What she looked like during the day...

Please notice that the curls artfully hide the burn mark on my forehead from a curling iron mishap...

Color Stripes...

Some time ago, I posted about my first Etsy purchase, a calendar from Kris's Color Stripes. I've just now bookmarked Kris's blog of the same name. Kris takes images and parses them out by color, like the one below:

I love this idea, have used it in some of the cards I make, and mean to do more of it. Sara Midda, one of my favorite watercolorist, uses this technique in her South of France book:

I love the idea of thinking about the color palette of an image, a wardrobe, a space. Mine would be black and purple and red/burgundy with occasional forays elsewhere.

It's me!

I'm a fond reader of Apartment Therapy. I like the window into other people's lives, the celebration of Ikea, and the sharing of ideas about design and small space living. But in truth, the predominant style of the site - midcenutry modern - is not me. I tend toward rounder edges and traditional and classic lines, moldings and subtle graphics. At last, this week, I found the house tour for me, an Edwardian in Boston:

The mantle of my future in my living room? I love the simple decoration.

I also love the mirror above and the simple brickwork. The grey on the walls appeals, but I'll probably go with a tawny cream on the first floor.

I've been thinking about a table behind my sofa, or at least some kind of shelf to more clearly define the living room space from the entry/passage to the back of the house.

And of course, the droolworthy built-ins. I need a butler's pantry. I just need one. And cabinets with glass doors or no doors. It is my destiny...

An encounter with art...

This picture can't even begin to do justice to the sculpture/chandelier/art installation spied downtown today in the Philadelphia building over coffee at the Naked Chocolate Cafe. It's the work of Warren Muller. I love the spirals and scrollwork and the variey of glassware he used - he kinds of items you have at home, or remember from your parents and grandparents houses.

The perfect date?

Because my life includes lots of long range planning, and because I love being organized, every year I have about 4-5 calendars hanging around my household. The calendars are pretty constant - Jenny's wonderful papercuts, the teapot calendar in the kitchen, Anne Taintor, moose, Motawi tiles, sometimes a second tea calendar. Most years I try to get at least one new and different calendar, often for hanging at work. This past week, in one of the blogs I read, I happened on this year's must-have design: KrissColorStripes available on Etsy. I must get one.

One final option...

Somewhat on a whim yesterday, I got one last set of slipcovers for the sofas. I like the red ones, and they go with the existing cushion fabrics, but they're too big. And I figured, before I alter them, and am therefore stuck with them, lets try one last option. The picture belows shows the first set of covers I picked up and liked, but rejected in favor of the failed brown. Burgundy, pseudo-velvet textured stuff. Go figure.



And for reference, here's the red again:



Opinions, please...

In other house news, many improvements have occurred in the last week with the addition of some shelves, towel bars, a rod for hanging pot lids, etc. I'm so excited about all of these. They will help make the house a lot neater. Pictures to come.

It feels really good to get these few bigger springboard projects done before the semester kicks in so I can then do the residual smaller tasks as I have time through the fall.

Not that I'm any closer to choosing paint colors though...

The latest saga…

Just before I went off to Mendocino, my mom’s mechanic found a car for me: a 1998 Toyota Avalon. It’s older than my Saturn, and has almost as many miles, but it’s a Toyota and has had a new (Toyota) engine put into to it a couple of years ago.

By the time I got home from Camp, it was a done deal, and all I had to do was go get it. Seems simple enough. I had Friday night and almost all of Saturday free, and quickly arranged a dinner date with Deb and transferred my car insurance. I’d pick up the car on Saturday, register it on Monday, get it inspected on Tuesday, drive to Boston on Wednesday. What could go wrong?

Oh nothing but a 12” x 6” piece of pressed aluminum, i.e., the license plate.

Mom’s mechanic, through whom the car was found, in his fastidiousness removed the plates (or tags, as they’re called in the business), to repaint the bumpers, and assuming I no longer needed them, returned them to the previous owner so they could be returned to the state. Disaster.

In the state of Pennsylvania, when you are registering and transferring the title of an out-of-state vehicle, the car must be physically present so the VIN and odometer reading can be confirmed. This meant that registering the car ahead of time and bringing a plate up with me was right out.

Next course of action - finding a title agent in NYC to issue me temporary in-transit tags. No dice. No agency could be found that was open on Saturday. Equally successful was my attempt to contact the NY DMV to ask about in-transit tags from them. Their lines were always busy - not even the possibility of eternal hold.

It was mom’s mechanic who took decisive action. He decided he would drive the car down, with his bother following to bring him back up to New York. But with what tags? I shouldn’t ask such questions. When was he coming? He was leaving NYC at 3 or 3:30 AM and would get to me around 5:30 AM.

And so it was. No one stopped the caravan, and the car was safely stowed in George and Paul’s driveway, nose out, so no one would think to look for the now missing tags.

Next step - to drive to AAA to register the car, get a plate, and get legal without getting pulled over for having no tag on my way there. And with heart in mouth and great adherence to all traffic signs and signals, I made it. And sure enough, an hour later, the title was transferred, the registration applied for, and a temporary registration issued, the address changed on my driver’s license, and most importantly, a license plate distributed and immediately placed on my car.

Today I can’t tell whether I’m fonder of and more grateful for the car and the return of my freedom, or the precious and much longed for license plate.

Update...

So, what is going on?

-Summer heat and humidity. Is it October yet?
-Continued lack of car. This has to stop. I want my life back.
-Fire on the street. Not the preferred way to meet the neighbors.
-Demo with ice cream! An audience that wants to participate.
-New dance try-out. Four successful dances in 35 minutes or less.
-Planning for camp. I think I'm already behind.
-I used my craft room! It works, though it's not really ready yet.
-June was the month I was going to be home. Except for the next two weekends. And then the three weekends after that.

Right. Making the most of tomorrow:

-Grocery shopping
-Laundry
-Brunch in town
-Feed Pumpkin (a purr-y cat of my acquaintance)
-Camp planning
-Letter editing

And house cleaning and craft room set up and...

New Feature!

I've long wanted to post photos and images on this blog, without getting overwhelmed by them. Then recently I gave in and started reading Oh Joy, the blog that every other home/design/crafty blog lists as a favorite or link, and while I don't always love everything that Joy chooses to post (she also has a design bit in the Inquirer every Friday), I love the simplicity of title, image, comment. And the comments are simple - a source, 1-2 sentences with a link.

Watch for this feature in addition to my oh-so-interesting to all 3-5 of you who read this posts...

How does your garden grow?

Well, we'll see if it grows at all...

This is where I wish I had a digital camera so I could show you all of the things I planted this morning. But maybe I'd better wait until I see if this stuff takes.

On Thursday, Liz gave me a bounty of plants, perennials, many of which are happy with shade, and which, if they make it, will spread. There's a lilac, an azalea, bleeding hearts, forget-me-nots, black-eyed-susans, columbine and who remembers what else. I've lined three sides of my back fence, giving each plant some room to grow and spread. Keep your fingers crossed.

This is the beginning of my gardening adventure. I'm not really much of a gardener, though I want to have some fairly low maintenance stands of flowers. And I'm willing to put in some work to make this happen. Assuming these plants take, as they grow, I'll be able to discern them from the weeds and pull everything unwanted. And possibly fit in more plantings as I see what kind of space I have.

I've been inspired lately by this picture:

I eventually want to put in a brick patio, and line the beds with stones or other edging, but unlike the photo, I want to have more patio for cocktail parties, dining and tea parties al fresco, etc. All in good time.

There are a few plants I know I want to add - some up front, some in back:

-Roses - yellow and peach ones, but I like so many kinds and colors

-Peonies

-Daisies - white and shasta - such good cutting flowers

-Heuchera or coral bells - the leaf shapes are great

-Allyssum

-Viburnum - one with those lovely scented flowers

And doubtless many others. But this is a good group of stuff to begin with - to see if I can keep them alive and start to create my own petite oasis.

What's growing in your backyard?

Just like Mother still makes...

It's Saturday, and I've just looked at a few more houses - and then back at Durham Street, where we're hoping that interest rates going down this week might just make all the difference... More on that tomorrow.

As I've been sick this week, all the get-well advice I've received has centered around two things - drugs I can't afford, and chicken soup, the cure-all.

My mom's chicken soup is, of course, the best ever. I know it's the cooking time that makes the difference, but I'm convinced that the parsnip has a lot to do with it. And the whole onion (which Mom should never throw away, she should give it to me.). Someday I will even be brave enough to make it myself.

George just fed me soup for lunch. It's basically an Indian version of chicken soup (but with only trace amounts of clove and curry so it's not so icky), and has the same affect of making you feel better.

Hmmm.... I wonder if I should excavate the freezer tomorrow, and see if that parsnip soup is still alive...

(George just gave me a bag of chocolates for a tea contribution for later. He's precient. I am the luckiest one ever!!)

Cheap eats

As I seek to save money, one of the major costs I am trying to curtail is food. In olden days, read before Fall 2007, one of my weaknesses was buying my lunch. (I still long to do this, but I am resisting, thereby saving money and eating healthier. A win-win, right? I still want to buy lunch...) I hate being organized around food in the morning before I go to work, and before I even have had coffee. But nevertheless, I now bring my lunch. And when I have to go to Swarthmore or longsword directly from work, I bring my dinner too.

A typical lunch now consists of salad with dressing, cheese and nuts. An apple, clementine or other fruit. A soda.

I buy salad in large containers, fruit, and soda on the weekend, and toppings as needed. Approximate cost - $12/week. Not bad for lunch.

For breakfast, I buy yogurts and store them at work (Stonyfield Farms fat-free Lotsa Lemon. It's the only kind I'll eat, being generally a yogurt abstainer.). Approximate cost - $1 each or $5 per week.

Coffee is the one thing I still buy every day. But I bought a travel mug from ING Direct for $5 in December and get free coffee in it on Mondays, $.75 coffee every other weekday, and every 5th coffee is free. Approximate cost - $3/week.

I try to keep dinner and weekend food to things I have at home - pasta, eggs, couscous, rice, but it's so tempting to pick up something savory and expensive at the grocery store when I'm there, like a good cheese, or bread (I LOVE bread), or meat.

Do you have suggestions for cheap food/dinners/places to shop for cheap groceries? Any favorite recipies that are quick, easy, and only require cheap ingredients? Do tell...

Waffling

Warning - more house pictures coming in the next few days....

I think I mentioned that I'm on the FreeCycle listserv for both Center City and Philadelphia. FreeCycle is this great idea for people who want to get rid of things and people who need things. My best FreeCycle find - a room air conditioner. My next best, and only my second - 2 Krups waffle makers - one for two waffles, one for four.

Waffles, you ask? Waffles! Mom had a waffle iron at home that was fun, but that we rarely used. Then I remember once having a diner Belgian waffle with maple syrup, ice cream and whipped cream. Fabulous. In college we used to have dinner at Swarthmore on Fridays freshman year. The food was less good, but they had Belgian waffle makers (Bryn Mawr does now too.). And now I get all of these catalogs like Williams Sonoma and Kitchen Kapers and my favorite, Crate & Barrel that all have Waffle makers, and it got me to thinking...

Waffle are good for every meal - breakfast with syrup and bacon, dinner with chicken, dessert with ice cream and chocolate. Mmmmmm...

And now, I have two relatively new waffle makers that work! They stand upright when not in use, and so take up little counter space. This past Thursday, Joanna P. helped me try them out.

The first challenge was to find a batter recipe. I was able to download the manuals from the web, and they included recipes. I tried the buttermilk waffles:

1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg, separated
1 cup buttermilk
2 tbl butter melted

1. Whisk the dry ingredients together
2. Combine egg yolk, buttermilk and butter and add to dry ingredients and mix gently.
3. Beat egg white until stiff. Fold into batter
4. Pour onto preheated waffle iron. Bake ~4 minutes. Serve immediately.

This was easy to make and came out well, but I'd love to find a recipe that does not require separating eggs to save breaking out another appliance. I'm going to check out the King Arthur cookbook and Joy of Cooking. Anyone have favorite recipes I should try?

Oh, and one note, when the recipe says that it makes 4 waffles, it makes 4 waffles, period.

A cafe a day...

Where better to begin this electronic adventure than Remedy Tea Bar, one of the rare cafes in town that's really all about tea.


Secret reason why I really love Remedy - double-walled glasses. This is where I first encountered the wonder that is Bodum's wonderful contraption - the double-walled cups that allow you to see the color of the tea and touch the glass without buring your hands. I love them. I have a bunch at home in various shapes - canteen, bistro, pavina. Never enough.


Other reasons to love and patronize Remedy: This is an actual tea cafe. They don't serve coffee. And not only do they serve highly decent tea, they serve black tea. No, this is not some chichi froufrou tea place that has bubble tea and every kind of bland white tea out there. Well, they have those too, and even those strange non-tea teas (yes, tisanes) but they don't neglect the other end of the tea scale - the fine Darjeelings and Yunnans. Yum.


And it's not pretentious. It's easy to sit here and chat, read your email or do anything else. The music isn't intrusive and the bathroom is clean. I don't see any outlet to plug in this fine laptop, but I'm hoping I just didn't look hard enough.


I'm afraid that Remedy will only have a short life, that its location on Sansom, behind the more obvious Walnut will hide its existence, and in too short a time it will go away. So meet me for tea here sometime, would you?


From my notebook:

Other free internet sites:

Reading Terminal Market
Love Park
Ant Pants Cafe - 2212 South Street
Bean Exchange Cafe - 650 Bainbridge Street
Brew Ha Ha - 212 S. 12th Street
Chapterhouse Cafe - 620 S. 9th Street
Last Drop - 1300 Pine Street
T-Bar - 117 S. 12th at Sansom