Relocating

Soon, all of the adventures of my kitchen will be found at Lavender + Lemon, my new blog.

Lavender + Lemon details remodeling a house, green living, cooking, design projects and everything in between.  I imagine it will be easier for my scattered self to maintain.  I look forward to sharing my new adventures with my new blender, making dinner for seven, and obsession with making bread.  I promise, it will be worth bookmarking.

See you soon…!

Friday, already?

Friday morning is always ushered in with a sense of relief. I’ve heard for years how wonderful the weekend is, but it has only been recently that I’ve experienced the joy of spending time on things other than work and school. The 60+ hour work week and stacks of work to bring home have been replaced by more typical work load. Semesters packed full with 18 hours of course credit are a thing of the past.  Who knew you can actually find time to read the magazines stacking up all over the place and attack the to-do list at a leisurely pace? Who knew leisurely could be used to describe anything these days? I have no idea how long it will last, but I am certainly going to embrace it while I can.

1. This weekend IMPACT Greensboro, a community project I’m involved in working on economic issues. This weekend is a training session focused on community building, and I’m actually looking forward to it. I hope to have time to get the etsy shop up and running despite being busy for at least half of the weekend.

2. One of my closest friends is arriving Saturday night. She moved to Portland last year and recently became engaged! EEEE!!!!  Her visiting will require a lot of hugging, catching up, and wedding dress shopping! It’s going to be lovely.

3. I can’t stop making Indian food – red coconut curry to be exact. It’s so easy!

4. I chopped all my hair off. Again. Maybe I’ll post a picture?

Oh, Hi! Spring!

Spring! I have missed you! Your beautiful sunshine and warm light rains are a welcomed change.  The birds are fluttering with the joy, and there is a daffodil dancing beside the driveway.  The cold snowy nights are almost transformed into memories of delightful evenings   instead of shuffling around the house with a space heater. 

To celebrate the last of the cold evening temperatures, I started the seeds for our container garden. The lettuce (of a variety I cannot remember at the moment) sprouted in less than a week.  It was cause for great celebration — and cat proofing.  Griffin, my quiet zen kitty,  can’t wait to eat these tender greens.  He’s going to have to get in line, because I can’t wait to gobble them up myself!

Not Vegan. Not Even Close

My bizarro cravings (not pregnant, just fickle) have shifted from Wendy’s spicy chicken sandwiches, to sweet homemade cookies.  The last thing I need is sweets– but fresh cookies with coconut milk ice cream sound pretty amazing doesn’t it?   The last time I made batches of cookies was more than a year ago.  The kitchen was over flowing with Italian Wedding cookies filled with candied orange zest, brownie/blondie swirls, and I had a freezer full of peanut butter, and espresso chocolate cookie dough.  These particular recipes were full of organic butter, rich and creamy…mmm!

Spring inspired vegan cookies are in order! Who needs butter? Lavender chocolate chip cookies, anyone?

Four on Friday! Whee!

Look, it’s FRIDAY, and I couldn’t be happier about it!

 

1.  I made ten quarts of vegetable soup, in order to survive these last shivers of winter. If you peak in our fridge it looks like we’re preparing for the apocalypse.

2.  When the Husband and I headed home from the Hills earlier this week, we stopped at a few thrift stores.  We struck out for the most part until our last stop, where we scored darling vintage children’s books.  Some will be used in craft projects, other taken apart and framed. There was also a vintage cookbook about affordable meals…! Watch out!

3.  Another blog? Yes. It’s true. It doesn’t have a name just yet, but writing is underway. 

4.  I’m going to hit up a few antique shops this weekend in search of matching mid-century lamps. Tasks like this normally end up breaking the spirit or the bank. Who knows how this will end?  Other things I would be happy to find include: fabric, mixing bowels, tea pot, drinking classes.

(late) Four on Friday

I actually wrote this post LAST THURSDAY, but in the mad dash to get out of town on Friday, I forgot this blog existed. Forgive me?

This week has just DRAGGED!

 

I’m headed to the office for a few hours before taking off to the hills for a weekend of deep sleep, strong coffee, and exciting conversation.  When I  wake up in the morning, I will head quietly down the stairs and enjoy my morning coffee sitting on the screened in porch, gazing out at this view..

It is always difficult to leave this place and head back to our (mid-size) city-life.

 

 

1.  I have been craving a spicey chicken sandwich from Wendy’s all week long.  What is wrong with me?

2.  I have eaten two pounds of tofu and two pounds of carrotts with hummus this week.  I haven’t turned orange, just yet, but I think that is the next step.

3.  Sunday, Husband turned 29.  We celebrated with first, a baby friendly party, then with a no-as-baby-friendly party.  The baby party was all fun and games until it was past the bedtime of two 1 years-olds.  They went from perfectly civilized little people, acting as if they had one to many beers at frat party, thrusting their chubby baby hands into the bean dip, and spitting their half-chewed tortilla chips back into the bowl. Unlike drunk frat boys, they were cute until the bitter end.

4.  I went spent Monday scooping up some vintage finds, while I grow my etsy shop inventory.  I also spent a few hours in an amazing antique mall gasping at all of the fabulous mid-century kitchen accessories.  The aqua mixing bowls had me clutching my chest with excitment, but seriously… I’m not spending $60 on mixing bowls, not right now anyway.  I did find some great (non-vintage overstock) fabric for only $4 per yard that will be heading to my livingroom very soon, cute milk glass bud vases, and a brass wire fruit bowl. This coming Monday, I’m headed to Ikea with my mom, hunting fabric for a new duvet, and perhaps a few magazine boxes to organize the fire-hazards being created by  years of the New Yorker, Rollingstone, and Dwell that are taking over bookcases and corners.

Spring, You are a Tease

This post was started a week ago…

 

Wednesday, it snowed — sort of.  Snow fell from the sky for several hours, but the ground temperatures were warm enough that it melted upon contact.  At this point in the winter, I like this sort of snow best. It’s wonderful to watch it fall, but it didn’t ruin my agenda for the day either.  Later that night, we had more snow and sleet, just barley enough to leave the slightest dusting on the deck.  This round of winter weather, My Calendar 2 – Snow 0.

While the white stuff didn’t linger around, it did quickly erase memories of a warm weekend.  I can hardly believe it’s not even been a week since I took to the trails around the lakes and stepped in a lot of mud, observed robins, and buttercup stems emerging from the fallen pine needles.  Now, I’m just back to being really cold and dreaming of all the wonderful fresh food that spring and summer promise.

 

Since I first started this post it has snowed — again.  This time with pancake-sized snowflakes that piled four inches deep, enough to close my office for the day, which has allowed me to do such important things as catch up on school work, make a huge pot of vegetable soup, fill my belly with Indian food, and yes, believe it or not, finally update this blog.

 

I am getting ready to start seeds for our summer container garden, and it has me longing for lunches straight from the tiny rooftop garden — something like this:

Cucumber, tomato, basil, olive oil,  white vinegar, basil, salt and pepper.

 

This summer the container garden is looking like this: tomatoes, various peppers, lots of basil, strawberries, and whatever else I can get my hands on next weekend…time to start seeds!  What are you planting?