pre-thanksgiving feast preparations

since i will not be traveling home for thanksgiving this year (we are going to andy's parents in southern virginia), i thought i would take advantage of my parents being in town the weekend before thanksgiving and host a mini pre-thanksgiving feast.  it also happened to be two weeks before my birthday, which also coincided with my dad's big new promotion at work, so there happened to be a lot to celebrate.

i was supposed to come home from work on friday night and clean the house.  that didn't turn out so well.  

luckily, i started to panic somewhat on saturday morning and was able to jump right out of bed at 7 am.  i went shopping at safeway to get some groceries for the big meal.  of course before starting the actual shopping i had to grab a caramel light frap at starbucks.  love those things. 

the "big meal" was:

- roasted vegetable lasagna

- orecchiette with cauliflower

- caprese salad (my own "recipe")

- garlic bread

as i went down the pasta aisle to buy the orecchiette, casually browsing the spaghetti sauce, i came across this:

wow. who knew that paul sorvino made pasta sauce?  shocking.  also a little funny.

after returning from the store i unpacked the groceries and got to work.  i cleaned pretty much every room in the house and even tackled the front glass door with windex. 

andy was out of town for the weekend.  it happened to be the weekend of his annual vikings/packers game, and he kept me updated on his status pretty frequently throughout the day:

dave and kyle sharpen their deer hunting skills

andy discovers the perfect christmas present for percy

the guys enjoy a dangerous looking bloody mary (to me it looks like there's just too much stuff in there to actually have access to the drink, but maybe that's just me)

luckily for me, the family was running a bit late, so i was able to finish up my cleaning and actually get a head start on dinner.  by the time the fam got there, the house was smelling like garlic and roasted vegetables -- so good!  my niece walked in the kitchen and asked "what's that stinky smell?"  adorable.

my mom and sister helped me cook in the kitchen while my niece and nephew chased the cat around the house playing "hunt percy".  my dad and brother-in-law delegated themselves to the basement and watched football.  it was crazy and hectic and just perfect.

my niece, who is the sweetest little thing, but also loves percy somethin' fierce (a la elmyra duff from 'tiny toons') had to be reminded a few times that we don't pick up percy.  at one point my brother-in-law found her bending down and walking while holding percy's front paws.  he said "remember, we do not pick up or carry the kitty" and she replied back to him "i'm not carrying him, i'm holding his hands".

we had a little cake for my dad and me.  i got to blow out a candle.  my nephew licked the ice cream container's lid to make sure no ice cream went to waste.  he also gave me a christmas cactus and some skittles.

i can't wait to have many many more meals like this in my home.  it was so worth the wait.

procrastination

i was supposed to come home from work tonight to clean and get ready to host my first big family meal tomorrow.  instead, i found myself sitting in my white chair, listening to the fire crackle, enjoying a glass of wine and a decent book and warmed by a purring kitty snuggled up to my legs. 

i know tomorrow i'll wish i did more to get ready.  i'll be busy all morning and will most likely have a few things remaining on my to-do list, but i think in 10 years what i'll remember more is not that the windows are smudged and the floors are unswept, but that my sweet kitty once loved to lie on his back and have his cashmere-soft belly rubbed while he snored away in dreamland.  i'll also remember to always double check to make sure the flue is open before starting the fire -- (woopsies).

liveable

some house updates.

i shared a couple of pictures of the new place on flickr last week, and wanted to go into a little more detail on here to document my progress, or lack thereof.

first off, i'm happy to report that the house is now 95% unpacked.  actually, i can say that everything but the office is unpacked.  the office is now just a junk room, but i really really do plan to clean it up and put it to good use.

before i start tackling the office unpacking/de-cluttering project, i'm still focused on decorating/furnishing the other parts of the house so that they are presentable.  i'm not even going for magazine presentable.  i'm going for "my mom" presentable.  i'm not going to get into it now, but i think my mom did some irreparable damage when she raised me in such a clean house.  i can honestly say that i never saw the kitchen sink with dirty dishes.  it is this type of upbringing that made me into the neurotic cleaner that i am today.  i look at everything in the house through my "mom's eye" and it never lives up to her standards.  there are still scuff marks on the walls from the previous owners' movers.  there are still a couple of stickers on the windows in the kitchen (i seriously need to clean the windows - is it gross that i haven't cleaned them yet?).  in reality, my mom is a) not the type of person to judge others for their (un)cleanliness and b) definitely never judgmental of her kids.  but i still strive to one day have a house as clean as my mom's.

back to house updates.

dining room is almost there.  i got a new dining room table about three weeks ago.  it's the basque java 65" table from crate & barrel.  i'm very happy with it.  i think i've mentioned before that it's my first real piece of furniture, and i'm pretty proud of that.  the only thing really left to do in the dining room (for now) is to hang a mirror that i got for the room a few weeks ago.

the living room is now sporting a new chair & ottoman (ikea - Ektorp series) and coffee table (also ikea - hemnes).  in a few weeks i will add the ektorp sofa to this room and it will look more complete.  i didn't take a picture, but the fireplace in this room has a very "dated" cover/shield thingie and i'm tempted to possibly paint the brick white.  that is something that will happen very much down the road, but just thought i'd throw the idea out there.  also for this room i need another side table (most likely the matching hemnes side table), media console thing (again, most likely will be from the hemnes collection), a tv, wall art, and some lamps.  i haven't had the chance to spend too much time in this room.  i've been a little busy and don't take the time to relax too much, but i know when the day comes for me to relax, this room will be perfect for it.  on sunday morning i sat in here with percy and drank my coffee while making my awesome nephew a copy of the new taylor swift album.  when i was done i stored my laptop in the ottoman along with a USB cord and my journal.  i love my new little treasure chest. 

more to come!

weekend re-cap

this weekend was pretty busy, but also lots of fun.

laura n. came down from syracuse on friday evening, which also happened to be her birthday.  we went out to dinner at a delish mexican place in clarendon and sat and talked for a while.  after dinner, we quickly ran into the container store and crate & barrel to drool over stuff that neither one of us could afford.  we dreamed of what it would be like to be able to furnish one's entire house in crate & barrel furniture.

saturday morning i was embarassed to have absolutely nothing in my pantry/fridge/house to eat.  we ended up doing instant oatmeal and black coffee.  although, i do have to admit that instant oatmeal (maple & brown sugar, obv.) is one of my favorite breakfasts ever.  we had some coffee and sat at the kitchen table that is currently functioning as my only living room furniture, then realized that we were running late for the day's activities and hurried to get showered and ready.

we met laura's brother nathan at famous dave's for some lunch.  famous dave's is a chain bbq place, about 30 minutes south of here, and it's probably my favorite bar-b-que.

we had a delicious meal (i had the pulled pork, grilled corn, mac & cheese and french fries), then headed to ikea for some serious shopping.  i am still so torn as to where i want to buy real furniture (and if i actually want to buy "real" furniture), so i decided to pick up a few storage solutions & simple accessories instead of going all out and furnishing the entire house.  it turned out to be quite the successful ikea run.  i got:

-a wooden shelf for the laundry room, which is going to hold tools, various laundry items (detergent, etc.) and cat paraphernalia (food, treats, ear drops, etc.)
-three or four glass jars for kitchen storage
-three green/dark green/clear jars for bathroom (soap, etc.) storage
-a couple more spice jars for the spice rack that i can't seem to fit into my new kitchen decor
-two new bed pillows
-a big mirror for my dining room
-probably a handful of other items that seem to be slipping my mind at the moment

after our successful idea run, laura, nate and i enjoyed some ice cream at coldstone (i got the strawberry blonde) then headed back home to my place.  we watched the new sherlock holmes movie (at least new to me) and by the time we were done it was dark and we were exhausted.  nate went home and laura and i stayed up talking for a while until i could hardly keep my eyes open.  my god, shopping can be exhausting.

on sunday morning i slept in until 8.  big deal.  i decided to seize the day and go to the new safeway for some food before laura got up.  a few friends had told me that the new safeway was "awesome" and "rivaled wegmans".  my review of the new safeway: "meh".  it had a pretty good organic/heath food section and did have a nice new feel to it, but i found the produce selection and overall selection to be somewhat lacking.  i'm just sayin'.

i made blueberry muffins and turkey bacon for breakfast.  laura, andy and i sat at the dining room table (our first official meal there!).  it was awesome.  percy is going to have to learn some new table manners.  apparently if you let him up on all surfaces in an apartment he thinks he's allowed on all surfaces in the house.  who knew.

after our hearty breakfast, andy watched some football while laura and i ran to home depot to get some floor protector pad things for the bottom of the new chairs & table, and to see whether we could find a pumpkin (please note the date we were looking: 10/31...not the greatest idea).  at home depot we picked up a bunch of stuff that wasn't really on my list, but stuff that felt like a homeowner should own.  namely, needle nose pliers and mums for the front porch.  we weren't able to find a pumpkin at home depot, but andy told us about this church down the street that still had some for sale.  we made it just in time and snatched the last halfway decent pumpkin.

laura and i sat on the front stoop and carved the pumpkin, then planted the mums in some planters i bought at home depot.  we had diet coke and talked the whole time.  it was really nice.

laura left shortly after that and then it was time for me to get to work on cleaning and unpacking.  i worked pretty hard the entire afternoon and can now proudly say that we are well on our way to being entirely unpacked.  we have maybe three or four more boxes to go. 

sunday evening andy and i were expecting quite a few trick-or-treaters, and the previous home owners told us they would stop by to pick up their mail which we had been collecting over the past week.  turns out the four bags of candy i bought were pretty unncessary - we had maybe 20 trick-or-treaters in total (my favorite was a little transformer boy who said something to his parents about the "velita" in my jack-o-lantern.

the previous home owners never stopped by -- we got an e-mail from the lady later that night that said her kids were still pretty upset that they can't go into "their house" any more.  cute.  hopefully one day my kids will love this home too.

one thing that kind of made my day was that andy was able to hook up the tv to the internet so we caught up on grey's anatomy -- we were behind a record 4 episodes.  

monday morning i woke up feeling more tired than i have felt in a long time.  it was rough getting out of bed.  it was rough saying goodbye to andy in the morning.  i did the stealthy "block him from his toothbrush" move so he couldn't leave, then pouted and whined when he tried to leave (all in a very cute, endearing way, obviously).  he was able to sneak out the door by promising we could watch more grey's after work.  i always fall for his mind tricks.