One Year Ago Today...

One year ago today I married the love of my life, my best friend. I know it sounds totally cliche but you know what? it's the gall darn truth! It has been one adventure after another this first year of marriage. Joe continued working on his Master's and I started Nursing school. We welcomed Stella into our home in January and even started a business together. We've been keeping busy with traveling and finding time to just sit with each other between everything else - even though that doesn't happen as much as we'd like.

This past weekend we spent it up at his parent's cabin in Minong, WI. It was the perfect getaway with great weather and lots of sun and water.

On Friday and Saturday we took the boat over to a couple of the sand islands in the middle of the lake. Here, Joe and Stella are playing fetch on Eagle Island.

Our private island for the afternoon and my favorite spot!

Out for a sunset boat ride!

And now sleeping...

Our humble abode for the weekend!

Two islands in the lake. The one on the left we spent Saturday at and the one on the right is known as "Party Island". You can usually find many boats parked up along the shoreline during the day!

My girl and I!

Stella and Joe!

Joe went for a sunset dip in the water. Stella really wanted to join:)

We had a hard time coming home on Sunday but know we will be there again soon before summer ends. It was the perfect to getaway to just hang out with each other, eat lots of food, go to bed early because we were exhausted from the sun and just be together.

I'm not sure what the next year of marriage will have in store for us but if it's half as good as this past year has been, well I guess we'd be pretty blessed.

A long overdue reveal...

I'm not even kidding you. This project has been sitting on our bedroom floor for a least a solid month now, if not a little longer actually. What was the reason for never finishing up the darn thing? Time. We didn't have it before...and now we do. Have I expressed how awesome it is to have TIME to do things we love to do? Doing the happy dance all day long!

Now onto the project...

I've been wanting to hang a few pictures of our wedding for quite some time now and I took the plunge. I went to IKEA to browse their frame collection and I came across these beauts for around $16 a pop! What a steal! Usually frames of this size can cost you around $30. I also liked how they didn't "look" IKEA. You can always tell if a house or room has been furnished with IKEA things.

And here are the photos. I ordered them from Mpix and if I remember right the total came to around $36. Booya! Another steal!!

Of course since the frames were from IKEA, I had to finish putting them together. The clips just went onto the back of the board and then I had to wrap the wire around them. Easy peasy.  

Someone wanted to help me...

All three in the frames...and then they sat on our floor until last night.

The wall of choice.

 

As you can see, we are all about eyeballing where to put the nail. haha. Sometimes it's in our favor, other times it's not. We live on the edge. 

I couldn't stand the way the color of the wall was photographing so I waited until this morning to finishing taking photos. Ta-da!

And they didn't fall on our heads last night so a double fist pump for that!

Some may think our room project is coming to an end now that I've made curtains, we got a new bed and put up pictures and even added color to the walls. Well, I hate to break it to you but you're wrong. When I originally picked the green to match our new bedspread, it was because I didn't want to be afraid of color. I wanted to embrace color and run with it throughout the whole house. It turns out...I'm deathly afraid of color.

A lot of it has to do with the different lighting our room sees at different times of the day I guess. For example, the photos above. The last picture you see...I LOVE it. It looks great and everything is starting to come together. But if you scroll up a few more pictures when we have our bedroom light on at night...it looks gross. When the sun is shining in through our window in the afternoon...it's so bright and ugly it makes me want to hide it from people if they are over. Thankfully we don't hang out in our bedroom when we have friends over.

So this summer, I'm repainting our room. I haven't decided what color yet but it will definitely be lighter. I think the dark color on the walls make our room look smaller and that is something we don't really want because our rooms are already small enough. I use one of my pillows as a side table for my phone at night because there isn't enough room from my side of the bed to the door to actually have a real table. That's how small our room is. Future project of skinny side tables hmmm??

I also have to find different bedding because now that it's getting warmer, Joe is sweating all night long because our comforter is too warm for him. I swear, he could sleep with just a thin sheet and still sweat. I'll have to take it back out when winter comes around again because I do like the stripes!

Oh the never ending list of projects I have for the summer...keep tuned in!

8 Months Ago...

This was our day.

And it was perfect.

Can't believe its been 8 months since Joe and I tied the knot.

Loving life even though it's crazy busy:)

I cannot think of a creative title for this post...

During my first attempt at canning I found myself in the middle of a couple more projects that I didn't intend on starting but there I was elbow deep in them. Joe and I still have a ton of Target Gift cards leftover from the wedding so I finally picked up ourselves a hamper for our new room, a normal ironing board (our college sized ironing board days are OVER) and new shower curtain rings.

This is what we had. Cheap plastic white rings that didn't really go with our orb color shower rod.

So I picked up these bad boys instead.

Aren't they fancy?

I also spent all day cleaning the mason jars from the wedding. I needed some for the applesauce so I figured I'd just throw the rest and get them cleaned and washed up. They still had melted candle wax in the bottom of the jars that I couldn't get out easily so off to the freezer they went. I did watch Joe open the freezer (I didn't tell him I had stuffed it silly with mason jars) and decide it wasn't worth taking them all out to see what food we had in the bottom. Haha

I let them sit in there for about 30-45 minutes before taking them out. I'm not sure if the cold shrinks the wax but it worked really well and the wax popped right out. Before throwing them in the dishwasher I let them warm up a bit so they didn't crack in the hot water and I cut off all the twine around the neck of the jars too. 

Candle wax anyone?

Then I loaded the dishwasher and off they went. They came out sparkling clean!

I had about nine dozen mason jars to do and now I can get finally get rid of them. I may have found a new hobby in canning but I don't need this many! Anyone want quart or half gallon sized mason jars? Maybe I should start thinking about cleaning out the wine bottles we have too. The wedding leftovers still lurk around every corner in our house.

Jared & Leah's Wedding Weekend

Joe and I are back from a weekend in Wisconsin with the Shelerud's. His cousin, Jared and his now beautiful wife, Leah, were married in Madison on Saturday and had a beautiful ceremony and reception. Joe and I were finally able to see Jenna and Drew's place which was very cute, we did a little shopping at the outlet mall and walked around the neighborhood with their pup Chloe. Why do great weekends end so quickly?!

Joe and I high-fived last night for surviving the 2011 wedding season. We are officially done with six weddings for the year!! Marriage is on the mind of many apparently:)

A little bit of this, a little bit of that...

Happy Friday! Man, does it feel good saying those words. The week started off fast and now it's dragging of course. Probably because Joe and I have something fun planned for the weekend. After work we are headed to Madison, WI to celebrate his cousin's wedding and we finally get to see Jenna and Drew's place!! Nothing like spending time with the Shelerud clan...such a fun bunch!

I have to share an email from my grandma this morning about her Honeyed Apple Torte baking experience. It made me giggle a bit but I'm glad everything turned out just fine:)

Hi Sarah:

  I must tell you about my Honey Apple Torte experience. I decided to
  try your recipe - it sounded good.  Anyway, after I got started, I
  discovered I needed a lemon (which I didn't have) so I substituted
  lemon juice (in one of those squeeze lemons) for the regular lemon juice
  and lemon flavoring (1 tsp) instead of vanilla since I didn't have any
  lemon zest.  Then, I was measuring the sugar in the 3/4 cup and forgot that
  it was only a 3/4 cup and not a full cup for the flour.  Didn't discover
  that till I was washing the dishes as the torte was baking.  I thought it
  would be a failure for sure by then.  Anyway, I thought I had better
  check it after a half hour baking time, and good thing I did because it
  was done.  I had it in a 9" glass baking pan.  Anyway, in spite of all
  the mistakes and substitutes, it turned out good.  We have been enjoying
  it the last couple nights.  Thanks for the recipe.

Keep in touch
  Love ya
  Mic and Papa

Love the baking adventure Mic:) At least it still tasted good!

On another random note, I haven't written about it because I wanted to wait until I was able to snap a few pictures of the project but I keep forgetting to do that so I'll just go ahead and tell you about it. Last weekend when I was up north, Joe's dad and grandpa came down to help him on a house project we've been wanting to do. We needed more wiring for outlets and lights done in our basement and garage so they spent all weekend doing just that.

We now have a few more lights in the basement that are hooked up to a switch (I no longer have to pull a string to turn them all on individually when I do the laundry!!) and they added a couple more outlets for us as well. In the garage man cave, they added more lighting, a lot more outlets and even hooked up an outlet outside on the back of the garage and a flood light on the back of the garage for when we play night games next to the fire!! Everything looks great! Joe even hung up our kayaks and bikes which only mean one thing, winter.

Happy Weekend!

Joe's baby...

For our wedding, Joe made nine different beers to serve to our guests and go along with our homemade wine. Little did I know it would soon turn into Joe's first small business and I say first because I don't think it will be the last (unless this one takes off:) He, like many others I'm guessing, would love to one day work from home, be his own boss, and travel more than he is actually in an office. In order to make that goal a reality, Joe's first step involved designing a temperature control system used for all grain brewing. Although I'd like to think I have more knowledge about homebrewing than some of the general population since I've helped Joe with a few of the brewing stages and he likes to talk about it, I couldn't tell you the specifics or reasons why and feel confident that you understand what I'm saying. I'll leave that all up to him.

His idea along with help from his friend, turned business partner has now turned into Brew All Grain. They have been working on this project since spring, doing research, building model after model and completing several test runs (seriously, they took over the kitchen, living room, garage) and now their site is up and running and have product ready to sell! I am so proud of Joe, he has worked tremendously hard on his baby and I hope only positive things come from it.

If you would like more information on Brew All Grain, homemade brewing, why a temperature controler is necessary or just want to talk brewing, Joe is your guy. He knows best!

(Of course I have to give a shout out for my husband's new business adventure!! :) 

7.23.11

It's safe to say these first few posts will have to do with the latest and greatest events that have recently happened in our lives. I'll give you two guesses but will tell you straight up it has to do with our wedding and honeymoon. Were you surprised? Thought so.

On July 23, 2011, Joe and I said "I do" to the beginning of our next adventure together as husband and wife. The big day was fourteen months in the making and one I know both Joe and I will never forget. As cliche as it sounds, it was truly perfect. Friday night before the wedding we shared a wonderful evening with our wedding party, parents, grandparents and siblings at Lola's Lakehouse in Waconia, MN. Joe's parents graciously hosted the dinner for us and my oh my was the food amazing.

I spent my last night as a Micke with my parents and sister Sadie in their hotel room. Although I had to deal with a snoring dad, a bed mate who tried climbing on top of me and my own built up excitement, I managed to find some rest before the wedding day came along. Saturday morning as we were getting ready to head off to our hair appointments, all you could see were the dark clouds rolling in. The forecast called for scattered storms all day, heat and humidity. Exactly what every bride wants on their wedding day, right? As I was getting my hair done and even on our way to the barn it was downpouring rain and the thunder, lightening and wind played along.

We finally made it to the barn and by then the skies were blue and everyone who came out to help us decorate were in full force. Joe had done a great job delegating and getting people working on projects before I even arrived. Thank God for smart husbands!! People would come up to me and ask me what to do but my mind was all a blur and I kept saying, "I don't even know what's going on right now." Haha. We had our rehearsal the morning of as well since our Pastor had a wedding the previous night in Duluth and he drove down that morning. As you can imagine, the morning left us with little time for relaxing as we had to set up, rehearse, get ready, take pictures and make sure all was in place before the guests arrived.

The ceremony was beautiful. The clouds rolled in and it was really humid (poor Joe was literally dripping sweat throughout the whole ceremony) but there was thankfully no rain. I remember standing in the back with my Dad before it was my turn to walk down the aisle, it was such an exciting moment and my heart was racing. The moment I have thought about since I was a little girl was really happening! As soon as I took my first steps, my emotions got the best of me. Yep, I pretty much cried the whole way up and even whispered to my Dad, "I'm such a cry baby" and his response was, "You're fine, you're okay." They were happy tears of course:)

After the ceremony, Joe and I greeted our guests and sneeked away for a few more pictures. Our guests enjoyed yard games and many found comfort standing in front of the big industrial fans placed all around the barn. That heat was not giving up. Our food was so good - a pig roast with corn on the cob, salads, watermelon, beans and potatoes and apparently some of our guests enjoyed our cake too. Joe and I had a small (and I mean small) cake for us to cut into and we had cookies, candy and cheesecakes for our guests. Apparently that wasn't enough because they devoured our cake and Joe and I didn't get any of it besides our sliver we cut out of it! So sad :(

Our reception/dance was a blast. I don't think I left the dance floor for more than five minutes and the end of our perfect day came all too quickly. Everyone loved Joe's homemade beer and our wine was a hit as well. It was so great to see all of our friends and family who traveled near and far to celebrate our special day with us. I wish we could do it all over again but in slow motion this time. It's true what they say...you don't remember your own wedding day. There was just so much going on that it's hard to let it soak in. Thankfully we have talented people who took lots of pictures and vidoes for us. It's been fun to look back through everything or hearing stories from friends and families about what they saw or experienced.

Joe and I couldn't have asked for a better day. Everything about it was perfect, lovely, romantic, beautiful and list goes on and on. From the storms in the morning, the heat during the ceremony to the night that I wish could have gone on forever. I am so thankful to have shared July 23rd with my husband and all of our amazing family and friends. I know this post is long...but hold on just a little longer. I want to share a few more photos from our photographer. If you want to see a few others that Joe's sister Jenna took, head over here to see!