The Handmade Project

Posted in Adventures, Crafts, DIY, Homemade, Parties!, Photos, Q13 by mszerwo

Umm… did you know that my wildest dreams might actually come true?! It’s a long shot, but when Brandon forwarded me the application for The Handmade Project, a reality television show about crafting (!!!!), I knew that I had to apply.

It took three weeks for me to perfect my responses to the dozens of questions they asked, find my craft projects and photos, and to film just the right 3 minute video. The stars aligned last week and I submitted my application!

You have to apply to be chosen! Fingers crossed!!

I’ve never applied to a reality TV show before, but I’m guessing it’s a little bit of a popularity contest, so I’d really appreciate it if you could please watch, comment, and like my application video on YouTube, this blog post, and on my social channels. (Links in the top right!)

Who knows… you might be seeing me on the big screen in August!

Here are some highlights of my application, so you can know what you’re supporting:

My PR/introductory blurb:

During the day, Megan Szerwo is a real-life Leslie Knope, making her living working on behalf of the people of the City of Seattle. After hours though, Megan grabs a glass of her favorite red and she gets down to business on her real passion: crafting. A jack of all trades, Megan focuses her attention on party and holiday decor, gifts for new parents, and any and every craft possible with her endless supply of corks. Megan’s three passions in life are easily described: cats, crafts, and carafes! Megan lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband, son, and two cats.

And some of the projects that I highlight:

My Q13 debut!

My small business: Little Britches Bakery

Our homemade wood-fired oven in the backyard

My party pinatas

My mad party-throwing skills

Cork art!

And a couple of projects that are new to you as a blog reader:

Michael’s ONE HAPPY CAMPER first birthday party! I promise you’ll see it soon!

Muzzle Guzzler glassware: coming soon!

Fourth of July onesies! (Post coming only a year late, but in time for 7/4/17!)

Since it’s likely that this show would just perfectly foul up our Buffalo moving plans, it’s almost guaranteed to happen!

Don’t forget to watch my application video, tell all your friends to watch it, and like/comment on this post!

Thank you for reading and your unending support of my creative endeavors!

30Jul2015

50 days to go!

Posted in Around the house, Baby Michael, Crafts, DIY, Homemade, Photos, Uncategorized by mszerwo

About 50 days ago I blogged my master to-do list for the baby’s room.

Well, time has flown by and over the weekend we hit the 50 days until D-day mark. We also spent a lot of time wrapping up some of the nursery projects.

Here’s a update of where we are, and what we still have left to do before the little guy comes in just about seven weeks. (Or sooner?!)

UPDATED master to do list:

~~Remove the mattress and bed frame. Wrap for transport to the cabin.~~ Transported to the cabin over the Fourth, where I won an award for my quinoa salad!
~~Apologize to Maddie for stealing her favorite napping spot.~~ She still sleeps in there, and has made do with the bassinet. She’s in for a rude awakening when that bassinet is full with an infant!
~~Wash sheets, take comforter to dry cleaners.~~
~~Remove ball lights.~~
~~Clean out and remove the bookshelf side table.~~
~~Vacuum and dust thoroughly!~~
~~Buy paint and paint the room. We’re debating between Behr’s Sparrow and Anonymous. Which one is your favorite?~~ We went with Sparrow. It’s very pretty and so serene!
~~Secure baseboards. Touch up with paint if necessary.~~
~~Hang curtain rods and curtains.~~
~~Place the art on the shelves and think about where wall art will be placed~~ We still have some art to frame, but it’s we’re running out of space!
~~Empty Brandon’s clothes from the dresser.~~ He’s all moved into the master bedroom! It only took 5 years…
~~Replant and move Brandon’s terrarium.~~ It looks so good! I realized that I never posted about it. I’ll add that to the list of blogs to work on!
~~Assemble new rocking chair.~~ Assembled! And we’ve used it several times. We have this pouf on order to complete the look!
~~Grab crib from home-home and set it up.~~ It’s grabbed, but it turns out my sister busted one of the rungs when she was a kid. It’s in Dad’s shop now, getting repaired. We’ve got the mattress and lots of sheets for it!
Finish whale mobile. It’s almost ready. I just need to find the embroidery floss in my rather cluttered craft room. Maybe this weekend I’ll finish it!
~~Finish painting ceramic fish and lampshade.~~ Painted. Now I just have to find a spot for the fish and put the lampshade on the lamp.
~~Measure dresser, cut whitewood (or other kind of cheap wood) to create a top. (We’re making something like this, but only the top.)~~ We a went a different direction; one that I’m really pleased with the direction we went! See the photo of Michael’s new ombre dresser below!
~~Sand and paint dresser, replace drawer pulls.~~ Painted. Pulls replaced! See photo and let me know what you think!
Sand and stain ~~dresser top~~, elephant rocker, side table, ~~trophy bases and book boxes~~. Rocker and side table sanding/staining are still on the to do list, but the trophy bases and book boxes are done and look great.
~~Spray paint the ceramic animal heads~~, adhere them to the wood trophy bases. They’re painted and now they need to be adhered. I’m debating between using super glue and hot glue. Anyone have any recommendations?
~~Make rope basket “zoo” for stuffed animals.~~ It’s a great idea and project, but I could not find the rope anywhere. Then I went to Homegoods and found an adorable bin for far less than it would’ve been to make the rope basket.

Some new to do’s, in addition to the ones not crossed out above:

Get sun from home-home, hang in the corner of the room. Michael and I will grow up with the sun in our rooms, made by my Aunt Peggy!
Buy laundry hamper.
Clean out ‘candle drawer’ in the kitchen, so we have a place for all of his bottles and supplies. (Yes, we have a candle drawer.)
Clean out the bathroom a bit, making room for all of Michael’s new stuff.

And what you really came here for… updated photos!

Here's our super-sized rocker and the photo area. I imagine I'll be spending some quality time here soon!

Here’s our super-sized rocker and the photo area. I’ll be spending some quality time here soon!

Here’s the ombre dresser and changing table area.

A close up of the “zoo” bin for Michael’s stuffed animals.

Here is one of our rolling apple crates for books. Brandon did such a great job sanding and staining them! We both did a good job on the wheels.

Here’s the latest on the whale mobile. It’s looking great and will be finished soon!

I hope you enjoyed our nursery update. There will be more photos as we keep finishing projects in the next (less than!!) 50 days!

8Jan2015

Blog photo composition secrets

Posted in Around the house, Cats, Photos by mszerwo

Ever wonder how I get all of the great photos I post here and on Instagram? This comic pretty much sums it up:

The truth behind all of my photos… Kind of. 😉

Lucky for me, my cats are lazy and photogenic, my camera and I are friends and understand one another, and I’ve enjoyed composing and taking photos for many years.

Shortly after I saw this comic, I stumbled across this post on Instagram. The only thing missing here is a glass of wine! I think Jack and I totally nailed it!

Have a great rest of the week!

Comic from Huffington Post

4Jan2015

2014 in review

Posted in Adventures, DIY, Food, Photos, Q13 by mszerwo

After a nice little break from the blog, spending time with friends and family, I’m BACK!

Here is our year in review: 2014 was a great year for the us, a year full of great wine, great food, great company and a whole lot of adventure.

We started of the year with a New Year’s Day flight north. Way north. We spent the first few days of the year in the Arctic Circle, in the town of Bettles, to see the Northern Lights. (More here.)

Watching sunrise (about 11 a.m.) inside of the Arctic Circle, in Bettles, AK. (Sun set around 1 p.m.!) Yes, our jackets are lines with wolf fur. No, they’re not ours.

From there, we had many more travel-required adventures for wedding celebrations: to New Orleans, Carmel-by-the-Sea, Flathead Lake, Montana, and Portland!

It wasn’t just wedding travel this year. We just returned from a pleasure trip to the Big Island of Hawaii. The trip was the perfect mix of relaxation and adventure: we tanned ourselves on the beach, snorkeled with manta rays, photographed a lot of Green Sea Turtles, opened the second-largest telescope (at nearly 14,000 feet on the world’s tallest mountain!), hiked the lava flows at the national park, and used our Northern Lights training to take night time photos of the world’s most active volcano. (I’m working on the blog post now!)

Here are some photos from the trip, to start your thinking about traveling someplace sunny and warm on this dreary winter day:

We spent the first part of our trip here, at the Mauna Lani hotel. It was gorgeous!

Our first sunset on the Big Island

Sunset from our manta ray snorkel tour boat, outside of Kona

Sunset from almost 14,000 feet, at the Mauna Kea observatories

One of many turtles (and turtle photos) we saw on our trip

Black sand beach on the sound end of the Big Island

Macadamia nuts for days

In August, I was featured as a ‘lifestyle blogger’ on one of Seattle’s morning television programs on Q13. Watch the clip here. It was another great adventure and hopefully the first television appearance of many.

In addition to this blog and my day job, my part-time baby business, Little Britches Bakery, is flourishing this year. I shut down the website last spring and instead started selling via Etsy, seeing a great jump in orders this past year. Now it’s time for the shameless plug: if you’re shopping for new parents, check out Little Britches Bakery!

2014 was the year of the pizza for those of us on Megan’s Island. We finished Fatto a Mano (our wood-fired oven) in August and love, love, love it. We’ve perfected our foccacia and pizza crust recipes and will be trying out other dishes in the oven this year.

Finished pizza oven with Geroni-gnome, our watch’gnome’

A wonderful shot of the flames leaping toward the pizza

That’s about it for 2014. We’re closing the chapter on another stellar year for us and we’re looking forward to an even better year in 2015. I hope it’s a great year for you too!

Cheers to 2015! Thanks for reading!!

25Dec2014

Merry Christmas {2014}

Posted in Holidays, Photos by mszerwo

Merry Christmas from Megan’s Island and cheers to a very happy and prosperous New Year!

24Sep2014

Celebrating our third anniversary

Posted in Exploring Seattle, Food, Photos by mszerwo

Brandon and I celebrated our third anniversary last night at Salty’s, the restaurant where we had our wedding reception three years ago today. We like to go back to Salty’s each year to celebrate: anniversary number one: all-you-can-eat brunch and number two: a romantic dinner.

We also like to take photos with our year numbers, in their traditional gift themes:

Year one: Paper! (We have a better photo somewhere, but haven’t been able to locate it)

Celebrating our paper anniversary

Year two: Cotton

My cotton #2 for our second anniversary dinner

Year three: Leather (We finally got a tripod, so we could take photos of ourselves! We also took the “3” to Montana and took photos at the wedding photobooth and with the wedding photographer.)

Leather anniversary at Salty’s

Photo check in the rain. We got married right in that very spot!

So windy! Enjoying the elements on our third anniversary

Cheers to three years together!

Salty’s was doing something fun last night: a fall equinox luau, so we were able to enjoy the following:

Salty’s Luau Feast

Kalua Pork Slider
hawaiian sweet roll, chipotle pepper-spiked slaw

Chile-Rubbed Mahi
tropical fruit salsa

Prawn and Portuguese Sausage Kebobs
sweet peppers, maui onions, passion fruit glaze

Corn on the Cob
tossed in chili lime-infused butter

Pea Salad
bacon, jicama, snap peas

Asian Chicken Cabbage Salad
grilled chicken, red and green cabbage, hearts of palm tossed in a soy-ginger dressing

Assorted Fruit Tartlets
passion fruit, coconut crème, lemon

Tonight we made Smitten Kitchen’s chicken marsala and it was delectable. (Brandon even asked why we didn’t have chicken marsala every night!) We paired it with the 2010 Robert Ramsay Par La Mer. Cheers to three years and wine Wednesday!

Third anniversary dinner: chicken marsala

I’m sure you’re wondering about gifts… I bought Brandon some suede slippers and he bought me a blue leather case for the new Kindle I’ll be getting for my birthday. (EEEE!)

Salty’s Luau

4Sep2014

Our Montana adventure

Posted in Adventures, Photos by mszerwo

I took a few days away from the blog last week to go on an adventure… to Montana to celebrate Brandon’s brother’s wedding!

It was my first time to Montana and we flew in and out of Missoula, spending a few hours eating and drinking there, but the bulk of the time in Polson and Flathead Lake (about an hour drive north).

Ready for take off! Next stop: Missoula!

In Missoula we checked out a lunchtime festival at Caras Park, ate chocolate at Posh Chocolat (one of Brandon’s favorites), visited the Boone and Crockett Museum, and took a day hike (referred to as a “bear hunt” by me) around the Rattlesnake National Recreation Area. We also dined at Plonk and had a couple of delicious desserts at Sweet Peaks ice creamery. I would HIGHLY recommend their huckleberry ice cream.

Hand-picked Posh Chocolat truffles

A statue outside of the Boone and Crockett Museum (Yum…flag tastes good!)

Rattlesnake hike

Plonk, Missoula, Montana

We also went to Fort Missoula and had a really fun time exploring.

Climbing the lookout tower at Fort Missoula

Ahoy! Looking up at the Fort Montana Lookout Tower

Ahoy! Looking up at the Fort Missoula Lookout Tower

Fort Missoula

Brandon found a bench at Fort Missoula!

Strong-man competition

We also took a day trip to Glacier National Park, which was one of my favorite parts of the trip. We took the “Going-to-the-Sun Road” and hiked the trail at Logan Pass to the Hidden Lake overlook.

Going on a bear hunt… at Glacier National Park!

Beautiful Glacier

Beautiful Glacier, take 2

Wildflowers at Glacier

More flowers at Glacier

Even more flowers at Glacier

The hike at Logan Pass

Going-to-the-Sun Road tunnel

The view from above, Hidden Lake

Hidden Lake, take 1

Hidden Lake: So spectacular!

Specifically, I enjoyed all of the new friends that we made (not really, but you know…):

Mr. Chipmunk

Mrs. Marmot

Mrs. mama mountain goat and her baby

The other baby mountain goat

Driving to Flathead Lake was also very scenic… and tasty:

Beautiful highway shot, northwest Montana

Smile!

Flathead cherries = DELICIOUS

Sunset at Flathead Lake

And the lake itself:

Big Sky Country indeed

Clearest water I’ve ever seen, Flathead Lake

This post wouldn’t be complete without some photos from the wedding. Congrats to James and Jessica! Three cheers for many more years of happiness!

The alter

The happy couple

Smooches

Hope you’re having a nice holiday week!

Farewell from Montana

3Jul2014

Happy 10th Birthday, Maddie!

Posted in Around the house, Cats, Photos by mszerwo

I’m a bit of a crazy cat lady and my oldest, Madison, is celebrating a very special birthday tomorrow: DOUBLE DIGITS!

My sweet Maddie will be 10 tomorrow! She hates fireworks, so she kind of detests her birthday, but I’ll try to make it up to her with a long weekend of quality time and some really good treats!

As I did with Jack last year, here is Maddie’s photo show:

Sweet Maddie Cat

Delicate lady paws

Another shot of her delicate lady paws

And some of her favorite activities…

… Boxing

… Lounging

… Exploring

… Sleeping awkwardly on her brother

… A lot

Happy birthday, Maddie!

Hanging with Mom: birthday plans of champions

9Jan2014

Way up north (seriously, Arctic Circle north)

Posted in Adventures, Photos by mszerwo

Bettles welcoming committee. Pretty large plane, right?!

Hello, Mr. Co-pilot!

Brandon and I kicked off 2014 adventure-style and flew to Fairbanks, Alaska on January 1. After spending the night in Fairbanks we hopped on another plane – a very small plane in which Brandon rode shotgun/co-pilot – and spent three nights in Bettles. On Sunday it was back on the mini plane (a little bigger this time) and headed back to Fairbanks for another night. From there, it was back to home and work. And… here we are.

Here are some of the things I learned on our Alaskan adventure:

There are some very interesting characters that live in or choose to visit a city (it’s incorporated, there’s a mayor, we met her) with a population of 29 people in the winter.
But, those people are truly very interesting and have some of the best stories I’ve ever heard.
Everyone becomes a weather expert when they’re searching for the Northern Lights. We’ve all done our research and have checked the solar flares coming off of the Sun, the Aurora forecast, the weather forecasts and the thermometer and sky hourly.
Chewing gum is banned in Singapore. We stayed in Bettles with a group of five (two of them on their honeymoon) from Singapore. This made for some great conversation.
Of all the tourists and guests we met, we traveled the least amount of distance to visit the lights. We met northern light fanatics from Brazil, Osaka, Singapore, North Carolina and Texas. The honeymooners and their friends won the award for longest trip to Alaska at 37 hours one way to get here. Yowza. And SeaTac saw all of these visitors on their way north. Go, Seattle!
Sled dogs take Prilosec OTC. Our dog musher was full of information and offered us this interesting tidbit on our two hour dog sled ride. He’s a previous Iditarod competitor/finisher and said that most good mushers give it to their dogs to prevent stomach ulcers during races since they’re eating 12,000 – 16,000 calories EACH DAY when they’re running it. Fascinating stuff.
Amazon ships to Bettles for free. But, it takes 5 weeks for a bag of dog food to arrive.
The North Pole is a real city, about 20 minutes outside of Fairbanks.
Bettles in the summer sounds like a beautiful, horrible place. We visited the Gates of the Arctic National Park visitor’s station and saw a video and photos of the bugs that hatch once the snow melts. Apparently 500-1,000 mosquito bites per day is to be expected. And those mosquitoes appear to be super-sized. Thanks, but no thanks.
Since it’s best to stay up all night to watch the lights, sleeping in late and lots of naps are encouraged. I have to admit that I got used to our 9 a.m. wake ups and after lunch and dinner naps.
The northern lights are fickle and clouds are not your friends. If you’re going on a trip like this, make sure you stay more than one night. Our first night in Fairbanks and Bettles did not include really seeing the lights. Our second night in Bettles we had subdued lights and the third was by far our best! They were spectacular!