monday night chat

I started this post by uploading some photos this morning, but severe back pain hit and I wasn't able to write until now - nighttime. More on that later in the post.

Wow, did I ever have a great weekend! My sister and brother-in-law invited Brian and I to a Blackhawk's game. Brian and I have never been to a live Blackhawk's game. We had a blast. I was a little worried ahead of time about my knee, with all the walking and going up and down the stairs in the stadium, but I did fine.

I love hockey. It's the only sport I enjoy watching. Must be the Canadian in me. My dad was Canadian...and I was born in Canada, though we moved to the States when I was three months old. My dad was a semi-pro hockey player back in Canada, and when I was growing up, he coached kid's hockey games (I went to a lot of these games with him) and he also took me and my sister ice-skating on a huge pond every winter. 

Brian and I spent the day in Evanston on Saturday. It's one of our little day trip go-to places. While browsing in Stumble and Relish, I was eyeballing these handmade earrings. I thought they were pretty cool and I love handmade jewelry, especially by local artists. Brian asked if I wanted them and I told him I wasn't sure; that I'd think about it. He insisted on buying them for me. :-) 

Of course, a trip to Evanston wouldn't be complete without a stop at our favorite antique store, Secret Treasures. I brought home this vintage pottery planter, which was only $6. Not sure who the maker is - it's only marked USA on the bottom. Now I just need to buy a little succulent to put in the planter to make it complete.

We decided to try a new-to-us restaurant for lunch and at the suggestion of a store clerk, went to a casual Mexican place.

Brian's tacos look good, right? He said they were...though I was a little disappointed in my fish tacos. It was one piece of fried fish, almost like a fish stick. And there was a sauce in a little jar on my plate that went on the tacos. The waiter neglected to warn me that the sauce was very spicy. My mouth and lips were on fire! I also had a "real" guava margarita (not made from a mix) but was in a very small glass that was filled with mostly ice. Needless to say, in general we were disappointed with this place and won't be going back.

 We also visited one of our favorite independent bookstores, Bookends and Beginnings where we purchased a couple of used books and also had a nice chat with the owner. I didn't take any new photos, but here's one from a previous visit. This is the cookbook section - they have a fabulous selection.

No photos, but on the way home we stopped at a Mediterranean grocery store and picked up fresh pita bread, hummus, baba ganoush, dolma, and a block of paneer cheese so I can try and make one of my favorite Indian dishes, Palak Paneer. It's basically cubed cheese in a spicy spinach sauce. A few miles up the road, we hit a Jewish deli for corned beef, pastrami, tuna salad, chive cream cheese ("schmear"), and bagels. One good thing about living in the Chicago area, is that we have access to just about any kind of ethnic food we desire. A foodie's heaven!

 We stayed home on Sunday and got a lot done around the house. At one point, we were outside picking up some of the twigs and branches that have fallen into our yard from all the storms and when I bent over, there went my back. I immediately started having horrible back spasms. I wasn't totally surprised. I had noticed a couple of times since my knee surgery, when getting up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, my lower back would lock up on me for a moment and have one of those spasms.

This morning, my back was in slight pain and I'd get those spasms if I made a sudden movement or bent over even in the slightest bit. I took a slow, gentle walk to the channel down the road. The fresh air and movement felt good, even though it was - surprise - another gloomy day with rain moving in.

 When I got home, I took a warm bath with Epsom salts and lavender oil, then did some gentle stretches. I was feeling better until this afternoon, and then the pain started getting worse. I normally don't take ibuprofen, but by 3:30, I couldn't stand it anymore. I had to take something. That only took the edge off the pain for a couple of hours. The pain and spasms got bad again. I spent a lot of time with the heating pad on my back, which felt really good.

 I Googled about pulled muscles in the back + remedies and one thing I read said to try using a tennis ball. So I took a tennis ball and put it between my lower back and the wall and moved around to try and get some of the tight muscles loosened up. Guess what - it worked! I'm not pain free by any means, but it helped a lot. I'm supposed to be going to physical therapy tomorrow, but I don't know if I'll be able to. I'm pretty bummed about that possibility. I was making good progress with my knee in PT and was halfway through. If I miss a session or two, I'll be going backwards. 

 (my clematis coming to life!)

And now it's time to feed the cats and get ready for bed. 

Here's to a better tomorrow.

walls

We just started the long, way overdue process of redoing our master bedroom. Every room in the house has been re-done except ours. Doesn't this figure? The first step was getting rid of the "elephant" in the room - our massive oak bookcase headboard. We finally did so - but it's a rather interesting story what happened to it. I'll tell you about that another time. Our second step is to paint. Our bedroom was painted a light blue a few years ago and I hated it from the minute I saw the room. It would've been fine for a baby boy's room...or, as I sometimes joked, "Looks like the Easter Bunny threw up in here." We hadn't taken enough time to pick out a paint color and the painter was rushing us, so basically we chose a blue paint chip that we thought would look good and that was that. This time, we are painting the room ourselves and are taking our time to make sure we get the color we want. We are sticking with a neutral color and I'm tired of beige, so we're going with gray. I did a ton of online homework on picking out paint colors and what grays have blue undertones (because I will have blue accents in the room) and what grays go with beige, because the hallway leading to our bedroom is a light coffee color and the master bath is a light beige. And instead of just using paint chips, we got sample sizes of the paint and painted swatches on the walls. Here's the first two colors we chose. I immediately knew the first color was too dark. Wasn't totally sold on the second color.

So then we chose three more colors (shown in the "strips" underneath the big swatch). Don't they all look beige-y in this photo?! It depends on the time of day in the room, plus looking at these colors against a blue wall doesn't help. Our decision is now down to two colors, so what we're going to do before making the final decision is to paint each color on a piece of poster board and hold it up to the walls in the hallway and master bathroom to see which gray "flows" best with these other two rooms. Then we'll get cracking on the painting.

Now into the kitchen...

I added a new (thrifted) mini pitcher (OK, so technically it's a creamer) to my collection ~ the white one with yellow and blue flowers. It's Noritake, Summerbreeze pattern. Even the name is lovely.

I also found a red spoon at Hobby Lobby that I thought would look nice next to the coffee artwork on the kitchen wall.

Here's the wall in its entirety...

I know this doesn't have anything to do with walls, but I can't finish this post without mentioning that the Chicago Blackhawks won the 2015 Stanley Cup last night! I'm a big hockey fan ~ it's about the only sport I watch with interest. I tend to like the fast-paced sports...hockey, soccer, basketball. I was born in Canada and my dad was Canadian ~ that should also tell you something. ;-) My dad played semi-pro hockey in his younger days in Canada and then when I was growing up, he taught me to skate and also brought me to a lot of the hockey games that he coached. Anyway, this is the third time in six years that the Blackhawks have won the Stanley Cup ~ 2010, 2013 and now in 2015. And this was the first time since 1938 -  77 years! - that the Cup was won here on home ice. We Chicagoans are very happy right now. The sun is even shining today for the first time in I-don't-know-how-many-days.

Linking up with Cozy Little House - Tweak it Tuesday.

seize the day

 Last Friday when I wrote my blog post, I said that it looked like a day trip would be in order for Saturday. That morning, woke to unusual weather for this time of year - in the 40'sF and raining - so we weren't sure about the day trip. My aunt, who was going with us, basically said we should "seize the day" and not let weather stop us. The more I thought about it, the more I realized she was right. An acquaintance of mine passed away just a few days ago and it was another one of those reminders that life is too short to sit at home just because of some bad weather. Get out there and do stuff and have fun! But, I digress.

 Off we went. First stop was the Mitchell Park Conservatory (The Domes). Brian and I had been there in April 2014, but Auntie had never been. We got out of the car in the parking lot and the cold lake-driven wind and rain hit us like bullets. We pulled our hoods up over our heads as we were squealing and ran  (ha! who am I kidding?!) walked quickly into the building. I had forgotten my camera, so all these photos were taken with my phone, but I think they turned out pretty decently.

The lobby area of The Domes had a Japanese Floral Display going on. The next three photos are my favorite arrangements. From afar, I didn't think I liked this type of flower art, but then once I started taking the time to really look at each one, I found the beauty in the design, color, and different textures.

 We then went into the desert dome...

 Like last time, I found the desert dome the most fascinating one...I guess because the plants are so different from anything you see in the Midwest. The desert dome features plants from the American Southwest, Africa, South America, Magagascar and Mexico.

Now you know.

 I was especially drawn to the desert plants that had bright flowers. They don't even look real! 

 It looks like someone took tissue paper flowers and glued them on the stark desert plants to give them more pizzazz.

 Heading into the tropical dome...

and sharing some of the beauty. This dome, which is like a rainforest, houses over 1200 species of tropical plants.

 After spending a couple of hours in the Domes, it was then 2:00 and we were more than ready for lunch. We went to Cempazuchi - our favorite mexican restaurant. Brian and I first heard of this restaurant on the Food Network show, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. They serve authentic mexican food; not "tex-mex". Same with the drinks...no mixes at this place. Their margarita of the day was Blood Orange. Yes, please! Even though I was still cold and my hair was flat from the rain, one sip of this most-delicious-margarita-I've-ever-had put a smile on my face.

This was the dish my aunt ordered: Arracheras en Chile - which is grilled skirt steak in chile sauce, potatoes, and grilled cebollitas (scallions). It was served with steamed julienned vegetables. Auntie said it was some of the best food she's ever eaten.

 After lunch, we walked to an Italian market (we bought olives, fresh bruschetta and crostini), ventured into a little vintage shop called Dragonfly, and then happened upon a coffee shop called Brewed Cafe. I love independent, charming coffee shops. And my latte was delicious.

 Local art for sale lined the coffee shop walls...

and a mural graced the ceiling.

 

 Brian found a spot to relax on the cool, vintage sofa...

 while auntie found a handmade pottery mug.

 We capped off the evening by watching our beloved Chicago Blackhawks win game seven of the Western Conference against the Anaheim Ducks. Which means...the Blackhawks are going to the Stanley Cup playoffs! Exciting stuff for us hockey fans. Game one of the playoffs starts Wednesday night.

 If you stuck with me for this long post - thank you. 

Hope your week is off to a great start!