Bakers on Vacation

A while ago we stopped buying sliced bread at the grocery store.  This bakery in our little town makes the most scrumptious bread, for about the same price.  They also offer scones, brioche, and other delectable European pastries.  Getting bread here means I have to make an extra stop, but I love that we're getting all natural, whole ingredients and supporting local economy. 

I swung by the bakery yesterday to pick up a loaf, and this is what I saw.

Hmmm.  Apparently they're closed until next week.  Fair enough...they need a holiday break, too!

Well, we have one other bakery in town, Blue Ridge Bakery.  They sell more American style sweets, like cakes and cupcakes, brownies, cookies, etc.  I didn't know if they sell bread, but it's just a few blocks down the road, so I gave it a shot.

I guess the bakers here bank on everyone resolving to cut out white sugar and flour in the new year, and see it as their shot to get out of dodge.

So, I came home and decided to whip up a batch of bread myself.

I challenge you to name a smell better than fresh baked bread.  It just fills the whole house with warmth and goodness.  I don't bake bread often, but have found the recipe that came with our Cuisinart to be delicious.  And the food processor really makes it easy.  Should you decide to bake your own bread, my advice would be to set out a bit of extra butter when you start the process.  By the time the bread is out of the oven and cooled a bit, you'll want that butter to smooth easily over that soft bread.  Mmmm.

This morning I toasted up a big slice and slathered it with butter and apricot jam.  Divine.

 Perhaps I'll just make my own bread from now on.

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My "Office"

Monday night I finished clearing out Christmas stuff and tidying up random junk that had accumulated behind our couch.

I drew up a little sketch to give you a better idea of our current living room layout.

I'll write up an "Our House" post about the living room sometime, but for now I'll just touch on the details that affect my work space.  After much experimentation, I've decided this is the best place for our couch to live.  Having it here 1) gives us a nice view out the huge window, B) is inviting by facing toward the entrance to the room, and 3) like I mentioned before, it shortens the awkwardly long room when placed here.  I am constantly shifting other things around the room, but the couch likes being riiiight here. 

Here's the view from the entrance to the room today:

If you look closely, you can see a slice of my silver laptop peaking over that middle sofa pillow.  You can get behind the couch around either side.

The two Ikea cabinets house office and craft supplies, files, wrapping supplies, and lots of other random stuff. Before EB came along, the nursery was my craft room/office.  I definitely had to downsize and get rid of a bunch of things.  Most of it is in these cabinets now. 

You'll see here my fabulous, sleek, modern choice of desk chair.  Ha. 

Let me explain.  I wanted something without a back, so it wouldn't be seen from the rest of the room.  And I was looking to improve my posture.  I picked this oldie up at the thrift store for a few bucks.  It's one of those yoga chairs, where your weight rests on your shins.  I'm trying it out, and if I decide to keep it, I'll surely paint and reupholster it.  Even if no one else sees it, I can't stand that old mustardy velvet.

The table I'm using as a desk has a bit of a story.  About a year ago when I was planning this space, I wanted a long, narrow console table to use as a desk.  I looked high and low, and couldn't find one that would work.  Most had shelves on the bottom or were not long enough.  One day at our Habitat ReStore, I spotted an oval dining table.  It was built as three sections lengthwise, and the two outside sections were leaves that dropped down.  Here's an old photo I took with my phone.  You can kind of see the rounded leaf dropped on the left side.

I had a vision of removing those leaves, and being left with that long narrow table I was looking for.  I snatched it up and brought it home.  After I unscrewed the leaves, Frank helped me prime and paint it. 

Voila...the perfect table for our needs.

I moved our "new" bench to the wall behind the desk.  We missed having our big coffee table over the holidays, so the coffee table came back and the bench moved here.  It works well here and holds a big basket of throws and a tray of meaningful books and frames.

In the past I've had the lamps on the desk, but I like them on these little tables.  It allows them to sit farther apart, and they seemed too tall when on the table.  I do think they seem too short on these, but perhaps I'll build them up with a stack of books.  That's my blue yoga mat there beside the lamp.  I still use this area to hide things, but now that I'm using it regularly, I hope it won't get as cluttered as before.

Here's the view from my desk:

I can watch TV, see the Bean bouncing in her Jenny Jump-up in the door frame, and look out the window to the right.  This space also works when it's time to sew.  I stash my laptop, and can sew or craft and watch TV at the same time.  And it's all kind of hidden by the couch!  Win win.

Is anyone else forced to squeeze their workspace into an unconventional spot?  I've seen some great closets turned office.

 

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Our House: Guest Room

Good mornin' to you!  It's another chilly day here in western NC.  Yesterday we woke to a dusting of snow!  The first of the season.

I'm back with another installment of Our House.  I started this tour with a look at our foyer.   The bedrooms are off the hallway on the right side of the foyer.  In the photo below, the front door to the house is on the right (unseen), and the hall to the bedrooms is through that door you see on the left.  Does that make any sense? 

Our little home has three bedrooms, the master, the nursery, and the guest room.  From the hall, the guest bedroom is the first door on the left.

Before we move on, I'll show you the pic I took of this room before we bought the house.  Eeek.

I kept it neutral, but did paint the walls a warmer cream/greige. 

The bed used to belong to my grandparents.  It's a double frame that we added a queen conversion kit to.   Crisp white bedding is my favorite!  I do like to switch out the pillows for interest.  The hooks to the right are handy for hanging coats, purses, towels, whatevs.

 

This ginormo mirror belongs to a dresser in the Master, but didn't work in there.  Here it brings more light and helps fill that big wall.  

The dresser is also from my grandparents. Two of the paintings above are from Frank's family, one is from my grandmother's collection, and one is actually a small mirror.

 It holds a couple of photos from our wedding, and a collection of our grandmothers' perfume bottles.

 This is a guest book we've always had in the room.  Each time a guest leaves, I look forward to seeing what they've written.  Every once in a while we'll go back and read from years past, reminiscing about visits with friends and family.  

 There's also a small milk glass bowl where guests can leave their jewelry or keys while they're here.  I have acquired quite the milk glass collection, most of which lives in the kitchen.

 To the right of the dresser is a bookshelf filled with photos, books, and family treasures.  The painting above it was done by my mom years ago. 

For this nightstand we used an old end table, draped with a hemstitched linen.  It's shorter than the night stand on the other side, so I stacked a few books under this lamp, so the lamps would be closer to the same height. 

 This old sewing box belonged to my great grandmother. 

 I've left the contents as they were when I received it.  Those old wooden spools are so cool!

For the drapes, I used old hardware that had been left from the previous owner in a different room.  It used have a brass finish, but I sprayed it all white.  I don't think the spray paint would hold up too well if those drapes were opened and closed often, but they stay open, so the paint works fine.  The white shade is an old curtain panel from our last house.  I hung it, and used white ribbons to tie it up at this height.  The blinds are the only part of the window treatment that really functions.  The drapes and "shade" just add visual height and width to the window. 

Two white chairs offer a place to rest a bag or clothes.   Our cedar chest moves around the house, and works well at the foot of the bed, but is serving a purpose elsewhere at the moment.  So, there's a little look at our guest room!

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Welcome, 2012!

Happy Monday to ya!  I'm typing from a little local coffee shop, and relishing the "me" time.  Frank doesn't start classes again until next week, so some days this week we're taking turns with the babe and enjoying a little alone time.  Today is his day with EB, and they're at home playing.  We're both the type of people who really cherish having time alone, to recharge. 

As I mentioned on Saturday, we stayed in with a friend to ring in the new year.  I loved every low-key minute of it!  The most exciting part of the evening is when we all jumped the second the new year struck.  Frank told us it was good luck to be mid-air when the new year begins, and we all got a good laugh out of it.  I'm afraid I don't have a pic of that second to share, but here's a pretty bokeh-ey shot of our bubbly:

Sunday we enjoyed Hop-n John and Collards.  I won't pretend to love collards, but we made up a batch of Frank's Grandmother's Red Sauce to serve over them, and that makes them quite palatable.  It's a simple recipe of tomatoes, bell pepper, vinegar and sugar, cooked down then blended.  I also don't cook the collards for as long as most southerner's do.  I like my greens to be green (not brown). 

Surprisingly we had leftover prosecco, and served it up in mimosas.  Yum.

The hope is that the black-eyed peas will bring good luck, the pork sausage will bring progress, and the collards will bring wealth.  Here's to that!

I've been enjoying reading everyone's posts about the new year:  resolutions, new beginnings, goal lists, fresh starts.  It's getting me excited to freshen things up in my life a bit.  I'm starting with my work space.  Our living room is long and narrow, and the couch sits quite a bit away from the back wall, to create a more intimate sitting area (this old pic will give you an idea). 

Our Christmas tree sat just to the left of the couch, making it difficult to access that area for the last month.

It turned into quite a dumping ground/hiding place for random junk.

I'm constantly shifting furniture around, and now that I've taken the tree down, I'm cleaning and clearing out stuff.  This little area will become my "office."  That was the original use for the space, and it worked pretty well.  Now that I've started this blog, I'm on my laptop more, and typing on the couch from my lap isn't the best for my posture.  So, having a desk space will be nice.  I'll post a pic soon of the new space. 

A few of my goals for this year (and beyond):
- Replace my evening glass (or two, since I'm being honest here) of wine with hot tea
- Drink lots more water
- Make healthier food choices in general (after many years of trial, I now know that diets don't work (for me) but I would like to eat more healthfully)
- Start the process of re-enrolling in school for design
- Work on living more in the present
- Try to enjoy what I have (rather than wanting more)

I leave you with a favorite quote that I was reminded of over on Kate's blog this morning:

source

Do you guys have any resolutions or goals?  I'd love to hear them!

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