New Dining Room Table

I'm sure you can guess the highlight of my day based on the title of this post. Yesterday I moved my kitchen table and chairs out of the dining room to make way for my dining room table! Well today it settled into its new home and I couldn't be happier! (On top of that, the new light fixture was installed! EEK!)

Table and new light fixture

View from the kitchen

Now this dining room table and I have a history. It was originally my parents dining room table and the one I remember using for all the holidays growing up. The fact that it is now living in my house is just even cooler for me! I can't wait to have an occasion to have people over and use it!

As soon as I bought my house my parents asked if I wanted it because we've had a new dining room table for years now and hadn't really been using this one. I jumped on the opportunity because I love recycling/reusing/re-purposing furniture. Not only does it mesh well with my Earth Chick-ness but I love furnishing my house with things that have a sentimental value to me. I also think that older things are made better, last longer, and have a TON of character. I'm sure as time goes on I will point out more things in my house that have been passed down to me. Another perk is that they sometimes also provide me with a project... ;)

In the case of my table that project will be reupholstering the chairs. I couldn't really tell you what the current fabric looks like other than to say it appears to be a cream base with some green and gold in it. After Easter I plan to visit one of my all time favorite stores (read between the lines: dangerous for me to shop in) Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts to poke around and get some inspiration. I'm also hoping to sew a runner for the table to give it a little extra pop/wow.

Current fabric (I decided to snap a shot)

In addition to all those other goodies for the day, as soon as the table was all in place I was about to say how now I need to find something to put on the table to decorate it when I remembered that ages ago I bought a 3 piece vase set thing. Well for the past few months it has been hanging out (still in the box!) on my book shelves in the living room so I promptly ran and grabbed it and stuck the box on the table. I can't wait to take them out of the box and do something creative with them. My table looks perfect, is in place, AND I didn't need to buy anything new to decorate it (such as candle sticks or a centerpiece). That rocks!

Special thanks to Dad and Uncle Bob for making the trip to bring it up to me and installing my light fixture (got it working on the FIRST try - way to go Dad)!

After that was all done I grabbed a quick dinner of leftover chili, threw in a load of laundry, made some popcorn and watched a movie on TV while putzing around online. That reminds me - quick recap of last night:

The Palace Theatre, after the show

IT. WAS. AWESOME! As soon as I got there I went up to the concession stand and bought myself a thing of popcorn (I had been thinking about it all day!!) and at the last minute decided to get some sour patch kids. My grand total: $4. So between the movie ($5) and my snacks/dinner - I spent a whopping $9. Can't beat it! The second I walked into the theatre I was in awe. I have been there before but to go to watch a movie was incredible. It is beautiful inside and made me wish all movie theaters were still like this. I think the surroundings just made the movie even more amazing for me. I'll have to hit up their next movie night. The movie itself was terrific and it struck a chord with me so much more now that I'm older. All in all it was a great, albeit late, night and I'm really happy I went.

What kinds of projects do you like to do? (If any at all)

Movie Monday!

Well! What a Monday! My day started off with another rainbow – woo hoo! Unfortunately I was running a little late so I didn’t snap a shot of it but it looked a lot like the one on Friday, it was just in a different spot (maybe because of the change in sunrise time?).  Such a nice little surprise to start the day/week  :)

Work was work – nothing much to note about there, other than to say I had another Chobani yogurt. Weee!! Today I tried Pomegranate and it was YUM! I really like that the flavors aren’t too over powering and that its actual fruit that I’m eating in with the yogurt. And speaking of fruit – I don’t know if it is the pears this year or me but I currently can’t get enough of them! They’re so sweet and delicious! I normally like pears but the ones I have had the past couple of days are just so good! I’m having a hard time pacing myself with the ones I just bought – I could easily wipe them out in one sitting.

At lunch I popped home quick grab some leftovers  for dinner (score one for planning ahead!) and move my kitchen table from my dining room back into my kitchen in preparation for my dining room table arrival tomorrow! SO excited!

It looks so empty right now

Hmm...need to paint that door too...haha!

Abby at Country Fest 2010

After work my friend Abby called to catch up about my vacation and her new job (!!!). I have been meaning to call her since I returned from the cruise but life keeps getting in the way! Eek. Thankfully she’s a very understanding friend. :)

Abby and I go way back to I think middle school (my memory is blanking right now!), if not middle school then definitely high school. I’m so happy we’ve stayed in touch through all the years and still make time to chat and see each other - although now when I visit her it will have the added benefit of being in sunny Florida!

Shortly I will be heading over to the Palace Theatre. I’m super excited about this because they show classic movies on the big screen for only $5!! Can you believe it?! I think that just rocks! I have wanted to go to one since I found out they did this but haven’t made my way over there until tonight (despite the fact that there have been many movies I wanted to see). So what movie am I seeing? The Ten Commandments (staring Charlton Heston and has the famous parting of the red sea scene). Probably not many people’s first choice BUT I love this movie! (Weird, I know, but I can’t help it!)

When my sister and I were younger we used to rent movies from the library and the ones we picked usually ended up being old movies. One of the ones we got was The Ten Commandments and, I don’t know why, but I thought it was such an awesome movie and have loved it ever since. I’m totally psyched about seeing it on the big screen.

That will pretty much wrap up my night since the movie is quite long and I’m sure I’ll be zonked by the time I get home. Hope everyone has a great night!

Are there any old (or any) movies that you like that are a little out of left field?

I like a bunch of them but I’ll save that for another post :)

Sweet Bean Chili to Power the Week Ahead

Good evening blog world!

How did the rest of everyone's weekends go? After wrapping up grocery shopping and my other errands the sun had gone in for the day and the rain and WIND were out so I didn't spend too much time outdoors. It was probably for the best though, I had a jam packed night of cooking ahead of me. I planned on making Sweet Bean Chili and cornbread for dinner because I knew it would give me a ton of left overs to last me through the busy week ahead.

Every year at my place of employment our Community Service Committee holds a Chili Cook Off. A bunch of employees volunteer to bring in a crock-pot of chili and at lunch everyone can go down and sample the all the different kinds. The money that is then raised goes to a predetermined charity (I believe it varies from year to year). Well I'm not usually a huge chili fan BUT I always go because it is for a good cause and I like samples. Through the Chili Cook Off I discovered this delicious dish I had for dinner tonight! :) 

All my ingredients ready to roll (minus the sweet tater)

 The recipe is as follows including my substitutions in parentheses:

Sweet Bean Chili

2-3 lbs ground beef, browned and drained (I used ground turkey instead of ground beef - I usually substitute in ground turkey because it's healthier and I don't notice a huge change in taste)

1 large can of baked beans - undrained (I use B&M - the best in my opinion!)

1 can corn - undrained (I had frozen corn on hand so I used that instead)

1 can white northern beans - undrained (I drained and rinsed them)

1 can yellow butter beans -  undrained (I drained and rinsed these too)

1 1/2 cup brown sugar (I used just a little over 1 cup and its still very sweet)

1 cup sugar

1 cup ketchup

3 Tbsp dry mustard

1 onion sliced thin (I used a large sweet white onion)

You can also add bacon (I added about half a package of turkey bacon already cooked)

Mix all the ingredients together and bring to a boil. I let it all simmer for about 45 minutes because I wanted the onions to soften and the flavors to marry. I believe the last time I made this I did it in the crock pot. I didn't have the time today for that but it still came out just as good!

All done! It tastes better than it looks I guess...

After that was all done I cleaned up in the kitchen and then moved my cleaning operation into the living room to go through my newspaper stack and weekly ads. A pretty relaxing evening to get me ready for the busy week ahead.

I'm off to go wind down and get ready for bed. I hope you all have a great Monday and I'll catch up with you tomorrow night!

As a preview of this week I am going to leave you with a teaser: Thompson Square. Any ideas how they fit in? Leave a comment ;)

Two Types of Friends

Since the downstairs bathroom is now completed, I have a renewed desire to cross things off my 'house project to do list'. I have had the trim around the windows in the living room taped since last fall and decided yesterday was the perfect day to get that done.

Through owning my home I have realized I don't like doing projects alone. I like to chat with people while I work. Unfortunately I'm flying solo today so I settled on the next best thing ...

I spent the afternoon with my good Friends Monica, Chandler, Rachel, Joey, Pheobe and Ross. :)

I LOVE this show. When it first came out I never really watched it. It was only after I graduated college that I really got into it. My friend Amanda owns the entire set of DVDs and a while back she let me borrow them and work my way through all the seasons in order. Well after that I just fell in love with the show! I went on Amazon.com and bought my own set!

Watching the show now is so great because the characters are pretty much the same age as I am and seeing them go through life's up and downs (with a comedic twist of course) provides a kind of sentimental comfort. And the show is just hilarious so the fact that I laugh out loud throughout most of each episode doesn't hurt either. ;)

So with my Season 1 Disk 5 all prepped and ready in my DVD player I tackled the trim. It's kind of sad that I have to paint it because the color of the wood is just beautiful but it was a bit banged up when I moved in so it needed to be repaired with wood putty and the paint will cover that. I have also already painted the baseboard trim in most of my house so the windows need to match.

Wood color to start with

I forgot to take a before shot of the windows - although I'm sure I have one somewhere - so after I got a little into it I figured I should probably snap a shot before it was all done.

In progress

All done! Or at least all primed...

After I finished the window I still had some primer in my little hand held bucket thing so I decided to paint the door going from the living room to the kitchen. The other side of this door is already white so I wanted this side to match. You can see the wood putty on the bottom of the door below the door knob (The white stripe along one of the wood dividers is paint - again I started before taking a picture...haha ;) )

Before

 

After being primed

By the time all of this was done - my hands were pretty much covered in paint (no idea how!) and it was time for me to go get ready for going out to spend some quality time with my real friends. It was Saturday night after all! :)

Brian and Wendy

Kevin and Amanda

Jessica (new friend to me) and Ian

And Amanda and I

We all met up at Wolff's Biergarten because a friend of ours was in town visiting and another was celebrating a birthday! Now, based on the name, you can probably assume what kind of beverage is mainly served. Well I am not a beer girl - not a huge fan of it at all but I figured since I was there I should try and give it another shot. When the waitress asked what I wanted I explained that I didn't know because I don't normally drink beer but rather cider so if she had anything that tasted similar to that I'd take it. She brought over two samples and I tried both - neither really struck me as "oooh wow! This is great!" so I just randomly picked one. I forget what kind she said, I think it began with an s and was a logger lager but here's a shot of the MASSIVE stein I received (and this isn't the biggest!).

What you see there is about all I drank of it. I think it was filled up to the line in the glass so I drank about an inch down. I was pretty pleased with myself, called it a night with the beer, and got water for the rest of the evening. In the future, I'll get a glass of wine or stick with good old H2O.

It was such a fun night and the Biergarten itself is such a fun place - you can throw the peanut shells on the floor and there's a fake tree in the back! It's especially fun in the warmer months because the front of the bar is essentially a garage door that opens out to a patio. The door wasn't open last night because it's still cold and it was raining, but I'm sure we'll head back when it's outdoor patio season :)

Now I'm off to do some grocery shopping and other errands and hopefully spend some time out in the sunshine today!

Free for all Friday

Happy Friday everyone! The work week is over and now the fun of the weekend begins! Woo hoo!

My morning started off terrifically when I came down stairs to find a rainbow across my living room!

On the carpet

I think you can see more colors in this one

I think this was reflecting off the medicine cabinet mirror in the bathroom onto the floor and TV. (If not then I have no clue where it came from). It put a nice little smile on my face while I ran into the kitchen to grab my breakfast and lunch for work.

Today was super sunny and, even though it wasn't really on the warm side, I still wanted to pop out of the office for a bit to soak up some Vitamin D and fresh air. I decided this would be a perfect opportunity to run to the library and pick up a few books I've wanted to check out (as if I don't already have enough of my own!) :)

And that's not all of them

When I got back I was doing a little reading on CNN to keep up with current events and I came across this article from "The Chart" blog. It's National DNA Day!!! How exciting is that! It's a day celebrating that which makes everything unique! "It's to commemorate the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA in April 1953, and the completion of the Human Genome Project in April 2003." April is apparently a big month for genetics! Whoowee!

I toyed with the idea of talking a bit about the genome but I would have to reference my college Biology books...and since they are in my sister's room at our parents house due to her recent obsession with the Bodies Exhibit...I have decided against it :)

On my way inside the house after work I noticed my mystery flowers are starting to bloom and grow! (That makes me think of the Sound of Music .... edelweiss, edelweiss...") :)

They're pretty but I still have no idea...

There's a bunch of these but without flowers I just can't tell

I guess I'll need to wait a little longer for the second type to do something other than sprout green leaves. I'm intrigued to see what they become so I can learn how to take care of them. I also need to figure out how to move them since the second type in particular has germinated quite far away from my house. I do believe some landscaping research is in store for me this weekend.

In the meantime I have put on my Cookie Monster socks...

C is for cookie...

Grabbed the last of my Scrabble Junior Cheez-Its and some of my yummy iced tea from last night...

Why they are Scrabble Junior, I have no idea...

And my library books...

And I'm going to settle in and do some reading. I am really psyched about having this blog and really want to make it great so I'm making sure to do my due diligence. ;)  I hope I find some interesting tips and info - I'm really looking forward to reading these! (Especially the IT Girls book...I don't know if it's because it is pink or that it has the word 'moxie' in the title.)

Have a great Friday night!

Catch-up Part 2

Check here for catching up part 1.

Tuesday my friend Alison came over after work to check out my new bathroom. While on vacation I had my downstairs bathroom completely gutted and re-done. I'll post pictures, but not quite yet (there are a couple of people I want to see it in person first ;) ). Below are the before pictures:

The shower (and this is after I cleaned it)

 

Marigold tub surround

View from the door

You can see why it needed to be remodeled! As soon as I saw the house (even though I loved it) I knew this room desperately needed some attention and T.L.C.. Well it certainly got it! It looks like a completely new room now; amazing!

Alison and I got a pizza from a place near my house that has some of the best pizza I've ever had! I had some baby carrots on the side to try to add some nutrients to the meal. Then we chatted while watching Friends. It was a nice fun and relaxing night.

Yesterday was a memorable day for me due to the fact that I tried Chobani Greek yogurt for the first time EVER and LOVED it! I was so nervous that I would hate it since it has taken me a while to like yogurt in general - it freaked me out for such a long time because it contains live cultures...eek! - but it was sooo good and good for you. I highly recommend it. And for those of you who are a bit skeptical like me, Chobani has coupons on their website (here) so you can try it for even less! Who doesn't love coupons (or at least saving money)!

Another note worthy 'event' that is taking place this week...the first signs of spring at my house!!! It's my first spring in the house since I moved in at the end of August/early September so I never had the chance to see what flowers grow here.

Well I still don't know since they are just sprouting but here's what they look like. If you have any guesses, please share!

These blue babies are growing near my foundation

And these buds are all over the front of my house

I have no idea what they are but every day when I get home from work I take a little time to check them out and see how things are progressing...and if they are becoming more recognizable to me!

Tonight I made a very yummy and snazzy iced tea. I took 5 bags of I Love Lemon tea and poured boiling water over them and let them steep for about 5-10 minutes. Then I mixed in some sugar and sliced up a whole lime and half a lemon and put the slices in the tea. I'm keeping the slices in to let everything marinade together.

Look at those yummy fruit slices

And on that note we are all caught up! Cheers! Have a happy Thursday night and great Friday morning!

Playing Catch-Up

I have been thinking of things to write about every day since my first post but haven't gotten the hang of actually  writing and posting them. So tonight I am going to try to catch things up. First off - I went on vacation!!! And it was amazing! I'll give you a couple of hints to see if you can guess where I went...

It involved a little of this:

Doesn't that look so relaxing?!

And a LOT of this: ;)

Delicious!! And check out the umbrellas! :)

Any ideas? I'll give you one last clue...

Toot toot!!

I went on a cruise!!! It was THE MOST relaxing vacation/week of my life EVER (or at least that I can think of right now!). I would do it again in a heartbeat; hands down. Plus I had some awesome company.

Dad, Lor and Mom (I don't know who that lady in the orange is)

We went on Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas boat ship. It was just mind blowing. I won't ramble on too much but I did so much while on vacation that I feel like I had some terrific experiences yet everything was so smooth and relaxing that I came back utterly refreshed. If you ever get a chance to go - GO!

After I got back I unfortunately was a little sick so I'm going to blame that for my lack of motivation in writing. This week, however, started off GREAT. This week is Albany Restaurant Week which I LOVE and try to go to every time it is held. I believe there is one in the Spring and another in the Fall and haven't missed one yet since I first found out about it. For those of you not familiar with Restaurant Week - participating restaurants in the area offer a 3 course meal from a fixed price menu for $20.11 (since it's 2011). All the menus are available online at Albany BID's [snazzy new] website, which I think is the greatest part (aside from eating of course) since you get to essentially scope them all out ahead of time!

On Monday I went to Marche at 74 State Street. Off of their special Restaurant Week Menu I ordered:
Appetizer:
Ginger Pork Dumpling - Spiced pork meatball in a fried dumpling, sweet soy, nappa cabbage slaw
Entree:
Grilled Salmon - Salmon filet, caramelized onion risotto, peas and carrots, mustard and dill glaze
Dessert:
Strawberry -Banana Bread Pudding - Bread pudding infused with banana, topped with balsamic strawberries and whipped cream.

YUUUM is all I can say. It was all so good. I have been to Mache once before, also for restaurant week, and the food is just incredible. I should have taken pictures because the presentation is just as yummy as the food itself.

Well I'll stop here and hopefully finish my catching up tomorrow.

Have a great night! I'll leave you with a picture of a new friend from the cruise ;)

I thought he was going to eat my toes! Haha