meathead hat

for the past week or so i've been slowly banging out a clover lace caplet-of my own design. it's been slow going and i really needed some relief. so, since it was chilly out today, i decided to knit up these quick meathead hats. i used lion's brand extra bulky weight yarn and size 15 needles. the pattern called for bulky weight held tog; so i figured single strand would be fine. you have child, small/med, or large size choices and the first one i made was the sm/md. it ended up being way too big even for chad (he's wearing it). so i quickly did another in the child size which fit me like a glove! it only took about 30 min to do and it's just so darn cute! i also knit the flower which was quick as well. it was on a pattern for house slippers as an embellishment, and i thought it would be a nice touch. i attached it to a safety pin, so it's removable and can be used on anything else you choose. this hat was exactly what i needed, what a nice break!

i had to post these because they're beautiful. it's the sunset view from our window.

lincoln park picnic

on memorial day we rode our bikes with claire down to lincoln park for a picnic. we walked all around on clark and on broadway, looking in all the shops and enjoying the beautiful day. it was so nice. i love days like this.

claire in my bag

ready for the ride

yum!

oh, hello!

claire's tongue was hanging out so long!

what a cute puppy! claire's curious

it's a shizu/poodle, i call 'em shitty poo's

we had to capture this "great head" moment;)

cut n' curl

claire's been getting some mad dreads lately. her hair is curly and if i'm not up on combing it (and sometimes even when i am) it gets all matted especially on her ears and leg pits. i usually cut her when i'm sitting on the couch watching tv or whatever; but then i have to be careful of where the hair falls, etc. so, since it's been kinda pleasant outside i figured i should just do it outside during her walk so i can just let it blow with the wind. it worked out great-this is definitely gonna become the routine.

claire, do you recognize this brush? duh, duh, dummmmmm.....


she hates getting combed-but she's a trooper

getting cut

won't someone please help me?!

lush and lacy cardigan: finished

well, my lush and lacy cardigan is finally finished. actually, it was done about a week and a half ago; i just never got around to having chad help me get pics. so, here they are. overall i think it turned out pretty well for my first big project. though, i haven't put buttons on it yet. i decided i will definitely do this one again in the near future (while the pattern's still fresh in my mind) and when i do i'll: do it an a brighter color-yellow?, do it in a small instead of medium (it's kinda big for me), and be more careful of the arm and arm hole decreases (i kinda botched 'em and had to frog a lot)! overall i'd say this project was: fun for the first half then i wanted it over with-i'm sure this was because i had to frog a lot, the pattern was pretty simple and easy to follow, and the design is super cute! i'm actually excited to do it again. thanks sweater babe!

not such good color w/o the flash; but the lace is a bit more obvious.

fried green tomatoes

i really always loved this movie. even though it's sad, i must have watched it like 15 times in a row when i was a kid. some of that may have been because i always thought the fried green tomatoes looked so darn good, although i never ate them until yesterday. over the past couple months chad and i have become burnt out and bored of opening the fridge and seeing the same old food with which we make the same old recipes. in remedy of this we've begun searching for new and exciting dishes to spice up our dining experience. enter: fried green tomatoes! i saw them at the store and, on a whim, new we just had to try them. we did it, and it turned out fabulously!

i looked up a bunch of recipes on the Internet and then decided that i'd make my own hybrid recipe. you'll need the following ingredients:

3 green tomatoes
1/2c. flour
1/4c. milk
2/3c. bread crumbs/cornmeal
1/4c. oil
2 eggs
salt
pepper

first, slice your toms into 1/2" thick slices. not too thick, not too thin. then, in a bowl combine eggs and milk. beat. in a separate bowl, combine flour and bread crumbs. you may need more flour and bread mixture depending-so keep it on hand. dip tomato slices in: egg mixture then bread crumb mixture, twice (egg, bread, egg, bread). put oil in pan and heat. after hot, fry the slices 'till brown on both sides. salt and pepper to taste. enjoy!

these were so delicious. they've got an almost citrus-y taste to them. as we were gorging ourselves we decided that there are endless possibilities for these. they'd be great with mozzarella cheese them and a marinara sauce. or maybe baked with goat cheese? you could even add stuff to the bread crumb mixture like basil and oregano for an italian feel. or cyan pepper, or garlic. mmm.....

chad's picnic

for weeks i had been trying to think of something special that i could do for chad; but was having the hardest time! we are barely ever home and when i'm home he usually is too. so, it leaves little opportunity for keeping secrets or preparing surprises. but, both of us recently had pretty drastic schedule changes and it just so happens that we have opposite days of. i have thursday and he has wednesday. it kinda sucks; but in the long run i think it gives us both time to chill out on our own and to have time to scheme little extras for one another. i hadn't done anything special for him in quite a while so i decided to surprise him with a dinner picnic. he gets off work at 7 and i wanted to be there in the grassy field waiting for him with blanket and meal displayed. i prepared an asian type meal of beef and broccoli with vegetable fried noodles. when i got to the field it ended up being pretty chilly and there was a family of 4 kids who were completely in love with claire. i left a note on his bike directing him to me and when he showed up the kids were all over trying to cuddle claire. turns out he was chilled to the bone from sitting inside an overly air conditioned building all day and it didn't help that it was super nippy outside. he obviously wasn't in the mood to picnic:( still, he obliged and we ate dinner, bless his heart. in the end the whole shebang was kind of a bust; but my main point was received-that i really appreciate him.

some pretty flowers i saw on the way

thanks for appeasing me chadley!

we were so distracted with kids and the cold that i forgot to take pics of our spread. that sucks.

colorful stuff

memorial day parade

memorial day is tomorrow; but the chicago memorial day parade was yesterday! we rode our bikes down town (17 mi. round trip!) and met up with our friends renee and jeff who took the train. this parade wasn't nearly as crowded as the one on st. patty's day. we had a great spot across from the chicago theatre and could see everything perfectly. for some reason when i think about a chicago parade i imagine huge floats-a big to do. but, apparently it's not like that. it felt like a montana parade, only longer. i guess the big floats only happen in new york. afterward, we enjoyed a picnic and revisited our tourist days!

this is mostly what the parade was all about (above)

this guy was kinda cool. he's full of air; but there's an actual person in there! dangerous right?! i mean, he's made of plastic!

these cute little cta buses seem way more fun than the life size version.

afterward we all had a picnic in millennium park. it was so beautiful out. so good to get together with friends.

pretty tulips.

i had to get some pics of the bean-just a refresher.

i like this sculpture