Moving on

Life is changing, and so am I. This little blog has been fun, but I have decided to move on.
I will now be posting elsewhere, and I'd love to see some of you there!

A refuge from this madness.

Do not keep anything in your home that you do not know to be functional or believe to be beautiful.

If I were a true design junkie, I would know who said this originally. But I am only a poseur, so I have no idea where it came from. I do my best to abide by it, though. I never buy anything without a purpose or a mind to where I can display it in my home slash what I might have to sacrifice, move, or put away in order to do so.

HOWEVER. Since the month of February began, our bedroom seems to be the only place I can put said philosophy in action. We have a new roommate, folks. She is a she, and she is what I like to think of as an upper-middle-class hippie. As in, buys nothing that doesn't come from the organic section, wears hemp clothing and burns incense around the house, listens only to indie music, is seriously considering Buddhism, while simultaneously possessing a collection of at least seven winter coats over $400 apiece and owning more hair products that many small salons. Don't worry, She is fully aware of the irony of the situation. I think.

Point being, New Roomie has a whole lot of stuff. And if you need to know why we got a roommate in the first place, it's because this house has three empty bedrooms and costs $100 a week to heat, regardless of occupancy. And we are trying to save up money to get off this rock, and back to the rock we came from.

Right. Stuff. She and her somethingorother are taking space from each other after two years of living together. And she says they split their things 50/50, but I don't believe that for one second. She has taken our sweet, warm, slightly minimalist-with-a-touch-of-broke house, my one refuge in this dark, stormy, lonely province, and stuffed it to the gills.

So I have been spending a lot of time in the bedroom, the one place She can't touch. It's not my favourite colour, has no curtains, we could really use some new bedding, and the mattress-on-the-floor thing is maybe not for everyone. But it's cozy and light and the only spot in the house that doesn't currently look like this:

*I am joking. if the whole house looked this bad I would have kicked new roomie out immediately. However, this particular spot does cause me to spontaneously burst into frustrated tears at times, and that's not a joke. You can ask my husband.

Saja Bridal

Even though my wedding day has come and gone, I still peruse a few wedding blogs, and still drool over beautiful wedding gowns. This dress from Saja is so beautiful and elegant!

Sick Day.

I hadn't been really, properly good and sick in a couple of years now, so I knew I was in for it. A couple of colds here and there, some irritating body aches, but nothing incredible. Wednesday afternoon I woke up (after working a night the night before) with a scratchy throat, and by 9:00 that evening it had hit me nearly full force. I slept that night in the way that only someone with a fever can sleep: deeply obilvious to the world and yet absolutely devoid of rest or comfort. And then all of the next day. Around 5pm I awoke freezing, despite my layers of clothing and blankets, and needed, needed a hot bath.

I lay in the bath, still covered in goosebumps. I rested my head against the side of the tub. I very nearly fell asleep again right there, but some measure of common sense told me I would probably drown. Get out of the bath. Dress myself. God, I'm freezing again. Man, bathing is exhausting!

So, back to bed until Friday morning. Actually, noon on friday, at which point the fever mercifully went away and I was able to leave my bed in favour of the couch, to watch crappy TV and read Harry Potter. Kyle force-fed me chicken broth, Tylenol, and orange juice at regular intervals despite the fact that I winced and moaned after every swallow. He is a chivalrous fellow.

Today, I feel almost myself. I tried to go into work, but was deemed too pale by a coworker and let off the hook. I still can't eat much (I suspect Strep Throat as the culprit of my illness), but I'm beginning to feel human again.

Now, because I am shallow and have a short attention span and dislike blog posts without photos in them, I leave you with something pretty.

Turquoise tent ring @ Old Gold Boutique, via Eat Drink Chic.

On a whim

Oh, hello, decrepit and embarassing mailbox. Do I ever have a plan for you...

Yes. Oh, yes.

Our friends Printer Paper, Scotch Tape, and Crayola Marker want to come along for the ride.

On a whim the other day, I picked up a can of robin's-egg blue spray paint.

*+ a lesson to anyone interested in wintertime spray-painting: Basements are a great option! Just don't place your project next to the air intake for your furnace, unless you really really like the smell of spray paint.

Supergeek

I have been talking to Kyle about this for weeks now, so I figured it was time to share it here, too.

Everywhere, all over the place, all the cool kids are wearing these amazing, dorky chic glasses. And I want in. First, this vintagey shape was mostly in suglasses form. But now it's all over the place! The deal was sealed when I saw Amber from Parenthood and Finn on last week's episode of Glee (Aside - didn't they do an amazing job of Rocky Horror Picture Show??) sporting them.

I especially love these ones at Warby Parker. The Matte Black finish? All I have to say is: Yeah. These guys seriously get me.

They're called the Roosevelt, which is just perfect.

A try-on pair of these might find their way into my mailbox very, very soon.

Recipe Card

Life in my corner of the world has been incredibly busy, but not incredibly interesting. (As evidenced by the 26 days between my last two posts. I'm not entirely convinced I have any readers left after that!)

I have been working tons and doing lots of overtime. This is great for my bank account and great because I'm learning tons, but bad because I sometimes feel like Kyle and I are walking past each other - him on the way out the door to work, me coming home and falling into bed (I work a lot of nights.)

To remedy this feeling, we've been trying to make and eat meals together whenever possible. I'm no good at food posts, but I thought it would be nice to share a couple favourite new recipes here:

Meghan's photo of Meghan's chowder. Because my food photography skills are wanting.

Adirondack Salmon Chowder, found on What Meghan's Making. We added scallops, and the chowder was aah-maazing. Add some crusty bread smothered with butter for a perfect fall evening supper. Then drink a bottle of wine, and everything will start to feel right with the world again.

Bal's No-Butter Chicken and Anoop's Weekend Roti from a particularly mouth-watering episode of Spice Goddess. Far and away the most flavourful meal I have ever made, and the butter chicken was about a zillion times more deilicious than anything I've ever managed to procure from a mix.

 I've also recently made a lasagna, chicken tortilla soup with homemade stock, and butternut squash soup, but don't have the recipes for those because I was mostly just wingin' it.

Hmm... I kind of like cataloging recipes I liked here. Maybe this can be a regular post? If you can use the word regular in reference to a blog that's been silent for 26 days, that is.