In memoriam

I realized today that it has been exactly one month since I last posted. Many thing have happened between then and now, though not much on the house or in the kitchen (my usual blog topics). My oldest brother Nate's memorial was this past Tuesday. The whole experience is still a bit surreal. Life is moving forward, just as he would have wanted. He will be missed by so many.

Nathaniel Arthur Goddard, Oct 4, 1973 - Oct 4, 2009

Nate and family with new baby, taken just over a year ago

Valance Victory

I finally got the guest bath valance made and hung to match the custom shower curtain. The olive pom-pom fringe was the perfect finishing touch; I was so excited when I found the whole bolt on clearance at Hobby Lobby for just a few dollars. I had to order the Waverly fabric online (from their Colonial Williamsburg collection), but I railroaded the print so I only needed a few yards.

The bamboo poles were at a discount/salvage store; I think they were meant for fishing rods or gardening stakes since they were in the outdoor section, but I thought they would make lovely and inexpensive custom rods. They cut really easily with the miter saw, too. I just wrapped the spot with tape so the pole wouldn't splinter and chopped through. It was hard to find brackets and curtain rings big enough for the large diameter bamboo, but I finally rounded up the right ones at Lowes and Target, respectively. I thought about doing a grommet heading, but I'm happy with the way this turned out. I still need to decide about painting the blind slats or replacing it with a woven shade. Stay tuned for the exciting decorating developments!

Making Contact

Since Jeff and I will soon be in Sandusky with one of the largest gatherings we've enjoyed in recent years, I thought an updated version of the old-fashioned calling card was in order. We haven't seen some of our old friends in quite a long time and are bound to make plenty of new ones. Having a card with address, phone number, and emails will save me from writer's cramp in an attempt to exchange contact information with everyone.

So, I used a site from which I've ordered business cards in the past and designed a "family card". Here's the finished product! (I've blurred the contact information just for Internet privacy, but it's quite legible on the real deal ;-)

Movie Time!

Jeff took me to the city's free "movie in the park" Saturday night to see Singin' in the Rain on the big (inflatable) screen. It was so much fun! We brought our popcorn and drinks, chairs, and a blanket and enjoyed a cool evening breeze under the stars with Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds. Jeff even had fun, too! (Since we've been taking ballroom lessons, he's been more tolerant of dancing scenes in general; and what man can't admire the athleticism and stamina of Gene Kelly ;-)

Jeff had watched a number of my favorite musicals with me in the first few years of our marriage, but he had never seen this one. I'm often quoting my favorite lines and songs ("And I can't stand him", said more like "an' Ih caaan't stan' 'em", and of course the "Good Morning" song), so he finally got to see the context.

Interesting notes: Debbie Reynolds was only 19 years old when she starred in this, her first, movie. Gene Kelly was paid $2500 per week, and she received just $300! She ended up on bed-rest for three days after weeks of training under Gene Kelly himself to prepare for the role. And, to add insult to real physical injury, some of her vocals and tap-dance tapping still were dubbed in by others. But there is no doubt from her later works that she really could dance and sing!

What are we to be called?

Evans' Family Crest

We had someone ask us recently whether, in referring to multiple of us in the Evans family, it should be "Evans" or "Evanses". I know the rule for possessive; since it is a two syllable word and ends in an "s", you just add an apostrophe if speaking of the Evans' house, the Evans' dog, etc. But what if someone isn't talking about our things, but about the plural us? As in, "those wonderful Evans(es)"? I did some research and found this:

When a family name (a proper noun) is pluralized, we almost always simply add an "s." So we go to visit the Smiths, the Kennedys, the Grays, etc.When a family name ends in s, x, ch, sh, or z, however, we form the plural by added -es, as in the Marches, the Maddoxes, the Bushes, the Rodriguezes. Do not form a family name plural by using an apostrophe; that device is reserved for creating possessive forms.

When a proper noun ends in an "s" with a hard "z" sound, we don't add any ending to form the plural: "The Chambers are coming to dinner" (not the Chamberses); "The Hodges used to live here" (not the Hodgeses). There are exceptions even to this: we say "The Joneses are coming over," and we'd probably write "The Stevenses are coming, too." A modest proposal: women whose last names end in "s" (pronounced "z") should marry and take the names of men whose last names do not end with that sound, and eventually this problem will disappear.

Since I failed to follow their suggestion and instead went from a rather simple last name with no troublesome s's at all to one with various rules and too many exceptions, I must now pay the price and try to resolve this. So we Evans(es) end in an "s", but with the "z" sound, so we fit the second rule; but the exception examples of Jones and Stevens sound an awful lot like Evans, so we're back to square one. I think, after this inconclusive research, either way would probably be correct! I will defer to my husband on his preference for the additional "es", since he's had the name longer and has a greater vested interest ;-)

I've been "published"!

Wow, the Internet really gets around! About a month ago I posted my avocado bathroom remodel on one of my favorite sites, the Home Decorating forum at GardenWeb. That site gets a lot of traffic, so you never know who might respond to a post or see a thread. Well, I guess the powers-that-be at iVillage read it and wrote a short item on their Home and Garden digest House Calls! You can view their blurb here.

And here is my original thread at GardenWeb with photos, details, and instructions. I guess I'm going to have to really buckle down and finish some other on-going projects around the house so I don't let my new-found fans down ;-)

Looking up

We returned home well after dark last night following a late dance class, and the full moon was already quite high in the sky. This gave Jeff a perfect opportunity to try out his new telescope, since any astronomical object must be well above the horizon to be seen from our yard with the forest of pine trees sheltering the neighborhood. He strategically parked the pickup truck and used the roof of the cab to steady his new Celestron. So there we were last night, standing in the bed of the truck observing the brilliant moon, and wondering how long it had been since we last had a good long upward look at the sky.

Steaming down here in Alabama

No, I’m not talking about the weather or my emotional state. I’m talking about furniture cleaning; more specifically, upholstery steaming.

Several of my recent furniture acquisitions had stains and general dinginess to the fabric (hence the low prices on them ;-) I knew a good cleaning would take care of most of it, so I rented a Rug Doctor at Home Depot with a gift card and went to town, taking care of some carpet and rugs in the meantime.

The most dramatic improvement was seen in this upholstered club chair and ottoman I just bought last week. I got it from a woman with two small kids and a cat, so it showed lots of grubby fingers, various beverage stains, pet hair, and the occasional marker and paint scribble. It took about two compete passes and a third spot treatment to get it decent-looking. I won't even tell you how dark and dirty the collected water was, but suffice it to say, I knew the machine was working!

I still plan to make fitted arm covers for the rolled arms, as they bore the brunt of the wear and tear, but that will just give me a chance to use some complimentary material in a fun and functional way (I went digging through my fabric closet and found a favorite print I bought almost a year ago; now I have the perfect use for it)! Here's the before and after Rug Doctor makeover.

Before
This lighting actually hides the worst of it!

After

Thanks to my darling Jeff for helping to haul this comfy chair upstairs to my sewing/sitting room!

Close-up

Here's the fabric for arm slipcovers; it's a tad less pink in real life, and the green couldn't be a better match!

A roof over our heads

The new roof is on! It isn't quite as dark as I would like, but Jeff made the insightful remark while we were considering shingle colors that a midtone would hide the plenitude of pine needles that reside on our roof for most of the year. Color is a secondary concern, anyhow; the best part is that it's new and clean and practically free!

We debated whether to upgrade to an architectural shingle (which adds such a great texture and dimension to an otherwise blank, nondescript plane), but we decided it wasn't worth it in an older neighborhood like ours given the relatively short time we will probably dwell here. We will see about painting the trim at a later date; again, something that probably isn't going to happen unless we're here longer than we think.

Before:

After:

Wheeling & Dealing

Craigslist (CL) has been very productive this past week; I sold three items and bought two!

In the spirit of living below our means while still decorating the new house, I’ve developed a system to obtain the furniture and housewares I desire. I can only buy with cash from my little envelope of budgeted funds, and those funds come from selling existing household items. Jeff started me out with a little seed money from the old kitchen appliances I posted on CL back in January, and I've been making deals ever since!

Over the years in Arkansas, I had collected some nice pieces that really suited the historic nature of that house. But not all of it fit or worked with our new home. So my rule is, I only sell items for at least what I paid (sometimes a good bit more ;-), and I use that money to buy a replacement. So far it has worked great! My favorite place to sell is CL, and I buy from CL, thrift stores, consignment shops, classified ads, etc.

I sold this antique couch and bought this leather sofa:

I sold this oriental rug and bought this 9' x 12' sisal one:

I sold this antique sofa (my first piece to reupholster) and bought these chairs:

I sold this canopy bed and bought this daybed:

I don't have a mattress and boxspring yet, but I do have the comforter!

The amazing thing is I have almost twice as much money in my envelope as I did when I started! Of course, it's usually because I fixed up the piece I sold in some way, so the extra money comes from labor and materials invested. But Jeff would call it a "value added process", so I still come out ahead. It's all part of the business analogy; my household goods are like stocks and bonds. I try to buy low and sell high, using and enjoying them in the interim. I'll just have to figure out how to report all this gain to the IRS!

Picnic in Pikeville

It's been a rather busy past week, and a super busy Monday already! I have a few post topics I need to complete and put up, so stay tuned!

We had a great weekend with a church picnic Sunday at Fall Creek Falls State Park near Pikeville, TN. The weather was just glorious; high 70's with just enough breeze and cloud cover to make all the running around comfortable. We hiked to the bottom of the falls, enjoying some amazing views along the way and at the bottom before beginning the climb back to the top. A delicious potluck picnic and some softball filled the rest of the day before the long drive home.

Fall Creek Falls

Foyer Flourishes

Before (in the foyer)

After (in the foyer)

I think I have the finishing touch for the foyer. It may actually be the first room to be completely “done”. I’m sure I’ll continue to tweak things here and there as no room looks lived in and used if it remains static, but for the moment I’m happy with all the details (but I would like a few more plants, if I can get the light they need). The grasscloth wallcovering was a fun homage to the 70's decade of the house; I'm glad I only attempted an accent wall, as it is a bit tricky to hang! The terra cotta fountain is suppose to be an outdoor garden accent, but I like how it ties in the flagstone floor and the trio of vases we bought in Peru.

The missing element was the candles. I bought the chunky floor candle holders on eBay, but always felt they needed something. They were originally a shabby chic distressed look, which was pretty but not to my taste. I painted them a custom color (adapted from SW Moody Blue), the same paint I used on the picture mats for the sketches we bought in Cartegena. The smaller framed photos are all travel pictures we or fellow travelers have taken on various South American visits; I turned some to sepia and framed them in black frames with white mats from Wal-Mart.

Today I popped into a discount variety store on a whim and scored some hand-poured vanilla pillar candles for $1.99 each. They're just the proportion I've been hunting for to cap off the corners. The only thing that remains is to strip the carpet off the stairs and refinish the tread and risers, but that's technically in the stairwell and not the foyer, so I think I can still call the foyer finished!

Before (from the front steps)


After (from the front door)


Before (looking towards Jeff's office)


After
(the wall color is a little off in this photo)


During (view of stairs looking toward family room; I had begun scrapping the popcorn ceiling)


After

Clearance Cache

While on a morning run to Lowes for some home improvement supplies to complete the day's projects, I popped into the garden center to check on any seasonal clearance items. Imagine my delight to discover that they were having a yellow tag "distressed plant" sale. Not just one or two different types, but many varieties all through the outdoor department were marked down to only a few dollars.

We had come in the car, not the truck, but our Dodge Neon has transported wingback chairs, step ladders, multiple bolts of fabric, and just about anything else we stuff in it. So we filled two carts, checked out, and found we had still a bit more room in the car, so I went back again for a few more! Now I have hostas, hydrangeas, mandevilla, day lillies ($.50 each!), ferns, perennial grasses, and some miscellaneous shade plants, all awaiting a new home. Most of the plants are still quite perky and hardly look "distressed", but with some TLC, I'm sure the few fatigued ones will do their part to beautify the landscape soon.

Odyssey into Space Art

Huntsville Skyline

In honor of NASA's 50th anniversary, the Smithsonian Institute put together a national tour titled NASA ART 50 Years of Exploration. It is currently on exhibit at our Huntsville Museum of Art, so Jeff and I took one last afternoon off (before he begins teaching classes next week) to go see it this past Tuesday.

We accidentally wandered into the last exhibit hall first and were initially rather disappointed. It was all very modern and "forward thinking", but not exactly to our taste. It didn't seem to be art that took much talent, just an odd way of thinking on the part of the artist (and the viewer, for that matter). But we quickly realized where the beginning was and found some great works we really enjoyed.

NASA had commissioned established and renowned talent from the very start of the space program to document its progress with fine art. The art was grouped in exhibit halls by the stages of the NASA program; first Mercury, then Gemini, Apollo, the Space Shuttles, etc. We had started in the more futuristic Mars exhibit that looked forward to the NASA missions to come; hence the less concrete, more abstract works. But we loved the acrylics, watercolors, pen sketches, and oil pieces in the exhibits from the 60's and 70's.

My favorites were several of Paul Calle's works. Here is a photo of one of the actual canvases we saw, The Power to Go; in person, the texture and colors are amazing. You can almost feel the heat and energy. Jeff remarked how well the artist had superimposed the color variations of an intense flame, with the white-hot heat in the center and the darkening glow on the perimeter. It was even more personal to realize this was an interpretation of the 7.5 million pounds of thrust produced by the Saturn V rocket, the very same rocket model I drive by in Huntsville on a regular basis.

Paul Calle's "The Power to Go"

Jeff was drawn to a lesser-known Norman Rockwell work called Behind Apollo 11. The bright, talented faces looking upward are so reminiscent of a time when the whole world watched in anticipation of our success. I love that Rockwell included the wives and launch pad workers, who surely worked as tirelessly behind the scenes as the more prominent scientists and administrators did in the public eye.

Norman Rockwell's "Behind Apollo 11"

All in all, it was a fantastic exhibit, so please be sure to visit if it stops at a museum near you!

Silver Sleuth

I’m always drawn to wonderful tablescapes and elegantly attired dinner tables, so for that enjoyment I have acquired various tablecloths, napkins, napkin rings, fine and everyday china and glasses, etc. But fabrics get stained and dirty and china and glassware get broken. So, given that Jeff is a metallurgist and fond of all things metallic, one penchant of mine that he thoroughly endorses is silverware. It isn’t easily damaged, tarnish is simply an interesting chemical reaction (he does study corrosion, after all), and it has intrinsic value beyond its pretty appearance.

I have been collecting three sets of "good" silver; one purchased and two gifted. Until now, I had only identified the first set because it was useful to know the pattern name as I scoured eBay and antique stores for additional pieces. The other two came in more complete sets, so I never bothered to research them. Well, thanks to the instantaneous information available via the Internet, I now have names and dates for the other patterns!

Community Silver Louis XVI

The first set that I’ve been piecing together is Community Silver Louis XVI, dating from 1911. It has some of the most unique, food-specific pieces like a serrated grapefruit spoon, a seafood fork, and the original “spork”, the ice cream fork. I love the baby spoon (at the top of the above picture); it was to be used with a "food pusher", the most rudimentary of implements, but specifically designed for toddlers! I’m currently on the lookout for the demitasse spoon, the tiniest of intricately engraved stirrers for the itty-bitty espresso cups. We rarely drink coffee, but I’m sure I can find a use for such cuteness!

WM. Rogers & Son IS Burgundy

The second set Jeff surprised me with out of the blue for no particular occasion. I was glad to finally find the name and date for it. It is WM. Rogers and Son International Silver in the Burgundy (aka Champaign) pattern from 1934. All the pieces in my set are monogrammed with a lovely scrolled “R”, so we tell guests it stands for “Royalty”! I love that this set bears the mark of someone else who used it well and then passed it on for others to enjoy. Everytime I get it out, I think of the mysterious “R” family who might be glad to know that we are cherishing a set they spent the time and money to select and monogram. (They must have been Southern; who else would need individual long-handled iced tea spoons!)

Old ad for silverware with Betty Crocker coupons
(My Enchantment set is second from the left)

The last silver pattern is more modern but has a great story. It was given to us by Jeff’s mom Fay. Her mother had bought the set through Betty Crocker after saving up coupon points, a very popular incentive program of the day. Jeff’s Grandma Talbert saved the set for Fay’s wedding trousseau, who then passed it down to us one Thanksgiving a few years ago. (I found this great article on NPR about the Betty Crocker program and how it was such a part of people’s lives). I was so excited to find the pattern name, Enchantment (aka Gentle Rose), which is from the 1960’s. It suits our retro 70’s house so well, I’ve been using it a lot lately for less formal company dinners. We have little that is inherited or passed down from family, so this set is unique and very much cherished because of the personal and broader historical significance.

Escape Artist

Da Vinci surveys the neighborhood from "his" upstairs bedroom window

I guess we should have named him Houdini instead of Da Vinci. Our dog has managed to escape multiple times in the last week or two, despite our best efforts. He is, in general, a very well behaved housedog. And he has the useful habit of being rather skittish and timid of odd things like papers lying on the floor and cardboard boxes. So we had erected a very flimsy temporary fence of chicken wire and wooden stakes around the backyard when we moved in over a year ago.

This was quite sufficient to keep Da Vinci in, although any other dog of his size and agility could have easily dug, pushed, jumped, or otherwise managed a way out. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that, while rooting around after smells and odors only appealing to a dog, Da Vinci seems to have accidentally dislodged a stake out of the ground and toppled a small section of fencing. He trotted right over it and romped the neighborhood for a while before we caught him. After that, he went looking for exits and found them at every turn.

We staked, tied, wired, and blocked each spot he found and tried to keep a step ahead of him, looking for any loose areas. But chicken wire is no match for a determined dog who has now had a taste of freedom. He never roams far and always comes back after about 20-30 minutes, but leash laws and general safety concerns still make this a problem. On weekends or long days away, we’ve been accustomed to leaving him outside with access to the sunroom and backyard, but that’s not a good option now. We had planned to take our time and build a nice picket fence one of these days, but now that day is here!

Requested Recipes

I've had a few recipes requests, so I thought it would be easier to post them here. I'm still working on the beginner artisan bread recipe, as I may need to photograph the steps.

The cranberry pumpkin bread is wonderful year-round, but especially in the fall. It makes great muffins or mini loaves for gifts. You can substitute applesauce for up to half of the oil, if you want a lower fat version. I like to sprinkle a little coarse turbinado sugar on top of the batter before it goes in the oven for a lovely, decorative finish. The barbecue sauce is a modified version of my mom's recipe. I love that it doesn't use ketchup, which has so much corn syrup and artificial ingredients. It's quite mild as written, but you can increase the cayenne or add Tabasco for more heat.

Cranberry Pumpkin Bread

3 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour*
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp cinnamon**
¾ tsp ground ginger
¾ tsp allspice
¼ tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp salt
2 cups raw sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree
1/2 cup coconut milk (or water)
1 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat together sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla, and pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture alternately with coconut milk or water. Stir in cranberries and divide batter evenly between prepared pans. Bake in preheated oven for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool; for best flavor, make one day ahead and let rest overnight before serving.

*If you don’t have pastry flour, use white wheat flour or half all purpose and half wheat.
**You can substitute 3 tsp pumpkin pie spice for the various individual spices listed if you prefer.

Super Simple Barbecue Sauce

1 Tbsp oil
1/4 cup finely minced onion
1 clove garlic, pressed or finely minced
8 oz tomato sauce
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp mild molasses
1 Tbsp cider vinegar
1 tsp mustard
1/4 tsp each salt and pepper
1 tsp liquid smoke (optional)
pinch of cayenne (optional)

Heat oil in medium saucepan. Add onions and sauté until translucent. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer. Simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens (about 10 minutes). Sauce can be cooled and stored to brush on grilled meats; or, add 2 cups cooked, shredded beef or chicken directly to the pot and heat through to serve on buns for a quick meal.

Berry Bliss

I made a fruit coulis today to go with dessert for company this coming Sunday. We had Jeff's colleagues over for dinner last Sunday and I made a lemon chiffon cake served with homemade almond and honey ice cream (courtesy of one of the professors). Although we had seven people, we only ate half the cake, so I froze the remaining half. This way, I can serve it again this week and Jeff and I don't end up eating more dessert than is good for us! The cake might be a tad dry after thawing, so I made the coulis to moisten it up and vary the taste a bit. I've made this coulis many times with raspberries, blackberries, and other fruit, but this was the first time with blueberries.

Just a funny note in the "what a small world" vein; the company coming Sunday is a couple we met in our ballroom dance class. We had chatted on many subjects and enjoyed talking, so we invited them to dinner. It turns out they own the berry farm where I picked these very blueberries (see earlier post)! I asked to make sure they weren't sick of blueberries already, but they've barely had time to eat any of their own, so this dessert should go over well, I hope.

Sarah's Very Berry Coulis

10-12 oz fresh or frozen berries
2-4 Tbsp raw sugar
1/2 lemon, zested and juiced
1-2 tsp cornstarch
splash of liqueur (optional)

In a small saucepan, heat berries, sugar, and zest, stirring frequently, until berries pop and give their juice (about 3-5 minutes). Mix cornstarch with lemon juice and stir in over simmering heat. Continue to stir, adjusting thickness to desired consistency with additional water or cornstarch slurry. Remove from heat and add a splash of liqueur (I use Gran Gala, but brandy or anything on hand is fine; balsamic vinegar is also very nice, if you prefer non-alcoholic). Stir well, then pour into a glass jar and cool slightly before refrigerating. Or serve warm over pancakes, waffles, etc.

Yard Work

I spent the better part of this morning clearing out the overgrown areas at the back of our yard and around the house. We have tons of shade along the perimeter from the large Fraser's Photinia planted around as a hedge row. They give great privacy, but between them and pine trees, it's a sunless forest back there of disintegrating pine needles, scrubby plants, and rotting broken limbs.

Someone planted rose bushes all around the yard at some point, but they never received enough sun. So instead of rambling roses, all we have is very long, very sharp vines tangled into the bushes and trees. Add several untrimmed holly bushes, and I began to know what Prince Charming felt like trying to storm Sleeping Beauty's overgrown castle. I got scratched, poked, sweaty, blistered, and bitten! I had mosquito repellent on, but I could kill three or four pests at a time on each leg. I only hope I managed to avoid the poison ivy (not being a Southern girl, I have a hard time differentiating it from any other three-leaved plant).

After all the pruning, I dragged the refuse to the front yard. I'm thankful our city has a fantastic public works department. They pick up large yard waste once a week in a bucket truck, chip it up, and then provide free mulch to residents. So, come this fall, I can go get a truck bed full of recycled limbs to properly landscape my woodland wonderland!

We went to the botanical gardens last week and I got some great ideas for shade gardens. Once I get the groundwork laid, I hope to be out planting hostas, Solomon's Seal, ferns, vinca, bleeding heart, coral bells, and a whole host of shade loving beauties.

Limbs piled up on the curb until tomorrow

Literature Layout

Today was my day to tackle the mounting pile of magazines. I try not to let it get excessively out of hand, or the task of sorting and storing individually by title and date appears too time consuming and thus doesn’t happen.

My system for magazines is storing two each back to back in clear plastic sleeve protectors bound into 3 ring binders. It works well for me, but it can be a bit of work. It all started because I bought a big box of 10 or 12 3” binders at a little junk shop for just a few bucks, so it was cheaper than buying the standard magazine holders. During our first (and only, so far) visit to IKEA, I found a flat pack of sturdy cardboard magazine holders for less than $1 a piece. They’re great for lighter weight items like newspapers, but I think a year’s worth of magazines would be too top heavy.

I built a (yet unpainted) shelf across the closet in Jeff's office, so the binders and magazine holders go up on the shelf and books go on the bookcase. Letters, articles, pamphlets, and other small items go in labeled manila folders in the desk file drawer. Sometimes I think there has to be a better way! I would love to hear how some of you organize and/or store your newspapers, magazines, booklets, etc.

More Bathroom Blogging

I've finally taken photos of the guest bathroom vanity project that I completed while Jeff was out of town at his conference. I had been waiting for a good opportunity to work on this since we are currently living in the guest room and using this bath while we complete the master suite. With Jeff gone, it was a perfect time to clear the counter and work for several days.

With the new decor in the guest bath, everything was coming together with the updated avocado theme except the vanity countertop. It was a white faux marble laminate material that looked out of place with all the warm tones I had brought into the room. (This previous post shows the newly painted vanity but old laminate top.) Since we're keeping the sinks, I didn't want to tear out the old counter and make more work for Jeff just because the color was wrong. So, I painted it!

Before/After

I used an abrasive cleaner, wiped it down well, and primed with a good bonding primer. I used a base coat one shade darker than the walls (walls: SW (Sherwin Williams) Ecru, counter: SW Harmonic Tan). Then I used a sea sponge and acrylic craft paints to faux finish the counter with a granite look. Three coats of water-based polyurethane and it's sealed and durable. We been using it regularly for almost two weeks now and it's holding up great.

During (primer and base coat)

Close up without the flash
(true color is a little richer)

Bread Blurb

“If thou tastest a crust of bread, thou tastest all the stars and all the heavens.”
--Robert Browning

Since the summers are so hot here in the South, I've been perfecting my bread baking technique in the wee hours of the morning. Okay, maybe not wee hours, but certainly early so I can use the oven at high temperatures and then turn if off before the house gets too warm. I'm also baking multiple loaves at once and storing them for later in the week, just as our ancestors did. I don't have one specific baking day, just when I have too much dough or not enough baked bread! The photo above shows two Pain d'Epi ("stalks of wheat", perfectly shaped to tear off a piece and get plenty of crust!) and one baguette, freshly baked this morning. They are a blend of rye, whole wheat, and bread flours with a sprinkle of sea salt and savory on top.

Since my staple recipe is a lean rustic artisan loaf (i.e., a slack, wet dough with no fat) with a long slow rise, I mix the dough a day or so before, deflate and fold it after the initial rise, and store it in the refrigerator so it has a retarded fermentation period. This adds greatly to the flavor, as well as the convenience. On baking day, I get out as much dough as I need (about 10-12 oz per loaf), shape it, and let it rise. I preheat the oven to 425-450 degrees F in the convection mode, slash and mist the dough, and pop it in the oven with steam. When done, I cool the loaves completely for 1-2 hours (depending on the size, thickness, and shape of the bread), and then freeze them in ziplock bags (sucking the air out with a straw, which is always Jeff's favorite part to watch as it makes me look pretty silly).

The best trick is reheating. I put the still-frozen loaf in a brown paper bag (long, thin sacks from the wine store work great for baguettes), fold the end under, and run the bag under the water faucet for just a second or two on each side (this keeps the bag from burning in the oven and provides some extra moisture so the bread doesn't dry out as the crust crisps). Just heat in the oven at around 350 degrees F for about 15 minutes (this is all flexible, so if you're baking something else, just stick it in and adjust the time depending on the temperature). Out comes warm, crisp, chewy bread, as if it were freshly baked! This also works for any kind of store-bought French bread, boule, baguette, or other crusty bread.

Way to go Professor!

We're slowly making progress on the computer front, so I should be back up and running with full posts and pictures soon. It's going to be a busy week with family visiting for a few days, Jeff's colleagues coming for dinner, a house to clean, projects to wrap up, and a vocal solo to prepare and deliver! So the computer may be last priority for a while.

One thing that is top priority is a little well-deserved praise for a certain wonderful husband. I've always enjoyed the posts of proud parents filling us in on the latest achievements of their progeny. Since our dog hasn't done anything great lately, I hope you'll bear with me while I pat Jeff on the back for a minute, instead.

At the recent international professional conference he attended in Ottawa, Jeff had been asked to serve as a session chair. This he did while also delivering a technical presentation the same week. The presentation (and accompanying paper) was awarded one of six Best Paper Awards out of 665 submissions! This is a big conference with professionals from 55 different countries and it's only held once every four years (Jeff calls it the Olympics, as it is the premier forum for fracture and fatigue research ;-). So I'm really excited and proud of my boy. Congratulations Dr. Jeffy!