Friday Favorites (20)

Friday Favorites – a series where I share all my favorites from home decor, to clothing, to books & movies and more.

You may remember that I started this series to feature a few of my Friday Favorites – favorite things from home decor to clothes, recipes, and favorite shows. If you missed any you can see them here.

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I can’t believe this but I think I must Friday Favorites for June. Oooops. I guess it was a busy month. Well, I have a lot to share with you this month from books to films to outdoor fun!

Favorite Apparel

In Summer I’m all about sundresses and this summer I’m also obsessed with head bands. For some reason I feel like the head band completes an outfit and makes me feel more put together.

I’m obsessed with this dress. My guys gave it to me for my birthday and I just ordered another in black. It is a little on the expensive side but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve worn it. It’s a convertible dress so you can wear it all different ways – above I have the pockets turned inside out and tied. My “go to” flip flops are these. I love the cushioned support they offer. I’ve been finding head bands I love here and here.

Favorite Way To Spend the Day

A day at the beach, naturally!

This is Minot Beach and I have a watercolor of Bar Rock you might like, click here to see that!

Favorite Films / TV

For TV we’re hooked on the Great British Baking Show. LOVE it to so much for easy viewing. We also enjoying The World’s Best Vacation Rentals on Netflix . It’s a twist on a travel show taking a look at budget, mid -range and luxury option for each episode. I LOVED the Bali episode!

We’ve also watched some very good films lately, here’s a few favorites:

Pride – This is based on a true story and is set in England in the early 80s. It’s about the mining strikes and the LGBTQ community suppporting the miners. Wonderful story, great cast, great writing. Sends a message of community and the importance for loving of humans.

In the Heights – This is an adaptation of Lin Manuel Miranda’s musical by the same name and is set in Washington Heights in the 80s. The film focuses on dreams coming true in a Latino community – dreams of starting businesses, going home, and finding love. The music, sets, and choreography are wonderful. I think this film will be a modern classic. If you loved Hamilton you should check this out. We watched an advanced screening on TV, but it’s now in the cinema.

Fatherhood – This is also based on a true story. It’s about a single dad raising his baby after his wife dies. It has some serious bits but lots of funny and poignant parts, too. Kevin Hart always makes me laugh.

Favorite Morning Activity

I love taking my kids blueberry picking at Tree Berry Farm. It’s a really lovely thing to do early in the morning.

Favorite Cocktail

Um, speaking of blueberries… This is currently our favorite cocktail – Blueberry Coconut Grown Up Smoothies. Get the recipe here.

Favorite Books

The Body by Stephen King – I just finished reading this book. The film Stand by Me is based on this book. It’s about a group of 4 twelve year old friends in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine going to look for a dead body in the woods. Really great coming of age story set on two very hot July days.

Cheese, Wine, and Bread by Katie Quinn – You need to read this book if you LOVE cheese, wine, and bread and / or if you LOVE England, Italy, and France. Honestly who doesn’t love those three things or three countries? I loved this book so much. It has beautiful illustrations, lovely pictures, and delicious recipes. Katie Quinn goes on a journey to the three countries to learn more about how fermentation works for bread making, wine making, and cheese making. Through her journey the reader gets to meet chefs, bakers, wine makers, cheese makers and sellers. It really is a fabulous book. I initially borrowed it from the library but got so sucked into it and I thought Luke and the boys would be interested in the subject matter. The English section holds a little space in my heart because we used to love going to Neal’s Yard for cheese when we lived in London and she included a section on Cornwall (where Luke is from).

The Working Mind and the Drawing Hand of Oliver Jeffers by Oliver Jeffers – When my boys were younger we used to read all of Oliver Jeffers books -favorites were The Incredible Book Eating Boy and How to Catch a Star. We all loved his work! The other day I saw this book at a book store and it was a book all about him, his biography, his illustration work for children, and his art making process. Well, we love him even more now! This book is so beautiful. A must for any art lover or anyone who loves stories. I actually took out some of his newer books that we didn’t know about and we’re all having fun looking at them.

Favorite Outdoor Fun

I mentioned this before on the blog, but we invested in an outdoor movie screen and are enjoying watching films outside. You can read more here.

It’s rained so much here lately we haven’t been able to use the screen as much as we wanted to BUT the other night we decided to do a last minute movie night of Jaws and it was so much fun!

Click here for our movie screen.

The other thing we’ve been loving is this basketball net for the pool. A friend recommended it and the kids and the grown ups are all loving this addition to the pool. We surprised Conor with it for all his hard work at school this year.

You can see it in action below:

The other thing we’re loving is growing our own flowers. I’m going to share more about our cut flower garden next week on the blog so let me know if you have questions about it, but here’s some flowers I arranged for a friend’s 4th of July party. All of them are from our yard:

Favorite Pool Safe Glasses

We’re really careful with glass by the pool. I just discovered these awesome glasses. I actually bought mine at Total Wine, if you’re local, but they have the same ones on the link highlighted. You can freeze these glasses so your wine stays ultra cool. For water and other drinks I like these glasses.

Well, I think that covers all our current favorites. Now, it’s your turn! Would love to hear what your current favorites are. What are you watching and reading?