up top.

The rooftops and cornices of Charleston are really special, but I don't think they get nearly as much attention as they deserve. On our main artery, King Street, it's easy to get distracted by all of the action at street level and forget to look up. That's where you'll find a reminder of just how historic this city is. These are just a few buildings I spotted on a recent, short stroll down King.

They sure don't build 'em like they used to.

water.

I feel so lucky to live near the beach. Enjoying a bit of this today:

 

*just some wet images I've collected on Tumblr.

weekend.

I hope your weekend's like this:

I plan to sleep late, make pancakes, spend a day at the beach, and read a book or two. We also need to finish some stuff around the house, like putting together the office and hanging up pictures. What do you have planned this weekend?

treasure hunt.

I've been craving a good thrifting/junk shop/antiquing adventure. I've recently learned that there are a slew of antique malls around Charleston that I haven't even been to. And I think I need to remedy that. Some things that are always on my thrifting radar:

Old silver. My grandma has always collected it, 

and I'd love to have enough mismatched silver for a dinner party.

Vintage fans are my jam. If I see one, I will probably buy it. 

I'd love to find some old soda crates. Not sure what I'd do with them, but I'll figure that out later. 

Vintage linens, including handkerchiefs, tablecloths, and napkins — especially from the 1950s.

Typewriters. Maybe it's because I'm a writer, or maybe it's just because they're awesome. 

I'll never use them, but they sure are pretty to look at.

Matchbooks. 

Ok, I'm starting to get carried away. There's just going to have to be a Part 2 of this post at some future date. Until then, let me know if you want to go junkin'.

All images found via Pinterest.

jalepeno jelly.

Last weekend at my Grandma's house, Todd and I made jalapeno jelly from the peppers in her garden. Turns out, it's pretty easy to make, and it's a lot more tasty than I expected. It was so good, in fact, that we made a second batch to give as gifts (after eating an entire jar in one day).

This is the recipe we used from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving. Here's the gist: Cut the seeds and stems from a bunch of peppers (wear gloves), put them in a food processor with a cup of vinegar, then bring that to a boil with another cup of vinegar and six — yes, six — cups of sugar (no wonder it's so tasty). Let it boil for 10 minutes, then put it in jars.

stamped.

The U.S. Postal Service has released some fun stamps as of late. I might just have to start sending letters the old-fashioned way.

country kids.

We spent the weekend at my Grandma's farm in North Carolina. Housing developments and shopping centers have encroached on the surrounding area over the last few years, but her farm remains just as I've known it my whole life. It always smells the same, like pine needles and warm earth. There's the fig tree behind Grandpa's old shop where wasps swarm to feed, and fields that are sometimes empty, sometimes full of crops. There are paths through the woods where we learned to drive with golf carts, and you can still find the best skipping stones down by the creek.

This weekend we learned to make jam with freshly picked tomatoes and jalapenos, made tomato soup from scratch, ate fresh corn right off the stalk (delicious!), and raided Grandma's extensive gardens for a trunkload of plants for the backyard, like thyme, hydrangeas, and canna lilies.