Every other week, I share a new Snapshot of a Marriage over on Snippet & Ink. These Snapshots are one of my favorite projects to work on. With every interview, I learn so much about a couple’s journey and so much about what goes on behind the scenes. Marriage is one of those things that is so individual to each couple and yet so completely universal as well. Talking to friends about relationships, I often reference one of my couples – they give incredibly sincere and humble advice based on their own experiences. It’s really an honor to get to share stories of so much love with the world.

This week, I’m sharing an interview with a really special couple – Josh and Debs are the couple who married Michael and I almost five years ago! When Michael and I are having a tough moment or a disagreement, I often try to remember the advice they gave us before our wedding and during our ceremony. They share a hilarious story of how they first met and advice they give to couples young and old! You can read their Snapshot right here.

And isn’t Debs’ dress incredible? So Princess Diana!

Phew, I think we’re back, friends. I hope. For the last few weeks, I’ve been trying to conquer problems created when WordPress was hacked a few months ago. I didn’t notice anything wrong at first, but then I started getting messages from readers saying there was something funky going on with my site. After every message, I’d try to figure out what the problem was (and frantically email Brandi and Julie for help!), and think I’d gotten it sorted out. But it just kept coming back! It’s so frustrating to feel helpless and drowning in a sea of technological problems you don’t understand.

Thankfully, I think the problems are finally gone and normal action can resume over here. I’m relieved but also incredibly hopeful that everything is really fixed!

I’m spending this week on the beach in Florida with my family. I was planning to take a week away from the blog, but oddly enough, all I want to do is get back to business around here!

Thank you to those of you who sent emails letting me know things were looking a little off, and thank you to the rest of you for your patience while I got this sorted out! I’ll be back tomorrow with a post I’ve been waiting more than a week to share!

I’m dealing with a few technical difficulties here today. I’m working with a few helpful experts who will hopefully have the problems sorted in the next day or so. In the meantime, can I ask you please not to click on any pop ups or downloads that come up while you’re here? You should still be able to read previous posts and click on links, but for the time being, I want to be extra careful.

Hopefully things will be back to normal next week!  Thanks for your understanding and patience!

I am happily home in Maine, enjoying the late spring sunshine now that the weekend of torrential rain has stopped. I made it just in time to see my little brother graduate from college, and to celebrate my grandmother’s 85th (!) birthday with my family. It’s been a great, relaxing long weekend after a slightly manic busy spring.

There’s only one tiny thing I’m missing from Dublin at the moment (other than my lovely husband who arrives this weekend!), and that’s peony season. I absolutely love when the peonies come out in our neighborhood, but I left right before they really bloomed. I even stole a few buds from our neighbor (sorry, Graham!), but they took ages to open and I had to hop on my flight to America before they reached their fullest potential.

I’ve been consoling myself with these photos from a wedding I helped with a few weeks ago. They’re not as much fun as having big, fat peony blooms in a vase on my desk, but they’re close. Don’t you just want to squeeze them?

I love this photo, even though it’s a little over-exposed. I think the petals are just so beautifully paper thin and delicate. 

It’s also just the tail end of lilac season here in Maine, which is almost equally amazing! Tell me, what’s blooming in your area at the moment? 

A friend sent me on a list of blogs he thought I’d like last week. Boy, was he right. He sent me into a deep rabbit hole of blogs and sites that I accidentally got lost in for way too long. One of the sites he recommended was Cabin Porn. The title’s a little racy (my sister wasn’t too keen on opening it at work!), but it’s pretty wholesome. It’s a collection of photographs of cabins, both inhabited and deserted, from around the world.

Most of the cabins are fairly isolated from the rest of the world. They remind me of camping, or of what I think a roadtrip across the midwest might be like.

Looking at each of them gave me this really strong longing to be out in the middle of nowhere, all by myself. That feeling has crept in every few months for the last year or so. Maybe it’s because we live in a city now; the houses are so close to each other and we always have neighbors around. Even when we go to the countryside, there is almost always a cottage or house out in the distance.

When I was in college, I spent a summer working at a summer camp in northern Minnesota. One day, I borrowed a friend’s car and drove aimlessly for hours. Luckily, my sense of direction is pretty good, and I made my way back okay, but just the feeling of driving and looking at new views was so refreshing.

This year, I even asked Michael if we could take a road trip during our summer travels. I was shooting for that open road feeling, with only a paper map as our guide. I wanted something old fashioned and adventurous (but flat, I’m not the biggest fan of winding through mountain roads). I’m not entirely sure we’ll get open road driving between Chicago and Peoria and Cincinnati but maybe Michael will let us take a few detours and get a little intentionally lost!

Have any road trip or cabin dreams you’ve been harboring? Tell me that tree house with fairy lights doesn’t have you packing your bags immediately!

Do you ever find a recipe you just absolutely love and then proceed to make it for weeks on end? I've been making this awesome Healthy Butternut Squash Lentil Stew every week for months and can't seem to get sick of it! It's filled with so many healthy veggies but tastes delicious and hearty. It even has a bit of kick from jalapenos. As if that wasn't enough to persuade you to give it a shot, it's barely more work than chopping a few ingredients and opening a few cans. Then it sits on the stove for a couple hours and it's good to go!

Ingredients:

1 glug olive oil

1 onion

1 carrot

1 tsp jalapeno, minced (or however much you can handle!)

1 tablespoon curry powder

1 garlic clove, minced

3/4 cup dried red lentils

1 butternut squash, peeled and chopped into 1 inch cubes

2 cans chopped tomatoes

1 can chickpeas, drained

2 vegetable stock cubes

4 cups water

Heat the olive oil in the soup pot. Add the onion and carrot and allow them to cook until they start to get tender, about five minutes. Add the garlic and cook for two minutes. Add the curry powder and cook for two minutes. Then add the jalapeno and cook for two minutes. Now, add all of the rest of the ingredients, adding the water last. You want to make sure the water almost covers the rest of the ingredients. Put a lid on the soup pot and allow the stew to come to a boil. Let it boil for about five minutes and turn the heat down to medium low. Let the stew simmer for about two hours. It should start to get thick and the butternut squash will start to fall apart just a little. Serve with sour cream or creme fraiche!

Happy Friday, friends! It honestly feels like yesterday I was typing those same words. These weeks are flying by! I started my week with a big styling assignment for Image Interiors. I styled a whole house! And I had an absolute blast. I can't wait to see the images in print. Then yesterday, I was asked to be part of a welcome video for travel bloggers attending the TBEX conference here in Dublin in October. It was so fun to chat about my favorite Dublin spots!

Today I've been putting the final touches on my blogging course that starts tomorrow morning. I'm really excited to meet my students tomorrow and teach them a whole bunch in a few short days. I can't wait to see what they come up with. It's so fun to think that each of my students will have a blog of their own starting tomorrow! (Our July course still has openings!)

If you're in Dublin this weekend, I have a few suggestions for you! Check out the Graffiti Jam or the Howth rhododendron trees!

And here are a few links for your weekend!

Irish wedding inspiration.

Seasonal rhubarb floats.

Bright dip-dyed placemats.

DIY plaster mini votive holders.

Springy white bean salad with peas and mint.

See you Monday!