7.29.2013

Passion Fruit Lemonade Iced Tea

I have another cold drink for those hot days out there.  
 I made this for our dinner party and it was perfect because it still happened to be 80 degrees at 9 pm.
You will need:
&
Lemonade

That's it!  Pretty simple.
Follow the directions for brewing the Passion Fruit Tea and then double it with the lemonade.
For the ice cubes Ryan froze lemon balm leaves in them.

For another refreshing summer drink go here and for more allergy free goodness go here.

Enjoy!
xo
Erin



7.24.2013

We Threw A Dinner Party


I've always wanted to throw an outdoor dinner party so Amanda from Amanda Louise and I got together and made that dream happen!  We really tried to use everything we already owned for this event to make it budget friendly.  Ryan and I used our table from inside and drug it out to the patio and for the seating we used our wicker patio furniture.  Amanda did invest in these two strands of outdoor bulb lights.  I loved them so much I think we will have to invest in some outdoor lighting strands.
Ryan had this genius idea of filling our cinder blocks with ice to chill our wine and other beverages. 
I picked up these floral/botany plates from a thrift store along with some glass candler holders; flipped the candle holders over and glued them to the bottom center of the plates.  We used them to hold food, flowers and candles.
Ryan made us some place-card holders by cutting a slit into some scrap wood.
It was more fun than I imagined it would be!

I will be posting all the Allergy-Free recipes of the night here at Visibly Moved over the next couple weeks:

and

Amanda will be posting the vegetarian recipes over at Amanda Louise.

Check out our inspiration board of the night here
and more of our yard here.

If any of you have thrown a dinner party and blogged about it, I would love for you to put the link in the comments below so I can check it out!

xo
Erin
 
***UPDATE:  Check out our Autumn Dinner Party!***

7.23.2013

Sunsets Are My Fav

And sometimes, against all odds, against all logic, we still hope.
See more sunsets here.
More pictures of this shoot at Blue Glacier Photography and outfit details over at Amanda Louise.
More of this lookout here.

xo
Erin

7.22.2013

Allergy-Free Lemon Meringue Pie S'more

This week's allergy free recipe is perfect timing for those summer nights by the fire.
 Lemon Meringue Pie S’mores
Inspiration found here.
They were AMAZING!!!  I prefer them much more than an "ordinary" s'more now.
Items Needed:
Gluten Free graham crackers.  I used these.
Allergy-free Marshmallows
Lemon Curd

Enjoy!
xo
Erin

More allergy-free goodness here.



7.19.2013

4th of July Weekend Adventure: Lion's Head Salisbury, CT

Above:
 July 5th 8:30pm
Stonington Borough, CT
Below:
 July 6th 5:30am
Lion's Head, Salisbury, CT
I had this brilliant idea of wanting to see a sunset and then the sunrise next morning.  The location we chose for the sunrise was the Lion's Head trail in Salisbury, CT.  That meant a night hike for us; my first one.  We caught the sunset on the ocean near our house and got maybe an hour of sleep and then headed out at 1am to travel the 2.5 hours to begin our night hike.
We started our hike around 3:30am, armed with glow sticks on our packs, one head lamp and one flashlight.  We got lost once at the start of the trail, not knowing where it started and overshot our lookout by a quarter of a mile but we got to our sunrise location at 4:30am.  Plenty of time for Ryan to make us some coffee and oatmeal with his stove.  I had really no idea what surrounded me when hiking at night; no idea how far up I was or where the trail was meandering through.
We settled in for an hour waiting for the sunrise while eating our oatmeal and drinking our coffee.
I caught some dragonflies in this picture!  The bugs were bad, bring repellent.
Fog was rolling through from the river in the valley below.
Lion's Head elevation is 1738 although we only climbed a little over 500 feet.
On the way down we enjoyed the scenery in the daylight.
Here is a little info about the Lion's Head trail since I scoured the Internet before we went and didn't find much info.
This info here will get you to the hiking parking lot but you don't have to walk down the road to hop on the trail.  The trail now leaves directly from the parking lot.
The hike is approximately one mile up and one mile down, making the total round-trip hike 2 miles.  The trail intersects with the application trail. The first trail you intersect with, go straight.  The second trail you intersect with go right (follow the blue markers).   At the very end you have a choice to go straight up and scramble up some rocks or go left on the blue trail to go around and back track to the views.  When you get to the top you can't see the view go to the right down a little path and it will open up to the view.  The trail is fairly easy to moderate.  It's only a mile each way but there is some elevation climbing.

It is a perfect hike for a sunrise!

We were back to our car at 6:30am and drove home to sleep.

xo
Erin

See more CT hiking here.

7.16.2013

Weekapaug Lookout

Weekapaug Lookout is probably one of my favorite places to go, especially for sunsets.  It's a lookout; in that you can't swim there because it's packed with boulders and with no parking lot.  You just park in one of the several spots on the street and it is never packed, which is what makes it one of my favorite spots here in New England.  I learned since moving here about six years ago, I know where there are more cool spots then the locals.  I guess if you grow up somewhere you don't explore much.  This is one of those spots the locals have no clue where I'm talking about.
Here is another spot the locals have no clue exists.
More of Weekapaug Lookout:

See Amanda's outfit details at Amanda Louise and more photos from this shoot at Blue Glacier Photography.

xo
Erin

7.15.2013

Allergy-Free Recipe: Pasta

This is one of my favorite go-to meals that never seems to get old for me.

What you will need:
One package of Italian Sausage
Quinoa Pasta
Olive Oil
Small Container of Cherry Tomatoes
One Yellow Onion
Fresh Basil
Three Cloves of Garlic
Garlic and Herb Seasoning
Salt
To Make:
Start with browning the Italian Sausage in a pan.
In another pan saute onion and garlic in olive oil.  
When completed, put cherry tomatoes, seasoning and basil and heat until tomatoes are soft.
Boil the quinoa pasta.
To eat put pasta on plate, then Italian Sausage and then tomato mixture on top.
Enjoy!

xo
Erin

7.11.2013

DIY: Pallet Deck Furniture

 Here are some more ways on how to jazz up your deck with pallet wood just like I promised!
My husband acquired a few free pallets and went to work.
Above he put his pallet wall below our deck stairs.
A chess board was next and then below, a planter bench.
 One more bench below!
Presto! Our deck is so much more fun with all our new pallet furniture!

See our DIY Pallet Grill here.
Check out our bright benches here.
See our Autumn dinner party on the deck.
View a dinner party on our patio here.
See more of our yard.

xo 
Erin