Another Garden Walk year has passed and this year was really something. The things people do with their backyards in this city are amazing and we got some really good ideas from some of the things we saw. I didn’t have the good camera, we are still waiting to get a new one since losing it but the old Nikon took some pretty decent pictures today.
This weekend is the 2012 Buffalo Garden Walk which is one the biggest garden events in the country. It is a great opportunity for gardening nerds like us to get out and see what people have done, get ideas, and gain inspiration. The event takes place all over the city of Buffalo and is free. Houses that opt to share their garden areas place a Garden Walk sign in their front yards with different boxes to check off. They alert the garden walk guests as to what is available to look at. They indicate weather or not you are able to go into the backyard, or if the garden is only in the front yard, etc. That’s the greatest part about the event. You get to see what these beautiful old homes do with the smaller backyards that most of them have. I will have some pictures up this weekend of some of the better creations we encounter on our venture.
So much has happened since my last post. Without going into details, over a week ago we lost our good camera, so it sort of killed any motivation I had to post anything significant. On top of all of that, we have been crazy busy this year which is great because it seems people really like our shirts and onesies. I’m going to try to update this more so this is my official attempt to spark the blog motivation.
The entire time I have been doing this blog, I sort of struggled with a theme. What exactly is this blog about? I really have no idea what-so-ever. Yes, I do use it to plug shirts and ads for our site, but I wanted to make sure I wrote about things that could interest people. The problem is, I am always all over the map. I would write about beer, movies, food, house projects, technology, whatever I’m basically into. So I have given up on sticking with a theme for this blog. Today I will write about this!
My friend Pat and I slapped on some nerd shirts and headed to the movies last night to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation. They are re-releasing the box sets on Blu-Ray, all digitally remastered in HD. At first, I didn’t care what they were doing, I was just excited to see this on a big screen, but once the show began, the work they put into remastering the episodes that I saw, was incredible. They really drove home the point that they did not change any of the effects, they only enhanced them visually. They did not want to fall into the critical eye of nerds getting angry at people messing with the masterpiece. Two episodes were selected based on the visual appeal they had. The episodes were “Datalore” and “Where No One Has Gone Before”.
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Keep an eye out in our Etsy store. We have added a new Sale/Clearance section which will always have random items in it either from just over stock, things we aren’t going to carry any longer, or prototype designs. I decided to do this because we have a lot of random stock laying around and its time to make some room. The items listed are all brand new and only come in the size specified in the listing. Be sure to check in every day because I will be adding different things throughout the week. The link for our Etsy store is: http://www.etsy.com/shop/aflow01 .
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| This may be one of my favorite pictures. For such a long time I had this image in my head, this memory, but it wasn’t until about a year ago that i was given this picture that let me actually see it again. |
Not only am I a fan of wrestling, but I am proudly a historian. I have a hard time watching today’s WWE because its just not good. They call themselves “entertainment”. I want wrestling. I love IMPACT wrestling because its as old school as we can possibly get these days. I don’t spend much time analyzing todays wrestling, but I constantly absorb information about the days when the sport was great. The days of World Class Championship Wrestling, the NWA, AWA, and even WCW. I loved it and I could read about these days forever. One wrestler I remember being captivated with was the great Bruiser Brody. His legendary matches with Abdullah the Butcher, his legendary tag matches with Stan Hanson, and reading about how he was a true outlaw in the sport.
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| Brody and Hanson. There wasn’t a tougher tag team that ever existed. |
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| Brody and Abby had some of the biggest battles ever. |
So I decided that it was time for a wrestling tribute shirt. I give you the Bruiser Brody Tribute shirt:
Our 4th of July ended up being a a day of production instead of cooking out, shooting fireworks, or drinking heavily. I think we were both OK with that seeing as it was a mid week holiday and the day off from work wasn’t very satisfying. We have been working hard on the sun room and the back yard, both coming along nicely.
I’ve been laying pavers for a patio in the back which is pretty brutal when its 90 degrees. I have to admit, its exhausting, but I love it. The hard part will be the cutting once I start rounding it and doing curves. I could take the easy way out, but then we are left with a square patio that doesn’t look all that great. When it comes down to it, a square patio means that you didn’t want to go the extra mile to create something a little more appealing to the eyes. It will be challenging, but it should look awesome.
Once we had the sliding glass door installed and put up the wooden stairs, I laid down fresh soil and planted some shade grass. In just over a week, the grass had fully grown in and was bright green. It made a world of difference. Once more time went by and the grass got a little stronger, we started digging out the beds so that Nicole could spend the day planting and we could start to establish our gardens.
Its amazing the amount of work we have gotten done in just a few weeks with limited time to spend it. The backyard has become an obsession of mine now because it literally looked like a dump, and now its starting to show glimpses of what it could become. The sun room transformation has been great as well. Nicole’s eye for decorating is really something, its amazing what a few new things can do to a room.
I should be able to start posting at normal intervals again, it’s just been insane lately and I’ve barely had time to breathe. This past weekend was our big family wedding picnic celebration, where my parents rented a lodge and all of our family attended for a big party. I’ll have more pictures from this when they arrive. My cousin Jennifer took pictures at the event and did a photo shoot of Nicole and I as a wedding present. I think we may have given off a vibe that we were annoyed that we had to do a photo shoot, but it was really just our mutual disgust for extremely hot weather which unfortunately shows on both our faces. We were pretty grateful that she wanted to do this for us. We woke up early Saturday and headed to the park in Rochester to shoot the pictures. I’m not sure how they came out as Jen didn’t want to show me the pics before they were edited, but if she’s able to get good pictures from Nicole and I with our extreme awkwardness, she will end up being a great photographer. She did however send me a preview picture which we loved:
The picnic was a blast, it was great to have everyone in one place to enjoy a relaxed party. No dress clothes, nothing formal, just friends and family together to eat, drink, and celebrate. My parents had the event catered by Dinosaur BBQ. Pulled pork, ribs, Cajun corn, cornbread, salt potatoes, and of course sausage and peppers, and a baked macaroni. The food was amazing. Here are a few pictures that I was able to steal from family from the event. I should have other pictures in a week or so as they surface.
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| BBQ rub favors. My mom had the labels made using Etsy for the first time. |
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| Some homemade cupcakes, they were all delicious. |
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| Nicole’s sister made this incredible cake for us. It was delicious! The little mice where truffles. |
We will be spending the week making our thank you cards for everyone, but for everyone that attended, we love you all and thanks again!
Sometimes Nicole and I get so wrapped up in working on house related projects, that we get exhausted and forget to have fun. This weekend, my parents came into town to continue their search for a house in Buffalo or surrounding areas. This experience has been pretty tough on them because of the lack of inventory in the area, and that when things do pop up they get sold before they get a chance to look. The weather was amazing and it was a great day to spend looking at some houses. At night we got to take my parents to the waterfront which is one of my favorite places to go in the city. We planned on catching a drink at the new “Liberty Hound” restaurant on the water and had some time to walk around. We took my parents to my favorite spot on the waterfront, River Fest park. I enjoyed seeing the look on my moms face as we walked through the unattractive, yet oddly memorizing areas that are on the way to the park. There is a certain beauty about it that is hard to describe. Near the end of the walk, you get hit with a blast of smells from the General Mills plant; a sweet smell from the Cheerios. It’s such a crazy thing that I never grew up here, in fact I’ve only been here 10 years, yet I love this city and it’s character as if I’d been here my whole life.
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| Getting drinks at Liberty Hound. It was a very cool spot for a drink and a great view. We were going to eat there but its incredibly loud and the dining area is cramped. |
Next weekend is our wedding picnic/party that my family is throwing for us. It should be a blast.
I’m finishing up the final touches on the new Seagal Shirt that’s in the works. I currently have two Seagal shirts, but they are comical. I figured it was time to make a serious version as part of the “Justice” series. Some dudes are comical……some are all business. This shirt will be for them.
The past few months I had been working on some jazz shirts, over the next few months the focus will be back on what we are all about…..action!
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