The Best Birthday I've Had in a Long TIme

Yesterday was an amazing day. I turned 23 and Sarah turned 21. We went out for breakfast at Northside Grill with some friends, after which I decided to get in some hammock relaxation time before the storm rolled in. Dillon, being the amazing coffee maker that he is, made delicious affogados (an espresso shot over vanilla ice cream) for Sarah and I to sip on while we relaxed.

Later on I decided to try a 4 ingredient cake recipe that I found online. The only ingredients were chocolate, butter, sugar, and eggs. (You know a recipe is going to be good when the first 2 ingredients are chocolate and butter).

 

folding in the whipped egg whites

 To finish it off, we topped it with fresh whipped cream and fruit with powdered sugar. It looked and tasted amazing! I will definitely make this one again.

For Sarah's birthday present I made her a leather bound journal with a button closure. It was really fun to make and I was so excited to finally give it to her. It has been a long time since I made a book so I made a few mistakes while sewing it together but I think it turned out pretty well. For my birthday, Sarah and Eric got me a climbing harness and a belay device. I was so excited when they gave it to me that I put it on over my dress, which looked ridiculous. I'm so pumped to start climbing!

That evening we went out to the bar with a bunch of our friends and got super drunk and sang karaoke. It's an LV tradition that you have to go in the river on your birthday so when we got home we all stripped down to our underoos and jumped off the dock at argo. It was freezing cold but also really fun. Best birthday ever.

Beautiful Earth Day and Birthday!

TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!! WOO!! It is also my roommate Sarah's birthday! I turned 23 and she turned 21. It is kinda rainy today so we are just chilling at home until it is time to go to the bar.

Yesterday was Earth Day and it was beautiful. It was warm and sunny and full of good friends and good food. My roommate Dillon was so inspired that he decided to brew some iced coffee out on the porch. If you don't know Dillon, he is a coffee freak. Obsessed doesn't begin to describe it. It's more like a lifestyle. Needless to say, he makes some kick-ass coffee. 

 

I was also feeling inspired by the beauty of the day so I decided to do some crafting outside. My roommate and I have the same birthday so I made her a present. I haven't given her the present yet so I can't post the finished pics here but I will post them tomorrow!

For about the past 2 weeks I have been leaving mini watercolor paintings around the house for Sarah to find as we count down to our birthday. It's been fun trying to think of different things to paint each day and it has motivated me to make more art.

On day 9 Sarah made me a bouquet of greens that she got from our friends at Green Things Farm in Ann Arbor. On day 8 she gave me a cute little pocket binocular thing for bird watching. She is the best.

Barefeet and Peepers

Yesterday was a beautiful day. It was warm and humid and the air was heavy with the scent of a looming storm. I had a beautiful salad of kale, chard, radishes, and shredded beets, apples, and carrots. So many yummy colors and tastes.

I ended up going to pinkney recreation area with a friend to go hiking. It was so warm that we decided to take off our shoes to better feel the earth under our feet. We hiked the 6 mile loop around crooked lake, stopping often to listen to the chorus of peepers in the ponds. At times they were so loud it was almost deafening.

Our feet were a little muddy and sore by the end but it was refreshing to be so liberated from the heavy layers we have been wrapped in for the past 6 months. I think it would be fun to walk barefoot in a summer rain. I can't wait for the warm weather to stay.  

Air Mail and No Pizza

I've been pretty busy lately making preparations to open my new etsy shop and start selling at the Wednesday farmers market here in Ann Arbor. This means doing a lot of boring stuff like market research, applying for a sales tax license, and applying to be a vender, but it also means a lot of fun stuff like making new products, creating graphics, and taking cool pictures. I recently felt inspired on one of the sunny days last week to do a little photo shoot with some new jewelry I've been working on.

Last week I got the cutest package in the mail. It was some brass feather charms that I ordered off Etsy. They arrived by air mail from Hong Kong with beautiful bird stamps and string tied around it. It was so tactile and beautiful that I had to snap some pics before I opened it. That charms were amazing as well and I can't wait to use them.

This week has been pretty boring food wise. The only exciting thing this week was a steak that I pulled out of the freezer and marinated in balsamic vinager. It lasted me the whole week mixed in with kale and chard salads for breakfast and on top of sweet potato hash for dinner. Steak is awesome but I'm ready for some other kinds of meat.

I've also been eating a lot of crap food this week, due to the fact that it is almost the end of the semester and all my freshman friends have tons of meals left on their meal plans. It isn't the best but who can say no to free food? We even drove all the way to north campus to get some famous blue apple pizza, only to find that their cooler is broken so they can't make pizza. Rachel was pretty unfazed by this, but I was thoroughly disappointed.

Girls Skinning Squirrels

Swans out on the Huron River

It has been so nice outside! I went on an 18 mile bike ride the other day to soak up the sun and got to see a lot of wildlife. The swans are nesting now which means babies are on their way! I love this time of year. It's still a bit chilly today, but it was so nice on easter sunday when it was in the high 50's! It was so warm and sunny that we decided to have a picnic on top of my car.

Pesto, butter, avocado, cheese, and bread made for a lovely picnic.

After our picnic, Karl brought us a fresh squirrel and taught us how to skin and process it. We started tanning the hide, and used the meat to make a nice stew that we had for dinner the next night. There are more pics on his website.
 

 

For our weekly sunday night potluck P. Sarah and I made chocolate cake eggs. I used the recipe on this page and they came out great! I also made some maple whipped cream to go with them, and we used the extra cake batter mixed with some eggs to make chocolate cake french toast. Best breakfast ever.