Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Still Mourning From the Bayou

Ok, this post is probably more for me as I need some lunch and am not bothering to reread/edit, so read at your own peril.

From the Bayou was this AMAZINGLY EXCELLENT cajun food restaurant just one little ol' block from my college campus. I can't handle spice heat very well, but their food was SOOO GOOD it was worth suffering some of the burn and they had a salad that was so awesome that I would crave it! It had the best smoked almonds ever found (and if you know me, you know I'm not actually a big fan of smokey flavor so these HAD to be that good for me to crave them!) Yes, it's been closed several years now and the restaurant that took it's place (ostensibly with same chef and several of the same recipes) is now closed as well. On a lark, I hunted through the tangled webs of the inter as I knew the restaurant had shared some of it's recipes at one point. I managed to find some, and I'm copying them here below. On my search, apparently I ate there during it's early hey-day as Yelp reviews are bad, but all from several years after I left. Sadly, I never took pictures of their decor, I loved it. I wish I could have bought one of their artistic chairs! Wish I had found their red beans & rice recipe...and what those darn almonds were.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Happy Ferris Wheel Day!

by Matt Kloskowski
Many of you may be asking yourselves, "Ferris Wheel Day? Isn't today.." Nope, maybe for you it is, but not for us! I'll explain so as to wipe that look of confusion off your face.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Lemon Love

image source
Yesterday near the end of our outting to the Northwest Flower & Garden Show, it struck me while looking at a charming little garden built by a local high school in a grid pattern alternating grass with items of interest. I keep laughing about the fact that one reason we loved our house was the huge amount of yard space, and yet as I plan and dream of gardening, I keep wanting MORE land! The problem is I love so many styles of gardening and want to have a space for each, but that would mean absolutely no yard left to play in! I love a formal ornamental French garden with it's pretty geometric patterns edged with boxwood, the tumbled flowers and natural exuberance of the English cottage style, quiet romantic shady spots with the trickle of water over rocks, herb spirals, vegetable beds, the list continues. The challenge comes in finding a way to make little spots for each in our yard but still have it look cohesive. (Let's also ignore that all this gardening is in my head, I'm not exactly sure I will be that good at the actual physical labor all this requires.)

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Project Reveal: Jewelry for my Seestar

So I've been working on several projects lately but couldn't share what they were or the progress as they were to be presents for my sister. Now that I've given her three of the four presents and shown her the in-progress fourth, I can share them here!

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Garden: First plans

One major reason we wanted a house and were willing to move out of the city that we loved in order to obtain it, was because we wanted a large yard. We wanted space to do all the things: flowers, herbs, foods, and play. We know what we want to do and the approximate location for each, but now that winter is past its heyday, I find Spring approaching with fearsome rapidity. Actual conversation from last night went something like this:
Me: Ugh, I'm weird!
J: Why this time?
Me: I'm getting anxiety about going to the Flower & Garden Show!
J: Yeah, that's weird.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Planning the Summer House Projects

Now that I FINALLY have a house to full on decorate, I'm stalling. I know we won't be moving again in any forseeable future so I don't want to jump into any rash decisions or doing things just to have it done. Most of our focus has been on organizing and finding homes for our belongings. No home is perfect and much as I love ours, there are quite a few projects I identified after moving in. Today I'll give a little run-down on my challenges I'm facing in each room and my large list of "summer" home fix-it projects.