patio time, pasta salad, and painting

Oh, how I love these late spring days before the heat and humidity set in and we're plagued by mosquitoes. These are the days where we can actually sit out on the patio without being eaten alive. Yes, we've tried everything natural to protect ourselves against mosquitoes. Nothing has worked. It's that bad. We are surrounded by trees, creeks, and a lake. And our little village doesn't spray for mosquitoes. Which, in one way is a good thing, as that means the air, trees and grass aren't laden with chemicals.

This time of year is also perfect for lighter meals. One of our favorites is to make a hearty and healthy pasta salad. I made this one for our lunch on the patio today. Bow-tie pasta; two grilled chicken breasts, cut into chunks; an assortment of fresh veggies that you have on-hand (I used red onion, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, sugar snap peas and olives); and fresh herbs. From my garden, I picked dill, cilantro and chives. For the dressing, I used extra-virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, fresh garlic, salt and pepper. That's it! Easy-peasy to make and delicious. Brian said he had to stop himself from eating the entire bowl. ;-)

 

While the weather's been so nice, I've also been finishing up with painting the three drawers that will be going in this chalk-painted nightstand. I'm going for an ombre look with the drawers. Stay tuned...I hope it will look nice!

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!

wrapping up the week ~ friday love

My oldest niece just graduated from high school. How can that be already? My sister and brother-in-law had a party for her this past Monday (Memorial Day). I hope that as a proud auntie, I have bragging rights. Miss S graduated with Honors.

And here she is, all decked out for her senior prom. She's such a beautiful young lady!

(Inside and out, of course.) 

I finally finished planting flowers in all the pots for the patio. This wicker stand is starting to fall apart from all the summers spent outdoors. I'll need to paint it and seal it. Lots of painting projects to do this summer.

The Columbine in my butterfly garden bloomed literally overnight. One day it was all green leaves and the next day - boom. Flowers. I always thought Columbine flowers looked like little crowns. ;-)

 
Mint and lemon balm (which is in the mint family) are taking over the herb garden!

Time to do some digging out.

Are you familiar with Ruth Reichl? I've been a fan of hers for many years. She was the editor of Gourmet magazine from 1999 - 2009 and was a restaurant critic for the LA Times and the NY Times. Two of her books, Tender at the Bone and Comfort Me With Apples are on my Favorite Books list. I've been wanting to read this book for awhile - it's been on my wish list - and it finally came out in paperback. I had a 20% off coupon from Barnes and Noble, so I finally ordered this book. Just finishing up another novel, so this one will be next.

 

Ah, it's the weekend. I spent the evening with a girlfriend...eating pizza, drinking wine and catching up on each other's lives. Tomorrow - Saturday - looks like a little day trip is in order.

after the rain

 Sure hard to believe today is Tuesday. With a long holiday weekend here in the US and nothing but rain here most of the day today, it seems like a Monday. The heavens opened up this morning and it poured for seemingly endless hours. The humidity was a killer...my feet were sticking to the hardwood floors, my hair looked like a Brillo pad, and my arm with the lymphedema swelled up. But then it'd be like someone flipped a switch. The rain would abruptly stop and the sun would be shining. Ten minutes later, it'd be pouring again.

I ran outside at one point to take some photos when the rain stopped. I don't know where all these tree seeds are coming from this year...previous years were never this bad. Cleaning up the patio when we dry out a bit isn't going to be fun.

 Raindrops on a dahlia...

 The chive blossoms were at their peak after all the rain...

 I cut a bunch of the blossoms and put them in a Ball jar and filled the jar with rice vinegar. I'll keep the jar in the dark basement for two weeks, then strain the blossoms from the vinegar. I'll then use the vinegar to make vinaigrette (that will obviously have a slight onion flavor).

 My office (used to be Phil's bedroom) is at the back of the house and one of the windows faces west. The afternoon sun that comes in that window is brilliant. I love how cats seek out sunbeams, so it was no surprise that I found them in this room at one point when the sun was shining. Clementine chose the top of the chair, while her "baby", Monkey took refuge on the rug.

Zippo chose my desk, right by the window.

 

 My oldest niece's graduation party was yesterday...I'll post about that later this week.

Happy Monday Tuesday!

 

girl's day out, painting patio furniture and catching up on other stuff

 My friend, Sue and I headed up to Delavan, Wisconsin yesterday to check out a place called Everything Homespun. We were greeted by an older gentleman who came out of the barn and asked if it were our first time there. We chatted a bit as he explained about the store in his lovely southern accent. We found out he's originally from South Carolina but has lived in Wisconsin for 12 years. He then left us to explore and shop.

There were old ladders...

 

and galvanized buckets...

 

and even an old, rusty bed outdoors. Hmm, I wonder what someone would do with this. Perhaps use the headboard and footboard as garden trellises? I suppose one could get really creative and artsy with those bed springs.

 

The interior of the barn was filled with mostly primitive decor, which I don't really care for, but there were some antiques, too. I really liked this vintage table runner, but the green wouldn't go in my kitchen and it was also priced a bit too high for my liking.

 

A collection of pretty glassware...

Loved this old baby cradle. I would love to have one of these in my home for when I have a grandbaby (hopefully someday!). It would be so pretty when sanded and painted. Once the baby is too old for this type of cradle, it could be used as a doll and stuffed animal cradle for a child to play with.

 

I was also drawn to this vintage painting (much prettier in person - phone camera doesn't do it much justice), but again, too pricey for me.

 

 There's another small building on the property which has old gates, windows, doors, wagon wheels, fence panels, old rakes and shovels...even sections wrought-iron cemetery fences.

Plenty of old windows inside...

 

Some of the old doors were huge!

 

 I would love to use an old door hung horizontally as a headboard. But they are extremely heavy. I'd be worried the weight would rip our wall out! I wonder how in the world you'd even hang something like this to use as a headboard? I'm sure I could find out about it through a Google search. I just might look out of curiosity.

After shopping, we went out to lunch, then took the scenic route home and stopped for iced coffee. All in all, a wonderful day with a good friend.

On the homefront, we have a to-do list a mile long. We have so much to do indoors and out! We're getting little things done but a couple of the big projects are painting our bedroom and also our little front porch/deck and front door. I've also been chalk-painting a nightstand and spray-painting plant pots and patio furniture. In a previous post at the beginning of May, I was deliberating on what color to paint that ottoman. I wasn't sure about painting furniture to match the pillows because I'd probably be replacing them in a year or two anyway. But after reading Connie from Crafty Home Cottage's comment, I decided to go for it and paint that ottoman blue! Here's what Connie had to say:

"If I were going to paint the ottoman I would paint it the blue that is in the pillows. Then in a couple of years if you change your pillows, just buy a couple more cans of spray paint and do it again :) That is the nice thing about spray paint . . . fast and easy:)"

Connie was right - I love the blue ottoman!

 Since the colors on the patio are yellow, orange and blue, I decided to go with yellow and orange marigolds and some other like-colored annuals to place in the patio area. They're all sitting on my front porch, waiting to be put into pots and set around the patio. It's either been too cold, too rainy, I've ran out of potting soil, or...I've been dealing with some pain. I woke up with some neck pain on Monday morning and fought a bad headache all day, so thought it was related. But I've had this neck pain (in the back of my neck, more on the right side) all week now, and sometimes it is very intense and painful. It's not meningitis - I'm not sick. In fact, I feel fantastic except for this neck pain. I talked to my lymphedema therapist the other day when I went for my six-month checkup and she thought it was a pulled muscle. I had tried everything this week...gentle stretches, curcumin supplements (supposed to help with inflammation), moist heat, dry heat (heating pad), ibuprofen so I could sleep (I hate taking that stuff unless absolutely needed since it's bad for your stomach and liver), self-massage, and using Bio-Freeze to numb the area. (Inserting pretty picture of my chive blossoms as a paragraph break...)

Earlier today, I saw my next-door neighbor outside and remembering he was a massage therapist, I went outside to talk to him about my neck pain. He said he'd be glad to work on my neck for about 25 minutes to try and help me. What a nice guy! He has one of his spare bedrooms set up as a massage room, because he does have clients come to his house. He started working on my neck and shoulders as was laying face down on the table and he couldn't believe all the tight spots I had. He said, "You're a train wreck!" He explained everything he was doing and about the different muscles, then did some other techniques and stretches as I flipped over and laid on my back. It is now six hours later and I feel so much better, though not totally pain-free. I am incredibly grateful to have this pain relief though. I just finished making a Greek pasta salad and a batch of homemade granola, so I will be gifting my neighbor with some food tomorrow in gratitude for his help. 

For my friends who live here in the US - happy Memorial Day weekend!