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Flash Mob Monday

It's Monday, baby!

Last week slipped by me. It was Friday before I knew it.
Not this week. I'm gonna wrestle this week to the ground and get all I can out of it.

So let's do it...

Let's get pumped up!

Let's get our Monday on!

If you watch this video I guarantee that you will smile and dance...and your day will be better for it.



Consider me the crazy girl in the front. Go ahead. Join right in. Let's kick it up.

I'm off to sew and clean my house...with flash mob gusto.

Mazel tov.
Mel

Spicy Gifts

My sister in law Sarah  (whom we call Sha) is quite the gourmet chef. She loves food and is a great cook. She and her husband Matt (whom we call Mateo or Smatty) live in Chicago, where they both go to school. This year for Christmas Sha and Mateo gave me an awesome gift.



This gift box of baking spices is from The Spice House. It's called the "Baker's Spice Collection" and it contains Ginger, Nutmeg, Cinnamon, and Double Strength Vanilla. I wish you could all smell these spices. They make you want to drop everything and just start "Bake-fest 2011."

They are powerful.

The Spice House is a local speciality store that imports spices and grinds them in house. All of their spices are freshly ground each week giving them superior flavor for the best possible cooking and baking.

I can't wait to go visit Sarah in Chicago and experience The Spice House for myself. Thanks, Smatty and Sha, for such a great gift.

The Spice House has a great website that's easy to order from and even has some recipes and ideas for using their great spices. Check it out HERE.

I think a gift box of spices would make a great Valentine's Day present for anyone who loves to cook. There are endless jokes to be made about Valentine's and Spice, but I'll spare you. But who wouldn't like to have a spicy Valentine's Day?

I'm particularly interested in trying their Back of the Yards Garlic Pepper Butcher's Rub and the Fleur de Sel French Sea Salt. The website provides a great description of the flavor of each spice and many ways that it can be used. So helpful...

Next week, I've got a great recipe for you using my delicious Spice House baking spices. Get ready. It's really good.

Keep it spicy, people.
M

My Favorite Artist: Steve Penley


I have a favorite artist. His name is Steve Penley.
He's an abstract expressionist.

I saw a few of his paintings while I was in college and thought his style was really unique and appealing.
Then I started spotting his paintings in different places over the years. It's easy to identify a Penley. His bold vibrant paintings are very distinctive. Well, that, and he writes his name real big on his paintings.

Steve Penley is most famous for his paintings of American icons and heroes, which probably contributes to my being drawn to his work. We all know how I feel about America, Hope, Tomorrow...you can add heroes to that, too.


Homeboy is famous world wide.
Last year I found out he was from Georgia, when I saw some of his paintings at The World of Coke in Atlanta.
Then I found out he was from Macon! That's where I live!
Then I found out that he is an alumni of the school that David teaches at!
We're basically best friends.


On Monday, I got to meet my favorite artist, Steve Penley. He came to David's school for a special presentation and to speak to the student body.


I was all over it.


I went to the school Monday morning to hear him speak. I brought one of my Steve Penley books and a Sharpie. My plan was to approach him after his presentation, tell him how cool I think he is, and then to ask him to sign my book.


And that is what I did. I met my favorite artist. He signed my book and drew this cool flower picture while we talked. Love it.


He also gave us a print of one of his paintings that he graciously signed. I'm really excited about the print because he doesn't often offer prints and because when he does, they cost 100 dollars. My boy, Penley, hooked us up! More on the print later...



You should check out his website here to see more of his work and to read his Artist Statement, which I think is really cool.


How many people get to meet their favorite artist? Very cool day.
Many thanks to Mr. Penley for sharing his talent and his time with Dave's students and with me.

Who's your favorite artist?
Melissa

Bears Basketball

We had an exciting weekend.
Well, exciting for us. We don't get out much anymore.

We went to the movies and saw True Grit...Amazing! Love. I'll admit that I was apprehensive of the John Wayne remake. I love The Duke and I wasn't sure that this new one would be as good.
But it was really good. Jeff Bridges, I tip my hat to you.

I also got to get popcorn at the movies. Nice.

We went out to eat Mexican food with some of our peeps, who are...like... Mexican Food Specialists. They requested a specific waiter at the restaurant AND they asked for a cup of salsa for each person at the table.

You could double dip your taco-lovin' heart out.
Mad props to you guys.
You know who you are.

This weekend, we also went to watch some basketball at our Alma Mater. The Davester and I both went to Mercer, here in Macon.  Though our student section days are long gone, we often get free tickets to the basketball games from David's school. Job perk.

This weekend we ended up with 4 extra tickets, so we asked some of our distinguished Alumni friends to join us.

Now, here's the best part...our seats were on the floor!! Whoop! Whoop! Where the action is. At first, I was adamantly opposed to sitting on the floor where everyone in the stadium could see me and where I would run a very high risk of being slammed in the face with a basketball. The rest of the Distinguished Alumni thought it was cool, though, so they dragged me along with them.


I felt like Jack Nicholson at a Lakers game...


"YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE FLOOR SEATS!"

The game was great, even though Mercer lost. David and I have really gotten into Mercer Basketball, this year. Basketball is a bigger deal at the school now than it was when we were there. They have a new fancy stadium and a great new coach.



You can see Coach Hoffman is the background (above) in all black. He's like the Bobby Cox of the basketball world. He's out there, fighting for the team and getting them pumped up. If that means he gets ejected from the game every now and then, well...so be it! We are friends with their family and they are the sweetest people. Coach Hoffman is a great asset to the Mercer community. If you went to Mercer and haven't been to a game in a few years, you should really check it out. He's revolutionized the Mercer Basketball experience. Seriously.


Now, back to my floor seats. Here's how close we were to the action:


This is not a zoom lens.
Number 21 and I could have been holding hands when I took this picture.
In fact, I think some of his sweat dripped onto my metallic ballet flats.
Number 21, those are my favorite shoes...
I'll let it slide.
'Cause you have mad ballin' skillz.


At one point in the game, a basketball DID nearly hit me in the face. I had to dodge it.
My fears were rational.

At another point in the game, a member of the opposing team was getting ready to "check the ball" and had to ask me move my metallic ballet flats, so that he could stand uncomfortably close to me.

I pretended to pinch his booty for the Student Section to see.
They cheered.
I probably could have gotten ejected from the game for that.
I'm not proud of what I did, but when there's a booty in your face and you have an audience, well...a girl's gotta do, what a girl's gotta do.


Doesn't Dave look nice? He always looks so dapper.
Dapper Dave.
Please notice the weird claw I am making with my hand. Why, Mel? Why?


We had so much fun at the basketball game...they're always super exciting.
We had a great time catching up with friends that we love.
I got to eat popcorn, twice...at the basketball game and at the movies.
We went out to eat, twice...Mexican, Dave's favorite, and Pasta, my favorite.
We went to see a kick-butt western movie.
We slept late.
We went to a really good church service.
And I conquered my fear of the basketball floor seats.

Go Bears,
Melissa

Project 52- Week 3

Week 3
(To find out more about P52, click HERE.)

I've got to go back to my camera manual and tutorials so I can branch out from these shallow depth of field pictures. I'm addicted to Aperture Priority. I need a step down program.

My name is Melissa...
And I'm addicted to f/2.
I need help.

That's just a little camera humor for ya.

For all of my peeps that got fancy cameras for Christmas, PW has a great tutorial for how to achieve shallow depth of field (aka blurry background) pictures called "What the Heck is Aperture?" that I found very helpful. It's a four part series, so pour yourself a cup of coffee and read it all...it'll be worth your time.

Holla.
M

Greener Grass Kitchen Tour

Oh lawsy...re-doing this kitchen nearly did us in. Do you remember what it looked like? Red toile wallpaper? Cream cabinets? Red details?


Missing floor tiles and red gingham curtains?


Grungy pantry? Disgusting outdoor carpet?


 Is any of this ringing a bell?

Although the kitchen looked yucky and busy, we knew from the very first time we saw the house that it had great potential. The cabinets and counter tops were pretty new. The floor was a ceramic tile that was salvageable, thanks to the previous owners leaving all of the extra tile from the original installation under the house. The kitchen is fairly large for a house as old as this one, and the natural light from two huge windows makes it a very pleasant place to be....which is good because, as we all know, everyone always ends up in the kitchen.

It's the heart of the home...
And our home needed a transplant.

Here's what it looks like now.


Fresh and bright.

David's dad helped us repair the floor tiles after my daddy and Jon Jon repaired some parts of the foundation of the house when we first bought it.
We lived with the red until we had the time, and strength of heart, to begin the long process of stripping the wall paper off of our 13 foot tall walls and painting the cabinets.


Mama and Nana helped us take down the wall paper using a steamer that we rented from Home Depot. If you have wallpaper that you need to remove, this will be the best 25 dollars you ever spend. Trust me. David's sister, Amy, came to visit, with her sister in law, Celia, and helped us in the kitchen, as well.

Painting cabinets is a beast of a job and I really dislike it, but it can drastically change the look of your kitchen for a very minimal amount of money. I think our kitchen is a great example of that. Always paint the doors and inside the cabinets...I know you don't want to, but you'll be glad that you did.

Do it once. Do it right.

Something that I don't think I've mentioned here before is that because our house is so old, everything is painted with oil based paint. This means that we have to use an oil based paint or primer over the existing paint or it will not stick. I learned this the hard way. It's not a huge deal, but painting with oil based paint is a little more difficult and fumey than latex paint, making this cabinet painting task even more daunting.

If you are wondering if your cabinets or house are painted with oil based paint, you can put rubbing alcohol on a cloth and rub it on the paint in a small, hidden area. If the paint bubbles or peels, it is latex paint. If nothing happens, that means it's oil based.

Good luck.
The paint on the cabinets is Benjamin Moore Bright White. It's the color that we used on the trim in the whole house. We painted the trim and cabinets with Kilz oil based primer first.

The paint color is...get this...Benjamin Moore DILL PICKLE! How great is that for a kitchen? The pictures do not show the color in its truest form, but it's bright and fresh while still being a little subdued.


I love this table in our kitchen. It's a great place to be.

The table was a housewarming/Easter gift from David's parents. I had been eyeing it in Ballard Designs and knew it would be the perfect size for our space. Sue Anne surprised me and bought it for us. It's one of the first pieces of furniture we had in the house. It's a great place to sit and talk with people while I cook in the kitchen, or eat breakfast, and it gives me a little extra prep space because it's counter height.

Sadly, this perfect little table is no longer available. What gives, Ballard?


Cute tea towel from Anthro. A gift from a sweet friend.


My beloved Kitchen aid...maker of marshmallows, cakes, pizza dough, and fresh pasta.
Nana gave this to me for a wedding gift.


I love the glass front cabinets for our dishes. They are Vietri Cucina Fresca, in case you're interested. It's our wedding china. I love that every plate and bowl and cup is a gift from someone special and getting to look at them all the time makes me very happy. The paint color for the kitchen was inspired by the dishes, because I knew we wanted them to be displayed.

We get a lot of awesome gifts, right?
I know. We are constantly overwhelmed by the generosity of our friends and family.
The framed art leaning against the back splash (above) and on the wall in other pictures is a set called "Birds in the Kitchen" and it's from a wonderful Etsy shop called Lucky Blue Bird Art. Each of the pictures are sweet silhouettes of kitchen appliances with birds perched on them. Love it.




Would you like to have that last piece of cake? I keep the knife in there so when I walk by I can have a little nibble, or as I like to say, "even up the edges" Who can sleep when there's uneven cake in the house? Not me. That's for sure.


We'll let's check out the pantry, but I must warn you...there's some pretty horrific fluorescent lighting going on in there. Please know that it's not really neon green. It just looks like that in these pictures.



This pantry is my happy place. It's probably the very first "room" in the house that we finished. Sometimes David would be looking for me around the house and find me just sitting on the floor in the pantry admiring the perfectly painted selves and beautiful baskets full of organized food.

You do what it takes to get you through.

Many people ask me how we can be so patient to live here while we fix up the house one room at a time. That's how...sitting in the pantry...being happy with what is done and how lovely it is...choosing to dwell on what we've accomplished, rather than the other 1500 square feet that are not done yet.


I store all of my dry goods in big glass jars with labels that I made from chalkboard vinyl. Practical? Maybe. Maybe not. Pretty? Oh yes. Very pretty indeed.


I think it helps me to stay organized, though and to know what and how much of something I have at a glance. I think when your kitchen is a pleasant place, you will use it more.


On one wall of the pantry, there was an old boarded over vent-thingy. That's as descriptive as I can get for you. It looked like a window, but it wasn't. It was ugly. Not wanting to stare at something ugly everyday, I decided to cover it with sheet metal and make it into a little message station. It's perfect for grocery lists, reminders, and notes.

Lemons to lemonade, friends.


This is a little doo-hickey that I roped my brother into helping me make a very long time ago. It hung over my desk in college for notes and mementos and now it hangs in my pantry and hold my aprons and miscellaneous hang-able stuff, like my graduated biscuit cutters.

What?
Where do you put your graduated biscuit cutters?
Oh...
That's a weird thing to have?
Who knew?


Before

After

So that's where we are in life, dear ones. The heart of our home is a much more pleasant place for us to be now and we love every second that we get to spend in it...from morning coffee to dinner with friends.

Y'all come on over if you decide you want that piece of cake.
Melissa


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Things are Getting Weird

Hi Friends.

I don't like being away from you for this long.
I feel like things are weird now... like I can't talk to you.
I feel like I should tell you something really important because I haven't talked to you in a while...
but alas, there is nothing really important to say.
Here's a list of little snippits of our week, anyway.
Just the regular ol' stuff.

1. This past weekend I got to go be with some of my favorite people and do what I like most in the whole world: chat and eat. I got to talk to college girls about Jesus and my pantry. It was awesome. Well, awesome for me...I don't know about for them.

2. Spending the weekend with college girls made me very aware that I need to buy some new clothes...cooler clothes...college clothes.

3. Sewing classes are filling up and we're having SEW much fun! (I can't help myself) This week one of the classes made the patchwork pincushions that I showed you earlier. They are learning so much, so fast, and I couldn't be more proud.


4. This was my P52 picture for this week (Week 2). You've already seen it, but I didn't want you to think that I flaked out on my new project only 2 weeks in....although don't put it past me. I'm like that.


5. We had two snow days last week. As a South Georgia girl, I'm always infatuated with the snow that we get here in Macon 1 or 2 times a year. I am not as infatuated with the steep icy driveway that follows the snow. It's scary, man.

6. Thanks to a sweet friend, I started reading One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp today. It is rocking my world. I love it. Have you read this? Have you heard of it? Talk to me...

7. Speaking of gifts, many of you have asked me how I like my stainless cookware. I love it. It's beautiful and shiny and those glass lids are revolutionizing my kitchen experience. It's taking me a while to get used to them...I've burned quite a few things so far. I'm learning the joys of cooking on "low." Best of all, we're no longer consuming Teflon flakes in our scrambled eggs.

8. I finally saw Inception on Monday. Will someone tell me what happened in the end? Was he dreaming? I hope not.

9. I've been sneaking Jack into the bed after David falls asleep at night. I use the word "sneaking" lightly, but Jack really does lay so still and quiet in the bed...like he knows we're pulling a fast one.


10. Speaking of sleep, we've been sleeping in our guest bedroom. Our neighbor's Christmas lights this year reached "Christmas Vacation" status. He had hundreds of lights...all blinking...to music. It really was fun. But then, all the lights were streaming in through our bedroom windows and it started wearing on my rentinas and inhibiting my REM cycles. We love our neighbor and didn't want to bother him, so we just started sleeping in the guest bedroom. He cut his lights off this week, but we're still sleeping in the guest room. It's like sleeping in a hotel. I like it.

Your's Always,
mel
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