200 Minutes

In my newly acquired free time I have been doing all the things I love to do but never have time to do. I have been reading a book for fun and watching Oprah! I used to watch Oprah with Lizzy when we were at Bates. After college, on days off from work I would sometimes catch an episode but it was rare and finally after years of missing her I have watched all five episodes this week. Oprah is pretty amazing. And in the count down to her final episode, she has had some pretty incredible guests and segments. The show today was about getting healthy. Now this is not by any means a new topic and she had her old standby Bob Green on promoting his new book "20 Years Younger." Not a whole lot of what he was sharing was new to me. I have been a very aware of what I have been putting in my body for years and have been a regular exerciser since I was about 13. But the one key thing I took away from his schpeel today was the goal of doing aerobic activity for 200 minutes a week. Sometimes life is hectic and sometimes we cannot all be perfect in our eating habits. Let's face it ice cream, full fat cheese, chocolate, red wine these are all things I will never give up completely and never would want to. But even when we are exhausted, overworked, overwhelmed etc we all can find the time to do a little exercise. This is not something one can half-ass. It is a commitment to being active every day and having that activity be aerobic on most days of the week. For some reason working out for 200 minutes a week seemed like a pretty reasonable starting point. It seemed like something that I could do every week for a very long time. When you do the math 200 minutes a week is LESS than 30 minutes each day and that we all know is possible.  Everyone needs their own attainable goal and for some reason 200 minutes seems perfect for me.

Here is hoping you can find what is do-able for you. Now get moving!  Here is some favorite work out gear to get you inspired.

Title Nine

Fajita Night

Last night we had our neighbors over for a cooking lesson and some drinks. I asked them to pick what they wanted to learn to make and to my delight they picked fajitas! Here is what we made. It was super fun to cook together. We had a great dinner to which everyone contributed and then played some Rock Band into the night.

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

1 1/2 lbs tomatillos, husks removed, washed and halved
5 jalapeno peppers washed and halved
4 cloves of garlic in the skin
1/2 cup cilantro
1 large onion diced
Juice of 1 lime
1-2 tsp salt to taste

Place the tomatillos, jalapenos and garlic on a sheet pan and broil in the oven for about 10 minutes flipping once to get a nice roasted flavor. They should be slightly charred. Let cool completely. Then seed the jalapenos to your desired level of heat. Peal the roasted garlic. Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend until combined. Serve with your favorite chips!

I made my standard guacamole recipe and seasoned some chicken and a flank steak.

Flank Steak Marinade
1/2 cup cilantro
2 cloves garlic
Juice of 1 lime
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
3 tbs vegetable oil

Chicken Marinade
1 tbs chili powder
1 tbs cumin
1 tsp salt
Juice of 1 lime
3 tbs vegetable oil

Everything was delicious!

Wedding Bliss

This weekend while in Michigan I bought a wedding dress. I had no idea this was going to happen but it did. We have no date, no venue, no budget but we have a dress. It was a bit of an ordeal but my mom was there and she cried so I knew it was the dress.

The day started with me really not wanting to go try on wedding dresses. I felt gross, fat and not like putting anything pretty on my body. We frist tried to go to a bridal shop that sold Watters dresses the first dress I tried on and liked was a Watters dress. We drove all the way to this shop which was not that close to my house only to find a small hand written note on the door saying, "sorry we are closed on Good Friday." The next stop was to David's Bridal. I was anti-David's Bridal from the beginning. All I could imagine was TRASH and that was really not the look I was aiming for on my wedding day. But Sal told me I was being judgmental and that I really didn't know what I was talking about. Well Sal was proven wrong big time. We went there and it was exactly what I expected. The lady who greeted us stuck some god-awful veil in my hair and told me she would make me a bride. I wanted to puke right there. Luckily, Sal could tell I was about ready to flip and took the veil away. I tried on one awful dress and then another and finally Sal was ready to leave. I thought we were done with the experience but then Sal talked to my aunt who sent us to a lovely shop in Rochester Hills. The woman at this shop Bellissima Bridal was perfect. And the very first dress she put me in was THE dress. I tried on maybe 10-15 more but each time we kept coming back to that first dress. It is a Maggie Sottero dress and now I feel like this wedding is really happening.

On to wedding planning.

To the Mitten

I am headed to my favorite state for a weekend of family, friends and Sal's cooking! I hope you have a great weekend and enjoy some family favorites for Easter. Michigan here I come. 

The Human Experience

I had never heard of The Human Experience until tonight. I found it while browsing on Netflix instant view and it is by far one of the best documentaries I have ever seen. What these young men were able to learn and accomplish is remarkable. We should all be so lucky as to see the true heart of humanity. In some ways I feel very lucky. I interact on a regular basis with people that most, Americans at least, only drive by or never even know exist. I must admit that when I started this experience four years ago I was the same as most, I was afraid of those I had no prior knowledge about, no experience knowing. The thought of being in a room with someone who is homeless, has HIV, is on drugs, is schizophrenic or suicidal all of these things was scary to me and something I had never before experienced until medical school. I can say without a doubt that my perspective on people has changed, some for the better and some for the worse, after my four years. I used to always wonder when I walked by homeless people on the street what horrible thing happened to them that caused their experience in life to be so different from my own. And while no one experience is universal, there seem to be common threads uniting lives on the streets, the most common of them all is abuse and addiction. I have seen things I never even wanted to imagine happening to someone and learned of pain so great I honestly do not think that if I were in the same position I could have survived. But I have also seen great hope, great love and great resilience. I hope that this documentary can bring a little bit of humanity - of the common threads that unite us all to the living rooms of those who do not get to experience a different life from their own on a regular basis. My view may be temporary and from a distinct role in an authoritative or expert position but I feel incredibly blessed to have had my life touched by all those I have taken care of.

http://www.grassrootsfilms.com/thehumanexperience/

Finished Pillows

I have been trying to finish some matching pillows ever since I made our duvet cover. It took me a while but yesterday I did some serious seam ripping and reworked my design and I am super happy with the result. I was initially planning on closing the pillows by hand a boring and tedious process and one that would make it very hard to wash the pillow cases. Then I found this new way of making a pillow case. I swear I will never every make a pillow another way again. I am not sure why I didn't think of this in the first place but it made the whole process so much easier as you can machine sew the whole thing. I made the type of pillow case with an opening in the back to remove the pillow. Here is the finished product.

Spring

Photo from Epicurious.com

I made this for dinner last night and it was one of the best things I have eaten. I was in the mood for a cool crisp salad and everything about this was amazing. I loved the pop of fresh herbs, the sweetness of the cool watermelon and the crunch of the nuts. I will be making this again and again and am so happy I have all of the needed ingredients sprouting nicely on my balcony. I cannot wait until I bite into my first home grown tomato of the summer. Until then my local Whole Foods will have to supply the goods. I found this recipe here but made a few modifications.

1 box of baby arugula washed and spun dry
1/4 of a watermelon seedless, cut into bite sized chunks
2-3 ripe tomatoes cut into bite size chunks
5 sprigs mint
3 sprigs of dill
1 handful of basil
1/4 cup diced pecans
1 -6 oz container of feta crumbles
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Wash all the vegetables and herbs. Using kitchen scissors cut the herbs into thin strips and toss with the arugula. Toss in the feta and the pecans. Then Add the tomatoes and watermelon. I then mixed the oil and vinegar with salt and pepper in a jar and let everyone dress their own salad. There was plenty of dressing leftover. Everyone loved this salad. I cannot wait to eat some for lunch.

Breakfast at Our Place

I woke this morning in my usual state: dreaming of breakfast, my favorite meal of the day. I was sort of sick of my usual go to meals, cereal, eggs, pancakes or french toast and then it hit me. What I really needed at that very moment were some warm, blueberry muffins. I did a little searching for a new recipe and found this one. Which lived up to all of my dreams of perfect muffins. I didn't mash the blueberries because I was using frozen and decided to throw in some fresh strawberries as well. I have not a single regret about making these muffins. In fact you should probably make them right now too. I promise you will not be disappointed. And just think of how good your house will smell once these beauties are in the oven.

Perfection in a paper wrapper.

An Address

Although it is a little less than two weeks until our new house really is ours, I have been chomping at the bit to get things going. I have so much work to do but none of it can be done until I can get my hands in there and get dirty refinishing cabinets. To satisfy my need to feel like I am making progress on the house I have been cleaning, organizing, packing and doing my homework for the projects I will start soon. I have done a little shopping for small house items. My budget doesn't really allow for any big moves yet. I found this super cute and useful address stamp from the Etsy store NoteTrunk. Until now it never made sense to own something with an address inscribed because I was moving so frequently. Since I left college I have moved what seems to be a million times. I've gone from Lewiston to Fort Washington to Georgetown to the Palisades, to Arlington to Cambridge to Brookline to Arlington to Alexandria and now finally to our first home. That is too many moves! I am excited to finally have some roots and an address to finally call my own. Let the nesting begin!

Image from the The Note Trunk

Shenandoah

Finally we have beautiful spring weather! Yesterday Kevin and I both had the day off from work and we drove out to Shenandoah National Park and went hiking! We climbed up to Mary's Rock a billion year old rock that provides beautiful views of the Shenandoah valley. It is also part of the hawk migratory path and we saw so many hawks soaring and hunting some even did a little swooping to see if we would provide any thing that could be a meal. We had absolutely perfect weather. I could not have imagined a better way to spend the day than outdoors, in the sunshine with my fiance. Here are some pics from our trip!

Almost to the top!

Way down there is where we started!

The TOP!

Mary's Rock

Back down at the end!

Moving Boxes

I started my search for moving boxes this morning. I did a walk through of our apartment building and found two then I did a quick google search and learned about these two great companies that rent study plastic boxes for moving for way less than buying cardboard boxes. I was super excited and then disappointed because neither of them has any locations near Washington, DC if any city needs this it is DC. People are constantly moving in an out of the area and using some nice sturdy plastic boxes seems much better than a bunch of old cardboard which will end up in the recycling or worse the dumpster after the move. Every big city should have a box rental service especially along the east coast. Maybe one day either BungoBox or FrogBox will move into the area making moving that much easier.

My Date

Tonight while my other half was working and this sweetie's momma was getting some much needed time for herself, I had a hot date with Richard. He slept for a good chunk of it and then was a total peach. We rocked out to some jams with American Idol, drank some formula (well one of us), put on our 'jammies and read one of my favorite books Barnyard Dance. All in all, a fine date if I do say so myself. Hopefully we can have a weekly "Auntie Katie Night." I am pretty sure his parents are down.

The Solution

I think I just may have found the solution to our bright red cabinets at the new house. Rust-Oleum has a product called cabinet transformations where you can paint any surface including the countertop! It seems like a labor intensive process. But right now pretty much all I have is time. So, starting on April 29th I will be testing my skills as cabinet refinisher. So far, Kevin and I have selected Winter Fog Glazed for the cabinets and Java Stone for the counter tops. I am sure I will be posting before and after pictures along the way. Wish me luck and patience.

Here is a preview from the Rust-Oleum interactive design your kitchen site of Winter Fog Glazed

Couch Sleeping

Lately, due to a horrible cough and some nasty upper respiratory infection I have been doing a lot of couch sleeping lately. I have even been naping some which I have not done with any success since I was a toddler. I felt it was not fair to keep my poor sweet bed partner awake with my hacking nasty cough so I schlepped myself to the couch, pillow in hand and watched way too many old episodes of Gray's Anatomy, which at this point in my career are sort of laughable. But during the last few nights I have spent resting and sometimes sleeping, I have been amazed at the comfort of our old trusty Ikea couch. This guy packs a mean punch of just the right amount of support and just enough length to really stretch out. For the money, I think you'd be pretty hard pressed to find a couch as nice for napping as this guy. We just might have to invest in the sectional version for our new basement. Here is wishing you a lovely couch for napping and the time to actually take a quality nap.

Outdoor Furniture

If you haven't guessed yet, I am very excited about our new backyard. Although the improvements will have to happen slowly, I have found some very cute furniture as a starting point four our backyard plan. I love the rustic wood of this West Elm design. I think it is just the perfect set for a BBQ. Now if only the weather was nice enough to whip up some margaritas and fire up the grill. Here's hoping for some sun soon.

The Duvet Cover

Well, I finally finished the first big project with my new sewing machine. I made a duvet cover in shades of grey. This was no small undertaking and I learned plenty while working on it. Although it is obviously homemade, with several unique imperfections it was a satisfying project and now we have a duvet in the exact colors I wanted. I am sure this is just the first of many projects. I used this guide from Design Sponge and I learned how to make a button hole with this great guide from Sew Mama Sew. Happy sewing.

Sprouts!

I started the seeds for my garden which I plan to plant at our new house. These seeds are thriving and the sight of the tiny little green sprouts makes me so happy. I only started a small portion of the seeds and will do a second round once we finally move to our new home.  I intend to plant a fantastic garden complete with tomatoes, beans, pumpkins, flowers, all our favorite herbs, lettuce and spinach of course.

How cute are these sprouts?

Singer

I got myself one of these bad boys yesterday, on sale at Target. I have been sewing up a storm and will hopefully have a finished project to show sometime this week. So far I have learned the importance of a pair of good fabric scissors, measuring twice and cutting once and I learned how to do a french seam. I am looking forward to making all kinds of curtains for our new house and maybe one day halloween costumes for our kids.  I have even pulled out several items of clothing that needed a good repair. This baby makes it all a cinch.

Happy Sewing!

Bedding in Gray

Bedding is very important to me. I think it can tie a whole room together and is very important to the quality of sleep that one has. I have been thinking about what we will create for our new bed room and for our guest room. I want both to be places of rest and relaxation, full of calming colors, soft sheets and of course a comfortable bed. I have been very into gray as I search home decorating sites and have stumbled upon a couple of front runners for our new house. It is a challenge to find bedding without flowers and that is not too feminine. I want our bed to really be that OUR bed, something we both like and want to climb into each night. So here they are some of my top pics so far. If you stumble upon some beautiful neutral bedding send it my way. I am certainly in the market!

By Calvin Klein

By West Elm

By West Elm