A Moment in the Sun (And a Rescue Story)

Life is hectic right now, with less than two weeks until the opening of a show I'm designing and less than a month until the end of the semester. But yesterday afternoon, with the sun streaming in through the sliding doors, I had the rare opportunity of an adorable photogenic cat. (Normally she hates the sound of the camera, but she was practically hamming it up yesterday!)

Meet Fleck, my beautiful rescue cat.

Back when I was in high school, my family became involved with cat rescue. It all started one winter night when my little sister heard meowing from a neighbor's roof...there were three tiny kittens stuck in the gutter up there! We got them down, warmed them up, bottle-fed them until they were weaned, and eventually found them their "Forever Homes" through a local pet rescue group.

In the almost ten years since, my family has fostered many kittens, most of which have found their Forever Homes through adoption showcases around the community.

Fleck and her brother Stripe decided that they already had their Forever Home, though, and didn't need to go to showcase! The loving cats they were at home became grumpy lumps of fur around strangers. Well, one thing led to another, Fleck became inseparable from me, and suddenly I had a cat while I was in college!
(My parents ended up officially adopting Stripe too, so brother and sister still see each other)

It's been almost six years now since I officially adopted Fleck (7 since she came into my life as a foster kitten) and I'm grateful every day to have this loving furball in my life.

She still hates strangers, but around Sean and me she is the sweetest thing to come home to after a day at school or work!

Spring is in the Air!

Spring is here, which unfortunately for this theatre grad student means lots of work and little play. But while waiting for glue and paint to dry on models, I do get a little time to decorate the house with bits of spring. Here are a few photos of the console table in the living room.

The nasturtium on the balcony is overflowing with flowers right now, so I picked enough to fill this teacup with them.

I love how the yellow and orange of the nasturtiums pick up the colors in the oil still life behind it.

The console table is typically my decorating oasis -- it's one of the few surfaces that the husband knows not to put stuff down on (the other important one being my drafting table!) So, despite the chaos of school and work, this table is always a nice, calming surface with things that make me happy. You can see some of the chaos below and next to the table, but not on top!

Some of the different pieces on the table right now:
-oil still life, painted by my aunt when she was a kid. This used to hang in my grandparents' house, and now I have it.
-otter painting, by me. This might find a new home in the office, since the colors would work well in there. But for now it sits in the living room, adding cuteness!
-photo box with fun family photo from my wedding. The box itself was a wedding present from some friends.
-purple candle, from my mother-in-law (purple is my favorite color)
-small jar with amethyst: I used to collect rocks, and I've been working on using that collection in my decorating
-jar with sea glass and white shell: the sea glass in here comes from all over the world, from Santa Cruz to Rimini, Italy!
-vase: This has a great story! Our first Valentine's Day, Sean brought me a dozen roses. But, living in the dorms, I didn't have a vase! Luckily my amazing roommate did, but I had Sean promise me that the next time he bought me flowers he would buy me a vase. And so he did!

I love having a place in the home to display things I love, especially those that bring up wonderful memories. And by incorporating the seasons into this display, the table can constantly tell a new story.

3 Easy Spring Centerpieces

I love to decorate with seasonal items all year long, but spring is my favorite time to bring nature inside. Between the fresh flowers, the fruit, the herbs...nature has practically done my decorating for me! Here are a few of the centerpieces I've done on our dining table over the last couple of weeks:

For Easter, this simple arrangement of wooden and gold eggs in a wooden tub is festive and also reminiscent of freshly gathered eggs.

The wooden eggs (both natural and painted white) were found at Michael's; the gold eggs were from my mother-in-law in our Easter baskets.


I like to keep fresh fruit on the table as much as possible. It's my default centerpiece, since it looks nice and having fruit in sight every day encourages us to eat it. Here's an arrangement from last week, when we had four oranges. I picked some nasturtium and sorrel blossoms from our balcony to add some height and color.

Lastly, our current fruit selection. Maybe not the most artistic fruit arrangement (3 oranges, 2 apples and one lone avocado) but it shows how simply swapping out the cake platter changes the feel of the table. Plus, you can see that these really are centerpieces that are meant to be eaten!

I love how good produce can be the best dining room or kitchen decoration! Especially at this time of year. I hope you're able to enjoy the spring produce, even if the weather doesn't yet feel like spring in your area!

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Linked up to:
 One Project at a Time over on A Bowl Full of Lemons.

Design Finds of the Week #3

While doing visual research for both my design classes and for the different plays I'm working on, I come across some fascinating design inspiration. A few of my finds this week:

Wooden Scaffolding

I don't know what building this scaffolding is covering, but I love the look in this photo. So temporary, yet so artful at the same time.

(source)

Wooden Scaffolding Sculpture

Are you seeing a theme to my research this week yet? This sculptural scaffolding is inside what appears to be the dome of a church. Just beautiful in it's functionality.

(source)

Other great finds of the week:

"Earth Tear" Sculpture made from recycled bottles http://www.recyclart.org/2009/03/earth-tear/

A set of posters depicting Italian inventions http://juicycanvas.com/blog/italian-inventions/

A four-poster bed that looks like four trees, with a bird nest at top http://www.slmetalworks.com/portfolio/beds.html

Passover Spinach-Cheese Balls

Well, this post on Passover cooking is rather delayed, but I guess it's better late than never!

While there are many foods that my family traditionally makes during Passover, the one recipe I look forward to year-round is spinach cheese balls! (The original recipe calls them Gnocchi di Spinaci, but that's not we called them as kids, and the Americanized kid name stuck in our family.) Sure, I could make them other times of the year, but it's nice to have unique dishes for Passover that we look forward to.

The recipe is adapted from an old cookbook, but I'm sharing it as rewritten by my mom.

Ingredients:

1 package frozen or about 2 bunches fresh spinach

1 cup ricotta cheese

3/4 cup grated Parmesan

1 egg

3 tablespoons potato starch

nutmeg

salt

Parmesan cheese for sprinkling

Defrost frozen chopped spinach. If fresh, wash, steam lightly, then chop fine. Both kinds, squeeze out the juice.

Combine the spinach, ricotta, Parmesan, egg, potato starch, dash nutmeg, dash salt.

Wet your hands and form mixture into balls about the size of a walnut. There should be about 24 balls when you're done.

Place into an oiled or greased baking dish (about 9 x 9) and sprinkle with more Parmesan cheese.

 (What you see here is a doubling of the recipe, so I used a 9x13 dish)

Bake in a preheated 350 F oven for about 30 minutes.

Makes about 4-5 servings in our house, although the original recipe says 6-8. They're that good!

 

Here's the recipe all together, for easier printing:

Ingredients

1 package frozen or about 2 bunches fresh spinach

1 cup ricotta cheese

3/4 cup grated Parmesan

1 egg

3 tablespoons potato starch

nutmeg

salt

Parmesan cheese for sprinkling

1) Defrost frozen chopped spinach. If fresh, wash, steam lightly, then chop fine. Both kinds, squeeze out the juice.

2) Combine the spinach, ricotta, Parmesan, egg, potato starch, dash nutmeg, dash salt.

3) Wet your hands and form mixture into balls about the size of a walnut. There should be about 24 balls when you're done.

4) Place into an oiled or greased baking dish (about 9 x 9) and sprinkle with more Parmesan cheese.

5) Bake in a preheated 350 F oven for about 30 minutes.

Enjoy! More Passover recipes and meal ideas to come next year!

A Friend-filled Weekend

Although I had big plans of cleaning and organizing the office this past weekend, that got put on hold to reconnect with some old friends.

Friday night I had dinner with two ladies who I was in Girl Scouts with for most of my life. One, I first met in second grade when wee both joined Girl Scouts; the other joined our troop in fourth grade, and she and I did our Gold Award project together. (For those that don't know, the Gold Award is the highest award in Girl Scouts, and is the equivalent of being an Eagle Scout in Boy Scouts.) We had a great dinner at Horatio's in San Leandro, then played a new board game called Pandemic. It was a fun evening!

On Saturday Sean and I got to know the local farmers market, went to the library and did homework; our usual schedule for Saturdays.

Sunday afternoon we went down to San Jose to see an old friend of Sean's from Boy Scouts. The friend is getting married next month, and it was really nice to spend some quality time with the couple before the stress of the big day sets in!

To cap off our weekend of friends, a close friend from Cal Poly was in town visiting, so we took her to one of our favorite haunts for dinner and some catching up.

I have a lot of work coming up for school and my plays, but I will try to be back soon with some good DIY, garden updates, and room reveals!

Quick Mail Center Makeover

In organizing and decorating the entryway, it was clear that we needed a mail center. Previously, mail tended to pile up on the dining table or on our desks. Neither was a good solution. But I really wanted something that had three slots, rather than the typical two: one for me, one for Sean, and one for outgoing mail. I finally found this mail organizer at the local thrift store:

It has the three slots, and I like the rustic flower carving on the front piece. But the black wasn't right to go on our dark wood shoe cabinet in the entry. So it got a paint job:

Now it's a nice blue, a shade deeper than some frames I had repainted for the entryway and living room last month. It pops nicely against the dark wood, and brings a sense of unity to the entry and living room.

Here it is in place:

I still need to get that one picture up on the wall, and maybe something else for height. Right now the top of the cabinet seems very much all one level to me. Any ideas/recommendations?

This is a top shot of that decorative plate on the cabinet. I picked it up at Marshall's a while back. Sean and I went to Monterey on our honeymoon, and the sea bird here reminds me of the trip. It goes well with the jar of shells and brown sea glass too, and together they make me happy when I walk in the door.

Linking up to One Project at a Time over at A Bowl Full of Lemons

Introducing our Worms

At long last, we have a way to dispose of our kitchen scraps that is NOT throwing them down the garbage chute! It's hard to reduce waste while living in a third floor condo - our county has a decent green waste program for single family homes, but it's not yet implemented for multi-family housing such as apartments or condo complexes. Until now, we've begrudgingly tossed our kitchen scraps into the garbage. But since nearly all of our garbage could be composted, it bothered me every time I tossed a bag down the garbage chute.

But then Sean and I learned about vermicompost. Worms (specifically, red wrigglers) will eat almost any kitchen scraps, as well as shredded newspaper and cardboard. Worm castings are some of the best all natural plant fertilizers around. Best of all, they don't take up very much space, making them an ideal solution for apartment or condo dwellers!

Before bringing the worms home, we had to get their bin set up. After doing some research on worm bins, we decided to keep costs down at the beginning and reuse an old cat litter bucket. Some vermicompost experts aren't fond of plastic as a home, but at this point we just don't have the resources or physical space to build anything out of wood. Maybe later down the road we'll upgrade the worm home. But we feel this is a good start, and an easy DIY project.

Here's the cat litter bucket we started with:

As you can see, we have a small collection of litter buckets on the balcony! They're useful for storing extra dirt, gardening tools, and even serving as planters as we slowly get nicer terra cotta pots. Part of the balcony has a solid wooden wall, and part has metal bars. We keep the pretty pots where the public can see them, and the functional but less attractive bins where they can't be seen.

First, I drilled some holes in the bottom for drainage. If you don't drill holes in the bottom, you can even keep worm bins indoors, but as we are doing this outside we decided to make sure there is good drainage.

Next, two rows of air holes at the top:

After the holes were drilled, I added shredded newspaper for the bedding. It needs to be damp for the worms, so I wet it using a spray bottle of water.

Then we added some small pieces of corrugated cardboard (about 3" x 3") and some dirt to act as grit.

Finally, we got to add the worms!
 

Getting settled into their new home! We can't wait to watch them turn our scraps into that amazing "black gold"!

Linking up to Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways

Design Finds of the Week #2

While doing visual research for both my design classes and for the different plays I'm working on, I come across some fascinating design inspiration. A few of my finds this week:

Vertical Planter System
Designed by Buster Simpson in Seattle, Washington, this planter system uses drain pipes with curves and bends to add bits of greenery to the sides of buildings. What a great way to "green" our cities!

(image from DesignSquish)

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Spring break is over tomorrow, then back to grad classes! My week of break started with my family's Passover seder, then ended yesterday with the in-laws Easter celebration. More on that to come...I have some Passover cooking posts planned but set design models have to come first...they'll be up soon though! Yes, too late for this year, but it will be nice to have them on hand next spring!