I forgot to blog about this...

A couple of weekends ago Brett & I decided to get out of Davenport for the day.  We went to the Amana Colonies which are a little more than an hour away from here.  

The Amana Colonies are formed by a 17 mile loop of a handful of former Amish communities.  Many of the old buildings have been converted into cute little shops and restaurants.  They had lots of German restaurants (read: not vegetarian), so it took us a while to find a place but we eventually found somewhere to eat lunch.  

Image of me per my grandmother's request.  ;)  Hi Grandma!

Side note:  I walked into one restaurant and asked what they had that was vegetarian.  I was offered frog legs.  

All in all it was a fun little day trip.  I was a little disappointed because I thought it was an actual Amish community.  I found out later you have to travel a little bit farther North for that.  Maybe next time.  :)

Vegetable Garden

Brett & I woke up early this morning to get outside and start working on our vegetable garden. While Brett readied our planter beds I planted some cilantro (shockingly difficult to find)...

...and basil seeds in pots to grow in our sunroom.

Wow. Look at those hands...looks like I'm bringing filthy back...only I don't think Justin Timberlake ever sang a song about that.

I also potted some strawberries and started seeds for watermelon and zucchini.


After that the tomato plants went in. This year we planted 1 roma and 1 cherry tomato plant.


Next, I planted a few rows of broccoli, followed by jalapeno and red bell peppers, and some onions.


Then this cute little bunny helped me plant some impatiens in my window boxes out front.


No, not really. But there was a cute little bunny, and I did plant some pretty impatiens. See?:


We also cleared a patch in our yard where we will be growing sweet corn. We are expecting a ton of rain this weekend (possibly 4+ inches) and we were worried that heavy rain would wash away our newly planted seeds, so that will have to wait.

More garden updates to come. :)

This is Also Completely Off Topic

Attention Urban Outfitters: This is not an outfit.


It does not in any way qualify as clothing. Sorry.

This is Completely Off Topic

Does anybody else think that Piper Perabo bears an uncanny resemblance to Carly Simon?

'Cause I do.

New Blog Header

Look! ^^^^^ A new blog header!

It's cute. It's springy. It's everything I hope the outside world to be. :)

So long, snowflakes!

Spring Still Isn't Here Yet

There is a strange sleet/flurry/rain combination falling outside right now. Yesterday it was sunny, and a couple of days ago it was pushing 70 degrees. Now they are calling for 4-8” of snow. Bleh. I was naïve enough to think that we were in the clear. I haven’t decided if we are going anywhere today. Groceries need to be gotten so now the debate is whether to go now in the rain, or tomorrow when there’s snow. It’s kind of a lose-lose. Plus, I was struck with some variety of food poisoning/flu/mysterious bug last Sunday, and I have been pretty under the weather ever since, so naturally, motivation is dwindling. Not to mention the fact that Brett & I just got completely addicted to 24. We have made it through the first 12 hours/episodes, which means there are 12 more to go. The more I write this, the more I think we aren’t going anywhere today.

In other news, I have fallen completely in love with these:

They are measuring cups from Antrhopologie that come in the shape of adorable little flower bowls. Tempting. Very tempting. Then I remind myself that they cost $36, and it is NOT OK to spend $36 on measuring bowls. Spring needs to get here, because dangerous things begin to happen when I am cooped up inside spending too much time on my computer. Moving on…

Brett and I went to hear this speaker last night at Front Street Brewery in Davenport. He is a chiropractor/consultant/guy who builds practices for the purpose of selling them. He was interesting. And scary. He talked a lot about all of the things we pretty much already knew but didn’t particularly want to be reminded of about owning a business, growing a practice, financial stuff, etc. etc. etc. Oh well, for now I will just pull a Scarlett O’Hara, “I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow.” And when I say tomorrow I mean 208 days, 19 hours and 40 minutes from now when Brett graduates. Not that I’m counting.

Now I’m in the mood to watch Gone With the Wind. Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow instead of shoveling snow.

UPDATE: In the time it took me to write this blog post it went from wintry mix to actually snowing outside, and some of it is even beginning to accumulate. *Sigh* Where are you, Spring?

Wise Words from our Friend Abe

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

(Moose LOVED this.)

Brett & Amy Update

Hmmmm...what to blog about? It seems as though Brett & I have been stuck in the doldrums of Winter lately...but I'll try to scrape together a few things for this post. ;)

First...I cut my hair!! I cut about four or five inches off. I really really like having it short again. It makes me feel ready for spring.


Brett cut his hair super short, too. Not on purpose. There was an incident. He got fed up with his hair so rather than go get it cut, or wait for me to do it like I sometimes do, he decided to cut it himself. He has done this before without a problem, but this time the guard fell off of the clippers while he was cutting, resulting in an extremely short strip being carved right down the middle of Brett's head. The only remedy of course was to make all of his hair the same length. So he was walking around with very short hair there for a while. I unfortunately don't have a picture of that, so you will just have to use your imagination.

Last week was my mom's birthday, which was kind of sad, but Brett made it fun by sending me beautiful flowers at work and then taking me out to dinner, because he's awesome like that.

I made another skirt out of some adorable fabric that I am in love with. It's just a simple drawstring skirt, but I can't wait for it to be warm enough to wear it.


Brett is studying for Part 3 national boards. His test is on Sunday, so he has been holed up at the library a LOT lately. You know your husband is in grad school when the big spring-break decision with his friends is "should we go to the Bettendorf or Fairmount library today?" This has been the view around the house for a while now:


He takes the test on Sunday, then he takes Part 4 in a few weeks, then he is DONE WITH BOARDS. Hallelujah.

Meanwhile, Moose has been up to his usual antics:

More Crafty-Goodness

I have to brag. I'm so excited. I actually made my own skirt. I have been toying with the idea of making my own clothes for a while now, but I wasn't sure I could do it. It turned out that it was much easier than I thought, and I'm quite pleased with the result.

This is Cool

Kinda like that "Find Your Ikea Style" thing I posted before. This is "Find Your Decorating Style" by Sproost. You get to rate pictures of rooms as "love it" or "hate it" or somewhere in between. Fun. Check it out here.



I am 50% Nantucket Style
36% Cottage Chic
14% Traditional Country.

What are you?

Weekend Update

Nothing too terribly exciting has happened here recently. Just the usual. Brett finished his 8th trimester last week. 8 of 10 down. That means he is 80% doctor. We both are having a hard time believing that our Palmer experience has gone by so quickly.

I wish I could tell you that we are jetting off to Tahiti for Spring Break, but sadly that is not the case. We will be staying here in Iowa, working (me) seeing patients (Brett) and shoveling snow (booo!). We got an inch or so Friday night, but nothing to get too excited about.

My relentless crafting continues. I was inspired by this fabric to make an apron. I think it turned out quite adorable. It's springy and fun and I love it. <3



Now I have begun to work on those previously mentioned place mats for our sun room.

Last night we went to Cracker Barrel for dinner with some friends and our friend Amber's parents who are in town. If you have never been to Cracker Barrel you need to find one (they're around) and go. Seriously, yum. Funny Story: We were running out of room for plates, so we decided to consolidate our two plates of bread into one plate. I was trying to be polite by not touching the food with my fingers. Here's what happened:

Brett: Why are you using your fork to move the bread?
Amy (In a frustrated voice): Because I'm TRYING to be POLITE and not use my fingers!
Clay: Isn't that the fork you used to eat your salad?

OOPS. Oh yeah. Forgot about that. I felt like a retard.

Yesterday Brett & I made the extra effort to get all of our errands done so that we could stay home and do absolutely nothing today. So that is the plan. This house needs to be cleaned, but we'll see about that. ;)

Fabric Love!

Let me just say that if it were possible to be genuinely in love with a fabric, this fabric would be the one for me.

As a general rule, fabric has to be dirt cheap-like, they practically have to be giving it away- to be added to my fabric stash. This fabric was a recent exception to that rule, but if there were ever a fabric that says "Amy" this would be it.

To make up for the rule-breaking, I found this juicy little number for $.79! No projects planned just yet, but if you know me you know that won't be an issue.

I was shocked to learn today that Wal Mart is eliminating their fabric department!!!! Sad day. :( Now what? Oh well. Due to total fabric liquidation, two yards of this textile loveliness came home with me for under $3!!!! I am having visions of pillows for our sun room and coordinating place mats...

It was a good fabric day. ;)

Ikea Style

Check out this cool tool over at IKEA business that helps you to find your "IKEA Style." I felt like mine was pretty accurate.

You can find your own IKEA style here.

Galena Weekend

Brett & I went to Galena, IL and stayed at a Bed & Breakfast for our anniversary. Neither of us had ever stayed at a B & B before, and I must say that we both really enjoyed the experience. We rented the cottage at the Captain Harris Guest House. The house was really interesting, the owners were wonderful, and the food was practically gourmet. Seriously, it was like eating at a five-star restaurant. Yum! I seriously can't say enough good things about them.

I also can't say enough good things about the restaurant Vinny Vanucchi's that we ate at for our anniversary dinner. It was one of the most interesting restaurants I've been in (in a very old building) and the food was AMAZING! They even had a card for us waiting at our table thanking us for celebrating our anniversary with them. Isn't that cool?


All in all it was an amazing, relaxing, and much needed weekend getaway.