bought seven bottles.

And yes, they are almost all Chardonnay, with some Vinho Verde in there too. What can I say? Girls know what girls like.

Wine (and booze) has led to fun times in the past. Like my bachelorette party.

Or that one time, in Akron, when we stayed up ’til sunrise talking about godknowswhat, laughing and definitely waking up the neighbors.

That was also the year we started our annual sewing projects. We made sleeping masks. And, oh golly, did we need those masks for our hangovers the next morningafternoon.

The next year, wine fueled us into an apron-making frenzy.

And then, there was this one time, in a remote cabin in the Pennsylvania woods…

I honestly don’t even know how to describe that last photo collage. Except to say: WINE.

It promises to be a great weekend, and I should also come clean and say that, honestly…

…I bought eight bottles. Wish us luck!

I love spring. My girlfriends and I went to rural southwestern Pennyslvania this weekend. The forsythia were blooming in bright yellow, which is how I came to learn what forsythia are! My girlfriends are so smart.

They’re fun too. We had a weekend getaway in the middle of nowhere in an unlocked cabin in the woods, and we entertained ourselves with mature and grownup activities like eating grilled cheese sandwiches, buying bright-colored Keds, and jumping on the bed. Can you remember the last time you recklessly jumped on the bed for an hour with your best friends? Such an underrated activity!

We found a thrift shop that had a whole bunch of vintage purses and old books. Nothing cost more than $1.50. We found some etiquette/bridal books written in the 1960s that are positively hilarious. Basically, according to Amy Vanderbilt’s circa 1964 rules we are all now living like primates and my wedding broke every rule in the book. I love that kind of validation.

We also visited funky antique shops, where I briefly considered buying their entire stock of old Fiestaware. Thankfully, we got distracted by a Dairy Queen, and hatched plans to open one in downtown DC. Think of how much better this city would be if you could eat Blizzards for lunch!

Fun as it was, we couldn’t stay forever. I came home to flowers blooming in my yard, a cat who really missed me, and a husband who bought me flowers and made me dinner. Life is pretty darn good. I just wish I could stop Monday from coming so soon.