Stick Star

This is a project inspired by Katie Bower's Barn Star. I've admired it for a while and have been searching for appropriate stick-age for MONTHS with no luck... until just two days ago. I FINALLY found these mostly straight, curly willow branches at JoAnn's and since I wasnt interested in cutting down so many twigs from outside to make my star, I caved to the $9.99 price tag (ridiculous for something that I can find out my back door for free but eh, I'm occasionally lazy. Tuesday was that kind of day.)

I was loving the accompanying jute that went with the twigs. Just what I needed!

I was so excited to have my star finished that I forgot to take a picture :(. I do have this shot here of the second baby star that I made from leftover scrap sticks though. Just imagine the other one three times the size. :)

I wasn't originally planning to do wrap my star in lights or to put it outside. Actually, I was being a TOTAL COPYCAT and thinking of putting on the mantle just like Katie did, except when I did, it didnt look as nice as it did in her house.

Then, I remembered that on the way home from JoAnn's I popped into a local thrift store to restock our xmas lights because last years burned out right at the end of the season. I love getting them from here because even though they are used and run the risk of shorting sooner, they are only 50-75cents a strand! How do you beat that?! So, next my mind went to wrapping this star and hanging on our porch. There is this porch decorating contest at our apt complex...not that I will win or really have a chance to compete with one of our amazingly stylish and well-stocked neighbors, but I thought hanging this out there would bump me up some points...at least in my mind! Here she is in all here sparkly glory!!! Makes me smile when I'm driving in and can see it through the woods!

Happy sparkle-season to all!!!!!!!

My First Homemade Christmas Cards!

These couldn't have been easier or more fun to make! Pretty much anyone who has ever been to kindergarten has learned how to fold a piece of paper and cut random shapes out of it to make a unique and darling snowflake. I just used my mad KG-Skillz to make this first one :)

These were super simple too because they're just a bunch of squares. I cut one strip of paper off and then proceeded to snip chunks off that strip according to the different sized gift boxes I wanted. To make them look more finished I added the hand drawn bow details and the box tops, which were another small strip of paper.

A little glue stick action and wha-la!

Pre-arranging to see different combinations helps...

The Christmas Trees took all of 2.5 minutes to make too. Thats because all the cuts are straight lines. Here I am cutting the strip off my paper.

Then I cut my first angle off (and waste this one) because I dont want any Leeeeaaaaaning trees. Gotta get my angle right!

And proceed! No turning the paper, just a flick of my wrist at the opposing angle and bam, a whole pile of trees in 30 seconds!

Easiest holiday cards ever.

And they're so darn cute!

PS!!....it helps boost productivity (riiight?!) if you have some of these goodies around :)

Birthday Week Day 2- 26 years!!!!!!

Candy-Cane Lane

I cant wait to see a show here! It's such a pretty place :)

After 2 YEARS we finally rode the HOLLY JOLLY TROLLY!!!

I made it...and it cost $4.00!!!!!! Awesome :)

Couldn't decide. Course! Eventually he went with the one on the right :)

LOVE LIFE

This little inspirational book has us both geeked to get out of bed in the morning and flip the page to read each new day's perky reminder. It's filled with great stuff :) Simple things we've all heard but often forget in our crazy whirlwind life. One day I hope to have a wall to hang my shelf on that's down in the storage unit and I plan to put this book, cracked open on display there to keep reminding us of what we want to focus on. :) I think its also worth sharing so I plan to post for you each new message. Here's your first!

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.