I know I said I'm not buying anything until I get my LV, but I might have to make an exception for this...after all, Mexico is less than a month away!!

{LuLu's}

The basement project!!

The basement project is nearly done! Yay!! Here are a few pics...

I want it...I need it...I have to have it!

My next few purchases...in no particular order!

Black glossy Hunter's in Size 8


Leopard liner socks for my new Hunter boots


Louis Vuitton Speedy 30

In an ideal world, we'd have a private plane ready to whisk us to an exotic locale whenever we developed a case of epicurean wanderlust....
....so until that plane shows up, I guess I'm going to be relying on destinationdinners.com to get my fix. Each recipe kit comes with pre-measured (and hard to find around Columbia) ingredients. The Saikyo Miso- Black Cod in Miso Marinade- comes with everything you need except the fish and a bit of sake, soy sauce and flat parsley.


{Destination Dinners}

It's such a beautiful day outside today...temperatures in the 80's, sunny and not a cloud in sight! This fun cocktail will be perfect for the porch tonite with a cilantro-lime grilled chicken skewer. Its 2 parts Absolut Berri Acai, 3/4 parts simple sugar and 1 part fresh lemon juice. Yum-a-lum!!! Happy Tuesday!!

How delicious does this look?
Its impossible to go wrong with asparagus, gruyere & puff pasty!!!
You will need:
Flour, for work surface
1 sheet frozen puff pastry
5 1/2 ounces (2 cups) Gruyere cheese, shredded
1 1/2 pounds medium or thick asparagus
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a floured surface, roll the puff pastry into a 16-by-10-inch rectangle. Trim uneven edges. Place pastry on a baking sheet. With a sharp knife, lightly score pastry dough 1 inch in from the edges to mark a rectangle. Using a fork, pierce dough inside the markings at 1/2-inch intervals. Bake until golden, about 15 minutes.

Remove pastry shell from oven, and sprinkle with Gruyere. Trim the bottoms of the asparagus spears to fit crosswise inside the tart shell; arrange in a single layer over Gruyere, alternating ends and tips. Brush with oil, and season with salt and pepper. Bake until spears are tender, 20 to 25 minutes.

Enjoy!!

Basement...continued!

The basement project is definatly underway...yesterday was the painters first day there! Yes..we broke down and got a painter once we realized that painting the basement was going to be a much much bigger project than we anticipated! Now the hunt for furniture is on. Gavin may not be a huge fan of sectionals, but I found this Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams sectional that looks just perfect for snuggling up on!!!



{Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams}

Tradition with a TWIST

This amazingly adorable cookie jar is enough to make me want to start eating carbs again..oh wait, I want to eat carbs everyday!



{MacKenzie-Childs @ Neiman's}

HAPPY EASTER!

I'm so so so excited to spend Easter with so many of my friends (Gav, Elly, Clay, Michayah, Joe, Amy, Kevin & Crocker) and my family (Mom & Dad)...and can't forget the pups Martini, Sammy & Sunnie! Sunday is going to be a day for the books!!!



HAPPY EASTER!

Friendship Bread

My very best friend in the whole wide world (Emily...duh!) brought me something very interesting the other night when she came to visit. It was in a ziplock bag, looked kinda like a melted caramel milkshake and had Day 1 March 26 on it. I looked at it for awhile trying to figure out what the hell it actually was, so I finally asked. It turned out to be a "starter" for sweet "friendship" bread. You mush, add some basic ingredients, mush some more, let it sit, mush even more and finally on Day 10 you add a few more ingredients, divide (more on that later) and bake 2 loaves of this yummy, sweet bread. This would be wayyyy cooler if I was actually eating carbs right now, but looks and sounds pretty fun nonetheless. When you divide, you split the mix into 4. At that point, you can start a bag for your friends and pass it along. Alot of my friends aren't really big into cooking so if anyone (does anyone even read my blog???) wants a starter, let me know!!

I'm in love...

I want this Yurman 14mm Hematite Albion Ring more than ANYTHING else right now...

Sangria

I had the best Sangria EVER on Sunday night at N9NE in Vegas!!!



4 oranges
4 apples
2 lemons
2 limes
1 pint strawberries
1 pint raspberries
1 pint blackberries
1 cup POM juice
1 cup cranberry juice
1 cup orange juice
1 cup simple syrup
1 cup Ketel One Vodka
1 cup triple sec
1 cup Chambord
6 bottles red wine, preferably Pinot Noir or Red Zinfandel

Clean and chop all fruits, then mix all ingredients together. Let the mixture sit and incorporate for two days. Strain the mix and pour into clean bottles with caps. When ready to serve, pour the mix into a large glass filled with ice. Top with a splash of club soda and Sprite and garnish with fresh, sliced seasonal fruit.

Basement project

So the basement redecorating project is fully under way...We have officially decided on paint colors, have already sanded and caulked all the trim, and everything is ready for primer.

Before:



Sampling the colors:

I need a vacation...

This morning I kept thinking about how bad I need a vacation...then I remembered I'll be in Vegas in 8 days and it put a smile on my face.

I got to work and my dear friend Lydia reminded me via FB that we will be in Mexico in 69 days.

Needless to say, this day is looking up for me!! Happy Thursday!

2 months, 10 days...

...until I'm right here!



MEXICO HERE WE COME!!!

Latex paint vs. carpet

Day 2 of our "winter project"- painting & redecorating the basement! We decided on Maple Sugar for the walls and Lady in Red for the accent wall and stairwell. I thought it would be a good idea to do a test run on the paint colors, so I painted a patch of each color on its corresponding walls so we could see what it looks like with all different light. Good idea, right? So I'm minding my own business, painting random squares on the walls while Gavin was caulking, when I look down and see 2 red footprints on the cream carpet. I immediately checked the bottom of my shoes and realized that I was not the one who had stepped in the red paint. Turns out, latex paint isn't as difficult to get out of the carpet. We blotted with a damp rag, then soapy water, followed by a bath of soda water and a sprinkle of salt. After it sat for about 5 minutes, we soaked it up with a dry towel and the paint was gone!

Is it Summer yet?

I'm so so so ready for summer, weekends at the lake, lounging by the pool and relaxing in warm weather!

Compost

It all starts with days like today...March 4, no clouds in sight, and temperatures reaching 50 degrees. Not too bad for the beginning of March in Missouri. On days like today, all I want to do it get out in the yard and play in the dirt. I came to the realization last year that the bed I want to plant in doesn't have the best dirt ever. Its relatively dry and doesn't seem to be too nutrient rich. Solution? Start a compost!! All you need is a good carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (thats green items to brown items for any non-gardeners out there) and a composting pail, bin or pile. Grass clippings, weeds, green garden debris, coffee grounds and vegetable kitchen scraps are the "green" items. Brown garden debris, leaves, eggshells, teabags and straw are the "brown" items. Layer and let it "cook". The outcome is some nutrient rich organic matter to add to the soil!

I found this simple and small compost pail that would be perfect for a beginning composter like myself!



{Target}

Laundry Room Continued....

Alas, the laundry room project is still in the works. All I got done was laundry, then I was totally over making the room look better. I hate laundry. . .

My random Tuesday night project

My project tonite is. . . .LAUNDRY ROOM ORGANIZATION! Pretty lame, I know, but I'm actually really really excited to get everything nice and organized. Maybe this will make doing laundry a little bit more enjoyable (or at least make the room more enjoyable to be in). Pictures to come....