Author Archives: CT

Goodwill – Pounds of Fun

It’s been a little while now, but St. Louis was recently blessed with a Goodwill by the Pound.  It’s a lot of crazytown where books and glassware are 79 cents per pound and everything else is 39 cents per pound.  They have these giant weigh scales at the checkout that you just roll your cart up on.  My kind of party.  I went when it first opened and it was pretty quiet.  JT and I went a little more recently and it was CROWDED!!!

GOODWILL BY THE LB INSIDE

It’s like a last chance Charlie for all this stuff.  They push out these giant blue bin/trucks every fifteen minutes or so and take others away (for good!  Exterminate!  Exterminate!  Sorry, husband started watching Dr. Who and even I can hear the evil shrieking from the next room.)  The furniture here is usually T.O.A.S.T. but there’s always at least something to be found of interest.

Here’s what I brought home:

WHAT I BOUGHT

Sometimes I wonder why I buy things but the thought of it maybe going away (forever!) means you just have to snatch it up and sent it back to Goodwill in a few months when you’ve regained your senses. (PS – Photo-editing faux-pas – that was supposed to say “produce” not “product”.  Chalk that one up to a Friday!)

So, random I know.  Next door to the Goodwill by the Pound is Warehouse of Stuff where we picked up two somethings for my basement lair/studio-in-the-works.  But I’m still stringing that one out for another day . . . .

Here’s what was going on while I was taking my “stuff” photos.  Idiot, ridiculous, lazy-a$$ dogs.

WORLDS MOST RIDICULOUS DOGS

That couch’s days are numbered — it’s soon to move into the Black Horse Studio where the guys have been recording!  See more at www.grandbeautymusic.com. (Also I think JT is going to post up his latest Craigslist find there soon.  He drug me up to Godfrey, IL last week for this thing.  And that’s how I got my rugs.  #lifeisatradeoff)

Have a great weekend and a Happy Easter everyone.  I should have some good stuff in the hopper next week (semi-Easter pun intended).  Cheers – CT

Living Analog @ Lansdowne Life!

Hey everyone!  I know it has been quiet over here . . .  .

SHENANIGAN SLEEPS

But I actually put together a guest post (a tutorial!) over at Lansdowne Life while Erin is out spending time with her new baby girl.

LANSDOWNE LIFE FEATURE

Check it out here.

(In a weird twist of fate, one of my Stitch and Bitch girls Erin is also at home with her new baby girl!  Welcome to the world Lily and Etta.  Thanks to having such creative mamas, I think you’re going to have a pretty beautiful world to live in.)

I recently added a new sidebar of all the STL area bloggers I’m reading.  We’re a small but mighty group.  If there are any others you would recommend, send them my way (the more design, DIY, or MCM-based the better).  Be sure to click around and maybe you’ll find some more blogs to add to your daily reads.

And (random transition) . . . . I put in an order for some more Flor carpet tiles . . . area rugs and runners to come.  Here’s what we ordered:

FLOR CPTS FOR LIVING ANALOG

Where do you think it’s going!  I can’t wait (but it might not arrive until Monday so I will have to wait!)  Cheers – CT

Where did Paul go?

The new music station caused me to once again shuffle everything around in the Living Room but have no fear, folks, Paul is staying.

J:HOME Model (1)

(An updated furniture floor plan.  I don’t know what happened to those poche walls but it looks kind of cool.)

There are some pieces in the house that I really want to hold on to, others I keep around because they fit in for now or I’m still hunting down that amazingly-perfect-but-so-cheap-from-a-thrift find.  “Paul”, as I call my McCobb Planner Group secretary is a keeper.  He was holding up the ledges wall but has now moved over here to greet visitors at the front door.

ENTRY WALL BEFORE AND AFTER

This wall is looking a little bare but I’m slowly moving in artwork as the furniture continues to shuffle around.  What’s great about this setup is it gives us the “landing strip” they’re always pushing for over at Apartment Therapy.  The salon-style vinyl chair is a great place to drop my purse or my work bag and Paul gladly holds the day’s mail and the contents of JT’s pockets.

AFTER AT ENTRY #2.

(View from the front door above.  That’s my Martin Sigma that I still don’t know how to play yet.)  Ironically the salon style vinyl chair and the four wood chairs we have around the tulip table were the things I thought for sure would sell at the Green Shag sale last year but didn’t.  Then I had each posted on Craigslist  and now I’m pretty glad they’re still here.  Go figure.

In the (much larger) world outside our living room, Google decided to close down its Reader.  I liked Reader so much that I even blogged about it (almost two years ago!  yikes!)  So what is a blog-addicted girl to do?  I tried out Feedly and liked the iPhone app but it wouldn’t work on the required Internet Explorer browser we have at work.  No blog reading all day long?  Not happening.  So I switched over to Bloglovin.  (Kind of wish they had a better name, makes me think of McLovin from Superbad).  It has a much more image-oriented format, which I am enjoying so far.

BLOGLOVIN

(Yep, that’s a screenshot from my Bloglovin account and I am a major blog addict!!!)

In the blog world, I’m afraid we may have lost JT from this site forever.  He set up a great new site for his band, Grand Beauty, here.  We haven’t all the way decided on things but I think he may start posting his guitar raids and fixes on the band website.  We’ll see.

recording-2013-001

At any rate, you should check it out.  He’s uploaded a bunch of their recordings.  That’s my husband singing “Beast of Burden” and if it doesn’t make you want to take your clothes off and dance around, you may need to have your head examined.  Cheers – CT

PS – HAPPY BIRTHDAY SISTER!

Ledges: Painted & Hung

Projects move in fits and starts over here at Living Analog and nothing ever stays in the same place for more than two months.  That’s the peril of living with an interior designer.  One of our friends at our Sweetheart Dinner commented that our house is like a kit of Legos — we always take it apart and rearrange it.  I’ll take that as a compliment (albeit a nerdy one!) — we love to reimagine our space and have chosen flexible furniture pieces to accommodate my need for change.

So, change.  Here’s one wall of the dining room over the last few months:

TWO BEFORES

And then, I drug home a bunch of lumber, convinced JT to hammer it all together for me and  — voila! — an art wall!

MUSIC SPOT #1

The real impetus for change here came from my New Year’s resolution to make it easier to listen to music in our house.  I knew I wanted to move the record player, tuner and speakers to a more central location.    So while I was at it, I thought why not add some storage and display space above.  At first I was going to use our Ikea floating shelves but those got repurposed for the Wall of Wine.

IN PROGRESS

That left me scrambling for a new plan and I decided on these ledges from Ana White.  They were affordable and easy to customize — we have about 5′-3″ of wall there so we made the ledges 5′ long to max out the space.  And by going with these ledges rather than just hanging our picture frames right to the wall, it gives us flexibility to change things us as the mood strikes (which, as you know, with me is often!)

MUSIC SPOT #2

Right now I’m displaying some of JT’s record collection along with some art pieces we’ve collected or been gifted over the years.  I still need to get some things all the way into their frames and finalize that mysterious blank canvas.  I’ll be back with more as I tweak it along the way.  This wall has been surprisingly difficult for me to photograph (wah wah) so I’ll try to get some better pictures for the ol’ blog too.

MUSIC SPOT #3

I’m off to spin some more vinyl and dance around in my sock feet with the dogs. What have you been changing up around the house lately?  I find that all home renovation projects go better with some loud tunes, especially of the Rolling Stones variety and now we finally have a spot to really “tune in”!

Cheers – CT

How to be a Hostess with the Mostest

Last weekend my littlest sister came in town and we decided to celebrate her birthday with a retro “Mad Men”-esque themed shindig.  I’ve been working on entertaining more so I was excited to host.  And now that I’ve got a few of these events under my belt, I’m starting to feel like my Martha abilities are getting polished and refined.  So while I am in no way, shape or form a party-throwing wunderkind, I thought I’d pass on a few tips I learned the hard way.

First, plan a little in advance if you can!  This seems like an obvious one but sometimes by planning in advance you can have a few extra touches ready to set the party off.  Since this party was “Mad Men” themed, two things were very important — appropriate cocktails and cigarettes.  I scouted Amazon for a set of plastic martini glasses (I also saw some at Party City) and also a case/carton of candy cigarettes.  That was all the non-food or beverage shopping I did but I think it gave the party a little something “extra” (and thanks to the interwebs I didn’t have to leave my living room to do it).

SPECIALTY TOUCHES

Plus having one pre-mixed drink made serving guests easy.  Thanks to my mom I’m set up with a bunch of nice entertaining pieces like the large drink dispenser in the picture above.  We made a lemon drop martini (recipe here, found via Pinterest) and made sure to garnish the martini glasses with a little extra sugar!

Another planning tip: ask for help!  If you have good friends or family coming over, ask if they can bring something!  Since you are hosting the event, they’re usually happy to comply.  My family really stepped up for this one — my sister made some amazing champagne cupcakes along with bringing a dip and some pizzas and my mom also stocked us up with a dip and beer for the non-martini drinkers.

CUPCAKES

The morning of the party or the day before if I’m ambitious I like to set up the house.  I put out all the serving pieces I’ll be using where I’ll be needing them, making sure to plan out spots for what I’ve asked guests to bring.

KITCHEN VIEWS

I dipped into my wrapping paper bin and pulled out some simple gold paper to make a quick tablecloth for the kitchen work island — it made the kitchen feel a little more festive.  As you guys saw for the Sweetheart Dinner, I’m not above rearranging the furniture if the party needs it.  Set up the space to function and tuck other things away (our basement filled up and then emptied back out again for this one!).

Now for my super secret party success tip:  one or two hours before the party starts empty your dishwasher, trash and recycling.  That way you have a place to go with last-minute stirring spoons, soda and alcohol bottles and all the cartons and bags that packaged party food comes in.  There have been times where my dishwasher is already full when we start the party and I have nowhere to tuck some of these things out of sight.  In a small kitchen like ours, it makes a big difference!

The best and last tip I can leave you with for party hosting: enjoy yourself!  Once everything is set-up and your guests arrive make sure you get out of the kitchen and enjoy yourself!  It seems like having a theme or costume party helps a little too — people get into it and let go a little more too.

THE GIRLS copy

(Candy cigarettes, remember!  40 calories a pack too!  It was a small purchase but it made the party that much more memorable — as did encouraging everyone to get out their Don and Betty Draper best party attire!)  That’s my little sister, the birthday girl, on the right.  Some say she could be my fraternal twin.  Okay, maybe that’s just me, but who’s keeping track?

It was a great time and I’m glad my sister could make the trek from Omaha so we could all hang out.  Her friends were super sweet to put up with my 1960s attitude on partying (I think kids just “hang out” these days . . .) and we all had a great time.

Okay, maybe I have one final party tip: once the evening’s over, I quickly tuck anything perishable into the fridge and then I GO. TO. BED.  I save clean-up for the day after when I have more brain cells to do a quick and efficient sweep.

Any other party hosting tips or ideas?  My next fiesta is a fiesta – a Cinco de Mayo bachelorette party for my middle sister, the bride-to-be!  I’ve already got big plans for this one and yes they involve a sombrero wearing stripper!  (Just kidding sis . . . or am I!)

And I’ve got a quick tease for you — the party put JT and I into overdrive to finish up those Super Bowl shelves.  I need to take some better pictures and show those to you guys next.  The wall that Paul was on is looking a lot different!

SNEAK PEEK

Cheers – CT

Like a Vegan

(Sorry for the cheezy post title.  And apparently being a vegan means you spell cheese with a “z”.  Or at least the “cheeze” vegans eat.)

So, this change/upheaval in my diet has also wreaked a little havoc on our kitchen.  Every dinner begins with chopping broccoli (cue Dana Carvey) and ends with a load of dishes.  Our kitchen is TINY! and only has one 8′-6″ run of counter top (with a sink in it).  So, cooking is fun.  I feel like putting up a sign that says “lather, rinse, repeat” because the chopping, washing, dish-putting-away cycle seems endless sometimes.

E:CT HOUSE3341 JAN 2011 Model (1)

I’ve been looking for ways to streamline/simplify/organize and stumbled on a few.  #1 – Pot Lid racks from the Container Store.  This is one major base cabinet we have for cooking pan storage stuff.  In a perfect world the racks should have been mounted a tad lower on the door but I just centered them and hung them before I fully conceptualized how the dang things actually worked.  But all in all, this is a great space saver and makes the lids a lot easier to grab since they’re not all jumbled up like they were before.

POT LID RACK ORGANIZATION

#2 – Cookbooks!  Right now I have been checking out a lot of cookbooks from the library to see which ones I would like to purchase for long-term use.  And of course I print out recipes from Pinterest or the interwebs in general and just stick those on the fridge with a magnet.  I started pinning a bunch of ideas for cookbook storage and then happened across this little rack for $1.81 at Value Village and figured I’d give it a spin.

TOP O FRIDGE

The biggest, bestest change we have made is in the pantry.  Now just understand that our pantry is a wreck and this change only involves the spices.  The rest is a work in progress.  Okay — remember – spices.  Here’s the pics:

CONTAINER STORE SPICE RACK

The Elfa Over-the-Door system (also from the Container Store, are we sensing a trend?)  has made cooking SO. MUCH. BETTER.  Before all our spices were haphazardly placed in a pull out bin (see asterisk on the before picture).  In order to get at said spices, you had to pull out the whole bin, search for some precious space on the counter and hunt until you found the right spice (they’re not all labeled on the top).  Thanks to a gift card from my brother and sister-in-law for Christmas we took advantage of the January Elfa sale and splurged on this puppy a little.  But not to despair – it clamps to the top and bottom of the door and tightens down with a screw so we can take it with us forever and ever wherever we go (and we will).  The baskets easily lift off the track for quick spice access.  I could go on and on but let’s just say this thing is the bee’s knees and I love it and want to add a few more baskets.  (Also I just noticed the random black cloth on the sofa in the after picture – I was photographing a guitar for JT’s eBay endeavor and I could see the tan sofa reflecting on the nice shiny black guitar so presto – magical invisibility cloak cloth.)

So just for kicks, I thought I would share with you guys what this kitchen is whipping up:

FOOD IMAGES #1

1. Red Quinoa with Zucchini and Corn from Speed Vegan By Alan Roettinger (this was our first time having quinoa and it was really good!)

2. Jerk Sloppy Joes with Coconut Creamed Spinach from the Post Punk Kitchen

3. Black Beans, Mushrooms and Bok Choy from Speed Vegan

FOOD IMAGES #2

4. Cornmeal-Crusted Tempeh with Carrots and Green Lentils from The Candle Cafe Cookbook by Joy Pierson and Bart Potenza (just the tempeh recipe, the roasted carrots are from Door Sixteen – here.  The lentils we had in the freezer . . . )

5. Hottie Black Eyed Peas with Ginger Sweet Potatoes & Apples from the Post Punk Kitchen

#6 Brownie in a Mug – Improvised from a recipe/segment I heard on NPR.  I can’t find it on the website anymore but here’s my version of the recipe:

Combine 1T vegan butter, 1T almond milk and a splash  of vanilla extract in a bowl or mug.  Microwave until the butter melts.  Then stir in 1T flour, 1T sugar and 1T dark cocoa powder.  I also added some  peanut butter, the recipe also suggests powdered espresso which I would like to try as well. Microwave for 1 more minute and voila – a brownie in a mug!  

This is great since I have a total sweet tooth and JT does not.  Plus there’s only one bowl to clean which is great!  Our dishwasher is about to go on strike.

Basement of Shame – Step 1, Admitting You Have a Problem

I know I keep hinting at a basement that is crazytown full of lord knows what but here’s for real.

WHAT A DISGRACEFUL BEFORE

This is my “studio”.  It is the anteroom to my walk-in closet and right now holds a lot of junk.  Pair of chairs I found in an alley in Lafayette Square?  Check.  All my shoes?  Check.  Clothes that I bought at Value Village and need to go to a tailor? Check.  Laundry that I haven’t hung up in the closet yet because it’s really freaking cold in our basement right now?  Check.  Random bits and bobs of fabric that I’m saving for any and all future projects? Check.  A Gateway Desktop from 2002? Check.   (Still chugging.)  My teddy bear that Shenanigan chewed the face off of when he was a puppy?  Double check.  Party favors from our wedding in 2004? Check.  Hey it’s reality.  We’re lucky to live in the midwest and have a basement!  It’s just time to start utilizing all this space a little better.

One good thing this room has going for it is the weird built-in storage left by the former owner (sporting my sorority paddle from Truman, yeah AGD!).  That will stay, as will the weird little cabinet that hides the main water shut-off in the corner.  Everything else – gone!  Put away, donated, used for a project or vaporized to somewhere else.  That’s not really true, a lot of the craft supplies and tools will stay along with the computer (I still use it — it has my Adobe Creative Suite I bought in college on it along with AutoCAD 2000!) but this room needs a serious dose of organization.

So first I decided I needed a plan.  Like a floor plan.  So I measured out my room and the furniture I wanted in there and did a quick CAD plan.

CUT OUT PIECES copy

Floor plans and furniture plans are the best part about having access to CAD.  If you didn’t, some graph paper could be your best friend — set each box on the graph as an increment (1″ or 6″ or whatever fits) and use that as a guideline for anything you draw.  The furniture got cut out so I could rearrange to my heart’s content without lifting any heavy items.

The two brown items are an early 90s Danish desk and the beer pong table that used to be upstairs.  They were purchased by my parents at the same time so their finishes match (or used to before the table got used for beer pong).  The white rectangle is a folding table and the two blue rectangles are a surprise — something I picked up and am hoarding in my basement from Warehouse of Stuff . . .

LAYOUT OPTIONS

Here’s two layouts I liked best.  The room has a weird dog leg and the “fancy” built-ins so the options are somewhat limited unless I buy new furniture (not happening).  So I’m off to a slow start on what will probably be a long and arduous project.

What are you guys up to this weekend?  I finally put on some warm clothes and braved the cold of the basement to start painting our Super Bowl Shelves.  (Yep, first coat went on last night.  I’m slow at projects, okay!).  I’m hoping to get some more done on those and maybe have them hung next week.  Cheers – CT

Fashion, For Dogs

Sophie and Shenanigan’s last set of collars, from Earth Dog, were getting a little grungy and they were starting to make us crazy with the constant jingle jangle of their tags clanging together.  So we took them off a while ago and they’ve been naked ever since.   At one point I had found a tutorial and was going to try my hand at making them new ones myself but finally realized that was just not in the cards.  We were looking like very bad pet guardians with these little wild animals in our house — what if something happened and they got out — No ID!  (they are both microchipped but when you see a dog running loose without a collar you don’t usually assume it’s someone’s pet . . . )

So I called on my good friend, Etsy!  I ordered and they did arrive.

NEW DUDS

We got them both collars and leashes from Learned Stitchworks. (Visit shop here).  Sophie’s collar is  a pattern called “Hearts Galore”  and Shenanigan is sporting “Silent Cinema”.

CLOSE UP

Learned Stitchworks also makes bow ties or flowers in a matching ribbon/fabric to the collars . . .  I’m not really supposed to dress the dogs in clothes (per the husband’s request) but I think I might have to get these . . .

They’ve been wearing them for a few weeks now and they are great!  We use the martingale style so they are a little looser while we hang out at home but then can tighten down to fit more snugly if we needed to grab them or when you clip a leash on.  This style has worked best for us because Shenanigan is kind of a “no neck” and I would feel bad if he had to wear a tight collar all day everyday.

To avoid the tag jingling, we’re going to get the name tags from Petsmart that will rivet right to the collar . . . still haven’t done that — we need to TCB on that one.

My only complaint is that the backside of the leashes are black but this is pretty standard for most of the custom leashes on Etsy.

GIVE ME A TREAT copy

Here’s Sophie looking regal on her sheepskin covered throne (I mean couch):

SOPHIE GIRL

And Shenanigan — I rolled over one morning and he had taken JT’s spot on his pillow.

MONKEY ON A PILLOW

This is a bad iPhone picture of him saying “scratch my face”.  Because that’s what dogs say.

Can I just tell you how hard it is to get two idiot dogs to sit still for these photos?

OUTTAKE 3 copy

There were a lot of outtakes.

Bathroom – “Phase I” and Long Overdue!

Thanks to the online diary that is this blog, I can see that I finished up “Phase I” (AKA Lipstick on the Pig) for the bathroom on September 1st.  So that means we have been without a mirror in our only bathroom since probably sometime in mid-June of 2012 . . .

It wasn’t the end of the world — there’s a full length mirror in the little hallway just outside the bathroom and we have a little Ikea double-sided vanity mirror that filled in for our missing bathroom mirror.  We adjusted.  But with a light fixture waiting patiently in a box in the basement and some pennies scratched together, it was time to get that sucker finished!

First we reminisce . . .

BEFORE W WATERMARK

This enormous clunky medicine cabinet and beauty of a 5-light exposed bulb bath bar came with the house.  When we demoed out the medicine cabinet, it turned out there was a random square of bead board missing on that wall . . . so it had to be covered!  Mirror to the rescue.

FINAL BATHROOM MIRROR 01

(Apologies for the picture, I took about 500 but trying to get a light fixture while it’s on and on top of a mirror in the world’s smallest room was no easy feat.)  We still have some patching/painting/trim work/caulk to do in that corner but this large mirror (29″ x 48″ with a 4″ hole cut out) is such an improvement.

Here’s a better image of the light fixture since it didn’t photograph too well:

8902-snIt’s the Trinity bath light by Hudson Valley Lighting and poor JT really had to wrestle it into place.  We had a lot of install shenanigans for this thing including hacking an extension cord to extend the wires late on a Sunday night because the mirror was getting installed the next morning.

The bathroom now feels brighter, happier and so much larger.  The combination of the large mirror and dark wall & ceiling paint really have improved this room.

BEFORE N AFTER

We have plenty of storage with the drawers and cabinet under the sink and the new acrylic shelves on the wall that taking out the medicine cabinet wasn’t a deal breaker.  Heck I’ve even been toying with the idea of a pedestal sink for Phase II but I’m pretty sure there’s no bead board behind that base cabinet either.

Doing a lot of this work ourselves has been such a learning experience.  It feels like everything that can go wrong usually will.  We had the glass company install the mirror because I didn’t have a good idea of how JT and I would even survive something like that.  We would be found three days later bleeding under mirror shards.  The nice thing is that by reading others blogs, I know we aren’t alone in the “old house renovating is a lot of work and unforseen conditions” pity party.  So we move on.  And enjoy the heck out of our newly refreshed bathroom and use it to wash away all that blood, sweat and tears!

So that’s the latest at Living Analog, what’s new in your world?

HOW DOES THIS CAMERA WORK

I think my expression says, “Um, how do I work this thing!”

Cheers – CT

Sweetheart Dinner {A Dinner Party Adventure}

2013 has seen me jump into the deep end on a few things and dinner parties are no exception.  For some crazy reason I have been born into the present age with the entertaining habits from 1964.  There’s no explaining it but I have always enjoyed the act of throwing a party — planning out the details, outlining a menu, decorating the space, setting a table.  Maybe I’m a throwback, I don’t know.  At any rate, I always start with an idea or theme and since Valentine’s Day was on Thursday, I settled on a Sweetheart’s Dinner.

INVITES

Due to a baby’s birth and a crazy work schedule, only one of the other three of JT’s bandmates and his wife were able to join us.  Looking back on things, I’m not sure that we could fit eight people into the tiny Living Analog abode.

I tried my hand at a few crafts for this party and some worked out while others were a total fail:

CRAFTING

That one-staple heart construction paper heart garland might look all right in the picture but it wasn’t really cutting it.  They weren’t really going to hold their heart shape once strung up. I used some fishing wire to hang up a few tissue paper pom-poms in the dining room for that extra pop of red.  A few of the small ones I put on a grapevine wreath on the front door.

TABLESCAPE 01

For the big meal, I scouted the interwebs for some good recipes.  The salad we had made before but all the rest were new to us.

Dinner Menu:
Tuscan Bread Salad
Beef Tenderloin
Dilly Stew with Rosemary Dumplings
TABLESCAPE 02 copy

Dessert:
S’More Pops (see them above in the trophy planter?  They were yummy.  And not vegan.  But I did find vegan marshmallows at Local Harvest Grocery after the fact).
Coffee & Heart Cookies

INDOOR CAMPING

I used the two Nelson-style slat end tables and the beer-pong table top all scrounged from the wonder that is our basement to create a “glam camping” table.  I cut out some more red construction paper into simple hearts for place cards.  Because people still use place cards in this day and age, right?  Well this old-timer does!

LARGE PARASITE copy

I gathered together all the sheepskins I have managed to amass in our house (no more unless they’re faux!) and also pulled out any and all pillows for extra comfort.  Shenanigan immediately honed in on an extra floor-covering and planted himself like a very large parasite on the rug.  That dog likes comfort.  We banished the dogs to the bedroom during the big event so we didn’t have to worry about any interferences – dinner was so close to the floor and much closer to Shenanigan’s nose height than dinner usually is.

DINNER PARTY

And there is everything all ablaze!  We’re lucky we didn’t burn the house down.  You can’t see it in the pictures, but the vessel in the middle of the picnic table is actually a firepot we got from my father-in-law a few years back.  You put some gel in the middle and light it up.  The flames were at least three inches tall during the whole meal.  It added some extra excitement to what could have been simple things like passing the bread.  All in all I think it went well!  We only forgot one thing and nothing burned and/or was inedible (that we know of. . . ).  It was really great to spend an evening with friends and enjoy some food and 1964 style hospitality.    Next up is a “Mad Men” birthday party for my sister in March, so then I can break out my 1964 style dress (and candy cigarettes I bought for the occasion!).  Cheers – CT