how nice of you to show up, spring

And just like that, we've gone straight from winter to summer, Midwest-style. From the 40's to the 80's, although we're not out of the woods yet (according to Ben who refuses to take the plastic off our windows).

I get super excited when all the flowering trees burst into their cotton candy colors. When we have a yard someday I am going to plant it full of magnolia trees. Did you know that all trees have flowers? It's true.

Here's proof. Those lime green puffs you see everywhere? They probably aren't leaves yet. These are maple flowers!

 I love when nature busts out the neon!

I had a great birthday weekend thanks to the warm weather. On Friday night Ben and I had a delicious mussels-and-frites dindin at The Bluebird and then wandered back to The Violet Hour for cocktails, which I'm now obsessed with despite its hipster pretentiousness. Pimm's Cup is my new fave drink mmmm. 

All weekend I felt extra blessed with lots of gifts and Etsy orders! Speaking of Etsy, I am all out of my most popular lace and won't be able to re-stock for 2 weeks or so. I'm going to take this opportunity to sew up all the new fabric I've been collecting, so stay tuned!  

I also can't wait to bust out this awesome vintage cake pan that my mom in law sent me. The pans are shaped like bulls-eyes so when you use different flavors/colors of batter and stack the layers it turns into a checkerboard pattern. I mean, who doesn't need a Magic Cake Pan?? I'm thinking that a rainbow cake needs to happen, every ring a different color.

Speaking of retro housewife accessories, here's a great article by Rachel on feminism, food, and the "new" domesticity.

And if you're thinking of buying your first home in this HGTV-crazed culture of ours, here's a don't-miss piece on what to do and what NOT to do, learned from Shay's heartbreaking experience.

And now it's time for ice cream and brownies. I made a pan of brownies for my birthday and Ben and I have been eating them every single night. It's a hard life...

oh hey it's my birthday

This has been a crazy week! I've hit the ground running with my new job at the zoo, and have traveled to a different CPS school every day this week to visit junior high classes who have been involved with a collaborative research program all year. They've been visiting the zoo to collect animal behavior data and now I have to teach them how to analyze the data and share it in chart/graph form. Let's just say that if you are a junior high teacher I THOROUGHLY admire your dedication...it is definitely the toughest age to handle! 

It's been eye opening to see so many of the Chicago Public Schools. Most of the buildings are gorgeous old citadels with tall ceilings and wood floors, some are classic "prison cell" concrete block construction, some are newly built with modern architecture. Some are situated in a grassy block in the middle of old classic neighborhoods, some are squeezed into the middle of a gritty urban neighborhood. Some of the kids are bright and well behaved, and some seem kind of hopeless. The atmosphere in each school is similar though--a positive space that tries its desperately to be a nurturing influence on the students, even if the teachers have to adopt a strict tough love facade.

So yeah, I'm relieved it's Friday, and can't believe that my birthday has snuck up on me! It's my golden birthday, 26 on the 26th. Last year I was freaking out about turning 25, but now I am definitely ready for this new year. 2013 has been great so far, and I'm excited to see what else happens!

To celebrate, I'm holding a flash sale in the shop! Use coupon code 26on26 to get 26% off your total order (including winter clearance items)! This would be an excellent opportunity to get that Mother's Day gift, just sayin...The offer is good all day today!

a weekend of celebrating

 (photos from Anna S. since I didn't bring a camera out all weekend!)

My three best girlfriends and I all have birthdays within a 10 day span in April, and we always make sure to celebrate in the biggest, most drawn-out way possible. This past weekend Anna (pronounced the "regular way" as opposed to my "European way") came to Chicago to celebrate her birthday last week and my early birthday which is this Friday!

We've been experiencing a WONDERFUL and unexpected string of sunny days here, so even though it was chilly over the weekend, walking around outside under a blue sky felt so amazing and care-free! We kicked things off with a mimosa brunch and just let things roll from there.

We ended up in Wicker Park most of the weekend, which I loved because there are so many great restaurants/bars/shops there that I've wanted to check out! Here's a list of where we went in case you're ever visiting Chicago and looking for recommendations:

The Fifty/50--We came here for brunch because their website says they offer unlimited bacon, but sadly they had changed the menu and no longer serve that. The rest of the food was tasty though. I had the breakfast lasagna, which was basically a melted pile of bacon, cheddar cheese, caramelized onions and tasted like a bacon cheeseburger, AKA amazing. This place is a sports bar and would definitely be good for dinner. Apparently their wings are delicious. I don't think we'll ever come back for brunch just because there are so many brunch places here, although the mimosa buckets came with adorable mini Prosecco bottles!

FatPour Tapworks--After brunch we wandered in here because it was nearby and I'd wanted to check it out for a long time. Basically it's a huge and clean bar with like 50 taps. I wasn't blown away by the atmosphere and beer selection at the moment, although now I see they have one of my favorite west coast beers (Lost Coast Downtown Brown), Sierra Nevada Torpedo on draft, and a huge cider and Belgian selection if you're into that, so I'll give them some belated bonus points. I like Village Tap in Roscoe Village better in terms of local/unusual/seasonal tap selection and cozy atmosphere.

Buzz: Killer Espresso--So after hitting up two bars before 3 pm we were in desperate need of some caffeine so we stopped by Buzz: killer (how appropriate), which has a brand new interior and a million kinds of coffee to choose from. Definitely the place if you're a coffee snob.

Briciola--We came to this Italian restaurant for dinner and I'm a huge fan for three reasons:

1. Not only do they give you a bread basket, but they bring you complimentary bruschetta!

2. It's BYOB so you can save a fortune on wine.

3. Homemade pasta.

Need I say more? It was pretty cramped and crowded inside so I'd DEFINITELY make a reservation. Also, it seems to be located randomly in a residential area so parking is tough to find.

The Violet Hour--A pretentious, hidden "speakeasy" with an atmosphere that makes you lose track of all time and a ridiculously amazing cocktail list. All the drinks are $12 but you only need one and you get what you pay for...even the ice is carved to fit your glass and type of drink. ALMOST too cool for school but I definitely want to come back to try more of the drinks. Probably not for you if you don't like bitters (herbal liqueur) or expect constant attention from your server. Great place for a date night...if you have a larger group expect to wait in line to get in.

What did you do this weekend? Anything fun?

the worst week of 2013?

I think this Onion article pretty much sums it up.

Between everything ongoing in Boston, the Texas explosion, the general ridiculousness of Congress, the blizzards in the upper midwest, and much of northeastern Illinois underwater, this has hands down been the worst week of the year so far. I feel so fortunate that I haven't been directly impacted by any of the chaos.
Aaaand it just started to sleet outside.

Here's a sinkhole that swallowed 3 cars in Chicago and gave me a sinkhole nightmare

I love how the firefighters are just standing around laughing because there's no other reaction they can have.

Anyway, I'm going to turn things around by enjoying a super fun weekend with one of my best friends, who is visiting to celebrate our birthday week!

I hope you have a brighter weekend too (and if the sun is actually shining where you live, I am jealous!)

what we've been eating

First of all...holy thunderstorm flash flood deluge! Northeastern Illinois just got hit with an enormous two day storm system. The Chicago suburbs apparently got hit the worst, and if you live out there, I hope your basement and car are safe and dry! The city was pretty flooded too. On the way to work this morning I drove through some ponds so deep that my power steering wonked out for a scary minute. We've definitely made up for last year's drought by now!

I thought I'd share the recipes Ben and I have tried (and liked) this week. After years of striving, I've finally mastered the weekly meal plan so that all our meals are scheduled in advance and we can usually get all the groceries we need in one trip. This routine saves a lot of time and hassle, especially now that I'm working full time and can't run to the store on a random weekday morning anymore! 

On Saturday or Sunday (aka whichever day we run out of food), I'll go through my latest cooking magazines (Cooking Light and Rachael Ray are my favorites), blogs, my extensive cookbook collection, and Pinterest to find some yummy looking recipes to try. I rarely make the same thing more than once!

Here's what we ate this week:

Chicken Parmesan...

 ...that we paired with Greek Salad

Slowcooker Beer and Brown Sugar Kielbasa and Sauerkraut  

(delicious but your entire house will smell like sauerkraut, be warned)

Zucchini Mini Muffins 

(the batter was quite dry, I'd recommend adding some more milk or applesauce)

Have you tried any good recipes lately?

april showers and new beginnings

(I WISH the magnolias were blooming already...but they're not. This picture is old but isn't it pretty?)

First of all, I just heard about the Boston Marathon bombing and am shocked. Tens of thousands of people worked so hard to make today one of the best days of their lives, a crowning achievement, and instead an incomprehensibly sick person/group turned it into their worst nightmare. My dad is heavily involved in the running community, so I grew up spectating at races and now casually participate in them as well...what an unbelievable attack on such a positive, happy, driven, and integrity-filled community of people. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone involved.

On an opposite note, how is it already mid-April? I knew that this spring was going to pass before my eyes and it sure is, even though it is slowwwwwly starting to feel more spring-like outside. AKA 60* rainy days instead of 40* rainy days. This weekend Ben and I laid low, cleaned the apartment, and watched 180 Degrees South (which was bad-ass but reinforced my certainty that I will NEVER be a rock climber) and Life of Pi. We had listened to the Life of Pi audiobook on one of our cross country road trips, and I think that the movie did an excellent job in bringing the story to life. The special effects and ocean scenes were spectacular, although the graphic visuals made the movie more sad for me than the book, and was probably not the best thing to watch the night before I started a new job at a zoo.

Yup, you read it. I am SUPER excited to say that I've landed a full time job in the Education Department at Lincoln Park Zoo!!!!!!! Today was my first day! (All the papers I just signed require me to state that the opinions and views I express on this blog are mine alone, not necessarily held by my employer). 

You know your job is going to be fun when the first day orientation includes a comprehensive zoo tour and collecting behavioral data on gibbons. And no, I doubt that I will ever get to handle the animals (sorry), but that's actually ok with me, although I would love to hug a fluffy lion (maybe someday in heaven??). I feel incredibly lucky and blessed to have found this opportunity, since I haven't had full time work in SIXTEEN MONTHS. Finding and landing a conservation science job in the city is a dream come true.

This week also marks "birthday season." Three of my best friends and I were all born a little over a week apart. It's my golden birthday this year, so I'm going to have to quickly come up with some way to celebrate!

I hope the sun is shining where you are this week!

(if you live in the Midwest, I sympathize)

book review roundup

I've been doing pretty good lately on the reading front (taking a week long vacation without internet access or TV helped a lot with that). I gave up on Anna Karenina a while ago, but all the books I've picked up since then have been really good. Here are brief reviews of the two fiction novels I've just finished. I recommend them both!

1. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

I read this for my book club, and really enjoyed it. In one sentence: it's a well written coming of age story about a baseball prodigy and the people connected to him during his time at a small liberal arts college on the shore of Lake Michigan. The character development is good and there are multiple protagonists, although it's one of those books where it's kind of hard to really like any of the characters in particular. There is only one main female character and I don't think that Harbach wrote her in a completely convincing manner...it's like he was really trying to get inside the female psyche but ended up creating just an object to be used by the male characters. My only other criticisms are that the names of the characters are borderline cheesy and unbelievable, and that although the book is not really a happy book at all, it still comes off with a brightly colored/saccharine/bubble feel. Other than that it really pulled me in and taught me about baseball. It kind of reminds me of a masculine version of The Flamenco Academy.

2. Nightwoods by Charles Frazier

I checked this book out from the library to bring on our trip to Arizona. Charles Frazier also wrote Cold Mountain (the Civil War book which was turned into a movie with Nicole Kidman) and I've been wanting to read that for a long time but I chose Nightwoods instead because it was shorter and lighter to take in my carry on. The jacket says that it's set in the 1960's (although I don't think the book actually discloses a date) in a very small mountain town in North Carolina. I finished this book in one day, and it's one of those novels that's described as "taut" and "fast paced" because the plot doesn't cover much chronological time. It's about a young woman named Luce who has run away from her childhood town due to some heavy traumadrama and is living hermit like in an old Victorian-era vacation lodge. She finds out that her sister has been murdered and Luce becomes the guardian to her young and psychologically damaged niece and nephew. The book follows them as all three work through their deep rooted issues while at the same time good and evil characters break into their peaceful seclusion of the lodge. It's a fast and exciting book.

Have you read anything recently that you would recommend?

spring break in Arizona

I'm back! 

And I can't believe we're already a week into April! I know for sure that this spring is going to fly by.

Last week was Ben's spring break (perks of teaching=free vacation!) and we spent it in warm and sunny Sun City, Arizona. It was a fun trip but the purpose was kind of emotional and sad. We met up with Ben's mom, sister, and her boyfriend to clear out his grandparents' house since his grandmother has passed away and his 96 year old grandpa recently moved into assisted living. I'm really glad I got a chance to see their house, because Ben spent most of his childhood spring breaks there and it's full of memories.

Hello, palm trees!

Sun City is a retirement community, so we all (including my mother in law) felt conspicuously young everywhere we went. There are serious golf cart crossing signs and people drive their golf carts on the main roads and to the shopping centers. It's kind of hilarious but you really have to watch out for them!

We spent most of the trip going through cupboards and sorting out family heirlooms, but made sure to take a break everyday to hit the pool or go for a hike. The majority of my pictures are of flowers in the desert from our short hike into the nearby White Tank Mountains because my camera battery died soon afterwards! 

 I was sooo happy to see some mountains again!

 Spring in the desert is gorgeous, even in a drought.

 Flowers are rare, but extra bright to compensate!

 Ancient petroglyphs

 Gorgeous spring!

 This is a "waterfall" we ended up at which of course the boys had to climb. The white granite rocks form canyons and hold water when it rains, give the White Tank Mountains their name.

 Group shot!

 It was so nice to see some GREEN after this endless winter we've been having in the Midwest!

After several days of dry, sunny 85 degree weather, it's pretty difficult and disorienting to try and settle back into the normal routine here. Even though we had tough work to accomplish I think we all had a good trip, and I feel like I know that side of Ben's family a lot better now after spending more time with his grandpa and sorting through all their old photos and family artifacts! His grandparents traveled all over the world and we ended up inheriting some pretty awesome things, including silver serving utensils, cookbooks, some furniture, tons of sewing thread (exciting for me) and a granite cheese slicer (exciting for Ben). Now it's back to school for him and back to field trips at the Arboretum this week for me.

I hope your week is off to a great start!