the month by iPhone :: July 2015

if I was a little bit more on top of things, I would have had this one ready to go for yesterday morning. but it was Monday. is anyone ever ready when Monday rolls around? here's a peek into the crazy month that was July. I honestly don't understand how time can go by so fast. the summer is nearly over already!

so the caption on this photo may have been about how I wanted to throw these at the kids. yeah, it wasn't a great day.

happy mail from Social Print Studio! (: {what I got is pictured here}

Independence Day with my favorites - WiFEE and the HUZz Band!

I love this bag from Target!

three pictures from a lovely morning on the Chicago Fire Boat with the preschoolers. it was even better than every other time I've been on it!

I drove out to the quarry one Monday morning and took pictures of some limestone.

from that same morning, I of course had to drive a little further north to look at Chateau Hutter. this is my very favorite tree at the John A. Hutter Memorial Park across the street. I really keep my personal life pretty private and don't post a lot on Facebook, but I've been posting more lately, and this was something I posted there! I just really like this picture.

of course it would be cloudy and chilly when we took the kids to Quietwoods South for swimming and playing on the splash pad. at least there was no one else there!

one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish along with blue spaghetti in the sensory table!

guitars in love.

revived orchids.

 rainbow fish (:

 my favorite slide.

xoxo.

cherries & hay bales

on Monday afternoon, I just decided to go for a drive on the back roads up north a little bit. first I had to go to the gas station, because Luna was almost on empty {fine. almost on 1/8th of a tank.}, and on my way I passed a small cherry orchard with a field across the street. in that field, there were rectangular hay bales. now, I know that there are rectangular hay bales, but I'm used to seeing the big circular ones, so I thought that that was kind of strange. by the time I returned two hours later, they were gone so I couldn't take a picture.

the first three pictures are from some cherry orchard. I think it's Choice Orchards, but I'm not sure because there were no signs at all, just rows and rows of trees. {the sky is a little blown out on the first two because I forgot to change the ISO. I'm still getting used to shooting in manual.} while I was driving around, I had to go by Chateau Hutter of course, and there are more boarded up windows on the house {?} than last time, which is a little concerning. and then a picture of some rounded hay bales. (:

xoxo.

Seeminly Lost History

I get a lot of hits to this blog post with some pictures from last summer of an abandoned resort near where I live. It seems as though there are some other people who are curious about the history of Chateau Hutter.

Even being a Door County native, the first time I ever even heard of this place was just shy of two years ago. I didn't know where it was, or even what it was, but as I was driving back south on County B last August, I saw the sign and turned around to check it out. I parked in the field, just off the road where the grass wasn't too tall, and I walked down near the water to the buildings. It was so scary walking around this property by myself in the middle of nowhere.

Now every time that I take that road, I at least slow down to look at the buildings and John A. Hutter Memorial Park, which is across the street. The reason I find these abandoned buildings so interesting is because I just wonder what is inside now, what was inside before, and what was it like when it was still being used? I wish I had answers to these questions, but I really don't.

I enjoy reading Door County Living magazine, which is a free publication that comes out multiple times per year here. It can be found at many local businesses, and I picked up the current {Late Summer 2014} issue on my way leaving work last week. I was reading through it the next day when I saw the article "Door County's Outstanding Resort That Never Was" by Myles Dannhausen, Jr. with a Matthew Smith photograph of Chateau Hutter. I flipped through the rest of the magazine and went back to read that article last.

The eight-page article includes some vintage black and white photographs of the resort and talks about the history of the resort and its owner, John A. Hutter. I would highly recommend this article for anyone who is looking to learn more about the history, but I would like to summarize a little bit of the knowledge that I got out of it.

Basically, Mr. Hutter (well-traveled and from Chicago) decided to start a resort in Door County to bring people the same experiences that he had while traveling the world, and the resort is modeled after Swiss chalets. The resort is also quite similar to a resort a few miles up the road - The Alpine, which is still successful today. Mr. Hutter was promising some things to his guests which were not exactly the things that he was providing, and in 1965, the Door County Chamber of Commerce would not let him pay his dues because they didn't want him to be a member anymore, because he was tarnishing Door County. That was one of the court cases, as he tried to claim that he went out of business because they expelled him. Another one of the cases associated with the property was from when Mr. Hutter was claiming that the property should be taxed as agricultural instead of a resort, and he went on to say things about the property that were the exact opposite of what he was telling people when he wanted to stay there (like that the water was terrible for bathing in).

The article itself goes into much more detail and is a lot more interesting than this, and I highly recommend reading it to learn more about the property and the history.

xoxo.

{all photos from previous posts, which can be found here}

26/52 2014

the year is officially half over! how is that even possible? I am so proud of myself for keeping on this and not missing a day. when I did this challenge in 2012, I gave up a little bit past halfway, after forgetting a couple days in a row. sometimes my pictures are lame, but I'm sticking with it no matter what.

Wednesday 25 June // day one hundred seventy-six :: I want to just caption this as "Wisconsin," but I'll go into a little bit more detail. I brought my camera with me on some errands because I feel like my pictures lately have been so lame, and then I decided to just drive up north afterwards. I bought some strawberries and just drove around on some back roads. that little brown cow was staring at me. so adorable!

Thursday 26 June // day one hundred seventy-seven :: some books about summer from camp this week. {The Curious Garden, Beach Day, Summer, Summer Days and Nights, & Pinkalicious and the Pink Drink}

Friday 27 June // day one hundred seventy-eight :: Talenti Mediterranean Mint gelato! yum (:

Saturday 28 June // day one hundred seventy-nine :: there is an interesting article in the Late Summer 2014 Door County Living about John A. Hutter and the history of Chateau Hutter.

Sunday 29 June // day one hundred eighty :: dishes and laundry are never-ending chores.

Monday 30 June // day one hundred eighty-one :: currently reading: Chose the Wrong Guy, Gave Him the Wrong Finger by Beth Harbison

Tuesday 1 July // day one hundred eighty-two :: so this happened. I guess that's a pretty big deal. it was a fun show. he certainly brings a lot of guitars with him! there must have been thirty or so guitars on stage along with a piano, and yes, this was a solo show.

xoxo.

2/52 2014

I made it through week two! here are some little moments from my week.

day eight :: lunch. natural peanut butter + local strawberry jam on whole grain white bread. carrots. Gala apple with honey Greek yogurt and granola. milk. two candy cane Joe-Joe's.

day nine :: kitchen floor bubbles. I tried and failed with the frozen bubbles experiment, so I brought them inside for Max. he wasn't impressed.

day ten :: another desk shot, with my current read.

day eleven :: this is as far as I could get without cheating!

day twelve :: boots. those zippers make it impossible to walk quietly.

day thirteen :: Chateau Hutter. not only do I love those abandoned buildings, but I love exposed brick and cloudy blue skies.

day fourteen :: I received a VoxBox from Influenster with three Sally Hansen nail polishes to test and review! this deep, dark purple was the first one I tried, and I love it. {also pictured: a fresh blanket of snow.}

xoxo.

Door County Drive

Yesterday was boring and called for going out and seeing something other than these four walls. I had a book to return to the library, and then I just kept driving north. I stopped at the boat launch (where there were quite a few ice shanties) because I thought that this strip of blue sky was beautiful.

I kept driving without a definite plan. Of course, since I was on County B, I had to stop at Chateau Hutter, especially with the beautiful sky. This picture is looking north.

Two of my favorite things are clouded blue skies and exposed brick. Tomorrow I will be sharing my favorite picture from yesterday which includes both of those things!

Hibernating trees also make for good foreground matter.

I wanted the mirror image to also be in focus in this picture, but my camera felt otherwise and I didn't feel like experimenting with manual focus. (The car was at a complete stop, I promise.) Because of all of the crazy weather around here lately (sub-zero straight to mid-thirties), there has been lots of ice, so there was salt on the main roads and sand on the back roads, and now Luna looks really dirty and gross.

I drove around aimlessly for a little while and ended up on Mathey Road. There were some dead corn fields, but I thought they still looked pretty cool.

xoxo.

Winter in Door County

I took a wintery drive up north a few days ago. I was hoping to catch sunset, and I did, but it was pretty lame, with only a little gold and blue. I had actually set my alarm that morning with the intent to take pictures at sunrise, but I looked at the weather on my phone when the alarm went off, and I decided that seven degrees was too cold. Oh well, there's always another day.

These first three are from the Baileys Harbor Marina. Lake Michigan was not completely frozen yet. It was so pretty here, but it was cold, and my gloves were being annoying. {I later switched to fingerless gloves, but then my fingers were icicles. It was a lose-lose situation.} You can see the snowflakes falling in the third picture!

This one is from Schoolhouse Park in Sister Bay. I'm not really sure how this is a park, but there is an old schoolhouse here that looks like it's from the 1930's or 1940's.

Anderson Dock is located in Ephraim. The top photo is actually from a store and gallery across the street, and they have some really beautiful artwork and jewelry in there. I believe the barn in the bottom photo is also a gallery.

Ephraim Moravian Church is so beautiful! They're located on a hill that is just above the main highway (42) that goes through Ephraim. This birch tree was behind the church in their parking lot.

If you have never been to a drive-in movie theater, you are missing out and should try to find one in your area! The Skyway is in Fish Creek, and I hope I am able to see a movie there this summer. It's been a few years since I have been there.

It seems like I get a lot of hits from the search term "Chateau Hutter," so here is a winter shot for you guys. (: There was another car parked here, so I'm guessing that someone ventured down to get some pictures at sunset. I hope they were able to get some great shots! I would love to go down there for sunset pictures {and perhaps a portrait session} someday, but I am too freaked out to go down there alone!

I got down to the Door County Boat Launch with plenty of time to watch the sun set, but as you can see, it wasn't very much of a show. Those dot-like things in the first picture are actually an ice covered scalloped metal edge of the dock. It was pretty icy there!

xoxo.