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Rose Windows

Today was my last day of my art history class. I’m really going to miss it. I’ve really developed a love for ancient art history, especially the architecture. I’m fascinated by the amazing things that people were able to build without any kind of fancy modern technology or huge machinery to aid them. The intricacy and detail is astounding. I particularly like the patterns and little embellishments that they use. I could go on and on about art history and all that amazes me for days, so I’ll stop here.

The last time period that we discussed in this class was Gothic Art and Architecture. Lately I have really been in love with the Gothic rose window patterns that adorn almost every Gothic cathedral. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here is an example of the Notre Dame in Paris (with my 17 year old self in front of it):

See the really pretty round window in the middle? I’m in love with these. They are on all kinds of ancient buildings, but this is just one that I happen to already have pictures of. They are even prettier on the inside, because they are completely filled in with stained glass:

Sorry, I had a crappy camera at the time, so these pictures aren’t the best. Here is another one on the other side of the Notre Dame:

In one of my inspiration posts a while back, I wrote about an Etsy Shop that sold these rose window prints. I really, really want one, but there aren’t any in their shop. I e-mailed to ask if I could get one, but I still haven’t heard back from them. This is what I’m talking about:

The other day Drew and I were in Restoration Hardware and I saw this matelasse/quilt/coverlet in AMAZING Belgian Linen in the most perfect brownish grey color with a rose window pattern on it:

I fell in love. Immediately. I pondered and looked and touched and had the salesman get out the packages and almost went to the sales counter with them. They were even on sale. But they were still WAY expensive for my budget. 🙁

I can’t get them out of my head though. I know I can find other, less expensive bedding for the bedroom in the new house, but I really, really love the rose window pattern on this! (and the color and the texture and the grain lines of the linen…Ahhh!)

So there you have it. My obsession with rose window patterns.

 

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Weekend Adventures

How was your weekend? They always go by so fast! This week coming up is my last week of school! Whoop Whoop! Then I have a week off, then finals the next week and then it is all SUMMERTIME for me!

This weekend we spent time working on designs for several websites and graphics we are doing, cooking, looking for new furniture for our new house and starting to pack stuff up in my dorm room that I don’t need in the next two weeks. It was pretty productive!

Here are a few snapshots from our weekend:

Saturday breakfast brunch lunch:

Tomato/Mushroom/Green Bell Pepper/Cheddar/Parmesan Quiche. Totally Yummy! (Image Copyright Drew Rowland–he says)

We of course couch shopped on Saturday after that. Then we stopped by JoAnns because I needed some inspiration for my final in my painting class and I had an idea, but I’m not sure if I’ll do it or not. I love looking at fabric! So pretty! I’m really inspired by graphic prints. I really want some curtains somewhere in our house made out of a print like these:

On Sunday since we were in the house decor/furnishing mood, we drove all the way to Denham Springs, Louisiana to look through their many antique/furniture/flea market stores. We saw a lot of stuff that would really work for the new house and all with prices we could afford, but ultimately we were too scared to buy anything else yet. We want to get everything into the new house first and then see what we need where and measure the spaces to see what size pieces we would need, etc.. We found a pretty wood coffee table, but we want to get the couch first and see how long of a coffee table would work in there. I totally should have taken pictures of things we liked, but I completely forgot. I got home with only one picture of a small side table I saw there. I took it in one of the first stores, and although I wouldn’t buy it because it doesn’t go with the scheme of our house, I thought it was pretty. The entire top is a glass and ceramic mosaic.

I spent the rest of the evening working on packing up some of the stuff from my dorm room. I have a lot of stuff that I know I won’t need to use in the next two weeks, so I’m trying to get it all together so that Drew and I can move a little out at a time. We don’t have anyone down here to help us move out and I live on the second floor and there aren’t any elevators in the building. It was quite an ordeal to get everything moved in and then we had not only Drew and I, but my parents as well. We are on our own for move out, so hopefully if we take it a couple boxes every couple days or every week it won’t be so bad. 🙂

Anyway, I’m sure anyone reading this is completely bored by now from our extremely exciting weekend. Sorry, we’ll try to keep the fun down a little next weekend. We don’t want to get too wild with our cooking and home decorating! 😉

Ohh, and I almost forgot, we just made scones to end our weekend tastefully! When I was in like 5th or 6th grade, my sisters and I would often go over to this lady’s house in my town that had a little gifts and garden place. She hosted tea parties and garden parties for kids and we had signed up for some of her butterfly summer events. We became friends with her and would go over there every so often to run around in her garden, bake bread, and look for and name butterfly species. I had a tea party there one year for my birthday where my friends and I all wore dresses and straw hats and sat in the garden and drank lemonade and tea and ate scones, biscotti, and tea sandwiches and made small flower bouquets from her garden and decorated cupcakes with crushed Oreo cookies and edible flowers.

She made amazing scones and my mom has her recipe and makes them often as well. My mom adds lemon/orange zest and cranberries and walnuts and all sorts of fancy things, and I like them that way, but my favorite are just plain scones. Although I want to think that the garden lady always made some kind of spread that I always put on the plain ones, but I can’t remember what it is now.

For some reason, I really wanted plain classic cream scones tonight. Luckily we had unsalted butter in the freezer and some leftover heavy whipping cream from the Chicken Tetrazzini we made last week. Drew of course wanted something in his, so we split the dough after we mixed it and I made mine plain and he added cinnamon and more sugar to his. I ended up with small, dainty scones and Drew ended up with massive giant glob scones. Regardless of their shapes, they tasted amazing. Mine of course were better, although Drew would disagree.

Hope you all had wonderful weekends!

 

 

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Filling out the House

Now that we’ve picked out a new apartment (we don’t move in until May 15th) it is time for us to pick out some stuff to go in it! We don’t have the funds to buy a bunch of stuff just yet, but we do need a few things considering currently we don’t really have any furniture. The new house is a lot bigger, so we’ll need quite a bit more to fill it out. We are good about saving money and using it to buy quality and also budget friendly pieces. Luckily, we’ve also sold several websites lately, so we had the money to do a little bit of shopping. We plan on filling out the house slowly though, and buying things only that we really, really like and think would work in our house for a long time. We also have a few building projects up our sleeves that hopefully we can tackle sometime soon. 🙂

I’m so excited about getting to design and decorate the house!! Plus I’m going to be working all summer, so I’ll finally have a little extra money to tackle small design projects! I already have several pieces of art just from my painting class and I’ve got ideas for other ones as well! I can’t wait!

Anyway, back to the point. Since Drew currently has a studio apartment, he doesn’t really have a living room area. Therefore he really doesn’t have any living room furniture. So one of the highest priorities for big furniture purchases for the new house was a couch for the living room. We also eventually need to invest in a nice chair, a coffee table, a t.v. stand and maybe an ottoman, but those all can wait. We really need somewhere to sit in there. So today was deemed go-compare-couch-prices-at-furniture-stores day.

We had a list of furniture places with us, but once we got to the first place, the people were really nice, they had a lot to choose from, and the quality and prices were great too. We had a feeling that we weren’t going to have to look anywhere else. Plus, they happened to be having a no tax sale this weekend. We found several things in our price range that would have worked, but we were unsure of little things. We didn’t like the texture of the fabric on a couple of the couches, one had only pillows for the back, two were too white and I was afraid they would get dirty too easily, and so on. After several hours of roaming the store and comparing and re-comparing and sitting and laying and contemplating and calling our families to see what they thought, we finally made our choice. This is what we bought:

We liked the fabric better than most of the other ones we saw, we liked the simple classy lines and the cushions on the back (rather than just pillows for the back), and the size seemed to be perfect–not too big, not too small. It was comfortable–not too hard, but not too soft. Some that we looked at were too squishy and Drew sank into them too far and some others were hard as a rock. We wanted something a little firmer, but not hard or too stiff.

The only problem we had at first sight with this couch was the color. It is hard to tell in the picture, but it really is a pale spring green. We wanted something more neutral so it would go with whatever we decided to put in there, but the more we thought about how much we liked everything else about it, the color seemed like less of an issue. Plus, the more I looked at it, the more sandy/neutral it looked. With all tan/creme/beige/taupe neutral walls of apartment life, we figured it wouldn’t be so bad to have a little color in a couch. Plus, since we’ve never had a living room before, we are starting from scratch, so we can make it fit into whatever decor we choose. Or make whatever decor fit around it. You get the idea.

Here is a picture with the pillows it comes with:

Have you ever walked around a furniture store and noticed how hideously ugly the majority of patterned couch pillows are? I sure noticed. The ones on ours weren’t so bad, but I’m definitely not crazy about the diamond pattern on those two. They look better in this picture actually than they did in real life. It real life, they are bright red and yellow and black and remind me of the circus. The brown ones don’t bother me so much. I can easily sew covers for the diamond ones though, and that saves me from having to buy pillow forms. As I was sitting there testing out the couch and contemplating the pillows, I remembered the fabric that I bought a couple weeks ago to make pillows for Drew’s ugly (and dis-functional) current loveseat (which we will not be keeping). I blogged about them, here. If you don’t remember, here they are:

How perfect! I first thought that the grey and green one would be perfect because the greens are pretty close, but now that I’m thinking about it and seeing the pictures next to each other, I think I might recover the diamond pillows in the creme and brown patterned fabric and then the smaller brown pillows will match as well! Plus we have a creme colored rug for that room already and it would look great with a darker stained wood coffee table! I can then bring in some color through some paintings or artwork above the couch. I’m excited about it! I’ll have to see how they look together in person! Too bad we won’t get to see the couch for another month! (We wanted them to deliver it directly to the new house so we didn’t have to move it up the stairs!) The bad part is that I forgot how much fabric I bought and I don’t remember how big those diamond pillows are. I might need to go get a little more fabric. I hope they still have it then!

If you’ve forgotten from the house tour, here is a picture of the living room where the couch will go:

Yay for house decorating! I only wish we didn’t have to wait a month to get to see it all together!

 

 

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Plein Air Painting (Project #5)

Today I turned in my 5th project in my painting class. This assignment was different from the others, in that we didn’t spend weeks working on one larger painting, but instead we completed 8 smaller paintings. These were done in the impressionist style, painted only in natural lighting, we were only allowed to spend 4 hours on each painting and each needed to be done all in one sitting. We completed 4 indoor paintings and 4 outdoor paintings. “En plein air” painting is the term used for outdoor painting, generally in the impressionist style.

I’m really glad we did this project. It was refreshing and didn’t get boring because we could paint outside the studio and the paintings were quick enough that you didn’t get bored with the subject. It also required that you make quick decisions and determine what aspects of your set-up you could relate in the painting in the time frame and which aspects were left to be handled economically. It was really enjoyable, is something that I would totally do often outside of painting for a class, and I really feel like I improved significantly throughout the project. Just compare my first ones to my last ones!

These are in the order that I did them by category. I definitely think the last one of each is way better than previous ones! I actually did both of the last ones yesterday. Way to go procrastination.

I definitely need to still keep improving. I’m happy with my progress, but I still need lots of practice with painting glass! It’s been hard to try to master so far.

I could improve a lot on my outdoor ones as well. I definitely like the last outdoor one best out of all of them. 🙂

I thought it was really nice and relaxing to paint in Audubon Park. It is peaceful and is nice just to get to enjoy the wonderful weather. It was also really interesting to sit there and observe everything going on around the park and hear random bits of everyone’s conversations. I would definitely recommend you do it sometime.

Here are all of our paintings spread out in class for critique, pretty, huh?

Click to see painting project #1, #2, #3, & #4.

 

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A Lovely Afternoon

Usually on Wednesdays, I’m scrambling all day long to get my art history assignment done. It is always due by Wednesday at 5 pm, and I never have enough time to work on it earlier in the week (or I’m just a procrastinator). Either way, it typically means that my Wednesdays are relatively stressful and rushed. Today however, we don’t have an assignment due! We turned our last one in last week and so we are done with assignments for the semester! (We just have a week and a half left of school)

Therefore, today has been much more relaxing than most Wednesdays, even though I still had other work to do. Tomorrow, my 8 smaller paintings that we’ve been working on lately are due. I had two that I needed to finish today (there is that procrastinating again) so I spent the morning/afternoon at the park painting.

It is funny what all you see and hear while sitting in the park for several hours. I brought my iPod with me, but I totally forgot that I had it, and I’m glad I didn’t turn it on. It was much more interesting to hear what all was going on around me. Wind blowing, leaves shaking, twigs falling out of the trees, birds, ducks, squirrels, people walking, biking, taking on the phone. Since I was there during the daytime, when most people are at work and most kids were at school, it made for an interesting combination of people. College students from Tulane and Loyola, older people, parents with their young children, moms with strollers, people walking dogs, people running/walking/biking, a girl that sung along with her iPod like she was on stage with a pop star, a teacher with her first grade class (whom she lectured for 10 minutes on not jumping off the bridge while they crossed it), another teacher yelling at her kids not to walk on the bike path, a guy from in a cowboy hat talking on the phone about Cowboys for Christ, and the list goes on and on.

It was a perfect day outside, I got my painting done (and I’m very pleased with how it turned out!), and it was nice to just sit and listen for a while. It seems like all too often I forget all about the world around me and get too caught up in my own little world.

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House Tour!!

Read all about our new apartment, here. I snapped a few pictures of the house after we signed the lease, so here is a little house tour. Ignore the mess of the apartment, we signed the lease at 8:30 in the morning and the current tenant had just gotten out of bed, and I’m not sure she expected us to be taking pictures of her house.

Let’s go, shall we:

Here is the outside of the house. Our apartment is in the upper right corner. 🙂

You walk in the entry and are greeted by these stairs.

Once you walk up, you see our doorway. 🙂

Once you open the front door, you see the foyer (what will be Drew’s office) and then the living room through the French doors. Look at those gorgeous hardwood floors! 🙂

When you look back into the foyer from the living room, this is what you see! Those windows are so pretty! This picture cracks me up because Drew and the landlord thought they were hiding from the camera, but they are still very much visible, obviously.

I love that the view out of these windows is pretty too. Lots of trees and greenery. 🙂

Moving out of the foyer we go into the living room.

The doorway on the side of the living room leads to a long hallway. The first door you see is the kitchen, the second door is a bedroom, the door at the very end of the hallway is the utility room and if you turn right beside the utility room you see the bathroom and second bedroom.

Coming down the hallway to the first door, we see the kitchen.

Newer appliances, gas stove, built in microwave, dishwasher, nice cabinets. 🙂

This is the other side of the kitchen. It has a doorway that opens up to a side entrance to the building and then the door that is open is a nice pantry. There is even room in here for a small table!

This is a private side entrance to the apartment that comes up into the kitchen. We will probably just keep it locked and use it for extra storage. It will be nice to keep Drew’s bike in and the box for the Christmas tree.

Continuing down the hallway, the next doorway is the first bedroom. It is a good size and will be my room/art studio/study office space. 🙂

It has a nice sized closet that is really deep.

At the very end of the hallway, there is a nice-sized utility room. Perfect for laundry, ironing, storage, and our deep freezer.

To the right of the end of the hallway is the bathroom.

It is bigger than what Drew has now!

I love this cute little built-in in the bathroom! 🙂

Then right outside the bathroom is the entrance to the second bedroom. Sorry the picture is a little dark and blurry. I didn’t turn the lights on for any of the pictures.

This is the view looking the other way out of the bedroom. It has two closets and plenty of space. You can see the bathroom door right outside the bedroom door.

So that pretty much wraps it up. You’ve seen the whole house! I love it and I can’t wait until we get to move in! 🙂

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One Saturday Morning

One Saturday morning that is really exciting!!! I completed one very big thing on my 20 Before Twenty List and a pretty big thing for life in general: #19. get my first apartment. I didn’t actually get it today, but I signed the lease and will get to move in on May 15th!

First things first. I am staying in New Orleans for the summer for two reasons. 1. My scholarship requires that I be gainfully employed during the summer, and there are better chances of finding a good job that will be beneficial to my portfolio and enjoyable at the same time in New Orleans. I am hoping to get a summer internship with a graphic designer, a letterpress studio, or a stationary/invitation shop–or something in that sort-of job arena. There aren’t really opportunities for things like that in Harrisburg. 2. As much as I love being at home, I really need to feel a little more stability in my life. I hate moving back and forth from Illinois to Louisiana for the summer or for school. It is really stressful and my stuff is all over the place and I don’t have anywhere that really feels “mine.” Because I wanted to live off-campus, I was going to have to sign a year-long lease anyway, so that covers housing for the summer and for the school year, so it all works out well. Not to mention that Drew has a real job and bills to pay, so he of course will be here in the summer as well. We also need to be working on major wedding planning this summer anyway.

I had always wanted us to wait to live together until we were married. However, you always have to make compromises. The scholarship that Drew had for school was only for two years, so next year things are going to be really expensive for him as far as school is concerned. He also has a car payment to pay and rent and bills and on top of all that we are trying to save money for a wedding. We really can’t afford to live in separate houses in New Orleans, and besides it is really kind-of stupid since we are always together anyway. Plus, I don’t know that I would feel safe living in New Orleans on my own. So, that means that we are getting an apartment together next year. We can get something nicer and a little bigger together and we can just move once and if we like it enough we can stay there for more than just this year (which I think we will!).

So anyway, his current apartment has been perfect for the last two years and his landlords are amazing and it will be sad to leave, but it is just a studio and not really big enough for both of us and all our stuff. It has very limited closet space and a pretty small kitchen area that we have already outgrown. It is in a pretty great area though. As sad as we are to leave where we really first established a life at in New Orleans, it is time to move on to something that is bigger than just one room. That is for both me and him. I’ve been more than ready to have more than just a dorm room since the day I moved into the one I have now (Tulane requires all students to live on campus their first two years).

Anyway, back to the point. Lately we have been looking for apartments. We were really nervous and scared that we weren’t going to find anything that we could afford or anything that would be big enough or in a good neighborhood. We tried to keep an open mind, but had several things that we really wanted in an apartment:

-Laundry! It is so expensive to go to the laundromat and so inconvenient to lug your dirty laundry all across the United States to take it home and do it on visits. Plus in order to do the latter, it requires that you have enough clothes to last you a month or more without washing them. I hand washed quite a bit this year.

-A house with more than one room. No dorm rooms, no studio apartments. I wanted at the very least a kitchen/dining/living area and at least a bedroom and bathroom that were separate.

-Enough space for two people and a layout that allowed us to have a separate area to sleep, to study, and to relax. When you are constantly studying and working in the same area as everything else, it makes it hard to ever feel like you can relax in that space. I knew we might not be able to get something super big, but I at least wanted a layout that allowed for a small nook or area to dedicate for a desk and whatnot.

-A kitchen at least a little bigger than the one we have now, preferably with at least some cabinet space so that everything doesn’t have to be on display. Also big enough that the dishes don’t have to be in the same closet as my clothes. Also one that included appliances (they rent some apartments in New Orleans without appliances and we definitely don’t have the money right now to buy a fridge and stove). Drew also really, really, really wanted a dishwasher (He is the current one), although we knew that would be tricky to find and we could live without it.

-A good neighborhood, preferably somewhat close to Tulane/Uptown. New Orleans does have a high crime rate, and although I’ve never really felt unsafe here before, I don’t want our apartment to compromise our safety.

-A good landlord. The landlords that Drew has now are super nice, as you can tell in my last post, here. We knew we probably wouldn’t find someone else as awesome as they are, but we wanted to find someone that at least relatively cared about their tenants and the shape of the property.

-We really wanted a lot of natural light as well. Drew’s apartment now has a few windows, but they are all really small and don’t let in much light. It leaves the place feeling very cave-like. My first dorm room was similar to that as well. Not only is it depressing, but it costs more for your energy bill as well because you have to constantly have lights and lamps on. My current dorm room has huge windows that let in a lot of light and I never have to turn on any lights at all, unless it is night time.

Basically all in all, we would have preferred a two-bedroom, that way we both have our own spaces to study and whatnot, with a furnished kitchen in a good neighborhood with laundry. Ideally, we were willing to look past decorative features and whatnot, but obviously the more character and the nicer, the better.

I have to move out of my dorm room in like two weeks or so, so we really had to get on the house hunt. We found many that could have worked and went and looked at several of them. One was really nice and big and even had an outdoor area, but was in a not-s0-great neighborhood, one was too small, farther away and didn’t have laundry, and one was run by what Drew called a “slum lord” and was a big disaster. I didn’t even want to step foot in that place again. The last one that we looked at seemed perfect from the pictures and description and we started to get excited about it, but we were weary to get our hopes up too high, in case it didn’t turn out.

But ohhh was it Ahh-mazing. It is in a really good neighborhood, just a few blocks away from my school and is actually closer than the apartment that Drew has now. It is also 2 blocks away from the streetcar, so when we have guests or we want to go downtown we can just hop on over there. It is really in the absolute perfect location! It has off-street parking, so there is room for Drew’s car and also mine that I’ll have down here soon. It is also really big and has lots of windows in every room! There are these really pretty arched windows on the front of the house that are super pretty! We toured the house right before sunset and it was still bright enough in the whole house that we didn’t really need to turn the lights on! It also has old-fashioned dark stained hardwood floors that are really pretty and really tall ceilings as well!

When you first walk in, there is a big, sunny foyer area. The current tenant uses it for her dining room, but I think we will use it as Drew’s office, since he works from home a lot. The sunlight that comes in there will be good for him to work and keep him nice and awake when he is on the computer all the time. There are two french doors that you can use to close off the room as well, so that would be perfect if Drew was working and I had company or was watching television or doing anything noisy in the other room. You walk through the foyer/office and into the living room. It is the perfect size for us and I think we can fit our small kitchen table in there as well. Then there is a hallway that stretches the length of the house and all the rest of the rooms lead off of it. The first room off the hallway is a nice-sized kitchen. It has all relatively new appliances with a fridge, microwave, gas stove (YAY!), AND… a dishwasher! (Double YAY!) It has the perfect amount of cabinet space for us and also has a little closet pantry! Perfect!

The next room off the hallway is a bedroom with a nice-sized closet. This would be my room/office/art studio/study space. The end of the hallway splits and on the end is a pretty big laundry/utility room and then the other way is a bathroom with an old porcelain tub/shower, toilet and sink with a built in medicine cabinet and also a pretty built-in linen cabinet with a normal wooden door on the bottom and a glass display door on the top. Next to the bathroom is the other bedroom, with two closets and lots of windows. The house also has central air, which is a big bonus for the scorching New Orleans summer coming up.

The landlord is really nice and really seems to care about the apartment and the condition of everything. He said that they had just installed the central air not too long ago and he was even concerned about having part of the ceiling repainted right next to the new unit before we moved in. We both fell in love with everything about the apartment. It had everything on our list and everything we wanted that we thought we were going to have to compromise about as well. It feels a lot bigger than what we thought we were going to be able to afford, so it will be a great place that we can stay for hopefully a couple years. Actually, I think that the just the foyer and living room area is bigger than Drew’s current apartment! I really, really love the old-fashioned New Orleans charm in the building and I’m really excited that it has charm and also still is nice and functional. It also has lots of storage space for all the stuff we have. PLUS, the price was exactly what we wanted to pay! It was even cheaper than the other, much-worse, apartments we had already toured!! The previous tenant was also moving out at the same exact time that we were looking to move in, so it worked out perfect!

I’m so relieved to have found something so amazing! I still can’t believe it!  We were anxious to find out what “the catch” was going to be in the midst of all of its amazing-ness, but it doesn’t really seem to have one. The only bad thing is that we don’t have hardly any furniture to fill all the space! We’ve got to save up and look for some furnishings! Good thing that we’ve got time to build up with those. Now the hard part is waiting for the rest of the month and a half until we can move in…

I feel like God placed this house in our hands for a reason! It is just too perfect not to be!

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First Official Wedding Gift!!!

Ohhhh can you tell I’m excited!!? Drew walked in the door with this pretty little thing on his shoulder:

How pretty! Ahhh the first gift I’ve ever received wrapped in wedding wrapping! It’s official! We are getting married!! (Obviously, I know. But sometimes you get so caught up in the planning, you forget about the fact that you are actually getting MARRIED!)

It’s a PANINI GRILL!!!!!!!!!! Drew’s landlords, Annie & Max, must know the way to our hearts. We love cooking and love ourselves a good panini. 🙂

So what did we do to celebrate our first evening as the happy owners of a wonderful/amazing/fancy panini grill? Well, we made Italian chicken, tomato and bell pepper panini’s, of course! (saving us also from another round of leftover lasagna!)

An enormous thank you to Annie and Max! They are the best landlords ever and feel like family! I mean, who else do you usually live with other than family? 🙂 You can check out Annie’s blog, here.

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Travel and Lists

I’m a list person. I make lists for everything. What to do today, what do do this week, things I want to do, places I want to go, I have lots of lists.

Today I was reading this blog post and it got me thinking about the list of all the places that I want to travel in life. Luckily, my family has always valued travel and we always went on summer family vacations and my dad has traveled all over the world. Travel is generally considered a luxury, but I also think it is a necessity. I think it is overwhelmingly important to see different parts of the world and see how people do things and how everything is so much different in the world from what you think you really know. This post describes it well. It is all about seeing the world in new ways and opening your mind to other things.

I’ve traveled many places in the U.S. and also one trip to Europe–France mainly but also a small part of Germany and a short excursion (like 4 hours to be exact) into Belgium. I wouldn’t at all call this extensive travel, but for a 19 year old, I wouldn’t call it bad either. I think that my trip to Europe was really crucial to helping me see things the way I do, to open my mind, to appreciate the things and opportunities that I have, to see how other people live, to break the barrier in my mind between the U.S. and “the rest of the world” out there, to help me survive on my own, and about a million other things. I couldn’t be more grateful. I really learned a lot that summer, and not only about the historic landmarks of Paris. I really hope that in my life I get to see a lot of other places and learn from them as well.

What places would you like to visit? (Comment and list the first ten places that come to your mind that you would like to see)

Here are some places I would like to go and things I would like to see (in no particular order):

-Visit the Alps in Switzerland (I would say ski, but we all know that I am beyond horrible at that! I fell off the ski lift the last time I went. I don’t really want to take my chances on a real mountainside)
-sing on a hilltop in Austria (i.e. The Sound of Music, haha)
-see art in Greece
-see art in Florence, Venice, and visit lots of other cities in Italy
-visit Kristine in Denmark
-visit Jacky in Germany
-tour southern France
-visit historic churches and mosques in Turkey & Russia
-see the pyramids in Egypt
-take Drew to a cafe in Paris and show him all the places that Anne-Nelly showed me 🙂

I’m sure there are a million more, but that is the first 10 that popped into my head! Sorry that they aren’t so creative, they are pretty typical destinations and almost all in Europe really, but you have to start somewhere!

In addition to travel lists, I also read several blog posts today about life lists. Here and here. I think that they are so cool and I would love to come up with 100 things that I want to do before I die. I just can’t seem to write many things down because I’m so afraid that I won’t get them done! But I guess it isn’t about the end goal, it is life in the process that counts.

Several months ago, I made a list of creative goals that I wanted to accomplish and I’m still working on that list. You can read it, here. I’m also still working on my 20 Before Twenty list! It is going pretty well actually! I’ve gotten most of my list done so far! I’ll give an update on it soon!

Remember to leave me a comment with your top ten travel dreams and places that you’ve visited and what you learned from being there! I’d love to hear about your travels! 🙂

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Lasagna

Guess what we had for dinner last night, tonight, and probably every other night this week?

Lasagna! It was really good, but I think I may be tired of it now. It made SO much for just two people! (Enough for 12 people to be exact–or at least that is what the recipe said.) I would definitely recommend the recipe though. I used this recipe. I saw the same recipe there and again on one of the blogs that I read, so apparently many agree that it is the world’s best lasagna or something like that.

A month or so ago, we went to Vincent’s Italian Restaurant and it was the best Italian food I’ve ever had! It was not your typical overcooked spaghetti and faux-Italian meals. It was really, really good. I had the Italian Chicken soup and the House Specialty– Canneloni (Homemade pasta stuffed with ground baby veal, pureéd spinach and Parmesan cheese baked on a bed of Alfredo cream and topped with a light red sauce) and Drew had the Lasagna and a salad. It was served with hot bread and garlic butter. Everything was great and the service and atmosphere were the best of any restaurant I think I’ve ever been to.

The only downside is that it was a little more expensive than most restaurants that we would go to on a normal day. It wasn’t that bad, just something that we could only afford every so often. Since we went the last time, Drew and I have both been wanting Italian food really bad. We even thought about going to Vincent’s last Monday, but they happened to be closed on Mondays.

I told Drew that we could make our own lasagna, although he doubted it would be as good as theirs. It is a really simple recipe, it just takes a little while because the sauce has to cook for 1 1/2 hours. We also made roasted garlic butter to go on our warmed french bread as well. It was pretty tasty! The atmosphere, presentation, and service at home wasn’t as good as Vincent’s, but I would have to say that our lasagna turned out just as good, if not better! (Plus it made a whole lot more for the price!)

If you live in the New Orleans area and are interested in some leftovers, let me know. 😉

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