Doodling with Sidewalk Chalk

I had the best time doing this.



I'm definitely putting "make sidewalk art" on my schedule this week, even if I have to do just a little bit at a time. I posted some images on my Facebook wall and got some comments about how it was to bad it was going to rain. To me, though, one of the best things about this kind of art is that it's temporary. Ephemeral. Imperfect.



It doesn't matter what it looks like because it will be gone eventually, usually sooner than later. This washed away less than 24 hours later, and I smiled as the rain came down. It doesn't matter. It just means I get to do it again!



I highly recommend getting a tub of sidewalk chalk and going to town. Embrace your inner 6-year-old. Don't worry about what it's "supposed to" look like and just have FUN! No judgement, no inner perfectionist whispering in your ear. Let it go! Make a mess. I'm pretty sure you're going to love it!

Seen on my walk

Looks like someone is getting married tomorrow.

In one section of my walk, there are empty, heavily wooded areas on either side of the road. Our neighborhood has a very high water table, including some wetlands, which is why these spaces aren't developed. Reminds me of the lush scenery in The Hunger Games. Clearly someone is using this area as a dumping ground for their yard waste.

And finally, the Queen Anne's lace is in full bloom around here.

Just a few of the things going on in my 'hood.

Vacation!

This year, for the first time since December 2006 (I think), Dwight and I took an honest-to-goodness vacation. Hooray for us! We decided to stay within driving distance, and fortunately for us, about 5 hours due north is one of the prettiest places I've been. Beautiful views of the always amazing Lake Michigan, more wineries than you would ever imagine were in one spot and the cutest little towns with nary a big-box store, national chain or fast food place in sight. Bliss.

UncommonGoods Review and Giveaway!

Contest closed –
Winner Announced

The awesome peeps at UncommonGoods saw the nice things I said about them and offered to have me do a review and giveaway for my blog. Uh, yes please! I was VERY excited not only because I love their stuff, but also because I love that all their great gifts come with incredible customer service. Just as a personal example, I ordered a tea cup and saucer for my mom for her birthday and unfortunately one of the pieces was chipped. This was at least 10 or 12 years ago, so I can't recall which piece. I sent an email about it and got a response back very quickly. I offered to send the piece back but they pish poshed at the idea and just sent me a whole new set, no questions asked. I was stunned. They were so nice and laid back about the whole thing, I became an instant customer for life.

As part of my review, I was able to have my choice of products (up to $50), so I picked the stainless steel skewers and the stackable lunch pot. First, let's talk about the skewers. (Hint: UncommonGoods has OODLES  of Father's Day gifts. If your dad is anything like mine, he's notoriously hard to buy for; they make it a lot easier!)

Photo from UncommonGoods site

Kabobs are something Dwight and I say we should have more of, so I jumped at the chance to try these skewers out.

They can't hold a lot on each tine, but overall, you get at least as much and sometimes a bit more on them than you can on a regular skewer. They're stainless, so clean up is great and the handles are supposed to be cool to the touch... but we screwed that up and had the entire thing on the grill. Don't do that.

Defeats the purpose! The ends are long enough that you hang them OFF the end of the grill. Oh well. The kabobs came out great and the flatness of the skewers made them easy to turn and stay put. Needless to say we had a delicious lunch!

Next up is the stackable lunch pot. I take my lunch almost every day. Way cheaper than eating out, generally healthier, and most days I work through lunch, so I eat at my desk. The lunch pot comes with two containers. The small, bottom one holds a full 8oz/1 cup and the top holds 16oz/2 cups.

This really has my lunch in it. I was about to head out the door and realized I had a good photo op.

I had yogurt and milk in the bottom and a bunch of fruit in the top - smoothie lunch! I keep our stick blender at work and it's AWESOME. I bring frozen fruit, milk, yogurt (and spinach when I remember), then mix it all up with some vanilla protein powder. So. Good.

(This is empty - I took this photo at a different time.)

The lunch pot worked great. Full disclosure: it did sweat a little because of the coldness of the contents. I love the handle and the spork is a great addition. I used the bottom container as a cup for my smoothie. I'm really happy with it! It's BPA-free (YAY!) and microwaveable, too.

As I mentioned, UncommonGoods is a go-to gift giving source for me for just about anything. Summer is nipping at our heels which means lots of graduation and and wedding gifts  (like these) to buy. I love that the UncommonGoods site has a way to search not only by occasions but price points - I use that feature ALL the time.

Speaking of graduations, my oldest niece is graduating from 8th grade this year. *sniff* While dads can be difficult to buy for what about teenagers?? UncommonGoods to the rescue with an entire section of kid and teen gifts. I already picked out what I'm getting K. In fact, I'm going to buy two – one for her,  one for me. It's the 642 Things to Write About book. She LOVES to write—she's writing a novel!—so I thought this would be just perfect for her. And I thought it would be a fun way to get me writing more, just for me and/or to share here. Win/win!

Now here's the best part. UncommonGoods is letting me give away a $50 Gift Certificate to one of my readers - that's YOU! 

Here's what you need to know:

Mandatory entry:
Leave a comment on this post telling me what you'd get with the $50. Would you keep it for yourself or use as a gift?
Please leave your email in the comment if it's not in your profile - I need a way to contact you! If I don't know where to find you, I'll have to pick another number.

For additional entries:
1. Like UncommonGoods on Facebook
2. Tweet a link to a family page (ie. http://www.uncommongoods.com/gifts/by-recipient/gifts-for-men for example, and/or other family pages on the left side of the home page)
3. Follow UncommonGoods on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/uncommongoods/

Leave a separate comment for each entry. I'll use a random number generator to pick the winner. You have until May 30 to enter – I'll announce the winner May 31.

GOOD LUCK!

Contest is open to US residents only. Sorry guys!

Disclaimer: UncommonGoods gave me the skewers and lunch pot for the review, but my opinions are my own.

Kelly out!

Wordless Wednesday — I'm really going to miss summer

Tree Frog...not in a tree

Isn't it cool? I love these guys. This one was hanging on to the side of the house between the garage door and wall. We're pretty sure he was hanging out catching bugs.

Last year I found this guy (gal?) snoozing in a lily.

They're all over the trees (and flowers and house) around here. All different kinds of tree frogs, in various sizes and colors. They make the biggest racket at night...and I LOVE it. 

The best part about summer cooling down is having the windows open so I can hear them as I drift off to sleep. I'm sure it would drive some people batty, but for me, it's like a lullaby. A raucous, nothing-sounds-quite-like-it symphony of nature, right outside my windows. 

It makes me smile every night.

Check out the markings. He's (she's?) green on the back, like leaves (don't the darker markings look a little like butterflies?) yet tan and brown on the underside - like a tree. Ain't nature grand?

I love this spot on the side of his (her?) head. It looks like bark. Awesome.

What a Difference Four Years Can Make

Like so many things in life, time has a way of sneaking up on you and making changes right under your nose. Your kids (or nieces) go from little babies to young ladies in the blink of an eye. And in my case, the plants that at first looked swallowed up by the size of the bed now spill over into the yard, overfill the once seemingly large empty space, and transform it into a lush sanctuary.

At the beginning, four years might have sounded like a long way off, but it happened in the blink of an eye, or so it would seem. Plants were added, moved, divided. Furniture was stolen (really) and a pergola was added. A wall was removed and a hot tub added. So many little changes, bit by bit, all adding up to big changes.

Take a look.


First of all, not every change has been for the better. This bed has been overrun by a particularly virulent ground cover. It needs to die.


But most of it has been really good.


The tulips in this bed always get eaten by something. We're pretty sure it's deer. They chew off the young leaves and SOMEtimes they miss the flower head so that we get a few flowers. They leave the daffodils alone, though. It the current pic, they're long done for the season. By the way, the hostas around this bed all came from splitting up just two larger hostas. We can't grow what we'd like in our yard because of the shade, but we can grow the HECK out of hostas!


Isn't this something? The tulips still bloom like the before pic, but now the day lilies are huge. They started out as TINY single bulbs and have multiplied steadily each year. It's quite a sight!






This is the furniture that was stolen. We're guessing they took it to sell as scrap. But now this corner of the house and yard is incredible. All of the plants have grown up to create a really beautiful space. You know those goofy self-portraits I took? I was on the deck. Oh, and my About Me pic is set there, too.









We're pretty darn thrilled with how the yard has grown over the years.

Blueberry Picking 2011

As of today, Dwight and I have picked blueberries three times this season. The Blueberry Ranch opened Friday, July 8, a full week later than last year due to a cool, wet spring. We went first thing the following morning to beat both the heat and the crowds. My parents came with us.



First picking is always a treat. The first variety up for picking is Duke. Unlike some of the other varieties we've picked, these tend to ripen in full clumps, so you just grab handful after handful of berries.



The same wet, cool spring that delayed picking also produced bigger, sweeter berries. We could tell the difference immediately. Picking has been a real treat. We picked Dukes first, missed the next two varieties because they were picked so quickly, then went last Thursday after work to pick Bluecrop.

8lbs I picked on July 9

Oh my holy heck. The Bluecrops are incredible. I'm not one to eat fresh blueberries. I tend to like them in baked goods or frozen and eaten with yogurt or in smoothies. But these. Wow. So sweet. We picked about 14 pounds on Thursday and went back on Saturday morning to get more. Twenty pounds more, roughly. We've already eaten about half of those. Well, we gave some away, but yeah, we chowed down. I froze the rest.

I don't have any pictures from the Bluecrop picking but they were larger berries, generally, much sweeter than the Dukes and you had to work a bit harder to pick them. They don't ripen like the Dukes so there isn't the same grab handful after handful, stripping the bush type of picking, but more of a pick individual berries approach. Lots of green berries still on the bushes.

But they were totally worth it. Even when we end up with unwanted hitch hikers.


I'll put up with an occasional bug for organic berries!

Day Trip in Michigan, July 3

Dwight and I don't get away very often, so when we do–no matter what we do or where we go–it feels slightly indulgent and even a tiny bit exotic.

Like going to Michigan. That's exotic, right?

*crickets*

Well, it's not exotic, but it certainly is lovely. We live just south of the Indiana-Michigan border so leaving our state means only having to drive a mile north... and then we just keep going from there. On July 3 we hopped in the car with just the slightest idea of where were going and what we were doing and just decided to wing it.

We're wild and crazy like that.

We headed west on US 12 on our way to Three Oaks. It's a teeny tiny little town, but manages to draw quite a few tourists. They have a few cute restaurants, some really lovely galleries and shops as well as an honest to goodness old fashioned butcher shop that provided the meat for the hamburgers we ate at the Elm Street Bistro.



It's a really cute town and I've only ever driven through it on the way to somewhere else. It was nice to stop and spend some time there.

From Three Oaks, we headed north to intersect with Red Arrow Highway which runs along the Lake Michigan coast. We passed the INSANELY long line to get into Warren Dunes (uh, no thanks. It had to have been a madhouse) and kept heading north along the coast to St. Joseph.

We found a parking spot just a little bit out of the way and made our way through town. St. Joe is larger than Three Oaks by quite a lot, but still has that same small town feel. There's an old five and dime type of drugstore (NOT a CVS or Walgreens) along with ice cream and chocolate shops, boutiques and galleries.



St. Joe is also home to Silver Beach, a lovely beach on Lake Michigan. Clean sandy beaches, lots of places to picnic and a crazy-awesome water park. No slides or pools but tons of water jets to splash around in.



We weren't in "beach attire" so we stuck to the sidewalk at the edge of the beach.




We saw the lighthouse pier and headed in that direction. (You can see it off in the distance in that first beach photo.)



We didn't realize that the lighthouse was actually on the other side of the river. So... we walked down the other pier running parallel to it. They flank the St. Joe river which feeds into the lake. Boats were going in and out the whole time.

Sailboats


Tugboats (at least that's the style of this boat - I don't think it's *actually* a tug boat, but it's super cute)


And then there were the luxury boats. Oh, the life.


From there we decided to head back home with a stop at a winery. We went to a number of wineries just a few weeks prior for Father's Day (post to come) but didn't go to one that I really wanted to visit. Lemon Creek Winery has some really wonderful wines, all estate grown varietals with a long history of wine making and fruit growing. It's a fruit farm as well as a winery. Which brings us to our next unexpected adventure.

When we pulled up, there were lots of cars so we wondered what the heck was going on. Turns out they have U-Pick cherries—both sweet and sour—so we decided "What the heck. Let's pick some cherries."



It must have been one of the first days they opened because the fruit was loaded on the trees. The trees didn't look like they'd been touched, and that made for some quick and easy picking.





We went back to the farm stand to weigh and pay for our cherries, then headed into the packed tasting room to pick up the wine we originally stopped for. No need to taste, I knew exactly what I wanted: 6 bottles of their Compass Rosé – a French-style dry rosé that is, to use the vernacular, da BOMB.

We completed the trip home by getting lost and I loved it. It seemed the perfect end to a wonderful day. I knew we were heading in the right directions—south and east—and we'd eventually hit something we knew. And we did. And it was great!