Camping Weekend in Instagram

What a great weekend, but man, I'm tired!  And, is it just me, or did the weekend just fly by?!  Camping was a big success, but I think I need a couple days just to recuperate.  I took a bunch of photos this weekend, including some night-sky photos that I'm hoping turned out well, but until I have a chance to edit them here's some photos from Instagram...

 Antoine and I were in charge of all the food/cooking.  I was in charge of the coffee, something I've never made when camping before because Antoine doesn't drink coffee.  But since we had some serious coffee drinkers in the group this time I got this and this (which also came in handy for making some warm spiced cider Saturday night!) and some tasty coffee from Stauf's...and it turned out really well!  Plus my sister gave me this sweet set of metal mugs, bowls and plates (thanks sis!).

 These photos are from Saturday morning.  Antoine and I made an egg bake (somewhat similar to this one) with potatoes, onions, and peppers from Amanda's garden.  We topped it with Parmesan and aged white cheddar and it was very tasty!  Cheese, of course, wanted to help with the cooking process and kept getting way too close to the fire...but he managed not to burn himself, somehow.

 On Saturday we went to Apple Hill Orchards in Mansfield, OH, which was about a 30-40 minute drive from where we were staying near Mohican State Park.  I had never been to Apple Hill and just found them online earlier that week.  It's a great little place that I'd highly recommend (and they are dog-friendly which is awesome!).  We went apple picking, feasted on apple donuts, and sampled some delicious cider.  Good times!

 After Apple Hill, my sister and brother-in-law spotted a sign for the Ohio Bird Sanctuary just down the road.  It turned out to be a really great impromptu stop!  Cheese was allowed in most of the areas, they had a cool selection of owls, hawks and falcons, and they even had an enclosure that you could walk into (but no dogs!) that had all kinds of birds in it, quails, blue jays, chickens, killdeer, etc.  And then as we were getting ready to leave we spotted one of the very friendly staff exercising one of the hawks.  And then another one of the staff members brought out this little screech owl, Lazarus, to talk about!  I have better photos that I'll definitely share later!

 As you can see Saturday night got a little silly!  We were all drinking and playing cards against humanity and then this happened...don't worry, that's not cocaine it's powdered sugar for campfire pies!

It was a fun, but exhausting weekend...especially for the Cheese-man!  All the smells, all the random people petting him and rubbing his belly...it's so rough!

Stay tuned for more camping photos, though it might take me a while to get to them since this weeks is Midpoint!  Happy Monday everyone!

Life Lately (in Instagram)

 Okay, so remember when I promised to have a real post for you (part 2 of the Mansfield Reformatory) by the end of August?  Yeah, well...it's September now and that didn't happen.  And I'm really not sure when it's going to, to be honest.  We've just been so busy lately, but in the best way possible!  So here's a "life lately" via Instagram to hold you over:

Antoine and I celebrated three months of being married at the end of August, which is just crazy!  Seriously, where has the summer gone? [pretty flowers from Trader Joe's]

 Summertime-Jessica is a total lush, in case you didn't know!  I made a batch of strawberry simple syrup so I obviously needed to whip up some tasty alcoholic beverages: left- strawberry mojito, right- strawberry margarita.

 I had been craving a cobb salad so Antoine and I got all the fixings, including some Amish eggs and tasty Ashland-raised bacon.  It totally hit the spot!

 On the weekends Antoine almost always makes a delicious breakfast for us...but I decided to sneakily make him breakfast on Labor day!  I used this recipe; it was really tasty, but next time I would scramble the eggs firs before putting them in the nests.  

 So many pretty skies lately, these are just two that I happened to capture.

 Work has been pretty busy lately!  Recently I photographed a bunch of items from the Winkler Center that will be going to New York for exhibit.  All the pieces are from the Albert B. Sabin archives and are pretty cool.  The photo to the right is a box of Polio slides; Sabin developed the oral polio vaccine in the 1950s.

 On Friday Antoine and I left work early to drive up to Columbus for a Black Keys concert.  For our pre-concert dinner we got some tasty hot dogs at Dirty Frank's Hot Dog Palace.  It was my first time there and it was so good!  I got a bacon-wrapped "Classy Lady" (cheese sauce and crushed potato chips) and Antoine got the "Slappy Pappy's Super Sloppy" (bacon, coney sauce, cheddar, sour cream, topped with french fries).  We also shared a side of fried leeks, which were awesome!  It was all so good and so cheap (and they have a lot of vegetarian and vegan options!).  If you find yourself in Columbus I would seriously recommend you check it out!  After Dirty Frank's we still had time to kill so we headed over to Grandview so I could pick up some coffee and we could get some ice cream at Jeni's.  Always so good!

Antoine's brother (my new brother-in-law) got us Black Keys tickets for our wedding present.  Awesome gift, right?!  We had a great time, I particularly liked the leader singer from Cage the Elephant's dancing.  It was hilarious and mesmerizing!

The whole auditorium lit up by cell phone light before the encore. Craziness! 

We're going camping with my sister, brother-in-law, bestest friend, and her boyfriend in two weeks so I got this basic but large pour over (since Antoine doesn't drink coffee so we didn't have anything to make coffee with for camping, except a small French press).  Also, delicious coffee from Stauf's, one of my favorite Ohio roasters!

The prince on his pillows and some of Antoine's clothes.

This weekend and last Antoine and I did a fair amount of antiquing and walked away with some goodies I'm very excited about!  [this photo is from one of my favorite booths at Heart of Ohio Antique Center]  

That's all for now.  I'm going to try my hardest to get my photos edited sometime soon (i.e. this week or next).  I haven't really taken any photos since Mansfield, but I know I'll take a ton when we go camping!

Weekend in Instagram

This weekend I took it easy.  My ankle was sore and I really just wanted to veg.

 I started Saturday with a delicious homemade nonfat, extra-foamy latte.  My coworker's awesome husband (whom I've never met) gave me this brand-new espresso machine that he got as a gift years ago but has never used.  So, Saturday was the first day I put it in action and boy, oh boy, did it make a killer latte. FYI, the best coffee in Ohio (at least that I've found) is Stauf's, locally roasted in Columbus, Oh.  It's a little pricey, but is totally worth every penny.  Their espresso blend is fantastic, as is there Kaldi's blend and their French Caramel.  (Also, I just put in my first online order to them this morning because they're offering free shipping for the month of February, and they were out of one of the things I ordered, so they immediately called me [we're talking 15 minutes after I put in the order, people] and got something else for me.  Great customer service, so friendly and helpful!)

 Caffeinated human. Groggy basset hound.

 I spent most of the weekend watching Scrubs and working on a Sunburst granny square afghan I just started.  I've done a granny square afghan before, but this is my first time doing the Sunburst.  It's also the first granny square I'm making for our house, but more on that later.  So far I really like it, the pattern is pretty straight-forward and it's easy to keep track of everything since for the first three rows you need 16 of every stitch.  For right now I'm only prepping the circles.  Once I think I have enough of them, then I'll be constructing the squares around them out of an off-white yarn.

 

 While I was crocheting away, Cheese was keeping me company on the couch.  I love it when he snuggles up in a ball and covers his little nose with his paw to keep it warm.  So precious!

Last night, A and I watched the last two-thirds of the Oscars.  Correction, Antoine, Cheese and I watched the Oscars.  It's funny, I never make a point to watch the Oscars, but when I actually end up watching it I always enjoying myself.