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Thankful

(let it be noted I'm also unfathomably thankful for all the amazing people in my life, depite the fact that all of these photos are of food!)

Roadtripping

I have a long and grueling drive ahead of me through heavy holiday traffic so I am very happy I dug into my box of CD's and unearthed all of these college era mixes made by my bestie. Here's to some throwback tunes and singing really loud in the car by yourself.

Lights

It was a weekend full of fun lights, which just makes everything feel a lot more festive (especially mixed in with champagne cocktails, food and catching up with friend. The holiday season is HERE!

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champagne cocktails

It's been really busy around here, mostly with projects that are not quite done yet so I don't really have much to share. However, I have been mixing up a few small batches of fruit syrup for cocktails this week as it's a really good way to use a small amount of something. Earlier in the week it was pears and some ginger, and then I saw some nice neighbor of ours had left out a box of homegrown persimmons. I took a few and ended up cooking them down into this syrup which is a beautiful color and just a splash plus some sparkling wine and you've got yourself a cocktail! Perfect mid-week pick me up.

defying gravity

I hung some shelves in the kitchen several weeks ago in the odd empty space above the stove. There was nothing decorative in that area, and it made the stove look lonely so I thought why not add some storage and pretty stuff to look at while cooking? I picked up supplies for this project on a whim when I was at the hardware store for something else. I just used standard shelves and metal brackets. I haven't posted anything about them before now as I was waiting (holding my breath) to see if they would hold, or fall down off the wall with a monstrous crash. So far they have held, I'm now confident enough to start playing with what I can put on them. This combination isn't final, just some pretty yellow things, but I have very much enjoyed having something to look at while stirring sauce, flipping pancakes, or whatever else it is that I get up to here.

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It's been looking extra autumnal recently...

The kitchen may not be done yet....

...but I'm totally using it to cook all sorts of tasty stuff. It's actually good cause it's allowing me to see what needs to be tweaked to make the space more efficient. Here are a few examples from the last week (and yes, I really do have pancakes with alarming frequency!)

it's really fall now

This was what my walk to work looked like this morning. The tree outside my bedroom window is also changing, it's all very dramatic. And while I'm not necessarily a fan of it getting colder, I do enjoy the colors and the excuse to wear awesome sweaters. Oh and of course play around with dinosaur kids toys!

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kitchen curtains

The kitchen is coming along well. I was making a quick breakfast this morning and looking out the window When I realized I hadn't taken pictures of the new addition, curtains. It's wonderful to have a window in the kitchen, makes the long skinny space so much brighter, but there's a bus stop across the street and sometimes I just don't feel like stared at by bored commuters as I bake. There had  been blinds previously but I took them down and removed all the hardware when I was painting and didn't want to add back in something so heavy. So I took an white vintage sheet I had lying around and added a pattern with fabric markers (turns out they are awesome and I am now totally on board with this tool!) I went for a simple small scale triangle pattern, just to add some color but not be too busy. Then I hemmed them and added a channel at the top and threw them up there. 

Of course they are difficult to photograph with the direct morning sun (and the sun was actually out this morning!) but they do seem to be doing their job admirably.

a place for everything

With an old small kitchen I'm encountering the not unusual problem of limited storage. And after working in the kitchen for the past few months I have noticed what areas could do with a little boost of organization, a place to put things to keep them handy.

I found this random metal rooster hook at the hardware store last week. The aged cream finish was very not my thing but it was easy to paint.

I hung it on the cabinet next to the stove so that my potholders and oven mitt were right there when I needed them. I'm hoping this new addition will cut down on the number of times I grab hot pans with unprotected hands, and bring down the number of food related injuries I receive.

In which a cold makes for a productive weekend

I've been denying the existnance of my current cold now for weeks. I refused to let it drag me down through the Halloween dress-up-and-party season but this last weekend I finally succombed. I spent the weekend in my apartment in various depths of sweater layers, nursing a pot of tea and steadily knocking items off of my crazy long list. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I feel significantly better and I got a crazy amount of work done.






































I kicked it all off on Friday by making a pot of soup. This served several purposes, including using all the odd things in my fridge, warming/perfuming the apartment and providing food to sustain me for the weekend. I made pumpkin coconut curry soup and it was most excellent. Definitely doing this one again.

I managed to get several smaller painting projects in as well. I had this very large but cheap frame sitting by the door to go to the trash when I had an idea. It was useless for framing artwork as the Plexiglass front was scratched and it was just so enormous it was hard to fill. But it was a perfectly good frame.... So I painted the frame itself with the leftover kitchen wall paint and sanded and painted the plexi with chalkboard paint. Voila! Kitchen chalkboard. Totally an overdone trend these days but I don't care a smidge because I love it!

I took the long way to the hardware store Saturday when I ventured out into the world to get supplies for shelves (more on that later-but so far they haven't fallen down!) and enjoyed a bit of sun despite the hat and scarf chill in the air. I even managed to squeeze in a quick batch of cookies yesterday (to which I added miniature Reese's which was brilliant and delicious and you should try it).

There was a lot of additional work on the kitchen which I am saving for a more dramatic reveal when the room in finally finished (though it's looking cheerier by the minute) and I also made significant headway on several seasonal design projects I've got looming up in front of me. While I would love to be cavorting about outside, getting brunch, going to parties, it was very satisfying to see that crossed off list this morning.

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I've found a new friend for the hallway now that the orchid has finally....expired.