Willkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome, C'mon in...

The front porch has been in dire need of a change ever since I took down the Christmas decorations and yesterday I finally dealt with it. It is simple and easy and exactly what I needed. 

I absolutely hate hanging that chalk board (Ikea). It is one of those two hole hangers where you have to get both hangers in the perfect place or nothing lines up and you can't hang the thing. I used a variation of the mirror hanging method from Young House Love and it was a snap.

Just tape two pieces of paper together and place them over the holes on the back of your picture/mirror/ whatever.

Then stab your screws through the paper into where the holes need to be. Remove and tape to the wall where you want your picture/mirror/ whatever to hang.

Screw your screws in right through the paper and voila!

So happy and springy right? I love it (and if you are as familiar with Blazing Saddles as I am then you will too!)

It helps me ignore that the other side of the porch looks like this:

But that is what I'm off to deal with today. Have a great weekend!

Cheers!

What Do you Think?

Ah design dilemmas. Actually, I really feel like this is the fun part of design. I love coming up with ideas and throwing them around until I've created the perfect room in my head (it was my favorite part of teaching too). Making it happen, not so much. Alas, since the only way this kitchen will happen in my life time is if I get it done I'll have to get over it.

Here's the dilemma: How far should the back splash go? To the ceiling? or just to the hood? I've seen it done well both ways though the trend seems to be to tile to the ceiling (or to tile the whole wall).

Tile to the ceiling:

I have a few issues.  I feel if you are going to tile to the ceiling you need to tile up around your cabinets (or have cabinets that go to the ceiling) like this

via

instead of ending at the top of the cabinets like this (I know, not to the ceiling but you get the idea).

via

Not that either of these kitchens reflect what I want my kitchen to look like (which may be why I am having trouble wrapping my head around it). 

Tile to the Hood: 

via

I love the way this kitchen looks (it even has the dark wood counters, marble and white cabinets I plan to have) but some how the tile looks awkward. I know I've seen kitchens done this way with the tile to the hood (my parent's for instance) but I can't seem to find any online to show you that have the same floating hood that we want. When you have cabinets above your oven it makes total sense. Here is another beautiful example of tile to the hood.

traditional kitchen design by burlington architect Smith & Vansant Architects PC

This is nicely framed by those windows so it feels more controlled than the one above.

So I guess this is the dilemma: Do I raise the cabinets and tile to the ceiling or do I do a framed out tile back splash to the bottom of the hood.

Honest opinions please! If you have any good links to your own kitchens or ones you've seen I'd love to see them (and if I offended any one's current kitchen I apologise these are just my feelings on the subject). 

Cheers!

Spring!

It is like magic! Last fall I planted a TON of bulbs and now they are starting to pop up all over the yard. Mostly they are daffodils at the moment

but some hyacinths and crocuses are starting to poke up too (at least I am pretty sure they are hyacinths. I didn't plant these they are from last year's bulbs).

The daffodils I am forcing are doing well too. Here's what they looked like two weeks ago

and today

There were a few winter casualties

but I plan to replace them with veggies in the spring. Maybe heirloom tomatoes?

 I've been doing quite a bit of research on gardens and planting (it was one of my New Years resolutions after all) and can't wait to try my hand at gardening. I came across this neat almost social networking/ gardening site called Sproutrobot that tells you when to plant in your area. Right now I am supposed to be starting cabbage indoors. This is the cute little explanation they give for how to start.



The free version tells you when to plant certain veggies but the paid version actually sends you seeds to plant. They seem pretty new but if you are curious about starting a garden you should check them out. I'm still not sure if I want to deal with starting veggies inside (you can usually buy starts at your local nursery) but I really like that it tells you when to plant outside. Never hurts to have somewhere to start from. After all

via

What about you? Any urban gardeners out there? Daniel says I can't have chickens but secretly I don't think I mind.
Cheers!

Not a Minute too Late

Who knew finding an 16x 20 frame with an 11x14 mat would be so difficult (ok, I didn't really look very many places but my go-to's let me down). With less than a day to spare I finally got my calendar on my wall (I know, anti-climactic right?). It was totally worth the wait though.

Isn't it just pretty enough to eat frame? And each month I get a new work of art. 

Norman wasn't too impressed though.

This calendar maker comes out with a different set of pictures each year and I have always loved them. They can be a little pricey, but if you are willing to gamble I've found that most calendars tend to go on sale a few weeks after the new year. I got mine half off.  They have some super cute posters too (their small prints are on sale for 2.50 right now!)

Linnea Design

I was inspired by this pin (go figure right?) but wasn't sure I wanted another gallery wall. 

I toyed with putting it in the guest bed but then I couldn't enjoy the art. Next month's is super cute and for $14.50 I love that I now have a rotating art collection. Now I just have to refurbish that desk... 

Anyone else have a cheap source of art? I really want more original pieces in my house but with the price tags they carry it will have to be prints for now. 

Good Eats Wrap Up- January

Writing a weekly post on our Good Eats Challenge was getting overwhelming. So many pictures and steps, I was getting stressed about getting it up each week. Then I thought, wait, I'm doing this because I think it is fun, not because I have to **hand to forehead**. So while we are still doing a weekly Good Eats recipe, I'm only going to post once a month about it. It is immensely fun to try new things each week and to spend time in the kitchen together so I want to share how it went with you all and hopefully pass some food inspiration on to you. Here's the run down of what we made since my last post.

• Pancakes: These were amazing! The best part is that the recipe is actually a recipe for "instant pancake mix" so you make the mix ahead of time and then add the eggs and milk when you want to make them for breakfast. They were fluffy and light. The key is definitely not over mixing. I hate lumps but I did what he said and they all magically disappeared when we cooked.  This one is a pantry staple for us now.
• Beurre Blanc: If you've ever been to a fancy French restaurant you've probably had this. Basically it means white butter and that is pretty much what it is. A sauce made of butter and white wine. Rich and delicate but oh so satisfying. We made it with Alton's Court Bouillon which is a classic (again) French poached fish. I thought it was great but Daniel thought it was a bit lacking in flavor. 
• Pizza: This one is fun. Basically it is all about the dough recipe. It is easy to make if you have a stand mixer and I love that it is something you can make ahead. The key to knowing when you've kneaded enough is using the window pane method. I learned it in bread making class. Basically you take a piece of dough and stretch it between your fingers as thin as you can get it. If you can see through it and it doesn't break you are golden.

He prefers the overnight rise method which is perfect if you are like me and don't like waiting for your dough to rise. Just make the dough the night before and pop it in the refrigerator to rise. It is ready when you want it for dinner the next day. We made a classic margarita pizza and jalapeno cheese bread.

• Baked Beans: This was a new experience for me and let me say, wow. Though any recipe that is equal parts bacon to main ingredient is a winner in my book (the proportion was one pound bacon to one pound beans). These were fantastic. Slightly spicy, slightly sweet and lasted for days. I will definitely be making these again (but maybe with a bit less bacon for my health).

• Pan Fried Tofu: Your classic tofu recipe. It was good, but I prefer more Asian flavors with my tofu. There was another recipe for a chocolate tofu pie that looked quite good though. I may have to try it sometime. 
• Braised Cabbage: This was kind of ho-hum for me. I wanted it to be more like sauerkraut but it ended up on the sweet end. We paired it with a delicious locally made sausage though and that totally made the dish.  We are big fans of "sausage in a bun" or upscale hot dogs if you will. Anyone who has read Terry Pratchett will understand. 

So there it is, the last few Good Eat's dishes we've made this month. I'm already looking forward to making next month's recipes! Hope you find some inspiration to try something new (or am I the only one who has never eaten things like Baked Beans?)

Cheers!

5 Hours Later

Once we had determined that the beam in our kitchen wasn't load bearing we got to work. That nasty beam in our kitchen went from this

To this (obviously the previous picture was taken quite a long time ago but it was the clearest picture of the beam I had).

No more shadow casting, room splitting beam. Let me tell you, it was not an easy task (as the title of this post probably hints to). We tried to do it as carefully and deliberately as possible (and we really had know idea how to get it down in one piece). We started by putting up some supports on the peninsula to hold the beam in place as we cut it in to manageable pieces.

Then we just took it down piece

by piece

Daniel did some calculations and figured the beam was probably around 160 lbs for the whole length of it (which would have been way too much for us to handle as a whole) so cutting it in to manageable pieces made the most sense.

For each section we drilled a hole through the beam at the top and used a reciprocating saw to cut the rest of the beam. Each section we cut was held up by our support walls so we didn't have to worry about anything falling or moving. Then we just jiggled the beam loose and pulled it down. Let's look at that after again.

And from the other side

It makes the kitchen feel so much more open.

I can't wait until we get the rest done but we are at a bit of an impasse. We leave for vacation in 3 weeks and have people coming to watch the pets. Obviously we need to leave them a working kitchen which means we can't start anything we don't know we can finish in 9 days (that is how many days I have off from work before we leave). Daniel is going to run electrical this weekend so we will see what we can finish after that. The biggest thing in our way is moving the stove. One of the posts is connected to the peninsula so to remove that we need to remove the peninsula. But, if we remove the peninsula we need to be ready to move the stove which means re-routing the gas line. That involves turning off all of the gas to the house (which includes heat and hot water) re-routing the lines from under the house and then having the city come and turn the gas back on. If we weren't leaving I'd just decommission the stove and go without until the plumbing and drywall is done but I don't want to leave my house sitters without a stove. I know, long answer to why this project may not be going anywhere quickly. The goal before we leave is to at least have the bedroom back together so that we can make the house look semi decent and leave the kitchen a bit undone for now. That way everything will still work. Here's to hoping anyway!
Have a great weekend all!
Cheers!

One of My Other Jobs

I've been working a bit more at the chocolate shop to help them out through the holiday transition. One of my favorite tasks is designing to window display. We don't change it very often because you have to take down a bunch of shelves to do it but we try to at least with the seasons. Obviously,  this time it has been decorated for Valentines Day.  Sorry about the glare, I did the window this morning and the angle of the sun was working against me.

Don't these truffles look fantastic? Our head chocolatier is amazing. All of them are hand painted and filled with delicious flavored ganaches.

I was also super excited to come home to this. Our replacement dremel bits so that I can get more progress done on the kitchen! Yay!

Tonight we are going to dinner and a show. I got us tickets to an opera earlier in the year and now we finally get to see it. I'm trying to get Daniel more in to theater so hopefully he will enjoy this one. It is Atilla. I don't know much about it but it will be fun to dress up and check it out.
Cheers!