Easy Cheese Fondue

If my recipes of the past are any indication, I am lenient in my interpretation of the word "recipe". Cheese fondue, like chili, is more of an idea than a specific recipe. Here is what I did:

Ingredients:
1 cup white wine (I used a Viognier)
2 cloves garlic, minced (I ran out, so I used a shallot!)
12-16 ounces shredded cheese (tradition calls for emmenthaler and gruyere, I used a swiss/gruyere blend)

Directions:
Heat fondue pot (doesn't everyone have one from their weddings?) or a medium saucepan over medium heat. If using a fondue pot, it is usually a double boiler situation, so water underneath the actual basin where the fondue goes. Add wine and garlic (or shallots), heat to close to a boil. Slowly add a handfull of cheese at a time, stirring until melted, then add another handful.
Serve with toasted bread and vegetables of your choosing.

Best invention ever? Trader Joe's offers a shredded swiss/gruyere blend. It makes fondue a million times easier than when I used to hand my husband a block of cheese and the box grater and tell him to go at it. I served it with bread and broccoli, since my kids were eating it for dinner and they will deign to eat broccoli stems, as opposed to their refusal to eat most other green vegetables.

 

 

I link to these awesome parties:

Sunday: I Heart Naptime, Nifty Thrifty Things, Inspired Honeybee, Nest for LessMonday:Between Naps on the Porch, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Thrifty Decor Chick, Alderberry Hill, Debbie Doo's, Home Stories A to Z, Home Savvy AtoZ  Tuesday:Coastal Charm, Tip Junkie, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Carolyn's Homework, Made in a Day, Our Delightful Home, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Get Your Craft On, Kurtz Corner Wednesday: Savvy Southern Style, Mommy Solutions, Power of Paint, Newlyweds Recipe Linky, It's Overflowing, Southern Lovely Thursday: The Shabby Creek Cottage, Made in a Day, House of Hepworths, the 36th Avenue , Bloggeritaville Friday: Serenity Now, Tatertots and Jello, The Shabby Nest, Thirty Handmade Days, Addicted 2 Decorating, Funky Junk Interiors, Financial Friday, Furniture Friday, At the Picket Fence, The Rooster and the Hen

Home Tour Guest Post

My home tour is up at South Shore Mommy, so head on over to check it out!

South Shore Mommy

The Deck and THE VIEW

After enough mentions of the view from my kitchen corner post (here) I decided to just let it all hang out. So without further ado, here is where we hang out when the weather is nice, and the killer view that we are incredibly grateful for.

What's that? A water table? Yes, yes it is. I'm sure it will be making more than one appearance here come summer. When it's in use, we pull it closer to the hose reel so the kids can fill it up themselves and have some nice water-play action happening in the semi-shade of the trellis. As a side note- I read in Real Simple about this hose reel, and it truly is the best one. It swings away from the wall and you can wind it back up, then fold it back against the house. We have three and they rock. 

Best details? The copper flashing-turned-cap that is nicely patinad (see the green oxidation starting?) and really warms up the space. We had toyed with wood to cap off our deck walls, but they are so deep that we would have to join and mill a special piece, which would not be the best idea for waterproofing. The cedar shingles are fire-treated (a must-do here) and the railing is a clear cedar.

Now here is the trifecta for comfortable deck enjoyment: lighting, heat, and speakers. We have wall sconces and down lights in the trellis to light the space at night, an awesome electric heater than keeps us warm on autumn nights, and waterproof speakers tied into our stereo system (here ) so we can enjoy music outside. Or football. We haven't actually used the speakers for music yet, just for listening to the Superbowl (link) when we had a party and the weather was nice (don't hate me) so we barbecued outside.

            

                        

*affilate links (hose reel) are for products I actually own:)

I link to these awesome parties:

Sunday: I Heart Naptime, Nifty Thrifty Things, Inspired Honeybee, Nest for LessMonday:Between Naps on the Porch, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Thrifty Decor Chick, Alderberry Hill, Debbie Doo's, Home Stories A to Z, Home Savvy AtoZ  Tuesday:Coastal Charm, Tip Junkie, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Carolyn's Homework, Made in a Day, Our Delightful Home, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Get Your Craft On, Kurtz Corner Wednesday: Savvy Southern Style, Mommy Solutions, Power of Paint, Newlyweds Recipe Linky, It's Overflowing, Southern Lovely Thursday: The Shabby Creek Cottage, Made in a Day, House of Hepworths, the 36th Avenue , Bloggeritaville Friday: Serenity Now, Tatertots and Jello, The Shabby Nest, Thirty Handmade Days, Addicted 2 Decorating, Funky Junk Interiors, Financial Friday, Furniture Friday, At the Picket Fence, The Rooster and the Hen

Master Bedroom Art

The wall above our bed is empty, and it's been that way since we moved in. In fact, I can't think of a time when we have ever had anything over our bed, in any incarnation, in the eight years my husband and I have been together.

Here is our daughter. Her smile makes up for the fact that I didn't straighten the sheets or pillows before taking these pictures.

A few months ago I had had enough, so I presented my husband with a myriad of options for what to do over the bed. We finally decided on a collage of images. This is perfect, since each of the other bedrooms has a collection of images as well, so either it's a theme or I'm just not creative enough to do something else in a bedroom. I'm voting for the former.

I found amazing photos of Paris from Little Brown Pen. We had been to Paris together five years ago on our babymoon, just before our lives were forever changed and we became parents. Although to be fair, Paris isn't particularly important to us, we just liked the images. She has a collection of images (you can choose four or nine) in a variety of colors. If you can't already tell from the room, our bedroom is not a mecca for color of any kind. It was a stretch for us (and I say "us" but really I mean "him") to even get the white shams and duvet with navy border. Finally we settled on a color, so there could be a "pop" in the room.

The prints arrived, I went to Ikea to buy Ribba frames for them (my go-to place for frames), then I put them in the frames and carried them upstairs. And they sat. And sat and sat. And sat and sat and sat.

Sorry, is anyone else reading Once Upon a Potty? It gets stuck in my head.

Yes, there they are sitting atop our dresser. With a power drill. For no reason. And a baby monitor, which is there since our baby sleeps in our bed and that way I can watch her nap. I know, it's totally creepy to have a monitor in my room, which is why whenever I'm in there I not only turn it off, but I turn it towards the wall too. Oh, and the baby will hopefully be transitioning to her own crib, I can't get started in the co-sleeping debate, except to say that she wanted it, she is the third, and she will be moving soon.

Back to my point. Three months after the frames were carried up, we finally got around to hanging them. First I laid the out on the bed to decide how to arrange them.

Then I realized that they were arranged on the website and that the photographer had probably put more effort into their arrangement that I could while wrangling three little kids on a Sunday morning. So I went to the computer and just used her arrangement as a guide. And my husband hung them up.

See how easy I just made that sound? Hanging Ikea frames is not easy. As you might know, you hand tie the wire on the back of each one, which means they are never the same. So you need to measure each frame from top to were that one in particular will hang from, then do lots of measuring on your wall. Finally it was done, and result is amazing for me. We finally have color in our bedroom! Of course, now I just need to bring in more color, but I'm taking things one step at a time.

There is some yellow in the loft, especially in the heart art which is yellow and navy. Too bad it hasn't entered our all marble master bath.

By the way, I love friends. Google Friend Connect, Linky Followers, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google Plus, it's all good for me. Just click on the buttons on my sidebar!

I link to these awesome parties:

Sunday: I Heart Naptime, Nifty Thrifty Things, Home Savvy AtoZ , Inspired Honeybee, Nest for LessMonday:Between Naps on the Porch, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Thrifty Decor Chick, Alderberry Hill, Debbie Doo's, Home Stories A to Z Tuesday:Coastal Charm, Tip Junkie, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Carolyn's Homework, Made in a Day, Our Delightful Home, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Get Your Craft On, Kurtz Corner Wednesday: Savvy Southern Style, Mommy Solutions, Power of Paint, Newlyweds Recipe Linky, It's Overflowing, Southern Lovely Thursday: The Shabby Creek Cottage, Made in a Day, House of Hepworths, the 36th Avenue , Bloggeritaville Friday: Serenity Now, Tatertots and Jello, The Shabby Nest, Thirty Handmade Days, Addicted 2 Decorating, Funky Junk Interiors, Financial Friday, Furniture Friday, At the Picket Fence

Master Bath

Here is the view into the master bath:

And looking to the left:

As you can see there are three windows with views to the awesome view outside. One of the windows is inside the shower. I'll just stop here to say that there is no way anyone can see into this window, we are too high up on the hill and the angles just don't work that way. So we get lots of natural light in the shower, quite the way to wake up!

When I was in graduate school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I also had a window in my shower. except in that case, the window was frosted so the apartment building across the street couldn't see in. Not the point. Anyway, both were/are wood windows, but in Cambridge I hung a shower curtain across the window to avoid getting it wet and damaging the frame. That was clearly not an option here. We toyed with the idea of putting in an aluminum window, but it would look so odd. Finally, we decided to put in a panel of glass, just like the shower walls and the shower door.

The panel swings open for cleaning (it and the window) and it works perfectly to keep the water away from the window.

My other "must-have" in the shower was a place to put my shampoo; yes it's Suave, and it doesn't match the Dove conditioner. You can imagine how many funny looks I get when people see my limited showering products, then see that my husband has just three bottles from Trader Joes on his side. What can I say, I'm not a product person.

I would have liked a bench, but we decided that it was more important to have two shower heads, so we put in a small corner ledge for me to put my foot up on while I shave. You can see how that turned out.

Yep, it's full of my daughter's showering products, amazing that a four year old has as many as I do. Plus it's the perfect height for her, and occasionally for her two year old brother, to reach, as they learn about how to wash themselves. They really only use our bathroom and hardly ever go into their bathroom. I'm assuming that once the teenage years start that will change.

A few of my favorite details:

What is your favorite part? My favorite is the virtual sea of marble: mosaic marble floor, 2x4 border on the floor, 3x6 wall tile and slab counters (and window-sills). It's all either Calcutta Oro or Statuary, and I love the texture. Plus this is the first bathroom in 5 years where I can control the water temperature, so it's a huge step up:)

Different from our Powder Room downstairs (less color, more light), but similar in that it is given over to the functionality of living with children.

I link to these awesome parties:

Sunday: I Heart Naptime, Stephany Hyder, Nifty Thrifty Things, Home Savvy AtoZ Monday:Between Naps on the Porch, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Thrifty Decor Chick, Alderberry Hill, Debbie Doo's, Home Stories A to Z Tuesday:Coastal Charm, Tip Junkie, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Carolyn's Homework, Made in a Day, Our Delightful Home, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Get Your Craft On Wednesday: Savvy Southern Style, Mommy Solutions, Power of Paint, Newlyweds Recipe Linky, It's Overflowing Thursday: The Shabby Creek Cottage, Made in a Day, House of Hepworths, the 36th Avenue  Friday: Serenity Now, Tatertots and Jello, The Shabby Nest, Thirty Handmade Days, Addicted 2 Decorating, Funky Junk Interiors, Financial Friday, At the Picket Fence

Car Travel with Kids

I just got out of the car where I had been locked in with my three kids for over four hours. That makes me an expert. Or not. But at least we can all agree that I have experience. Plus, I have the exceptional luck of having children who do not sleep in the car. That's right, all those jokes about putting the baby in the car in the middle of the night to make them sleep, well, the opposite is true in our family. No one knows where this comes from. There is clear photographic proof that my sister and I slept everywhere we went. We slept in cars, planes, on couches during dinner parties, everywhere. I once even slept on a very cold plane covered in a newspaper (my dad told me it had a high insulation value). My mother in law doesn't remember my husand having these issues, so I'm assuming that children who don't sleep anywhere other than a crib after they are a few months old (that's right, not even while being held!) are a special gift given to us from above, maybe a parenting test, if you will.

This photo was clearly not taken at the end of said four hour drive. At that point I was too wiped out. This was taken before a short 15 minute car ride where I only had to answer about 2,000 questions. One of which had to do with why curbs are painted different colors. And so, with that, I found myself saying, when they spotted a UPS truck, "In reference to our previous conversation, the UPS truck is an example of a car or truck that can park in the yellow, commercial loading zone". My sister had joined us in the car at that point, and could barely contain her laughter at my apparently unrelated observation.

With that as a preface, I give you my top five tips for traveling by car with children:

1. Let go of your everyday rules. Usually we do not eat fast food. When traveling by car, we do (see #3 below). I fill their backpacks with activities, but other than the Magna Doodle (which you can see above), they don't get used very much since it's hard to write or draw in the car. I do let them watch downloaded episodes of Dora the Explorer on the iPad,  which is a treat for them, but it can usually buy me a few hours with my son, and maybe one half hour with my daughter (she just not into TV).

2. Keep to some semblance of your "normal" schedule. If you normally eat at 7am, 12pm, and 5pm (like we do), keep to that. If your kids go to sleep at certain times, try to get to your destination with enough time for them to settle in before bed. The alternative is if you are blessed by children who do sleep in cars, you can plan your trips for nap or night time. I'm incredibly envious of you.

3. Get out the wiggles. Take breaks (every hour or two as needed) so the kids can get out and stretch their legs. I have never been so happy to see a McDonald's as when we are traveling and I see one with a giant PlayPlace attached. We pull up, let the big kids go directly into the play structure, and I put the baby on the floor on a blanket to stretch out. We do order food, but that is secondary to being active. We also like to stop at carousels, small trains, parks, anywhere where they are out of the car and using their little bodies. This helps us all to feel better.

4. Embrace snacks. Each of the bigger two have a backpack for activities, which has an insulated compartment for food and a holder on the side for a sippy of water. I love these:

 Wildkin Olive Kids Under Construction Sidekick Backpack  

This is my son's, since he is in a construction truck phase. My daughter has the polka dot one. I usually give an assortment of snacks, not "real" food: raisins, string cheese, nuts, fruit bar, pretzels, applesauce pouch... The more "fun" the food is, the better they do. Plus things that take a long time to eat, like raisins or nuts are good for keeping their fingers busy.

5. Do what you must. Yup, that pretty much sums it up. In general I am not a proponent of bribery, since it's just the other side of the threat coin. "If you clean up you can have a treat" is the same as "If you don't clean up you can't have a treat". In the case of car travel, bribery may come in handy. Or maybe it's just a special "treat" like a lifesaver to keep them sucking and quiet so they don't wake up the baby (again!). If car travel is not something your family excels at (and I'm grossly understating that in regard to my family), then just do your best to get through it. Almost any tactic is fine as long as you all end up in one piece at the other end.

I link to these awesome parties:

Sunday: I Heart Naptime, Stephany Hyder, Nifty Thrifty Things, Home Savvy AtoZ Monday:Between Naps on the Porch, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Thrifty Decor Chick, Alderberry Hill, Debbie Doo's, Home Stories A to Z Tuesday:Coastal Charm, Tip Junkie, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Carolyn's Homework, Made in a Day, Our Delightful Home, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Get Your Craft On Wednesday: Savvy Southern Style, Crystal and Co, Power of Paint, Newlyweds Recipe Linky, It's Overflowing Thursday: The Shabby Creek Cottage, Made in a Day, House of Hepworths, the 36th Avenue  Friday: Serenity Now, Tatertots and Jello, The Shabby Nest, Thirty Handmade Days, Addicted 2 Decorating, Funky Junk Interiors

The Library

It's my dream come true. Except for the fact that I have to decorate it. And in my dream the bottom two shelves of my library weren't full of children's books, puzzles and toys. Oh, and my four year old likes to climb the shelves to put her "special" things high up, out of reach of her little brother. So maybe it's more like 75% of my dream and 25% reality of life with kids.

This is my "office", which is why it is near the kitchen and playroom:) That way I can work while keeping an eye on the kids and an ear on the oven timer.

That is the view from the kitchen. Even though the library has no windows, the two sets of glass french doors with transoms overhead let in more light that I expected. Plus, when I turn the lights off and close the doors it acts as a deterrent, and people won't go inside.

I did get to paint it any color I wanted, which was Tiffany Blue! I toyed with the idea of painting it coral, but I don't have coral anywhere else, so it seemed like a big move, and for a room with no windows (it's set into the hill), the coral color changed too much in artificial light.

I also got to hang all our diplomas up, hooray! I worked hard for those degrees (undergrad in architecture from UPenn, graduate degree in architecture from Harvard), and I want to show them off. Of course, the first person into my library saw the two harvard degrees (mine and my husband's) and just assumed he went there for both college and graduate school. What more can I do?

The round table is our old dining table from Z Gallerie. It's just waiting for my to go all DIY and lacquer it navy or yellow or coral. I'm waiting to see how my sister's lacquering her dining table goes before I attempt it. The chairs were my grandparents. My mother had this great idea to cover them in "pony". They are amazing, and quite furry.

I love the library lights, now I just need some really big art or accessories for them to accent. We have been dreaming of collecting antiquities, so that would provide some texture, age and contrast, just waiting a decade or two for the finances for that. The big woven pendant is from Ikea, love them.

I link to these awesome parties:

Sunday: I Heart Naptime, Stephany Hyder, Nifty Thrifty Things, Home Savvy AtoZ Monday:Between Naps on the Porch, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Thrifty Decor Chick, Alderberry Hill, Debbie Doo's, Home Stories A to Z Tuesday:Coastal Charm, Tip Junkie, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Carolyn's Homework, Made in a Day, Our Delightful Home, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Get Your Craft On Wednesday: Savvy Southern Style, Crystal and Co, Power of Paint, Newlyweds Recipe Linky, It's Overflowing Thursday: The Shabby Creek Cottage, Made in a Day, House of Hepworths, the 36th Avenue  Friday: Serenity Now, Tatertots and Jello, The Shabby Nest, Thirty Handmade Days, Addicted 2 Decorating, Funky Junk Interiors

Superbowl BBQ turned leftovers

This is the story of our Superbowl party, and yes, I know it's very late for that. Plus it's not really the story of the party, or even of the food we served, it's really about the leftovers. First, here is the set-up.

We put the buffet out on the kitchen island (see more kitchen here). We had beer, juice boxes, hot dogs and hamburgers from the grill (it was 60+ outside), chips and dips. I'm pretty sure the only "green thing" as my kids would say, was the guacamole. That counts as a vegetable, right? Anyway, none of this is particularly relevant becuase I didn't take any pictures, blogger fail. We did have a pin-the-football-in-the-fieldgoal game...

Which my kids played on Saturday, so it was already done by the time the party came around. Anyway, here is a shot of what my fridge looked like on Monday.

Yep, not much happening that I could turn into dinner. I did have some homemade yogurt, but not much else. I had already had one night last week when I was sick where I served plain pasta, peas and potato salad. Not my best meal, and quite possibly my worst. So back to Monday, I hadn't gone to the store so I decided to pull together a "chili", keeping in the spirit of football.

"Chili" is in quotes because that's what I can anything that I cook in my big Le Creuset dutch oven that involves meat. In this case I browned up the last pound of ground beef from the freezer, added onion, garlic, frozen corn, shredded carrots, a can of kidney beans, beer (hello, that's what we had leftover!) some chili powder and salt and called it a day. I served it with chips (for dinner!) and it turned out to be a big success. By my count there are way more veggies in that than meat, but I called it "chili" and the kids dug in. Now that, is successful (and resourceful) parenting!

I link to these awesome parties:

Sunday: I Heart Naptime, Stephany Hyder, Nifty Thrifty Things, Home Savvy AtoZ Monday:Between Naps on the Porch, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Thrifty Decor Chick, Alderberry Hill, Debbie Doo's, Home Stories A to Z Tuesday:Coastal Charm, Tip Junkie, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Carolyn's Homework, Made in a Day, Our Delightful Home, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Get Your Craft On Wednesday: Savvy Southern Style, Crystal and Co, Power of Paint, Newlyweds Recipe Linky, It's Overflowing Thursday: The Shabby Creek Cottage, Made in a Day, House of Hepworths, the 36th Avenue  Friday: Serenity Now, Tatertots and Jello, The Shabby Nest, Thirty Handmade Days, Addicted 2 Decorating, Funky Junk Interiors