Cookbook Love

My cup runneth over when it comes to Cookbooks. Some of you have seen my cookbook cabinet - it is insane. I must clean it out in 2012 and get rid of what I am not using (maybe I will post the giveaways and share them with you all - good idea?).

Can one really have too many cookbooks though? In my mind, the answer is a resounding NO. I guess as long as I am still making things out of them, I can keep them. I got the following books for Christmas this year.

I am so excited to read them all and I will take them in word for word like novels, slowly pouring over every recipe, going through all the prep in my mind and imagining the finished product and how it tastes. Looks like I have my reading cut out for me. Time to get out the tape flags so I can mark what I want to make.

The Boy is Back in Town

Tim comes home today after being away for almost a week.
I have to admit I have had a nice time alone at home. I have read books, watched many movies, worked on my writing, cleaned my closet, and most of all danced around the house with reckless abandon. I laughed, I cried, I was myself 200% without anyone else to consider. Selfish, I know, but it had to be done.

Don't get me wrong, I am happy he is coming home today, but when you have lived in a 750 sq. ft. space for the last 12 years with the same person, it can get a little cramped. I noticed it is not just the physical space that gets cramped, it is my emotional space as well. Not sure if that makes sense. I feel like when I am in tight quarters (like my home) without my own space I am more apt to put my own emotions, opinions and outbursts aside as to not upset the energy in the space or most of all, upset or anger the other person. I guess in a nutshell, I bite my tongue and swallow my feelings much more than I should and I am not solid with that anymore. I need to fully express myself in every situation no matter what feathers may get ruffled.

I am happy Tim had fun with his family and am happy that I discovered what behavior about myself I want to change. Ha ha, we will see how it goes.

I am also happy I have the Bird's Nest to fly to when I need my own space.

Michigan...

Back from the Midwest - what a fun, busy trip it was. Very successful if you ask me, we got a LOT done.
Here is a basic run down of our trip - I didn't talk as many photos as I thought I would, we were that busy!

Tuesday - Flight left on time and got to Detroit in about 4 hours - uneventful and quick, just as I like it. Emily and Mat came and picked us up at about 4:45 PM and we went to the Lemke House. We started checking out everything for the garage sale and came up with a game plan then we went to dinner at Silas Pizzeria right in Berkley (my home town). As always, it was deelish! Here is my Dad, acting silly, imagine that!

After dinner, we went home and had a little bon fire in the grill in the backyard! It was so nice, we just sat around and talked about memories we had of the house, Emily (the future Social Worker) ran the session, it was fun! I think I drank my body weight in beer that first day. Wednesday - woke up and my brother was in the garage loading things into a truck he had borrowed. He was planning on taking some of his old stuff and some of my parents old stuff to his house for him and his family. By the time I was done in the shower he was done loading and came inside and we sat with him and drank coffee for a couple hours. It was nice to visit with him. Then came the rain, it rained super hard but only for a short time, but it was gray and cloudy so us gals (Emily, Mom and I) decided to go and see Sex and the City Part 2. It was entertaining, we had a few laughs and I ate WAY too much popcorn! On the way home we stopped and picked up Middle Eastern food from the corner gas station (might sound strange coming from the corner gas station, but it is the BEST). We loaded up our plates and ate dinner outside.After dinner we moved into the garage, put on the stereo and started pricing and organizing things. We worked for a couple hours and got most of everything priced. We moved the party inside, I believe there was a hockey game on or a baseball game (or both), either way, it was important (ha ha!). While watching the game, I thought about ice skating so I found a place that rented hockey skates and I found one so we planned on going on Thursday. That night Emily, Mat, Tim and I all went to Tastee Freeze (Emily, I will always call it that) to get ice cream.

Thursday - On our lunch break from sale prepping, the four of us (Mat and Emily, Tim and I) all went skating and we had the ice to ourselves for the most part. We skated for about an hour, in uncomfortable rental skates, which is pretty good. Here is Emily showing us her great balance on hockey skates! She is a good skater, don't let this photo fool you!

We decided we would then go to the batting cages and hit some balls but when we got over there, it was closed! Boo! So we decided to go to lunch instead at Inn Season Cafe (great veggie place). Following lunch we went to Royal Oak for a minute to walk around and then back home and back to work! Emily made a nice Salmon dinner for the family with corn on the cob, steamed kale and salad. I made white chocolate pretzel and peanut bark for a sweet evening snack. We ate dinner outside again, I love it! We did a once over and it looked like we were all set for the sale of the century on Friday. Tim brushed Peanut so she looked nice for all of the guests, of course she thought they were all there to see her and not there for the sale!

Here is a sneak peak of the sale items:

Friday - First day of the Moving/Garage Sale! Mat and Tim moved all of the big stuff out from the basement into the backyard, they both worked really hard. We were so busy, lots of stuff sold before Noon. It was really nice to see old neighbors and chat with the people who came by. We were so wiped out at the end of the day, it was ridiculous. Mom, Dad, Tim and I went out for dinner since Emily and Mat had other plans. I had 2 cocktails and was feeling mighty fine by the time we got home. A good old MidWest Thunder and Lightening storm in the evening, standing on the porch watching Mother Nature rage with Tim was fun. Running barefoot in the rain in front of my parents house was a flash back to my childhood.

Saturday - Mom made Monkey Bread for Breakfast while we gave the sales floor a face lift and brought out more stuff. Emily and I went into the attic and cleaned out some of my old stuff, lots of ballet books and natural medicine books to sell and lots of photos and letters to look at. The sale on Saturday was great too - time seemed to fly by and before we knew it, it was over. We ordered Chinese food for dinner and ate outside before it began to rain for the evening. Emily, Mat, Tim and I went out for ice cream again around 11 PM in a torrential downpour, it was fun though.

Sunday - Open House/Party at my parents house. My best friend from when I was in Elementary School came over with her three kids. We had such a nice time reminiscing about when we were kids. Our parents were friends too (and still are) so we went camping together, skiing in the winter and lots of other fun stuff. Our old neighbors that have since moved came over as well along with current neighbors. My brother came over as well and stayed until around 9 PM after everyone had left it was just Mom, Dad, Tim, Andy and I talking it up. Emily and Mat had other plans and left around 8 PM. It was such a nice party, all of us made a salad and my Mom sliced a ham which was the perfect amount of food for all of us. Sunday night Tim and I went to bed around 11 PM to catch up a little on our sleep.

Monday - slept in a bit, hung out, cleaned out more stuff of mine and put things aside that I was planning to keep. Visited my best friend from High School who was about 45 minutes away - my sister drove me and picked me up. It was so nice to reconnect in person with an old friend even though our visit was short, it was very good like no time had passed at all between us. We just picked up where we left off. Monday night we went to dinner in Greek Town in Detroit.

I am bummed that I didn't bring my new camera to dinner - the low light made all of my photos grainey from my point and shoot (SHOOT!).

Tuesday - packed our bags and got on the plane at 12:30 PM Midwest time and arrived home 5 hours later. We both slept on the plane before it even took off, which was pretty funny, we must have been tired.

Here are some activities that filled some space during our visit:

• Laughing a LOT
• Playing the Trombone (video to come in the future)
• Playing wii with Emily and Mat
• Watching baseball, basketball and hockey on TV
• Getting bit by mosquitoes
• Looking at my Grandma's scrapbook (now I know where I get it from, documenting everything that is).

Drowning...

No, not in a large cocktail - just in life itself!

Going to MI on Tuesday and am overwhelmed with what I have to do before I leave and what I have to do while I am there. Saying goodbye to your home is not easy...neither is the anxiety that comes before a trip like this.

I will post something this weekend - God Willing.

Spring Cleaning

I love vintage linens and since it was cleaning day today and this here tablecloth has gotten a lot of play lately (I super love it) I decided to give her a little wash and a hang out on the clothes line. Here is my favorite way to clean vintage linens - treat any spots with oxy-clean spray or any other spot remover you like to use. After spraying spots, I let her sit for about 10 minutes and then put her in a bucket filled with HOT water, a small handful of salt and the juice from half a lemon. Let soak for an hour or so while you do other chores (like scrub the kitchen floor, which I did today). After about an hour, I took her out of the bucket of salt & lemon water and rinsed her once with warm water and let her sit a moment. Fill bucket with COLD water and a few drop of Mrs. Stewart's Bluing so the water is light sky blue - make sure bluing is mixed well in the water or you will have blue spots, submerge tablecloth in the bluing water (as a final rinse) - swish the tablecloth around a little for about a minute and then remove her from water, squeeze out excess water and spin (in your washer or in a spinner) and hang out in the sunlight on a clothesline to dry. Remember sunlight is the best thing for vintage linens that have yellowing or stains, it really gets them out. If you don't have a clothesline, you can spread your linens out on towels on your lawn (if you have one). Bring in from the outside and take a long sniff of your clean tablecloth (ahhhhhh), lightly iron and put back on the table or in storage until you use it again.

Yes, I am old school. I don't have a washer or dryer, I do have a spinner and a bucket though and it works great and makes vintage linens last a long time. I like cleaning things the old way, it really works!

PS - got this tablecloth at the Alameda Flea Market in the $5 French linen bin, life doesn't get much better!

Weekend at Home

Mellow weekend here, stayed home, walked around our neighborhood and got rid of a LOT of stuff laying around. I don't know about you, but I have trouble staying on top of the sheer amount of papers that come in the mail. I have a shredder and try to get rid of it on a daily basis but geeze, it gets out of control fast! I no longer get too many catalogs at home because they just get recycled, but it's the other stuff that comes in envelopes that has to be opened, credit card offers, magazine offers, car warranty offers, just a lot of crap if you ask me. Now that I am up to date and cleaned out, I am going to call each company that I get something from and kindly ask them to stop.

Saturday, I vacuumed everything that could be vacuumed around the house - crown molding, walls, mattress, carpet, wood floor, new rug, you name it, it was vacuumed. Poor BayLee hid most of the day. My allergies were kept at bay by wearing a mask the entire time, I swear I am going to invest in a good one, the one I have cuts into my face. Most of you know, I am allergic to a lot of things and all of those get stirred up when I move things around at home no matter how long it has been since the last time I vacuumed. We laid the new rug down Saturday night and love it! BayLee finally came out of hiding right before it was time for bed, so we gave him some playtime and put toys on him. He kept that mouse on his head for over 5 minutes, he just sat there looking stoic.

Sunday, slept in until about 8 and then did a couple loads of wash in my hand cranked washer - workout for my arm, loaded it into the spinner and hung it outside to dry. As much as I love my eco-wash system here, I would love a washer and dryer one day but will have to move to get it since we don't have hook ups here although, I have found a portable one that connects to the kitchen sink (like the old dishwashers) that I am thinking about. I just hate the laundry mat, there is no parking, it is always crowded and kind of grosses me out however, it's the only place I can do my bedding and bath stuff. The Babe and I went for a walk on the main shopping street in our neighborhood, got some bagels, cat litter and some other stuff we needed. It was super sunny and warm today, so nice for a change here in the city. We came home, made lunch and I took a 2 hour nap on the couch.

What a nice weekend it was. We didn't use the car (I even forgot where I parked it Friday afternoon after work, ha ha!) and walked to get our errands done, I love it.

Life is good.

Orange Rug

My new rug with quality control officer giving it a once over.

Cost Cutter Tip - check Ebay for name brand items after they leave the pages of your favorite catalogs. I got this rug for 1/4 the original listed price (last year in the Pottery Barn catalog) and it is brand new (came in the original packaging, sealed with cleaning instructions included and I got free shipping FedEx). Some companies have outlet stores and when things don't move they put the items on Ebay or their employees buy them and list them, not sure how it all works but the person I bought this from only sold Pottery Barn items.
Another great place is overstock.com, they have great stuff for a fraction of the regular retail asking price.

Rugs are expensive and the Babe and I settled on one for the winter to keep our feet warm but a rag rug is not good in our living space, moves too much and was too large but for $40 at Ikea, it worked for the winter. I am super excited that we finally got a real nice hand tufted wool rug! Can't wait to clean my floors and lay it down this weekend!

I miss Domino Magazine

I know I mentioned it back in February when the announcement went out that Domino magazine was no longer, but honestly I miss it. I am trying to make some small changes in my apartment, move things around, freshen up, etc. and I could really use some inspiration. Yes, there are other magazines and I have them believe me but there is nothing like Domino. When searching for my favorite photos from the magazine, I found this:

Domino Magazine's Manifesto:
- Home Should Make You Happy!
- We swear by the 3 R's: repaint, repaper, reupholster
- Steal ideas from other people's houses
- Even the insides of the closets & cabinets can be beautiful
- It's ok to NOT BE finished
- TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS--ALWAYS!
- A chandelier is as timeless as a black dress
- Renters need not be second class citizens
- Sometimes your mistakes become your greatest inspirations
- DON'T BE AFRAID TO MIX STYLES (Louis XIV & Eero Saarinen should hangout more often)

- When traveling--skip the snapshot & buy something unique for the coffee table
- HAVE FUN!

I love it!! Below is one of my favorite homes that the magazine featured, it always keeps me inspired when looking to give my place a face lift. It is Amanda Peet's home, does anyone remember the show called Jack and Jill? Angela, I know you used to watch it because we would compare notes. It was on back in 1999-2001, Amanda Peet played Jack. Her career took off from there, but that is when I first took notice and then when I saw her house, WOW, great style, recycled items, nothing too matchy and colorful! Enjoy!

Isn't it lovely? I just love the eclectic, bohemian, vintage, lived in feel. Her daughter's room is super cute! Now, if I could mix her home interior style with Ralph Lauren's double RL ranch in CO, I would be all set!

PS - I know I posted about orange paint a while back, which the Babe nixed, but I did get a fabulous orange rug instead - compromise is the key to a happy marriage. I am laying it out this weekend after I clean the floors and move some things around a bit.

All photos from Domino Magazine.

Memories of Mary

10/31

Keeping House

I am not a neat freak at all, I don't obsess over the details around the house, as a matter of fact, I am a mess. I have piles of magazines everywhere, craft supplies usually on the kitchen table and enough stuff on my coffee table to entertain us for an entire weekend without getting up from the couch (remotes, books, magazines, bag of nuts, pen, paper, headphones, phone, cell phones, laptop and a candle and matches). I do like things clean, but they don't have to be organized or picked up, does that make sense? I would rather have a pair of clean shoes on the floor than a pair caked with mud on them on the floor. We don't wear shoes in the house, but that is a good example of what I am getting at.

There is one thing that I have to have nice and organized at all times and that is the cabinet where I keep my dishes and glassware. It has to be neat and clean and at the ready for impromptu entertaining - or just for me and Tim. Unlike some people, I don't have things I only use for guests and on holidays (except for my Christmas dishes which are in stoage during the off-season) I use all my stuff all the time. I have a silver plated serving dish I use at home for snacks in front of the television and antique painted metal trays I serve dinner on when we eat in the living room (more often that at the dinner table these days). I have a small collection of vintage Pyrex glass bowls that I use for everything from rising dough to washing produce in. In my eyes these are just material things that come into our lives and we can't leave with them when we go, so why not use them? Funny, I was just saying this same thing to a friend the other day when she mentioned losing things throughout life that she would like to have now. It has happened to all of us so my recommendation is, take photos of your favorite pieces (no matter their worth) and enjoy using them while you have them. The photos will help you not to forget them and may even bring back memories of what was served on or in them. I had to take a photo of my colorful latte bowls because one broke recently, one is chipped up pretty bad and one has a crack. Some day they won't be here anymore, but I love them, use them for everything and am enjoying them while I can in case they can't be replaced.

PS - Had to add a photo of the inside of my cabinet door, because it makes me happy!

Saturday's

It is not even 10 AM and so far it has been a perfect Saturday.

Here is what I generally like to do on Saturday mornings to wind down from the week and start relaxing for the weekend.

Wake up, have coffee in my favorite coffee cup - come on, you know you have one too. Everything tastes good it in it: coffee, tea, water, when desperate for a clean vessel after a crazy day...even wine works in this mug. Mine sort of looks like a men's shaving mug, footed with a K on it. Oh my, was this mug meant for Kevin, Kyle or Keith to contain a frothy head of shave cream to remove stubble and not for holding Katie's coffee to give a boost in the morning?

So, sip a cup of coffee while sitting on couch curled up like a cinnamon roll (yum, I wish I had a cinnamon roll), kiss Tim goodbye before he goes to play tennis.

Ahhh, alone time, get back into bed with a couple magazines and BayLee. After having my heart broken upon getting word of March being the last printing of both Domino and Country Home magazines I had to find a new love. Like dating, I checked out a couple other home decor magazines at the book store over the past couple weeks. I carefully scrutinized, I asked the questions: is this right for me, do we have a future together, do I want to invest my time to learn more and start a relationship? I know that I wear my heart on my sleeve and wanted to be careful when making a decision about who would replace the last two decor magazines that I loved so much. Then I saw it, could this be the one? We had a rocky love affair in the past when the magazine also had a television show that went along with it but our romance was one of ups and downs and got off balance with the downs becoming more frequent than the ups. Should I go back, did it get better? It has been a couple years, maybe a brief flirtation will turn into something more solid. I took a leap, I bought the February and March issue and read them this morning and I had to say that me and House Beautiful are back together for now. Elle Decor was the runner up so we will see what transpires over the next couple months, maybe I will be ready to take on two lovers again by then. I got burned last time when they both went down, so I will be more cautious this time.

Get up, need more coffee, tuck BayLee into bed and leave him alone for his nap time. Seriously, he likes to get in the bed like a human with covers over him (see above photo), head on the pillow, the whole deal. I just went in to check on him and he is all curled up with his head under the blankets. I wish I was a cat sometimes.

After this post, I will watch a movie (Sybil, I taped the updated version from Lifetime) and then maybe take myself for a walk or bake something... we'll see. I really have no plans, which I love. That may change when Tim gets home though.

Hope you have a great Saturday!

Loving the idea of orange...

For my living room.

I am too much of a wimp though and know I would never do it.

I am scared I would get tired of it.

I do love it though (at least right now I do).

Ugh, I can't commit to paint color!

Happy New Year

I started by taking the first few days of the New Year by not posting and taking some time to myself. New Years Eve, Tim and I stayed in. It was nice. We just hung out and took it easy. I am not that much into crowds and craziness anymore so it was nice and cozy to stay home.

Thursday - cleaned house, put little Christmas tree away. Finished cleaning out my many magazines.

Friday - woke up pretty early for a day off and ran errands, bank, post office and grocery store. I took a class at San Francisco Center for the Book - I took it back at the beginning of 2007 as well. The class was called "Personalized Daybook". We created two personalized journals for the New Year. I loved the last one I made, but used it for the first couple months and then it got too heavy for me to carry around. So, now I have one for 6 months and then will start the next. Here are some photos of my books:

Even though I took this class before, it was so nice to take it again and meet new people and hear about the plans they have for their books. I almost always meet interesting people at the classes I take. I especially like the super talented instructor, Carolee. We know some of the same people and I had taken the class before so it was nice to see a friendly face. After class, I helped with the clean up and Carolee showed me the i-Ching and did a little reading for the new year, which was pretty interesting. It would be fun to do it again in 6 months or so and see what it says now that I know how it works. I drove Carolee home and she invited me in for tea and talk, which was so nice. It is nice to know a cool, creative gal here in the city. You can find more about Carolee at her site Pod Post listed under my Paper, Stationary, Etc. section on the left. I have been a fan since my class a couple years ago.

Saturday - Tim and I got up, made coffee and cleaned the house real good and were done by Noon. Our social worker was coming over to update our home study for our adoption so we wanted everything to be shiny and nice in case she needed to poke around. We went and had lunch at Whole Foods Market and then got some snacks to put out when the social worker arrived. Everything went well, the visit was about 2 hours, from 7-9 and very mellow. We lucked out with Pam, our social worker, she is super cool. Tomorrow, I am mailing in some additional paperwork that is needed for USCIS to process our 18 month extension.

Sunday - We slept until 10. I called my folks to check in and then we went to brunch and grocery shopped. The rest of the day has been nice, writing in my journal, catching up on blogging and did a load of laundry.

I am clearing out one of my old blogs - I was writing a blog for a while with a friend, but the posts stopped. Some of them are pretty fun so I will add them to this blog when I have writers block or feel the need to add them - like the one below.

Hope you all have a great New Year and have many plans to make it even better than last year, blah, blah, blah, why does it feel like you have to say that...I don't know. My new year usually starts with my Birthday, so I didn't really set any goals yet, etc. Really, I kind of already know what I need to do.

Weekend is over already?

It just blew by!

I had so many things I wanted to do and got a lot of them done, but still have quite the list waiting for me at home.

I packed up a lot of things in my kitchen that I wanted to put in storage, plus, my parents got us the glasses we wanted for Christmas so I needed to make them a nice new home. I cleaned out the kitchen cabinets as well, which is always awesome. I would like to redo the contact paper in there at some point, but they are OK for now. I cleaned out my cabinet of cookbooks, yes, like my Mother, I have a cabinet full of cookbooks. There were some that I had gotten from the free table at work that I am done with so I am passing them on by donating them to Goodwill. In cleaning out my vintage books, I found a little note I had written to my ex-boyfriend which caught me a little off guard, it was tucked into a book I had from the 1920's called But Gentleman Marry Brunettes. It must have been from when I lived with my parents, it was cute. Life was a lot different then, that is for sure!

While minimizing my magazines, I came up with a GREEN space saving idea to scan magazine recipes that I want to save into my computer. I stored them on my external hard drive so they are somewhat portable. They are organized by category so they are easy to locate. I used to cut them out and put them in a clear page protector and then into a binder marked "recipes". This was starting to take up too much time and space plus, the page protectors are expensive and not recyclable. So, by scanning the recipes in, I have them at my fingertips and don't have to print them out to use them at home, just open them on my laptop in my kitchen and I am good to go! Paperless and it takes up zero space on my shelves! I am keeping the binders I already have but will not be adding to them. When I have time someday I will scan what I have collected in the binders but that will take some time since I have had them since the mid-90's (2 binders full).

I felt very industrious most of the weekend, which is big for me because I usually just sit around thinking about what I need to do without acting on it. I realized (with the help of a friend who called me out on it on Christmas) that I stand in my own way all the time, I am always in my own head which causes me many problems. I am the biggest hurdle I need to get over most of the time with things I would like to accomplish. Hearing someone read you like book is a HUGE eyeopener so thanks! From other people this comment would not have been acceptable, but this person keeps me in line. I swear you have to have different friends for different things, you know? I am so thankful for my entire crew of friends, apparently it not only takes a village to raise a child, it also takes a village to support a Maltese Kat!

Hope you all had nice post Christmas weekends and you are gearing up for the New Year!

PS - Don't you just love this week between Christmas and New Year's? I love getting everything reorganized, cleaned and ready to start anew.

Weekend Recap

Today is SO much better than yesterday. I believe that we attract things that happen to us, good or bad and I was in a shitty state of mind yesterday therefore bad things happened to me. I know it was my fault and I needed to get my mind right so I went home and hid for the rest of the night to wake up this morning with a better view of things.

Kicked off this past weekend with a cocktail party at my bosses house, which was pretty fun. We played a holiday trivia game and I won one of the prizes, a $50 Whole Foods Market gift card, which was great because we are broke and needed groceries! It was nice to see people I work with everyday outside of the office and interesting to meet their significant others.

Saturday, I slept until about 10, Tim was playing tennis. I took care of some letter writing and walked to the post box to send them off in the mail. Shortly after I got home, Tim came home and we had lunch. Afterwards, I dumped all of the ingredients into the crock pot to make Angela's Lentil Soup and let it rip. I set up my little workshop on the kitchen table and got to work on some things I have been meaning to take care of for Christmas gifts. I worked most of the afternoon until I could smell the soup which made my mouth water. I made some nutty basmati rice in the rice cooker and served the soup over it, which was amazing. Thanks Angela for the quick no hassle dinner idea. It was great and I had leftovers, well spilled them yesterday, but still had leftovers.

Sunday, woke up and made a list so we could go grocery shopping. We went to Whole Foods Market and picked out what we needed for the week. You know, we are bargain shoppers and got almost all 365 brand products and our groceries cost about $35 (including my discount) which was very nice to see. When we were leaving the store Tim spotted the holiday wreaths that smelled so good so we decided to get one with our left over money on the gift card. I hadn't planned on decorating for the holidays, but this made me feel like I had to do something. When we got home, I hung the wreath and then went into the basement and got out my little pre-lit tree and put that out - that is all I am doing this year. Usually I go all out, but not this year, I need a break and a bigger space.

This is my simple little tree with 2 beehive glass containers on each side of it filled with glass ornaments. Maybe I will get some LED lights for the windows if they are still on sale next weekend at our local hardware store (they are supposed to last for 20 years!).