Moving Out

Hi friends! I'm moving. Actually, I already moved. Come and see me (and update your RSS feeds, too)!

xo!

Today's Special

Hee hee hee!!! This makes me so excited. When I first got hired as the cook at the sorority house, I immediately had this vision of having a big chalkboard on which to write the nightly menu, like a swanky cafe or something. I've also had a can of chalkboard spray paint that's been sitting around, unused, for like three years. At least.


The board I finally bought is not very big, but it can sit on the buffet table without being ostentatious. I just sanded it, gave it two coats of chalkboard paint, and rubbed the entire surface with chalk a few times.


Check out Martha's awesome chalkboard paint ideas here. R and I definitely want to give the bottom half of the kitchen wall (in our future permanent home, that is) the chalkboard treatment.

Okay. It is time to go make dinner, and L was supposed to be sleeping for the last 20 minutes, but instead, she was screaming. That should make dinner prep a breeze. Wish me luck!

Grocery Bags I Will (Hopefully) Remember to Use

I'm working on a theory that goes like this: Pretty things are not essential to sustain life, but they do make it much more enjoyable. Lately, I've been applying this theory to one of life's definite non-essentials: grocery bags.

For a while, I was using bags made from old t-shirts. They are serviceable, but not pretty, and they also tend to confuse grocery store checkers, who usually tilt their heads questioningly when they see what appears to be a pile of rags coming down the conveyor belt. I am also really bad at remembering to put them in the car when I go shopping, and if I do remember to put them in the car, I forget to bring them in the store.


So! Last weekend, on our way to the State Fair, we made a pit stop in Bountiful to visit Kim's mom, a.k.a. Mama Muffin, who can frequently be found at the heavenly Quilter's Haven. I picked up some luscious Anna Maria Horner, Joel Dewberry, and Heather Bailey prints (meanwhile, R and L wandered the shop with great unease, but were such good sports!). Since then, I have been a sewing FOOL.


I made these bags with Spool's free Grocery Tote pattern. It is so easy, and they would make great gifts! The last bag comes from the scraps left over from my apron project. I wanted that bag to be a little more special, so I added some interior pockets (which took me blasted forever to figure out), thereby upgrading the bag from a grocery tote to a small-ish diaper bag. Wahoo!


R and I recently decided that our apartment could use a little sprucing up. We've lived here for a year and will most likely be here for another 6-9 months, so we might as well make it look nice. More projects coming down the pipe!

Breakfast and Singing

I love slow mornings -- the kind where you say things like, "Would you want some waffles?" or "How about some tea?" and where you think to step outside for a few flowers from the yard, just because they would look pretty on the kitchen table, even if some of them might be weeds.


Anyway, we did not have waffles on Friday morning, but we did have Pop-Up Pancakes, a.k.a. the easiest thing ever, and way tasty. No special ingredients, either -- just flour, eggs, milk, butter, and salt.

Okay, so about the choir! We've only had three rehearsals, but truly, it has already been one of the most wonderful and exciting musical experiences of my life. We already knew that Craig Jessop is a genius, but dudes, The Man Is A Genius. As a conductor, his style is impassioned yet efficient, loving but with high expectations, and so clinically precise. He makes you want to give him the very best you can. He is an amazing teacher -- and really, you'd have to be in order to manage 275 singers at once (the size of the choir, at last count).

This semester, the choir is performing a Veteran's Day concert as well as the Mozart Requiem (we will perform the latter with the USU orchestra). The Veteran's Day concert will feature lots of patriotic pieces, including an unpublished arrangement of "God of our Fathers" by Mack Wilberg (nyah, nyah!). 

It is so fun and invigorating to be singing in a really great choir again. The only thing that makes me sad is that I know we'll be gone in another year -- so I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts!

State Fair

Tub Dreams

In addition to all the jumble and tangle of new-school-year craziness, R has a new work schedule: Thursdays and Fridays, 4 or 7 pm until 2:30 am. Ouch. For both of us. He is such a trooper, though; I’ve never known anyone who works so hard, yet has the innate ability to keep everything in such proper balance.


Last night was the first night of the new schedule, and I had myself slated for a whole lotta sewing, but when it came right down to it, I just didn’t want to. Instead, I drew up a mind-numbingly hot bath with my favorite lavender bath stuff, lit candles (I haven’t done that for years), and read Francis Mayes’ Under the Tuscan Sun (the most wonderful piece of armchair traveling) by candlelight while munching on some day-old ciabatta, rich aged gouda, and a perfect, honey-sweet nectarine.

The soak lasted a generous, beautiful hour – and the water was still warm at the end. It was so quiet; nothing but the crickets, the occasional car, and muffled bumps and conversation from the other apartments. Soothing.


I have a daydream, and it goes like this: Every summer, R and I pick a new place to explore and settle in for a few months – Normandy, the Swiss Alps, Tuscany, a quiet Norweigian fjord – and in the winter, we amble back to some funky and picturesque town on the California coast – Berkeley or Carmel, maybe. And every Sunday, R asks me, “Which night would you like to eat at Chez Panisse, my dear?”

Happy Things...

Tyler Florence's pulled pork sandwich recipe minus the mustard sauce, a.k.a. dinner tonight (I used normal bottled BBQ sauce). I am vaguely considering sneaking back into the sorority house for a midnight snack of...a pulled pork sandwich.

The babe is starting to sign a teensy bit more. In addition to "milk," which has been her all-purpose sign for many moons, she now also does "nap" and her own version of "all done," which involves her throwing her cup off of her high chair and putting her left hand over the left side of her face. Then today, I caught her looking at a picture of a dog in a book and doing the sign for "dog"!!! It was so exciting.


I'm singing again! It's been a looooong time and it took a fair amount of courage to go through with the audition, but I MADE IT and I'm totally stoked to be singing for none other than Craig Jessop (formerly of the MoTab) in the new American Festival Chorus! The choir is huge and sounds great already, and Jessop is honestly a genius. More on that later!

More than anything, the big happy thing is that life is good. God is good. I don't wax religious too often on here, but if there's one thing I know, it's just that -- that He knows us and loves us. Honestly.