Tuesday, September 20, 2011

More Jewelry

I finally got a picture of my bracelet holder. It looks great! Now on to making an earring holder and a necklace holder...
I haven't done much jewelry-making lately; I've been preoccupied finding fun fall crafts. Those will have to wait for another blog post - I still need a few more pieces to deem my wreath complete and I have another pumpkin project for this weekend. But... just so I don't look like my creative side is totally slacking, here are some of my more recent experiments.
I am rather impressed by the earrings - I definitely need to make more of those! Now it's time to focus on a little fall decorating...

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Quarter-Century

Wow, I can't believe I've around for a quarter-century. I'm not freaking out about getting older, but 25 seems so much older than 24. I think it's mostly because of all the changes that will be happening over the next 12 months: interviews for and finding out about our residency placement, a new baby joining the group (NOT ours but we're super excited anyways), Amit's 25th birthday, his graduation weekend extravaganza (to which everyone is invited, of course), moving to a new state (hopefully), and right before my 26th birthday, starting my student teaching. Wow. Guess I should have enjoyed my calm 24th year of life a little more, 25 is going to bring craziness! I like a little excitement though.

So back to my birthday weekend. Friday night we went out to dinner in the North End with friends. It was delicious and the sangria was fantastic. Of course I forgot my camera. Bummer. At least we got a table on the rooftop. It was great weather! On Saturday, Mel and Kirsten came over and we did a little crafting. I'm not finished with my fall wreath yet, so you will all just have to wait for a picture. Then there was Sunday. Since the rest of the weekend was crazy, we had a very relaxing Sunday at home. I did have my camera and captured the highlights of the day. The food.

Amit made me Vanilla French Toast for breakfast.
It was delicious. 
Note the pathetic-looking dog in the background. I didn't share.
 Lunch was the highlight of the day.
Portillo's Italian Beef shipped to us from Dad. 
It was great to have a little bit of home with us on my birthday.

Rolls + Beef + Giardiniera = AWESOMENESS

So ridiculously good!! 
It was like we were actually eating at Portillo's!!!

I still am eating leftovers and it's still so good! There really is nothing like good-old Chicago food. Boston has nothing on my Chicago Italian Beef. Thanks so much to Dad and Grace for sending it! I loved it!!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

DIY Bracelet Tree

So it turns out that I am rather good at making jewelry. Bet you never saw that one coming, I sure didn't! I have been slowly building a large collection of bracelets and don't have anywhere to put them. I had the idea to make my own bracelet holder and since we had some scrap wood in the garage, decided to give it a try.

Off we went to Home Depot to figure out what we needed. Our first attempt using only the wood we had in the garage failed miserably. I can't wait until we can afford BIG tools! As we were staring at the miscellaneous dowels, the solution came to me. It ended up being so simple. Amit was a big help and drilled all the holes for me. We screwed the two main pieces together and glued in the dowels. Now I have my very own, one of a kind bracelet holder!!

My favorite DIY partner.
 Assembled and ready for a coat of paint.

Drying.
Can't wait to see my bracelets on it!

 Oh Amit.
My sweet, sweet husband...
 Sweet, yet just a bit full of himself. 
(Though technically he was just being truthful.)

So our second DIY project was successful and actually completed. The bookshelves we made last year are still unfinished. I'm not painting those until I know the color scheme of our future home. I like doing these projects, but I only want to paint stuff once. I wonder what other projects we'll come up with...

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Gumbo Night

I love getting presents!! Especially when they come in the mail. Dad and Grace got me a cast-iron dutch oven for my birthday. I've been wanting one for forever and couldn't wait to use it.. So what did we end up doing on our Saturday? I made Chicken and Sausage Gumbo from this place.
It's Michigan Football time again.
We whipped up some guacamole, yum!
Love my present!!!

 My mise en place. Gotta love all the meat and veggies.

C'mon Mom, just drop the chicken already!

If Amit asks, I was just getting some extra stock.
For the record - I went with the Meltaways over the leftover guac.
They're easier to sneak.

Lookin' good!!
(Who cares if I skipped the whole roux thing - 
don't make gumbo enough to make a giant batch of it.)
((Though that should probably change.))

Dinnertime!

The gumbo was delicious! My dutch oven is fabulous! Thanks so much, Dad and Grace! I'll have to make you something awesome when you come out to visit. I'm already planning my next meal, though I can't decide what to make. The options are endless!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Living the Single Life

That's how we've been living during the past month. Amit is up in Keene, NH for his externship while I'm home with Emma. I figured that I should share a little of how it's been being separated again.

Amit is having a great time. He loves working with the patients and staff. He has been able to get some good OS (oral surgery) experience and gets to do the occasional extraction. He pulled 5 or 6 teeth from one patient that he told me about. How awesome is that? He loves being around people who love being outdoors as much as we do. We're going to have a great time when we end up moving north of Boston. His preceptor is an avid cyclist, so Amit has been able to go on a lot of bike rides. Thankfully he sends me pictures when he does.
  
It is quite beautiful up there. Emma and I don't have quite the same view. We are enjoying our girls-only bonding time. She "helps" me to do all my exercises in the morning and enjoys cuddling while watching TV.

The house is very quiet without Amit, which isn't always a good thing. We're both very happy when we pick him up on Fridays. He isn't done with his externship until the end of September, so we have a month more of commuting to NH on weekends. Emma is a big help, but I'll be glad when the driving is over.