Family

Belated Weekend Update

I am pleased to say I finally have the house in a place where I won't be embarrassed to have friends over for dinner!  So if you are one of my loyal yet patient friends, give me a call and we can plan a date.  If you aren't, maybe we should be friends ;-). Friday's weather was a tease... it SNOWED here yesterday.  Just when I finally got rid of every last bit of white on my property...   Winter sends me to the doldrums and I'm ready for green, warm, and SUN!  I'm solar powered.  But I digress (for now).

Back to the point of this post.  Saturday my loving parents came to visit for the first time since moving day- and I didn't put them to work!  Shocking, I know, but after painting 2 rooms and shoveling feet from my driveway before we even moved, I thought they deserved a reprieve.  We did take an adventure to the Cambridge Antique Market.  Fun place to check out, but I sadly walk out with nothing.  Mom was the only one who bought something- a bowl for $17.   Doesn't it look so cute in her cabinet (refinished curb-side find) surrounded by the other antiques?

Sunday was productive and frustrating.  I've finally started to hang some curtains and pictures, and at least move items to their destination room.  The living room got 2 new pieces of art I found at... you guessed it... HomeGoodsI've hung the aforementioned brown curtains in there as well and it just looks wrong.  I'm on the hunt for something lighter, brighter, and textural for the windows, but after going to just about every store I could think of that would carry inexpensive curtains (this was the very frustrating part of my weekend), I've accepted that they'll be an online purchase.

In moving art and misc decorative items to their respective rooms, I was able to clear them out of the dining room and actually see the space as it was intended for the first time.  The dining room is the only room that will fit the piano, so that forces the table off-center from the space.  We'll have to get a new chandelier and swag it above the table at some point.  I have BIG plans for the old chandelier, but you'll just have to wait and find out!  Seeing the space finally clutter-free, I'm even more convinced of my plan for the dining room table: a bench on one side, 2 matching(maybe) chairs with arms (possibly uphostered) on either end, and 2 other mismatched chairs.  All the seating elements will be tied together with a common color or fabric or something.  Tag sales (or garage sales, or yard sales, or whatever you call them) HERE I COME!

Last room that I'm getting excited about is the bedroom.  I can see a Hollywood regency theme coming together before my eyes (or at least in my mind, lol).  Hanging up this mirror between the windows made me very happy.  Ad that to the sexy gray walls and the oversized black furniture and I know exactly what the room needs.  Whether or not I can find the items I want will be the real battle.  I need to do some local investigating for awesome off-the-beaten-path design resources.

Gnocchi Day 2011

Now that I'm feeling better after a few days of sickness, its time to post my exploits from last weekend. Once a year, my sister and I get together with our 2 closest cousins (on our dads side) and have a Gnocchi Day.  We are the "4 Girls"- the only 4 grandchildren on that side and, after my birthday in April, will be once again in sequential age order- Me: 27, Cousin Erica: 28, Sister Lisa: 29, Cousin Kelly: 30.  Grandma was the Italian cook and would routinely cook for 5 times the amount of people in attendance any given holiday.  One of our favorite dinner treats was Gnocchi (yum) and we all fondly recall Grandma in a gnocchi-making frenzy with the little dough balls coating her countertop and flour all over her apron.  Before Grandma died, my sister was lucky enough to get a private gnocchi lessen from the Master.

Flash forward to our 4th Annual Gnocchi Day!  Girls only, no boys allowed!

This year we had our first new (miniature) addition to Gnocchi Day: my cousin Kelly's 4 month old cutie pie, Whitney.