We have appliances!

Can't wait! We haven't bought the pedestals yet for the washer and dryer, but I want them. They will be at the house on the 2nd (a day after we move in) and the refrigerator will be there on the 5th.

Goodbye Kuhl Beans!

Return Address Stamp!

I just ordered our new return address stamp from expressionery.com!
It's the "Larrabee" stamp... love it and can't wait to mail things! I also got 40% off of my order by entering "msljune" in the offer code box. Thank you Martha Stewart Living Magazine!

New book by an Indian author!

I'm excited. I'm 3/4 of the way through The Weight of Heaven, and it's great. I had bought it to read on the plane, but now I'm nearly done and so I needed a new one.

Seriously though, not only are books by Indian authors great reading, but they look so nice on a bookshelf!

Photographs of my new home, for those who were interested

So, in 12 hours Ricky and I will officially be homeowners. How exciting! Words cannot express how I cannot wait to paint this house! Oh! And replace every hideous light fixture!

Also, today will probably be my last day at work. I'm overcome with a strange and unexpected sadness... this was the first thing I had that was "mine," and it wasn't even mine... I had to deal with the backwards idiocy of working for the military... not to say anything bad about the military, it's just that the civilian side is just one big headache... I worked at a coffee shop, and my bosses were people who said "expresso"... catch my drift?

Either way, I put my heart into this place. I watched it transform over this 1.5 years, and I'm happy with the outcome. It took alot of work, and the worst part is that I have a whole staff of brand new employees, none of whom saw me breaking my back trying to fix things, change things, find loopholes, re-do costcards, convince public health that we don't make food and therefore don't need to wear hats, got us out of our old "mechanic" uniforms and into T-shirts and aprons, changed our weekend hours, created real training manuals, ordered our second machine, expanded us from THREE (yes, three) syrup flavors to nearly twenty, got us a chalkboard after a huge battle about neon green markers and a glass board, challenged the health department after their STUPID girl tried to fail us (they re-inspected, and we were fine) changed all of our decor and chairs from hard wooden ones to soft upholstered armchairs after literally yelling at the idiot "interior designer" about how she was not, in fact, a designer at all, buying our new cups and cleaners and soap/lotion, dish soap, espresso cups, and shakers with my own money... the list goes on. So, like I said, none of them saw any of this, and so I feel that maybe they don't respect what I've done here, and I'm almost glad to go. I don't want to feel glad to go. I miss Brittany.

Pachyderms and Cupcakes

I just recently finished the novel "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen. I highly recommend it, the ending was fabulous, and it was the first book in a while to make me cry. I loved it. The characters were real and accessible, the story was heart wrenching... you really feel involved. A young man who faces a family tragedy, leaves Cornell, joins a circus, falls in love and saves an untrainable eastern european elephant. I love literature that paints pictures, and reading this book was like watching it all happen in my mind, like a film. It is beautifully written, and curiously well done for being written by a woman but from a man's perspective.

Today I stumbled (thank you internet) upon the site I Love Cuppacakes. Stupid name, yes, but they have these!! I want to make them all, and they look so easy!

Dinner and a Novel

The dinners I have prepared the past couple of nights:










Tuna steaks rubbed with lemon zest, garlic, and rosemary, and asparagus with olive oil and cracked pepper. I love to snap asparagus. =)










Moroccan chicken on couscous with raisins, apricots, and almonds.


I promised myself a few years ago that I would always buy any book written by an Indian author or that had "Elephants" in the title.

Today I bought this

And this, because it was pretty.

...and eat it, too

A while back I felt creative and baked some lemon lavender cupcakes. They were fantastic. I used boxed (gasp!) lemon cake mix, and added some crushed lavender flowers. I iced them with vanilla icing, which I dyed violet with gel food coloring, and I sprinkled lavender flowers on top. They were adorable.

I'd like to do more with lavender. Maybe make some lavender sugar, drawer sachets, things like that. Lavender bath salts I'm sure would be simple enough. Just some Epsom salts, lavender oil and flowers.

That same day (the lavender cupcake day) I also made dark chocolate cupcakes with chili powder and cinnamon. Divine.

Home Decor

Just some things that I love and can't wait to put in my new house!

I Do Love A Good Duvet Cover

I have two white down comforters. Being in Germany, it has been hard to find a duvet cover that I really love. A lot of bed linens are made of jersey cotton, and the patterns are less than attractive. So, since I'm moving, I've gone ahead and started looking!

The most attractive ones I've found are at Pottery Barn (go figure)



I really like this Matine Toile, I think it would look gorgeous in the guest bedroom...

There's Nothing Like Home Cooking

Mmmm... tonight for dinner I made Israeli spiced chicken, couscous, and fresh green beans with garlic and red pepper.


Is it just me, or is there something nostalgic about snapping the ends off of green beans? It reminds me of my Nanny (my mother's mother) and how she would grow green beans and snap peas in her garden every year. Those, along with tomatoes and the then-dreaded yellow squash were a part of just about every meal we ate at her house!

I can't wait to have my own vegetable garden in Florida! I'm not entirely sure what I'll plant, but I do know that there will be green beans.


My Israeli Spice Rub
*There are no measurements, I add everything to taste:
Cumin
Coriander Seed
Red Pepper Flakes
Smoked Paprika
Kosher Salt
Oregano
Cinnamon
Garlic Powder
-Dry-fry all spices in a nonstick skillet for about 30 seconds. Grind in a spice (or coffee) grinder. Store in an airtight jar for up to a month.

Paint Paint Paint and Paint!

So I've found the blue I want to use in my living room, dining room, and kitchen. It's nice a powdery while still have the slightest hint of green, which I love, and it will also look smashing with the wainscoting. The beige is going in my bedroom, the dark brown will be for accents, and that fabulous red will be showing up in accents in the kitchen and dining room.

Also, I just found Napa Style... and I love it. It's beautiful, do yourself a pretty little favor and go look, and then go drink some tea.

The Marlin will not do

As some of you may know, Ricky and I recently purchased a home in Gulf Breeze, Florida. The house is great, just the right size (2,000 sqft), has 3 bedrooms (one of which will become an office), 2 full bathrooms, a huge kitchen, a fenced yard, we're on a small lake, 2 car garage, the suburbian works. It does, however, need one very important thing. PAINT. The guest bedroom is adorned with giant fish murals. Yes, fish. There is a shark on one wall, and a marlin leaping out of water on the other. Do not ask, as I do not know.

The other guest room has a rather creepy looking little girl holding a surf board surrounded by palm trees. Floor-to-ceiling palm trees. The guest bath is graced with the same painted foliage. The master bedroom is sponge-painted green. Lovely. Last but not least, the common areas (living room, dining "area," kitchen, foyer) are alternating walls of goldenrod yellow, bright yellow, and brick red. It really is pretty horrendous.

So. I'm painting the guest bedroom pale yellow, however hum-drum that may sound. The master bedroom will be a barely-there beige, and the office will more than likely end up the same yellow. The common area ceilings are oddly vaulted, so crown molding is out of the picture, save for the bedrooms and bathrooms. I plan on having a red and very light teal kitchen. I love those colors together, and for my living/dining room, something like this!

I love the dusty blue with the crisp white wainscoting! Try to imagine it in a living room, not a bathroom. All of our living room furniture is dark brown or plays off of dark brown very well, and brown looks so lovely with blue. I'm really excited! I like beadboard wainscoting, which shouldn't be very hard to come by nor expensive, and it looks so sharp!

Our first home is going to be so pretty! After years of having to rent in Germany, it will be so nice to be able to do whatever I want!

Photographic Proof of my Knitting Claim

So, after Brittany taught me the basics, I ended up with this.

Impressive, I know...

...and I have moved on to squares!

I'm a little knittin' machine!

A quick post script

Today I successfully knitted a 15"x2" green.... strip.

But it was a knitted strip. Photographic evidence to come.

Don't Just Sit There Knit Something!

I had the pleasure of spending yesterday evening at the Cooley house. Ricky played poker (and won, a-thank-you-very-much) and Brittany attempted to teach me to knit.


Knitting is about GD near impossible.

She made it look so easy! Her hands just flew around as she knit-one purl-two'd circles around me! Ah!!

I'm excited about this new endeavor, though. I'd like to be a knitter, I think it is important for women (or anyone) these days to stay connected to the old-fashioned way of doing things. Simple things, like thank you cards instead of phone calls, hand written letters instead of e-mails, making your own pie crusts from scratch, home cooking... and, of course, knitting.

Sewing, on the other hand, is a bit out of my league, and I'll save that for the B. Cooleys of the world.

Yesterday's knitting lesson did however prompt me to search for lovely knitting needles, a quest that lead me to Autumn Hollow Farm. They have to most exquisite knitting needles and crochet hooks. They also have an eBay store, here.

Love this tote

Kate Spade

Found!

Fantastic stationery website! They have calling cards, notepads, seals, folded notes, everything.

Smells like home

Every time I clean my house, I want it to smell clean. I use these, the clean linen candles by Glade. They smell like fresh laundry, which is fantastic, and they cost less than $4.00, which is even better. I love the frosted glass holder they come in, and the fact that the adhesive label peels off with ease really seals the deal!

My home smells wonderful, I'm not going to be modest. I also use Yankee Candle's Basil and Mint scent, but I think it has been discontinued, though I can't imagine why. Their new world journeys series features a great French Lavender candle which I use in my hallway.

I'm also enjoying these new Soy candles, they don't burn as long, but the scent lasts forever! I use an apple and cinnamon one in my living room, and the smell is so inviting.

I use Lavender Vanilla Febreze on everything in my home. I know that there are cheaper generic versions of this stuff, but I just don't think they work as well. With two pets and a husband who loves intramural sports, it really is a must. The smell lasts and it isn't overpowering, I use it on the carpet, the sofa, his armchair, the pet beds, you name it. Sometimes I use it on my bedsheets before pressing them, though usually I take the time to mix my own lavender water in a spray bottle (a few drops of Lavender essential oil and about a 1/3 cup of water gets both sheets scented nicely) You name it, I've Febrezed it.

It's so nice to have your home smell like home.

Things I like

(I already have the purse, it was a Christmas present from Ricky, but it still deserves to be in the "Things I like" post)

Wedding Attire

So things are really rolling now, as far as our PCS to Florida goes. We have our tickets booked to the States, we leave here on June 1st... Ricky also booked our flight to his sister's wedding on the 19 of June in Albuquerque. This means I must shop.

I was looking at J.Crew, and I found a couple of dresses that I really love... but I don't know what color to get, and I've never tried on a dress there, so I'm afraid to order the wrong size. Or worse, to order the right size but not have it get here before we leave, since things have been known to take 6 weeks or more to arrive.

I'm looking at this dress in particular, the Silk chiffon Sophia dress. It won't ship from the site until June 9th, but there are 2 J.Crew locations in Destin, which is about 15 minutes from where I'll be living. I love the color (Vintage Blue), but the cut in the back might be a problem with my bras... alas, they just don't make great dresses for the well endowed anymore!



I also really like this one, which is basically the same thing, just a touch shorter and comes in a different blue. I really like the pewter color, though.

I'll need "cocktail" attire for both the rehearsal dinner and the reception, for that I was looking at this dress. Very Jackie-O, I think. Plus, it's on sale for $50, plus an additional 20% off... which is always nice.


I think I'll end up just looking for one once we get to Florida. It's probably much smarter to do that than buy something and have to send it back... which would be a nightmare.

Ladies need nice hands!

I just got done washing dishes (with my Mrs. Meyer's Lavender dish soap, a-thank-you-very-much) and felt the need to write a quick note on how much I love my hand soap and lotion!

I use Avalon Organics Lemon soap and lotion. The lotion is probably the best I've ever used... non-greasy, super moisturizing, and it smells so good!

It's not cheap, $6.95 for the soap and $10.95 for the lotion, and that's a 12 ounce bottle... but you really truly only need the tiniest amount and you're good! I've had mine for nearly 6 weeks and I'm not even half-way empty yet.

P.S. Amy Poehler is hilarious.

Moving Announcements and Lemon Trees

So after a lot of looking, I've finally settled on these moving announcements. There were so many to choose from, but many sites won't ship to my APO address. Some great finds were hellolucky.com, thestationerystudio.com, and expressionery.com, all of which offer adorable digital and letterpress announcements. The cards I chose were at tinyprints.com... a little gem I discovered with the help of Google's "I'm feeling lucky" option. I ended up getting 25 announcements, envelopes, and return address labels for a little over $50.00. I'm pretty excited.

Another reason I'm looking forward to this move, on top of cute stationery, is the opportunity to plant things! Florida is in Zone 8 for gardening, which makes the possibilities nearly endless! I know that I want citrus trees, like key limes, Meyer lemons, and of course, oranges. Surlatable has some gorgeous little trees, but, of course, won't ship to Florida.

Speaking of Surlatable, I'm also in love with these bowls!

I love climbing plants, like jasmine and honeysuckle.. but I'm a little afraid to add such fragrant foliage with all of those bugs about...

The only downside is that everywhere I look, I hear that lavender doesn't do so well in that climate. I really had my heart set on yellow roses and French lavender in the front of my house... but ah well. I think I'll just go for something with a similar look, maybe some purple heather. Lavender would make my front porch a bee-fest anyway! I'll save the lavender for the inside, maybe it will feel better inside my climate controlled kitchen...