Not a date (No. 4)

psst. here is the beginning just in case :)

Ice cream is a thing during Michigan summers.  There is a quaint, non-chain ma and pa that makes in-house, from scratch ice-cream on almost every corner of town.  My apartment for the summer just happened to be a mile from Great Lakes Creamery.  They have blue ice cream there which tastes exactly like Paramount's Kings Island Blue Smurf ice cream.  Smurf ice cream is the stuff my childhood dreams were made of... Anyway, Great Lakes is the bomb and everyone should get a chance to eat 3 scoops while catching up with a close friend.

A bunch of the other co-ops had left for the weekend to visit family except for me and a guy from Northwestern named David. It was my roommate, Jane's birthday and I think it might have also been Easter weekend. Which explains why everyone was fleeing Midland. David and I tried to entertain ourselves but Midland is tiny.  By Saturday afternoon we were board. Before anyone gets fuzzy on who I was interested in at this point, David is a great buddy but he was in a serious long term relationship and I was pretty keen on this Josh kid. Though, I hadn't told ANYBODY. Except for my girlfriend from school who had just started a pretty special relationship with a boy named Jon ;)

I texted Josh that afternoon asking if he wanted to grab ice cream with me.  I guess I had sort of initiated things but I totally don't remember it feeling like that. During co-op, you were always away from home and familiar friends so everyone was game for becoming instant friends. You invited everyone to join in whatever plans you had all the time. It kept us from being board in the world's smallest town for a global company's headquarters.

Josh was reffing a soccer tournament all weekend (I later found out). So he was too busy earning money to respond back.  I took his non response to mean he was busy so David and I went for ice cream. Later that day Josh would call me and explain how he would LOVE to go for ice cream because it had been hot all weekend while he was reffing. My response [that I am so not proud of and we still talk about it to this day] was "sorry we already went, maybe another time?". Yes! That is what I said. Can you believe me? Well, I can't either.

Flash forward 2 nights later. Josh texted me after work asking if I would get ice cream with him to make up for inviting him along then ditching him over the weekend. I said I would meet him there. I got to Great Lakes when my phone rings. It's Josh telling me he is outside my apartment.  He was there to pick me up.  Whooops! I told him thanks for coming to pick me up but I was already there. I can not believe my 21 year old self now but there are many more of those moments to come.

This moment had arrived where I was face to face with this gorgeous blonde haired, blue eyed man.  I felt like I was talking to an old friend, even though we hadn't really talked much before this moment. We talked about our childhoods, what high school was like for us.  I shared about loving college and my study group of girl friends I couldn't live without.  He told me about his high school buddies who became irreplaceable friends. We talked about his younger sister. I told him about my older sister.  We bonded over sports and playing soccer.  I would later find out all about more about why soccer was so important to him and why he started reffing.  We shut down Great Lakes and they kicked us off the porch at 11pm.

Josh had offered to buy me ice cream that night but I had just eaten dinner and wasn't very hungry. I had rejected this guy twice now without even realizing it. What was I thinking?! I was too busy listening to the stories he was sharing and enjoying his incredibly loud [some times obnoxious but mostly charming] laugh.

It didn't phase him. Though, he still does tease me about rejecting his ice cream offer. He called me about a week later asking me if I had plans for Saturday..

Anyone's guess what was being planned ;)

Mrs. W

I would never date an engineer. [No. 2]

This post is No.2 in a series called Divine Romance.  Which, is actually a song by Phil Wickam Mr W. and I danced to on our wedding day. To read how about my first impressions, see post No. 1.

So, when did we finally meet? It was about a week after the movie diss that we planned Mexican themed potluck. Probably to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. I had heard from my roommate that one of our friends living in the apartment across the hall from us was going to host.  I am sort of ashamed of this but I actually persuaded my roommate, Jane, to ask Mr W. if we could have the potluck at his dad's house instead.  See, Mr W. was actually from the small town we were living in during our summer co-op.  The rest of us were living in corporate housing while we were working.  Ie, our apartments had the bare bones of kitchen supplies and minimal space.

Well, it worked, suddenly we were meeting at Mr W's childhood home for a potluck. I think it was a Wednesday.  I brought supplies for root beer floats [guess I thought it'd go with the Mexican theme??].  Mr W. was making a batch of taco meat and chatting.  He looked like a man who knew his way around the kitchen. I would later find out he could cook pretty well -a skill my sister reaffirmed was scarce in men these days.

"Hi, this is my dad's house. I'm Josh"

[Exactly what I thought] Finally, this kid introduces himself to me! And I notice he has wonderfully blue eyes, dimples in his smile and an ability to dress himself.  He was wearing a button down shirt and khakis.  I would find out later his sister dressed him for work, thus the nice work clothes. Though, it takes a strong man to admit he needs a woman to help dress himself.

We eventually settled into the basement to play hold 'em and pool. I had just sunk a ball in the corner pocket and I think we were talking about relationships. [I hope] because I distinctly remember exclaiming how "I could never stand to date another engineer", and "you'd never get anything done because you have two very smart people battling out how to do something most efficiently".  Cue thunder and lightening; I had just challenged God.  Or at least, that is how I feel now thinking back on it.  Oh, how silly I was [and still am] thinking I could go around making these all-encompassing statements.  

At this point, Josh. had just been mercilessly beaten at hold em' by none other than his Dad! He joined us for pool; he wasn't on my team but I forget who was.  I can remember sinking the eight ball, kicking butt and taking names.  I had beat Josh at pool.  To which he retorted "I can't win in my own house!" and proceeded to be melodramatic for the rest of the evening.  All in good fun, of course.  His sense of humor made me laugh.

I thought here is someone who doesn't take himself too seriously.  Which, is something I did do. All. The. Time.  A few weeks later I realized how he could influence me to be so not-stick-up-my-bum serious.

Not a straight face in the crowd.

But that happened weeks later. There is still a bunch of in-between ridiculous details to savor.  And that was the last time I thought about him for awhile.  Least, until several friends started inquiring about what we were.

And least you forget how handsomely studly Mr W. truly is, I'll leave you with this little gem.

Yes, you are very welcome.
Mrs. W.

First impressions

I was 21 years old.

Just moved to Michigan for the summer. [I thought] It was freezing for April.  I remember having to scrape ice off my windshield while trying to avoid the black snow. You know the nasty stuff that sticks around for weeks after the last snow fall.  It has accumulated all the dirt into one convenient spot right next to the driver side door and refuses let your khaki slacks go unmarked.

My roommate and I were both going through a short hair phase.  Engineering can be such a man's world. Even we felt compelled to have short hair. Makes it easier to recover from hard hat hair (sigh).

Roommates.

We went to the movies to meet the other [co-op] students who were also working that summer.  These pictures are from Cinco de Mayo a few weeks later.

B-dubs to celebrate Mexican independence.

Like civilized young people, we introduced ourselves to the group.  Except, for one boy who showed up a little bit after everyone else was already at the theater. I thought he was pretty cute for a engineer [nerd].  But he never introduced himself to me.  Nope. I was told by another girl who he was.  I remember he brought his dad to the movie with him.  I love hanging out with my family (more than an average young person) and liked that this boy valued time with his dad.**

Source

The movie we went to was "I love you, Man".  Now that I think of it, I haven't seen that movie since.  What happened to it?

Anyway, that was the first time I didn't met Mr W.
-Mrs. Dubyah

**Mr W. would like to clarify here. He ALWAYS went to 5 dollar Wednesday movies with his dad.  He was simply inviting all the co-ops along to partake in their tradition.  Knowing this made me melt even more. What a family man. ;)

love birds

Pretty paintings. Bad Lighting.

Art is something I haven't "done" since high school.  I did take a few art classes in college to satisfy graduation requirements but my biggest motive for taking them was 1.) I got to spend 2.5 hrs a week with my headphones on, in a semi transient state and 2.) there were no tests.

Did anyone else take courses in college to avoid tests? I felt like I took enough with my regular course work and didn't want to see a test in my electives.

Anyway, here is a DIY art project to add personal touch in your home decor.  I like having homemade pieces of art on my walls because its so personal.  The pieces all have a story and I really like talking sharing.    I also like asking other people about artwork I see displayed in their home.  

"Where did you get that? I like it." 

"Oh that? I made it!"

"No, really?! Its so cool/awesome/pretty/interesting."

 "Thanks, I just whipped it up, you know" If you want to feel like a big deal.

or

"Thanks, I made it because it makes me think about (insert memory)." If you want to get personal and share why its special to you.

Supplies:  I got everything @ Michael's
(2) 16 x 16" primed canvas.
(1) large straight edged brush and (1) small fine brush. I use CraftSmart brand because I like the squishy finger grips.
(3) colors of acrylic paint.  For this I used Basic Black, Lemon Custard, and Thunder Blue.  I have the FolkArt brand because they were cheapcity (on sale).
(1) piece of cardboard. I used an empty cereal box.
other items you'll need: cup of water, scissors, painters tape, Sharpies, paper towel or napkin.

Basic Black, Thunder Blue, Lemon Custard.

CraftSmart brushes.

1.) I painted 1 canvas with Lemon Custard, starting with a 2" solid section at the base of the canvas, not forgetting to paint the edges.  I forgot to take pictures as I went, hopefully this explanation helps!

Then, I cleaned off my brush in water until the water ran mostly clear.  I thoroughly wet the brush and used broad strokes to brush water onto the line of yellow I had just painted. Repeat this process several times until you've "pulled" the paint up the canvas with a wet brush.  This is how I got the ombre effect.  You might have to load up your brush with more paint, then dip in water to help things along.

2.) I repeated Step 1.) with Thunder Blue on my second canvas. I let them dry for 2 hrs.

I went back and layered up the blue with more color to match the fade effect on the yellow canvas.

3.) I did a Google search to find silhouettes of birds I liked. You could use these for inspiration and paint the birds free hand or move on to step 4 to make stencils.

source

source

4.) Trace the birdie outline onto a napkin (or paper towel). Don't be like me and use Sharpie, use pen.

Terribly blurry but this was my method of tracing.

 5.) Using a heavy Sharpie, I traced over my birdie outline onto cardboard. The entire image didn't transfer but I just filled in the missing parts.  I needed to trace the image to get dimensions. I can't free hand birds, mine always look deathly ill.

Tracing my bird.

Fill in the lines that didn't transfer.

 6.) I repeated Step 4.) and 5.) to get my second (love) bird onto the cardboard.  Here you can see I used the mirror image of the second bird so they appear to be gazing lovingly into each other's eyes.

birdie love.

7. Cut out birdies to make a (rough) stencil.

8.) I measured 7" on the side of each canvas and laid 2 strips of painters tape down to create the wire for the birdies to sit on.  I forgot to take a picture before I painted my wire with black (sorry, I got all excited to paint my birds). I let the wire dry for a few minutes before slowly peeling off the tape at an angle.  I recommend using tape to keep your wire straight.

Blue canvas with birdie wire.

9.) I used the stencil as a guide to trace out the birds.  You could try taping down the stencil onto the canvas and filling in the bird shapes but you could have issues with the paint bleeding outside of the stencil.  I went the safe route and just outlined.  Then I removed the stencil and filled in my bird.  I went back and edged out each bird to get the feather details.

love bird.

10.) I gave my birdie about 30 mins to dry before adding the second one.

love birds.

11.) I hung each canvas by hammering a short nail into the top 2 corners and wrapping twine around it.

My love birds greet me every morning on my way to make coffee.

You could give this as a gift for a friend's wedding shower? You could personalize it using each person's favorite color.  Or, perhaps a monogram or the couple's wedding date.  Endless options here, the idea is to expand your options.

I went back and forth on adding a date under the wire. Like this..

Add wedding date for personal touch.

In the end, I liked how the one, heavy image on the light and airy yellow canvas balances out the dark, stormy blue canvas.  The wire ties the two together while keeping the mood of each canvas separate. Oh boy, I say stuff like that because I took 4 years of art courses and now that's just how my brain has been conditioned to think.  It's ok if it just looks right to you as well ;) 

It's art, do whatever looks right to you. 

ciao,

Mrs W.