In praise of: Trader Joes

I can never say enough good things about Trader Joes.

I'm always finding new things there that I like to try.

This time, however, I baked an old standby: overnight self-rising croissants.

They come 8 to a small box and they are the teenies-tiniest things you'd ever laid eyes on.

Put them out on the baking sheet overnight and they explode!!

The ones in the front are filled with chocolate - there are 4 to a box and they grow larger.

They are even more delicious.

I gave them an egg wash and popped them into the over for 15-20 min.

Aren't they beautiful?

It's lovely to serve these warm for guests.
Also decided to bake a TJ's Pumpkin spice bread (I think they only carry this item seasonally - but I would have to check on that). It's so delicious. Crazy baby eats this bread by the fistful.

Doesn't it cook up perfectly? I can't believe that something that tastes this good came out of a box. I have to admit that I also love our convection oven - something about that oven bakes cakes, brownies and other desserts/breads so well - far more evenly than any conventional oven.

And had to serve coffee in these: Any excuse to take them out...

Starting on the holidays...

It's been a goal of mine for some years to create cute, modern Christmas stockings.

This year, I finally decided to bite the bullet and just do it.

Went to JoAnne's on Sat and bought a stack of felt...some the good quality wool and others cotton. they didn't have all the colors that I wanted, but it's a good start.

I cut out the shape of stocking that I wanted out of an old sheet (that I use for many projects).

And pretty soon, I had two of each color: a red one for me, a red one for Jamie the Cat, a tan one for Hubby and a bright pink one for Crazy baby.

Started with Crazy baby's first (yes, her name actually starts with a D, not CB!).

Needs more work, but a good start.

Jamie's has a paw print. Definitely needs more embellishment!

I really like how Hubby's is coming along.

And mine is coming along too...
Much more to do on each (more layering, colors, embellishment) including sewing - but i like the start!

Designing an Eichler kitchen

A good friend of mine lives in an Eichler in the San Mateo Highlands. She's the one that I took the Eichler tour with.

Anyhow, they have recently thoroughly remodeled their kitchen - but they wanted to preserve that modernist Eichler style.

So, they turned to Kerf cabinets in Seattle.

The kitchen is finally done and you just have to see the pics here on the Kerf blog.

Very inspiring!

Moroccan-inspired dinner

I'm ashamed to say it, but I have these absolutely lovely folks that work in my lab, and I haven't yet had the over for dinner.

I rectified that this weekend and Hubby and I cooked up a Moroccan-inspired feast.

First, I made spiced nuts:

You can find the recipe here

Then, I laid all the appetizers out on a cutting board.

One of the nibbles was a goat cheese log rolled in spices and served with fennel ring crackers.

You can find the recipe here.
What else was on the cutting board? mandarin orange slices, salted pistachios, olive mix in brine, pomegranite seeds, and dried apricots. The wine was a good, dry, lightbodied red zinfandel and the water pitcher had sliced meyer lemons in it.

Main course? Unfortunately no pics of our meal, but here's a scrumptious pic of the Moroccan-brick chicken with apricot couscous from the chef Tyler Florence and the recipe is here:

We deviate slightly from the recipe in that 1) we don't toast the spices, and 2) we use the large-sized couscous. The mint-yogurt dressing is divine - easily the best part of the dish and what ties all the flavors together.

For dessert? Cardamom-ginger-vanilla bean ice cream that I made in my ice cream maker. Quite easy if you prepare the ice cream mixture the day before, chill it overnight, then place it in the ice cream maker the next day. Served with an Spanish anise-olive oil tart cookie.

Perfect!

Fix-it weekend

Hi Folks,

It was one of those weekends that you finally get to all those nagging little projects that you've been putting off (well, maybe not all of them).

The first was the replacement of the kitchen faucet. We originally went cheap in this department and sometimes you get what you pay for. This IKEA faucet is so-so on the attractive scale but more importantly, it leaks and the stream of water coming out from it is really weak - which sucks when washing dishes. We knew that this faucet would eventually be replaced - but all the ones that we liked were $500 or more - and we just can't spend that on a faucet (even though it's one that we use several times a day).

This weekend we went to Costco and found this beautiful Hansgrohe faucet for $189. We've priced Hansgrohe faucets in the past and this is a serious bargain.

It looks beautiful, but it also gives us the height allowance to wash a tall pot. It also sends out powerful a stream of water.

And I love the fact that it has an extension neck.

Thanks for installing it Hubby!!

Another project this weekend was to touch up paint all the scuff marks on the baseboards and any gouges on the wall. We do this about once a year and it's amazing the difference that it makes - it just makes the whole house look cleaner and more tidy.

One little tool that makes this job a whole lot of fun is the Rubbermaid PaintBuddy. it's a touch-up paint roller with onboard paint storage. We have a few of these in our garage and we've labeled them with the paint colors. The paint stays wet in the handle. Pretty cool, huh?

The last thing we did was to fix the berber carpet. Our family room carpet is composed of two pieces "seamed" together. Only problem was the seam started to come apart in one place and the carpet was unraveling like a sweater. I tried to glue it back, but it just left the bottom of the carpet pieces hard and they didn't stick tot he underlayment. That's when I realized that I had to use a needle and thread and sew the carpet back into place. Looks pretty good - much better than it was before!

Hope you're having a good week!

Inspiration: Apartment Therapy

I find myself being inspired by Apartment Therapy all too often these days...

But this pic was particularly inspiring...it's exactly the feeling that I would like our sunken family room to evoke.

Glam and comfort with a 70s vibe.

What's it going to take?

Chrome lamps. Check.

Fur throws. Must go to IKEA.

Shag rug. Check.

Coffee table. Find at CB2 - go for leucite instead of glass.

Large architectural plants. Local nursery.

Pop art in oranges and reds. Check.

Added bonus: fireplace

The wheels are turning...

Happy Halloween!! (albeit belated)

I've been meaning to post this since the weekend.

Since we were home this year, I decided to decorate our porch with carved pumpkins.

I bought a slew of little ones (they are tough little buggers to cut into!) and cut out different Halloween-inspired shapes. One was a scared cat, another an owl on a tree branch and a bat. Also, your typical Halloween "scary-faced" pumpkin.

We put candles inside and lit up the porch with orange lights.

Unfortunately, we only got a handful of trick-or-treaters - but hopefully, there will be more next year. And the more that we decorate, the more that we inspire the neighbors to do the same!!

Bedroom redo

At last, our new bed form CB2 was delivered and we were able to unroll our mattress that was still in the box from Keetsa. We finally bought some queen sheets but our old blankets still fit although we probably need a new comforter/duvet for the winter.

I love how our bed finally grounds the room - providing a feature to focus on. I also like how our bed coordinates with our existing furniture (although I would like to switch out the bedside tables for something with storage).

Well, I finally feel like our room is settled. Now, onto other challenges!

Dream couch???

Could this really be it??

Hubby and I went to CB2 this past weekend and found a bed (which gets delivered this week - yay!).

While we were there, we spied this mod, modular couch. I was actually shocked at how much we both liked it. Could this be it??? It would actually only be the right half of the picture, with the chaise at one end but a corner piece at the other. I can not tell how how comfortable it was.

And we both love the orange. it would brighten the family room - make it feel like a cosy modern den and would look great against the grey and white of the room (just like in the picture!). Hubby also found a fabulous clear leucite coffee table that would go well with it. I really like coffee tables that allow light through them.

Maybe our hunt is finally over???

Rearranging Crazy Baby's room

Turns out that we absolutely needed to remove the changing table from Crazy baby's room this past weekend. For some time she's been able to climb up onto it - but only recently has she tried to jump off it.

It scares the bejesus out of me.

So, we took the changing table out - and used our built-in shelf for a new changing station.

What's nice about this shelf is that it's quite deep and it has room for storage of pull-ups (out of diapers, yay!), wipes and cream (if needed).

Then, since I was in the mood to organize, I went through all her clothes (I swear she has more than I do) and created a donate pile and placed them in a big bag in the garage. Then I wiped down all her shelves and rearranged the bric-brac.

The picture below, by the way, has the most accurate representation of the color of the walls in her room - a light lemony yellow.
I particularly like the second shelf "carnival of the animals".

I think that the next step will be to put hardwood floors in her room and lay down a green shag rug (I spied one that like at IKEA). To be disgustingly frank, she has puked up so many times in her room that the carpet is permanently stained despite attempts at cleaning it. Yuck! We're going to hopefully take a bit of time off during the holidays to accomplish this.

Finally got a bed!!

Wow - I think it's all coming together. Well, at least for the bedroom.

We went to CB2 on Sat and ordered a Tatami queen-sized bed.

It's a very simple, clean platform bed with a bamboo headboard. And for $649, it's a helluva lot cheaper than the Case Study bed. In fact, the mattress that we just purchased has a pillow top, which would probably not work out well with the extremely low headboard of the Case Study. So, I think we made the right choice.

Now, we just have to wait eagerly for it to arrive. Then we can finally use our new mattress! Ah, a good night's sleep (and a stylish one at that) - I can't wait!

A smaller carbon footprint while sleeping...

Confession time: we sleep on a 10-year old mattress.

ok - in case you're not grossed out, just realize that a 10-year old mattress gains about 20 lbs - because it absorbs sweat, dirt, dust, and skin. Just think about that.

Our mattress has been moved twice within NYC, then to Princeton, NJ, then to CA where it was placed in storage for 6 mos, and finally to our house. Every time I roll over on it, I can hear the springs move (and feel them too). I'm a side-sleeper and I wake up nearly every morning with a compressed shoulder.

Honestly, why did it take me so long to get a new mattress?

Oh - and I haven't mentioned the best part yet. It's a Full. Not a king or even a queen. Try fitting two adults, a constantly moving two-year old and a 17-pound cat into a full-sized bed.

Yeah, good luck.

My back problems have been getting worse, to the point where I've had to go to a chiropractor. The bed is not completely to blame, but it's not exactly promoting healing either.

So, I put my foot down and declared last weekend that we were going to buy a mattress! But where to go? Sleep Train? Mattress Discounters? Macy's? 1-800-Mattress? I really detest these kinds of places because you don't know what you're getting. A Serta "Perfect Sleeper" at one store might be equivalent to a Serta "Beautyrest" at another store. How do you cross-compare? You don't. You can't. That's the point. And yet, negotiation is expected. And this all makes me feel uncomfortable - because it's like buying a car. And the mattress salesmen (mostly men!) are typically just as cheesy as car salesmen.

So, since we live in the digital age, I did the only thing I knew to do: I turned to Yelp. And what I discovered blew my mind.

I discovered Keetsa.

Keetsa #1 on Yelp. By a HUGE margin. People love this place. They are fanatical about the mattresses. Why? Because the prices are reasonable, there is no negotiation, the salespeople are friendly and offer you tea, and the mattresses are "eco-friendly".

What this means is that the mattress cover is from unbleached cotton. The Temperpedic-like foam that they use has castor bean oil in it ("bio-foam"), which has no harmful off-gasing or formaldehyde. There are no box springs - all the mattresses are self-supportive (cheaper, less waste). They are able to deliver the mattresses in a box. Yes, the mattress gets rolled and placed in a cardboard box that fit nicely in the back of my wagon. We were able to take it home the same day and not pay shipping.

So, we ended up getting one of their traditional coil mattresses (can't feel the individual coils with this one!), with a bio-foam topper. We almost feel asleep on it at the store. Here's an image of it off the Keetsa website.

Unfortunately, it's still in the garage because we don't have a platform bed for it. Tomorrow we will try and find a platform bed with a headboard. This will be the first bed frame I will ever have purchased!! Wish us luck!

I can't wait to finally sleep on it!

Links update

Finally updated my links (to the left) of my favorite sites.

Do yourself a favor and check out regretsy.

It literally brings me to tears laughing.

Maybe I should try?

I'm loving these little girls dresses...

I found them on a google images search - they're by a blogger named "baby peas and carrots"

This weekend I started step one of sewing for Crazy Baby: I created a pattern by stitching together material made from old pillowcases. I now have her basic shape in dress form.

I have an idea for a different dress, which is based on a purse that I made below:

That is I would like to make a dress with a pleat in the middle (drawn together at the top, open at the bottom) with a different color material in the pleat.

When I have the energy (Crazy baby has been sucking it up lately with her waking up in the middle of the night), I will draw out a sketch and start to cut out the pieces.

I haven't sewn any clothing for her yet - and now I'm starting to feel guilty!!

Trimming the pine tree

We have a pine tree that sits near the edge of our lawn and is encircled by the lawn.

It is a lovely tree - and we had it trimmed in the manner of a Japanese garden.

Now in an effort to save $$, we are trying to keep up the trimming of the trees ourselves. Hence, the recent post on learning how to trim our citrus trees.

So, with a gut feeling and some simple rules, Hubby carefully trimmed our beloved pine.

First, an expert, sharp pair of shears is important. And with those shears, leather gloves are a must.

Second, he trimmed every branch facing down.

Third, he trimmed any smaller "sucker branches"

This is the look of a section of tree after his "touch". he also trimmed certain branches just for the aesthetics.
In the end, many little pine tufts were clipped (just look at the ground beneath the tree) - but to a nice result.