Craigslist Cravings.

photo via craigslist

Evansville has a listing for a oak rolltop desk for $125 or best offer. I'd love to strip it and try out a ceruse finish like this one that was featured in the Martha Stewart August 2010 issue.

photo via Martha Stewart

Wouldn't it look amazing?

Chow Down.

First, I must apologize--My blog posts that were supposed to go out Friday, Saturday, and Sunday--sat in my draft folder and didn't get published until I found them this morning, but now you've got a lot to read today.Image via How Sweet It Is.

Now on to today's recipe. It comes from the blog How Sweet It Is: Cheesy Sweet Potato Crisps. I want to try them, but convincing Mike to try something he will automatically turn his nose up at just at the name--(yeah, I married a five year old's sensibilities in a grown man--you should've seen me trying to convince him Quiche wasn't going to kill him)--and Sweet Potatoes aren't something he is very keen on. I guess if I just say they are regular potatoes and blame the flavor on all the seasoning, maybe he'll buy it. Either that or I'll just make them for myself and not share--that works too.

Proposed Projects.

Image source unknown--I lost my notes...oops, please forgive me.

Wouldn't this look nifty sitting on your coffee table? It's easy to make--just bore out the size hole you want in an old book, line it to keep everything dry, and then plant a succulent or other non-water loving plant and you've got a neat little conversation piece.

Compelling Compositions.

I downloaded The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells from books.google.com a few days ago, and finished it very quickly. I enjoyed it a lot. This is my first time reading Wells, and I liked his writing style. I remember watching the movie at some point, but my memory served me wrong on the main plot-line. The moral of "jacking with stuff for the sake of progress usually bites you in the behind" is a big one with this novel. I hope you enjoy it.

Blog of Note.

Smitten Kitchen is a blog that has given me so many good recipes so far--including my Graham Cracker recipe that I use often. What I enjoy about it most has got to be the detail of her directions. She gives a lot of tutorials for lots of cooking projects which I also enjoy reading. Her recipes are edible, if that makes sense. What I mean to say, is that each of her posts always has me saying, "Ooh, I'm definitely making that soon." Take a look and see what you'll be making for dinner tonight.

Last Night's Supper.

I of course forgot to photograph my Quiche when it first came out of the oven--and I apologize for poor lighting--I'll learn the art of food photography someday. This is my first butter crust (I made it from scratch)--and it came out so delicious. For the filling I added 6 eggs, a handful of cooked broccoli, salt, pepper, feta, Parmesan, Romano, Asiago, and Cheddar cheeses, onion powder, and garlic powder. It was very tasty. And if you think the picture looks too yellow--my chickens run around the farm eating bugs and grass all day and the yolks are as pretty a dark orange as you can find. The recipe I found for dessert was on Better Homes and Garden's website. They called them Peanut Butter Munchies. I didn't have any powdered sugar, so I just used regular sugar for the peanut butter filling too. They are so very tasty. I'm pretty impressed with my food photography here.

I've got lots more to tell you about, but I have to go get my nephew's birthday presents wrapped before he gets here today--it's hard to believe he's going to be fifteen.

Real Estate Hankerings.

This week's Hankering is a Sullivan, Indiana home located at 333 W Graysville Street. The picture listed isn't a great one, but I like the giant windows on the porch, and the mature trees. The house is large at 2,064 square feet with 3 beds and 1 bath with .22 acres for a lot. I would potentially stray away from my white house beliefs and make this one light yellow or a pale blue or green--it seems to need color. Curb appeal-wise this has a ton of potential.

Artistic Moment of the Week.

Night Mare

Dove

Black Angus

Barn Owl

(all images via annawilihighfield.com)

This artist has inspired me something fierce. Taking strips of paper and turning them into something as beautiful as these sculptures is remarkable. From Anna-Wili Highfield--enjoy.

Craigslist Cravings.

Everyone who knows me well knows I want 2 exotic animals someday--a camel and an emu. Well leave it to Craigslist--Cloverdale has 3 babies for sale this week--100 bucks or best offer. The ad reads:

I purchased 3 thirteen week old emu birds hoping they would get along with my chickens and turkeys in the same pen. Boy was I wrong, all they want to do is chase them around. Now my chickens will not come out of the coop. I am selling all three birds together for $100 or best offer. I have no way to haul them so you will need to bring your own unclosed trailer to haul. They are friendly, I pet the heads and necks on every visit. No special food is needed I feed them cow pellets that run $5 for a fifty pound bag. Has all the nutrients they need. One fifty pound bag lasts two to three weeks, they don't eat a lot.

Oh how I wish I was heading to Cloverdale to pick them up--sigh, someday perhaps, but not today.

Chow Down.

Image via The Teacher Cooks.

Cream Cheese Peach Cobbler--sounds interesting--I'm going to try it soon. Check out the recipe here. I love all these food blogs with their tasty picture-laden recipe posts--yum.

Proposed Projects.

I'm not 100% sure where this image was saved from--I believe it was from Apartment Therapy--sorry about the lack of source. However, how easy is this idea--take a mirror you no longer want and tape off a design, word, or image and then spray paint the rest--voila! I'm thinking a landscape would look neat with the mirror playing the part of a lake or stream. We'll see.

Compelling Compositions.

Image via hilaryupton on etsy.

"Time Lost and Found," Anne Lamott's article from Sunset Magazine, talks about finding time to live. I like her point that things we say we must do are not quite as important to us as they seem. I'm taking this article to heart. I want to raise a happy, un-hurried kid--so I should, myself, pursue a life that is full of wonderful things. I hope it inspires you too. Plus, Sunset's website has lots of great projects and articles besides this one.

Blog of Note.

Concrete and Honey is a great blog to find inspiration from--I love the paper sculptures she blogged about in this post. I plan on doing a write up on the artist (Anna-Wili Highfield) too. Anyway--this blog combines design, imagery, and food--which makes for a great read.

Real Estate Hankerings.

The second installment of "Real Estate Hankerings" finds a little bungalow in Pimento, Indiana at 7575 E Rodgers Street. It is listed for $14,900 and is only 1 bed and 1 bath, and is a mere 708 square feet, but it has almost a half an acre of land with it--which is always a plus to me. It was built back in 1900, and appears to have a couple little outbuildings that may be salvaged in the backyard. I'd say it would be very pretty with either a green or red metal roof with matching shutters on a white house. The porch needs some help, but it's rather quaint. I'd make the house have a fifties feel I think.

Artistic Moment of the Week.

Via Flickr.

This image was titled Lover's Lane, Wilmot Park, Fredericton, NB 1905 (?). It makes me happy in so many ways. I love old photos because I always wonder what life was like in that moment. I hope you find it pretty too. Have a great day!

Craigslist Cravings.

via here.

This item was free in the Bloomington, Indiana Craigslist. I think it is pretty ugly as-is--but I went back and saved it because I think it would look rather nifty if you spray painted the gold a bright color and put it in a kid's room. I'm thinking turquoise or bright pink.

Chow Down.

Image via thefreshloaf.

I made homemade pita bread last week. It was on my goal-list for this year, and I thought--why not. This recipe was extremely easy--believe me, if I can do it, then anybody can. My only 'do over' is that next time I'm going to let mine bake a bit longer than the 5 minutes because I think I'd like mine 'toasted' a bit more. I highly recommend trying out the recipe though. The author goes through step-by-step and dummy-proofs things which I always appreciate. Good luck.

Proposed Projects.

Image via lovely bud.

I am sick of the corporate logos on all the reusable shopping bags out there. I came across this tutorial for an easy bag made from a t-shirt. If you don't want to make one--you can always buy one--lovely bud on etsy sells them. Either bought from etsy or made yourself--this project would be really swell.

Compelling Compositions

Image via Flickr.

Edna Ferber's Dawn O'Hara has been a very good book--entertainingly and nicely written. I downloaded it from books.google.com--and read it for free--I'm going to try to read all of her books that are available on there. You should too.

Blog of Note.

Design Crush is always chock full of beautiful images, quotes, and links to other great blog posts, as well as some delicious food posts. It's always a good read.