Author Archives: lindalouslife

Stick ’em UP

I didn’t mean to take a mini break from the blogging world. But a sinus infection, the antibiotic for the sinus infection, and a cold took the wind out of my sails for a couple of weeks. Just for funsies, my birthday and Thanksgiving were during that two week period. I think I need a do-over on my birthday celebration. Oh, well. On to the post!

We were unaware of Roxie’s kleptomaniac tendencies until we returned from our 2023 road trip only to discover most of my refrigerator magnets missing. At the time of our trip, Roxie was somewhere between six and seven months old. I still don’t know how a kitten was able to remove so many magnets; I’m guessing sheer determination played a large role. Most of my magnets are souvenirs from our travels, so I didn’t want to just not get any more, but a different solution for protecting them was needed. Fortunately, an idea presented itself.

Our kitchen cabinets have that “wasted space” between the top of the cabinet doors and the ceiling. I asked Kenn to “age” some galvanized metal like he has done for some of his other projects and fit a piece above the smallest cabinet. He did and it works perfectly! However, by the time I added this years magnets, that area was mostly full.

The wasted space.

We both like the looks of the metal so Kenn decided to continue it across the remaining cabinets. We joked that we need to put up a sign saying “Nyx’s Kitchen” since the kitchen is very much Nyx’s (our black cat) “territory.” I found some rustic-style letter magnets and voila!

It turns out, Kenn is not a fan of these magnets.🤦‍♀️
The Roxie-free magnet zone.

Now I feel like the cabinet doors need… something. I just need to figure out what. Whatever it is can wait until after the holidays!

Road Trip 2025: Ohio

After West Virginia, we moved on to Ohio for the next leg of our journey. The Cleveland SE KOA Holiday in Streetsboro functioned as our base of operations. Streetsboro (and the surrounding area) was so stinking cute! (This KOA was also the home of the Pig Rock.)

Our first point of interest was Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Unlike some national parks, Cuyahoga Valley is spread out over a wide area. The visitor center we visited was at the trailhead for the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail which is popular among cyclists. Not having travel bikes, we walked a portion of the trail before moving on to the Brandywine Gorge Loop Trail. The Brandywine Gorge Loop Trail is an easy walk. Water levels were low so Brandywine Falls was rather small during our visit. (Pro tip: Waterfalls are directly impacted by the amount of rainfall in the area so, if water levels are low, the falls will be smaller. I know this seems obvious, but people still write reviews complaining about things like that.🙄)

Obligatory photo at the park sign.
Under the bridge behind the visitor’s center.
Brandywine Falls
Awkward selfie at Brandywine Falls.

The “24 hours of A Christmas Story” marathon on TBS/TNT is a Christmas staple at our house. After attending the candlelight Christmas Eve service at church, we go home and begin prepping the monkey bread and pigs-in-a-blanket for Christmas morning; we always have the marathon on while we work. We couldn’t be in the Cleveland area and not visit the House from A Christmas Story. (Tour tickets must be purchased online.) The tour was fun and we were given plenty of time to roam around and take pictures. The tour includes the small museum containing a lot of props from the movie and a wall of fan art. Of course there is also a gift shop where I bought a few stocking stuffers. (The house next door has been turned into the Bumpus House bed and breakfast.)

It’s a major award! (Kenn’s best creepy look.🤣)
Fan art.

Kenn even found a pretty park for us to visit – complete with a “Cleveland” sign perfect for pictures, LOL. It was a nice place to sit and chill for a while. It was also my first view of Lake Erie.

We meet so many wonderful people when we travel. There are always others willing to take photos for us (like the one above) and we do the same for them. Many times this turns into conversations about where everyone is from and where we have traveled, etc. There are plenty of good people in the world.

What are your holiday traditions? Do you watch A Christmas Story?

Color My World

Fall is my favorite season. Fall is when the weather finally starts to change reminding us that the miserable heat and humidity of summer will actually come to an end. I also love the color provided by the changing of the leaves. Sadly, we live far enough south that we don’t get much color; we have a lot of evergreens and the leaves on the non-evergreens tend to just turn brown and fall off. Northern Georgia gets beautiful color, but joining the crowds of “leaf peepers” means making reservations at least a year in advance. Mostly, I just live vicariously through the photos of my fellow bloggers from the more northern climes.

However, as I look around our yard, I see that we are slowly changing things in our neck of the woods. Our crape myrtles are young, but they are doing their part to bring some color to our yard as do the forsythia.

One of our crape myrtles showing out.
Forsythia

I have had a life-long fascination with ginkgo trees due to my love of dinosaurs; fossil records indicate that ginkgos have been around since dinosaurs roamed the earth. (I recently learned that ginkgos were around before dinosaurs.) Four years ago, Kenn gifted me a ginkgo of my own which is just starting to turn the beautiful yellow they are known for.

A touch of yellow on my ginkgo.

Last fall, we planted two young Japanese maples of different varieties. When I say small, I mean small. Both trees were twigs barely a foot tall when we planted them and we weren’t sure if they would make it. However, both are doing well and while still small, they are starting to look like actual trees. I think the tree that has the red leaves of the traditional Japanese maple is going to require another year or two to come into its own. The second tree, a Japanese Sunrise, is already showing us some pretty color even though the leaves are brown-edged due to the lack of rain over the past few months.

Young Japanese Sunrise.

This year, I gifted Kenn a Flame Thrower Redbud for his birthday. However, since we didn’t want to plant it until after our road trip, I had it delivered last week and Kenn planted it the same day. While it is currently tall and skinny with big leaves, we can’t wait to see how it does over the next year. We’re hoping for spectacular color!

Our new Flame Thrower Redbud.

Do you get much fall color in your area?