Our Newest Addition

Meet Ivan:




He's five weeks old. He was found on campus in one of the dorms, and campus safety was going to call animal control, but a friend of ours offered to take him. She ended up not being able to keep him because of limits in her apartment, so we offered to take him instead. He's super playful and loves people, string, and people food (he desperately wanted to try our waffles, but we didn't let him). When we got him, he had just been litter trained, and he's been amazingly meticulous about it--no accidents so far. He's also eating regular kitten food now and using formula only as a supplement.



(Christina and her roommate Sarah came to visit yesterday, and I promised to post some of the pictures. Hi Steeny and Sarah!)

We think he's pretty much the cutest ever.


A.

Saturday's Steal

Josh and I just scored a $40 apothecary chest from someone who posted in the University classifieds. Why is this particularly awesome? I don't think I've mentioned our bed on this blog before. Josh built our bed. It is amazingly awesome. It is also very tall. As in, I use a stepping stool to climb into bed. No, I am not kidding.



The added height makes for all kinds of wonderful storage underneath the bed (currently housing boxes that still haven't been unpacked--not very attractive), but as a result, we didn't have a very convenient place to sit down and put our shoes on--until now:

We love the apothecary drawers in the front and the chest in the back--even MORE storage space! Yay! I threw my down comforter on top of it for now as a makeshift cushion since it's way too hot to use it currently:



Yay for hiding ugly storage with MORE storage, and creating a nice space to tie your shoes!


A.

(As a point of reference, when I sit on the chest, my feet comfortably touch the ground. I just measured, and the height of the chest is an inch greater than the seat height of the dining room chairs. The bed is so tall that we use bookcases for nightstands.)

Scrumptious Happenings in the Barber Kitchen

I view last night's dinner as a success. My proof? Josh took one bite and melted in his seat. The best thing about it was that it was completely thrown together from leftovers and only took about half an hour. Here's the meal:



Stuffed Tomatoes (the real star)
We had a bunch of leftover tomatoes that Josh's sister had grown and given to us, and we needed to use them up. I cut the tops off (though I suppose they might be more stable if you turn them upside-down and cut the bottoms off instead) and scooped out the core and seeds. Then I tossed a piece of bread into the mini food processor, and put the crumbs in a skillet with a little bit of olive oil to brown them. I took leftover Parmesan (in an amount equal to the crumbs) and threw that in the food processor, and then mixed it in with the breadcrumbs in a bowl. I added about 2 teaspoons of minced garlic, some salt and pepper, and enough olive oil so that the mixture would hold together a bit. I spooned the crumb mixture into the tomatoes, put the tops back on, and sprinkled them with salt and pepper. Then I lined a baking sheet with foil, and poured a thin layer of olive oil into the bottom. Place in the oven for 15-20 minutes (maybe more if you are using really large tomatoes) at 450 degrees, and then remove and let cool a bit. Consume, and then melt in complete satisfaction.



Super Easy Honey Mustard Chicken
We had leftover grocery-store-roasted-chicken, the kind with some sort of seasoning already on it, so I just carved off pieces of white meat and coated them with a mustard and honey mixture, put them on a foil-lined baking sheet, sprinkled them with brown sugar, and popped them into the oven at 450 for a few minutes until they were warm and the sauce had started to bubble and brown. Tangy, sweet, and delicious.


Add to this some microwave-steamed sugar snap peas (and maybe a little Chardonnay), and you've got yourself a truly scrumptious, truly easy meal.


A.

Wishes

Home improvements have mostly been put on hold for the time being for various reasons (lack of available funds, my new job starting up, laundry ghosts, exhaustion, etc.). This leaves me frustrated and feeling stagnant. Everything works fine right now in our apartment just the way it is, but I wish it were prettier. There are few places in the apt. right now that I really love being in. I do love the kitchen table when we open the blinds, because the trees in the courtyard below make me feel like we live in a tree house. However, the chairs aren't terribly comfortable and thus are not conducive to long daydreaming sessions over a cup of tea. I really dislike the way our living room is arranged right now, but have to wait to rearrange it when hubby is agreeable to such an endeavor since I (being tiny and weak) can't move it on my own. The bedroom is a mess due to the abovementioned laundry ghosts (We can't get rid of them, no matter how hard we try! They multiply like bunnies!), so it's not a particularly pleasant place to spend time. I do like the bathroom, but it would be odd spending lots of time in there...

Anyway, long story short(er), I am reduced to interwebernets searches and salivation over all the lovely things I hope we can someday own. Like the duvet cover from our registry (Lantana from Bed, Bath, and Beyond):



Which looks strangely more white and gold in the photo, but is actually white and green. And curtains. I would love some curtains.

I did, however, just buy one little thing for the bathroom. They just sent me my Anthro Card number from Anthropologie, so I just snagged this little beauty for $8.53 (including tax--yay free shipping!):


I plan on hanging it in the window. I think it will make our already lovely bathroom even lovelier. I'll update when things start progressing again!


A.

DIY Coasters!

Hooray! It is the time for the first ever post of the DIY!

Being not very impressed with the available selection of beverage coasters at Target and BB&B, hubs and I decided we could probably do better. I researched a tiny bit online to see what other folks were doing, and found this awesome tutorial, which I adapted a tiny bit. The end product?



Awesomely customized, super easy, and inexpensive coasters that protect our coffee table and match our home decor, including the fridge beautification project (more to come on that later...). Aren't they awesome? Unfortunately, we found out that the sealant that I used over the decoupage is not heat safe, so I need to come up with another way to seal them if we want to use them as trivets as well. Once I figure it out, I'll probably make a new batch--they were so quick and easy! Seriously, probably only ten minutes active time for the whole batch (24 hour drying period required).

Lovely, no?


A.

Hooray for Home!

Welcome, all! This is a place for my DIY projects, ruminations on being newly married, and whatever else seems fitting to be posted here. Hope you enjoy!


A.