I'm Totally Awesome Enough

Lately, I found myself reading quite a few home design blogs. I also find that quite a few of the bloggers that I follow post pictures of their beautiful homes. Well, y'know what? I've totally got a nice enough apartment, and we've been keeping it reasonably clean. I want to show off, since it's been a while.

Again Rimi, this will be a bit picture heavy, although not as badly as the last one.

LIVING ROOM PICTURES IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER






DINING ROOM PICTURES IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER






And that's the two main rooms of the apartment! The other rooms were not pretty the day I was taking pictures, so they'll have to wait for another time. I also find that the living room and dining room are the most "put together" of all of our rooms anyway.

Artwork Currently Set Up

Rimi -- this is image heavy.

I recently got a lot of our art put up on the walls. There's nothing like one's artwork to make a place start to feel like home. Let's do a little tour, shall we?



Here's the first. This is a print from the comic strip Minus. This is in the front hallway, facing you when you walk into our apartment.



This is immediately to the right when entering the living room. It hangs over a small bookcase. It's a Valentine's Card on handmade paper that I received from my sister's godmother years and years ago. I just love it.



This is hanging over the back of the couch. It's a self-portrait photo of a friend of mine, B, from high school. I gave it to Mister as a gift several years ago.



This is hanging to the right of the last piece. It's a digital print of what I believe was initially a colored pencil work, done by a friend, K, in high school. It's entitled: Tea with the Moon.



This is opposite the couch, over the electric piano. It's a pen and ink drawing of (two?) griffin(s), drawn by Mister's Great Aunt. General consensus is they're having sex, but I like to remember it as being a single griffin. :-P



This is hanging to the left of the griffin. It's an Artist's Proof of a rather noir block print entitled: Hello/Goodbye. It was created by my ex-boyfriend, P.



This is hanging directly below the block print. It's a pen and ink drawing that my ex-boyfriend, P, drew on the envelope of a birthday card for me. In case you were wondering, that is a stylized drawing of me playing the oboe in my little red hat (K, the one that you hate and you were ashamed that I bought :-P).



On to the dining room. This piece hangs immediately to the left upon entering the room from the living room. This is a pen and ink drawing by my friend from high school, K (who did Tea with the Moon), that my mother bought for me as a Christmas gift years ago. I call her: Úrsula.



This hangs directly opposite Úrsula. This is a painting by P the ex-bf that I believe was the gift given at the time of the birthday card mentioned. It sadly is torn due to circumstances that I don't want to get into. So it currently has some duct tape on the back. Yup.



This piece is on the right side of the dining room, when entering from the living room. This is a print of a pen and ink drawing by Mister's Great Aunt P again. This is Odin, and we're pretty sure he's about to ravish the young lady in the pic. Did we mention his Great Aunt was crazy?



This is in the hallway, to the left of the bathroom door. It is either ink and brush or a watercolor painting by P the ex-bf and entitled: First Snow.



This piece is on display in the bathroom. It's acrylic on plywood. I got this and two other pieces for free from an art student on Craigslist. Apparently it creeps some people out, but I find it a really cool piece and a nice bit of color in the bathroom (it's a bit brighter than the picture makes out).



This piece is in the study to the right immediately upon entering. It had been hung above the light switch, but Mister knocked it down and damaged the frame. It is now on the bookshelf, awaiting repair. It is a watercolor or ink and brush painting by the gentleman who created Minus, the comic from the very beginning (we have about 13 Minus prints -- most are not displayed currently). This was a surprise gift when we ordered all of our prints, as it's a "extra scene" from a story arc that we bought the entire set of.



This is immediately opposite the Minus print, and facing the person entering the study. It is a sharpie cartoon created by a friend, H, in high school. It's entitled: Procrastinating with Henry. I love it. I had to fight people to get it!



These are to the right of the cartoon, but all three are displayed above a low 5' long bookshelf to the left of the closet. The top piece is a watercolor painting that my mother made when I was a kid, and the bottom one is a cute postcard that I like.



This is yet another piece by P the ex-bf. This is an Artist's Proof of a photo entitled: Teapot. It hangs above the kitchen sink.

And that's the tour of art in my apartment currently. There are so many things that I need to have framed, repaired or find a way to hang (the plywood pieces require a shelf). But I love my art, and I love that the majority of it was created by artist's that I know instead of prints of famous work or generic "Home Goods"-type pictures.

Apartment Thoughts

Spur of the moment, this past Sunday Mister and I drove up to Portland, ME to visit his mother. We walked on the beach, grilled burgers and sausages, and I practiced my instrument while Mister had a heart-to-heart with his mom (they always wind up talking tech stuff and I get bored :-P). On the way back, we stopped at his older sister's apartment because she had a birthday gift for him (presents? I'm there!).

Her apartment is a lot like ours in layout and temperament, but it feels settled and looked beautiful. That is my goal with our apartment. It needs to be beautiful and settled. I cleaned like a whirlwind yesterday and so most of the house is actually CLEAN, but it needs those little touches. I need to frame much of my art, I need to find homes for the random crap still in boxes, I need to figure out what remaining bits of furniture we need.

I'm looking forward to it, but wishing it were complete, still the same!

Kitchen Thoughts

While I was away in NJ with family this past weekend, Mister cleaned the entire kitchen. Needless to say, this is not just a little bit exciting and rather novel. However, as I walked in to look at his fine work, I realized that (having moved my stereo) the room looked incredibly empty and bare.

I need something along that wall shown above. This is a rental, so tiles or that lovely detailed metal sheeting is out of the question. Trivets? Decorative cutting boards? Mugs? I have no idea.

N.B. Also, looking at that picture again, you can see both of my little ducks! The ducky tea strainer from my sis, and the rounded belly of my ducky tea kettle from my mom. :-P

WEEEEEEEEE'RE HEEEEEEEEERE

So, quick mini-update: we're alive, we're mostly in the new place (little fiddly bits remain, as well as all of my stuff in storage which we're getting Friday) and life is good. It still smells of paint though. :-\

Strangely, the weather worked with us even though we thought it wouldn't. On Monday, it was in the 40s. On Tuesday (the day we moved) it was in the teens and 20s. So Monday afternoon, Mister and his friend D broke up some of the ice in the backyard. But that left quite a bit of ice remaining. So for most of the move, my friend M was out chipping ice to give us something to grip onto (fyi -- ice chips and textured ice is not slippery!) while Mister and M's boyfriend J lifted heavy things with either me or M spotting, and I'd load the car with boxes. We had a ziptruck for the big stuff, and just kept loading up the car to have that ready to go quickly. The fact that all four of us are the "get shit done" kinda people, J and Mister are very strong, and we're only moving THREE BLOCKS AWAY made a lot happen in a very short amount of time.

The mattress was the scariest part, but I think it was mostly because the ice problem hadn't been dealt with. We moved it first because "if it fell over, its soft".

We need camera and batteries in the same place (a.k.a. here) and I'll get you guys pics of the new place!

Bread Making

I was reading Tips for Better Bread from Farm Girl Fare, and realized that I wanted to jot down a few of the more pertinent points I think.

1 -- make the same type of bread over and over again until you understand it.
2 -- keep a bread journal, and write down details every single time you bake bread -- even if it's for the 456th time.
3 -- use good ingredients, including filtered water
4 -- add salt after autolyse.

Things that I intend to do:
1 -- make double and treble batches of dough. I already know how well bread freezes, and I only want to have one baking day a week.
2 -- consider getting a bread box. The only person I know with one is my grandmother, but she certainly doesn't use it properly. She keeps her bread in the fridge year round.

I cannot wait to be settled in the new place, and start putting all of my plans together!

Plans for new apartment thus far:

Gardening Thoughts
Ideas for the New Apartment
Plans for 2011
Fridge and Freezer Plans
Pantry Plans
Plants that Grow in Shade
Food Storage Tubs

Life Update

So the store I manage is closed again today -- all we need is to have the temperature drop 3-4 degrees F and it'll be a world of ice outside. This is on top of the 6 inches of snow we got yesterday.

Strangely enough, because all of the skylights and the roof was covered in snow yesterday, the squirrels kept scrambling about on the roof. I have squirrel footprints in the snow on my skylights! There were enough of them, that they woke me up yesterday morning. Mister was like "what was that?" I said "squirrel, and I just saw one through the skylight"!



I wound up making the tasty galette for dinner yesterday -- which turned out amazing. I used butter in the crust for the first time and OMG what a difference! I'd only ever used shortening, but I have to say -- never again. I had the same revelation with lard in pie crust, and now again with butter. Suffice to say: shortening, you are officially off the island. Although, when the author said that the galette was sweet, she was NOT lying!

As we're moving soon (2/15 is the start of our new lease!), Mister and I are in the process of packing. We've got a mere 12 boxes packed thus far, but we've got some time. Luckily, we're only moving three blocks away, so a lot of stuff like dishes could be wrapped in a towel and carried in a laundry basket. Most of our kitchen stuff will probably travel in such a manner. My main worry is having laundry get away with us: I don't want to be doing a zillion loads of laundry when we're in crunch time, but I also know that we've got 13 days until then, and we're going to be wearing clothes! I'll probably do a big load or two next week.

Our current apartment did get rented, thankfully. We were worried that we'd have to be paying for two apartments simultaneously. (Our lease on this place was until 5/31.) The new guy isn't moving in until 3/15, so that gives us time to move out, and one month overlap is not bad at all. I just wish there was a way to leave a secret note for the new guy warning him about the cleaning lady the LL will suggest... I want to be all Dune-esque and leave a message in braille on a leaf, but when I told Mister that, he informed me that I was a goof.

I'm not sure whether or not I'll want to do my music lesson tomorrow. It's only the second lesson, so I should probably go -- but it'll be a 40 mins walk in GOOD weather, and probably close to an hour with the weather tomorrow. :-\ That and I have to fetch some things from the music store: reeds size 2 and 2 1/2, a copy of the lesson book, disinfectant spray, and a folding stand. ... I wonder if there's a way to make disinfectant spray on my own... I don't want to be covering a 12 year old girl's clarinet with grain alcohol!

Lots to do, lots to do. I guess it's time to put the kettle on, the tune's rockin', and get some packing done!

Oh Snow

This is our... fourth? snowstorm this winter.

It's very weird when at 10 o'clock in the morning, I have to turn on all of the lights in my apartment. Our current apartment is on the top floor, faces south, and has five large skylights that bring in lots of light. However, all of our skylights are covered with snow! And with the snowstorm, there is no sun... so the lights are on. I keep wanting to say 'this didn't happen LAST year...' but, we got no snow last year. So it's hard to make a comparison.

I canceled work at the store that I manage today, and hopefully I'll get canceled at the store that I don't manage.

UPDATE: just got an email that my favorite coworker from the one store is LEAVING. I am incredibly saddened by this -- she's the person who made that job wonderful and made every day a delight. She was just so high energy and full of life that it'll be hard to summon up enthusiasm for my job and my customers without her there. What a sad bit of news for an otherworldly day.

Bread

Why does it seem like everyone is posting yummy quick breads right now?

Granted, not all of those are bread per se, but the point still stands. Why must people make these delicious soda breads when I do not have a good kitchen?! Yes, yes, I am aware that one can make anything with limited space -- just willpower. But in my head, bread is a complicated, demanding beast that requires all of my attention and counterspace. And cleaning up mid-project is not my forte. :-P

I keep pushing back my thoughts on baking bread -- "I'll bake in the new apartment", "I'll have a starter in the new apartment", "I'll bake weekly bread in the new apartment" -- I'm hanging an awful lot on the new apartment!

With that being said, I still have no intention of baking in this apartment. It's too cramped and confining to feel comfortable doing so. I need lots of space in order to feel free to experiment and/or feel free to actually get flour everywhere... Also, we aren't fully in a cooking routine. We keep starting ones, but then not falling through. Having a full kitchen and full equipment will make that easier, and would then be nice to have a baking day. (It's so easy to PLAN things...)

Gardening Thoughts

So I have placed an order for seeds from FedCo.

2555 - Giant Winter Spinach ( A=1/4oz) 1 x $1.20 = $1.20
2986 - Summer Lettuce Mix ( A=1g) 1 x $1.10 = $1.10
3034 - Perpetual Spinach or Leaf Beet ( B=1/8oz) 1 x $1.60 = $1.60
3040 - Ruby Red Rhubarb Chard ( B=1/8oz) 1 x $1.10 = $1.10
3459 - White Russian Kale OG ( A=2g) 1 x $1.50 = $1.50

It should ship out within two weeks.

So there are a couple of things to keep in mind with my new garden. One, is that I still have most of the seeds from last year. Two, is that it's a mostly shade garden. However, there is space in front for potted sun-loving plants.

Feedback from Sharon: Greens are the most shade tolerant vegetables. Rhubarb is somewhat shade tolerant (vegetable/fruit borderline), and there are a few minor perennials that are also shade tolerant (check out Eric Toenesmeier’s _Perennial Vegetables_ for suggestions), but you might also want to go with fruit. Currants, blackberries and raspberries are quite shade tolerant.

I am in hardiness zone: 6-7, expected last frost date 3/30-4/30.

onions == full sun
shallots == full sun
potatoes == full sun
garlic == full sun
carrots == full sun

It looks like most root storage veggies are full sun.

Order garlic in mid-June for fall planting from FedCo bulbs.

The Herbs from Last Year
- Cilantro (1 gram) -- likes sun [lightly crush seed pods, soak in water 24-48 hours, let dry before planting]
- German Chamomile (1 gram) -- prefers full sun, can tolerate some shade
- Sweet Basil (4 grams) -- 3-4 hours in warm climates, 6-8 in cool
- Bouquet Dill (4 grams) -- full sun

The Vegetables from Last Year
- Melissa Savoy Cabbage (1/2 gram) -- start inside 8-10 weeks before last frost date -- needs sun
- Arugula (1/16 oz.)
- Salad Bowl Lettuce (2 grams)
- Tiger Eye Dry Bean (2 oz.)
- Vermont Cranberry Shell/Dry Bean (2 oz.)
- Indy Gold Bush Wax Bean (2 oz.)
- Midnight Black Turtle Dry Bean (2 oz.)
- Lincoln Shell Pea (2 oz.)
- Dwarf Grey Sugar Snow Pea (2 oz.)

The Sun-Loving Plants from Last Year
- Heirloom Tomato Mix (1/5 gram)
- "Be My Baby Gene Pool" Cherry Tomato (1/5 gram)
- Rutgers Tomato (1/5 gram)
- Long Red Narrow Cayenne Pepper (1/2 gram)
- Sugar Baby Watermelon (1/16 oz.)
- Arava Cantaloupe (1 gram)
- Raven Zucchini (1/8 oz.)
- Sugar Snax 54 Carrot (1 gram)
- Saffron Summer Squash (1/8 oz.)
- Baby Pam Pumpkin (1/4 oz.)
- Small Ornamental Gourds Mix (1/8 oz.)


I will plant the tomatoes and peppers, but most of the curcurbits I don't think I'll have the room for. :-( I'll have to see what I can do.

Plans for new apartment thus far:

Ideas for the New Apartment
Plans for 2011
Fridge and Freezer Plans
Pantry Plans
Plants that Grow in Shade
Food Storage Tubs

Ideas for the New Apartment

So Laura over at Pug in the Kitchen has some really great ideas that I'd like to use in the new apartment.

Item one is this pancake mix. It's the healthiest pancake mix I've ever seen, and I've asked her how it converts to waffles (since they're one of my true loves), and will report the result.

Pancake Mix:
4 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup wheat germ
3 1/2 cups ground whole oats
3 Tbsp. sugar
4 Tbsp. baking powder
1 Tbsp. salt

Mix all the ingredients together thoroughly. Sift if you'd like. Store in an airtight container in the freezer indefinitely or on the counter/in your cabinet for up to 3 weeks. When you are ready to prepare the pancakes, all you have to do is take 1 cup of the mix, 1 cup of water/milk/buttermilk and 1 whole egg. Beat them together and cook them on an ungreased griddle until golden brown on both sides.

Options: exchange the egg for mashed banana, and add spices for tasty banana pancakes!



Item two: in her post on menu planning, she mentions that she keeps a menu board in her kitchen by using an old picture frame with a plain background inside. She then writes on the glass in white-board marker what the menu for the week is. It looks so cute in her kitchen, and would be a good idea to help Mister and I keep on board with menus and budgets.

It seems like I'm putting so much on hold until we move, but honestly, I don't want to get into any big-time planning because we'll no sooner be in the swing of things, than we'll have to pack up and get out of the swing. :-P


Plans for new apartment thus far:

Plans for 2011
Fridge and Freezer Plans
Pantry Plans
Plants that Grow in Shade
Food Storage Tubs

Apartments Revisited

So, here I am, at Mister's house. Why am I here? Because I usually sleep here. Do I have an apartment? Yes.

So because Mister and I are clearly both idiots, we've got a great dilemma: neither of us want to shaft our LL/housemates by leaving early, neither of us want to leave early because we like our apartments, but we want to be living together sooner rather than later.

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

I really wish that we weren't so stupid and that we'd figured this out BEFORE I moved into a new apartment. We could then have told Mister's LL that we were to move out soon-ish.

Also, we'd been on a June - June cycle. I don't want to be on a September cycle! I hate September 1st move-ins! Having worked in real estate for two of them, I can easily say that I never ever want to go through that. But, because I love Mister, I'm contemplating that.

And some fun side notes: M has a friend who's looking for an apartment under $600 for November 1st (hmm...), Mister's LL is on vacation for a month and now is prime "looking for a tenant for September 1st" time. And last but not least, we haven't even actually DECIDED if we're going to move out or not.

Want this solved by someone else, preferably last week. :-P