(Almost) Wordless Wednesday- Vacation Ice Cream

November 16, 2022December 2, 2022 LSiehLeave a comment

I forgot to write down where we had our ice cream from on our out East trip in September, so you’ll just get the pictures and if I can remember, the flavors and places. We had a couple more too that I didn’t get pictures of. Not quite every day, but close to it at least!

Pizzi Farm was a really cute local place close to our motel by Boston. They had a Cowch, as well as good ice cream. They were super busy, but had lots of room and a really fun variety of people for people watching. I had a flavor with Bailey’s and Kaluha and the Husband had a caramel brownie one, I think? https://www.pizzifarm.com/

It was a miserable dribble for our first night in Bar Harbor and this ice cream was not as good and didn’t have much variety, so I have blissfully forgotten the name of the place. It was a touristy place on the main street though. Sadly, they didn’t even have waffle cones! The Husband got a cookies and cream flavor and I had a kalua flavor.

This was the second night in Bar Harbor and the ice cream parlor we chose that day was a much better choice! I have forgotten the name, but it might have been Mt Desert Ice Cream because I think I remember the name of the street being Firefly Lane. I had a black raspberry that was delicious and The Husband had a double chocolate. https://www.mdiic.com/

The Husband had a salted caramel and a chocolate combined, I believe. I had a blueberry crumble and coconut combined one. This one was from Gelato Fiasco, which yes, we went to because of the name. It did turn out to be excellent gelato though. https://www.gelatofiasco.com/

We did have ice cream a few more times, but I didn’t get a picture. Hope these pictures made you hungry at least!

Wordless Wednesday- Vacation Skies

September 28, 2022September 24, 2022 LSiehLeave a comment

Adventures

Seal Cove Auto Museum- Transportation and Women’s Suffrage

September 26, 2022September 24, 2022 LSiehLeave a comment

“To me, it was shocking that a government of men could look with such extreme contempt on a movement that was asking nothing except such a simple little thing as the right to vote.”-Alice Paul

One of the littler, out of the way stops we made on our great East Coast trip was to the Seal Cove Auto Museum, which was super fun. It’s in Seal Cove, Maine, on one of the islands that make up Acadia National Park. They are a smaller museum. I think the volunteers outnumbered people visiting by far, but everything was in really good order. Their main exhibit while we were there was how transportation, especially cars, really helped the Woman’s Suffrage movement. It was pretty humbling for me to see what women went through just to get the right to vote and I learned a lot of things that I hadn’t even heard about before. I thought I’d share some of the pictures and the info that was shared. Here’s the museum website if you would be interested in learning more as well.

https://www.sealcoveautomuseum.org/

They had a lot of research and some items from ladies involved in the Suffrage movement and also acknowledged the women left out of the Suffrage movement- namely BIPOC women, who it was thought would anger the men if they were included. Black and Native American women did not get the right to vote until way after white women got the right to vote, for example. Frances Harper was one of the Black Suffrage leaders at the time.

“I do not think the mere extension of the ballot a panacea for all the ills of our national life. What we need to-day is not simply more voters, but better voters.”-Frances Harper

This car was modeled after a boat! It’s made of teakwood and has brass fittings. It was for some fancy executive, but I forget which one at the moment.

This car was driven cross country by two women, Nell Richardson and Alice Burke, to gain support for the Women’s Suffrage Movement. They drove through rain, snow, got stuck in the mud on terrible roads, and a host of other issues. They were mostly met with happiness, but also sometimes gifts, including a cat that they named Saxon, for the car manufacturer. The roads were so bad, in fact, that when they were done with their tour, Alice Burke started campaigning for better roads! Here’s a short article from the National Park Service on the significance of this ride and why the cat was important. https://www.nps.gov/articles/womens-suffrage-and-the-cat.htm

“On the Road, April 9- ‘The very minute we stopped for gasoline, and were forced to give a demonstration of how our little car works. All the men wanted to see inside her, so we waited a while and let them explore to their hearts’ content. If you can’t win a man by oratory, you can by machinery, sometimes.'”- Alice Burke

It was so interesting to read about all this. It also made me extremely grateful for the women who came before me, as well as the strong women in my own family who’ve lived through adversity. I will definitely be doing more research for myself about this and many other things. I hope it inspires you do to do the same!

Adventures · Wordless Wednesdays

Wordless Wednesday- Trees!

August 24, 2022August 8, 2022 LSieh2 Comments

Once when the Husband and I were in the Porcupine Mountains on one of the look out towers they have a lady came up the steps, looked out over the view, and yelled down to her friends “Don’t bother coming up. It’s just more trees.” The Husband may have needed to restrain me from “accidently” bumping her back down the steps…. 😉 So here’s some different trees and tree adjacent things for you to appreciate. Don’t be that lady!

Adventures · Wordless Wednesdays

Wordless Wednesday- Anniversary Edition

August 10, 2022August 8, 2022 LSieh2 Comments

The Husband and I have been married for 10 years today (5 years dating before that!) It’s been a weird and wonderful ride so far and I hope to have many more adventures with him. Here’s a look at some of my favorite things about our relationship throughout the years.

And our first dog, Fancy

Mutual Weirdness- Charcuterie Chalet Challenge

Adventures

Sarett Nature Center

July 29, 2022July 29, 2022 LSiehLeave a comment

We went to the Sarett Nature Center when we went to the west side of Michigan for Memorial Day. I just haven’t found the time to post about it yet. It was small, but had some really cool trails. There was even a small low ropes course in the woods! Here’s the website and some pictures.

https://sarett.org

We were greeted by the animal tracks from the featured picture, a loud bullfrog, and two buckets of carnivorous plants. (Listen, no matter what the Husband says, I was not attempting to push him into the bucket of carnivorous plants. He just happened to be standing next to it.) These were a type of pitcher plant. I think maybe we need to plant some around our house to eat all the mosquitos.

These were different tree rings from Michigan trees. The one at the bottom showed the age of the tree when historical events happened. It was really big!

These were Indigenous artifacts used by the tribes in the area. They had a nice display about the tribes and land they occupied.

They also had some skulls and other things. These were a moose and a white tailed deer.

There was an owl suspended from the ceiling in the bird and butterfly viewing area, which startled me a little. It kept turning, so it was hard to get a good picture. I enjoyed learning about the native birds and the ecosystem.

There were also some creatures! This is a chameleon and they had some turtles, frogs, and other lizards, as well as bugs.

Look at the long legs on that turtle on the right! Who knew they were so leggy? Kinda freaks me out, if I’m honest.

This iguana was super grumpy and judgy. I think I messed up his nap or something. 🙂 He had a very distinguished name that I now can’t remember, so maybe that’s just his normal resting face.

We even got to play in the woods before walking the trails! They had a cute little ropes course along the side of the trail that we climbed on. I’m super paranoid about poison ivy after getting it last year, so I wasn’t as brave as I could have been, but I kept seeing it along the side. The parts I did go on were really fun though!

We had a really good time. You’ll see some more pictures from the Nature Center in a tree picture post shortly too, but I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing these. It’s definitely motivated me to find some more nature centers and see what they have to offer!

Adventures · Gardening · Wordless Wednesdays

Wordless Wednesday- Doors in the Woods

July 13, 2022July 11, 2022 LSiehLeave a comment

Come this way, kids, don’t be shy! Many magical things await! Don’t worry…. you might come back… eventually.

Now, you’re going to have to be real mature about this one. I don’t want to hear ridiculous chortles. 😉

Adventures · Gardening · Party Posts

Fairy Garden Party

July 12, 2022July 12, 2022 LSiehLeave a comment

Ready for some magic? I had a fairy garden party with some girlfriends a month or so ago and it went rather well, I think. I may have gone overboard with plants and containers, but that just meant that people could have more than one garden if they wanted to! Some of the plants were indoor plants and others were outdoor plants and I tried to get ones that I hadn’t been able to kill yet, or were marked as easy care or good for terrariums. Here’s what the table looked like. I apologize for the cut off end. I was attempting to take a pic and it was super duper sunny, so I couldn’t totally see.

For supplies, we had rocks, glass bead fillers, moss, gravel, and sand. We had just all purpose potting soil too for the actual dirt. I went to the thrift store to find containers and bought a few at other stores as well. I even got a mini bathtub from one of the craft stores that I love and I’m probably going to go back and get another one for me. The teapot is my friend’s that she brought. I used my tiered treat stand to display all the accessories and it made me so happy!

For accessories, I found little fairy garden items like bridges and tiny yoga frogs, mini furniture, and some mini fairy houses too. We had shells, rhinestones, and mirrors, and shiny rocks galore. We had some houses you could paint too, but I don’t think anyone painted one.

I found a variety of containers. The thrift store must have gotten a set of wedding table centerpieces in because they had about 6 of these really big glass vases that matched. You’ll see some of the other ones throughout the post. I only had the little ones on the table. We had a bunny yard ornament, left by the prior owners, and it had a broken bit in it. My friend T made the cutest and most charming terrarium with it! Some of the other odder containers were a lamp shade (far left, white round dish,) a mini bathtub, and a chipped mixing bowl.

My friend donated a bunch of aloe starts and I had a couple of philodendron and spiderwort plants that I had started in my office. I bought a couple of succulents, a pepperomia, a mini nerve plant, a croton, and a purple thing that looked super fun! There were some others just marked “Terrarium assortment.” Basically anything I thought I might not kill. Outdoor plants included vistas, marigolds, alyssum, lobelia, something named “Gnome Pink,” and a coleus.

I also made snacks, but tried to keep it under control, so we only had two homemade things- lemon ginger muffins, and Cathedral bars/fantasy bars. Recipes for those are here: https://www.momontimeout.com/5-minute-fantasy-bars-just-4-ingredients/

Muffins- https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/lemon-yogurt-muffins/

I did switch out butter for oil because it was 7:30 AM and I didn’t have thawed butter or the will to go find it in the freezer. The muffins were a little overbaked, but they tasted good! The Cathedral bars were the stuff of dreams and now I want to make a pan again. I might get mobbed at work for it though, if I was nice enough to share. I did not take a picture of the snacks!

Here are some close ups of the terrariums. Some of these are from friends, as my phone overheated and got cranky. I hope you enjoy seeing them!