Die, Winter, Die!!!

Okay, that title seems a bit harsh, but I figured "Spring Has Sprung!" was already being overused by everyone else.  (Apologies if you used it.  I'm sure you were the first...) 

Last week was so nice that Sam and I got out the sidewalk chalk twice and I got to lay on the grass, soak up the sun, and actually be warm.  I did take pictures of the sidewalk chalk, but that will have to wait for another post because, frankly, I'm too lazy to walk across the room to get my camera. 

I haven't posted for a while and wanted to do something to celebrate the return of non-artificial warmth to my life (Spring!), so I thought I'd do a nice Springy recipe.  So here you go, courtesy of Melissa at work (aka my own personal Martha Stewart).  Enjoy!

Lemon Poppyseed Bundt Cake

• 1 lemon poppy seed muffin mix (I think I usually use Krusteaz)
• 1 c. hot water
• 1 lrg. box vanilla pudding
• 4 extra large eggs
• ½ c. canola oil
• 2 c. powdered sugar 
• 1 or 2 large lemons

Directions: Preheat oven to 350°.  Grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt cake pan.  Mix muffin mix, pudding mix, oil, water, and eggs. Beat 5 minutes at medium speed.  Pour into pan and bake 40-45 minutes.  Cool in pan 10-15 minutes.  Loosen center and sides with plastic knife, then invert onto rack to finish cooling.  Drizzle with powdered sugar glaze (see below) and top with lemon zest.

For glaze, add just enough lemon juice to powdered sugar to moisten.  I usually leave it thicker than I initially think I should--if you make it too runny it will all run down instead of drizzling prettily and will soak into the cake instead of showing up.  Experiment a tiny bit at a time.  The picture above is the first time I made the cake and you can tell I did the icing a bit too runny--it sort of pooled at the bottom.  Also, if don't put the zest on until you're about ready to serve, or it will soak into the icing and not look too swell.

I'm usually more of an "If it's not chocolate I don't want to eat it" kind of gal when it comes to dessert, but I LOVE this stuff. 

Decisions, decisions...

So now that the house is coming along nicely, I'm down to the wire on color decisions.  The last few weeks  every waking thought is consumed by paint colors, plumbing fixtures, lighting fixtures, oil rubbed bronze, brushed nickel, chrome, tile, cabinets, etc.  I always have somewhat of a dilema when I'm decorating my house: I care very much what it looks like and I see lots of ideas that I like, but when it comes to incorporating them into my own house I always seem to be off a bit.  Good intentions, poor execution.  So I've been trying to pre-plan a lot more this time to keep from re-doing stuff later.  Here are some of the ideas I'm leaning towards:

Kitchen--I love retro kitchens.  Someday I will have my new-but-look-old applicances, like so...

 but as I cannot yet justify spending $3,000 on a fridge, they will have to wait.  I've always wanted white cabinets, and I think I may finally have Jim talked into them this time, despite how much he loathes them.  (I think it helped that I mentioned my REAL desire is to have cabinets painted pale mint or pistachio--he realized that white is the lesser evil.)  Here are a couple of my inspiration pics I've found:

I have a serious thing for glass tile backsplashes, but I'm leaning more toward white subway tiles. 

We've got some beautiful dark brown/cherry-ish hardwood for the floors, and I love the pale blue walls.  I may base the wall color and mood off this mug I just got at Tai Pan 

(You can't quite tell from my mad photo skills, but it's square and awesome.  It even managed to knock my green mini-tea cups off the "favorite cocoa mug" pedestal.)

Main bath--I must be on a blue kick, because I'm thinking of the same color scheme for the main bath.

Inspirations:

I'm trying to talk Jim into those fabulous mini-hex subway tiles for the floor (minus the black flowers in the pattern), but may end up going with the rectangles.  Here's the faucet:

Master Bedroom--Here was our biggest struggle.  My first idea was muted purples and grays, but at the mention of "purple" Jim got a freaked-out look in his eye.  (Are you getting the idea yet that we have completely different decorating tastes?)  So instead I got this quilt at Target

(just the quilt, not the silver bedding) and will accent with various shades of teal and green to match the desk I already have

(doesn't it look stunning with the patterned pink wallpaper in our rental?)

I just don't know what color to do the walls.  Something light and neutral from the brown family or a really light shade of the teal?  Opinions/suggestions are greatly appreciated.  Also, I'm fresh out of ideas for the master bath.  The only thing picked out so far is the faucet and hardware:

If anyone would like to post inspiration for me, I'll be eternally grateful.  I think I need to pick paint and tile this week. 

Really, any comments/suggestions/critques would be vastly appreciated!

Chistmas, Christmas Time is Here (and Gone...)

Okay, so I'm already slacking off after my "I'm going to do better at blogging" resolution.  But hey, it was the holidays.  Speaking of which, here are a few highlights from the last month or so (please excuse my poor photography skills):

So we have a big pre-lit fake because I don't like dealing with the watering, the needles everywhere, and the waste of a real tree.  We've had it for a couple years and it's pretty easy to set up.  So there I was, throwing the tree together without a care in the world,

when I got to the 2nd to last section and it scraped the ceiling.  Wha??

Oh, yeah, we had vaulted ceilings in our last house and our rental does not. 

Did I think of this before setting up the tree?  No. 

So first I tried skipping the 2nd to last section and just using the top...

Funny, but not too stable.  Hence:

Yep, it's our gimpy tree. I kinda liked it.

Will the problem be solved next year when we're in our house?

Of course not, because we're not vaulting the ceilings. -Sigh-

Moving on...

Since my dad got to check into the hospital on Dec. 15th for his extended stay,

we did a Christmas celebration the Sunday before.

Nothing says Christmas like ham carved by a crazy guy wearing blue latex gloves.

Christmas day we did the usual rounds: stockings and stuff at home, Jim's parents' for breakfast,

my family for lunch, and back to Jim's parents' for dinner. 

"Sadly", the annual karaoke sing-off at Hills' was postponed
because the karaoke machine had been lent out.

I somehow managed to contain my grief.

Sam had a blast and properly rejoiced over every gift

  

In between breakfast and lunch we added an extra stop down

to LDS Hospital to see Chemo-sabe (my dad)

Not the most cheery place for someone to be on Christmas,

but it was a couple days before he started feeling too crappy so we got a little bit of celebrating in.

You can just see the corner of the "Christmas Story" leg lamp stocking I hung on his IV tree.

(On a side note, anyone looking for gifts ideas for me--I totally want one for myself.)

Sam got a snowman kit from her Grandma, so on New Year's Eve she and Jim tested it out.

It was a fun season, and now I'm ready to settle down for long winter full of cocoa, baked goods, hearty warm meals, and, most importantly, lots of reading!