Cakes and Ale

Prints... and a Trip!

My parents gave me the most lovely framed prints for my birthday, and the other day I finally hung them up!

I love these. They look just perfect on the wall that separates our kitchen area from the dining room. Some oranges on the bottom, and a pair of pears on top, framed and matted.

Did you know it's impossible to have too much art?!

I also got a fantastic African table runner from my sister, which I need to photograph properly to do it justice before posting. My family knows me so well.

In other news...

Arenal Volcano, La Fortuna, Costa Rica

We're getting ready to leave for Costa Rica! We'll be gone for a week, through Labor Day, and couldn't be more thrilled. I'm very much looking forward to disconnecting with civilization for awhile.

We'll be traveling through a few areas, including spending most of our time near the Arenal volcano (above). Looking forward to some tropical cuisine, amazing coffee, Central & South American wines, lounging by the pool, hiking the rainforest... I could go on.

Pura Vida, as they say!

Garden Gnome

We took a trip up north to Gethsemane last weekend to continue working on fleshing out our deck space with various greenery and flora. Container gardening is definitely a process that I'm still learning about / trying to master. I've only killed a few plants so far this year, and for me, that's a success.

Here's what's growing out there so far:

Boxwood in a fun new bright blue planter

Fuschia pentunias

Herbs! Dill, oregano, and some sprouting basil

Lobelia

Deck off the kitchen

Tomatoes are coming along...

and the Roof!

We'll be holding our 2nd annual July 3rd fireworks party up on the roof next weekend... Now that the weather is finally cooperating, we're looking forward to kicking back up there more often!

Long Weekend

Despite the fact that today (Monday) is the first good weather we've had all weekend, we had quite a nice time enjoying the extended holiday. A little rain and chilly temps weren't enough to stop us from partaking in multiple BBQs, seeing a Cubs game, and even doing a little planting in our urban garden!

Some highlights:

French Potato Salad (Joy of Cooking recipe)...my grilling-out contribution

 

Cubs vs. Pirates... a bad game, but a good bison dog

 

Snacks for when the downpour keeps you inside

 

Lobelia on our deck

Dinner, courtesy of my little sister, who is in residence with us for the summer!

Honey-Soy Salmon with Parmesan Orzo and Snap Peas

We're actually off for another short week - heading to Las Vegas on Thursday to celebrate my cousin's wedding over the weekend! So far, we've got dinner plans at Jose Andres restaurant Jaleo, as well as intentions of spending plenty of time poolside. Ole!

 

Riedel Whisky Glasses

Josh made out with some pretty fantastic additions to his liquor selection over his birthday weekend earlier this month. From Kentucky Bourbon (including one of his favorites, Woodford Reserve) to Scotch (from the Scotch Malt Whiskey Society itself in Edinburgh, cask #10.73 "Warm, Fuzzy Feelings"!), he's now pretty much got his whiskey bases covered.

Thankfully, he also made out with 4 of these:

Riedel Vinum Single-Malt Whisky glasses made a very nice addition to the glassware cabinet, providing the perfect vessels from which to enjoy his caramel-colored spirits.

Now, if only I could swallow that fire-water straight up like my Scots ancestors! For shame...

Flora

Obviously, I've got this spring fever thing pretty bad. The past few weeks I can't help myself in the floral department - each trip to the store results in new cut flowers that have been vased and placed all over our house!

Plus, I have enablers:

Dear friend Amy sent over these lovely yellow tulips (in honor of spring, no less... what a doll!), which lasted longer than any flowers I've ever had before! 

(PS Like our new apothecary lamp above? It's the perfect reading light!)

They put my store-bought snap dragons to shame!

Then Mom came along with her own bunch:

And a gorgeous bunch they are!

I'm starting to totally understand why celebrities run around demanding their homes, hotel rooms and trailers be fully stocked with fresh flowers at all times. Diva 'tude or no, they're on to something!

Plumber

Even though my mother told me that my grandfather - the ultimate handy man who can fix or build anything - never messes with plumbing himself, I decided to mess with plumbing myself.

My approach to home improvement - if you haven't noticed yet - is founded in the somewhat naive belief that I can do anything myself if I try hard enough. This has, to be blunt, bit me in the ass a few times already... but I won't be deterred! 

While Josh put together a new dresser on Sunday, I got down to business in the master bathroom. The faucets that were in the bathroom were not functioning properly, and one handle was broken completely, meaning you couldn't turn the water off once it was on! Additionally, they were tarnished on the handles (almost black) and couldn't be cleaned:

The worst part was removing the old faucets. The nuts underneath the sink holding them in place were extremely tight, and so I spent the better part of 3 hours on my back half under the sink getting dripped on while I wrenched them off one by one!

All to get to this stage:

Installing the new faucets wasn't actually that bad of a job, once I got through trying to understand the installation instructions (which, as a rule, seem to always be written in the most complicated fashion possible).

In-process:

I did have one minor episode where I did not turn the water source off completely, which resulted in a geyser-in-the-face moment. (TWSS.)

Finally, all done:

Grampy will be so proud.

Entryway

You may think I've run out of light fixtures to replace at this point, but you'd be wrong.

Next on my project list was the entryway, previously featuring another too-contemporary and not-our-aesthetic ceiling lamp:

A closer look:

In it's place, I wanted something vintage-y (surprise) and kinda glamorous. Something that goes far beyond functional and well into pretty.

Like this:

Thankfully, I'm getting pretty quick at taking down old fixtures and installing new ones. The old boy was down in 5 minutes, and with a little help from Josh (I was worried I would drop the new one, so he balanced it while I connected wires), the new one was up within another 15 minutes.

Ta-da:

Pleased as punch.

In the kitch...

Another weekend ends, another work week (on the road again!) begins... Tomorrow I'm heading south to Austin, TX for the bulk of it. We managed to keep ourselves silly busy as usual the last couple days: Carmen at the Lyric on Friday night, our monthly homeless lunch on Saturday, and even a trip to Ikea (so that Josh could satisfy a raging Swedish meatball craving).

We even kept making progress on miscellaneous house projects, one of which included installing new light fixtures in the kitchen. Light fixture removal and installation is quickly becoming my handy(wo)man specialty. Our house had many I was not interested in keeping when we moved in (including an inexplicable number of ceiling fans - 5 in total - throughout the house) so I've been working on either changing them or taking them down one by one. 

A little bit of both occurred in the kitchen. We removed one a while ago, a weird, oddly placed semi-flush light above the sink / cabinetry. Now, we've finally replaced the too-contemporary-for-us pendant lamps over the island with ones that are a bit more in line with the more traditional fixtures throughout the house.

BEFORE:

and AFTER: 

Still haven't electrocuted myself, so I'm going to go ahead and say that I'm totally "winning"!

The Lounge

We are slowly but surely continuing to update our place. It’s hard to believe we’ve already been living here nine months! Although we haven’t done anything major in terms of renovation (and don’t plan to), we have been taking our time getting the right pieces for the right places / needs throughout the house.

Three things I’ve learned about myself on the home decorating front:

1) I research things to death on the internet, be it light fixtures or seating or paint.

2) I am easily distracted. I’ve totally ignored people’s advice to “do one room at a time”, and have rather employed the method of becoming obsessed with a certain need in one space (that chandelier has to be replaced immediately!) to another one entirely (I hate those bathroom faucets!).

3) I get obsessed. Which is kind of a combination of the two other points. When I decide I don’t like something or want it changed, I feel like it’s staring at me, taunting me with its ugliness, every single day.  (Right now, that thing is the pendant lamps in our kitchen, that must go!)

Anyway, we’ve been slowly filling in the random space that is part of our kitchen. We debated what to do here because it could have either been an eat-in type thing, with a kitchen table, or a seating area. Or a dance floor. That was Josh’s idea.

We ended up going the seating area route because we already have a dining room right next to the kitchen (it’s really one large, open living space, that further leads into the living room beyond, with the dining room defined by some columns) and we also have a large island with bar stools where we tend to do things like read the paper / eat breakfast.

First, we got chairs. Then, we got a rug. Then we spent the last few months seeking out a side table to put between the chairs. Why so long? We really wanted an antique, and we didn’t want to spend an arm and a leg to get it.

Finally, this weekend, after scouring Salvage One and Vintage Pine and every thrift store in between, we found it:

 

Vintage Pine had this baby on sale as a part of their winter clearance. When I saw it – marked down to $95 no less – I knew it was “the one”.

 

This space is now what we call “the lounge” – where we like to sit and unwind / catch up after a day of work with a glass of wine and some nibbles.

 

Now, if I could just find a nice, little ottoman to put my feet up on… and a floor lamp…

 

Vintage Goods

Anyone who knows me well knows I love me some olde-tymey stuff. Sometimes that means antiques, and sometimes that means just kitschy retro goodies. Either way, it takes very little to lure me into any and every antique and / or vintage shop. Buying something is almost a foregone conclusion.

We found a veritable treasure chest of a store when we were up in Galena over the Christmas holiday. I can't even remember what it's called now, because there are so many of them up there. It's a vintage-lovers dream town. You are limited only by the amount of time you have to browse and your husband's tolerance for such activities before he either 1) leaves you to get a beer down the street or 2) falls asleep in a pile of old fur jackets.

My finds:

Gold metallic fabric clutch. Amazing.

Gold and enamel earrings. Those ones on the left are clip-ons. They hurt like hell, but I don't care - I'll suffer for them!

Random Galena plate. Yes, it is, in fact, the home of General Ulysses S. Grant!

And in other, related, but not Galena-related, news, check out this sweet postcard my friend Lizzie sent me:

Adding this to the permanent fridge collage collection!