Busy Gal

For my first weekend away from the new house, I visited family and friends in South Florida. 4 days and I managed to avoid direct sunlight and the beach! (As some people work hard to keep freakish fake summer tans all year long, I work hard to keep my complexion pale and cancer-free, if only in protest of all the "you need some color, whitey" declarations.)

However, I did manage to:

-Dinner with the fam at my favorite Italian place, hitting the garlic rolls hard, despite not being that hungry
-Outlet shopping with Dad (so many more discount sweaters to choose from in a place where sweaters aren't needed!)
- Turn a friend's friend's board games and wii party into a White Party (so Miami!) bringing popcorn, powdered donuts, key lime pie, and chips and onion dip.
- DimSum'ed
- Order a fancy martini, only to ask the waiter to bring some mint to fix it (it did)
- Loudly say to a dog in front of its dining owners: "Oh you poor baby, who put a sweater on you when it is 95 degrees out? Evil owners!" then walked away cackling. (I'd blame it on a dare, but I'm just a bitch)
- More fancy drinks at the Delano (Modern, awesomely decorated hotel lobby bar), only to walk across the street, buy multiple airplane-size liquor bottles to have in my purse for a movie
- Amazing pastries at a Charlotte's Bakery (http://store.charlottebakeryinc.com/). Empanadas and huge dessert section not to be missed.

Lincoln Road mall in South Beach, where many hours were spent strolling, eating, and drinking.

Old roomie Chris and I in mostly white. Love how it looks like he's caught on to a scent.

Amazing chocolate caramel tart pastry that traveled all the way back to Baltimore with me. (I only take a few nibbles at a time to extend the awesomeness.)

Great food and friends. Loved hanging out like old times with my college buddies. Next reunion in Baltimore, mmmk?



Then I continued my De Stijl modern art basement project. The art will soon be hung, but here's a preview.

Bought a cheap, boring clock from IKEA. Took it apart. Painted face white. used my neon green spray paint to match the edge to my table (basement table, yet to be revealed). Painted, re-numbered. Put back together.


I love the finished product! But what I don't love? That it ticks, but doesn't actually move the hands. FAIL. Debating buying a second clock and hoping that mechanism/hand set works, so my painting isn't a super waste.

Fells Point Fun Fest this weekend! Plan to dance it up with Charm City Swing, window shop, and probably get Mr. Yogato FroYo and/or Pitango Gelato. Would both be overkill? We shall see.

Long awaited update (I'm a terrible blogger)

Yeah, apparently I suck at posting regularly. Lately I've had multiple weekends of successful project days, and a couple of days I deemed project-free days. Good to give myself a break every once in a while.

My mental list of project goals is wrapping up, so the next big goal is to "stage" the house for a photo shoot to send pictures to relatives and far-away friends. (Yes, I watch too much HGTV to know what house staging is and should look like.) That's a project in itself, since my Florida family has only seen images of a table and a toilet.

Big headway has been made on my bedroom, as I've completed the headboard/daybed project no one seemed to understand as I described it. One more trip to IKEA tomorrow will fill out the empty wall and make it much more photogenic.

The project I want to share today is my kitchen photo project. As I've mentioned, I live near Patterson Park, which I consider the Central Park of Baltimore (including an ice-skating rink, boat lake, and a coffee shop named Patterson Perk on one side). Though I have a million windows (Not fun: installing 17 mini-blinds.), my only view is of other rowhouses. I wanted to bring a little bit of the park inside. So, after a leisurely walk through the park with a camera, I decided on my perfect view. The 1890s Victorian/Oriental Pagoda is probably the most photographed structure in the Park (and in Baltimore?), so it's a little cliche, but I like it. Here's the winning picture:


And here's what 36 4"x6" prints look like attached to my kitchen wall:



I really like that this one featured the civil war cannons (Patterson Park and the Civil War) and the red tree on the right, as my kitchen has taken off with a red and green theme (not like Christmas).

Now we have a view of the Park from our breakfast island sitting in the most fabulous Pier 1 barstools (my first house splurge while I was thriftily using craigslist to furnish the place). And instead of paying for one huge print and frame, the cost of this beauty was less than $10! ($0.19 Rite-Aid prints and a box of photo stickies for scrapbooking)

And thanks for all the lovely comments! I didn't even notice they were there, as blogger doesn't shove them in my face like facebook does (i.e. sending me countless emails). I have such awesome neighbors!

Off to have some green curry and watch a movie with my housemates...