Yesterday, we went to the Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison. I took a ton of photos throughout the day. This morning, we woke up to snow and no power in the house. (It’s back now.) I decided to go outside and take even more pictures of the snow-covered landscape. When I just edited the photos, I fell in love with the contrast of the photos I took yesterday and the ones I took this morning. I thought I’d share a few of my favorites. Enjoy.
One of the first things I noticed when I entered the house in which Jon is staying, was the various wallpapers. Every room has wallpaper and the wallpaper and the house is from the seventies (for the most part.) My favorite (above) is a shiny red with deep black velvetty outlines, and it’s in the walk-in closet, where the hot water heater is located. It’s not meant for guests to see, but rather there just for the amusement of the home-owner. The rest of the wallpaper is a bit more “traditional” retro. Generally, I’m very into wallpaper, I prefer the simplicity of paint usually in vibrant colors. But the wallpaper in this house is a different story. It’s awesome.
As you can tell from the above, stripes must have been very popular with the person who made the decorating decisions. I personally, love the one in the upper right. It’s one of those really fabricy wallpapers that were also popular during that era.
These were similar to what we had in my old house and what I’ve seen at my nonna’s house. I am relatively sure, our neighbors had the exact blue wallpaper from the bottom right. The bottom left fern wallpaper reminds me of my nonna’s bathroom. She had something very similar but in a different color scheme.
Lastly, these are the textures you can also find all over the house. The three on the right are all wallpapers. The wall on the left is covered in wood cuttings of various depths and stains. Jon and I both love it. The effect on the wall is really something to behold. Although, that room freaks me out, so I don’t like to go in there, or even walk past it at night.
The house he’s staying in, is amazing. Walking through it is like being in a different time. (The entire house is carpeted, including the bathrooms and the kitchen!) It definitely exudes the 1970′s, the era in which it was built, but it has been kept up so nicely, and all the appliances are new, so it’s a real pleasure to be staying here. Jon is a lucky guy to get to spend his time in Wisconsin in such a lovely house, and I’m a lucky girl to get to be visiting with him this week.
Henceforth, instead of doing my usual “This Moment” posts on Fridays, I am going to do my own version of Friday Favorites. I feel like picking one moment that’s good from a week is too hard. My weeks are full of little things that make me happy and I don’t want to feel constrained to pick just one. On Fridays, I’m going to post things from real life and/or the internet that made me happy during the week. I’m calling it the traditional Friday Favorites, because I really enjoy alliteration and simplicity. So here goes the first edition of Frank’s version of Friday Favorites
The weather was lovely this week here in NJ, almost Spring-like, and the sky was so blue.
I made delicious chocolate cupcakes from my favorite recipe, with made up cream cheese frosting that used almond extract instead of vanilla, and was delicious.
I finished knitting my leg warmers last night. They are fabulously warm and I’m in love, even if I have no idea how to style them without looking like I’m from 1983…
Banana Republic is releasing the Spring Mad Men Collection on March first. We got this ad in the mail, and it made me excited. I love Madmen (season premiere is on March 25th) and their clothes are so cute. I really need, no want, no need a pair of cigarette pants.
I made some stuffed mushrooms on a weekday. They were 1000 times better than they look.
Guess who got her hair cut and got 1/2 bangs that made her nuts the first day so are being pinned back until they grow out? That’d be me.
Packing to go see Jon (I leave tomorrow), was made much more enjoyable by combining it with a skype chat with my bff, Shellby. This looks like a lot of clothing, but I’m going for a week and it’s cold in Wisconsin.
I’ve been eating salad, for almost every lunch and dinner for a few weeks. This one had hardboiled eggs and avocado and was particularly delicious. It’s part of my get-healthy-scheme, and it’s working because I’ve lost some weight already 
This picture needs no words. They are the most swoon worthy couple ever, they even beat out Noah and Allie from The Notebook, and Harry and Ginny, and Hermione and Ron. Could they be any cuter?
The perfect Thursday afternoon; photo editing, eating 100 calorie pack of kettle corn, drinking 80% tonic and 20% pomegranate juice out of my favorite pink cup made by Jon, and watching Top Chef.
As you can see, real life was super good this week. Sorry for the photo overload. The internet has been sort of fun lately too.
# 157 on this website is hysterical, as is the majority of the rest of the content.
Are you on Goodreads? It’s sort of awesome. I have way more books to read than I did before I signed up. Consider yourself warned.
Gnocchi made of Sweet Potato. Need I say more?
I admire this gal a bunch for like everything she writes, but particularly enjoyed her post about friends of different ages.
That’s all for now, folks. Have a great weekend!
When I wrote the post about wanting to tackle my craft space, I had big plans. Of course, when I actually began to see just how bad it was, I wanted to abandon it all together. I ended up mostly just cleaning, reorganizing, and throwing away / recycling excess ( like all the cereal boxes, yogurt containers, and soda bottles I was hoarding).
I am really happy about how organized it is and how I can now easily access anything I need. It’s also very exciting to have so much open space on my desk. I got rid of a lot of the containers I had on there to make room to actually work.
As I was going through all the stuff I had, I came across paintings I’ve done over the years, so I hung some up all around the desk. (I also got rid of a bunch because I couldn’t even look at them, but don’t worry I took pictures that I’ll share another time.) Above is my favorite of all the older ones. I’m guessing I did it in fourth grade. The background is all water-color paints, while the light house is acrylic paint. It’s funny because now I never mix mediums but when I was younger, I was never hesitant about experimenting. Below is one of my newest paintings and one of the oldest paintings I’ve done. I really like them together. The bottom one is perhaps my favorite painting I’ve ever done. Can you guess which is the most recent? I guess it’s kind of obvious.
Even though I LOVE what I’ve done thus far to the basement, I’m really excited to continue and slowly make a few more changes. I want to do things like add bunting, and cover the desk/ table with some sort of washable cover. Seriously though, I can’t wait to get down there and just create. I’ve been working on my leg warmers and packing and doing laundry to get ready for my trip next week so I haven’t had a chance to work down there. I’m really itching to get down there and paint, which is extremely strange because I haven’t painted (a canvas or other flat surface) in over a year. It will be nice to get back to it. I guess I shouldn’t call it the craft dungeon anymore, as it’s some place I will actually enjoy being, now that it’s clean and organized. I think it will be my craft cave from now on.
Okay, so what do you think? Any suggestions for how to fix the table top? It’s full of gross paint.
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but my dad’s main hobby is fishing. He owns a boat and spends many a day on the lake. For the first time on Saturday, he brought home one of his catches, a beautiful Rainbow Trout. When my dad brought him in, this fish was still alive. I’ve mentioned before my feelings about why I don’t eat meat, but I still eat fish. The experience of watching and participating in gutting and later cooking and eating the fish cemented those beliefs. (Although, I did feel a little bit bad for the fish as I sensed he knew he was about to die and he seemed scared.)
After my dad filetted the trout, we cooked him in a pan with some butter, scallion, and almonds. It was quite delicious and I felt very good about eating it. I knew exactly where it came from, how long ago it had been caught (that day!), and who had handled it. I strive to eat locally by growing my own garden and doing a CSA, but this was one of the few times I’ve felt so close to my food. Being able to grow, forage for, and/ or catch one’s own food appeals to my sense of independence. I enjoyed “My Side of the Mountain” and the Little House on the Prairie series immensely as a girl, and eating this fish that my dad had caught, made me feel more like Sam Gibley or Laura Ingalls. I felt closer to the earth than ever before and it was unexpectedly important to me.
I hate to say it, because I really don’t enjoy aspects of fishing (like the whole waiting really long periods of time for a fish to bite), but I’m actually looking forward to fishing with my dad in the spring and summer. I would love to create an entire meal out of a caught fish and produce from my garden.
Have you ever eaten an entire meal of food grown or caught by you or your family? Did it make you feel good?
Also if you’re interested in learning more or are just enthusiastic about local/ sustainable eating, the Perennial Plate is an awesome website. It follows the eating adventures of a chef, first in Minnesota and then across the US. I’ve watched the first “season” and I’m slowly making my way through the second one. I think the videos he and his girlfriend create from their adventures are awesome.
