sheppard girls

Chex

You double the seasoning mix recipe when you make Chex Mix too, right?

Kitchen lights, part who knows

Now that the sadness from the failed kitchen lighting has faded and the company has agreed to refund my money I am able to think about new lights.  I am still arguing with UPS who charged me $435 to return the lights to the UK, broke them in transit and now won't refund my shipping costs.  I could have flown to England with the lights on my lap for that price. 

The original choice was aqua blue, vintagey and took me forever to select.  Erin from House of Turquoise had some good suggestions, but none I loved.  Another local magazine stylist and designer suggested Hudson Valley, which I am pretty sure they sell at Lowe's.  I had narrowed it down to the Quatrefoil Cutout Pendant from Shades of Light.

But I kept thinking in the back of my mind that I really really loved the Thomas O'Brien Hicks pendant.

And it might go really well with the Jonathan Adler ceiling light that I have loved for a long time.

 
  
I had originally ruled out the Schoolhouse Electric pendant with a blue shade,

 

that would look really great, but seemed predictable and would be widely recognized.  When I searched the Thomas O'Brien light for a better price, and I found that the Hicks pendant is pretty widely loved in design circles.  Made by Girl put them in her kitchen recently, and Nicole from from So Haute Style, whose apartment was featured on Apartment Therapy this summer, considered them as well.  I am not super original, but I hate it when people can walk into my house and say "nice Hable Construction pillow" (which they totally could because I have one in our office, on a vintage Eames LCW chair, which they might also recognize and call by name.)  I think I am going with the Hicks.

Counter clutter

One of the goals in the new kitchen remodel was to keep the counters more open.  I tend to cluster a lot of items around - shocking news I know.  We moved the coffee maker to a little nook by the frig, moved the knives to a drawer, and got rid of a dish rack.  I also tend to leave half dry dishes sitting out for a long time, so this was a good challenge.  I have been doing well, but slowly pretty things are replacing functional things.

 
Like this cute vintage Thermos ($4 at Mustard Moon) which is the perfect colors and coordinates with my front door decorations for back to school.

 

Tour de Farm

 

I am packing our bag to go to Tour de Farm this afternoon.  It is a locally run version of Outstanding in the Field, which we went to last year, at the same farm.  This event is a family picnic, which seems like a fun idea.  The little one is worried they will serve stinky cheese. 

Gift tags

I could spend hundreds of dollars at the scrapbook store, just on rub ons.  They are perfect.  Every once in a while, in the cupboard in my basement, I come across some older ones that I forgot about and they become my new obsession.  I have used these for three birthday presents and the chalkboard on our frig.  They are old Gin-X ones.  Are those still being made?  If so, I could use some more.

Portrait of daddy

Apparently I married a hobo.

Pickles

 

For some reason, twice in recent weeks, I decided that the best time to make pickles was just before people came over.  Hot vinegar is not super welcoming. 

The kitchen sink

I am really bad at keeping up on dishes.  This is usually what our sink looked like before the kitchen remodel, only this was a picture someone requested, so I probably actually cleaned up a bit.

 
Old kitchen sink.

I have been trying really hard to do better with the new kitchen.  We are about a month in, and so far so good.  It helps that although I didn't realize it when I picked it, the new sink is insanely deep. 

 
New kitchen sink.

A giant P

Right after the contractor, electrician and I spent about fours house trying to figure out and install the blue lights over the island, only to discover that the ceiling plate didn't even cover the junction box, grrrr, I took a break and went shopping.  I was quite cross until I came across this

 
a giant aqua blue, metal P!  I felt much better.