Primitive Pleasures: July

July 30, 2013 ~ Emily ~ 11 Comments

Between house guests and getting past first trimester nausea, there hasn’t been much interwebbing for me (aside from Pinterest) this month. Despite the brevity of my list, I hope you find something enjoyable.

Happy Summer!

Read

One benefit of feeling less than perky is that I’ve had tons of time to read. I decided to reread the Harry Potter series and am now on book 6. One of my favorite bloggers (Katie from Cardigan Way) shares my affinity for Harry Potter and created one of her Lovely Lines with a quote from HP and the Order Of the Phoenix which I just finished.

I also read all three of Tessa Afshar’s novels. So good. I explain why here.

Watch

Tim (my youth pastor hubs) preached in main service a couple weeks ago on Psalm 13. He weaves much of our personal journey into David’s own lament. I may be biased, but it’s well worth a listen. You can also watch it on CDA Bible Church’s Vimeo account.

Strawberries

Berry picking is one of my favorite summer activities. A couple weeks ago I got to add strawberries to my list of berries picked. Some wonderful friends took me to Carver Farms and we picked over 60 pounds of strawberries. We made several batches of freezer jam (with the trusty recipe found inside boxes of Sure Jell pectin).

Three delicious ways to use extra strawberries:

Fresh Strawberry Bars I clipped this recipe from Better Homes and Gardens a few years ago. The base is a dense peanut buttery bar topped with strawberry jam and fresh strawberries.
You can’t go wrong with classic Strawberry Shortcake. My mom’s a wizard with biscuits and generally whips up a batch of lightly sweetened cream biscuits for the shortcake part. Martha Stewart has a good video tutorial on sweet biscuits. When I studied abroad in Italy, my host mom served strawberries macerated in both sugar AND a bit of lemon juice. Heavenly. The crowning glory of any strawberry shortcake is the whipped cream. Clouds of REAL whipped cream – heavy cream whipped with a tablespoon or two of powdered sugar.
Strawberry Shortcake Cake Yes, I’ve mentioned this Pioneer Woman recipe before. It’s that good.

For Fun

This could be the burrito I ate for dinner, but I’d like to think Baby Gardner is beginning to make an appearance.

Primitive Pleasures {June}

July 1, 2013 ~ Emily ~ 6 Comments

A day late, but here are some good things from around the interwebs that I found in June!

I have yet to develop a green thumb, so this is only possible in my dreams, but I love Natasha’s guide to growing a backyard herbal tea garden.

Despite my inability to keep my plants alive, I do love flowers! I stumbled on Sarah von Pollaro’s video tutorial on transforming a $10 supermarket bouquet into four beautiful arrangements and then got sucked into the vortex of all her awesome video tutorials. She makes flower arranging seem accessible.

Throwing a dinner party can be stressful, but so also can being a dinner party guest. Shauna Niequist (one of my favorite authors) wrote a superb post about how to be a great dinner guest.

I’ve worked several retail jobs and by far my favorite was my stint at Anthropologie. This is a phenomenal list of DIY Anthropolgie products. However, don’t ever pass up an opportunity to roam an Anthropologie store – they are truly inspirational.

Unfortunately, decisions about motherhood and everything that goes along with it have divisive tendencies in the Christian subculture. Instead of coming alongside women and families, we tend to judge and snub. I deeply appreciate this perspective and call for grace. If you don’t read the whole article, please read the last section!

It’s no secret that I love book lists. The Gospel Coalition has a great column called On My Shelf, “designed to help you get to know various people through providing a behind-the-scences glimpse into their lives as readers.” Kathy Keller, Tim Keller’s wife, had wonderful thoughts on finding Christ in fiction (which is why she’s not likely to have the latests Christian title on her nightstand).

Along the same line, this is a great article on finding God’s truth is literature.

And because this made me smile…

Primitive Pleasures {May}

May 31, 2013 ~ Emily ~ 6 Comments

One of the very best things about this May is having a mini family reunion this weekend to celebrate the marriage of my cousin. Since not everyone gets to enjoy such a fun gathering, here are some other good things trolled from the interwebs this month.

Simplicity:

People who chronically multitask have lost the ability to focus on one thing – and they’re actually terrible at mutlitasking…. Interesting article on NPR (man I love public radio) about the myth of multitasking.

When -est should be -er and how that gives us the freedom to live simply.

Books:

I’m a book list junkie. Relevant Magazine has a great list of 10 books everyone should read by 25-ish. I think one of them might be our first book club book. Have you read any of them?

I love Heather’s idea to reinvent what classifies as classic literature for her 25 in 25 list.

Michael Hyatt’s podcast about how to read non-fiction was inspiring.

Marriage:

A New Kind of Sexy is honest and we need more of that when talking about marriage.

So we fought for it. We stumbled on redemption in the unlikely sexy acts of taking out the smelly-diaper trash, going to marriage counseling, and texting each other apologies for misspoken harsh words.

Beth of Red and Honey

And more honest reflection from Tyler Ward with 3 Things I Wish I Knew Before We Got Married.

Etc:

I’ve been there – wanting someone to fully understand why I left my heart overseas…

Because I’m a sucker for articles about the twenty-something stage of life – here’s a good one by Anne Bogel.

Hysterical iMessage version of Chapter 5 in Jane Austen’s Persuasion.

I LOVE McGriddles. Can’t wait to try these.

Primitive Pleasures {April}

April 30, 2013 ~ Emily ~ 7 Comments

This month certainly blew by! Maybe that’s because I spent a glorious week in Southern California. I should do that more often…

Read

On my flight back to Idaho, I read this lovely article in Spirit Magazine {my absolute favorite in-flight magazine}. It was refreshing to see simplicity so boldly publicized.

Friendship: I loved Relevant Magazine’s 5 Types of Friends Everyone Should Have and this guest post by Lesley Sebek Miller on Modern Mrs. Darcy reads like something Shauna Niequist would have written.

As and INFJ, I have a soft-spot for anything written about introverts. These four lies about introverts are so full of wisdom.

Eat

It’s getting to be quite Springy here in Idaho. The warmer weather makes me want to eat strawberries and angel food cake. Pioneer Woman’s Strawberry Shortcake is… I’m actually coming up short on words to describe this incredible cake.

Listen

Andy Stanley from North Point Ministries in Atlanta did an amazing series called Follow. It’s life changing. Listen or watch the sermons and then grab someone to chat through the discussion questions.

Smile

I borrowed this from Katie of Cardigan Way – it was too good not to share. My cousins and I sang this hymn at my Gramma’s memorial service and I walked down the aisle {almost a year ago} to a rendition by Jami Smith. Needless to say, I was alternately crying and grinning like an idiot while watching…

This touches my inner flower child – whimsical and beautiful.

I created this to express the reality of my Zumba experience. I love it though!

{photo credit: heraldpost and asterix611 via photopin cc}

Primitive Pleasures: what balanced out the rustic this month

February 28, 2013 ~ Emily ~ 9 Comments

There’s this blog that I really love called Cardigan Way. Katie, the lovely author behind the blog, and I connected over a shared love of Eustace from The Chronicles of Narnia. She is also a pastor’s wife, loves literature, and has a keen sense of style. As I was catching up with all the truth, goodness, and beauty on Cardigan Way the other day, I came across her January Goodness post and loved it. It’s a retrospective of what she’s been into for the past month.

Primitive Pleasures is the Primitive Roads take on a “what I’m into” post. So, here goes a lot of good things that got me through the rustic moments of February…

Homemade

February was my turn to provide a meal for the elder’s meeting at our church and Tim’s birthday, both of which gave me reasons to make cupcakes. I have 5 cookbooks specifically dedicated to cupcakes, but I went for recipes I’d made before from one of my favorite food blogs – Annie’s Eats. She makes a ton of delicious things, however, the cupcakes are unreal. {My photos don’t do them justice…}

Chocolate Cookie Dough Cupcakes – 5 1/2 sticks of butter and it’s worth it!
Cookies and Cream Cupcakes – the best textured angel food cake.

One of the things Tim and I miss most about California is really good Mexican food. Since my word for this year is intentional, I decided to push past the intimidation and start making Mexican food at home. I’m addicted to bean and cheese burritos so my first project was refried beans. The first recipe I tried {Crockpot Refried Beans} was a huge success. We also enjoyed the Sweet Corn Chicken Enchiladas and Baked Tacos from One Good Thing.

Baking is an outlet for me and when it’s cold, it seems like I really need an outlet for my winter blues. I made Joy The Baker’s Biscuit Cinnamon Rolls twice, Rosemary Lemon Sugar Cookies, and Martha Stewart’s Cream Filled Chocolate Sandwich Cookies. Maybe my best baking discovery this month was the PERFECT chocolate chip cookie: Alton Brown’s Chewy – tender, chewy {because of bread flour} and chock full of chocolate chips. Just wow.

Crafted

My friend Kristina is doing a month of craft therapy on her blog The Blissful Bird. She made the cutest cross-stitched likeness of her and her husband. I’m inspired to break out my needle and thread.

I made another version of the Paper Bag Christmas Card for Valentine’s Day {plus I made my first ever video tutorial} and then saw this Paper Bag Book variation and can’t wait to adapt it for upcoming holidays.

Lovely Ideas

I’m spatially challenged, but my mom was able to replicate this awesome way to braid your scarf.

In and effort to fight back against the cold on a trip to Chicago last week, a friend and I held the first Humidity Saturday. We went to the Garfield Park Conservatory and enjoyed the warm, damp air, earthy smells, and greenery knowing it was below freezing just beyond the glass walls. I enjoyed it so much, I’m looking for ways to do it in Idaho. Even a day where you turn up the heat to 80 and wear shorts in your house would be a huge tre

Read

My new job offers me plenty of travel time to read. Some of my favorites from this month were Grace For The Good Girl by Emily Freeman, Losing It by Erin Fry, and Death Comes To Pemberley by P.D. James. {a note on that last one – not necessarily my favorite Jane Austen sequel, but worthwhile for the interesting way James developed the character’s life after Pride and Prejudice}

It’s fitting that I stumbled upon a couple awesome posts on marriage this month since 1. it’s the love month and 2. I was participating in a collaborative series called How To Maintain Your High Maintenance Marriage.