Mackinaw Road Monday: An A-frame, A Man Called Ove, and A Vase I’d Call Magical
Hi and Happy Friday! Here is the post I was supposed to publish 4 days ago 🙂 You know the drill by now. Five quick-ish topics. This week the topics include an a-frame, a book, a vase, some boots, and shrimp.
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Let’s start with the travel updates. You may remember from last week’s post that we are planning a group anniversary trip to celebrate 5-, 10-, and 15- years of marriage. Initially, our top 3 choices were Montana (you can read about the last time I was there here), New Hampshire (What About Bob- style), or Mexico. Unfortunately, all of those options were eliminated for various reasons. So, some more ideas were thrown around… and they are so good! One option was Salt Lake City and I quickly suggested that we stay at this a-frame. It is situated between Park City and Salt Lake City… I’ve been following Kara and the A-frame Haus on Instagram for years. It is decorated beautifully! I keep bookmarking ideas for our Beach Cabin. My sister-in-law immediately noticed even more wonderful décor ideas. This a-frame is a top contender but even if we don’t end up here this time, we all have it saved for future vacations. Here is the link.
A Man Called Ove. This is a book that I started years ago. We recently started a family reading time by the fire for a half hour. I had finished this book (I love, love, loved it!) and needed something to read, so I picked up my quarter finished A Man Called Ove. I don’t know why I never finished it. My guess is that life was just really busy with young kids at home and I put it aside and forgot about it. But, let me tell you. This is not a book to be forgotten. It is such a sweet story!
So, it’s hard to transition from such a meaningful book to a vase- haha! All I can say is that I’m glad to own both of them. I don’t know. Anyway, this vase is kind of magical. I bought it this fall and had it by our kitchen sink with some cut, dried hydrangeas. And I loved it there! Now, that it is winter, I have it upstairs with some Trader Joe’s eucalyptus sprigs, and I am happy with it there too! It definitely leans modern but I haven’t had any trouble finding places for it in our colonial home. Sometimes, it is fun to have a little juxtaposition in our house. The vase also makes a great gift. I just purchased another one for a friend. (If you are in the Grand Rapids area, you can find the vase at The Counting House.)
I have known that I needed black booties for some time now but just couldn’t find what I was looking for. I finally just purchased these. They are great and took no time at all to get used to. The heel is high enough to make me feel like I’ve dressed up a bit but low enough that I don’t feel like I’m going to topple over at any given point. They can be dressed up or dressed down and still look new despite my owning and wearing them for over a month in the middle of winter. (These are the jeans I’m wearing (I think that is the correct style in the link) and the sweater is from The Counting House– you can call to order if you don’t live in town ;-).) I also purchased this crossbody that is on sale at the original time of this post publishing. I took a photo but Crew was in the background howling at me- haha!
Around the time that we got married, my mom and her friends put together a cookbook of family recipes for their daughters. This recipe couldn’t be easier. If you are staying in for Valentine’s Day and want an easy, somewhat fancy dinner for the adults, this could be it! Here is the original recipe (mostly)… I buy the Trader Joe’s red Argentinian shrimp—they are the best shrimp that I have cooked with. They are raw, shelled, and deveined. You could probably do two packages, but I just do one because we don’t do well with leftovers. Anyway, set your oven to 375 degrees. In a 9×13 glass dish, add the shrimp, 6 oz of beer, ½ stick of butter, a sprinkle of garlic powder to your liking, half of a lemon, and a few turns of pepper. Pop it in the oven and bake it for 20 minutes or until the shrimp are done. Meanwhile, we boil angel hair pasta on the stove and bake broccoli with olive oil and salt in the oven. It can either be served all separately or mixed together for a little shrimp pasta dish.
That’s all for now- Have a wonderful week!
