LIFE: Small Things #12

With the clocks jumping an hour forward last Sunday here in the US, there's a extra sense of spring in the air. The days are getting warmer and longer, bulbs are popping up everywhere and more and more birds are chirping and fluttering in to garden for a nosy. Oncoming spring also means the arrival of annoying weather like three hour long thunderstorm early Wednesday morning, I always forgot how hideously loud the bangs and booms are in Michigan. 

The promise of spring has created a little bit of inner peace within myself. This week in particular I feel I might be getting somewhere with my stress and there's lots of plan making to be doing. 

So without further-ado, here's an assortment in no particular order (order being overrated) of random small, but happy things.

• Getting my Brit fix while popping to the store that has a decent British international section - this trip calling for Wetabix and salad cream. And no, sadly to everyone who thought I ate them together when I shared this on instagram, I don't. 
• Talking about British food, those scotch eggs from One Eyed Betty's.
• Finding Tubi TV on our Roku which has a sizable collection of British shows, even ones more recent then Netflix. Even better it's FREE!
• Said Tubi TV also has a couple of Transformer shows on which makes the OH happy.
• Speaking of TV, the second seasons of Happy Valley and Dinotrux popping up on Netflix - happy TV days indeed. 
• Reading - Midnight in Perking and The Other Daughter. 
• Starting out new tradition of (homemade) taco Tuesday, even making my own guacamole and taco sauce (playing with all the spices!!) for the first time. 
• Talking of spices, turning an old spice rack into a nail polish holder. Sometimes those Pinterest craft ideas actually work.
• Lots of spring bulbs popping up around my garden - tulips, daffodils and flowering crocuses. Especially excited for the bulbs showing in the two new flower beds I dug lining out front path last year. 
• Cuddles on the sofa with Joe and Eddy - purrs all round.
• Cats and paper bags, which are nearly as good as empty boxes. Also getting an empty box and now not being able to remove it from the living room because the cats love it.
• Onto god knows what week of using Daily Burns True Beginner workout (for everyone who has asked, I will be doing a review/round up once we finish this program) and getting a lot stronger. We started kickboxing which week and it's AWESOME!
• Also starting Pilates, which ached and killed me, but fun all the same. 
• Finishing my crochet wreath! 
• Ordering lots of seeds for the garden - herbs, flowers and even going to attempt to grow cacti!
• 1940's radio. I'm sick of constant Trump & US election talk on the radio, so I spend most mornings chilling out to the 1940's UK radio station, which suits me perfectly. 

And everything I came remember, and if you made it to the end of the list, well congrats to you!

What's been rocking your world?

Rachael

LIFE: Small Things #11

They say March loves to come "in like a lion and out like a lamb" well it's pretty much living up to that saying this month in Michigan. From 60F weekends followed by snow emergencies, howling winds and back to blue skies, it's hard to keep up. In a funny comparison, recent snow showers in the old home land was being shared on Facebook of "lots of now", I think it barely measured an inch. Oh the perspective that moving to Michigan provided me when it comes to everything snow and winter. 

But that hint of something a little warmer, of those richer blue skies and the promise of bulbs popping up in the garden has got me feeling a little warm inside, and crafty, very crafty. So here's the latest small things pile of joy;

• Everything hummus related - just pure joy in a pot
• Managing three weeks of Daily Burn. Which for me is a big deal (it's an exercise work out thingy for those not in the know) because of my high laziness and stubbornness. While it's making me walk like John Wayne and ache in places I never knew I could ache, hopefully it's all doing some good. 
• Getting lots of crafting in starting with making some card (birthday and mothers card), it always fun to mess around with paper, glue and washi tape.
• Lots of new coloring books - apparently coloring book addiction is real. I'd highly recommend the Taste of Home Color magazine coloring book if you fancy something cheerful, cute and cheap (it's like $4.99 bargain!). 
• I finally got my hands on two of Theo Nicole Lorenz's coloring books - Unicorns are Jerks and Dinosaurs at Work both highly humorous and quirky. I really need to add her Mer World Problems (think first world problems for mermaids) too. 
• While many expats get food parcels, I get coloring books - yes another coloring book. This really fun book filled with vintage themed designs called Bygones. 
• Reading some great books - Judy Blume's In The Unlikely Event, Boneyards (Richard Bak) and currently Midnight in Perking (Paul French).
• Picking up a crochet hook for the first time in months and messing around with some vintage patterns.  
• Productive tidying up organizing days (aka throwing stuff in lots of pretty boxes and making everything look tidy).
• Starting a fabulously colorful new cross stitch project all about the homeland! 

So that's pretty much been my world, lots of crafting, coloring and good times.

How are things with you?

Rachael

LIFE: Small Things #10

The lighter evenings are starting to appear and oh my, do they make me wish and long for spring even more. To be able to push open the windows, see daffodils starting to drop their brightly colored heads in the breeze and awaking to morning birdsong. Michigan winters make those days feel so far away. Granted our winter this year hasn't been as cold, or as snowy, but there's only so many days in the minus numbers I can handle although it's always the perfect excuse to curl up on the sofa with the TV remote and a good book. 

In other news various happy things, and somewhat a sneak peek of things I'll eventually get around to sharing here on the blog;

• Lovely five day long weekend extending into Presidents Day with the OH although it always does result in me being confused about the day of the week afterwards. Right now I have no idea if it's Wednesday or Friday ... when it's actually Thursday.
• Gorgeous afternoon tea at the Mad Hatter Bistro and Tearoom in Birmingham (review to come).
• The last week or so has actually been all about tea - afternoon tea, buying some fancy spiced cinnamon tea, Persian tea. All the tea.
• Seeing Deadpool early Friday morning. The humor was right up my street and it was a brilliant adaption of the comic book. Villains were a little on the weak side but I'll get over that. Also probably features the best Stan Lee cameo. 
• Also public service announcement - stay to the end of Deadpool, because you know, extra scenes and all. I'll never understand people leaving early ...
• Speaking of spring I may have spotted some bulbs poking up in the back garden - I also may be really wrong and they are just weeds. Or now dead because of the chilly week we just had. 
• Rushing out to buy a load of wings from Detroit Wing Co., after hearing your favorite radio hosts (Valenti & Foster on 97.1 The Ticket - yes oddly enough my favorite radio hosts are on a sports talk station - what is happening to me?!) talking about chicken wings for four hours.  Four flipping hours, who couldn't say no to wings after four sodding hours?!
• Mexican hot chocolate treat for our adulting ongoing DIY adventures from Cafe Con Leche.
• Waving at my favorite Detroit building while drinking that Mexican hot chocolate - the Fisher Building. Gorgeous.  
• Stitching a little wild flower seed packet design for a forthcoming birthday card.
• Reading two awesome books - The Boston Girl and The Turner House - both I'd highly recommend. 
• I'll probably say the same about Judy Blume's In The Unlikely Event which I've just started reading. 70 odd pages in and very intriguing. 
• Oh and lots of graphic novels but I'll get to that in my monthly graphic novels review dump don't you fear. (*whispers*) it features - Through The Woods, Lumberjanes and Sisters.
• Finally getting all that stubborn old bathroom floor tile up, hammered out some concrete and replaced some floorboards. Getting overwhelmed with all this adulting points atm. We even hired a nail gun and didn't kill ourselves in the process of using it.
• Paczki Day! Joe sneaked out early on Fat Tuesday/Shove Tuesday to grab some paczki's from Dutch Girl Donuts. Delicious! What's a paczki you ask?! Well I talked about them a couple of years ago.
• Signing up for Daily Burn (a fitness workout over the internet, TV whatever you got - if you have Hulu you'll probably know their annoying adverts about leg day) and actually using it somewhat regularly. 

That's probably the most bullet points of happiness I may have ever achieved on my small things posts. Does help I'm bullet pointing three things daily that made me happy in that mission to work and overcome my stress issues. Ah well happy days indeed. 

How are things with you?

Rachael

LIFE: Small Things #9

This last week or so has been all about adulting (whether you love or loath that term). From fixing a slump pump to trying to fix a wobbly toilet it's all been a bit challenging of late. So while little things can caused the biggest frustrations but then on the flip of a coin, they can be the happiest.

• This clip of the new arrival at the Toledo Zoo - the cutest little polar bear cub. Hopefully we'll make a trip down to see it once spring arrives.
• Working on my "Start where you are" journal.
• Starting and being hooked into a new (to me) anime show - Inuyasha. It's one of those anime with hundreds and hundreds of episodes so I've got something to entertain me for a long while.
• Getting my Stress-Less Workbook, stress being an odd thing to be happy about but hopefully working through this workbook might help me deal with this thing that is taking over too much of my life.
• Smashing up 1950's stubborn bathroom mosaic floor tile is very theraputic, even if it turns my arms into jelly and you only make slow progress. It's actually kinda sad to be turning it up but it's seen better days. 
• Which has all meant learning some more DIY, kinda looking forward to laying some new tiles I will be honest even though I have no clue about tile laying.
• Agent Carter being back on the screen - one of my favorite shows.
• Making two awesome new recipes this week - a chicken chili in the slow cooker (so handy this winter) and a mushroom tofu curry, equally delicious. 
• Cross stitching some more of "Flossie" (the lady cross stitcher) for the first time since before Christmas and longing for lighter days to cram more stitching in.
• Coming home from the library with a pile of books. 
• Lots of kitty cuddles and purrs.
• Having beautiful handwritten recipes falling out between the pages of vintage cookbooks (always a winner). 
• Finishing my first cross stitch project of 2016 - another bookmark - you can't have too many.
• Watching our cats being excited by empty boxes and new paper bags to play with and in. 

How is everything with you?

Rachael

LIFE: Small Things

It certainly hasn't been a good couple of weeks for Michigan when it comes to the news what with the ongoing Flint water crisis and the Detroit Public Schools sick days. Winter has finally decided to make an appearance too - although much more on the chilly side than snow fall. So today, more than ever there's a need to look for the positive in life and the first small things post of 2016. 

• Getting my new specs - I can see (better) again!
• Speaking of new specs that means I can get back into sewing, although my return has been on the slow side. I've been working on a bookmark, stitching on perforated plastic for the first time which has been a fun little challenge.
• The slowness of my stitching has been the result of being overloaded with coloring books. And treating myself to a couple of new ones. The Vive Le Color series is ideal if you love patterns and small details from around the world - I'm working on the Japan book at the moment, which is full of fish and cherry blossom - beautiful!
• Then I happened to treat myself to the Dover "Cityscapes" publication, ooops.
• Oh and then refinding a 1970's Beatrix Potter coloring book I picked up at the end of last year at an estate sale. It had never been started and it's just full of all my favorite characters. It's the one coloring book i'm not rushing with! 
• Sharing some super yummy tacos and hot dogs from Imperial (review to follow).
• Putting up some new shelving for my office come craft room - finally getting a little more organised in the process.
• Then decorating the edges of said shelving with lots of pretty washi tape.  
• Finding a fantastic cheese grater lamp shade in a kitchen down in Hamtramck while at an estate sale - genius! 
• Those fish n chips from Scotty Simpson's - followed by a super yummy (and huge) slice of lemon meringue pie. Delicious!

BTW if you want to help Flint residents during this ongoing water crisis (long story short lead contaminated water) - Michigan Radio put together a great list of ways to donate. 

What's been rocking your world?

Rachael

LIFE: Small Things

Hello hello. How are you all? Everyone getting in the Christmas spirit?! Life here has been a mix of 5" of snow, road trips, lots of turkey and candied bacon. These small things posts always get me into the swing of blogging although I haven't done one since October - oops. I actually haven't done much blogging since October ... moving swiftly along ... here's to the happy list

• Loving Jessica Jones - although we haven't binge watched it like we did Daredevil - it's a little bit too dark for me to binge in one go, that I want to make it last. I love how they've adapted Jessica for the screen, taking the darkness in a different direction. I'd highly recommend reading Alias (although perhaps not if you don't like curse words) which focuses more on her being a PI than perhaps this adaption is showing. The Pulse - which focuses on her life a couple of months after Alias when she works for the Daily Bugle is a fun read too especially if you want to get some more gossip on the whole Jessica, Luke Cage (who's getting his own show) relationship. 
• Enjoying a fantastic brunch at Bakn in Carnegie PA - also loving their name, and if you love bacon it's well worth checking out.
• Finishing and hanging my cross stitch advent calendar all ready for December - used up some of the left over chocolate from Halloween. 
• Thanksgiving dinner - delicious!
• Making friends with other people's kitties.
• Seeing Pittsburgh's Christmas tree.
• Getting my fish & chip fill at my favorite place for my British fix - Piper's Pub along Carsen St, Pittsburgh.
• Chocolate covered espresso beans from Sanders - oh my word they are good!
• Cashmere scarves = weakness
• Sticking up our Christmas tree, living in the US it seems a lot more acceptable to stick your tree up early, I can live with that. The cat's trying to eat said tree, not so much.
• Making lots of cross stitch Christmas cards - I only tend to send them to family members - or at least family members that'll appreciate them but they are fun to stitch. 

How's things with y'all?

LIFE: Small Things

Life has been a little up in the air shall we say in the last couple of weeks, which unfortunately led to a quick dash back to Pittsburgh for a family funeral. Hence the delay in getting out last weeks small things posts, but with a death, it makes you appreciate those small things even more. And while I could go on about the differences in how a funeral plays out in the US in comparison, lets just talk about happy things, like;

• Fall the fall colours - I can never tire of seeing all those oranges, reds and yellows
• Signing up for Marvel Unlimited and getting to read loads and loads of Marvel comics - old and new
• Managing to get a 3 foot tall Peace Lily home in one piece all the way from Pittsburgh, it however may not survive being around the kitties ... 
• Having a couple of days being called auntie is always fun
• Driving around the back roads of Allegheny in Pennsylvania and being blown away with all the beautiful fall colours (more on this to come)  
• Finally getting around to reading Nimona which is a very quirky and fun graphic novel that I would highly recommend
• Also Neil Gaiman's Sleeper and the Spindle is both a beautiful tale and gorgeously illustrated which is always a double winner
• Being spoiled with a Keurig coffee machine in our hotel room
• All the pumpkin carving
• Meeting lots of new kitties and seeing just how well they flock to me, it's like I just let off cat lady signals at every turn
• Popping into an anime store in Greensburg and finding all the goodies

How are things with you?

LIFE: Small Things

Once October rolls around I feel like one of the few people that doesn't go for the whole pumpkin thing, so forgive me while nothing pumpkiny fills up today's small things post. While everyone might be stocking up and drinking gallons of the pumpkin spice whatevers, I've been feeling more at home with my huge box of Yorkshire tea that landed on my doorstep (along with packets of instant custard and angels delight) in a birthday care package from the homeland for my birthday. Now that's more my kinda thing!

Otherwise other happy things include;

• Joe brought me a brand spanking new laptop for my birthday. Yey I finally have a working laptop that actually came with Windows 10 so I didn't get to kill another laptop in the upgrading process.
• Said laptop coming with the kindle app and a local library that offers downloadable books for free to borrow - I'm far too excited. 
• Dear Ms Leigh is the expat blog of the month over on Expat Blog - for which I rambled on about myself. 
• Stitched a Halloween Kitty although I forgot to take a photograph of it completed before passing it to my friend ... oops 
• That birthday of mine.
• I finally got around to ordering my spring bulbs. Over 200 of them. Far too excited for them to arrive - lots of daffodils, iris's, glads, crocuses to name but a couple.
• Doing lots of reading - Night Circus, Friends with Boys and Ocean At The End of the Lane being particular highlights of the last two week.
• Binge watching How To Get Away With Murder - love that show and season two is looking to be just as good.
• Lots of tasty new food places and cocktails drinked. 
• Hungry Howie's chocolate brownies with raspberry topping mmmm
• Taking a birthday road trip to Cincinnati - enjoyed the night in a hotel and got to visit the zoo again (couple of blog posts upcoming ... eventually) but think baby red panda and blue penguins! 
• Oh and feeding a giraffe - much fun! 
• Seeing some of the Ohio countryside/farmland while trusting google maps diversion around accidents and roadworks. 
• Starting a Scandinavian advent calendar cross stitch kit - a birthday gift my parents picked u[p in Norway which is far too cute and I'm loving every stitch. Fingers crossed I get it finished in time for December 1st. 

So tell me, what's been rocking your world lately?!

LIFE: Small Things

I should probably start numbering these posts so I can actually make a note of how on point I am at keeping this little series up. But anyways. Another two weeks have flown by, flown by so fast I'm not actually too sure where the time has gone. That's the thing I find the hardest about this adulting game, time goes so much faster as an adult. Yesterday actually marked ten years to the day that I packed up my life and moved into freshers accommodation at Newcastle University. Ten whole years ago. It feels like yesterday sometimes. I miss that city. Like so much, blah.

So a thank you has to go out to all the forms of social media for being my brain memory back up for the exciting happy things of the last two weeks, here goes!

• Cats chasing the yarn while crocheting - I'm sure they think they are helping. 
• Working on two cross stitch projects - my seaside piece which takes me right back to all the Yorkshire seaside towns and Flossie, which would be me circa 1880's or something ... 
• Watching the trees along the street and in the park slowly starting to turn a burnt orange at the tips
• Working my way through the HUGE graphic novel collection my local library has - joining said library has brought my love back for reading for sure - happy happy times. 
• All the wild sunflowers that have burst into life around the garden. Wild sunflowers have upwards of 20 flower heads per plant which is just incredibly beautiful.
• Watching all the bees not only on the sunflowers, but on the Sedums I grew from cuttings over the winter - mental note to do more of the same this year
• Thoroughly enjoying The Girl On the Train - a little obvious in parts but well worth a read all the same.  
• Currently reading A Touch of Stardust by Kate Alcott which, if you're a fan of either the 1930's, Hollywood and or Gone With the Wind then I'd highly recommend it. Being a fan of all three myself, it's becoming one of my favorite reads in a long while.

So that pretty much sums everything up!

LIFE: Small Things

As much as I love summer, and as much as this Brit is getting more and more use to the heat that Michigan summers like to throw at me (okay, okay I'm still a bit of a whimp when it gets over 32C/90F) I'm looking forward to the cooler (I say cooler being in the 20's) days ahead. Cooler days get me feeling a little bit more crafty (if that's even possible), TV shows are about to restart for the season and my birthday is at the end of the month. Lots of doing and planning ahead!

Also other happy happy things!

• Three baby pengys at the Detroit Zoo - too cute and I URGE you to check out the video if you ever need a pick me up, or even if you don't. Because penguins.
• Decorating cheap notebooks with cross stitching, just because
• Talking of cross stitching - working on a Pusheen design, starting two new projects, framing up Dinobot and completing another self designs cross stitch piece - home sweet home design for friends buying their first house. More on the last two to come - once I get around to it. 
• Reading Station Eleven - what a great page turner
• Finally getting around to watching The Mindy Project - what a great show
• Pretty sushi presented on a boat as a treat for Joe getting a pay rise and a bonus. Yey. 
• Drawing up an endless shopping list of bulbs to buy for next spring
• Spending all of yesterday morning (Thursday) pulling out the longest flower bed back to the main sturdy plants (the Iris's, the poppies and day lilies) to just build it back up from scratch next year. 
• Two zoo trips in two weeks!
• Cooking (and eating) with tofu for the first time, still a little bit on the fence and it'll never replace chicken in my curries completely, but it's okay ... kinda
• Baking lots of mini zucchini breads in the toaster oven because of the still broken oven. Wasn't sure they'd turn out edible but they did, yey! 
• Pretending to be very adult (well Joe was) and pretty much paying off a very large debt on a credit card
• Waterproofing the basement aka giving my arms a work out with a roller and 5 gallon tub of latex paint
• The thought of cooler days ahead, of being able to work in the garden without melting, throwing windows wide open and the changing fall colours 
• Going on a Detroit haul at the library - noir, food, fiction, biographies I grabbed them all
• Finding the most amazingly quirky vintage wallpaper (here and here) hanging in a basement at an estate sale down in Detroit 

So that has pretty much been my life in the last couple of weeks. Who else is ready for cooler times ahead?

LIFE: Small Things

The death of my netbook while upgrading itself to Windows 10 (it decided to do said upgrade just as they released an update that messed up and makes it just constantly start rebooting) perhaps casts a shadow of this weeks small things, it's certainly put blogging on the back burner a little. But hey, it's letting me crack on with the gardening and crafting. 

But on the up side;

• Checking out more tasty eating places down in Hamtramck - this time Aladdin Sweets & Cafe - the cities first Bangladesh restaurant. 
• Dutch Girl Donuts - enough said.
• Picking the last of the cilantro seeds, one of my kitchen is full to bust with row after row of paper bags of seeds drying out.
• Planting out the first of the fall crops - lots of little broccoli seedlings.
• Getting a new (to me bike) and feeling like a big kid biking around the block.
• Designing and stitching two of my own cross stitch pieces - a Detroit cityscape (more on this to come) and a gift for some friends buying their first house. Really loving designing my own charts, it's taking cross stitching to a fun new level for me.
• Speaking of crafting, for the first time in months, picking up a crochet hook and starting a Christmas tree skirt. Fingers crossed it'll be completed in time for Christmas 2015, it's not stitching up quickly.
• After a whole lotta waiting, lack of communication and even more waiting, our hand selected by Anthrax bottle of Knob Creek finally turned up. Mighty tasty too. 

How's things with you?

LIFE: Small Things

Yesterday in particular has reminded me just how quickly time flies. Not only did Thursday mark ten years since receiving my A Level results (and then me leaving to go to university a couple of months later) but also five years since I first tried sushi. Because Joe was over on a visit. Little did I know what he'd start with me trying sushi. Favourite! Anyway, I broke the special things happening every five years on that date and just wandered to the Post Office which, wasn't very life changing. 

But otherwise, other small happy things!

• Oreo frappes 
• Joining the local library finally
• Which lead to reading Amy Poehler's Yes Please! and loving every page
• Drawing and redrawing ideas for a Detroit themed cross stitch piece again finally
• Getting my DIY on - I'm waterproofing the basement ...  oh the glamour
• Stocking up on 19c notebooks that I don't really need but hey, it's back to school time and they are cheap and ... yeah
• Free listings on eBay, because I can never have enough of those
• Nutella milkshakes from Steak n Shake - DELICIOUS! 
• Being cat stalked
• Stitching myself a new bookmark from a 25c kit I picked up at an estate sale the other week - new bookmark for a new book love
• Having kitchen cupboards filled with paper bags in my attempt to dry coriander and sunflower seeds ... key word being attempting 
• Peppermint tea - nom!

Happy things, happy list, what have been your happy things?

Also if you have any recommendations for quirky, funny, historical book - fiction or otherwise, I'm all ears!