suziebeezieland

living room furniture rearrangement

I rearranged the furniture in the living room a couple weeks ago.  It used to be like this and now it's like this.

So if you come in, there's the back of the sofa. Not great, but having it all this way means we can sit in the recliners to watch the television, and we have a few more viewing spots for movie nights. There is also more empty rug space to play on.  And the recliners can recline, and there is still room for the ottoman for the other chair. It took me a long time how to figure it all out. I really needed an engineer to come over and help me.

 

I think the old set-up was more symmetrical and pleasing to the eye (I love symmetry), but this functions better for us right now.  Sometimes you've just gotta go for function.

My next project is to get that fireplace brick painted white.

I'm also ready for some new art over the fireplace. I've had that same poster in my main living space for over fifteen years! :)

The television is the elephant in the room. :) Just pretend it's not there.

 

I was going to put a stack of books or two on the left side of this bench, but it has turned into a favorite kitty hangout, so I'm leaving it be for now.

I love furniture rearranging. It's free and if you mess up, you can just change it back. Yay.

suziebeezieville

Hi ladies! :) Don't miss checking into suziebeezieville for an almost-daily dose of pretty design/decor/craft photos from around the web. If you like that sort of thing, I mean. :)

the laziest day ever

November started off very, very slowly at my house. I did nothing on Sunday. NOTHING, I tells ya.

My folks spent the night on Hallowe'en (we had a little Hallowe'en party here Saturday night), and we got up Sunday morning and Bob made us all yummy crepes.  Then my parents went to church and Claire and I stayed home with Bob, because he left for a business trip at ten and we wanted the last bit of time with him.

I was so tired after Hallowe'en.  It's been crazy busy for a couple weeks around here.  And I was catching a cold (which has now been caught, alas) which was making me groggy. I just sat in the recliner and watched Bob and Claire play Wii baseball. 

I did some Wii bowling without ever leaving the recliner. Yes, I did.  I also pet the cat on my lap, and took a few photos, but that's all the moving I did.  I may have lifted a coffee cup to my lips.  But that's it.

After Bob left for the airport, Claire and I watched some t.v.  Then mom and dad came back from church and brought yummy sandwiches, which we all enjoyed.  I had managed to get out of my jammies and throw some clothes on at this point, but just barely. 

After my folks left for home, Claire and I went back to doing nothing.  We may have watched a video. There was some napping, and some reading. Some eating of Hallowe'en candy and some eating of real food. Not much of anything else.

The pets were also not doing much.

I have to tell you that I never have days like this. Never.  I cannot stand to do nothing.  I like to be doing something.  Fold some laundry. Do some dishes. Paint something. Write something. Read something.  Make something. Cook something. Whatever.  And I usually pick up the house a bit, even if I don't do real cleaning. 

So I can't remember the last time I had such a completely lazy day.

It was WONDERFUL. :D

a happy hallowe'en

our cathy's totally awesome sugar cookies

Our Cathy shared her sugar cookie recipe with us several years ago, and I think it's high time that I repost the recipe. It has become my one and only sugar cookie recipe. They are so rich and good . . . almost like shortbread.  I make them for almost every holiday, to cut out with cookie cutters and decorate.

I want to add that I divide the dough in half when it's time to roll out, and stick the half I'm not working with back in the fridge until I'm done with the other half. This is so rich in butter that it quickly becomes difficult to work with if it warms up, so work with small bits at a time, is my advice. :)

Also, I have to add time to the baking. But my oven runs cold, so it might be because of that. (I have to set my oven for 25 degrees above what I actually want it to be. I should get it calibrated one day.)

Also, do what Cathy says and roll them out thickly.  If you try to make them skinny like regular sugar cookies, it won't work. Okay. That's all my advice. Here is Cathy's recipe in her own words straight from her, Cathy:

Our Cathy's Totally Awesome Sugar Cookies

Cream together 2 cups of butter and 1 1/2 cups of sugar.

Add:
4 egg yolks (I often substitute 2 whole eggs and haven't noticed a difference in quality)
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 1/2 cups of flour and
1/2 teaspoon salt

Knead 7 or 8 times, adding flour as needed to make a non-sticky dough.
Chill for one hour.

Roll and cut with your favorite cookie cutters. (I roll them pretty thick - about 1/4 inch...)
Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. You want them to just barely be turning golden brown around the edges.

an autumnal craft

Here's a neat tutorial on how to wax leaves. I think they are so beautiful!

homemade margherita pizza

Our Elizabeth D. posted a link on her tumblr blog (tumblog? I'm not sure how to spell that . . .) to this Quick Pizza Margherita recipe. I was happy to see it, because I love a good margherita pizza, but have never made it myself! And the word "quick" is always good.  Thank you, Elizabeth.

I almost always order a margherita pizza if I'm at a restaurant that offers it. It's interesting to see how different places can make such a simple formula really triumphant, or just okay, or truly awful.

So I made it on Friday night and it turned out yummy and we all three loved it. Hooray!  :)

Also, the only ingredients I didn't have on hand already were the tomatoes and the crust, so that was nice. It was economical.  I just served it with a salad.

The only thing I will do differently next time is use different dough. I used the refrigerated Pillsbury pizza dough that comes in a tube, and you know, I think it's the same as their biscuit dough. The crust tasted exactly like Grands biscuits. So next time I'll get Trader Joe's pizza dough, which does not taste like biscuits. :D

I guess you could also make your own dough ahead of time and freeze it.  Do any of you make pizza dough regularly? Do you freeze it?

the small house movement

I am a fan of small houses. :) I always have been. I don't know why I liked them when I was a kid, although I suspect that good descriptions of cozy cottages in books probably had something to do with it.

Although, I do remember a "design your dreamhouse" project I did in third grade when I lived in Australia that included an indoor swimming pool and horseback-riding arena, so that can't have been a "cottage".

I just read an interesting article that said the "McMansion" fad is dying down in house building.  Some people are warming up to the idea of small houses because of the economy. Here's a quote from the article:

According to the Better Homes and Gardens study, top priorities in a new home include an affordable price, natural light, and comfortable family gathering places. The era of supersizing may be ending, Butler said, with buyers looking for a home that is "right-sized, organized and economized."

That explains just exactly how I feel about my ideal house.  I should note, however, that I only have one, smallish child, who does not take up terribly too much space.  If you have four or five teenaged boys and a Russian Wolfhound, cozy cottage living is probably much less appealing. What is important to you in a home? Please don't feel bad if you want to say "Gigantic." :D I'm just stating my personal preference for cottages. I also like big, rambling farmhouses! And those huge wooden A-frame houses you always see in the snow somewhere, with an entire wall of plate glass windows looking out on a valley of trees, and the living rooms that go up to the rafters, with the gigantic stone fireplaces.

Anyway, here are the links from the small house movement/New Urbanism list I used to have on the old blog, in case any of you are also into looking at pictures of cute little houses, or reading about them. (I don't agree with all the tenets of New Urbanism, for the record, but I like the bits about "don't be greedy" and "be smart about how you use your space" and also "stick the garages in the back and have lots of sidewalks so you can walk around without getting hit by a car.") Our friends John and Eileen lives in Kentlands, which is a New Urbanism development in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and I just love that place.

aisslinger loft cube

arvesund

bella beach, oregon

the bungalow company

{image from carré d'étoiles}

carré d'étoiles

the cottage company

the fairytale cottages of carmel-by-the-sea

gypsy caravans

high point, seattle

the historic chicago bungalow initiative

m-house

minihome

modular dwellings

newshour (jim lehrer) special report on new urbanism

olivia beach

once upon a cottage

the poplar community

{image from ross chapin architects}

ross chapin architects

seabrook, washington

summerwood products

treehouse company

{image from tumbleweed tiny house co.}

tumbleweed tiny house company

weehouse

autumn at gooseberry patch

Gooseberry Patch may be one of those online shops you've avoided because of the words "goose," "berry," and "patch".  That's some pretty efficient branding there, when you have three separate, down-home words squashed into one name. 

It's hard to be a little bit country when everybody else is a little bit rock n' roll.

The pared-down mod equivalent is to just have three clean, sparse ciphers in a row: CB2 or DWR.

But Gooseberry Patch has some nifty stuff I think any young bougie-crunchy hipster could own with pride.

For instance, look at this round metal twist candle carver.

{all images this post from gooseberry patch}

Now just imagine a windowsill lined with orange votives or apple votives and walnuts, all in a row. If you had a minimal, clean-lined house style -- maybe some Danish mid-century modern going on, say, with low furniture and light-toned wood -- think how fresh those fruit votives would look.

Now take these squirrel salt-and-pepper shakers.

If you have a bit of a retro vintage thing going on, these would be cute on your breakfast table.

Same with the owls.

Or look at these marshmallow lollipops. The raffia has to go, but if you squinted as if you were bored, and had a face expression that said "I'm thinking about cool indie music and also, I'm not going to waste my life ironing," then you would look really great with one of these in your mouth.

It's all about context.  So embrace Gooseberry Patch.

meet hannah

Meet Hannah Whisper Bailey. She is our new cat. :)  We just got her today.

Here's the scoop.  Last Friday I went to pick up Sally Cat's medicine at our vet's, and this cat (her name was "Whisper") was in a cage behind the front desk.  They often have cats they are trying to find homes for, but I'm usually immune.  We already have five pets (Hyacinth the Dog, Sally the Cat, Hugo the bunny, and Fishy-Mishy and Macky, the fish) and a small house, and lots of pet-related hubbub. It's good hubbub, but it's still hubbub.

But I just looked at that cat, and I thought, why, she needs to come live with us.

Her previous owner was a kind 95-year-old woman who has had to enter a home. 

We decided that she is a "Hannah," and that "Whisper" is actually her middle name. 

We also decided she has the LOUDEST happy purr of any cat we've ever known, and that "Whisper" was meant to be ironic.  She's just precious.

typepad connect

Ladies, I'm giving TypePad Connect a try here in comments. You'll notice that the comments look different. :)

You can now reply directly to each other's comments as well as replying to my original post.

Also, if you have created a TypePad profile, it will show up with a mouse hover over your user pic.  (If you don't have a TypePad user pic, a cute graphic will appear, instead.)

You do NOT have to have a TypePad profile to post comments! That is optional.  You can remain your low-key self if you desire. :)

If you all dislike the new format, we will switch back to how it was before. I'm not married to either format, so no worries if this new option bugs you.  Just let me know.

lisa's bathroom, round one!

Breaking news! Our Lisa SP's bathroom has moved on to Round 1 of voting over at the Apartment Therapy color contest!

She writes, "Please do send out your kind thoughts, as we go up against a living room from Columbus, Ohio."

{cue "The Eye of the Tiger"}

You can go here to vote for Lisa today, October 21st! Vote for "Lisa's Robin's Egg Blue Bathroom"! Voting is open only today! Vote today!

Go, Lisa's bathroom! Go, Lisa's bathroom! Go, Lisa's bathroom!

If you aren't already registered at Apartment Therapy and you want to vote for Lisa, you will need to register here.  Then log in here after you're registered.  Then go here to vote for Lisa.  It's quick and easy. Yay, Lisa!

psalm 96 verses 1-6

I'm memorizing Psalm 96.  I'm a slow memorizer. :P  And I need reminders.

I decided to memorize it because my niece and nephew did this summer, and they were so excited to tell it to me. I planned to have Claire learn it with me, but she's doing Psalm 100 in school right now, and that would be a bit much. Although her young, fresh brain could probably handle it. Me, not so much. :D

I need the verses put up a few places (the kitchen window, my side of the bathroom mirror, next to my bed, in my car) so I can work on it, and I wanted to make them pretty. 

I thought I'd share it with you in case you want to memorize it, too. (You can just print it out.)  Those are just verses one through six. I'll post the rest later. :)

suzanne's ina's parker's beef stew

I regret to inform you that Ina's Parker's Beef Stew was probably not worth the 3.5 hours it took to prepare it yesterday.  It wasn't bad.  It just probably wasn't worth 3.5 hours. 

There's lots of chopping and mincing and dredging and browning, and two hours of in-the-oven time.

(Plus, you have to marinate the meat the night before, which is not hard at all, but don't forget to build in that extra time.)

I am horrid at remembering to read recipes through before I start.  I get bored reading recipes recreationally, but I enjoy them as directions when I am actually assembling the item, just like with Ikea furniture. 

So I marinated the beef last night, but then when I did glance through the recipe this morning and got to "Dutch oven," I remembered, "Hey, I don't own a Dutch oven". (How many times have I done this? You may recall my annual Christmastime "Hey, I don't own a Bundt pan" theme.) 

So! I called my mom (yay, mom!), who told me I could use my four-quart stainless stock pot. I was surprised to learn stainless can go in the oven. Yes, it all can, she said, as long as the handles can go in the oven. And even then, some handles can be covered in foil and will do fine.  Who knew? Probably everybody but me.

There it is on the stove, after we ate, waiting for me to put the leftovers away and to clean it.

I wish I'd called mom first, because this afternoon I went to TJ Maxx looking for a Dutch oven.  They were between $40 (for a small one) and $85 (for a big one), all enameled cast-iron, and I thought, maybe they're cheaper elsewhere. 

But then I left and went to Whole Foods. Which made no sense at all, because I knew the Dutch ovens at Whole Foods would cost more, but I went anyway, because the TJ Maxx Dutch ovens were reddish-orange, and I wanted turquoise or spring green. (This is why I'm not really a good cook.  Excessive attention to appearance and not enough attention to function.) 

Anyhoo, the Le Creuset Dutch ovens at Whole Foods ranged between $185 and $200-something and so I left, feeling faint at the cost of Dutch ovens.

BUT! It was not a complete waste because I got a loaf of really good bread to go with the stew that was not yet cooked and maybe would never be.

The moral of this story is, call people before driving all over town. That's the moral.  The other moral is, read the recipe through, even if it is boring.  The third moral is, Dutch ovens cost more at Whole Foods than TJ Maxx.

What else can I tell you about this stew? Well, Ina calls for an entire 750 ml. bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon to be poured over 2.5 pounds of meat as a marinade. 

This made no sense to me, because the meat was completely covered in wine with less than a bottle.  And that left some to drink with the stew. :)

Why in the universe would I decide to second-guess Ina? But I did. I used just enough wine to cover the meat.  But then, later, when I was cooking the stew and got to the part where she says "add two-and-a-half cups of the leftover marinade to the pan and discard the rest," well, if you have skimped on the marinade, you won't have enough.

I had just almost enough, with nothing to discard. 

The other thing I should mention is that you should brown the meat and veggies in a stick (rather than nonstick) saute pan.  I also don't own one of those. I just own a nonstick skillet.  You really can't deglaze a nonstick pan. 

The other thing I should mention is, too peppery! It calls for too much pepper. Cut way back.

My sister cooked the online version, which calls for mushrooms but no bacon. It sounds like she fared better.  Christy, do you have any tips?  Do you think you'll make it again? I'm going to make the online version next time, and see how that goes. I notice the online version has you saute all the veggies together, which makes more sense than the book version.

I gave Hugo the carrot ends, and he ate them and then wiped out.  He keeps me (quiet) company in the kitchen every night when I make dinner. I shut the door and we're in there together in companionable silence. I love it.

So eventually, at 7:30 (which is Claire's bedtime), we ate.  I wasn't exactly disappointed, I just thought it would taste more like superhero stew or something, since it took so long.

Although, Ina does say that she makes it ahead to reheat, because it's better reheated. I'll try it for lunch and report back to you. :)

the glazed apple bars

The apple bars turned out great! (I retain a childlike sense of wonder and delight when things actually turn out well in my kitchen.)

(We decided to each make the stew at our own houses this afternoon and compare notes. It made more sense for dinner plans.) 

Here it is ready to go into the oven. It's hard to go wrong with so much sugar and butter and cinnamon and apples.

I had to add more water than the called-for tablespoon to get the glaze pourable, but otherwise we just followed the recipe.  Bless Meg for posting it. ♥

Easy and warm and perfect for the autumn that I'm pretending we're having.

You'd think an entire jelly roll pan of dessert would last awhile around here. You'd think wrong, my friend.