never too late?

Drew and I were discussing potential new hobbies for me last night. I suggested pickling*. Then one of us brought up the banjo. And then I thought, mandolin! But I wonder if it would be fun to play the banjo or mandolin by myself, without a band, you know? So maybe the guitar would be a better instrument for now. And I could always add banjo or mandolin to my repertoire later, right? I used to strongly dislike [high school] band practice and quit the oboe, and also tried and failed to teach myself guitar in high school, but maybe this time I'll stick with it. I'm definitely going to start pickling, though.

P.S. Check out Lydia's re-cap of our New York food-themed vacation! I just ate lunch but even so, I am now hungry again remembering all the good food we ate.


*I was watching old episodes of Modern Family yesterday and there was a funny exchange about pickling. I'll be the one who shows up at dinner parties with a jar of homemade pickles!

new

Since I chopped all of my hair off on Saturday, washing my hair this morning took 5 seconds. That was nice. My brother pointed out that my hair is shorter than his, currently. That's kind of weird. I wasn't feeling super confident about the cut when it was over, so I bought a new pair of shoes. And then we went bowling, and I wore my super nerdy glasses with my super short hair and new shoes and felt better. Now I want a bowling ball for Christmas (only 11 months to wait)!

interesting diet

I've pretty much only eaten pickled cabbage today.

holidaze

After our trip to SF and my trip to NYC, we kicked off the holidays by attending a Mad Men themed holiday party. (I wanted to host a similar party, but Kate beat me to it!) Drew combed and parted his hair and I did my best to make a beehive and wore my aunt's vintage dress.


Our friends had quite the spread of delicious appetizers and drinks. The meatballs and punch were my favorite. No, wait, maybe the mushrooms. But definitely the punch.

* * * * *

Drew picked out our tree this year. It's the fullest tree we've ever had, and we ran out of lights. I bought the felt snowflake garland at World Market while searching for non-gaudy holiday items.


I had my mom send us the nativity set that I made in high school ceramics class.


I'm hanging all of the Christmas cards that we get on twine with mini-clothes pins leftover from the wedding. We have a few festive candles and that's about it for holiday decor. It's enough to be festive and cozy, though. Last night I had a cup of ginger tea and just sat in the living room staring at the tree while Drew planned our new kitchen.

Trying to think of things that could become holiday traditions, I've decided to make a risotto for dinner on Christmas Eve. I love making -- and eating -- risotto, and there are enough variations that it could be fun to try a new recipe every year. I think Christmas dinner will involve potato dumplings just like Thanksgiving...I'd actually be pretty happy with an exact repeat of this year's Thanksgiving dinner! Plus sugar cookies, of course!

But first, three more days of work...

inspired

I'm swamped at work, visiting two coasts in one week (San Fran last weekend, NYC this weekend), struggling to keep warm in our house with our outdated and overworked furnace, and planning a kitchen remodel...but all I can think about is making stuff.

I'm currently making Christmas gifts for all the parents, next on the list is sewing up a vintage dress (repairing, not making one) for a Mad Men party, then making a felt tree skirt inspired by one I saw in the Crate and Barrel catalog, popcorn and cranberry strings for the Christmas tree and birds, and maybe felt or fabric trees for holiday decor. After all of that, I've decided I want to re-learn how to crochet (I can't remember at all) so I can make granny-square pillows. Cozy!

the little table's last party

For the last three years, our dining table has been the little green table that was left by the previous owners in the house my grandparents bought when they moved to Wisconsin's north woods, right after my dad graduated from high school. My grandparents kept the table when they moved down to Green Lake, and then to three other houses. When I moved to Colorado, I took the little green table with me. As much as I loved the table, it was quite small and wobbly. We decided to upgrade to a solid dining room table, and this Thanksgiving was the little green table's last hurrah, at least when it comes to serving food...

Drew prepares the potato dumplings for our feast...


My job was basically to set the table and pour the wine. I think I accomplished both rather well... (and in style -- my talented friend Sarah made the apron for me last Christmas!)


The full spread. The little green table held up well, but it's a good thing we went with Cornish game hens and not a heavy turkey... (my little brother gave us those placements, which he purchased in Guatemala, for a wedding gift)


After the dishes were cleared, leftovers were put away, and we could breathe again (so, about a day later), we moved the little green table out of the dining room.


And early this morning, a couple of very nice delivery men from Crate and Barrel pulled up in a big white truck and left us this beauty:


(We still have Target chairs. I need to figure out what to replace them with...something modern, or maybe mismatched wooden chairs?)

As for what happened to the little green table...


It's now holding my current craft projects (and a sleepy little bear) in our guest room.

So who wants to come over for a dinner party?

planning and dreaming

Well, it turns out I don't need to worry about that wall in the living room. We're going to knock a hole through it anyway. I made some sketches.


This first view is from the kitchen, through the soon-to-be hole-in-the-wall, to the couch and window in the living room. New cabinets, countertop (I think we are doubling our current amount of countertop, at least!), new cork floors...

And next in full color! Except not really, because I only had a box of 16 crayons. Ok, this one needs some more explaining. The top half is the outside (west-facing) wall of our kitchen, that has an exterior window. The bottom half, below the squiggly line, is the wall shared with the garage (north-facing)...the door in the sketch leads to the garage.


Except that when we are through, instead of the garage, it will lead to a BRAND NEW LAUNDRY ROOM.


Currently, my laundry room looks like this:


So that will be a pretty big improvement, huh? We're still deciding on details and we haven't hired a contractor yet, but we are planning to get moving on this pretty quickly. I'm never going to want to leave our house after this!