Randi with an i

Maple syrup making

March 15, 2015 Randi8 comments

One of the best parts of being a local journalist is being able to go behind the scenes with my camera and my reporter’s notebook to grab interviews and photos and paint a picture for the local community of area ongoings.

Today, I had the chance to take part in the Shepherd Maple Syrup Pre-Festival, and tour the Shepherd Sugar Bush Corp. while the facility was in action, learning about the maple syrup making process.

The maple syrup industry is huge in Shepherd, and the coolest part? The entire company is all managed by volunteers. Those volunteers spent Saturday walking local residents (and a few out-of-towners) through the facility and the syrup-making process, from sap collection to bottling. There were treats on hand, like maple candies, maple-flavored ice cream and whoopie pies, and – of course – pancakes with maple syrup. Volunteers explained how sap collection buckets work and how the sap is turned into syrup.

Once temperatures warm up, maple trees start turning starch into sugar. The sugar, when mixed with ground water, turns into an almost crystal-clear sap. The sap is drained from trees, using a spout and pail, and then boiled down. It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. During the condensation process, sweet sugary steam clouds the facility. It smelled like I was in a real-life version of ~~Charlie and the Chocolate Factory~~ Randi and the Maple Syrup Factory.

Shepherd holds a three-day maple syrup festival every April, but the facility is shut down to accommodate the tours. Obviously, boiling sap means equipment gets hot, and allowing thousands of people near the working equipment poses a huge health and safety risk. The pre-festival is a little smaller, and gives curious locals (and those willing to make the drive) a chance to see everything while it’s in action.

Here are a few of my favorite detail photos (I’m absolutely loving my new 50mm lens!) and if you’re interested, the entire gallery I shot for the paper can be accessed right here.

I also wrote a full story about the event if you’re interested in reading.

Casual Friday: Springtime sweaters

March 13, 2015 Randi17 comments

Michigan is slowly edging toward warmer weather but until the mitten state makes the full spring forward (pun intended) I’m breaking out the springtime sweaters.

I’m still in Michigan, so I can never be too quick to abandon warmth, but the 40- and 50-degree temperatures have be trading my blacks and charcoals for whites, creams and soft grays.

I find that it’s always so hard to dress during early spring. All I want is to break out the strappy sandals and chiffon blouses, but mother nature insists on more blanket scarves and heavy layers. This cream-colored sweater and robin’s egg blue nail color make a fantastic compromise, allowing me to welcome spring with open (and still fully sleeved) arms.

I snagged (not literally!) this sweater on clearance at Loft earlier this week, and I absolutely love it. It’s a soft nylon and wool blend, and is light without being too stifling and heavy. I have a feeling it’s going to be on heavy rotation in my closet this and every spring season.

Plus, as everyone knows, I have a deep love of any and all things neutral and the color of my closet reflects that. It’s so effortless to get ready in the morning when you can pick a base palette of neutrals and then one or two color-coordinated pieces for a pop.

How to refinish IKEA particle board furniture

March 10, 2015 Randi10 comments

This post has been a long time coming and is finally here!

About a year ago, I decided my bedroom was in dire need of a pick-me-up. As a journalist with two degrees worth of student loan debt, I don’t have ~~any~~ a lot of money, so I started trying to put together a plan that would give me a new look while using much of what I already had on hand in order to avoid breaking the bank.

And, it seemed to work! My old IKEA furniture looks eons better after a simple paint job facelift.

Weekly Sundown Rundown

March 8, 2015 Randi10 comments

Happy Daylight Savings! Anyone else a complete zombie today? Here’s a week-end-roundup.

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Links:

Your tipsy face looks best after one glass of wine. Keep this in mind the next time you have staff photo day at the office. Kidding. Kind of.

Did you vote for your city to make it to the next Monopoly edition? I voted for Detroit, of course.

Ikea has rigged a new line of furniture to charge your electronic devices. You just have to remember to plug your nightstand in first, of course.

This man was dancing and some jerk on the internet started body shaming him. Now hundreds of women are throwing him a dance party. How awesome!

Here’s an interesting account of what it’s like to be the “relationship girl” after being the “single girl” for so long.

A Planet Fitness near me revoked the membership of a woman after she complained about a transgendered individual using the women’s locker room.

Stylecaster has some inspiring feminist quotes in honor of International Women’s Day (which is today btdubs).

Stylecaster also has a laundry list of things that 20-somethings need to stop spending money on. What are you guilty of? Pressed juice and overpriced cocktails are two of my biggest guilty pleasures of the list.

Dogs using cat doors. I giggled.

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Me this week? I didn’t really do too much of anything and had a perfectly lazy week. I…

Binged on Gossip Girl.
Went to the Brass for happy hour Perrins brews with my roommate on Friday.
Saw a Michigan State University hockey game with Seth, followed by drinks at Both Crunchy’s and Midtown Brewing Company.
Went on a bookstore, outdoor mall, dinner and frozen yogurt date with Seth.
Worked 40 hours at the paper.
Splurged a little with my tax return on the Shopbop sale.
Made some awesome whole grain pancakes with carmelized banana topping and peanut butter maple syrup.

You can keep up with all this stuff as it happens if you follow me on Instagram.

How was your week? Any plans coming up? Let me know in the comments!

Pull apart Nutella bread

March 7, 2015 Randi14 comments

I mentioned in my last weekly recap that I went home to visit my parents/ get a new phone last weekend, and while I was there, my mom somehow roped me into being her baking assistant.

I don’t hate it. Being the designated taste tester is super awesome.

I’ve mentioned it before, but my mom has her degree in culinary arts. She’s retired, but she spends her free time baking practically non-stop. Her chocolate chip cookies are on point and she has her multigrain bread recipe down to a science.

Sometimes she shares quirky videos and recipes on her Facebook, and this one caught my eye. I commented on it “MOM MAKE ME THIS” and to my surprise, she had everything laid out on her kitchen counter to bake with me as soon as I got home.

Voila, pull apart Nutella bread.

Casual Friday in black and denim

March 6, 2015 Randi14 comments

Casual Friday is and always will be my favorite, and it’s a great chance to wear two of my favorite things: black and denim.

Although let’s be real, near the end of winter, casual Friday is also celebrated on Wednesday and Thursday as well. Sometimes Monday. And Tuesday.

I try not to get too casual since I like to leave the stained sweatpants chic to the sports reporters, but at this time of year, I find myself passing on tights, sweaters, pencil skirts and actual effort for lazy layering and black. So much black. And easy shirts like denim.

Black on black is kind of like my one last hooh-rah to winter, you know? Soon it’ll be replaced with cheerful combinations of navy and white.

I found this look on Instagram (Brenna is one of my favorites) and knew I could recreate it with everything I already had in my wardrobe!

Love when that happens, amiright?

Weekly Sundown Rundown

March 1, 2015 Randi11 comments

Weekly news and feature roundup time!

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Fellow bloggers, Corals + Cognacs posted this guide to blogging smarter. I love the tips about keeping stock images on hand. I do this for work and it helps so much, so I really need to bring this concept into my blog life as well.

Leonard Nimoy, known as Star Trek’s Spock, has died.

If you haven’t heard about the dress you’re living in a cave. My roommate and I turned it into a drinking game.

Thought Catalog posted a piece about things that strong women do differently. These serve as good reminders. Always treat yourself as an investment, go for it and never, ever put your life on hold to be somebody’s idea of who you should be. Be yourself.

New Carly Rae Jepsen! I haven’t listened yet because my parents’ Internet is slower than a turtle swimming through molasses, but I can’t wait to check it out once I make my way to an acceptable bandwidth.

Kanye apologized to Beck after that incident at the Grammys.

New Galaxy S6 design has been released if you’re into that type of thing. I personally just bought a new iPhone so I’ll pass.

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My week? I…

Watched the Oscars with Elise and complained about how totally unfunny NPH was. (Seriously, was anybody else disappointed? He wasn’t bad, just not awesome.)
Filed my taxes! And here I thought I was going to put that off for another month.
Grabbed the last copy of Birdman to rent from Family Video and watched it with Elise.
Got a long awaited and much needed haircut.
Headed downstate to visit my parents: I baked with my mom, helped my dad with a project, read a book and took care of some technical crap.
Made delicious Nutella bread. Recipe coming soon!
Made chocolate coconut mug brownies. I have a serious sweet tooth going on as of late.
Recycled half a year’s worth of wine bottles. (The B in Apt. B stands for Barefoot.)
Went to the Bird and turned the dress into a drinking game with Elise.
Worked a 40-hour week at the paper as always.

You can keep up with this stuff as it happens if you follow me on Instagram.

Short of work this week, I don’t really have too much planned. I will probably forget to change my clocks for Daylight Savings and then struggle for three days. I can almost guarantee that.

What’s on your agenda this week? Let me know in the comments!

Water Works Salon haircut results

February 28, 2015 Randi11 comments

Nothing too spectacular to update on here, but I did promise to eventually post a photo of my much needed annual haircut.

#TheDress drinking game

February 27, 2015 Randi20 comments

It’s blue and black.

And unless you live under a rock, you know what I’m referring to.

#TheDress.

It popped up in my Facebook feed last night: an ordinary white and gold (and somewhat ugly) dress. The caption read “Seriously guys! This is white and gold! How can you see it differently?” I agreed. It was white and gold. I googled “white and gold dress” and it seemed that most of the rest of the Internet agreed with me. There were a few protesters, but I chalked that up to Internet trolls.

I got home from work, and asked my roommate. “It’s white and gold,” she agreed. I scrolled through tweets hashtagged #TheDress, and saw a photo of a blue and black dress in flames. Ah, I thought. Clearly the white and gold opinion wins.

Then, something strange happened.

All of the dresses on my Twitter feed became blue and black.

I asked Elise again, “is this white and gold, or blue and black?”

“White and gold,” she insisted.

My brain stopped working. I poured a glass of wine. And then, the greatest idea ever was born.

#TheDress drinking game.

Chocolate coconut mug brownie

February 25, 2015 Randi11 comments

It’s nearing the end of February and even though I have a ton of Netflix left on my list, I’m slowly running out of Netflix accompanying snacks.

Because I love my snacks.

Snacks.

So last night, while Elise and I were having our twice-a-week debate… (Should we order Insomnia? Do we really want to spend the $6 to have it delivered? No… Yes? Insomnia.)

…I remembered a little trick I used to practice in my old apartment that I hadn’t taken advantage of in a while.

Mug brownies!