Warm nights

Well it's still technically spring but lately it's felt like summer! We've already been to our pool, gotten some sun, and have still stubbornly refused to turn our air conditioner on. Seriously neighbors...it's only 85 degrees out, save yourself some money, turn a fan on and open your windows at night.

Landon and I went out for a coffee date at Starbucks. It's nice to have so many coffee shops so close by, but we wish they weren't all Starbucks! I really miss going to the Nervous Dog coffee bar in Akron and I wish we had more small time joints around here. Oh well.

Tonight was nice because we sat outside listening to Frank Sinatra, Billy Holiday, and drinking in the cool night breeze. We both got Caramel Macchiatos with soy milk and they were so delicious and refreshing. Plus we got some real quality talking time which I love so dearly. There was a storm brewing distantly too and we saw a lot of lightning...I love storms. I miss living in Kansas sometimes because of all the heat lightning and watching storms roll in from 40 miles away. Also, for those of you who think the Midwest is lame, our pastor said on Sunday that Indiana has consistently placed in the top 5 most beautiful sunsets states in the US! Oh Indiana, you're so full of surprises.

Here's to a long summer of warm nights and coffee dates with my Schatz.

Cheers,

Leah

Ruche Summer Collection

Check out the new summer collection from Ruche!

Open publication - Free publishing - More web catalog

I love all of their clothes and accessories. Such vintage looks and dreamy feels....mmm, I want to go on a roadtrip in an old car.







All images ShopRuche.com.

Mustard and pickles please...

We love burgers, we love fries, and we love eating out on the cheap!! :) It's fun and usually fairly cheap to eat a burger, so we like finding new places that have good eats for a wallet friendly price. And boy do we like burgers! I always order mine with mustard and pickles...no cheese or ketchup, thank you. Landon prefers ketchup and pickles and absolutely hates mustard, which works out quite well for us.

So, we are in the process of finding some good burgers around Indy. We have the usuals: Dairy Queen, and Steak N' Shake. Both excellent cheap choices.

But we've found some nice specialty burger joints recently that are delish as well.



96th Street Steakburgers is a local place we ate at last month. We actually ate at the 96th street location too. Very good!



On Friday night, we ate at Johnny Rockets. We hadn't ever been there before, but loved the place. It's a little more pricey, but the food was so good. We got a milkshake to share too...a real strawberry milkshake. The decor was vinatge 50s feel with mini juke boxes at the booths where you could pick a song for 5 cents.

And our hunt for good burgers will continue. We'll probably head down to Broad Ripple and see if they've got anything to offer. I'm betting they will.

Cheers,

Leah

Cheap Eats Image

Luncheon on the Porch

Since Landon and I were spending Mother's Day with my mom and dad, we decided to go to Landon's parents' house this past Sunday for a late Mother's Day meal. It was so good just relaxing with them in the afternoon with a lovely homemade meal.

We had grilled salmon and pork chops, green beans with potatoes and mushrooms, fresh strawberries and kiwi, and homemade spelt bread, which is so good and very good for you. After dinner, we had a most delicious dessert of peanut butter pie (ahh, so amazing!) and Chai lattes using the recipe from an older blog post of mine, thanks to Cathy who read the post and tried it out. The lattes were really good by the way and so easy to make.

We sat outside on their porch, the one Landon and I were married on, and had a lovely drawn out lunch in the fresh air. After a wonderful day, Landon and I took a nice night drive back home and I snapped a photo....I LOVE night drives.

Here's to good times and good food with our dear family!! Love them.

Cheers,

Leah

IMA and the Flying Cupcake

Landon and I spent a wonderful Saturday afternoon checking out the Indiana Museum of Art and a cute little bakery called The Flying Cupcake in Broad Ripple. I got a lemon chiffon cupcake, and Landon got a red velvet cupcake....yummm. We love exploring around our new city and finding little places to go! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well.

Cheers,

Leah

Hang a little bit of cheer for me...

Ahh, I've been so neglectful this week in blogging. For shame! I have maybe 5 different posts running through my head, but I won't sit down and actually do them. This week was so busy with work, and by the time I get home and eat and visit with my husband, I'm too tired to write anything inspiring down. So these next few posts will be a bit of a catch up to present day Rife activities.

I finally finished our living room curtains!! I'm so happy every time I look at them, and they frame our window so very nicely. This is the first time I've ever made curtains, so I know they aren't perfect, but they will hold a special place in my heart I think. They were super easy too...I didn't use a pattern or anything, but Landon helped me decide how large we wanted them. Here's how I went about my business.

1) Measure window. We allowed about 3-4 inches above, below, and on either side of the window frame.

2) Buy fabric. Landon and I spent a bit in JoAnn Fabrics finding some lovely printed textile fabric that went nicely with the preexisting colors of our other decor and furniture. We bought three yards at $9.99 per yard, so $30. This was a little bit more expensive than I was wanting, but these are the exact colors and print that we wanted, so it was worth a bit more.

3) Buy curtain rod. As much as we thought we wanted a nice wooden rod, we felt that it would darken and shrink the space around our window too much with the white walls, so we opted for a slim, silver metal rod instead. Target, $7.99.
Landon measured and hung the curtain rod for me, thanks babe!

4) Buy curtain rings. I was going to sew on my own fabric rings, but found some awesome clip on rings at Target!! Will this make my sewing experience less time-consuming....I think so! Sold! Target, 2 packs @ $4.99 each, $10.

5) Cut and pin fabric. I cut the fabric into two equal panels, then pinned a 1 inch flap on each side.

6) Sew! I ran a straight (well don't look too closely) seam along the pinned edges and that was that!

7) Clip the rings in equally spaced spots along the top edge of the curtains.

8) Hang and admire!

This was a great and easy sewing experience for me. While our total for curtains came to around $48 total, the satisfaction of making my own was priceless. These will last a good while and we love the colors.

Here are the pictures of the curtains, and also a yummy summer meal we made this week. Ham and cheese wraps with Sweet Vidalia Onion dressing, sweet corn, and Ugli fruit. If you've never had Ugli fruit, then you should. It's a cross between a tangerine and a grapefruit and it is so refreshing and delicious!

Have a wonderful evening!

Cheers,

Leah

Cracka Snackin'

Any time I eat a lot of junk food over the weekend, I immediately think of how I can start eating more healthy the next week! So with a big wedding weekend and lots of food and fun, I'm feeling like eating some healthier and yummy foods this week. I LOVE snacking...I'm more of a grazer type eater. I like to eat smaller meals and snack a lot throughout the day. Landon is the same way, which makes it nice for me. It really feels better too since I don't feel so full and stuffed after three big meals each day. So here are some of my favorite snacks that I love to eat. As you notice, they are all grainy cereals/bars. I love snacks that are high in fiber because they keep me full for a longer period of time. Fiber is so great! Here's a good website to read more about adding fiber to your diet. Kashi, and Cascadian Farm websites also have some good nutritional info.

Snacks: These are fairly cheap and so yummy!



I love Cascadian Farm cereal. Mix with some skim milk and you have a great low fat snack.




Fiber One bars are great. They have really good flavor, and they are packed with 9grams of fiber!



Ahhhh...Grape Nuts are my FAVORITE cereal. Sometimes, I add a banana to the bowl to make them extra delish.



My parents bought these cookies for us today, and they are really good. They are very hearty cookies with 4 grams of fiber in each one.

So instead of grabbing a bag of chips, eat a little bowl of healthy cereal or a nice fiber packed bar. :)

Have a good day!

Cheers,

Leah