Lovely Days

I'm not sure I'm comfortable admitting this, but I think I just might be an Iowa girl - not the hawkeye's, just an Iowa girl. 

I hate the humidity here and I hate the snow (mostly because of driving), but sadly, I'm beginning to accept this is home. 

I'm also getting to the point - I hate even saying this out loud - I am ready to wear some substantial clothes.  I've never been a big fan of summer clothes, it feels like they should be biodegradable or something, like you wear them than throw them away at the end of summer, maybe in the yard and they end up fertilizing the plants...  Being an Iowa girl, you're used to wearing clothes that are industrial strength.  :)

Sooo, I've hit the jackpot thrifting lately!  I love Goodwill and I have a consignment shop in Cedar Rapids - Crazy Daisy’s - and one in Iowa City - Second Act - that I love.  You can find some really nice stuff for a bargain.  On a side note - I take all my extra plastic bags to the consignment shop they're always looking for them, so if you need a fun way to recycle this is a good one.  ALSO, I love taking my extra magazine places for people - laundry mat, doc office, work! 

Anyway, I found these shoes at Goodwill the other day for $4.38.  BCBG's, probably wore once/twice, in brown.  Not my favorite color, but I've been dying to try this glitter thing!  This was the perfect opportunity.  I follow a blog a friend hooked me up w/ and it was shown there. She's adorable and is an amazing repurposer.  She buys a lot of thrift stuff and tailors them to her liking:  http://cottonandcurls.blogspot.com/

I used my Martha Stewart glitter!  There's not much that Martha makes that I don't love, but her glitter is just one of my all time favorite things. :)  Also, I could live at Michael's. 

Here's my new shoes that I LOVE!  They turned out amazing:

The Original

Paint by small sections w/ Gem-Tac glue

Voila!  But not done yet!

Paint on an indoor/outdoor varnish - like a thin glue that protects the glitter.  The shoe below is wet.

The end result after the varnish dries! 

I left the heel as is.  I liked the look.  I have a few pairs tho that the heels are banged up on and this might be a good way to get a little more life out of them.

SO, I was really happy about a.) finally trying it and b.) how well it turned out.

Also, a few of my thrift finds lately:

The coral/pink skirt is a J Crew for $3.98!  Yippy yi!

How cute is this dress!  I need to do some work on the sleeves, I'd like something else, but it's so cute!  Lucial Ball! :)

Adorable skirt!  Very cute.  

Good Form!

Well, Nick came home all excited the other day - he found one of those speed monitors and wanted to see how fast he could run.  So we threw the dog in the car and headed out to see how we rated. 

Here's the results:

He was a little disappointed, he said his dad got up to 20mph when he did it back in the day.  16mph seems pretty good to me tho.  :)

My feeble attempt... I think my form was good tho.  :)

Also, this made me laugh... I found it in a footlocker I was attempting to clean out.  We went thru a spurt where we had a port-a-potty because the of water problems we were having during the flooding in 2008... I stumbled upon this e-mail I had sent Nick. lol. My guess is there wasn't a lot of humor in me when I wrote this e-mail (should be able to click on it to make it bigger).





And because I love them - beautiful pictures of the sky (from last week).  It was erie out, one side of the sky was very dark and the rest well lit.

Some Like It Hot!

It's been a week of hot hot weather, heat advisories and mediocre hair! Is this better than winter...? Hmmmm... I still going to go w/ a yes on that. :)

One of the guys at church makes pico de gallo and it's to die for. Wednesday night I decided I HAD to have it. Makes sense, since it was so hot... Let me tell ya, the heat advisory when up a notch after that.

I made the unfortunate mistake of not wearing any gloves while cutting the jalapenos and serrano peppers... then touching my face. Face started on fire. My hands burned most the night - had to soak them in yogurt for a while. Fortunately, when I woke up and they were ok.

This is where I found the Tostida chips this AM...

Anyway - Here's the recipe:

6 Med Tomatoes

1 Med Onion

4 Jalapenos (I think one or two would be PLENTY)

4 Serrano Peppers (Again, I think one or two would be PLENTY) – these peppers are about a 1/3 of the size of a jalapeno. 

SEEDING THE PEPPERS WILL ALSO HELP WITH THE HEAT

8-10 Stems of Cilantro

1/2 Tsp Crushed Garlic

1/2 Tsp Crushed Red Pepper

1/2 Tsp Cumin

1/2 Tsp Salt

My aunts Glenna's guacamole is a great non-hot option if the heat advisory is pushing you too far. :)  YUMMMM

6 Avocados Mashed

2 Large Tomatoes Chunked/Seeded

2 Jalapenos Diced/Seeded for Mild - I skipped

2 Cloves Garlic Minced
Cilantro Chopped (Use Scissors)

Kosher Salt to Taste

And as people like to say at the end of recipes... "Enjoy!" lol. Ha!

I cover this w/ wax paper - press it down on top of the guac to keep it from iodizing (???) when the air hits it.  Then I cover it w/ tin foil.

I planted this a couple years ago and it bloomed!  I was so happy when I saw it!  One of my favorite flowers.

Jack asked to have his picture taken... not enough light, but he would have been disappointed if I didn't post.   

Jack as a ghost 

Singing in the Rain!

We went to see singing in the rain at the Grand in Dubuque.  It's a beautiful theater, they've done a nice job keeping it up.  It was apparently quite the place in the mid to late 1800's.  The theater has seen both quality and quantity for its size, but especially in the early years.

Mom took us to a few plays there over the years, but it had been a while since I'd been there.  Annie Get Your Gun was the last I think - Nick and I went w/ Doug and Mel - it's been by far one of my favorites. 

BUT this time we went to Singing in the Rain!  :)  It was a fun play, I don't think I ever saw the original movie, but the plays name sake song is pretty known by people.  It was also the best scene of the play.  They were able to get real water going during the song which was cool to watch. 

We sat next to some peeps that were born in the Anamosa area, so we yib yabbed their heads off.  :)

We grabbed a bite after the play and the fish flies were everywhere and almost made me vomit.  Posted pics below... SO GROSS.

I made everyone take pictures in the ally.  Fortunately it was all girls, so there was no whining about it. :)  My Aunt Cathy who we LOVE came with us!!  She's darling inside and out.  We all love her lots.

My mom (Susie) and aunt (Cathy)

All of us. :)  Aren't we cute?  Look how cute mom is!   

(L to R: Emie, Melody, Ruby, Susie, Cathy, Sophie, Savannah)

Sister poser 

Always have to have one of these shots. 

BLECH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  FISH FLIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  BARFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!! 

Covering doors, lights, streets, cars... nasty. 

I stopped by my sisters on before we left. She's been working on her bathroom and it turned out adorable.  She's never lacked for creativity.  She painted her hardwood floors black and white, while many people screamed in protest. :) 

Bottom pic says"Blessed is the Man that Flushes."  Hi-larious.

Her kitchen w/ open facing.  Adorable. 

Me and my cute Lukie. :) 

OK - Just two more pictures!!!!!!!  STAY WITH ME!

Look close - I found this on the side walk as I was leaving work!  It's an imprint of a leaf.  :)  Awesomeness. :)

My friend Kimmy's 1st time planting anything - she planted 23 tomato plants.  It makes me laugh and laugh.  As far as I can tell, she's a master gardner.  Looks awesome.   

A Few Good Things

It's been a successful thrift month!  Found a great Banana Republic skirt for a song!  And it's a size 2!  :D  I'm not, but it is.  Clearly someone messed up the sizing, but going forward I'm going to say I'm a size 2. lol. 

This picture cracks me up

So does this one...

I have a 100 other thrift items I need to post, but I don't feel like it right now. 

I went sky chasing tonight!  I told Jack to hurry up!  It was time to go!  What an amazing sky.  I can't get over my obsession w/ the sky.  I've loved it since I was young... or younger.  :)  It's just one of those things I stand in awe of.  It always feels like a little bit of peace in a messed up world to me.

What are these things?  Amazing.

Reminds me of that Jack Handy quote:  I think the most beautiful sunset I ever saw was on page 4 and 5 of The Book of Sunsets.

Another bit of peace... I could write a novel on how to drive... especially on 380.  People make me NUTS!  It had been one of those drives home and then I got to the mall (that's not the peace part ;), which I cut thru to get home and these geese were crossing the road... and it was nice to stop and let them pass at their own pace.  Ahhhh... a gentle reminder that we're not in control of as much as we'd like to be, pretend to be or try to be. 

Pulled two tomatoes off my plant!  One was completely rotten - I think because it was laying up against the stem of the plant and the side of the other was too for the same reasons... the tiny I bite I had was delicious!  :)  A friend of mine planted a garden for the first time ever.  We laughed today about it - she planted 23 tomato plants! lol.  Should be interesting to see how many thousands of tomatoes she ends up with. :)

Ok, and the last but best GOOD thing!  :)  My hubby!  This picture is so funny. Sometimes I hate him... look at that AWESOME tan!  I'd take it right off of him if I could figure out how. He was working on his sermon and I wouldn't quit pestering him. :)

Oh yeah, and I disabled my FaceBook account, so now I'm out here just talking to myself and telling my jokes and laughing at them myself.  ;)  lol.  <--- see.  ;)