Happy Weekend!

Hope you have a great one!!

images courtesy of here

Wine of the Week

2005 El Coto Rioja Crianza Special Cuvee

Ok, I'm not recommending this wine because it's particularly great (although it is pretty good and even better with food), but because of what's on the outside! I love the perfect for the holidays packaging complete with a red framed label and gold thread netting and think it would make a lovely seasonal gift for dinner hosts, neighbors, etc. Retails for $12.

The Holidays are right around the corner...

Or at least that's my new mantra. I'm really looking forward to hosting several of our best friends/traveling buddies for a few days over NY Eve. It's their first visit to Birmingham (no surprise) and we're aiming to show them a great time. Which means it's time to dust off the to do list and get crackin'. So here, in no particular order, are the things I want to get done before December 27th.

1. Finish installing wine room racks


2. Make man room comfortable place to watch football by adding an actual TV and stand


3. Turn empty bedroom into functional second guest room


4. Repair master bath shower (we've been using the hall bath for months!) and drain in guest bath


5. Hem new dining room and family room curtains


6. Re-upholster leather chairs in living room and/or rework furniture layout

What do you think? Too much? With eight weeks to go, I'm a bit overwhelmed to be honest...

image from here

Happy Halloween!

We're spending Saturday at a friend's party where I'm told there will be guaranteed trick o' treaters. Have a great weekend!

images courtesy of domino

Swiped from Jennifer

I shamelessly stole Tuesday night's dinner from Jennifer at the Newlywed Diaries. It rained all day {sigh} so I was craving a warm, seasonal menu. A quick stop at the store on the way home and I had everything I needed. This soup (which I tweaked a little based on the reviews) is super easy to make, yet has all the creamy goodness of a dairy laden chowder. And her mom's pumpkin bread recipe is delicious!

And because I haven't posted a pretty room in awhile, an Ohio farmhouse for your viewing pleasure courtesy of Country Living:

Bits & Pieces

In yet another example of how way behind I am, I picked up this book for my flight to San Francisco last week. And then proceeded to read it constantly until the last page -- it was so great! So much so that now I want to see the movie, although I am afraid to see the movie because I loved the book so much.

San Francisco was exhausting but fun, by the way! May I suggest eating here or here and having drinks here.

In other news, this is an excellent wine and currently on sale at Whole Foods for $10 a bottle. It's made from a blend of roussanne, grenache, and viognier grapes and definitely worth searching out.

And the other night I was lured in by all the wonderful looking fall produce and bought a butternut squash to go with the salmon the Husband had on the grill. I've only cooked one other squash recipe before, but this one came with a sticker with instructions (essentially: remove seeds, add butter, roast). It was awful, like barely edible awful. So if you have any good, fool-proof squash recipes let me know!

squash image courtesy of flickr

Easy Street

By now, I’m sure you’ve heard of High Street Market. Kelly, the shop owner, has put together a really interesting collection of vintage finds. I know a lot of people enjoy hunting for the perfect treasure in antique shops and at flea markets, but I’m not one of them. I am lazy. And busy. Ok, mostly lazy. If given the choice between having something pretty show up at my front door or dragging myself out of bed at 7 am on a Saturday to hit the garage sales, I'll go with option one. But since I also love items that are a little unique , Kelly’s shop is ideal for me!

Here a few items I’m loving in the shop right now:

And here are a handful of my purchases:

A vintage bowling pin, which I use as a doorstop.
a

A pair of milk glass horse heads, currently serving to corral some dvds
a

A fabulous antique frame repurposed as a bulletin board.

a

a

all images courtesy of high street market

Glorious Gray

Happy Weekend!

images courtesy of house & home

The Man Room et al

Let's see...

When we first toured the house, the room looked like this:

You may have heard that it has been raining A LOT in AL the past few months. Well, it turns out we had a wee little drainage problem* that created a huge mess (water damage, electrical fires waiting to happen, etc). In mid July, the room looked like this:

We ended up doing much more work in here than we anticipated, but even the Husband thinks it was worth it!

a

We also took the opportunity to replace the yucky orange tinted laminate floors with oak floors stained to match the floors in the rest of the house. I love them!

a

And because we were knee deep in construction, we turned the 5th "bedroom" (which was pretty much a useless space) into a bonafide WINE CELLAR. Complete with temperature and humidity control. People, I can't tell you how excited this space makes me. We still need to install wine bottle racks, but a perfectly consistent 55 degrees never felt so good.

We have a couple more things on deck for this space, including a big ass TV (the Husband and I are locked in a heated debate around just how big a TV needs to be). But I am so happy that this room has graduated from the eye sore list!

* i honestly don't know how our home inspection missed it, but essentially the down spouts from the roof drained...nowhere. so all the water ran down our foundation. there was so. much. mold. we installed a really cool system behind the dry wall to alleviate any future issues and are chalking the whole experience up to a lesson learned.

Wine of the Week

2006 Hahn Syrah Santa Lucia Highlands

The wedding in Charleston was gorgeous. Here's a sneak peek at the perfectly fall color combination she used.
a

There were many memorable moments, including wine pairings with each of three dinner courses. One of my favorites was the Hahn SLH syrah, which they matched with lamb and cous cous. Estate grown north of Santa Barbara, the grapes get the benefit of hot, sunny days and cool nights courtesy of the nearby ocean. I'm not usually a fan of syrahs as they can be a bit harsh, but this one has softer tannins and is a great food wine. Retails for $27.