Weekly favorites - now tanner than ever.

Had a fast, fun and whirlwind weekend in Arizona at my nephew's wedding last week and now I cannot believe it's already Friday.
I'm still tired. The 2 hour time difference between Phoenix and Minneapolis has given me lasting jet-lag.
But I can't nap now - there's way too much to do! 

It's May in Minnesota!

Break out the potting soil!

Sweep off the deck!

Pull those weeds! 

Spread that mulch!

Plant those flowers!

Make delicious summer beverages using fresh herbs!

So let's get to the weekly favorites so I can get back out on my deck before all the ice in my drink melts...


1.  Mystic Tanning -
I believe I mentioned (here) that my normal skin tone is that of the underbelly of a frog

and that I'm on a first name basis with my Dermatologist, Whitney (a dude who wears awesome clogs), who enjoys cutting and punching suspicious freckles from my body way too often.  So it goes without saying that I stay out of the sun and unless there's a number higher than 50 after the letters SPF, I'm not interested.

I hate the smell and streakiness and vampire glitter of most self tanners, and because all my freckles seem to be turning pre-pre-cancerous that using a tanning bed = CERTAIN DEATH, for my nephew's wedding I decided to buck up and get a Mystic Tan. 

Here's a piece of advice:

When the way too tan girl tells you to "make sure and wear the blue booties because your feet are one of the driest parts of your body and they'll get too brown if you don't", do not listen.  Do not listen.

But other than the fact that my feet looked like I'd been golfing in surgical booties, the tan was A-maze-ing!!  I couldn't get over how - well, tan - I was!!  If you'd have given me a sparkly Barbie dress and some hair extensions (and like 10 weeks of lessons) I could have totally gone on Dancing With the Stars! 

And I couldn't stop commenting on how tan I was. Seriously.  My family tolerated it for about 10 min. before making snarky comments about sending me back to the Jersey Shore. 

But in my defense, having spent my whole life looking like a speckled chicken egg, I was pretty darn ecstatic, stupid looking feet and all.

I've even got another session paid for so I get to go again!  And now that it's almost completely faded I am so going (but will gladly take any advice on the whole foot issue.) 

2.  Cherry Chicken Pasta Salad - 

Local kids, if you've ever had this from Lunds/Byerly's, you know how dee-lish it is.  But when you make it yourself it's even better because you don't have to use so much dressing. 

And you can add even more dried cherries (my new favorite accoutrement to salad, pastas, etc.)  

Tip* Make sure to chill it for at least 3 hours.  Much better that way.  And it's even tastier the next day. Hooray for easy-peasy summer dinners!!

Here's what mine looked like (and I used already cooked Rotisserie chicken) - 

And here's the recipe - Lunds Chicken Cherry Pasta Salad. YUM.

3.  Bootleg -

My new favorite summertime libation.

Because if lemon-lime, fresh mint and vodka is wrong, I don't wanna be right.

Careful, kids, it's addicting.

Bootleg (don't ask)

1 can frozen lemonade - thawed

1 can frozen limeade - thawed

handful of fresh mint - minced

DO NOT ADD WATER -mix together

In glass, add 1 part lemon-lime-mint mix, 1 part vodka, fill with Soda.

Add festive summer straw and (of course) tiny mermaid.

*Have to give the credit for this delightful summer cocktail to my friend Melissa, who I both love and hate for introducing it to me.*  

4.  FLOWERS! - 

May is the month in Minnesota when we can finally be assured it won't freeze again and we are give the green light by the green-thumbers to plant, plant, plant!!

I can hardly wait to get my hands dirty and plant all the pots on my deck (I'm totally lying. I spend way too much money on my nails every 3 weeks.  If I could wear 2 pairs of thick gardening gloves I would).  I anxiously await planting week every year.  Then by mid-August I'm so sick of watering them that I really just want them all to die. 

But it's not August yet and I just got back from the Farmer's Market with this bounty-

and am chomping at the bit to get out there and get my deck pots planted!

5.  New Blogs and magic buttons - 

If you're paying attention you might have noticed there's been a few additions to the sidebar off to the right. In case you've been so enamored with the rich content of the posts that you haven't noticed, I thought I'd take a minute to give you a little tour.

Follow me! - I've got all sorts of magic buttons to make it easy to follow the blog on facebook, twitter (be my 12th - yep, 12th - follower and you will be my favorite), and all my uselessful Pinterest boards!

And if you follow me through Google, your cute picture will be on my blog.

Sharing/following - if there's a post in particular that makes you laugh, shout, nod/shake your head, snort, or even crack the hint of a smile, share it on facebook or stumbleupon!  I give you permission! 

Archive - self explanatory. But if you want to revisit a particular post, here's one place to look.

About Me - that's me. One day after my Mystic Tan. 

Blog buttons - For you non-bloggers, these are simply small icons of this blog that other bloggers can "grab" (by copying the html code) and place on their blogs to direct others here. Hooray!  

If you are a blogger - take one! It's free!!  And make sure to email and let me know and I can do the same for you! 

You can see the buttons that I'm starting to collect at the bottom of a few blogs that I definitely recommend (after you've read mine, that is).  Check them out!

Labels - another place to find old posts, but by topic instead of title.

And look below.  See the place where you can comment?  It's always there. 

Comments make me happy. 

So does advice on how to Mystic Tan my mystic feet.