It's up!!!

I've been working on this non-stop for ... I don't even know how long. Hope you like it! See you back here on Monday!

Happy Monday

Hi Everyone! Happy Thanksgiving week... I'm so excited to kick off the holiday season this week. We'll be celebrating Thanksgiving with my family this year, I'm so anxious to see everyone - I haven't seen my family in oh SO long.

I don't have much for you this morning since I'm rushing off to finish the Heart Handmade Holiday zine that I've been working on non-stop for the past week or so. This morning is all about proof reading and last minute additions - I can't wait to share it with everyone tomorrow morning.

I'm taking the week off so I just wanted to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving and I'll see you back here next Monday (probably 10lbs or so heavier) !!!!

Weekend To Do's

Happy Friday by the way. OK so here's the weekend to do list. But before I go into that... I just got paid for a freelance job I did a while ago so you know what that means...wallpaper money!!! Yay!!!



I've decided on Madison & Grow's Elizabeth pattern in this color. It's modern so I think it will look great with our very NOT modern bedroom. So I've already painted the walls a charcoal grey but I still have to paint the floors white, install the light fixture, find a dresser solution, find a table lamp for Hillsy's side, hopefully find an affordable decent looking area rug (good luck) - wow that's a long list. I'll stop there for now.


To Do's:
- Put up more wallpaper in the livingroom (it arrived yesterday!)
- buy fabric for dining chair slipcovers + roman blinds
- start sewing slip covers
- reupholster chairs
- finish items that weren't crossed off of last week's list

Here's a tip...

Fellas: Starting an apology with "I'm going to be the bigger person... and say I'm sorry" is probably NOT the best way to say sorry.

So we got into a little tiff last night, mostly coz I was already in a bad mood and he basically didn't know that he was about to walk into a fussy-tsunami. Anyway, all is well in the household but I just thought I'd share that little tip to any unsuspecting boyfriend or husband.

Last Night's Dinner #136: Sundried Tomatoes & Sweet Sausage Penne

It was one of those nights where the stars were aligned - sundried tomatoes (check), Italian sausages (check), ricotta (check), fresh basil (nope - but dried will have to work)...



Sundried Tomatoes with Sweet Italian Sausages, one of my go-to pasta dishes. Quick, easy and very tasty.


Add a pinch of red pepper flakes and a clove of crushed garlic to your olive oil and heat all three up at the same time. *You don't want the oil to be hot when you add the pepper/garlic.


When it all starts to sizzle, add a chooped onion. Cook until translucent then add a couple of handfuls of SD tomatoes.


Almost immediately add the sausages to the pan. Meat removed from casings and chopped up into bitesize pieces.


Add spices & seasoning


Let the artichokes brown slightly


Once the artichoke start to get a nice brownish crust to them, add some broth (any kind will do, even water if you don't have any broth), about a cup or so.
Add the artichoke hearts (thawed frozen ones or drained canned ones).


Add cream until pink...


It's not really a saucy sauce, so if you want a lot of liquid just add more broth/water + cream


Top with ricotta and your favorite salt!

Related: You can also make this with jarred sundried tomatoes.

Yard Sale Find: Yellow Chairs

Sorry I'm late! I was feeling really shitty, blah, okay.... flubby & blobby in a PMS-ey* kind of way, there I said it - and I had to force myself to workout before I conquered the day :)
*sorry to the 2 guys that read this

Back to business...
I LOVE THESE CHAIRS! I've been looking all around for chairs to paint bright yellow since forever. And look what I found.... no-need-to-spray-we're-already-a-perfect-yellow chairs!!!!



Now all I have to do is find some fabric and reupholster these babies and I'm good to go. The table arrived (pics to come) and now it's time to finish all of the random chairs that we bought along the way. I love the random chair look and can't wait until this project is done!! I also need to make slipcovers for 4 of the chairs (the Danish ones) - the cushions on them have definitely seen better days.



I was starting to cover the cushions because I was thinking of painting these... I haven't decided yet. I'll be making slip covers for these chairs - not full-length ones just enough to hide the cushions.

Look what I got...

Oh ya. Staple and nail gun in one! The funny thing is, I scare myself EVERY time it clicks. Which is weird, coz I'm the one pulling (or pushing in this case) the trigger so I obviously know it's coming, but it still makes me jump. Weirdo.

Ooops...

[3 weeks ago]: "Babe, I know the wallpaper is a little more than what we budgeted, but we only need one roll... so REALLY it's not THAT bad." {innocent face}



So who knew I would need more than 1 roll of wallpaper to cover this tiny wall? Oooops!! And how the hell do people afford to wallpaper an entire room + ceilings????

Installing the wallpaper was actually easier than I thought, which was a pleasant surprise!! Definitely easier to apply than to remove!

Yard Sale Find: China + Buffet

Here's my latest refurb project - such an AMAZING find (both cost less than a pedicure! not at a spa either!)


It's going to hold... all my fine linens, silver, China and crystal. Just kidding.


What color will it be? you ask...

Weekend Projects

This weekend, Hillsy got a little flavor of how frustrating painting can be. And now fully understands my hate/hate relationship with primer, edging and why I wish I had a professional grade spraying device so I can just spray the frikin' walls down just like like I spray furniture.


You can't really tell from the picture, but the ceiling, window and floor trims were a lovely Nicotine Mauve. Walls were some sort of off-white and the ceiling was a lighter shade of Nicotine Mauve (maybe a Virginia Slims version). So, we had our work cut out for us.

We started painting the living room in the afternoon and didn't finish 'til about oh I don't know...one or so in the morning! Then we woke up at 7:30 to finish what we started.



So how did we do on our weekend list?
1. Get rid of remaining boxes in the dining room
2. paint living room walls, ceilings & trim
3. put up wallpaper in the living room, back of tv wall (Orla Kiely Blossom)
well sort of, it's half-way done. I ran out of paper! So I ordered another roll.
4. clean up sitting room paint job (ceilings are 13' or higher and it was really tough for me to reach the edge of the ceiling so it looks pretty patchy at the moment).
5. paint window sill in the sitting room
6. refurbish an endless amount of furniture picked up at yard sales (dining chairs, vanity, foyer table etc)
added to the list last minute:
7. hang hooks up in the entrance + assemble bench
8. hang up mirror in the entrance way

And what's a Weekend Projects post without a shot of Hillsy raking the leaves? So he decided to rake leaves yesterday (only the windiest day of the year!). He spotted a professional raker earlier on the day using this technique and thought he'd give it a shot by using one of our plastic painting covers. You see, all we have to do is gather up the leaves and leave a pile of them by the curb and the town picks them up - so this technique definitely beats bagging up 20 or so regular garbage bags only to dump the leaves out again. Good find Hillsy!!

Bedroom Baby Steps

Liza, do it do it! Ty Pennington (heh heh). Cathy, I'm assuming you're next-door-Cathy right? Thanks for reminding me about this recipe - haven't made this one in ages!


So here's the bedroom - sort of hard to tell from the picture but the color is a nice deep charcoal-slate type of grey. Lovin' it and that wall is going to be wallpapered in the yet to be determined print.

So what's on the weekend to-do list?

1. Get rid of remaining boxes in the dining room, our dining table is scheduled to arrive on Sunday. YAY! We've waited almost 8 weeks for this thing. It's our favorite favorite piece in the entire house!!!! As you know, we love to eat so if we were going to drop money on anything it would be an awesome dining table.
2. paint living room walls, ceilings & trim
3. put up wallpaper in the living room, back of tv wall (Orla Kiely Blossom)
4. clean up sitting room paint job (ceilings are 13' or higher and it was really tough for me to reach the edge of the ceiling so it looks pretty patchy at the moment).
5. paint window sill in the sitting room
6. refurbish an endless amount of furniture picked up at yard sales (dining chairs, vanity, foyer table etc)

This week's accomplishments:
1. Tree guy is finally scheduled! Our huge Silver Maple tree out back is a monster, a beautiful one, but we need to trim him down.
2. Electrician is finally booked. Lighting fixtures need to be replaced in the bedroom and kitchen + lighting installed in the dining room. There's currently no lighting in there (odd), just a floor lamp.

Dreams do come true (sometimes).

Proof that nice people do exist in this world. THANK YOU Allie & Steven!
Oh my god that Des'ree song just popped into my head.

Back to reality

OK that was a nice dream... now back to reality!


A few of you have praised me for my recent home fixin' achievements (thank you!) so I wanted to share how I keep it all together. I'm like a robot and I can only function with instructions and order or else nothing can get done. EVERYTHING has to be written down (a list on a computer won't do), it HAS to be written down on paper.

So here's my master HOUSE to do list. It's more of a booklet really. I break it down by room and each task gets a box - so I can get the satisfaction of checking them :)

I also break it down by tasks and a buy-list (Hillsy hates the Buy List section!) I try to include pricing so that I can set my own expectations and prioritize the list. I also have a calendar page where I schedule my house-specific work days. Hillsy was laughing at me because he noticed that I included the weather forecast for Saturday and Sunday on it. Why?... they're forecasting for rain on Saturday so that means I can't paint furniture outside. It will take the paint forever to dry because of the moisture, so I've schedule indoor activities for Saturday. See, there's a method to my madness!!!

It's a good way to track your progress and a nice little documentation of it all - I'd love to see this booklet in 5 years time!

And of course - here's last night's dinner. It's just on of my favorites - Batali's Bolognese sauce w/ Pappardelle.

Dream Knobs

Thanks for all of your comments, you guys are the best!

If budget wasn't a concern, any of these would do. Anthropologie has the best knobs ever. They cost around $10 for EACH knob. I have 37 doors :)

Kitchen Cabinet Pulls

my cabinets look like this.

Last Night's Dinner #135: Mmm Mmm Mmm Chicken

WARNING: MJ (my sister), don't scroll down. I have pics of raw chicken pieces below and I know how squeamish you get!!

So I googled "Crispy Roasted Chicken" and found this little gem. I'll have to try Christian's recipe one of these days but here's what he inspired...


1/2 stick butter, 2 pieces of garlic & large thumbsize of ginger finely finely grated, 1/2 cup or so of sweet soysauce (Kecap Manis can be found in Whole Foods!) or maybe you can use soysauce and just add a little brown sugar? and of course 3 large pieces of chicken of your choice.

What can be worse than deep frying in a gallon of oil? Slathering 3 chicken pieces (skin on) with half a stick of butter :)

So if you're health conscious, this may not be the recipe for you OR you can give it a shot and run an extra mile or two.

Preheat oven 400F


Combine butter + ginger + garlic + soysauce

NOTE: Learn from my mistake, it's best to soften your butter before doing this! Or it will come out looking like this...


I wouldn't necessarily melt the butter - but close to it.



As if coating wasn't bad enough, I decided to put some of the butter mixture under the skin. I figured if I'm going to have 1/2 stick what's another tablespoon right?

Bake for 50 minutes at 400F. I served it with an "Oriental" inspired salad to go with the soysauce ginger flavors of the chicken. You can also sprinkle some roasted sesame seeds on top for added drama if you have them.



Yummy on the outside and SO moist on the inside!

Space Planning

Wow, 2 posts today (before 9am)!

Space planning is definitely NOT my forté. This is the space off of our livingroom. The previous owners used it as their dining room but we've decided to use it as an extension of the LR - it's what I call the "sitting room" for lack of a better room name. I painted it grey (surprise surprise) but I still have to paint the window sill white, I think it'll brighten the whole space up. I also haven't decided whether or not those shelves need to be victimized by the can :)

I can spend hours and hours moving furniture around and still not get the AHA moment. I know that symmetry is supposed to be a safe route, but I'm not sure I like the two lamps here.

Oh and you can see that small area rug that I bought a long time ago from Urban Outfitters, I'm so happy I kept it because now it's a perfect match for the teal chair! I'm also looking for poufs and floor cushions so if you have any affordable sources please let me know!! I want the house to have a really comfortable feel to it - one where you feel like kicking off your shoes and finding a comfortable spot on the floor.

Overall I'm starting to feel like it's coming together and starting to feel more like a home!!!

Great space planning ideas:
www.dominomag.com/howtos/advice/2007/01/floorplan
www.dominomag.com/howtos/advice/2007/01/ruthieslidesoct06

PS. A certain someone just recently gave birth, not sure if you're reading but just wanted to say congratulations!!

Furniture Refurb #2

Remember these babies?


Finally got around to spraying them. I'm not a black furniture fan but since we opted for a blackish tv stand I needed 2 more things to be black. If I learned anything at all from watching hours and hours of Top Design - one thing to keep in mind is that it helps to balance things out if you maintain a 3-thing rule. So you can have multiple finishes and color in a room, just as long as there are 3 of them you can make it work (I'm sure I'll be breaking that rule, but it's a good thing to keep in mind).


I first primed them with grey primer then 2 coats of glossy black. At first I wasn't sure if glossy would be glossy enough - I bought black lacquer spray just in case. Glossy was glossy enough - go figure!

I can't find the exact lamp I bought (currently too lazy to get my butt up and go downstairs to take a pic), but it pretty much looks like this one.

Final price: $4 for the tables ($2/each) + $15 for primer+ 1 1/2 cans of black gloss cans + less than 1 hour of labor/love

PS. Lisa, I'm so happy that my posts have inspired you to start thrifting around for furniture! Yard/moving sales are my favorite - keep me posted and take pics!

Weekend Projects

Thank you for all of your get well wishes! I'm feeling much much better and we're predicting that I'll be back to 100% by tomorrow.

Another busy weekend for us... the town starts leaves-pickup tomorrow, so Hillsy and I decided it was time to start raking the gazillion leaves. Here's Hillsy making some good progress out in the front.


The back... that's a different story



I also decided to paint the red chair teal (it's a little darker and less Caribbean blue than the picture shown below, it was still wet when I took the picture). One thing that I have in common with my sister Cecile (aka Ces) is my love for teal!



OK, time to get this week started - I have tons of work for HH and I also want to paint a wall or two.

Argh.

I've been ordered to do nothing today. I'm officially sick, cotton head, runny nose, uneasy stomach - you know, all the fun & exciting stuff.

Hillsy came home from his London trip yesterday and look what I got...


a huge bag full of my favorite... MAGAZINES!! Nothing makes me happier than sitting on my fave couch and reading a stack of mags from other countries (especially British ones!)

I bet you can guess what I'll be doing today.

PS. I asked Hillsy which wallpaper he preferred and he completely shocked me with his choice. He preferred the top right (Cow Parsley by Cole & Son), so not what I expected. And I asked him if he had an issue with pink and he said nope. I guess it's a good balance because I just finished painting the bedroom walls a nice dark charcoal/slate grey. Pictures next week.

BUT of course I didn't stop looking for more options, so here's a new one in the running... what do you think (and keep in mind that I'm painting the floors white and the walls are dark grey)?

Jessica, I like the teal/pink one too but I'm just concerned that having 2 colors will be harder to constantly change bedding/accessory colors. Plus, Hillsy wasn't loving it.

happy & sad

hi everyone! Today kind of sucks - I'm happy coz Hillsy is finally coming home today!!! He's been away on biz all week. BUT now I feel all crappy. I think I'm coming down with something. I wasn't feeling so hot yesterday and definitely not feeling my best this morning. Well I guess better now than during Thanksgiving right? So bring it on!

Latest challenge, finding wallpaper for the bedroom. I've already started painting and originally hadn't planned on wallpapering but I thought maybe I'll just do the wall behind the bed.

My choices so far...

Maybe I'll let Hillsy choose... I'll just make sure that I LOVE all of the options.

Last Night's Dinner #135: Mongolian Beef à la PF Chang's

Yumm. Must definitely try.

I used a combination of several recipes, here are the best ones I've found:
Rasa Malaysia's (the best Asian food blog on this planet) and a simpler version with less ingredients at Recipe Zaar. I didn't "fry" the beef in too much oil, so the beef didn't have the traditionally yummy crust outside. So, if you want it to be more authentic, make sure you don't skimp on the oil :)