Baked Goods A Plenty

Friday's carrot cake was popular with the work folks. Turns out carrots are yummy!



I made this for hubby to take to the office with frosting leftover from...



these that made an appearance earlier in the week.



I think next weekend I'm going to try something super ambitious with caramel and chocolate along with making the homemade bagels.

Jewelry on everything!

Rolland vetoed painting this cute little teak table but he did ok a swap on the drawer knobs. Here it is before:



And after with it's vintage style pulls added.

Living Room make over

This is the living room before



And this is the living room after





Up close shot of the mantle with the print we got on our last trip to Vegas. It reminds me of my sister since she loves all things Wizard of Oz and spending summers in Kansas on the prairie. One of my all time favorite pieces. Also, my collection of mercury glass. It looks aged and still sparkles so gotta love it.


This is a desk my Dad made that used to be stained but I dressed it up with some black spray paint (Rolland's concerned I'm going to start spray painting everything. He could be right.)that I sanded down to hint at the previous staining and lovely drawer pulls from Anthropologie.



My new sitting area in the living room with the couch from upstairs brought downstairs to make use of the space and to create a functional sitting area. A co-worker who was moving gave me the mirror which I love. I mixed a few golds and a hint of purple to make it brighter. The doll head piece on the left was a gift from the hubby a couple of years ago and now she's somewhere safe (previously in the entry where she got bumped frequently).


These chairs were where the pic above is now. I think they make a cozy little area over by the fireplace. Rolland's old teak nightstand is perfect candle/match holder now.



Overall it has a much more "grown up" feel to it. Rolland also thinks it's less girly than some of the rest of the house and I'm just happy to have a place to put everything finally. Amazingly, this took only 4 days to complete (2 weekends) so we're getting this decoration thing down.

Happy Monday!

Long and Productive Weekend

Normally the weekends fly by but with the living update in progress this one didn't move as quickly. We did get it completely put back together and I think I've decided I love it. It was a little touch and go for a while but I think the new set up with easy access to a reading light has pushed me over the love edge. Tomorrow pictures of before and after.

Also, yay Saints! I'm not normally a saints fan but I like Sean Peyton and have been so irritated by Favre that I found myself rooting loudly for the overtime win. We've got the house back in order just in time for the great sports stretch of the Super Bowl then the Winter Olympics. Woo hoo!

Cloverleaf... again

We had a 3 day weekend which seemed like a perfect time for Bo (the girl) and I to hit the road to Cloverleaf on Monday while hubby was at work. We left early and had an awesome trip into Oklahoma. Since I drove, we got there early which left us with a chance to wander the front "yard" looking at all kinds of things like this. Rolland specifically warned me not to come home with this ice cream cone.



I got this one instead.



He's now decided the ice cream cone might not have been so bad.

Rolland was also shocked on Saturday that I wanted to get paint to paint the living room. Further distressing was realizing I meant to start that afternoon. We're halfway through and the color has finally settled in and should look really pretty. We've also decided on a new bookshelf/media storage plan for the tv wall. Hopefully before and after pics will be going up this weekend.

Happy Wednesday!

Awesome weekend

Saturday was an awesome girls day (plus my fabulous friend Yuri). We met at my house for brunch then braved the bone chilling cold, which I love, to do some shopping at the outlets. It seems everyone was extremely successful in helping out the economy. :)

I made it home in plenty of time to watch the Cowboys and their greatness (Go Cowboys!... just for all the Ticket fans out there). Today I haven't felt great and ended up napping most of the afternoon. I did get chicken stock made and watched the Packers/Cardinals game. I was really routing for the Packers but it wasn't meant to be.

Little art's gotten done but I have been inspired to get some new charms done based on a similar look to the piece I created in Phoenix. Hopefully I'll get in lots of studio time this week.

Xmas gift

My friend Suzanne is a graphic designer who is incredibly talented. She's actually pretty terrific all around and definitely knows what I like. I got back to my desk from lunch and I had a bag of goodies including this amazing stamp she designed for me. I love it! It came with the perfect pink stamp pad.



In addition to the stamp, she also included this lovely that I can't wait to have some studio time to play.

All about the food and housekeeping

I think I'm doing a mid-winter spring cleaning now that the holidays have officially moved on in our house. For me, this includes kitchen clean out and stocking up; although my fridge does still need a good scrubbing. I've been stocking up on the baked goods, using up products that are starting to think about going belly up and restocking the soups and casseroles in the freezer. I think some of the homekeeping inspiration has come from finishing the Julia Child biography I've been working on since last spring. It took me forever to really get into it but I did then have become a little obsessed. I finished Judith Jones' book and am now onto Julie Powell's latest, most likely you've all read or seen this one, but Cleaving is a huge departure (so far) from her earlier book and I'm not quite sure whether I like it or not. So far, she's incredibly unlikeable although I do truly appreciate her honesty I'm not so sure I really wanted to know about it. I'm planning to move to Mimi Sheraton's book next.

This manic craze is also propelling me forward on the mini-living room makeover we're contemplating. I wanted to do a little bit larger re-do but this year of fiscal responsibility just doesn't justify such an expense when a couple of gallons of paint and a few smart furniture adjustments could do the trick. We're still in negations over color. Originally I found a blue I liked but then started thinking maybe more brown (husband is confused since my brown did take a turn towards golden yellow which has been thoroughly vetoed!). I'll give you an update once a final decision has been made along with a before/after.

Hope everyone's staying warm and toasty during this cold snap which by the way, I'm totally loving!

Productive and still meatless

So we were pretty successful again for meatless Monday but got stuck super late at work and made do with bean burritos from Taco Bueno for dinner. We did make it home in time for me to make my first homemade bread based on this book . It was pretty successful and super tasty. I made smoked gouda & ale soup (which if I substitue chicken stock with water or vegetable broth would also be meatless) for lunches tomorrow. Perfect for the cold snap we're having here in Big D.



I took the caramel cake I made this weekend in to work. It was also super tasty and I'm thinking this will make a perfect menu for when my parents come down in Feb. Add in a little salad/fruit/cheese plate. Yum.

Tomorrow, will need to be focused on a little studio clean up & general house organization since it's kind of a disaster as we clean out Christmas.

Happy Monday!

This and That

One of our favorite Sunday activities is the 1/2 price drinks from sonic and then browsing at houses. We found this one in a new planned community in Frisco. The house itself isn't great but this kitchen is awesome. I think I would want to add a couple of super fantastic chandeliers and switch out to subway tile with black chem lab countertops. One sink that's really deep so mostly my dream kitchen. :)


I could've used this kitchen this weekend while baking up a storm. I've been really depressed about how the holiday got away from me and I did little in the way of anything festive so I've already started getting a jump on new habits. No, I'm not baking now for next Christmas but I am testing out recipes and spending more time in the kitchen in general. I want us to try and focus more on eating right (moderation is the key) and getting in some exercise. This means everyone at our offices can benefit from the baked goods I like to make without us having to actually eat them (well, eat most of it). This weekend I've got pumpkin bread, dark chocolate pound cake and bread dough in the freezer/refrigerator. I did throw Rolland a bone and make oatmeal raisin cookies. Tomorrow I'm bringing in a caramel pound cake... will try to remember to take pics.

During the break last week I did manage to get some studio time in and make a few fun things. This one was more light assembly then anything. Rolland got me an incredibly cute flash drive that we both thought would be awesome as a necklace (my friend Jen got me a book from the Spy Museum so I'm really set).



This one I remade from pieces I put together at the art nest but was never happy with the outcome. Inspired by Jane Dean I added crystals to the skull and added them as the focal along with one of the charms from a 10 commandments bracelet. This one is thou shalt not steal. Seemed appropriate with the skulls.

Happy New Year

2010 is all about the love and sparklies!