How we spent our Friday night

We started hanging the photo wall! There are a few pictures still to go, but this is the core. There is nothing like hanging photos with an engineer. Whereas I would grab a picture that is planned for the middle, slap some nails in and hope for the best, Tim measures the photos from all angles and then measures the wall to find the middle. He measures from corner to corner, places the pencil behind his ear and carefully hammers the nail in. Then he hangs the picture, puts the level on top of the photo while biting his lip in concentration. Everytime he hangs a new photo, he rechecks with the level to make sure everything is still straight. The result is this:

A perfectly level grouping of photos. I love being married to an engineer. :)

Check out our new four legged friend! With some sanding, a few coats of stain and some shiny pulls, this beauty will look great in our master bedroom. And best of all, Tim and I won't have to share a dresser anymore. :)

Craigslist is my newest obsession.

Weekend Roundup

We had a very productive weekend. We also had a very hot and humid weekend. This drove us into the air conditioned car, to drink iced coffee with the windows tightly closed and the music loud. We talked and we laughed. We had a great time. We also crossed a lot of items of of the

To-Do list.

The weekend of fun started on Friday night with the traditional homemade pizza. Tim stuck with his usual pepperoni and cheese, while I tried something new. Behold: breakfast for dinner. Brinner!

Ricotta cheese with basil and assorted spices and for a bit of protein, I cracked a few eggs on top. The recipe is here. I cooked it a tad too long but it was very good! I can't wait to try the Cheddar and Green Chile Waffles. :)

We ran around on Saturday chasing through the list of consignment shops I had taken with us, but came home empty handed. We had fun going to different towns around us and searching through musty corners of old buildings, looking for furniture that we could purchase inexpensively and lovingly refinish. We struck out on furniture, but found a creepy treasure trove of old dolls, strange artwork and pieces of old china.

While Tim took a siesta that afternoon, I headed for the kitchen. A friend at work had a pile of home grown cucumbers that I thought would be amazing in an Israeli Salad. I was so in awe of the falafel and salad dish I had here a few weeks ago, I wanted to try it out myself. So I turned on the stereo and started chopping. I finished the salad with a tahini sauce and falafel. It was a really refreshing dinner on such an oppressively hot night.

After staring at it for close to 1 year, Tim and I finally decided that the pot rack in our kitchen had to go. As much as we love how it looks, we'll never use it. So Tim pulled it down and I posted it on Craigslist. No bites yet.




Look how much bigger the kitchen looks!


Since we went to the movies this afternoon, we didn't finish this photo wall project. But it will be on the wall by next weekend. I can't wait to get it off the floor. I'm tired of stepping over it!

The last three weeks have been fantastic. Although I wasn't feeling 100% back to my charming old self, Tim and I have been out and about, enjoying NYC with friends and discovering new places in the city on our own. Even just hanging out in our little corner of the Hudson Valley with the man of my dreams has been a blast. He truly makes everything fun and makes my world come alive. Life is amazingly good. One of my best friends is getting married next year to a wonderful man that treats her like a queen. She found her perfect wedding dress yesterday and then called to tell me about it. We have a healthy new baby in our group of friends and several more on the way. Tim and I have our perfect house and have been working hard at making it our own. And we just booked our hotel for Tim's brother's wedding later this year after which, I will gain my very first sister in law, somebody that I absolutely adore.

Life is amazing and I am beyond thankful for all of the people who make up my world.

Finally myself again

The poison oak that I picked up 5 weeks ago and the resulting allergic reaction that I had to the prednisone, completely knocked me on my ass. Since we bought the house last year, I'm always doing something, always on the go. I have a hard time sitting still. I love to putter around our nest and cross things off my neverending list of things to do. But after a month of sitting and not doing much of anything, my list has grown to epic proportions. It's actually quite frightning. In a good way.

The last 5 weeks have taught me something though. It's good to relax. There is nothing wrong with sitting on the couch with a great book. And it's important to put some fun things on the To Do list. Right below item number 3, Paint the Kitchen Ceiling, is item number 4: Visit Millbrook.

A picturesque little town slightly north of us, Millbrook is full of wineries and a well advertised consignment shop. Tomorrow morning, we'll enjoy a cup of chicory and some beignets to remind us of our time in New Orleans. Then we'll leisurely head up north, try and find some coffee tables for our house and then taste some of the local wines.

I have a lot of things to post about here and I'll start to catch up soon. But first, I need to enjoy a relaxing Saturday with my wonderful husband!

I have the Poison.

I keep thinking of a scene from one of my favorite Friends episodes. Phoebe has hummus spilled on her fancy dress as they're getting ready for a night out. She shrieks about the hummus. "I have the Hummus!"

Well, I have the Oak.Or the Ivy. Or the Sumac. Who the hell knows? Whatever plant grabbed me, it was the poison kind. And I am a miserably, itchy, disgusting, crazy person. I think I'm showing signs of roid rage.

Once I finally figured out what had caused my arms to look like a road map, I realized that I had made a huge mistake in scratching it for two days. I got myself to a doctor who told me that she had seen 5 cases that day alone and wrote me a prescription for Prednisone. She also volunteered to give me a shot to jump start the healing. Jump start away. She told me to pick a cheek. Somehow I have made it to my 33rd year without having a shot in the rear. It hurt a lot more that I expected it to but it was for a good cause.

Yesterday was Day 2 of the Prednisone experiment and I was starting to feel a little better. Until I went home and felt like I was going to leap out of my skin. My arms itched like nothing I've ever felt before. In desperation, I turned to the internet for any sort of kitchen remedy that looked promising. I skipped over the vinegar bath, the bleach, and the honey paste before finding the oatmeal paste. Oatmeal is in Aveeno. Aveeno is for skin issues. So

Oatmeal paste=Healing. Right?

I made the paste and slopped it on my arms, wrapping the finished products in plastic wrap so I didn't drip on the floor. Finally, I felt some relief. I settled on the floor and tried to zen out. This was good. Calm.

Until the oatmeal began to dry. I have never known torture like this. The oatmeal dried to a glue like consistency and clung to my inflamed arms and I was suddenly desperate to get it off as fast as possible. It was burning and suffocating all at the same time. I peeled it off as fast as I could and left oatmeal dripping down the garbage can and down to the floor. When the burning had passed, it left in its place a horrifying itch. I didn't know which was worse. In my scrambled frenzy for relief, I soaked two towels with cold water and wrapped them around my arms like a demented 80's sweatband wearing Jazzersize queen. Finally, finally, my arms calmed down.

All of the men I work with have been teasing me about my malady. Apparently, they are all immune to The Poison. I will never tromp around in the woods again after this. And now, I'm getting ready to celebrate a long weekend with temps that are supposed to hit 90 degrees. I will be wearing long pants to cover up the mess of my skin.

Cross your fingers that the steroids start to help!And that I don't start growing a mustache.