Gilchrist and Soames

We first became acquainted with Gilchrist and Soames years ago when we stayed at a hotel that provided their products in our room. Mrs. WYA! fell hard for their rich lotion . We were excited to find that it can be ordered online and even further excited to find that it is an Indianapolis based company (one that it is adding jobs, no less). Remember fellas, Valentine's Day will be here before you know it.

There are lots of options on Sunday if the Super Bowl isn't your cup of tea or you just want to watch something else besides the pre-show all day. We always love the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet and we will probably tune into some of the I Love Lucy marathon on The Hallmark Channel. Some of the options are very clever; there's the Super Bawl on WE with a line-up of tear-jerker movies and the Toilet Bowl on the DIY network with a marathon of Bathroom Renovations and Bathtastic!. USA Today has a rundown of all of the offerings.

By the way, if you're wondering how we made that upside down exclamation point in the previous post, we used the Flip Title website. You just type what you want turned upside down and then you can copy/paste it.

Many of you are creative with sewing which we really admire (why didn't Mrs. WYA! pay attention to her Grandma when she was sewing all of those clothes for her when she was little?). If you are handy with needle and thread, or have a loved one who is, these adorable note cards are perfect. The Little Bookroom actually has a lot of fabulous gift card sets that Mrs. WYA! won't be able to resist. She recently bought the ¡Hola Cuba! one through Amazon and the cards are gorgeous. They are presented in a really nice box in case you want to give the set as a gift for the ephemera-phile in your life.

Trader Joes find of the week- Honey Whole Wheat Pretzel Sticks

We received some spicy mustard in a gift pack so we picked up these pretzel sticks at Trader Joe's to dip into it. We liked that they were whole wheat and that honey flavor added a perfect touch of sweetness. These are absolutely delicious all on their own.

Well happy birthday Jackson Pollock. (We only realized that it was your birthday because Google is honoring you with your design where their logo usually is).

That is a lot of snow. It's days like these when Mrs. WYA! thanks her lucky stars that she works from home. Mr. WYA!, however, is not so lucky. We finally tried out our Toro Power Shovel last night. We bought it at Hedlund's; we are always glad to give them our business because they have been at 62nd and Keystone since 1935! Anyway, we're not technically inclined so we were glad to see that we just basically had to pull it out of the box, plug it in, and it was good to go. It shot the snow way up and did a darn good job of clearing our sidewalk and driveway in no time. It's perfect for us because we don't really have the room to store a full-fledged snow blower. Mr. WYA! said it was the best 100 bucks (approximately- it's been a month or so since we bought it) that he ever spent.

Bargain yoga clothes at Old Navy

You don't have to be a yogi to appreciate the comfort of a good pair of yoga pants. Mrs. WYA is picky about her yoga pants and requires them to have a fold-over waist. Those can be hard to find so she was excited to see an ad for Old Navy that showed fold-over yoga pants for only $15! We went to the Old Navy in the Borders shopping center by the Fashion Mall and did find a couple of racks of yoga pants. Mrs. WYA! was so happy with the fit and the style that she grabbed a couple pair of the solid black ones (along with a cool Buddha long sleeved tee for $14.50) which is a big shopping trip for her since she hates to part with her hard earned cash. We were happy with the bargain but even happier when the salesperson asked if we'd like to use the coupon, which we didn't even see on the counter, that was good for 10% off of all yoga clothes. Wow- namaste Old Navy!

Attention Tony Dungy fans

Want a chance to see Tony and thank him for his charitable work and coaching in Indiana over the years? He'll be doing book signings in Indianapolis, Carmel, Bloomington, and Fort Wayne over the next couple of weeks.

Another picture of the businesses around 25th & Delaware Street because they are so funky cool.

BreatheIN yoga studio- Indianapolis

It is really nice to see that there is enough interest in yoga for another studio to open up downtown. It is in the infinitely cute Fall Creek Place Neighborhood (just a few doors down from Goose the Market). It is in a small space; you walk in to the front desk to your left and the bins for your shoes to the right, and then one small studio. Mrs. WYA! took the Align with the Divine class that was offered during their grand opening this past Saturday. Their schedule appears to have a wide variety of classes, including one just for the fellas.

Dim Sum at Shanghai Lil

In honor of the Chinese New Year, we decided to go to Shanghai Lil for dim sum on Sunday. We got there around 1PM and there was a pretty good crowd but we were quickly seated to a booth. They don't do the type of dim sum service here where carts of food are brought table side. Instead, we were give a paper dim sum menu (pictured above so you can click to enlarge) and we marked the items that we wanted. The dishes then come out in stages. The bottom line with our experience there was that while most of our food was good, the food was really slow in getting to us. There seemed to be long gaps in between the various dishes that we ordered and we finally had to cancel our sesame ball dessert since we had already been there for so long. The only item that we were served that we weren't crazy about was the stuffed eggplant because we didn't realize that the eggplant would be fried beyond recognition. We liked the pork meatballs and Lou Bah Pork with egg on rice that are pictured. It's a gorgeous restaurant and they can make good food but, on the whole, the slow service marred our visit.

We used to have a link to the Fort Wayne based A Beautiful City blog but they've decided to not renew their web hosting service. You can, however, still check them out on Facebook.

Taliesin West- Scottsdale, AZ

The triangular pool mimicking the shape of the mountains.
FLW saved several of these Chinese characters from destruction and had them restored.

The living room with its origami chairs.

One of the original sprites.

Here FLW created the modern patio and managed to find a wonderful breeze in the desert.

A fire-breathing dragon.

Inspiration for the design of apartments and hotels.

Heading towards the sculpture garden.

Quote on the wall inside the auditorium.

A beautiful Buddha sculpture.

Here's the post on Taliesin West that we promised when we blogged about our Arizona trip. Frank Lloyd Wright fans are undoubtedly very familiar with Taliesin West but it is a worthwhile tour even for a casual fan. We took the 90 minute "Insights" tour for $32/ticket. As a testament to Frank Lloyd Wright's popularity, they offer this tour every 30 minutes November- April (and every hour May- October). We paid for our tickets in the lovely book/ gift shop and browsed while we waited for our tour to begin. There turned out to be 4 other people besides us that thought it would be a cool thing to do at 9:30AM on a Monday. We had a great tour guide (we think her name tag said Weise) who led us through several areas of the property. Tours aren't taken into every space because it is still a working school. We still felt like we got to see a lot from the living room and private living quarters to the cabaret building. As our guide reminded us, it wasn't built as a home per se but as a campsite. It was remarkable to walk through and think about not only the genius of design but of all of the hard work put into it throughout the years. We felt honored that we could walk the grounds. There were a couple of things that our guide told us that really stuck with us. One was that when someone asked Frank Lloyd Wright which building was his favorite, his answer was "the next one". Even in his 70s and 80s he was looking ahead which is something we aspire to do as well. Also, as our guide took us through the sculpture garden, she showed us a piece that represented the different stages of man (from a child learning motor skills on up). She said "you know how people say at high school reunions, 'you haven't changed'? Don't you think that maybe the point is that we're supposed to change?" That is so true and Frank Lloyd Wright was definitely a man who kept changing and evolving and we'll be playing catch up with him for a long time.

Oh, we miss Mad Men. Vanity Fair has some lovely photos of January Jones, the lovely and damaged Mrs. Draper.

Sugar Cream Pie as Indiana's official state pie? Really? We are native Hoosiers and have never had this and, actually, aren't sure if we've ever heard about it before. Evidently, we've been missing out.

Yoga Day USA

Saturday, January 24th, is Yoga Day USA and it looks like there is a new yoga studio in town that is celebrating it with free classes. BreatheIN yoga studio is having their grand opening on Saturday with free classes all day. It sounds like a great event and it comes right at the time when those New Year resolutions to be more active/calm/centered are waning.

If we can pull ourselves out of this post-vacation, middle of winter malaise, we seem to be in, we'll head to the IMA this Friday for a night with W.C. Fields. Not only are they showing his movie, The Bank Dick, but they are also showing one of his shorts, The Dentist, AND his granddaughter, Harriet Fields, will be there to talk about her grandfather's film roles. If anything can motivate, this cool event can.

Indy Flashback

There was a brief time in 1995, during the construction of the Circle Centre Mall, that there was an open space on the Circle with just a building's facade left standing. We thought it was kind of fabulous (which is why we snapped a photo).

We feared that this day would come. The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reports that the Decatur Road Scott's store is closing. Current Fort Wayne residents and former residents know this store by the awesome cornucopia that has been there ever since we can remember. This was the grocery store that Mrs. WYA! went to as a child and she has fond memories of it. This picture was taken during a 2004 remodeling when we were afraid that the cornucopia might not be there forever. Aside from the distinct memory of that sign, there used to be a cool carport type of set up where you could park underneath it right in front of the store (remember, it's the little things that kids think are cool). There was also a fountain in the produce section that impressed Mrs. WYA! as a child too. Her fuzzy memory thinks it was maybe a boy and a fish with one of them spitting water (?). Anyway, time rolls on and a lot of people will hold on to memories of this store.

Oprah certainly doesn't need us to promote her but Mrs. WYA! did enjoy her webcast about spirituality. The webcast can be downloaded for free on iTunes or on Oprah's website. Mrs. WYA! describes herself as spiritual but not religious so this panel really grabbed her interest and it might yours too. If you are aware of a spiritual center in Indy that isn't affiliated with a particular religion but is open to all spiritual seekers (along the line of Oprah panel member Dr. Beckwith's Agape), please let us know.


The webcasts with Dr. Oz, Suze Orman, and Bob Greene were also very interesting.

Head over to the Doritos site to vote for fellow Hoosier Don Becker's commercial to be shown during the Super Bowl. Read all about him at the Shelbyville News' website. You can keep voting until January 25th. Good luck Don!

Vacation... Arizona

Downtown Phoenix palm trees.

Taken from the trail of the Piestewa Peak/ Dreamy Draw recreation area.

We thought of Urban Indy Kevin when we saw their Metro light rail system.

The Big Unit at Cooperstown.

At El Bravo, they just bring you this sweet crispy treat with the check. We loved them.

We also had a nice meal at Tradiciones (and got there as the sun was setting on their cute building).

A torta is a HUGE Mexican sandwich and this is how they serve it up at Los Reyes de la Torta.

The Mammoth Saloon at Goldfield Ghost town.

The Dolly Steamboat.

The view of Canyon Lake from the Dolly Steamboat.

We're not going to lie, it was hard to leave Arizona and come back to Indiana. There are palm trees there, temperature readings in the 70s, sunshine, and the bluest sky we've ever seen. We went for a few days for no other reason than to feel warmth and we certainly did. It was Mrs. WYA!'s first trip to the southwest so she was excited to see cacti in its natural setting as opposed to a zoo or botanical gardens. Besides the great weather, we enjoyed some really good food too. We're not really into loud, sports bar/restaurant kind of places but a mandatory stop for us was Alice Cooper's Cooperstown. When we started thinking about a January trip months ago, we saw an interview with Alice Cooper about his restaurant in Phoenix and he mentioned one of his unique menu items, The Big Unit, which is a 2 foot long hot dog. Mr. WYA! decided that he wanted to tackle that as soon as we landed (after we picked up our rental car at the brilliant consolidated rental car center by the airport- you don't have to watch for the particular shuttle bus for your rental car company because all buses go to this centralized car rental building). It was a good dog but he couldn't quite finish it.

Mrs. WYA! had done her internet homework before the trip to find unique and tasty restaurants. We loved the green corn tamales and Navajo taco at El Bravo (8338 N. 7th St. Phoenix, AZ), and the tortas at Los Reyes de la Torta (9230 N. 7th St. Phoenix, AZ). Luckily, both of these modest little places were pretty close to our lovely resort, Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort. The resort was also conveniently located right by the Piestewa Peak/ Dreamy Draw Recreation area which we really enjoyed hiking through.

One day, we took a little drive east to Apache Junction to board the Dolly Steamboat which cruises through Canyon Lake. It was nice to be out on the water and to be able to admire the mountains from a different angle. We even saw some bighorn sheep. If you are in the area, we highly recommend sightseeing from the Dolly Steamboat.

On our way to catch the Dolly Steamboat, we happened upon Goldfield Ghost Town which was a welcome sight. We were ready for some chow (excuse us while we slip into cowboy talk) before the boat ride and this cute, lost in time, little town served up a great breakfast burrito and open- faced omelet. It was very touristy of course but fun for photo ops and cheesy souvenirs.

All of those activities, along with basking in the warm air by the pool everyday, pretty much took up all of our time. Of course, we did visit Taliesin West but that deserves its own blog entry which we'll post later.

Today only, Facebook friends of Papa Roux's get FREE bottomless red beans and rice with any purchase. You have to be their Facebook friend though and you have to print off the announcement on their Facebook page and take it in.

Bizarro at the Eiteljorg

Fans of the comic strip Bizarro will want to note that the creator, Dan Piraro, will be at the Eiteljorg. His blog outlines his schedule there from January 19th- 25th culminating with a comedic lecture highlighting the cartoons that he has done over the years about the Old West, Native Americans, etc. He seems to think that it will be a little chilly here in January, especially coming off of a trip to Hawaii so we hope that lots of folks show up and warm his heart with hospitality.

How can you escape from the cold? How about a heated yoga class? Invoke is debuting its heated and humidified yoga classes. Check out the announcement on the website and you can take your first heated class for free by just mentioning that website announcement, even if you've taken a class there before.

Back in the day, Grandma or Mom was our Google. "How do I sew on a shirt button?" "When can I transplant my flowers?" Well, if you're lucky, you still have your relatives as resources. If they're gone, out of touch, don't know (or are tired of your incessant questions), you can always head to Monkeysee.com for tons of videos explaining everything from winterizing your car to highlighting your own hair.

Sorry we've been slow to moderate comments and respond to emails the past few days. We just got back from Arizona last night and, while we did take our laptop with us, we didn't get online too much as we were busy hiking/basking in the sun/etc. We'll share some more vacation photos soon even though we realize that there is limited interest in hearing about other people's vacation (especially when you are stuck in the frozen tundra that is Indianapolis right now).

Make beans your friends in '09

If the economy finds you eating at home more, fear not, there are all kinds of great budget meals that you can easily make. Fortunately, we tend to have pauper's tastes. We like the simple foods that are affordable like rice and beans. We bought a package of Indianapolis' own Hurst Bean Company's 15 bean soup mix and a package of ham hocks and had a delicious meal.

Since we did not plan ahead, Hurst provides spur of the moment people with a "quick-cook" method. Just cover the rinsed beans with 3 quarts of water, bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat, but continue to boil for 60-70 minutes. Keep stirring, otherwise it may burn on the bottom.

After that time, add your ingredients (ham hocks, onion, etc.) then simmer for 30 to 45 minutes.

Add the seasoning packet that they provide, then dinner is served.

You learn the most fascinating things from My Space Friend requests. That is how we found out about Dr. Sketchy's Anti- Art School. From what we read about them, burlesque performers strike poses and hold them for you while you sketch them. You bring your own drawing materials and let your creativity run free is this fun, informal setting. On January 17th, Dr. Sketchy's has a Winter Wonderland event at Locals Only Art & Music Pub. Profits from the event will go to the Pink Ribbon Connection. Out of the ordinary, fun, a little saucy, and for a good cause- what other reasons could you need?

It looks like '09 is going to be a good year for the arts in Indy. We are pretty frugal (and kind of homebodies at heart) so it takes something special to get us to part with our money and get out for an evening, but we've already picked up tickets for Saltimbanco (which will be our first Cirque du Soleil show) and Jazz at Lincoln Center at Madame Walker Theatre (which we used an Xmas Ticketmaster gift card for but were ready to buy tickets for ourselves before we got that). By the way, it has probably been awhile since we checked it out, but the Walker Theatre website is much more user friendly now. This will be only our second time there so we are excited to visit this lovely, historic theatre again. The first show that we went to there a year or 2 ago was Savion Glover and it was an outstanding evening.

Indiana State Park Pass

Even though we typically only use it for our visits to the Fort Harrison State Park, the annual park pass is still the best $36 we'll spend this year.

Just in time for a transformation in '09, Dr. Wayne Dyer's Change Your Thoughts- Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao just came out in paperback. We've previously blogged about how much we enjoyed the audiobook version of this but we've been waiting for the paperback because, as nice as it is having it read to us, sometimes we want to read, and re-read, the words for ourselves.

Cool Indianapolis Neighborhoods- Mapleton/Fall Creek/Meridian Park

We've happened upon this area inadvertently a couple of times in the past couple of months so we felt like it was time to intentionally drive through it and snap some pics. We discovered part of it one day when we took a left on Pennsylvania off of 38th Street to head downtown without taking the usual Meridian Street. Then, one day, we couldn't get over to turn into the fairgrounds so we turned into this neighborhood and decided to keep driving through it because the houses were so cute. These pictures were taken as we drove south along Pennsylvania from 38th Street:

We like this little center at the corner of Penn and 34th Street:

We just lucked upon a gorgeous church that we didn't even know was there. It is the Tabernacle Presbyterian church at the corner of 34th St. and Central. It was erected in 1921 and their website has links in the right-hand column where you can read more about the architecture and history.

These are along Watson Road.

You could live here. Flock Realty has this one on Winthrop for sale.


Here's a link to the Meridian Park blog that talks about one of the more famous houses in the neighborhood, the Tuckaway house. We got to tour it on a home tour a few years ago and we look forward to the next tour that is shown on their blog to be coming up this summer. (and here's an article from American Bungalow that also mentions the Tuckaway house)