twin living rooms

This a picture of our living room. When we decorated it 23 years ago I adored it. I continued to adore it for another 15 years. Then I sickened of it and wanted to redecorate. I wanted to paint the walls goldenrod or terra cotta or french toast. I wanted that loud obnoxious wallpaper out of there. But B loves that wallpaper and doesn't want to get rid of it. So we fought for several years and then I stopped caring and then.....miraculously I started to kind of like it again.

See the afghan on the back of the sofa. My sister, Debbie, made that for me to go with the wallpaper. See the oil painting above the sofa. B and I bought that at a starving artist sale for $50. It was painted by X Rabous. I go on-line now and find very similar paintings by X that sell for around $1500 now.

The sofa is a Flexsteel and looks as new now as the day we bought it.

So I told B I could live with this room if we would buy decorative curtain rods and do something about the window treatments. I still think the picture over the fireplace is hung a little too high and now looking at the photo I think the X painting might make a better statement over the fireplace than over the sofa.

This weekend we went to the Lewiston Christmas House Walk. Historic homes owned by wealthy people offering them up for the weekend for plebians to tromp through. When I entered the living of one home, I could not believe my eyes.



There was our wallpaper in the exact same shades albeit slightly muted and a larger pattern. There was the same fabric on the sofa and the same dark walnut Ethan Allen furniture. The same color rug on the same color hardwood floor.



We don't own a baby grand or a grandfather clock



Their window treatments are much nicer than ours but their picture over the credenza doesn't hold a candle to X's oil painting. And we got some great ideas for window treatments from another house that we toured. Our dining room is open to the living room and is painted a color that is similar to coffee with lots and lots of cream in it. It has the same green crown molding around the ceiling. B is going to let me paint the dining room a shade of gold that can be found in the wallpaper. We will keep the sheers, buy decorative rods and I'm going to sew panels for just the ends of the windows out of the fabric that I bought 23 years ago to make draperies for these rooms and that has been in a huge roll under our bed ever since. We are combining our ideas and I think we are going to come up with something we both like.

the sixth sense

do you ever wonder if maybe you are dead and you just know it yet?
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birthday baking

We have a birthday club at work. I was the last birthday so I was supposed to bake for S whose birthday was on Thanksgiving Day. There was hardly anyone in our office the week before Thanksgiving so it was decided that I would bring in the cake on the Monday following. I thought this was a great idea because it would give me all weekend to bake.

Well, I was laying in bed Sunday night at midnight about to nod off when I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to have a freshly baked cake in my kitchen waiting to be taken into work the following morning. I got out of bed and starting perusing cookbooks for a recipe that contained ingredients I had on hand. I could have stopped at Wegman's in the morning but I'm known throughout the office for my baked goods and didn't want to disappoint.

I found this recipe for Bittersweet Chocolate Bundt cake. Plenty of butter, sugar, eggs, coffee crystals and bittersweet chocolate. I mixed the thing up alternating the chocolate/coffee mixture with the flour mixture into the butter and eggs. Baked it and for the first time ever....when I loosened the edges and turned the thing out....about a half inch of cake remained in the bottom. No prob....cover it up with bittersweet chocolate fudge glaze. At three o'clock in the morning I slipped back into bed. Thank goodness for my sister and my cousin and Words with Friends... kept me busy during baking time and cooling time.

fancy sheets

About twenty years ago I went to a garage sale that was a like a dream come true to me. I bought a 16 place setting of Rogers silverware, lots of rhinestone pins and a gift box containing this top sheet and two pillow cases. Hand crocheted and gifted to someone who never took them out of the box. I thought how sad to not use something so beautiful...hide it away so no one ever sees it. I brought them home and put the box in the back of my linen closet. It's a full sheet for a double bed and regular size cases. We have a king bed and king cases.

In the past couple years now that Jay has moved away from home I have found myself sleeping in his room, the guest bedroom, my bedroom. I like to sleep with night lights, shades up. I like to fall asleep reading and I like to stay up late. B likes to sleep in pitch black rooms. He falls asleep instantly. Goes to bed early. Now I find that I sleep in my bedroom every night. I was putting sheets away in the linen closet and I saw this box tucked away. A perfect opportunity to use and enjoy my fancy sheets. It is a pleasure climbing into bed every night with these sheets. I feel like a princess. The cases are the same as the sheets. This is a reminder to all not to die with beautiful things tucked away waiting for that special occasion.

failure to communicate

I won tickets to a Sabre hockey game tonight. B came home from a bike ride. Went to shower. I am waiting and working at the computer. We are going to dinner first. Leaving at 5. waiting waiting waiting....then I look out the kitchen window and there he is in the car. Has been there awhile. I said why didn't you tell me you were going out to the car. He said why couldn't you look out the window and see I was out there. More words were spoken then quiet.

just sayin'

Almost everyone has a nicer kitchen than me

i don't know what to think

So I don't know what to think about this. Today I'm cooking away. I made Chocolate Chipotle cookies because I discovered a recipe for them involving a chocolate cake mix. I was looking for a recipe for cookies that I could use these little micro marshmallows in. I bought these marshmallows about a year ago and while cleaning the pantry I saw them and wanted to use them up. I'm making both cookies today.

I've also always been enchanted by chestnuts. I buy them every year and let them mold and throw them away. A few years ago I roasted them and found I like them. I have a recipe for Cream of Chestnut Soup in my wooden recipe box that B's sister, Mary, gave me years ago. The box, not the recipe. So today I made it. I've always wanted to make one of those desserts with chestnut creme filling also. Someday I will.

But to get back to this. I announced that I love to cook. It is one of the things that makes me happiest. B replied that that is something new. I haven't always liked to cook he said. I said I've always loved to cook. Why do you think I don't like it. He said...you don't like to cook because you never know what to make. I said....sometimes I think you don't know me at all. He said something like....F'ing A.... with a big sigh. I said....I do better when I just don't talk at all.