Wishful Thinking

I've had my eye on this lovely folk art hand towel ever since Melinda & I were paired together in Jamie's swap earlier this summer. I decided to purchase it just now from Melinda's Etsy Shop as a little birthday present to myself. She recently added a bunch of new treasures as well. Go take a look -- she's really good at the hunt & the find!

TX to FL

We just returned from a nine day trip traveling from Austin, TX back to Jacksonville, FL. My man & I flew out to Austin to play for a few days before my sister & her man moved home & to help them with the drive. Our path of travels looked somewhat like this:

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Highlights of the trip included:

- The Taylor, Texas International Barbecue Festival

- Austin's Sixth Street on a Saturday night

- Tubing down the San Marcos River

- Texas Wine Country

- Shopping on South Congress Avenue

- The Hey Cupcake! Stand

- An afternoon at Barton Creek

- Watching the bats come out from under the South Congress Avenue Bridge

- Barton Springs Pool

- The beautiful San Antonio Riverwalk

- The Alamo

- Spending my birthday in New Orleans

Great Journeys

Penguin Books has an incredible series called 'Great Journeys', which features twenty real-life adventure stories written by history's greatest explorers. "Around the world in twenty books!" as their website puts it.
The series includes works by Sir Richard Burton, Herodotus, Anton Chekhov, James Cook, George Orwell, Marco Polo and Mark Twain, spanning the centuries from the ancient world of 4th century B.C. to the early 20th century.
The amazing cover artwork is done by David Pearson Design. I love how each cover has a simple color scheme & vintage feel. I think a poster of all the book covers would look amazing in a home office or studio space.

The Australian Penguin site gives the best descriptions of each book. I am setting a long-term goal to collect & read each work of literature in this series. I think it would be an amazing collection to own & one day pass down.

Also, check out the Great Loves and Great Ideas series.

ban.do

Oh, ultimate loveliness! The very fabulous & very fantastic ban.do shop launched yesterday & it is all sorts of eye candy. How to even pick a favorite? They're all so fancy!{via & made by my polaroid blog}

Hello August

I can't believe you're here so soon. I swear New Year's was just two weeks ago. But I'll embrace you warmly, as your coming is a sign that I need to soak up every second of summer that is left. You also bring my birthday. Although, this year you bring the mid-20's -- I'll figure out some way to appreciate that. In the meantime, my birthday wish-list is in the making. I'm not supposed to stop making one just because I'm an "adult" now, right?

Happy Friday. Happy August.

{image via tagtraeumerin}