it's started

i'm almost surprised. matt and i talk a big talk, but rarely get things done. which is why we declared this the year of action. stop talking and do. 

quick break after finishing the trim caulk and drywall putty. prep work took a lot longer than i hoped. it went well, there was just a lot to be done. 

this can serve as the official "before"- very yellow. snot yellow in the right wrong light. 

even the primer looks so beautiful and clean. 

matt finished priming the living room last night and i started on the cabinets, but quit. we worked 'til midnight because we were so excited, but when tired finally hit i was dead. 

and now i'm off to finish priming cabinets. matt has to finish priming the kitchen, bathroom, and stairwell walls and then we're done for today! the primer is best if left for 24 hours so it forced us to space out how much work we do in one day. and i'm totally okay with that. 

sunny and GREY

who knew it could be so hard to pick the perfect shade of grey? 

but picking we are! hopefully we'll be painting this weekend. (and by weekend i mean mon/tues because that's when matt takes his days off.) 

i was right. it was a good (enough) day for the giants. so. i'm forced to root for them only because every fiber of my being dislikes the patriots. apparently matt hates the giants more so he's cheering for the pats. good thing we won't be home to watch the superbowl anyway? at least not the first half. matt is speaking at winter camp so we'll be on the road home that afternoon.

in gettingthingsdone news - we have a solid plan in place to paint every inch of our apartment. by solid plan i mean, we wrote out every last anticipated expense, measured all the odd surfaces that need special paint (cabinets, doors, trim), and then went to home depot to determine an approximate price for the project. good thing landlord is paying! 

hmmm...

it's pretty quiet here. not much to write home about. unless you want to see the nice gash on my finger from a bread slicing accident. knife vs. finger tip - knife wins. every time.

in football news - i'm sad to see the ravens lose. it's not so much about loving (or even liking) the ravens, but i hate the patriots and hate seeing them in the superbowl. so now we sit back and cheer for the team that has a better chance of beating the pats in two weeks. i'm hoping niners, but have a feeling it will be the giants. only time will tell... three hours, to be exact.

sweet potato soup

ingredients:
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
1/2 onion, diced
1 small red pepper, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon ginger
2 teaspoons red curry paste
3 cups chicken or vegetable stock

directions:
in stock pan, saute garlic and onion with olive oil, red curry paste, and ginger until onion softens, approximately 3 minutes. add sweet potato, red pepper, and chicken stock; bring to a boil then reduce to simmer until potatoes are soft, approximately 10 minutes. blend - in the pan with an immersion blender, or scoop out into a traditional blender.

yields:
4-6 servings (approximately 4 cups)

source:
canadian living

notes: 
i made several changes from the original recipe - adding the red pepper, using red curry instead of mild curry paste, and reducing the amount of ginger. if you don't have curry paste, use 1/2 teaspoon of chili power in its place and add a dash of cayenne pepper if you want an extra kick.

it was delicious! perfect for cold, snowy night.

it's here!

this is the winter i expect from canada! 

love when it's snowing so hard we can't see across the lake. love it at least until i'm forced to drive with limited visibility. lucky today, i can stay home and watch from inside. 

it's shaping up to be a busy week. too busy maybe. matt is starting rugby practice and we (though mostly matt) have extra responsibilities at church with a memorial service. 

so we decided to run all of our errands today and treat ourselves to the best stomach ache in town. chronic taco. nom nom nom. i think it's a west coast thing? mostly in california, but a few other locations scattered around and they just opened one here. i won't be eating supper tonight, that's for sure. 

office space

you saw where i left off yesterday with a small sanded patch on my desk. matt assumed it would take most of the day to complete the project and i totally underestimated, thinking 2 hours max. he won.

 after 5 hours of pretty steady sanding this is what i had...

i say "pretty steady" because the temperatures took a bit of a dive this morning and i was working outside in 25F/-4C with wind. not that awful, but cold enough that i had to come in periodically and run my hands under warm water until i could feel my finger tips again. 

assembled! 

light and bright, just like i wanted. i'm still considering a white or light grey wash at some point (dilute paint with water so it's more like stain that lets the wood grain show while adding a subtle color), but that can wait for a warmer spring day. and i like to make one change at a time because the longer i live with something the more ideas i get, and, generally, the happier i am with the final product. 

fun fact: my grand decorating scheme is inspired by the painting of peggy's cove handing over the desk. so most of our house is neutrals (whites, creams, greys) with pops of red and blues. or at least, that's the direction i'm trying to go. we're not getting there very fast, but it's coming. 

now if only i had a job to do and dedicated reason to use the desk! 

(immigration update: processing is 51 weeks behind... for the first section. so we can hope that matt's approval will be processed by the end of may and then we're looking at another 8-12 months for my approval. so... it's slow. the process probably won't be finished within this calendar year. and now my unofficial, very subject to change goal, is to be a permenant resident and have a job by my 27th birthday. doesn't seem like too much to ask for, does it?) 

committed

i've been toying with the idea of changing the color of my desk for a while (grey? white?), but like most projects i'm unsure of, it stalled. then i decided i didn't want paint, i wanted the original wood. which is buried under several layers of paint and stain... wasn't expecting it to be an easy sanding job. 

but when i noticed the paint chipping (so much for super chip resistant paint we spent good money on) i grabbed a small piece of sand paper (and maybe a little nail polish remover) and set to work. it came off a lot easier than i expected. 

and then i quit for the night. i have no desire to hand sand anything that large so i called in reinforcements by way of a friend's power sander. give me an hour tomorrow and she should be raw, pale pine again. once it's sanded i'll consider a whitewash or grey-wash to tone down the yellow of the blonde pine. 

we'll see where it goes, but at this point i'm committed. 

pizza pizza

this was meant to be a clean out the fridge kind of meal and ended up being one of my favorite creations to date.

ingredients:
pizza dough (i make valentino's pizza crust)
olive oil
3 cloves minced garlic
2 teaspoons dried basil
2 cups grated cheese
1/4 cup crumbled or grated feta cheese
1 tomato diced
1 small red pepper diced
1/4 red onion diced

directions:
preheat over to 425*F.


spread pizza dough on greased pan and coat with a thin layer of olive oil. sprinkle basil and minced garlic on over crust, layer mozzarella cheese, then vegetables, then feta cheese.

bake for 20-25 minutes, until crust is golden brown.

servings:
8 slices.

notes:
i used medium cheddar cheese instead of mozzarella because it's what i had on hand and it was excellent. i would use a mix of mozza and cheddar if i had both just because i like a blend of cheese flavor. i would also add black olives since the inspiration is a greek salad. mostly, i love this because it doesn't use a tomato sauce base. i'll eat it, but its not my favorite so finding ways around it is nice.

getting things done

we're sticking to our resolutions and getting. things. done. and it feels good.

one of the bigger projects on my list was recovering the ottoman. it sees daily use and abuse which was starting to show. and i'm just not a fan of the dark color anymore. several dark things in a small space seems overwhelming so i'm on a mission to lighten up. i thought about just getting rid of this ottoman and replacing it with something different, but using/remaking what i have is way cheaper. and we need the storage space in our living room - it holds blankets and movies, video games and all their paraphernalia (as shown in a pile on the couch).

the bottom half turned out really well. the canvas fits snugly, no odd wrinkles, looks reasonably professional. the corners on the lid bother me a bit, but not enough to redo right now. i do have extra canvas so i can fix it another day if i feel like it. 

it's gone from one of my least favorite things in the living room to my current favorite. 

if only it didn't accentuate my dislike for the chocolate brown of the couch. oh well. when this one is old and dead i can buy a new one. 

something grey perhaps. 

and now to make today productive... 

how to get a new power cord (for free)

1) resign yourself to spend $80+ for a new power cord because you own not one, but two barely functional cords. 

2) decide you're actually a little mad that you have to pay for a new one. apple knows these are faulty and hand out new (and improved) power cords like candy if you computer is still under warranty. just because yours is past warranty doesn't mean that it isn't from the faulty years and shouldn't be acknowledged. 

3) psych yourself up for a call to apple customer service. practice your "i'm a loyal customer" speech. after all, the worst they can say is 'no'.

4) wait on hold for ten minutes only to hear the most beautiful words ever... "sure, we've love to replace that for you. just take it to your nearest apple retailer for a trade in."

5) go to four different apple retailers until you find one that is actually authorized to handle the exchange. 

6) run home to plug it in. and shine, baby, shine. squeal with delight over the steadily glowing orange light. 

this is why i love apple. their customer service is second to none. 

two-bite soft pretzels

ingredients:

4 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 teaspoon white sugar

1 1/4 cups warm water 

3-4 cups flour

1/2 cup white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/4 cup baking soda

2 cups hot water

kosher salt, for topping 

directions:

whisk yeast and 1 teas sugar into 1 1/4 cups hot water. let stand for 10 minutes until frothy. add flour, sugar, salt, and vegetable oil to yeast mixture and combine. turn out on lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes. 

place dough in an oiled bowl and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour. 

preheat over to 425F. 

divide dough into slightly-smaller-than-golf-ball-size pieces. 

dissolve baking soda into 2 cups hot water. dip pretzel balls in the hot water and place on greased cookie sheet. sprinkle with kosher salt. 

bake for 6-8 minutes, until golden brown. 

yields:

approximately 3 dozen.

source:

all recipes

notes:

the if you're in a humid climate i'd err towards 4 cups of flour, but i can only coax 3 1/2 cups into my dough at the most. the original recipe calls for 5 cups of flour. i've tried this recipe as originally written in both humid and arid climates without success - lowering the amount of flour was the trick, i just lowered it more in the desert. 

you can roll out this dough and twist it into a traditional pretzel shape... i'm just lazy. and i prefer the two-bite size of these since they are a more moderate portion. 

and i recommend dipping them in... anything. cheese sauce, marinara sauce, ranch dressing, honey mustard sauce... anything you can think of. or skip the kosher salt before baking and after baking brush with melted butter and roll in cinnamon sugar. the goal being to consume as many calories as possible. 

in other news, i added a "recipe" page to the right to organize the recipes i've posted. mostly for myself, but it's there if you'd like to reference something from days of old without wading into the archives. 

beach day

in january.

oh yeah. 

since the weather insists on being spring-like, we'll oblige it. walk on the beach and a photo session. 

only a few months until we're back with books and beach blankets!

let's set some goals, shall we?

i am ridiculously excited for the new year. i feel good. i'm ready for positive changes. and while i usually scoff at new year's resolutions, i am setting goals for 2012. nothing too grand, but little things that will contribute to the overall betterment for which i'm striving.

most of my goals are a continuation of things i started in 2011 - reading, cooking, health, finances - but want to give more specific focus. i want to try two new recipes a month, to read 12 new books this year, to make one positive change for my health each month, and to track our day to day spending.

but my favorite goal will probably be the biggest challenge. i love shopping. i am constantly adding new items to my closet only to wear them a few times before they hit the donate pile. the Joe sales racks are my kryptonite. those $3 shirts call to me and beg me to take them home. but i just don't need them. something in this cycle of buy and purge needs to stop.

i put a lot of thought into this goal. i read stories of other girls (and boys) who went an entire year without buying a single item of clothing. and i nearly had a panic attack. i need to curb my enthusiasm for clearance racks, not rip it out of my life completely. so i settled on the goal of buying 25 (or less) clothing items for the duration of one year.

two new things a month (with one bonus somewhere) should be plenty. it will force me to look in my closet and see what i need and maybe if i add up all the money saved from not buying $3 shirts i can splurge on a few more pricer items. or maybe i'll still buy the $3 shirts. i'm not giving up clearance shopping, after all. ultimately, the goal is to be more thoughtful and intentional with my purchases.

and because i couldn't decide whether or not accessories are included, i added buying 5 (or less) accessories as a secondary goal. scarves, jewelry, bags - i love them all, but i really, really do not need more. i need to appreciate and use what i already own. socks and underthings aren't included anywhere, but i'm stipulating a one in, one out rule. if i need to replace items that are falling apart, that's fine, but no adding to the collection.

i'm excited! i have no idea how this wardrobe challenge will turn out, but i'm excited to try. who knows, if i get permission to ditch the housewife gig and actually get a job this year it could all blow up in my face. if i can't wear jeans to work i will have to go shopping as i own very few things that would be considered business wear. but i'll address that issue if it arises.

is anyone else making goals for the new year or am i the only fool?