New Toys

Sunday was a project day around the Young House.  And with the help of a couple new toys our projects were a success!!
First off my new toy is this contraption:

I was reading a blog where in the lady was making a quilt and was cutting it using a cutting mat and a straight edge. GENIUS! I have both a cutting mat and a straight edge (what’s up 3 years of MAarch program!) and a boat load of exacto knifes. So while making a quilt for baby Wilson I pulled out the beat up mat and grabbed my exacto.  It worked pretty     good. 

Then I got the Joann’s flier.
I don’t normally look at it, I just cut out the coupons.  But there was this picture of a cutting mat and this rolling razor blade thingy. 
Light bulbs went off!
So on Sunday when we headed to Joann’s to get fabric for baby Young’s quilt I ventured into the scissor aisle and picked up my very own Rotary Cutter…for $7 @ 40% off of course
Back at home I pressed the fabrics then pulled our the cutting mat.  I counted 4” lined up my straight edge and rolled away. 
I yelled to Adam “This thing is AWESOME! It’s SO easy!  I can do 4 layers of fabric at a time!!”
I was excited.  Why oh why have I been cutting by hand for the last 11 years??? I beamed as I stacked my PERFECT little squares of fabric and even more so when I laid them all out.

Oh! and check out the cute fabric Uncle Adam chose:

The man goes crazy over monkeys and penguins. What can say…?
Now I have to note that just because I had perfect 4” squares my ability to sew them all perfectly lined up did not improve. Blame it on D'nealian ha ha or my entry level sewing machine, It didn’t come out perfect, but it is super duper cute and will hopefully coordinate well with their jungle themed nursery. Now if we just knew what baby was!!!?

Ok-On to Mr. Adam…
Adam's new toy is a Orbital Sander. 

He informed me that we had to get one to sand the table between layer of Lacquer and that he NEEDED this fancy schmancy $100 sander. Gulp. But being the thrifty deal searching wife I found one for him at Sears for .. $35. No it’s not the fancy one he wanted with it’s own generator-but it would do what we needed.
So while I was busy sewing my squares Adam was out on the patio sanding down the table top.  It worked pretty well and removed most of the groves/buildup from the lacquer. 

When he finally applied the last coat we w.a.i.t.e.d hours to touch it, but when finally we could it is nice and smooth (in most spots).  The table looks great! We decided to keep with the gloss finish instead of the satin.  It is so pretty and shiny and ..seriously folks we can’t stop ooing and ahhing.  It’s still in pieces…and not 100% done, but I’ve informed a few friends that there will be a dinner party in August.  I can’t wait to share the final reveal with you. It’s been a long time coming…but it will be worth the wait.
We hope you all had a splendid weekend.  Back to the Grind…(not)Happy Monday.

The Vaca Post-Finally

We’ve been back a few weeks now, but I still we’re stuck on Central time.  Lagging and dragging ourselves out of bed…still behind on the laundry…but I think that’s just life.  Our trip to Illinois proved to be a fun much needed break from reality. 

First order of business-Luke’s Wedding!

You might remember Luke from our wedding…

He’s Adam’s 1st cousin and they were born just a month or so apart. (Adam’s older in case you wondered)  Anyway, back to Luke. Luke married Leanne, not to be confused with his sister Leanne.

Bride on the Right Sister on the left.

It was a very heartfelt ceremony-very personal and very sweet.

They got married at a botanical garden and the surroundings were very pretty. 

Of course we all had a good old time at the reception dancing drinking and eating the night away until the bus came and took us back to the hotel or if you’re name is Adam onward to the bars downtown.  (Yes I went to bed-I haven’t changed a bit)

The next day we headed north to Rockford where we stayed all week at Adam’s Grandmas.  Visiting from California was his Aunt Carol, cousin Jessica, and 3 2nd cousins-all of whom I’d never met.  The week consisted of a lot of card playing and eating and of course a lot of Kylie time .  The weather wasn’t the greatest but we did make it Magic Waters (The local water park) on the one nice-ish day. 

At the end of the week we packed up and headed into Chicago where we met up with Jonathan and spent 2 days traipsing around the city.  We were able to go see my Junior High best friend’s exhibit, Red Sky @ Night, at a local gallery.  Her work is amazing.  Check out her website here.

Another thing on my list was go to the Frank Lloyd Wright home and studio.  It was interesting and I do think Adam and Jonathan both enjoyed it too.  We also made it up to the top of the Sears Tower and down to Millennia Park. 

It was fun hanging out with Jonathan one on one (two) we don’t get much time w/o the rest of the family.  He (who is working non stop this summer) said it was the most fun he’s had in a long time.  So I left Chicago feeling pretty good, but ready to be back home…in my own bed.

It was a nice vacation.  Relaxing and getting to see lots of family is always good.  But it is true-you always need a vacation AFTER your vacation!!

Books!

Recently I found myself reading 3 books…at the same time!  Luckily due to vacation I was able to finish one just in time to pick up a can’t put it down….so now I’m at 2 books. phew.

I’ve had Isadore’s Secret on loan from my mother since last fall and would pick up and put down reading a few pages here and there.  The story behind this is that it’s true and took place in my Grandma’s town.  I’ve heard the story of the murdered nun my whole life; so going into it I kind of knew what would happen. None the less it was an interesting story-lots of facts and true accounts, but it did read like a history book.  I was glad to finally finish it and move onto something a bit more light.

I picked The Gatecrasher up from a $5 sale at a bookstore and started it a while ago.  After the gruesome courtroom drama of I.S. this was a nice mind relaxing read.  The author wrote the Shopaholic series, which I loved, but I haven't found this as humors. We shall see because I put it down again…to read…

Room! I recently heard Rosie O'Donnell speaking about this book on her radio show (which  I love!) and my interest was peaked.  I put my name on the Library wait list and luckily got it soon.  I picked it up on a Monday and finished it on Thursday. It was that good. I even read it on my lunch break!  What makes this book so unique is that the narrator is a 5 year old. So it takes a while to get used to his “voice”.  Jack lives with his mother in Room.  You quickly realize that Room is all he knows.  Get where I’m going with this?  Now, it’s not a gruesome, sad, evil story…why they’re in the room is, but Jack doesn’t know that so you’re able to view the world through him. Knowing what really is going on add to the suspense and keeps the book moving. (at times you will get sick of him describing things)  I can not recommend this book enough.  I still think about it (2 weeks after the fact!)

After putting it down I realized I needed to start my new book club selection:

To be honest I have gotten maybe 10 pages in the last week…I think I might be read out.  But it sounds interesting and takes place in Michigan-(it must be good! )  It’s thick…but I’m hoping to get my nose into it since a few in the group who had previously read it really enjoyed it. (Although I do rarely agree with my club on good books!)

So there you have it. My summer book reading list.  What is on your night stand this summer? Anything good?

Benedict

Eggs, that is. I love Eggs Benedict.  If we’re out for breakfast and it’s on the menu I find it very difficult to order anything else.  I even find it hard to steer away from the traditional and order a “house special” Benedict.

For those who are not in the know Eggs Benedict is actually quite simple. An English muffin, a slice of Canadian bacon, a poached egg and some hollandaise sauce.

Anyway-until recently if I wanted to poach an egg at home (to make eggs benedict, I would use a makeshift poacher that my dad showed me…Muffin tins.  Not many people know this, but Gary is pretty stellar in the Kitchen.  His degree is actually in Restaurant Management and he’s worked as a chef-he’s got a nice big scar on his forearm as proof.  So when they were visiting once we had eggs benedict (according to mom he can make a killer hollandaise sauce) and he demonstrated using the muffin tins to poach the eggs by placing them in a shallow pan with water.  Perfect cute little poached eggs. 

Now while this worked to satisfy my eggs benedict addiction I still wanted a proper egg poacher like my mom had…but seeing as our cupboards space is limited I’ve held off.  Until I was perusing the back of The Bitchen Kitchen and came across these little cuties.

I purchased 4 of these silicon egg poachers (cheap) that you just drop in a pan of boiling water and 6 min later you have a poached egg! and they take up no space since they stack and they’re flexible.  They’re great! I love them and have been having fun making “eggs Benedict” on the weekends.  Why the quotes? well Canadian bacon isn’t cheap and we don’t always have hollandaise sauce on hand (which I make from a Knoll packet!) so I’ve been making it any which way I can.  Here are a couple that we’ve tried and enjoyed.

Hawaiian Benedict: Hawaiian Sweet Roll, Bacon, Poached Eggs, Hollandaise sauce

Pretzel Benedict: Pretzel Roll, Spinach, Poached Egg, Ricotta Dijon Sauce

Has anyone else have fun mixing up the traditional dish? I still favor the original-but it’s fun to mix it up with what’s on hand and our new little cups make it even easier!

And finally-Happy Birthday Dad! The Hollandaise King!

Let there be Light!

Well it’s done-finally-we have a new light fixture in the kitchen!

Over a month (or was it two) ago we bought a new fixture at IKEA to replace the old double shop fluorescents that the condo came with.

We spent a whopping $40 on this modified track light fixture-hoping it would provide enough light in our tiny kitchen. It sat in the box for a good 2 months…Then finally Adam had some free time and began to tear down the existing frame and lights. I was so happy I bought him beer.
Being the optimist i thought that this would be a weekend project. But I was quickly told-I have to Mud-sand-paint that will take a day to dry…blah blah blah….so for a whole WEEK we had no light in our kitchen.  luckily the microwave and stove worked and our outlets so Adam could plug in his Hi output halogen shop light that was so bright you couldn’t help but stare at it and then realize you were blind.
Here is the hole (seriously-I studied architecture for how long and I can’t come up with a better word?) Anyway this is where the lights were and our plan was to open it up and put the new fixture there.

Finally after Adam Sanded and painted (we decided to do the whole cove (is that better?) in the same grey as the walls) He was able to install our new fixture and voila! we had light again!
I quickly realized that the kitchen wasn’t as bright as it was with the fluorescents and that there are some shadow areas, especially by the fridge, but we both decided we liked it and since we use the stove light it would be just fine.

Being, tall it really helps to make the kitchen feel more open-the ceilings are so low I can touch them with my hand.  And the pretty new fixture brings us into the 21st century. Now if only I could convince him to do the cabinets…