indoor spring: 2013 Chicago Flower and Garden Show

Before I share more pretty flower pictures, I'd like to do my blogger duty of acknowledging that Google Reader is going away. I've been a daily GR user since 2009 and I just can't believe them when they say that "usage is declining"! I'm usually supportive of Google's world takeover mission but I don't like how they're manipulating everyone into using Google+. 

Well, anyway, if you're a Google Reader user you've probably found an alternative by now. I've started using Feedly and I love it so far. It takes a little bit longer to load on my computer sometimes but I think it's actually better than GR in that it's easier to organize your blogs and read one at a time.

Another popular option (especially for fellow bloggers) seems to be Bloglovin'.

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Ok, on to the post!

This weekend Ben and I ventured downtown to check out the 2013 Chicago Flower & Garden Show at Navy Pier. My uncle's bulb company Doornbosch Bros. is responsible for the spectacular tulip displays and since we now live in the city we had to take the opportunity to visit him and my cousins at their bulb booth and experience the gorgeous colors!

 

Since it seems like we are stuck in a perpetual Narnia-style winter here in Chicago, it was SO refreshing to get to see some flowers blooming. If you've read my blog for any stretch of time you know that I love taking photographs of flowers, so I left Ben on his own to wander around the exhibition hall while I spent a good amount of time geeking out and taking tulip portraits!

Each of the 8,000 bulbs were individually planted in a little pot last fall, left in a cooler to simulate winter, "forced" to grow and bloom in a greenhouse last month, and then painstakingly planted in these raised beds!

The hundreds of fellow spring-starved people at the show were all magnetically drawn to the spectacular tulip displays. 

It was an interesting challenge to photograph flowers under harsh spotlights!

Pink tulips are my favorite, can you tell?

The tulips with feathered stripes are called Rembrandt tulips and were highly prized back in the Tulipomania days of the 1600's. Originally the color variations were caused by a virus but growers have developed a way to mimic the coloring patterns in healthy bulbs.

I like hyacinths better than tulips because they smell so good!

If you're interested in planting tulips in your yard, look for large bulbs from an authentic Dutch supplier. Planting season for tulips and other early spring flowers (daffodils, hyacinths, crocus) is in the late fall (October/early Nov) before the first frost. Plant bulbs in clusters of at least 12 for the most dramatic effect! You can plant summer flowers right now. Here are some more planting tips.

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse of spring! Maybe someday we'll see some flowers growing outdoors too...I say as it actually snows outside.

Do you have a favorite flower? 

(Tulips are nice but I really love big fluffy summer blooms like peonies and dahlias the best).

Have you ever tried planting bulbs?

2013 week one

Chicago lights

I can't believe we're already part way through the second week of the year! I spent the first week trying to recover from the nasty cold/flu bug everyone is getting (luckily Ben escaped it, probably due to his just-in-time flu shot...) while also teaching a winter science camp for grade schoolers at the Arboretum, babysitting, and running around downtown with my family who were visiting the city on a mini-vacay.

And I straightened my hair just for fun to go to a friend's goodbye party at a super swanky high rise apartment with two private elevators. 

It's always interesting to see how long the hair is getting, since curls bounce it up about 2-4 inches. And it's also interesting to see how the "other half" lives...

And I have been working hard on my newest endeavor. I caught the knitting bug last November and I've decided to open an Etsy shop to sustain my hobby. I'll be selling cozy chunky scarves (some including sparkles of course) and also watercolor stationery since I had so much success with my DIY wedding invitations.

I'm hoping to open the shop by the end of this week ahhhh!! It takes so much work to open! I'm super excited.

I hope your year is off to a productive and happy start! 

(And I hope you've managed to avoid this plague flu thing, ugh.)

Christmas in Chicago

This weekend my mother in law was visiting, so we met up downtown to witness the annual spectacle that is Christmas in Chicago. It's definitely magical and beautiful blahblahblah but let me tell you, Saturdays in December are craaaaaazy. Be prepared. We spent a few hours wandering the floors of the store formerly known as Marshall Field's, which I love visiting for the gorgeous architecture alone (see above and below). It also sells those delicious mint chocolates called Frangos, and I might have grabbed an impulse buy of Frango chocolate mint liqueur (best. find. ever). 

And then we attempted the Christkindlmarket, which is an adorable little German-style open air market set up in Daley Plaza, featuring delicious food and booths selling gorgeous hand blown glass ornaments and other kitschy Christmas things. I had been there once in high school for a German class field trip on a weekday and it was awesome. However, this Saturday it was INSANE. There were so many people crammed into the plaza that it was almost impossible to even get to the booths, let alone move! We instantly became claustrophobic and had to get out. (But if you're visiting the city I still recommend checking it out! It's like the Christmas version of the Bean.)

MASS CHAOS

Apparently this weekend was also a huge Christmas themed all-day bar crawl in Wrigleyville called TBOX.  The Addison red line station smelled like a frathouse and the streets were packed with a river of drunk people in elf and slutty Santa get-ups. Never a dull moment...

I was exhausted once we eventually made it home but I finally feel like Christmas is here!

on being underemployed

 People house and squirrel house. Love being able to see all the little nests in the trees.

 

 The last tree on the street holding out with some green

 

 My sidewalk

 



 Some dusty miller in the leaves, pretty gray and yellow

 

 Fuzzy boots, more gray and yellow

 

 Fave scarf of the moment

 

View from my porch, typical Chicago northside

 

{pictures from my walk to the post box this morning}

 

 

Last night I had my first ugly breakdown since my September pre-wedding freakouts. 2012 has been a huge year, to put it mildly, bringing me the happiest days of my life and also the most frustrating personal challenges I've ever experienced, and I'm trying to process it all and reflect on what has happened and where I'm headed. It's been almost a year since my job with the Nature Conservancy in Oregon ended and Ben and I decided to pack our cars and drive back to the midwest to live with our respective parents until we figured shit out.

 

Actually, "figuring shit out" could be the tagline to this entire year

 

Here's the quick re-cap of what has happened since last December:

 

 I spent a pretty gloomy winter in my childhood bedroom attempting to job hunt while Ben lived with his mom in Michigan (he had an online job at the time). After having spent two years hacking it long-distance at the end of college, being forced to live hundreds of miles apart AGAIN--after we were engaged for pete's sake and I thought we were past that tough stage--well, it was the figurative straw that broke me. And it sucked. I was saved in the spring by my uncle, who offered us temporary free use of his empty condo in the Quad Cities so that Ben and I could actually be together while we figured out our lives and wedding plans. The QC is where we met and went to college, so it was a fun blast of the past to re-connect with our college friends and spend a summer re-living our college days. I also started substitute teaching at the end of the school year, which gave me something to do and kept me sane! All you need to sub in Illinois is a college degree, so it's a pretty good in-between-jobs filler if you're willing to deal with an unpredictable schedule and whiny high schoolers.

 

The rest of the summer was consumed by figuring out how to throw a beautiful and fun wedding when you're broke, spending time with family, and distracting myself from not having a job. Honestly, it was pretty nice to have the time to do things like make my own wedding invitations (DIY blog post to come on that...) and it was plain awesome to catch up with friends and family after living so far away in PA and OR for the past three years. Ben continued working online until he FINALLY was offered his dream teaching job: high school history at a charter school in Chicago. I cried tears of joy. We moved to the city in August, I was extremely lucky to start working part time at the Morton Arboretum, we got married, and now it's the holiday season and I'm coming up for air!

 

I really love my job and co-workers at the Arb, but I only work in the spring, summer, and fall, and part time at that. Plus the commute is rough... an hour and fifteen minutes to drive out there in morning rush hour, 45 minutes to get home in the early afternoon. I've begun picking up some babysitting jobs, which--like subbing--is also a great filler job if you are female, like kids, have experience being in charge of them (thanks Mama for my younger siblings), and are CPR/First Aid certified, and live in a family-oriented area. I am very grateful I fill all of the above requirements :)

 

So anyway, it has been almost a year since I had a full time job, and a year and a half since I graduated with my master's degree. Almost all the 20-somethings I know have been un/under-employed for at least a few months at some point. It's just really. hard. to be 25 right now.

 Obviously I am really grateful for my supportive family, being married to an amazing person who has a job to pay the bills and support me, my education, and my experiences thus far, but there is still a big void inside of me where I'm missing a job that will fulfill me and make me feel productive with my time and talents. I've learned how to be resourceful and work with what I have, but it's really hard to have patience for that one perfect job to appear--because I'm not going to be hired unless the employer thinks I am absolutely perfect. It's extremely humbling to be rejected from jobs you know you're qualified or even over-qualified for, and I know that even though I have a master's degree and as much experience as I've been able to cram into my life so far, NO JOB or experience is beneath me right now.

 

I'm looking forward so much to the day when Ben and I have a double income and can start actually saving money to someday have kids and buy a house, in addition to merely not feeling super guilty every time I buy something. In the meantime it's a constant process to stay grateful for the many many blessings I DO have in my life and to trust that everything will work out when the time is right.

 

2012 has included three moves, multiple part time and temporary jobs for both Ben and me, a wedding, and lots of memories and learning curves both good and bad. No wonder I'm mentally exhausted! I have no idea what 2013 has in store, and it's really weird to anticipate a year with no graduations, wedding, or any other pre-scheduled milestone. Hopefully there are a couple less enormous changes, and I can continue to settle into the second half of my twenties.

 

 

an epic night on the town

I feel SO lucky and blessed to have an amazing group of women in my life. I had absolutely no trouble choosing bridesmaids for our wedding, since I automatically had three sisters/sis-in-law and then three I consider best friends from different stages of the past, literally from infancy through college. I'm also lucky to have them all within driving distance (minus Ellie who flies back to Slovakia this week, wahh) and am so happy we were able to meet up in Chicago this past weekend for the perfect bachelorette party.

I am not usually a super-crazy-let's dress up like fools for attention and go out dancing till 2 am-type of girl, but she definitely does exist within me to emerge for very special occasions such as this one. I embraced the tiara, sash, and personalized buttons and just went with the flow. The flow of drinks, that is. The night started with pink fizzy punch and pizza and just amped up from there. Ben and I haven't made it downtown since we moved here almost 3 weeks ago (WHAAT!) so it was fun to hop on the L and hit the city for the first time as an official resident and not local tourist (weird!!!)

And we even got some safe-for-internet photos:

Self-timer rockstars.

Christine! Livin it up like we're back in college.

Hostess/sis in law Ashley (and a photobomb). No, I am not actually wearing a Vegas showgirl style headpiece, but that would have been hilarious.

Oh, also, we played a quick round of Quelf. Which should be played at all parties.

 

Sisters! 

 The most delicious pizza ever. Homemade crust and fresh mozzarella yesssss. I think it honestly was extraordinary, despite every single thing I ate all night having the label of "most delicious ever."

 Making friends on the L.  Thanks for putting up with us, random fellow passengers!

 Downtown! So. much. walking. I have the blisters to prove it.

 Aaaand then we went to a drag show. Wonderful decision. Although kind of disturbing to see "men" who were prettier than us.

I never fail to get the hiccups. Luckily they are cured by biting on a slice of lemon or lime! Every single time. Try it!

 We were miraculously still alive the next morning, and dragged the guys out for brunch. Thanks for being such good sports re: the party headbands, guys :)  Ashley lives on the border of Boystown and Wrigleyville so we didn't get many second glances walking around at 2 pm wearing them. Good times, good times.

My favorite part of a good party weekend is laying around the next day and re-hashing the night's events, when all of a sudden it becomes clear how ridiculous and hilarious it all was.




our new apartment, so far

 Moving is always exhausting and always disorienting, and Ben and I have both had some pretty epic moves over the past couple years (Pennsylvania to Oregon in only a car, anyone?). However, this particular move was the biggest yet I think, because it's officially the first time that we've moved to a place we officially have together, and also the first time we've really combined all our stuff that's been hiding in basements and storage.

Since we were only moving across the state, I was down-playing everything in my head. How stressful could it really be?? Well, then we discovered our new apartment had been vacated hours before we arrived, and hadn't been thoroughly deep cleaned in what seems like 15 years, and we had to go to Michigan to get Ben's furniture, and then the huge heavy couch wouldn't fit through the door so we had to give it away, and then it turned out we had SO. MUCH. KITCHEN. STUFF. and nowhere to put it, etc etc so I honestly have no idea where the past two weeks have gone, other than into a vortex of cleaning and unpacking and giving Target all my money. 

But the hard work has been paying off and we have curtains now. And a new couch. So it's really starting to feel like home. Ben has been working hard to get his new classroom ready for next week and busy with orientation stuff, and I've been in this strange place where I freak out because I don't have a job but I'm also glad I have time to work on our home and cook good food and explore our new neighborhood. We're pretty far from the Loop so it hardly feels like we're in a big city at all, until I drive around and hit the awesome six-way intersections that are EVERYWHERE in Chicago because of the awesome one-ways and diagonal streets.

But despite the stress and uncertainty that seems endless I am extremely happy to be here in this place, physically and mentally, and in life in general. Moving has been a great distraction from wedding planning, but I guess I should get back on that bandwagon now that we're only a month and a half away. And I know I'll find a job when the time is right. Geographically we are now equidistant from both sides of our family and have lots of friends and family in the city as well, so I am excited to begin this new huge chapter. Best of all, I'm starting to realize that Ben and I will proooobably never have to be long-distance again, and that feels almost too good to be true.