A Little Before and After

I thought I should share some of the changes that we have been working on since we moved into our first home about 9 months ago. The house did not "need" any work done to it according to some, but I felt our home was in dire need of a splash of color and some of our own blood, sweat, and tears.

This is the living room before. I thought it looked too much like an apartment with the white walls, and beige carpet and broken blinds. (Oh, and the "window treatment" on the top was a couple place mats sewn together with beads glued to the bottom. EW!) That was the first thing to change. I LOVE my windows, and would not cover it up with furniture or ulgies.

I tried to include Naveen as much as possible in the color and decorating choices for the house, but most of the time he just says I can have what ever I want, as long as it looks nice. Such a good husband!

I struggled with the wall colors for a long time because of the open floor plan. I finally settled on a pretty Gray for the main color and a splash of springy Green for the big wall.

The orange tapestry-like thing hanging is a table cloth that Naveen bought for me on his last trip home to India. It seemed too fancy to spill food on and my mom suggested hanging it up. It looks much lovelier now that there is furniture in the living room and no dog kennel upstairs.

I love my open window so much I didn't want to cover it with anything, but it looked so naked without curtains I ended up getting some sheer winter white linen-like curtains with gentle floral embroidery on them. They are perfect! I should take a picture to let you see the full effect of a completed living room ( OK, completed once I decide what to hang above the couch. I am sooooo indecisive.)

On to the entry way.

Again with the white.....or white smeared with dirty hand prints.


We went from this.

To this.

The light really isn't off center from the door and the star, that's just my awesome camera skills. One thing that Naveen always told me he liked were those metal stars, so I surprised him and picked one out for the entry way. The light fixture is original to the house and while I don't LOVE it in all its unoriginal (every house in the neighborhood has the same one) golden glory, I do LOVE the way the light reflects off the glass and onto the walls. And so it will stay. Until I have an epiphany as to what I would rather have.

Canning Craze

For my birthday I asked for canning gear from my parents. Canning fever usually coincides with the following symptoms

The need to cook more than you can possibly eat in a meal or a week of leftovers
An affection for gardening
Planting too much of the good stuff
A pinch of crazy

My canning started off with Onion Jam and Green Tomato salsa... as you can see there was a crap ton of green tomatoes in our garden at the end of the season and I had already exhausted my palate with fried green tomatoes and thus a tasty insanity ensued.

Onion Jam was the first thing on my list of things to can. (How can you turn down a special request from your husband?)

So...

After cutting all the onions that Sam's Club had to offer, reducing a mixture of pure maple syrup and balsamic vinegar for hours I burned the first batch. I was not a happy girl. A project takes all day and I get distracted for 15 minutes and the whole thing goes to pot. It turned into a rock hard burned Frisbee that I could pick out of the pan and probably take to the dog park. I dried my eyes and started cutting more onions.



This is how it is supposed to look. With all the effort that goes into Onion Jam you would hope that a double batch would yield more that 4 little teeny tiny jars.




On a non food related note, we finally got the shelf hung that my grandpa made for my teacups.

The First Thanksgiving

In the last 15 years I have been accustomed to working on holidays so this year when I had Thanksgiving off I went all out. All this food for 2 people!?!?!?! We had lots of super yummy leftovers.

On the menu:
Apricot glazed turkey breast ( I am afraid of bones and cavities and gross things)
Apple Raisin Stuffing
Slow cooker garlic mashed potatoes- totally rockin'
Apricot Dijon sweet potatoes
Carrot Souffle
Dinner Rolls
Mushroom Gravy
Cranberry Sauce with Orange Zest
Pumpkin Pie

I made everything myself with the exception of the pie.

The first Thanksgiving in our new house yielded happy tummies and an impressed husband.

Thanks Mom for the kitchen skills!