Bedroom Makeovers

Over the last few years, our master bedroom has undergone a few transformations.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pics of what it looked like when we first moved in.  Mainly because it was completely unspectacular. 

Originally, we decided we'd go for "Jamaican Sea."  As evidence that my taste has changed over the past 5+ years, I submit Exhibit A:

I loved the color then.  Now?  It hurts my eyes.  (Pretty awesome nightstands too, huh?)

We lived with the color for about two years then painted the room a much more subdued color, changed the bedding, removed some furniture and hung some art on the walls.  I find it's much more soothing now.

I love the mirror in the picture above, but I've never really found the right place for it in this house. The art on the wall were calendar pages and a greeting card that I had custom framed, in addition to some John Derian plates that Chris has given to me over the years.  The tray on the ottoman is a fabulous faux python tray from the equally fabulous Furbish Studio.

G-Money wanted a shout out

I'm going to miss this closet...

Moving on to the guest room...there's not much of a before and after.  Before it was a white box.  I tried faux painting the walls twice (twice!!!) and it looked horrible so I said "screw it" and just painted the room over in a neutral. 

My grandfather made the four-poster bed eons ago and it's gorgeous.  The dresser is from the 1800's and it, the bed, and the other dresser in the master bedroom all spent most of their lives in my grandfather's home in Montgomery, Alabama.  I'm really glad we were able to keep all of it in the family. 

Warning:  Ubiquitous "For Like Ever" poster up ahead:

So those are two of the bedrooms in the house.  I'll show the other one later this week.

Bathroom Remodel

Before we say goodbye to this house, I wanted to post some good before and after pictures, since everyone likes a good makeover.  When we first bought the house, the master bathroom looked like this:

Words cannot even begin to describe how bad it was.  Not only was it fugly beyond belief, it was very poorly done:  there was a plumbing leak behind the wall, rotten floorboards, and a piece of plywood in the crawlspace to hide all of it so it would pass inspection.  Nice, huh?  And on top of that, the former owner put the granite tile on top of the existing tile, so when we removed it we had twice as much material to get through (as seen below). 

To make things slightly less hideous, I removed the wallpaper shortly after moving in, then painted the walls purple, as evidenced in the third photo above.  We also replaced the ugly brass light fixture, installed a medicine cabinet, and removed the faux-granite painted cabinet (2nd photo above and OMG it was ugly).  All those cosmetic bits helped, but not for the long run.  We were in for a complete bathroom overhaul.

We tore out all the tile and stripped the walls behind the tile down to their studs.  We removed the tile on the floor, repaired the rotten floorboards, fixed the plumbing, and removed the bathtub and the vanity. 

Then everything went back in, in the exact opposite order it was removed:  tub, floor, vanity, tile.  Everything but the toilet got replaced.  We also repainted from the purple color to a taupe-y, putty-ish color.  It's the exact color of a Wendy's frosty.

Oh, and did I mention the entire process took a year and a half? (Since we had another full bath to use throughout, we took our sweet time.)

Still, I'd say the results were worth it.

Deep Breaths

Big news around these here parts!   

We're moving! 

Yup, the hubby and I decided that now's the time.  Why?  Well, our little (1,200 sq. ft.) house was always intended to be a "starter home" and we've actually lived in it far longer than I would have thought.  But between the tax credits, the interest rates, and the market, we figured now would be a good time to put it on the market and see what happens.  We'd done so much work on the house over the last 5+ years that the only things that needed to be done before putting it on the market were to seriously declutter and install new carpet.  (And oooh boy, does the new carpet make a difference!!!  As you can imagine, the 28 year-old carpet that we had had before was barf-inducing.)

So a few weeks ago we put the house on the market.  The listing went online on a Sunday night; by Wednesday we had an offer.  BEFORE the sign in the front yard even went up.  Obviously, we were SUPER excited, but totally unprepared for the house to sell so fast, since we hadn't even picked out a new house yet!  So, a few crazed, hectic weekends of frantic house-hunting later, we finally found what we think might be the perfect house for us.  Move-in date is March 26! 

Details of the new house will come in the next few weeks.  And prior to leaving our current house, I'm going to photograph it to death and post pics.  Hopefully (if I can find them on our variety of old computers) I'll dig up some good "before" pics to have some quality before-and-after-time.

Valentine's Cupcakes

My mom gave me this cupcake cookbook for Christmas and holy crap it is awesome.

I've been using every excuse to bake cupcakes lately--snow in the forecast?  stout cupcakes!--and Valentine's Day was no exception.  I opted to make Martha's "One-Bowl" Chocolate Cupcakes for Valentine's Day, and as the name suggests, they're super easy because they use...wait for it...one bowl.

One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes

1.5 cups all-purpose flour

0.75 cups unsweetened cocoa powder

1.5 cups sugar

1.5 teaspoons baking soda

0.75 teaspoons baking powder

0.75 teaspoons salt

2 large eggs

0.75 cups buttermilk

3 tablespoons vegetable oil (I used apple sauce instead to cut some calories)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

0.75 cups warm water

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Line muffin tins with paper liners
3. Dump all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and combine
4. Add the wet ingredients and mix until thoroughly combined
5. Divide the batter among 18 lined cups
6. Bake 10 minutes, then rotate the tins in the oven
7. Bake another 10 minutes
8. Let cool, then frost and decorate

I used a very basic frosting and then topped each one with a cherry.

Fluffy Vanilla Frosting

3 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

4 cups powdered sugar

0.5 teaspoons vanilla extract

I halved this recipe--the original recipe made 4 cups of frosting, which I thought was a little unnecessary.  Two cups worked just fine for 18 cupcakes. 

1. Beat butter on medium-high speed until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes
2. Reduce speed to medium, add powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time.  After every 2 additions, raise speed to high and beat 10 seconds, then return to medium (this aerates it)
3. Add vanilla and beat until smooth

The result?  Freakin' amazing.  The cupcakes were moist (even though I LOATHE that word) and delicious and the frosting was perfect--not to heavy, not sickeningly sweet, and just perfect.

I need these...

NEED, I tell you.  Here.

The Botany of Desire Review

Overthe past few years, Michael Pollan has become the new guru of what to eat and what not to eat.  I thoroughly enjoyed "In Defense of Food" and picked this up thinking it would be similar.  If you're a total foodie-nerd like me, you'll probably enjoy the book, but it's quite different than IDoF.

In this book, Pollan profiles four plants (apples, tulips, cannabis, and potatoes) and how they've adapted themselves to fit human desires (sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control, respectively).  It's an interesting read, but ultimately less about food than about botany and human desires (as the title would suggest, duh).  Still, it's well-written and entertaining.

On a slight side note:  Michael Pollan plays "Not My Job" on "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me" and it was one of my favorite episodes of 2009.  Paula Poundstone kills me.  Listen here.

Ugh!

Maybe I just have no soul or something, but this movie looks terrible:

Image from yourmoviestuff.com 

Plus Sandra Bullock's hair is just a no:

Image from Pajiba

Recipe Round Up: Pumpkin

I've seen a ton of good pumpkin recipes lately on the interwebs, and with fall nearing its end, I figure now is a good time to share recipes to use up the leftover pumpkin.  Sorry I don't have any photos--I simply forgot to take any. 

Pumpkin, Sausage and Sage Gnocchi
I can't remember where I originally found this recipe, but it's become a staple when I'm not sure what else to cook.  It's quick, easily adaptable, and very satisfying--a perfect fall recipe.  Apologies for not having a very complete recipe here, but it's hard to mess up.

1 large can pumpkin puree
1 package loose mild sausage
1 small yellow onion, chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup cream, half and half, or chicken stock
4-5 sage leaves, finely chopped, or a few pinches of dried sage
1 package gnocchi (or any other pasta; rotini works well for this)
A pinch of nutmeg
Freshly grated parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Sautee the onion until translucent with a swirl or two of olive oil in a large pan
Add the garlic, cook another minute or two
Add the sausage, breaking it up into pieces as it cooks
Once the sausage is cooked, add the can of pumpkin, sage, nutmeg, a few glugs of chicken stock, salt and pepper and stir; begin boiling the gnocchi or pasta
Just before the gnocchi is finished cooking, add a swirl or two of cream or half and half to the pumpkin sausage mixture
Once the pumpkin sausage mixture is heated through and the gnocchi are cooked, serve!


Pumpkin Chocolate Cranberry Cookies from my former roommate Sarah

1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
.5 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch salt
1 cup raisins ( I used Craisins)
.5 cup choc. chips

Cream together butter and sugar, add pumpkin, egg and vanilla till well blended. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt. Mix well. Add craisins and choc. chips. Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes.

 
Thanksgiving Pumpkin Lasagna from Blooming Wildflowers 

Two 15 oz. cans of pumpkin
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 cup half and half or light cream
1 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
1 teaspoon dried sage
1 small red onion, chopped
1/2 pound sliced baby bella mushrooms
2 teaspoons olive oil
5-6 turkey sausage, veggie sausage or Italian sausage links
Freshly cracked pepper to taste
Sea salt to taste
9 no-cook whole wheat lasagna noodles
15 oz. ricotta cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup shredded fresh Parmesan cheese

In a large skillet, saute sausage. Slice and set aside.
In a medium skillet, saute mushrooms, onion and sea salt to taste. Set aside.
In a small bowl, combine ricotta, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine pumpkin, cranberries, cream, sage, nutmeg, pepper (to taste) and sea salt (to taste)
Cover bottom of crock pot with a layer of pumpkin mix.
Top with a layer of noodles. Cover with a thick layer of pumpkin mixture. Add a layer of cheese mixture. Add a layer of mushrooms. Add a layer of sausage.Repeat until there are three layers. Top with the remaining pumpkin mix and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
Cook on high in crock pot for 3-4 hours.Serves 6-8.


Pumpkin Cinnamon Buns with Cream Cheese Icing from Healthy Delicious

1 cup fat-free milk
2.5 tsp yeast (2 envelopes)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup pureed pumpkin
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
4-1/4 cups flour
3/4 stick butter, divided
1/2 cup brown sugar
1-1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
4 oz low-fat cream cheese
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 drop of vanilla extract

Heat milk in a microwave for 30 seconds, or until luke-warm. Add the yeast and a pinch of sugar. Stir and allow the yeast to proof for 5 minutes – the yeast should grow and become foamy. If it doesn’t, discard and start over with new yeast.

In a large bowl, combine the pumpkin puree with the remaining granulated sugar and the salt. Beat in the eggs until incorporated. Add 2 cups of flour and beat until combined. Beat in the milk mixture, being sure the include any yeast that settled to the bottom. Slowly add the remaining four.

Cover and let rest in a warm place until doubled in size – about 1 hour.

Divide dough into four pieces. Working with one piece at a time, roll the dough into a large rectangle, about the size of a cookie sheet. Transfer to a cookie sheet and stick it in the freezer. Repeat with remaining four pieces of dough.

In a small bowl, blend 1/2 stick butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Divide the cinnamon mixture between the four sheets of dough, spreading it in a very thin layers. Roll the dough up, starting with the long edge. Cut each dough log into 12 slices (each will be about 1-inch thick). Transfer to a large roasting pan (I recommend lining the pan with a silpat or some parchment paper for easy clean-up), leaving a little bit of room between each roll. Cover and let rise for one hour.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Combine the cream cheese, 1/4 stick of butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. If desired, you can thin this mixture out with a splash of milk.

Remove buns from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before frosting.

File this under "WTF"?!?!?!

I will laugh at you if I see you wearing this.

My parents are so proud

...I quit Perez Hilton and Farmville.  Cold turkey.

Just thought you should know.

Cat Update

Last time we checked in on the cat, she was just recovering from tape worms and had yet to go to the dentist.  That seems like ages ago. 

Since then, she's visited the dentist and instead of cleaning her teeth, they had to extract them.  All.  Except two.

See?  No teef.  She had a condition called stomatitis, which, from what I understand, is a bacterial infection resulting from an allergy to plaque.  She had no roots left on most of her teeth and apparently had ulcers running along her tongue, her cheeks and down her throat.  Not good.  The other two teeth will likely have to go at some point too. 

It was heartbreaking to have them deliver that news, but it was clearly the right thing to do.  Since then, she's obviously felt a lot better; she's a different cat entirely.  She's hunts our toes, chases the laser pointer and is generally in everyone's business at all times.  She's put on some much needed weight too.

She's had a hard time adjusting to the time change and is just now starting to let us sleep in until a whopping 6:00 am.  Ugh.

But all in all, she's adjusted to her new home very well and it feels like she's always been here.

Pet Peeve #32451654.1

Weary:  –adjective
physically or mentally exhausted by hard work, exertion, strain, etc:  My weary eyes

Leary:  –adjective
wary; suspicious (usually fol. by of): I'm leery of his financial advice

Wary:  –adjective
watchful; being on one's guard against danger:  I'm a little wary of parking my car in a dark lot.


See the difference?  These words do not mean the same thing.  Get it right people.

Pillow Lust

I love this bookcase that Jamie of I Suwannee posted awhile ago, but the pillow really caught my eye.  I think it's this pillow from Jonathan Adler and I think I need it in my life.  Christmas is coming!

Ooh preeeeeeeeetty!

I think this would look lovely with my green winter coat.  The blue is gorgeous too, but I would have nothing to wear with it:

Cashmere Squiggle Scarf from Anthropologie.

Updates around the casa

Two of the four walls in the den are now this color:

The other two walls will get painted when I get around to it.  Also, later today I should be receiving this (in chrome) for the guest room:

And this (as a runner) for the hallway:

I'm very excited.  I love me some bold zig zags!

Office Inspiration

Last weekend I was watching The Devil Wears Prada (again) and among all of the shoes, bags, and other fabulous accessories, what grabbed my attention was Miranda Priestly's office. It got me thinking that it would actually be really easy and not necessarily expensive to recreate. A Parson's desk, a pewter lamp, and several Ikea Ribba frames with black and white photos is really all it needs. Some chic accessories like the fabulous mirror and a green vase with white roses and voila! It's all making me feel like the futon and bargain-basement desk in our den is so very...ick. The desk needs to go. Soon.

Best. Show. Ever.

Hands down.  We're currently watching the entire series for the second time, we're that obsessed.  Yes, it came out a few years ago, but it holds up well.

Favorite characters?

Omar:

Bubbs:

Stringer Bell (yum):

Full series available here. 

(photos from HBO.com)

On Repeat

A little random this week, but if you've never listened to Steve Earle, you should.  He's got a really unique voice and his music runs the gamut from rock to bluegrass.  I happen to like his bluegrass stuff the best.  My favorite off the "Townes" album is the song "Lungs."

Drinking

This has become one of my new favorite wines.  It's jammy and big and instantly gratifying.  It's also totally smooth and incredibly easy to drink.  It usually runs $14-16 and is available at most of the chain grocery stores around here or you can buy online here.  I've also tried their Shiraz and the Malbec, but the Primitivo far and away my favorite.

A few things on the ol' wishlist

OMG

YES!!!

Odd

Garden and Gun magazine. Yeah. Go figure.

It's published every two months and they have fascinating articles, mostly not about gardens or guns, but mostly just southern stuff, like where to find the best barbeque in North Carolina, the resurgence of moonshine, and the Blind Boys of Alabama. Pretty neat!

Goin' veg

I've decided for no real reason in particular to go vegetarian for dinners this week.  I could use some more vegetable-based meals in my repertoire, so I think this will be fun.  So, on tap for dinner this week is:

Vegetarian lasagna, made with mushrooms instead of ground beef
Quinoa-stuffed squash
Roasted vegetables over creamy polenta
Cheese ravioli with walnuts, cranberries and dates
Tofu (not sure what I'm going to do with it)

I'll report back.

On Repeat

The songs "Well Well Well" and "Mother Pray" are particularly good.

Movies I Want to See

Where The Wild Things Are

New Moon (shut up)

Coco Before Chanel

The September Issue

WTF JCrew?

$325 and no, they're not prescription.



Hot pink anklets? These are just all wrong.

Jenna, you're much better than this.

Awesome

Oh Bono, I love you and your weird glasses:

Photo from U2.com

"The Claw"

Saturday night's set list in Raleigh:

Breathe
Get on Your Boots
Mysterious Ways
Beautiful Day
No Line on the Horizon
Magnificent
Elevation
In A Little While
New Year's Day
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Stuck In A Moment
Unforgettable Fire
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I'll Go Crazy - Remix
Sunday Bloody Sunday
MLK
Walk On
One
Where The Streets Have No Name
Ultraviolet
With or Without You
Moment of Surrender

Back! And now with more cat!

Well, after 5 years of marriage, we finally decided to step up our commitment level by adopting a cat.

I visited the SPCA of Wake County a few times in late August and ran into this little girl in the shelter. She had come into the shelter as a stray and looked like crap: her coat was matted down, she had a string of drool hanging from her mouth, was totally scrawny and smelled kinda bad. But she jumped into my lap and stole my heart and it was all over from there.

We brought her right before Labor Day and she settled in pretty much immediately: she started eating right away, slept on our bed the first night we brought her home and found the litterbox with little problem. The SPCA estimated her to be around 10, but we think she's about 3-4. We'll know more when she gets her teeth cleaned next week (I guess checking their teeth is like counting rings in a tree). Aside from bad teeth and some tape worms that have now been taken care of (side note: GROSS!) she seems to be perfectly healthy and is gaining some much needed weight.

Her name is Grizabella, but she also goes by G-Dizzle, Grizzle Dizzle, G-Money, or Li'l Squirt.

The Road

I just finished reading "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy and I'm still not sure what to think of it.

The premise of the book is that following some event (the reader isn't sure what exactly happened), the earth is rendered almost completely lifeless save for a few people who presumably were able to take shelter during the event and live through it. There are no animals, no foliage, nothing. A father and his son, armed with a pistol, two bullets and a shopping cart, are trying to make their way to the coast. What the father expects to find at the coast is unclear, but it's clear they can't stay in any one place for two long--roving bands of canibals roam the land and no place is safe. Because what happens when there's no vegetation and no animals? There's no food. (The father and son are not canibals and survive on what few canned goods they can scrounge up here and there, but they're at starvation's door throughout most of the book as it's been years since the "event" and most places have been thoroughly ransacked by the few remaining humans.)

So what follows is 287 pages of utter bleakness. It's hands down the most depressing and disturbing books I've ever read. By far. After one particular scene, I had to put the book down for about two weeks and switch to some light-hearted chick lit in order to give myself a break.

I contemplated shelving the book permanently, which I rarely do, but in the end I decided to keep reading anyway and I'm glad I did. Despite the unyielding bleakness, the book is absolutely captivating and compelling. For someone who reads at night and is lucky to get through a single page without my eyelids getting heavy, I found myself easily reading 20+ pages a night. Part of that is the style: there are no chapters, just short paragraphs and the narrative is pretty concise. There is little in the way of punctuation (which apparently aggravated some people on Amazon) and what little dialogue there is is short and to the point. But the other part is the story itself; the father's love for his child is deeply moving and their hope that things will get better makes it difficult to put the book down.

It's hard to say that I enjoyed the book because it was so heavy (oh hey, did I mention its bleakness yet?), but it's undeniable that there is something to it. Apparently, this is a pretty good representation of McCarthy's other books, but this is the first I've read. I'm honestly surprised that it's been as popular as it has been because I have a really hard time figuring out how this appeals to the masses. And what further boggles my mind is that they're making a movie out of this. According to IMDB, Viggo Mortenson plays the father and Charlize Theron the mother. If it follows the book at all, she's going to have a very small part. Oh and if you doubt my description of how utterly depressing this book is, check out the list of characters on IMDB. See what I mean?

Anyway, it's expected to be released October 16, 2009 and honestly, I doubt I'll see it. I think the book was enough for me, but we'll see what Pajiba has to say about it when it comes out and decide then.