The first thing we thought when we moved into the new house was, “Gotta do something about that bathroom.”
Not terrible, just not… not terrible.
It’s not a bad bathroom, but we’re not really beige-and-tan people. Still, until the bath is going to be retiled, we were going to have to work with the color palette. What we really thought we’d have to fix was that shower. Note how low the bar is because of the angle of the ceiling. Alastair is 6′ 4″. ‘Nuff said. Except…
So here’s a thing people have – a mudroom. I never knew a) that these existed, or b) what they were, until a few years ago when I started watching HGTV and someone had their mudroom renovated and I thought, “Jesus, you know you’ve got too much house when you have a room just for the mud.”
Apparently, I now have too much house.
When we bought the house, the mudroom looked like this:
Ignore the laundry part. That’s for a later Cottage Saturday. The big, empty space is where we’re going to put our mud.
Not so bad, but not terribly exciting, either. Continue reading
So here’s a thing I didn’t expect to happen on Mother’s Day: I decided I wanted to paint the dining room.
One of the lovely but unexpected things about home ownership, an experience I didn’t have the last time I owned a home, is the amount of fun that household work has become. I love doing the dishes, because we don’t have a dishwasher, and there’s something communal and ritualistic about washing the dishes while Alastair or one of the kids dries. Last week, we made a decision about our lawn, going with the old-school reel mower instead of a gas-guzzler, or something that runs on a cord that we (read: I) would likely run over the way that I’m always running the cord over with the vacuum. Alastair spent two hours outside yesterday pushing that little reel mower, and when he came in, I got him a cold beer from the fridge and it was lovely.
So today, when Alastair said, “I will make you breakfast in bed. I will bring you wine as soon as it’s socially reasonable. You can sit in bed and knit and watch HGTV and I’ll keep the kids at bay.”
I said, “I really just wanna paint the dining room.”
And so he helped me paint the dining room, which was exactly what I wanted, and I loved it. Here are the before pictures:
Sprouting up around the Facebook information garden are a myriad of scientifically dubitable personality tests. Which Scandal character are you? (Olivia Pope.) Which classic literature heroine are you? (Jane Eyre.) Which of Khaleesi’s dragons are you? (Yeah, I made that up, but I think I’d be the green one. Is there a green one?)
Well… it’s green-ish, I guess.
Hello, all!
Krissie asked me to pinch hit for her today, so I’m going to do the All About You Monday post by sharing my incredible Pico de Gallo recipe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo, which is today.
Here it is. It’s really amazing. Get a big bag of tortilla chips. You’re gonna need it.
Ingredients:
2 jalapeno peppers
4-5 cloves of garlic
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp fresh lime juice from a real lime
cilantro to taste
Roma tomatoes, 5 or 6
1/2 red onion
1 green pepper
Cut the tops off the 2 jalapeno peppers, then slice them in half lengthwise; scrape out seeds based on how much heat you want. I usually scrape the seeds out from 2 of the 4 halves. Put the jalapenos into a food processor with the garlic, salt, lime juice and cilantro. Blend in the processor and set aside.
Cut the Roma tomatoes in half, squeeze excess liquid into the sink, then chop and dump into your serving bowl. Chop onion and green pepper, into the bowl. Use a rubber spatula to scrape all the wonderful goodness out of your food processor, and mix to combine. If you can wait, set it in the fridge for an hour. If not, no worries. It’ll be amazing right away.
Srsly. Try it and report back and let me know what you think. But while you’re here, drop a quick comment and tell us what you’re up to today!
I haven’t dropped off the face again, I promise. I moved and finished the semester and I’m covered in paint and grading, but I’m not so overwhelmed that I can’t jump in here to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY, K!
So I thought I’d scour the web and try to find an entry for “If Krissie were a Birthday Cake…” This is what I came up with:
I think it needs a little more glitter…
Post your cakes below, and wish our girl a wonderful birthday! I don’t know which one it is, because she started going backwards about six years ago, so I think she’s somewhere around 48 about now. đŸ™‚ We’ll be meeting in the middle in a few years!
Love you, Krissie! Have a great day!
ETA: Nun Cake:
Hey, ReFabbers! It’s been a while, huh? So, how do I do this? Do I spend forever explaining all the things that have been going on in my life, or do I just hop back in like I never left?
I think, for the moment, hopping back in is the way to go. So let’s go!
Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of internal work using BrenĂ© Brown’s books as jumping points. Those of you who remember all the work I did when I was blogging as Lucy March through that whole leaving-my-husband, living-in-Jen’s-attic, swearing-I’d-never-get-married-again, falling-in-love-and-getting-married-again thing may be thinking, “Geez, you don’t have it together yet?” to which my answer is, “Why no, I really don’t.” And here’s why: Continue reading