Boring Post Warning

Wow, I am so not interesting these days, not that I ever really was but this is bad! I have nothing to blog about so I'll just give you an update.

1. School is hard. Just finished my 15 page paper that is due tomorrow. 6 pager due Tuesday and final exam due Thursday. Woof!
2. Strongbow's collar AND costume came in last week. Pictures to follow.
3. Our half marathon is coming up on Saturday and I hope I don't have the same problem as last year. Sorry to be graphic but let's just say that at mile 11 I ran into some gastro problems (no pun intended).
4. I'm helping Mom redecorate my brother's old room. No, I am not just doing this out of the goodness of my own heart; there is a carrot being dangled and if Mom comes through for me I will be a happy girl! (Mom, I hope you are reading this)

This is our "inspiration" fabric (I don't speak decorator but I will try)

Fear not my friends, I will be back to my semi-awesome blogging self after things calm down! Let's hope!

Supper Club Tag Team

Tyler and I teamed up with the Bennett's this month for Supper Club at our house. I would have to say it went well but it is my house, after all, so I might be biased.

Blair and Chad did a roasted eggplant spread, salad, corn bread and cupcakes while Tyler did the Jambalaya (very good I might add)  and I did a black bean and caper dip and some molasses chocolate chip cookies. Food was good, company was good, and our Trader Joe's $3.50 wine was a little too good! Oops.

In case you were wondering, Strongbow was a great host and didn't try to eat any children! Thank goodness!

A NYC Food Guide and Our New Crush

So Tyler and I have a crush. Strange, I know! I found this photography blog a few months ago and sent it to Tyler and because of his new obsession with his camera I thought he would like it. He did.
Anyway From Me To You has beautiful photos taken by the beautiful Jamie Beck (pictured above). She was recently written up in Design Sponge if you care to take a peak.

Tyler and I are headed to NYC in a few weeks so after checking out her site a few times and seeing her beautiful shots of NYC Tyler decided to email her to ask specifically what she would do if she had 3 meals to eat before she died and boy did she deliver, and quickly I might add!

Here is what she said:

3 meals before you die in NYC:

Breakfast: Cafe D'Alsace on the UES. I go here every Saturday for a bowl (literally) Cafe Au Lait and breakfast. Bunch is amazing, pastries are perfect. It's oh so french, all the windows are open and there is outside cafe seating as well. Great local NY crowd. I then most of the times go to the MET after that for some inspiration. The MET is my favorite favorite place in NYC, I consider it my church. It's based on suggested donation so pay what you want not what it says. Also since y'all are into home stuff there is a housing works (one of the best chain thrift stores in NYC) by Cafe D'Alsace on 90th and 2, a great and charming historic bakery on 87th and 1st called Glaser's that has been there since 1902! Also Gracie Mansion is amazing in the Park at 84th and east end.

Lunch: so many great choices in NYC. I'd have to choose La Esquina in soho, the grilled corn is a must and I always have the Cochinita Pibil (pork tacos) OMG they are AMAZING!!! Cooked in a banana leaf. This diner lunch spot is super famous too, you see it in the into to SNL and for lots of photo shoots. They have a secret dinner restaurant underground but it's quite expensive though really really good.

Dinner is a toss up between 2 places: Supper in the East Village & Bread in soho. Supper is warm and homey and small and nostalgic. Like a big italian family place. Best burrata mozzarella in the city. Bread has amazing amazing creamy pesto and their bolognese is my favorite in the city. It's a small, candle lit but always hopping place.

You left off coffee- you MUST go to the ACE hotel and have a cappuccino from the coffee bar in the hotel "Stumptown" It's the best in the city and that Ace hotel is incredible. You could also get your coffee to go and walk down to the farmers' market at Union Square if it's on the day the market is running. Also a fun and one of my favorite flatware stores by this and Union Square is called Fishy Eddy.

Amy's is great especially in the Chelsea Market and the highline is so beautiful. If you want to get off the beaten track and go someplace only locals are at (chelsea market can get overrun with tourists at times though food network and NY1 film in that building which is too cool) I'd suggest Sullivan Bakery in hell's kitchen. It's actually my favorite bread in the city. Hands down. When you go to the store they have the most amazing, fresh pastries that it's literally painful to pick from. It's cool to see NYers running in grabbing coffee and bread and running out too.

 
So I couldn't help but share her wonderful tips and if any of you have a chance to go to New York maybe you can print out this little "guide" and take it with you!
 
Oh yeah and I have to brag, she looked at my blog and loved Tyler's pics! A real photographer liked his pics! He is almost famous!
 
Jamie,
If you are reading this, I am not a stalker! I just like  pretty people, who are nice, return emails very promptly and who take good pictures!

Just a few common household ingredients...

Before I get started here is an IKEA update: wall shelves, check. Still no glass nesting tables.

My trip to the Dekalb Farmers Market was a huge success. I ended up bring home dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, pad thai sauce, apricots, golden raisins, jasmine rice, organic brown rice, garam masala, rosemary, thyme, dill weed, a block of parm, white corn, rainbow carrots, a ton of roma tomatoes, spaghetti squash, a loaf of french batard, havarti, house made croutons, and a bunch of other stuff that I am forgetting. All in all not too strange or unique of a shopping list but I got everything plus a lunch of homemade soba noodle salad and farrow salad for a measly $54!

I managed to snap a few pictures on my blackberry without getting yelled at so I apologize for the poor quality.

"The" spice aisle

Chinese Okra

Chinese Bitter Melon

Rainbow Carrots (they were too pretty not to buy!)

Guinep

Durian

I don't have a clue how to eat, much less, cook any of this stuff but I thought they were worth a picture anyway!

Last thing, Saturday night I took my tomatoes and batard loaf over to Mom and Dads and made this scalloped tomato and crouton dish and it was AMAZING!! MAKE IT!

Happy Monday!



Dekalb Farmer's Market (aka my International love affair)

Sorry for a lack of posting yesterday but I have an excuse. I'm in Atlanta, again! It's business. I am, however, going to take this opportunity to go back to IKEA because, big shocker, they didn't have the glass nesting tables or the wall shelves. Though I did manage to come home with the rug so it wasn't a wasted trip.

I'm also going to make a quick trip to my own personal Garden of Eden while I am here. The Dekalb International Farmer's Market is only AMAZING! If you watch Top Chef or Iron Chef and wonder where on earth can I get pink peppercorns or a jack fruit, or maybe even some Bhutanese red rice, this is your place. And on top of having everything on earth you could ever want, their prices are amazingly low. This is our go-to for spices because you can get your hands on a half pint of just about anything from anywhere from $.50-$3.00 when you pay 4 times that at the grocery store. Their selection and prices on produce, nuts, grains, pastas, bread and cheese are also well worth the trip. Need a quail egg? They got em!

So, GO THERE NOW and tell me what you think! Just don't forget your jacket because it is freezing in there and don't even try to take a photo because they don't exactly look kindly on that! Oh yeah, last thing, debit, check or cash only, no credit cards.
Enjoy!

Wednesdays...

First things first. Jessica's bachelorette party was a huge success. She had a great time and so did the rest of us although I think I can speak for the group and say that this week will be a week of fasting! I will post pictures later if I am allowed!

Now, on to other things. Last Wednesday, Tyler and I both had crappy days a work. I don't think either of us could tell you what was so bad or why but whatever, they sucked. So... T decided that we needed to blow off our very strict and anal retentive running schedule and go on a picnic instead. Tyler came home with bags of groceries and made us some killer sandwiches which he so cutely packed up in our picnic basket. We then headed off to the Shakespeare Festival with Strongbow in tow.


SB decided to dine on dog poop while we ate, if anyone knows how to break this habit I would LOVE to know.




Along with dining on poop, Strongbow also enjoyed stalking ducks.

Lesson of the day: If your day sucks, blow off the rest of it and do something else.

The ATL

I'm headed to Atlanta this weekend for my bro's fiance's bachelorette party and as fun as a night at Opera and dinner at ONE Midtown Kitchen is going to be I have a few alterior motives!! I have successfully conned sweet Jessica into toting me to IKEA!

Here is my list:

I need these desperately! Thanks Rachel for scouting them out.

I love this rug for our foyer...

I'm thinking about these open wall shelves in the living room.

I know myself and my tendancies so don't be suprised if I go a bit overboard!

Have a great weekend!

These folks are what get me up at 5:15 a.m. on a Saturday morning. This is about a third of the training group for the Montgomery Half Marathon coming up in a few weeks.

For those of you who know me, you know that I don't have an athletic bone in my squishy body and I have the hand-eye coordination of a three-toed sloth. However, running with this group makes me to run longer and faster.

We all meet up downtown at the water tower in the Alley at 6:00 am on Saturdays to pile into City vans and take off for our mileage drop offs. You can run as little or as much as you want and the joy is that you always have someone with. As fun as running 9 miles at the crack of dawn is, the best part is at the finish. We finish up at either the Biscuits stadium or the riverfront and waiting for us is the most beautiful sight you will ever see. A cooler of beer. Yes you heard me, it's the best thing after a long run!

So if this has enticed you to join us PLEASE DO! We have 3 more training runs before the big race on October 2 so if you are interested just let me know and I will make sure you are on the email distribution list.

Also, if you have not already signed up for the Montgomery Half or 5K you better get on it because the prices go up on Sept 15! This year we are benefiting the Joy to Life foundation so click here do it for a good cause!

Believe me, if I can do it, so can you! Here are a few pictures from lat year's race.







On another note, this whole "I have to post 3 days a week thing" is totally stressing me out so to insure quality over quantity I might renege on that one! My bad!

Driver, Move that Bus...

It's time for another episode of The Caldwell's Extreme Home Makeover.
Remember these...

Well, the avocado green bathroom is no longer! May I present to you our new and improved master bathroom......

It's not the all white marble bathroom that I had in my dreams but we had to make a few sacrifices for the sake of the budget! We went for white subway tile in the shower and 4x4 in. slate tiles from Total Liquidation  for the floor.



My plan was to paint the bathroom a shade of white to keep everything feeling clean and airy. However, I decided to abandon that idea when I refused to repaint the cabinets and their slightly yellowish tint just didn't mesh well with any of the white or grayish wall colors I chose.
Oh, and don't worry I will be replacing the mini blinds with a white roman shade and the ugly mats with fresh white ones when funds replenish themselves!


I am absolutely in love with the way the marble counter top came out! Now that is what I had in my dreams! We couldn't frame out the mirror as originally planned because the light fixture was a bit too low and I didn't feel like paying our amazing electrician to come in and move stuff around, no matter how inexpensive he is! So we had to go with the ol' glued on frameless mirror. I quickly got over the disappointment when I remembered how much I love staring at myself so the bigger the better right?


Remember these? I really like how they came out.

Like I said, we couldn't do everything we wanted but what's the old adage? "If you can't be with the one you love, love the your with." So that is what I am doing, I'm loving the bathroom I'm with! Not to mention that we have done something good for humanity and prevented the next buyers from ever having to deal with the same horror of an avocado bathroom that we endured for 14 long months! Yay for us and our good deeds!

Happy Friday and enjoy your Labor day!

Strongbow's Favorite Things....

How cute is this Harry Barker dog bed?! SB has the small one in green and he LOVES it!
A few great things about it:
1.  It's on sale for $39.99!
2.  The cover is washable
3.  It looks so good!

Up Country Dog Collars....SB has the Dog Food collar on order right now and I can tell that he is just so excited! They also have great seasonal designs and they only run about 20 bucks!

Okay, maybe this is one of my favorite things. We keep SB's dog food in one of these Arthur Court Canister's that we got as a wedding gift. It's nice to be able to leave his dog food on the counter without it being such a huge eye sore!

When we leave for work we stuff his Kong with some dog food and top it off with some smooth organic peanut butter and he goes nuts for it. The second he sees us pick it up and get the PB out of the fridge, he runs into his crate and waits patiently! It's a miracle product!

And last but not least, SB loves his cousins, or maybe they are aunts and uncles, I don't know! Anyway,

these are my parents dogs, Piper, Maggie, Buck and Barley and they are SB's best friends!