Monthly Archives: November 2011

November 28, 2011 · 1:06 pm

Mailbox makeover

I’ve let household DIY projects slack off for months (OK, a few years) and the weekend I’m supposed to be studying for a final, I decide that the best procrastination is the kind that results in a prettier mailbox. (What’s more motivating than a marketing exam?! Hooray for small projects to separate me and my study guide.)

We’re not huge fans of all of the gold/brass hardware in our home, but those kinds of details haven’t been on the top of the priority list. This weekend when we were at Ace getting parts to repair a leaky faucet and new dimmer-compatible lightbulbs (who knew you couldn’t just use regular ones?) to take care of the seriously annoying buzz that our dining room and bathroom dimmer switches were emitting, I got to daydreaming about mailboxes that weren’t all sad and scratched and rusty, like ours:

Cue some sort of sad silent film music.

And then I remembered how all those thrifty genius house bloggers/ home improvement DIY experts are always extolling the virtues of a good ole can of spray paint. And why YES, I had a can of leftover red paint right in the basement!

(Oh, Pinterest, I’ve tried to avoid becoming obsessed with you for awhile now, but I give up.)

I washed off sad “before” mailbox and set it up inside a FLOR tile box, which I’m glad I saved because it was perfect as a spray paint station in the basement. I actually think having this vertical caused some of the dripping, so I laid it flat for the later coats.

I tried to conjure up all of the spray painting tips I could remember (spray in a sweeping motion that extends past the piece you’re spraying, opt for multiple thinner coats) but I think I got too close/thick with my coats and ended up with some drippiness problems. I was able to get enough layers on to kind of mask the mistakes and I think, overall, this little mailbox makes a much happier first impression as one approaches the door. Don’t you?

I also made some little decoupage clothespins with a little Christmas wrapping paper and scrapbook paper slivers so that our outgoing mail looks cheerful, too. (Ephemera used to sell these and helping make them was probably the one thing I ever accomplished as their wannabe stationery store intern.)

Speaking of stationery and awesomeness, I have to give a shoutout to my other dear friends who are nobly working to revive the art of the written word:

A few cool photographers about town collaborated for “I Dreamt I was a Postcard,” and put together a line of postcards that have neither pigs nor corn on them. Check ‘em out.

And the lovely Laura Palmer is growing her own hand-drawn postcard empire, XO-LP. Cuteness!

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November 25, 2011 · 7:34 pm

What more could a girl ask for in a music video?

Audrey Tautou, bicycles, the (French? I assume) countryside and a handsome man singing a song that will get stuck in your head:

Discovered while searching for pretty bikes. (Mental note to go on the Tweed Ride next year. I think we were out of town this time.)

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November 23, 2011 · 10:07 pm

Muppets at Merle Hay!

Joe and I went to see The Muppets tonight (wocka-wocka!) and it was my first trip to the Merle Hay movie theater. Joe Lawler always talked about how it is the best in town (a single screen with lots of seating, cash only, park back on the other side of the mall, kind of behind Sears.) We sat down just a few rows in front of the Rocketships (Cat is super awesome editor of Offbeat Home and Scott keeps everyone in the DM creative community on their toes), so I knew this was just the right venue for Muppet viewing. Verdict: This is the kind of movie that will have you humming and dancing a little bit out of the theater. So fun! I think I need the soundtrack.

I’m honestly a little too young to have experienced the total Muppet heyday, but every year at Christmas I love to watch A Muppet Family Christmas. In installments on YouTube. Ha!

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November 20, 2011 · 9:32 pm

“Before and After” kind of a weekend

Friday night was false eyelashes and Prosecco and Saturday morning I was up to my chest in mud. Variety is the spice of life, right?

This marks my FIFTH fall in Des Moines, any I can feel a shift from annual events being yearly outings to them becoming time-honored traditions. It’s weird to not be the new kid anymore, but knowing how to pace myself in the holiday season is proving helpful. (Also, knowing the perfect places to park.)

This year, I threw my name into the proverbial hat to help out at my salon for the East Village Holiday Promenade — the start of the “shop local” winter season. All of the shops stay open late and serve treats and there are fireworks and (at least in the past there have been) carriage rides. It’s a cheerful evening. Typically, I hang out at Ephemera, but this year Salon Spa W was looking for ladies to serve refreshments and chat with guests and, in exchange, they’d do your hair and makeup and give you a gift card and goodie bag. How awesome is that? I realized that this was the perfect situation when, not only did a child ask if we were models or famous, but that by staying in one spot the whole night, I’d be guaranteed to see all of my friends. (Some of whom did not recognize me all glammed up!)

I am a total chair-hopper at Salon W because I know whoever cuts my hair is going to do an amazing job. But golf clap to Lindsay who managed to turn my above-the-shoulder tresses into a classy-meets-sassy updo. Gina was the genius who made me up without making me look super made up. It’s a fine balance and I felt like I looked like the best possible version of myself. I even called Joe down to the salon, telling him he’d probably never see me look this pretty again!

Yes, I admit to taking this with the built in computer camera, like a self-absorbed 16-year old.

Then on Saturday, we got up to run the Living History Farms Off-Road Race for the fifth time. We started in the back and got stuck behind a bunch of walkers, but we forged through and I felt way better than I have in years past. The balmy but not knife-in-the-lungs-freezing weather definitely helped! We both decorated shirts to say “EVERY YEAR IN SPAIN, THE BULLS GO RUNNING WITH FOREY” (adapted Chuck Norris fact) to show solidarity for the kooky-but-beloved “loincloth guy,” Forey, who was brutally beaten a few weeks before in a bar fight. He runs barefoot and has become an icon of the race.

I was tempted to try to keep my false eyelashes in place for the Saturday morning run. I think they really would have completed this look:

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November 13, 2011 · 11:16 pm

The busy time

It was windy in Chicago this weekend — appropriately enough — and as the gusts swept my hair up and kicked sharp little pebbles against my skin, it felt like the weather was in my brain and my brain was in the weather. My wise friend Arin talks about the busy times in all of our lives and smiles and shakes her head and it’s good to know that I’m not the only one caught up. Not by a long shot.

My dear friend Christa’s wedding has been on the calendar for ages, it felt like, and suddenly the weekend was there and it was all happening, quickly and slowly the then it’s back to the grindstone and the end of the semester and the last few weeks at this job (I know!) and the holidays and I’m trying to keep everything in balance and be truly present in each situation.

Sometimes this busy time feels like the final kick in a cross country race — amping the energy up because you know that soon you can stop running. And while you pump your arms a little harder and lengthen your stride, the faces of everyone cheering you on come into view. You’re riding on borrowed energy and it feels both amazing and terrible at the same time.

My eyes are on the week after Christmas, but I am also trying to remember that each day is a gift and each challenge is an opportunity, and that if everything doesn’t get checked off the list the world will not come crashing down.

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November 6, 2011 · 11:19 am

The Homebrewer’s Wife

Let’s subtitle this post: The many perks of being married to a homebrewer. (Remember my post about Guinness and spent grain cinnamon rolls?)

Joe started brewing a couple of years ago, inspired by our brother-in-law, Andy. Aside from one instance when I came home from an adult tap dancing lesson to see smoke billowing from the kitchen, it’s been an excellent adventure that’s turned me into a bit of a beer snob. Homebrewing is a hobby that gradually becomes a way of life.

In went a great retro keg fridge for the garage this past spring. Nothing chases an afternoon of yard work better than a lemon basil beer.

We’ve started to make brewpubs a must-stop element of any trip (even our honeymoon in Austria), and recently talked beers with the brewmaster at Old Man River in McGregor, Iowa over a late lunch at the bar. (The brewery crafts Backpocket beers, which are awesome and extra fun because of the great graphic design on the labels. We learned they’ll be opening a Backpocket Brewery in Iowa City soon!)

And then last night, the guys overdid themselves by developing and cooking a four course beer dinner for me and Ellen and Caroline, who paired everything with juice. (It was a supersweet surprise, complete with the wearing of aprons and a printed out menu.)

They found the framework of the dinner on CraftBeer.com, but came up with the specific beer pairings and tweaked the recipes themselves. (They even went to random meatlocker warehouses in search of lamb! They ended up getting it at Gateway Market, though.) The idea is that we’d sample the different microbrews with dinner, then help select the next beer type they’d try making. And I’d have to stay out of the kitchen all day, reading and going on walks with the dog instead of emptying the dishwasher? SOLD!

Isn't this Cubs apron hilarious? Ellen made it for Joe last Christmas. The guys also made some spent grain bread to go with the meal.

Here’s what they made for us. It was all delicious, and the photos I took with flash couldn’t do it all justice, so I won’t even post most of them.

  • First Course: Linguine Carbonara Paired with a Belgian-style Dark Abbey Ale (they paired it with a New Belgium Abbey Belgian Style Ale)

  • Second Course: Indian-spiced Crab Cakes Paired with an India Pale Ale (paired with Red Hook Long Hammer IPA)
  • Third Course: Roast Rack of Lamb Paired with a Brown Ale or Porter (paired with Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar)
  • Fourth Course: Imperial Stout Float (paired with Belles Special Double Cream Stout — topped with some awesome organic spiced chocolate shavings.)

And to think that four years ago today, I wooed Joe by inviting him to my apartment for dinner. I made a bruschetta chicken bake off of the back of a Stove Top Stuffing box and we took the black lab I was dog-sitting for a post-meal walk around the neighborhood! I was so nervous that night and I still remember what I wore. Last night it was great to relax by the fire and laugh and drink with my family. Being married to a homebrewer/guy like Joe has some pretty solid perks, I must say!

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November 5, 2011 · 2:08 pm

Finally! A fence!

Joe and I have been trying to build a fence in our backyard since basically forever. (As this August 2010 post from my old blog, in which I have a CRAZY mane of blonde hair, proves.)

Our backyard butts up to our backyard neighbors’ driveway, so after we finally cleared out bushes and pulled up weed blocker and sifted out rocks and leveled the area (whew!), we just basically had a gaping lack of any sort of backyard privacy. Helllooo neighbor’s old toilet! (Not pictured. Granted, they’re doing a lot of updates to the house, and our backyard looks like a Tasmanian devil playground/hosta farm/tomato jungle, so it wasn’t too big of a deal.)

Finally, though, we were able to cobble together some weekends home and make some major date nights to Menards/Tasty Taco.

Originally, we’d planned to try a woven fence, but finding the right wood that would be both thin and sturdy enough proved too difficult. The fence is a shadowbox style, and since Joe fanatically measured and re-measured boards and leveled posts and whatnot, it’s actually nice and straight and well-made. The smell of cedar, the feel of hammering those boards in were the best parts to me. It’s so satisfying to step out and see our first big DIY home project all finished!

Joe even made a small gate to fence off the gap between the garage. Our little chard plant and raspberry bush will be joined by a big garden next summer!

Can’t wait for spring planting!

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