a perfect summer day: gabrielle blair
Jun 28, 2010 Every week this summer, someone I love or know or admire (or all of the above) will share their idea of a perfect summer day, real or imagined. Here’s Gabrielle Blair from Design Mom:
First:
I'm up at the very reasonable hour of 8:00 but amazingly, I'm the first one awake. Somehow, the entire household has slept in. I creep out to the garden and gather a bowl of strawberries. While I set to work in the kitchen trimming the berry tops, the family slowly wakes up and shuffles in. We eat fresh strawberries and cream for breakfast and chat about plans for the day.
Second:
The schedule is open. We can do anything we'd like -- we have no prior commitments. We think about going to the zoo or a museum, but really, we just want to putter around at home doing summery things. The kids play with the sidewalk chalk on the back patio. I turn on the sprinklers during the hottest part of the day so the kids can run through and cool off. Ben Blair juices lemons for fresh lemonade and I enjoy my first glass while I lounge in the hammock. I have a book with me, but I don't read it. Instead, I'm enjoying the sounds of my kids playing and admiring the little apples that are growing in the tree above me.
Third:
The unmistakable sounds of the ice cream truck reach our little yard and wouldn't you know it, I happen to have cash on hand (unheard of!) and everyone in the family picks a frozen treat. I'm having an ice cream sandwich.
Fourth:
It's time to think about dinner, but no one is in the mood to cook. So we think simple. A cheeseplate. Good bread. Fresh fruit. We spread a happy, striped linen on the picnic table and put out our feast. We eat while sitting in our collection of rocking chairs, plates on our lap.
Fifth:
The sun is setting. The younger kids are tucked into bed. Not sunburned, but a little pink. The older kids gather neighbors for night games on the neighborhood green space. Ben Blair and I light the little glass candle jars that hang in the trees, then we sit and rock and finish off the rest of the lemonade and hatch a plan to move our little family to Paris for a year. When the yawns set in, it's off to bed for everybody.
I met Gabby over email before we ever met in person. And when I did meet her, she was as lovely and funny and radiant as you might imagine from her wonderful site, Design Mom. Gabby is also one of the co-founders of Kirtsy, wife, and mother to six kids. How’s that for capable? Oh, and those rocking chairs she mentioned? She did that, too. Check them out right here.
Reader Comments (5)
I love the simplicity of this day dream, especially since I have long been a fan of Gabrielle's blog. Here's wishing she finds this day soon!
I love this feature. It gets me in the summer frame of mind even at my desk at work.
I love this post, Gab. I think my coffee snorted through my nose though when you wrote about moving your "little family" overseas. You amaze me!
Sounds perfect. No kids saying "I'm bored." Dreamy.
We admire Gabrielle's ability to slow down and appreciate life and her kids! We loved hearing from her on our site of getting her kids ready for back to school.
http://www.tadashop.com/picks/gabrielle-blair-design-mom/4c6e90bcf1af85705f000014