I Have To Have It

I have not disappeared, nor did I have the baby yet...

2012-01-03T07:13:00.000-05:00

With the holiday craziness and being uber pregnant, I just decided to take a mini blog break. The holidays were lovely, baby-baking is going swimmingly, and it's a new year! Life is good.

We haven't done much in the way of exciting house projects lately (except for the master bath which should be completely done soon), but I did make a fun little craft project yesterday to keep my brain occupied while we wait for this baby to get here (due date is coming up on Sunday!)

We've gotten a bunch of really sweet baby cards and I wanted a way to keep them. I found this cute idea via Pinterest and decided to make my own version.

The front:

The back:

The inside:

The project was super easy and took less than 2 hours. I won't bother to post the step-by-step instructions; just click the link above--she covered it much better than I could. I think it's a cute little way to keep meaningful cards. You could also do this for big birthdays, graduations, or even annual Christmas cards!

More bathroom progress!

2011-12-13T07:15:00.000-05:00

We made further progress on the master bathroom this past weekend and although we have a few things we still need to do, we're now at a point where we have a fully functioning master bath! Which means that when kiddo makes his/her arrival in the next few weeks, our house will at least be semi put-together and we won't have bathroom vanities in the guest bedroom.

The floor is done, the backsplash tile has been laid and grouted, and the vanities are installed. Next up we have to scoot the light fixtures up a few inches in order to make room for the medicine cabinets. We also have to do a little caulking and put up the baseboards and we're done! So much for a quick little project!

Before:

After:

Such a weight off our shoulders to be at this point! Ahhhhh....

Finally! Finished nursery pics

2011-12-12T06:30:00.001-05:00

It's been awhile since I updated the ol' blog with new pics of the nursery! We've gotten pretty much everything set up and we're about as ready to go as possible, which is good, since I'm now 36 weeks! My gut tells me that this baby won't make his/her arrival until 39 weeks, but I was a Girl Scout and I like to be prepared.

After I spotted the Melissa and Doug oversized stuffed giraffe, we ended up with an unintentional giraffe "theme" of sorts, so I just kind of went with it without going overboard, cuz Lord knows I hate cutesy "theme-y" rooms. All of the elements in the room were chosen with the intention of a) being gender neutral, and b) growing with this baby, so we don't have to redecorate in 2 or 3 years just because the kiddo outgrows stuff. I also wanted a pretty room because I know that I'll be spending my fair share of time in there and I like to look at pretty things.

Anyway, without further ado, here's the finished nursery! (Sources below.)

I'm in love with the gold pouf. It was a bit extravagant, but I think it kind of makes the whole room come together. Plus, it's so versatile and can be used in any room in the house, so it'll get a lot of use. (Can you tell I'm still justifying that purchase?)

The pillow fabric was leftover from when I recovered the dining room chairs last year. I loved the Chaing Mai fabric that I used in my original inspiration board, but at like $200 a yard, that wasn't going to happen. I needed a fabric to tie in the orange and blue and it was free!

My good friend Kate sent me this awesome nightlight for my baby shower! Is it not the cutest thing ever??? I'm in love with it.

See that cute baby in the picture frame? Guess who it is? (Hint: it's me.)

I picked up the giraffe on sale last week and I'm in love with him. His name is Kyle. The crib "skirt" is made of leftover fabric from the glider. I used velcro to adhere it to the mattress support so it could be easily removed for cleaning.

The crib rocks my world. It's absolutely gorgeous and made in the US out of real sustainable hardwood! (No MDF or anything.) We also bought the toddler rails and the adult bed conversion kit, so it will eventually convert to a full size bed for kiddo. It was a little bit more money upfront, but when we factor in the number of years we'll get out of it, it'll be cheaper in the long run.

Finally, the opposite side of the room. I was originally going to use the baby animal prints from my inspiration board, but they ended up being a bit out of budget when all was said and done. The giraffe print was purchased at 20% off, which made it super reasonable.

Also, that thing on the floor between the dresser and the crib is a medicine cabinet for the master bath, which obviously won't stay on the floor forever.

And now for the sources:

Crib, Baby's Dream Legendary
Rug, Martha Stewart Living Chrysanthemum rug in Wrought Iron
Curtains, Ikea Lenda
Dresser, Ikea Edland
Bookshelf, Ikea Smadal
Giraffe print, Z Gallerie
Fabric, Celerie Kemble Betwixt
Large stuffed giraffe, Melissa and Doug
Gold pouf, Furbish
Giraffe nightlight, Jonathan Adler
Paint colors, Martha Stewart's Wrought Iron (navy) and Heavy Cream
Mirror and lamps, HomeGoods

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

2011-11-29T06:41:00.000-05:00

I made this recipe (rom here) this weekend and it was delicious. And super easy. What could be better?

(photo from Two Peas and Their Pod)

Ingredients
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 cups granulated sugar
1 (15 ounce) can 100% pure pumpkin
1 cup canola oil (This is a lot of oil, so I'd substitute some apple sauce for the oil)
2/3 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray three 9x5 inch loaf pans with cooking spray and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, combine sugar, pumpkin, canola oil, water, vanilla, and eggs. Mix until smooth.
4. Slowly blend in flour mixture. Fold in chocolate chips. Evenly divide batter between the three loaf pans.
5. Bake for 60 minutes, or until browned and a toothpick comes out clean. Remove loaves from oven and cool in pans on a wire rack for 15 minutes. With a knife, go around the bread and loosen the loaves. Remove from pan and cool completely before slicing.

* Note: this recipe makes a lot of bread, so be prepared to share or put a loaf in the freezer for later.

Update

2011-11-28T06:57:00.000-05:00

I haven't dropped off the face of the earth and I haven't had this baby yet--life has just been busy, so blogging has taken a back seat for a bit.

Anyway, the bathroom project is coming along (finally). We re-laid the tile and it stuck, so we were able to grout last weekend and finish up some final tiling this past weekend. Removing the tile from the wall resulted in big holes in the drywall, so the drywall has now been patched and painted. Next weekend we'll spend putting up the new backsplash tiles and then we can put the vanities back in. Huzzah!

In other news, Thanksgiving was this past week. Yeah, it was the day before Black Friday! Remember that day? Chris grilled the turkey on his new Weber grill and it was un-freaking-believable:

Also, Griz seems to be excited for the kiddo to get here. She spent quite a bit of time in the stroller and the car seat this weekend. Both pass her seal of approval:

Weekend Cooking

2011-11-18T06:57:00.000-05:00

This weekend I'll be 33 weeks pregnant (whaaaaa???), so it's time to start cooking some make-ahead meals to freeze for when we're too tired or busy to cook after the baby comes. My criteria? The recipe must be mostly hands-off, as we're going to be spending some time removing tile off the bathroom walls and grouting the floors this weekend. The recipe also must use mainly ingredients I either already have or can easily get--I'm not looking to spend half my weekend running around buying groceries. In addition to some old stand-by's like camp stew, Pinterest has been a great source for crock pot meals that can easily be frozen. Here are a few I might try this weekend:

Lasagna Soup, found here.

Buffalo Chicken found here.

Lasagna cups here.

Not something I'm making to freeze, but instead serve on Thanksgiving, Mushroom Bread Pudding. I made this last year and it's insane. I HIGHLY recommend this recipe if you've been asked to bring a side dish to Thanksgiving this year.

Recipe found here.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Two More Steps Forward

2011-11-16T06:40:00.000-05:00

This past weekend we made progress on the bathroom. Hallelujah! As documented here, this project has been SO frustrating, but I'm starting to feel more optimistic that a) we will finish the project someday and b) when we do, it'll look great.

On Saturday, we spent several hours pulling up the tile (that we had just laid about 3 weeks ago) and scraping off all of the thinset. We got the floor nice and smooth, swept, vacuumed, vacuumed again, then wiped down the cement board just to start with a clean surface that the new thinset would (hopefully) stick to:

During this process, we pretty much identified that the problem was due to bad thinset. I think the bag we had originally purchased was just old; it scraped off ridiculously easily as a very fine powder.

Of course, Grizabella helped:

Not really. She napped on the bed most of the time and only came in for a final inspection. We passed.

Then on Sunday, we got to work relaying the tile (that we had just laid 3 weeks ago. Did I mention that already? Sorry. Just a little irritated about the whole thing.). Since we had already cut the tiles to fit the last time, we just had to keep track of which tiles went where and so the whole thing took about an hour and a half to lay. Chris mixed the thinset and acted as the "gopher" while I sat my 7 month pregnant ass on the floor and laid the tile. Our system paid off:

The best news? After letting it set for 24 hours we walked on the tile and...IT STUCK!!! Choirs of angels sung, rainbows appeared, and puppies and kitties pranced around in harmony, it was so magical.

This means that we can pull off the wall tile this coming weekend, put the grout in, and if we have enough time, we may be able to reinstall the vanities! We're getting there!

New Living Room Chairs!

2011-11-11T07:01:00.000-05:00

A week or so ago I bought two of these chairs online for the living room:

I'm so thrilled with how they look in our living room:

We still need to add a few finishing touches to the room: curtains, some side tables, and better lighting will be first, then I also want to add some crown molding to the bookshelves to make them look more like built-ins. I also desperately want this pillow for the sofa:

Oh yes, it will be mine.

Anyway, although we still have a ways to go before the room looks like I want it to, it's still far, far better than where it was a year ago:

This project SUCKS

2011-11-09T06:30:00.001-05:00

Sorry about the brief hiatus. We've been busy around here and the bathroom project is not really going all that well.

Looks not too bad, right? We laid the tile and waited the requisite 24 hours before stepping on it, only to find this:

Preeeetty sure that you're not supposed to be able to lift tile up like that.

So, are you ready for a kind of long story? Two weeks ago, we laid the tile. Found out that the tile didn't stick in several places. The following weekend we installed the vanities anyway so we'd have a functioning bathroom while we had guests in town last weekend for my baby shower. So guess what we get to do this coming weekend? We get to uninstall the vanities, fix the floor, then wait for the floor to dry before grouting. Then we can reinstall the vanities!

But wait! There's more! The vanities and faucets are so much taller than the previous ones that the medicine cabinets don't fit between the vanities and the light fixtures. So now Chris has to move the light fixtures up a few inches to accomodate everything. All of this is before we even tile the backsplash or put baseboards back on.

So, that's what we've been up to lately. Good times!!!

The state of things...

2011-10-20T06:30:00.000-04:00

The master bathroom is torn up:

As a refresher, this is what it looked like as of last Saturday morning:

So, yeah. We took out the vanity and on Monday morning my parents removed the tile floor. That wasn't really in the original plan, but there were cracks in the tile, the grout was horrible, and it was laid directly on the sub-floor, which isn't ideal. While it'll be more work, it'll be worth it to do it once and do it right.

We're not straying too far from what the old tile looked like--we'll be going with this hexagonal white pattern. And the other day I picked up a bunch of different glass tiles to see which one we should use for the backsplash. OF COURSE the one we liked far more than the others was the most expensive. Of course.

The glass tile brings in the wall color, the white from the ceramic tile, the blue tile in the shower (which we're not changing for awhile even though I don't love it), and the gray from the vanities. I'm super excited about our plan.

Also excited to get our house back to normal, especially since we'll have houseguests in two weeks:

Nothing says "Welcome!" like a bathroom vanity in the entryway.

The current state of our living room. Yikes.

This is what we're going with

2011-10-14T07:01:00.000-04:00

Short post today. These are the vanities that we chose for the master bathroom:

And the medicine cabinets:

The medicine cabinets arrived already and the vanities should be in later today (they're both from the Martha Stewart Collection at Home Depot). We'll spend some time tomorrow dismantling the existing vanity and figuring out the tile situation underneath. Fingers crossed!!! Is it all going to be done this weekend? Highly, highly doubtful, but at least we're moving in the right direction.

Master Bathroom

2011-10-13T07:04:00.000-04:00

So, we knew when we moved into this house that we'd need to tackle the master bathroom at one point or another. The shower tile is dated and the vanity offers surprisingly little storage and is just plain fugly:

(Ignore the "After" on the photos. Also the white balance is totally off.)

(This is much more indicative of the actual colors)

This is pretty much what the countertop looks like on a daily basis because there is NO ROOM anywhere for the stuff we use on a day-to-day basis: contact solution, vitamins, hair products, etc. Those mirrors aren't medicine cabinets, so as a result, all of the daily-use stuff just sits on the counter and drives me crazy.

So, a few weekends ago, we decided to get started on this whole project. Unfortunately, the vanity is a non-standard (and HUGE) 78" wide. We'd either have to have a custom cabinet built ($$$), or put two 36" cabinets together and then figure out what to do to make up the 6" of leftover space. Or we could get two smaller vanities and make them completely separate, which is what we've decided.

Unfortunately, we don't think the tile extends under the current vanities, so we'll have to figure that out. So far we've ordered the vanities and they're on their way. The medicine cabinets arrived yesterday.

Anyway, this is what it looks like now that the walls have been painted and the ugly sconces were replaced with some pretty new light fixtures:

I LOVE the new light fixtures and the blue wall color is a lot better than the beige. This coming weekend is DEMO TIME! Muahahahaha! I'm getting very excited. Goodbye blue countertop!

Painted Bathrooms

2011-10-11T07:16:00.000-04:00

I think I promised these photos last week, but the fatigue I had in the first trimester came a-roarin' back last week and I never got around to posting the pics. Anyway, I painted both the guest bathroom and the master bathroom the weekend before last in preparation for a mini bathroom makeover before the baby gets here.

Here's what we were working with before. (Ignore the "After" written on the photo--it's from my House Anniversary post back in March.)

It all started when we decided to install a new light fixture (sorry I don't have a "Before" of the light fixture, but I promise you've seen them before in your life--a bar with 4 round bulbs on it--not terribly interesting). When Chris removed the light fixture, we saw the room's original color: Salmon. Mmmm...

The new light fixture doesn't have the same footprint:

So I picked out three paint colors and painted some swatches. We ended up going with the top one, Martha Stewart's Salt Glaze. (Also, I'm pretty sure Chris thought I was completely insane, since he couldn't tell a difference between the blues at all.)

Since the bathroom is pretty small, it didn't take me very long to paint and now it looks like this!:

So, future plans include removing the vanity and installing a new one (which may or may not require some tiling work), probably getting a new shower curtain, and removing the mirror and installing a medicine cabinet with some actual storage space.

Pics of the master bath to come as well.

Nursery Update

2011-10-10T06:43:00.000-04:00

I wasn't going to post pics of the nursery until it was done, but that might be awhile, so I'll go ahead and post "In Progress" pics. There are still a few things we need to do: get artwork for above the dresser, find a small bookshelf for underneath the mirror (between the windows), and get a side table for next to the glider. Once we get a bookshelf, we'll be on to a few other accessories and small projects and then we'll be done!

While navy blue might seem like an odd choice for a gender-neutral baby's room, I find navy really easy to work with and because of the light in the room (especially in the afternoon), the room doesn't feel dark at all. I also opted for high gloss navy paint, which bounces the light around a bit instead of just sucking the light into the walls.

Anyway, here are some "in progress" pics for you:

Well? What do you think?

Where have I been?

2011-10-03T06:59:00.000-04:00

Here's a clue:

Yup! I had a quick business trip in South Dakota last week. I had ZERO cell phone reception while I was there, so my plans to blog from my phone were completely thwarted. Oh well.

South Dakota was fine. Not a whole lot going on there, it appears, but there was some beautiful scenery. We got to see Mt. Rushmore, which is truly impressive, especially when it's lit at night. The Crazy Horse Memorial was also quite impressive, although one does have to wonder when it will be done. After 60+ years, this is where it's at:

They have a ways to go. The crazy thing about Crazy Horse is how absolutely HUGE it is. For scale purposes, check out the top of the horse's head above. Those are tractors. It's big.

In other news, this weekend we started tackling the master bathroom and I'm exciiiiiiiiiiiiiiited! I need to order the vanities this week, but we've made progress in painting the walls and changing out the light fixtures and it looks much better already. In fact, I not only painted the master bathroom this weekend, but also painted the guest/future kid's bathroom this weekend. Photos to follow tomorrow.

Like little gems on my toes!

2011-09-20T06:54:00.000-04:00

I treated myself to a pedicure this weekend. I usually stick to shades of red or pink or go straight to black, but I really liked this color.

(Excuse the red mark on my foot from my shoe strap.) It's Essie's Dive Bar and it reminds me of sapphires:

I also treated myself to something else this week. Hint: it's in the photo above and I'm kind of obsessed with it.

Also, here's your weekly dose of Griz:

Poor cat--doesn't she look miserable? I took her to the vet yesterday and she now weighs 9.6 pounds! Yes, she's still a pretty petite cat, but considering that she was a scrawny 7 pounds when we got her and full of tape worms and had a mouth full of rotten teeth, 9.6 pounds is fabulous.

***Also, this week I plan on doing a little blog maintenance: resizing old photos, recategorizing some stuff, etc. so bear with me if things get wonky around here.

Weekend Recap

2011-09-19T07:04:00.000-04:00

This weekend was fabulous--the weather cooled down a ton (enough for me to put on a sweater!) and gave us a tease of fall. With highs in the low 60's and rain on Saturday, it was the perfect day to do just a few errands and then stay at home with the slow cooker on (I made shredded beef tacos) and work on a few things around the house.

I also bought this book over the weekend and you know what? I'm loving it.

As with almost every home/design books, there are photos that I love and some that don't do anything for me at all, but overall I think it's a great book. There's a huge mix of styles so there's a little something for everyone and the projects also range from completely simple, why-didn't-I-think-of-that? ideas, to the more complex. I haven't gotten all the way through the book yet (it's about 400 pages and I'm taking my time), but I think this will be a book I go back to again and again.

Also, last night was the Emmys, which--don't let anyone fool you--is all about the dresses, not about the awards. My favorite?

Kate Winslet can really do no wrong in my book. She always looks fabulous and she seems smart, fairly normal and down to earth, and really classy.

Least favorite?

Gwyneth's hair looked stringy and would have looked better if it were pulled up and I'm not a fan of the bare midriff.

Photos from Yahoo!

Look what I made!

2011-09-16T06:58:00.000-04:00

So, last week I shared with you my nursery plan and it included this gorgeous Schumacher Chiang Mai fabric:

Unfortunately, it's $250 per yard. (Yes, you read that right.) I found a seller on Etsy who makes small lumbar pillows out of this fabric for $62 (which, when compared to $250, is great!), but I still didn't really want to spend $62 on a small accent pillow.

I scoured various fabric stores and didn't really find anything that fit the bill. I was looking for something colorful to tie in the blues of the nursery and bring in other colors. Then I remembered the fabric that I used to recover our dining room chairs last year. Jackpot. I bought some light blue pom-pom trim and a small 14"x18" pillow and made my own.

Ta da!

It's obviously not the same as the Chiang Mai, but I'm really happy with how it turned out. Oh, and the rocking chair? The blue and white striped cushion looks far better in photos than it does in person, so those are getting redone completely in this fabric:

Haven't ordered the fabric yet, but I'm hoping to this weekend.

Speaking of which, it's Friday! Have a great weekend!

Manicure of the Week

2011-09-15T07:06:00.000-04:00

The color is Chinchilly by Essie. (I call it Grizabella Grey.)

Mmmm....

2011-09-14T06:50:00.000-04:00

Chris's birthday was yesterday and for his birthday he got a Weber charcoal grill. He took yesterday off work (he hasn't had a non-robbery, non-funeral, non-surgery day off in 18 months--poor guy!) and so he played around on the grill and made dinner:

That is a perfect grilled chicken.

With a side of grilled asparagus

Griz waited paiently

Happy birthday to my hubby!

Weekend Recap and Nursery Progress

2011-09-12T07:04:00.000-04:00

This weekend was not at all long enough. It was a productive weekend though, so at least I have something to show for the weekend.

On Saturday morning we got up and at 'em early(ish) to get to the baby store to pick up the crib. The box was huuuuuuuuuuuuge and wouldn't fit in my brother-in-law's truck without taking the camper shell off, so there was some logistical maneuvering and a little extra work, but we got the crib back to the house safe and sound.

The box. Told you it was big.

On Saturday afternoon we bought Chris's birthday gift (a charcoal grill and accessories) and did some puttering around the house and then on Sunday morning we assembled the crib! Here's Chris explaining that you put the baby on this piece to sleep. (You don't. That piece is the side.)

Anyway, about 30 minutes later (it was the easiest piece of furniture I've ever had to assemble), here's da crib. (We've decided to always refer to it as "da crib" in order to maintain some street cred.)

I absolutely love it. It's solid, made of real wood, has no formaldehyde, and was made in the USA! Plus it converts to a toddler/youth bed, and then will convert to an adult-size full bed eventually. SWEET.

Last weekend we assembled this Ikea dresser (which took a few hours) and I'm in love with it too:

So, we have the two biggest pieces of the nursery done! I'm so excited! I'll show bits and pieces of the progress here on the blog, but I think I'm going to save whole room photos until we're done.

I got a few other things done this weekend, including getting started on Christmas shopping! (Holy bejeebus--I know!!!) I'm not one of those hyper-organized, let's-start-Christmas-shopping-in-August people normally, but I just have a feeling that both finanially and for my sanity's sake, it'll be better for me to get Christmas shopping done before December. I have a hunch that I'm not going to want to stand in line at the mall at 8 months pregnant.

So there you have it--my weekend.

Weekend Plans

2011-09-09T06:52:00.000-04:00

It's the weekend again! Hooray! This weekend we're picking up the crib (it was supposed to take 10-12 weeks, but ended up taking 4 days), assembling the crib, I'm going to hem curtains, and I also want to make pancakes with lots and lots of berries. Kind of like this:

Happy weekend everyone!

Jewelry always fits

2011-09-08T07:00:00.000-04:00

Have you ever taken a look at this blog? It's seriously one of my favorites now. How cute is she?

Anyway, she has me inspired to wear more jewelry (and paint my nails). I decided to browse around the interwebs and here are some of my favorite jewelry pieces at the moment. Plus, I think I need a gold watch.

JCrew Classic Jenna bracelet

JCrew Ice cube necklace

Ann Taylor Loft Lizard Sparkle Cuff

Outfit of the Week

2011-09-07T06:48:00.000-04:00

It's been a looooong time since I posted an outfit photo and same goes for a bump shot, so here I am killing two birds with one stone. This is what I wore to work yesterday (22 weeks along now). Is it the most creative outfit ever? No. But it's at least somewhat flattering, so here you go.

(Also, I cropped my head out of the picture because my hair was spectacularly bad yesterday--90 degrees and raining off and on all day made for a LOT of frizz. Ugh. Is fall here yet?)

Top from Motherhood Maternity, pants are Liz Lange for Target and shoes are Cole Haan from forever ago.

Weekend Recap + a Recipe

2011-09-06T07:15:00.000-04:00

How great are three-day weekends? I love them (and could certainly use more)! This weekend was the perfect amount of productivity and relaxation. Ahhhhh...

On Saturday night Chris made homemade pizza with chicken andouille sausage and spinach:

On Saturday we also picked out and ordered our crib! Thank goodness we did too, because it's going to take 10-12 weeks for delivery--that'll put me at 32-34 weeks! Yikes!

On Sunday we assembled the Ikea dresser that I bought last week. Griz helped, naturally:

Seriously, this cat will not leave us alone:

On Monday night we had a few friends over and I made a tomato pie. Have you ever had tomato pie? It's only like the best. thing. ever.

Carmelized onions:

Health food (cheese and mayo):

Almost done:

Seriously, this stuff is SO GOOD. And because I'm nice, here's the recipe from SimplyRecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1 9-inch pie shell
• 1/2 yellow or red onion, chopped
• 3-4 tomatoes, cut in half horizontally, squeezed to remove excess juice, roughly chopped, to yield approximately 3 cups chopped tomatoes
• 1/4 cup sliced basil (about 8 leaves)
• 2 cups grated cheese (combination of sharp cheddar and Monterey Jack, or Gruyere or Mozarella)
• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon (or more to taste) of Frank's Hot Sauce (or Tabasco)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Place pie shell in oven and cook for 8-10 minutes or longer until lightly golden. If you are starting with a frozen crust, you'll need to cook it a little longer. If you are using a homemade crust, freeze the crust first, then line the crust with aluminum foil and pre-bake it for 20 minutes, then remove the foil and bake an additional 10 minutes.

2. Squeeze as much moisture as you can out of the chopped tomatoes, using either paper towels, a clean dish towel, or a potato ricer.

3. Sprinkle the bottom of the pre-cooked pie shell with chopped onion. Spread the chopped tomatoes over the onions. Sprinkle the sliced basil over the tomatoes.

4. In a medium bowl, mix together the grated cheese, mayonnaise, Tabasco, a sprinkling of salt and freshly ground black pepper. The mixture should be the consistency of a gooey snow ball. Spread the cheese mixture over the tomatoes.

5. Place in oven and bake until browned and bubbly, anywhere from 25 to 45 minutes.

Serves 6.

Seriously, make this while tomatoes are still in season. You'll love it.

Game Plan

2011-09-02T06:36:00.000-04:00

I've finally come up with a plan for the nursery. After scouring fabric stores and coming up empty handed, I headed over to Furbish to check out Jamie's fabric room and finally found what I was looking for.

To back up, here's the room that will be the nursery:

I painted the walls navy awhile ago and so the color stays, as does the rug that I purchased a few months ago. Overall, the room has to be gender neutral, since we don't know what we're having. I also want it to be a happy room, but not too "baby-ish" (if that makes any sense).

I want to add orange into the mix and needed some fabric to tie things together. I love this fabric and will use it to cover the cushions on the rocker:

Celerie Kemble's Betwixt

This fabric, while it's been used all over the blogosphere for awhile now, is also perfect as it ties in the navy and orange and brings in all sorts of other colors. Since it's mega-expensive (for me), I'll bring a small dose of it in via a throw pillow for the rocker:

Schumacher Chiang Mai Dragon

Alright, so I put it all together and this is more or less what I'm after:

I got the dresser this week at Ikea and we'll assemble it this weekend. I also got some cream curtains, so those will be going up too. Hopefully I can find some fun trim to add on to the curtains.

What do we think?

Studded Heels

2011-08-31T06:25:00.000-04:00

I saw these the other day while at the mall and kind of fell in love:

They're kind of awesome in real life. They're also ~~kind of~~ really heavy.

I love the studded shoe trend that's going on right now, but I also don't think my pregnant ass needs to be hoofing it in 4 1/2 inch heels that weigh about 5 pounds each. And since I'm not sure if my feet are going to get bigger (which I've heard a lot of women's do), I don't really want to plunk down $200 for these bad boys.

These are certainly tamer, but more expensive:

These are probably the best bet of all at the moment:

Plus they're on sale!

What do you think of the studded shoe trend?

This week's manicure

2011-08-29T06:59:00.000-04:00

I've become somewhat obsessed with my nails lately. I think it has something to do with the fact that it's one thing that I have some control over with my body at the moment. I've entirely stopped biting my nails (yay me!) and they're growing like crazy what with the prenatals I'm taking and the hormones I've got going on these days.

Anyway, I've been having fun with having pretty nails lately and here's the latest:

Sephora by OPI's I'm Wired with Only Gold for Me on top

Weekend!

2011-08-26T06:36:00.000-04:00

Not much planned for this weekend, just waiting to see what happens with this lady:

I'd like to keep working on the rocking chair for the kiddo's room, and hopefully I can get out this afternoon to check out some fabric. I'll keep you posted!

Hope everyone stays safe!

Weekend Meal

2011-08-23T06:26:00.000-04:00

Chris and I had the weekend to ourselves and what did we do? Cook, of course! We'd obviously done some weeknight cooking here and there over the past month with all the house guests, but there's something different about weekend cookng when you have time and energy and can get creative in the kitchen. We ended up having lamb chops with roasted red peppers and mint, risotto, and a salad:

Quite a lovely meal!

Also, in other news, we picked out a crib and I got to work on the rocker/glider (there were a TON of little nails!) and it looks like I won't have to refinish/paint it! I have a little sanding and restaining to do, but it shouldn't be too bad (famous last words, right?).

Breaking News Alert: Grizabella's still cute.

Whoa!

2011-08-19T07:10:00.000-04:00

Sunday marks the halfway mark in my pregnancy. CRAZY. I have no idea where the time has gone! The weekend agenda will include much baby-related stuff (crib shopping, a prenatal yoga class, some online registry-making, and glider repair) as well as a few non-baby-related things (replanting the flowers in the planters next to the front door, which I've managed to kill).

Last month my boss gave me the rocker/glider that her husband was rocked in when he was a baby. Overall it's in great shape:

I love that it isn't a true rocker either, which means that Griz's tail won't get rocked on if she wanders around behind it.

There are a few issues that need to be addressed though that make it less than baby-proof:

Not sure why there are little nails sticking out of it.

There are also screws sticking up from out of the bottom that need to be addressed.

So, I need to clean it up, make it baby safe, and patch up the holes left by those little nails. I also want to scope out some fabric for the cushions and recover those some day. At this point, I'm leaning toward keeping the wood the current finish rather than painting it, but we'll see the state of things after I'm done cleaning and patching it this weekend.

Ahhh...vacation!

2011-08-18T06:53:00.000-04:00

Just got back from spending a few days on Lake Norman with my family. Nothing like a few days with nothing that you have to do to help recharge one's batteries. On the agenda-less agenda: manicures and pedicures, some shopping, some good meals out, kayaking, swimming, bb gun shooting, magazine-reading, and storm-watching. It was rigorous.

Target practice and safety lessons for my nephew

Pregnant chick with a gun--watch out!

This storm was crazy. It sat on top of us like this for about 10 minutes without raining before the bottom dropped out and it POURED. It looked like something out of the Harry Potter movies.

Seriously, where are the dementors?

The fam. Chris wasn't able to go with me, unfortunately, but we're hoping to get away for a few days in the near future.

TGIF!

2011-08-12T07:00:00.000-04:00

Happy weekend folks!

Life is getting a bit back to normal now and our house now only contains 4 people instead of last week's 10 and at some point next week we'll be down to 3. All told, this whole kidney transplant process has been remarkably smooth. The whole family really pulled together and pitched in to help cook dinners, take care of the house, and transport patients back and forth. All in all, I feel like I did very little in this whole process!

Anyway, I'm hoping at some point to make it to the farmers' market this weekend to pick up more peaches. The peaches this summer have been INCREDIBLE and I want to take advantage of them as best I can before the season ends.

Not my photo. From pinterest.

Maybe I'll make this drink recipe?

Photo from Real Simple

Ingredients

3 cups ginger ale
1/2 cup peach nectar
2 ripe peaches, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger

Directions

1. In a pitcher, combine the ginger ale, nectar, peaches, and ginger.
2. Serve over ice.

Anyway, hope everyone has a great weekend!

Teal Room

2011-08-11T07:02:00.001-04:00

My good friend Shey is moving into a new house soon and wanted some input regarding a bedroom that's painted a dark aqua color. She wants see if they can live with it awhile before just jumping in and re-painting it. Even though the color is bold, I suggested that it's totally workable if you add in other shades of blue or green, like sea glass. In other words, don't fight it; just go with it.

I took the color inspiration from this gorgeous photo by Christian Chaise and the Urban Outfitters bedding makes it really easy (you could also use the photo as inspiration for a bathroom using this shower curtain). Pulling in some of the colors from the photo such as red, yellow, and sand would give the room some more interest.

Similar photo, 20x200

Bedding, Urban Outfitters

Chevron frame, Furbish Studio

Nightstand, Urban Outfitters

Silver pouf, Furbish Studio

Glass lamp, West Elm

Hat rack, Urban Outfitters

Lotus votive, Furbish Studio

Basket, Anthropologie

Jute rug, Pottery Barn

Paint colors by Martha Stewart: Gypsy Moth, Powder Puff, Beryl, Sea Glass, Hummingbird Blue, Araucana Teal

Hi!

2011-08-09T06:44:00.000-04:00

Another little hiatus there...sorry 'bout that! I haven't been super inspired lately blog-wise, plus we've been a little busy, so posting is still a bit erratic. Since things have been a little nutty around here lately, I figured that a little weekend trip up to Washington DC for a friend's baby shower was a much needed little break.

While in DC I was slightly obsessed with a friend's vase (I'm weird) that was perfect for hydrangeas. It was a Kate Spade bowl vase that she got for her wedding and was similar to this:

Now I must find one.

I love this idea

2011-08-03T06:36:00.000-04:00

I saw these photos the other day and now I'm kind of obsessed with the ceiling:

(Images originally from domino, back in the day)

I'd love to stencil a star pattern in metallic paint on the ceiling in the nursery, but I'm afraid this may be one of those projects that doesn't happen (at least for awhile). It seems like an easy enough project, but first I'd have to scrape the popcorn off the ceiling (easy enough--I've done it before in the old house), then hope and pray that the ceiling is flat enough just to prime and paint and then stencil. None of those steps are difficult by any means, but I'm not really sure that I have any business being up high on a ladder a few weeks from now. I love pretty things for sure, but I think common sense might have to win out on this one. Damn.

Nursery Ideas

2011-08-02T06:36:00.000-04:00

I swear this won't become a baby-centric blog; it's just that for now, that's going to be the next room we work on since it definitely has an impending deadline.

For the nursery, I'm going for a gender-neutral, cute-but-not-cutesy, non-themed room. I haven't chosen the fabrics yet, but when I do, I'll throw together a board of some sort to show you the look I have in mind. We'll be using the room that I've already painted navy blue and cream (I think navy is a beautiful but not often-thought-of gender neutral color) with the big crysanthemum rug.

As far as artwork goes, I'm hoping to get a bunch of these Baby Animal Prints by Sharon Montrose to hang up in a grid like so:

Here are the nine I'd like to get:

They're available here at Sharon Montrose's website and at 20x200.com (which has a ton of really cool stuff in general).

Roasted Banana Cupcakes

2011-08-01T06:29:00.000-04:00

Both brothers-in-law were released from the hospital on Friday and to welcome them back home, my two helpers (nieces Elise and Cecilia) and I thought we'd make cupcakes. With his kidney issues and dialysis, my brother-in-law B wasn't allowed to have bananas (due to their high levels of potassium), and now that that's been resolved, we decided to make Martha Stewart's Roasted Banana Cupcakes. These turned out SO good and the whole family loved them. They're sweet, but not too sweet and the honey-cinnamon frosting was really an integral part of the whole thing.

Sorry the frosting's kinda messed up in this picture: they went so fast that before I knew it we only had one left and I put Saran Wrap over it to stick it in the fridge and it got smooshed. They looked cute when I originally served them.

Roasted Banana Cupcakes

Ingredients
3 ripe bananas, plus 1 to 2 more for garnish
2 cups cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Honey-Cinnamon Frosting (below)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place 3 whole unpeeled bananas on a baking sheet and roast for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, sift together cake flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Remove banans from the oven and let cool before peeling. Reduce oven temperature to 350.
With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream together butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add roasted bananas and beat to combine. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of sour cream, and beating until just combined after each. Beat in vanilla.
In another mixing bowl, with the electric mixer on medium speed, whisk egg whites to soft peaks; fold one-third of the whites into the batter to lighten. Gently fold in remaining whites in two batches.
Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Transfer to wire racks to cool.
To finish, fill a pastry bag with a star tip with frosting. Pipe seven scallops around the perimeter of each cupcake, and pipe a large starburst in the center of each. Just before serving, thinly slice remaining bananas and place 2 pieces on top of each cupcake.

Honey-Cinnamon Frosting

Ingredients
2 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat all ingredients until smooth. Use immediately or refrigerate up to 5 dats in an airtight container.

Delicious!

Weekend!

2011-07-29T08:58:00.000-04:00

Image from pinterest

It's FRIDAY! I'm taking today off work to catch up on rest and stuff around the house. Between work and kidney transplants, life has been a bit hectic, so I felt like a day off is plenty justified!

On the kidney transplant-front, both brothers-in-law are doing great and will be discharged today and coming back to our house to recuperate. My brother-in-law B who received the kidney has requested gazpacho at some point this weekend (he hasn't been able to have tomatoes for 18 months), so I'm going to go to the farmers market and pick up the ingredients. If I can dig out my favorite gazpacho recipe, I'll post it here next week.

I'm also hoping to swing by a fabric store at some point this weekend to pick up some fabric for curtains in the future nursery. I'm thinking plain cream with some sort of embellishment, but we'll see if anything else strikes my fancy.

Anyway, hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Maternity Clothes!

2011-07-28T06:47:00.000-04:00

What could be more exciting than maternity clothes? (That is sarcasm right there, by the way.) Right now I'm finding myself in that really awkward phase--I'm too big for a lot of my normal clothes, but some maternity clothes are still too big and I end up hiking my pants up all day. Plus most maternity tops are swimming on me, since my belly hasn't really filled out all that much yet. I think I've found what works for now though--maternity pants or a skirt, with a "regular" top or tee. Tops that kind of skim the body make me look pregnant as opposed to just fat, so that's what I'm going with now.

Anyway, in an attempt to look somewhat pulled together and yet not spend a ton of money on clothes that I'll only wear for five more months or so, here are the items that are (and will be) the foundation of my wardrobe:

Target leggings, $25

Gap tunic, $55

Old Navy jeans, $35

Old Navy denim jacket, $33

Old Navy fleece hoodie, $12 on clearance

Pea in the Pod black skirt, $50

Old Navy white tank, $9

Old Navy black tank, $9

Target black pants, $29

Of course, I'll need to supplement here and there with some dresses and colorful tops, but I plan to keep my wardrobe pretty simple over the next few months and use accessories to keep things from being too boring.

I'm back!

2011-07-27T06:37:00.000-04:00

Sorry about that hiatus there--I'm back now! Last week was my work week of craziness and I'm happy to report that I survived! Ninety-one hours, most of which was on my feet, did a number on my body but I held up pretty well overall. Nothing a massage can't fix.

Yesterday was the kidney transplant and I'm also VERY happy to report that both of my brothers-in-law fared just fine and are now recovering in the hospital. They'll probably be there until Friday or Saturday and then they'll make the transition to our house. It was a fascinating thing to be a part of and in many aspects it reminded me of flying in an airplane: it's something that is mind-blowing in theory to most of us, but to the surgeons and pilots that perform their duties, it's something routine and actually rather boring. And boring is not always a bad thing: I think you generally want "boring" when it comes to surgeries and flights!

So, anyway. There's a brief update. Sorry for the lack of pretty pictures and house projects lately. It'll pick back up again in the coming weeks as life returns to normal. Thanks for understanding!

So...

2011-07-18T06:30:00.001-04:00

...I've alluded to the fact that life is a bit crazy at the moment (and thus this blog has become LAME lately), but I haven't really gotten into specifics. So, here's what's up:

1) This is my busiest time of year at work. This week in particular. Four 18 hour days back to back on my feet, high stress and little sleep. Good times! Thankfully it's only 4 days and then after that, the work pace will slow down a bit to resemble normal people hours.

2) During this time, we're gearing up for Kidney-palooza 2011. What the hell is that, you ask? My brother-in-law, B, has kidney disease and his kidneys function at like 15%. He's been on dialysis for about 18 months and while it's great in that it, you know, allows him to LIVE, it's not exactly ideal. He's stuck at a dialysis clinic 3 times a week for like 4-5 hours each time and then feels like poop for the rest of the day. So, he needs a kidney transplant and my other brother-in-law, S, is donating the kidney. Yippee!!!

B lives nearby, but S and his wife and four kids live in Michigan, so they're all coming down next week for the kidney transplant. They'll all stay with us during the surgery and for a few weeks afterwards during the recovery, so we've been busy cooking and getting the house in order for the 7 (potentially 8 if my mother-in-law stays with us) additional people staying at the house for a few weeks. We're excited that this is all happening and hoping that we can manage to squeeze in some Fun Family Bonding Time (FFBT). I don't think any of us are entirely sure what to expect though, so a lot remains up in the air until we have a better idea of the recovery time.

And then that brings us to the final item on the agenda and that is Item #3:

Yep. I've stopped working out.

Just kidding. In our biggest home improvement project yet, we're expanding the family! Baby K is due at the beginning of January and we're super excited! (Grizabella's super excited too, as you can see above.)

This has been by far the biggest reason why the blog has become lame lately. While I (blessedly) got through the first trimester without any morning sickness, I was plagued with exhaustion and hunger like I've never experienced before, leaving me with no energy to complete any projects or really do much of anything other than lay on the couch and watch episodes of 30 Rock on Netflix (brilliant show, by the way), while shoving my face with anything spicy and then complaining about heartburn 20 minutes later.

Anyway, I'm into my second trimester now (15 weeks) and beginning to feel more human again. I even mustered up the energy to put the second coat of paint on that ledge in the breakfast room yesterday and did a little yard work while the weather was nice!

So, in a nutshell, that's what's up lately around these parts and that's why posting has been a bit sporadic and a bit lame lately. Once we get through the next few weeks, we'll start working on the nursery and hopefully be completing a few more house projects prior to the arrival of our little one! I'll keep you all updated of course as we tackle all of this stuff.

Whew!!!

Happy Weekend!

2011-07-15T06:30:00.000-04:00

Helllleeeew Friday! I'm very happy to see you!

I'm going to have to spend a few hours at the office over the weekend, but I'm still looking forward to the weekend nonetheless. Aside from work, I have a few things on my to-do list:

Rake the front yard
Replant the flowers in the front planters
See Harry Potter (YAAAAY!)
Finish painting the shelf-y thing in the breakfast area
Make a delicious dinner

That's about it! Hope you have a great weekend!

A simple project taking an absurdly long time

2011-07-14T06:39:00.000-04:00

I've gotten lazy. I started painting this little bench-y thing in our breakfast area about two weeks ago. It still only has one coat of paint on it. It took about 10 minutes to do the first coat and for whatever reason, I cannot seem to get off my arse long enough to paint a second coat. I will do it this weekend.

Anyway, here's the before and after (just pretend the paint is even because I'm not sure if I'll ever get around to taking final "after" pictures, so let's just go with this, okay?)

Before, it was a weird green color. The color alone wasn't bad, it just really didn't go with anything in the house:

And the "After":

Don't you love the little ant traps we have around the house? We've had a bit of an ant issue this summer. Ugh.

Anyway, the grand plan is to eventually stain the table top a darker color. The honey color is okay and all, but I think it'd look better darker. At this rate, you can look forward to that project in about 2015.

Dresser Roundup

2011-07-13T06:51:00.000-04:00

Erin at Elements of Style posted this dresser yesterday and I think I may have gasped out loud:

Image via pinterest

We eventually need to get a dresser to go in the future kid's room and I think a fun paint treatment would be...well...fun! So after seeing the pink Union Jack, I headed over to Pinterest to see what other inspiration is out there:

Original image via House Beautiful

You've probably seen this dresser all over the blogosphere already. It was in the Nick Olsen spread in the current issue of House Beautiful (an issue very much worth buying).

Image via pinterest

This is a cool way to use a map.

Original image via Design Sponge

This is also super cool. Probably more pattern than I'm looking for, but still really neat.

Original image via Design Sponge

I looooooooooove this mustard color. And a little piece that size would be perfect for our entry way.

Image via pinterest

This might be my favorite. You could totally do this using those little pots of paint samples and spend less than 20 bucks to paint the whole thing.

Anyway, I might just have to start looking for a dresser soon! I'll keep you posted.

White Chicken Chili

2011-07-12T06:30:00.001-04:00

Hope everyone had a great weekend! My weekend was good--busy but good! A bit of relaxation, some work-work, and some cooking. We have a bunch of family coming to stay with us at the end of the month, so I'm trying to get ahead by cooking a few things in advance. This weekend I made chicken pie (I'll post that recipe later) and white chicken chili.

Unfortunately, I have no photos of it to share with you (it's in the freezer currently), but it was pretty tasty and really easy. It's also pretty kid-friendly--it has great flavor, but it's not too spicy.

White Chicken Chili

3 (16oz) cans of great northern white beans
2 (4oz) cans of chopped mild green chilies
4 cups chopped cooked chicken breast (or you can cheat like I did and shred a store-bought rotisserie chicken)
3 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium onions, finely diced
4 minced garlic clothes (or you can put your big girl panties on and use about 8 cloves)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
6 cups chicken broth

Heat the oil in a large pot and saute the garlic and onions until cooked through.
Add chilies, oregano and cayenne and saute 2 minutes.
Add undrained beans and chicken broth, then bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and add chicken and cheese.
Season with salt and pepper.

Serve with sour cream and mild green salsa if you want a little more heat.

Enjoy!

Oof.

2011-07-08T06:46:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lapse in posts yesterday. This is my busy time of year at work and I had only 9182730928 things to do yesterday morning and it appears blogging was just not one of them.

Anyway! Today is Friday and that means the weekend is a matter of hours away! We've got a get-together to go to on Saturday and some house stuff to get done: I'm painting this weird little ledge in our breakfast room and I want to finish that this weekend. We also have a bunch of family coming into town at the end of the month for a few weeks, so I'm going to try to do a few make-ahead meals to freeze, like lasagna, pulled pork, and chicken pie. Easy peasy!

Of course, we'll spend some time relaxing too before work gets even more hectic next week. If posting gets sporadic again, I hope you understand!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Vietnamese Shrimp Sandwiches

2011-07-06T06:37:00.000-04:00

On the fourth, we were stuck trying to figure out what to have for dinner, so we did what we do best: I pick something out in a cookbook and then Chris cooks it. I never intend for Chris to do all the work, but I'd say this is what happens more often than not. Eh, neither one of us seem to mind and it always turns out delicious, so we'll just stick with that plan.

Anyway, I was in the mood for something kinda spicy, something healthy, and something interesting. I turned to the Gwyneth Paltrow cookbook (which I'm turning out to LOVE), and there was a recipe for Vietnamese Prawn Sandwiches. We had frozen shrimp and scallops, so we chose that instead of prawns and that seemed to work out just fine.

Chris made bread from scratch, but a few baguettes would be perfect too if you don't have a husband to make you lovely bread. Then he marinaded the shrimp and scallops in soy sauce, garlic, ginger, sriracha and sesame oil. He threw those on the grill until they were cooked, then we served them up on the bread with shaved carrots, canned bean sprouts, cilantro, and spicy mayo (a mix of mayo, sambal, and lemon juice--sambal is chilli pepper paste easily found in the asian section of a grocery store).

Super easy, and super delicious. It doesn't follow Gwyneth's recipe to a T, but close enough.

Neither of these are the best food photos, but that's what you get when the only thing between me and a delicious meal is taking photos. Oh well!

The Rug is Here!

2011-07-05T06:34:00.000-04:00

Hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July! I had a wonderful weekend: I spent some time at the lake with my cousin Katie, then came back and saw David Gray perform (he was wonderful), and then spent some time on Monday catching up around the house and relaxing.

In other news, our living room rug arrived on Friday afternoon! Hooray!

(We've got magazines stacked along one edge to coax the rug to lay flat.) Overall, I'm very happy with it. The pattern and color are just what I was expecting, and it feels really nice. Plus, it was a great price!

Although the room still isn't done, here's a look back at what it looked like:

Strange green walls and a HUGE red chair that I recently got rid of. My mom and I painted over the green one weekend and it's now a soft cream.

I found a $100 sofa on Craigslist (and they delivered it for free!) and then had the sofa recovered in a peacock blue velvet.

And now here we are! I still need two chairs to sit opposite the sofa, as well as some window treatments. I'll add in some small furniture (side tables, and maybe a small chest) and some accessories and it should be done! So, in other words, look for "After" pictures sometime in 2015.

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-01T06:30:00.000-04:00

Is anyone else completely SHOCKED that it's July already??? I feel like it was just my birthday, and that was several months ago. Anyway, regardless of whether or not I can believe it, this weekend is the 4th of July and I'm very excited. I'm heading to Lake Norman for a little bit to hang out with my parents and my cousin, who I can't wait to see!

On Sunday, I'm heading back into town and the husband and I are going to see David Gray! I've loved his music for a decade and I'm so excited to see him.

The rest of the weekend may hold a bit of shopping, a bit of cooking, and maybe a bit of painting.

Also, this looks good:

I might have to make it (a smaller version). Recipe here.

You need this

2011-06-30T06:19:00.000-04:00

This hand soap smells SO good. Get it in the orange mandarin or the lemon scent. So, so good. Here.

Color scheme

2011-06-29T06:29:00.000-04:00

Sometime soon we need to start working on our living room a bit more (it hasn't progressed at all since this post). I was wasting time the other day on pinterest and found this image, which I'm pretty sure was from domino, and I loved the color scheme.

Image originally from domino (I think); found via pinterest

The chartreuse curtains with the peacock blue chairs makes for a great combo. Since our couch is the same color blue as the chairs, I could do chartreuse chairs, but I'm also thinking about orange. Decisions, decisions. I still need to actually purchase some chairs first before I even begin to think about reupholstery. Maybe my friend Craig and his List will come to the rescue.

Okra!

2011-06-28T06:29:00.001-04:00

It's one of my favorite times of year: okra season! Most people find it odd that as a southern Californian, I have a love for okra that most native southerners don't even have. There's something about the texture that I love and it's so versatile: it's delicious fried, as an ingredient in soups, and roasted.

It's the roasted version that seems to throw people the most. Okra has a bad reputation for being...I'm just going to go ahead and say it...snotty. When you cut through it raw, there is a certain sliminess and it's hard to believe that that's not an issue when you cook it, but it does go away and you're left with delicious, crispy, almost french fry-like okra.

I don't know where my mom picked up on roasted okra, but she introduced it to our whole family a few years ago and now I'm hooked.

Here's what you do:

Get a big bag of okra wherever you can find it. Choose the medium-sized pods as much as possible: the big pods can be a little woody and the small pods can be tiny.

Give them a rinse, then slice them lengthwise down the middle.

Toss with salt and pepper and olive oil, then put them on a cookie sheet in a single layer (in our case we put them on a grill sheet), then roast in the oven on 400 for about 20-30 minutes (until they're golden brown and starting to get kind of shrivelled up looking).

Take them out of the oven, top with fresh parmesan cheese and serve.

Try this, and then come back later and tell me how much you love it.

Hey look! I made a decision!

2011-06-27T07:18:00.000-04:00

I bought a rug!

That only took oh...FOREVER! I don't know why I was so hung up on a rug decision. I wanted something that was neutral but with some visual interest, and it was surprisingly difficult to find something that fit that criteria. Once I did decide that I wanted this one, I waffled back and forth on the size. I had originally thought 8 x 10, but then ohhhhhhhhhhhh...what if that's too big???? Then what? Should I go smaller? I finally went with my gut and got the 8 x 10. Should be here in the next few days. I'll be sure to take photos.

It's Friday!!!

2011-06-24T06:44:00.000-04:00

It's finally Friday! Did anyone else feel like this week was never-ending?

Our weekend's plans are pretty minimal: a bit of cleaning up, a bit of cooking (some more muffins, maybe throw something in the slow cooker), look for some curtain fabric, and a bunch of relaxing. A trip to the farmers' market wouldn't be a bad idea either, since now is such a great time for local produce. I think peaches are in season now and maybe okra? If so, I'll have to post my favorite okra recipe next week. It's ridiculously good and super easy.

Oh boy, weekend!!! The possibilities are endless!

We have some work to do

2011-06-23T06:35:00.000-04:00

Playing around on pinterest, I found this:

which is NOT AT ALL what our screened in porch looks like. Our screened in porch has a rug, two plastic chairs, two rocking chairs, some tools, and random supplies from leftover painting projects. Nothing matches, nothing's terribly comfortable, and there's no place to stretch out and read a book. This must get fixed, preferably before the summer's over.

I need a rug

2011-06-22T06:38:00.000-04:00

I need a rug for our living room. It's been months that I've been looking and I still haven't found something that's right. Want to help me? Here's my criteria: must be 8 x 10; must be under $600 with shipping; must be cream-ish colored with no busy pattern. A tone-on-tone pattern or geometric is fine, but I don't want anything too high contrast.

Blogger is being a big turd right now and won't let me post pics. I like this rug, but it's not available in a neutral. This one isn't bad, but for whatever reason I've yet to pull the trigger. Maybe this one would work well?

I don't know why I'm so indecisive about this whole thing. Help me?

Easiest dinner ever

2011-06-21T06:32:00.000-04:00

Over the weekend we ate terribly: pizza, chinese food, and fast food, followed by a buffet of delicious (but not terribly healthy) treats at a neighborhood cookout. By the time Sunday afternoon rolled around, we were both feeling in the mood for something relatively light and healthy. I didn't really feel like going to the grocery store, so I looked around the kitchen and pantry and voila! dinner.

Ingredients: Two mini sourdough loaves (or one big one), roasted red peppers, some tomatoes, two sliced hard boiled eggs, thinly sliced red onion, olive oil, red wine vinegar, oregano, salt and pepper. If you have any marinated artichokes, I'd recommend adding those. Same goes for olives.

Stack the ingredients in layers on the bread. Mix the olive oil, vinegar, oregano, and a little salt and pepper to make a dressing, and pour it all over the stacked ingredients. Put the tops back on the sandwiches and wrap them tightly with Saran wrap and stick them in the fridge for a few hours, preferably with something heavy placed on top to press the sandwiches a little. Take the sandwiches out of the fridge a few minutes prior to serving to let the temperature come up just a little (15 minutes ought to do the trick). Enjoy!

I'm back!

2011-06-20T06:30:00.002-04:00

Enjoyed my little blog-break. There was just too much going on and something had to give. Plus I wasn't feeling super inspired, so a break was needed.

So, for a little while now we've had a bit of a problem. Seems like a certain cute little kitty likes to jump up on this banister. Not such a big deal, but said kitty isn't terribly graceful and she's almost fallen off at least twice (that we know of). And lately she's taken an interest in those weird little window thingies. Like she's plotting how to jump up there.

And if she misses, it's a long way down:

I know cats generally land on their feet, but I really don't want to risk it.

So, my lovely husband spent some time this weekend putting up some plywood to act as a cat barrier. It's not the prettiest thing in the world, but sometimes that's not what matters, right? A) it's the bonus room and not many people see it; B) it makes the house a lot more functional; and C) it gives us a little peace of mind. So there.

Here's the little trouble-making stinker:

So there you have it. It was a super exciting weekend around here, as you can tell.

Break!

2011-06-16T06:37:00.000-04:00

Okay, nothing is inspiring me right now, so in the interest of not posting something lame just to throw a post together, I'm taking today and tomorrow off from ye olde bloge. I'll be back Monday!

Blerg?

2011-06-15T06:47:00.001-04:00

Feeling rather uninspired today...don't know why! The weather's perfect and it's Wednesday and Harry Potter comes out soon (today? I can't remember).

In other news, I really like these shoes, but I have no idea who makes them or where they're from. Any ideas?

So cute for fall.

Happy hump day!

ETA: Nevermind! Found where they're from. They're from Endless.com (available here) and they're $45! SOLD!

Flashback

2011-06-14T06:33:00.000-04:00

I have an entire folder full of images I've clipped from various magazines over the years. I've yet to scan any of these, so they're still in a huge pile in my sewing room. While I was cleaning that room yesterday, I stumbled upon a spread from a 2007 issue of InStyle magazine from Ivanka Trump's apartment. I remember seeing that apartment in the magazine when it came out and I still love it. It's feminine, bright and colorful, youthful but sophisticated, and unfussy. I have a few more photos in my file and I'll scan them in eventually.

Images from InStyle magazine circa 2007

Gwyneth's Blueberry Muffins

2011-06-13T06:51:00.000-04:00

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Mine was pretty relaxing--it was a bit too hot to do any house projects, so we mostly stayed in the airconditioning and I got some baking done. I made Gwyneth's brownies again as well as her healthy blueberry muffins. She has two blueberry muffin recipes in her cookbook: her mother's recipe (which is DELICIOUS) and the "healthy" version of her mother's recipe, which has spelt flour, and maple syrup and agave nectar instead of refined white sugar. Whether or not this makes them "healthier" seems debatable to me, but both recipes are good, albeit a little different. The regular version makes muffins that are light and fluffy and decadent and the "healthy" version have that bran muffin nuttiness that I quite love.

Enjoy!

The "Healthy" Version

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup soymilk
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup light agave nectar
1 cup white spelt flour
1 cup whole spelt flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

PREPARATION

Heat oven to 375°. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. Whisk oil, soymilk, syrup and nectar in a bowl. Combine flours, baking powder and salt in another bowl. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients; fold in blueberries. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Bake until muffins are golden brown and a knife comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Serve warm.

The Regular Version

(wish I had taken photos of these because they look dramatically different)

INGREDIENTS

1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 organic large eggs

1/2 cup milk

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

3/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon granulated sugar

2 teaspoons baking powdeer

1/2 teaspoon fine salt

2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 375. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with papers. Whisk the butter, eggs, and milk together in a bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, the 3/4 cup of sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold in the blueberries. Divide among the muffin cups and sprinkle the muffins with the remaining teaspoon of sugar. Bake until a toothpick tests clean and the muffins are golden brown, 25-30 minutes.

The Paper Source

2011-06-09T06:58:00.001-04:00

Have you ever been to The Paper Source? I'm going down to Charlotte today and I'm going to swing in there. It's the funnest store. They have beautiful paper (I got some for my red desk makeover), beautiful stationery, and fun gift-y stuff. Like this mug:

I love this paper:

And this paper is fun:

Gorgeous wrapping paper:

These flower kits are really cool, but I'm not sure what I'd do with them:

Their blog is also fun--lots of cool ideas. Go check it out!

Curtains!

2011-06-08T06:41:00.000-04:00

You all are probably getting sick of seeing photos of this room, but oh well! :) First, before we get to the curtains, I'll show you the final version of the duvet covers that I made:

Still need to buy the actual comforters to go inside the duvets and hang those black and white photos on the wall above each bed.

Over the weekend, I sewed curtains! Super, super easy. I used the black and white damask curtains as a template and then it's just basically a matter of sewing a few straight lines. I used 2.5 yards of fabric per curtain. Oh, and the fabric? $6 a yard on sale from $17.99 a yard! Sweet! They only had 3.5 yards at my local fabric store, so they called another store and placed an order for an additional 2.5 yards. I had to pay $7 in shipping, but that brought the total to $43 for all the fabric, so I'm okay with that.

All together now!

Yes, it's a bit bold. I kind of love it though. We're currently getting it ready for some family that's coming into town at the end of the month, so I've gotten a clock, some nightlights, and moved a cute little lamp into that room.

Also, in other news, Grizabella's still very cute:

How To: Make Your Own Bordered Bedding

2011-06-07T07:18:00.000-04:00

There are a lot of bordered duvet sets out there that look similar to this:

I love the look, but my beef is that these sets are a) always a bit pricey, b) usually don't come in many colors. But for less than 25 bucks, I made my own!

All you need is a solid duvet cover and pillow sham (I got my set at Ikea for $14.99 for a twin), scissors, a tape measure, pins, a sewing machine, and binding in whatever color you like (it runs less than $2).

First, determine the size of your pillow sham, then layout where you want the binding to go (eyeball it). Once it looks good, figure out what your mearurements should be. My pillow sham was 20" x 30" and I wanted the border to be 4" from the edges.

Place a pin to mark the four corners:

Starting from the open edge of the sham, pin the binding in place, making sure to only pin the facing side of the pillow sham (you don't want to pin the pillow sham closed, otherwise you'll sew the thing shut).

Again starting from the open edge, sew both edges of the binding in place. Remove the pins and voila!

To do the duvet cover, it's very much the same process, so I recommend starting with the sham, because it's smaller and easier to work with and you can work out any kinks here before moving on to the bigger project.

The only other thing you'll need for the duvet is satin blanket binding, which runs about $7 per package. For a full, queen, or king duvet, you'll probably need two packages of this binding:

Like I said, you'll follow pretty much the same instructions for the pillow sham with the duvet, pinning the corners like so:

Here's what it looks like when it's all laid out:

Just sew it all together and you're done! The duvet's a bit harder just because there's so much fabric to deal with, but overall, if you have some basic math and sewing skills, this is a totally do-able project. I'll share the final pictures tomorrow, along with the curtains I made.

2011-06-06T06:29:00.000-04:00

Hope everyone had a great weekend--I definitely did. We got a ton of stuff done around the house and spent plenty of time relaxing. I even got to bake a little bit! The recipe for these Fudgy Chocolate Brownies comes courtesy of Gwyneth Paltrow's cookbook, "My Father's Daughter." We took these to a cookout at a friend's house and they were a big hit. I recommend you make them. Now.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups white spelt flour (preferably King Arthur)
1 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown rice syrup (or light agave nectar)
1/2 cup strong brewed coffee
1/2 cup soy milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons oil
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, divided

PREPARATION

Heat oven to 350°. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and a pinch of salt into a bowl. Whisk maple syrup, oil, brown rice syrup, coffee, soymilk and vanilla in another bowl. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Pour half the batter into a greased 9" x 11" baking dish; top with half the chips. Pour remaining batter into dish and top with remaining chips. Bake until knife comes out with crumbs adhering to it, 30 minutes. Let cool.

Weekend!

2011-06-03T06:40:00.000-04:00

via pinterest

Ahh, Friday--I love you! It's supposed to be HOT here this weekend, so as much as I love summer, I'll probably end up spending a lot of time in the air conditioning this weekend, lame as that is. On the to-do list this weekend?

Assemble Ikea bookshelf for my sewing room
Sew trim on duvet covers
Look for medicine cabinets for the master bathroom
Make Gwyneth Paltrow's fudgy brownies
Go to a friend's cookout
Make mint chocolate chip ice cream (or some kind of cupcakes) for friend's cookout
Some legitimate work stuff

What are your plans this weekend?

New Cookbook!

2011-06-02T06:43:00.000-04:00

We have a horrifyingly large collection of cookbooks at our house and it continues to expand. We already have two entire large shelves devoted to cookbooks and beer, wine and cocktail books scattered elsewhere. Anyway, yesterday I was out and about and picked up this latest:

I'd heard good things about it and a brief flip-through at the store suggested that it would be a good buy. Lots of healthy, easy recipes and plenty of food porn photos.

Her explanation of why she doesn't eat red meat had some holes in it, and Chris rolled his eyes at her use of "Vegenaise" instead of regular mayo, but that really seems to be about the worst you can say about the book. Some of the recipes look absolutely amazing and I definitely want to try a few this weekend, particularly the fudgy brownies. I'll report back.

Sneak Peak

2011-06-01T06:44:00.000-04:00

I may have lost my mind. But for now I'm going with it cuz I still think it'll be cool.

Memorial Day Recap

2011-05-31T06:42:00.000-04:00

Not much in the way of a "recap" actually because we did precious little. Just what I needed! We drove down to my parents' condo on Saturday morning where we spent much of the day lounging around enjoying the PERFECT weather.

We saw this little guy: a lone duckling who seems to have been abandoned by his duck parents. He seems to be doing pretty well though, so I'm hopeful he'll survive. He's apparently been on his own for several days and he keeps getting bigger, so that's a good sign.

We also got to see two glorious sunsets:

We enjoyed some great company and some good food, as well as a trip to Ikea where I found two plain white duvets for $14.99 each! I'll hopefully have a project to show in the next few days.

Hope everyone had a lovely Memorial Day weekend!

Happy Memorial Day!

2011-05-27T06:54:00.000-04:00

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh weekend! I'm so happy to see you! And it's Memorial weekend--even better! I see some fun cooking, limeaid, a good book and some afternoon naps in my future.

Also in my future? White pants. I have a pair of white JCrew jeans that I love and I'm always looking for different ways to wear them. Some ideas:

Images via pinterest

Hope everyone has a safe and happy weekend!

Ooh! Pom Poms!

2011-05-26T06:44:00.000-04:00

A sweet reader, gimme_emmey, commented on yesterday's post that I should look at Pottery Barn Teen for white duvets for the upstairs bedroom. Don't know why I didn't think to look there before--they have some cute stuff!

I love the pom-poms on this one (and it's on sale!):

This is cute too:

This could be cute too, although the ruffles are decidedly "girly":

Right now the pom-pom one is definitely my favorite, but I'm going to keep my eyes peeled a bit longer before making a decision.

Source?

2011-05-25T06:58:00.000-04:00

Anyone know a source for simple white twin duvet covers or coverlets? I'm having the hardest time finding twin bedding that isn't plastered with Disney princesses or Disney Cars. This shouldn't be that difficult, right? Help a sister out!

I'm thinking something along this line that I can easily customize:

Image from Little Green Notebook

More progress!

2011-05-24T07:00:00.000-04:00

The upstairs bedroom is coming along! Still needs a bunch of work, but it's finally resembling a room in which people can sleep.

Here's what it looked like when we moved in (and how it looked for our entire first year here):

Then it got a coat of orange paint:

A few weeks ago I bought this ugly little dresser for $40:

So I painted the dresser this weekend with primer and two coats of cream paint (the same I've used in the living room and one wall in Future Kid's Room):

(Still needs drawer pulls on the top drawer)

Also this past weekend we got another bed frame and put on the ruffle duffles (dust ruffles):

We still need to hang the art, get some comforters, some wall lamps, a mirror, and a nightstand. But we're making progress and we could technically have people sleep upstairs now! Wheee!

And not that this has anything to do with anything, but here's a cute (slightly blurry) pic of Griz:

Weekend recap!

2011-05-23T06:48:00.001-04:00

This weekend was just what I needed--a perfect mix of relaxation and productivity! Chris replaced the toilet upstairs, I refinished a dresser, practiced the piano, we got a bed frame for the upstairs bedroom, and we went for a 5 mile walk along the greenway. We also finally watched Black Swan and OMG that was creepy! Really good, but really creepy.

Capping off the weekend, I had a great idea to make the chicken and chorizo paella that's in the current issue of Martha Stewart Living. As is often (but not ALWAYS) the case in our house, I had the idea and then Chris ended up being the one left to cook. Oops! In my defense, I told him I was happy to cook, but he was enjoying himself, so it was his choice.

Anyway, the recipe was delicious and I highly recommend it.

Ingredients:
4 cups chicken stock
1/2 teaspoon ground saffron
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
12 ounces dried chorizo, sliced 1/8 thick in the bias (we couldn't find dried chorizo, so we used andoille instead)
1 white onion, coarsely chopped
2 1/2 cups arborio rice
1 cup fresh shelled English peas (we used frozen)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400. Warm stock, saffron, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a saucepan over medium heat. Season chicken with 2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper and the paprika. Heat oil in a 14-inch paella pan or a high-sided ovenproof skillet over high heat. Brown chicken for 6 to 8 minutes; transfer to a plate.
2. Pour out all but 1 teaspoon oil. Cook chorizo over medium-high heat until lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Add onion and garlic. Cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes. Cook, stirring, until thick, about 5 minutes. Stir in rice, then add broth mixture. Bring to a boil. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring often. Add peas, then chicken. Bake for 20 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes, then serve.

And the recipe in pictures:

Browned and crispy chicken

Chorizo, onion, and garlic cook

Fresh tomatoes get stirred in

Cute husband

Peas, arborio rice, and saffron-infused chicken stock get added in

Chicken goes back in the pan and into the oven it all goes

20 minutes later and ta-da!!! Soooo good.

Ahhh...Weekend

2011-05-20T06:29:00.000-04:00

I'm so excited that it's Friday! Our plans for the weekend:

Order a rug for the living room
Go on the Raleigh Tour D'Coop (so fun!!!)
Hit up the Farmers' Market
Play around on Pinterest (I've signed up, but haven't had a chance to even log in yet)
Paint a dresser that I bought a few weeks ago
Make one of the recipes in the new Martha Stewart Living magazine (pick up this issue--the recipes look GREAT!)

Posts and pictures to come next week!

I've got nuthin'

2011-05-19T06:34:00.000-04:00

Absolutely nothing today. Back tomorrow!

Wednesday Miscellany

2011-05-18T06:36:00.000-04:00

This is awesome: What Your American Girl Doll Says About the Rest of Your Life

Also, I bought this dress over the weekend (but in a blue print that's not online) and I'm in love:

Also, I just finished Tina Fey's book over the weekend and I proclaim it good. However, if you are a TF fan, you should listen to her interview on Fresh Air with Terry Gross. In it, she reads her "Prayer for her Daughter" and it will make you LOL.

That's all for today.

Upstairs bedroom update

2011-05-17T06:50:00.000-04:00

We have beds! (They were a total steal as a result of a Groupon.)

I may have forgotten to buy a bed frame for one of the beds, so whoops on that one! I still also need to get some more bedding, hang up the art, and get some bedside lamps and a nightstand. So, in short, it's still very much a work in progress, but at least we have some furniture now.

Getting back to my roots

2011-05-16T06:47:00.000-04:00

For many years growing up, I played the piano, even getting to the point where I was actually "good" and competed a few times. I loved to play, but hated having an audience, and eventually an over-ambitious piano teacher who really wanted me to keep competing took the fun out of it and I pretty much stopped. That was about 15 years ago and after that, I'd periodically sit down and play just for fun, but that was about it.

This weekend my dad came to visit and he and my mom had talked about treating me to a digital piano. I had no idea these things even existed, so we checked them out and I'm now a total fan. There's a built in metronome feature, volume control, a headphone jack (so I can play without making anyone's eardrums bleed!), and different sounds. And it weighs about 80 pounds and looks pretty decent! So, for what I want, it's perfect. So, after a little research, we got this guy:

I can't wait to start playing again! After sitting down to it yesterday, I realized I know how to play a C scale, and "Heart and Soul" and that's about it. So I definitely have some work to do. Good thing for the headphones.

Bathroom Inspiration

2011-05-11T06:45:00.000-04:00

Someday (soon?) we're going to remodel our master bathroom. Why? Let me count the ways:

1) No medicine cabinets = cluttered countertops
2) The vanity is too short
3) The countertop is AWFUL
4) There is no way to keep the shower grout clean. This is disgusting (and embarrassing), but the corners of the shower are always black
5) The shower door is missing all of its hardware
6) The shower tile is a bit dated
7) The floor tiles don't match and it. drives. me. crazy.

This is kind of what I have in mind:

Source: Can't remember

I love the dark floor tile and very simple, clean look. Should be easy enough to do without spending a fortune. We remodeled the master bath in our first house for about $1,500 and I expect that we could do this bathroom for about $2,500. Like our first house, we'll keep the footprint the same, which keeps costs and time down and allows us to keep it a DIY project instead of having to hire stuff out.

I'll keep you posted.

Drink of the Week: Singapore Sling

2011-05-10T06:34:00.000-04:00

Over the weekend, we drove down to South Carolina to check out a liquor store called Frugal McDoogal, which has quite a selection of liquor in addition to beer and wine. For the past year or so, we've subscribed to Imbibe magazine, which we love, but so many of their recipes reference liquors that we have just not been able to find in North Carolina. One of those liquors is Cherry Heering, a type of cherry brandy, that's used in a lot of classic cocktails.

As soon as we got back home, we christened the bottle by making ourselves a Singapore Sling. It's got enough tartness to balance out the sweetness of the cherry brandy and the result is very refreshing.

Super simple to make too.

Singapore Sling

2 oz. Gin

1 oz. Cherry Heering

1 oz. Lemon Juice

3 oz. soda

Shake together the gin, cherry heering, and lemon juice with some ice, strain into a glass, then top with soda and enjoy!

Happy Monday!

2011-05-09T06:45:00.000-04:00

I just woke up about 5 minutes ago and my coffee is still too hot to drink, so please forgive me for the lame post and lack of photos.

We had a lovely weekend celebrating Mothers' Day with my mom at Lake Norman. Gorgeous weather, some fun shopping (I got both dresses I posted on Friday--will share later), and a great dinner out! We had to board Grizabella though and as nice as the place is where we board her, she still gets all out of sorts and holds a grudge. This means waking me up at 3:45 by clawing everything in sight and then overtaking my pillow (annoying, but it's really cute actually), then knocking everything off my nightstand and batting my glasses around on the floor. This process (claw, take over pillow, knock things off all horizontal surfaces) repeated itself over and over this morning until the alarm went off at 6:00. I'm totally going to be on top of my game today. Ugh.

Anyway, as I said, I bought those two Loft dresses and they're both super cute and I plan on wearing one today. Also super cute? Baby ducks. We saw a bunch this weekend.

In other news, my manicure still has zero chips. I'm very pleased with this development.

So, that concludes my worst blog post ever. I'll be back tomorrow.

Dress Round-Up

2011-05-06T06:45:00.000-04:00

I don't know if it's because of all the coverage of Kate Middleton over the past few weeks, but lately I'm inspired to buy dresses. She always looks so pulled together and she almost always wears a dress. Coincidence? I think not.

Last weekend I set out on a mission to buy a few dresses because a) they make a gal look pulled together, 2) they make getting dressed super easy in the morning and iii) because they're a bit more forgiving size-wise than pants. Anyway, I ended up with these two dresses that were 40% off!

Gemma Wrap Dress

This weekend Ann Taylor Loft has 30% off all dresses and I'm seriously considering these two:

Animal Print Sheath Dress

Drapey Utility Shirt Dress

What do you think?

About time!

2011-05-05T05:42:00.000-04:00

My twin mattresses should be delivered today! So exciting! I only ordered them at the beginning of April. Thank goodness I didn't actually need them immediately. If you'll recall, they're going in the bedroom upstairs (which is now orange) and I'm hoping for an overall look that's similar to something like this:

or this:

But with color and texture similar to this:

Soooo excited! I'll post pics as we make progress.

Shellac Manicure

2011-05-04T06:41:00.000-04:00

On Saturday I felt like I needed a bit of beautification, so I decided to get my nails done. I know this doesn't sound significant, but I honestly can't remember the last time I had a manicure. It's been years. With my former nail-biting habit and current habit of picking at my cuticles and tearing my nails, manicures were just a waste of money for me.

Then my coworker told me about a shellac manicure that she got and it lasted about 3 weeks, so I decided to try. I think it may have cost about $5 more than a regular manicure, but it won't chip for 2-3 weeks! So I decided to give it a try and so far I'm really really happy with it. Here we are 4 days later and no chips! (That's unheard of for me.) Plus, my nails feel stronger and so I'm not tearing and picking at them like I normally do! Hooray!

Oh yeah, and I got a new shiny sparkly a few weeks ago as a replacement for my grandmother's ruby ring and my 30th birthday Tiffany key necklace. The style is remniscent of the ruby ring and the stone (peridot) is interesting and a bit unusual.

I'll post an update of my manicure in a week or so--I'm optimistic this will actually last!

Strawberry season is here!

2011-05-03T06:42:00.000-04:00

Over the weekend Chris and I went to the farmers' market and we bought a huge container of strawberries. What could be better??? Nothing beats fresh, local, in-season strawberries that are red all the way through. The giant supermarket strawberries just do not compare.

So, naturally I did what any sane person would do after coming home from work on Monday: I made shortcakes from scratch. I used my friend Lauren's recipe (here) and they were delicious. So delicious that I forgot to take photos, so you're just going to have to take my word for it. I also made homemade whipped cream and drizzled just a little Pimm's into it. Heaven.

Now, if I can just find some rhubarb, we'll truly be in business.

Hooray for preggo friends!

2011-05-02T06:30:00.004-04:00

One of my super good friends from college just emailed me last week to tell me she's preggo! Wheeeeeee! I'm super super thrilled for her and her hubby--they're one of the best couples I know and they're going to be awesome parents.

They moved into a new house this winter and now it's time for them to decorate a nursery. They're not sure what they're having yet and are undecided on whether or not to find out. (I personally think she's having a girl. Based on nothing of course.)

Anyway, she wants to paint the room with wide gray and white stripes, which I think will look great with her preppy-ish style. So here's the preppy-inspired, gender neutral nursery I dreamed up for her:

Of course, once they find out if it's a boy or a girl, they can add some pale pink or some dark blue accents in the form of accessories, like books, storage, and a mobile.

And now for the sources:

Crib, Overstock, $179

Pendant light, Ikea, $90

Love Poster, Etsy, $25

Grey fabric (for bedding), Premier Prints, $9.99 per yard

Yellow fabric (as curtains and as bedding), Premier Prints, $11.99 per yard

Mirror, Z Gallerie, $179

Faux Bois rug, Home Decorators, $397 for an 8' x 10'

Elephant Lamp, Jonathan Adler, $350

Monkey fist doorstop, Uncommon Goods, $40

Chaise, Ikea, $299

Monogrammed Pillow, Luxury Monograms, $95

Ceramic side table, West Elm, $129

Royal Roundup

2011-04-29T06:30:00.004-04:00

Have you had your fill of The Royal Wedding of the Century of the UNIVERSE yet? NO??? Well you are in luck!

Here is Go Fug Yourself's Kate Middleton gallery. I'm guessing she's regretting that she ever wore this:

Source: Go Fug Yourself

Then of course, you can get your royal title here.

And when you're done with that, check out this gallery of royal hats. My favorite is the butterfly one:

Source: People

Oh, and if you want to commemorate this very IMPORTANT occaision, you can get a little souvenier for yourself. How about something tasteful like this?

Source: People

But seriously, I am rather excited about the whole thing. Am I waking up at 4:00 to watch? Probably not, but I'll be watching as soon as I get up. I was six months old when Charles and Di got married and while my mom and I did watch it together, I don't *exactly* remember, so this is really the first royal wedding I'll witness. So I'm wearing a funky headband with peacock feathers and have a bloody good time doing so! Cheerio!

Outdoor rug

2011-04-28T06:30:00.002-04:00

Look who got an outdoor rug! And a new door! Wheee! We still need a bit of outdoor furniture to make the screened-in porch a bit more habitable, but we're at least moving in the right direction.

Also, this guy followed us around outside all of last weekend:

His name is Demanding Cat because he is...wait for it...very demanding. He meows at us all. the. time.

New favorite thing ever in the whole wide world

2011-04-27T06:34:00.000-04:00

A salad!

Specifically a salad with the following ingredients:

Baby spinach

A handful of good, ripe strawberries, quartered

A handful of kumquats, thinly sliced

A handful of toasted nuts (pecans and walnuts work equally well)

A light coating of poppyseed dressing

YUM. Try it. Then come back to thank me later.

Wheee!

2011-04-26T06:30:00.002-04:00

This week is full of exclamations isn't it? But this rug deserves a "Wheeeeeeeeee!" if there ever was one.

I ordered it on Wednesday last week and it arrived Friday afternoon. Not bad, eh? Anyway, here's what the room looked like before:

And the after (plus some cleaning and decluttering):

The quality is great and I'm thrilled with the pattern and the color. Now this room just needs a bit more furniture and it'll actually be habitable for guests and napping in the afternoon sunshine (mainly for the cat, but whatever).

DONE!

2011-04-25T06:30:00.003-04:00

Happy Monday! (Is there such a thing?) Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend! I had Friday of and what did I do? Stencil some more, of course. (And then I did the same on Saturday.) Seriously, this was the project that would. not. end. But it did eventually end. Thank GOD!

As a refresher, here's what the entry looked like before ~~I lost my ever-loving mind~~ stenciling (when I took photos for our one-year house anniversary):

Then after spending most of last weekend stenciling:

But it wasn't totally done at that point. I had one and a half walls done, but two and a half left to do. A day and a half more and ta da!

In my impatience, I didn't wash the stencil as often as I should have and ended up with some spots that looked downright sloppy. I was too irritated at that point to take detailed photos, so you'll just have to take my word for it. In the end I ended up getting out a small paint brush and touching things up a bit with the Sharkey Gray. So, if there's a lesson to be learned, when stenciling, wash early and was often. Kapiesh?

Also, the pattern doesn't line up 100%, but I don't really care to be perfectly honest. Realistically, I'm probably going to be the only one that notices, so I'm going to let it go. Ahhhhh...that feels good. :)

Happy Easter!

2011-04-22T06:46:00.000-04:00

From the Washington Post

Have you ever seen the Washington Post's Peep Show? Check it out here. (The one above is my favorite--I love Angry Birds!!!) And while you're at it, have a happy Easter!

Weekend Plans

2011-04-21T06:57:00.000-04:00

Hooray for three-day weekends! I don't know about you, but this week draggggged. By Tuesday I felt like it should be Thursday and that's just never a good sign.

Anyway, on tap for this weekend:

Finish stenciling the entry
Organize the upstairs storage room
Hang some art
Do some rug shopping
Clean off the screened in porch so I can sit out there and read
Download Tina Fey's Bossypants
Cook

What do you have planned for the weekend?

Looooooook what I just orrrrrrrrrrrdered!!!*

2011-04-20T06:30:00.002-04:00

* That was my attempt at typing a sing-song voice.

It's going in this room:

Which is, yes, a TOTAL mess. I'm really excited about the chrysanthemum rug and the good news is that it'll work in almost any room--the master bedroom, the future kid's room, the guest room, or the living room! So that means if it doesn't work out in FK's room, it might just find a home somewhere else. Huzzah.

It's Tuesday...

2011-04-19T06:35:00.000-04:00

...and I have nothing remotely interesting to say. I didn't line up a post last night, so here it is at 6:30 and the coffee hasn't finished brewing yet and I need to get ready for work soon and put something on the ol' blog. So here are some pictures of what's going on in our yard these days:

Chris calls the above flower "Chlamydia" and now I can't remember what it's actually called. It's something close to chlamydia, but that's definitely not what it's called.

We inherited some beautiful irises with this house. We have a nice little patch of them and they range from yellow to magenta to purple. These are the first to bloom.

Our huge japanese maple got its leaves a few weeks ago. I love this tree.

We also inherited a ton of lily of the valley with this house. I love the tiny flowers.

Done and "Publish"!

Tornadoes and a stenciling project from hell

2011-04-18T06:53:00.000-04:00

It's kind of hard to write a post about stenciling the entryway knowing that 22 people died in our state this weekend from the 200+ tornadoes that ripped through the area. We're incredibly lucky that we didn't have any damage when homes, cars, businesses and lives were destroyed less than 10 miles away. Despite some heavy winds and small hail, our part of town seemed to have suffered no damage at all--the only reminders of severe weather are shreds of fiberglass insulation all over the place, likely carried from destroyed buildings miles away.

Despite the weather, I tackled stenciling our entryway this weekend. On Saturday morning I headed out to get some paint and supplies prior to the weather turning. If you want to try your hand at stenciling, here's what you'll need:

Paint, a stencil, and a sponge brush. If you're going to make your own stencil, you'll need blank stenciling paper, a template, a Sharpie, a hard surface, and a sharp knife.

I printed off my template and then taped it to the back of the stencil paper so I could trace it on.

Then I slid the acrylic block under the sheet and cut out the pattern with the knife.

Starting in a corner, I taped the stencil to the wall and then it's time to paint away!

Here it is after about 10 minutes.

After about an hour or so (?). It was surprisingly slow going.

I had to take a break while the power flickered, but here's what it looked like by Saturday late afternoon.

By Sunday afternoon, I had gotten two entire walls done, but my shoulders were aching and I was feeling over it. More importantly, I was getting sloppy and there are a number of places that I'll have to retouch later. It's taking much longer than I had anticipated, but all in all I'm THRILLED with how it's looking. For less than 30 bucks, the entryway got a great little makeover. It's a subtle difference, but I think it looks interesting. Oh, and ignore the weird brown spot on the ceiling. We had a roof leak last year but once I scrape the ceiling in here, that weird brown spot will be history.

So, what do we think? How was your weekend?

Weekend Plans

2011-04-15T06:29:00.000-04:00

The weekend is almost here! So much to do in two little days! On tap:

K9 3K Dog Walk to support the Wake County SPCA,

Settling down to dig into the new digital mag Trad Home,

Stenciling the entryway (I think I've settled on something like this),

Visiting the farmers' market and doing a bit of cooking and eating. Fun fun! Happy weekend everyone! Anyone have any fun plans?