A Geocache Adventure

Ta Da!

We LOVE how much more calming and natural the color is! Right now I am using my red candles and green and red apples for color decoration, as well as my crayon drawing of some poppies :) But with this color I can change my accents every season and they will pop against the background! I almost cannot believe how much more open the room feels!

Ps. we also changed the lighting! Now it feels more like daylight when we have to be here during light hours. The old yellow lighting made us feel nuts and our eyes craved more light! :)

Morning Widsom

From my Yogi Tea:

Those who want to be prosperous must first make others prosperous.

Sweet Seat

Dan and I went to Salvation Army before we moved out to Kalamazoo and we were pleased to find a bunch of really neat items like silver tappered candle holders an old piece of luggage and one really cool chair and foot stool. The only thing wrong with the chair was that the fabric (above) was very worn and dirty and needed replacing.

When we first bought it I riped the old material off and kept the fabric to use as "stencils" for the new material. Here is what I found underneath - a basic thin white fabric covering the springs and foam padding. The seat of the chair was a little worn out and the springs were not tied so tight so i spent a few hours taking apart the underneath of the chair and restapling and tieing down the springs and burlap (?).

Oh, when after I pulled off the original fabric I stained the arms and legs in a rich dark brown to give it an updated modern look. It was, originally, a walnut color.Once I had that much done....I CHICKENED OUT. I had no idea how to redo the top half of the chair. The original cover had been sewn on and I couldnt figure out how to do it and make it look nice so for 5 months its been sitting in our livingroom like this and Oliver has been enjoying it. See the upper left hand corner...yah, he enjoyed it as a scratch post as much as a sleeping spot.

:( About 3 weeks ago Daniel got a bug in him and said, "ok its time to recover the chair." I was like, I would but I dont know how. I'd already gone out looking for fabric to cover it with many times. I wanted something thick like the old fabric and something with a tight weave so that the cats wouldnt destroy it with their toenails. Anyway, Daniel said we could do it together and boy are we glad we did! It was definitely a two person job!

Here is the fabric we chose. Its a granny smith apple green color and a lot of fun! Really strong, too, which makes me happy becuase the cats destroy everything otherwise! When i went to go buy it the amount we needed was going to cost us around $80+ so I asked the lady if it would go on sale soon and thankgoodness I did! That following Sunday Daniel picked it up for me for just $40! :) Make sure to ask for sales! Recovering section one....so far so good!

Whala! doesnt it look fabulous! We really needed four hands on this project and we did a great job! We are both so happy with it! and look how much fun the color is in that corner! It makes a great litterbox hider :)

Whole Wheat Pasta & Broccoli with Creamy Mushroom Dill Sauce

1 Lg box Whole Wheat Noodles

1 Head Broccoli

1 Tray Mushrooms

2 Small cloves Garlic

1 Onion

Olive Oil

1/4 cup FRESH Dill

2 cups Milk or Milk Substitute

3 T Whole Wheat Flour

1.) Chop mushrooms (in quarters), pull apart broccoli flowerettes, and chop onions and garlic.

2.) Boil noodles for 8-10 minutes in seasoned water. With 5 minutes remaining add in broccoli to blanch.

3.) Heat oil in skillet and add onions and garlic for 5-7 minutes or until translucent.

4.) Add in mushrooms and season with salt and pepper. Cook until browned - 5 minutes?

5.) Add 3 tablespoons wheat flour to the cooked mushrooms and onions and allow it to coat them. Stir around.

DRAIN PASTA AND BROCCOLI WHEN READY

6.) Pour in 2 cups cold milk and begin stirring while pan is on med-high heat. You are making the sauce.

7.) When sauce is thickened add in about 1/4 cup freshly chopped dill. Use your scissors to cut it up - its easier. Stirr for a min and then serve over drained pasta and broccoli.

MMMM MMM GOOD MIMOSAS :) For dinner Daniel mixed us up mimosas and they were amazing! I know champagnes are different but we used the Vueve Cliquot and it was yummy. :)

D resurected our kitty from behind my steering wheel. It was given to us by Bea in Germany.

Naughty Naughty

This is our kitchen. We have lived here for around 5 months now and despised looking at this color most days. The kitchen has no windows and with our yellow lightbulbs it can feel quite heavy and dreary in there. So, we decided to paint it. We, technically, arent allowed but D said we should do it anyway and I thought so too. So, with all the little nerve I could gather we went out looking for color chips. The floor is a really earthy stone tile of mostly milky-coffee color with green and red accents in it and I happened to see inside of the neighboring apartment and those lucky folks have a cafe au lait colored kitchen...not hideous orange! So, we do like orange - in fact, its one of the main colours of my favorite seasons - fall! But if we kept this color we decided we wouldnt be able to appreciate a golden leaf or a happy pumpkin when the time rolled around! For $8 we got this great kit that had a roller, brush and pan in it! And check out how it was recycled, super cool!100% biodegradable tray?!?!Bamboo brush - and i love the quality. It works great!OK, so we started with this chip that pulled out the really earthy green on the floor tiles, but when it went on the wall, it was not so earthy as we had hoped. Its not a bad color but not right for the space. Look how ugly the orange is above the cabinets. Gross.

So today I went back and got a color called Au Lait Ole :) The guy said its super popular. D thinks its going to be way better. I also think so, but i think that the kitchen will need hints of seasonal color in it - reds and yellows of flowers in spring, and greens and reds of apples during fall! :)

When I finish today I will post the final color. Hopefully it looks ok :)

Here is a smidgin of the Au Lait Ole

The Au Lait Ole over the green. It was quite dark in the kitchen so you cannot see it well but it is definitely lighter and less colorful than the green. What will it look like when finished?!

An Adventure in the UP

Sunday I joined my girlfriend Christa for a quick jaunt to the UP to see if there were any cozy places she and her family might want to call home. Her husband is looking to transfer to another job - a seemingly safer one - and they are both enthused with the idea of a slightly smaller, homey community. So, Christa, I and Faith, her spunky and sweet 4 year old, shared a quick three day adventure driving up to Marquette, seeing the area and surrounding neighborhoods and appreciating all the gorgeous scenery and weather we were blessed with!

Can you spot Faith? Iceberg straight ahead!!!
Gorgeous sunshine and sandy beaches...

Oh no, Christa has a fear of bridges! She wont stay in the right lane because she is afraid she'll be blown off and she freaks out driving over the grates in the left lane because she is scared she will fall through! Ha ha! Sorry Christa, but you are too cute!

The funny part was that they had one of the lanes blocked so we had to go extra slow over the bridge...poor christa. But Faith enjoyed it! She kept pointing out all the "boats" in the water - which were actually icebergs. :)

I love entering into St. Ignace because you see the immediate change in elevation by these jutting rocks.

A pause at a beach along lake Michigan on the south side of the UP.

Seashells...oops...lakeshells???

The historical Landmark Inn where we stayed in DT Marquette!

Pretty view from our FAVORITE cafe - Babycakes - which had fresh baked goodies (vegan ones too!) and yummy soups (veg too) and wraps. If you ever head up that way, I highly recommend their homemade granola with fruit (full of sesame seeds and super yummy) or their hummus veggie wrap (the hummus is like pureed sweet potatoes or something - sooo good). Faith had an especially good time with breakfast one morning which was a cinnamon roll the size of her head! Put sweet pastry together with spunky Faith and you have a tazmanian devil!!! :)

The Old Ore Docks. I still dont understand how these work.

Ishpeming: Home of the awkwardly creative and...totally OFF LIMITS! Unless, Christa plans on sporting one of these sweet hot tubs in her backyard, I declared the city a "no-go". :) hehehe. If you could look closer you would see that it had hookup!

As if the bathtub in the backyard wasnt enough to make Ishpeming cool, check out their amazing "SUICIDE BOWL".

Look closely and you will see the large mined area that they turned into a ski jumping slopes...SWEET!

Christa had a glorious idea to stop by Pictured Rocks on our way home (you dont "stop by" anything in the UP - just in case you werent aware). I love this place!

Faith was taking our picture. It was funny that we ended up in it because she seemed to be aiming at our feet!

It was a great trip. Marquette has some neat things going on in it. A cool co-op, a lot of veg friendly resturants, some neat festivals, and of course, all the natural UP beauty! We made great time considering we bummed in bed until 8:30 on Tuesday, went for breakfast and then visited Pictured Rocks before we left at 2:30pm. I was back in the Zoo at 10:00. Not to shabby. Thanks Christa and Faith!