Rainy Sunday Afternoon

Don’t you just love rainy days? At least those ones where you don’t have to go anywhere and can stay dry inside the house and listen to the rain falling down? Today is one of those days. Sunday afternoon, cloudy sky, pattering rain, laundry going, house cleaned, tummy full of homemade food. Peaceful, restful and refreshing.

I’ve still been thinking constantly about my Mamaw lately. Today’s lunch was what I remember her cooking most. Her mashed potatoes and gravy made fresh with the meat drippings. Along with home fried chicken and her sweet tea. Again I’m reminded of how thankful I am that I spent so much time with her as a kid and helped her cook. I haven’t had mashed potatoes and gravy like hers in many years and I still remember how to make them just like she did.

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Fruit Tart Recipe

Tonight, Drew and I are going to be in the office late. We have many projects to work on and finish up before I head home for a visit in a few days. This is the scene:

Homemade ice cream paired with tart crust cookies are keeping me company as well. Yesterday I made a tart to take with me to a summer outside barbecue with some friends. I used the leftover crust dough and baked it into tart crust cookies. They are the perfect mix between shortbread and sugar cookies. It definitely reminds me of the homemade ice cream and crusty cookie combination that Drew and I had for dessert on our 3rd anniversary dinner, here. 🙂

friut tart close up

Since I’ve promised to get better about adding recipes into my blog, I’ve also put together my Fruit Tart recipe here for you. 🙂 It isn’t necessarily a hard thing to make, but I would say it is an intermediate recipe. You will need a tart pan, a rolling pin, unsalted butter, a mixer (or pastry cutter) and various other things, so definitely look it over before you jump right in with it. 🙂

Fruit Tart

Tart Dough:
Ingredients:
-1 egg yolk
-2 Tbs. very cold water
-1 tsp. vanilla extract
-1 1/4 c. flour
-1/3 c. sugar
-1/4 tsp. salt
-8 Tbs. (1 stick) unsalted cold butter, cut into 1/4 inch cubes

Directions:
1. In small bowl, stir together egg yolk, water & vanilla. Set aside.
2. In stand mixer fitted with flat beater, stir together flour, sugar, & salt.
3. Add butter cubes to mixer & beat on med-low speed until texture resembles course cornmeal. (butter pieces no larger than small peas)
4. Add egg mixture & beat just until dough pulls together.
5. Transfer dough to clean work surface, pat into a ball & flatten. Use immediately or refrigerate until well chilled (30 minutes).
6. Roll out dough on floured surface until 2 in. greater in diameter than tart pan & 1/8 in. thick, lightly flouring rolling pin or dough as needed.
7. Transfer to tart pan & trim excess dough. Press dough into the sides & extend it slightly above the rim to offset any shrinkage during baking.
8. Refrigerate until firm while oven preheats to 375 degrees.
9. Line pastry shell with aluminum foil & fill with pie weights (or dry, uncooked beans).
10. Bake for 20 minutes. Lift edge of foil–if dough looks wet, continue to bake, checking every 5 minutes, until dough is pale gold. (total baking time 25-30 min)
11. Remove weights & foil. Continue to bake (up to 10 min more) until shell is golden. Be very careful! If dough is too thin, it will burn easily!
12. Transfer to wire rack & let cool completely.

*If you have any excess dough, it makes excellent Tart Crust Cookies. Cut dough into cookie shapes and place on cookie sheet. Bake at 375 until golden, or about 7-13 minutes.

Filling & Topping:
Ingredients:
-8 oz. cream cheese (1 package)–room temperature
-1/4 c. powdered sugar

Directions:
1. Beat cream cheese & powdered sugar until smooth.
2. Spread evenly into bottom of cooled tart shell.
3. Top with strawberries, blueberries, or whatever fresh fruit you desire. Keep refrigerated.

Enjoy!

Got to get back to work!

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I Love You, Mamaw

With dinner tonight I made sweet iced tea. Just the way I used to help my Mamaw make it every day when I was four years old. I boiled the water and the Lipton tea bags on the stove and then poured them into my curvy pitcher that looks just like hers did and added the sugar and ice cubes and stirred with my wooden spoon creating a tornado in the middle of the glass until all the sugar was dissolved. I could picture myself right in the middle of her kitchen, kneeling in her far right kitchen chair and looking over the tea pitcher in front of me on the round table. I remember the wooden spoon, curved on the end and stained all the way up from years of stirring tea and sugar together.

When I was little, before I started school, my parents both worked and my older brother and sister were in school, so every day I would go to Mamaw’s house. I would help her cook and clean up the kitchen, help her make hummingbird food and fill up the feeders, feed the cats in the barn and fill up the bird feeders out in the yard. We would sit outside in the hammock or the swing and talk for hours and play “I Spy” or The Car Game, where I would get cars and she would get trucks and we would count them as they passed along the highway and whoever got the most won (Cars were always more numerous, so I always won). We would sit at the dining room table and I would build things with play-doh or I would tear off huge sheets of white paper from the big roll she had and I would draw and paint with watercolors on them. She was a retired schoolteacher so we would often play school as well. She taught me how to read and would write out math problems for me to add and subtract. I remember her often taking a sheet of paper and dividing it into boxes and then writing a word in each one like “ball” or “wagon.” Then I would have to read the word and then draw a picture of the object in the box. I also liked to dress up in her make-up, scarves and jewelry and put on plays for her in the window seat in the back play room. I thought it was a stage built just for me.

Almost every single memory I have as a young child has her in it. I attribute a lot of myself to her. The way I think, the way I act, my morals and values, my interests and passions, in many ways a lot of my own character comes from her. I am very thankful for that. She truly was an amazing woman.

She passed away unexpectedly in her sleep one night in September of my Sophomore year of high school. She was 86 years old and in good health, so it wasn’t something I ever saw coming. I was 15 years old and knew I wouldn’t be able to have her in my life forever, but I never thought I would lose her so soon.

Since she has been gone for almost five years now, I’ve gotten used to her not being in my life. I don’t expect her to be sitting in her usual chair when I walk into my grandparents house or on her usual spot in the pew on Sunday mornings at church. I thought that the older I got, the easier it would be to deal with her not being there for everything. But in fact I think it just gets harder every day. Every day more things happen in my life that I’ll never be able to share with her. She never got to see me dressed-up for proms or meet any of my boyfriends. I never got to drive her to her Friday hair appointments in my car like she always wished we could do once I got my license. I didn’t get to share the good news with her once I got accepted into colleges or got the scholarship that would take me to one. I didn’t get to rush into her arms and show her my engagement ring  and she won’t be there to watch me walk down the aisle and say “I do.” One day I’ll have kids she’ll never meet and all kinds of other things she won’t be there for. I feel even worse for my little sisters who got to have her in even less of their lives than I did.

I’ve always thought about her often, but lately it has been a constant thing. Every little thing reminds me of her. It is hardest now because I’m in my first home of my own, just getting used to cooking my own meals every day and planning my wedding. I want so bad to ask her how she made certain recipes that she used to cook or ask her what it was like to be a bride-to-be when she was young. To ask her for relationship advice or household tips or how she made it all work with the calmest demeanor and without raising her voice.

When I was home last, my dad and I went through every single nook and cranny in my grandparents house searching for my Mamaw’s wedding dress. We thought that it might be somewhere and I would have liked to see if there was a way that I could wear it on my wedding day. I had no idea what it looked like or where it might be, but we looked anyway. We didn’t find it, but in a box in the top of the closet we did find this:

I’m really happy that we at least found this photograph of what she looked like on her wedding day. I wish I could ask her all about that day. Where she got her dress or if she had it made, if it was borrowed from someone in her family or what happened to it in the end. What made her pick those shoes or flowers and what did she wear that was old, new, borrowed and blue. I wish I knew who the other people in the picture were and what the ceremony was like. My dad did say that it is her grandpa walking her down the aisle.

Finding this picture and thinking about my own wedding made me realize that not only was my grandma only here for a short amount of my life, I was only in hers for a short amount as well. The hardest thing about losing her when I was younger was that I never thought to ask her more about her life. About her childhood growing up in the twenties and thirties and making it through the Great Depression and being about my age or a little older during the war and what that all was like. She saw so much change during her lifetime and I wish I would have asked her more about it all. I wish I could know more about what she experienced and what made her into the person that I knew her to be.

It’s hard to know that I never will have the chance.

I do feel amazingly grateful though that she was the grandmother that God gave me out of all the possible ones out there in this world. I’m so happy for the things that she taught me in her lifetime and how those things have helped me to grow up well even once she was gone. I’m happy I still have memories of her and personality and character of my own that was shaped by hers. I know I have a long lifetime ahead of me without her, but luckily she started me out in the right direction.

That is a note I have from her from when I was little. I’m pretty sure it came from my lunchbox that she packed for me when I stayed at her house one week in 3rd grade when my parents were out of town. 

I love you too Mamaw.

 

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20 Before Twenty – Final

I’m feeling so inspired right now! We’ve been looking at thrift stores, furniture stores, used furniture stores, online, Craigslist, etc. for the perfect furniture pieces we need in the house and we’ve mostly had no luck, but I’ve found lots of inspiration online and even a couple pieces in a few stores that might work (and not break the bank!) so I’m getting pretty excited! I can’t wait to share more updates and changes around our little house.

More importantly right now, I need to share the results of my 20 Before Twenty project. (Let’s just pretend the results of this aren’t almost 2 months late!) I had planned to update it on my actual birthday (May 13th), but not only did I turn 20 that day, but my family was in town and we also moved into our new apartment. It was a pretty busy weekend and after that I got all caught up in house updates and summer and traveling home to visit and vacation. So without farther ado, let’s see how I did:

1. get engagement photos taken

Done! I still haven’t completely edited the pictures or posted them on here yet, but you can see a sneak peek here and here or the practice ones here.

2. officially set the date for the wedding

HA! This we set the first time here and then turned around and changed it here. It is officially June 2, 2012!

3. try cooking new things with new ingredients (I think we might pick at least 1 new recipe a week)

Overall, this has been my favorite thing on this list. It started as a 20 Before Twenty challenge, but then I just got really good at incorporating it into real life all the time. I could still be better about it, but I’ve made a ton of new recipes, used a lot of new ingredients and gotten really good at not always making the same thing over and over again since I started this project.

4. write a substantial poem

I might be kind-of cheating on this one. I didn’t really write a “substantial” poem per say, (but then again what qualifies as substantial is anybody’s own opinion anyway) but I have written several smaller ones and I signed up for a poetry class for next semester, so I’d say that counts enough. 🙂

5. launch Drew & I’s combined design business (We’ve been working on it and I’m excited about it!)

This one has been done for a while! So long, I totally forgot that it was part of this 20 Before Twenty thing. Read about it here. Visit our website and learn even more about what our business has to offer here.

6. finish the stuff I need to do for my mom’s bow business

This one is almost completely done. I’ve re-designed her site, store, business cards, product tags, made a custom order form and re-designed her logo. I just need to order the print products. She also needs a few more pics for the online store. Even though I haven’t posted about it yet (I’m waiting until I get the finished print products in and can post about it all together) you can still check out her site here.

7. officially decide on a location for the wedding & reception

Well, this wasn’t actually completely official by my 20th birthday, but it is now, so I guess that counts. I didn’t have a chance to go home and visit the possible wedding locations before then, so I couldn’t have completed it by then anyway. You can read all about our wedding venue here.

8. go bridal shopping and try on my first wedding dress!

My older sister, Blair, and I went wedding dress shopping and I tried on my first wedding dress in Tennessee over my Spring Break this year! I found one I really liked! I went again a month or so ago with my mom and tried on more but I still like the first one I found the best! Hopefully when I’m home again we can all go and I can try on that one again and make sure it is the one! 🙂

9. sew something on my new sewing machine I got for Christmas (I have several projects I want to do)

This is where my 20 Before Twenty makes a sad face. I failed on this one. I have several projects lined up that I want to do, but during the school year I didn’t have the time to stop studying long enough to sew anything. As soon as school ended, I had to pack up all my stuff and move into Drew’s apartment and I didn’t want to unpack my sewing machine and all my sewing supplies to just have to pack them up again to move into our new apartment a few weeks later. Hopefully soon I’ll get it out again and finally give it a whirl. In my defense, I did sew this, just not with my new sewing machine. I’m also currently working on a hand-sewing embroidery sampler as well. 🙂

10. Have a Corks N Canvas date night with Drew (more about that here)

This one we decided to veto, or at least hold off on until a later date. It is expensive to go and we would rather go with a group of people. I would like to go sometime with all my sisters, but they all have to come visit me for that to work! 😉 I was also in a painting class last semester so I was painting all the time anyway. I did however get Drew to work on a little painting for his office though (although he still hasn’t finished it).

11. write another creative non-fiction short story

I didn’t write an official story to count for this one, but I blog about non-fiction stories that happen in my life on a daily basis here, so I think that counts.

12. get a job for this summer

Well, this is a tricky one. My goal for this summer was to get an internship at a design or stationary shop here in New Orleans. So far that hasn’t happened. However, I’ve been back and forth this summer between New Orleans and Nashville/Southern Illinois/vacation, so if I had gotten an internship, it might not have worked out so well with my schedule. The summer isn’t over yet though, so it still could happen. I have been working though. I babysit and I also work for P.S. Designs. Running your own business is always a full time job. So far this summer I have done two whole blog designs, designed three logos, helped Drew with the graphics and coordination of multiple websites, designed and printed playdate cards and business cards and I still have more to do. 🙂

13. start a bible study that Drew & I do together

I bought Drew a new Bible and an engaged couples Bible study book for Valentine’s day and we’ve started it together. We should have already been done with it by now, but at least we’ve started it.

14. Make a budget/spending plan for Drew & I

This is going well so far. Especially now that we have utility bills in addition to rent and his car payments. We are good at saving money on things and not spending money on things that we don’t have the money for. We have enough for what we need and make it all work. We do need to put more money aside specifically for wedding expenses though.

15. Continue my healthier-self diet & start going on more walks

We started out really well with this, but we’ve slacked a little lately on the potatoes/pastas/cookies/ice cream, but overall this semester we have eaten much healthier. We both drink only water most of the time (except for lemonade occasionally) and use pretty much all fresh vegetables, herbs, fruits and meat. Throughout the spring we got better at spending more time outside and taking walks, but now that New Orleans summer is here, we don’t get nearly enough exercise or outside time. I hope to improve on that soon. I’ve been thinking about getting a bicycle lately too. I think it would be nice to go on bike rides together in the early evenings. 🙂

16. work on decorating Drew’s apartment so it feels more “homey”

We did work on this a little, but then soon switched it from Drew’s apartment to the new apartment. The new apartment definitely feels more “homey” than Drew’s old apartment did, although I think it was majorly helped by the addition of separate rooms and our stuff being combined together. It has also helped by our additions such as the closet renos, real furniture like our couch and desk, laundry/organizational updates, and by curtains and decorations and other little things. It is definitely still a work in progress though.

17. finish my 50 hours of community service for my scholarship that I need this semester

I was left rushing to finish this one towards the end of the semester, but it is all done. 🙂

18. make my creative portfolio of all my art and design work

I originally planned to do this with all my artwork, but I decided to hold off on that for now. I improved so much in my art over the last few art classes that I have taken that I feel all my old work is pretty outdated. I’m going to wait to work on this until I have more newer pieces for my portfolio. I did however partially finish this with my design work. I added my logo portfolio to our website, here, and I’m in the process of getting my design and print portfolios in order.

19. get my first apartment

That one is pretty obviously done. It is all I ever talk about anymore. 🙂 See our new house when we first toured it, here, and right before we moved our stuff in, here.

20. work on the design for my wedding invitations and other various wedding planning

The design for the all the wedding paperie hasn’t been officially decided on yet, although I have had about a thousand and one ideas for it. It is really, really hard to design things for yourself. I have the hardest time making a decision on any of the designs that I come up with! Although I feel like I am getting closer. I might have a few semi-final ideas. 🙂 Other than that, I have the wedding venue booked, the photographer booked, I’ve talked to caterers, I’ve talked to florists, I’ve tried on wedding dresses, I’ve bought my earrings (random, I know), and I’ve got a million and one inspiration photos for bridesmaids dresses, table decor, and the list goes on and on. I still have a lot to do, but I do feel pretty good about what has been done so far. 🙂

 

So, where does that leave us?

Completed……………..13
Not Completed………..1
Vetoed…………………….1
Revised…………………..3
In Progress………………2

Not too shabby. To my standards at least. Which luckily are the only ones that count in this project. I just have to finish up my design portfolio, print my mom’s business stuff and decide on my wedding paperie. Oh yeah, and break out the sewing machine. Wish me luck! 🙂

 

 

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Little White Dress

No this post isn’t about wedding dresses. Sorry if I got your hopes up. 😉 It is about a little white dress though. I don’t usually post about fashion, but this dress is currently holding the spot for my favorite dress. (in my closet, that is)

I picked this dress up at TJMaxx a couple months ago. Surprising because I think it is the only article of clothing that I’ve ever bought there. I never even usually look through the clothes section. I am totally in the home section the minute I walk in the door. But I guess this one caught my eye. Which is totally weird because it didn’t even look that cute on the hanger. But I loved it once I tried it on.

Usually, I can never find dresses that fit me very well. But I love the way this one looks on. Plus I love the length. I hate that every cute dress I ever see anymore is either touching the floor or doesn’t go down past my belly button.

It is oh-so-comfy as well. It is like wearing a long t-shirt. Plus, I love that it has little sleeves and therefore I can just wear a normal bra with it. Oh and while I’m talking about my undergarments, I love that it is lined really well. I totally had on red underwear and you can’t even tell. It really is the little things that count. 😉

It was definitely the perfect dress for the evening tonight. Drew and I went to see “Guys and Dolls” performed by kids from one of the local private schools and directed and choreographed by two amazing ladies from my hometown. 🙂

I would definitely say that the little black dress has some competition on lovely summer nights like these from little white dresses. 🙂

(plus it totally reminds me of this dress worn by Pippa Middleton)

 

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My Desk

One thing that I really needed in our new apartment was a desk. I needed somewhere to be able to do my homework and study during the school year and a space for my computer to go while designing things and writing blog posts. I knew from the start exactly what I wanted it to look like. I wanted a dark wooden desk with plain, simple lines. I didn’t want it to have any drawers or anything because I knew if it did, it would be way too heavy and hard to maneuver up the stairs to our apartment by ourselves.  We had more than enough issues trying to get Drew’s desk into our old apartment (read about that, here) and then we ended up having to get rid of that desk when we got to our new apartment because it was too big and too heavy for the stairs.

So anyway, usually I have a hard time finding anything that fits my mental vision of what I want for a room. However, in this case, I must have struck gold. I found exactly what I wanted and at a really good price too! Enter IKEA’s INGO dining table. Solid pine, straight, simple lines, not too heavy or bulky, the perfect size and only $69.99! The only problem however, was the fact that New Orleans does not have an IKEA. 🙁 This is a very unfortunate fact because there are always little things that I find that I want from there and they usually have such great prices.

However, I wouldn’t have taken the time to bring you this far into a post, if it just stopped there. Enter this service. If you checked out the link, you will see that there is this company in New Orleans that basically just travels to the IKEA in Houston every week to buy things for people that want them but that don’t want to travel all the way to Houston, Texas just to go to IKEA. There is a 20% charge added to all orders that are under $1000 and a 15% charge added to all orders over $1000. Which is obviously more expensive than if there was an IKEA in New Orleans where I could have just gone and gotten it myself, but isn’t that bad really since shipping would have been more than that (if IKEA even offered shipping or sold hardly any of their products online).

I found out about this service through Drew’s former landlords whom I also babysit for and we have done a couple web design projects for. They were planning on ordering stuff from IKEA to furnish Drew’s old apartment in their house, so they offered to let us also add whatever items we wanted onto their order as well. (getting us the 15% price charge instead of the 20% charge). That made my table $69.99+$10.50 for the service charge + tax. Still, not a bad price for a solid wood desk. (Plus we also got some bookcases for the hallway while we were ordering things)

Therefore I ended up with this in my office:

You can just ignore all the clutter and the million other projects that I still need to do in this room. I don’t have any other furniture for this room yet, so I don’t have any place to put the things in those boxes and on the floor.

It was just what I always wanted. Except that it was a little naked. I wanted it to be dark (I like dark wood, plus it covers up pencil/pen marks and scratches better than lighter stains or paint colors)

So off to the foyer it was. We have our foyer closed off from the rest of the house right now since it just has storage in it anyway so that we aren’t cooling it. I opened all the windows in there for air circulation and got to staining.

Two lovely coats of stain later and I had this:

The stain was still a little wet in that picture, so that is why it looks so wet and shiny. It also isn’t quite so red in real life either. I decided not to add polyurethane or any kind of coating to the top because I didn’t want it to be shiny. I wanted a more natural look that sort-of would look weathered over time. I might change my mind later, but for now it is fine.

I love it! It will obviously look better once the rest of the room looks nicer as well. I’m loving that I have a space to work and blog at now! I really, really love the size of it. It looks kind-of small in the picture, but it is really actually quite big for a desk. (it originally was a 4 person dining table) I love that I have room for my computer and papers and everything on my desk all at once. Yay! 🙂 (Now Drew is jealous because we still haven’t gotten a new desk for him since getting rid of his old one)

Oh, and if you live in the New Orleans area and are interested in IKEA products but don’t want to travel to Houston, Blue Bag is a really great service as far as my experience with them goes! (My desk originally came with the holes missing in two of the legs to connect them to the table top and they switched the legs out at IKEA the next week.) I would definitely recommend them and plan on placing an order with them again soon!

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Laundry Room Updates

Of all the rooms in the house that have gotten updates lately, the laundry room definitely tops the list. A lot has been going on in there.

To refresh your memory, here is what it looked like when we moved in:

We immediately had the dryer plug (that is laying across the washer) fixed with a longer cord to go around the washer to avoid any electrical + water issues. We also majorly scrubbed the tile floor because they were ridiculously filthy. We also moved our deep freezer in here so that now it sits in front of the dryer.

I know it definitely isn’t the prettiest room in the house and it probably never will be. It is the room that we spend the least amount of time in, so I didn’t want us to spend a ton of money fixing it up right now. What does matter though, is that it is functional. It needs to house the laundry stuff, the utility stuff, the cleaning supplies, the tools, the extra toilet paper, paper towels and light bulbs… etc. We also needed to hang the blinds in there (you can see the box of them in the foreground of the above picture) that the previous owner left but never hung. I also already had teal colored curtains from my freshman college dorm room days that matched the laundry room tiles perfectly to hang in there. We also wanted to make the shelving on the wall a little more practical than it currently was.

So what did we do?

We started by hanging the blinds and the curtains. (which still need to be ironed, I know)

Then we sought a replacement for this tremendously ugly, dysfunctional and crooked shelf. (That is lacking in the storage department)

But first we had to take the old one down. Which left us with this ugly mess.

However, we quickly made the most of our storage space with three longer and cleaner looking shelves with slightly smaller brackets than the ones used on the previous wonky shelf.

Then I did my best to cover up the old paint marks with some mixed white and cream craft paint.

Oh how amazingly convenient is this quick change. Now there is plenty of room for laundry supplies, cleaning supplies, ironing equipment, tools, toilet paper, paper towels, light bulbs… Ahh, how I love having things organized.

But our laundry room changes don’t stop there. We took this makeover a step farther.

We added a new washer and dryer. Well, new to us at least.

This wasn’t high on our priority list, but it kind-of just happened. There is a girl from our hometown that has lived in New Orleans for several years and is getting ready to move to Texas. Her new apartment already had a washer and dryer, so she had no need for her old ones. Her mom is friends with mine, so her mom asked mine if we might want to buy her used ones from her. We already had a washer and dryer that we bought for really cheap from the previous owner of our apartment and the washer was newer and worked fine, but we were a little worried about the really old dryer. We had some problems with it not working when we first moved in, but Drew eventually got it to work. However, we thought we had better not pass up a good deal on these two almost brand new, matching, taken well care-of appliances. (especially since we thought our dryer might not hold up too much longer and we wouldn’t have an opportunity like this later)

Doesn’t it look so much neater, cleaner, better and more organized?

We do still need to find a nice rug to go in front of the washer and dryer though. You can see in the foreground of the last picture that there is a random metal thing that sticks slightly out of the floor right in front of the washer. Overall though, I’m so pleased with the transformation of this room so far!

What do you think?

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Summer Cooking

I love summer. The sunshine, the flowers and trees, the warmth, the color, etc. I also love summer for its food. Fresh veggies, fresh herbs, berries, lemonade, etc.

One thing this summer is quite different though. It is the first summer that I haven’t lived at home. (apart from one summer that I was in Europe for a month and a half in high school) It has really been different. I’m enjoying being in New Orleans and being able to settle in and get the house put together so that when school starts I’m already settled and ready for the school year. I like that I have the time to see things in New Orleans that I don’t have time for when I’m in school. I’m glad that I still get to see Drew (since he would have been in New Orleans for school/work no matter if I was here or at home) and that we can work on wedding planning together.

But there are a lot of things I miss about home, especially now that it is summertime. I miss my sisters and my family of course, but I also miss our land a lot. I miss the relaxing breeze through the trees with no one else around, I miss our flower gardens and herb gardens and big vegetable garden and having all those fresh foods to cook with. I miss being inside with so many windows around that you feel like you are outside, I miss the chickens walking around the yard and the pool and the hammock.  I just miss the feeling of summer in a small country town. It is so much more laid-back and just completely different than it is to be in the city.

Luckily, I’ll be home to visit in a month or so (and hopefully will catch the county fair as well!). Visiting isn’t the same as being there all the time, but its all I can do since my responsibilities require me to be in New Orleans for at least the next few years of my life. (and I do love New Orleans too)

Anyway, it is nice to see our apartment slowly starting to feel more like home. It still feels pretty unsettled since we do still have boxes of stuff to unpack (with no place to put them–the reason they are still in boxes) and piles of things lying around with no furniture for them to go in or on. We’ve been scouring flea markets and used furniture stores looking for the perfect pieces, so hopefully soon our house will start to fill out with furniture. (I do have a few house updates that we’ve done recently to share with you soon!)

In the meantime, one of my favorite things to do that reminds me of both home and summer is to cook. So cooking I’ve been doing. This week I made a homemade fruit tart (my absolute favorite dessert! Especially for Spring and Summer!).

It was yummy! Although it was really big and since Drew doesn’t really like cream cheese and there is cream cheese in the filling, he wouldn’t eat any. Therefore I was left with an entire tart to myself. Not that I probably couldn’t eat it myself, but it isn’t as fun when you aren’t rushing to try to steal the last piece from your sisters. 😉 (I think Blake taught us all well on that one)

I’ve also been enjoying using my windowbox flower/herb garden. Which has grown a ton and continuously been flowering for over a month now.

Yesterday I used some of my fresh herbs in a chicken/lemon/herb/fettuccine alfredo. It was delicious!

So I haven’t had my parent’s fresh garden vegetables to make summer dishes with, but I am doing my best with my little herb collection. It was particularly nice cooking dinner yesterday. It was raining outside and it was so nice to be in the kitchen smelling delicious smells and being able to look outside at the trees and the summer rain and also see my little herb and flower garden fluttering in the rainy breeze. It was a little taste of summer at home. It was one of those moments that made our house seem so much more like home and made me so thankful for everything God has given me in life. It is definitely way different than all the dinners I used to cook in Drew’s old apartment’s cramped little cave-like kitchen. (I remember those dinners fondly too, but a view or some sunlight would have been nice too)

Oh, I also have gotten several requests that I should share recipes on my blog. I’ve been meaning to for a while and I’m working on it, I promise. I’ll let you know soon when I get that up and running. 🙂

 

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A Walk in New Orleans

The other day, I met Drew for lunch at the Magazine Street Po-Boy Shop. (Excellent! I would definitely recommend their dressed roast beef po-boy.)

Anyway, Magazine Street and some of the streets connecting to it are under construction, so to avoid all the mess, I parked a few streets before Magazine and walked the rest of the way. It was right in the middle of the Garden District, so it definitely was a lovely walk. I always forget about the fact that I live in New Orleans until days like that. I mean, I don’t really forget, but I do. I spend so much of my time at home or running errands or going to the store or whatever, but I don’t spend nearly enough time enjoying the things that make New Orleans so special. The beautiful and grand houses in the Garden District, taking a ride on the streetcar, spending the day in the shops on Magazine Street, walking around in the French Quarter, going to the French Market, walking along the riverfront… All the things that tourists come here to do, and I live here and never do them. I really need to get better about that. I know I probably won’t live in New Orleans forever and those are things that can only be done here. I have to get better about enjoying them while I have the chance. Hopefully this summer I can start getting better about that.

Anyway, here are some snippets of what I stumbled across on my walk:

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Lulu’s at Homeport Marina

We made good use of our condo’s kitchen all week long eating-in, but we did go out one night. We stayed in Perdido Key, Florida but we drove over to Gulf Shores, Alabama to visit Lucy Buffett’s restaurant. (that is Jimmy Buffett’s sister for all you Jimmy Buffett fans out there)

It is quite the establishment. It is on a marina and hosts lots of activities. They have little gift shops, sand patches for kids to play on, several bands, tiki drink huts, the main restaurant and several other patio areas to eat at, and they have this huge jungle-gym-rope-climbing thing.

The jungle-gym-rope-climbing thing was covered with little kids, so I just assumed it was for little kids without paying much attention to what it actually was. Evie decided that she wanted to go (we had a long wait for a table) and since she was a couple inches too short, she had to be accompanied, so Blair decided to go with her. Jill and I decided, what-the-heck, we might as well join them too.

Little did I realize that it was a little scarier than I initially thought.

You were hanging from a rope thing, so it wasn’t like you were going to fall to the ground if you fell off the ropes, but I also didn’t want to fall off of them and just be hanging there from my harness waiting to be rescued.

Some of the obstacles were just a little rope you had to walk across while it was swinging back and forth.

They also really hurt your feet. I think it would have been better with tennis shoes instead of being barefoot.

I’m not really sure how all those little kids were jumping across everything so fast. They were fearless, I tell you.

Evie realized pretty quickly just what she had gotten herself into. I think she was a little freaked out.

I think she did enjoy it a little too. She made it across several of the courses and then went back down to hang out with Mimi, Pops, Kelsey and G.

She did go up pretty high though before she came down. She was really brave!

Blair came back up after dropping Evie off to finish the rest of the course.

All the while, G sat with Kelsey and watched from below. I’m not sure what she was eating here.

She is so cute! I bought the dress she is wearing for Evie when she was little.

Then of course we got called to our table while we were all up in the air.

I would say, in my opinion, that the night was definitely fun–spent with family in a fun atmosphere–but I wasn’t overly impressed with the food. I had grilled fish, and it tasted super rubbery and bland. Blair’s fish tacos were good though and so was mom’s Cheeseburger in Paradise. 🙂

Plus we ended up with the only group picture of us from the whole week. Look at that bunch. 🙂

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