Weddings and Jewelry

Last night, I hosted a Royal Wedding Watching Party (and Stella and Dot trunk show). Now, I don't have one big ole group of girlfriends, so whenever I have a party, the guest list tends to be a bit eclectic. Last night was no different: old friends, new friends, friends of friends...I think there were about 15 people there, and everyone seemed to have a good time. I actually think it's really fun to host a party where most people only know one or two other people there - it makes people socialize a little more, and it makes for a lively evening!  Ok, I sound totally like a 50's housewife (or a stereotypical Briton) with my whole "lively evening" spiel, but seriously.

We feasted on a delectable array of treats, including some delicious homemade scones (thanks, Dana!), which I polished off this morning. Sadly, I didn't take one single photo at the party (bad blogger!), mostly because the drinking started around 5pm when my friend Katherine and I realized how much chopping and stirring and food prep and cleanup we had to do before guests arrived. Thanks again, Katherine. Definitely couldn't have done it without you.  If anyone took pictures, please email them to me so I can add them to this post.  :)

The only picture I have from the party.
Thanks to whoever lined them up like that.
Totally made me giggle.
I took this picture this morning.
We did a good job, guys.

We also tried on some gorgeous jewelry from Stella and Dot. If you couldn't make it to the party, or if you came but didn't buy anything, guess what? My "party" is still going online, and you can still place an order! They have a lot of great jewelry under $50, and even quite a bit under $40 (and a bunch of stuff on sale for less!).  I tried on several necklaces (and earrings) that would be perfect for jazzing up a casual outfit or for wearing for fancier occasions - I know I sound salesy, but I really do love their stuff.  Like, a lot.


Here are the instructions for ordering:

1. go to www.stelladot.com/rosieb
2. click on "find your hostess" under the "Stylewatch" tab
3. type in Kim Weisberg
4. start shopping!

(Full disclaimer: if people buy stuff, I get a discount on whatever I end up buying, so...there's my ulterior motive. but let's be honest. I'm buying stuff anyway. Because this jewelry rocks. Let me know if you want to host a trunk show of your own and I'll hook you up with Rosemary!) 

It really was a lovely night.  Thanks to all who came!

How about you, readers?  Did you celebrate the Royal Wedding?  Did you cry? (I think we all know that I teared up a little) 

PS - Congratulations to two of my dear blog friends who BOTH just got engaged!  You can read their recaps (and ogle their rings) here and here.


Update: photo from Kelsey

Chocolate fountain, fruit, cookies, scones, cucumber and
cream cheese sandwiches, crudites, cheese and champagne
fondue, spinach artichoke dip, pickles...

Photo of the spread from Dana. The empty dish in the chafer
was the spinach dip, which was still in the oven at the time.
:)

Passover Winner!

Well, when it comes to Passover, there are no losers (except Pharoh, booya!).  But when it comes to the Passover Giveaway at Kim's Kitchen Sink, there can be only one winner!  And that winner is...my mom!

I promise I didn't rig it; here is a screenshot of the Random Number Generator for proof:

So congratulations, mom!  Thanks for supporting my blog and entering the contest.  :-)

And thanks to everyone who played along - it was fun reading all of your Passover facts.  Stay tuned, because another giveaway is coming soon!!

A Passover Giveaway!

Ok, so all y'all know that I love my saucepans that I got from CSN Stores*. I love me some CSN Stores. And they love me,  apparently, because they want to do another giveaway here at my little blog! Do you want to win $30 to spend at CSN Stores?  I bet you do.


To enter: 

• In honor of Passover this week, you must leave a comment here telling me one thing (anything at all!) that you know about Passover.  How's THAT for missing the message? In honor of my people's freedom, I command you to tell me about it! Nobody ever said I made sense. 

• Tweet, blog, facebook, digg, whatever - tell The Internet about this giveaway.  Then come back here and leave a comment for each thing you do, telling me that you did it.  There is no limit to how many times you can enter!  Well, ok, you're limited by the amount of social networking you do.

Photo from this blog that I found through Google Images.
Check it out if you're looking for a Passover fact to use
to enter the contest. Or, you know, use Wikipedia.  :)

Chag Pesach Same'ach and happy entering!


*yadda yadda, yeah I know that link doesn't take you to the saucepans. But I have to include it to give you guys the giveaway. And yeah, I know that doing so helps CSN Stores' page rank in Google searches. I'm ok with that, because A) it means you guys get a giveaway, B) it means that I get a little CSN credit for myself if I write a review of the product, and C) I like CSN Stores and I don't mind helping their page rank.  They are super useful! And super nice! Hi, CSN!


Ed Note: I always forget to say when the contests are going to end! This one's running for the whole week of Passover! I'll pick a winner on Wednesday, April 27, since I think Passover technically ends at sundown on Tuesday the 26th.  And no, now you cannot use this as your fact :)

Patio Improvements and More!

Ok, so that's a pretty boring title.  But this weekend was not boring. And this post will not be boring.  Promise!

First things first, this weekend held some fun times.  On Saturday, I visited Berkeley Rep's annual costume and prop sale, which was even bigger this year because they're about to move out of their warehouse.  I scored a really cute pair of black heels (and I have been a woman on a mission lately, looking for cute black heels that are less than 2" high) for just $1.  Barely worn, super cute.  I also went home with a great rocking chair. It could use a new coat of paint, and I'm hoping to weatherproof it so that I can use it outside.  I suppose it was only a matter of time before Young House Love inspired me to take on a project of my own.

Le chair. The sticker on the seat? It said $50.
And the $50 was crossed out to say $25.
But they only charged me $5, because they
are awesome. Because they love me?  :)

Close-up on the funky flowers-and-fruit design on
the top of the seat. It may get painted over. 

But this weekend was not just about some bargain theatre shopping, no! Will had decided to have a little BBQ for some hockey folks (it's the playoffs, y'all. so many games to watch!), and I had to stop by OSH for some charcoal and a meat thermometer.  While I was there, I stocked up on soil and flowers and got all stoked to do some gardening later in the day (side note: I love this OSH. And Ellen, who works in the gardening department, is the best, most helpful person ever).

OSH was selling "color bowls", which are basically just a
bunch of flowers planted in a bowl. But it was so pretty, and
it was, like, $12.99. I just stuck it in the pot that used to have
zucchinis before they all died.  Instant garden!

I bought all of these to plant in one of the half wine barrel
planters I bought recently. But I ran out of soil, so they're
still sitting in their pots from the nursery. How long can
they stay there? A week? More? Less? Help?

Since we were in Berkeley (Will was working on campus), we stopped by the fabulous Berkeley Bowl for groceries. I haven't been there in months, and I had almost forgotten how wonderful it is. Especially in the springtime. Aisles upon aisles of fresh fruits and vegetables. It feels so good to have a fridge full of good stuff. Mmm. Stuff.

The BBQ was a success, full of friends and kids. While we don't have kids, many of our friends do, and our house is pretty kid-friendly. We have coloring books and Connect 4, and this time, we had a few big pieces of bubble wrap for the kids to jump around on out on the patio. And when the kids got really bored, I had them help me with the gardening.  General rule of thumb when dealing with kids: if you make it sound like a fun project, they'll probably want to help. Wheels successfully screwed onto the larger of the two half wine barrel planters, it was time to plant a lemon tree!  The kids really liked helping me with the dirt, and it was seriously fun.

Our little lemon tree in its new home.
It looks slightly different back here than it did before?

A little bonus rosemary, with a white flower whose name I
have forgotten. It appears in my color bowl, and it grows here
on its own, like a weed but pretty.
Ellen at OSH told me its name and I promptly forgot it.
I've never been good with names.

We BBQ'd again tonight, since it was nice out and we had some chicken sausages and veggies in the fridge. BBQ'd sweet white onions...heaven. Because the condo was a bit messy after last night's party, we spent some time cleaning up, which always makes me happy anyway. The floor has been swept and mopped, the laundry has been started, the trash has been taken out, the kitchen is clean, the bedroom has been straightened up. I separated old gym clothes into keepers (Google tshirts and other "keepsake" type of shirts) and Goodwill (a whole bag's worth of stretched out/no longer fitting pants). Even the linen closet is tidy - it's pretty nice in here right about now!  And while I didn't get to buy the soil I needed (would you believe that each half wine barrel requires 3 cubic feet of soil!?) because the garden store was closed, I got a pedicure and did some light grocery shopping, and tonight, I'm feeling pretty good, like I'm ready to tackle this week.

Though I may still cave and hire someone to clean the tub.

Corralling the Cords: Part 2

I have made significant progress in Project Corralling the Cords, so I thought I'd post a little update. I purchased a cord cover kit and (with the help of my trusty garden shears) cut them down to size. They were super easy to install, and things are looking much better. See for yourself!

Ta-da! Don't remember what it looked like before?
Click here.

I mean, wow, right?  Such a difference! For some reason, in this photo, the distribution of picture frames makes everything look a little unbalanced.  It doesn't look that right-heavy in person.

Close-up of the side table that holds the Xbox,
cable box, and this little basket of joy.

Purchasing this basket was one of those tiny little things that (for me) makes a huge difference.  Before the basket, our video game collection and spare controllers just sat in a pile on the floor.  It bothered me every single time I looked at it, all sloppy and Jenga-like, threatening to topple over at any second.  Plus, I'm one of those people who loves to see everything in its place, and I think things just look so much neater when they're in baskets (you're welcome, mom).  Seriously, when I brought that basket home and loaded it up?  

Happy sigh...

There's just one more thing to do, but unfortunately I purchased the wrong tools with which to do it.

The last cord that needs wranglin'

I recently bought an HDMI cable that would be long enough to reach from the TV to the cable box in something other than a diagonal line that is ugly and hard to hide. This one is even a silvery gray which blends in a little better than the usual black cable.  I bought these little Command Cord Clips to just clip it up along the white cord cover thingy, but naturally they are too small and the cable doesn't fit. So for now, dangling cord.  But at least it's silvery gray and not black, so I can kind of pretend it doesn't exist until I get the right-sized clips!  I might also decide to use a spare piece of cord cover to cover the cord that hangs down from the TV to behind the Kinect sensor, but that's not bothering me too much right now.

Anyway, I'm pleased with the progress. Our little place is really starting to come together :)

Payoff

Seven years ago, I leased a brand new car. Approximately 4.5 years ago, I decided to purchase that little 2004 Honda Civic (had I had enough money for a down payment back in 2004, I would have just started buying it outright, rather than leasing it for a couple of years, but such is life).

Last fall, I realized that my anticipated payoff date was some time in October 2011.  The thousands of dollars owed on this car were reaching a point where it actually seemed like paying it off was in my near future.  I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. The beginning of a time in which I would not be paying $258.28 a month and racking up interest (albeit at a fairly low rate).  In January, as part of a New Year's Not-Really-A-Resolution, I decided to double my monthly payments in order to save money on interest and pay off the rest of my balance sooner.

After my most recent payment, I noticed that my account balance was under $100.  Under $100! Wow!  I had planned on making a final payment on my birthday, as a sort of symbolic gift to myself (I like to give myself finance-type gifts for my birthday, apparently), but it didn't make sense to wait another month and rack up interest, even if it was only a few dollars.  Why not just pay it off now?  So happy early birthday to me!*

"After making that last payment, your title will be released and
sent to you in the mail, and the vehicle you've been financing
will officially be all yours." -Honda Financial Services Website

*I haven't written about our weekend getaway yet, but I got an early birthday present while we were there...tickets to see Sarah Silverman (this past Monday), complete with a room service surprise of the most delicious red velvet cake I've ever had and mimosas at 8am :)  And I got Will an early birthday present of the framed team picture from when the Pens won the Stanley Cup in 2009.  It's a year of early birthday celebrations, no?

Rosemary Whole Wheat (accidental) Flatbread

Ballet was canceled last night due to the studio being on spring break, and I felt like I needed to do something productive with my evening.  For some reason, I decided that this productive thing would be baking bread.  It's been a while since I baked bread (see here, here, and sort of here), and I suppose I was just feeling like making something out of (almost) nothing. When this recipe showed up in my Google Reader, I thought I'd try it.

Except then I left the recipe at work.  And then when I looked it up again at home, I decided I didn't want to deal with the stand mixer.  And I wasn't in the mood to experiment with bread dough in the Cuisinart (though it comes with a bread dough attachment thingy, and I'm sure it's not hard).  Plus, I wanted to use all whole wheat flour, since that's what I had on hand (trying to go whole wheat, healthier, blah blah).  So, um, scratch that. Try again. I found this recipe after a bit of Googling, and was pleased to find that it was a no-knead bread.  I'm not super confident in my kneading skills, to be honest, and it was already almost 8:30pm anyway.  Don't want to waste time kneading. I wasn't sure what to do about using whole wheat flour, since I've heard it can result in denser breads and such.  I turned, of course, to Twitter. Some said to sift it, some said to simply use less, or use more water, or both...and after a while I just decided to go for it.

this is what they are supposed to look like...
picture via the original recipe

Surprise! Two loaves of flatbread!

picture via my iPhone

Well...it's bread.  I'll just pretend that I meant to make flatbread, and all will be well in the world!  This is where I turn to you, oh wise friends of life and the internet.  Where did I go wrong?  Here are my hypotheses - let me know what you think or if you have any suggestions for my next attempt at whole wheat bread.

• My yeast may be is at least two years old.  I've been told that yeast keeps forever in the freezer though, and it's been in the freezer the whole time!  Could this really be my downfall?  Should I try again with fresh yeast? It didn't do the yeasty-foamy-crazyawesome thing that yeast is supposed to do (which, I admit, was disappointing. I like the science-experiment-ness of it), but I thought maybe that was because the water had sugar in it (eh? does this matter?).  The recipe didn't actually say it would do the yeasty reaction dance, so I thought maybe that was ok?  And it definitely doubled in size when it was in the bowl! 
• I used slightly less than 4c of whole wheat flour, and about an extra 1/3 (ish. I didn't measure well. oops.) cup of water or so, to try to balance it out or something? I don't know; I heard that might work?  It seemed like it was all perfectly perfect when the ball of dough doubled in size in the bowl, but then when it was time to divide it into two balls and put them on the baking sheet, they got all flattened out like big, wet pancakes. Definitely not as compact and, well, risen, as the ones in the recipe post. They were also much wetter than I thought they should be, so maybe too much water?
• Whole wheat flour might just bake weirdly?  Ok, so I know it's totally possible to make awesome bread with whole wheat flour (duh), so maybe I just did some wonky internet recipe mix-and-matching?

So...too much water? Not enough (or not new enough) yeast? A need to do something totally different when using whole wheat flour?  

I tasted a small piece, and it was actually good.  Perhaps I'll just stick with my "oh yeah, I was totally trying to make flatbread" story and enjoy it like a good foccacia. C'est la vie at Kim's Kitchen Sink!

Just your average Friday

So, I have a crapload of things to blog about (seriously, I need to take a day off work and just sit and blog.  What's that you say? It's called a weekend?  Yeah, well, too bad I am always too lazy busy).  I have blank walls to brainstorm about and gooey cheesy pictures to show you, and yes, the inevitable gardening mishaps. But hey, guess what? Will and I are going to Sonoma this weekend for a little getaway, just the two of us.  We're hoping to kayak in Bodega Bay, and we're getting massages tomorrow night...ahh, to relax. Such a joy. Unfortunately for you (oh I know, I see the tears a-comin'), that means I probably won't blog this weekend, unless I am feeling not lazy inspired on Sunday when we get back.

But oh well.  Because look! I'm blogging now!  Even if it's not what I meant to blog about.  This Friday at work has just had some silly moments, and I've been enjoying myself, and I want to share. Because despite some truly crazypants things that are going on in the world, and in our lives, sometimes you solve a crossword puzzle with your boyfriend, and sometimes things happen that make you laugh, and well, I think those are the things worth sharing.  See how I snuck that whole crossword puzzle thing in there? Yeah, super cool.


Exhibit A:

Yes, I felt the need to include this in our weekly company newsletter.
You may need to click to enlarge to read it.

Exhibit B:

I finally found out why some of the leaves of the plant by my desk look like they were attacked by a five year old with dull scissors.  See: helicopter blades.  See also: inability to control a landing.  Sadly, my iPhone lacks the ability to capture this on video.


I love my job.

PS - We're hiring.  You should work here too.  It's great.  Trust me.

Review: popchips!

Way back when, I wrote about how I went to this crazy little event for food bloggers where companies hooked me up with all sorts of crazy food.  Here's one of those posts where I tell you about one of the delicious items I tried!

My name is Kim and I love popchips. In all fairness, I knew I loved them before they offered to send me some.  I've been loving on these chips for years...but never one to turn down free snacks, and with the popchips people fully aware that I was already a fan, I accepted.  Note: while they did send these to me for free, they did not make me promise to write a good review (or any review, at that). These opinions are all mine, baby!

Oh Popchips, you are so delicious!

Now, I've eaten popchips all over the place.  I can't even remember when I first fell for the potato-y, crunchy, totally-not-even-bad-for-you-well-not-as-bad-as-regular-chips-anyway delights.  All I know is that they are delicious.  My favorite flavors are the Sea Salt & Vinegar and Salt & Pepper, but seriously? They're all good.

My only recommendation: do not go up to Tahoe bringing simply a large bag of popchips, assuming that the people you're meeting up there will bring real food, or that you won't get too lazy to cook real meals (which, honestly, is weird for us - usually we're eating like kings when we go to Tahoe).  Because once you decide that you have enough food, even if that food is just one big bag containing many smaller bags of popchips, you will probably just eat the popchips all weekend.  And while they are good, this is not a recommended activity.

Printed on the side of the box. Tee hee.

Yes, fine, ok, I recommend popchips much more as a snack than as a full meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner (though I will say that several flavors work very well alongside cheese for a "cheese and chips" meal snack).  Even the box labels itself as a box full of snacks.  Silly me, trying to get by on popchips alone.  They are super good though (we even have them in the office!), especially when you want a chip-like snack without all the fried, greasy, guilt-trippy stuff that's bad for you.  Get out there and get some, because they are delicious. 

And for the love of blogging, stay tuned this week, because I'm hoping to post a couple of fun and exciting things (including another giveaway! omg!) over the next few days!

DIY? Do I?

I would like to consider myself a crafty person, but truth be told, when it comes to crafting, my eyes are bigger than my stomach (erm, figuratively speaking; stomachs have nothing to do with crafting. unless you're crafting cookies. oh god, this is turning out to be an awful introduction).

Let me start over.  When it comes to crafting (and all things DIY), I have big ideas.  I have tons of projects I'd love to do, from scrapbooking to artfully hanging photographs I've taken, to refinishing or staining furniture, to building a raised bed/planter out of recycled redwood...you get the picture.

"So many ideas, so little time" is a phrase I utter more frequently than I'd like to admit, because if I am being completely honest (and isn't that what a blog is for?), I totally have time.  I just choose to spend it doing other things, like walking around the apartment looking at things I want to do. Or watching HGTV.  Or bookmarking recipes I'll probably never make. Or reading blogs written by people who are not only DOING these things, but meticulously photographing and blogging them.  Who are these people (I know not all of them can be full-time-DIY-bloggers)? And why am I not more like them?

My wonderful friend Patricia has been blogging the progress she and her husband have been making on turning their new rental apartment into a personalized, cozy, wonderful space.  I can admit to sometimes feeling inadequate; when I look at the amount of change their place has seen in just a few months, I become angry with myself for not doing more.  It's easy to get down on myself when I realize that we've lived here since August, and our walls are still mostly barren.  I felt such accomplishment when I first hung a picture here, a mirror there...but now it's time to really settle in and take care of the big, blank walls in a deliberate, artistic sort of way (I want to do this in our dining room) and make it look like we didn't just move in.  Says I, anyway.  Will doesn't care too much.  He's a dude.

The current state of things...

(click photos to enlarge)

Living room: facing the couch/tv area from the dining "room" and facing the dining "room" from the couch. 

We still have a ways to go...

Oh, and bonus! A picture of the last 6 boxes in the bedroom!

But this kind of stuff takes work.  It takes more effort than the tidying-up, putting things away, just trying to find a place for stuff kind of housestuff that I say I barely have time/energy/effort to do. I sometimes feel like I need a spring break...an extended weekend...a "staycation," where I can just take a few days to fully unpack, organize, and put everything away so that I can focus on the fun stuff.  The fun stuff that is a little overwhelming to me because it requires so much work.

I am planning to do a little bit of this in August, when Will is gone on his 2-week-ish backpacking trip and my awesome friend Reed comes to visit (fingers crossed!).  Reed is one of those people who knows how to motivate me - or perhaps I just like doing crafty things with her - whether it's making my first knit-in-the-round hat, baking bread, or doing a mad rush of cleaning before a last minute party (ok, that last thing is not so crafty). Perhaps it's because she's known me for oh, about 24 years, and can get inside my head, perhaps I want to be as crafty as she is, perhaps it's just fun to do things together, but I always feel a surge of Can Do Attitude when we're hanging out. Yes, we will go to the spa and perhaps a winery and watch chick flicks and eat junk food...but I love that she also has a thing for crafting and nesting and doesn't mind helping me move boxes and such.  Side note: I need to invite my crafty friends over more often - I like doing stuff, but I also like having help when it comes to actually getting going. Especially when Will is out of town. Side note part two: Hey Tricia, want to come let your craftiness rub off on me visit for a few days in early August?

The point is that I'm good at making excuses.  That I say I don't have time, when really I don't make time.  That it's easier to say "but I'm not like those DIY gods and goddesses" and watch them on TV/read their blogs than it is to pick up the paintbrush or the measuring tape and just do it already. And yeah, ok, maybe I shouldn't rely on the motivation of friends to light the fuse.

What our apartment looked like the morning after we moved in.
Ok, so we've made considerable progress since August 2010.
Perspective.

I'm going to try to be better about this.  Try to dedicate time (an hour? 30 minutes? some amount of time, no matter how little?) every day to making our apartment closer to the way I want it to be. We have spent about an hour for the last two nights straightening things up, cleaning and sorting and all that, and it truly does make me feel better.  I feel a sense of accomplishment, even if it's just emptying the shredder so we can shred some more papers or consolidating boxes of magazines. Every thing I do, no matter how tiny, takes me one step closer to Total Nesting Happiness (and yes, I do know that it's always a work in progress, there will always be things I want to do/change, yadda yadda yadda).

I look at beautiful houses (oh god, can I please just have this one and not have to do any of the work - no seriously, look at it) and I wish they were mine, but I think I'm finally tired of whining about my lack of DIY-ness while I watch other people do it.  I may not be as skilled or experienced, but I can sure as hell clean my apartment and hang pictures.  And I think it's time to start taking action.

But first...a few dream house pics.  It's my reward for the straightening up (and extension cord setup) we did tonight.

I mean, hello?

When I look at this tile, I literally have
a physical reaction. My heart beats
faster, and I think "oh, that is so lovely".
I'm a woman in love.

Wait, they installed a pot filler?
I honestly had no idea that existed.
I had to look it up.
Now I want one.

For more dream houses, click here. But I warn you, you might start to drool. Expect more home-updates around here in the coming months. I vow to be more active, and to do my best when it comes to blogging about my progress. Because as much as I don't want to hold myself to any superhigh blogging timeline standards, it's fun to share, and I'm sure I'll be needing some advice. And ok, maybe a little encouragement.  :)

Coasting Along Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations to Andrea_Jo, who was the lucky pick of the Random Number Generator in my Coasting Along Giveaway!

If you're disappointed that you didn't win...well, head on over to Rachel's store and purchase a set, whydoncha?  They are very affordable, after all!  Plus, they're totally unique (you can even request custom pieces) and a whopping 25% of her profits are donated to Kiva.org, supporting women entrepreneurs.

Everybody wins!

Thanks for playing...another giveaway coming in the next week or so...ooooh!

Dream Home (and a coaster giveaway!) (yeah!)

A few days ago, I took the Style Maker Visual Quiz (found thanks to Young House Love).  I like taking silly little quizzes, especially when they just involve clicking pictures I like.  I made a photo collage to sum up my favorite images...

Ah, the dream home.  How I want thee. Funny story (ok, tangent): When I originally took the quiz, it said my style was "Artisan Bauhaus" (whatever that means) - I just took the quiz again (just for fun, ya know), choosing all of the same answers as before, and now it tells me my style is "Winsome Charm".  The funniest thing?  I took it a third time, made one change (picked the Shakespearean-looking actor instead of the ballerina), and got "Winsome Charm" again, but with a different description.

Winsome Charm #1: An intimate home of modest proportions. A kitchen that reflects your passion… large, sweeping - authentic. Resort, retreat, getaway - all inside your bedroom. Choreographed by you, the design fundamentals and colors present a moving style. Your relaxed table atmosphere is enjoyed by everyone. Watch the grass grow in the hot summer sun. Pre-war, upper east side attitude. A creative and social space, your kitchen is managed competently by you..

Winsome Charm #2: Details of craftsmanship with natural materials surround you. To cook a grand meal in an elegant kitchen is your joy. Build a roaring fire and jump into your cozy bed. Players have their exits and entrances… your home the stage. Lake Cabin table for your salads and seafood. Watch the grass grow in the hot summer sun. Pre-war, upper east side attitude. Focused on good food and good company, you're the chef!.

I know.  Insane.  Your mind is boggled.  It's totally silly.  Kind of accurate though.

Anyway, I have definitely been in Dream Home mode lately.  Ever since we decided to get cable again, I've been watching a lot of Property Virgins (my current HGTV show of choice). I'm back on the reading-all-sorts-of-home-improvement-blogs bandwagon, and I'm in full on nesting mode at home.  Perhaps it's because Spring is in the air, and with Spring comes Spring Cleaning, and we still have some cozy rainy days, perfect for organizing the house.  Last night, we took two trips worth of recycling down to the garage, ridding our living room of several boxes.  This weekend, I hope to finish unpacking (eep, could we really do it?) so I can start tidying and maybe even thinking about some real decorating (side note: I'll need your advice).

In the spirit of homeystuff and nesting, I'm doing a little giveaway.  See, my friend Rachel is awesome.  She recently started a company called Coasting Along, where she sells handmade coasters.  They are really great - I got the Sudoku print ones for Will's dad for Christmas, and they were a big hit!

Rachel has graciously offered to give away a set of coasters (up to $13 value) to one lucky reader!  Omigod you guys! So awesome.

To Enter:

• Visit Rachel's shop at www.coastingalong.artfire.com
• Come back here and leave a comment telling me which coaster set you'd choose if you win (you can change your mind later if you want)
• You can earn additional entries by Tweeting, Facebooking, Blogging, Digging, or otherwise sharing this post on the interwebs. Simply come back here and leave a comment for each thing you did.
• There is no limit on entries!  Enter as many times as you like!  Wheeee!

Get your entries in by Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 11:59pm PDT - a winner will be chosen on Wednesday 3/23 by the Random Number Generator!  :-)

Enjoy, and good luck!

TCB

I was thinking today about the structure of the average workday, and the structure of our days in general, and I thought I'd like to do a little "ask the audience".

See, I enjoy a more loosely-structured workday, without strict hours of attendance and with the ability to get my work done in a way that makes sense for me (and the company, of course).  I realize that I have the luxury of a very relaxed work environment, trust me I do.  Having worked in places with strict rules about start times and end times and break times and clocking in and clocking out and arguing about overtime pay...well, you know I'm serious when I say I know how lucky I am.  I find myself thinking this every day.

But I know what it's like on the other side, and I think more workplaces should allow their employees the freedom to get their jobs done, provided it doesn't affect the business.  Obviously, many businesses have specific hours of operation.  And some types of work require knowing that people will be there at specific times (mostly service-oriented positions I think, but I'm sure there are others). But if an employee's job doesn't require specific hours, why set them? We have a general "be here roughly when everyone else is here" policy, because it's good for morale, more work gets done when you can talk to your teammates, etc. but even with our customer support team (who has dedicated hours to man the front lines), there is some flexibility with start and end times, as well as with how you manage your time during the day.

Personally, I've found that I work much better when I am in the workplace for roughly 8 hours, taking little breaks throughout the day, than when I'm in the workplace for roughly 9 hours, taking an hour for lunch (and those often-ignored but totally legally required 20 minute breaks).  If I'm deep into a project, I don't like to interrupt my workflow with a one-hour break (unless it's a special occasion and I'm making lunch plans with a friend or something).  I prefer to work on a task until I find my brain wandering (usually around 2 hours) and then take a 10 minute break to grab a snack, catch up on personal email, read the latest TechCrunch gossip, etc.  I'll usually take 15-20 min somewhere in the middle of the day to eat lunch at my desk while reading blogs...but this means I am also checking work email and handling any issues that come up.  And I generally check up on work stuff from home at some point later that night, and in the morning before I go into work, just in case there's a fire to be put out.

Allowing my brain to switch from work to non-work throughout the day keeps me more alert and more focused on the work I have to do. And psychologically, I think it makes me a better worker because I feel like I'm in charge of my day.  It's oppressive to feel like someone is counting your minutes (or worse, like you have to count your minutes in order to get paid), monitoring your restroom breaks, keeping tabs on your location every second you're not at your desk.  If someone puts the onus on you, you're more likely to respect it - it's like that whole thing about not giving teenagers so many rules that all they can think of is rebellion, right?

My whole semi-structured day seems funny to me, though, because in my personal life, I'm much more productive when I'm on a schedule - "tonight I will do laundry and Saturday at 4pm I will go return those jeans" and such.  Maybe it's because my personal life consists of more small, schedule-able tasks, whereas my work life consists mostly of larger, more long-term projects (with short-term action items, but still).  Different activities call for different types of time-management, I suppose.

So...how do YOU structure your work day?  (or if you're not working, how do you structure your days in general?) Do you enjoy a longer lunch break? Lots of little breaks?  Do you even get a break at all?  I want to know!

And on the seventh day, she rested.

It is currently 5:50pm on Sunday, March 6 - the day on which my two, dear, unrelated friends, Colette and Amelia, were born by the way - and I have spent most of the day sleeping. We slept in until almost noon (the luxury!), and I have taken approximately three naps on the couch. I feel awake now, but goodness.  I've been just plain exhausted for the last week...I blame a draining day at jury duty on Monday and a week playing catch-up at work, and what the hell?  I'll also blame Will's being in Utah for work, which means my sleep schedule got all wonked out, because I have no will power (ha) when he's gone and usually end up staying up way too late watching Sex and the City marathons and movies starring Julia Roberts.  It's like I revert back into college-Kim when he's gone or something.

The other thing that happens when he's gone? I lose most of my motivation to cook.  I don't know what it is about cooking for one, but I am very rarely motivated to try new recipes (or even, apparently, to cook at all).  I ate pizza and macaroni and cheese (both in restaurants) and one night, had a plate of salami and cheese and pickles. And cherry tomatoes, because I wanted to pretend there was something healthy about what I was doing.  This will have to change when he goes on another backpacking trip (though thankfully, this year's trip on the John Muir Trail will be shorter than last year's PCT adventure), because my body doesn't like this whole lack of good diet and sleep thing.

Anyway, I don't know if I was trying to make up for the week of not cooking or what, but I woke up on Saturday ready for action.  I had my friends Suki and Ryan over for a delicious brunch, which means I actually cleaned up a bit around the house. And cooked.  I made my first frittata!  I kind of made up the recipe based on some basic frittata instructions from around the internet, and while I may have overcooked it a tad, it was really good.  I prepared a lox platter that would make any Jewish grandmother (or my dad) proud, and S+R brought delicious fruit from the farmer's market.  Oh, and we had mimosas. I think Suki took better pics than I did, so I hope she posts them so I can steal them.  :)

We also made mango Chobani cake, which turned out very beautifully (and I used my new bundt pan and hand mixer, both free from CSN Stores!).  It's a little dry, which I think could be from over-baking or from using whole wheat flour...or both? Any ideas? It's pretty though, and it's really good with vanilla ice cream.

And then, after exchanging some jeans at GAP and checking out the Totally Awesome New Target That Is Close To My House And Super Shiny Brand New And Huge, I decided to outdo myself and cook a third thing from scratch.

You see, I had the end of a champagne bottle leftover brunch, and y'all know that champers doesn't last long just sitting in the fridge.  So unless I wanted to have a couple glasses just for fun (which, um, not a terrible idea I guess), I would have to get creative.  Not too creative, as it seems this is a fairly common "problem" out there on the internets.  After browsing several recipes (search terms "champagne recipe" "recipes using champagne" and "how to use up the end of a bottle of champagne") and filtering out all the ones for punch (seriously, even I could have come up with "add different kinds of juice and it becomes punch!" - nice one, internet. way to be creative.),  I found this.

Yes friends, that is a recipe for pasta with a sauce made from shrimp, tomatoes, champagne and cream.  And oh lordy, it was delicious.  I had exactly one shallot left, and almost exactly the 1 1/2 cups champagne required.  I used a can of diced tomatoes (rinsed), and a little more cream than required because I accidentally let the sauce reduce a little too far, and I added a smidge of lemon juice both to the pasta and the sauce.  But seriously, so good.  I don't have a picture because we dove in so fast (the smell of champagney, creamy, tomatoey goodness was driving us insane).  There is a tiny container of leftovers, but refrigerated pasta leftovers never photograph very well, do they?

You'll have to use your imaginations.  Try not to be too jealous.  It's ok to be a little bit jealous though.  I would be.  Read the reviews on the recipe page - it really was that good.  This one will definitely be staying in rotation around here...I see it being the traditional dinner during or after any celebration involving champagne.  Who wants to have a party?

Anyway, now perhaps you can see why I was so sleepy today (oh, the justification; oh, the pity party).  It has been a luxurious day of lounging around, sampling a Jewish deli around the corner that I didn't know existed (conclusion: not good. why can't the bay area have any good Jewish delis!?!?!?), and napping.

And now I am getting ready to make dinner for other friends.  I hope your weekends were all lovely!

Corn Sticks!

Several months ago, I purchased a super awesome cast iron corn stick pan.  I still haven't seasoned it, but this weekend I made "Truly Gritty Cornbread" for an Oscar Night party (in addition to "Meat Damon's Texas Ranger Le Boeuf Chili").  The sticks were a little hard to remove from the pan (I sprayed with PAM), but they turned out really well.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

pan all filled up and ready to bake

little corn sticks, fresh from the oven! 

detail shot...so corn-like!

Corralling the Cords

Recently, I won the Most Awesome Girlfriend Award when I surprised Will by having our TV mounted on the wall above the fireplace while he was out of town.  I'd like to thank a little piece of rad internet called TaskRabbit.  You should check it out - and if you do, use my discount code (PAL40580) to get $10 off your first task! 

I was, in fact,  happy to be done with it. Our TV is now hung gloriously above the fireplace, rather than sitting on a table in front of the fireplace, and we can now watch TV with a roaring fire.  Of course, we haven't made a fire yet.  But we will.

Now, of course, there is the issue of the cords.  As you can see in the picture below, they are a bit of an eyesore.

a tangled mess of cords

also this.

Anyone out there have tips for wrangling this mess?  I'm going to get a small container or basket to go under the table, to hold the video games and controllers and any extra cables we may have. That will solve the problem of the messy piles. In front of the table, you'll notice the VCR/DVD player and the Tivo - both of which will be moved (Tivo will eventually be sold, VCR/DVD player will be moved to another location since we don't use it often). 

But there's the issue of the drapey mess hanging from the TV.  I could just kind of gather the cords together and secure them with nails, so at least they're in a straight line and not a jumble? They'd still look kinda funky, but at least it would be neater?  

Any ideas?

PS I made a fire.
PPS weird commercial.
LTD.

And We Have A Winner!

Congratulations to the lovely Patricia (from A Serious Girl)!

You are the winner of several bags of pistachios!

There were five comments.
I numbered them 1-5, in
order from top to bottom,
as they appear on my blog.
Random.org chose a winner.

I will be contacting you soon about your prize!

It's World Pistachio Day! Party Favors For You!

Did you know that?  Did you even know there was such a thing?  Me neither.  That is, until I met the lovely folks behind Wonderful Pistachios (at FoodFete).  They sent me home with a ton of pistachios, which is a good thing, because man.  I love pistachios.  There's something so satisfying about prying the shell open and devouring the little green nut inside.


The funny thing is that I didn't even know I liked pistachios until I started going to Will's parents' house for Christmas.  I always thought pistachio ice cream was the weirdest idea ever (perhaps because I always expected it to be mint), and I just never took to the little ole pistachio.  But Will's family always has a bowl of pistachios in the living room, with a smaller bowl sitting on top of the pile of nuts to catch the shells, and I quickly became addicted to these delicious nuts.  Thank goodness they're one of the healthiest nuts out there - and thank goodness the shells remain as evidence of how many I've devoured!  :)


Anyway, today is World Pistachio Day!  Celebrate good times, come on!  And now, a word from the wonderful folks at Wonderful Pistachios (you may know them from their funny ads). 

February 26 is World Pistachio Day, encouraging us all to take a moment to reflect on the amazing history and modern day health benefits of this wonderful nut.

• Did you know that pistachios are one of the oldest flowering nut trees? Evidence suggests that humans were enjoying them as early as 7,000 B.C.!
• Dubbed “the skinny nut” by nutrition experts, pistachios are one of the lowest calorie, lowest fat nuts!
• U.S. President Barack Obama is a self proclaimed fan of snacking on pistachios!
• And in China, pistachios are given as a gift during the Chinese New Year and are known as the “happy nut” because they look like they are smiling.   :)
• For more fun facts, click here! 

Sweet map courtesy of the folks at Paramount Farms

Ok, ok, pistachios are really good and all, but am I really just posting a whole post about pistachios for no reason other than because it's their special day?  Well, as much as I love any reason to celebrate, the most awesome part of all this Pistachio Party Time is that one of you lucky readers is going to win a sweet stash of these salty snacks!  The kind folks at Wonderful Pistachios are offering a giant (24 oz!) bag, as well as several small (8 oz) "snack" size bags as a way to celebrate World Pistachio Day.  Which, again, is today.  In case you missed that.


So how do you win?  Leave a comment telling me how you deal with the shells.  Do you keep a little bowl inside the big bowl?  Do you scatter them all over the floor?  Use them in your compost bin?  Do you have a ridiculously awesome (but sort of mono-tasking) contraption like this?  Let me know and you could win a pistash (ha ha, get it) of your own!  For extra entries, tweet this contest, share it on facebook, and/or blog about it - and then come back here and leave a comment for each thing that you do.  There is no limit to number of entries, so get crackin'! 


I'll be choosing a comment at random, and the contest is officially closed on Tuesday 3/1/11 at 11:59pm PST.


Oh, and super awesome bonus?  My friend Suki is also giving away pistachios!  Her contest ends at 11:59pm TONIGHT though, so if you want to enter, head on over to her blog!

A little PF talk

It's been a while since I blogged about personal finance/budgeting and such, and I've been thinking a bit about it lately, so here ya go.

Topic #1: Credit!  Hi.  My name is Kim, and I just got my first credit card.  Yes, my first.  Yes, I am almost 27 years old.  Yes, I have been living with just a debit card all this time.  I've been thinking about getting one for years, but the combination of not wanting to pay annual fees and wanting some sort of rewards system and not being able to make a decision meant I never had one.  And then along came Banana Republic.  I was already receiving some massive discounts on a recent trip to the flagship store, thanks to a big sale (oh so much pretty there), and the super-helpful salesgirl (no joke, she was great) convinced me to get one (further discounts! I shop here anyway!).  I am usually impervious to the siren song of the store credit card...so why did I give in?

For one, there is actually a decent rewards program when using my card at Banana Republic, Gap, and Old Navy (including the outlet).  Those are the only places I actually shop for clothes anyway, so I might as well be earning rewards for doing it!  I can use the card for other purchases, too (it's a Visa), which I may do eventually, but for now, I'm using it as a clothing shopping card.  I figure this will keep me from spending too much each month, since I don't do much clothing shopping anyway.  I will pay the balance every month (the one downside is a high interest rate - but I don't plan on carrying a balance on any credit card I might ever have).  So yeah.  Now I have a credit card.  So far so good.

I am considering getting a bank credit card through Wells Fargo when I open a new checking account (something I'm planning on doing relatively soon), just to have one for emergencies that has a low interest rate.  Is this something that would be useful?  I hate the idea of spending money I don't have (hence my being ok with a high interest rate on the BR card - I pay it off right after I spend it), but would it be a good idea to have a card I can use in a real emergency?  Something with a low interest rate, in case I have to pay for something I don't have money for (I don't know what kind of emergency that would be...medical expenses? Isn't that what my emergency fund is for?)?  Thoughts?

Topic #2: Debts and Savings!  Exciting news (for me)! I am thisclose to paying off my car loan! I've been working hard to get this paid off, doubling my payments for the last few months.  I gave myself the arbitrary deadline of my birthday (May 10) to have paid off my car, and I am on track to come in ahead of schedule.  I owe just over $1,000 and plan to pay $500 in March and the remainder in April.  And I am stoked.  Woo hoo!  The plan was to then take the $500 I'm not spending on the car payment and put it into my "high interest" savings account, but since the interest on that account is pretty low right now, I have other plans.

See, I also have this student loan.  The loan was originally for about $18,000.  I decided to check up on my account this morning, just for fun (ha).  And according to the loan website, I have paid about $5,000 since I graduated in 2006 (minus about a year when I was on financial hardship deferment during an unpaid internship).  And somehow, I still owe about $16,000.  That's what we call stupidcrazyinterest. omg.  So.  Since the interest on my student loan is significantly higher than what I'd be earning in the savings account, I'm going to take that extra $500 a month and aggressively work on the student loan repayment instead.  It's still going to take me forever to pay off, but if I'm paying $700 a month instead of $200 a month on it, at least it'll take a little less time.   I'm still budgeting about $200 a month for savings (I like a steady contribution to my emergency fund), but I figure it's better to throw my "extra" money at the loan right now.


It feels good to make grown-up decisions about my finances.

A little cleaning update

Yes, already.  Before I've even really begun to tackle the list.  Last night, I wrote about the little (sort of big) plan I have for getting our condo (and my brain) back under control.  I function much better when my home is a clean and organized place, and the results of three weekends out of town are starting to weigh on me.  And what better time to take back control than a three day weekend?

While yesterday was spent with the requisite lounging around, today brings a renewed sense of focus.  I work best with deadlines and goals, even if they are all self-imposed.  Perhaps especially if they're self-imposed, because then the onus is all on me.  I thought I'd share a little of this process here, because it can be overwhelming to look at a long list of to-do's with nobody telling you how to tackle it, and maybe someone out there in blogland needs a little push.  So here's how I sorted things for this weekend; maybe this example will help someone else who's trying to knock out a long list on a long weekend.

Saturday: Lay around all day. Get some rest so I feel like I'm up to the task of cleaning. Note: laying around all day staring at the mess also helps with the motivation to clean.  Start some laundry, since that's something that can be done while (mostly) laying around.  This lounge day also helps me to figure out what I need in terms of groceries, cleaning supplies, etc - and to really get a handle on what I want to accomplish.  Write a blog post talking about what I want to do, to put it out there and make it public. Sometimes I'll also just write it on a piece of paper and put it somewhere where I can see it.

Sunday: Try to sleep in a little since I didn't manage to do that yesterday. Wake up, eat something and turn my list into a schedule.  Schedules are easier to accomplish than lists! It's all about setting achievable goals and deadlines.  Here's what I came up with for today, as of 11:43am:

• Start a load of towels (done)
• Spend an hour straightening up and cleaning - take recycling down to garage, empty dishwasher, take care of lots of little things that will make a visual difference
• Go to Homeroom for lunch with friends (a reward for a solid hour of work)
• Work for a couple more hours - tackle dining room table, coffee table, TV area
• Get a pedicure, go to Trader Joe's (a reward for a couple more hours of work) - it helps to make an appointment for the pedicure so I have a clear stop-work/take-a-break time.
• File things in my file cabinet, a task I've put off for months.  This should take care of my "Hers" pile of mail, etc. as well, so all that will be left is Will's pile.
• See what else I feel up to doing tonight, if anything.
• Watch a cheesy movie, preferably a chick flick.

Monday: is not as structured, because some will depend on how much happens today.  I'll revisit today's list tonight to see what needs to go down tomorrow.  Here's what I have for now:

• Wake up by 10am, eat breakfast, make sure things are ready for Super Secret Project, which is happening at 11. 
• Sort through pile next to dining room table
• Sort through "the island" in the bedroom
• Clean the bathroom
• Hang out with a friend, possibly while I'm sorting through things.  If you have friends who are willing, chatting while cleaning makes the job more fun!  :)

And that's it!  I'm no expert, but this is generally what works for me.  Happy weekending!