topsy turvy update -- may 30

Our Topsy Turvy took off while were on vacation.  It looks like it might just work!  Not sure what day we're on anymore either.



Need a reminder what it looked like before?  Here's Day 7:

And you'll have to ignore the random flamingoes in the photos.  I think they're kitchy.  Henry thinks they're a new toy.  He's managed to pull them out of the fencing, rip off their legs, and have at the beaks.



(P.S.  I wasn't paid anything for my views on the Topsy Turvy.)

ft. myers vacation

Maybe you always are prone to return to the place you vacationed most as a child.  We weren't a vacationing family, but for me, out of anywhere else, I've been to Fort Myers, Florida the most.  That's partially why CJ and I left for vacation there last week.  Plus, my parents' friends own a condo on the beach and graciously allowed us to use it, so that played a big part in the decision too.

So here's what we did, mostly in pictures:

CJ's first dip in the Gulf of Mexico.






Saturday:  Our first (and only) full day on the beach because we got burnt so badly neither one of us could move much the next day.  Turns out the Florida sun is a lot hotter than it is in Indiana!


Seriously, does life get much better than this?




After leaving the condo, if we walked north, we found the more commercialized, public part of the beach.  If we walked south after leaving the condo, we were able to enjoy the more private side.  I don't think we ever ran across more than ten people at one time on this side of the beach.






On Thursday, we went to the north side of the beach, which is where I've always been.  It wasn't crowded like it would be during spring break, but compared to the secluded part of the beach we enjoyed, it was.




I was trying to get a picture of the stingray, which looks like an orange leaf in between our two heads.  I didn't get a good shot obviously, but I kind of like the result of just our two shadows in the water.  Oh, and the stingray?  There were like five more swimming extremely close to the shore.


Yeah, we bought a cheap set of sand toys.


I even got in on the action and made a little sand turtle.




Here's CJ's finished product:  a sand castle heart for me.


See the reddish-brown ground covering?  Those are hundreds and hundreds of crabs migrating somewhere for the night.


Last night on the beach

And, five points not covered in pictures:

1)  Lesson learned:  probably not best to take your camera on the beach without a pouch for it.  I had mine safely stored away in my bag, but then sand blew in the bag.  I was able to salvage the pictures, but the camera is shot.  Thank goodness for an iPhone and for packing an extra camera -- otherwise, we wouldn't have any pictures past day two.

2)  We went to a janky flea market on Sunday and saw an old guy getting arrested.

3)  We went to both outlet malls on Monday and scored some awesome deals.  Our best deals?   I bought a $75 Columbia fleece jacket for $18.  We saved $256 at Bass Stores (clothing, not shoes or outdoor goods) because all women's clothing was 70% off and men's was 60% off.  The entire Gap was on sale for 40% off.  My biggest disappointment (and my main reason for going to the outlet malls) was that I wasn't able to score any good deals at the Le Creuset outlet store.

4)  When we were at the Gap outlet store, some German guy undressed in the middle of the store.  He was wearing tightie whities.  And he argued with the clerk that there wasn't any problem with him undressing in plain view.  That might be my favorite part of the entire trip.

5)  The pets fared the trip quite well.  Bridget stayed with Amanda and her cat, Marabelle.  For the first few days, the cats would apparently follow each other around the house, then one would turn around, they'd hiss at each other, and then they'd walk around the house some more.  After that, they were fast friends, and Bridget was not happy to come home.  And Henry stayed with my parents, mostly tied to a tree with a long lead.  (We hated it, but our only other option would be to board him for $35/day.)  Within the first few minutes, he broke part of his collar.  A few days later, he got his lead twisted around his leg and my dad had to cut it off.  He managed to break a padlock.  At one point, he jumped on my mom's back (standing up, he's as tall as my mom) and he dragged my dad around wherever they went.  Needless to say, I do believe my dad was the happiest person that we were back and took Henry back home with us.

Now it's back in the grind for us.  CJ is back at work today.  I have a house that is clean (thanks, Mom & Dad!), but I have three bags that need to be unpacked.  The weeds sprouted like crazy in our garden while we were away, and since we hadn't mowed for over a week, our yard took off too, and it needs to be raked.  Plus, my book and syllabus for Finance arrived, and it looks like I have plenty of homework for Thursday.

Welcome back to the real world.  Ugh.

follow friday

You know how one of my new favorite sites is now New Dress a Day?  I found another site last week that's very similar, although she's just getting started (and I don't think it's more of a challenge to spend $365 creating 365 outfits in 365 days either).  I also kind of think I like Nicole's designs a little bit more.  Kind of inspires me to do the same thing.  (Then I realize I have too much on my plate anyway and don't know how to sew.)  So anyway, visit House of Huddleston.

compost 101

Compost -- yum.

Look at me becoming all environmental and earthy, starting to compost.  Kind of makes me throw up in my mouth a little.

I'm usually all about starting a garden, dumping in some new topsoil, maybe mixing in some cow manure on top of it, and then religiously spraying my produce with Miracle Gro.  Add in the plants, and you can get a little bit of money wrapped up into it.

I'm not so sure what my biggest motivator was with composting.  It sure as heck wasn't because I wanted to save the earth.  (I use some CFLs and reusable bags when I think to, but that's about as environmentally friendly as I come.)  It might be because I want to save some money.  Or maybe I just find composting to be interesting.

Last year when I started, I just collected eggshells and coffee grounds and would occasionally put them on my plants.  It seemed to help a lot, so I was encouraged.  (I still used Miracle Gro, so maybe the Miracle Gro did all the work and my little compost fertilizer did nothing?)  We started collecting compost again this spring when we planted our garden.  We had an old plastic container we used, and when it came time to put it on my plants, the tiny little heap had turned moldy and had a few gnats flying around it.

That's awesome, especially since it was in my kitchen.

So I went online and bought this cool countertop compost bin.  And I'm collecting all sorts of scraps.  From the picture above, I've already thrown in some coffee grounds, a banana peel, lots of eggshells (we love eggs around here), and newspapers.  After I took this picture, I decided to see what would happen if I threw in some ends of rhubarb I cut off and some strawberry tops.  It's all natural, right?  (Well, maybe not the newspaper.)  And I threw in the coffee filter for good measure.

I've priced large compost bins, but haven't found anything in our price range that I absolutely love.  I ran across this how to article on composting on one of my favorite sites, Young House Love.  So maybe we'll just go a little more cheaper and create our own out of a Rubbermaid container?  That might have the potential to smell up our backyard real quick though.  Plus, Henry likes anything about food, so I can see him being drawn the compost, as gross as it could be.

So does anyone else compost?  Anything else I could consider besides what I've already mentioned, plus vegetable peels and Sun Chips bags?

henry & the egg

A few weeks ago, I was in at Wal-Mart looking for something that was only sold at Wal-Mart (which is generally the only reason why I'd ever step foot into the store).  I needed to stop by the pet section, so I picked up this egg toy for Henry.

It led to an interesting conversation with the guy at the checkout, who initially thought the egg was an Easter toy.  Nevermind the fact that it was already a month past Easter and that it had "Dogzilla" written all over it.  When I told him what it did -- you put treats inside and the dog has to figure out how to get the treats out -- he looked at me and in all seriousness said, "You're not going to make your dog work for his treats are you?!  That's mean!"

Turns out, Henry loves this toy, even though he has to work for his treats.

Smart dog:  It only took him a whole minute to figure out that all he needed to do was to pick up the egg and give it a hard shake, and then a treat would fall out.

Eventually, Henry just got tired of doing that, so he figure out how to break it open.

We've seen versions of this type of toy at Moochie & Co. and even Menards.  If you have a dog, we highly recommend it -- keeps him busy for quite awhile!

new business venture?

For awhile now, CJ and I have been toying with the idea of opening up a woodshop.  He'd make everything, and as for me, the future MBA holder, I'd run the business side of things.  This would be more of a hobby for us, with the proceeds going to buy wooden tools, supplies, lumber, etc.  (Because let's face it -- we're not poor by any means, but unless one of us gets a giant raise anytime soon, we can't afford to take this hobby any further.)

In the future, CJ would like to have his own separate wood shop and actually sell furniture.  We'd obviously need to be in our second home by that point, as this house just isn't large enough to support that kind of venture.

So for the time being, we're seriously contemplating setting up an Etsy shop.  I'm pretty much addicted to that site -- it takes all my willpower not to scoop up every cute thing I see -- and after looking at some people's shops, they've made decent money, even once you consider what Etsy skims off the top.  And I know a few people who have their own Etsy shops too and they obviously haven't quit yet, so it can't be that difficult, right?  (Stop me if you have an Etsy shop and think I'm totally off base here!)

We haven't figured out our niche yet, so what he's considering making for now would be children's toys, boxes (like keepsake boxes), shelves, and Noah's Ark and nativity sets.  If this does take off and he's able to buy more specialized tools, he'd like to make snowmen and maybe wooden bowls and candlesticks.

This is where you, my six faithful readers, come in.  We're in need of some cute names for our shop, and we're drawing a blank.

So ... Ready, set, go!

bedroom upgrade!

Imagine the looks of horror CJ and I received from our married friends -- and single friends too -- when we said we slept in a full-size bed.  No one could believe we got a wink of sleep.  We figured that we already had two full-size mattresses (already paid for) and two full-size bed frames (free, courtesy of our parents), that two people sleeping in a full-size mattress wasn't that bad, and that when we moved into our second home (years down the road), we'd spring for a new bedroom set and queen size bed.

That all worked up until a few months ago when I started having problems sleeping.  First off, CJ gets really hot when he sleeps, and still likes to have at least one blanket on top of him, which I just don't understand.  So if he was hot, I was hot.  And unlike him, I couldn't sleep when I was hot.  The second problem was that I just got to the point where I didn't feel like I had enough room to sleep.  Turning over wasn't an option, because there he was.  So we finally broke down and bought a new Sleep Number mattress.  (Let me interrupt here and say that Sleep Number didn't give us the mattress, nor is the company paying us to utilize their name.  Not that it would matter, since only five people read our blog.)  Anyway, CJ assured me that the bed would fit the bed frame.  Long story short, it didn't, so here are the pictures of our new bed that CJ made:

Ignore the spots.  The camera lense is dirty, not the bed.

I
As soon as CJ got the bed put together, Henry immediately ran under.  Imagine us trying to coax a fifty pound dog out from underneath the bed.  It wasn't fun.  Or easy.

Apparently Bridget's Sleep Number is 35 too.  She only sleeps on my side.

topsy turvy: day twelve

12th Day

I'd say our Topsy Turvey is doing pretty well -- it's definitely larger than our other tomato plants!  And, considering it spent a few days on the ground after a storm this week, I'm even more pleased that it hasn't croaked yet.

The rest of our garden is looking pretty good too.  I've cut rhubarb twice now and more is growing back.  All of our tomato plants are still alive, and the one that Henry shredded/stepped on/whatever he did to it has made a comeback too.  Our pepper plants are doing well, with the exception of two. I'm not sure what happened to one, but we noticed Henry had at another one today.  I'm hopeful those will come back soon, but we got such a good deal at our local nursery that it won't be a big deal if we have to go back and buy a few more plants.  Our small row of green beans sprouted this week too.

It's my goal this year to do more with my produce -- make more salsa, can more, give more away, whatever I can do to make sure that not too much goes to waste like last year.  So, any suggestions or recipes would be appreciated!

(P.S.  No one paid me a dime to talk about the Topsy Turvy.)

follow friday

I ran across a New Dress a Day a few weeks ago and was instantly intrigued.  The author has given herself 365 days and $365 to create 365 new outfits, going to thrift stores and garage sales to find material and old clothes to alter.  I may not be a fan of every new piece of clothing, but I still have to admit that she's an awfully good seamstress and obviously has the ability to find the good in some of the ugliest clothes ever made.  I've bookmarked the site and look forward to seeing what new piece she's added for that day.  Hope you enjoy!

strawberry rhubarb crumble

I've never had rhubarb, and aside from maybe one person, everyone who has had it seems to love it.  So last year, we planted two rhubarb plants.  One survived, and it was ready really early this year (think mid-April).  Turns out I like rhubarb raw. 

Anyway, I happened to have strawberries on hand, so I pulled up this recipe.  I liked it, but CJ loved it, so we highly recommend:

(P.S.  The recipe is courtesy of Smitten Kitchen)

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble
6-8 servings

For the topping:
1 1/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons Sugar in the Raw
Zest of one lemon (I omitted, and it was fine)
1 stick unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:
1 1/2 cups rhubarb, chopped into 1-inch pieces
1 quart strawberries plus a few extras, hulled, quartered
Juice of one lemon
1/2 cup sugar
3 to 4 tablespoons cornstarch (I used a flour instead)
Pinch of salt

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Prepare topping: In a mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugars and lemon zest and add the melted butter. Mix until small and large clumps form. Refrigerate until needed.

2. Prepare filling: Toss rhubarb, strawberries, lemon juice, sugar, cornstarch and a pinch of salt in a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate. (I used a 2 1/2 qt. round dish, and it seemed to work just as well.)

3. Remove topping from refrigerator and cover fruit thickly and evenly with topping. Bake until crumble topping is golden brown in places and fruit is bubbling beneath, about 40 to 50 minutes.

stuff christians like

We generally have a rule that we don't buy too many books unless we've checked them out from the library first.  I'll admit that I was drawn to Stuff Christians Like by Jonathan Acuff, mostly due to the catchy title and fun cover art, and made an exception to the rule.

The book made me laugh, and it made me think.  It's filled with titles such as:

• Giving Ourselves Liberal Definitions of the Phrase "Quiet Time"
• Saying I'll Pray For You ... And Then Not
• Being Completely Terrified to Pray for Patience or Humility
• Fearing Your Church Will Do Something Wacky the One Time You Invite a Friend to Church
• Being Slightly Annoyed When God Asks for More Than Ten Percent of Your Money
• Wondering Whether the Old Testament Still Counts
• Sprinting to Your Car After Church

I found it so funny because I've thought or done so many of the things Acuff described and can relate so well.  Anyway, I'd highly recommend it.  Don't worry about checking out from the library.  Just buy it.

While you're at it, Jon Acuff has a website that you should visit too -- StuffChristiansLike.net.

view from my window

I'm sure this was part of the Indy 500 festivities, but I was a little surprised to see these out my window on Sunday morning (a little close, no?):

topsy turvy: day seven

Day Seven, and our topsy turvy tomato plant is still alive!  And it looks like it's grown some too.

Day One

Day Seven

(P.S.  No one's paying me to use the Topsy Turvy or track its progress.)

follow friday

If you haven't been yet, you must check out Etsy.  I've found some really cute things on there such as the elephant necklace I wear all the time, and the artwork I've picked out for when I repaint our kitchen.  Plus, CJ and I have toyed around with the idea of setting up a shop ourselves for CJ's woodworking items, so stay tuned on that one.

My latest find is Etsy Stalker, which higlighhts Etsy finds -- some strange, some cute.  It's worth bookmarking for sure too.

newest landscaping addition

I know most people have a love or hate relationship with wind chimes, but I love them.  I think it's partially because my grandma has always had one or two wind chimes hanging up in her house, and I always liked walking by them to make them chime.  So last year, we bought a wind chime, but never got around to getting it put up.  So a few weeks ago, CJ made me a stand for it, I stained it, and we put it by our front door with our rose bushes.  I'm kind of tempted to go buy another chime for the backyard and put CJ back at work making more stands.

twisted like a pretzel

Henry often sits in weird positions, all twisted around.  I snapped this picture of him, and now I'm not sure what side is up, down, or sideways.

topsy turvy: day one

I'll start by saying that the topsy turvy was all my idea.  We got it planted today, and I plan to chart its progress for everyone to see, so stay tuned...

(P.S.  So the government doesn't come after me, you should all know that no one paid me to buy the Topsy Turvy, nor will I get paid for any of my reviews.  It's just for fun.  Back off, Obama Administration.)

Day One