slice of life ~ end of july

Like most of the country, the weather here has been hot and humid. I'm not complaining though, as I'll take this kind of weather any day over one of the harsh winter days that we have. You'd think with the high humidity that we'd have a lot of rain. But no, we're actually at a deficit. The grass is brown and crunchy. We did have a couple of good ol' Midwestern thunderstorms this past week though. I ran outside to get this photo of the sky a few nights ago, right before one of those storms. 

One perennial that thrives in the heat is purple coneflower. These are in my butterfly garden but seems the bees love them the best.

As far as annuals and the heat, these zinnias are in all their glory. I'm not sure what variety they are - they're not tall, but they've really spread in width. I've barely even watered them and they continue to produce these hearty blooms. These will definitely be one of my go-to flowers for next year. 

As I've said before, I don't go into Goodwill often anymore, but I dropped off four more bags of donation items the other day and ran in to look around. I found this crossbody fabric purse by LexiWynn. I Googled the name and found that this is a custom purse where you can pick your style and fabric ~ and this style is $85. I paid $5! This will be a cute purse for fall.

Even the inside is pretty.

I also found two of these vintage Paden City plates. I was immediately drawn to the pattern ~ I think it's so unique. 

Do you know Kimberly at Imagery by Kimberly? {If you don't, you should. :-) } I was one of the winners of one of her beautiful photos when she had a quick contest on Instagram.

Isn't it beautiful? That's one of her little ducklings, Ruthie. She posted this photo on her blog right after the shooting in Orlando, Florida.

I'm keeping the photo on bottom shelf in the main bath.

Yesterday was Brian's birthday. We went out to dinner at one of our favorite Thai places to celebrate. Brian tried pho for the first time and loved it. I tasted the broth and it was incredible: such a depth of flavor with subtle hints of ginger and star anise. The secret to delicious pho is indeed the broth.

When we got home, the birthday boy got his wished-for banana cake for dessert. As we don't eat processed sugar (for the most part), I found a healthy banana bread recipe online that used pure maple syrup, coconut oil, and whole wheat flour. I figured if I made it in a Bundt pan and frosted it, it'd be more like a cake. I also found a recipe for cream cheese frosting that's simply the cream cheese, pure maple syrup and vanilla extract. Turned out that the cake was a little dry. I was really disappointed but hubby said it was pretty good and he's been eating it anyway.

 He's such a good sport.