Sunset at South Haven

Last Saturday Daniel and I decided to go on a spur-of-the-moment trip to South Haven to watch the sunset. It was about 6:30 at night and it takes us an hour+ to get there but we didnt really think twice about it! Be adventurous, right?! So, we hopped in the trans am (I drove - big smiles!) with the T-tops off and enjoyed an amazing trip across the state with the sun on our faces and the wind in our hair.

When we got there it was perfect timing. Just enough time to make a quick pitstop at Gingerman Raceway to entice Daniel with summer-time autoracing fun and then to be on our way to the beach. I can't believe how late the sun goes down now! Such a great treat! First we popped into this really awesome shop on our stroll through the downtown. It was filled with books and clothes and jewelry and had great architecture. We bought a book called "LOVE LIFE" there and we have been so enjoying having it sitting out to see its reminders every few days. Its totally worth sharing. More on that later, though. :)

It was a little chillier by the water than it was in the Zoo but so gorgeous we didnt care. It was nice to see the lake and for it not to be covered in ice chunks. :)




When we finally made it down by the pier we saw the coolest thing: a motorized kayak! Now, its not because I despise the little effort it takes to make a kayak move in a channel this mild that made me so giddy. It was totally because it reminded me of the gondolas I saw in Venice, Italy with its gorgeous wood and the capitan's (haha) relaxed nature. It even had a canopy! So great for coasting out to watch the sunset!

A bit of envy here :)It really was stunning. We reveled in it for a bit and then decided head back to the cafe's to have a late night dinner and eventually head home.


We had a great evening meal at this new cafe (shucks, i cant remember the name). I had a bowl of butternut squash soup with a lovely glass of oaky chardonnay and Daniel had penne pasta with a smokey tomato sauce that was mixed with cubes of spagetti squash, mushrooms, spinach, and edamame. Oh and a side of roasted rosemary potato fries dipped in herbed mayonnaise and a glass of red wine. Yum. :)

Loving Life!

~Marlayna

Homemade Chalkboard

Before we left for our Au Pair adventure my Grandmother gave me an old oversized picture of Germany that was once my aunts. Because we were sad to leave Germany before we had really intended we decided to bring it with us and put it in our sweet little apartment. But I could hardly stand much of the picture besides the actual shot of the cobble stone street. I cant seem to find any originals but the wood frame was once brown (i think?) and the picture was surrounded by a pinky-off white boarder and that had GERMANY in big letters scrolled along the lower right hand corner of the frame. It also used to have glass...but as I was cleaning it one day it shattered all over me. :( Boo.

So for about forever its been filling a huge wall in our kitchen due to lack of creative DIY-ness on my part. After it broke and I couldnt stand seeing the creamy-pink paper I cut out just the photo and spray painted the cardboard (yep, im that cheap - it looks cheap too, i know) rather than buying a large mat for it or something. Lame. It looked better than before but not so great still. I have played around with blowing up over sized artwork in black and white for us to frame there but since its so huge - like 2' x 3', it was going to be around $50.00 just to print a large photo + the unknown cost of ordering replacement glass to be cut...ouch = out of my comfort zone/budget. Then I thought maybe I'd blow up some great big huge monogram art like the Petersiks did here on their blog, but that looked wrong, too.
Its not the greatest mock-up because I can only use Paint - I dont know how to use Photoshop. But it was enough for me to know I didnt want that either. So...months of nothingness went on. No creative spark. And then! Ah ha! I remembered how much I've always wanted to have a chalkboard wall in my house. I thought, "hey, the glass is already gone so i dont have to buy that! This will just require something hard/sturdy to write on that can be glued or secured to the frame, and chalkboard paint! Wahooo!"

It only took me a few days to make a trip to Home Depot and discover a sheet of 2x4 particle board type stuff that was sturdy enough not to flex if you were writing on it and it only cost $5.73. That's more my style! I just had the guy cut it down to 2x3 and I was on my way to Michaels to buy the chalkboard paint. When I was there I found out you can buy a roll/brush on kind or a spray kind. I opted for the spray kind, for no real specific reason. $7.87 or something like that + a 40% off coupon = roughly $3.99 later I was out the door to make my new chalkboard.

Here is the frame awaiting its new fill!
Here is that big wall, oh, and that ugly electrical box that originally inspired me to hang something big to cover it up! Obviously we need something substantial there.


Three coats of thinly applied spray on chalkboard paint (done outside to avoid the fumes) + a little dry time (I should have waited longer and would recommend it but I am too much of an eager beaver sometimes to wait) = ready for its frame.

TIP: I read that in order to avoid the ghostly letters look (ie. the faint but permanent impressions of your first writings that can last long after you've wiped them off) you take a piece of chalk and rub the whole chalkboard with it. Then take your pads of your fingers and smear the chalk in nice and good and wipe it off. It will fill all those little porous holes your chalk will settle into and not cling to any of your artistic renderings thereafter!

Here's the finished project. Its not exactly inspired art but I like the idea of writing menu's on it or love notes or really great quotes to inspire us! Plus it was so simple to do!

Package Full of Germs :)

I dont mean germs as in little bugs. I mean, Germans :).

Ok, no there weren't Germans inside the package but there was a lot of German stuff! I was beaming when we got this surprise gift box in the mail from our host family from our Hannover life of yesteryear. It was full of great pictures drawn by the 3 kiddos, Simon, Noah & Elia and lots of delicious chocolate and gummies and Tea! Bea and I used to drink so much tea so I am so happy to have this. It makes me think of her.

Some of our sweet drawings that we posted on our fridge - makes us smile big!
Oh, ooooo! And Heidi and Oliver also got a present :) A new wind-up mouse...it took them a little while to be brave enough to play with it! Haha. Scared-y-cats!

Unfortunately I didnt take photos of all the treasures we got but I do have these two little yummies left over to share. Anyone want a waffle cookie layered in carmel and dipped in chocolate?! Mmmmm!

The Boo & Ollie Show

Cat's are ridiculous. Ok, maybe yours aren't but ours are, at least. Their antics never fail to give us something to laugh about on any given day and often because as they're going about their funny business they look at us like, "what? I dont think this is weird." Ha ha. :)

For instance, they are self proclaimed paper-weights and we always find them sitting on top of whatever we have set down. It might be the laundry, it might be a magazine on the counter, it may be a paper bag on the floor...before you could even have considered that your item might have gotten up and ran off they are there to save the day!

Oh, and we laugh because these guys sleep IN THE EXACT SAME PLACE - ALLLLLLLLLLLL DAY, EVVVVVERY DAY like its their job. Holding down the bed?! :) Of course that's what we got them for - dont want that sucker runnin' off when we're not lookin'.
Oh, and I dont just mean they sleep on the bed vs the couch every day. I mean, they actually sleep in those exact spots on the bed. If I dont bust out the cat-hair roller I have a little nest of black fur where Ollie was, and an orange-white-and black nest of fur where Heidi-Boo was.

This is the exact, "what?" face I was talking about... :)

Annnnnd, back to holding down the bed :)

This is Boo's latest game. She's become incredibly interested in splashing around her water dish and we've finally caught a bit of it on camera! This particular time, she'd spent about 10 minutes just resting her paw in her dish but most of the time she actually splashes her paw in it and then licks her paw. Its sweet and very funny to watch!




I love this photo because Ollie looks like such a prim and proper cat, ha! He is such a rascal!

Ollie: "MUST SIT IN RECYCLE BOX. MUST SIT IN RECYCLE BOX."
Me: "oh, hi Ollie! What are you doing in here?!"
Ollie: "What? Is this weird?"
Boo's rediculous facial expressions...I call them Furby faces because of those ears!


Dan actually put heidi under these sheets but I thought it was sweet how her and Ollie snuggled up in them for hours that day. :)

Big stretch after a long cat-nap. Literally.
Oh, and the ever-hillarious and lady-like poses Heidi sits in. Its gross. I know. Yes that is her belly flubbing to the left onto the wood floor. I wish I could say it was just her furr.
"What? We got excited to hold down the dirty laundry."

Yah, we giggle at what they come up with for entertainment many days. The silly life of cats.

And that's not all...but for now.

Chic Gourds

After years and years of storing some really beautiful old organic looking gourds, I think I've finally found a really gorgeous idea for them that will be easy, cheap and make a big statement come fall season!(photo was taken from Ladies Home Journal Oct 2010)

Painting them in rich shades of purple, yellow, orange and shiny gold makes their organic shapes really pop. They look fantastic just grouped in an arrangement on a shelf or could be put in a large bowl together to make a big statement. So beautiful!

Bunny Footprints

Tonight we went walking at the Delano Homestead (aka. in the woods) and we saw hundreds of tiny bunny footprints in the snow! They were adorable :) So, later, when we went shopping at Marshall's for some new pants for Daniel we saw these little guys and thought it only fitting to bring them home...you know to honor those sweet little creatures we like so much. Or, maybe that is just an excuse to have yummy bunnies without having to wait until Easter :) Daniel unappologetically admits he argued the latter point, haha.

Ooo La La!

Here's the latest hint of *Spring* that's made its way into our little adobe....err, uh, wait, I mean, ABODE.
ITS ABODE, MOM! Geeze, now look what you've done! :)

Great Fun As of Late...

1.) A kitty from the shelter found a home. No, not with us. He's just here temporarily. His name is Ricky :)
Ricky's a snuggler :)
2.) We had our last big snow of the year and enjoyed our first adult snow day from work! Ok, well, Daniel enjoyed a snowday from work. I still had to go in :)
We happily waved goodbye to the semi's that carried the snow away from the piles made downtown. Good to go out with a bang. Now its time to go out :)

3.) We bought spring cards on clearance at Tar-jay because we were feelin' the spirit :) Super fun and cute for only $2 !!!



4.) We may have had a bake-off on a whim (or maybe during an intense chocolate craving? This time it wasnt me! I swear! haha) Daniel almost couldnt resist sticking his finger in the brownies...PPS. These are vegan too and made with flour from whole WHITE WHEAT BERRIES which turned out super good.
Bake-off item #2: Gluten Free cupcakes with chocolate icing for a co-workers birthday the next day.
Look how beautiful! Daniel's a regular old Julia Childs!
4.5) OH YEA! IF YOU MISSED IT: Daniel's no longer a furry woodsman! He shaved :)
5.) last but not least: we've been house hunting. We found this HUD home about 20 min south of here and were excited about its potential.

the kitchen that needs some loving but has huge windows with lots of trees outside = LOVE

a big livingroom window with a huge stone fireplace. It just needs some updating - black? Not really my thing. Oh, and some floors...thinking lots of thoughts but mostly blonde wood.

Thanks to Craig...

.....actually, I should say thanks to ListAlert for sorting through all those crazy adds on Craigslist because we just found ourselves a canopy bed for under $250. Can you believe that!?

Here's what she looks like now....

And here she is with a few mod's we will add to her in the future (when we get a big enough place to put her up. Right now she will dwarf this 500sqft apt like nobody's business!).....

-Rails up, check.
-Chuck the funky ornate toppers and buy/cut modern square ones to fit the four posters, check. -Pull the removable stamped metal flower decorations and replace with simple wood ones, check. -Square off headboard (lop off the bump), check.
-Add metal accent to new toppers, check.
-Add white bedding, check.
-Add flowing, soft curtains, check.

-Love it, check :)