Scenes from the weekend (on a Tuesday).

I love weekends that feel long and stretched out, don't you? After a packed week, I left Sarasota behind for the third weekend in a row and headed north to spend some much-needed quality time with ACS. Even though it was only a 24-hour visit, we filled it with long walks, antique-store browsing, great food and lots of laughter. Add to that a fun dinner from the Orlando Food Truck Bazaar with my parents on Sunday night and you have what I'd consider a pretty perfect few days. Here's a look at them in photos.

We walked down pretty side streets swooned over the flowers in bloom everywhere...

...daydreamed about living in this house...

...declared pink and mint the color palette o' the weekend...

...sat in a community garden, basking in the golden late-afternoon light (my favorite time of day)...

...had an amazing dinner at this adorable restaurant...

...decided we're staying in a B&B next time because, hello, how cute...

...made friends with a kitty (when does this not happen with me?)...

...came across a trio of butterflies that let us get very close (you know how I feel about butterflies)...

...and ended the weekend with lobster rolls, Korean barbecue, shrimp and grits and cupcakes.

I hope your weekend was equally as lovely, and that your weeks have started out on a high note. xoxo

Hall pottery.

A few weeks ago, while browsing Instagram, I stumbled across a photo of this gorgeous white ceramic casserole dish with gold polka dots. Though I'm often loathe to ask people where they get things (those kinds of questions seem to take over a lot of the bigger Instagram feeds I follow, and while I get that it's meant to be flattering, it's mostly just really off-putting to me), I totally dismounted my high horse and asked the user where she got the dish. She very kindly let me know that it was vintage—an eBay find—and I very quickly began obsessively scouring the Internet to find something similar.

Turns out the dish was made by Hall, a pottery company, and their ceramic pieces aren't hard to find on Etsy or eBay. I quickly found the exact casserole dish I'd been coveting and scooped it up, and last week I also found a white-and-gold-polka-dotted coffeepot that I couldn't resist—turns out I got it for a steal, because it's enormous (the photo doesn't do it justice). Both the coffeepot and the casserole are really heavy and well-made, and while I don't think I'll be using them much for actual cooking, they'll absolutely make gorgeous display pieces. If you were ever asked to describe a "Megan" item, these would be it.

Any great eBay/thrifting scores of your own to share?

The best fried chicken ever.

Fried chicken is one of my all-time favorite comfort foods—for me, it's right up there with a grilled cheese sandwich and macaroni and cheese. But until this weekend, I'd never actually made it myself.

Leave it to Ina Garten to change that.

Ina was cooking with Tyler Florence—another chef whose recipes never seem to lead me astray—on her Food Network show the other weekend, and they were making chicken fried in herb-scented oil. The recipe couldn't have been simpler: Brine the chicken in saltwater for a few hours, dredge it in a mixture of buttermilk and Sriracha, then dip it in seasoned flour. Fry the chicken, three or four pieces at a time, in peanut oil that's flavored with thyme, sage, rosemary and garlic...and then eat until you can't eat anymore. Seriously, this is really good fried chicken, you guys. We served it with corn on the cob and my mom's potato salad and it was the perfect Labor Day meal. If you want to make it, here's the recipe. I hope you love it.

Lake Bell's backyard.

So much amazing color, texture and pattern in actress Lake Bell's Brooklyn backyard, as featured in Lonny magazine. Love. Adding to the must-have list for my next place: Outdoor space.

Photo by Melanie Acevedo for Lonny

Lemur love.

Every so often, I think that I want to leave Sarasota and go live somewhere completely different (like, hello, San Diego). I've lived in Florida my entire life and sometimes the urge for a change of scenery is so strong that I actually start to research other cities, trying to figure out what it would be like to live in one of them.

But then Sarasota surprises me with something like a stunning sunset, a perfect 75-degree day or an experience that you can't have anywhere else. Case in point: The Lemur Conservation Foundation lemur reserve in Myakka City, just a short drive from where I live. A few months ago, my boss and I were invited to take a tour of the facility and meet the lemurs living there, who are are in serious danger of going extinct thanks to the turmoil in their native Madagascar. It was one of the most unique (and uniquely Sarasota) experiences I've ever had, and really special since the reserve isn't open to the public. And surprise: Turns out, I love lemurs. They're laid-back but curious little creatures, and when we ventured out into the woods where they live, many of them came right up to us and some of them even tried to paw through our purses.

The entire experience was unforgettable, and it led to this story in our September issue, written by one of our regular contributors (who, side note, is also the author of a great book about coming of age in New York called The Frog King). The piece is a must-read, and if the last few paragraphs don't make you cry—or at least well up—well, then, you're dead to me. Also, the photography, by Kim Longstreet, is amazing; the little lemurs and their personalities are captured so vividly. I'm really proud of the quality of work our magazine produces and I think this piece is a fine example of it. If you read it, I hope you really enjoy it.

Photography by Kim Longstreet for Sarasota magazine