It's almost Thanksgiving time! There really is no better holiday if you ask me - a day that's all about gratitude, togetherness, and feasting on copious amounts of food.
This year, Mark and I will be driving to Arizona with Debbie and Joe to celebrate with the Singers. The same trip to Arizona was how Mark and I really got to know each other a couple of years ago, on what I consider our five day second date, so it will be fun to do again.
I love going back to Austin for Thanksgiving because the food is amazing and of course, it's home. Tali makes Martha Stewart's apple pie every year and it is just devine. I will miss the feast this year, but having just been back in Austin in October, and my folks being here this weekend, an expensive flight for Mark and I just didn't make sense.
But in the spirit of Thanksgiving cuisine and Martha, I thought I'd share a Martha cookbook that a coworker sent me yesterday. If you go to this link for Martha's Sirius radio show, you can download a copy of her Thanksgiving recipe cookbook for free! Enjoy!!!
Friday, November 13, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
If you already own it, it's practically free!
This mirror was Mark's before I ever met him. It was pretty as its former self (I apologize there are no befores). It was dark wood and crackled silver and just didn't fit in our current decor. Nothing a little white spraypaint couldn't fix. The mirror sits above our little desk/sewing table in our guest room. Mark and I compromised on the height. I wanted it to be vanity height so I could sit at the table and put on makeup. Mark wanted it much higher. So alas, it's all about compromise, right? I'm really happy with it! This project cost us a whopping $7 for a can of Rustoleum Universal in satin white. Pennies in the grand scheme of things...
Two blog entries in one day? Dost my eyes deceive me?! Ok, that's all you get. Good night!
Two blog entries in one day? Dost my eyes deceive me?! Ok, that's all you get. Good night!
Where have I been?!
Apologies to you, blog, for this unwarranted (yet totally warranted) hiatus. No hard feelings?
So where to begin? Not much house work has taken place at Chez Braffe (or Jafflow, take your pick) as of late. Mark and I rallied this weekend to clean, paint our guest room door, and paint a mirror. We should have the door and mirror complete tonight, so photos will follow soon.
My parents are coming to visit this weekend, and I can hardly contain myself! They have only seen our home through the blog, and it definitely shows better in person if you ask me. They arrive on Friday evening, will stay with us Friday night, then drive up to Santa Barbara on Saturday morning for the day/night. On Sunday morning, they'll be back just in time for my dad to teach Mark (and I) how to re-facade the stucco on our exterior. My mom leaves early on Monday morning, but dad will stick around a couple of extra days to help us with some random projects around the house, which will hopefully include, replacing our kitchen window, installing a new ceiling fan, and fixing the socket in our master bathroom.
If you haven't figured it out already, my dad is super handy. And by super handy, I mean he can do practically anything -like Superman with a tool belt. He even built us new doors for our bathroom cabinets and shipped them to California. *I will be priming and painting them soon.
So back to where we've been... Mark turned the big dirty thirty last week! We decided to make a weekend out of it and went up to Boston, where he had never been before. We ate tons of chowdah, lobstah, drank lots of beeah (with an obligatory visit to the Sam Adams Brewery,) played in the leaves, hung out with old friends, and even went on the Ghosts and Gravestones tour, through the old cemeteries of Boston. Here are some photo highlights from our trip.
Mark playing in the leaves
Mark's birthday lobstah (stuffed)
Mark preparing to eat his birthday lobstah
at the Sam Adams Brewery
Enjoying some Boston Lagah
John Hancock's tomb (a little phallic, no?)
Paul Revere's more humble grave
Living it up with Jillian and Sean at the Black Rose
Enjoying the blustery weather
So where to begin? Not much house work has taken place at Chez Braffe (or Jafflow, take your pick) as of late. Mark and I rallied this weekend to clean, paint our guest room door, and paint a mirror. We should have the door and mirror complete tonight, so photos will follow soon.
My parents are coming to visit this weekend, and I can hardly contain myself! They have only seen our home through the blog, and it definitely shows better in person if you ask me. They arrive on Friday evening, will stay with us Friday night, then drive up to Santa Barbara on Saturday morning for the day/night. On Sunday morning, they'll be back just in time for my dad to teach Mark (and I) how to re-facade the stucco on our exterior. My mom leaves early on Monday morning, but dad will stick around a couple of extra days to help us with some random projects around the house, which will hopefully include, replacing our kitchen window, installing a new ceiling fan, and fixing the socket in our master bathroom.
If you haven't figured it out already, my dad is super handy. And by super handy, I mean he can do practically anything -like Superman with a tool belt. He even built us new doors for our bathroom cabinets and shipped them to California. *I will be priming and painting them soon.
So back to where we've been... Mark turned the big dirty thirty last week! We decided to make a weekend out of it and went up to Boston, where he had never been before. We ate tons of chowdah, lobstah, drank lots of beeah (with an obligatory visit to the Sam Adams Brewery,) played in the leaves, hung out with old friends, and even went on the Ghosts and Gravestones tour, through the old cemeteries of Boston. Here are some photo highlights from our trip.
Mark playing in the leaves Mark's birthday lobstah (stuffed)
Mark preparing to eat his birthday lobstah
at the Sam Adams Brewery
Enjoying some Boston Lagah
John Hancock's tomb (a little phallic, no?)
Paul Revere's more humble grave
Living it up with Jillian and Sean at the Black Rose
Enjoying the blustery weatherHopefully I'll get another update in this week, but I don't want to risk any empty promises, as this week promises to be busy!
Monday, October 26, 2009
A Very Barry Weekend
This past weekend, Mark and I did something that is rare amongst those in our age range. No, we didn't get a colonoscopy, silly. We went and saw Barry Manilow at the Hollywood Bowl!
Now I know what you're thinking, and it really wasn't as cheesy as you'd expect. Okay, maybe it was extra-super-Velveeta cheese product-cheesy, but it was a super-fun time, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't sing along.
Allow me to back track a little and explain how this all happened. Back in 2008, Mark and I were at Spec's, a liquor and wine store in Austin, when Mark put his arm around a Barry Manilow cardboard cutout, and I snapped his picture. (Barry Manilow apparently has his own wine.)
Mark later explained to me that as a kid, he had gone to a Barry concert with his family, as his mother was a huge fan. He fell asleep before the concert was over, so his parents decided they should head home....before Copa Cabana! No!!! Well Mark's sister was justifiably perturbed about missing Copa, and come on, what young girl wouldn't be?
Fast forward to a couple of months ago when I saw that Barry Manilow was playing at the Hollywood Bowl, and cheap seats were available for a mere $9.95, (make that $19 with service charges -damn you Ticketmaster!). I thought it would make for a great evening of BYOW, (that's bring your own wine,) sing-along, cheesy fun.
We were in the furthest back section of the completely packed bowl, and were fortunate enough to sit in the loud, middle-aged woman section, otherwise known as section W2, although it's entirely possible that the loud middle-aged woman section was all of the Hollywood Bowl. The women behind us kindly shared Barry's history of writing commercials with us. Did you know that he wrote the "I am stuck on Band Aid brand" jingle? There was another big one they told us about too, but it's escaping me now. To our right, a woman insisted on yelling over and over that Mark "is a keeper!!!!" because he applauded and cheered after every song.
Anyhow, we had a great time, and we even stayed awake for Copa Cabana!
Now I know what you're thinking, and it really wasn't as cheesy as you'd expect. Okay, maybe it was extra-super-Velveeta cheese product-cheesy, but it was a super-fun time, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't sing along.
Allow me to back track a little and explain how this all happened. Back in 2008, Mark and I were at Spec's, a liquor and wine store in Austin, when Mark put his arm around a Barry Manilow cardboard cutout, and I snapped his picture. (Barry Manilow apparently has his own wine.)
Mark later explained to me that as a kid, he had gone to a Barry concert with his family, as his mother was a huge fan. He fell asleep before the concert was over, so his parents decided they should head home....before Copa Cabana! No!!! Well Mark's sister was justifiably perturbed about missing Copa, and come on, what young girl wouldn't be?Fast forward to a couple of months ago when I saw that Barry Manilow was playing at the Hollywood Bowl, and cheap seats were available for a mere $9.95, (make that $19 with service charges -damn you Ticketmaster!). I thought it would make for a great evening of BYOW, (that's bring your own wine,) sing-along, cheesy fun.
We were in the furthest back section of the completely packed bowl, and were fortunate enough to sit in the loud, middle-aged woman section, otherwise known as section W2, although it's entirely possible that the loud middle-aged woman section was all of the Hollywood Bowl. The women behind us kindly shared Barry's history of writing commercials with us. Did you know that he wrote the "I am stuck on Band Aid brand" jingle? There was another big one they told us about too, but it's escaping me now. To our right, a woman insisted on yelling over and over that Mark "is a keeper!!!!" because he applauded and cheered after every song.
Anyhow, we had a great time, and we even stayed awake for Copa Cabana!(you can't see anything, but let's be real, it's the audio that counts)
On our long walk back to the car, (we parked at Hollywood and Highland), we serendipitously ran into Patrick Gallagher, whom you probably know better as Coach Ken Tanaka from Glee. I have a feeling he was at the Barry show as well, probably singing his heart out and being labeled as a "keeper" in another section. I got giddy and whispered to Mark who he was and Mark told him I was a huge fan of the show. He was super friendly, even though I confessed that I'm embarrassed about how much I like the show. (Not a really nice thing to say, now that I'm sober and think about it.) He mentioned that there's some great/juicy/gossip-worthy things in the works coming up for the show and to stay tuned, but they're unfortunately on a three week hiatus thanks to baseball. Who watches both the World Series and Glee? There are surely more closet Glee fans out there like me, so probably a lot of people...
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Sew sue me.
Okay, don't.
I started and finished my first sewing project tonight! Yep, that's how I chose to spend my Friday evening. I was super inspired by this skirt I saw at Anthropologie and thought maybe I could make something similar, but of course far less intricate. Much like ballet and piano, where as a child I refused to take any sort of direction or read any notes off of a page, I sort of winged it. For a first go, I'm not too disappointed, except for the minor fact, that, oh, I'm not a size 2? The skirt fits, but it's a wee bit snug on the hips.
I initially intended for it to be a high waist skirt that would be worn with a shirt tucked in so the bow is visible, but the bow is removable and in order for me to wear this and not look like a fat peg in a square hole, it will require a sweater or shirt to be untucked. -Or I may just give this one away to one of my few blessed size 2 friends.
The seams are semi-straight, but I really had no idea what I was doing, so I think it's excusable. Plus, I think the messiness is only obvious if someone were to inspect it closely. Hell, I even managed to put in an invisible zipper -although I totally disobeyed every step of the instructions. 
I started and finished my first sewing project tonight! Yep, that's how I chose to spend my Friday evening. I was super inspired by this skirt I saw at Anthropologie and thought maybe I could make something similar, but of course far less intricate. Much like ballet and piano, where as a child I refused to take any sort of direction or read any notes off of a page, I sort of winged it. For a first go, I'm not too disappointed, except for the minor fact, that, oh, I'm not a size 2? The skirt fits, but it's a wee bit snug on the hips.
I initially intended for it to be a high waist skirt that would be worn with a shirt tucked in so the bow is visible, but the bow is removable and in order for me to wear this and not look like a fat peg in a square hole, it will require a sweater or shirt to be untucked. -Or I may just give this one away to one of my few blessed size 2 friends.
The seams are semi-straight, but I really had no idea what I was doing, so I think it's excusable. Plus, I think the messiness is only obvious if someone were to inspect it closely. Hell, I even managed to put in an invisible zipper -although I totally disobeyed every step of the instructions. 
For a whopping $6 worth of suiting fabric (which is 40% off at Joann's right now) and a $2 zipper, I think I'm okay with the outcome.
Next up will be a shirt made out of this fun jersey-ish material. Pattern? Nope!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Does the rug match the drapes?
Okay, sorry, I couldn't resist the title. Mark and I did some shopping on Sunday and thanks to some generous gifts at our housewarming, picked up some rad new things! We got an awesome coffee maker *not Cuisinart,* some fun kitchen tools, which include a cookie dough scooper (melon baller looking thing), silicone oven mini-mits, and a collapsable strainer.
We also picked up two area rugs. One of the rugs is a runner for our entryway. It is a really tightly braided sisal. The second is a large plum 6'x9' and is placed under our coffee table. We were considering going with a pattern, but i think the solid gives us more flexibility with future design decisions. We are still planning on painting an accent wall a similar dark plum color in the living room. Perhaps this weekend will come with a dose of major motivation.
If you are looking for a fun and unique area rug, World Market is having a great sale and rugs are up to 50% off! *Don't forget rug pads for underneath!* I suggest getting the rug pads elsewhere though. We splurged on the rug-on-rug pad for the 6x9 at World Market and it was almost $40. I then found the rug-on-floor pads at home goods for our runner and kitchen mat for $4.99-$7.99. It definitely pays to shop around.
We also picked up two area rugs. One of the rugs is a runner for our entryway. It is a really tightly braided sisal. The second is a large plum 6'x9' and is placed under our coffee table. We were considering going with a pattern, but i think the solid gives us more flexibility with future design decisions. We are still planning on painting an accent wall a similar dark plum color in the living room. Perhaps this weekend will come with a dose of major motivation.
If you are looking for a fun and unique area rug, World Market is having a great sale and rugs are up to 50% off! *Don't forget rug pads for underneath!* I suggest getting the rug pads elsewhere though. We splurged on the rug-on-rug pad for the 6x9 at World Market and it was almost $40. I then found the rug-on-floor pads at home goods for our runner and kitchen mat for $4.99-$7.99. It definitely pays to shop around. Aight, it's back to work for me! Have an awesome day!
Monday, October 12, 2009
Hot House
So we finally had our long overdue housewarming party this past weekend! What a blast! We are so grateful to all of our friends for coming out to boogie with us! Here are some photo highlights:
Mark's coworker, Joe, made some amazing guacamole that we decided deserved a photo-op.
The Universal Crew!
Jana birthed the party!
Mark's bosses gave us this fantastic chiminea! People stayed warm all night!
And how could we forget Cornhole? Games were played all night. Competition was fierce, and only one bean bag was lost.
Mark's coworker, Joe, made some amazing guacamole that we decided deserved a photo-op.
The Universal Crew!
Jana birthed the party!
Mark's bosses gave us this fantastic chiminea! People stayed warm all night! 
And how could we forget Cornhole? Games were played all night. Competition was fierce, and only one bean bag was lost.Thanks again to everyone for helping make our house feel like a home!
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