And then there was light...

Her shiny pretty parts won't go on until construction and paint is over but we finally have light in our entry!!!

For the first time in almost 3 years we can see stuff!

She has a dimmer and everything because we're that fancy.

let's hope she turns out as pretty as this high end model

keri russell's house

Rioja

We finally made it to dinner at Rioja during Denver Restaurant Week. I've been wanting to go forever and man was it worth the wait! Soooo good. It was the best Denver restaurant I've been to in awhile. Spanish food. Great service. What else could you ask for? If you don't take advantage of Restaurant Week you're missing out on a great deal. For $52.80, a couple can have a three course meal at any of the best restaurants in town. It is the perfect way to try out someplace new without breaking the bank. I appreciated that instead of just offering a prix fixe menu, you could get anything off their menu for an additional price. My entree was an additional $8 but everything else (except the wine) was included. So good, can't wait to go back. I would probably order the same damn thing, seriously.

I can't remember what wine we ordered

a Spanish garnacha

very good

 a "picnic" of artisan meats, cheese, olives, fennel salad, almonds

 big surprise here - I had beef short ribs with brussels sprouts

it was incredible, one of the best I've ever had

 Bernie got a sushi grade salmon filet that he absolutely loved

hazelnut tortamisu

 I never would have ordered this dessert based on the menu description

but I saw it being made and it looked incredible and tasted even better

 Larimer Square

So, who wants to go to dinner? I'm ready to go back!

What the What?

I went to get the mail today and found these guys in our yard. Excuse me Mr. Goose, are you lost? There are a ton of geese in City Park but I have never seen them in our yard before. The dog gave them a look but no woofs. Some guard dog you are.

Week 2 - dust in the city

Week 2 of our latest home renovations and our first floor is full of dust and plastic. It's like we never moved in and we're starting from scratch. Very dusty and dirty but it's coming along. Bernie has run into a few surprises (unexpected steel beam next to 3 main original beams - surprise!) and we finally got the answer to whether or not the wall between the parlor and entry is original (sadly, it is not but it stays as long as I'm around).

parlor

ugh…that fire place…certainly not original

we'll deal with that eventually

might paint it out in the meantime

entry

My little kitchen project should have been easy peasy: hang some frames. But when we painted it 2.5 years ago we had a bad paint roller that left fuzz all over the main wall and it has been driving me bananas ever since. I figured the house is already dusty so I busted out the sander and went to town. The chalk board from the previous owners started to show its ugly head. Add to that job some trim we never finished painting and a ceiling that we touched up with the wrong color paint and I pretty much have to repaint a little bit of everything in the kitchen. I should tone down the gloss but that would mean a shit ton of cutting in around the cabinets, doors, and window. I just wanted to hang a few pictures!?!

the smarty pants in me covered the hard to clean chandelier

the dummy in me turned on the chandelier

now the kitchen smells like burnt plastic now

see the bulbs poking out? yep, genius

 the dog is très put-out by the whole thing

on a positive note, the switches and the chair fabric are here

just over 4 weeks until our friends come visit

tick tock tick tock tick tock

We're moving and we're shaking

This morning my husband said, "it looks like our home projects threw up all over the house." He might be kind of right about that one. All our parlor furniture is in the dining room as we got started on several new projects: the box on the table includes a new chandelier that has about 10,000 crystal balls; several ikea frames are going up in the kitchen; and after a lot of drama the blue chairs are going to get some new fabric and new cushions. I've also been finishing up our guest bedroom and framing stuff that has been laying around for months. I bought a new light for the laundry room and a smoke detector for the first floor (gasp! we haven't had one in like 2 years, but now we have one that talks!). Bernie installed them. Did I mention we have visitors in April? I always find myself motivated to start and complete projects when I have people coming over to stay. 

we're finally putting lights in our parlor and entryway

one of the joys of an old house - there is no central lighting in either room 

I bought a knock-off of this chandelier at Overstock.com for a steal

and I just ordered the old fashioned push-button switches (not a steal)

keri russell's dreamy living room

I want her fire place big time bad

knockoff from Overstock

I'm going to try this sparkly girl out in the entryway first

because I'm not sure if she is big enough for the parlor

worst case scenario she goes upstairs in the other guest room

If it works we'll buy a second one 

If it doesn't then we'll be shelling out some fat cash for big daddy

I'm guessing they call him "large bling" for a reason

he looks totally worth it to me

the more i look at him, the more I want him in our parlor

On top of all that...we're painting. Well, I'm painting...

did I mention I hate the wall color in the parlor?

It was a shade lighter than the dining room but because

the house is so dark and there are no lights so it looks too dark

and it's too blue

so we're going more gray…Cornforth White I think it's called

Remember all our chair drama?

I bought these two vintage Drexel lovelies at Mod Livin' last April

Bernie isn't too fond of them

but I love them so we're compromising…well, not really

I bought some relatively cheap fabric in a navy color called blueberry

what a commitment!

I didn't want to compete with the rug, or spend a lot of money

I thought the frames might look nice white but Bernie said NO 

so I guess they are staying as is - see? compromise

they will keep their cute tufting and button details and I'm

on the hunt for some cool fabric for the back

on to the kitchen - I'm going to hang 6 white frames all horizontal

we've been debating how high to hang them all afternoon on facebook

feel free to chime in

ceilings are at 9 feet

chair rail is just under 4 feet from the floor

top of that white box on the left is 48" above the chair rail

distance between the white box and the wall on the right is 80"

the blue tape represents the footprint of all the frames with 2" gaps

yes…I drew it all to scale. twice.

that is Cooper, our Greater Swiss Mountain Dog who is very inconvenienced at the moment

discuss...

…stay tuned, maybe I'll post more frequently than 3-4 weeks

no promises

NYC part deux

Well, it took me over a month but here are the rest of my pictures from my trip to NYC. I've been on a real blog drought as of late. I got nothin' to say! But I figured I could at least share some photos. So here you go. 

2 of my 3 favorite buildings in NYC

(the Chrysler building is my absolute fav)

checked out the new marimekko store - so many bold colors and patterns

I finally made my way to ABC Carpet & Home - huge store, huge! I came across the cabinet on the left which looked crazy similar to the one I bought off Craigslist for around $200. It's been awhile so I forgot the price but I think the new one was a few thousand $$$'s. I like mine better, especially the price!

ABC's carpet store is across the street from the home department and is full of Madeline Weinrib goodness. I spent a decent amount of time sifting through the sale pile and wondering if I could drag one of her rugs onto the plane. If I found the right rug, believe me I would have made that shit happen.

I had to stop at the new Ladurée. 

The macarons might taste the same, but the store wasn't nearly as pretty as the ones in Paris.

I waited in line forever, but it was worth it. 

view from the cab ride to the airport, I wish I had a pic of all the santa's I saw on my way to the city

no editing on this photo, just cool natural lighting and a great skyline

I used CameraBag to edit the photos, was playing around with the 2.0 beta version which is FREE

Blog in Review

I've read a lot of Blog in Review posts this week and I honestly had no intention of doing one but then I checked my "stats" and saw I just passed 20,000 page views! I know that is probably a few hours worth for some of the über popular blogs out there, but I thought it was a pretty big milestone for my little ole blog with a whopping 45 followers (help a girl out, let's make it 50!!!). Here are my top 3 posts according to Blogger:

Our Tiny Basement Bath Remodel

the place where I bought the stencil put pics up on their website, check it! 

I'll take that as a compliment - thanks!

The Builder's Special Remodel From Our Last House
I spent all day searching for the damn "before" pic!
We made the best of a bad situation for not a lot of money

Dining Room Before and After

still very much a work in progress

I can't believe I've written over 250 blog entries! It has been just over 2 years so that is not a ton but still, 250!!! I took a look back to remember some of my favorites. I've shared plenty of our house and garden, favorite recipes, detox, my challenges with braised beef, etc. But I'll always be partial to my first post, it was probably the most personal. Some of my other favorites:

The beautification of our front porch.

My weekend with Jillian Michaels. 

My first trip to Paris, all 12 hours of it!

All the hard work we did restoring "Bernie's Room".

Becoming reacquainted with my grandparent's china.

Not the most interesting for some, but I enjoyed researching the old City Park fountain.

Our Paris vacation here and here.

Cute pics of Cooper here, here, and here.

thanks so much for reading & encouraging me to keep on writing
goodbye 2011.  hello 2012!

Happy New Year!!!

We spent our third NYE at Barolo Grill, and honestly (to our surprise), it wasn't nearly as good as past visits. I've always thought the service and wait staff knowledge at Barolo was some of the best anywhere, but not this time. Not a single person came to ask us how our food was, not once. One waiter practically threw one of the courses down and was walking away before the plate hit the table. The wrong item was brought out for two of my courses, no apology to be found. The owner was walking around talking to many tables around us, but not ours. An acknowledgement of the errors would have went a long way to keeping our opinion of Barolo high.

The wine pairings were unusually small pours, and weren't a great compliment to the food. And while it might be unusual to complain about being served too much food, with 5 courses, the portions should be smaller. I was stuffed before the Secondi Piatti was served. Overall, it was still a good time. It's always fun to get dressed up and go out and there was some very interesting people watching. But I think next year we might be on the hunt for some place new. 

 my Insalate - spinach salad with pancetta and braised pork belly

Bernie had the roasted beet salad with goat cheese

Bernie really enjoyed his Secondi Piatti - roasted pheasant

I had a wonderful beef tenderloin that was served with

some pretty unappetizing lentils

the Dolce was pretty awesome - espresso cake,

pineapple relish, and a killer salted caramel sauce

very fancy presentation

 I got a little behind in my wine pairings…how is that possible?

Did I mention we were sleeping by 11:45? We are so wild.

Happy New Year!!!