I am a girl who was lucky enough to be born and raised in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Maybe I have never been to Cotillion and I don't have a fabulous accent like Sandra Bullock in the Blind Side, but I like to think I have a little Southern in me.

Two years ago, my friend Ginny and I started a fun tradition on Thanksgiving morning of attending a Blessing of the Hounds service. We wake up early, grab some Starbucks and head out to this beautiful little church, nestled in the hills of Keswick, VA. We gather outside the church and at 10, the church bells sound and the hounds, horses, and their riders arrive. As for the service, it is a pretty typical Thanksgiving day service with a few hymns and an offering that goes towards 2 animal charities.

Reading through the program, It seems that the blessing of hunting hounds is a tradition which began in the eigth century by St. Hubert, patron saint of hunters. The best part is that he was hunting one time and saw a stag with a "luminous crucifix" between its antlers. Pretty epic. Fox hunting became more popular in Virginia during colonial times and George Washington is known to have been a rather skilled hunter.

Pictures! From 2008 and 2010:









and yes, obviously I tried to fit in and wore my boots :)

These boots are made for...

Me!
Happy Fall everyone! I know I have been ultra truant with my blog, but there's nothing better than an awesome new purchase to revive my interest.

I have been searching for the perfect pair of tan boots for at least 2 years. Each fall I begin the search and usually am disappointed. But, Thank you DSW for carrying a plethora of boots this season so I could finally find my perfect pair.

Tan boots and Pumpkin, it's definitely fall









I haaave been taking other photos to share, so more to come soon! (?)

for the next 200 [working] days

goodbye.

goodbye.

hello.

Bread Baking

I’ve actually made a lot of progress on my summer goals, as well as traveled a lot! I am now mostly proficient at driving the stick shift—I still occasionally screech the tires when taking off, but I have backed into a tight spot and not hit the 2 boys helping me.
As far as cooking goes, I make a new recipe for dinner at least once a week. My parents are really loving that I am helping out, and we’ve discovered some yummy new additions to the menu.
About two weeks ago I made bread for the first time. I decided to make an olive-onion foccacia bread, and it turned out even more like pissaladière (a niçois specialty) than I thought it would, but it was still tasty. Here are some pictures from my adventure.

My little ball of dough.


The risen dough, ready to be rolled out.


It's starting to look a lot like foccacia...


The finished product-- yummy Olive and Onion Foccacia :)


I'm ready to make some more bread! Maybe some yummy French bread to come.

Tales of Summer Camp

Although it is my first summer away from summer camp, I am glad I’ve been afforded the opportunity to stay in touch with my counselor friends and spend a week and a half (so far) out at camp. Unless they’ve been a camp counselor, many people just cannot understand what goes on; I would credit my six years of camp counselor experience to much of who I am today.

Some highlights of my time there this summer include: getting told by a camper that I was his new favorite counselor and being asked if I was old enough to drive. Part of the magic is feeling like a rock star when kids just idolize you for no other reason than you being their camp counselor, another part is the awesome friends you make when you spend 9+ weeks at the most fun, and most difficult job.

Last week when I was at camp, one of the counselors brought out a suit which had glow sticks attached in the outline of a person. He was running around in the dark around the time of curfew. First, a few of us saw him from afar, but then we saw him take off when Cabell started chasing after him. We watched a chase through Hogan Hill and over towards the shelter that lasted a good ten minutes. It was so funny to see the glow stick man running his little heart out. I don’t know if he eventually got caught or not, but a few counselors emerged from the woods carrying his glow sticks, saying he had taken off towards the lake. I can’t imagine who it was.

Here are a few pictures that also show why I love camp:

Definitely my favorite place on camp: the lake! Here you can see the trampoline and blob, but I prefer to paddle around in a canoe.


During my guest appearance at camp we won the Cleanest Hogan competition. One of the girls in my Hogan suggested that we put our towels in rainbow order—I thought it was a fabulous idea!


A counselor’s diet includes between 1 and 10 freezee pops per day. Some ingenious counselors decided to color coordinate the freezee pops and again, I loved the idea. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen it done, and it made my day.

Fruits of Summer

One of my favorite parts about summer is the abundance of seasonal fruit and veggies. Around this time I am always grateful that my mother tends to a garden and loves to spend time outside. Nothing can quite compare to the taste of a home-grown tomato. Tomatoes aren't in yet, but a few days after getting back from Illinois I went out berry picking-- right in our back yard. I just love red raspberries!

Down on the Farm

Once a year my family makes the trip to Illinois to visit my mom's family. In the past few years things have been changing. I thought it would be nice this year to take some photos and capture the beauty in this old farm. Here are some of my favorites:

looking down the road at all the pretty lillies


I never thought these fields could be so pretty


Grandpa's tractor. I took many a hayride pulled by this tractor.


"The Farm"


The black-eyed susans look so pretty!


the backyard