Life’s a Picnic

Picnic Basket: Amish Baskets (c/o) / Dress: TopShop (old, similar) / Sandals: Splendid / Wood watch: Woodgrain watches

My good and longtime friend Ashley and I got together recently – she’s always the most amazing hostess – even when she doesn’t try, she creates amazing yet simple dishes. She always inspires me and as much as I can’t seem to find a passion for cooking I love the simplicity of her dishes and I often leave encouraged – I ate a yummy meal and it wasn’t crazy complicated to create. So after our lunch, I stopped by the store to pick up what she made us for lunch because I wanted to recreate it to share!

Napkins: IKEA / Picnic Basket: Amish Baskets (c/o) / Paris Street Maps Carafe: Uncommon Green (c/o)
Cookies + Tray: POPSUGAR Must Have Box (c/o)

Grab a bag of spinach, sliced strawberries, sliced almonds, goat cheese and poppy seed dressing. Bring some grapes and a baguette if salad doesn’t quite fill you up. I found these wood bowls at Home Goods on clearance for $3 each! They are the perfect lightweight outdoor entertaining bowls to have.

I’ve never had a picnic basket before and always wanted one, my best girlfriend has a love for all things Amish made, she has a great collection of signage from vacations. These Amish baskets are handmade in Southern Iowa and have been making baskets for generations.

The basket comes signed by the person who made it – in this case an 18 year old made mine. I am so impressed and handmade is such a precious skill, and because I sew and know how long it takes to create a product, I value it so much.

There’s a double stacked picnic basket and even liners, who knew there were so many variations of picnic baskets? You can easily use one of those large baskets as seen in this post. This one has a tray inside it which is so handy to get things off the ground and also separate anything that you don’t want squished that gets packed at the bottom – or vice versa.

The city map of Paris! The city maps glassware are at the top of my list for gift giving this Christmas – with cities and college towns, islands, and even cities across the world you can pick different glasses to remind someone of their favorite home town or vacation.

I picked Paris because I liked the carafe style, although St. Martin and St. Thomas almost made it – and I almost went with Brooklyn because of the memories from this trip.

The cookies and tray were from the August POPSUGAR Must Have Box – it’s their 5 year anniversary! Each month’s box is packed with style goodies and a snack. If you want to subscribe, use discount code PARTY (expires 8/31) for $10 off your first box.

This month anyone who signs up or is already a subscriber is enter for some fun giveaways to celebrate their 5 year anniversary.

I am looking forward to some cooler weather so I can really make life a picnic!