Better Late Than Never

Well now that February is almost upon us I thought it would be nice to finally share my new years goals.  I don't like to call them resolutions, if I call them goals then I have an easier time sticking to them....don't ask why!  So, it is a new year and this marks a year of a lot of new beginnings for me and my family.  I really want to dedicate this year to my shop and my blogs.  I had high hopes for this same thing last year but as you know, many things got in the way.  It seems that now I can finally find the time and energy to focus on these things.  Here are some of the goals I have set forth for this year....

1. Read books - I had not the time or energy to focus on one of my favorite hobbies last year, this year I really want to make an effort to lose myself in a good book from time to time

2. Learn how to take beautiful pictures

3. Grow a beautiful and abundant garden

4. Learn calligraphy - This is something I have always been interested in, when we lived in New York I was going to take classes, there aren't any offered here in Florida so I will have to teach myself

5. Bake and cook

6. Use my Polaroid camera - I have collected three now from Goodwill, I have yet to buy any film to test them out but am so eager to start shooting with them

7. Decorate our home and make it a lovely, cozy, warm, reflection of us and our personalities.

8. Make my blogs beautiful and inspiring places to visit

9. Improve my writing, find my voice, make my blogs a reflection of that

10.  Find more time for my hobbies and interests - Sometimes I lose focus and forget to have fun with crafting and other hobbies, this is something I want to focus on this year

11. Explore more crafting projects

12. Take up knitting again, take another class to brush up on my skills

13. Sew more often, try to make a piece of clothing

14. Take a flower arranging class

15. Throw beautiful parties, entertain with friends more often, be like Martha :)

16. Create a studio where I can make and create and be inspired

17. Get through our home renovations without filing for divorce or going gray!

18. Become conversational in German - I am visiting Germany in December, I really would like to speak fluently with my new in-laws!

19. Practice yoga, play tennis, stay active

I am sure this list will continue to grow as we move through the year.  I really want this year to be about me and Mike and enjoying our life, and the home we are creating, our friends and family, and all the little things that we might usually take for granted.  This past year, as difficult as it was, has really made me appreciate all the things we have, nothing is inconsequential anymore.  I am thankful for everything.  My life is good.

via Her Library Adventures...

Blogging Your Way

I am signed up for the Blogging Your Way class that Holly and Leslie are teaching.  We are currently in week two and I, of course, am already behind and trying to play catch up. So, today I’ve been reading through some of the content and assignments and background on Holly and Leslie.  I’ve been reading Holly’s blog for a long time so I was already pretty familiar with how she got to where she is today but Leslie’s story was new to me.  I am already so inspired and have gotten so much from the little bit I have been able to read through.  Both women are so incredibly talented and I am really looking forward to what the rest of this class will offer and how hopefully it will improve my blogging abilities.  Lord knows this blog could use some help :)  

A Creative Mint 

Thrifting Finds

We had some luck this weekend while thrifting.  We scored the chair for $5.  Not sure what we will use it for yet, maybe our office.  I am thinking a coat of white paint and some lacquer or maybe something drastic like orange or turquoise, I haven't decided yet.

We also found a Donna Summer record.  We were at a friend's party over the weekend and they had this record, one side is all Love to Love you Baby laid out on different tracks...it's awesome!

This is the second Polaroid camera I've picked up at Goodwill.  I have no idea if it works or not but it looks like it's in great shape.  Now I just need to suck it up and buy some film (fingers crossed The Impossible Project pulls it off soon)

In the Kitchen

Maybe it's all the new kitchen gadgets we received as wedding gifts, or maybe it's just the new found feeling of being a wife, but something has inspired me to want to cook, like all the time. Don't get me wrong, I know my way around the kitchen but since Mike and I have been together, I've sort of let him take over that part of our lives. I basically make the ice water every night for dinner, with the occasional baking session every now and then. Now Mike is starting school (he's going to be a teacher ladies and gentleman, I'm so happy and proud of him for taking this path!) which means that I am taking over the responsibility of cooking and I am really excited about it. In fact, maybe a little too excited. In addition to preparing my yearly goals and resolutions (to be shared at a later date) I have prepared a list of things I want to cook/bake this year (I know, I'm a nerd). So here goes...

- homemade nutella (we have the huge advantage of having German family who bring us over jars of German nutella and yes it's different than the stuff you get here, not full of partially hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup, since we are down to 1 jar of the good stuff, I have resolved to make it myself.)
- french bread/baguette (my hubby got me a bread maker for Christmas and I have already been using it but I want to try to make a really good baguette, like the kind you would find over in Paris)
- cinnamon rolls (another thing I'd like to try in the bread maker)
- homemade crackers
- graham crackers
- granola (I have about 100 recipes for granola, I am determined to find a really good one!)
- Foccacia (do you see a pattern here, that breadmaker is really going to come in handy)
- perfect mac and cheese (my roux always comes out grainy, I think I know how to fix this, but I need to test it out)
- perfect pizza dough (this is something we always struggle with, it's either too dense, or too chewy, etc.)
- savory galette (already made this on Monday night, good but needed tweeking)
- scrambled egg muffins (I saw something like this in Southern Living, thought it would make a good brunch item)
- macarons (the French kind, not the coconut ones, although those are delicious too)
- mayonnaise (we also received a food processor for Christmas and I am dying to try to make the real thing)
- olive oil cake
- plantains (we tried to make plantains over the summer and the result was disastrous, I'm determined to be successful because I love plantains)
- butter (I've read like 5 articles about making homemade butter, it sounds easy, we'll see)
- cheese (we've tried making homemade mozzarella, there were many factors involved in why it may not have turned out perfectly, I want to try again)
- mustard (I've kind of been obsessed with the idea of making my own mustard since I saw this recipe a few years ago.)
- nut butters (again, another food processor thing)
- Indian curries (specifically nilgiri korma from my favorite Indian restaurant in NYC
- naan
- Zaytoon's style pizza (my favorite Middle Eastern restaurant in Brooklyn makes this awesome flat bread pizza with herbs and feta cheese and since we no longer live in the city, I have a huge desire to re-create some of my NYC favorites)
- really good birthday cake from scratch
- puff pastry (I'm baffled by the fact that so many recipes call for this and yet so few people make it from scratch. We received Mastering the Art of French Cooking for Christmas and of course, Julia has a recipe for puff pastry, I must try to make it since the store bought stuff is full of chemicals.)
- gnocchi (love it, never tried to make it before, dying to try Jamie Oliver's recipe for it.)

So that's it! I have a lot of work to do by next year and I'm sure this list will continue to grow. We'll see if I can even get through half of it, but it's still January and I am feeling optimistic!

Saturday Morning in the Kitchen

Happy Holidays!

Ugg, I’ve been such a terrible blogger. It has been so crazy hectic here since we arrived home from our honeymoon and I’ve been neglecting all kinds of things, this blog included. I have lots of goals in place for the new year, one of which is to really put more effort into writing here on a more regular basis. For now though, I am going to take a short break until after the new year to focus on enjoying this first holiday season as a new wife and put some effort into my shop, my family and friends, all who have been very much neglected by my pre-wedding life, and a hundred other things I have on my to-do list. I wish you all a wonderful holiday season, filled with lots of laughter, joy, and good company.

Is anyone still there?

I'm back!  It's been a whirlwind of a month but the wedding is over, the honeymoon is over, I'm a wife, I started a new job, the family is gone, the holidays are quickly approaching, the house is a mess, the garden is growing, and I am so content.  For the first time, in a long time, I feel like there is nothing to worry over or stress about.  Life is good.  

I should have wedding photos to share soon, the photographer is sending them this week. The wedding was absolutely amazing, more perfect than I could ever imagine.  All the stress was worth it.  Everyone had a great time.  The best compliment I received that night was that the wedding was truly us, which is exactly what we were hoping for.  I'll share more details soon, for now I just want to sit back, relax and revel in the joys of being a new wife...

2 weeks and counting

2 weeks from today I will be a wife!  I just got home from my bridal shower so I am on a high from several cups of tea and many great laughs and a few (happy) tears!  I have such wonderful friends and a wonderful mother and mother-in-law to be.  

I had many gifts to unwrap and find a place for in our house.  We are desperately going to need to re-model our kitchen after the wedding because we are running short on cabinet and storage space!  

The first set of German family arrived last night and it's starting to feel real!  I am getting so excited, almost giddy with joy and happiness from getting to marry a wonderful man and spend precious time with all our dear family and close friends before the wedding.  Things are about to get crazy here in the next couple of weeks but I will try to post here again before the wedding!

Just checking in...

The wedding is quickly approaching and I am in full planning mode. We have been collecting candlesticks and milk glass vases and mason jars and wine boxes....I scour Ebay and the local thrift stores constantly for anything vintage I can find. I really hope that all the planning and collecting and preparing will result in the beautiful vision I have in my head!

Today I hit the jackpot at Goodwill, I even snagged a couple of non-wedding goodies like a polaroid camera I had been after (crossing my fingers that it works but it looks like it's in really good condition!) and a really cute vase for the house. It's been rainy and overcast here and my camera battery is dead so I have no pictures for you. One of my goals for after the wedding is to improve my picture taking abilities and to take more photos overall. We paid so much money for our camera and I hate that it only gets used on vacations.

The house is quiet now and I can hear the rain falling pretty hard outside so I'm going to take advantage of these few minutes of peacefulness and enjoy a cup of tea and watch the rain. Have a lovely weekend everyone!!

Photo: Flickr

How Does your Garden Grow...

At the moment, slowly.  We have almost everything in the ground now.  Our once prolific squash now seems to have some kind of disease on its leaves which I think I am controlling with a neem oil spray (organic of course).  We have already suffered from a bout of white flies, they are persistent little things and I am trying to combat them in a number of different ways.  I've ordered yellow sticky paper, some kind of attractant of beneficial bugs that will help eat the whiteflies, neem oil, insecticidal soap, and some homemade garlic, onion, and red pepper spray that made my kitchen quite smelly for a few days.  

I'm also collecting coffee ground and tea leaves to put in the garden and egg shells and egg boiling water, apparently a good source of calcium for vegetables.  In addition to all this madness, I've developed a sort of addiction to ordering seed!  I have these ground cherries that I have been dying to plant but we are trying to focus on everything else we have planted and it's still really hot down here so I don't know how that will affect some of the things we have planted like carrots and kale which really need a cold snap to have a good flavor.  We shall see...it's an ever growing science experiment in the back yard right now!

Photo: Candice

We're almost there...

Sorry posting has been so intermittent over here, I always have good intentions but lately I feel like all my time is being consumed by other things. The wedding is quickly approaching, a little more than 4 weeks to go! The big tasks are done for the most part and now it's all about the little details.

I have moments when I feel like everything is coming together really nicely and other moments where I panic and am overcome with anxiety thinking it will never be what I envisioned it to be. Which is actually pretty funny when you think about all the details you agonize over like which wine glass to use or which plate or chair looks better and it's completely lost on your guests. They come to see you get married, to dance, to eat, and to have a good time and when it's all said and done you probably won't even remember which plate or chair you decided to go with either...all you will remember is how happy you were in that moment, how nice it was to have all your family and friends in one place celebrating such a momentous occasion, and how much fun it was laughing and dancing and crying together for the first time, as man and wife...

Photo: Flickr