Project 365, Round 2, Post 3

I'm waiting on my homemade applesauce to finish cooking, and realized I should post some 365 pics! I had a cold-brain moment just now. I was trying to figure out the number of the days for numbering when I realized it was still January...moving on.

17.

It was, as you can tell, near the end of the day and I hadn't gotten my shot for the day. This had been what my view was--laying down while working on something. I really like this shot because of the lighting & depth in it.

18.

PHOTO PROJECT!

19.

PHOTO PROJECT continues! NOT my favorite picture, but I love how blue the sky was.

20.

I used to make TERRIBLE pancakes. Note past tense. Now they're fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth, tastiness. "It'ssofluffyI'mgonnadie!" Name that movie.

finishing up.

I don't know which painting experience was more difficult...the kitchen or my ceiling. Wait, I do. The kitchen. It was awful. But it's done. And I enjoy it SO much!

So that's home! There are still projects to be completed, and artwork to go on the walls. No doubt as items are added it'll be chronicled here.

Home tour continues: my space.

Wow. I had forgotten some of these changes. I had blocked them out of my mind. Painting the ceiling, three coats of paint everywhere...yeah, I blocked it out.

Below is my bathroom. The raspberry-pink color was replaced with a beautiful blue (that is bright, great for rooms without windows, like a certain bathroom and kitchen). The shower and commode got thoroughly cleaned numerous times (I don't know how I have lungs left after some of the chemicals I used) and everything else is new. The bathroom was the first area of the house (for me) to be completely set-up and organized.

That was one electric blue room. With a vaulted ceiling.

It's now a muted gray room with white curtains and a level ceiling.

I think put-together/decorating wise my room will be last to be completed (I tend to prioritize gravy boats over bedding), but I do have aesthetically charming aspirations for it. But it's currently put together and organized, which is plenty for me.

The long awaited home tour begins. Now.

Being confined at home (and sent home from work early) gave me time to blog. Because I couldn't...shouldn't have done much else (and my body is not letting me sleep. at all). So what better time to do the often-mentioned blog home tour?! Exactly!

As I was looking at these pictures I was struck anew by just how much work went into making this home. And just how awesome condo-owner man and his fam are! Wow!

Here we have the entryway.

I had forgotten it was yellow. But oh it was. Almost all of the walls at home are cream, and the baseboards and outlet covers are white. Sooo peaceful!

I didn't get a picture before priming time, but the dining room had been green. With a dividing wall-do-hickey, that is now gone.

I LOVE having people over. Want to come to dinner or brunch?

The kitchen cut-out window. This is such a great element to the condo! I really enjoy it because I can continue to cook/prepare while still talking to roommate/guests. And it makes cleaning up from the dining room so easy!

Project 365, Round 2, Post 2

I'm what some may call sick. I am not saying it, but I will confess that I do have a low fever and have lost the ability to breathe normally. Oh, and I sound...let's just say not so good. It did exempt me from answering the phones at work today. No one could understand me. Since I am at home this evening (instead of where I'd rather be...aka, small-group), I thought it an ideal time to catch up on my blogging. So here we go.

Project 365 posting 2.

A bummer? Realizing I've had my camera white balance off for DAYS. I noticed on day 15. And it's made a huge difference. Sigh.

9. Service to celebrate 50 years of desegregation at the University of Georgia. It. was. incredible.

10. It iced. You could say it snowed too, but really, it ICED. These are the stairs going out of my condo. DEATH. On Sunday night I went out at around 9:45 p.m. and there was no snow, making me think that my roommate may have been correct in prediciting no snow. Then I went out 15 minutes later and it was "blanketed" outside! We threatened to push one another out the front door (and naturally lock it afterwards). When she ran at me I may have reacted defensively (who wouldn't?!)...and nearly jammed her finger. Oops.

11. This was the day I did not step one FOOT outside. I kept myself active by running the staircase inside for 30 minutes. I also did photos of the condo for the home tour. The sweet little bird was from Nutan, who gave it to me as a birthday present a few years ago.

12. I had a dinner party on Friday night, so I started menu-planning and appetizer-baking on Wednesday. I made Mediterranean cheese-crisps. My cousin from Indiana remarked about cheese-crisps and their prevalence in the South. I'm now thinking of them as classy cheetos.

13. Making the lasagna stuffing for said dinner party!

14. DINNER PARTY!

15. One part of the kitchen that I really like are my aprons and pot-holders hanging up on the wall. It's one of the brightest parts of the kitchen (which again, is one of my favorite rooms). Nutan (double shout-out!) gave me an Anthropology gift-card for my birthday, and I got an oven-mitt and pot-holder with it, which feature prominently on the wall (along with the Anthro apron she got me last year...thanks, bud.)

16. Fellowshipping at Link. LOVE this time each week!

success and failures.

THREE days of snow days.

As a friend said, when inside I revert to my default position...baking.

1. Triple-chocolate mint biscotti.

2. I'm having some lovely dinner guests on Friday, and I've menu planned and shopped. I made the appetizers tonight. Or one of them. The other is just going to be roasted almonds.

3. I also tried to make my first homemade pie crust. Well...it went straight to the trash can. It was horrible. I'll try again later.

4. I also started on dessert for Friday. Friday's dessert is sugar cookies that I'll be serving with a blueberry/pomegranate frozen yogurt with a homemade chocolate sauce. It's just the sugar cookies I make all the time, so I felt no need to take their picture. I did cut a handful with a coffee-mug instead of with a shot-glass.

Snow-a-something

THANK YOU LORD for a snow day. Two actually (I have tomorrow off to).

Cooking-rest-cleaning-catching up-no alarm clock...ahh.

I actually didn't set my alarm this morning and woke up at 7:20 a.m. I told my brain that didn't work for me, so I dozed. For another 3 hours. Happy sigh.

Lots of quality time with roommate so far.

This is my door mat. It looks like it's covered in sugar.

Project 365, Round 2

Here we go again.

We'll see how long this lasts...eeeek.

For those interested...

.5, read below.

1., read below.

2., read below.

3., read below.

4., ! I had to buy a bottle of counter cleaner. If you know me, you know how much I enjoyed getting to pick it out. Thank you Method, for making something that smells so delightful.

5., I am committing myself to reading more (because I love it so!), and these are the guys hanging out on my "actively reading" book shelf. A couple I have been referencing a lot in the past couple weeks, which is why they are on there.

6., I work at the Gap. I worked a lot last week. They had a big sale...

7., I wiped out while running on a track on day #4, and consequently carried around a little bag with bandage supplies for a few days to bandage up my calf where I burned off some skin. It also made picking out what to wear far easier--dresses and skirts, because I couldn't have pressure on it at first!

8., so. encouraging. the whole weekend. Thank you Lord.

I am trying to become more proficient at photographing words. They are tricky for me to focus well the first shot and I want to get better at that.

Completion of /7 Series

I finished the books about a week ago but hadn't had time to finish my selection of quotes. Thank you, snow day.

Resolutions!

I just made my resolutions for the year.

1.

Practice better follow through with laundry

(aka get it out of the dryer after more than a day. Or two. Or three.)

2.

Also practice better follow through with getting gifts/packages to the post office (if you're expecting a Christmas gift from me [and you happen to live in Virginia, Columbus, Indiana, Canada]...it's still in the front seat of my car. Sorry.) I usually have a good reason of not getting to the post office (hello, working 2 jobs), but still...I can plan in advance some here.

3.

Put on lotion.

What prompted the lotion one, you may be wondering?

Well, I was running today at the track at work, which is indoor and carpeted. As I was running I lost my stride and wiped out. Like, drag the floor wipe out. I sat on the floor for a minute, got up, and continued to run (after thanking the Lord that I wasn't outside when this happened and that nothing was broken). As I would continue to run I kept passing the foot-long or so streak of white which was where the top layer of skin on my calf got burned off (my calf looks something rough right now). Clearly more lotion is needed in my life.

P.S. The best part of this story was the dear front desk receptionist (who is just wonderful!) who after I (rather pitifully) said that I had fallen said, "I thought you'd be safer running inside! No cracks in the sidewalk or rocks..."

One would assume.

Working with yeast.

Cooking with yeast was always something that intimidated me. It is tempermental! Right temperature, timing, rising, falling, rising again...sheesh. I was at a loss when the cookbook said to let it rise in a warm place (there really isn't anywhere warm in the condo--it's winter!)

But the days of intimidation are OVER, and I'm committed to learn. I started with the cinnamon rolls...success. Bread was the next adventure. My first loaf didn't come out to well, but second fared far better (probably because I gave it 5 hours to rise as opposed to a half-hour).

Tonight I had a dinner guest and I was going to make pizza (again, requiring yeast). As I was driving home from work the idea of making anything with yeast was just too much (it's just the whole have to wait 2 hour thing that got me today), so the menu had a redesign.

I also made homemade hot chocolate with fresh whipped cream for dessert.

It was divine.

Except for while pouring it into the cups and I missed the cup and poured it all over my hand.

It really was HOT chocolate.

It hurt.

Cinnamon rolls of massive effort.

I made the Pioneer Woman cinnamon rolls this weekend. It was my first time cooking with yeast, first time making cinnamon rolls, etc. It was a bit more of an undertaking than I thought it would be...but they did not disappoint.

I had nearly 100 when all was said and done.

Loose the baggage

Here we go again! Or not.

I thought (seriously) about doing/attempting the 365-Project again. I've even taken a photo every day this year (not much of an accomplishment since you know, it's 1/3). I'm committed to getting better pictures this year, but I don't want to put the pressure on myself of taking a (good) photo a day. So, so-long personal 365 aspirations. Or maybe. Maybs I'll keep up with pictures...IDK. We'll see what happens...

Picture explanation...my friend Katie and I got back to her house from a fun New Year's party and as we walked in the front door her sweet dog, Mia, didn't come out to meet us. We could hear her tail wagging (because it was hitting the door) but she wasn't coming out. We were immediately suspicious about what she had gotten into. She really hadn't gotten into something...she got caught in something-my bag! She had gotten the shoulder strap of my duffle tangeled around herself and as she walked around it dragged behind her.