project mode

I wanted to end this week with something tranquil. But I haven't been feeling particular tranquil these days. I have a midterm to take later today, a messy house to clean (SO MANY DISHES!), homework and work-work, pictures that I want to take, errands I have to run and lists of my to-do lists. I'm not very stressed about any one item but I am feeling more focused--in project mode. So, I hope that you have a productive weekend. Or not, depending on your mood. 

This is one of my to do list items for our home. Find an awesome rug or kilim. Does anyone know what the difference is between a rug and a kilim?

1, 2, 3, 4

succulent potting for plants

Still plant hunting.

We bought some nice herbs over the past weekend--lemon thyme and rosemary. I still want to buy some basil and then I will be cooking with fresh herbs instead of the three-year-old dried variety. I'm dreaming of rosemary fries, pesto sauces and lemon thyme fish and chicken.

These are some planters that I've found on Etsy. But hopefully with the skills that Nick has been acquiring in his ceramics class he'll be able to make something that our plants will love calling home.

1, 2, 3, 4

I like cake

Over the weekend I had to do a photo shoot for an assignment. One of my ideas was to have my lovely model/friend, Devaun, pose while "baking". Devaun was great and really easy to photograph; did I mention that she's gorgeous. I'll show you the project in the near future (I'm pretty proud of how it turned out), but I ultimately went a different direction for the project. However, since we had all the ingredients out to photograph I decided to go ahead and make the cake. Because who doesn't like cake? Crazy people that's who. And we aren't crazy. At least in regards to our cake-liking.

I found this recipe on this very impressive food blog. After looking at her website for way too long I wanted to eat everything that she's created. This cake is called a Lemon Polenta Cake and was already gluten-free. Woot! The only tweak I would suggest is using a regular gluten-free flour mix instead of ground almonds if you have a nut/almond allergy. Also, my cake was a little grittier than I cared for; I'm not sure if that's because the coarse cornmeal  that I used was extra coarse or if it's just my personal preference. If I made this cake again I would use less of the coarse cornmeal or even replace it entirely with fine cornmeal. Anyway, it's been a real slice.

(And yes, I have been trying to come up with an appropriately clever yet subtle ending involving cake. Did I succeed?)

well, you can go and hang

Now that the paint is dried we can hang our art. This is our third place that we've lived since we've been married but we've never fully let ourselves settle in. And, although we know we won't be in our current place very long either, we're determined to make it a home and not just the place that we sleep and eat at between work and school.

As I've been searching for specials pieces for our home I've come to the realization that decorated walls can really make a big difference (my Pinterest boards are full of gallery style walls of art) but art can be expensive. I wish that I could barter with some artists--I'll make you dinner 5 times, organize your closets, teach you Photoshop, or design a website in exchange for one "real" piece of art (I'm not above manual labor. We're students, which equals money poor, but that doesn't mean we don't have skills.)

This is some of the art that I wish we had to display. 1, 2, 3, 4

P.S. This site is meant to get "real" art into the hands of people like you, affordably. People like me need to eat and feed a giant.

paint your walls gray and the world will look better

Our house is in a bit of disarray but I'm so proud of little pieces of it (especially our lovely, hard-earned walls) that I decided to shove some piles to the side and show you what we have so far.
In order of appearance:

A lamp! I told you I was looking and I found this beauty in Salt Lake last weekend! It was the score of the century since I've been wistfully looking at similar ones for weeks. They were out of our price range (plus shipping!) but this one was even better than many of those.

These are our walls. You can't quite tell, but the left wall is an accent color in elephant skin and the right one is painted in classic silver. Our walls are pretty much the pride of our home. At least in my eyes. The tablecloth is an awesome blue/purple/green vintage one from my mom and sitting on top is a vase from our wedding decorations with dried lavender.

Our rocking chair nook where we talk and gaze out the window at our view of beautiful sunsets along with our small collection of art they we need to figure out where and how to hang. Suggestions are welcome. As are introductions to further art to make our life more visually stimulating.

Well folks, that's all for now on the home front.