Friday

My weekend spot.

Starting tonight.

Thursday

Went to the internet-free Irish pub down the block to read and write.

Finally got something done. 

Wednesday

Still running wild...

...he is smarter than organic peanut butter.

Tuesday

Rowan and his parents and Val came for Mardi Gras. We had liver. It was all so good.

Monday

Such goodness in the mail today.

Sunday

Sorting lentils yesterday I was reminded of the landscape outside right now, beige and dry yellows colored with just the faintest shadow of minty green starting to show.

Saturday

Mutilated the cream trying to open it.

It's gonna be one of those days.

Miscellany

The London Times rounds up the World's 50 Best Food Blogs.

Bubble Wrap Calendar. Brilliant.

Speaking of calendars, just a month or two late, a free download for a beautifully designed calendar.

A hand picked, whole foods, Super Natural Recipe Search.

The Midwestern Mustard Museum is surprisingly wonderful.

A beautiful article on rediscovering something we take so much for granted - the ability to smell. 

Free downloads of Great Depression style posters.

The must make recipe of my week, consumed two nights in a row and I'm still craving it again.

Valentine

(le love)

He's home. The world's right.

Life Without Zeb: Night 2

Zeb did not leave me. In case that was not clear. He is away on a business trip, leaving me home alone for the first time. Contrary to my expectations, I've been fine (sorry love, it doesn't mean I wasn't missing you!) Last night at happy hour with co-workers, sister, and Parkers I wished he were there, but I remembered how to act in public without him. After that was a peaceful girl night involving Brie and Sarah Jessica Parker, and I slept very well. I remembered how to make my own coffee this morning. I had a good day. I began to wonder if I am completely insensitive (or is it independent?). Could it be that I can live, at least for a few days, without him?

Then there was a mouse in the kitchen. I'm completely undone. It wasn't a scampering mouse as afraid of me as I am of him, he absolutely meandered past me, in no hurry to keep his cover. I think his little mouse eye winked at my horrified face staring down at him. Now I'm trapped in the dining room with a heart rate sky high, and my dinner is burning in the oven. All of a sudden I miss Zeb so much that I could cry. Tonight I had great plans to clean my whole house, write the great American novel, and do yoga. Instead I think I'll huddle in the furthest corner from the kitchen, which is my bed. Come home soon my boy. 

Life Without Zeb: Night 1

Kicking and screamingly (or at least whiningly) giving up on the vow that we will be the next John Lennon and Yoko Ono and never spend a night apart.

Trying to re-create, tonight, a certain kind of night that I used to have often, pre-Z. A night with just me alone in my shadowy apartment, candles lit, Over the Rhine playing something melancholy, cheese melted over bread, and a movie watched all cuddled up in a big soft chair. I was lonely, those nights, but I loved them too. It was a beautiful, aware, purposeful lonely, probably better called solitude. I'm alone tonight. I suppose it's my choice whether tonight will end in beautiful solitude or just plain old loneliness.

One More Before and After

Or maybe it's more like a Spring cleaning project. At any rate it is the most satisfying of all the recent projects. The pantry was absolutely getting out of hand.

When Axon went to Ikea this week to purchase pretty much her whole house, I asked her to pick up a bunch of their faux old fashioned hingy wire lidded jars for me. I had my heart set on the Bormioli Rocco Fido glass jars. But the Ikea look alikes were $2.99 to the Bormioli $10.99. I figured I could settle.

All of a sudden I know what I have and how much of it, and that mixed blessing open shelving in my kitchen is put to functional and beautiful use. I don't know why it has taken me almost two years to do this.

The Photographic Dictionary

Reach.

Love.

No.


Worship.


Calm.

Assassin.

Wash.

Leg.

Nervous.

Imbroglio.

Equilibrium.

More here.

Befores and Afters

People are always saying how ironic it is to fix up your home just to sell it.

Zeb's dresser before
We're not selling our apartment. We can't - because it belongs to our landlord. But still, putting a lot of work into it just to move right on out of it feels strangely self defeating sometimes. Most of these changes, it's true, we'll be bringing with us because they're objects. But they were all added to our household with specific walls and corners in mind - specific walls and corners that will not be going with us to our new house. There will be walls and corners there of course, but they might be different colors and sizes and the light on them will be different and I really hope that I don't have to start all over, but sometimes that's what it takes to get your house just right. Don't tell Zeb I said that.

Zeb's dresser after

It is a well known (and often lamented by a certain someone) fact that I have some mad Craigslist deal finding skills. When we got married we splurged on a dream couch from Urban Outfitters (later proved to be one of my worst purchases ever), and we bought a bed. We figured those two things were important and the rest could accumulate later. Random bookcases and cupboards, on the eyesore side, were given to us to hold us over. Slowly, oh so slowly and with much diligence we've replaced hand-me-downs and make-do's with things we love to look at, loved the price, and that fit certain nooks in our home just right. The above dresser/cabinet is one such example.

$5 Salvation Army lampshade before

It is also a well known fact that I spend a lot of time on Apartment Therapy. There are new posts about every five minutes and I read every single one of them. They give me many ideas. Apartment Therapy combined with spray paint and/or Mod Podge have enabled many a DIY project. See below, lamp and cabinet. And chandelier. And spice rack.

Shade made into lamp after
Lamp matched to hand-me-down Ikea-hacked cupboard

I take it back. It's not self defeating. Because I love that particular wall of our house now. It does and will make me happy every day that we live here and that's worth a lot.

$15 Craigslist chandelier before

Chandelier after an attack of spray paint
Has anyone else heard of the theory that you should have at least three sources of light in every room for optimum ambiance? I'm up to two in every room and I definitely think it's helping.

$5 Thrift store spice rack before

After - fresh spices and paint

Is it tacky to mention the prices? Because that's most of the fun for me. Even if I had $40 to spend on a cute spice rack, I wouldn't, because it's so much better to get it and rehab it for $6. And then to boast about it. Sorry if that's bad taste.

It's looking better around here. The walls are filling up, so is the floorspace. Just in time to pack it all up. It was nice while it lasted. 

Couldn't Be More Excited...

...that the Parkers have arrived. To stay.