Day 225

Came across this guy on the way home from getting italian ice.

What I love: Eclectic streets filled with gardens and a variety of people and homes.  I wish I had painted the cheetah painted door with a bicycle fence.  Seriously, this place is so unique.

Day 224

Oh succulents.

What I love: My new pots that the husband 3D printed and brought home.  They love their new home and I love these string of peas.

Day 223

We had friends over tonight(I know, so many people come over now!) and they ate off my placemats that look like this.  My mother-in-law made them for us for Christmas.

What I love: Art lessons, delicious dinner, homemade placemats, and friends.  What isn't there to love about all of those things?

Day 222

THEY'RE BACK! Oh, I'm so happy they're back!

What I love: Fantastic friends who've returned to brighten up summer.

Day 221

A trip to Batavia and digging up the last of the cabbages filled Saturday.

What I love: Roasted cabbage and sauerkraut.  Also, I love spending time with the husband's family. We always have such a good time and eat so many delicious things.  Happy 25th anniversary!!!

Day 220

Noah says they look like rotten potatoes.

He's right.

What I love: That I've gained enough confidence to be OK at failing.  There is no hope for my attempted chocolate chip cookies and that's just fine with me.  It gives me a good laugh and practice.

Day 219

Dinner party at my house!

What I love: Making new friends and my new kitchen that can hold more than just one person!  Also, I can't see my kitchen from where I'm sitting and that makes me really happy.

Day 218

Today we just plain working.  

I had an epiphany though.  I'm not painting for this blog or for anyone else, but I'm painting because I like to paint and I do it for me.

Thanks for helping me be accountable to myself world. 

What I love: Watercolor painting in my kitchen and only working a half day, then coming home and relaxing.

Day 217

Tonight was babysitting for some friends.  They made us potstickers!

What I love: Cute squishy babies and potstickers from Trader Joe's.  Also, I love not having to make us dinner.

Day 216

This place was delicious!  It's call Sweet Mandy B's. 

Here's a shout out to Ravi for introducing it to us.

What I love: Sweet sugary confections and hanging out with good friends.  It's almost as good as Sweet Tooth Fairy.

Day 215

I pass this tree on my way to church.

What I love: It's so warm and sunny that I can walk to church.  I look forward to my stroll through the park every week.

Day 214

Today was a trip to China Town after Mexican food for dinner.

What I love:  Seeing new sights in the city.  Also, I'm pretty obsessed with avocado smoothies.

July in Review

Dear July,  

You were fun and relaxing and lovely.  Also, you were so colorful.  I believe you were the most colorful month yet!  Thanks July, see you next year.

Day 213

An old friend from my freshman year of college came to Chicago and I took a trip downtown to see her.  After 8 years it was soooo good to catch up.

What I love: Old friends and familiar faces in a a new place.  I love that being here made this moment possible.  I hope it makes so many more connections possible in the future.

Day 212

So the husband lost his journal and we spent 2 hours finding it.

What I love: Kind people in Chicago who return lost items.

Day 211

Today was just playing with washes.

What I love: Nice relaxing days in the city with the husband.

Day 210

Today was a whole day of driving around in the "ch" as we like to call our car now.

What I love: Having muscles to help me carry the groceries up the stairs and by muscles I mean my husband.

Day 209

Today I was just playing with washes and enjoying time with Family.

What I love: Trips out to the burbs to be with family and to do laundry of course!

Day 208

In celebration of the husband coming back we went out to this really delicious and really cheap Mexican place.  It is now our new favorite!

What I love: Trying new places and spending time with the husband even if it is in a big city.

Day 207

I left right from work to drive to Michigan and pick up my man.  It was so worth the drive.

What I love: How beautiful Michigan is!  Oh my goodness, it was so peaceful and all the people the husband met and learned from at his little art camp were so nice.  It sounds like he had an amazing experience and I'm glad we could be here for him to enjoy it.

Day 206

Tonight was Pie-o-neer night at church and all the pies were delicious!

What I love: Hanging out with friends making ice cream, butter, and eating pie.  There's no better way to celebrate our pioneer heritage.

Day 205

Today was Wednesday and I spent the day cooking and baking and making refrigerator pickles.  Painting the refrigerator pickles would have been more interesting.  I was stuck thinking on what to paint and then I made plans and they didn't turn out, but that happens and it's OK.

What I love: Today was a random really cool, refreshing day in Chicago.  It made for a great baking day.  It almost felt like fall and since it's been so sticky hot it was a nice change.

Day 204

Today was one of those days where it was going really well until that one scary thing happens.  Just some guy swearing and yelling at me, but it made me kind of grumpy so I guess that's what the squiggly red lines are all about.

What I love: Cleaning and organizing things.  I got to go hang out at the church and organize a closet that was kind of a mess, but it's looking lovely now.  Also, I love making new friends.

Day 203

I call this, connect the dots.

Watching movies and hanging out by myself don't really make very interesting subject matters so I'm having to be really creative. :)

What I love: Because the husband has been gone I've been establishing good habits like going to bed earlier, doing the dishes, cleaning the house, etc.  Also, I've been working on sewing projects I'd been meaning to finish since like December 2012.

Day 202

"Why so many abstract paintings?"

Because I pretty much have been sitting on my chaise everyday watching movies after work and because I'm having fun painting.

What I love: Watching movies and painting and having time to do both.

Day 201

Today started really nice with my walk to church and it ended nice with a movie with a friend, but in-between my knees did not love the tumble I took.

What I love: I love that my knees make me look like I'm tough, but if you knew the real reason behind all the scars you'd probably laugh.  How does that have to do anything with Chicago?  I'm not really sure, but had it been 200 days earlier I think I might have cried a lot and been really grumpy about skinned knees.  Now, it's just a skinned knee.

Day 200

Today was a bike ride to the botanical gardens with Harley.  It was a beautiful day for the succulent and cactus show and for a bike ride.

What I love: Succulents and cactuses and plants in general.  Also I love riding my bike on perfectly beautiful clear days with friends.  It was just one of those happy days.  Did I just say I was happy?

Day 199

I'm not even really sure what I did this day.  I have had so much time to myself I'm pretty sure I came home from teaching summer school and sat around watching Netflix movies.

What I love: The new apartment, are you seeing how much light is coming through the window?  I love taking walks around our neighborhood and having time to hang out with myself.

Day 198

So today was girl's night and I put together a fruit salad because well, that's pretty much all I eat now that it's summer and now that I'm lactose intolerant.  Sigh, at least I feel a lot better now, it's just that I really love ice cream.

What I love: Summer and fruit and spending time with friends.  We had a delicious dinner and sat around chatting for awhile.  It was so nice to have time to do things like that while the husband was away.