Keepin' up with the Joneses

Eye candy for my house

2011-06-03T14:36:00.000-04:00

I stumbled on this site this morning. It's awesome.

Lonny Magazine

I wish my house looked like some of these rooms. Sigh.

But, more importantly, the site has galleries grouped by room, of photos that have appeared in the magazine. It's under the "Decorate" tab. Hello, inspiration! At the tip of your fingers, no less.

Image source: Lonny Magazine

These are a couple of my favorites. The bedroom is from a spread in the March/April 2011 issue of an Upper East Side home. The whole spread is like eye candy. Check that. The whole SITE is like eye candy.

THE LIST

2011-05-12T13:50:00.000-04:00

Today, I was reading my blog roll and was inspired by this post from one of my favorite blogs.

Which gave me the idea to do the same. It's sometimes nice to keep a running tab on all those little (and big) projects that need done. I do have a mental list, but as someone who likes to make "To Do" lists and relishes marking things off them, this was much more fun.

But "honey do" projects scare the hell out of Jeremy, so I'm not going to show this to him... Lest he run screaming from our home never to be seen again. He obviously doesn't get the same satisfaction that I do from marking things off "To Do" lists.

Well, here it is: (sorta in order it will hopefully get done)

new ceiling fan in master bedroom
buy and put up an outbuilding
finish cutting up tree that fell in our backyard and fix fence
FIX BOTH SHOWERS AND BATHROOM OUTLETS
put the railing back up in the living room along the staircase
finish out flooring in doorways going down the hallway
weatherize around windows
completely redo master bathroom (new flooring, fixtures, light fixtures, you name it)
do something about water problem in driveway
tear out stone flower bed in front yard (it's falling over) and flower bed along front of house
paint half bath
replace doors on master bedroom closet with mirrored doors
get a closet system for master bedroom closet
buy a high-top table and bar stools for family room
find and buy rugs for living room and dining room that I like
replace sliding glass door in family room
expand flower bed in back yard
replace carpet in blue bedroom and master bedroom
replace carpet in family room with some type of wood flooring or Berber carpet
redo kitchen (new flooring, cabinets, countertop, light fixture, paint, possibly appliances)
build a breakfast bar in kitchen and open up wall into dining room
new furniture in office
new gutters/soffit
new siding/shutters
new front door
build a deck
new furniture in living room

If John and Sherry can attack their list with so much gusto, then so can I. Except, they probably have a little more DIY knowledge than I do... But I guess that's how you learn.

A New Place to Buy Mid-Century Modern Furniture in Charleston

2011-04-27T16:02:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, my office took our receptionist out for lunch to commemorate Administrative Assistant's Day at one of our favorite lunch haunts downtown. After we ate, we peeked in a couple of the shops on Hale Street on the way back to where we'd parked. I got a first-hand look into Charleston's newest, and probably most unique, furniture store, Modern by Design.

It's owned by Chuck and Connie Hamsher, who also own The Purple Moon right around the corner.

Here's a link to the news story that ran about the opening a few weeks ago. The items in Modern by Design, however, are slightly different from those sold in The Purple Moon--they're all new. Modern by Design is the answer to many customers wishes that mid-century modern pieces were either 1) more budget-friendly or 2) customizeable. The items in Modern by Design are all re-issued pieces of iconic items such as Eames chairs, arc floor lamps, and glove chairs.

The store is unbelievable--like eye-candy every direction you look! It looks like the set of Mad Men, and touches of the Mad Men look are so hot right now, from home furnishings to fashions. I've actually been contemplating an arc lamp for my "Frank Sinatra Lounge" family room for months. If I'm loungin' and watching tv, I think the overhead lights are too harsh. I have a cheap-o floor lamp that does the job and is fairly neutral in style, but I think an arc lamp behind the couch in the corner would be awesome.

Mid-century modern is trendy right now, but like any style it can be tricky to pull off without your home actually looking like the set of Mad Med. I think a lot of people assume that if you want to have some pieces, say a couch, you have to have it all match. But these pieces look best TODAY when they are tempered with some other pieces, such as Swedish furniture (think Ikea's clean, angular lines) or Hollywood Regency (metallics, glossy blacks and whites, geometric patterns). Modern by Design is one more place to buy furniture, but I wouldn't go out on a limb and say you should completely outfit a room from a single store. Personally, I hope to still collect some vintage pieces, while adding in some reissued new pieces.

This is what I still need for my "lounge":

Photo source modernfurnitureclassics.com

Duncan bar cart from Restoration Hardware

bar table

and stools

from Ikea

dark bamboo wood flooring

white shag area rug

I also need to find a recliner, which is Jeremy's only request. However, Todd Oldham has a line of furniture and did a line for La-Z-Boy a few years ago, so hopefully we find something comfy that doesn't look icky. It'll be the biggest challenge. That, and finding the funds to pay for all of this above. Baby steps, I keep telling myself...

Bringing a little bit of spring inside

2011-03-17T17:35:00.000-04:00

I know it has been ages since I've updated this blog. Okay, it's been 2 months and three-ish weeks to be precise.

I just got past my most busy time at my job. I'm not even kidding. I lived at my office the last two weeks pretty much. I went home to sleep (sometimes 6 hours or less) and shower.

But, last Sunday was a beautiful day. And having finished up at my office after 1 am on Saturday night, I was delighted to have a whole day of leisure to waste away. But it was so pretty outside. So, I did will myself to ~~shower and~~ dress and head outside for about an hour and a half.

I swept off the patio and contemplated if it was too early to get our fire pit out and make a fire in it Sunday night. It probably was. It was nice and sunny, but the wind was a little chilly. I also cleaned leaves out of my flower bed and picked sticks up out of the yard that had blown out of the trees when we had a hellacious storm a couple weeks ago.

And I picked some flowers. And cut some frosythia. And made this.

It's just so cheerful. And it kinda has perked me up every morning since Sunday that I've stumbled into the dining room half awake at about 7:09 a.m. to get some caffeine, er water, and eat breakfast. I'm not a morning person, so every little bit helps.

Let's get out the "big girl" dishes.

2010-12-30T14:44:00.000-05:00

A popular toy for little girls is a plastic tea set. I think I had a couple. Strawberry Shortcake or Smurfs patterns, if I had to guess. I served many a pretend meals on these. It was never tea, though. I grew up in the country. We didn't do tea time. It probably was green beans. That was my favorite food when I was little.

Since we've lived in our house, I've hosted an early Christmas dinner and exchanged presents with my dad and brother on the 23rd. Christmas Eve Eve, if you will.

The first year, I did a take on Feast of the Seven Fishes. I think last year, I made one of my dad's favorite pasta dishes. It's never turkey and the fixins'. We get enough of that on the days that follow. This year, I made one of Jeremy's recent favorite dishes, Stout Braised Short Ribs. They did not disappoint, I can assure you. Read more about the recipe here.

Before everyone arrived, I was setting the table with my regular Fiestaware, and thought I should break out the fine china I got for my wedding. I've never used it. What a shame to have it and to have never used it, I thought. But I didn't stop there. I put out the nice glasses and even cloth napkins.

For a centerpiece, I usually use paperwhites that I force bloom. I LOVE LOVE LOVE paperwhites. There's something so elegant to the pale delicate blooms in your house around the holidays. I always put them in clear vases with glass pebbles instead of the dirt the bulb kits always come with. The last few years, I've bought the Smith & Hawken kit at Target. But this year, I didn't get them in time, and didn't get them started in time for Christmas. So, I dumped a container of plastic ornaments in a bowl and called it a day. The ornaments perfectly match the bowl and the cool blues and greens scheme in my dining room. Easy-peasy!

In the background is my aluminum tree. I love that thing.

And, we are having some friends over for New Year's Eve. So, even though my paperwhites didn't make it to the Christmas party, looks like someone besides me will get to enjoy them tomorrow before they die.

Aluminum or evergreen?

2010-12-17T23:20:00.000-05:00

or both?

I FINALLY got my trees decorated. To my credit, the trees were up for a week but I just hadn't decorated them. We always get a real tree. My husband's a forester, so it's kinda a given. Plus, it's just tradition. Growing up, we always had a real tree, and half the fun was going to pick it out.

This year's tree is... well... a little small. But it was FREE. Like it was crowding my father-in-law's fruit trees, so he wanted it outta there. And there's two more that are smaller than this one. So, I guess we've got our trees lined up for the next couple years. According to the hubs it's a Norway Spruce. Really short needles, and nice flexible branches, so it's easy to get ornaments placed just where you want.

The other one is in my dining room. It's an antique aluminum tree that I bought last year from The Purple Moon. I LOVE it. When I was in third grade, our teacher brought a tree like this in from home and we decorated it. I'll bet my grandparents had one at some point. Apparently, they fell out of favor when "A Charlie Brown Christmas" came out because they kinda knock aluminum trees and how Christmas became so commercialized. Now they're collector's items. All the decoration they really need are some simple bulbs.

Evolution of a dining room.

2010-12-04T16:58:00.000-05:00

Decorating seems like a never-ending project.

Dining room during our walk-through when we bought the house--June 2007.

Dining room right after we bought furniture--April 2009.

I bought the light fixture after we painted. We had different furniture picked out that was wood. About the color of the light fixture. When we brought home this furniture, I realized the light fixture stuck out like a sore thumb. So, I began looking for something else. Only problem is, I'm picky. And I didn't want to pay $800 for a light fixture.

I especially like the vintage saucers on the wall. They are Fiestaware, Luray, Harlequin and Franciscan Starburst.

Dining room with new light fixture and curtains, and more plates on the wall--November 2010.

This summer, I was in the West Elm store in Columbus, Ohio. I spotted this light fixture and knew it was exactly what I was looking for. Drum pendant. White or neutral. And best of all, less than $100.

I picked up the new plates last weekend when I was at the Fiestaware outlet in Flatwoods. I wanted to get vintage, but it's expensive in the bigger pieces. These are seconds, so they were about the same price--or cheaper, as the vintage saucers.

Next on the list is a rug and a china cabinet. I have my china displayed in a nice cabinet that my Mom gave me when she redid her kitchen/dining room. It just doesn't match. One of these days, maybe I will be "finished." Probably just in time to start thinking about a new paint color...

It's all about the details around here.

2010-12-04T16:31:00.000-05:00

Earlier this year, Jeremy and I undertook a huge project at our house. We had been wanting to install solid hardwood floors since we moved in four years ago, and after watching prices for a few months, found some flooring we liked at a rock bottom-price.

So of course,we bought it.

And it sat in our house for about a month.

Then, Jeremy started ripping up carpet and putting the flooring down.

It really is beautiful. So much better than the white carpet.

He finished it up in a few weeks. Kinda.

Fast forward to October. I had been watching interest rates for a few months. You see, we needed to refinance sometime in the next few years because we were in an adjustable rate mortgage. I figured it was as good a time as any. And I couldn't have been more right. In October, interest rates hit record lows. The lowest since anyone had been keeping track of them in the early 70s. So, we pulled the trigger on the re-fi.

What does this have to do with the floors???

Well. You know how I operate. Nothing like a looming deadline to get me motivated to do some home improvement. Since Jeremy finished the floors in June, we had been enjoying them without baseboards. And with the hideous white carpet still on the stairs. I was getting to the point that I didn't even notice anymore. But I knew an appraiser certainly would.

So with our application pending, we went on a home improvement and Home Depot consumer credit card blitz. We ripped the carpet off the stairs and completely replaced the them with beautiful oak stairs. We also finally got around to putting down baseboards. They look SO nice!

And, while we're on the subject of baseboards, you'll notice they're white. We obsessed a little bit about what color we should put down. Oak would match the floors, but is wildly expensive. We could have gotten pine and stained them to match the oak, but I wasn't sure what that would look like. The other non-oak option was pine painted white. But white baseboards meant the trim around the doors wouldn't match. An added expense would be replacing all the trim around the doors. And the doors. But, in the end, I decided I'd try painting the trim around the doors and the doors. And, I couldn't be happier. It lightened up the hallway immeasurably.

There are only a few little odds and ends left to do. Hopefully it doesn't take another six months to complete the project 100%.

Our DIY-free summer.

2010-10-07T11:19:00.001-04:00

Okay. So, there's not been much to keep up with the Joneses about the last couple months.

The home improving has come to a standstill since June-ish when the hubs "finished" putting down the hardwood floors. I use "finish" loosely here, as all the flooring is in fact down, but there are no baseboards, transitions, or railing, and the holes need to be cut out for the air registers.

I wanted to post an "after" picture, but we haven't quite made it there yet, and I'm too vain to put up pictures of the half-done project and brag about how great the floor looks...

The good news is that after a summer of travelling a lot and being really busy, things are finally settling down (for me at least--Jeremy is just starting to get to the busy time with his job). AND, last month I paid off the hardwood floors on our Home Depot Card. AND I just got a 12 months same-as-cash, plus 10% off your next purchase promo card from them in the mail. Time to go load up that credit card again with some baseboards, stair treads and kicks, and railing so we can get this project put to bed.

I've got a couple other things in the hopper to keep me busy around the house this fall.

We DESPERATELY need to fix our only fully-functioning shower. It's an easy fix. All we need to do is replace the rubber washer behind the shower knob. Right now, when you take a shower, water runs out the faucet at full force while the shower is running. We are wasting A LOT of water, not to mention it's so annoying to be standing in ankle-deep water when you get done taking a shower. The only problem is, I've tried twice to get the stupid shower knob off to replace the washer. Yes, I unscrewed the screw holding it on. Everyone asks if I did that. Duh.

I'm also not feeling this bathroom now that I've painted the family room orange.

The light blue and the decor are a little off-putting to me know with the swanky orange "lounge." I really want to paint it (again) and find some new wall art. Since it's a small space, I think I should avoid any dark colors on the wall, and I want something that will flow with orange. I'm thinking gray. As far as the decor, I'm not even sure what I want, except maybe a tiny orange accent. Like one small knick knack on the back of the potty or even some wall art with just a hit of orange in it. I like black and white photos, and I stumbled on an awesome website with THOUSANDS of Depression era black and white photos. Apparently, the federal government sent photographers (some quite notable) out to document the depression across the country. There are a number from West Virginia and even Charleston. You can order them right from the website for a nominal fee, although I haven't had any luck getting in touch with the proper person. They are fascinating just to peruse, though.
The website is maintained by the Library of Congress. Here's the link: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsahtml/fahome.html. You might even recognize some of the photographs, as they became iconic images of the struggles of America during the Great Depression.

I'm not sure how they would look in a 'loo, but at least it would be something interresting for guys to look at while they're peeing...

Stay tuned for updates. Hopefully we get the DIY project wagon cranked up again soon.

Some days being a homeowner isn't all picking out wall art and hosting cookouts.

2010-08-16T21:58:00.000-04:00

Last Tuesday, I got up for work and went into the kitchen to feed my cat like I do every other morning. I looked out the kitchen window into our back yard and wondered why Jeremy had cut down such a big tree. I hadn't had my coffee yet. Then it occurred to me. He hadn't cut it down. It just fell. My second thought was, how did I not hear it fall?

This tree was HUGE. It was a red oak, and actually was standing on the bank across from a streambed at the bottom of our lot. It was most definitely not on our property. But now it was. It smashed our fence in two places.

So, we spent the better part of Sunday cleaning up the mess. It's a good thing I'm married to a forester. He knows his way around with a chainsaw. Luckily, the tree fell right across Jeremy's woodpile. But, he got three loads of wood last week for our fireplace. Now, there's about 3 more loads' worth on top of it. I guess I'll be nice and toasty this winter.

We didn't get finished cleaning up the mess, but we made a big dent in it. We were able to put the chain link fence back up in one place, but I'm not sure what we'll do about the part laying under the 2-foot-thick truck of the tree.

Every swanky lounge needs a HUGE white leather couch.

2010-07-29T20:12:00.001-04:00

A while back, I got an idea for my red family room. I'd paint it orange.

The idea was mostly inspired by this picture:

Photo credit: DavidCoburn.com

Y'all know how much I love Frank Sinatra. Well, Frank Sinatra famously loved the color orange. Wouldn't it be cool if I turned my family room into a lounge that Frank woulda like to hang in?

I knew I wanted a leather couch. I knew I wanted the room to be orange, chocolate and cream. Here's the lovely before:

And, here it is now: Ta-da!

Even the mantle got a upgrade. Katie Bower would be proud of this because, it's all stuff I already had, except the hurricane and candle are new.

This couch is seriously huge. After looking high and low, I found it at Ashley Furniture. It's individual pieces, and you could buy as many as you needed and arrange them to fit your room, which was really nice. And after pricing leather sectionals, I'm confident we even got a pretty good deal, to boot!

I still haven't finished the other side of the room. I want to get a high-top table and bar stools, and put in a bar. Hopefully, that is coming soon. Unfortunately, it would be really difficult to run water over to make it bar a wet bar, so, that's off the table.

Now, who's coming over for martinis?

Guess what I got last week?

2010-07-12T14:46:00.002-04:00

A couch!

Stay tuned for the pics. BTW, I LOVE it so far.

The couch saga ... one month later.

2010-06-24T11:51:00.000-04:00

Yay! We found a couch! Actually, Jeremy found a couch at Ashley Furniture at Southridge. It was on the showroom floor. He sat on it and said it was pretty comfy. He texted me a picture of it, and it looks perfect. Contemporary. White. Leather.

So, on Memorial Day, we go to Ashley Furniture to check it out. We figured they'd be having some bangin' sales that day. But the floor model was gone!!! Sold!

Anyway, they were having a sale. Not a "bangin'" sale, per se, but we got 12% off for arriving at the store between 1 and 2 pm. I'll take it. We went ahead and ordered the couch--sight unseen to me. I trust Jeremy. And I'm desperate.

It was supposed to be in this week, but like our luck with couches has gone so far... it'll be in June 29th. We'll see.

And, in other news, I found a light fixture for the dining room. Yes, I know, I replaced the light fixture in there less than 2 years ago. When I thought I was getting a wooden dining room suite. It's been bugging me since I got the white and chrome one. The light fixture in there is just too dark, and it doesn't match.

Actually, since this picture was taken, the brown curtains (also bought in anticipation of the wooden furniture) are gone, replaced with a white sheer with a dot design. And the carpet is gone, too. More on that very soon. The hardwood floors are 99% down.

I've been looking for a long time for something else for the dining room. Something affordable. Something bold. Something that MATCHES. Here's something I saw in the West Elm store when I was in Columbus over my birthday. 99 bucks. But wait. Last week, it was an additional 10% off on the website. Sold.

West Elm Pleated Pendant

Well, I got it yesterday. But the conversion kit (sold seperately) is back ordered until the last week in July. Which means I won't get to put it up before Jeremy's birthday cookout next month. Booo! No worries for now, though. All of my living room furniture is still in the dining room while the floors are under construction. I'm told they'll be done by said cookout. If they aren't I might just finish them myself. Y'all know how a looming family function at my house gets me on a home improvement marathon.

The dining room comes full circle.

2010-05-21T09:49:00.001-04:00

Since we started putting down hardwood floors, I have been on the lookout for area rugs for the dining room and the living room. I've been trying to prepare Jeremy, too, by mentioning how expensive rugs are when we talk about the flooring project. But, "expensive" is relative. He'll probably think I mean like $150. That's the low end. As a matter of fact, that would probably be a steal.

I would be interested in wool, and something that can be spot cleaned easily. Also, I'm not big on the traditional-looking rugs. Not too much floral, either. I'm not afraid of a busy pattern, since the rest of the room has clean lines. It has to be mostly brown, off-white, green and a bit of blue. That's a tall order.

Target has some nice ones, actually, at reasonable prices. And with free shipping and 15% off orders over $125, that's not to shabby. This is one of the rugs I'm thinking about. And, at $199 for a 5x7' rug, it's really not a bad deal.

I like the Dwell Studio rugs, too. They look kinda modern to me, but not over the top. That's probably good since I don't want my house to look like a time capsule house from the late sixties, just heavily influenced by mid-centry modern. Here's another one similar to the first that I like.

Then, this morning, I get an email about Layla Grace. I'm not familiar with this company, but at first glance, it looks a little to "girly" for me. But something in the email mentioned Amy Butler rugs. I LOVE Amy Butler fabric--and I don't really care for floral prints. That's saying a lot. It feels a little bit bohemian to me, but depending on how you worked it into a room, it could fit with a lot of styles--romantic, modern, Southern.

As a matter of fact, I matched the paint I picked out for the dining room to some Amy Butler fabric I wanted to buy to make curtains out of. Well, I should have pulled the trigger and bought the fabric when I first saw it on Reprodepot.com. When I went back, it was sold out. I even tried ebay, but there were only small pieces of it available.

I gasped out loud when I saw the pattern again--this time as a rug.

Sadly, when I couldn't get the fabric, I moved on with my plans for the dining room. Instead of pink, there are hints of blues from the plates hanging on either side of the window. So, I won't be buying this rug. But, I think it's meant to be that I buy one of these. Only problem is they are substantially more than the Target rugs--$676 for a 5x7' rug.

Facelift almost done.

2010-05-19T20:29:00.001-04:00

After the both the legislative session and spring fire season ended, we attacked home improvement like we've never done since we've owned our house. Just as an aside, we COULD have possibly bitten off more than we can chew.

The first day it was warm enough to get outside, I got to sledgehammer the trellis on our stoop. I've been waiting for this moment. I hate that thing. And the English ivy around it.

Look how gross it is.

These pieces of wood have a new life as tomato stakes.

It only took a few hours until the trellis and the ivy were all gone!

And now, after a few weeks, a few coats of paint, and some grass seed, it's almost done.

It's hard to appreciate from this far back, but you get the whole picture.

The shutters and door are now navy blue.

Most importantly, the ivy and trellis are gone.

We have a light fixture to hang up. We'll get to it sometime soon, I guess. I bought some marigolds and some kinda white flower. I thought the orange would be a nice contrast with the blue. Also, today, Jeremy's mom offered me three hostas she wants to dig up, so I'll put those in the bed to the right of the door. That bed doesn't get much rain, though, so I'll have to remember to water them occassionally. Hostas are pretty tolerant, though, so hopefully they survive the summer.

Left hangin'

2010-05-13T16:54:00.001-04:00

Left hangin' without a couch, that is.

Right around the end of March, I did a random google search for "white leather sectional." I do this sometimes. Especially at work. When I'm bored.

Low and behold, one of the first couple hits I got was for one on CLEARANCE at JCPenney dot com.

It was perfect, except it was a little closer to beige than off white. The exact color was "bone." I was willing to live with this as it was on CLEARANCE. I'm talkin' crazy CLEARANCE. Like $2799 marked down to $1199. I. Could. Not. Pass. This. Up.

But, I didn't have $1200. Think, Jennelle, think. I need to buy this couch. NOW. You know, my mom has $1200 and she does moonlight as a loan shark. Just kidding about that last part. Sort of.

So, my mom bought me the couch and I made up an amortization schedule for the payments. Like I said, she's a loan shark. The couch was supposed to be delivered on May 3rd.

In the meantime, I listed both of the couches and two chairs that were in the family room on craigslist. I sold one couch and two chairs and am in email negotiations for the second couch.

On May 3rd, I called JC Penney's to ask if it was still on schedule, since I hadn't received a call to set up a delivery time yet. They told me it was supposed to leave the factory that day at noon, and the trucking company (a third party) would call me sometime in the next few days to set up a delivery time. I didn't hear anything, so on Friday, May 7th, I called JC Penney back to double check. Yes, the couch already left the factory, and I should hear from the trucking company by no later than May 21st to arrange delivery.

Then on Monday, this week, I get an email from JC Penney. "Our manufacturer has notified us that the item you ordered is no longer available." What? It's en route! ... supposedly. So, I called JC Penney back to ask them "WTF?" and relayed the whole situation to them. The lady was SOOOO nice, I couldn't be really mean, which really took the wind out of my sails. Apparently, the people I spoke to BOTH times the week before misread the information. It never was shipped. Yeah, right. I don't know what's going on but JC Penney is on my shit list.

Anyway, I need a white leather sectional for under $1,600. STAT. Is there one out there? Who knows. Google hasn't turned up anything yet.

Let the DIY weekend begin!

2010-03-25T15:06:00.001-04:00

Lunchtime trip to Home Depot: $2,100.

Taking the day off to make a long weekend of painting: $0.

Having your home the way you've always wanted it: PRICELESS.

Yep, I ran out to Home Depot today during lunch to pick up the painting supplies I needed so I could start first thing in the morning. Jeremy met me out there because I also wanted to buy some mirrored bi-fold doors for the master bedroom closet, and they won't fit in my car. While I was getting the paint mixed, he wandered over to flooring and found a pile'o 3/4" thick oak hardwood flooring on sale for $2.99 a square foot. There was a limited number of boxes, and the salesguy told us (now that I think about it, it probably was a sales ploy--but hey, it worked) that another couple was there earlier in the day looking at it, and wanted to shop around some. I've been watching the price of hardwood flooring for about a year now, as I've been saving up, and 2.99/sq. ft. is pretty cheap for this stuff. So, we bought it.

I also bought some orange paint for the family room. Tomorrow I am going to primer and paint over the red walls, and hopefully make it look like a lounge that Frank Sinatra might have liked. I am using a deep orange on the walls, and using chocolate and ivory as my other colors. Here's a pic from when we were moving in.

The carpet is in pretty decent shape, so it's going to stay for the time being. Plus, light carpet lightens the room up with such a strong color on the walls. The couch, unfortunately, will stay for the immediate future. Although, Jeremy's parents have offered us their sectional when they get new furniture in a few weeks. It's tan, but I was thinking of getting a white slipcover for it. Problem is, slipcovers for sectional are EXTREMELY difficult to find. Most website I looked at suggested buying two slipcovers for conventional couches and tucking the extra fabric into where the sectional joins. Eventually, the plan is to get all new furniture for the room, and I have been looking at white leather couches. Jeremy is leaning more toward chocolate brown leather, instead, which would still be okay with me. I have some long hocolate matte satin curtins that I will use, most likely in front of the sliding glass door opposite the couch in this picture. Right now it has a valance that matches the curtains over this window. And, of course, my Audrey is staying, since she falls into the theme for the room of Palm Springs circa 1966.

I also bought some navy blue paint for the front door and shutters, and a new light fixture for over the front door. There weren't many hanging exterior lights to choose from, and I wasn't really crazy about any of what they had, but I picked out a black, wrought-iron looking one that was only $25. I also got some grass seed for the bare spot where we ripped up all the English ivy growing around the front steps. I hate that stuff.

At any rate, this weekend will sure be a busy one. We're not planning on starting on the flooring right away, but it looks like we'll have plenty to keep us busy this weekend anyway.

All signs point to spring.

2010-03-16T14:31:00.001-04:00

Timing is a funny thing.

I feel like I've just woken up from a long nap. It's called the Legislature.

After working until 7 almost every day for the past two weeks, sometimes this places feels like a parallel universe. And, now that I've stopped working long enough to take a deep breath, and I notice all the sudden, it's spring.

So, it was either very fitting or cruel irony, that daylight savings was Saturday night. Two hours after we adjourned, actually. (I just put in an 18-hour day, and now I loose an hour of sleep!?!)

But, the nice thing is that the weather is finally breaking, and I get home with a few hours of daylight left in the evenings now. I've been putting off some home projects and yearly maintenace until now.

And, this morning, I paid off my Home Depot credit card. Just in time to go load it up again for 12 months same-as-cash.

Here's what I've got planned for the coming weeks:

Get a new closet door for the master bedroom. I've been eyeing a mirrored bi-fold door for $100.
Paint the "red room" orange and start saving up for a new couch.
Clean up the patio and backyard, and plan landscaping.
Replace outside light fixture above the front door. (Unfortunately, there's a pendant light there now, so for ease of replacement, I guess that's what I'll get. I'd like to get one that mounts to the wall of the house beside the door, but that would leave a big hole in the soffit.)
SLEDGEHAMMER the trellis on the front stoop. I HATE that thing and I cannot wait to destroy it.
Get some new planters for the front stoop and get some colorful annuals for them.
Paint my front door and shutters.
Till and plant my vegetable garden.
Shop for hardwood floors for the living room, dining room and hallway, buy the flooring and hopefully get it installed in a reasonable amount of time. My tax return has been buring my pocket since I got it, but now I have the time to devote to such a huge project. However, something is telling me I shouldn't expect the installation to be completed until after Memorial Day. My home-project timeline is usually vastly different than Jeremy's.

Maybe this list is a bit ambitious. Wish me luck. I'm going to take a couple days off work, maybe next week, to start on my to-do list. My house hopefully won't even be recognizable by the time I'm done.

Rejuvenation Lighting

2010-02-20T23:10:00.001-05:00

It's funny how timing works. Or scary.

Last week, I received a catalog in the mail from Rejuvenation Lighting. I've been looking for a new light fixture for my dining room since I got the dining room suite last spring. I just can't find what I like for under $500.

Anyway, why did this lighting and hardware boutique store in Portland send me a catalog? Was it the cookies on my computer? That's scary, considering the order I just placed at drugstore dot com... I digress.

If you have a period house (unlike me) or if you like a period of architecture (like me) this seems like a pretty good source. Still a little pricey, but I liked how their catalog, and website is organized by period. It makes it really easy if you're not totally sure what you're after.

I wish they had more to choose from in their Mid-Century Modern Collection, but I'm seeing what styles would work in my dining room, and maybe I can look for something similiar at cheaper retailers. This style looks a lot like the light I bought for my entryway from Ikea.

The price ain't bad at $215, but you could pick up the FADO model at Ikea for $39.99, like I did. Let me take a moment to caution about lighting from Ikea. I'm no electrician, but having owned a house for 3 plus years, I've ~~changed~~ okay, supervised the changing of several light fixtures. This light fixture has FOUR wires. The hubs and I were dumbfounded with what to do with the extra wire. Ikea's directions are mostly pictures with very little text, to accommodate the multiple countries Ikea has retail locations in. We took a guess what to do with the extra wire and we were wrong. I'll just leave it at that, saying that we have a different light fixture in the entryway now.

But, if you had a craftsman bungalow like my girlie here, look at all the goodies Rejuvenation Lighting has. When I redo my master bathroom, which I want to do in hollywood regency style, I'll definitely remember this source with it's extensive Deco Collection.

What's better is that the company has a mind toward sustainability. They started using a low-VOC clear coat, and even replaced individually-wrapped salt and pepper packets in the employee lunch room with salt and pepper shakers. Every little bit helps.

Dropping the ball in more ways than one.

2010-02-03T21:20:00.001-05:00

It's been an embarrassingly long time since I've posted. I've been busy doing this and this.

Since my last post, I hosted Thanksgiving Dinner at my house, decorated for Christmas, had our first family gathering for Christmas Eve at our house (by default--Mom's electric was off for 8 days straight over Christmas), watched the ball drop on 2009, undecorated for Christmas, weathered a couple good dumps of snow (one of the pitfalls of being a homeowner is shovelling your own driveway), and went on a road trip to Cincinnati, where I bought some stuff at it's fairly-new Ikea.

Here's a pic of the fab vintage tree I put up this year. You see, I have a store here in Charleston that I LOVE. I wish my whole house looked like the inside of this place. It's like a mid-century museum or something. When Mom and I did the Charleston Art Walk in November, I spotted this lil' jewel of a 3-foot vintage aluminum tree for $50. I've admired aluminum trees of all shapes and sizes in the Purple Moon's windows for the past couple years at Christmas time. Chuck, the owner told me they search estate sales and flea markets for them all year and sell better than 25 trees a year. I bought some plain lime-green bulbs at Wal-Mart (I hate to admit it), which is all I put on the tree. I really didn't need a lot since it's so pretty and sparkly by itself. I didn't want to over do it.

Because of my work, there're no home improvement projects in the hopper for the next couple months. But, I'm about to pay off my 12-months-same-as-cash balance at Home Depot, and it's about time to load it up again. Here's one thing I'm definitely going to buy:

Mirror closet doors for the master bedroom for $102. Also, we've been talking about what we're going to do to the family room. We affectionately call it the "red room." Yikes. The seller was nice enough to throw in a couch and matching chairs in our negotiations... Thanks. No, really. They've served their purpose. We have a lot of seating, which makes entertaining easier. Also, they matched the red walls, which is more than I can say for my other furniture.

I got an idea while back for the new family room from a picture I saw once (and can't seem to find now). Frank Sinatra was standing in front of a jet with an orange stripe on it. The caption said something about how orange was his favorite color. I'd love to have a family room that looks like a swanky lounge in Palm Springs, circa 1966, with a pumpkin/chocolate/cream color scheme. But, this room is where we spend 75% of our time and where we entertain, so it can't be too over the top. I'd love to paint the walls pumpkin and put a white leather sectional in the corner. On my road trip to the Cincinnati Ikea, this is what I bought:

Pretty flexible no matter what direction this room takes. It's going to be a major overhaul, regardless.

The most outrageous Mid-Century Modern fantasy I've ever witnessed.

2009-11-15T17:20:00.000-05:00

Top O'Rock, that is.

This morning, I was perusing the real estate guide in the Sunday paper. I do this religiously like old folks read the obituaries. And, I saw that Top O'Rock was having an open house today. I read about the historic home a few months ago when the Sunday Gazette Mail did a spread about how it was going on the market.

The home was designed and built by Charleston architect Henry Elden in 1968. Elden clearly drew inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright's use of nature as an extension of a home. The structure is 10,000 square feet of curved glass and steel. Walking through it feels like the outdoors are literally about an arms' reach away.

The property has been vacant for a while and is in need of a bit of TLC. As I walked through, I just couldn't help but hope that whoever buys the property, which is a 4,000 square foot residence connected to a 6,000 square foot office space, restores it to it's all out mid-century modern fabulousness, and really appreciates the character of the property. Many of the furnishings were sold at an estate sale earlier this year by The Purple Moon. And, I could totally furnish that place with wares from the store. (Chuck, you guys should buy it and use it as a showroom. Hmmm.)

So, without further adieu, here's the eye candy:

The living room from the balcony above and the skylight in the shower in one of the several bathrooms.

One of the bedrooms and one of three spiral staircases.

green curved glass with a gold pattern in the master bath and a view of the office space.

View of downtown Charleston from Top O'Rock and view of the office space from the driveway.

All I can say is UNBELIEVABLE. Now, if I only had $695,000.

Here's the listing, in case your curious: Top O'Rock.

The Jury's Still Out...

2009-10-28T14:11:00.001-04:00

On the headboard I've been wanting for months. I finally bought it. Not sure if I totally like it, even after two weeks. Whadya think?

It's not the one I originally wanted from Target dot com. That one was $150 MORE than this one, which I thought was even overpriced a bit. Maybe I would've been happier with that one regardless of the whopping price tag. On a positive note, reading in bed has been more comfortable, at least...

I also ordered the plates I'd had my eye on for a while for the dining room. The plates I had up each had a different pink and green floral print on them. I wanted something more vintage-y looking, and I found these dessert plates at Dishes DelMar. I shouldn't gotten bigger plates, but I am such a tight-wad! The smaller dessert plates were much cheaper. All of them except the one with the pattern were made in West Virginia. The patterned one is Franciscan Starburst, which was made around the same time as the others. The others are vintage Fiesta, vintage Harlequin, both made by Homer Laughlin China, and vintage Lu-Ray made in the 40's and 50's by Taylor, Smith & Taylor Company, also of Chester, West Virginia.

I'm still looking for a light fixture I like that doesn't cost $800. I need to get rid of the wood-shade. Maybe something made from capiz... Hmm.

No sense in mixing burdens...

2009-09-22T13:37:00.000-04:00

Now, all the food/cooking/eating local stuff will be at Delicious Potager.

More room for home stuff here.

When It's All Good In The 'Hood.

2009-09-07T21:33:00.001-04:00

I know, I know. I don't live on the West Side anymore. Thus, it sounds a bit ridiculous to be calling my 'hood, well, a "hood." (On the West Side, this was perfectly normal. Actually, Jeremy and I call our 'hood "Snob Knob", and that pretty much sums it up... I digress.)

But, it's that time of year. Football season gets me a little weepy. I'm not even joking. One time, I teared-up when I heard the opening notes of "Country Roads" in late August, and I wasn't even at a football field.

At the beginning of the season, when the smell of fall is in the air, I am all sorts of excited for all football, not just my beloved Mountaineers. Even, my hometown team, the George Washington High School Patriots. Am I Gee-Dub alumni? No. Do I know a single person who goes to school there? No. But the school is less than a mile from my house, so by-God, they are MY hometown team. Friday, I found myself caught up in an article on the sports page about the showdown on "The Hill" (read: "Snob Knob"). Yes, yes. G.W. was hosting a football game at their true home field instead of playing their usual "home" game at Laidley Field. This was a big deal for 2 reasons. First, because they play about two games a year at their true home field on their campus. Maybe not even that many. Second, because it was a rematch of last years' championship game for the AAA State Title with South Charleston. Trust me, it was a huge deal.

Anyway, I did a drive by of the field about 5:15 p.m. and cars were already lined up along the road down the road from the field. Did I actually go to the game? Well, no. Maybe next year I will pay $6 or whatever a high school game costs these days and go in. That's actually a pretty good value for seeing two quality teams these days. South Charleston won, for the record. The sportscaster said it was a close game. That's about as close to the action as I got, but there's something to be said for the hometown football scene. And, like I said. Sometimes I get weepy over football at the start of the season.

So, anyway, I woke up early Saturday morning. Early enough to be in the kitchen making coffee when I heard the chirp chirp of a police siren. Again, this would be normal on the West Side, but on the "Hill" (read: "Snob Knob"), people run to their windows to see what the commotion is all about. I forgot all about the Charleston Distance Run being this weekend, with no Regatta this year, and all. Well, the chirp chirp was the lead car of the CDR, and it was actually two City policemen on motorcyles and a Sheriff's Deputy in a Durango leading the pack of die-hard runners. They are "die-hards", cause anyone would have to be to run up Bridge Road. Running down Bridge Road would be different. I've even considered that, as long as there's a car at the bottom to drive my fat ass back up the hill. The CDR is also a big deal in this town. Participation was down a bit this year, I believe, since there was no Regatta, but still the running participation was over 3,000. Add to that the people who did the 5K walk, 10K walk and the running relay, and that's a pretty good crowd of people. Participation in the past has been over 10,000. It's nice to see that despite losing it's marquee event, Charleston still keeps the good stuff that was associated with the Regatta. The funeral parade, one of the highlights of the Regatta, that sorta had a cult following, happened this weekend, too. Maybe next year, we'll get the whole thing back, but for now, the Regatta fell victim to the economy. I watched several of the runners from my couch with a cup of coffee, and after a long while, a lone wheelchair racer came by my house. He was really struggling with the steady but gentle grade that goes past my house toward Louden Heights Road. A truck came by with some guys who looked like they were part of a construction crew. They stopped and spoke to the wheelchair racer, and then one got out and pushed him up to the intersection with Louden Heights Road where the race turned and went back down the hill. I thought that was especially nice, like one of those commercials for that insurance company, who's name escapes me (effective marketing, I suppose).

Anyway, I got off track. Today, we planned a cookout. The unofficial guest of honor was Jeremy's uncle Danny, who every time I see him says, "Every time I'm in Charleston, I always wondere where you guys live." Well, now he knows. The cook out was a success, despite the weather. It was really a cook out and eat in. But everyone had fun and we had too much food--marks of a great cookout. We had about 12 people here. Family. Good times.

Now, because of said cook out plans, I did what I always do when I have some sort of entertaining deadline looming. I went on a home improvement marathon that would make even the most easy-going person (me) insane. The kind of home improvement marathon that causes me to miss work, loose sleep at night and fight with my husband. But alas, it is done. It looks great. And I arrived at some genius solutions to snags in said marathon in said sleepless nights. This time, it was stripping the wallpaper (yes, again.) in the office. This wallpaper was not painted over. But it was fugly, so it had to go. And it took with it, layers of paper on the sheet rock in places. It was awful. Huge patches of bare sheet rock with frayed paper that I had to spackle over and paint. And, it was one night when I was laying in bed watching the clock tick from 4 am to 4:45 am that the answer came to me... Semi-gloss paint would hide the rough spots better than satin or eggshell finish would. I arrived at this conclusion after I'd done three coats of spackle and sanding, and still had places you could loofah your heels on in the wall. So, because of scheduling snafus, I had to take off work on Friday to finish the room. Here it is, before and after:

And, here's a few other updates from the weekend. The Energy Star Sales Tax Holiday started September 1st. So I made a Home Depot run for a programmable thermostat and picked up a new light fixture for the entry way. I got the art at Ikea this weekend when I volunteered to drive my mom up so she could buy a computer desk. Y'all know I jump at an opportunity to go to Ikea.

MtAoFC Part 4 -- Poulet Saute

2009-08-21T23:36:00.001-04:00

Hello, Friday!

Last night, I made Poulet Saute (p. 254) and Tomatoes a la Provencale (p. 507) again. But I love those, so I really do make them all the time. So good. So easy.

Yes, yes. So I cooked this stuff after I got home from picking up my fresh food from the Monroe County Farmers Market. Where Jamie Oliver's camera crew was, but not Jamie Oliver. I was disappointed. I even went home at lunchtime to get my cookbook for him to autograph. (That's two celebrity chefs I've missed out on meeting, but that's another story). But I didn't care about getting interviewed for the show. It was too hot and I was wearing cashmere. Poor wardrobe choice for mid-August, I know.

Anyway, the chicken was wonderful. It tasted like it was made out of butter. Probably because of the gratuitous amounts of butter called for, but whatever. And the recipe says you can throw some "green herbs" in the sauce to finish it. My mom gave me a bunch of herbs she had, and the sage looked like it would go bad the soonest, so that's what I used. Besides, sage is a natural match for poultry.

2 1/2 to 3 lbs. cut up chicken
2 Tb butter and 1 Tb oil

Dry each piece of chicken thoroughly. Place a heavy casserole or skillet in over moderately high heat with the butter and oil. When the butter foam has almost subsided, add the chicken pieces skin-side down, as many as will fit in one layer. In 2 - 3 minutes, when the chicken has browned to a nice golden color on one side, turn it to brown on the other side. Regulate heat so that it is always hot but not burning.

Salt and pepper
Optional: 1 to 2 tsp fresh green herbs
2 - 3 Tb butter, if necessary

Season the dark meat with salt, pepper and optional herbs. (The wings and breasts are done later, as they cook faster.) If the browning fat burns, pour it out and add fresh butter. Place over moderate heat. Add dark meats, cover the casserole and cook slowly for 8 to 9 minutes.

Season the white meat, add it to the dark meat, and baste the chicken with the butter in the skillet. Cover and continue cooking for about 15 minutes, turning and basting the chicken 2 or 3 times. The meat is done when the fattest part of the drumstick is tender if pinched and the juices run clear or yellow when the meat is pricked deeply with a fork. Remove the chicken to a hot serving platter. Cover and keep warm.

1 Tb minced shallot or green onion
Optional: 1/2 cup of dry white wine or 1/3 cup of dry vermouth
3/4 to 1 cup of brown chicken stock, canned beef bouillon or canned chicken broth
1 to 2 Tb softened butter
1 to 2 Tb minced green herbs

Remove all but about 2 or 3 tablesppons of fat from the skillet. Add the shallots and cook slowly for 1 minute. Pour in the optional wine and the stock. Raise heat and boil rapidly, scraping up the coagulated saute juices and reducing the liquid to abotu 1/3 cup. Correct seasonings. Off heat and just before serving, swirl in the enrichment of butter and optional herbs.

On a side note, I thought the reason Jamie Oliver's camera crew was at the pick-up was for an American version of "The Naked Chef." No. He is hosting the reality show about how Huntington is the fattest city in America. That is what the filming was for. How fat we West Virginians are. Nice. As I always am, I'll be curious to see how West Virginia is portrayed. At least when I was there yesterday, they weren't interviewing the stupidest people they could find. The girl they interviewed was cute and seemed smart. Maybe it won't be all bad, after all.

Locavores Rejoice!

2009-08-20T10:04:00.001-04:00

Two huge bits of news...

First, I don't know if everyone saw the plug I made for the Monroe County Farmers Market back when I was doing the Penny Pinching Pantry Raid. I've been receiving fresh produce and meat and eggs all summer once a week, and I can't be more pleased with the products. They deliver to Charleston once a week for a $5 fee. The product prices aren't too bad compared to Krogers, where I usually shop. The meat is almost exclusively pasture-raised or free range and hormone/antibiotic free. And the produce is mostly organic. (They tell you what products are not.) I could go on and on about the other reasons to get your stuff at a Farmer's Market, like how eating local is more "green" and how its important to support the local economy.

Anyway, onto the news... Today at the pick-up in Charleston, the crew from the tv show, "The Naked Chef" is going to be there to see how the market's delivery service works and interview the people who utilize it. I don't know if Jamie Oliver is going to be there, but I am giddy with excitement that he possibly could be. AND, the show is wanting to do a US version of "The Naked Chef" and they are going to be buying their produce from the Monroe County Farmers Market for the next two months!!!!

I can't say enough about how good the quality of the food is. Eggs--awesome! Salad greens--fabulous!! (And they stay "good" for longer since they are really fresh. I kept a zip lock bag of them in my fridge for well over 2 weeks.) Pork sausage--exquiste!! Anyway, if you want in and you are in the Charleston area, here's the link: http://www.monroefarmmarket.com/becomemember

Now, there's nothing wrong with other farmers markets--I still shop at the Capital Market. And, if you already have a farmers market that you use, by all means, keep it up. You know, you can't beat the taste of an almost-too ripe tomato that was picked this morning with a little salt.

Second bit of news, after several phone calls, I found a breeder of heritage turkeys in West Virginia!

Heritage turkeys are the ones that were here when the pilgrims came. What they sell in the grocery store, well, wasn't. The one's they sell in the grocery store are "broad-breasted whites," which have been genetically engineered to be, um, more profitable. They are fully mature in as little as 18 weeks. They have substantially more breast meat, as with keeping with the demands of the American consumer. Their legs are shorter, and their breasts are so large, that if allowed to mature longer than 18 weeks, they wouldn't be able to stand up or walk. Also, because of their physique, they can't reproduce naturally--they can't "do" it. So, all the turkeys that you buy in the store are here because of artificial insemination and if allowed to live past Thanksgiving, would be immobile.

Heritage turkeys are coming back into fashion a bit, with all the publicity of the local food movement, and all. Problem was, I couldn't find a breeder nearby. A quick search on the internet produced several hits of breeders selling them ... 600 miles away. Some required local pick up, and some would fed ex your turkey to you, for a pretty penny--not an option. Finally, after a call to the WV Department of Agriculture, and being transferred to three different offices, and a voicemail later, I found a breeder in Phillippi, White Oak Ridge Farm. They raise only Bronze breeds, their smallest turkeys are around 12 pounds, and last year, they sold them for $2.59 to 2.69 a pound. All are free-range, hormone and antibiotic free. And, I imagine, whatever birds they don't sell, get to "get it on." Yippee! (By the way, the phone number is 304-457-1085, and they begin taking orders for Thanksgiving in September.)

Based on what I've read, cooking a heritage turkey is a little different than a Butterball. There is more dark meat, and moisture content of the meat is much greater. So you don't need to engage in moisture-preserving tricks like brining, bags or obsessive basting. I'm told that heritage turkeys are much more flavorful than standard turkeys, as well as healthier--they have a more natural diet of grass and bugs, which gives them their flavor and makes them lower in saturated fat. Saturated fat fears aside, I found a recipe for a rub for a heritage turkey made from butter, all natural maple syrup and rosemary. I can't wait to cook this bird. Tasty!

Anyway, hopefully I get to meet Jamie Oliver this evening, but I'm not holding my breath. It's probably best I don't since I'll probably act like and idiot and stutter and stammer around like a crazy groupie. And, stay tuned for the turkey wrap-up after Thanksgiving. My family will be the final judge on taste, but I still feel good about buying it, no matter what.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking Part 3

2009-08-13T21:21:00.001-04:00

Thon A La Provencale (Tuna Steaks with Wine, Tomatoes and Herbs) p.219

I am someone who likes Tuna Steaks rare. As a matter of fact, I don't really care for them unless they are seared. This recipe just didn't deliver for me... Too bad I dropped $10 on 8 oz. of fresh tuna steaks.

The tomato topping for the fish--now that was a different story. De-licious! If I make this again, I am going to skip the step of finishing the seared fish in the oven. The fish was overcooked, and I didn't even leave it in the oven as long as the recipe said! Just a quick sear and top with the tomato sauce next time.

I made Tomates A La Provencale (p. 507) with the tuna steaks. I love these. I've made them a few times since the tomatoes started coming in. They are so easy, and something different (for when you get tired of sliced fresh tomatoes for dinner. You can only eat those so many evenings in a row).

On Julie & Julia, cooking and other musings...

2009-08-12T15:59:00.001-04:00

Ahh, vacation. Who doesn't love it? And, then you come back to your job. Booo!

Last week while I was wasting away on Myrtle Beach, "West Virginia South", if you will... I made the second installment in my road to Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and saw the movie Julie & Julia.

Monday, I made Coq Au Vin (specifically Coq Au Sauvignon Blanc) on pg. 263, oignons glaces a brun on page 483, and chamignons sautes au beurre on page 513. It. Was. Amazing.

I don't usually cook for other people besides myself and Jeremy. I'd love to, don't get me wrong. But our families don't live within a convenient distance to come over for dinner on a week night, and it always seems like on weekends we are on the go or eating at our families homes. So, it struck me as funny when I was cooking dinner for Jeremy, my mom and my brother. First, I realized very quickly how territorial I am in the kitchen--even when it's not MY kitchen. And, I realized how far I've come as a home cook. I think I am something else now, a bonafide foodie, dare I say.

Here's what I mean. I was shopping for groceries for the week with the fam. I had my list for the Coq Au Vin. I wanted unsalted butter. That is what I cook with 90% of the time when a recipe calls for butter (and ALWAYS bake with). My mom, who's a nurse, God love her, wanted to get the heart-healthy margarine instead. When I put the package of cut-up whole chicken in the cart, she asked why my recipe couldn't be made with boneless skinless chicken instead. Now, I'll be the first one to tell you about eating healthy, but this is different. The recipes are so detailed in their instruction that to venture off that path by signifcantly substituting ingredients would give you something less. Something wrong.

That got me thinking. Julia put such care into the recipes and was so meticulous, this is how the food was intended to be prepared. The cookbook was written over 40 years ago, in a totally different time. Before fast food. Before not having time for dinner. Before transfats. And before people ate because they were lonely, stressed out, bored or whatever. When Julia wrote the cookbook, I think people viewed meals as a time to enjoy what they were eating. Truly enjoy. I once read that Julia never "snacked" or had seconds. That's probably good advice for all of us, let alone those of us who are eating as much butter as the recipes call for...

The Coq au Vin was delicious, and I don't know about Jeremy, my mom or brother, but I truly enjoyed it. As for the onions, we agreed that we could have made a whole meal of those.

As for the movie, I thought it was great. I've read both books, or at least I've read Julie & Julia and part of My Life in France (I read until they had to move to Bonn, and then the book slowed down, but I surmise Julia would agree with that... She hated it when they moved from France). I was really glad some parts of the book made it into the movie, and some parts I wish they would have included... but I realize they had to fit it into 2 hours or so. I would have liked to have seen more of Julie's mom, and her goofy friend. Both had an more influence on Julie than the movie reflects. And the book starts out by Julie finding out she'll have trouble conceiving a child. That was a huge theme in the beginning of the book, and part of what led t to her frustration with her life. And I got the impression from the book that Julie didn't put much thought into cooking before the project, but in the movie, it seems like she already cooks as a hobby when she begins. All of the parts of Julia Child's story in the movie were fantastic. I especially loved the (very limited) part with her sister Dorothy "Dort." Stanley Tucci did a fabulous job--I couldn't think of a person more perfect to play Paul Child when I read he would be filling that role. And Meryl Streep was outstanding as Julia. I read before the movie came out, that when she read for the role, she did the first couple lines in that voice, and they told her the part was hers.

Today, in the paper, I read that MtAoFC is a best seller on both Amazon dot com and Barnes and Noble. As a matter of fact, the publisher ordered an additional 75,000 copies last week, which have already sold out on Amazon. I just wonder what the real Julie Powell thinks of all this, and especially, what Julia would have thought.

Soupe Au Pistou

2009-07-31T10:17:00.001-04:00

So, so, so excited to be participating! What fun to make a recipe you've never tried before once a week and write about how delicious and beautiful your results were! Not to mention to celebrate the movie and the books and the work of Julia Child. What a genius she was!

Here's my contribution for Week 1: Soupe Au Pistou (Provencal Vegetable Soup with Garlic, Basil and Herbs, p. 45)

So, you noticed the crock pot.

Okay, I sorta cheated a little bit on the recipe. For the first 5 ingrediets, water, carrots, potatoes, leeks and salt, the recipe said to boil them slowly for about 40 minutes. I knew I didn't have the time yesterday evening to do that, so I put them in the crock pot on low while I was at work. When I got home, I added the rest of the ingredients and followed the recipe, and Volia! -- it turned out wonderful!

I have to admit, I doubted it would turn out so wonderful as I was putting the soup together. I couldn't quite get my tomatoe puree, basil and garlic to blend to a "paste" per se, but that didn't seem to affect the soup's consistency. And, I used velvet-leaf basil instead of sweet basil, because that's what I had on hand. The leaves are a bit more coarse, hence the name, "velvet-leaf basil", and you can kinda tell when you eat it. But it is still yummy, and virtually fat free, which is a plus...

I happend to have all the ingredients on hand (except leeks, which I had to run out a buy), which pretty much dictated what I decided to make this week, as I am still in the Penny Pinching Pantry Raid challenge. This soup was so hearty and filling, it would be great for a winter supper, and since I know now that you can do the most time-consuming part of the recipe in the crockpot, this will likely become part of my usual rotation.

Next week, I'm off to Myrtle Beach for a week with my mom and brother. We always pick a few nights to stay in a cook something at the condo, so I already picked out a recipe from MtAoFC, that only takes a few ingredients and isn't too difficult to make, since I'll be at the mercy of a kitchen and implements I'm not familiar with.

When I first heard a movie was in the works based on the book, Julie & Julia, I was so excited because last fall, I'd read the book. After I read that book, I read My Life in France, which is the other book the movie incorporates. I hate to admit that I didn't finish that one. I stopped reading shortly after Julia and Paul Child moved to Germany. It got sorta slow at that point, but I'm sure Julia herself would admit as much. She was so disappointed to be leaving France after living there for a few years. I enjoyed reading the books so much, I asked for MtAoFC for Christmas and got it. I've only made a handful of recipes out of the book, but the one's I've made have been F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S!

So maybe next Friday I'll go see the movie. Seems like we always go to the movies when we are at the beach. A werid thing my family does, evidently. At any rate, I'm already looking forward to leftover soup for lunch today, and next week's recipe. Stay tuned!

Penny Pinching Pantry Raid Wrap-Up

2009-07-30T10:38:00.001-04:00

It's July 31st. The last day of July. The last day of the Penny Pinching Pantry Raid.
Even though I didn't keep within the $100 budget, I still think I came out ahead. Here's where I stand:
Groceries: $272.70
Eating Out: $225.53
Compared to the previous months, this is marked improvement. Especially considering how much we traveled in July. I'm going to shoot for it again next month, too.
FREEZER:

6 oz. queso fresco
1 bag + 1 partial bag chopped broccoli
partial bag biscuits
1 Steamfresh Meals for Two
1/2 bag chicken tenders
2 pie crusts
1 partial bag potatoes obrien
2 Lean Cuisines
1 gallon bag vegetable broth
1 gallon bag chicken broth
waffles
1 unidentified piece of meat (It's probably deer loin...)
1 chopped green pepper
2 cups blueberries
6 cups blackberries
3 sliced yellow squash
2 sliced zucchini
1 8x8 pan stuffed shells
1 8x8 pan lasagna
1 quart-bag deer meatballs
coffee
2 balls of pasta dough

PANTRY:

1 Kroger bag of new potatoes (thanks to my father-in-law's garden!)
saltines
partial bag egg noodles
1 partial box spaghetti
1 bag pecans
Karo syrup
1 partial jar peanut butter
2 bread mixes
1 cheeseball mix
1 box beginet mix
bisquick
1 partial canister oats
wheat gluten
dried onions
1 pkg onion soup mix
cocoa
corn starch
masa harina
sugar, splenda, flour, corn meal, brown sugar and powdered sugar
assorted tea and hot chocolate mix
1 box sure-jell
partial box of couscous
1 canister bread crumbs and panko bread crumbs
baking powder and baking soda
2 boxes jello pudding mix
lemonade mix
1/2 bag soy beans
assorted spices, vinegar and oils
1 canister whey protein
chow mein noodles
3 cans hotdog chili
1 can kraut
1 partial box Kashi Go Lean
1 partial bag Baked Lays

FRIDGE:

partial quart of skim milk
2 Tb stick butter
1 tub of margarine
eggs
coffee creamer
margarita mix
2 partial bottles of pancake syrup
1 partial quart of cottage cheese
1 fruit cup
2 jello puddings
pickle spears
1 quart homemade bread and butter pickles
1 jar pickled beets
3 sodas
6 cukes
corn tortillas
celery
partial bag of spinach
5 tomatoes
handful of green beans from my garden
half a package of American cheese slices
goat cheese
feta cheese
blue cheese crumbles
provolone cheese slices
5 pieces string cheese
a tiny bit of the jar of minced garlic (I stretched it all month long!!!)
partial head of garlic
1/3 wedge of pecorrino cheese
18 pack of Miller Lite (payment to my dad for feeding my cats when I'm at the beach next week...)
assorted condiments

DEEP FREEZER/GARAGE SHELVES:

8 lbs. deer burger
1 deer loin
1 wild turkey breast
1 box Kashi Go Lean
6 Italian sausages
2 pt. pepper butter
1 jar garlic powder
2 bottles Spicy V8
2 bottles mustard
3 bottles hot sauce
1 canister oats
8 qt. green beans
6 qt. homemade pickles
1 qt. tomato juice
8 qt. weiners and peppers
3 pt. weiners and peppers
1 pt. homemade hot sauce
4 pkg of hotdogs
1 pt. pickles

Last month, I spent $300.03 on groceries; and $482.62 eating out. For two people. That. is. ridiculous. Even if I didn't keep it under $100 for the month, one thing I did learn is to use what I have, stock up when I can, and plan meals a little better. I also didn't make too many trips to the grocery store, which was nice. I froze several yellow squash and zucchinis, berries and made a mess of pickles, which will help out with the grocery bill throughout the year.
All in all, I made progress, and I think I'll try it again next month.

I blew the Penny Pinching Pantry Raid budget!

2009-07-10T14:10:00.001-04:00

It was such a laudable goal.

One hundred dollars for food for a month. At first, I said "there's no way." Then I decided it wouldn't be too hard, considering all that I had in my freezer and pantry. Problem was, (and maybe if I'd been more open-minded on what is considered a meal...) I didn't have stuff that I could combine and make a meal with.

All in all, I think it was still a success. I cleaned out my pantry and freezer. I made one trip to the grocery store, and I think that'll do me for the month. And most of all, from now on out, I'm going to employ a keen sense of frugality when it comes to planning meals. I'm going to use what I have, stock up when I have the opportunity, and not eat out so much.

I went to the grocery store last night because I desperately needed dishwashing liquid and cat litter. I was trying to avoid going, it had reached critical level. Well, $66.84 later and I'm over my budget in food for the month. But really, is spending $200 a month on food terrible? In May, I spent $387.82 on groceries and $341.67 eating out. For 2 people!!! Despite my failure at the challenge, I'm counting it as a success in every sense.

Last night, I bought mostly stuff I would have been hard-pressed to do without in the next few weeks. Stuff I use everyday. String cheese, yougart, cottage cheese, breakfast and lunch food for Jeremy. Stuff like that. Okay, I also did buy an extra half-gallon of Turkey Hill ice cream, but with my coupon, I got it for $1.29. Not too shabby.

I also bought two filets to grill for me and Jeremy on our actual anniversary on Wednesday. $4.49 ea. And I needed a yellow cake mix to make the Weight Watcher's blackberry cobbler recipie for dessert after the steak. BTW, Jeremy got me a gallon of blackberries this week. In the woods. For free.

I bought some tomato sauce to make sauce to finish off the jumbo shells and lasagna that I have in the pantry. For the life of me, I had in my pantry everything I needed to make either stuffed shells or lasagna but something for the sauce. Now that I think about it, I suppose I should have made a white sauce. Butter, flour, milk. I had all those already... Anyway, there's two more meals done after I spent $1.32 on five cans of tomato sauce.

So here's where I stand: Over budget $34.88.

Occassionally, this guy I work with makes the MOST FABULOUS WAFFLES EVER for the entire staff. That's what I had for breakfast. D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S. And free. Jeremy didn't eat.

Lunch was cold cucumber soup and a turkey sandwich. Jeremy had a turkey sandwich.

I had yougart and a hard-boiled egg for a snack.

For dinner, I'm making swiss chard and linguine with grated peccorino cheese. Okay, so the cheese was one of my splurges at the store. Bad, me!

Yesterday, I had Kashi and cottage cheese (again) for breakfast. Jeremy had waffles.

I had yougart, egg, string cheese and a granola bar for a snack.

It was our monthly employee potluck at lunch time. I contributed zucchini bread. I think Jeremy had lunch at the new Sheetz in Milton. He was excited, a new Sheetz just doesn't open everyday. I don't know what the damage was yet, but I doubt it was more than $7.

For dinner, I made grilled salmon with cucumber yougart topping for dinner and we had a salad.

I bought the salmon (1 lb.) at the Fish Market on Wednesday for $10.87.

On Wednesday, nothing fancy for any meals, but we had Subway for dinner. I had a coupon for a BOGO footlong sub. $7.42 for dinner for both of us isn't too bad, and it was one of those evenings that just wasn't exactly conducive to making dinner at home. I had a hair appointment right after work, then we had a co-ed softball game. This qualified as a time when eating out is okay, in my book.

Only 6 days in and I've realized I'm not gonna make it.

2009-07-07T15:13:00.001-04:00

That's right.

Today is July 7th. I have $49.48 left to spend this month. I'm not gonna make it. I need to pick up about 6 items at the grocery store before next week, too. I have my meals all planned for the next couple weeks, and maybe if I was willing to be a little more "creative," I really could do it ... Like having cucumbers, couscous and a can of baked beans count as a dinner.

But, even participating in the challenge has forced me to clean out the cabinets and freezer, which is something I REALLY needed to do. I noticed the "use by" date on the half a bag of dried soybeans I have was January 2008. I didn't throw those out, though. Surely, dried beans won't go bad, right? I did throw out some food that need to be, though. The fruit snacks? I wouldn't think those would go bad either; and they tasted fine. They were just a little too chewy. Three jars of canned goods gone. Green and moldy on top. The only sad thing is that I wasted them. I hate wasting food, especially when someone I know put in the work to grow the food in their garden, on top of that, go to the trouble to can it, and be generous enough to share.

We booked a night in Columbus next week to celebrate our anniversary and Jeremy's birthday. We'll probably blow the rest of the food budget on dinner that night, but it is a special occasion. And then the week after, I have to go to Philly for a conference, and while I've planned meals for Jeremy while I'm gone that consist of frozen pizza and a pan of lasagna in the freezer, I'm sure he'll venture out to Main Kwong or Burger King for lunch at least a couple days while I'm gone.

No biggie, though. I've been on board 6 days and I've already benefitted. I haven't been to the grocery store yet, so I've saved at least an hour and a half of my time and about $80 bucks already. I cleaned out cabinets and the freezer, which needed done, and in planning the meals around what we have stored, it definitely makes me appreciate it a little more.

Here's where we stand:

Breakfast: Me - Kashi and cottage cheese; Jeremy didn't eat breakfast
Lunch: Me - leftover chili and cornbread; Jeremy wanted to eat out, so I'll have to update the total tomorrow
Dinner: Beef kabobs with mushrooms and onions and salad
Snacks: Me - yougart, egg, granola bar, string cheese

Also, I ordered some more food from the Monroe County Farmers Market today: 1 (2 lb.) pkg. free-range chicken thighs $6.50; 8 oz. organic Swiss Chard $4.00; 1 doz. free-range eggs $3.00; and 6 oz. organic baby lettuce $3.50. The stuff I got last week was awesome. And even with the $5 weekly delivery fee, I think it is still cheaper than Krogers.

23 days to go and $49.48 left to spend. YIKES!

Penny Pinching Pantry Raid continues...

2009-07-06T10:08:00.002-04:00

I am so glad I'm doing this. I didn't go to the store yesterday, like I do most Sunday afternoons. And I didn't miss it one bit! And I came across another jar of canned goods gone bad. Who knows how long that stuff would've set on the shelf in my garage? I had a fabulous weekend with lots of good food (mostly because we were visiting family), and I didn't spend a dime.

Thursday evening, I picked up my first order from Monroe Farmers Market. 1 lb. sausage, 1 doz. eggs, 6 oz. of salad greens (which was a gallon-size ziplock bag) and 1 oz. each of fresh oregano and basil (which were pint containers! I must not have a good sense of weights, cause I thought it'd be much less than that. At $1.50 an ounce, that's way cheaper than Krogers!!!!)--all for $19.00. I was so impressed with the quality of the food, I can't wait to order more this week.
Thursday for dinner, I made salad with a 6 oz. grilled salmon filet that I marinated in balsalmic vinegar on top. I threw in some sliced Baby Bellas and some feta cheese. Delicious!

Friday, we were off work, and I was feeling inspired by having fresh sausage, so I made sausage, eggs, HOMEMADE biscuits (the frozen ones are always better than my homemade biscuits, but I was on a roll!) and sausage gravy. I did not fail as a Clay County wife... It was yummy. The sausage was surprisingly lean, too. Friday evening, we went to my mom's to celebrate her birthday (July 2nd) and cooked out. Had some awesome BBQ ribs (thanks, J.R.!). I made cannellini bean, tomato, and basil salad (so easy and perfect for cookouts cause it doesn't need to be refrigerated) and mom made potato salad. We drank our two growlers of beer we bought at Smokey Mountain Brewery when we were in Gatlinburg a couple weeks ago.

Saturday, I "yard sale'd" at my mom's house all day and didn't do too bad. I got rid of a bunch of stuff, which is always good. For lunch, I made homemade pizza with the rest of the sausage, baby bellas, oregano, goat cheese and carmelized onions. I also made an apple pie cause it was the 4th of July, with all ingredients from my mom's pantry. Saturday night, we ate hamburgers and hotdogs at Jeremy's parents house.

Yesterday, I didn't eat breakfast but Jeremy had two waffles. For lunch, we each had a leftover hamburger and pasta salad. And for dinner, I grilled some chicken tenders basted with pepper butter (kinda like hot mustard). Made mexican cornbread and had a fresh cucumber from my brother-in-law's garden. He gave us another Kroger bag full on Saturday, too, so we'll be having cukes every evening for a while.

Today, breakfast: oats (me) waffles (Jeremy)
Lunch: Lean Cuisine and a pudding cup (me) and leftover hotdogs and a pudding cup (Jeremy)
Dinner: Chili w/ leftover cornbread
Snacks: yougart, egg, string cheese and granola bar (me) fruit cup and Milky Way (Jeremy)

So far, $71.48 left to spend and 24 days to go.

Okay... I'm in for the Penny Pinching Pantry Raid

2009-07-02T10:22:00.001-04:00

Well, I thought "there's no way," when I first read about Susan's (She's becoming doughmesstic) Penny Pinching Pantry Raid Challenge. But after I came home from a week-long trip to Boston, and didn't feel like grocery shopping, and I thought I had "no food in the house!!!", I looked in the freezer, and realized I could put that trip to the grocery store off until tomorrow evening. I have a lot more stocked up than I thought, and I need to get rid of some of this stuff, anyway. And I realized, vegetable gardens will be coming in the next month, so it's time to clean out the freezer and pantry to make room for the new stuff I'll put up.

The more I thought about it, the more excited I got. I would have an extra hour or hour and half per week. I would hopefully have an extra $250+ dollars at the end of the month. What could I do with the time and money I'd save?!? So I did an inventory, and I'm glad I did. I found two jars of canned goods that had gone bad, and I threw away some stuff in the freezer that had been there a while ... Gross. After looking at the inventory, I already see about 10 meals without even going to the store. And I can rely on the generosity of family who's gardens are already producing. We got a bag of squash and cukes just the other day from my brother-in-law. That, plus, I conveniently went to the store on June 30th and bought enough for a couple weeks worth of meals. The only drawback is that I am going to Philly for a conference for a week (but I get a per diem, so I'm only going to count any money I spend above that.) And, Jeremy are thinking about going away for a night for our anniversary on the 15th. So, eating out will have to count toward the $100. Jeremy said he was "in" as long as beer didn't count toward the $100.

Here's where I stand:

FREEZER:

1 pkg turkey lunchmeat

2 c. shredded zucchini

6 oz. queso fresco

1/2 a gallon bag of veg scraps (for making broth)

1/2 bag biscuits chopped broccoli

1 Steamfresh Meals for Two

1 frozen pizza

2 c. squash

1 ea. partial bag of broccoli and peas

1/2 bag of chicken tenders

2 pie crusts

1 bag potatoes obrien

2 Lean Cuisines

3 lbs. deer burger

1 bag frozen corn

2 c. shredded mozzarella

1/2 gallon bag of cubes of chicken broth

1 unidentified piece of meat

waffles

PANTRY:

1 lb. new potatoes

saltines

partial boxes of pasta (lasagna, linguine, shells and egg noodles)

bags of cornmeal, flour, sugar, brown sugar, splenda, powdered sugar and coconut

1 bag pecans

karo syrup

2 partial jars of PB

4 bags assorted bread mixes

beignet mix

bisquick

1 partial canister oats

wheat gluten (no clue why I bought this. It's unopened.)

dried onions

coffee

1 pkg ea. onion soup mix and taco seasoning

cocoa

corn starch

masa harina

13 bags of fruit snacks

assorted tea

1 box of sure-jell

2 partial boxes of rice and a partial box of couscous

1 canister bread crumbs and panko bread crumbs

baking powder

1 box granola bars

2 boxes jello pudding

hot chocolate mix

lemonade mix

1 jar honey

1 jar apricot preserves

2 cans diced tomatoes

1/2 bag soy beans

assorted spices, vinegars and oils

2 canisters whey protein

1 pkg fish fry batter

1 can tuna

chow mein noodles

4 cans assorted beans

3 cans hotdog chili

1 can kraut

1 can cream of chicken soup

1/2 can almonds

1 partial box Kashi Go Lean

FRIDGE:

1 loaf of bread

1 stick of butter

tub of margarine

3 hot peppers

1 bell pepper

1 pint grape tomatoes

6 oz. filet of salmon

1 qt. + 1 c. fresh blueberries

2 pkg hotdogs

1 pkg hotdog buns

1 pkg hamb. buns

1/2 carton of egg beaters

1 egg

1/2 gallon of milk

2 growlers of beer

coffee creamer

margarita mix

1 qt. cottage cheese

1 qt. plain FF yougart

3 fruit cups

14 jello puddings

pickle spears

2 5lb bags flour

2 jars of pickled beets

8 oz. FF cream cheese

5 sodas

5 small squash

3 cukes

corn tortillas

flour tortillas

1/2 pkg lunch meat

1 whole pkg + 3 cheese slices

goat cheese

feta cheese

blue cheese

3 slices pepper jack cheese

2 containers of mushrooms

1 lemon

1 pkg basil

1 garlic clove

6 stalks celery

8 carrots

2 partial jars weiners & peppers

1/8 jar minced garlic (YIKES!)

16 oz. deer kilbasa

4 1/2 onions

condiments/dressings/etc.

2 candy bars

1 small partial can crisco

15 yougarts

1.3 lb. pkg of turkey burger

about 1/3 a head of iceberg lettuce

6 sticks of string cheese

DEEP FREEZER/GARAGE SHELVES:

2 2-c. pkg shredded cheddar cheese

1 homemade 8x8 pan lasagna

1 container cool whip

11 lbs. deer burger

1 deer loin

1 wild turkey breast

2 boxes of Kashi Go Lean

6 italian sausages

3 pt. pepper butter

1 jar mayo

1 jar garlic powder

3 bottles of V8

2 bottles mustard

3 bottles hot sauce

1 canister oats

8 qt. green beans

1 qt. pickles

2 qt. tomato juice

9 qt. weiners and peppers

4 pt. weiners & peppers

1 pt. homemade hot sauce

4 pkg hot dogs

Unfortunately, yesterday I ate lunch out with co-workers for $9.52. (But it was sooo good.) Today, actually, fortunately, I will be receiving my order from the Monroe County Farmers' Market. I've never ordered before, but some friends of mine swear by it. They deliver to Charleston every week, and the selection is awesome. I ordered 1 lb. free-range pork sausge for $4, 1 dozen free-range eggs for $3, a 6 oz. pkg organic salad greens for $4, and a bunch of fresh oregano and basil for $1.50 each, plus a $5 delivery fee for $19 total. Check it out at http://www.monroefarmmarket.com/market.php

Last night, I made "Buffalo" turkey burgers: 1.3 lbs. ground turkey @ $3.00; 5 buns @ $0.87; 3 slices of pepper jack cheese; a couple tsp. of hot sauce mixed in the meat; 2/3 container of blue cheese crumbles @ $1.32; 4 oz. cream cheese @ $0.35; lettuce; and a cucumber (FREE!) Dinner for two for around $5.54!!! I ate lunch out and had 1 c. Kashi for breakfast; 1/4 c. milk and 1/2 c. of cottage cheese.

Today:

French toast for breakfast for me. Jeremy didn't eat breakfast

For lunch, I had a lean cuisine and a jello pudding cup. Jeremy ate a leftover turkey burger and a soda.

For snacks, I had a hard boiled egg, yougart, 1 stick of string cheese, a granola bar and 1 bag of fruit snacks.

For dinner, we'll have salad w/ grilled salmon, mushrooms and feta cheese.

We're just doing our patriotic duty.

2009-05-12T09:31:00.000-04:00

That's right... Obama said go forth and refinance, so that's what we're doing.

Granted we've only been in the house two years this July, but the low rates were too much to resist. Two years ago we got in right before the no money down party ended, and we're finding that is really limiting our options now, but no worries. Our mortgage broker from before found us something that will work.

Now, I have to tout City National Bank for a minute. They had a great loan product for first-time homebuyers called a "Champion Mortgage." 100% financing and $695 closing costs. That's right, $695. Period. That includes your appraisal. Yes, it was an ARM, and we all know how much bad press ARMs got as the housing bubble burst. But our mortgage broker helped us to not fear the ARM. They can work if you are responsible and know what you're getting into. It's funny when I tell people I have an ARM loan. Do you remember the Sex and the City episode with Heather Graham? The one where Carrie ran into the chic who dated Aiden right after she broke up with him? I get that face when I tell people I have an ARM.

Any ho, our ARM was a 10 year arm. Just refinance it within 10 years. No biggie. As interest rates fell, I started calling around to see how good of a deal I could get. At least the lady at Chase was honest when she said to check with City National because she couldn't give us that great of a deal.

I called City National on April 27th about 2 pm and spoke to our original mortgage officer. She quoted me a pretty good rate for refinancing into another Champion Mortgage ARM, but said no bank could refinance a mortgage into a 30-year fixed with less than 5% equity given the current state of the banking industry. No one is going to do it. I told her I'd talk to Jeremy about it and get back with her the next day. Well, at 3 pm, she got an email from the corporate HQ saying that beginning the next day they were discountinuing the Champion Mortgage program because of the "high loan to value ratio of the loans." Evidently, they are getting some heat from regulators. Anyhow, I talked to Jeremy and he thought it sounded like a good deal, so I call her back that day... It's a good thing I did, or we would have been out of luck. She did our application over the phone that afternoon, so she could get it in before it was too late.

So, I ran the numbers on moneychimp dot com (awesome site for figuring stuff out like car payments, amortizing loans, etc, BTW). We should hit 5% equity by the fall of 2011, so then we'll be eligible for a 30-year fixed mortgage. And with the new lower rate, we'll save almost $200/month on the payment. Is it wrong to have already spent that money? Probably. We haven't closed yet.

But I'm pricing hardwood floors and a new front door.

The first time we entertained in our new dining room.

2009-05-07T10:13:00.001-04:00

This past Tuesday, J.R. and Tracy came over for a yummy Cinco de Mayo dinner in our new dining room. Mishap after mishap occurred with the food, but the company was fabulous. The food was delicious, just not that "pretty" and about an hour and a half late...

I got tied up at work Tuesday (The state bar's computer database got hacked. I got an email at 4:30 saying I should put a fraud alert on my credit report. Awesome!) So, I didn't even start cooking until 5:30ish.

I made chicken enchiladas, homemade guacamole and tortilla chips, chili rellenos, and I tried to make margaritas. The guacamole was DELICIOUS, as were the chips. Both are super easy to make, and I got the recipie from Tyler Florence's cookbook, Eat This Book. For the chips, you basically buy the 4" corn tortillas, cut them into forths and fry them in canola oil. Nothing is better than hot, salty, GREASY tortilla chips, freshly made.

The chicken enchiladas were great, too. And since I try to only eat like that 1 day a week, my co-workers enjoyed almost a whole pan of them for lunch yesterday. The four of us ate so many chips while waiting on the enchiladas to get done, we couldn't hardly eat any of the main course. The chili rellenos were tasty, but fell apart when I tried to stuff and fry them, so they were a pile of pepper, chorizo and cheese with some batter by the time I got them on the plates. I have a new respect for the cooks in the back of Mexican restaurants that make the perfect crispy fried peppers.

And, finally, before we ate, I got around to making the margaritas. I had a bottle of Patron, which I'm ashamed to say, I've had since last July, that I was going to use. Well, I put the ice in the blender, poured in the mix (I was gonna make my own, but ran out of time), and low and behold the base to the blender wasn't screwed on tight enough, so a whole bottle of mixer ran all over my countertop. Thank God I didn't pour the tequilla in. I would have been wringing it out of a kitchen towel back into the bottle...

J.R. was quick to offer up some of the Dos Equis he brought. Disaster averted!

We spread all the food out on the table and listened to Santana while picking at our food--we were stuffed from tortilla chips by the time I got dinner on the table at 8pm. But nonetheless, it was fabulous to have company over and dinner in the dining room.

The unveiling of the dining room suite!

2009-04-24T10:43:00.001-04:00

Okay, here it is. In all it's glass-topped table and white-laquered glory. A glass-top table is a little 80's, I know, but here I am going for Palm Springs circa 1966.

Now, as I mentioned, I was planning on getting a wooden table and sideboard, but they looked kinda cheap. I guess you can't expect much from Ikea, but this one was so shiny and bright beside the brown one. Now, I need to get another light fixture, replace the curtains (that took me like 6 months to find a pair I liked) and take the plates down.

Speaking of curtains, you know, this is the first room we painted after we moved in. I matched the paint to some Amy Butler fabric I found online at this fabulous site reprodepot dot com. It was brown, green and pink, and sorta looked bohemian. Anyway, when I got around to ordering the fabric, it was sold out. So I looked and looked for something similar. I found these chocolate brown curtains with a dot pattern at Target. They do make it pretty dark in the room, so I'm thinking some white sheers. I have some plain ones, but I think if they were patterned, that would be pretty awesome. Target has some with dots just like th brown ones, but they are white sheers.

Chrissy Evans, our fabulous realtor, gave us a bottle of Lambrusco and a $50 Lowe's gift card as a gift at our closing. She loves Lambrusco--which is a whole other story. Anyway, so we go to Lowe's a day or two after we move in to get a big garbage can, paint and some supplies. I pick out this color, but of course, I pick out the expensive stuff--it's a Martha Stewart signature color called Wild Artichoke. But we figure since we have a gift card, what the hell. Well, we get to the check out, and the woman doesn't even charge us for the paint. She totally missed it. Score.

I also found another light fixture, but its $800. I don't care how much I like it, I'm not paying $800 for a light fixture. It's a drum pendant, just like this one, but chrome instead of wood grain. We'll see if I can find something similar for cheaper. The problem was it was a pain in the ass to get this one up. I just feel sorry for Jeremy when I do find the one I want, cause I'm sure it will sit in the box for a week or two before my nagging gets to him, and then it'll be a lot of cussin and swearin as we're hanging it. Although, I might try to do it myself this time. That chick on "Get It Sold" on HGTV makes changing light fixtures look pretty easy. Yes, I'll remember to cut the breaker first.

Here's some before and after of the dining room with furniture. I still need to get a china cabinet. Baby steps, though.

Swedish furniture makes me happy.

2009-04-20T14:50:00.002-04:00

After finishing the legislative session, I was in much need of a little get-away. Last Friday, Jeremy and I took off for Pittsburgh, and most importantly, IKEA!

I have been saving since last fall for a dining room suite and I had been waiting for a chance to go get the one I picked out at Ikea. This whole saving up thing is sorta novel--Ikea's in-store credit is only 90 days. I asked myself what kind of furniture store has only 90 days same-as-cash? But then again, the economy being what it is, maybe that's not such a bad idea. I only had to dip into my dining room fund once to supplement my Vegas trip in January, but it was totally worth it.

At any rate, we had an awesome weekend. We met two of our friends who live in Pittsburgh now for dinner at Ditka's. I couldn't figure out why Mike Ditka had a restaurant in Pittsburgh, but he's from there and played college ball at Pitt. Boo. The company and the meal were excellent, though.

Next morning, we headed to Ikea to pick up the dining room suite I wanted. But when we got there, neither me nor Jeremy really liked the one I had picked out. It didn't look that great in "real life." There was a table on sale, that I kinda liked, but I was really surprised when Jeremy said he liked it, too. We ended up getting that table, 6 chairs (the same ones I picked out for the other set, but in a different color) and a side board for cheaper than the other set since this table was on sale.

Now, I have been saving up for this particular dining room suite for months, and I have been planning on a "yellow brown" wood table, chairs and sideboard. So, my dining room is green, curtains are chocolate brown, and the light fixture is brown. The dining room suite we got might not match quite right with that. I haven't decided yet, since we are still assembling. That's the only drawback to Ikea... Once I get it all up and together, I promise I'll post pictures and hopefully get some feedback as to what I should do about the curtains and such. Advice is always helpful. Stay tuned...

While at Ikea, I saw LOTS of things I want to get for the rest of the house. Like new furniture for downstairs. I'm not sure what to call it. The "family room", I guess. Although, we mostly call it the "red room." Though, I think the next thing I buy will be a head board I've had my eye on at Target dot com for some time. Then hardwood floors upstairs. New front door. Hardwood floors and drywall downstairs. New master bath. New kitchen. The list goes on and on.

I'm finally done stripping wallpaper!!! (until I move onto the next room)

2009-02-15T19:56:00.002-05:00

Over the weekend, I (sorta) finished the entry way. A couple weeks ago, I took advantage of having no heat at work, took the afternoon off and finished scrapping the last few bits of wallpaper 15 feet up the wall. Then the painting began, which wasn't too bad of a job, except for climbing up the ladder with a paint roller and perfoming balancing acts that would rival an acrobat. This weekend, I touched up a few thin spots in the paint and put the wall art and coat rack back up. I know beige is boring, but it is so much better than peach, and since I want to get new furniture eventually, beige is good and neutral. Jeremy is also glad to have his coat rack back, too. All I have left to do is touch up the white base board that goes down the sides of the steps, but that shouldn't take me 7 months...

Last week, I got the mirrored night stands I ordered from Target dot com, and they are quite fabulous. Although, J.R.'s description was that they look like something out of the movie Blow. I just picture someone like Jean Harlow lounging on my satin bedspread with a gimlet sitting on the nightstand or something. Very Hollywood Regency. BTW, I have to keep the spray bottle beside my bed for when the cats start meowing at 5 am. If you have cats, you understand.

Now, onto the backyard--my next project.

Christmas Target gift cards = blackout curtains

2009-01-14T13:21:00.001-05:00

Jeremy's mom always gets me a Target gift card for Christmas because she knows I love to buy up their marked down Christmas stuff. And this year was no exception--I did my patriotic duty to personally pull our country out of a recession and boost slumping retail sales. In addition to Christmas stuff for next year, I bought some heavy velvet curtains that matched my bedroom. Jeremy has been complaining that the white sheers (which I loved) just weren't conducive to sleeping late for quite some time. The day after I bought them, he slept well past 1 pm.

Some other goodies, I picked up were some gold chargers and a wine carafe (marked down 75%)!!! I'm still saving up for the dining room suite I want from Ikea, and I'm about half way there. I can't wait to have a sideboard to store all the stuff like chargers and wine carafes in, and a table and chairs so I can have dinner in my dining room. My dad came over for a traditional "Feast of the THREE Fishes" on December 23rd--I didn't think we needed a whole 7 course meal! We put the leaf in the table that I have, which is the table my parents had when I was growing up. Only problem with the Christmas dinner was that we had to sit on these rickety little chairs that go with a third-hand Big Lots dinette (Jodie, do you remember the one you gave me like 7 years ago?) But it was still nice to host a dinner and entertain. The food was awesome and I force-bloomed some paperwhites in a big clear vase for the center of the table. Once I get the dining room done (soon, hopefully) I'll post some pics.

Also, I AM STILL working on stripping the wallpaper in the entryway but I only have a little bit left. I just need to get around to finishing the stripping and get on with the painting.

A tale of two trees...

2008-12-20T16:49:00.001-05:00

Here are the two trees we put up this Christmas. As you can see, the one in the living room is the usual tree we put up every year with the blue and silver decorations. It is some kind of Canadian Fir that we got at the Capitol Market from French Creek Farms (shamless plug here. More on that later...) that the guy at the cash register admitted was probably mistagged since it had a $20 price tag on it. It was a little flat on one side, but we just put that side to the window.

Ally, my "new" old cat has shown quite a bit of interest in the presents under the tree. Something about the ribbons on the presents is evidently prettyt tasty to her, as she's been caught a few times chewing on them.

Now, about French Creek Farms. Evidently, they and one other Christmas tree vendor are the only ones that are selling West Virginia-grown trees. The other vendors are getting their trees from farms in N.C. The Capitol Market is supported by the Department of Agriculture, and gets some of its funding from WV taxpayers. All the vendors outside are required to have a percentage of their goods from West Virginia. In the summer, the farms that sell produce must have so much of their goods from West Virginia. Same goes for the trees. The guy who owns French Creek Farms has complained to Ag that some of the vendors aren't following the rules, and evidently, Ag hasn't done anything about it. The guy at French Creek Farms said he'd sell his trees for next to nothing to undercut the out-of-state tree vendors. He's now selling all his trees for $30--and trust me, that is a HUGE deal since there were some 7 ft blue spruces or some fancy kinds that were marked $90 when we were there. It has been on the news a couple times this past week. When we got our tree, I asked the guy, and he assured me the one I picked out was in fact a WV-grown tree.

Now, that I'm done with my "public service announcement," here is my "Charlie Brown" tree. I got this beaut (and the idea to put up a Charlie Brown tree) from Maysel at Erinn's mom and dad's house. Alan has been putting up a Charlie Brown tree for a few years and takes pride in finding the most pitiful looking tree that never aspired to become and Christmas tree and bringing it in to decorate. So, he picked this one out for me. I think it is just beautiful!

Technology sucks.

2008-12-02T15:39:00.001-05:00

Okay, so I'm not the most computer-literate person out there, but I knew I wasn't crazy when I discovered that I couldn't save my pictures from snapfish dot com any larger than they were on the last post--and I knew I'd done it before by just right clicking and "saving picture as."

Well, as it turns out, Snapfish says they're having trouble with their software being compatible with Internet Explorer. Ha! So, it's not just me after all.

At any rate, I promise bigger pics once the problem is resolved. Snapfish says they're working on it.

The other day on HGTV, I was watching one of those design shows. I think it was Find Your Style. The couple wanted to do their living room in Hollywood Regency style and I realized that's what I was aiming for in my master bedroom, I just didn't know what it was called.

It's characterized by lots of luxurious fabrics, metallics, opulence, etc. I was thinking of getting some velvet curtains I saw at Target that match my bedspread, anyway. This would make Jeremy VERY happy since he hates the sheers--he likes to sleep late. So, now I need a double curtain rod (I'm keeping the sheers. I like them, damnit. We can just pull the velvet ones closed at bedtime.), some finials ... These ones at Ikea are only 7.99 for a 2-pack.

Here are the curtains at Target, and how about the mirrored side table to top it all off from Target, too. The other thing I'll look for is some new cabinet hardware for my dressers to match the silver stuff. Oh, yeah, and some carpet.

I finally got a new memory card...

2008-11-27T11:44:00.001-05:00

And I took advantage of getting a half day off yesterday to clean my house. With it being clean and all, I decided to get some pics of the bedroom, living room, and wallpaper stripping progress.

Here are some before and after of the master bedroom. Note the ugly gold carpet I can't wait to replace.

Also, here are some pics of the living room I painted in August. Before it was peach with a stenciled green and white border. Our fabulous realtor had this couch and red arm chair that she wanted to get rid of. It was just sitting in her basement, so Jeremy and I gladly took them off her hands. I had the yellow curtains from when I lived in Morgantown, and they matched perfectly.

There was painted-over wallpaper in the entry way, and I've been scrapping it since August. I am so releived that it is almost gone. Just a few more hours of scrapping, then I can finish the paint job.

Time off from home improvement

2008-11-12T13:58:00.000-05:00

Okay... It's been almost a month since I posted, and I swear I did not forget about this blog.

I've had a whirlwind month with lots going on during the weekend, leaving me little time to work on the house. The last weekend in October was the Junior League's Boo Ball. Erinn and Mike came down and went with me. I didn't get the flapper costume I ordered in time, so at 2pm the day of the Boo Ball, I ran out and put this Marilyn Monroe costume together. Erinn and Mike won Most Original for their version of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which was hilarious, by the way...

The next weekend, my mom and I went to Wheeling for Rebecca's wedding. Jeremy couldn't go because he fought fires all weekend, so my mom was my "stand in" date. We had an fabulous time in Wheeling and did LOTS of shopping on Sunday. Of course, the wedding was a lot of fun, too.

All this travelling and partying leaves me with little time to spend scrapping wallpaper in the entryway--my current project. In August, I painted my living room a nice neutral khaki color. It was peach with a stenciled green and white border--YUCK! Anyway, the entry way was wallpapered and painted over, peach, of course. So since then, I've been scrapping wallpaper. It's a HORRIBLY slow process. And I had to get an extension ladder since its a mid-entry, the entryway has high ceilings. Good times.

I haven't taken any recent pictures of the projects because I discovered on my Wheeling roadtrip that my camera wasn't working. My mom's memory card worked in my camera, so I went out and bought a new memory card, but it still doesn't work. Who knows what's wrong with it, but it's probably going to be expensive.

The 8-month half bath.

2008-10-17T13:19:00.001-04:00

So, nobody said redecorating was quick and easy.

The next room I decided to tackle was the half bath downstairs. Yes, more wallpaper to strip. It was also hopelessly stuck in the early 80's.

We decided to replace everything except the toilet and floor, and bought the stuff we needed to redo the half bath in January. We got a pedestal sink, faucet, mirror, light fixture and new toilet seat for well below the $300 minimum purchase required for the 12 months same-as-cash promotion, so I also got a great vaccum, especially for homes with pets.

I got the idea for the half bath from my friend Loren. He had a full bath at his last house that had deep blue walls with bright white fixtures and chrome accents. It looked so clean. I've also been a fan of Spode for a few years, and although, plates don't "belong" with a bathroom, I thought it would be nice minimal decor for a small room. I decided not to go with dark blue on the walls because it is a REALLY small bathroom with no window, and I thought it would be too much for such a small room. The towel hook was actually left in the guest bathroom upstairs by the previous owner, and went with the Spode well.

When I started stripping the wallpaper, I discovered a 5-inch hole in the drywall at the top of the wall above the toilet. As it turns out, this half bath is below a full bath upstairs, and a leak damaged the drywall and ceiling in the half bath. Luckily, the leak had been repaired, but the last owner just wallpapered over the hole and left it. The drywall just crumbled when you touched it. Nice. Anyway, Jeremy cut out the damaged drywall and a piece of the ceiling above the toilet. We patched the seams in the drywall and had to learn how to "mud" the ceiling. The pattern in the mud is some sort of circular pattern that we couldn't replicate (we tried in vain). So we just textured it. You can't see in these pictures, but there is a boxed in part of the ceiling that hids the beam and AC/heating duct that runs through the middle of the house. So you don't notice the different textures of the ceiling in the bathroom.

Finally, in August we got the light fixture and sink installed. It's done for the most part, but we still haven't put up the toilet paper holder. Maybe one of these days we'll get around to that.

Living in wallpaper stripping hell.

2008-10-17T12:56:00.000-04:00

As was typical for homes in the 80's, almost every room in the house was wallpapered. I've never been a fan, and almost fly into a flat-out rage over people who paint over wallpaper. After a month or two of getting settled in, I began stripping wallpaper.

The first room I did was the master bedroom. It wasn't fully wallpapered, but had border that had been painted over. PAINTED OVER!!!! It took something like a month of standing on a chair with my arms over my head spraying DIF and scraping the bits off with a putty knife. Yeah, it sucked. I don't have any "after" pictures because I am still waiting to replace the carpet, which is gold. If you squint your eyes real hard, it kinda looks like hardwood flooring. Okay, not really.

I then moved onto the guest room. At least the wallpaper wasn't painted over. My mom read or heard somewhere that a clothes steamer does well at removing wallpaper, and that's what I used in here. It works well if the wallpaper isn't painted over. When we bought the house I checked out some books at the library about French Country decor. I don't remember where I got the idea for that. I think it was because I like toile. As it turns out, there's no toile in the room. Here's before and after...

The bed is antique and I got it from my sister-in-law, Alicia. She and her husband bought a piece of property that had an old decrepit house on it. A previous owner had plans for a bed and breakfast that never materialized, and the house was full of antique furniture and housewares, but needed to be torn down. So, everyone got to take what they wanted out of the house before it was torn down. This bed was painted white and the rosettes were maroon. As if I hadn't had enough stripping wallpaper, I stripped and sanded the bed and repainted it black. It turned out great.

We finally decided on a house.

2008-10-17T12:23:00.000-04:00

We bought our first house last July. After looking at about 10, and hundreds more on the internet, we found one to buy. For the longest time we couldn't agree on what kind of house we wanted. I like old houses and Jeremy wanted a newer rancher. We knew we both wanted a garage (not very many existing homes in Charleston have two-car garages). I guess Jeremy won out on the style, but I am happy with it, nonetheless. It was in great condition, but the decor was horribly out of date. Well, not as out of date as some other houses we looked at. One looked like it was a time capsule from 1966.

This house was built in 1977--about the same time that the house I grew up in was built. It's almost exactly like the one I grew up in, in that the same types of materials were used and the layout is similar. Most likely, because, like the house I grew up in, it was a "kit" house from 84 Lumber or someplace that mass produced floor plans with suggested materials. I know 3 or 4 people who had the same house my parents did.

The lady we bought it from was a widow who had lived in Summersville for the past few years, but raised her daughter in this house. She told us at the closing that it new construction but was owned by a realty company when her and her husband bought it. It might have been a spec house or something. Anyway, she fell in love with the house, but they didn't have quite enough money, so her realtor waived his share of the commission and applied it to the purchase price. I thought that was a nice story. It's nice to know the history of the house and of the people who lived in it--with one exception. She was the sole owner of the house by virtue of her husband's death. I just hope he didn't die in the house. I think he would have been in his 50's, so in my mind, he had a heart attack and later died at the hospital. That's what I tell myself anyway.

Here are some pictures of the outside last spring. I'm not sure what the tree in front is but it was BEAUTIFUL this spring when it bloomed. I also tried my hand at bulbs, which turned out nice, in the stone flower beds in the front yard.

Introduction: home decor and blogging

2008-10-17T11:54:00.000-04:00

Well, here we are.

I decided to start this blog at the suggestion of a lovely lady (I can't remember which one, but they're all lovely) from the Women In Red message board when we were discussing decorating our homes. I actually had been thinking about doing a slide show on snapfish or something of the before and after pics of my house when (if ever) I'm finished decorating. So, I guess this is as good a place as any. It might also be nice to chronicle the progress of home improvement projects with you all (if you care), and to solicit advice.

The other thing is, I suppose I've always wanted to blog. I have opinions about things and sometimes I get so worked up about issues that I feel like I could explode if I don't get it out there. My blog on myspace has been a bit of an outlet for those bursts of opinion, but if I don't get around to putting something on paper (or in cyberspace) the feeling passes in a day or so. And I can't recreate it.

Everyone is blogging these days. The biggest thing about blogging for me is what I would write about. I don't have kids. I know plenty of people who blog about their kids--and I enjoy reading those. I don't kid myself into believing my life is particularly interresting. But, I've decided that even if no one reads it, I'll still feel like I've accomplished something because at least it will be an outlet for my various opinions about anything that strikes me as noteworthy. Maybe that's narcissistic, but I'll hedge my bets that at least my mom will be reading it.