Miller Time Friday: Mint Condition in my Garden and the J Crew Factory Sequin Tank

Happy Friday!

It is still early in the growing season, and my mint is already out of control.

Within two weeks, it will be well up above the horizontal board.

See - it spills over on to the pathway.

I pull it up regularly and have even poured vinegar on it, which is very effective, but here is the awful truth - it smells AMAZING to walk on.  Like so many things in life, the thing that drives you crazy is the thing that you also love....

Mint continues to be a huge colour this spring and summer in fashion.  The Tartine tote is a lovely little bag of minty freshness:

And the new Tory Burch Lucille Blouse is also lovely:

About a month ago, I broke down and ordered the spearmint sequin top from the J Crew Factory site.

It was one of the crazy sales where the item is on for $20 for a couple of days and I decided it would be fun for summer.  Right now I see it is on for $52 CDN.  But then the weather got wet and cold and so I didn't get it out again, but I plan to this weekend, since it will be very hot.  I plan to wear it with the cargo scout chino in venetian green.  Unlike other J Crew tops of this season, the arm holes are not cut too large, so you don't show side bra, which is important to me!

These pants are the perfect match for the sequin top.

I love this colour - it is almost the bottle-green-fatigue-colour of the 1940s to 1960s which I love so much and which is in my kitchen:

and IRL, together:

The back of the tank is cotton, which I always prefer to sequins all around:

The one time I wore this, I wore it with white jeans.  I think that mint and white look so fresh together...

Update:

Me in outfit (I was too lazy to get dressed earlier...)

In honour of all of my mint, and because I need to come up with new cocktails besides the Mojito, which sometimes makes my eyes cross, let's make a new minty cocktail, shall we?

Missionary's Downfall

Ingredients [ oz | cl ]	[ My Bar ]
1 oz White Rum	[ Add ]
1⁄2 oz Peach Liqueur	[ Add ]
1 1⁄2 oz Lime Juice	[ Add ]
1⁄4 oz Simple Syrup	[ Add ]
20 Mint Leaves	[ Add ]
0.5 slice Pineapple	[ Add ]

Method: Prepare in a blender
Glass: Cocktail
Recipe:

1. Stip mint leaves from sprigs and discard stems.
2. Place the leaves in a blender with rest of ingredients.
3. Add 14 oz crushed ice.
4. Blend until smooth.
5. Pour into glass or tiki mug.

Have you any big plans for the weekend?  I plan to do some weeding, some reading and am off to purchase a new cellphone, as I have turned in my crackberry at work.  The weather forecast is calling for more rain (!), which I hope is not the case.  I am hoping to spend some time in the pool as well!

Have a wonderful day and stay safe out there!

Mommy Dearest

Okay - maybe it is me.  And maybe it is because Mother's Day occurs in May, but I just seem to be stumbling upon all sorts of mother-daughter duos these days - in the blogsphere and in the media.

Yesterday's J Crew blog focused on a studio tour of Face Stockholm, which is co-owned and run by Mother-Daughter duo Gun and Martina.  How cute are they?

They work together all day and the daughter just lives 3 minutes down the road.  As for my mother (god rest her soul) and I, if we had worked together we would have been featured on America's Most Wanted for snapping and doing the other in, not in a nice JCrew blog post....

Makes me want the sequin top she is wearing above - but wait - I have a minty fresh sequin top from the jcrew factory, which I promise to show you on Friday...

And then Dani mentioned another blogger, India Alexandra, to me yesterday.  India is a young, pretty and spunky thing from the U.K. and she and her mother go on all kinds of adventures.  These adventures involve wine and good food at fine restaurants or shopping at exclusive boutiques.  Very glam and they obviously get along very well!  My mother and I used to go to Zellers...(Canadian equivalent of Walmart, now sadly - and happily! - bought out by Target.

Another famous duo that I read an interview with recently is Goldie Hawn and Kate Hudson.

Kate is currently spokes model for Almay makeup and in honour of Mother's Day, they included Goldie in the recent campaign:

This article has them dishing on beauty secrets (it is Almay after all!), but they obviously get along really well and it shows!  Beautiful, beautiful women with lovely hearts.

Hilary and Chelsea Clinton also appear very close - Both Hilary and Bill have had very high profile careers, but it is clear that they have raised a lovely young woman:

Hilary's time may have passed to become president, but maybe Chelsea 2020?

Don't you wonder what shenanigans Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I might have gotten up to if poor Anne had been able to keep her head?  If they were alive today, they'd have a blog...

or maybe a reality TV series:

or maybe they'd write books together like Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark?

Or maybe they would running the world again....

But my favourite mother-daughter duo of the week has to be our own AJC and her mother.  AJC wrote a lovely post about her recent trip home to Poland, and you just have to read it and see her beautiful mother here.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Anyone else noticing a lot of mother-daughter duos these days?  Would you/could you have worked with your mother?  In my case:  NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stay safe out there folks!

style question Wednesday: Flower Power

Well the sun is out again, and while we had a touch of frost this morning, this afternoon has been absolutely glorious.

Except for the J Crew (and others!) floral trim trends of a couple of years ago - remember when EVERYTHING  was either ruffled or had a big flower - I typically avoid the flower prints, since they can be too sweet if you're not careful and when you are short and busty, you can quickly find yourself looking like a rose bowl parade float.  Hence the reason I do NOT own the J Crew peony tee of this season, despite absolutely loving it!

Right now, I have almost nothing in a floral motif in my wardrobe except for these lovelies:

The beloved J Crew Giverny dress.  Still waiting patiently for someone to get sick of their old skirt or top, but it has been 6 years and people don't seem to get sick of them!

The Nougat London top I bought a few weeks ago, with appliqued flowers, shown here with my pompon pants that scream DAHLIA!

And the recently purchased cafe capris in silk foulard with the tiny floral print:

Not a lot of summer flowery prints for someone who likes flowers so much!  This got me to thinking about our love of florals and whether our love of a certain flower sends us in the direction of a certain print?

For example.  Love roses or ranunculus?

Then you must source the Giverny print for yourself as well!!

Bearded Irises?

Then walk, don't run to buy the J Crew Collection Silk Pocket Tee (or matching skirt) in Toulouse floral:

Like the riotous good time colour of a gerbera daisy?

Then any of J Crew's punk florals are up your alley!

Like a lovely climbing Clematis?

Well, if you have enough money, by all means, buy Roberto Cavalli's homage at Net-a-Porter:

Maybe you like a lovely country cutting garden?

Well, Moschino has a mini dress for you!!

What would I choose?  Well, I love Lilies of the Valley, which are just about to bloom here..

So I think I would choose this little number by Dolce & Gabban:

What about you?  Do you wear your favourite flowers in the summer or just put them in a nice vase?  And if you could have a piece of clothing like your favourite flower, what would it be???

Have a lovely Wednesday and stay safe out there!

We Bought a Zoo and Madewell Storyteller Scarf Review

Oh it has been one of those interesting days chez WMM.

The sky finally started to clear, but every band of sun was followed by an equally large band of cloud and rain!  The dog and I finally got out for a walk this afternoon and were rained on twice!  But we persevered, since that is the kind of people that we are.  Okay, he isn't a person, but he doesn't know that, so let's not tell him, shall we?

The old place is getting to be rather a menagerie of birds and beasts these days!  I feel a bit like Matt Damon in We Bought a Zoo!

We went from having no hummingbirds to having one and now to having four of them!  Last night was a hard night for Indy as he sat in the window and watched the aerial acrobatics in front of him, which made him quite dizzy I think, as he finally gave up and took a nap.

When you live in the woods, you are always visited by some animal.  Most days, it is simply the squirrels and chipmunks.

This afternoon, we were visited by a Raccoon, who interestingly enough, dug up a couple of bones that Indy had buried beneath my giant fleece flower and proceeded to eat them on the deck.

Indy was unimpressed, especially when the fellow had the cheek to wander around on his deck while I forced Indy to wait inside while i shooed it away...

And then tonight, while starting to write, I could feel eyes staring at me, and it turned out to be this groundhog, who sat looking in the window for several minutes.

It could drive a dog to drink, I tell you!  Here's hoping for no bears on the deck!

It is kind of fun to live in a place where little critters come to visit.  The groundhog above ate half of my italian parsley last summer - I wonder if he would follow instructions better if I spoke to him in Italian?

I thought you might be interested in a little goody that did arrive late last week: the Panamania Storyteller scarf from Madewell.  As you know, I was quite interested in this scarf, since I am in the process of reading David McCullough's book on the building of the Panama Canal, The Path Between the Seas.

So when Fabulous Florida Mommy noted that the scarf was on sale on her wonderful blog, well I had to have it so that I could add it to my David McCullough historical scarf collection!  I am not sure Mr. McCullough knows of this collection, but I do, and that's all that matters!

It is a lovely cotton scarf and it is huge!

This is the scarf laid out on my queen sized bed. It is much bigger than my other scarves by Madewell the ones of New York bridges or of Paris place names

And on:

There are a lot of nice colours to play with here.  I can see it with my red and white dresses, over several of my blazers and with navy as well.  The parrot motif makes it very tropical and if it ever dries up and warms up (though there are rumours of an 80 degree Friday around here), it will be appropos indeed.

But I am a glass half-full gal as you know and if there is one nice thing about the rain, it does make the crab-apple blossoms look lovely:

So that is some of the shenanigans going on here today!  Would love to hear about yours!

Stay Safe Out There!

Oh The Places You Go!

Both M's graduating preschooler (see here) and I (see here) were recently given a copy of Dr. Seuss' Oh the Places You'll Go! (I noted that the subtitle was "Party Edition" and wondered if they were all Party Editions? And then I thought:  Hey!  I am a Party Edition!)  And so of course I had to add a new box to the right because that's how my mind works...

Anyway, I reread the book this afternoon, because, well it was day 6 of the driving rain and I needed to cheer myself up!  What helped me turn the corner was this verse:

Somehow you'll escape

all that waiting and staying.

You'll find the bright places

where Boom Bands are playing.

And that got me to thinking about places I have been and loved and some places I need to get to, pronto...

So today, we are going on a little side trip to divert me from the rain!  There are two categories: places I have been and ESPECIALLY loved  and places I have not been yet but think I WILL ESPECIALLY love:

Places I have been and especially loved:

Little gite in Normandy called L'Etre Bidault.  This place was divine, from the cows in the adjoining field, the house up the lane that sold champagne out of the kitchen, the little town 5 minutes away with the chocolatier that sold chocolates in Kama Sutra shapes.  I could live here from May to the end of October, when I would have to go South!

Mont St. Michel.  Like a little fairy world, but with tacky shops.  One of those AH..... moments...

Monet's Garden.  Like a pilgrimage to me.  Almost pitched a tent to stay for the duration.

And I'll always have Paris.

The Tower of London.  I am a history geek and I just kept touching the walls and thinking "Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I might have touched these walls..."

Quebec City.  Why go to France when you can have the same experience so close to home?  So divine!

My brother lives in Jasper, Alberta, and you would have to go a long way to find something so beautiful.

and of course, I cannot forget New Brunswick

A little je ne sais quoi by the ocean in St. Andrew-by-the-Sea...

I could go on and on...

places I have not been yet but think I WILL ESPECIALLY love:

Dunvegan Castle, Isle of Skye in Scotland, home of Clan MacLeod.  I think they have been waiting for me "Ohhh - she's back."  Much frivolity all around then!

Bruges Belgium.  Ever since I saw "In Bruges" I have been desperate to get here.  Am willing to dodge hitmen and movie sets if need be!

Giethoorn in the Netherlands.  What is about a town with a lot of canals?  Oh yeah - it's boats and lush greenery and the promise of living like Snow White...(I will see Tabs there for sure).

Mai Tai just did an amazing series of posts about her recent visit to Venice, which has made me desperate to go there, and while there, I will have to pop up to Florence:

Only downside is that Barry will be constantly impersonating Denholm Elliott in A Room with a View - "I don't care what I see outside. My vision is within! Here is where the birds sing! Here is where the sky is blue!"

And California must be visited!

Oh gosh, then I am going to do some hiking in El Camino...

And I want to see the hill country of Texas..

And my grandmother was born 99 years ago this year in Invercargill, New Zealand, so need to go there as well..

Once you just start dreaming, it is hard to stop.....

It is still raining outside, but that's okay.  I'm too busy travelling and dreaming to pay that never-no-mind.

What about you?  Would love to know some of your favourite haunts and what's left on YOUR bucket list!

Have a happy, and hopefully for me at least, dry Monday!  Stay Safe out there!