to couch or not to couch

It is no secret that moving to the US took a big toll on our finances. Consequently most of our belongings are secondhand (except the beds - I am NOT sleeping on someone else's used mattress!). Quite a while ago we went looking for a couch, which is not an easy task in the Midwest unless you really dig floral prints......😖

And one day we stumbled upon this - ehm - beaut (behind the dog)

It was big, it was green, and it was one of the best couches I have ever been sitting in. So we bought for 35$.

And then I started looking for fabrics thinking that maybe some day I would reupholster it.

It ended up being zebra:

And the fabric sat around for some days, that turned in to weeks and then months.But a few weeks ago I finally got started sewing the cushions and the mattress:

And then I waited a few more weeks, and at last I started tearing the old fabric off.Yikes. A thousand staples to be removed one at a time by hand and having our living room look like a nuclear war zone:

I am sure this couch was built by dwarfs deep within a mountain using iron wood and mithril staples and covered in fabric weaved by titanium thread.

But - one staple at a time - I got it done. And now it looks like this:

And I am super proud and brag about it to everyone I might bump into. And slowly even my hands have forgiven me and have started to be able to do regular tasks again without hurting......

Random photos from my phone

I am getting a (much needed) pedicure, the TV in the salon shows the weirdest crap series and I have read magazine forwards and backwards a few times.......

So I went on my phone and found some random pictures from lately.

It's time to get my yearly pair of glasses (the insurance covers it). Last year I got the most horrible bifocals - I hoped I could use them for surgeries, but it turns out they make me super seasick. The year before that I got new lenses on my old frames. They are now 7 years old, so picked out some brand new ones:

We have planted a little herb garden by our patio. Technically we are SO not allowed to in our rental unit, but since you can't see it from the street nobody cares:

Oh. And here's a sunset picture from Lake Michigan❤️

We also visited the cutest library right on the beach in Elk Rapids. Here's the backside of it:

And if you turned your head the other way, there was a nice beach:

And last but not least I am sure you would all LOVE to see a twoheaded calf right?

You are very welcome😜

#savingmoneybyeatingcake

It is summer camp season and Luca is all over Ann Arbor. Some camps are further away than others and I try to bike with him as much as absolutely possible even though it is strictly not necessary now that we have 2 cars.

Last year it was a necessity however and that was when Luca and I came up with #savingmoneybyeatingcake. One afternoon we had to get en uber home and there was a "surge" going on = prices double or triple to make more drivers hit the streets. We passed a bakery and decided to wait for the surge to end while eating cake. Er voila! Literally saving money in the meantime.

And now we have a deal: every time Luca bikes home and we get to go through Ann Arbor we stop for cake. Tuesday it was Zingermanns:

And today it was teahaus:

They have the BEST giant macarons. Seriously!

And Luca is the BEST cake buddy❤️

Things to do on a sunny Sunday

It's summer. It's Sunday. It's sunny. And Kristian had a gift card for Pizza House from "onkel Peter". So to town we went. We parked on the very top of the parking garage downtown:

And then we went through Nickels Arcade:

And through the university campus:

Until we reached Pizza House and got an awesome lunch (thank you Peter😊):

All the boys went home while Teresa and I spent a little "mother daughter quality time" AKA Teresa shops and I pay. Well, to be fair she only bought a 15$ denim skirt on sale and paid for everything else herself.......

When we got home there was still sunshine left and since Luca gave his dad a disc golf disc for his birthday we went to a park nearby with 18 baskets:

And tried to take some "leaf dress pictures":

And by the time we came home after that there was still sunshine left, so we even made it to the pool. Nice!

Surprised by Petoskey

Monday we decided to head northeast and go to Petoskey. We knew nothing about Petoskey except the chance to find Petoskey stones. Well, it definitely surprised us. It is SO nice here!

First we drove to the beach in the state park, where we ignored the "no animals allowed in the park" sign (we have yet to find a place in Michigan like this where people do not sneak dogs in anyways.....) and went hunting for Petoskey stones:

We managed (or Teresa managed to) find one and one only:

The beach was quite cold and windy so we headed back down to a diner we spotted in the way north: The Bob-in Again. Very 1950s with Elvis playing loud. And quite colorful:

They served frozen custard sundays and needless to say the kids could hardly finish their icecreams. Kristian and I were VERY healthy and responsible and only ordered coffee (and only fought a little bit about who got to eat the remnants of Luca's icecream).

A final stop before heading back was Maple Moon Winery, where they make...... maple wine, duh.

We got to taste a few of the different ones and bought a couple of bottles before taking a stroll through the maple plantation. A whole forest of maple trees only:

All wired up from the spring tapping:

The back country up here is breathtaking and I do hope we will be back some other time. Now we are heading back to the crazy chipmunks for one final night of bonfire, tent sleeping and maybe a little swimming in the lake.

Cheers