Kitchen Progress: The Coffee Counter!

Super quick post to share some kitchen progress.  The tile has been grouted, and the marble windowsill has been completed.  All that is left is some simple buffing of the tile, and a sealant for the marble once the grout in that area is 101% dry (next week sometime...)  See below!

 

Monday Night Pasta with CHEERY tomatoes!

I know this post is a little late, today being Friday and all.  Honestly, I wish I had the time to post more often.  I usually try to write quick entries during my lunch break...but I've been super busy at work and end up working through lunch.  Better than staying late!!  I know, what would the Union Steward have to say? 

Don't these tomatoes look fabulous?!  I let them cook in about a 1/4 cup olive oil with salt, pepper, and 6 roughly chopped garlic cloves.  Just long enough to heat them up.  You don't want them to cook down so they pop!

I added the tomatoes (plus mushrooms and onions which are actually hidden underneath the tomatoes in the same bowl) to my curly pasta and asparagus.  I have to cook these things separately because my poor husband did not grow up with a taste for good, healthy foods.  He detests tomatoes, onions, AND mushrooms.  All I can say is he's missing out on life by being so selective.

 

 

Here is the final dish, topped with some shredded parmesan and asiago cheeses!  YUMMY DELICIOUS!!

I've also tried this dish with cherry vinaigrette (I found one that wasn't sweet!).

My coworker saw me eating a jar of these and thought I was eating a bowl of candies.  hahahaha.  See, the red in the "cheer" tomatoes really adds to the appeal of this dish.  ;-)

Fashion Post: New Boots (!)

     I am really excited since to be doing my first fashion-related post!  I just got a shipment of ALDO boots I've been eyeballing for a while now.  Being end of season, they are on clearance so it was the perfect opportunity to stock up.  This is a short and sweet post as I am only posting the images for the benefit of other (prospective) buyers.  See below for my opinions on the shoes...

     Above is the Gremler style.  It's pretty comfy, but I really need to get used to wearing heels again as I've been in fat baby's since I started my current job about a year ago (most shop-appropriate boot with style).

     This black one is the Ocken.  Once again, need to get myself used to the HEEL!  Also, I'm a little afraid this low-cut boot is a little too "chic" for me...?  But cute nonetheless.  Where I would wear this one, I have no clue (not work-appropriate, and since I don't go out at all, where would I wear these?  COSTCO?!)

     This is the Curreri boot.  I'm not sure how I feel about the wedge heel being about ten shades lighter than the leather, but it definitely provides more support than the above two heels.  The one downside is that the boot does not hug my calves (too loose, and the straps are purely decorative - nonadjustable).  So, wearing this without pants looks funny, like the boots are just too big for me!  I had originally chosen these thinking I could wear them with a crisp summer dress.  I guess not!

Kitchen Progress...making me Antsy!

Happy happy joy joy!!!  The Kitchen tile is looking great (so far)!  Our neighbor is doing a great job.  My husband is between classes for a week so he is able to help...but I reeeeeeeally want them to be done already.  

It will be SOOOOO nice to RELAX in a complete kitchen.  (Well, the trim at the top still needs painting, as well as the cabinets under the island, but I am choosing to ignore those little details for now)...

LOOK! The coffee counter is coming along pretty nicely.

My bamboo was in the way, so I went with it  :-)

The window and sill will be complete (soon)!  Then I can line up all my lil succulents along the way...*ahhhhh*

My Susan G Komen PINK Kitchenaid is really missing its corner right now!

Tiny Pink Pyrex

SO...a few weekends ago my husband took me to one of my favorite thrift malls in Port Orchard and we picked up this SUPER cute teeny TINY pink Pyrex casserole dish.  I've never seen one so tiny so I gladly shelled out the 6 bucks - even without the glass top.

YES.  That is a baby BOEING 787.  

I thought it might be fun to pose my tiny Pyrex dish with a tiny plane...It's all die-cast!  That sucker set me back $12.99 + tax at the Boeing store.  I plan on collecting them ALL.  

I threw in a tiny deer too.  I love those tiny deer.  My husband hates all my deer HAHA.  I haven't added to my deer collection lately so maybe I should do that...  ;-)

See how tiny the Pyrex dish looks with the watch in there?  See, I told you it was little!

Happy and Little: Going to Costco

Here is Little A.  She is SUPER excited about going to Costco.  She is probably thinking about the super nice pharmacist she likes to talk to there.  I think she has a little-girl crush on him.  But who can blame her, he's so NICE to her.  I also love Costco because most of the people there are super friendly and kid friendly.  It's nice not getting mean looks just because you have a kid tagging along.  In fact, we cannot seem to get out of Costco in a timely fashion because everyone wants to talk to you, and the samples of course  :-)

Incidentally, Little A did NOT see her favorite pharmacist today, but all in all, it was still a pretty pleasant trip for her.


By the way, if you are wondering, her vest, dress, jeans, socks, AND princess shoes are all from Target.  She got her smile from ME.  (and pretty much everything else!)  haha

Homework Time!

Little A doing her homework (tracing letters).  This was cute so I thought I'd post it.  I really need to try editing my pictures but I have yet to decide on an editing program.  Also holding off until I can get a new computer.

By the way, that is the new Eames wire chair I got a hold of...remember I had to purchase an Eames low rod base for the Elephant Hide shell because I was taking it off its Eiffel base?  Well, you can't really tell, but the vintage Eiffel base is now on the new Modernica wire (craigslist buy!).  

Kitty in a Mug

My husband surprised me with this Starbucks coffee mug a couple weeks ago (for writing his paper).  Kitty has a super bad cat habit of drinking from my nightstand-water.  I don't ever try to stop her or else she gets all possessed.  Plus, it's kinda cute anyway  ;-)

Kitchen Progress: A Long Time Coming

We Are FINALLY getting around to tiling the Kitchen.  

F I N A L L Y.

Our Neighbor, who had agreed to help us with the backsplash tile, finally found time in his schedule (barely!) to get started. 

His work is good...and it's only been a week since our Kitchen has been torn apart.  

BUT...

I'm already DYING to get my kitchen back to normal!  And being able to utilize the kitchen coffee counter is like TOTALLY priceless!  See below for the evolution of the coffee counter area...Gotta love that IKEA butcher block:

Letter to My Daughter: Sunday, March 18th, 2012

 
Dear Little A,

     It is Sunday and I sit speculating about our Good Day yesterday.  When your Daddy got home from work on Saturday, you rushed to tell him "I had a Good Day".  I was so happy.
     You were such a sweet little girl, going with her Mommy on errands.  At the Nursery, I showed you the Daphne Odora plant and you liked its sweet scent so much you began smelling all the flowers around you.  You were so polite when you said "I want to go now Mama.  I want to go to Target." in your quiet little voice after being out in the cold.  It made me feel so bad that I brought my little girl to the Nursery on a chilly day.  But it also made me feel so grateful that I have a little girl to take care of.
     We went to Target afterwords to buy you a little step stool for brushing your teeth as yours had cracked along the top.  And you had your first Nutter Butters!  We both liked them very much.  I remember you trying a bite of green apple with a nutter butter in your mouth.  You enjoyed that very much.  
     We ended our day with a stop at Home Depot.  You guessed it: to look at more plants!  We choose a few pretty succulents in terracotta pots.  I told you Daddy would be upset that we bought more beautiful plants. You told me we would HIDE them!  We picked out paint chips.  At the cash register, I found out we forgot my wallet, so we had to return to the car to retrieve it.  You were so worried someone would take out plants we left at the register, and so delighted upon our return you saw the checkout girl had saved our plants.  We talked more about hiding our goodies on the way to the car.
     Now I regret not bringing the camera along to take pictures of your Good Day.  I hope we have many good days like this ahead of us.  You are the most important thing to me and I want you to know that.  I know I am not always there, but I love you more than I love anything else in this world.  You are my star, you are my special girl.

xoxo,
Mommy

 

 

FINALLY: The Eames Low Rod has ARRIVED

Hello Beautiful...what's your name?

Low Rod Pretty Chair, you say?

Yes, I talk to my chairs.  They are like my babies.  That Modernica Low Rod base I ordered FINALLY came in the mail.  Their shipping department was "backed up" so this teeny tiny little base didn't ship for a WEEK after I placed my order!!  Of course, when I called to inquire Ingrid was SUPER NICE.  And, it's Modernica.  So I didn't care.

Modernica is super careful with their shipping, the base was very nicely packed and it was sent via Signature Only through UPS.  (Total Bummer for someone who WORKS when the UPS truck comes by.  I had to stop at their DC in Fife to pick up the package in person).  I had waited SO long, but it was well worth the wait!

The new black Modernica base went on one of my OLD Herman Miller Shells in Elephant Hide.  Now it looks so hot and sleek sitting all low to the ground like that!

This chair previously had a vintage (Herman Miller) Eiffel Base but I needed it for a new Modernica Eames Wire chair TOP that I picked up off of Craigslist (with a $50 price tag, it was WELL WORTH the long-bum drive to Seattle, or as I like to call it "the smoky city that thinks it is cooler than it really is").  HA!

Anyway, enough grumping around.  See below for the little storyboard I put together of my bedroom.  It's missing all the awesome chairs (Bertoia Bird Chair + stool, Eames Wire chair, Grey *vintage* Eames Shell pair) but I think it paints a nice picture nonetheless...see below for all sources. 

Eames Shell, vintage from ebay; Pillow, Edie & Co from Posh 
Home in Tacoma; Black Low Rod Base, new from Modernica; Curtains, IKEA; Flokati rug, IKEA; Dresser, thrifted; Glass Carboy, thrifted from Goodwill; Basket, Rwandabasket.com; jars on windowsill, thrifted or IKEA; wall paint, Winter in Paris Olympic from Lowe's.

What's in Your Dish Rack?

All these posts about FOOD got me to thinking...what's in your dish rack (NO not your purse!)?  I have a Simple Human dish rack from Target, and it stands up well to the pots, pans, pyrex, and cast iron I often have it loaded up with.  

I hate the look of dishes in the sink, so my dishes are always done and drying if I am home.  I like the look of the brightly colored vintage pyrex piled up like this more so than stacked in the sink.  HA!

Yes, that glass next to the blue bowl IS an old pre-plastic POM glass.  I have a whole cupboard of them.  Does anybody else remember these?!  They were awesome and well worth the $3.00 price tag on the POM teas.  Nowadays, they come in plastic bottles and I don't even look at them in the stores so I have no clue what they cost.  My guess is those drinks are still $3.00.

LOL.

What's in YOUR dish rack today? 

More Food: Random Goodies from the Last Week

So I have bee super sick since early last week.  I have not gone to work since Friday.  I finally got around to going to the doctor yesterday because I did not start to feel better over the weekend as I predicted I would.  It turns out I have LUNG infection.  Yikes!!  The doctor sent me home with THREE prescriptions!  One of the medications required me to take a double dose, which I did so last night.  WOW, that s**t knocked me out!  I was so out of it this morning I could not sit up without wanting to puke.  If I am sick I can usually work from home, but this stuff made it so I didn't want to be alive.

Luckily, the remainder of that specific antibiotic is to be used as a single dose daily.  WHEW!

AnyWHO, this is my legitimate excuse for not posting as much as I'd like lately.  I am going to try to make up for it tonight with a ton of material...

 Like the above Lobster Ravioli I picked up at Costco.  I added a bunch of veggies because I cannot eat JUST pasta by itself.  Too much starch on its own makes me feel DIRTY. ha!

 I attempted my version of a spaghetti bake - I altered some of the veggies from the broccoli version I saw on Apartment Therapy.  I added cream to my egg mixture, but apparently not enough SALT.  It was still pretty good.  The mini red peppers (costco pack!) were SO awesome, since I sauteed the veggies before baking.  The result:  they tasted ROASTED, and who doesn't like roasted red peppers?!  

And of course, I was inspired to make this super simple carrot-broccoli-cabbage stir fry.  This was the day I went to the doctor, also the day our neighbor Roger was over prepping our kitchen for the new backsplash (more on that later!)...

As a result, I needed something QUICK.  I seasoned started with olive + sesame oils.  I added the carrots, then broccoli, and last the cabbage.  I believe I only used garlic powder, salt, and a few red pepper flakes.  It was great.  The rice on the side is the TRUROOTS brand sprouted quinoa and wild rice mix (also picked up at Costco ;).

AHHHH.  YUM.  Even the husband ate it!

Wednesday Night: Pulled Pork Tacos

Little A: Happy Stamping!!

Tuesday was pretty crafty...I handed Little A all the stamps I've been collecting since she was just the size of a molecule.  She filled a few pages with stamps...

HELLO! 

Stamping makes her happy.

Below is my attempt to be a little crafty.

And below is the little christmas garland (from crate&barrel?) hanging in our kitchen.  Even without the Macro Lens, my camera takes really good pics (GUSH!).  

We repainted the billion cabinets whites ourselves.  It took forEVER.

Yes, christmas garland in March.  Whatever.

Tuesday Night: Callie in the KitchN!

CALLIE IS IN THE KITCHEN!!!!

Take THAT, husband!  Evil husband that shoos my furry friends out of MY kitchen!

Also...look at how awesome this asparagus looks through my Canon!

I used it to make this quinoa & brown rice rissoto dish.

I eyeballed some cream, milk, and shredded parmasen into it.

Then I topped it off with fresh tomato and ground salt + pepper.

HEAVEN!!!!  Even the little Dolly ate it!  :-D