every little thing

Time to move on

Long time no see!  Big changes going on these days:  I've sold Bake It Pretty and our family is moving back to Virginia.  All good things :)  

I'm taking a little time to regroup mentally, physically, and emotionally from the last few years.  Not exactly sure what's on the horizon, but I plan to keep you all updated in a few, new blog spaces I have going:

We bought a 69' travel trailer to renovate and I plan to document that, and other life-stuff, at Out Like Bandits.

And because I'm not finished with the baking world yet:

...catch up on my kitchen adventures, new recipes, and other deliciousness at Sweet as the Punch.

See you soon!

xoxo

Kitten VS Toiletries

 

 

This one's for my mom, who used to love Raja before she found out he has teeth and claws just like other cats.

 

 

 

2011 list of things to accomplish

1. Go to the Lake Lure Dirty Dancing festival.  Force Mike to take photos of me carrying watermelons, dancing up the stairs in cutoffs, and trying on wigs.

That's really all I have planned so far.  I like to leave plenty of room for impromptu ideas.  Oh—  like...

1. Visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
2. Eat more empanadas
3. Play Rummikub

OK, that's good for now.  Don't want to get ahead of myself.  Baby steps.  Actually the first thing we'll be dong this year is moving.  Goodbye treehouse, we will miss you, (Mike most of all.)

This home has been a joy to live in these two years— it housed our business for the better half of that time, too.  I can't believe we lived and worked in the same space for so long, especially when I see how gigantic the shop is now.  But, the new BIP headquarters is downtown, about a 20 minute drive from the tree house.  Not terrible, but not terribly convenient either.  

I wasn't expecting to find the perfect house to rent downtown so quickly, but after only a few weeks trolling Craigslist, there it was!  A darling, old home with a large fenced yard in a fantastic neighborhood, (and the best part) a mere 8 minute WALK to the shop.  I had to jump on it, even though moving in January right after the holidays seemed daunting at first.  But I think we'll survive.  

All I have for now is this terrible Google Map photo, but trust me - it's adorbs.  (Found better pics!)
And the landlords are about the sweetest people I've ever met.  So many good vibes with this place, and there's an empty lot next door we have big plans for...more on that soon.

Note the man-cave shed on the bottom—  that's where you'll find Mike and Max.

I'm very excited to get back into a house that has some real, old-school "charm."  I get to make curtains, decorate a new space, and meet new neighbors.  It really feels like we're starting over for 2011.  I hope to share a lot of the process here, but I don't make any guarantees when it come to blogging.  So, we'll see.  

 

Raja

This is Raja, our new kitty, at about 10 weeks old.  He's a Bengal, and before you get on my case about how terrible it is to buy fancy breeds when there are poor, homeless kitties in need of rescue— chill. This was Mike's crazy idea, not mine.  And since Mike doesn't ask for much, I figured if he wanted a cat that was five generations down from a snow leopard then by gum, who was I to stop him?

Having said that, this is pretty much the coolest cat that ever was: he was so well cared for and socialized as an infant that he bonded with us immediately, he loves riding in the car, is cool as a cuke at the vet, and has a spotted jungle-cat belly that is to die for.  Oh, and get this— Bengals love the water!  Have you ever heard of such a thing?  Raja already peeks his head in the tub when I'm in the shower, and our the breeder said to watch out: when they're older they will jump in the bathtub with you and splash water all over the place.  Craziness, right?  

We were so pleased with our experienced with Alexander Bengals I definitely wanted to give them a shout out. We could tell right away that the breeder truly loved their kitties and treated them with exceptional care. if you're in the Western North Carolina area and you're looking for Bengals, well, there you go.  

As for the name...  I'm kind of ashamed to admit that we got "Raja" from a Disney move.  Ugh, how lame is that?  We were watching Aladdin on TV, and I guess the tiger's name is Raja, and it just kind of stuck.  Sorry, kitty.  Naming things has always been tricky business for me.  I'm still trying to convince some people that I didn't name our son after the lead character in Rushmore.  

I really didn't. 

Haunted Gingerbread Cottages

The Witching Hour has come and gone, but I can't resist sharing a few pictures of our Haunted gingerbread House Making party last Friday!

  

 

 

This is serious (part 1.2)

We survived Ikea. I was getting really worried at first, because Mike and I were already at each others throats before we even got to the place, as it was hard to find and tricky to get to.  You could see it from everywhere ('cause you know, Ikea is huge,) but none of the roads actually led to it, and the Magellan was no help at all.  Very bad start.  Happily, once we finally made it there, ingested a huge plate of meat balls, and dropped Max off at the kiddie area....it was smooth sailing.  Whew. 

We stuck to only the kitchen, organization, and bedding/bathroom areas, and that helped a lot.  We drove the mini-Honda-mobile, so we knew there was no need to even look at the furniture because we wouldn't be able to fit anything huge in the car.  I already knew I wanted this table (and maybe these chairs) for the kitchen, plus several other shelves and bookcases, so I'm thinking we will drive back in a few weeks and rent a SUV or U-Haul so we can get the rest of the goods.  I like doing things in phases like this, it makes life more manageable and it gets us out of the house more, which is a good thing. 

I'm still working on the kitchen, but I'm so stoked with the progress so far!  I'm actually nerding out over the p-touch I bought, too.  Which is mildly horrifying, for me.  But it is handy for things like our Artisan Bread dough that lives in the fridge, and no matter how many times I make it, I still have to find the recipe book to look up the baking detials.

Not anymore.  And this is just the beginning, more pics from the kitchen reorganizing effort coming soon!

 PS:  Thank you so much, everyone, for the great comments and suggestions!  Several of you kind souls recommended the www.flylady.com website, and I've been checking it out.  It does indeed look like a fabulous resource (and I love the audio clips with the awesome southern-fabulous accent!) 

This is serious (part one)

So serious, I'm not even posting a picture.  It's that serious.

This is about the BIG "O", people.  And I'm not talking about overstock.com, either.  (or that other thing.)

Organization.

There.  I said it.  (OK, I typed it.)  Whatever.  The time has come, and I am ready.  Since we have settled into the new house these past six months, I've been so revealed with the lack of clutter and mess we always dealt with at the old house.  The new place is a lot bigger, and when we moved last August, we did a massive, and desperately needed, purging of our personal belongings that helped tremendously.  I was seriously ashamed of overwhelming amount of junk we had accumulated the 6 years we lived in Norfolk.  Looking around at our new surroundings, I am hopeful - we are moving in the right direction, but something is still missing.  We have the space and storage to easily contain what we have now, but the organizational aspect is still eluding me. 

So, I got a book.  And I hate that. I don't like to think of myself as a person who buys self-help books, or more especially, a person who could actually be helped by a self help book.  I mean, what are they going to tell me that I don't already know?  But there it was, Organizing From the Inside Out, staring at me from thrift store shelf.  And I let go of my pretentious, self-serving attitude and had a mini breakdown.  "It is time for me to organize myself, from the inside out, " I pondered.

OK, that's a bit dramatic, but it really is a decent book.  Nothing earth-shattering, but there's something humbling about seeing all of your faults in print, in black and white.  Written out.  It sort of gets to you.  All of these sabotaging behaviors are so me:

• You go shopping for containers to get your clutter problem under control without having measured, counted, or examined what you have to store.
• You tackle the bits and pieces of your organizing problem without ever looking at the big picture. 
• You are easily distracted. 

The last one really hits home.  So many times, my attempts at organizing any specific area would go exactly like this:  "I decide to clean out the book case, I start pulling books out and putting them in random piles.  Oops, there's a cup on top, better take that to the kitchen.  I should empty the dishwasher while I'm in there.  Hey, that's my crochet hook on the floor, I'll just put that in the yarn box downstairs.  I really should finish that scarf I started, I'll just do a few rows really quick.  But first, I need to clean out my yarn stash...." 

Me to a Tee.  Five hours later I'd have started about 15 different projects and would never really finish any of them.  So sad.  But no more, I tell you!  I'm changing, and for once, I'm starting small.  I'm gonna ease into it so I don't shock my system.  I even took some "before" pictures so I can share my progress on the blog and keep motivated.  We are driving down to the new Ikea today to look around and pick up some storage containers (of which I have a carefully detailed list with exact measurements. ha.)  And I'll be sure to post more about my quest later.  'Cause I'm sure you're just all on the edge of your seats to see me organize my kitchen pantry!  Whatev.  This is a big thing for me, so deal.  Oh, and please post your favorite tips and tricks for keeping neat and tidy.  I appreciate any help I can get!  I just hope we make it back from Ikea in one piece. There is something about that place that brings out the worst in couples.  It's not just me, lots of other people have dubbed Ikea "the relationship tester."  Mike and I are so close to wrapping up our 7-year-itch....it'd be a shame to throw in the towel now, just for some crappy Swedish furniture. 

Snow Day!

   

 

I'm not gonna work.  I'm not putting the tutorial up. 

We are sledding in the yard, throwing snowballs, watching Karate Kid, and having tuna melts and drinking Shirley Temples.

Because I'm twelve years old, and it's a snow day.

 

If you need me, I'll be by the fire.

Snow at the Treehouse

 

This is the scene we woke up to on Wednesday.  The weather forecast said the snow would start around midnight the night before, and that's exactly what happened.

 

      

Max was beyond excited.  He played out in the freezing cold for hours, wearing probably the worst snow gear ever, (yes, that's a baja hoodie...could we be more hippie if we tried?)  Later in the afternoon, the sun came out and everything melted away.  Max was furious, and waved his fist at the sky, cursing the sun, and even squeezing out a few icy tears.  The poor kid's never really seen snow before, I think he's addicted now.  I told him there will be more snow, but hopefully not before we have a chance to buy the dude an actual winter coat.

Happy Halloween, everyone!  See you all next week.

We made it!

   

We're here, we did it!  The move is over, we survived, and Asheville is like Heaven on Earth.  We are so grateful to be living, for however long, in such an enchanting and peaceful place.  I fear it is more than we probably deserve, but we're just gonna roll with it. 

Big shout-out to Kat for the guest blog posts while I was away!  She is such a dear friend, and she'd probably have a fabulous blog of her own if she wasn't so busy frittering her days away at college, being all genius-like.  Such a pity. 

Yesterday I was arranging the studio/office room in anticipation of my big SHOP opening later this Fall!  Oh man, I'm so excited!  Big changes, loads of new stuff, new name, new everything!  I'm beside myself, really.  I'll keep you all updated every step of the way, of course.  I don't want to miss the prime Holiday shopping season this year, so I'm pushing to get the shop opened as soon as can be.  I won't have things in ready in time for Halloween goodies unfortunately, but I'll try to make up for it with a grand assortment of Christmas treats! 

Many thanks again for all of the support during this fast and furious move.  If I stop to think about the friends and family we have left in VA,  and all of the help and support they so wonderfully gave to us, I get pretty choked up.  There is so much to do and explore now, but I know the homesickness will settle in soon.  Best not to think about that today.  I can think about it tomorrow.