color swatches

Time for me to share a secret. A secret talent I wish I had, so that I could have made a career out of it. This time, no, it is not having one dominant artistic talent so I could live strictly off my creativity. I am convinced after all that this may not be the life after all.

I wish I was an expert at the color palette. Admittedly, I do have better skills than many. I can tell the distinct difference between colors -- which have more browns, reds, yellows, blues, etc. Although even with this, it's not enough to cut through the color and identify what would look best.

As per the photo, we're in the midst (correction: I am in the midst, and pm has given me all decision making capabilities on color--as long as it is not red) of choosing colors for the walls. We had a couple of easy decisions.

I always wanted a green bathroom. After 30+ color swatches and evaluation, we got that project done. Since then, we've only done one other wall and it was just the accent wall. My next project entails painting an accent wall in the kitchen. The larger project tying into this is painting the hallway.

I know that I want for the colors to be rich, but not overbearing. We have a very well lit kitchen. We've already got reds, blacks, greens, purples and beige. This got me thinking in the direction of yellow. Blue and green (in my opinion) are too chill for a kitchen. Since the party almost always starts and finishes in the kitchen, it has to be a color that evokes energy. Since red is out of the picture, I am leaning toward yellow.

I took an inventory over the weekend of the paint swatches to date I have collected. It is ridiculous. How hard is it to make a decision? Well, hard. I know it's just paint and you can just repaint it again if you decide you don't like it. I am perfectionist people -- I want to do it right the first time and get it right the first time.

My master plan is to make some decisions this weekend so that more paint can go up on the walls. I have a few tricks up my sleeve to help me make decisions:

1. The paint color must have a food name. To date, we've used "Pistachio Ice Cream" and "Italian Roast" (I am personally leaning toward something with coconut :))
2. Label my favorite colors with numbers. Ask pm to select a random number.
3. Have you vote. I could post the colors, and you could vote.
4. Don't paint this weekend. Ponder more...

And, so there it is. I wish I was a colorologist. With that, I wish I could just make a decision. It's just paint, right?

DIY: China Cabinet

If we've learning anything through our more recent home ownership, it's that there's always a project on the sidelines.

We went from nearly no furniture to an immediate need for more--mostly so that we could store the many items that were packed safe and sound at the 'rents house. Owning property has expedited the lease on that free storage space.

Our first big DIY project stemmed from the need for more kitchen storage. While our new kitchen has plenty of cabinets, with a 10+ foot ceiling, not all cabinets are conveniently accessed or useful.

pm and I decided to start our search for a china cabinet. We wanted something that would be big enough to hold a good portion of our kitchen wares (p.s. it's amazing how much kitchen stuff you get from your wedding that you ultimately do not use unless you have the space to accommodate it). We started our search by going to the usual suspects--Crate&Barrel, Ikea, Target, World Market, etc. No luck. There were very few china cabinets that fit our style and our budget.

On a random Monday night we decided to stop off a local thrift store. This trip was made more to donate old clothes, than it was buy anything. Turns out: Once we walked in we discovered an amazing china cabinet (with character!) that fit the bill for what we were looking for our kitchen space. The cabinet (as pictured) was in great shape, but needed a modest amount of TLC. (We later discovered that it would need more than a modest amount of TLC, but I digress...)

Nearly 2 weeks after the purchase--plus 3 coats of paint, sanding, waxing and reconstructing--we could hang our towels and toast to a china cabinet that was truly ours. It's nice to know that the piece we ended up getting not only goes well in the space we designated for it in the kitchen, but it also is an original. No one else will ever have one just like it. This fact makes us proud (even if it was a pain the butt to do when we were in the process). What may make us the most proud, however, is that the whole project (cabinet, paint, etc.) cost us under $300. A small price to pay for what we were looking at in all stores.

So here was the whole DIY project timeline:

1. Find china cabinet and purchase it.
2. Move it to the house. (aka: Hire strong men to move it to the house)
3. Remove all hinges, screws, glass and other hardware.
4. Clean it, bleach it, clean it.
5. Sand it. Sand it. Sand it.
6. Prime time. We primed the whole cabinet with an oil based primer.
7. Paint cabinet, drawers and details in white with a latex paint.
8. Paint drawers with green accent latex paint.
9. Patiently wait for all paint to dry.
10. Wax. (Minwax, finishing wax in natural)
11. Add all hardware and glass back to the cabinet. (we found the knobs at Ikea--of the snodd variety)
12. Fill cabinet with kitchen items.
13. Blog about it.

Not exactly sure what our next big project will be in terms of furniture. That said, we're experimenting with different paint options for the hallway.

Never a dull moment. Never a project undone. :)

Chamomille IPA

After a longer than expected hiatus, moving can be quite time consuming, we are brewing again. Our last two beers had been a Chamomile IPA, which is almost ready to be bottled, and an Orange Coriander American Wheat. The Chamomile IPA is a Chinook IPA from Northern Brewer with a little twist, we added half a gallon of Chamomile and half a pound of honey.

Regarding the half gallon of Chamomille, just note that what we added was a very strong half gallon, we are lucky to live close to Harvestime foods and they sell 1 oz. Chamomile bags for little more than $1.50, so we put the whole thing to boil.

The recipe:

0.75 lbs. Dingemans Caramel Pils

0.25 lbs Briess Caramel 120

6 lbs Pilsen malt syrup

1 lb dry malt extract

3 oz. Chinook (1 oz. boils for 60 mins, 1 oz. 10 mins before the end of the boil and 1 oz. finishing hops about 1 min. before the end of the boil)

1 oz. Chamomile

0.5 lbs honey

Wyeast 1056 American Ale

The original gravity is 1.054 and after two weeks we put it into secondary fermentation for about six more weeks. We want to bottle it sometime this week and will be posting a review around mid June.

Sevilla

stop. in. action.

The last month has been a series of green lights followed immediately by red lights, with little to no time to even see the yellow to pause. Fact is: I need some yellow lights. Time to decompress, relax and reclaim some balance.

We've been busy with getting settled--something that I did not think would be so time consuming or long-lasting. While I would say we are settled, we still have a little ways to go until our house becomes a home. More paint is needed on the walls, more furniture to fill the voids and most importantly, art to be hung on the walls. It is killing me to have all of our artwork fanned along the floor, waiting for the correct place to be identified before mounting.

Aside from settling, we've been graced by the presence of oversea visits. It has been a real treat to finally have the space to accommodate the family that lives so far away. It's also been fun to host and show off our new digs. [Perhaps the best part of entertaining is that you don't need any excuses to bake. I wish I had a photo of all the cakes/breads I have made in the last 5 weeks. I've been on a roll...]

Back to yellow. It's been a bit lately like being stuck at the intersection, wanting to cross and waiting for the changing of the lights. Will the lights now change because you there isn't enough weight to recognize you there? Did you arrive just as they changed, forcing you to have to wait until you're granted passage again? Or, what?

It so for this reason that I need to make a pledge. A pledge not to anyone but myself and my own creative endeavors and capacities. So here goes it:

1. I will make time to do something creative, even if it is only for 15 minutes every day.
2. I will commit (in addition to #1) to devote time for myself every day.
3. I will not stress out about the things that I cannot control and cannot change.
4. I will reread this list to remind myself of my pledge.

This is going to be a bit of a challenge, but I am going to do it. Wish me luck, thoughts, tips, etc.

baking anyone?

Carbohydrates are my friend. In the past few weeks I have baked more carbs than the rest of the year combined. I've made cake, zucchini bread and wheat bread.

The bread in this photo is a wheat bread. Somehow in the move I discovered 2 full pages of whole wheat flour. Since this is not a common every day baking flour, I had to be creative on ways to use it. I wish my braid would have turned out better. Maybe next time I'll post the photo of the finished product.

Anyway, I blame all my recent baking on the new kitchen. Our new digs have amazing natural light, so the kitchen is always bright. We also have a lot of space for spreading things out--perfect for laying out ingredients and recipe books.

My recent craze for baking is two-fold:

(1) I have been craving sweets and homemade items like a crazy woman. Since I enjoy baking and enjoy eating, I didn't need any other excuses.

(2) I wanted to test out the new oven and make sure it was working how it should be. Wouldn't want to move in & not make sure all the appliance work? A cardinal sin.

I have a feeling I am going to continue to get very good use out of the kitchen. This will kick off this weekend in my annual task of making a birthday cake/pie/sweet for pm's birthday. I just need to find the recipe of what he wants. Once that is done and it has been made, it will be posted.

Break in the Action

I know I have alluded to some big changes underway for pm and me. Well that time has come and gone. We now have a whole new set of changes ahead.

We moved. We moved into a place that we can finally call home.

The past month our lives have consisted of packing up all of our belongings from a very small apartment to prepare for our big move into home ownership. We've now been in our new digs for about 2 weeks and are absolutely loving it. It is so nice to come home to place that it yours. I already feel so much more inclined to keep the place looking nice and neat. (This feat has been nearly impossible, though, as we are still organizing boxes and getting settled).

We were offline for nearly 3 weeks. Hence, I was not able to write. And, I have missed it. This space gives me the platform to collect my thoughts and sometimes regain my sanity. I guess not only have I not been able to write for the lack on internets :), but I also haven't had the time to sit back and relax yet.

Our new couch arrived last night, so now I am going to be able to kick back and relax. Finally.

My brain is already spinning on projects I want to do around the house. pm and I painted our bathroom last weekend and are trying to decide on colors for some of the other spaces. We will do everything step by step--no need to rush.

So, there you have it. Our big news and the main reason why we have been so MIA. As we are getting settled and comfortable in our new place, we plan to post updates on all the little projects we take on. We've got plans for build-ins, design/craft projects and optimizing our space through storage & select furniture.

Glad to back. Updates will begin on a more frequent basis again, no worries.