Crystal Madrilejos

With our 1 year anniversary of our return to Northeast Ohio looming on the horizon, I realize that me and Andrew haven’t really explored much. What with the farmhouse, work, the wedding, and traveling it seems that time just slipped away and now a year into this venture we are still as new to this place as we were the day we arrived in the U-Haul. On one hand it’s nice to feel like there are so many things yet to discover, but on the other hand it makes me feel like I really need to get out more.

The last time I lived in Ohio was the spring of ’99 and I wasn’t even 19 years old. I didn’t get out much then either. Or I did, but was too wrapped up in high school drama to realize that there is some really cool shit happening here. So what’s an Ohioan transplanted to New York transplanted back to Ohio to do? Google it, of course!

I’ve found some really interesting sites that have piqued my curiosity (even more) about my immediate surroundings. The first place to tackle, Cleveland. Being from Northeast Ohio you would think that I would have explored more of Cleveland, but to be honest, I know nothing about Cleveland. Luckily, Clevelanders are a very proud-to-be-from-here sort (as most Ohioans are) and there are a lot of great resources for finding out what’s going on around town.

1. Really Bad Cleveland Accent – I found this blog before we even moved and what drew me to the site was that I was going through what the author, Christine Borne, had relatively recently gone through: The big move from New York back to Ohio. Her writing made me excited to start discovering all that NE Ohio had to offer.

2. i heart {♥} Cleveland – This was one of the first blogs that I found after we had already moved. I was drawn to the simple and clean look of the site. Also the events that the author was posting about were things that I actually wanted to do, mainly arts/culture/design based. (In the back of my mind I though “this person must be a designer” haha) AND I recently discovered that the writer is a local Cleveland graphic designer whose work I really admire! Bonus points.

3. design*sponge: Cleveland Design Guide – This was the real clincher for me because I love design*sponge and have been following it for years now. I really admire Grace Bonney, the creator of design*sponge, and was esctatic when I found out she was doing a design guide for Cleveland. The guide is broken down into sections with shopping and restaurants.

4. Cleveland Foodie – I would never consider myself a foodie, but I do love food and I do love a good restaurant which isn’t hard to come by in NYC. Living in Carroll Gardens, there were at least 5 great restaurants within a 10 min. walk from our front stoop. Here in Medina, not so much. But I hear Cleveland is kicking ass in the food department.

5. Slow Food Northern Ohio – Another great thing about moving to Ohio is there is a lot of green grass. We actually have a yard. A substantial yard. And one of mine and Andrew’s dreams is to have a garden and live/eat closer to home. We have shared a quarter cow and half a pig with my parents from a local farmer and it’s more than enough to last us for awhile. Andrew swears that the ground beef is the best he’s ever tasted. My recent completion of The Omnivore’s Dilemma has really fanned the fire and this site has opened up even more resources.

I can’t wait to get started!

–c.

It’s officially a new year. There’s not really much more I can say about that! But it does feel good. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s just the idea of a new start, even knowing that resolutions hardly ever see the light of day, I can’t help but feel refreshed. Maybe it’s the thought that there is another year ahead of me to do all the things that I wanted to do this year that I just didn’t get around to doing. It’s unbelievable that almost a year has passed since we moved from NYC back to Ohio!! I think about the first few months living here, when the farmhouse was still a wreck. Geez, that makes my cringe. But we’ve been blessed with so many things, I can’t complain.

When I was in Europe I told Andrew that I wanted a Christmas tree this year. When I came home I walked in the door and saw the tree set up (see previous post) and I seriously almost cried, I was so happy. Not only that but, during an unseasonably warm spell, Andrew was able to dig a hole on the site of our wedding ceremony so we could plant the tree after Christmas. Luckily for us, there was another unseasonably warm day after Christmas so we could plant it. Teeny tiny.

– c.

Last time I posted was in October after I got my wisdom teeth out. It’s now New Year’s Eve and I still have holes in my mouth (though they are not painful) and I’m back in the states after 5 weeks over seas. It’s amazing how much can happen in 2 months and 19 days.

I was in Europe touring with the band Herman Dune and my band, The Baby Skins. Though being away from home/Andrew for 5 weeks is unbelievably hard, it was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up. I plan on posting tour stories on The Baby Skins site that has been sorely neglected. Happy Holidays to everyone and Happy New Year!!! See you in 2009!

– c.

I’m feeling much better, but still not 100%. My teeth still hurt and I go tomorrow to get my stitches out. It’s been a long week. A long, hungry week. I’m so sick of apple sauce, and pudding (never thought i’d say that), and cream of mushroom soup. My sister said that I’m going to gain ten pounds when my teeth stop hurting, but I honestly wouldn’t mind if it meant that I could eat sushi and cookies again without having to swish with salt water afterwards and if I didn’t get food caught in the big holes in the back of my mouth. I had lo-mein today and afterwards I checked my teeth and each hole on the bottom had a noodle sticking out of it. Disgusting!

Oh! And, gosh, I realized that I should have mentioned that those aren’t my x-rays below. I just Googled “wisdom teeth” and I liked that photo the best of the options that came up. Though I do have an x-ray that looks very similar to that one, I don’t have a copy of my own. It’s in my chart at the orthopaedic surgeon’s office. You probably wouldn’t notice the difference between mine and the one I posted except that my wisdom teeth were more crooked and I have less cavities between my teeth and a crown, both which show up as big white spots on the x-ray.

It’s currently 3am here and I can’t sleep. I got my wisdom teeth out earlier today (Monday morning) and because of the meds i’m on, I’m not in as much pain as I had feared. However, after being in bed since after my surgery at 11:30am, I can’t seem to get back to sleep. On top of that, I’m feeling nauseous and dizzy and all around like crap. And starving since I can’t eat solid foods.

But there is nothing like lying in bed, drifting in and out of sleep, to think about things. So I’ve come up with more ideas to add to my to-do/do-make list.

I’m really loving the idea of designing and making coasters. We are badly in need of them. and yes, this is what I think of in bed.

–c.

So I haven’t had a minute to try to figure out the “Read More” thing. BUT yesterday, in my Blogger frenzy I forgot to mention that I changed some comment setting so now anyone can comment and also you can link back to any posts you want with the little “Links to this post” link (too many “links” in this sentence) at the bottom of every post. If you’re confused by what I just said, just look below this post and you’ll figure it out.

Since I haven’t figured out how to do the “Read More” thing, I’m going to have to post many Amish Country photos in a row. So here goes:

I’m going to work backwards in our trip, because I think it makes for a better starting point and ending.

These are some kids hanging out next to the country store. There was one little girl, who was probably about 7 or 8 years old, shopping for groceries with another little girl (about 2 years old) on her hip. She looked like an adult! I don’t have a good picture of them so this will do instead.

Ashery Country Store was our last stop on the trip and it, as you can see, has bulk foods. I’m not sure if they make all these goods, but the hot cocoa mix looked suspiciously like Swiss Miss. Guess we’ll never know. I got a bag of chocolate covered almonds and some raw sugar. Andrew stocked up on “special” flour and such.

This is the parking lot of the Ashery Country Store. Special parking for the horse drawn carriages. I don’t know a whole lot about the Amish other than what I’ve observed, and that isn’t much. So if I’m misrepresenting anything in anyway, please feel free to set me right. But I swear I saw more than a few buggies driven by Amish men drinking Mountain Dew or Canada Dry or coffee out of a styrofoam cup. Is this allowed? I don’t know why it wouldn’t be, but it sort of makes you do a double-take.

Speaking of carriages, we rode in this one. (In this photo it looks like the horse is about to take a mad dash and the carriage is teetering on two wheels!) Andy is the horse’s name and the driver is Lester. Seems like it should be the other way around (no offense to anyone named Lester!). I felt a little weird riding in the carriage because I wasn’t sure how the horse was treated. The driver seemed nice enough and there are horses EVERYWHERE in Amish Country pulling carriages. But the fact that we were tourists of sorts felt like maybe it was more carnival ride and less necessity for transportation.

Last but not least is Lehman’s. This is a huge Amish Department store. Even though I did see a few Amish people browsing and probably buying, I have a feeling it’s not where they would go to get a bargain. Lots of cool stuff, for sure. I mean, it’s famous! People come from all over the place to shop at Lehman’s.

Abigail weighing herself at Lehman’s and below is a really neato display of yard sticks.

So, I just spent many minutes trying to figure out, in Blogger, how to have a post with a jump page so the post isn’t so long. However, I was unsuccessful. My brain hurts and I’m tired so if anyone knows how to do this and can help me, please, feel free!

So, I just spent many minutes trying to figure out, in Blogger, how to have a post with a jump page so the post isn’t so long. However, I was unsuccessful. My brain hurts and I’m tired so if anyone knows how to do this and can help me, please, feel free!

was amazing! I’ll post more when I have a minute between working and cleaning.

We’re going to the Amish Country tomorrow!!! I haven’t been there in years. Seriously, I haven’t been there since I was in elementary school and all I remember is eating bulk candy and wishing I could dress like a little Amish girl in a blue dress with a black apron and matching black bonnet. Oh, and Holly Hobbie boots.