Luminary Lane still exists, dear friends.  It’s just that we have been crazy busy.  With an extra side of crazy.

So here’s what we have been up to:

Garden beds are in!  We’ve filled the yard with greens, garlic, onions, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, tornadoes…just kidding on that last one.

Elyse is drafting the plans for the ‘expansion’ of the gardens as well as the construction of raised beds inside the greenhouse.  I am all for fresh veggies in the winter.

I headed back to schoolio.  Starting a business is on the horizon and I felt it was time to get an education that would make it a smash hit.  I’m talking a “Don’t Stop Believin’” kind of smash.  In 20 years, kids across the country will be d/l the original business plan from iTunes and they’ll memorize it and want to create it for themselves.  Too far?

In addition to this loveliness, owning a house means constant improvements. 

The Floating shelves are done!  Holy stuff holders, Batman.

Annnndd vacation.

So, we can’t promise to be better at regular updates, but we can try.  Perhaps some garden drawings to come!

Bieber Flip! (it’s kind of like saying ‘love you’)

Stephanie

deer playing in our yard!  all animals welcome here

Tonight, Steph and I are at Lava Room recording studio with our band, randomstereo.  Mike, the owner of Lava Room, offered to record two of our songs to include on a compilation he’s producing.  It’s a nice studio and the people here are awesome.  On the down side, recording takes a really long time and it involves listening to the same thing over and over and over again.  Steph is currently recording Stories and it’s taken about an hour for them to tune the guitar, adjust the amp, and find the perfect sound.  I finished recording my bass parts two hours ago, so now I have plenty of time to blog.   I think I’ll even have time to upload the pictures I’ve taken…

Note the lava lamps…

Apparently the Beatles played in this room…

In other news, our floating shelves that were mentioned in a previous post about unfinished projects are even closer to being finished!  Two of them are installed and they look fabulous - only 3 to go.

The shelved before we painted them.  They are made out of a hollow core door - Steph “ripped” it herself with a circular saw.  She’s my hero!

Almost finished!

By the way, it’s been more than an hour since a started this blog and Steph is still recording Stories.  My head is about to explode and I’m pretty sure her fingers are about to fall off.  Upcoming stories will include gardening and cooking, of course.  And Steph will blog about The Runaways - I think she’ll have lots to say.

Love, Elyse

Do ‘The Frump’ with your sweatpants high!

Elyse and I often start projects and do not complete them.  Sometimes it’s because of the lack of materials or that it’s too nice outside.  Other times it’s because I’m auditioning for uber-famous tv shows.  I’m pretty sure we missed a good night for hard work earlier this week when we watched two episodes of ‘Food Revolution’ instead. 

So here are some things we intend to finish and blog about:

Floating Shelves in the living room.

Hemp curtains hung by bamboo curtain rods.

Starting more vegetable seeds.

Seeing Tegan and Sara in concert with Paramore.  What?!  Yes.

Here are pictures of us doing some of those things.

and a lamp.  Is it too soon to bring ‘I Love Lamp’ back?

Cats!

Have beautiful faces.

Have glowing eyes.

Have headlights?

Today was the last day of Hip-Hop (with a touch of Jazz) class at Lakeland Community College.  Back in January, I reluctantly joined the class because I have a serious case of FOMO (fear of missing out).  I knew I wasn’t really going to enjoy it, but if my besties were doing it, I would at least give it a shot.

I gave it 2 shots, actually, before I decided enough was enough and I could be productive and spend my Thursday nights writing songs (playing on the internet) instead.  It was not hip-hip and it was not good, but I’m not going to rag on it in this blog.  To hear my true feelings, you have to ask me in person.

Tonight I joined Elyse’s parents and some other ‘audience’ members in watching the last performance of the class.  I took some pictures and loads of great video to document such a momentous occasion.  *side bar* The look of disgust on Jen’s face when she realizes I’m filming is priceless ** 

This was the most fun I have had in that studio.  It was 100 times more rewarding for me to watch them then to actually participate.  Now, to be fair, these moves were not quite hip-hop and less than complex, but the whole thing found a way to get to my heart parts.  This is when I thank my overly observant mind and XL emotion bank. They did it.  They learned a dance for 8 weeks and were making the best of it.  I couldn’t stop smiling while watching them dance, laugh, and let go.  It seems so silly, but all I wanted to do was give them squeeze-the-poop-out-of-you hugs and tell them how much I enjoyed the night. 

It was a moment.  Something so simple that I will never forget.  It was well worth the $60 sign-up fee.

These are my friends.  Jen, Lora, (me) and Elyse celebrating my 23rd b-day.  They are the best life has to offer.

I love pierogies.  Last night my good friends Axis and Katherine from Oberlin College came to visit us and together we made pierogies from scratch.  And they didn’t just turn out like globs of potato and dough.  They were actually really delicious!  And it wasn’t that hard, especially if you have friends helping.  We followed the Grandma’s Polish Pierogies recipe from allrecipes.com (minus the processed cheese sauce).  When we had created about 15 pierogies, we took a break, boiled them, and fried them with onions in butter.  Then we ate them with sour cream, sauerkraut, and apple cider!  Mmm mmm.  When we were finally able to rise from our chairs, heavy with potatoes and dough in our tummies, we finished making about 30 more pierogies, most of which are now comfortably tucked and frozen in my freezer (some of which we cooked up for dessert)!  For me and Steph, that’s 5 more meals!  Unfortunately for me, Steph insists that she can only eat them at a frequency of once at least every two weeks.

Good night!

Elyse

the greenhouse

We decided that if we are to spread our love of living lightly and passionately, and perhaps make a career out of it in the future, then we need a name. “Elyse and Steph’s Garden” doesn’t have any flow.  So we went on a name hunt.

Naming your hobby/brand/yacht can be a tricky task.  No, we do not own a yacht, but we do like water.  We’ve also had a handful of name game troubles in the past (see our band, randomstereo )

We started with some Beatles songs because nothing is more classic than a Beatles’ song.  They were cool but didn’t work.  Elyse mentioned the term ‘Lighted Lane,’ which encompassed two things that we love - lights and lanes.  But even that name wasn’t perfect, so we continued the search.  And then, in the glow of our burnt orange kitchen walls, our name made itself known.  We would call ourselves Luminary Lane.

Pretty epic story, right?

Stephanie (and Elyse)