Unprocessed October is coming up! And that means a lot of time in the kitchen for me. To help make my life a little easier, I whipped out my recipe book. And to help make your life a little easier, I’m sharing my splash-proof laminated cookbook DIY idea.
DIY Fire Pit Seating
DIY Bonfire Pit Stool Cushions
We always run into this problem of not having enough seating around the bonfire. We have a handful of beach chairs on hand, but when we have an impromptu fire night, we’re left scrambling. I think I stumbled on the perfect solution. And they are actually comfortable! I plan to make a whole bunch more.
Winter Fun 2015
All things considered, I think it’s been a pretty fun and eventful winter so far! I’m 100% happy with being in MN for the season. (I’ll get back to you around March). I’m equally thankful we don’t live on the east coast right now! So Minnesota isn’t really so bad. In fact, MN is the best kept secret in the US. This article pretty much sums up what we already know.
Anyway, we’ve been out and about these last couple weekends exploring MN and WI and have many adventures to share.
Fishing
Joe won an all-inclusive, luxury one night stay at his company fish house on Lake Mille Lacs last Friday, so we figured we better use it or lose it 🙂
Up Northmas
Winter Wonderland
Wow, what an excellent weekend we had away from everything. Joe’s family treated us to a few days up north at a cabin. We really enjoyed ourselves! Thanks again for such a great time 🙂 We’ll remember it forever. And we practically were the only people there!
The Rooms
We were digging the lofted ceiling and fireplace. So homey! Everything was beautiful.
Plastic Wrapping Windows
It’s Tensile Time
No, not tinsel. (Although it’s almost tinsel season too!)TENSILE. That’s my new word of the week. It’s a measurement of how tense or resistant to stretching a thing is.
We needed some high-tensile sheathing tape for last weekend’s project. It’s basically really strong tape that can hold a lot of weight before breaking. This particular tape can withstand 28.3 pounds per inch. Pretty impressive for tape! It must have went to the gym. If you want to get all sciency, read more about it.
Spare Room Conversion
Brown or Purple?
You be the judge. We really love this paint color, but everyone seems to have a different take on it. Depending on the lighting and time of day, it looks either brown or purple. Or both! For the record, it was in the brown section of Pittsburg Paint, but it must have some purple undertones.
S’more Summer Ventures
Hold on!
It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.
These days, we’re trying to get the most out of each summer night. We’re on the lake 2-3x/week and squeezing in any and every outdoor activity possible.
Although I love summer, I love fall just as much and can’t hold back my excitement for all things autumn. Look, the foreign exchange students are already back in my building! Saint Paul Prep School is now in session.
I got the first day of school jitters this morning just seeing them 🙂
Back to summer…
Summer Ventures
Summer On
It’s already August, but summer is just getting started! We refuse to go quietly into fall. Hold your horses, autumn. We’re hanging onto summer as long as we can! These last couple weeks have been a whirlwind of sun, sand and sanding. I’ll start with the fun stuff.
Camping
We went camping in Alexandria, MN and spent a lot of time on the water!
July Updates
Hello August
July has been fun, but August looks just as bright! This week we’ve got some legitimate updates, some random things, and some cute things… So let’s just dive right into them, in that order.
Plant
I’ve purchased a lovely new plant. The YMCA was selling them for charity, so I picked it up for $10. I seem to do ok with tropical plants, and nothing else.
It’s called a Sago Palm and is not really a true palm at all! It’s doing well so far. (2 weeks)
Mulch Madness
Woodchippin’
Like Scottie Pippen. I don’t know what’s up with the hoops references; we just finished softball. (My team lost first round in single elimination playoffs last night. Meanwhile my brother’s team took the championship in his league — Way to go!)