I Made a Hole in the Wall

Let me clarify; I didn't make a hole in the wall. I paid someone to do it for me. After years of talking about it and hemming and hawing over it I finally bit the bullet and tore part of the wall down in between my living room and kitchen. Part of my hesitation was trying to match the granite. Or wondering if I even should. I didn't. I can't wait to show you what we DID do.

Because I was super excited and wasn't thinking clearly, and because it was a relatively plain wall in the first place, I have no before shots. So we'll pretend this is an awesome rendering of what the space used to look like. I think it's pretty true to life.

This is an old house and the floor plan had the kitchen separated so much from the living area. Because of the renovations we did when we first moved in, there was no where to sit in there, so it tended to be uncomfortable communicating with the person doing the cooking (Eric). Enough talking. Here's the after:

I'll take some pics with a different lens so you can get a better overview idea at some point. But it's WAY more open, no? And there's a place to sit to converse with the person in the kitchen (Eric)! And there's a new place for us to collect crap!

For the counter we ended up going with reclaimed wood. I LOVE it. It has so much character.

Nezzie liked to hang out up there as a puppy.

Now she likes to hang out up there to read the paper and drink her coffee in the morning.

So, what do you think? Have you ever wanted to tear down a wall? I highly recommend it, even if you pay someone to do it for you.

Inspiration

Or maybe lack thereof.  I have been totally uninspired to blog lately.  I was sick of just posting recipes, especially since I'm a total amateur.  But it felt for a while like that's the only real creative stuff I did.  My life is kind of routine, so I don't always feel like I have anything interesting to share.  I will try to do better.  Part of what will help me may be my new camera!

I was in New York last weekend to run a 5k with my sister.  The 5k turned my knee into a blob of molten lava, but other than that it was pretty fun.  One of the things I really wanted to do while I was there was take a trip to one of the legendarily awesome camera stores in the big apple.  I was originally thinking B&H, partly because I had a gift certificate, partly because it's more well known.  After very little convincing, my friend Shawn convinced me that we should really go to Adorama for their much more personal service and large used stock instead.  I'm so glad we did.  And I'm so glad I forced brought Shawn with me.  I ended up with a gently used Nikon D90 which arrived yesterday.  I'm so excited!!!!

Here are some of the test shots I've taken with my "Nifty Fifty" (50mm f/1.8) lens.  These are straight off the camera, completely unaltered.

I Was Running Late Last Night

...So I didn't get any pictures of dinner.  I can only imagine how bummed you are.  I know you live for nothing more than pictures of my food.  It turns out that it was OK that I was running late because this was a pretty quick meal.  Last night I made Chicken with Almond Butter from Recipe Girl.

Chicken with Almond Butter

Ingredients
1/2 Cup Almonds - the recipe called for ground almonds, but I didn't have them so I used slivered and overflowed it a little.
2 Tbs Flour
2 Tbs Butter, unsalted at room temperature
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1/2 tsp Lemon Zest
1 Tbs Worcestershire Sauce
4 Chicken Breasts, boneless/skinless
1/4 Cup Slivered Almonds

Directions
Oven Temp:  425 degrees
1.  Blend almonds, flour and butter in a food processor (or whatever) until smooth.  Add salt, cayenne, lemon zest, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce and mix blend well.

2.  Pound breasts lightly and spread generously with almond butter.  Place in a buttered baking dish and bake for about 15 minutes (seriously, it only took 15 minutes).

3.  Top with slivered almonds and broil for 30 seconds or until browned.

Eric and I agreed this "almond butter" would be really good on white fish as well.

Wingardium Leviosa!

Sometime during December Eric asked me if I could take January 17th and 18th off.  I could.  That's all the info I got, that and that I shouldn't schedule a birthday outing for the Saturday before because we had an "early appointment" on Sunday.  About a week before said Sunday he started telling me the weather was looking good for my days off!  I knew we were going somewhere!  On Saturday he told me to pack for temperatures with highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s, that we'd be walking a lot, and that it might rain.


When we got to the airport I let him check us in.  I didn't look at my ticket when we went through security.  I tried to keep my ears plugged as they were making announcements.  During the last announcement I jumped the gun and unplugged them too early.  That's when I found out where we were going.  Where were we going, you ask?  To Orlando!


OK, so if you aren't a Disney fan and don't have kids, you're thinking ummm, OK.  What are we going to Orlando for?  Then something magical happened.  You remember the newest attraction in Orlando.  It's magical alright.  We were off to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!!!  You know that commercial where the parents tell the kids they're going to Disney World that day?  That was me.  I was pretty excited.


When we got to Florida we spent some time shopping and took advantage of the sunny warmth and spent some time by the pool.  On Monday we spent a VERY rainy day at Wizarding World and went back for more on Tuesday.  What an awesome birthday present!

 Prepared for the rain.

Entering Hogsmeade on an authentically English weather type day!  Please respect the spell limits! 

 Outside Dumbledore's Office.

Frozen butterbeer is amazing. 

Ollivander's 

 I mean, I was already soaked.  Why not?

My hair after a day of being braided under a hood in the rain.

Butterbeer stach numero dos.  And Buckbeak and I. 

Eric and I at Hagrid's Hut. 

Mmmmm mmmm.  Butterbeer. 

I'm at Hogwarts! 

He is the Champion, my friends... 

Handstands at Hogwarts! 

Eric and I in front of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry1 

Ooops, the Weasly's car crashed. 

Hogsmeade Station.  Please note butterbeer number three. 

Handstand at Hogsmeade Station.

I Resolve!

I'm not normally big on New Years resolutions.  So this year I'm going to try a blogolution.  I think I just made up a word.

I resolve to:

• Post more often.
• Post on a greater variety of subjects
• Take inspiration from Widow Maker (AKA Kathy) and post my WODs (but maybe not the results)
• Try to improve on my picture quality.  This is a hard one because when it's food related, I'm usually taking pictures at night.  My kitchen doesn't have the best lighting for pictures.  I don't have a full length mirror for pictures of outfits.  Eric makes fun of me when I ask him to take pictures.  Natural lighting - a photog's best friend - is not always available.  Those excuses aside, I resolve to try to improve my picture quality.
• Share more information from other bloggers.
• Ask for more feedback.  So give me more feedback.

There you have it.  Those resolutions may lead to many posts sans pictures, especially WOD posts.  I'll being seeing you soon.  Happy New Year!

Christmas Decorating - The Rest

So now we've seen the outside of the house and the tree.  Here's the rest!


As I mentioned, the majority of the decorations take place around the fireplace, but let me take a second to show you the cute little feather tree I found.  Next year it will probably get some ornaments.

The penguin to the left was a gift from Mike when I got my first job with IBM that had a small amount to do with Linux.  I made the basket on the left last year.

I saw the basket at Stonewall kitchen and had bought the red thingies and pine cones thinking I could find something to do with them.  I did.

Before I get to the mantle I'll show you the one other thing I did to spread the Christmas spirit around the house.  I put extra wreaths on interior doors.  Just because I made myself a new one doesn't mean the old ones can't be enjoyed!

I got this one at Whole Foods last year.

OK, onto the main event.  The mantle.  As a reminder, here's where the bulk of decorations are.  Here's what the mantle looks like in all it's glory.

Swag?  Garland?  Whatever you call it I love for it to drape the mantle.  I snagged these lovely garlands after Christmas last year at Holly, Woods and Vines.  I layered a garland of sparkly red, green and gold balls with an evergreen one adorned with bells, berries and sticks.

One of my favorite Christmas decorations are these peacock feather trees.  God I love peacock feathers.

I thought the mantle needed some more light.  Eric vetoed putting it in the garland (maybe I'll sneak it in next year), so I put a short strand of lights across the mantle and draped gold tulle ribbon over it.  I set it off with some sparkly poinsettias and birds.

I call this my Scarlett O'Hara bird because it reminds me of the dress Scarlett wore to Mellie's birthday party.

I'm not sure if I mentioned my love of peacock feathers.  I got a wreath of them for Christmas 3 years ago.  I haven't taken it down.  It lives on my wall.  I also keep a vase on the right side of the mantle for most of the year.  I often buy extra sparkle to add to it for Christmas.  Then I leave that in all year round too...

Because I thought the mantle looked just fine as it was, I decided not to hang stockings by it with care.  I hung them in a large picture window in the front of the house. 

Well, there you have it, a wrap up of this year's holiday decorating.   I hope you enjoyed it.  Let me know if you have any tips for next year!