Sunday, February 20, 2011

winter edition 2.0

Off to the sandy shores we went Saturday afternoon for a fun filled day of scattering birds seed, antique shopping and of course checking in Cabinista Shortada. For those that are not in the Midwest, we had 20+ inches of snow in Chicago as of February 3rd. Nearly two weeks later it has all melted away in the sunny 60’s we have had the last few days. While it is getting cooler again, it was a much needed break to the frigid cold.
Got to love Indiana.
Berrien County (also known as Buried In County) had around 3 feet of snow on the ground at the beginning of this week, but by the time we got there yesterday nearly all of it had melted away! We hadn’t been up to Michigan since Halloween and being virgin’s at this whole summer home thing we were worried about our Cabinista. Well so far so good and she has handled her first winter great!


We did not have to fight off any raccoons and didn’t find any mice droppings in the house! Woohoo! We took the time to scatter grass seed in the septic area and wild flowers on the big open lot next to ours. Hopefully come April/May we have had enough rain that we have a lush green yard and a plethora of color in our front yard.
Critters are a'foot!


Our sandbar is completely exposed with the ice shelf.

On our way through the back country roads of Coloma. This "pond" is a moss filled mosquito trap in summer that in heavy rains is about half this size!

 A foot away from the road and at least 3-4' deep the creek is beyond flooded.
FishBox?

 Old Farm equipment
I too prefer to drive my semi home.

On the bluff

Till next time

Friday, February 18, 2011

Cabinista Shortada updated version

It has certainly been a while since I have posted an entry, that is probably because we have had a brutal winter in chicago. Seriously, looking down at my puppy sitting in a melted pile of snow made me really happy for the impending spring. I know in reality it will be months away, but a 60 degree day in February can certainly lift your spirits.


I skipped so many great things since my last post. First of all cabinista has come a long way. From having no water, no bathroom, no kitchen to now having a fully functioning Cabinista Shortada! Sometimes I forget that I lived at Cabinista for nearly two weeks without running water. Let me tell ya, it is rough! Luckily our neighbors are amazing and would let me use there water when needed. Water is something I will never take for granted again. No water = no bathroom.


Projects for this summer… patch the holes in the walls. Man that sounds bad, but there are a couple spots that need fixing. I would love to paint the house a variety of beach’y shades and replace the flooring. We currently have carpet which is really gross despite being steam cleaned twice.

This is what our living room looked like when  we finally got running water... We got the Frankl pretzel couch and the Johhnson chair for a steal! We ended up moving the Johnson chair to the bedroom, giving the egg shaped chair to our neice and adding some more furniture to the room.

Boris snoozing on the couch, he knows he is not supposed to be up there, but he was too cute to disturb!


Our bedroom isn’t so atomic, I like my bedroom to be a sanctuary and we used bedding that we already had. The bed frame and armoires are all turn of the century Lane from Chicago.

You have seen the kitchen, which if you didn’t notice I am extremely proud of.
See those chairs in the corner? Those go to our adorable Heywood Wakefield dining set. Four chairs, two leafs so it expands to seat everyone comfortably.

And then it came to furnishing the place. Built in the 1940s I knew that I wanted to keep the furniture mid-century awesome.

Found this cute frame at antique mall, but decided to go with something bigger.

 There was a set of two of these great big chairs. priced at $30 each! What a steal, but each weighed about 50 lbs and would have been better suited for a winter cabin or man cave.
This is what our lawn looked like after a haul of beautiful Haywood Wakefield.

The guest bedroom is our next project. The last weekend of the season we crammed 11 people into our 650 square foot cottage. With two couches, two blow up mattresses, one queen and one twin bed everyone fit in just fine. Isn’t that crazy? We are going to buy a bunk bed system to maximize occupancy with a queen mattress on the bottom and twin up top.

We are heading out to Michigan tomorrow to check in on Cabanista. I think we are going to scatter a couple giant feed sacks full of wild flowers on the property and bring up some new artwork we attained at a garage sale down the block.

The husband being silly

Wrigley on her favorite pillow

Fresh Michigan peaches!

Blue butterfly on the beach

Sunset in a Wal-Mart parking lot

Cabinista Shortada may in all reality just be a shack on a Michigan dune, but it is my summer sanctuary and I sincerely love it with all my heart. It’s my pet project and I love working on it.

Till next time! 

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Random Photos from the summer


Bruce serenading us on the same ukulele he played at our wedding

Sweet Water Donuts, size of your head and will make you gain 50  lbs. So worth it. PBJ was the best.

I will take that one.

Ice Cream & Destroy @ Sherman's in South Haven


Because there is nothing more manly than a 6'4 punk rocker on a beach cruiser

Teagan enjoying the mid century rocking chair


Sunset, beach, dancing. You know, the things normal people do.

Tonka tractor and giant mushroom

Boris playing guitar with me

Formerly of Men Without Hats

Kevin and Boris

Cabinista!

Hell yeah!
Lexie and I hammin' it up

Friday, July 23, 2010

Cooking in the Kitsch'in


We had such a productive week at the cottage! We had our well re-shocked with chlorine to make sure there are no crazy icky bacteria's in the water. Our septic is finally up and running and we started to hang all the wall art.

We are still on a mission to find some chairs for the living room and a table, but the house is really coming along! The room I am most proud of has to be the kitchen! For under $50 and a full days worth of work it has just really come a long way from the dingy, dirty, grey and brown kitchen the house came with. Between the stainless appliances and the cherry and gingham curtains I made it just is looking so fun and kitschy!




Up Next: Power washing the outside!