Red Curtains

Oh I do love spring - especially this year, where the cold snowy weather has lasted from October until literally the first day of spring. I guess that's why I've gone house project crazy. On Friday, I took a much needed 3-day weekend and here's the first of what's new on East Sixth:

Project 1: New Curtains!!

Here are the before & after of my new RED curtains. We also re-arranged the living room for the 90th time...

Miracle Fruit?

CNN just had a post today about this so-called "miracle fruit" that makes everything taste sweet to your tongue. Seriously? Could this be true? The pulp of it binds some sort of sugar molecules that bind to the tongue for 15+ minutes to make everything you eat taste sweet... no more bitter tea or veggies - woohoo!

I've got to find someplace that sells this - my weight loss may be back on track!

Reviewing "Rachel Getting Married"

The latest video in our Netflix cue was Rachel Getting Married. I think Anne Hathaway did an absolutely excellent job in the role of "Kym", the "just out of rehab" sister of the bride.

It was a sometimes jarring film, sometimes pleasant film, with a cinematic style closer to a home video than anything else, which makes you feel like you are actually there - except no one actually talks to the camera. Along those same lines, I also loved how normal and chaotic everything seemed. The script and actors did such a wonderful job of creating the feeling of actual family craziness that is associated with so many holidays and at home weddings - from the way that they sat in their own home, to the family physical interaction, to an impromptu challenge of a race to fill up the dishwasher. The "cool" factor came with the odd music and speeches that were given a the rehearsal dinner and wedding - it made you want to be an actual guest at the wedding.

All in all, a wonderfully different movie - but you have to like that sort of imperfect stuff (which I do now).

March's Bookclub Fooding

Bookclub was hilarous and delicious this week. The theme was "tea party"; a review below:

Book: The Glass Castle

Beverages: Pots of tea, white wine & water.

Food:

• Tomato soup from Trader Joe's
• Egg salad with crackers
• Cucumber & radish tea sandwiches
• Chicken salad
• Red velvett cupcakes
• Scones (2 flavors: Cinnamon chocolate chip & Cranberry)

The cucumber & radish tea sandwiches my friend V made were my favorite; directions here:

Ingredients:

1/8 cup fresh dill, chopped fine
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons cream cheese
6 slices of whole-wheat bread
3-inch length of seedless cucumber, cut into thin slices
Thinly sliced fresh radishes

Prep:

In a small bowl combine the dill, butter, and cream cheese. Stir to combined well. Spread bread slices with the butter mixture, top 3 of them with the cucumber and sliced radishes, distributing evenly then season with salt, and top the cucumber/ radishes with the remaining bread slices. Cut off and discard the crusts and cut each sandwich into triangles or other fun shapes. Yields 12 sandwhiches

Base recipe modified from http://www.epicurious.com/

Giftings: Baby Book & Bag

My book club friend K just had a little baby boy - and as our gift to her, we're all giving a baby book. To package her mini-library, I decided to make her a bag as well; it turned out so good I'm really tempted to keep it myself! 1 yard of fabric, 30 minutes of my time. Too perfect!!

Plates to Purchase

I love CB2 - its Crate & Barrel's version of IKEA. My latest desire comes in the form of some beautimous plates. I'm going to go home and try and convince the husband that these plates would be so needed - they remind me of a mod version of my wedding colors...

They also have super cool lamps, vases, mod tables and chairs. I'm going to see how I can "funk" up my garage-sale find stuff to look more like theirs. Now if I only lived in a loft!

Lazy Lady

Today is a day that I would rather be home, on my couch with my dogs - eating pizza, drinking fatty milkshakes and sleeping between watching movies. (wow, that sounds AMAZING right now) I've avoided working hard today and have slept in every morning (so I haven't exercised enough these past few days to make myself proud) - and I've been binging on chocolate non-stop.

Its amazing how just a few days ago I had everything in sync - the house was clean, dinner was on the table early, I started a few craft projects and I was bringing my A-game to both work and home. I was full of energy and loving myself - yesterday and today I'm anxious, gluttony, angry, and lazy.

What is this? Is it the weather? Am I burned out from the workload? What I've been eating? Not exercising? Maybe it is that time of the month that I've just got to get through... Whatever it is, I've got to shake this crazy feeling!

Today I'm sticking to my WW points, I'm going to exercise and walk the dogs. Heck, I may even clean a bit while my hubby's at work. I need to feel acomplished when I'm in moods like this - that always makes me feel better.

Book Report: The Glass Castle

I just finished The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls for book club. It's a memoir about her growing up in poverty with her brother & 2 sisters and the horrible situations her parents put them through. The book starts off with Jeanette's memory of being burned while cooking hotdogs when she was 3, and her parents kidnapping her from the hospital where she was recuperating - to picking food from the trash during school while her mom bought candy bars and hid it from the kids.

The book, while beautifully written, was aweful for me to read. The hardest part is that it was all true - the 4 kids starved while the father and mother put them in dangerous situations, couldn't feed them, and yet were so disturbed that the spent the money on drinking and tchotchkes for the shack they lived in. I can't believe that child services never took the kids away. It is so hard to believe that the kids covered up for their parents so often, and that the parents chose to live like they did. Someone should have stepped in and saved those kids from a mother who didn't want to be burndened by family and a father who was too sick with alchohalism to help them. There must be thousands of families out there like this now in the US- and I wish I knew how to help even one of them.

It also reminds me of something I heard last year, but can't remember where from:

There was a man on his way home, when he felt the need to buy a gallon of milk. Once he bought the milk, he was steered over to a house in the city, rung the doorbell and handed them the milk; he had never been to the house before, nor knew of the family, and was not proned to do things like this - he just was listening to the feelings he had. They family was crying over happiness and disbelief because the baby was starving and they didnt have any money. One of the parents had just been praying for milk a few moments earlier.

I had told my aunt this story and she said in reply "if you knew what was going on behind the walls of the homes in our own city- you'd break down the doors and risk everything to save those kids." It's so true- yet we dont have the transparency or understanding of our own city and processes to help them. If I knew how to help those families more permanantly, I would. I would open my house to teenagers or a family if I knew it was safe - I would give people money if I knew they'd use it for food and not drinking / drugs. I know my hubby feels the same way- he encourages that from me.

How do we get there though? How do we give back during this recession, where people not used to having to simply survive are starting to fall below the poverty line? How do we do it safely, and still help these people? I guess I'll just have to pray to keep my eyes open a little bit more, and be thankful for my own protected upbringing.

Related: Just saw this on CNN.

First Friday Fun & Furniture.

What an amazing weekend I had. I went down for my first "First Friday" in Philly with a friend and met some super nice people, saw some awesome art galleries and danced my [face] off. I took the train where I had some super fun conversations with a lady who teaches "nutrition and home design" at a nearby high school (my ideal job!!) and then saw some super-fun and ultra expensive furniture art. I walked back from my friend's place to the train and got tons of exercise (to counter-act the fooding and drinking that had taken place), and just was really happy all weekend long.

On the way back from the train, I perused the local thrift store and found an awesome coffee table to add to our collection, and took it home for $35. Now for $10 of sandpaper and paint, we'll have a super new coffee table in just a few hours. So Psyched!!

So the hubby and I have decided to go out and start doing this for other people. We're not professional furniture refinisher's (yet) and have some really great ideas on how to rehab furniture. We figure we'll buy it for $35, 50 or $100 from Goodwill and then re-do (either in a funky motif or into something else) it and sell it for a 30% markup on Craigslist or something... I can't wait - Bo and I L-O-V-E redoing furniture. If it doesn't work, then I'll have some super new pieces, and if it does, I'll have some super new money. :)

Oh, and I found $10 on the street this weekend. It really was spectacular.

The 30 Day Shred

A month ago I was perusing Amazon.com for a video that promised to be both quick and effective. I like workout videos, mostly because I can't drag myself to the gym, but they can be really long or boring which makes me not want to keep with them for more than a week. When I came across this one I knew I had to try it. I've been using it for 20+ days during the past month and while I've only lost 2-3 lbs, the muscle I've gained has been amazing. My back has only hurt 2 times since I started the video, as opposed to every day like before!!

The video comes with 3 levels and it is 20 minutes of non-stop moving - 1 minute warm up, then 3 different circuits of 3, 2, 1 - strength, cardio, abs. I'm not so good with the abs yet - the cardio comes relatively easy but the combination strength moves are HARD!! There are balance positions with military presses, something horrible called "plank-jacks" and lunges that make me talk back to the TV and tell her how crazy she is. But because its only 20 minutes, I'm back at it again the next day - which is something I've never done. I'm already on Level 2... and I'll probably be there for another 2 weeks until I master those darn plank jacks.

Anyway, i love my new body that's taking shape before my eyes, and i am so glad for Jillian Michaels' video. I'll post more once I've conquered level 3.

Organizing Life

I just discovered GOOP.com - Gwyneth Paltrow's website - and I loved it. What I loved most about it (other than the seriously cute graphics and feeling like I'm spying on her life just a bit) is the organization of it all! She has a section just for her "Make" section, her "Do" section, her "See", "Be", etc. So I went back and reorg'd my blog into my own (yet admittedly similar) categories.

I'm also really glad to be back blogging again. I've been so busy with work and life in general that the idea of having to do one more thing at the end of the day was just too much - but now, it feels like I'm accomplishing something - even if it is just recording my thoughts. Maybe I'll even share my blog and start letting people read it soon!

Giving Back

I had a fantabulous weekend with my best girls from bookclub - we went up the Poconos for a restful weekend of shopping, gaming, drinking and fooding. It was awesome. It has changed my life to have found a group of girls I really love - and have something to look forward to each month through bookclub.

With that in mind one of my BC girls (who also happens to be a former college roomate) Mandy, gave me the great idea on the way home to do a charity-of-the-month. she's been doing this for everything from walking for the cure to giving clothes away to goodwill. As part of Lent, and my better life improvements, I'm going to try to do this too!

January - Special Olympics / Goodwill donations / Philabundance donation
February - Special Olympics
March - Special Olympics / March of Dimes donation