Fancy Pants Water

Tired of plain old, ordinary water? Need something more exciting to wet your whistle?  Search no more my friends, search no more!

To stay hip and hydrated this summer, just cut up a cucumber, gather together some mint leaves (I "borrowed" some from my friend's garden.  Thanks, Rikki!)

Pop the cukes and mint in a drink container with ice and water and there you have it!  

Fancy Pants Water

This water reminds me of something that would be served at some fancy pants country club where two friends, Buffy and Muffy are meeting up for lunch.  

Buffy - "Kiss, kiss!" Muffy!

Muffy - "Kiss, kiss! Buffy!"

Buffy - "Let's order a tall pitcher of fancy pants water because we are so fancy!"

Muffy - "Yes, let's!"

Kiss, kiss,

Melissa

Want to Have an Adventure With Me?

I am doing something that I have dreamed of doing for a really long time. 

I'm pursuing an old love...

Whoa now!  Don't jump to any conclusions!  

This guy is the love of my life.

I am auditioning for a play.  

Would you like to come along on the journey?  I would love to share every detail with you.  

Stay tuned...

Hugs, 

Melissa

Dreamy Places

Photo credit

With the onset of summer here in Florida (yes, it turns into a 90 plus degree sweltering summer here much earlier than the rest of the universe), we are spending tons of time outside and in the pool.  I find that my energy is absolutely zapped by the mid-afternoon.  I find myself longing for a nap around 3 PM.  Then I imagine all the awesome places one could find to take a nap....

Like here...

Photo credit

here...

Photo credit

Oh, this one is nice...

Photo credit

So is this...

Photo credit

And this is just amazing...

Photo credit

I imagine dozing off with a gentle breeze caressing my skin. Soft billowy clouds over head.  The sound of rushing water tickling my ears.  The air is fragrant with...with...

Wait! Is that a poopy diaper that I smell?  Okay, back to reality.

Dreaming, 

Melissa

K-Town Experience

I am an adventurer at heart.  I love meeting new people and having unique experiences.  So, last month Pete and I went to LA for work, we decided to mix a little pleasure with business and get our adventure on.

The first stop we made after leaving the airport was to Park's Korean BBQ in K-Town.  The food was fantastic.  The service was even better.  We enjoyed chatting with the staff and they were so helpful since we had never tried Korean-style barbecue.

The Korean Pancake was my favorite.  It is a savory dish that combines a yam based flour with egg and kimchee (fermented spicy cabbage).  So, so good!

The bbq is served up family style with lots of little veggie side dishes like kimchee, pumpkin mash,  sprout salad, and seaweed salad.

I am not a big fan of ribs, but these were crazy good.  The fun part is that we cooked them at our  table.

After lunch, Pete and I decided to have another adventure.  We went to Century Sports Club and Spa to have a scrub and massage.  My friend, Joanna, had told me that going to a Korean spa was a wonderfully unique experience.  The Korean spa philosophy is that you sweat out the impurities in your body by bathing in hot baths and sitting in steam rooms / hot saunas.  You can alternate between hot and cold by dipping in the icy cold pool or sitting in the cold sauna. It is a cleansing, peaceful experience.  The only catch is...you are naked.  Yep, the spa attire is pretty simple, your birthday suit is all that is required.  Of course, there are separate facilities for men and women and the co-ed areas (lobby, pool, juice bar) require clothing.  It was a little strange at first to be sans clothing, but I got over it very quickly.  

When Pete and I first arrived at the spa, we checked in and were given robes, towels and a locker key.  We were shown to our separate locker rooms.  I changed out of my clothing and slipped into the shower, where I scrubbed down.  Showering before entering the steaming tea pool or hot mineral bath is a must.  After showering, I spent about 15 minutes alternating between the hot and cold baths until it was time for my scrub and massage.  

I felt so uncomfortable when I entered the treatment room and was greeted by my massage therapist.  Even though she was a professional, I still felt awkward standing naked in front of a complete stranger.  Any reservations that I had quickly melted away as soon as the therapist began exfoliating my skin.  I felt like layers of stress were being scrubbed away.  Worries were sloughed off.  The jasmine oil massage, milk bath and cucumber facial that followed were equally as therapeutic.  And then, the icing on the cake, was that she washed my hair!  

After we finished our separate spa times, Pete and I met upstairs in the co-ed area of the spa.  We rested on the heated tatami mats and spent some time in the hot salt room, the ice room and the juice bar.

We decided that we will make the Korean spa a "must" each time business takes us to LA.  The price is right - $70 per person for all of those services and use of the spa facilities (including the pool and gym).  It is such a nice way to de-stress and de-tox.  

Hugs, 

Melissa

The Wall

Late last fall, our niece Heather Lehman of Lisbet Photography took some really fun family pictures of us.  I wanted to do these pictures honor by displaying them in just the right way.  So I thought and dreamed and thought some more, but nothing seemed to pop into my noggin.  Then, as if on cue, our oldest monkey girl gave us our Christmas present a bit early.

She photo crafted some beautiful letters to spell out our family name utilizing natural elements.  Then, our oldest monkey boy made a rustic frame for the letters and Presto! we have a masterpiece, and as it turned out, a centerpiece for the family photo wall.

In order to design the wall, I opted for simple white 8x10 frames from IKEA.  The frames do not distract from Heather's amazing shots of our family.  I arranged the photos in groupings - individuals of the boys, individuals of the girls, family, kids together, and of course one of the two people responsible for all of these monkeys. 

I also had a vision to keep the wall rustic and natural since our pictures were taken in the great outdoors.  Since, I had some lovely pottery made by my niece and my sister in law, I decided to showcase those fun pieces on the wall.  

The wall was really shaping up, but I had a dilemma.  Our doorbell speaker (blasted, ugly thing) was in the way of the almost perfect picture wall.  That speaker jeered at me with its ugliness and taunted me with its presence.  So, I had two choices.  I could demolish the darn thing.  Heaven knows, I've wanted to smash that doorbell so many times when it blasted out its annoying "ding dong" just as I had put the baby to sleep and sat down to eat bon bons.  Or I could camouflage it...

I opted for the camouflage route.  With the strategic placement of a couple of birds and a nest, I said, "Take that you ding dong!"

So there you have it, our family photo wall.  It is my second favorite wall in our house.  Stay turned and I will show you my first favorite photo wall soon.

Hugs,

Melissa

Windows of Time - A Graduation Photo Journaling Project

I am a picture buff.  I absolutely love looking a photos!  Considering the fact that we have thousands of printed and digital pictures documenting our lives, I can sometimes sit and get lost looking at all those memories.

I wanted to do something really special with our photos for our oldest daughter's high school graduation celebration. I usually put together a slide show for special occasions, but I wanted to do something really unique.

So, I pondered and thought and brainstormed, and nothing happened.  I could not think of anything unique.  I was uninspired.

Until, I pulled into our garage one evening and saw THEM.  Who knew that my inspiration had been sitting under my nose the whole time?  Actually, in my defense, I usually move as quickly as humanly possible from the garage into our house because in 1984 I saw a snake out there and I have not been the same since.

These amazing window frames definitely helped get my creative wheels turning.

I picked up these frames at an antique shop somewhere in the high hills of Wisconsin.

They were such a steal that I had to get them.  Of course that meant that I might have to ride on the roof all the way home to Florida so that we would have room for them in the van, but Music Man figured it all out.  My hero!

Each of the three frames have character.  I love that two of them even have the window ledge still intact.

So to get this photo journaling project started, I decided to print out pictures from different phases and stages of our daughter's life thus far.  I utilized each individual window frame as a display to "document" the early, middle and current years of her life.  It was fun to adorn each window with the pictures and special memorabilia from her life.

I used tabs of invisible tape on the back of each photo to anchor them to the wood on the frames.

The pictures stayed on for days, but were easy to take down in the end and they were all in pristine condition.

I absolutely loved this photo display and I really think that it honored our daughter's life story.

Hugs,

Melissa

Invasion of the Fire Ants

Our little monkey boy has been drawing a lot lately. He is creating the most adorable faces and little stick people. The only problem is that he has the uncanny knack of "borrowing" other little artists masterpieces to draw on.

We have entitled this hijacked drawing "Invasion of the Fire Ants". The artist has created a foreboding mood as the tranquil serenity of Candy Land is disrupted by renegade fire ants parachuting into the Lolly Pop Forest.

Just look at the smug looks on those ants' faces.  The horror!  

Hugs,

Melissa