Saturday Brunch

This morning I woke up to freezing rain and a text from Liz: "come eat homemade buckwheat and berry pancakes with me!"  Aside from making me wish I could hop on a plane to mild DC (where I hear there are flowers in bloom!  Not fair!), Liz's text also reminded me of the multigrain waffles I made with my sister last weekend.  We found them over at 101 Cookbooks, and they were crunchy, hearty and delicious.  I'd love to have a stack right now, topped with some warm maple syrup, or maybe a dollop of this ginger grapefruit curd. 

Have a fun weekend!  I'll be here, dreaming about warmer weather.

One sad fridge

The status of my fridge is embarrassing. Yet here I am, showing you a picture.

We've got half of a banana, a few tablespoons of homemade salted caramel sauce, and four eggs. Really, really embarrassing. On the top shelf we have some coffee and in the bottom drawers a few beers, but that's about it.

But I wanted you to know that I have big plans. Tomorrow I will head to the farmers' market (and likely have to supplement my finds with our neighborhood grocery store), and I will come home with sweet potatoes and white beans and avocados and I will make these:

Via Healthy. Happy. Life.

And then I will need something sweet. So I will pull out some bittersweet chocolate and cocoa powder and sweetened condensed milk and I will make this (no ice cream maker needed!):

Via Cup of Jo

And once I am done with the ice cream, I will pull out my new waffle maker (which I received today as a hand-me-down from a neighbor who is downsizing) and stock the freezer with these buckwheat, oatmeal, ginger power waffles for the week ahead.

Via 101 Cookbooks

And waffles are no good without coffee. Even though it's still chilly out, I might make a batch of iced coffee concentrate. According to The Pioneer Woman, her iced coffee concentrate makes the perfect iced coffee and lasts three to four weeks!

Via The Pioneer Woman

Don't worry, I'm not going to eat it all at once.

Happy weekend :)

Happy Weekend!

It's the weekend!  Today marks the beginning of a much-needed week's vacation for me, and I'm hoping I can squeeze in some fun in between studying and catching up on reading.  Tonight I'm going to see Andy and his band play at a bar downtown.  Here's a little preview:

Then I'll be spending the rest of the week snuggling a my favorite little munchkin.  If you want a preview of what that will look like, check out the cute pictures on Elspeth's blog.  :)

Back on the horse

As Liz said, we're back on the blogging horse.

We decided to give the blog some new life, too.  We even expanded the list of our favorite blogs and made a separate page dedicated to our favorite reads.  Next week I'll be back here to fill you in on where I've been since...er...December.


*image via sharon montrose's animal print shop, with which I have a slight obsession

Weekend project recap

I have been looking for a new bench for our bedroom for a while now. West Elm and Pottery Barn sell some beauties, but you have to shell out $200-$400. I needed something in the near-free price range. Thus, Ben and I took a trip to Home Depot to build our own.

We were clearly beginners at the hardware store - not knowing which wood, screws, or wood stain to buy. But we swallowed our pride and recruited the help of Mr. Mike in the orange apron. He showed us the ropes and now we'd like to share some tips with you!

Tip #1) If you don't own a saw, plan ahead and make sure you have someone at the store cut the wood for you. We wanted a bench that was about 3 feet in length to fit in our pint-sized apartment. After lugging home five bags of goods on the Metro, Ben was off to work on the bottom part of the bench.

Tip #2) Buy pre-made legs. They are about $3.50 each at the hardware store and when you're painting your bench outside in front of your apartment you get lots of compliments like "those are beautiful legs you've got."

3) Paint outside. Whether you have wood stain or paint, do not paint inside. The fumes will make you go brain dead. But don't sit as close to the street as I did. That is also dangerous.

4) Use push pins (or thumb tacs) to turn your bench right side up when the legs are still wet. Ben and I started staining the bottom of the bench before the top. That meant that we had already painted the legs of the bench. To prevent the legs of the bench from sticking to the newspaper that we laid on the ground, we stuck push pins in the bottom of the legs, lifting the legs an extra inch in the air. Although you can't see the push pins in the picture below, the bench is very happy to not be stuck to the trash bag.

Tip #5) When nothing else will remove the wood stain on your hands, nail polish remover will! It was a life saver when I super glued my fingers together last year, and it was a life saver once again this past weekend when the sticky wood stain wouldn't come off of our fingers. Thank you, nail polish remover.

Stay tuned for a pic of the final product in use!

Since I've been gone...

Oh dear...it's been a while since I've stopped by here.  Now that it's almost November (gasp!), I decided I need to make my way back into the blogosphere.  First and foremost, let me fill you in on where I've been...

October started off with a bang; or, rather, a midnight drive down to Cape Cod when we got the call that my sister was in labor.  Here's my beautiful (one-month-old!) niece, Sally, here to wish you a Happy Halloween!  Pretty spooky, huh?!

The rest of October went by in a blur: midterm stress, birthday celebrations for a certain tall/dark/handsome someone, a THREE (!!!!) year anniversary celebration, and finally, a visit with Liz!

When Liz arrived in Portland last weekend, it was the first time we had seen each other in almost a year and a half!  That's just unacceptable, if you ask me.  We had the most relaxing weekend involving long walks around town, yummy food, tall glasses of wine, and outlet shopping.  There was even a guest appearance from our most loyal reader.

Lizzo, let's never go that long without seeing each other again!

Weekend plans

It's only Thursday and I'm already thinking about the weekend. We're going to go apple picking so that we can make more delicious pies like these,

Go to this craft fair right by our apartment,

And maybe even paint my nails like the ones below. I mean, how cool are they?

Via Apartment 34

What are your plans? For Anna, this may be the weekend that she becomes an aunt!

Puppies for your Friday

The Friday Find is being delayed until Saturday (I know, I know, lame), because I am giving today's Friday Find away as gifts to a few special people and I don't want them to read it before receiving their present! So, naturally, instead, this post will be about... PUPPIES!

This past weekend in Cleveland, I spent quality time with my cousin's dog Emma. She is a 130 lb Newfoundland. She has black hair, big paws, and a lot of drool. She is so incredibly mellow and lets you sleep in until 9:30 am without making a fuss; yet, when you want her to be energetic, she is a great hiker and swimmer. My ideal dog in many ways.

Emma chilling with Ben in the car

Emma in a waterfall in the middle of our hike

 

 

The only problem is that when she sees a squirrel, you are screwed. That dog is strong. She could pull you for miles if she wanted too. (She doesn't usually want to, because she's pretty lazy, but you get the point.) So then I got to thinking: What would my ideal dog be? And when can I get one?

How bout you guys? What kind of dog would you want?

Happy Friday :)

The Friday Find

Remember two weeks ago when Anna said it was hot, hot, hot in Maine? I have her beat. This is today's forecast for DC:

Via weather.com

Feels like 121 degrees? Are you kidding me? This week's Friday Find will include popsicles, renting DVDs, air-conditioned happy hours, and begging to get a spot by friends' rooftop pools.

Here is our hot, hot, heat guide on a budget:

1) While I would love a Zoku Quick Pop Maker (which makes popsicles in less than 10 minutes), I would rather spend $50 on new shoes. So I will settle for these lemon, lime, and mint slush cups that fit so nicely in the lemon rinds themselves.

2) A Redbox DVD: use the promo code DVDONME and it's free, free, free!

3) If you're in DC, be sure to check out Masa 14 or Mandu before 7 PM for $4 drinks like gin and tonics and mojitos. Or stop by Loriol Plaza for a $6 frozen margarita. Mmmmm.

4) If you don't have friends who can offer you their rooftop pools, you should check out the public pools in your area. In DC there are a whole bunch and they're not gross at all! In fact, they're quite nice! My favorite one is the Foggy Bottom pool at 25th and N NW. Check it out!

I hope you're staying cool. Have a lovely, lovely weekend!

Photos from the weekend

Had a great weekend in Baltimore. But it went by too fast. Miss and love these girlies. And we missed Anna a lot. We did a lot of talking, walking, and eating. What else is new?

On the deck

Making pancakes

Testing out some snowballs

On a woodsy walk

The Friday Find

Happy Friday!  It's been a beautiful but long week in Portland, and it's not nearly over yet - four hours of class await me this afternoon followed by a Basic Life Support class tomorrow morning.  I thought I'd stop in to talk about the saying "one man's trash is another man's treasure."  Or maybe "what's old is new again."  When Andy and I moved into our apartment, we didn't have much furniture.  Luckily, his parents have what could be an entire antique shop/flea market in their attic!  When we were in the market for a coffee table, they generously offered us an old lobster trap, similar to this one:

Living in Maine, it's not uncommon at all to see these repurposed as coffee tables.  After living with it as-is for a few months, I decided that I could make it a little more useful.  I ripped out the netting, sanded it down, nailed a few loose pieces into place, and wiped it clean.  Now it doubles as a coffee table and very handy board game storage.  Here's a pic: 

It's not my ideal coffee table, but it works for now.  Have a happy weekend!

P.S. Don't forget to show your dad some love on Sunday!

A Trip to Baltimore

This weekend I visited Baltimore for the first time and I was totally impressed. While I love almost everything about DC, I found Baltimore to be more calm and charming (thus, the nickname Charm City). It was a lot like the smaller New England cities of which I am familiar.

We went to Iggies for great pizza, walked around the harbor, and visited the amazing farmers' market. Fresh local strawberries and tall iced coffees marked the beginning of summer. We also tried pickles on a stick! Some photos below. Happy Monday!

 

Friday Find (er...Saturday Steal?)

Happy weekend!  Sorry about the late post this week.  Liz has been swamped at work and I've been getting ready for school, which starts a week from today...eek!  Speaking of school, this week's Friday Find is about the new Amazon.com book buy-back program.

 If you buy a textbook from Amazon, they will send you an email around the end of the semester with a buy-back estimate.  I sold my books back for just $10 less than I bought them, which I consider a deal!  Plus, Amazon pays for shipping.  All you have to do is print a label, package the book up, and send it with UPS.  Totally worth it!

Hope you're having a relaxing weekend.  xoxo

A Few Things...

I hope that everyone had a lovely Easter Sunday if you celebrated it! I spent my Easter Sunday hanging out with cousins in the morning and taking a long walk in the evening. It was 80 degrees and sunny. Perfect. On my walk, I spotted this great pair of chairs at a second-hand furniture store on 14th Street NW. Very retro and comfortable. $300 for the pair. Do you think that's a good deal or not? I couldn't decide.

Anyways, let's get to the more important memo of the day: Today is the day that EASTER CANDY GOES ON SALE!! I will be stopping by the drug store to snatch up some chocolate Cadberry candy eggs and some Robin eggs. What is your favorite Easter candy?

Happy Monday! (Ugh.)

Slow Saturday

Laundry, coffee, and baking an apple berry crumble. A nice lazy Saturday.

Apple blackberry crumble

If I had a recipe for this apple blackberry crumble I would share it with you. I do know that if you throw together apples, blackberries, lemon zest and all the juice you can get out of half a lemon, brown sugar, cinnamon, a little nutmeg, and a few dabs of cold butter, then top it with an oatmeal, brown sugar, butter mixture, it will taste good :)

Happy weekend!

Dupont Circle Farmers' Market

Every Sunday I look forward to taking a long walk to the farmers' market. In the winter, it was still a nice ritual, but the selection was meager: Some breads and cheeses, meats and jams. But these past few days of warm weather have already made the market a little brighter.

Baskets of spinach

Apples for tasting

Cheeses

Granola

And a stroller-bound onlooker

For all you DCers, as of today, the Dupont farmers' market is now running on its summer hours, Sunday 8:30 AM - 1 PM. Woo!

Saturday Afternoon

It was a great Saturday. Birthday brunch for Lisa at Meridian Pint, long walk through Adams Morgan, and a quick stop at a beautiful flower shop.

If you live in the DC area and you are looking for tasteful and affordable flowers, I'd recommend you stop by A Little Shop of Flowers. It's a fun experience, the store smells totally awesome, the staff is super friendly, and you leave with something beautiful.

The Friday Find

Ahhhh, Friday.  If the weather where you are is anywhere near as bad as it is here (read: snow, sleet, ice, cold, wind...the usual) you, like me, may be looking forward to curling up with a good glass of wine tonight and watching the white stuff pile up from the warmth of your couch.  That's where this week's Friday Find comes in:

This Carmenere was discovered recently by my dad (a wine lover) and he has been raving about it.  The best part - it retails for just $6.99 a bottle (or $5.99 per bottle if you buy a case of 24). Keep an eye out for it in your local market!

Café Au Lait

Today it is so windy in DC that it kind of feels like we're in the movie Twister. Makes for a good day to sit on the couch, watch a movie, and drink some café au lait. If you enjoy lattes and foamed milk as much as I do, I suggest you invest in this Aerolatte milk frother that turns your ordinary cup of joe into an awesome treat. They cost about $15 and are well worth it.

(Via Williams-Sonoma)

Have a relaxing weekend :)

Two Exciting Things

This week I have worked long hours and slept very little. Last night I truly felt like a working woman when I got home from a long workday (yes, on a Saturday) and could not have been more excited for my night ahead: ordering take-out from the Thai place across the street and watching Sex and the City in my sweatpants.

Despite the long hours, I actually had a great week. Why, you may ask? Because I shook President Obama's hand on Friday! It is really more thrilling than I had imagined to shake the President's hand. And his hand is SO incredibly smooth! He must use lots of lotion.

In addition to meeting Mr. President, I am also excited for my afternoon today. My housemate Jenn and I are going to take a sewing class down the road. (I guess I'm following in Anna's footsteps on this one...)

(Via Bitsofthread.com)

We're going to the Bits of Thread studio for an intro to sewing class. I felt the need for a new hobby, and they have pretty reasonably priced classes. And if you get hooked, you can rent their sewing machines!

Happy Sunday!