Bad Pictures of Good Food

Jennifer from Peas and Crayons is having a "What I ate on Wednesday" link party for bloggers.  In honor of her party I will  now tell you what I ate today.

For breakfast I had Honey Nut Cheerios (yum).

I have such nice light in the day time.

Then I went into Kingston, which is kind of a big deal for this little country girl.  Trips to Kingston (a twenty mile drive) are usually reserved for the weekend, but I had some gift cards I wanted to use.

Somehow, besides a cappuccino (I forgot to photograph), I didn't eat all day.

When I got home at 5:15 I was so hungry I ate a yogurt ...

... and a peanut butter and honey sandwich.  I ate the sandwich and yogurt before I got a shot.  In fact, I have been particularly bad at taking pictures of my food all day besides breakfast.  (Sorry about that. I'm not doing very well with this whole plan.)

For dinner my hubby and I had Pork Medallions with an apricot sauce and pureed cauliflower.  Here is a shot of the leftovers (see what I mean about not being good about taking pictures?)

Now I'm eating my last lemon square and some tea. 

(Photography is not my strong suit, I just don't have the patients to set up the shot.  I used to work for a professional photographer and I saw that she spent most of her time on lighting and framing the photo.  I have trouble doing this.  Especially with food, I just want to eat it!)

That is what I ate today (for the most part).  Maybe next week I will be more patient with the photography end of it.

Six Years!

Our first year dating.

I know that once you get married your anniversary from your dating years no longer counts, but today marks six years since I fist started dating my sweetie.  I think that is something worth mentioning.

Today I dedicate this post to my husband.  He is the most kind, sweet and generous person I will ever meet.  I am so luck to have this man in my life.  For six wonderful years he has supported me, comforted me, and loved me like no man has.

I love you, Jeff, with all my heart.

I love you!

My Pink Fix

I love pink.  When Jeff and I were deciding on our wedding colors, pink was my first choice, but in the end we only used a little pink for two reasons.  One, all my bridesmaids hated pink.  They would have worn pink if I asked them, but I did not want to make them miserable.  And two, I wanted Jeff to feel he had a part in the planning of the wedding, and he felt a little uncomfortable with a really pink wedding.  In the end, we made brown and white our colors with a light pink accent.  It was perfect.  I digress... my point is...I like pink.

I can't decorate my house pink for one of the same reasons I did not make pink the main color in my wedding.  I think Jeff would be a tad uncomfortable with a pink house, room, or whatever (although I like Beth's pink closet idea).  All that aside, I still love the color pink, and have managed to infuse it into some of the things I do, colors I wear, and objects I own. 

Without further ado, here is a little pink fix for anyone who might need it.

My pink dress.  This is a fabulous dress on its own, but the fact that it is also a rose pink just makes it that much better. (Sorry about the color, my camera is not the best, it is actually more pink and less purple than this)

A friend gave me this little pink memo pad and I love it.  It is much like my wedding invitations and it just makes me happy.  I'm actually thinking of using these colors for my desk.  Who says I can't at least have a pink desk?  I like this idea more and more.

On Sunday night I sat down and really got my pink fix.  I took out all my girl-y pink Valentine's stuff and made some cards for my female friends.  I decided this year that I would not send any cards to the couples who usually get my Valentine's cards, but only to the girls.  So I made some cards just for them.

**Spoiler alert....some of these cards will be given to my girl friends so don't scroll down if you want to be suprised*****

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I can't think of Valentine's Day without thinking of pink, but some of my women are more the blue type of girl, so I did some blue ones too.  What do you think?

Lastly, I came to the end of a magnetic memo pad and couldn't bring myself to waste the magnet, so I made some quick pink magnets with some old wedding table decorations.  For the tutorial on the glass marbles go here (I submitted this tutorial long before I started this blog; it is a pretty cool little craft)

I made hundreds of these little "message marbles" as I called them.  Lots of people got to take their favorite saying home.

Let me leave you with this.  It is a little postcard I found yeas ago.  It lives on my dresser mirror and it is very true to who I am (Again the card is more pink, damn those point-and-shoot cameras).

Besides my bridesmaids who hate pink, or at least hate to wear it, any of you need a pink fix once in a while?  What are the pink fixes in your home?

Making Do

I have a confession to make.  You know how I have been complaining about the lack of cabinet space on my one kitchen wall (if not read about it here)?  Well yesterday I finally did something about it.  You're probably asking "so what is the confession?"  I did the following project because my in-laws were coming to spend the night and I didn't want them to see my horrid wall.  Now Jeff has been telling me all week (as I frantically clean the house all day, every day) that they don't care.  He's right.  But somehow I feel that I need to have a nice house when they have driven all the way over here and are doing all kinds of handy stuff (more about that later).

I spent all afternoon on this project, and it was not little.

 Before

 

After

  OK I may not have gotten rid of the clutter (it is there under the cloth) but at least I hid it.

Here is the process I went through:

Empty shelves:
This was no easy task.  I have a LOT of stuff.  One of my problems is that I like to think I'm healthy, so I buy a bunch of dried beans and grains, and then proceed to NEVER cook them.  I have beans since my college days.  I can't get rid of them (even this time I just put them back).  I keep thinking on day I will eat them.  One day I will remember to soak them the day before (they are so old now they need to soak for days) and then cook a fabulous meal of Lima beans and quinoua.  The sad truth is it's never going to happen.

Someone come to my house...I need a bean intervention.

I also have a lot of other stuff that I do use.  Like my baking stuff, and triscuts (I love my Triscuts, when I went to India I brought them with me, my sister thought I was nuts). 

Random stuff I DO eat.

Spices, I have a lot of spices too.

BEANS

BEANS

And more BEANS

My kitchen was litterally covered with food.  How do I have so much food?  It was baffling.

Next I had to clean said shelves...and they were dirty.  I don't think I ever dusted these shelves, how could I with so many beans in the way?

You can actually see where I kept my stuff.  This is really bad.  I'm embarrassed to write this.  So I cleaned it.

Then I had the brilliant idea to cover up my beans, and the rest of my food, with a table cloth I bought but discovered was too small for my dining table.

I attached the cloth to the underside of the second shelf from the top like this:

 I then stapled it in place with my hand-dandy staple gun, and....

Now I have a curtain to cover my "pantry."  

Now for me this is making do.  When you look at it you can tell it is a cloth stuck up there, but it does its job.  I come from a family that had floor to ceiling tie-die curtains in their living room, so this is pretty good by our standards.  I would much prefer to have the kitchen cabinets Jeff and I got a quote on, but that is not going to happen.  At least not right now.  So... the shelves look a little better and I can rest knowing the whole world (besides you of course) don't know I have a bean problem.  

I even got a little extra space out of the deal for our coffee maker and soda maker (that thing is really cool, maybe one day I will tell you about it).  

Under the curtain?  It is not SO bad.  I have made a place for different items.  I added a lazy Susan for the various liquids (vinegar, soy-sauce, oil, etc.) and I got generally organized it all a little better.  I can't show you any pictures because I ran out of light.  And anyway - I made the curtain so no one would see behind it, so why would I show you? (jk)     

One last before and after just for bragging rights: 

Before

After

 

I'm happy.  I'm making do.  In these hard times, with school loans looming, this is pretty good.  

What about you guys, what do you do to make do? (that's a lot of DOs)

Sparkle Fruit

Let me just say I'm not one for fake fruit on a table.  I think my aversion to fake fruit comes from being a child in someone's home (my mom never had fake fruit) and picking up a jucy apple only to realize it was fake.  It was a real let down for me.  I always thought "why put fruit on the table if you can't eat it?"

But here I am, fake fruit.  These get my the home decorating stamp of approval because they don't look real at all.  There is no mistaking these fruit for anything but fake.

My husband had me in tears of laughter last night when we started to talk about how fake the fruit really looked.  In particular, the fact that the pomegranate was way too small compared to the rest of the fruit.  He was totally right, the pomegranate was tiny.  The cherries were bigger than the pomegranate.  OMG he literally had me crying into my wine.  It's moments like that which remind me why I love my man.  

Anyway...
here is how I "sparkled" my fruit.  
(If you prefer to go with Martha's instructions they are here)

Notice the pomegranate as compared to the pear, wtf?

Supplies:
1. small paint brush
2. glue (I did use the Martha's glue because I'm label faithful like that)
3. some small trays
4. little container for glue
5. fake fruit
6. glitter (I used three colors, but if I did it again I would only use the clear or white)
7. newspaper (to cover your work area, it gets messy)

Sorry about the bad photo quality.  I'm still learning.

Step 1: Mix a little water in with the glue.  I think I could have been a little more generous with this step.  Martha recommends doing this to thin out the glitter, she is right, less glitter is better.  (I say "Martha", but I know she has tons of people who help her and do much of the work in her magazines, so I do mean "Martha and all her helpers," like Santa)

Step 2: Coat the fruit with the watered down glue.

Step 3: Sprinkle on the glitter.  In this step I tried Martha's suggestion to use a spoon, but also used the glitter straight from the jar.  Both worked well, but the spoon gave more control. 

Step 4: Put sparkly fruit out to dry.  I had some toruble with the fruit sticking to the newspaper.  In the future I would put down some wax paper to dry the fruit.

Step 5: Clean up.  As I said this process is quite messy.  One tip I can give is to use the glitter tray Martha sells.  I promise you she is not paying me to say this, but I bought them, and was happy to find that they have a little channel in one corner so you can pour the glitter back into the jars.  How cool is that?

As I said in my last post, I much prefer the fruit that only has a little sparkle and is not full out glittery (is that a word "glittery"?)  I did some fruit completely covered with glitter, and some just dusted, the dusted was better.  I also like the ones with the white glitter the best.  The other colors look a little TOO fake.

Once again, notice pomegranate next to the rest of the fruit, do these people even know what a pomegranate is?

Fake fruit may baffle the little children, but they sure make my dining table look more festive. 

Valentine's Centerpeice

  

I'm not into a lot of hearts and traditional stuff on Valentine's day.  Don't get me wrong, I love the decorations, they just don't go with my dining room.  I also don't like to bombard my hubby with too much girl stuff.  (I passed up a beautiful pink table cloth for the same reason.  It was nice...if I lived alone)  This centerpeice is my hommage to the holiday of valentines day. 

We don't do too much for this holiday because it falls exactly one week before my birthday.  We just aren't the type of people to go crazy two weeks in a row.  Our Valentine's is usually just a nice dinner cooked at home and an exchange of cards.  If Jeff buys me some flowers he gets bonus points ;)  (hint, hint)

But back to the centerpiece...

The first thing I did was to sparkle up some plastic fruit I found at Target.  I got the idea from Martha (gotta love her) but experimented on my own.  I'll be sure to do a post on how I did this in the future.  In the end Martha was right, the ones with only a little sparkle in the white look the best (I should have known).

I also kind of went crazy at Target and Home Goods and bought a bunch of stuff.  The little white vases that read, Live, Laugh, Love, were in the discount isle at the front of the store.  They only cost $2.50.  I have been looking for some white bud vases so these were perfect, and they fit righ into my Valentine's theme. 

The conversation hearts were a must.  How can you have Valentine's day without them.  That little candy bowl has become one of my favorite things I own.   I got it when I was a kid at a flea market in Martha's Vineyard.  I almost gave it away once (that was scary, I decided I was too old to have silly little candy trays, puft) but held onto it and I love it again. 

I have to show off my other two perchases at Home Goods:  The white cake stand and the two-tear candy tray.  Both were on sale for $10.  They had horrible ribbons in them, my hubby had no idea why I wanted them.   I bought some nice ribbon from Michael's and, voila, beautiful trays.  Jeff actually came up to me the next day and said he liked them now. 

The lemon squares were very important to me.  Somehow they needed to be there, but now looking back, I don't know.  Maybe I just wanted to bake them (I asked Jeff to take the rest of them to work so I wouldn't gorge myself). 

Here is one last shot of my centerpiece.  I was going for subtle...I might have overshot that one a little (hehe).

Oh What Baskets Can Do!

My hubby and I moved into our house this past August.  There was a lot of work that had to be done, but one thing that was on the top of my list was to organize the linen closet. 

To make the linen closet I had the contractors who renovated the house cut into an ajacent closet through the bathroom.  What we got was five large open shelves in our bathroom.  They are nice, but not when they are full of junk and badly folded linen.  I don't have any before pictures because I did these changes before I started the blog this January.

So I set out to fix it.  I measured the closets and looked everywhere for the right baskets.  Finding five identical baskets that fit our measurments was difficult, and in the meantime my linen looked terrible.  Finally, I found these baskets at Pier One, and they were on sale.  I decided to go with baskets that were smaller than the space because I did not want the closet to look too crowded.  I also had a hard time fitting all my towels in.  I think the rolled up towels on the side are a great way to use that space.

Here is a couple more shots of the closet.  It is in a tight spot so I had trouble getting good shots.  I think you can get the picture though. 

The bottom shelf holds all my stuff that I don't know what to do with.  It is kind of hidden away down there.

It's always good to have  little extra TP on hand.

There you have my little linen closet makeover.  I might add some chalkboard labels in the future.  We will have to see.