Last month, HP sent me my very own Sprout, and I've been having so much fun messing around and getting to know it a little more each day.

I picked up some awesome tulips at the grocery store last week and thought it would be really cool to use them to create a new, springy background for my phone. I took some photos of the flowers and then hand-wrote something from one of my favorite E.E. Cummings poems, which I've included below. I read it almost weekly during the spring time.

“in Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman

whistles far and wee

and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it’s
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer
old balloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it’s
spring
and

the

goat-footed

balloonMan whistles
far
and
wee”

— E.E. Cummings, [in Just-]

This post is sponsored by HP. Thank you so much for your support as I continue to work with advertisers!

Photos by Joshua Vasko for Freckled Italian.

Happy Monday! This weekend was a slow one at home and we really needed it. We didn't make any plans, so everything we did all weekend was pretty spontaneous, which made it really fun. Rob and Ender and I walked to our first Food Truck Friday for dinner after work; and on Saturday afternoon we had some neighbor friends over for a glass of wine, which was really fun. I went to barre and we did some grocery shopping at a farmers market and ate every meal outside.

I made iced coffee and wore skirts and tried really hard to take in the magic that is Charlotte in the springtime.

We slept in on Sunday--which means Ender woke me up at 7:30 but once we went out he jumped into bed with us and we all slept again until 10:00, which was amazing. And then, of course, we ended the weekend with the first episode of season 5 of Game of Thrones! I'm so happy it's back (and so glad to see Tyrion with a beard).

After a few crazy weeks of busyness and travel and the possiblity of even more travel in the future, a quiet weekend at home was exactly what I had been longing for.

I hope you got everything you needed, as well.

Happy Friday! I have a bunch of links I've been hanging on to for a few weeks, so I'll just get right to it:

Life and Reading:

• I really appreciated this: Elizabeth Gilbert on Failure.
• We're talking about young adult literature all wrong.
• Also related: Children's books are never just for children.
• This is something I struggle with sometimes. I'm always kind of proud deep down when I'm too busy to think and that's not a great way to go about my daily life: Exhaustion is not a status symbol.

Food and Health:

• A beautiful piece by one of my favorite podcast-ers: The Seven-Minute Egg.
• Vitamin B.S.--What do you think?
• An interesting thought: We've Hit Peak 'Sommelier.' I liked the allusion to "artisan territory." It is always a little silly to see some kind of "artisan" sandwich at a Burger King or something.

To Watch:

• Ellen Meets Macey Hensley. This little girl had me laughing my ass off. What a gem.
• Usher Plays Peekaboo on #RepeatAfterMe. I love him.
• This was too sweet--Roberty Downey Jr. presents a bionic arm to a sweet 7-year-old with a partially developed right arm.

Wish List/Other Stuff: 

• How sweet is this bright jumpsuit?
• I'm loving all these high-waisted bikinis on ModCloth.
• Are you familiar with Partyopedia? It's a family-run, one-stop-shop for birthday supplies.
• I'm sort of obsessed with these pretty sunglasses.

--

What are you all up to this weekend? We've got no place to be for the first time in several weeks so we're staying put and relaxing as much as possible. Hope you have a good one!

Photo by Sarah Gatrell.