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a striped awning and i was hooked. i mean, how adorable is this little shop in petosky, michigan!? when i asked for recommendations of places to check out in northern michigan so many of you told me to check out american spoon. I’m so glad that you did! this shop was charming and smelled delicious […]

i’m sitting here quietly in my kitchen dinette area in my bathrobe because i don’t want to wake up otto by getting dressed and i have to get this off my chest. i’m going to level with you a minute. i’m overwhelmed. if you’ve been reading my blog since it started in 2009 this is […]

two weeks ago we headed out to the midland antique festival. why i don’t know. we had so much to do around the house and it was raining but we went anyway. it’s always a gamble when it rains at a market. but there is also a chance of a big reward. you have less […]

well i think we’ve fully recovered from the wild one’s first birthday party. we had 90 of our friends and family (that’s right 90) over to our house friday night for what we called “ottopalooza” and that it was. we ate dinner outside on the most perfect summer night. different groups of friends mingled on […]

towards the end of the week i am always left with half bottles of this or that sauce, one or two of this veggie etc. i hate waste so i try to be creative and use what i have left so i don’t end up throwing things away and letting them expire. it’s so hard […]

are you getting sick of me saying i can’t believe my baby is “x” months old? well… brace yourself because i can’t believe my baby is over 11 months old and almost 1. i remember sitting on my bed where i am typing this now a year ago. 8.5 months pregnant sitting in my underwear […]