TGIF (again)!

Fall is here! And by "fall", i don't mean the really nice, sunny, 70s-ish temperatures that we have been lucky to have for 27 days of September. I mean cool (today's high is 58) and grey days. We dragged out an extra blanket for our bed last night...brrr. Of course this means that I hit snooze 3 times instead of 2 because it is so nice and toasty in bed!

We had a great weekend. We accompanied our friends H&AC to Madison on Friday night and had a great fish fry at Quivey's Grove. We ate in the Stone House (as opposed to the Stable Grill) in order to get the freshly baked muffins that were delish. The fish fry was very good indeed! Saturday morning we woke up and headed to Camp Randall for the Badger Game. The game was a good one - lots of action and we won!


Since it was SO beautiful on Saturday, we got home from the game and I went for a run and then Nate & I went for a bike ride.

Sunday we cleaned the house, mowed the lawn and headed to nate's parents' house to have dinner with his bro, who was home from FL for the weekend.

I am celebrating TGIF today because today may be Tuesday, but it is my last day of work for the week. Nate has a conference in Chicago for the remainder of the week and I am heading there with him. We are taking the train down tomorrow morning and staying downtown. I am excited to hang with a variety of friends that I have there from when I used to live there. We also have plans to try Lucky's Sandwich, featured on Man vs. Food (excellent show) and Rick Bayless' new place, XOCO.

Starting October in CHI and ending it in NYC sounds like a great month to me!!

Divine Consign

Hello fellow MKEans -

I highly recommend the Divine Consign sale going on right now (really..right now) at the Elm Grove Women's Club. It is open today until 6 pm and then tomorrow 9-5. If you go tomorrow, everything is 50% off. I am HOPING they still have this Cole Haan TO DIE FOR purse there so I can swing by and pick it up. But I realize this is likely not going to be my reality.

Can't make it this weekend? The next sale is Oct 15-17 at the Jewish Community Center in Whitefish Bay. Mark your calendars!

Finally...some photos!

I still cannot find my camera cord, but I just realized that our computer has a slot for a memory card!

I recently made some items for friends that helped me advertise schlocks. This was my first go (without instructions) of installing a lining in the market bag.



I also made a onesie for Alex with a sheep on it, in his mom's favorite color of course:


That about sums up the crafting. Having two jobs has cut into my crafting and reading time.

Now for our china cabinet post auction:


I took close ups of each shelf in an attempt to show more of the items. I really like the mixing of my great-grandparents' items with my china.


I'm not sure if you can see the GREAT pink vase on this shelf:




Nate also got me some sunflowers which have held up beautifully this week:


And now for the Pièce de résistance: Here is my homemade bread:

I don't know about you, but I think it looks a heck of a lot better than the breadmaker attempts:

Ha ha ha. That sad little loaf still makes me laugh.

TGIF!

Crafting & Sewing Inspirations

Still feeling like crud and sounding like a man, but thanks to the assistance of Nyquil, I got some sleep last night.

We had another sewing club meeting last night. We didn't have a project for this month as we were going to learn about different notions and have a Q&A night. Personally, I found it very helpful. Everyone also brought a variety of books so that was fun too. Next month we are back to projects with grommet and ribbon napkin rings!

I am a fan of these shoe clips from Erica Weiner:

I became aware of these after seeing them at I am a Greedy Girl. Erica Weiner has several other fun pairs in her shop as well.

Another thing to add to my never ending list of crafts are the projects in the new ReproDepot books:


They is the folk book and the flora book. Each comes with 10 paper projects using the papers that are inspired by their fabrics. Read the Design*Spong review here.

And my new favorite online fabric shop: Marie-Madeline Studio

Recreational Activities

You may have noticed that Nate & I are on a bit of a board/card game streak. We have always enjoyed a good board game and are pretty evenly matched so it is fun. Last night we played Cribbage, which I have yet to beat him at, and also taught ourselves to play Rummy, which is what Phase 10 is based on. We received a bunch of games as a wedding gift from my mother-in-laws bridge group. We were about to bust out the bridge but you need at least 4 people for that. So Rummy it was. We really wanted to put together a puzzle, but we didn't have any. Seriously, this is how dorky we really are at Casa de Schlotty.

In other recreational activities, i actually went for a run last night. This was not my first post-foot injury run, however. I attempted to run a mile on the YMCA treadmill last week. It didn't feel great so I decided to swim instead. Yes, I donned my REALLY ugly green swimsuit and swam a few laps. I actually felt pretty good about those laps too. Last night I ran a hefty 2.4 miles around our neighborhood and felt pretty good. It never fails to amaze me how out of shape you feel after a few weeks of no running. However, fall is my very most favorite time of year to run so if I have to keep on doing the small slow runs, I will.

I have a bunch of pictures to post but I lost my camera cord! Once I find it, prepare to be inundated.

BOO-YAH!

At this current moment I am feeling like crud. I have a full blown sinus infection and was not able to sleep last night because I could feel post-nasal drip running down my throat. Gross, I know. Then this morning I volunteered to be a participant in this research study. I knew that it required a blood donation but I was expecting like a tube of blood. I got there this morning and saw a bag full of at least 8 vials. GREAT! Well I don't know if it was the combination of cold medicine I took this morning but I successfully gave them those eight vials of blood and did not pass out. I definitely felt woozy and at one point told the nurse that I wasn't feeling that great and she replied, "You only have one left - you're doing great!". I pulled through and now am just left with that i almost passed out lightheadedness.

But the fact remains. I donated 8 vials of blood today. Ain't nothing going to stop me now. ha ha ha

Here's hoping I will actually be able to remove some of this mucus in my head now.

Fabulous Fall Weekends

Ahh.. I love fall. Summer gets incredibly busy for us and we always seem to never be home on the weekends. As Nate commented over the weekend, "It's nice to get back to being home!".

Friday night we tried a new restaurant (new for us), Bayou. The food was standard, nothing impressive. We expected this Cajun restaurant to be a little more...i don't know..Cajun?? Our food was kind of bland.

Saturday Nate headed to the Badger game and I went to the Cedarburg Wine & Harvest Festival with my mom & sister. We ended the evening grilling out and watching a few episodes of the Office.

Yesterday was a big ol' relaxing day playing Scrabble (I won!), Phase 10 (Nate won) and watching a Law and Order SVU marathon. I also made bread WITHOUT the breadmaker and it was yummy. Far better than our previous attempts WITH the breadmaker. I think Craigslist will have a new post by the end of the day.

Book Sale this Weekend!!

If you are in MKE this weekend, I encourage you to made it to the Literacy Services Annual Book Sale!

I tutored for a few months as LSW and my BF, JN, has worked there for several years to help people learn how to read.

Friday-Sunday
September 18-20
9 am to 6 pm

At the old Schwartz bookshop in Shorewood 4093 N. Oakland Ave

This is a major fundraiser for LSW!!

BlogRoll: The Decor Folder

I sort of got away from publishing blogs that were in my Google Reader, so today's crop is from the Decor folder. These are blogs that mostly post about home decor - lots of eye candy!!

A Life's Design

Absolutely Beautiful Things

Beach Bungalow 8

Belle Maison

Crafty Nest

Create Girl

Decor8

Design*Sponge

Little Green Notebook

The City Sage

Dose of Design

White & Wander

Porchlight Interiors

Unpretentious Style

Freshome

Interior Divine

In case you missed my previous posts revealing the inner depths of my Google Reader:
The Fashion & Gossip Folder, The Cooking Folder, The Friends Folder

Pretty In Pink

Thanks to Tara at In This Instance for giving a heads up about the Pretty in Pink $31 services to raise money for Bright Pink. I was especially thrilled that there were actually services here in Milwaukee!

Click here to check out the services offered in your area!

I couldn't resist using the title of this post to use a photo from the movie, Pretty in Pink which I subjected my younger sister to a daily viewing during every summer when we were young.

Photo Source

Book Club

Last night we discussed Blink at book club. Most people thought it was decent, one person really enjoyed it and two of us (myself included) could not finish the book. I felt bad that I was "that person" that didn't finish but seriously. It took all the willpower I had to get to page 70, where I finally gave up in pursuit of the other book I am (enjoying) reading: The Likeness. I think part of the reason I didn't really enjoy the book is because I have to read scientific papers often for work, so it sort of felt like work to me to read this book. Blink does have a lot of fans out there, I am just not one of them I guess.

Other things I am enjoying:
Wilco: The Album. LOVE IT!

Nate's fresh homemade salsa

The fact that 4 of my last 6 meals were made by my friend HC because I have become a leftovers garbage disposal.

Laughing at Lady Gaga's red outfit from the VMAs (thank you to NIOCK for that heads up)

Lipton White Tea with Blueberry & Pomegranite

Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts, which I bought with my gift card from JS.

Fall is off to a great start

Another busy weekend...

Friday night we took it easy and watched almost the entire season of Weeds.

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early as we had to get to my great-grandfather's auction. He decided to auction off most of the stuff he and my great-grandmother acquired over the years. We met at my aunt Jackie's house, who was putting her Gazelle out for free. Nate decided that someone had to demonstrate how the thing worked:

Then we walked through the field to get to his house. On the way a snake slithered over my sister's foot. We both screamed and took off running. Thankfully someone was driving through the field and offered to drive us the rest of the way, lest we run into any more snakes.

There were four wagons full of stuff that started the bidding. I was very happy to acquire a couple of boxes of old dishes and glassware. My sister and I also were able to get a box of old costume jewelry that is FAB. We wanted these leather purses that we think my great-grandma got on one of their many trips to Mexico but some other woman got that box. My sister went up to her and asked if she wanted the purses and the woman gave them to us!! (The box was FULL of other items). Here are some other fun/funny things:

My uncle John scored the old Ouija boardgame that they played with as kids:


Here is John again with his cousin serenading us with the old guitars:


The old pipe organ:


Then my uncle John found an old walkie talkie and was pretending it was a cell phone a la Zack Morris. We were cracking up:


The one thing we were NOT prepared for was how HOT it was on Saturday. I have some minor sunburn and the kids got so hot they took their shirts off to run around:


All in all it was a good day. Our cabinet with our china no longer looks so much like a store display as I added a bunch of items that I bought. I will have to post a picture of that later.

Saturday night we headed out with the newlyweds and LR to Tosafest, which is Wauwatosa's annual summer festival.

Sunday we finished Weeds (does anyone know when Season 5 comes out?!?!), cleaned the house, and went over to The C's with the Bs to play some Beatles Rockband and watch the Packers. I was teaching the B's son, Alex, to dance. I think it really distracted him from noticing he had new teeth coming, ha ha ha.

Latest and Greatest in Crafting: Package Exchanges!

Last month I participated in Oh, Hello Friend's Lovely Package Exchange. I had a lot of fun putting my package together for AN.



I made a few of the treasures pictured including a fabric necklace:


My mom taught me how to crochet a few years ago, but I brushed up on my skills with a book from the library to make this wrap bracelet:


I also included some jewelry from Oh Hello Friend's etsy shop, some from a cool shop we went to in Cleveland, various cards and stickers, a pretty floral blank notebook and some Lucia soap.

Instead of just crumpling up tissue paper to protect all of the stuff, I made tissue paper flowers from Martha's Tutorial:


In exchange, I received a fun box containing bamboo sock knitting needles (!), some very lovely light pink pima organic cotton yarn, a knitting project bag and various treats. I have to find a good project to use this awesome yarn on!!

I also participated in a sewing related package exchange that My Mama Made It hosted. I received a great supply of heavyweight fabrics, some of them vintage, a pattern for various bags, various fabric pieces, including some already cut to make a quilt, some thread and some lace trim. I sent S 2 lbs worth of fabric pieces from my collection, various projects using small pieces of fabric, thread and some patterns from my starred collection on Google Reader.

NYC

It seems fitting to have a post about NYC today. Nate & I are in the middle of planning a vacation there later this fall! We will be spending a week in NYC and then taking the train to Philadelphia for 5 days as I have a conference there for work. So far we have all of our hotels booked. We will be staying in the Royalton and Empire Hotel in NYC (due to the busy time we are going we couldn't book the entire week at one). Thank you Travelzoo for the deals we found on those! We are staying at the Crowne Plaza in Philly. Thank you work for covering that!

Nate has been to NYC several times. I have never been and am super excited - it is defintiely #2 on my list of places to go. I am planning to spend part of my teaching salary at Manolo Blahnik, and yes, Nate is well aware of this and I would even venture EXCITED to take me there, among the other places we are aiming to go! We also are going to try to get tickets to West Side Story.

WOOHOO!

Photo Source: Trip Advisor

It's already Friday?!?

I have been crazy busy this week. Tuesday night we went to Rustico Pizza where we had a great table on the river and played with various settings on the camera.





Then we headed to the public market to grab a nutter butter cookie from C.Adams Bakery. I'm pretty sure I only got one bite of this cookie!



Wednesday night we went to see our neighbor's new baby, Stella. She is a cutie! After that Nate's parents took us out for dinner for our anniversary. We came home and had a intense game of Phase 10 but I won!!

Last night I went with LR, LR's friend E & JH to see Julie & Julia. We all loved it and may be having a Julia Child dinner party. I came home and we squeezed in 3 episodes of Weeds. Yikes I am tired today!

Our Weed(s) Arrived

Woohoo! I received an email today that I have finally FINALLY moved to the top of the library reserve list for Weeds Season 4. I only had to wait a little over THREE MONTHS. You are probably thinking, "Why didn't you just go and buy it". Because, I am cheap. ahem - frugal. Why pay $40 for a bunch of DVDs that I will likely never watch again when i can wait 3 months and get them for free and cram an entire episode into the 3 day checkout period?! ;)

Looks like we will be glued to the tube over the next couple of days oogling Mary Louise Parker. Yes, we both have a crush on her.

Thou shall not covet a new dress when you have a zillion in your closet

Oh Amarena dress. Why must you come into my inbox AFTER my anniversary?

2 years and counting!

Today is it - the ACTUAL anniversary! One last present was exchanged - 1000 thread count pima cotton sheets with a herringbone pattern.

And the last round of pics:

This one cracks us up everytime - love that you can see Nate's grandfather peeking through with a smile:


The ATL Crew gets a taste of WI


Classic - love how my dress is sort of floating out on this picture but Nate has his eyes closed






And our wedding party:




On to #3!

P.S. My foot is NOT fractured. WOOHOO!

So Close!

We continued the celebration Friday evening by going out to eat at Sanford. People, this was by far my favorite restaurant of all time, and Nate said it was in his top five easily. I had mussel timbale with green olives and romesco sauce, gazpacho with pickled red onion and parsley cream, seared wild coho salmon with cucumber confit,saffron dill emulsion and an apricot tart with lemon ice cream. Nate had the tandoori spiced beef with grilled eggplant, chickpea puree and spiced yogurt. It was so much fun!

Saturday morning Nate made these yummy breakfast plates with fresh avocado and tomatoes from our garden:

Then we cleaned and organized the basement and took a trip/load to Goodwill. Our basement looks 3 times bigger now! We ended the day with some homemade pizza dough (recipe below) topped with olive oil, fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil from our garden which we grilled. Yum!

The remainder of the weekend was spent enjoying the sun lakeside.

Pizza Dough
Source Cooking Light via my aunt Jackie

2 tsp honey
1 package active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
Cooking spray
2 TB stone-ground yellow cornmeal

Dissolve honey & yeast in 3/4 cup warm water in a large bowl. Let stand 5 minutes or until bubbly. Add 2 cups flour and salt to yeast mixture; stire until a soft dough forms. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic; add enough of the remaining flour, 1 TB at a time to prevent dough from sticking to hands. Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover and let rise in a warm place, free from drafts, 30 minutes or until double in size. Roll dough into a 12 in circle (about 1/4 in thick) on a lighlty floured surface. Place dough ona rimless baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal. Lightly spray surface of dough with cooking spray, cover with plastic wrap. Place dough in refrigerator for up to 30 minutes. Top with ingredients and bake!

And now...here are wedding photos leading up to the actual marriage:
Nate waiting at one end...

...Me (with my Dad) coming from the other end of the aisle

Damn Car (Part 2).

SOOOOOO I forgot to include the recurring car drama from the week.

We had the car towed to and fixed at a local auto place a week ago. They indicated that they had to reprogram the computer so that the ignition would "talk" to the fuel pump. This cost $175: $80 for the "diagnostic fee" and the rest in labor and taxes. We also were told that we needed a new gasket of some sort. Apparently they noticed this is in the diagnostic check.

Nate drove the car to work on Monday and still felt that something was not right. Luckily he works near a Pontiac dealer. He drove the car over there and they determined that we needed a new battery and a fuel filter. This also cost $170 in labor, new battery and parts.

Ok, CLEARLY I am not an auto mechanic but wouldn't you think that part of the "diagnostics" would include checking to see if the battery was ok?!? I mean if you're checking the gasket, which would have no influence on the car not starting (I think), why aren't you checking the battery, which would maybe influence a car not starting?!?

I think I need to write them a letter.

Blue Boots are all the rage

Class went well last night, in my opinion. The last time I substituted for this class it was at 7 AM and getting people to participate was rough. The 6 PM time seemed to improve this immensely.

This morning I went to the doctor to get my foot checked out. It was still bothering me from the wedding incident. The doctor thought that I may have fractured a metatarsal, but I am awaiting his phone call once he gets the x-ray results (I had to go to a different location for the x-rays). Seriously...I am the biggest clutz. I broke my foot in a similar way when I was a senior in high school. I was wearing wedge shoes and my foot slipped off the back and that twisting motion caused a fracture. 10 years later, some things never change. Now I am wearing the highly fashionable blue shoe with the ace bandage accessory. AND to make me feel even better, my foot was TOO BIG for the largest women's shoe so I'm wearing a man one. Check out this sassy number:

However, it is still a good day because...you guessed it - the anniversary celebration continues! Tonight we are headed for a romantic dinner at Sanford. We have not been here before but we are constantly reading and/or hearing about it so it wins as restaurant of choice to celebrate #2. We were planning on going here on our ACTUAL anniversary, but they close down for two weeks starting Sunday so we had to back the reservation up a little. Here is a great review of Sanford...the chef was chosen to make Julia Child's 80th Birthday DINNER!

AND NOW...more unused wedding pictures!

My dad surprised me with a diamond bracelet!!


Love the look on my face as my mom puts my earring in:


Nate-0...Bring on the cheese. This pic makes me laugh:


Nate with the best men and the ushers: