dulcious

Stripey tins!

2011-04-14T16:51:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-04-07T13:38:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-04T12:22:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-02T18:55:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-02T11:59:00.000-08:00

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

2011-03-01T12:08:00.000-08:00

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.

2011-02-22T13:21:00.000-08:00

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.

2011-02-12T12:32:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-09T13:07:00.000-08:00

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.

peanut butter-oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

2011-02-01T18:42:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, my friend Sarah made these really tasty peanut butter-oatmeal chip cookies made with whole wheat flour for this little extra oomph of healthiness. Being less healthy in general and wanting more cooookies in ma mouf, I decided to make my own batch without whole wheat flour today. I found this recipe online and replicated it almost exactly, except I added an extra spoonful of peanut butter just 'cuz.

In the end, they looked like this:

Beautiful, right? Right.

:: :: :: :: ::
Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (recipe from browneyedbaker.com)

Makes about 16 cookies

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup creamy peanut butter
½ cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
½ cup rolled oats
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

3. On medium speed, cream together the butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and beat to combine. On low speed, gradually add the flour until just combined. Stir in the oats, and then the chocolate chips.

4. Use a large cookie scoop (3 tablespoons) and drop dough onto prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly golden. Cool completely on the baking sheet and then store in an airtight container at room temperature.

spice wrangling

2011-01-28T16:32:00.000-08:00

I've finally gotten started getting all my spices into their new magnetic canisters. I'm quite pleased thus far, and it certainly beats the sticky, honey-covered cardboard box that they used to call home. I bought some labels and, after what felt like hours cursing at my printer, printed them up last night. Futura makes all the difference.

There they are! Well, a fraction of my spices anyway. I think I might need about 20 more of these canisters to house the full collection. (What the heck do you use marjoram for, anyway?)

Let's take a step back and see what it looks like from afar.

Yup. Looks like a fridge with a whole bunch of spices on its side.

Hello, handsome.

2011-01-24T06:42:00.000-08:00

I look forward to all of the meals that you will be cooking for me. Welcome home.

Meet Jack Rose

2011-01-23T13:35:00.000-08:00

Not the guitarist. Not the gangster. I'm talking booze.

To celebrate the arrival of my new martini glasses, we decided to have a cocktail night. Until recently, I've had a strange disdain of martini glasses. I think it is because the martini is my parents' drink of choice and I don't think I've ever seen them drink out of a stemmed martini glass. And I have seen them drink a whole hell of a lot of martinis. They always drink out of a lowball glass, or more usually a French Picardie tumbler. That's just how they roll.

{This is where I'm compelled to say, "A martini is gin and vermouth. Not vodka."}

So I've just ignored martini glasses over the years. I don't know what brought about the switchover, but here I am with my sparkly new set of CB2 stemware and a desire to create some cocktails.

The inaugural cocktail was the lovely Jack Rose, a drink popular in the 1920s (adapted from the recipe featured on thekitchn.com:

Makes one cocktail

1 1/2 ounces Calvados
1 ounce lime juice
1/2 ounce grenadine syrup

Shake it all up in a shaker with ice. Pour into lovely CB2 cocktail glasses.

Here's the crazy part of this otherwise very straightforward recipe. I got a bee in my bonnet to make the grenadine from scratch. Seems silly when you can just buy the stuff at the liquor store (and even sillier when you realize that I had I bottle in my possession)... but here's the thing: that crap that you buy in the store is composed almost exclusively of high fructose corn syrup and artificial food coloring. Sick. I just hate HFCS, and grenadine is traditionally a pomegranate syrup. I wanted actual pomegranate juice in my grenadine! So here's what I did (also adapted from a recipe featured on thekitchn.com:

Homemade Grenadine

1 cup unsweetened pomegranate juice (I used Pom... just make sure it is 100% pomegranate juice)

1/2 cup sugar

Simmer and stir for about 15 minutes. Let cool to room temperature. That should make enough for about 8 drinks. So easy, and so much better then the alternative!

Hudson's Bay Point Blanket

2011-01-17T18:54:00.000-08:00

Flea market friend

2011-01-16T12:32:00.000-08:00

I've been on the lookout for a cheap and interesting cabinet for our downstairs bathroom. I love this bathroom but it is sadly lacking storage. I've been haunting the local flea markets in search of just the right thing but so far I've come up empty-handed.

But I did find this fellow. I'm not sure that Tyler approves.

He is a doorstop!

I think he's cute. But I want to paint him, because the weird splotchy black & white look he's got going isn't doing it for me. What would be a fun color? I could just do white or black, but I was thinking he might look nice in something a little more bold? Like yellow? Red? Thoughts?

As it turns out

2011-01-10T19:12:00.000-08:00

Santa does read blogs. Well, at least my sister-in-law does. And she got me these fabulous Push Me Pull You mugs for Christmas. Thank you, Heather!

Fresh whipped cream + coffee = yum

The reason for the fresh whipped cream is my tarte Tatin which I made for our belated New Year's Eve dinner party with friends last night. It turned out delicious and this is another big win from Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food.

Spring goods

2011-01-10T12:36:00.000-08:00

It is only about two weeks into winter, and I am already wishing it were spring. The endless stream of spring preview catalogs aren't helping matters much.

Some things from West Elm that I love:

Yarn dyed organic napkins

This is actually a set of 4 plates with different patterns, but I just love the bee:

Sesame letterpress garden calligraphy dessert plates

Stripes!

Modern stripe tumbler

Hive vases

Roots

2011-01-09T13:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I picked up some pretty root vegetables to roast up for a belated New Year's Eve celebration tonight. Aren't they lovely?

I also need to get on the ball with the dessert that I'm preparing: a tarte tatin. I have not ever made one before, but I've wanted to for quite some time. I'm using the recipe from Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food.

Around the house I have been shamelessly ignoring my to-do list, and working on other less intimidating projects. I've cleaned out my closet, for instance. My closet now looks great, but our bedroom is full of several large items that I removed from my closet. What the heck do I do with my wedding dress? It seems sad to put it in the basement. Anyway, most of my tasks have been like this: tidying up one area really messes up another.

My other task that I've been working on is dealing with my spices. For the past three months they have been sitting on my kitchen floor in a cardboard box. Not ideal, although they've actual kept my toddler and her friends entertained for short periods of time (and you just can't put a price on that.) But seeing as how some honey or agave or some other very sticky substance seeped onto the bottom of the box, something needed to be done. I got a few of these magnetic spice canisters in my stocking:

courtesy of apartmenttherapy.com

I'm going to stock up on quite a few more of these and they will soon reside on the side of our fridge. I'll post pics in the (hopefully) near future.

I snoozed and I lost.

2011-01-06T18:53:00.000-08:00

(Loozed?)

The most fabulous Stendig calendar has been gracing our kitchen for several years now. Generally garnering comments along the lines of "nice calendar" and "you must like to know what the date is." (Har, har, people. Yup, it is a big calendar.)

So yeah, it is pretty much a staple, and we can not be without it. I procrastinated purchasing our 2011 calendar until 2011 rolled around and instead of getting to pay less money, I get to pay more. Dammit! I mean, aren't most calendars on sale by now?

I normally buy it from Unica Home which I realize now is the most reasonably price retailer. They sold out, I guess, so we get to pay almost 20 bucks in shipping. Ouch! Well, at least we will know, in no uncertain terms, what the date is.

To do.

2010-12-28T11:51:00.000-08:00

We have a long list of things that really need to get done around here, and it is time to start prioritizing.

1. Anchor our enormous Expedit bookshelf to the wall.

Our Expedit, soon to be secured and filled with books.

2. Move the books from our family room bookshelves to the Expedit bookshelf.

3. Have Home Depot cut some wood to size for new bookshelves in the family room. Paint and install.

Family room bookshelves.

4. Unpack (finally!) all our CDs from their moving boxes and put them on the family room bookshelves.

5. Finish painting the trim in the dining room.

6. Strip and repaint the salvaged door for our family room.

7. Anti-slip tape on the stairs.

home history

2010-12-17T16:27:00.000-08:00

So today I took a trip to see our city's archivist and learned a few things about our home. My #1 burning question was:

Just what year was our house built anyway?

Rumor has it that all of the building records burned in a fire back in 1910, so they had to start over. Any existing structure before the fire is now considered to be a 1910 building according to public record. The archivist said that he's never seen evidence of a fire, but something happened because they definitely started over in 1910.

.... drum roll ...

Looks like our house was built in 1908! Not too far off, but I'm happy to have some historically accurate info on the date.

It was hard to make out the handwriting in the ledger, but the water records show that what looks like a Mr. Brisner requested a water permit in June of 1908 and then the house was occupied in December of that year. The next owner was a Mr. Oldfather (love it!) whose occupation was "real estate, loans, insurance."

When the house was built, it was 7 rooms, plus 1 bath, and 1 water closet, and even an outdoor lawn spigot. That is some fancy stuff.

I wasn't able to find an old photo of the house, unfortunately, but that was to be expected. Apparently if I go to the county assessor's office I may be able to find one, so that is the next step!

baked kale chips

2010-12-16T13:11:00.000-08:00

My new fabulous and food-savvy friends Diana and Sarah turned me onto the wonderful idea of kale chips. I'm not one of those people who needs kale to taste like a chip to enjoy it. I really like kale and it might even be my green of choice! (Dandelion greens on the other hand... I've tried them more than once and hated them more than once. I won't try those noxious weeds again until they do in fact taste like a chip.)

What particularly sold me on kale chips was that my toddler actually liked them! If I can get her to eat less Annie's Bunnies and more kale, I'll be a happy lady. So I just gave them a try today.

I'll admit, my first batch failed. Turns out that if I don't set a timer, I will not remember that I have something in the oven. D'oh. So an hour or so later, I had some very sad kale remnants to contend with. But fortunately, they are so easy to make that I tried another batch immediately. They only take a few minutes to get into the oven (or about the length of the song "Addicted to Love" -- not important how I know that) and then they bake for about 25 minutes.

:: :: ::

baked kale chips

1/2 bunch curly red kale (or whatever kind you want)
1 tbs olive oil
kosher salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 275. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Remove stems and ribs from kale and then chop. Mix with olive oil and salt in a bowl, and then spread on a cookie sheet in one layer. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until crisp.

solving slippery stairs

2010-12-11T12:44:00.000-08:00

One of the reasons that I fell in love with our house is the hardwood staircase in the front hall. Of course, the reality of hardwood stairs is that they are quite slippery.

festive!

We have a toddler who just loves testing out her stair-climbing abilities, so something must be done. But what? I took a trip to the carpet store and even came back with some rug samples, but... oh I just think a stair runner would be hideous. The carpet folks, while perfectly nice, did not really get my vision at all.

The only thing that I've really seen that I've liked is something sisal and stripey. Like this:

But the carpet store told me that sisal is actually terrible for stairs. (So why do I see sisal runners everywhere when I look online?)

After a google search, I found an old post over on Apartment Therapy asking the same question: "How can you make wood stairs less dangerous in a way that is attractive?"

I saw two potentially viable options in the comment section. 1) Mixing some clear sand with varnish and brush onto the treads. 2) Clear anti-slip tape along the edge of each step.

What I certainly like about each of these options is that, along with being more attractive, they would be far, far cheaper than installing a runner. Plus, not having to vacuum carpet on stairs!

If anyone has done either of these options, I'd love to hear about it.

galette

2010-12-10T18:29:00.000-08:00

Remember when I used to have posts about food? You don't? That's okay. Just the fact that you are here, spending a minute reading this blog, means you are forgiven.

Once upon a time, I thought I'd devote a good portion of these posts to food, but as it turns out, I can't take very good photos of food. And what is a post about food without fabulous freaking photography? So I'll just post a photo of a recent meal, a Potato and Swiss Chard Galette from the really great vegetarian cookbook, Mediterranean Harvest by Martha Rose Shulman. I've had awesomely consistent luck with this cookbook. A lot of the recipes contain gruyere, so obviously they are going to be good.

Now that I'm looking at the photo it looks sort of small, but this galette was quite large. That is a big ol' tray.

In home improvement news, I've been busy as a bee painting our living/dining room. I just need to finish up the trim and do a ~~little~~ lot of touching up. Then I will do a happy dance and probably start thinking of what I'll paint next. (Oh, who am I kidding, I already know what I'm painting next - the mud room.) But I really need to strip and paint the new old door for the family room, so that rather unfun project is next on my list.

random thought of the day

2010-12-03T16:20:00.000-08:00

Today I was listening to a live recording of R.E.M. doing "Harborcoat" back in the early '80s. Reckoning was one of my favorite albums in my formative years, and it definitely stands the test of time. Happily, my 15-mo-old girl is really enjoying early R.E.M. (and seems to be into post-punk in general. Nice.)

Anyway, every time I go into my local and awesome Benjamin Moore store, I see the cans of Arborcoat stain. And every time "Harborcoat" pops into my head. I like to think that someone at Benjamin Moore named this line of stain after the R.E.M. song.

early christmas present

2010-12-02T16:55:00.000-08:00

I did an admittedly terrible job hiding our cat's Christmas present. (What? Placing it on the nearest flat surface as you walk in the door doesn't count as "hiding"?)

The good news is that his new bed is a hit.

city in decay

2010-12-01T11:44:00.000-08:00

My husband sent me a link this morning to the Parisian photographers Marchand and Meffre's photos of "The Ruins of Detroit." The photos are pretty incredible. Looking at them, you would expect that the entire city of Detroit has been abandoned and that everyone just stood up together and left decades ago.

More photos and pertinent information on their website.

fox & raccoon pillows

2010-11-29T13:07:00.000-08:00

I love these pillows, which are by Push Me Pull You and are no longer available. Dammit!

photo from apartmenttherapy.com

I love these mugs too. Do you think Santa reads blogs?

cashmere gray

2010-11-23T12:20:00.000-08:00

Well, I went back to Benjamin Moore and told them that my paint sample didn't match the color of the chip. They put a dab of the sample paint onto the chip and once it dried, you could see that the two didn't quite match. It wasn't a big difference, but I knew there was a reason that the Cashmere Gray was looking a bit sky blue on our walls.

And then this was a bit strange... there was a pro painter there buying a singular can of paint. Benjamin Moore has about five million different colors, but this painter's can of paint was also Cashmere Gray. So the woman helping me took a dab of paint from his can and put it on the chip. The paint was a match. I went ahead and got a gallon.

Thanks to my baby's super long nap yesterday, I was able to paint walls around the bay window in the dining room. As I was painting my thought process went something along the lines of:
"I just love this."
"Gray? What was I thinking."
"This is really fresh and pretty."
"Crap. Gray is so trendy."
"I really think this will look great."

Well, I do think that it will look great and hopefully I'll be able to get some more painting done soon. This room is quite large, so it might take a while.

woodlawn blue foyer

2010-11-21T11:25:00.000-08:00

Today as I was bustling around I noticed the sun streaming into the foyer and thought it was time to get some better photos of how it was coming along. I had also just gotten some pretty flowers from Whole Foods. I would love to have flowers displayed all the time, but we just don't have very good places nearby to buy flowers! Whole Foods is close to 30 minutes away. (And I'd go broke very quickly if I were regularly buying flowers from them.)

Okay, here is a "before" shot from our walkthrough:

It is beyond strange to me that people enjoy knotty pine.

Okay, and here is the "after" which is really more of a "at the moment"...

I am so happy with the color that I chose: Benjamin Moore Woodlawn Blue. It is a little bit green, a little bit blue, and a whole lot of pretty up against both white trim and dark wood furniture.

Eventually I hope to find a nice little lamp for this table and I'm thinking about what to do for hooks on the opposite wall.

And a shot from the stairs, because it is such an enormous relief to walk down the stairs in the morning and not have that knotty pine glaring back at me.

paint woes

2010-11-19T13:25:00.000-08:00

So as I mentioned in my last post, I second-guessed myself about the color I initially wanted to use: Benjamin Moore Nantucket Gray. Our living room/dining room is a rather large room (well, in relation to the rest of the house anyway) and I didn't want it to be a glum space.

So then I latched onto the idea of Wythe Blue which I had seen mentioned on other design blogs and had heard nothing but praise for. I bought the little sample and as it turned out it really looked like a baby boy's nursery color. Boo! I wasn't pleased.

I went back to my paint chips and looked beyond the Ben Moore historical collection. I found Gray Cashmere. Light gray but slightly green. Okay. I bought the sample. I put it up and I actually quite liked it! But then I compared my sample on the wall to the chip itself and it seems a little off. Not majorly, but it definitely isn't a perfect match. The chip looks a smidge darker and grayer. Crap.

From top, Wythe Blue, Cashmere Gray, and Nantucket Gray

Cashmere Gray

I think I would be okay with a touch grayer and darker, but I'm bummed that I forked out my 2.99 to get a sample and I still don't really know what I'm going to end up with. Anyway, I like how pretty and wispy of a gray it is. I think it will make the space bright and happy.

Oh, the other big thing is that I've decided to paint the unpainted trim in the dining room. I know! Sacrilege! Well, I don't know how I didn't notice this before but the trim in the dining room is totally different from the trim in the rest of the house. It also looks like it has been stripped before. It just isn't that pretty. So now the windows will match the doorways and all will be well. And really I think practically any color looks great with white trim so it is time for me to just bite the bullet, right?

pretty house

2010-11-17T18:30:00.000-08:00

I'm mostly just reposting these photos for my own archiving. I saw this house over at Design*Sponge and I should just cry over the loveliness. The house is owned by a husband/wife designer duo from Brooklyn. It has great bones, which helps, but their use of color is just wonderful.

I've totally changed my mind about the living room/dining room paint color that I had selected. I was feeling really great about Nantucket Gray which is a decidedly muddy color. I worry that it will be too gloomy and drab which I definitely do not want. Anyway, there's been much more hemming and hawing over colors and much rifling through my Benjamin Moore color swatches. I'll post more on this and my (hopefully) decision soon, but my color crisis caused me to look through design blogs such as D*S and take note of what really catches my eye. It turned out to be spaces like this one - light, airy, with cleaner colors. A successful mix of old and new.

They say that this paint color is Wedgewood Gray.

I would just love to know what this paint color is. I want to live here.

Wouldn't you just die for a nook like that?

the great unveiling

2010-11-16T18:50:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I got some seriously sweet news. The tree guys would be at my house at 8am sharp to remove the trees in front of our house!

They came early and were done by 9am. It was a little like Christmas morning for me.

Check this out.

Hellooo? Is there a house back there?

Ta da! A house! A house which now is in desperate need of some landscaping. Hmmm...

Also, the weird 50s remuddle in the front is now plainly visible. Oh well... Keep looking at the good parts, please.

foyer sneak peek

2010-11-14T13:31:00.000-08:00

Not quite done yet, but I thought a sneak peek was in order because it makes me feel like I've accomplished something. (Still have a second coat left on one wall and I have to paint/touch up the trim. I'm hoping to get it done this week. Perhaps that is wishful thinking.)

If you'd like to refresh your memory on this knotty pine monstrosity before, I'll direct you here.

It is Benjamin Moore Woodlawn Blue which has turned out to be just the pretty robin's egg blue I was looking for. Ahhh. I like how it is turning out even better than my inspiration pic.

New old knob

2010-11-10T11:55:00.000-08:00

So I went ahead and ordered the closest knob that I could find after scouring the internet for several days. I've literally been dreaming about door knobs and five panel doors, so I'm hoping this puts an end to that. Really, I can barely imagine a less interesting sounding dream.

Here's the knob I ordered, complete with mortise lock. The knob itself is boring, but the backplates are similar and it was very reasonably priced. Maybe someday I'll stumble upon the matching knob and I'll swap it out.

As a refresher, here's what I was hoping to find:

Argh. That one is so much nicer. Crap.

Living room paint

2010-11-08T16:32:00.000-08:00

Saturday afternoon we went to Benjamin Moore and picked up handfuls of swatches. I was very, very grabby. When we got home, one swatch miraculously stood out from the others: Nantucket Gray. It is a greenish gray from Ben Moore's historic collection, and I'm pretty stoked about it. I even picked up a little sample jar from Ace Hardware on Sunday. (I always forget Ace sells Ben Moore paints.)

Not the greatest photos, and I think this is one of those chameleon colors that really changes depending on the light (I think all grays are probably like this). Anyway, I like it, and I think it looks nice with the existing cream, which will be in two adjoining rooms. I'm leaning towards Wethersfield Moss (darker and greener) for the mud room.

Doors

2010-11-06T12:35:00.000-07:00

(I've completely lost all creativity as far as post titles. Oh, wellsies.)

Yeah, so we went off to the door store today to look into replacing one of the doors into our family room. There are currently no doors on the family room, but we do have the two doors that used to be there stored in the garage. One of the doors is an adorable, slender five panel door which matches all of the other doors in the house. The second door, however, is a crappy slab with el cheapo hardware. And this is the door that is right off of the front hall! What were they thinking? Blah.

I propped it up to see if it is indeed the right size. Barf.

So we perused the salvaged doors at the door store and we are pretty sure we're going with one. It is $50, which sounds about right. They'll trim it down to match the door above for $15 so we're sure it will fit. Yay!

Then comes the actual work that I have to do. (I hate work!) I'll have to sand and lacquer one side of the door (the side that leads into the front hall) and then scrape, scrape, scrape and repaint the other side. I'm hoping to have the door specialists tell me exactly what to do, step-by-step, so I don't totally screw it up.

Meanwhile we need to get our hands on some hardware. All of the hardware in our house looks like this (Art Nouveau):

Or like this (Art Deco):

I'm partial to the Art Deco style myself, although you can see on the doors that have this style that they used to have the Nouveau (you can see the curvy outline surrounding the new(er) knob.)

Well, either way, I'm looking online and thinking that to buy a new set of either of kinds of hardware, or a new old set, is going to cost an arm and a leg. Bah! I can't find the exact type of Art Deco. I can find similar but in a different finish and with a different knob. Poo.

If anyone has a lead, I'd appreciate it.

Color

2010-11-05T12:53:00.000-07:00

So I've been thinking that it would be a good idea to paint the large expanse that is the living room/dining room. Not a good idea in a "fun times" kind of way, but good in the sense that it would be better to do it before we anchor our humongous Expedit shelving unit to the wall and we should really do that soon.

As mentioned before, our entire home is painted a cream color. Pleasant enough, but way, way, way too much of it. Something about this cream color has paralyzed the paint-picking part of my brain and I'm feeling a bit at a loss.

I'm thinking a gray... but lately I've been wondering if I've stumbled into neutral territory where only the grayest of colors make me happy. Everything else scares me.

I posted this photo previously, and it is the only photo I have on hand which shows the living room. It also shows both the white trim around the windows as well as the natural wood baseboards. Something about those baseboards are throwing me off (but I will not be painting them).

At the moment, I'm considering Benjamin Moore (of course) Ashley Gray, Edgecomb Gray, or Revere Pewter. Ashley Gray is my most daring selection. It is fairly dark. I just worry about it with those baseboards. sigh.

primed

2010-10-25T11:33:00.000-07:00

Here is a terrible photo of the primed foyer. I took a couple of better photos (I swear!) but I can't get them to work on this computer. I also don't have Photoshop on this computer which contributes to the ugliness.

You may remember this foyer in its prior knotty pine splendor. I'll post a pic for old time's sake:

That photo is from one of our initial walkthroughs, so that isn't our stuff. But anyway, there's all kinds of wrong with that paneling. It is as though you are viewing the front hall from another person's house.

So here is the foyer now with the primer:

Yay! I think it is a million times better already. It is quite stark in its primer-ness but I think that it will look great in BM Woodlawn Blue. I am going to let it sit for a while to make absolutely sure the knots don't bleed through the primer, Zinsser BIN -- which, by the way, is just a beast. We had the room quite well ventilated and it still felt like I had done a couple shots of shellac by the time we were done. blech.

fox knocker

2010-10-18T11:17:00.000-07:00

He is now ready to greet you at our side door.

I can also see that I need to find a razor blade to tidy up the paint job around the window panes on the door.

RL

2010-10-15T12:25:00.000-07:00

In searching around for mud room paint color inspiration, I stumbled upon this Ralph Lauren Paint ad. Love it.

No, I won't be painting our mud room emerald green. But how lame would it be if I hung up bridle brackets? I guess what I am actually wondering is how well they would hold up coats? Might have to take a trip to the tack store to find out.

toddler-friendly food

2010-10-14T18:42:00.000-07:00

Cooking for my 13-mo-old has been a challenge. It doesn't help that we've moved into an unfamiliar kitchen and are still locating odds and ends in strange places. (Where are those cookie sheets again??) We've also been generally overwhelmed and cooking falls by the wayside. It is something I need to get a better handle on.

I've been following the very nice and aptly named blog Cooking with My Kid for a while. I'm sure it initially caught my eye through Ohdeedoh. It has many recipes that look not only child-friendly but appetizing to adults as well. Tonight I tried out her recipe for Baked Spinach & Rice.

I did not take a photo, but here is the lovely picture from the blog:

Looks yummy, right? The best part was that my toddler took one bite and then opened her mouth EXTRA wide for the next bite. Good deal.

I modified it a little bit just because I only had cheddar (not mozzarella) on hand. But I think that the cheddar was the way to go.

Baked Spinach & Rice Recipe from Cooking with My Kid
Prep Time: 25 mins (mostly unattended) Cooking Time: 30 mins
Ingredients:
1 package rice pilaf
1 box frozen chopped spinach
1 cup ~~mozzarella~~ cheddar cheese
2 eggs
1/4 cup lowfat milk
Defrost spinach and squeeze dry. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Cook rice according to package directions and transfer to a large bowl. Stir in chopped spinach, cheese, milk and eggs. Pour into greased square baking dish and cook for 30 minutes or until set. Let cool for 5 minutes before cutting into squares for serving. Serves 4 to 6.

back-breaking

2010-10-11T19:08:00.000-07:00

It may be have been the lifting of heavy objects during our move, the stooping over my not-quite-toddling toddler as she's learning to walk, or the sitting at my computer which was on a short and ergonomically-incorrect table. Maybe it was a combo of the above, but my back is killing me.

It is slowing me down.

We did make some progress with unpacking more boxes, assembling an Expedit bookshelf (not the big one which scares me), and some reorganization of furniture (more heavy lifting!) So things are feeling better and a bit more settled around here.

My computer has been relocated to the living room and this was my view this afternoon. You can see that my cat has had no problem settling into his new digs.

Your days are numbered, trees.

2010-10-07T12:46:00.000-07:00

I'm usually the last person to get excited about chopping down a tree. I love trees! Seriously, trees rule.

But despite driving past our house a million times before I spotted the For Sale sign, I had never even noticed it. It is situated within a grove of overgrown shrubs and arborvitae. I never knew arborvitae could get this large, and even our arborist seemed a little impressed.

Is there a house back there?

Look how tall they are! They tower over our 2-story house.

Looks like these bad boys, plus their little shrubby friends, and their pal juniper Joe are all coming out some time in November. I am pretty stoked to actually see what the front of our house looks like.

good finds

2010-10-05T19:38:00.001-07:00

We have way too much stuff, but I went out and got some more today.

I visited a local flea market which I will definitely be frequenting from now on. I found this lovely mirror which will go in our front hall. It was $27. Win!

I can't even believe I was contemplating buying similarly priced (or more expensive) mirrors from Target and Home Depot.

I also found this adorable Swedish plate made out of enameled tin. It was just a couple bucks, and it made my daughter happy. Horses? Swedish? Like mother, like daughter.

the nook

2010-10-04T20:41:00.000-07:00

I hate taking photos at night but I did it anyway. Look! A space without boxes! Hurrah - it is our kitchen nook. I'm so relieved this table fits in this space. It isn't perfect, but what is... And our Stendig calendar seems to make sense on this wall which is good because I think it belongs in close proximity to the table.

I need to figure out what chairs would suit the table and the space. I've been wrestling with this for a long time now and I've just decided that when our 13-month-old is out of her high chair, it is officially time for new chairs. These chairs that we have are 10 years old and were 20 bucks each at Ikea. They've served us pretty well although the seats are breaking and the frames are Gorilla-Glued together.

I've had my eye on a few chairs at West Elm:

There must be something in the curve of the table that is leading me to these curvy-backed chairs. I'm leading towards the second chair in chocolate, but the website is no longer selling them individually which makes me think they might be getting rid of them. D'oh.

Martha, please help me get organized.

2010-10-03T12:08:00.000-07:00

We've been slowly moving in and spending most of our time getting the old house ready for being a rental. Surprisingly taxing, it has taken almost every moment of my spare time. Those few other moments that I've had (like this one, and I really should be unpacking or doing something useful) I've been looking around online at sources which might help me get a little more organized. Of course, this leads me to Martha Stewart. I love the woman's eye. Her color schemes are great and she does have a ton of really useful ideas. (The woman herself has always struck me as strangely uncharismatic. But I guess that is neither here nor there.)

It is the little things like these hooks on the inside of a broom closet that are such genius. It really does make things so much easier when everything has its place. Now I need to create those places.

I know it is as likely that our garage would look this great as it is that my husband would wrap up a hose so neatly. (To be fair, neither would I.) But still it gives me some hope.

Uh oh, baby is up and chattering.

photo op

2010-10-01T11:14:00.000-07:00

I'm just dying to take photos of our lovely new home, but unfortunately this is what I see at every turn:

Just about ready for the pages of House Beautiful.

Well, at least our stoop is looking a bit pretty. My daughter and I went mum-shopping and picked up a couple of tiny pumpkins as well. And are those asters? I have no idea. I just love, love, love fall. (And I'm ready for some fall weather -- enough with the 85+ degree days already!)

Did you know that it is October? Yeah, I can't believe it either.

woodlawn blue

2010-09-30T11:09:00.000-07:00

This is the post that Tumblr ate, provoking the end of our tumultuous relationship.

Before putting our new old home on the market, the former owner painted the entire interior of the house. And she painted it all one color. One very neutral, very creamy color. It is a nice color, but it is just way too much of a nice thing for this Benjamin Moore-visiting, color swatch-perusing girl, paint scheme-mulling girl.

So as I posted over at the old blog, I'm getting my color fix in the foyer. Yesterday I visited my friends at Benjamin Moore and picked up a can of Aura in Woodlawn Blue. The photo above from the pages of a somewhat recent West Elm catalog is fairly accurate. I think the real color is a little bit more gray-toned.

Anyway, here is my inspiration photo from Pottery Barn:

The return to Blogger.

2010-09-30T10:54:00.000-07:00

Sorry, Tumblr. I was somehow convinced to give you a try by my Tumblr-savvy husband. But I don't get you, Tumblr. I just don't get you.

So I'm back to Blogger. Hi there.