two sicilian chicks

oh my...

Well two of the kitchen bids came in and may I say - wow. I had no idea I had such expensive tastes. Ok well maybe I knew.. I mean I love qiviut.

So now we're doing the scale back game. Well now we don't really need that transom window over the sliding glass doors - those cabinets along the half wall... let's scrap those. There are a few things we are realizing though - that when you're talking about a project of this size scaling back the faucet from the $1000 Rohl to the $800 one really doesn't help much.

Also my hubby has expensive tastes too. Luckily it's both the same tastes. I'm all about the english farmhouse look and thankfully so is he. I don't know what would happen if had a penchant for high gloss modern - we'd have issues. However he is the ultimate finance guy - it's all about the 'ROI' - return on investment. He wants to maximize the return percentage on a possible resale of the house. So he's running numbers... and I'm running in circles.

Things we find we just can't say goodbye to??? The stylized wood hearth over the range -- and the range? Well it just has to be the americanized Aga. I've wanted this range my whole life, and now that Aga makes one that has 6 gas burners and four ovens that aren't on all the time (unlike the british version) it's a done deal. It's like getting 3 ovens and a warming drawer in the same footprint as a regular one oven. Not the red but the cream for me. Here's the red - ain't she pretty?

It's a cooks stove... I and do cook. I still would install a wall oven as well to cook that large Thanksgiving turkey and be my 'second' oven. But imagine the turkey cooking happily in one oven and all your sides cooking at exactly the right temperatures in their own oven space. This sounds like heaven to me... probably because I've been hosting every family holiday here by rotating everything in shifts through my one undersized small oven. I have to make bizarre schedules and set timers. It's become well choreographed but I would love not to have to do that 'dance' anymore.

Also we REALLY like the inset cabinets instead of the overlay. This really reduces our chances of going with a cheaper cabinetry company. I just love those exposed purty hinges... We may have to learn to like the overlay though. I'll keep you posted. I'm a definite cabinet snob because the ones I have now are literally falling apart. This bugs me to no end because they are only 12 years old. My mother's cabinets are over 35 years old and all wood. They still look fantastic - because they are REAL furniture... not particle board.

Oh and SubZero built-in fridge?? It's lovely but if I need to scale back that's one thing that is easy to say goodbye to... anyone have an LG? or a GE Monogram? Would love to know if you like your fridge. :)

I now know WAY too much about kitchens btw. So if you would like to ask me anything just shoot! I've been reading this forum till my eyes cross! Thanks Jenny and Leena!

Knitting

So I've been knitting but remiss in posting about it.
I'm working on Alchemy's Baby Love sweater for my neighbor's daughter. It's a super easy pattern and it gives me a break from socks!

Speaking of socks here are those tennis socks. Two pairs, two skeins, quick and easy! I omitted the pom-poms...not really a pom-pom girl.

Now contrary to my sicilian chick, I love the summer. But, I prefer to knit for colder weather. I just saw this new pattern from Blue Sky Alpacas and think I might try it out.

I like the color shown here but I'm afraid of all the fuzz and lint getting all over my dark colored jackets underneath.

Planning stages..

So the big new project in my life is a possible kitchen remodel. I say possible because hubby and I are waiting on a bid and if it's just crazy high we'll have to table it for another year or two. We've been living in our house for 8 years - the kitchen is about 14 years old and is a standard builder's cheap special. My kitchen is in woeful need of new appliances and the cabinets have to be replaced as they are literally falling apart. The kitchen 'looks' good as it stands now but I could convince anyone in 5 minutes how it's all just smoke and mirrors. Well actually a substance called 'gorilla glue' is what is keeping it all together at the moment.

So I've spent the last week or so designing the perfect cook's kitchen of my dreams. Oh it's fun alright - and completely unrealistic ... but hey you have to have somewhere to start from right? I would love to know if any readers have been through this recently and have some advice. Jenny has already given me several great websites - my favorite being The Kitchen Designer blog.

Here's the colors and textures that I'm building around... in case anyone else is interested in this kinda thing.

It certainly is fun... I could see myself doing this professionally actually. I really enjoy it. I'm reminded of how much fun I had reading all those Bride's magazines before my wedding... I feel major satisfaction in buying kitchen design magazines now. You can do this on a budget, you can go crazy, it's all very similar actually. I personally think someone should design some excellent homeowner kitchen remodel software but perhaps being a tech geek makes me one of maybe 10 people who would use it. Even the CAD stuff the designers have is pretty lame IMHO.

Anyway as it progresses (or should I say if it progresses) I will post the occasional update!

I've Seen it All

I love my dog as much as the next person..but I don't think I'd throw him a party.

West Chester Ice Cream Tattoo Quest...

Well the title just says it all doesn't it?? Benefits of a 'walking town' - being able to do something like this. One night - four ice cream shops, one scorecard, and if you rate them all you get flames on your tattoo. Sweet! (uhh literally!)

That's me almost ready for my flames... Photo by Julie Gottesman gottesmanphoto.com

Head to tikaro.com to see all the crazy pics (John's blog - the man behind the madness - the 'Wizard of West Chester' we've decided to call him in our house). It was a great night - lots of ice cream, and we helped www.wcdish.com rate our town's ice cream parlors.

Ever surprised... evernote.

Okay so has anyone ever said to you..."I don't use the internet - I don't know what I would even use it for, I have no use for it" Doesn't matter how many times I hear it, I'm surprised every time. It bugs me. It's like when people tell me they never watch television. (I don't trust those people. At worst they are lying to appear above the rabble - at best they are insanely out of sync with the rest of the planet - either way - don't trust em!)

Drives me crazy - and I remember those sad unimaginative types whenever I find something incredibly useful on the internet. While perusing the mac forum on Ravelry I found someone touting a beta for Evernote. She was nice enough to send me an invite and I've been playing with it tonight. I have invites to give out too so if anyone is interested after this just comment with your email.

It's this neat little webspace - you get to upload pictures, files, notes etc and organize them up there. Check out evernote.com and you'll see what I mean. They do a better job at explaining it than I can.. but the coolest thing is fully searchable text inside images. I'm foreshadowing some great uses for organizing yarn ball bands. There is no platform dependency - go forth and enjoy no matter what camp you are in. Imagine snapping pics with your cell phone --- ohhh a sign touting the restaurant festival for later in the month? Just snap the pic - data will be there in your notebook and fully searchable on Evernote. Did I mention there's an iphone interface too? Oh and you can publish your notebooks for your friends as well. Like Flickr on steroids.

Doesn't take much to make me happy. Just ingenious code.

Life is Good for a Corgi

Father's Day

This holiday for years was just one of sadness for me. I lost my father as a kid - to heart disease, and it was just another day that I missed him in my life. The day my husband become a father himself, it all changed. He is an extraordinary dad, and our daughter is so into making the day great for him that it's just too much fun. I still miss my father of course, and it would be much better if he could benefit from his granddaughter's enthusiasm for the holiday too... but once again there is something to celebrate.

So today we went to his brother's (still not a dad himself but a godfather!) where we celebrated with my father-in-law. My father-in-law is a special guy too... he's brilliant, and was an involved, loving father in an era that really didn't encourage that kind of thing. So today in their honor we ate grilled meats, had cake, played wiffle ball and watched golf. Since all of us our Tiger Wood's fans today was pretty spectacular. (He just keeps pulling it out of nowhere!!!)

The very first words I said to my daughter when they handed her to me in the OR was "you are so lucky - you have the very best daddy in the world" - it wasn't a planned moment but there hasn''t been a day in the last five years that I haven't felt that way about him. He's a pretty damn fine husband too. :)

So honey - thank you for being everything you are.

(It wasn't all about the dads today either - today I taught my mother-in-law and sister-in-law how to knit. I got them started with some Sugar n Cream on a washcloth pattern. I think two new knitters were born today.)

Count 'em

Count 'em:
Not one, not two, but three ribbons!
First Place in Category
Best of Winners
Best of Opposite Sex

Can I tell you how proud I am of my boy :)  All that grooming was not for naught.

OK, and here I am posing with the Judge and the boy
It was blazing in the sun - 90 degrees!!!

And another pic to keep you laughing!

What to wear?

Tomorrow morning I'm showing Ollie in a Dog Show (the Greenwich Kennel Club no less.) We go into the ring at 11:25am so send some good vibes my way. I hope I look good (not like Best in Show) and I hope Ollie doesn't sit when he's not supposed to.

Fingers crossed!
Hopefully I'll even have a photo or two to share...I better wear something with lots of pockets for little camera, liver treats (yum!) and car keys...