Milwaukee Adventures

Thanks to a fatal drop of my iphone I've temporarily lost all of my pictures from last week.  So I'll have to post about my bowling league, crafting, and Saturday day trip to Chicago later.  But I have plenty of photos from today to share!!

This weekend was Open Door Milwaukee.  A wonderful event across the city that allows you to enter and tour buildings that would otherwise be closed to the public.  Meg and I had a great time tromping around the city, although we may get a cold now...

(We met up at City Hall to start our adventure.  This was part of the courthouse, and looked almost fake it was so pretty!)

(Our first stop was across the street at the Historic Pabst Theatre.  It's the 4th oldest continually operating theatre in America.  The architecture was absolutely beautiful!)

(They literally let you crawl all over this place.  We ventured up to the scaffolding over the stage where they work the curtains.  There were so many ropes, and it's all done manually with weights and manpower!)

(A couple of blocks over we walked into one of the 

Catholic churches off of Cathedral Square, St. John's)

(The absolutely beautiful sanctuary.  The natural light was absolutely amazing.  It's been redone/restored a couple of times, but they seemed to capture something of the previous design  and incorporate it. Ex. The priest and archbishops seats were constructed of the previous communion rail. So neat.)

(The beautiful super modern sculpture/art/crucifix in the middle of the room.  It's supposed to represent the sacrifice as well as the resurrection.  Jesus' hands and feet have nails in them, but he isn't nailed the the cross. Oh, and the "wishbone" in his right hand, that's supposed to be the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove.  Don't worry, I definitely asked the significance of "the wishbone."  Embarrassing.)

 (Next up was the Pfister Hotel.  I'll definitely be heading back there to check out their bar, which is on the same level as this picture was taken.  I can only imagine how great the view is at night!)

 (Next up was The Grain Exchange.  A breathtaking event space.  You literally wouldn't need a single decoration to have your wedding reception here.  It was beautiful!)

(We then took the long walk over the the Marquette campus to check out the cathedrals over there.  Once again, they were breathtaking!)

(View from the pulpit area, looking out towards the front of the church.  If that isn't one of the prettiest stained glasses I've ever seen...)

  

(Meg and I strutting our stuff in the Wisconsin Club's gazebo.)

(Meg, myself, and Nicole waiting in line to go to the 

42nd story of the US Bank Building to the Observation Deck!)

(View of the lake/marina from the 42nd floor.  It was awesome!  You could walk the entire way around the top of the building, definitely the best view of the day!)

(Meg and I with the Third Ward in the background.  My condo is where Meg's left shoulder is!)

Natalie met up with us tonight to continue our Milwaukee Adventures at a restaurant that none of us had eaten at in Bayview. Now obviously I haven't eaten at all that many places, but Meg and Natalie have lived in or near the area for years, so I'm glad we could try something new!

(Outside Palomino.  Home of tequila vinaigrette salad dressing, homemade mac and cheese, and wild rice and pistachio burgers.  They also had a "vegan country fried steak."  While Meg and Natalie were adventurous, I stuck to the classics of Ranch dressing and grass fed beef:))

(We finished off the night with some Leon's Butter Pecan Custard.  Natalie treated us (thanks again Nat!) to the best custard I've had yet!)

Now off to bed!  I've got a lot of work, packing, playing, and all around living to do this week!

COLLEGE STATION BOUND IN FOUR DAYS! WHOOP!

Until next time...

Working for the Weekend

This work week seemed extra long, and I'm going to blame it one the Packers.  With the game being on Thursday, Thursday felt like Friday, and Friday felt like... idk.  Friday felt like a power outage, which happened for about a hour at work.  I think I'm one of the few people at work that finds a Switchgear and Power Systems company having a power outage completely hilarious... 

I guess it's my immature sense of humor.

(At the recommendation of Laree Allen, Carin and I headed to O'Lydia's to meet John and Rachel to watch the Packer's game.  You really can't beat a 1/2 pound cheeseburger for $2.95!!  

And the Pack WON!  Which made working Friday a LOT easier.)

(TOUCHDOWN SHOTS for the PACKERS!  Whoop!  Too bad we only made it till 9pm at O'Lydia's.  Guess I'm an official Grandma...)

(My craft project for the week was finishing up my burlap A&M football wreath.  I may be one week late on the season, but it's better late than never!  These have been all over Pinterest, so I thought I'd give it a shot.  Two tips:  Don't double up our front piece of burlap.  Burlap is like $4/yard, so why would you waste it on backing?  I used one of Wes's old t-shirts... Oh yeah Wes, I cut up one of your old t-shirts;)  And my second piece of advice is to stuff the burlap with empty grocery sacks instead of polyfill.  Hello, grocery sacks are free!) 

(The finished project!  I think it looks pretty good.  

It's a little off center and what not, but that just adds character, right?)

(Carin and I took a trip out to the Bayview Farmer's Market this Saturday and we were both really impressed.  Everything was super fresh and there was a great variety of produce, meats, cheeses, etc.  I picked up these beautiful flowers and farm fresh eggs!)

(Cupcakes I made for Sarah, Meg, Carin, and I.  Chocolate fudge with carmel pieces, cream cheese icing, and carmel/chocolate pieces on top.  Extra yummy!  Carin and I spent Saturday night at the casino!  I won $250 on the slots, which would have been awesome if I hadn't lost $175 before that.  At least I came out on top!! Can't say the same for Carin:/)

(The brunch I made myself for Sunday.  Leftover red roasted potatoes with eggs and mushrooms.  I ate it on the terrace and enjoyed watching the morning unfold!)

(These were my Sunday Funday Craft Project.  I got the idea from Pinterest, duh.  But they're a Martha Stewart original.  (also why I'm in love with the idea, duh)  Anyways, good ole Martha stated these were a 25-30 minute craft.  She lies.  I made 4 pumpkins in about 3.5 hours.  Hopefully I'll get a little faster because I planned on making a lot of them...)

(Anisha had me over to Ryan's for dinner tonight for some traditional Indian cuisine.  We had rice, and chicken curry, as well as some green yummy potato cheese patties that I didn't know how to spell and forgot to take a photo of... oh well.  It was very yummy and made especially for me and my "mild mouth" what a great friend!!)

(Enter my craft project for this week.  These are a couple of my paper stackers at work.  I have 4 and these are the only two that are the same color... which irks me on a daily basis.  Anyways, I got the go ahead from HR to repaint them or do whatever.  So we'll see what I come up with!)

This week should go by pretty fast.  In two weekends I'll be headed down to Aggieland and can not WAIT to see everyone.  I'll work on growing my pumpkin patch, getting the apartment Fall-y-fied and other random stuff!

Until next time...

Days Go By

It's already WEDNESDAY!  I can't believe this week has gone by so fast.  Well it's been fast and slow all at the same time.  Oh well, it's half way over either way!  

(My co-worker Lisa went down to Waco, TX for her highs school reunion and brought be back two sausage and cheese kolaches!! I had already forgotten how delicious these things were!)

(Yesterday was Cindy at works birthday.  I brought chocolate fudge cupcakes with cream cheese icing and chocolate chips on top.  All homemade from scratch.  They were all gone and eaten before I could even try one!)

(Jim from work has a garden that is in full bloom with lots of peppers.  Since I have such a tender mouth,I grabbed some to dry out and save for Wes when he gets back!  Plus Liz is going to let me borrow her dehydrator.  So this weekend I'm going to try my hand at banana and apple chips.)

(My neighbor Carin and I have started a little dinner trade off.  I make dinner for us one week, she makes dinner for us the next.  This week was Carin's turn.  roasted red potatoes, asparagus, and wild Alaskan salmon.  She is a much better cook than I am, so I definitely got the better end of this deal.)

  

(Here is one of my latest craft projects.  A Texas A&M inspired football wreath from burlap.  For some strange reason there was a shortage of tan burlap in the Milwaukee area, so this took me 3 different stores to find.  Once I got started I realized that I don't have any white paint (don't worry I have every other color except white) and can't finish this one just yet.  But don't worry, it WILL be done before the Aggies take on SMU this weekend.  I hope they trample those little ponies!)

(That leads me to these little gems.  Much to Wes's dismay I picked these up at the local Salvation Army for $2.50 for the pair. Yes, they are ugly as sin.  But that will be easily fixed once I work some magic.  I plan on painting them with a base of gold and then covering them in gold glitter.  I think they'll look great on my sofa table come Christmas time.)

Tonight while crafting I watched Snow White and the Huntsman.  It was actually pretty good.  I think Kristin Stewart excels in acting roles where she doesn't need to talk a lot.  

Tomorrow the Packer's take on the Bears in what seems to big one of the biggest games to hit the Milwaukee Area.  Several people are taking off work starting tomorrow to head up to Green Bay for the weekend.  Let's just hope the real Packer's show up instead of whoever was on TV last Sunday.  Hopefully Team TOUCH DOWNey does well in Fantasy this week.

Until next time...

Girls Night, Football, and Crafts

Thursday and Friday were pampering days for me.  I got a mani pedi on Thursday night and a massage on Friday!  Now if I could only have that done every week... After my massage I met up with Natalie, Sarah, Meg, and Veta for sushi and Girls Night!!

(My yummy sushi rolls!  Meg and Sarah both got some that were on FIRE! 

 It was a great dinner with lovely people:))

(Nat and I at Kanpai for sushi and drinks!)

I watched the Aggies play on Saturday, and it was such a heartbreaking loss!  We started off like firecrackers, and then in true Aggie fashion, we gave it away in the second quarter.  At least I made these beauties!!

(Here's the before and after on these glasses for my bar.  I picked up the glasses for $1.25 a piece when I was home in Arkansas.  A paintbrush, some paint, and a lot of patience and I turned them in to these awesome Anthropology knock-offs!)

Today I spent the day watching the Packers lose.  Hopefully the loss doesn't affect my fantasy league too much!  Fortunately I had another craft project to work on.  I have a couple of other things on coming up on the craft deck; football wreath. reindeer makeover for Christmas, decorating for Halloween and Thanksgiving, etc.  So I decided to get a jump start on my Halloween decor.  

(This was a an almost free project.  I got the wreath form for $4 on sale at Michaels, my mom gave me this large amount of felt for free, as well as the straight pins I used to attach the circles, 

and the orange ribbon was on sale for $1.50.  

I wrapped strips of felt around the form, and cut out a million small circles.)

(And viola! You can't really tell the details of it from this photo but it's super cute!  I had originally wanted to make a black feather wreath, but boas are so expensive.  

So I think this looks pretty dang good for $5.50!)

(My dinner tonight!  Fresh green beans and sautéed mushrooms with parmesan crusted tilapia. It was very yummy.)

As you can see from the above photo I went to the grocery store.  Finally.  I was scraping by on the bare minimum with Wes before I went home, and once I got home I realized we had no food.  And then a week went by.  So then I really had no food.  It's nice to have a full fridge and pantry!  

Now that I have food to eat, our apartment is clean, and I'm on my last load of laundry (which never happens... every!) I'm going to enjoy some Real House Wives on New Jersey before I head off to bed!

Until next time...

Labor Day and Labor

Going home last weekend was such a great break.  Living in Wisconsin for a mere 3 months I had lost all tolerance for heat.  And with the humidity that Hurricane Isaac brought, the weather was less than desirable. 

(The view on my flight on the way down to Arkansas.  Hurricane Isaac was full fledge!)

(Friday night was spent with Chelsy!  After a long day at school, she was ready for these.  It was really great catching up with her and I'm so proud of her being in GRAD SCHOOL!)

(Saturday we went shopping for pantry and kitchen organization for my parent's new kitchen.  Sunday was my dad's 61st birthday so I treated them to Cantina Laredo.  

Nothing better than fresh guacamole, queso, and fajitas!!  

Later that day we saw Lawless which I thought was great and would definitely recommend.) 

(Saturday was the Hogs first game and this is a photo that Wes sent me of the sky in Arkansas. 

 I guess God was a Hog fan that day.  

I pray that he'll turn into an Aggie fan for Texas A&M's first game tomorrow!)

I did some serious shopping while I was home.  Warning: I will be listing some serious savings below!

(New blue clutch: $7)

(Body Glove bikini for $2.  Two freaking dollars for a swim suit.  Insane!)

(From top left.  Juicy Couture flats- $25.  Nine West patent wedges- $25 

Black jeweled t-straps- $6 Steve Madden bow sandals- $5.)

(Nude wedges- $4. Turquoise cross body bag- $7.  

Black Steve Madden cross body bag- $5.  Madden Girl sandals- $5.)

(For my last meal in Arkansas I had the infamous Whole Hog Cafe.  This is by far one of my most favorite places to eat.  The half chicken is just to die for!)

(After I had a very long, annoying, and irritating flight back to Milwaukee, I had this waiting for me!  Jordan bought me a Real Simple subscription for my birthday and I absolutely love it!!)

(This week Mike "the IT type guy" brought fresh tomatoes, green beans, and wax beans from his garden to the office.  I picked up a hand full and had them with boiled shrimp and quinoa for dinner!)

(My new note pads for work.  I think these are soooo funny.)

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Until next time...