Wednesday, October 29, 2008

I Love Fall

I get a kick out of this picture because it shows our lovely front door all nice and decorated for fall. James gets a kick out of this picture because Audie looks like he's melting.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Closet Window

For good measure, here is a picture of the kind of window that James thinks would look good in the closet. Muntons could lead to a happy medium..

Maybe adding muntons would be a nice happy medium between our two ideas...?

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Glass Blocks

As soon as we bought the house we knew we wanted to turn the dead space in our bedroom into a big walk-in closet which leads into the master bathroom. As soon as we knew that we wanted to turn the dead space into a walk-in closet, I knew that I wanted glass blocks in the closet in order to keep the area from looking too dark and dingy. At first James didn't think the area needed light, and now thinks that a picture window is the way to go. But I am holding strong to the idea that glass blocks will make people line up for want of owning this house.

The picture below shows the area in question where the walk-in closet will go. The wall to the closet will start right in the middle of the wall on the left (where the not-so-straight black line is), and the doorway will be where the dresser and TV currently are. The double windows will be gone, and the lovely GLASS BLOCKS will go just under the ceiling line, and just over the clothes pole and shelf. LOVE IT??

Here is a picture showing how nice glass blocks can be:

And another one showing how much they add to curb appeal:


They also seem amazingly easy to install: http://www.accentbuildingproducts.com/pdf/glassblocks/preassembled-basement.pdf

And at under $300 are a virtual bargain!

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Schnitzel

One of my favorite recipes to make and eat is schnitzel! I grew up on the stuff, and have now, with the help of James, added a few more elements to the recipe which make it beyond delish!


Here is the recipe: (super quick and easy!)

Ingredients:
4 pieces chicken breasts
Flour
Bread Crumbs
2 onions
2 eggs
oil for frying
egg noodles
1 cube beef bouillon
2 cups water

Directions:
- Cook egg noodles according to package directions
- Heat the oil in a pan
- Slice the onions into sort of thin slices and add to the oil
- Turn buner to medium low heat
- Tenderize the chickens
- Mix equal parts flour and breadcrumbs
- Beat the eggs to mix the yolk and egg white
- Dip each chicken breast in the eggs, and then dredge in the flour mixture
- Add the chicken cutlets to the pan with the onions
- Fry until golden brown and cooked through
- Once the chickens are all cooked, set the chicken cutlets aside
- Add the 2 cups of water and cube of beef bouillon
- Turn the heat up to high, and cook to boiling
- Once the bouillon has dissolved, turn down he heat, and add flower to thicken mixture to gravy consistency
- Place the chicken cutlet (schnitzel!) on the egg noodles, smother with the onion gravy, and EAT!

Monday, October 20, 2008

Gotta Post Something...

I haven't been remotely as good about posting as I had hoped to be. I think it's mostly because I am just not happy with how the pictures are coming out. So here is a picture of Audie, which is one of the very few pictures that I do like.

Face only a mother can love, or cutest puppy dog ever??

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Birthday BBQ/New Camera

This weekend we finally threw the birthday BBQ that we planned to throw last weekend. At first I was a bit of overwhelmed with all of the people and commotion, and as a result didn't get any good pictures of the BBQ itself. But here is a pic of me and the hubby from later on in the night when things began to settle down.

For my actual birthday the week before Jay bought me the simply most beautiful flowers:

And because I like to fancy myself a photographer, he also got me an SLR camera!!! I was beyond excited!
I took the new camera for its first test spin today. My test subject was, of course, my loyal sidekick Audie. I love this first one, I think he looks so regal:

I like this second too. I think it's a good action shot (but it would probably be better if it wasn't bordering on pornographic...)

I like the colors of this shot:

And finally... some "fall decorating" pictures:
My attempt at creating a "Pottery Barn style" decorated end table:

Friday, October 3, 2008

Resolutions

Rosh Hashana was this past Tuesday, and my birthday was the Tuesday before that. And so.. for the new Jewish year and new Gali year, I resolve to post on the blog on a more regular basis. The new SLR camera that Jay got me for my birthday will also, I am sure, help to strengthen my resolve.

Tomorrow we are having the belated double b-day bash. We still need to get the food, prepare the food, give Audie a bath (he stinks!!), tidy up the house, get a few last minuted things at Pottery Barn, and find a BBQ outfit. The last two things are probably more "me" than "we," but that's just symantics.

This post is kind of boring since there are no pictures (I have yet to figure out how to take nice, un-fuzzy pictures with my camera), but I promise that I will not make a habit of posting picture-less entries to the blog.