Saturday, October 8, 2011

Tales Of A Bathroom...

I am staring at a disheveled master bath and bedroom.
I am hanging my hand towel on Lucy's kitty tree.
She is not big on sharing. She keeps knocking it off.
We have not yet found a shower head, toilet paper holder, towel racks, and hand towel holders.
Thank you Home Depot and Lowe's for having not one item we wanted in stock.
Restoration Hardware is our last hope but it is far far away in the distant land called King Of Prussia...sigh...sigh...one more sigh...
The shower door will be installed on Tuesday morning...no matter what.
Men will stomp up my wooden stairs and invariably kick the backs of those stairs with their work shoes. They will look at me crossly when I tell them that we don't wear shoes in our house and could they just try to be careful?
They will slam our front door many times as they carry pieces of glass up and down...and up and down...I am quite certain Den's beautiful paint job will get dings and nicks.

Oh me...
Oh my...yet one more sigh...

But...here is the bright side...we can actually use our bathroom shower again!!!

And here is the not so bright side...we have not one thing to hang towels on.
And minutes ago the faucet part of my husband's sink fell apart and the entire fixture has to be replaced and mine, too, so that they match!!!

That will take a whole new skill set!!!

Yikes!!!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Friday, October 7, 2011

More Fall Food Finds...

Have I ever mentioned that my lovely mom was Italian?
She was.
She would always tell us stories about how when she grew up her mom was an amazing cook and never really used very much meat in her cooking.
My mom loved eating soups and beans and all kinds of green veggies.  Sauteed kales and spinaches and other hearty greens were some of her favorites.
She ate and cooked meats for my dad but I truly think she was a pure vegetarian at heart.  She didn't even really like milk...she might even have been vegan.
When I found this book I knew I had to have it.

This dish reminds me of my Italian grandmother's cooking.
My grandmother had two kitchens in the house my mom grew up in...a basement kitchen and an upstairs kitchen.
She used the basement kitchen to can all of the lovely things my Italian grandpa grew in his garden. 
 My grandparents also had a brick oven in their grape arbor.
I have no idea what they used it for but my grandmother always had amazing foods prepped for us when we visited every Sunday.
This book is filled with delightful simple foods.
Soups and stews and veggies and breads and cookies and simple pleasing pastas.
It reminds me of the Italian part of me.
I can't wait to dive into it and make something
peasanty...
Yum.

Italian Tuscan Bean Soup is simmering away in my slow cooker...the house smells so Italian...lol...
Chow!!!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

More Things I Love To Do In The Fall...

I really do like to quilt.
Nothing elaborate.
Either outline quilting or just straight lines.
The precision of it appeals to me.
I love making easy quilts.
I love making little quilts.
I love making different quilts.
This lovely little book came in the mail today.
The quilts are sort of crayon colored and made out of unique fabrics...Japanese fabrics and sort of one of a kind prints that don't seem to go together but they really do.
I am going to choose one and that is going be my winter project.
I love having one winter project to focus on.
It is just deciding between this one or the following one.
This one is from an online yarn shop that I love called Noble Knits.
It is a pattern called Beekeeper.
It is about a million little hexagons that you knit and then stuff  and then stitch together to make this quilt.
I just talked to my sister Paula and she is not sure that I have enought mad knitting skills to handle this one.
But I think I can.
The magic number is 384 hexagons. Just looks like a million.
Then I have a quilt.
Cool.

I will make my decision shortly.

Or maybe I will work on both of them.

I can not for the life of me read two books at a time but I might be able to do two different unrelated projects at a time.

What do you think?

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Fall Makes Me Want To Make Soup...Lots Of Soup!!!

What is it about soup?
This sweet little book came in the mail yesterday and I already love it and the soup recipes contained inside.
This book is petite and tiny and spirally bound.
Directions are clear and easy...nothing is complicated.
Ingredients are relatively normal ones.
I love making soup.
I especially love making soup in my slow cooker.
A tummy warming soup is simmering away in mine right now.
Something Italian.
Something that requires dipping crusty bread into it.
And sprinkling the top with olive oil and freshly grated Parmesano Reggiano cheese.
The Italian in me sings to this soup.
Yum!!!
The only weird soup recipe that I found inside is apple pie soup...
I will not be making that one.
No way.
Not into fruit soups.
Double ick.

I think my husband and I could easily live on soup, bread, and cheese.
Hmmm...
Perhaps some fruit.
And coffee.
And chocolate.
Then we could live on soup alone.
Maybe a taco or two every now and then.
But mostly soup...soupy soup!!!
There is a Maurice Sendak rhyme about the seasons of the year but the line I always remember is...sipping once sipping twice sipping lovely soup with rice!!!

My thoughts exactly.

What are your thoughts on...
soup?

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Painting Is Not Like Coloring...

I am a perfectionist but I like things done quickly.
My husband is a perfectionist who likes things done perfectly.
That is one huge problem.
I once painted over dining room wallpaper.
Not in this house.
It was wallpaper in the morning and clean lovely off white paint by the end of the day.
My husband was in shock.
It took him a long long time to get over it.
Oh well...
We were transferred before anything bad happened.
Whew!!!
We have never painted any walls in any houses we have ever owned any color except for a sort of creamy eggshelly color. 
We have tons of hanging stuff...quilts and paintings and other treasures.
Color scares us.
Better put...color scares me.
My husband is begging for color in our master bathroom...
which is still not done.
Shower door not in, fixtures not ordered, etc.
We had other stuff to do while the shower door was ordered...go to Maine,
play, watch movies, play, watch football, and play.
We finally bought paint. 
A color...
iceberg blue.
So light it looks almost white but it is blue.
Iceberg blue.
My husband spent the entire day yesterday in our master bath.
He sanded and patched and covered and prepped and taped and worried about painting the ceiling and making a mistake.
There is still no sign of iceberg blue on the walls.
We are not painting today.
I am postponing the shower door installation for another week.
This is way too much pressure!!!

I could paint the walls myself and surprise him.

What do you think about that?

This is iceberg blue!!!