Weekend in Harbor Country, MI

We met my parents in Southwest Michigan this past weekend and had fun exploring an area we had never visited in the past. 

We found a very cool old Ben Franklin store.

We went to Warren Dunes State Park and climbed the sand dune.

Here's Jason at the top.

Since it was Easter weekend, we had a good brunch and shared a chocolate easter bunny.

Harbor Country is eight little towns along Lake Michigan.  This is in New Buffalo, by the water.

New Dessert Plates

We picked up the plates that were hand painted by my friends and me last weekend and they turned out so great!  What a wonderful gift and memory.  We're looking forward to serving many delicious desserts on these plates.  Here are a couple of pictures.

Girls Weekend

This past weekend was a girls weekend celebration for my upcoming wedding.  Some of my dearest friends from MI came to visit and we had such a good time shopping, going out to eat, chatting, laughing, and painting pottery!  Here we are with the plates that everyone made for me.  I am so excited to pick them up when they are finished next weekend.    

Here is a closer picture of the plates.  The colors will be much brighter when they are done (I'll post another picture then). 

 Here are a few more pictures from the weekend.  We had such a good time!

Another Milestone Birthday

This year was the third in a row that we've celebrated a milestone birthday for one of our grandmas!  First, one of my grandmas turned 80, then the other 90, and Jason's grandma turned 90 this past weekend.  We drove to Iowa to see his family and celebrate. 

Here is Grandma Ripple with some of her grandchildren:

 Here she is with her children:

 And, this is Jason with some of his cousins:

Me and Jason with the birthday girl:

Jason and his dad at his cousin Eric's birthday party Roast:

Ripple

Ripple: The pattern for this crocheted afghan and my new last name in a few months!  We've been working on wedding plans and even made a trip to Wisconsin last week for some planning.  Unfortunatlely, it was cut short by a winter storm so we will be returning in a few weeks for a meeting at the bed & breakfast where we will be married.  This is my next project with the same yarn I used for the granny square afghan.  Somehow, I still have yarn left so I started another one, with a different color pattern! 

Granny Squares!

I started this granny square afghan after taking a crochet class at JoAnn's.  It took a while for me to finish it so I am happy it is finally done.  I have quite a bit of yarn left...I must have really overestimated and I wasn't ready to make this any larger!  So, I'll be working on another crochet project with the leftovers...I'll share pictures soon.  

Hot Chocolate and Food Network

On Friday, we read an article about three top places to get hot chocolate in Chicago. On Saturday morning we happened to pass one, so we stopped to try it...and got a big surprise. They were filming a Food Network show! We agreed to be interviewed for the show and we were also in background shots while they interviewed others. Watch for us on TV sometime this Spring! Here we are with Adam Gertler, the Food Network star who interviewed us.