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August 12, 2008

Another beautiful day for our last day of the trip. Bill, Susan, Kris, Erin, Joe, and me went into town to check out the Cheeseburger festivities. It was more than a little slow. I guess tomorrow will be a bigger day since that's the parade day. When we got back to the cottage, everyone but me and Dad played croquet. Oh, I forgot to mention that last night was a meteor shower, so Kris, Susan, Mom, me, and the kids all got up at 1:30a and went outside for about an hour to lay wrapped up in blankets and watch for shooting stars. We did see quite a bit, but it was cold and the middle of the night, so I really only made it about 45 minutes. Tonight was the only night we were able to have a fire. We also set off some of the fireworks that were saved from the July 4 weekend and me and the kids set off sparklers. S'mores definitely taste better after running around with a sprinkler. Oh, and when made using a Ritz cracker instead of a graham cracker, extra salt makes everything taste better! Pictured above: croquet game; Joe wearing his Black Hawks birthday shirt (he specifically asked for something Black Hawks so he could taunt his Dad whenever the Red Wings play); Erin goofing on the swing; the croquet players; Joe and the house he made out of Jenga blocks.

August 11, 2008

Finally a day with no rain! Too bad almost everyone left yesterday. Mom, Susan, Kris, Erin, and I spent the morning in Bad Axe shopping at the KMart and WalMart, good times. Bill, Dad, and Joe met us for lunch at Heck's. I was glad I didn't miss out on the Heckleburgers this year - they are the best cheeseburger I've ever had anywhere. When we got back to the cottage, Susan sent Bill and the kids out to swim and the rest of us helped organize the games for Joe's birthday party. Susan had games planned around the Raiders of the Lost Ark movies. I made the Ark of the Convenent out of a cardboard box and old gold wrapping paper. Before we started on the birthday games, we got in a quick Jenga game. Pictured above: Erin, Kris, Mom, and Susan at the start of the game; Erin picks her block; Mom searches for a loose block; Erin pulls out the last block, it tower crashed about 10 seconds later.

The first game was trying to throw balls into the Ark of the Convenent, Joey and Erin were the only ones who got even 1 ball in and Joe won with 2 balls. The prize was a compass/whistle that was used for the second game, a scavenger hunt for a red rock (similar to the quartz rocks they were looking for in Temple of Doom. The third game was in the house where we all had to pick which glass we thought was the Holy Grail. The fourth game was back outside playing freeze golf, the frisbee was to simulate the space ships in Crystal Skull. And then we got to have cake which looked just like a Crystal Skull. Susan did a great job with the games and the cake. Pictured above: Joe; Joe aiming for the Ark; Susan trying to get even 1 ball in; Joe reveling in the compass/whistle; Susan and the kids down on the beach finding the last item of the scavenger hunt.

Pictured above: Joe picking his Holy Grail; Joe playing Frisbee golf; Joe and his cake; Joe and Erin; Erin and Kris.

Pictured above: The Memphis Remijans; Erin and Joe watch Bill light the candles; Joe making his wish; Joe blowing out the candles.

August 10, 2008

Another rainy day. It's a good thing we all get along as we spent most of the morning inside watching the Olympics. This pictures above were taken when things started to calm down in the early afternoon. The storms were mostly to the west, Charity Island was completely hidden from view. But you can see that the picture to the east was pretty clear. The waves were amazing and there were a lot of kids in the water playing on boogie boards. Kids, little kids, because it was too cold for anyone over 10.

August 9, 2008

This weekend was the kick-off of Cheeseburger in Paradise, the big summer festival in Caseville. When we drove through town yesterday it was packed, which is amazing because normally it's pretty empty. Unfortunately, it rained off and on all day today. We hung around the house watching Olympics and running outside whenever the sun broke through. Mike and Trevor got in last night right before midnight, and Grandma, Marianne, Jason, Lisa, and Connor came up this morning. That's too many people to keep inside for too long, so we braved a trip into town to have hamburgers for lunch. It worked out pretty good, the rain didn't start coming down until we were already in a tent in line for burgers. It poured for about 30 minutes and then sprinkled while we walked back to the car. Pictured above: Trevor and Mike; Lisa, Joe, Bill, and Grandma; Susan and Jason; Trevor, Mike, Jason, and Bill.

August 8, 2008

Happy Birthday Kris! This morning at 5a, I left the house to pick up Kris for the drive to Caseville. Bill and Susan drove up yesterday from Memphis and Erin and Joey were already there, so we were excited to start the long vacation weekend. Kris came up with the brillant idea of taking fixings for a Chinese buffet dinner to eat during the opening ceremony of the Olympics so we found two Asian grocery stores that we could stop at on the way - one in Battle Creek and one in East Lansing. We took our time with the drive stopping at the Target in Battle Creek as well and at the new Walmart in Caro. Once we got to the cottage it was all about relaxing. And making spring rolls. And the Olympics. And Kris's birthday. Bill made a mixed berry cheesecake that was fabulous. The opening ceremony was amazing, how are there always one or two countries that I have never heard of? Pictured above: Erin and Joe showing off their candy, Joe's is super-sized Smarties; Bill's cheesecake; Bill showing off his perfect spring roll; Mom, Dad, Erin, Kris, Joe, and Bill around the cheesecake; Kris blowing out her candles.

August 4, 2008

Mom and Dad sent this picture of the kids wearing their Camp Remijan t-shirts. It looks like they are all having a great time together!

August 3, 2008

Sarah volunteered to work 6p-8p at Retro on Roscoe, so Kris and I babysat Henry. He's so freaking adorable! This was definitely the highlight of my day since the rest of it was spent either outside working in the garden or sitting on the couch recovering from the heat. But at least now I don't feel like the worst neighbor on the block for letting my yard get so out of control.

August 2, 2008

We spent most of the day at the Retro on Roscoe. The food was not nearly as good as it was last year, the rice balls at Piazza Bella were fantastic as always, but the other yummy stuff we got last year was missing. Chris spent most of the time at the Village Tap watching the baseball game while Kris and I checked out all the shopping stalls and the stores, again the offering was disappointing, it seemed like there were only a handful of booths were the goods were made by the person doing the selling. Veronica had a booth with her purses and jewelry and she seemed to do pretty well. After the Cubs game, Chris headed home and I stayed to hang out. Sarah, Kris, and I joined up with Jill and we got dinner from the Turqouise Grill stand, very good lamb, but they were out of pitas. All in all I had a great time but was disappointed in the fest itself.

July 26, 2008

For some reason I took most of my pictures inside today. Karen spent the night at my place last night, and since there was talk of cleaning out Sarah and Brian's garage this weekend, we took our time getting over there. We had breakfast at the Burgundy and then drove over with the top down on Karen's convertible. The kids were already in the pool and naps were being discussed so we felt it was pretty good timing to head out and get pedicures. And then it only made sense to stop at the bar to have a couple of drinks and watch the end of the Cubs game. Pictured above: Joe, Erin, and Eva in the pool, our awesome pedicures, Erin and Henry.

We got back in time for the Guitar Hero marathon. I think everyone except Mom and Dad played at least one song. Pictured above: Susan; Susan coaching Erin; Joe rocking out; Joe doing his Angus Young imitation.

Pictured above: the Guitar Hero fan base; Karen and me goofing around; another crowd shot.

Pictured above: Mom and Dad; Eva showing us how it's done; Karen and Dad playing Wii Tennis.

This kids started the day in the pool and came close to ending it in the pool as well. Meanwhile we had quite the Wii Tennis tournament going on inside. Well, it wasn't really so much a tournament as taking turns losing to Karen.

The reason everyone came to Chicago this weekend was so Mom and Dad could take Erin, Joe, and Eva back to Caseville for Camp Remijan. Eva stays for a week and the other two are there for 2 weeks. I made freezer paper stencils for the kids to paint their own Camp Remijan t-shirts. They all did a great job and it was lucky that there wasn't too much to paint since we waited so late to get this started. After they were done and headed back upstairs to watch movies, Brian, Sarah, Susan, Karen, and I headed over to the Four Moons for a couple drinks. Jill joined us right about the time Sarah and Brian headed home. When we got there the bar was practically empty, as the night went on it filled up with drunk Cubs fans and drunk Venetian Night goers. But that was about the time we were heading out, so it wasn't too much overlap.

July 25, 2008

Chris and I both took a vacation day today so we slept in, had a nice leisure breakfast, and then headed over to Wrigley for the Cubs game. We had a great time even though they lost - apparently they can't get past the Marlins. We got to the park early so Chris could buy a new hat to add to his growing Cubs collection, then we watched the teams warm up before the game. We drank a lot of expensive Old Style and did our best to rouse the boys, but they still lost.

We walked over to Sarah and Brian's after stopping at the new (for us) fancy schmancy wine / beer store by the Southport el stop. When we lived in this neighborhood that store was such a dive, now it's gorgeous. And it carries the new Kalamazoo beer that replaces Bell's in Illinois, so we grabbed a six pack to try out. I would say I like it even more than Oberon. It was still early and the weather was perfect, so we hung out drinking beer and relaxing on the back porch. Pictured above: Susan and Karen; Mom and Sarah; Erin and Eva.

The kids pulled out the sprinkler to cool down after spending over 6 hours dragging Mom, Dad, Karen, and Susan around the Field Museum. Their big thing was to go down the slide while being showered by the sprinkler. Oh, and Joe also liked shaking his butt right over the sprinkler. He's a huge ham.

July 24, 2008

I'm starting the weekend early! Susan, Karen, Erin, and Joe drove up from Memphis last night and Mom and Dad drove into today. Everyone is staying at Sarah's so I headed over there after work. The Memphis crowd was out sight seeing and Mom and Dad had picked Eva up from school and headed over to get ice cream. Luckily I met them in time to get some as well. I forgot to take out my camera until after the kids went to bed, I remembered just in time to get some shots of Sarah and Mom playing Guitar Her.

July 20, 2008

Yesterday morning Chris and I dropped Otto off at the Barking Lot, picked up Kris, and then headed for Michigan to celebrate our cousin Melanie's graduation from Albion and to celebrate her younger sister Megan's return from a year in Brazil. And we had a blast. We drove through rain pretty much the entire way, but by the time we got into town, checked into our (slightly scary) hotel, and got over to the farm, the rain had stopped. Luckily they were able to clear out the garage and set up everything in there, so when it sprinkled a couple more times, we were able to stay dry, but that didn't happen much and there was a slight breeze to catch. Pictured above: Mike, Dan, Scott, and Chris in the garage; Megan; Kris, Grandma, and Grandma's friend Carol.

It was a great get together especially since we were able to meet Karrie and Erich's little girl Cassidy and Dawn and Rob's three kids for the first time. The kids were all able to jump in the pool for a while, and there were also plenty of animals for them to check out since Steve and Karin live on a working farm. Pictured above: Wheldon and Dad; everyone around or in the pool; Kris, Henry, Mom and Dad.

Pictured above: Connor and Lisa; chickens; Dan, Grandma, Mom, and Maureen.

The original plan was to have most of the party up on the hill a short drive from the house. Earlier in the day, Dad and Steve drove up to get the fire started so we could at least hang out on the hill for a little while. A little while after that, Karin, Chris and I drove up to set up chairs. Everything was still wet from the rain, but it's so beautiful up there we were more than willing to put in a little work to make it doable. Steve's farm includes pretty much all the land you can see and there were several deer running around in the fields while we were up there. Pictured above: view from the hill, Chris and Karin near the bonfire area, another view of the field.

Pictured above: The bonfire burning down; Henry close up; Maria holding Henry.

July 15, 2008

Cutest. Dog. Ever.

July 10, 2008

Here's the blue and orange quilt all finished after it's been put through one wash cycle. It's still a little stiff. I used Kona cotton for all the solid colors and it hasn't yet turned out as soft was I would like it. It doesn't really drape over you so much as it tents. Regardless Chris really likes this quilt and has claimed it as his. This is only the second quilt I've made for us to keep, the first was all flannels and slightly smaller, just small enough that Chris can't cover his shoulders and toes at the same time. This quilt is definitely long enough for that, which is part of the reason Chris has claimed it, but he also really likes the color combination. I had this professionally quilted by the women my Mom uses up in Caseville, Becky. She did a great job of a simple all over wiggle pattern. I'm really, really, really happy with how this quilt turned out considering it was all just an experiment that I was never quite sure would work. Sorry for the blurry pictures, I'm still using my phone as a camera and it doesn't take very good indoor photos, the outdoor photos turn out great, but the indoor ones seem to always be blurry.

July 8, 2008

I got more work done on my quilt today, the binding should be done tomorrow night. I also set up our new Wii and did the fitness test, apparently I am 58 in Wii years, which isn't so good since that's 17 years older than I really am. I need to work on that by playing lots and lots of Wii games!

July 7, 2008

Ah, what a nice boring ride home I had today. No flat tires, no keys to overnight, no struts to replace, just a nice leisure drive that included a lunch stop at Redamak's with Sarah, Brian and the kids. I got home in time to sleep for a couple of hours before Chris got home and I'm going to bed early as well. It's rough coming back to reality. But having this piece of art that I ordered off Etsy arrive while I was gone is helping with the transition.

July 6, 2008

Today was an even more laid back day, minus the small incident of Grandma getting cut on the head, since everyone but me, Sarah, Brian and the kids headed home. I got a lot more sewing and reading done today, and we went to the Booze Bar again for dinner and then to Shakers for dessert. I had the best Almond Joy ice cream ever, it was coconut ice cream with a dark choclate ribbon and toasted almonds, yummy. We also played 99 with Eva for the first time. When we camped as kids we used to play 99 all the time, it's still a family favorite and since Eva can count to 100 by herself it was time for her to start playing. She teamed up with Sarah and they won both games. Eva was estatic. We then played Bubbble Gum, Bubble Gum which she also won and I thought she was going to explode. The shot above was taken when we were headed out for dinner, Sarah and the kids in front of the July 4 banners I made. You can see the wind died down quite a bit since the day we put them up!

July 5, 2008

Another gorgeous relaxing day of doing nothing but lazying around, drinking cocktails, reading, sewing the binding on my quilt, and more relaxing. Sarah and Brian wanted a quick family picture since the day was so lovely and the kids were so cute. I'm still learning about my new phone so I jumped in and snapped a shot as well.

July 4, 2008

We had a full house today, and perfect weather for relaxing on the deck, walking on the beach, just being outside. Pictured above are Henry and Connor playing with the BBQ grill; Kris, Sarah, and Henry on the front lawn; Trevor and Eva kicking around the big blue ball.

Pictures above is Dad preparing the beach bonfire to keep us warm while watching the fireworks; the view of the beach east of the cottage (this was fairly late in the day, in the afternoon it looked like the beach in Jaws); the view of the beach west of the cottage greatly obstructed by the sun going down.

Pictured above is Kris showing Henry how to use binoculars; Henry showing off his new skill; Kris and Mike enjoying the late afternoon sun. The beach fireworks did not disappoint this year, the cement people two doors down set off municipal fireworks that were huge and extremely loud. And someone on the other side of the public access had a cake that went for at least 10 minutes and had a fantastic variety of fireworks. Before the show started we had Ritz'mores, our improvement on the s'more that is made using Ritz crackers instead of graham crackers. Yummy!

July 3, 2008

Still no computer, so the pictures are from my new phone, the LG Dare, which has a 3.2 megapixel camera so I'm experimenting with that. I drove up to Caseville yesterday and while the trip normally takes only about 6 hours, it took me almost 14 hours. First I got a flat tire at exit 41 in Michigan. Luckily I was able to reach Sarah who helped me get AAA to come out and put the spare on my tire. While I'm waiting for the truck, Chris calls to let me know that he left his keys, and the only key to his car, in the back seat of my car. So now I not only have to get a new tire, I have to find a post office and overnight his keys back to Chicago. Also, while I'm checking out my flat tire, I realize that the tire didn't so much blow as simply disentigrate. We knew my car needed new back tires, and I was actually going to look into doing this in Caseville, but I waited too long. I checked out the other back tire and it looked like it was ready to go at any minute as well. When the truck finally came and the guy put on my spare, he directed me to a tire shop nearby. Unfortunately they didn't have tires in the correct size, but they put something close on the one back side so I could have my spare ready incase the other back tire blew and I headed off for the 40 miles that would get me to Kalamazoo, after a quick stop at the Hartford post office. Luckily I was able to get in touch with my Uncle Mike and get directions to a tire shop in Kalamazoo. Well, when I got there, the wait was already 1 to 1.5 hours, so I walked across the parking lot and hung out at Target for an hour. When I got back to the Firestone station, my car was still in the lot, so I sat down and started watching TV. About 15 minutes later one of the techs comes in and makes a phone call asking about parts for a red 2 door Focus. Awesome. It turns out that once they got the car up on the lift they noticed that the coil on the front driver's wheel was snapped in two. So now, I need to rear tires and two front coils. Which is a 3 hour job. And while they are at it, the guy recommends I replace the front struts since they have to remove those to replace the coils. Fine. Luckily they have all the parts in house. I explain to the guy that I have no where to go for three hours and he recommends the movie theater behind the shop. I got there just in time for Kung Fu Panda, which was hilarious. About 3.5 hours later, I'm on the road again. And of course, the minute I get in my car it starts raining. And doesn't stop until Bay City. At some points the rain is so hard I can't see the car in front of me. Good times. I was just white knuckling it. I really thought that frogs would fall from the sky at some point to keep me from getting to the cottage. Kris, Mom, and Dad met me in Bayport for dinner and Kris drove from there. What a relief. I had a nice big manhattan when we got to the cottage. Today has been pretty uneventful in comparison. The pictures are Kris enjoying her morning coffee, the July 4 banner I made for Mom and Dad, and the quilt that I made for Mom and Dad's birthdays of the old cottage - the picture leaning against the quilt is what I used for the design. So, it was a rough road getting up here, but now that I'm here it's all good.

June 23, 2008

The vet thinks that Otto has a bacterial infection, so now he's on a very bland perscription diet and we have to give him antibiotics every 12 hours for the next 5 days. Otto already seems to be doing much better, the vet thinks that he just ate something that set off a bad reaction. The hardest part will be not giving Otto treats when we get home from work or after his morning walk. We'll just have to give him extra loving to make up for it.

June 22, 2008

My cousin Scott came into Chicago for the weekend and we had so much fun. This is the first time any of us have spent time with just Scott and it was great, because he's really such a great guy. Friday night we hung out at Sarah and Brian's and caught up on everything that Scott's been up to lately. Saturday morning into the afternoon we spent most of the time playing Guitar Hero. So fun! Scott was able to give us a lot of tips that made us much better at the game. The biggest tip for me was the ability to switch the game over to left-handed mode - a lot clicked right after that. I really really want a Wii now! Saturday night we all went down to Millennium Park to listen to the free symphony concert. Sarah, Kris, Scott, Henry, and me took the train down, which was much more interesting as usual since this weekend was the cross-town classic with the Sox playing the Cubs up in Wrigley so when the train pulled into Belmont a group of about 7 adults got on all with open cans of Bud and half a case under one guys arm. That's one of the worst things about taking public transportation in Chicago, during Cubs season there is a high number of drunks. Anyway, it was a perfect evening to sit outside. Jill and Scott met us as well. It was just another great Chicago evening, I was so glad the weather cooperated with Scott's trip. Unfortunately when we got home, Otto had been sick again, so although I made it to Dim Sum this morning, I'm skipping going to the Sex and the City movie so I can hang out with Otto and make sure he's doing okay. We're going to have to take him to the vet tomorrow to find out what's going on. Hopefully Scott will come back and visit us again soon. It's so fun getting to know your cousins as individual adults. We all spent a lot of time together while growing up, but now we mostly just see each other in large groups, so you don't really get to spend too much time with any one person.

June 19, 2008

I made it almost 2 days. As soon as I got Brian's email this morning about a great deal on a new computer, I jumped at the chance and so in approximately 2 weeks I will be up and running again, and it will be better, partly because it can't be worse. His technical savvy is just one of the many things that make Brian such a great brother-in-law.

Tonight a small group from work is heading over to play mini-golf while drinking a couple of beer at The Green at Grant Park as a goodbye to Eric who's moving to London for 2 years. I've walked by this mini-golf course before, but I had no idea that they had a bar there as well. It's a great location and it's the perfect day for hanging around outside.

Just discovered this NPR Road Trip feature. You type in your starting and ending addresses, and not only does it give you driving directions, you also get the NPR stations you'll be passing through AND information about roadwork scheduled on your route. I'll definitely be using this for my drive to Caseville next month.

June 17, 2008

So there won't be any pictures on my blog for a while, my computer at home appears to be completely, 100% dead. It won't even boot up. I even found my recovery disk and found that, but it just made the screen go red with a message telling me to contact Compaq tech support. Hmmm...we bought this computer before we moved into the house, so it's at least 7 years old. I'm guessing Compaq has no interest in saving my computer. And I have no interest in sinking $700 into a new one. So I'm going to see how long I'll last without a computer at home. Chris only uses it to make CDs, so he'll be fine. And lately, because the performance has been so bad, I've only been using it to download the pictures off my camera and to check work emails when I get home. So really, will I miss that? I can buy a disk reader for my pictures eventually. And I really want to get a iPhone 3G when they come out next month, so I'll be able to check emails and surf a little using that. We'll just have to wait and see.

June 16, 2008

Happy Birthday Bill!

June 15, 2008

Happy Father's Day Dad!! I hit JoAnn's this morning and then tried making another tank top. This time I'm attempting to channel Eileen Fisher. Still no luck, but I think I'm getting closer. I just have to figure out how to take a dart in the middle of the front and back necklines without it looking like I took a dart out. Currently the tank fits pretty good, except that the top is about an inch and a half too wide right in the middle of the straps. When I pin out a dart, things look pretty good. But I'm not sure how to do that on the pattern so that the front and back are dart free. I'll have to continue experimenting, but at least I'm getting closer.

June 14, 2008

Chris and I were supposed to have date night tonight, but the weather was so nice that we moved it up to this afternoon and had a nice leisure late lunch at Chief O'Neill's. Normally neither of us like to eat outside at restaurants, but this place has a completely enclosed and big garden in the back, so you don't feel like your eating directly on the sidewalk. And their corned beef sandwich was very lean and yummy. I also spent some time today trying to make a tank top which totally didn't work. I don't know what it is about me and clothing, but lately almost everything I attempt to make for myself simply doesn't work.

June 11, 2008

I made Scott and Kris pose for a picture while listening to the free concert in Millenium Park. I really should make sure everyone's eyes are opened when I do this. Jill joined us a little later and we had a great night. We're planning on going to most of the Wednesday night free concerts, which is so easy since my office is like 3 blocks from the park. At the beginning of each summer I am determined to enjoy more of the cultural aspects of Chicago, and yet every summer I get lazier and lazier and end up not doing all that much. I'm hoping that this will be the summer I stay focused. At least I know that I'll be going to a concert once a week until through August!

June 8, 2008

I forgot to mention yesterday that I bought these shoes at Target. I love them. They are so cute and actually pretty comfortable even though they have absolutely no support so they be all day shoes. Still, they were only $15, so if I wear them 3 times they will have paid for themselves.

June 7, 2008

I realized that I never posted the finished apron I made for the Sassy Apron Swap, so here it is. I didn't sew in the front darts and ties that normally go in a cobbler-style apron because one I'm not very good at darts, especially double ended darts, and two I never use the ties when I wear my vintage aprons, I just gather them up in the front pockets, but then they get in the way of anything else I want to put in the pockets. I hope my swap partner doesn't mind.

Sarah and Brian had a small party tonight to show off the new place. I wanted something fun and spring-y to wear but had no luck while shopping this morning. Then I remembered the tiered dress I started making two years ago that I put aside because it was pointed out that the dress would look more than a little frumpy and housecoat-ish on me. I had gotten to the point where I had put together all the tiers for the skirt and had pinned it to the bodice. I decided to turn the bottom into a skirt, thus removing the frump factor of having the pattern take over. I unpinned the skirt, hemmed it, sewed a double topstitch at the hem and where the tiers connect, and added a thin waistband. Even with all the measuring, when I tried on the finished skirt, the waist was still about 3" too big. Luckily I found some 1/4" elastic, which would barely fit inside the waistband. I managed to get the elastic in and the skirt is very wearable. I felt a little awkward because I rarely wear skirts in the summer, but Chris liked the look and I think I just have trouble getting myself out of a rut. So, maybe this will be the summer of the skirt?

June 4, 2008

Wings win!! Wings win!! I will completely admit that when the Penguins scored with only a minute and forty seconds left, I had to leave the room and made Chris watch the rest of the game for me. It all worked out in the end, but these last two games have been a little more than I can handle. I love watching a team, almost any team, celebrate a win like this, but obviouly is extra awesome when it's my team. We taped the game, so I was able to keep rewinding and watching those last 3 seconds when the Penguins almost tied the game. But the best part to rewind over and over was the point when all of the Wings skated over and jumped into their celebratory mob. I could watch that part again and again. Wings win!!

June 1, 2008

Sarah and Brian moved back into their house this weekend. Pretty much right on time. And the house is gorgeous! So much space and so well done. The lighting, the molding, the third floor, it's hard to pick my favorite part. We kept Henry overnight on Friday until about 3p on Saturday. He was a very good guest, just a little crying when he was tired or hungry, but especially considering that he is still suffering from an ear infection he was remarkably well behaved and easy to deal with. And I'm sure it doesn't hurt that he is so freaking adorable. When I dropped Henry off I hung around for a little while helping to unpack Eva's room and then we had a nice relaxing drink on the third floor front porch with Jill and Scott. Sarah and Brian are really going to enjoy their new space.

May 28, 2008

It's not done yet, but here's my apron for the swap so far. I still have to sew the rick-rack around the neckline and sewing binding around the neck and armholes. That should only take about another hour. I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out so far.

May 27, 2008

This was the most amazing goal that Filppula made during the Wings second shutout of the Penguins, courtesy of the Detroit Free Press. I've been having so much fun watching these first two games of the Stanley Cup finals. The Penguins are obviously a very good team, but the Wings are just on fire! (knock wood) I just hope that McCarty gets back in the game before it's all over.

May 26, 2008

Yes, my Memorial Day weekend was quite enjoyable, maybe a little too enjoyable at Tawanda and Jerry's BBQ yesterday. Luckily I got all of my errands out of the way early, because today I will be accomplishing nothing. Well, I'll get started on my apron for the Sassy Apron Swap, but I'm sure I won't get too far. Before heading to the BBQ yesterday, I planted about 8 coleus in the front yard. And then realized that maybe we get too much sun for coleus up there. I guess I'll find out in a couple of weeks when they are either thriving or dead. The nursery I go to has so many plants that I end up just getting overwhelmed and I don't know what to buy, so I pick up the same plants every year. I got a bunch of marigolds to put in the back and some herbs, but I did manage to restrain myself since I waited too long to do any weeding in the backyard and it really has been taken over. I definitely like gardening more as a concept than I do as an actual activity. I don't understand how people can get the weeds under control to the point where they are able to do something else in the garden.

May 24, 2008

So far, Memorial Day Weekend is going pretty well. Last night we went out to dinner at Zocalo, a very good Mexican restaurant with yummy Mojitos in the River North area. We were there for a surprise birthday dinner for Brian's 40th. It was a small group and was really fun. I managed to hold myself to only two cocktails so I could wake up early this morning and get some things accomplished. One of those things was going to JoAnn's to pick up the Poe print Jeffrey made us for our anniversary. This picture doesn't do it justice. The framing job really compliments the print and it looks great in our dining room. The other tasks were grocery shopping, cleaning out the fridge, and spending some time in the backyard working on the garden / lawn. All accomplished. Tomorrow morning I'll be heading to Target and then over to the garden nursery to pick up plants for the front yard. I'm determined to have a pretty front yard this year!

May 23, 2008

I just found this Whack a Penguin game on the Detroit Free Press website. To play, you click once on the yeti to make the penguin jump and once again to make the yeti swing and hit the penguin. It's a bit addicting, but I've managed to walk away after getting over 300. I'm excited about Saturday's game, GO WINGS! The Free Press also has a section of posters sent in by fans, I think this is my favorite.

May 21, 2008

I had so much fun in Memphis last weekend! Jerry's 70th birthday party was a huge success and it was so fun meeting all of Susan and Karen's relatives that we have heard so much about. We ate and drank ourselves silly and I think I'm still recovering. I ended up taking a half day on Tuesday because I just couldn't focus on anything after about 11:30p, so I headed home and spent the rest of the afternoon laying on the couch watching bad TV and playing with Otto. I was even too tired on Monday night to see the Wings win their series against the Stars. I woke up to see Lindstrom leaning on the trophy table, but not touching the trophy itself. I can't fully remember what they were saying about that, just that it's a superstition and none of the players will touch the trophy. I'm excited about Saturday's Game 1 of the Stanley Cup round. Hopefully the Wings will be able to take the Penguins down. Tonight I finally had a little energy to craft so I made a little pouch using leftovers from the blue and orange striped quilt. I guess I didn't have as much energy as I thought because I ended up putting the very first snap on backwards. Awesome.

May 11, 2008

I spent most of today up in the craft room working on various sewing projects. Yesterday I spent a lot of time ironing fabric for today's sewing extravaganza. I figured it was a great way to honor my Mom on Mother's Day. I made a muslin of the pants I was planning on making to take to Memphis, and then I realized that I really don't have time to make these pants and finish the quilt top and back. So I put my new gorgeous linen fabric aside and got started on the quilt. Luckily the material I ordered came in the mail yesterday. As you can see the top is 95% finished. I need to even out the right edge and attached the orange edge. For the back, I finished the stripe, but I need to still piece the stripe to the solid blue pieces. I should be able to get that done tomorrow night without a problem. And then on Tuesday Chris and I are going to the Cubs game. Hopefully they will keep up their winning streak!

May 10, 2008

I came home from watching the Don Giovanni simulcast at Millennium Park last night and found my new rings from Greenbelt's Etsy Store. I ordered the green / blue ring and the black / yellow / red ring over a month ago and the post office promptly lost the package. Shannon was really good to work with, we waited the alloted time to do a package search and when that didn't turn up anything, she made me new rings and even surprised me with the white / grey one! They are gorgeous rings and I'm so happy to finally have them! Oh, as a side note, I'm apparently not such a fan of Don Giovanni, or at least not the version they put on at the Harris Theater and projected onto a screen at the Pritzker Pavillion. I'm glad I went, I love that the city hosts such events, and I always have a good time with our picnic crew (last night it was me, Kris, Colleen, John, and Nick), but I just couldn't get into this story. The guy playing Don Giovanni, he didn't read as very charasmatic, or attractive, or as anyone all these women would be throwing themselves at. He came off as a predator and rapist. And the women came off as stupid and excessively gullible. But I had so much fun eating, drinking, and cracking up with our group that I didn't even mind that it was freaking freezing outside last night! I hope they simulcast another production, a good one. Kris came over tonight to watch the Wings second win over the Stars. I'm really loving our new TV and HD reception, but mostly I'm loving that somehow McCarty managed to sit right in front of the bench camera, so everytime they showed the Wings on the bench, there he was. Awesome.

May 5, 2008

High Def freaking rocks!! I'm not 100% happy with the new remote, they took away my two favorite features, but some of the new features are pretty cool too. We've been playing alot with the 'rewind live TV' feature, heehee. The Directv guy had to install a new larger satelite on the roof, and he put in two lines so we can record one channel while watching another. I can't wait to play with the DVR. I did manage to hit several fabric stores, all of which had Kona cotton, but none that had it in squash. Looks like I'll be ordering it online. But there was good news waiting for me at home, the print that I ordered from matteart on Etsy on May 2. I really didn't expect to get it so fast. I love everything about this print - the buildings, the color, all the great details, and it's even better in person. I'm hoping to spur myself into painting and decorating the craft room by buying art that I can't wait to see up on the walls. We'll see if this works. I ordered another print from Etsy on the same day, but since it's coming from Norway, it will take a little longer to get here.

May 4, 2008

I used up the rest of my refridgerated dough today: cinnamon rolls for breakfast and a small baguette for dinner. Since I used the regular bread dough for the cinnamon rolls, they were more like cinnamon bread, which turned out really yummy even if they had a slight sourdough taste. The baguette was very dense, maybe I rolled it too much? I'm going to try and make a couple more baguettes on Thursday to take with me on Friday to see the Don Giovanni simulcast in Millenium Park. I also finished sewing all of the striped panels for my orange and blue quilt. Now I need to find another yard of the squash colored Kona cotton and something to use for the back and binding. Depending on what time the Directv guy gets here tomorrow, I'm hoping to have time to hit the fabric stores so I can get this quilt top finished before May 16.

May 1, 2008

Wings win!! Wings win!! Bring out the brooms, baby! The Wings swept the Avalanche to advance to the Western Conference finals. Tonight was a great game, Wings scored 8 goals to the Avs measly 2 goals, heehee. And Franzen had his second hat trick of the series. Wasn't it just 10 - 12 years ago that the majority of the Wings were Russian? Now the it looks like the Swedes have taken over. And they are doing a great job. I'm so excited that I'll be watching the next series in HD.

April 30, 2008

Tonight's loaf of bread was even better than yesterday's! I turned the heat up higher in the over and followed the directions in the book instead of doing the second rise in the fridge during the day. In the book it says that when you remove the bread from the oven it will crackle and whistle as it adjusts to the change in temperature, with yesterday's loaf I heard nothing, but today there was definite crackling! Today's crust is much crewier, more what I'm looking for. I measured the loaf before and after cooking and it gained a couple inches in diameter and one inch in height during baking. I'm not sure why today's loaf got more mis-shaped then yesterday's, but really, the taste and texture are so much more important than looks. And I'm sure I'll get better on forming the dough the more I make. On Saturday I'm definitely going to try making a baguette and I might even do a batch of the brioche dough to make cinnamon rolls for Sunday morning's breakfast. There's a real danger of this turning into a bread making blog, although I did make 6 more blocks for my orange and blue stripe quilt while watching the Cubs beat the crap out of the Brewers. Of and in my links yesterday I totally forgot to include a link to the author's blog They have other recipes for the bread and a lot of pictures, so it's a great addition to the book.

April 29, 2008

I love to jump on the blog-wagon, so I bought the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day book after reading about it all over the blogosphere (there were a lot of other entries I couldn't find for this post, really, it's all over the place). And you know what, it totally works. I have had absolutely no luck in the past with yeast breads. They either never rise or they take FOREVER to rise, like 6 hours on the counter at which point I'm a little worried about eating the bread anyway. I mixed up a batch of the master dough last night after work, I used my KitchenAid and I was none too neat with my measuring: I spilled the water, yeast, salt mixture pouring it into the mixing bowl so I have no idea how much of that I lost, I didn't have kosher salt so I used about half the amount of regular table salt, and I lost count adding the flour since I was using a 1/2 cup measure, it was somewhere around the 8th 1/2 cup, or was it seven? So I'd say the recipe is pretty forgiving. I did take the temp of the water before adding the yeast and I actually had to microwave the water to get it to 100 degrees. Once you mix everything together, you put it in a covered but not air tight container. I didn't have that, so I covered my container with sticky cling and poked holes in it with a toothpick. After a two hour room temperature rise, I would say that my dough tripled in size - it was so exciting!! The container goes into the fridge where the dough can rest for up to two weeks. This morning, I cut off a grapefruit size of dough, shaped it, covered it with saran and put it back in the fridge. After work I took the shaped loaf out of the fridge, pre-heated the over to 450 degrees for 20 minutes and then baked the bread for 40 minutes. I probably should have gone a little longer, but I was too excited. I didn't use a bread stone, I just baked it on an upside down cookie sheet. I did put a cup of hot water in the oven with the bread for steam. And the bread is really good. Some of the blogs I read said that the first loaf was fairly bland and that the flavor will develop the longer the dough rests, but my first loaf was pretty flavorful. Really good. Certainly as good (if not better) than the bread we buy at Jewel. And it really takes very little active time. I get home too late for us ever to have fresh same day bread during the week, but we will be having a LOT of day old bread. There are also recipes in the book for brioche dough (that you can use for doughnuts, cinnamon rolls, beignets), olive oil bread (pizza), wheat bread, and rye bread. I can't wait to try some of the other recipes. But first I need more containers that will hold this amount of dough. And I need to clean our and rearrange my fridge so I can fit at least two containers in there at a time. Chris and I are going to be eating a lot of bread in the coming months!

April 27, 2008

Okay, after 5 days of doing pretty much nothing but watching the new TV, I finally got a desire to start crafting again. I pulled out this old quilt that I started over 2 years ago and started cutting strips to finish it. My goal is to have the top and back done and ready for quilting by the May 16 weekend so I give it to Mom and get in line with her long arm quilter person. The hard part will be finding the right material for the back. This will be a nice easy project for me to work on while watching the Wings playoff games. It's too stressful for me to just sit and watch the games by myself, I need a distraction that allows me to keep track of the game while not getting too into it. And this is the worst series for me, I find it extra hard to watch the Wings play the Avalanche, something about that team sets me on edge. Last night Jill and I babysat Eva and Henry while Sarah and Brian went to the Audubon Spring Gala. We had a lot of fun, I had fully expected Henry to be a bit of a nightmare since he seems to be extra attached to his folks right now, but he was fine. Apparently the trick is to distract him with food. We got Thai food for dinner, and Henry ate a ton of fried rice. We'll, he picked up a ton of rice and attempted to eat it, but when I pulled him out of his high chair, he was covered with rice from about his shoulders all the way down to his knees. And some of that rice was very attached. After dinner we walked over to the park and played for about an hour, Eva's very good at pulling herself up and flipping upside down. Henry liked the slides and playing with my cell phone. They both went to bed without issue and then Jill and I watched 'Bride of Frankenstein' on Svengoolie. It was a good night.

April 22, 2008

Why so sad Lou? Shouldn't you be excited that Chris and I got a new TV? Maybe you're just sad that we have to wait until May 5 to get out new satelite before we can revel in the HD awesomeness of Cubs games? and Wings playoff games? We're a little sad about that too, Lou. But the extra 10 inches of TV keep distracting us.

April 19, 2008

Today Nick hosted a wonderful craft day. And this morning I made a quick trip to JoAnn's to drop the Poe print off for framing and to get a button for the front of Kris's tote bag. I found the perfect button, sewed it on when I got home, and then made the slow public tranist trip downtown. Luckily I'm reading a really good book right now, so I don't mind the forced hour of weekend reading. When I got to Nick's, Kris and Ani were already there, so I was able to give Kris her tote bag before the craft day festivities began. It's amazing that she wore a green sweater that almost matches the bag exactly. I should have taken detailed pictures of the bag before heading over, because once Nick gave me a mimosa, I only managed to get this two quick pictures of Kris and her bag.

Nick had our craft all planned and laid out. We were going to be painting martini glasses. Nick and John's new condo has the perfect layout for parties of any kind. Nick set us up on the kitchen island, and we were able to paint and socialize with ease.

Here's all the glasses drying. Everyone really had a good time with the glasses as it didn't take a ton of artistic talent to turn out a really cool glass. Ani created my favorite glass by dribbling a lot of black paint from the stem to the lip, it was very goth. My second favorite was Sarah's XXX skull and crossbones glass - simple and sweet.

When we were finished painting our glasses, Nick made a big pitcher of french martinis and we all relaxed while waiting for John to get home from work and for Brian, Jill, and Scott to join us for dinner. Sarah and Colleen enjoyed the balcony, John and Nick are on the 27th floor facing south, so the view is pretty amazing. Kris, Deb, Ani, Veronica, and I enjoyed Nick's amazingly comfortable sofa. It was a really fun afternoon and evening. And I'll readily admit I probably had a little too much fun, but it's hard to stop when you are having such a great time. And I not only made it home with my two glasses unbroken, but I also remembered to grab my camera and the notes I made of book recommendations, so I did pretty good. Thanks Nick and John for being such fabulous hosts!!

April 15, 2008

I forgot my camera when I went to the quilt show on Saturday, but luckily other people who post their pictures to Flickr didn't. Follow this link to see a picture of the first place wining quilt along with 60+ other pictures taken at the show. Make sure you click through and see the Last Supper quilt.

April 13, 2008

Chris and I are trying to get together with Brian every 6 weeks or so to try a different restaurant, so far we've had three outings and each restaurant has been pretty good. Last night we went to the Las Tablas on Irving Park and had another great meal. I had the churrasquito - the steak was excellent, the potato and yuca not so much, and the plantain was probably the best I've ever had, but a little sweet to be eaten with a steak. Chris had the bandeja paisa which was a pile of beans, meat, and rice, so much food that even Chris couldn't finish it all. Brian got the langostinos al agillo and those were about the best grilled steaks I've ever eaten. For dessert we split a coconut flan and a dish that was sweet blackberries with a mound of soft carmel in the middle. Surprisingly the flan was the better of the two, and I don't even like flan that much. It was so good that Chris ordered a second flan just for himself. I'll definitely be going back, I'd love to try one of their mixed seafood platters.

And this afternoon I managed to almost completely finish Kris's Millenium Park tote bag. The only things left are to buy and sew on a button, tack the lining to the outer shell at the bottom, and then it will be ready to give to Kris - and only 8+ months late! I'll post pictures next weekend, I want the bag to still be somewhat of a surprise for Kris!

April 12, 2008

I'm so glad this past week is over! We have an annual two day client meeting in Chicago and while it's really so very helpful getting to hear the clients discuss how they use our products and what we can do to make their jobs easier, it's also exhausting. I only rarely have to speak in front of more than 10 people, so I always get nervous, but this year things went really well. I made a last minute decision to check out the International Quilt Show since it's only about 15 minutes from my house and was only $10. Or so I thought. Because of all the traffic, it took closer to 45 minutes door-to-door and actually cost $21 because you have to park across the street in an $11 structure. I was there for about 2 hours and while it was packed, it was also fun. I didn't look at all of the display quilts, but I did see the best in show, which was an amazing quilt of a chicken standing in front of an old barn, and about 3 rows of journal size quilts. I've been to this show before with my Mom and sisters, and I've read about journal quilts, but for some reason this year they really resonated with me - especially the self-portrait ones. It's amazing how detailed these small quilts are. I'm going to have to look into making some of these. I spent most of my time in the product booth section. There was a lot of wool-felt for sale, much more than I expected, and much less felt than I was hoping for. I bought the green felt pictured above from Mary Flanagan Woolens, they make the most amazing dyed wool, I couldn't get a really true color to show up in my picture, this is a really clear spring green, it's gorgeous wool, very soft and drapey. I have no idea what I'll be using this piece for, but I just couldn't walk away from their booth without this felt. I bought the flannels pictured above from Seams to Me, which was on of the very few booths with flannel fat quarters. I just love flannel and was hoping to find more. The green fabric is 1/2 yard and the other three are fat quarters so I think I'll be making a table runner from this group. It's wonderfully soft in person and I wish I had bought up all they had of these four fabrics. I know I was only at the show for a couple of hours, but I need a nap before meeting Brian for dinner tonight!

April 6, 2008

Another beautiful spring day!! This is the weather I've been waiting for! Last week one of my co-workers gave me two free passes to the Brookfield Zoo, so along with 50% of Chicagoland, Chris and I spent a couple hours at the zoo this afternoon. It was so nice, most of the animals were outside sunning themselves. We stopped at Whole Foods on the way home and bought expensive buffalo steaks that Chris grilled to perfection using the grilling handbook Jill and Scott gave us for our anniversary. And the Cubs won. And I tried on the VW van skirt I made last summer and it still fits perfectly. A perfect spring day in Chicago. Which I won't ruin by thinking how much this week is going to suck at work. No, I just won't think about that.

April 5, 2008

Today is the first spring-like day we've had so far in Chicago. Chris and I walked up to the dinner for breakfast and then I spent most of the morning running errands in the suburbs. One of my favorite things to do in the summer is shop in the suburbs, because then I get to spend lots of time driving driving around by myself with the windows down and the music turned up loud. For some reason I find this so soothing and relaxing. I drove out to Mt. Prospect to check out Steve and Barry's, which was HUGE, and everything in the store was $8.98. I tried on a couple pieces from the Sarah Jessica Parker Bitten line, but ultimately I just bought Chris a pair of jeans. Some of their clothing seemed pretty cheap and flimsy, but not all of it, they had a lot of button down shirts for both men and women that seemed like they were made well - but it's definitely more geared towards teens and 20 somethings than 40 somethings. I also went to JoAnn's and got the thread I need to finish Kris's tote bag. While watching All About Eve tonight I made more progress on the bag, it's still not done, but it's getting closer and closer - all that's left is to sew the lining and exterior shells together. I didn't get as much done as I wanted tonight because I kept stopping to hear all the great dialogue in the movie, I kept thinking 'Oh this is the best part, I'll just watch this part and then get back to sewing', but that doesn't really work when you are stopping every 10 minutes. After the movie, I flipped over to check out the UCLA v. Kansas game and was surprised that Kansas was so far ahead. Awesome, my winning bracket streak has come to a close since both teams I picked for the final game lost today.

March 30, 2008

Today I did actual crafting!! But nothing to show yet. I'm pretty close to finishing Kris's Millenium Park bag, but I've run out of thread. I have about 2 hours more work topstitching the lining to the shell and attaching the handle, but it will have to wait until next weekend. I also organized the craft room a little and found a bunch of the vintage patterns I've been buying, I've posted pictures of some of my favorites. I love the fashion of the 60s, but I'm pretty sure it won't be very flattering on me. I'm really tempted to try making on of the fun skirts from the mini-skirt pattern, except making it long enough to reach my knees. I just think the pockets on that pattern are so fun.

March 29, 2008

Today we went over to see the progress on Sarah and Brian's rehab, and it is AMAZING! The pictures are from the third floor which used to be a normal attic, not a place where you would want to spend any more time then necessary. Now it's going to be a very useful guest bedroom, bathroom, storage, and family room. They even had the brickwork on the top of the house rebuilt so that they can use the porch off the front. It's like they have a whole new home, the only rooms not changing during the rehab are the kitchen and the downstairs bathroom, but even those rooms got all new drywall.

Last night I met up with Tawanda, Jill, Scott, Sarah, Brian, John, and Nick at Opart Thai for dinner. This was my first time eating at Opart, and it was really good. Zoom wasn't able to make it, but she recommended we try the Tiger Cry appetizer which was awesome. John and Nick ordered a soup to share which was also really good, it's never occured to me to try the soups at any Thai place, but I definitely will now. After dinner, Jill, Scott, and I went to the Tar Bar next door. I wouldn't go out of my way to go to the Tar Bar, but if I was up in the neighborhood, I might go again. More likely, I would walk over to the square and go to the Huttenbar. It's been a long time since I was up in Lincoln Square, so I got there early for dinner and walked around. They now have a really good book store and what looks like a pretty good antique store. I'll have to check to our more when the weather gets warmer.

March 25, 2008

It's been a while since I've posted, mostly because I just don't have much to say. I've been very lazy, I'm basically just going home from work and watching TV until it's time for bed. I'm doing no crafting, not much baking, not much of anything really. I'm in a bit of a slump, but it's a nice relaxing slump. I'm hoping that once the weather starts to warm up and the sun is out more, I'll get more energy and start doing stuff again. I have a stack of craft projects to finish, but I'm feeling very blah about most of them. I think this weekend I'm going to finally tackle finishing Kris's Millineum Park bag which was supposed to be her birthday present back in August. Really, it's almost embarassing how lazy I've been. Almost. But it's also very nice to do nothing but hang out on the couch with Chris and Otto. So I'm torn. I really feel like I should be doing something more with my time, and I do really want to make something, anything, but I just can't kick it into gear. So I'm going to blame the stupid weather and see what happens when that improves. Nick will be hosting craft day April 19, so that will be my absolute deadline for getting back into the swing of things.

March 17, 2008

Happy St. Patrick's Day!! After work I went over to Sarah and Brian's, played with the kids, and then went out to dinner with Mom, Dad, Brian, and Eva at the Wild Goose. I had a really good sheppard's pie, but it was so huge I ended up taking at least half of it home for Chris. It was a pretty mellow St. Patrick's, I think I'm getting old.

March 16, 2008

Our party was a huge success!! We had so much fun and it appears that everyone else did as well. I totally meant to take a ton of pictures to post here, but I was so swept up in the festivities that I completely forgot. The cranberry vodka cocktails were a big hit, and I even managed to have a little vodka left over. I couldn't remember what we used as a mixer last year, so Friday, Chris and I sampled cocktails made with tonic, club soda, and seltzer, but none of them were right. We called Michael and he said we used 7Up, so we went back to the grocery store and he was 100% correct. I made mini whiskey cupcakes and cocktail meatballs, and put out a small platter of mixed veggies with dip. The best food was brought by other people, we had summer sausage and a mango cheese (Kris), buffalo chicken dip (Veronica), shrimp (Sarah), banana cupcakes with peanut butter and cayenne frosting (Jeff and April), empanadas and hummus (Carrie), spicy meatballs (Nevin and Roxana), but I think it was pretty unanimous that the best appetizer was Brian's chicken salad canapes. People even brought gifts which was so wonderful and unexpected - champagne (thanks John and Nick), pear vodka (thanks Nevin and Roxana), flowers (thanks April and Glenn), an Elvis wall clock (thanks Zoom and John), The Art of the Bar (thanks Colleen), a BBQ cookbook and BBQ tools (thanks Jill and Scott), 10 year old whiskey (thanks Dave and Angie), and an amazing print of a carving that Jeff made of Edgar Allen Poe (thanks Jeff and April). We really do have such wonderful friends and I hope I didn't leave anything out. It really was such a nice relaxed party, I'm pretty sure I spent time at least having a quick chat with everyone who showed up. The only slightly bad thing about the entire evening is that no cabs would show up, so Chris ended up driving April and Glenn to the train station at about 1a and then driving Jeff, April, and Veronica part way home after 2a. But it wasn't all bad because while Chris was gone I managed to wash almost all of the glasses and put up or throw away the small amount of remaining food. We really didn't have to do any clean up this morning. Which is awesome since I don't imagine I'll be doing much more than lying on the couch or napping all day. Thanks everyone for making our 10th anniversary so wonderful!

March 10, 2008

I totally forgot to mention my favorite project over the weekend, I fixed up the $5 shelf I bought at Jubilee Furniture to go in the kitchen corner. Saturday morning I went to Menard's and got everything I needed - 4 8" round tapered legs, 4 straight brackets for the legs to screw into, and two 3M hooks. When I got everything together, I realized that the legs weren't long enough to lift the bottom edge of the shelf above the base molding, so luckily I had a spare board down in the basement that cut into 5" squares (love being able to use my circular saw!) which I glued into each order, it added just the perfect extra lift I needed. Since you can see this corner of the kitchen from the living room and dining room, I added the 3M hooks to the side of the shelf and am planning on rotating my favorite vintage aprons and tea towels. I love how this turned out! And the bin for Otto's food fits perfectly on the top shelf. Right now the bottom shelf is full of cookbooks. That may change in the future, but for right now it's perfect!

March 9, 2008

Ugh, all we did this weekend was organize the house in preparation for the cleaning crew we hired to come in on Friday. I love having cleaners come do all the dusting, mopping, sweeping, surface cleaning, but what I really need is for someone to come over and find places to put all of our stuff. I decided that since I wouldn't be doing normal cleaning, I should do deep-organizing. While I organized the living room, I also pulled all books off the bookshelf and replaced them with all of our DVDs. I ended up being able to put some of the books back on the lowest shelf, but it's nice to have all of the DVDs have their own space instead of just stacking them all on top of each other, I even group all of our kid-friendly DVDs together to make it easier for Eva to pick out movies when she comes over. In the dining room I emptied out all of the drawers of the buffet and only put back stuff that made sense. I'm not sure how all three top drawers became junk drawers. I threw away all Christmas cards that didn't have family / kid pictures and those I stacked by family by year - that was a lot of fun, seeing how the kids have changed year to year. I also found some stuff I thought I had lost a while ago, oh and the Clint Eastwood musical birthday card I got Chris for his birthday last year and then promptly forgot all about. Upstairs I not only organized the hallway and my dresser to the point that ALL of my clothes are put away, but I cleared out the one clothes closet that we have, emptying every container and going through all those clothes we never wear to create one bag of trash and two more bags for Goodwill, now I really have to get this stuff to the Goodwill before the end of March! I also went through a bunch of pictures and wrote details on the back - that took a lot of time but I'm finding that there are already a lot of pictures of people I couldn't name, some of those just got thrown away. Before Friday I still need to clear out the front closet and organize it, make the last curtain, wash/iron/rehang the curtains, organize the bathroom, and organize the guest bedroom. I should be able to get at least two of those done after work each day, so it's totally doable. With no cleaning required Friday night or Saturday, those are open for grocery shopping and cooking / baking for the party. I wanted to find a fun new top to wear, but I haven't had much luck, so that's probably going by the wayside and I'll be wearing my standard black skirt, white t-shirt, black sweater party uniform.

March 7, 2008

I keep running into mobiles on different blogs and now I know why, look at this amazing flickr group for the Mobile Swap. It's so inspiring, I've never even considered making a mobile, and now I really, really, really want one. I think this will go on my list of crafts to try "one day". Last night, instead of crafting or cleaning the bedroom, I watched Pan's Labyrinth and I loved it! It was a great mix of fantasy and war rebellion, Ofelia was so innocent while the Captain was so evil. There were a couple of either very gory or very icky scenes that I had to look away, which is pretty hard to do when you are reading subtitles. It was so good, if you haven't seen it yet, you really need to. Mostly because now I need people to discuss the movie with!

March 6, 2008

According to the post office website, my Sassy Apron swap should have arrived today, so I feel pretty safe posting a picture of the apron I sent. I made this apron back in July 2006 and since it's never been used, I figure it was a good choice for a spring themed swap. This apron was made using a vintage kitchen curtain I bought at Goodwill, I can't imagine having pom-poms on a kitchen window, but whatever, it looks great. The curtains were in perfect condition and I think it is the pom-poms that keep the fabric from being too twee.

March 2, 2008

Okay, I had way too much fun at John and Nick's last night (hi Scott!). Their new condo is amazing! Gorgeous! And the views are unbelivable. They are on the 27 floor of the new Helmut Jang building with a south view. All of the external walls are floor to ceiling windows, the the views are just amazing. It really made me want to move downtown too. It was a great night and to top it all off Zoom and John were very generous to drive me home even though I am so not on their way at all. When we were still driving downtown, Zoom hit a pothole and her hubcap popped off, we circled around and Zoom was able to find it in the exact opposite direction of where it was headed. So today I was a little slow moving. Nick really does make the best manhattans, but I should probably limit myself to only 2. We started painting around 1p and finished around 3:30p, so it wasn't too bad. Of course, then I decided it would be a good idea to wash the living room floor on my hands and knees since it was completely empty. I needed a nap after all of that. I'm so happy with how the room turned out, above are the before and after pictures. The room is so much brighter and right now seems so much bigger, we'll see if that's still true once we move all the furniture back in. We moved just the couch and TV back tonight and, surprising to me, the couch looks a lot more brown now that the walls are so light. This was the biggest chore on our party list, and along with me making the final curtain for the living room, it's the only thing I really wanted to get done before everyone came over.

March 1, 2008

I spent most of the day buying paint, clearing out the living room, prepping the walls, and then priming the walls in anticipation of tomorrow's painting extravaganza. I'm so excited to have a new living! I'm sick of the old color and now I just find it depressing. I will say that I totally underestimated the amount of time and energy that would be required before we even started priming. And we didn't tape anything except the electrical outlets and light switches, so I'm not sure why it was so exhausting. Luckily all of our furniture fit into the dining room, so at least I wasn't dragging anything too far. In between painting chores I managed to finish the hand sewing of the pot holders / hot pads I made for John and Nick's housewarming party tonight. I'm pretty happy that these are completely from my stash and that they totally work for Nick and John.

February 29, 2008

Here's the apron I got as part of the Sassy Apron Swap. It's very bright and colorful, just what I need in all this dingy snowy weather we keep having. Becky did a great job on this apron, the waistband is formed by several large pleats and then faced from behind to hold it all together and make it nice and neat. I'll have to remember this for the next apron I make. It's a nice finished designed. I'll admit, I completely forgot about this swap, so I'm grabbing an apron I made a long time ago that has been sitting in a bin upstairs. It's a spring theme swap, and this apron is made from a flowery kitchen curtain with sage green pompoms along the bottom. I think it fits quite nicely with the theme.

February 28, 2008

Ugh, I'm so bored by Project Runway this season. How on earth did they pick Rami over Chris to be in the final 3? I thought both of Rami's dresses were kind of boring, not at all flattering, and just dull. I really liked Chris's hair skirt, I'm not sure if I could ever wear it, but at least it was flattering and I thought very wearable for someone. And I'm just tired of Michael Kors. Really what has he done that is so amazing? I was really over it when Michael said that Chris is still making costumes. Really? Costumes? On the runway? Outrageous! Does he even watch runway shows? Was Jay's runway collection from season 1 not a lot of costumes? Isn't that half the reason runways are the spectacle that they are? Michael Kors should just shut the hell up.

February 25, 2008

How about those Oscars? I was surprised that No Country for Old Men took the top awards. Just as surprised as I was at how much I liked it. I am about as far from a Coen brother's fan as you can get. Well, except for Brian maybe. We almost walked out of Fargo when we saw it. So I was reluctant to even see No Country, but I love Javier Bardem, so I bit the bullet and was really happy. It was so creepy, even the ending didn't bother me, because what else was going to happen? I went over to Kris's at about 3p to hang out watching the red carpet shows and help her get ready for her annual Oscar party. This year she was pretty much as max capacity, and although I didn't hear a whole lot of what was said on TV, I had a great time. And managed to tie Sarah for top score with the questionaire. If even a single person had given a shout out to the troops, then Sarah would have won on her own. So thanks Academy for possibly telling everyone that they couldn't make any political statements? And if they didn't, then thanks for being so selfish Oscar winners and presenters!

February 24, 2008

This morning Chris and I headed over to both Lowes and Home Depot to check out their paint chips. We brought home a ton from Lowes, nothing from Home Depot. I cut out the colors that I liked and taped them up in three different places around the house - behind the couch just above the couch line so we can see how each color looks with the couch, on the wall opposite the windows to see the color in bright sunlight, and on the opposite wall in the dining room to see how the color looks in there. Chris thinks all of this is a little crazy, but we brought home about 10 different color chips and were able to eliminate 6 right away, the other 4 will remain up for a couple days. We also bought a new toilet seat, which I was able to change out with the old one in all of 5 minutes, who knew this was such an easy task? I would have done it years ago if I'd known. It was pretty funny checking out the toilet seats at Lowes, most are just plain white, but Chris really liked the wooden ones, and neither one of us could figure out the blue bubble plexiglass one. Ick. Who wants a see through toilet seat? We got a nice plain white one for all of $15 and it completely changes the look of the bathroom. Our old seat, which was there when we bought the house, either started as a cream color or maybe changed slowly from white to cream? Either way it always looked odd since the tub and toilet are white. Now I really want to swap out the counter/sink top. Maybe that will also take 5 minutes and cost $15?

February 23, 2008

Otto is always so freaking adorable right after a grooming. It's the only time you can really see his whole face, and he looks so skinny when they remove all that extra fur. Since we've gotten the new couch, Otto has apparently found a new favorite spot, sitting up on top of the back cushions. Today was the first time we saw him do it, but I'm speculating that this is how he sits all day while we are at work. He's been doing a lot lately to remind us of those old Snoopy cartoons where Snoopy pretends to be a vulture. This morning Chris and I spent several hours at the HIP, I got an eye exam, new prescription sunglasses, and we got new rugs and handtowels for the bathroom that we won't be using until the party. We're planning a lot of work around the house before the party, which is only 3 weeks away, so we need to stop planning and start doing!

February 19, 2008

I think I've almost accepted that my perfect mid-century modern desk simply does not exist. The spot where I want it to fit is not very large, so I think the majority of desks are too big. Ever since I got Todd Oldham's Handmade Modern book back in 2005, I've been contemplating adapting the vanity from the book into a desk. During a lull in activity at work today, I searched Flickr looking for projects from Handmade Modern, and I found this gorgeous nightstand which I totally forgot was in the book! Here it is again as a printer stand. I dug the book out tonight and there are now three projects that I want to make at some point: the vanity/desk, the nightstand, and the end of bed bench. They all look fairly straight forward, especially since you purchase the legs and just screw them into brackets. I also discovered that there are several episodes on YouTube of Todd's old TV show that has the same name as the book. You can watch Amy Sedaris help him make a side table (Amy comes across as more than a little manic while Todd is a little too giggly) or watch Todd and Susan Sarandon decorate sheets but I think the best one is where he and Joan Jett make a black leather ottoman. Joan Jett is awesome! How do you think he got her to come on his show?!? It's all so wacky.

February 17, 2008

It's probably not too surprising that after our fun afternoon drinking with Zoom and John yesterday, Chris and I did a whole lot of nothing last night. We hit the grocery store on the way home, but that's it. So today was spent mostly on chores around the house: dishes, laundry, cleaning, blah, blah, blah. I hate that stuff. So in the middle of all the chores I did something fun, I started the process for cranberry vodka. Chris and I will celebrate our 10th anniversary next month, and what better way to celebrate than to have a party with all our friends and crandberry vodka cocktails? There is no better way. But it takes at least three weeks for the vodka to steep, so I needed to get it started. Basically I put 3 bags of frozen cranberries in a pot with 1.5 cups of sugar and about a cup of water, cook this over med-high heat until the cranberries all pop open, put the cranberries mix and vodka in a big sealed container, and put the container somewhere cool and dark for three weeks. I used a little over 2 750ml bottles of vodka. And now every day I have to remember to shake the container. In three weeks, I'll test for flavor and hopefully it will be ready for straining and drinking. If not, it can sit for another week, but that's the party deadline so it better be ready by then!

February 16, 2008

Bright and early this morning I drove out to the Jubilee Furniture store in Carol Stream that every one is blogging about. It's about a 45 minute drive from my place out to this store, so I got up early this morning, loaded up with diet coke and hit the road. It's not a bad 45 minute drive, and I actually really enjoy driving out to go shopping by myself like this. It's a little hard to find the place, if your going west on North Ave, you really should make a U turn at Schmale into the right-most lane, and then you can turn into the parking lot where there are signs. I got there right at 9a when they opened and I really expected the parking lot to be full, but I was almost the only car. Mostly because I was the first shopper, the other cars were for the volunteers. There were a couple great credenzas, dining room sets, dressers, and vanities - none of which I was looking for. I didn't check out prices for those things, except to notice that most dressers that had tags I could see were priced between $65 and $75. They had about a dozen desks that weren't corporate, but they were all too big for what I want, although I was sorely tempted since they were having a desk sale and I don't think any of these smaller desks were more than $20. I ended up getting a cute nightstand for Chris's side of the bed and the cube shelf that were $5 each. I'm planning on adding legs to the shelf, painting it, and then putting it in the corner of the kitchen to replace the Craigslist portable dishwasher I bought 3 years ago that has never worked. If I lived closer, I would probably check this store out on a regular basis, the people who work there could not be nicer or more helpful, and they put out cookies and candy! Since all of their stock is donated, I'm sure it's always a hit-or-miss shopping experience. I think everyone looking for furniture should check it out, just keep in mind that their stock is going to vary and that most pieces will need a little loving.

After shopping, Chris and I drove over to Roger's Park to meet Zoom and John at Noon Hour Grill for a great Korean lunch. John, Chris, and I all got the bulgogi with kimchee fried rice and it was delicious. Dee. Lic. Ous. Afterwards we walked over to the bar attached to the Heartland Cafe and had several beers and then we went to the Red Line and had one more beer before Chris decided it was time to head home. It was a great afternoon! It's been a long time, way too long, since I've spent a lazy Saturday afternoon out eating and drinking with friends. I wish we could have stayed longer, but it was probably smart of Chris to make us leave then, since we still had to hit the grocery store on the way home. A few more beers and I would have been in no shape for shopping! Thanks Zoom and John for showing us such a great time in Roger's Park, we definitely want to come out again!!

February 15, 2008

Has anyone else noticed that on Google Maps you can now select a street view? When you click this button, you see a picture of what you would see if you were standing in the middle of the street of the address you typed in. I was looking for the closest Salvation Army drop off point, and when I selected street view, and moved the vision down the block a little, I was able to see the actual Salvation Army truck in the parking lot. Apparently if the street is outlined in blue, you can get the street view. My block has not been added to the database, but the next block over has been. When you're on street view, a little yellow figure appears on the underlying street map showing you the location of what you are looking at, and you can move this little guy to look somewhere else. It's pretty amazing really. I checked both my sisters addresses and was able to see their places. I love the internet!

February 14, 2008

Happy Valentine's Day! Chris and I celebrated by having a small feast delivered from Mike's Ale House. Shortly after we moved into our house, Mike's Ale House opened within walking distance and immediately became our go-to spot, to the degree that the bartender would start pouring our drinks when we walked through the door. They had a great staff, great atmosphere including picnic tables out back in the summer, great food, and a great beer seletion. And then about 2 years later, they closed down and reopened about a mile and a half down the road. Where the staff sucks, the atmosphere sucks, and we can no longer walk there. But they started delivering their food, which while it has gone up in price, it is certainly still great. Last night we ordered a half slab of ribs, 3 mini cheeseburgers, and 3 mini chicken sandwiches. It was YUMMY!

February 13, 2008

I read an insane number of blogs every week, alot of them on a daily basis. I feel a little lost if I don't get a chance to check the following sites at least every couple of days:

A Dress A Day - as the title suggests this blog is about dresses, but more importantly it's about vintage dresses, vintage dress patterns, and making dresses from those vintage patterns. Erin lives in Chicago, so that's a plus becase there is occassionaly local stuff, and she has a ton of links to vintage clothing and vintage sewing patterns.
Apartment Therapy Chicago - obviously I don't live in an apartment, but this site offers great decorating ideas.
Go Fug Yourself - gloriously fun posts about the clothing choices of celebrities.
Posie Gets Cozy - yes, like 99% of the online crafting community, I love Alicia Paulson. It seems that she always has some great project going on, and soon after she starts a project, you will see it popping up on all the other crafty blogs.
Craftzine - love this blog, I sometimes check it several times a day, the mostly post links to other sites, but basically they scour the web for great crafting project / tutorials / ideas so that you don't have to.
Erica B's DIY Style - Erica is an amazing sewer, she makes the most wonderful clothes for herself, and they look great on her, she even makes her own amazingly well fitting jeans, it's unbelievably inspiring to see her clothes.
How About Orange - Jessica has created a great general crafting site, she herself is very creative so a lot of what she's posting are items she made.
Not Martha - this isn't really a crafting blog per se, but she's links to so many interesting sites, mostly craft and cooking, that you never know what you'll find.
Sew Mama Sew - I've made frequent links to this blog in the past, Sew Mama Sew is an online fabric store, but their blog is all about what you can do with that fabric, there are links and links to tutorials and inspiring Flickr pictures. They also frequently host Flickr groups where you can submit the items you've made using their tutorial links, for the month of February they are hosting the Sew Mama Sew Quilting Month group.
Shim and Sons - Sally has the most visually soothing blog, and the things she makes are pretty amazing. A lot of her work incorporates small strips of pieced fabr