Windy City

Aunt Jannette and I went to Chicago to meet up with my brother's family who was there on business and to see some relatives while there.

All packed and ready to go... everything but the kitchen sink :)

Met my brother for lunch at the Filling Station in Davenport.  It was very good!

We just HAD to make a pit stop at the Premium outlets in Aurora to visit Vera Bradley.  I wish I could have had several hours at this mall, but we were somewhat on a schedule to get to the hotel and see the nephews.  We stayed at the Hilton Indian Lakes Resort.

Wednesday morning we took the Metra to downtown Chicago to meet my longtime friend Diana.  I was a little fearful of these trains, but alas they were quite boring.  It was kinda scary when you are sitting at the station waiting and a different train comes roaring through.

Among the many places we went we had to stop at the Hershey's shop.  We also ate at the Cheesecake Factory.  The avacado eggrolls are incredible.  I was a little hesitant but I will try anything once.  I also had the mozzerella, tomato, basil pizza.  Another good choice.  I don't think I can recall a meal that I have never had some type of meat.  Thanks for broadening my horizens Diana :)

Chicago is a neat place ot visit, but this country girl could never live there.  It made me too claustorphobic.  Tall buildings, throngs of people, cars constantly honking... not for me.

View looking up.  I couldn't look up for very long or it made me dizzy.

Diana and I.  It was so good to see her again!

The bean

Aunt Jannette and I met Andrea & Michael (my cousins, Jannette's niece & nephew) for supper at one of the famous "Chicago style" pizza places.  Note:  the GPS took us to Evanston via downtown Chicago on 90.  I no longer think the GPS knows everything.  IT WAS INSANE!  It took us 90 minutes to go 10 miles... and I got road rage...and I dislike taxis... and other inconsiderate people.  Which is another reason you will never catch me living in a big city.  Oh... and try doing this with a stick shift.  Rant over.  We both decided that the toppings were excellent but we weren't a fan of the crust.  It was like a baking soda biscuit-y type crust.  Not bad, but not anything to write home about.  Maybe I just had really high expectations because of all the hype.

On Thursday, my sis-in-law, the kids, and us went to IKEA (no pictures because I was too busy being completely enthralled by the store).  I can't wait until the one opens in Kansas City!  The boys did awesome shopping with us!  We then went to Lego Land.  They had so much fun!  It was so fun to spend time with the kiddos!

Friday Aunt Jannette & I went back downtown and took the Double Decker Trolley Tour of the city.  I would recommend it to anyone who hasn't been there before and doesn't want to walk 7.5 miles (which is what we did on Wednesday).  They have 13 different points where they will drop you off and pick you up at.  I enjoyed the street performers too.  I did feel sorry for the people we saw begging, with their cardboard signs.  It's really too bad that we can't tell if its for real or not though.  They told us not to give them any money, just food/water.

We went down to Navy Pier and took a speed boat tour of the Lake Michigan Shore there.  It was neat to see the city from the water. 

Then we ate at Bubba Gump's.  Little did I know that I was drinking a $8.00 glass of lemonade here... but I did get a souvenier glass that lights up on the bottom! LOL!

We headed back home Saturday morning and stopped at the Amana Colonies near Iowa City and Trader Joe's in Kansas City on the way home.  We had so much fun and look forward to the next little trip to Minneapolis in June 2014. 

Bathroom Reveal

I almost forgot to take before pictures.  My bathroom before was pretty much all "beachy" themed.  The walls were all off white and the cupboards & medicine cabinet were painted like a sage green.  This is how it was when we got married.  I painted all the hardware with Rustoleum's Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint.  Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE this stuff!  I have used it before and just decided to keep some on hand at all times.  The walls are painted "Khaki Shade" from Sherwin Williams.  This picture doesn't really do it justice. 

My brother-in-law helped me build the frame for the mirror.  I built the towel hooks.

This was in the old bathroom but imagine sea shells glued to it with pictures of the beach inside.  I used burlap inside the picture frames and used a Sharpie to make the K.  I made some fabric flowers and hot glued them on.

I put another towel hook on the back of the door for bath towels.

The towel hooks I put together.  I got the wood from the local lumber yard and just had them cut it down into 8" pieces.  I stained each individual piece and glued them together.  I added the hook and fabric flowers that I made for accents.

I had a crate that was painted white and I (ignorantly) thought I would just strip it and stain it.  No problem right?  HAHA  I have never stripped anything before and decided it wasn't for me.  So, Aunt Jill to the rescue!  She is from Topeka and was willing to go to Joann's and pickup 2 unfinished crates that I stained to match the mirror and towel hooks.  She was a lifesaver!

Weekend Happenings

The beginning of the end of this farm staple... a few tears were shed by various family members, but in the end they still have all the memories and it was a safety hazard.

We listed it on Craigslist and got 1 guy that wanted the outside and 1 guy that was interested in the inside wood so it worked out perfect!

We had a group of friends over for grilled porkburgers Sunday afternoon.  I decided it was close enough to the 4th of July to do the red, white, and blue theme.

Sneak Peek

I have been working on redoing my bathroom all week.  Some of my readers from the very beginning may remember me mentioning this project last fall.  I bought the paint way back in September thinking I was going to be doing it when Jake was on the road delivering bread and never got around to it.  My kind brother-in-law helping me build a frame for my mirror.  Shhh... don't tell him his picture is on a blog or I will NEVER get to take his picture again!

Another little sneak peek picture.

Stay tuned for the full reveal!

Barnwood Planters

I was looking online for some planters that would fit around some ugly planters I already had.  I couldn't find any for the price I was willing to pay.  So my DH built 2 of these for me one night.  This picture is from my phone so sorry for the graininess.

They sat by my front door for awhile before I figured out what they really needed... stain!

I started on them Saturday afternoon.  Jake warned me that it felt like rain and that I should probably hold off.  I looked at weather.com and it only said 30% chance of rain- so I told him he was crazy, it wasn't gonna rain.  ha. ha. ha.

About 10 minutes later this rolled in.

Then this.

Then this!  Maybe my husband should have been a weather man?

So I had to grab everything and move it to the garage.

You can't really tell here, but one has its first coat of stain and the other hasn't had anything yet.

After 2 coats of stain...

I love how it looks.  It is the same stain we used on our porch swing so it helps tie in the front patio area.

The mums that survived from last year.  There was supposed to be 2 in each planter but only one made it through :(

Old Fashioned Dinner Bell

In the beginning... this dinner bell has always been on the farm.  We asked Grandpa where it came from and he said it had been there as long as he can remember.

A close up of the bell.  It looks like originally it was silver and Grandma had painted it white.

It needs a lot of TLC.

This is what it looked like all over.  We used a steel brush and scraped as much paint off as we could and roughed up the surface.

Jacob painted the pole section while I painted the bell

A work in progress...

The finished product.

I am SO glad I went with black.  Jacob didn't think he would like it so I was kind of nervous that it wouldn't end up being what I had pictured in my head.  I LOVE how it makes the lights and hardware on the garage pop!

5 Year Anniversary Trip

On our way down to Branson, we stopped at Lambert's Cafe in Ozark.  For those of you not familiar with this place, it is the home of the throwed rolls.  They can throw rolls clear across the room and get them to you every time.  They are super hot and buttery and oh so delicious.

Our mega mugs they brought us for the drinks.

The yummy goodness of their legendary throwed rolls.

I ordered this smothered hamburger steak- they serve it to you in a frying pan.  It was so good and I was rather disappointed when I realized I couldn't take the leftovers with me.

We couldn't check in to our Bed & Breakfast until after 4:00 so we stopped in and saw Jim Stafford for a little bit.  Amazingly talented on the fiddle and his 2 kids are awesome on the piano!  

Our bed & breakfast cabin (Crystal Cove Bed & Breakfast).  It was like a duplex cabin.  Highly recommended!

Our whirlpool inside the cabin

We did not have 1 picture of us together on our honeymoon so I told Jake we were either going to be taking a lot of selfies or get used to asking other people to take our picture... we took a lot of self shots.

On our cabin porch.  It was such a beautiful outlook area.

Supper was at the Shogun Hibachi Grill- one of Jake's coworkers suggested this place and I'm so glad they did!  It was an entertaining supper and oh so good if you like Japanese.

They cooked the food right in front of us and put on quite the flaming show.

After supper we saw the Presley's comedy routine.  It was hilarious!

This little boy was so adorable!

This was the picture I took in case I didn't live through Friday... you see, my husband of 5 years conned me into going ziplining with him for 3 hours!  I will admit I was really nervous and didn't sleep very good Thursday night.  However, it was all in vain and Jake was right.  It was a blast and I would do it again.  It only took the first time to jump off the platform and I was fine after that.

This was Jake's favorite part of our trip.  He LOVED it...

...as you can tell!

Beautiful Table Rock Lake!  This was just a short walk from our cabin.

Saturday we went to the Trout Hatchery by the dam.  Like I told the hubs, it was really impressive but I was finished within 15 minutes.  However, my knowledge fact loving husband was not.  I patiently waited for him to read. every. sign.

and some more interesting facts.

... because I knew the next stop was going to be the Tanger Outlet mall and I wasn't going to burn any bridges :)  It's something you learn about marriage.  You have to compromise.  I was too busy shopping, so I didn't get anymore pictures of our trip.  We came home after shopping to a nice much needed rain. 

We had a wonderful little get away and enjoyed spending time with my best friend.  Happy Anniversary to my amazing husband!  I love you!