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I had to love one of my favorite shows on TV a little more last night after they finished up a solid episode with an even more solid final five minutes.
There were a lot of great moment's in last night's show, but my favorite has to be this:
Go Sox!
We moved into our home about a year ago and have been working ever since to get it set up comfortably so it could really feel like "home". For me, one of the biggest things that helps to create that feeling is paint. It always amazes me what a bucket of paint and the Paintstick (Best invention ever. Thank you, Daryl!) can do.
But after painting three rooms and one bathroom pretty much on my own, I was done. Besides, the rooms that are on the priority list consist of the kitchen (don't want to deal with taping off trim work on cabinets and moving out the refrigerator), master bedrooom (too many weird angles and don't want to deal with moving the bed, dresser, armoire), master bath (see previous mention of hating to tape trimwork), basement (too large of a job for me to wrap my brain around), and two story foyer (me + scaffolding = bad accidents).
So, we made the decision to hire a painter to do the job and were lucky enough to have our neighbors recommend someone who did a great job in their house. He comes on Friday and then the work will take anywhere from four to five days (here's hoping).
I'm working from home on Friday and Monday and for the moment, the plan is to lock myself, my laptop, the kitties and their litter box in a bedroom that is not being painted in order to stay out of the painter's way (and keep kitty tails and paws out of paint!).
We like to use a lot of color in our decorating. I feel like color is such a fantastic thing and something you really shouldn't be afraid of if you're considering redecorating a room. So far, we've used a dark chocolate brown in our piano room, a chocolate milk-type color in the dining room, and a rich, fall maple tree yellow in the great room. Our house has an open design, so we needed to make sure that the colors for the foyer and the kitchen coordinated with the other rooms.
Here are the colors that we've decided to go with:
Kitchen:
Foyer:
Basement:
Master Bedroom (we had this exact color in our bedroom in our TH and LOVED it!):
Master Bath:
Hopefully everything will go smoothly this weekend and it will all come out as we hope. I'll take pictures after it's all finished and post them here.
We're having friends over for an autumnal dinner this Saturday night and I can hardly contain my excitement about cooking for them. Over the summer, we tend to rely on the grill for entertaining; and although we like to experiment with new grill recipes, it's just not the same as cooking something from stove to oven.
I'm still working out an appetizer for cocktails before dinner, but here are my plans for the meal:
Roast Chicken with Herbed Mushrooms (Recipe from Food Network: Tyler's Ultimate)
Brussel Sprouts with Pancetta, Marsala, Chestnuts and Parsley (Recipe from Nigella Feasts, Nigella Lawson)
I'm debating making a potato dish as well; because what's better than warm, comforting potatoes in the fall? However, I'm thinking this is going to be a lot of food already. So...I may just skip to the dessert, for which there are currently two considerations:
Pumpkin Spiced Cheesecake (Recipe from Bon Appetit, October 2002)
OR
Red Wine and Pear Brioche Tart (Recipe from Bon Appetit, October 2000) (**updated link)
I've made both desserts before and they have both turned out fantastically in the past. So, I'm somewhat torn on what to do. I may end up going with the Pear and Brioche Tart, just to finish off the meal a little lighter, rather than indulging in an extremely heavy cheesecake where the leftovers would most definitely go to waste.
Haven't blogged in awhile, have been busy with a few things that have come my way lately. Looking forward to this weekend, my parents are visiting us from good old Cabot, PA (outside of Pittsburgh for those of you not familiar). Planning on having a great weekend with them. Hoping to cook some dinner on Friday night, then head to the pumpkin patch on Saturday to get the house ready for fall.
