Stripey tins!

I have a bit of a reputation for liking things that are striped, like Breton shirts and dish towels. I also like things that are made in England, like Barbour jackets and Hugh Bonneville. 

So how excited was I when I found these stripey tins that were made in England at the thrift store? Very.

Chalkboard paint in the kitchen - complete!

Wow. This was one of my quickest projects from 1) inspired! to 2) complete. All within 4 days. (This is also the moment that I realize it is my father's 78th birthday, and I had completely forgotten.)

As I posted on Monday, there was this really lovely house tour on Design*Sponge which featured the following photo. I really admired their usage of chalkboard paint.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and finally today I finished up the trim on my own version:

I'm supposed to let it cure for 3 days and then we can apply chalk. I can't wait to see what the toddler thinks about that.

Chalkboard paint in the kitchen

More visual inspiration from those curators of beauty over at Design*Sponge.

This is from another great house tour. What specifically caught my eye was the use of chalkboard paint throughout their kitchen, but mostly in the above shot. I'm not sure if they just painted over regular ceramic tile, or what exactly that is above the stove and counter, but we some weird fake tile paneling throughout our kitchen. It looks like it was used sort of like a wainscoting at some point, but it has thankfully been painted over and really blends in.
I'd considered using chalkboard paint over one section, but thought that it would look really weird with the pattern of the faux tile. The picture above is making me reconsider. It might look totally awesome. Hmmm. Tempting.

A light pink room

I've been thinking about redoing my 19-mo-old's room when she is ready to move out of her crib. She is far, far from ready so it may be a while (and I may go ahead and paint first).

Here is her room right now. Of course, it is the same yellowish cream that the entire house was painted before we moved in. It is a nice room with slanted ceilings under the eaves, but plenty of head room in general.

A pink room for a girl seems very trite, but I saw the following photo over at Design*Sponge and I loved how the pink is used. Just a blush of pink:

This photo is from a D*S house tour full of endlessly lovely rooms. Definitely worth a visit.

I might even want to go lighter pink than that photo, but I just love the glow that it gives the space. I need to head to Benjamin Moore and pick up some swatches.

Pendant lighting

For the first time in approximately one hundred years, we got some money back when we did our taxes. To celebrate, I'm considering getting a little something special for our house.

Over our sink there is a really ugly, silly little pendant of which I can not find a good picture. You can see just the edge of the dreadful shade at the tippy-top of this photo (Feel free to use your imagination):

I've been browsing my favorite lighting store, Schoolhouse Electric, and I've come up with a couple worthy candidates.

This was the one that originally caught my eye, the Rhodes 4. I think it is very pretty and elegant (just the fixture). I'm thinking polished nickel:

The shortest it goes is 14 inches (and then the shade would of course be extra) so I'm wondering if it might be a bit too long.
This next one is a bit simpler and can be 12 inches. This is the Union 4 and it is already shown in polished nickel. Shiny.

I think that shade is adorable, but the one I'm leaning towards for my own kitchen is this:

Ah, classic. I'll be doing some measurements and thinking this one over. I spend so much time at that sink that it would be nice to have a decent light fixture over my head.

Two Tarts

Have you ever thought to yourself, You know, what the world really needs is another blog. No? Well, that's too bad, because my friend and I just started a new one. It is called Two Tarts and it will be chronicling all of our adventures in the kitchen with lovely photos. That is the plan, anyway.

Our emphasis will be on creating foods that you might normally just buy off the shelf at the grocery or specialty food store, and hopefully ending up with something more delicious, less expensive, and without all that packaging. Did I mention more delicious? We'll also be sharing menus and entertaining ideas for dinner parties, and whatever else suits our fancy.

I will likely have less food-related stuff here, which means more home stuff. Hurrah!

The Expedit

Our white Expedit bookshelf has finally been secured to the wall. Now that there's no longer a threat of small children being crushed by its heft, the shelf now hold all of our books. Well, perhaps not all of them, as we do have a great many books. 

I think that I will save that last row for some baskets. You can see where the toddler has already made a mess of our row of fiction. She was quite interested in the works of both Dante and Salinger. Hmmm.

Newburg Green in the mud room.

Hurrah. My baby napped long enough that I was able to get that last coat of white and final touch-ups taken care of. Our mud room was initially the same creamy color that graces every other room in the house. A nice enough color, but I needed a little variety. Spice of life and all that.

I'd been seeing the dramatic color Newburg Green (part of Benjamin Moore's historic collection) in a few places, most notably the recent West Elm catalogs. I always like to use BM's historic palette, so I decided to take a chance with Newburg Green.

The mud room during our walkthrough:

The mud room as of this afternoon:

The trim is complete-ish.

Okay, so I still have some touching up to do on the door, and a little Gray Cashmere touch up because when I have to paint 5 meeeellion coats of paint and primer, things tend to get a little sloppy. But it looks finished in this photo, so I will share.

Here is the Before shot from our original walk through of the house (i.e., not our stuff).

And here is the After. Benjamin Moore Gray Cashmere on the walls and Chantilly Lace on the trim.

This is feeling very anticlimactic for me because I've been working on this for what feels like an eternity.  Cashmere Gray looks very gray in these photos, but in real life it has definite blue and green undertones. Most people think it leans more blue, but I see the green. I love the way it opens up the space.

Next up, I'm planning on painting the back of the little bar nook. I was thinking about doing it Martha Stewart's Kerry Blue Terrier which seems to relate well to the Gray Cashmere. But now looking at the photo above, I'm not sure. I'm worried it might be too dark. I'd like to replace the glass shelves, with white wooden shelves as well.

chipotle cornbread

I am a fan of cornbread, so much so that it seemed like a good idea to purchase a cookbook entitled The Cornbread Gospels. Yup, an entire book of recipes devoted to cornbread and cornbread-related food items.(Hush puppies? Spoonbreads? Cornsticks? You got it.) I've made a handful of recipes from this cookbook and they've all turned out well. Most recently, I made a batch of chipotle cornbread for our friends' super bowl party. These parties are supposed to revolve around some ball-throwing sport, but really they are all about the food.

This cornbread is sweetened with sugar and spiced up with chipotle peppers in adobo sauce resulting in a nice sweet and smoky combo. Whole corn kernels are the kicker (no football pun intended) for me.

:: :: :: :: ::
CopperWynd Chipotle Cornbread, from The Cornbread Gospels by Crescent Dragonwagon

vegetable oil cooking spray
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup unbleached white flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1/3 cup diced canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, sauce included
1/4 cup melted butter
kernels from 1 ear of corn, or 1/2 cup frozen corn kernels, measured and thawed

1. Preheat the oven to 425. Spray a 9-in square pan well with oil.
2. Whisk the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl, combining well.
3. Beat together the eggs, buttermilk, chipotles, and melted butter in a separate bowl.
4. Combine the wet and dry mixtures, stirring until just combined, then add the corn with a couple of stirs.
5. Into the pan goes the batter, and then into the oven goes the pan. Bake the cornbread until it is pale golden, with its edges pulling away from the side of the pan, about 15 minutes.