Fenton, MI Road Trip

My mom and I took a mini day trip up to Fenton, MI to visit Heavenly Scent Herb Farm. If you love looking at pretty flowers, gardening, or visiting cute boutiques, this is the place to go! The store is filled with herbs, fun kitchen tools, gift books, and home decor.


The greenhouse is filled with lots of basic herbs, plus a few unusual varieties thrown in for good measure.


The farm has a miniature faerie garden and has lots of supplies for creating your own faerie garden at home. Seeing this photo kind of makes me want to get into model train building, but I will never go down that road. :)


I loved this shade container garden. I think it's the first time begonias have ever looked pretty to me. There are begonias, double impatiens, ivy, maidenhair fern and one other type of fern in this container.


One part of the garden has this giant flower kaleidoscope. You can twist the kaleidoscope to see the flowers in front of it form really pretty fractured images.


I loved this area of the gardens most. The pergola and fountain look so formal, but the raised beds on either side are actually vegetable gardens. It's definitely the prettiest veggie garden I've ever seen!


Here's a picture of my favorite flower (an honor also shared with Baptisia) - Bear's Breeches.


If you're in the area, definitely stop by for lots of inspiration! They have a Summer Faire coming up at the end of August with lots of artisans, workshops and a delicious catered lunch. My mom and I will be returning to visit soon.

You can see the rest of my photos of the gardens on flickr here.

After visiting the farm, we stopped at The French Laundry for lunch. I didn't take any pictures at the restaurant, but it's a fun mix of Zingerman's Deli and a typical French Cafe and the food was delicious. They even had several vegetarian sandwiches on the menu, along with lots of soups and salads.

little [yellow] corvette

My dad has faithfully supported our family over the years by working long, hard hours to provide us all with great family vacations, braces, musical instruments, tuition, and many other luxuries.

He was finally able to reward himself for all of his diligent savings and money management by purchasing a Corvette on Monday (It's only been his dream car for the last 50 years!)

He's probably wishing that he hadn't taught me how to drive a stick shift when I was 16 because there's no excuse for me not to drive it now!   

pottery painting

Jon joined my mom, sister and I for Ladies night* at a paint your own pottery place in the area. Let's just say that Jon was a bit traumatized by the table of new moms painting next to us. They were celebrating their night of freedom from their kids and husbands with wine and very rowdy talk about all aspects of life after babies, poopy diapers, and potty training. Jon is very happy that he and his friends don't have similar conversations together and he is finally able empathize with me about my general disdain for potty talk at baby showers.

Rachel and I picked out cute little cupcakes to paint, my mom free handed her monogram on a flat tile and Jon picked out an adorable little cat bank to work on. We spent most of the night freaking out that we weren't going to be able to finish our painting before the store closed, but we all finished in time with minutes to spare.

We only had to wait a week until our projects were fired and ready...here's the after photos:

my cupcake dish


Rachel's cupcake plate (she didn't want her face in the picture)


Jon's kitty bank (modeled after our original kitty, Nuku Nuku, shown in the background). With Jon's new cat bank, we finally have come to the point where it's no longer acceptable for us to bring any new cat figurines into our house. The count right now is at 4 and any more would make us labeled as crazy cat figurine collectors.**

*we didn't realize it was ladies night before dropping into the place...thank goodness Jon is a good sport.
**the label crazy cat people is fine with us

our exciting life...

Jon and I have been going back and forth about purchasing a breadbox (I know, the exciting things we discuss...). Shinji likes to jump up on top of the fridge and chew through our plastic bread bags, so we normally have to put our bread in the fridge (ew) or in the cupboard. When I saw this breadbox at Target last week I *almost* bought it, and once Jon and I went back to the store together, he totally wanted it, too, so we picked it up.

In honor of our new bread box and lack of bread in the house, Jon made these two really cute loaves of Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day bread. It was such a nice treat to come home freshly baked bread after spending the day working at my internship.

In other carb-loaded news, we found a local pizzeria that makes three different types of vegan pizza. Since switching our diet, I've really been missing the ability to order a takeout pizza (not the actual pizza itself...cheese and I are not good friends), but just the idea of calling up a restaurant and ordering a takeout pizza. This pizza was so tasty. It was topped with pesto, walnuts, garlic, tomatoes, broccoli and red sauce and was absolutely delicious! We will definitely be ordering this again.

One other item that magically appeared in our Target cart on Friday was the Super Mario game for the Wii. While I was diligently working all weekend, my sister and Jon played Mario for hours on end. They made it to the halfway point of the game this weekend and now their seat outlines are permanently imprinted on the couch. :)

Happy Birthday, Rachel!

 
(my early photography days: Rachel on my mom's lap, sitting next to our middle sister, Ruth)

Hard to believe that it's been 20 years since we met you at the hospital for the first time!

 
And, now, we both share a similar love of ice cream birthday cake and strawberry shortcake ice cream bars from the ice cream truck.

yard sale finds

I come from a long line of thrift store and
yard sale shoppers. My grandma is the queen of bargain shopping! If I
ask her to find me some random item, she'll find it within a week.
Me, I don't usually have such luck. My aunt has the bargain shopping
gene too and she found these two fun items for me a few weeks ago.

First, an old twin-sized quilt top (complete with batting and backing fabric).
I love the intricate star pattern in these blocks. Any ideas on the
name of this pattern? I'm definitely going to be basting, quilting and
binding this top into a quilt soon.

Then, she found this weaving loom kit. She knew that I wanted to
try weaving and found this wooden rigid heddle loom (I think). The
directions are kind of mildewed shut, so I'm going to scavenge around
the internet to find some instructions for setting up the loom. (Yes,
this is another fiber project that I don't have time for, I realize).

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

Last weekend, my sisters and I threw my parents a surprise anniversary party for their 30th anniversary. My parents were completely surprised and we all had a wonderful time. To celebrate their anniversary, I put together a blurb book of photos from their dating years all the way up until now. The book turned out really nice and I cannot recommend blurb books enough. I will definitely be making more of these in the future.

_{garden cupcakes • made by my mom (I couldn't figure out how to ask her over for dinner for the afternoon and not have her bring any food, so she whipped these up for us).}

The party went off without a hitch, but there was a bit of drama beforehand. My mom's beloved indoor cat, Isabelle, ran away about a month ago and my mom's been searching for her ever since. The morning of the party my sister, Ruth, found a cat that looked strikingly similar to Isabelle on the local Humane Society website. The catch: the kitty had recently been through a traumatic accident and suffered the lost of her back leg. After a few tears and disagreements about what to do with the injured kitty, Ruth ended up going to the Humane Society to adopt the cat (thinking all along that the cat was Isabelle). Isabelle was dropped off at my family's house just as everyone left to come over to our house for the party and she made herself right at home by running off to her favorite hiding spot in the basement.

After the party, my sister, Rachel, was the first person back home and as soon as she looked at Isabelle, she realized that Ruth had adopted the wrong cat. The wrong eye color, tail length, weight and markings all clued her in.

So, basically, my family was stuck with the reality that Isabelle was still missing from home and that they would now have to take care of and raise this new three legged kitty in Isabelle's place.

Flash forward one week...not-Isabelle, now officially named Sophie (unofficially, Stumpy), is settling into life at my family's house and is charming the heck out of my dad, the lone holdout on "finalizing" the adoption. ...and people say that cats don't know what you're thinking!

Ahh...the crazy, drama-filled times of life in our family!

Bring on the owls

Our house has been a tad bit owl obsessed lately...

First off...I
started this sweater (ravelry link) in June and I finally managed to sew on all 44
buttons and weave in the ends at the beginning of August. Thank goodness for a sewing machine that sews on buttons! I don't know what I would have done if I had to sew on all of those buttons by hand. Instead of
following the pattern, I followed Elizabeth Zimmerman's recipe for a
yoked sweater and then used the owl pattern in the yoke section
(modified to use purl stitches in the owl's body). I shortened the sleeves on the pattern too, because wool sweaters just get too warm for me in the winter. It either has to be a cardigan or short-sleeved for a wool sweater to work for me. This was a quick
knit and it was so nice to knit with thick, sheepy, Cascade Eco Wool!

• • •

Next, my youngest sister, Rachel, and I got together for another sewing lesson. She found this bag
on etsy and we copied the design to a T. Rachel did all of the applique
on this with a zig zag stitch and she did such a great job on it! It's
been a lot of fun having a fellow crafter over to make projects
together.

When we were younger, we pretended we were on Martha Stewart's cooking
show whenever we cooked together. We would stand behind the peninsula
in my parents' kitchen, talk to the camera and set up all of our
ingredients in miniature bowls so that we could toss them into the
bowl (just like on tv). If she keeps up with these mad sewing skills, we'll be ready to start our own "crafting show" on the side too. :)

up north

Jon and I, and about 30 other family members went up north to my aunt and uncle's beautiful lake house for our third annual family reunion.

We loaded up my car with snacks, games, clothes and bikes and headed up north.

My dad, the family photographer, documented the whole weekend and here are his pictures:

Our family used up every square inch of the house and yard...the house was quite the sight from the lake!

My crazy sister, Ruth, helped me set up the tent (she wanted to avoid sleeping inside with all the snorers!)

The most talked about bird house of the weekend. A camper...isn't it cute?!

fun with sparklers

 

I learned how to drive a boat and took family members on three separate tours of the lake.

Jon drove a jet ski for the first time (I was too chicken to ride)

My mom and aunt made the cutest July 4 themed cookies!

When the rain arrived on Sunday morning, we spent a few hours inside playing Sequence.

All in all, we had a great weekend catching up with family, eating great food, enjoying the beautiful weather and lake, and watching 4th of July fireworks from the boat!

 

My little sewing protege

My sister, Rachel, came over last week for a sewing lesson (part deux). We had actually scheduled a sewing night last October and only got so far as picking out the fabric. We were both in the middle of semesters and exhausted, so I'm pretty sure we conked out in front of the tv instead of sewing together.

We came up with this pattern on the fly and based it off of Rachel's messenger bag/purse. The new version is slightly large and has less exterior pockets. She made a pocket on the front with a flap on top (still waiting on a
black button/loop enclosure) and quilted the long strap for extra
stability.

Once Rachel sewed the inside of the bag she exclaimed: "it looks like the inside of a vampire's house, doesn't it?"  Hilarious! I totally agree with her, though.

She's already preparing for the next sewing project and has laid a claim to my yard of Heather Ross Octopus Fabric.

And, since she's worn it around town, she says she's received at 10
requests from friends to make one just like it to sell. I have a
feeling she's going to be hanging around my house a lot more often.

Merry Christmas!

while I was away

in no particular order...

• I watched Jon learn lots of new knitting skills. So far he's finished his first scarf and is working on a set of handwarmers, Dashing.

• I worked on my NaKniSweMo.





Here's the progress on November 30,

and here's the progress today. I'm hoping to finish the sweater up by Saturday.

• I successfully cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner for Jon's family (turkey and all) and sewed these napkins for the table.

• I found the perfect stuffing recipe for said Thanksgiving dinner: Sourdough stuffing

• I finished up the semester (well, about 98% finished)

• I watched and was inspired by Craft in America

• I saw an incredibly inspiring, deaf percussionist, Evelyn Glennie, perform with the DSO.

Now, I've got a month of free time and a long list of projects to do and books to read. Hopefully I won't be taking long breaks again any time soon!

it isn't summer without...

-an abundance of zucchini from our garden. So far we've made chocolate zucchini muffins, zucchini bread, sauteed zucchini, zucchini stir fry, and this delicious zucchini crustless quiche...and we still have tons of zucchini to eat up!

-a trip "up north." This was my first time tubing...it seemed a lot more dangerous than this picture makes it look. I'm pretty sure I was screaming the whole time!

-Rainbow jello! I got the recipe for this from my friend's mom back when I was in college. Here's the recipe:

You'll need:
a half gallon of sherbet (any color or flavor)
6 different packs of jello: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple
a 9x12 glass pan

Starting with the purple jello, mix one cup of boiling water with pack of jello mix. Whisk for about 2 minutes, then add 1 cup of sherbet. When it's well mixed, pour into glass pan and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Repeat 5 more times with the remaining colors.

According to reliable sources, this tastes just like skittles or sweet tarts.