How was your Halloween?

Ours turned out to be just the evening I was hoping for – a night of drinking beer and watching Jeff play video games while we each took turns answering the door.

We had heard from a neighbor that they had over 300 kids show up last year, so I dashed to the grocery yesterday afternoon to pick up some more candy. I think we ended up having about 75 to 100 kids, and only went through half the candy I bought. It was really hard to not just eat fun size Twix for lunch today. 😉

It was really nice to feel like part of a community. Jeff and I were talking about how much we feel at home here. Even though we’re renting, it really feels like this is “our house.”

And it’s coming along nicely. We’ve made huge progress in getting things put away where they belong and setting it all up to feel comfortable. We finished clearing out the second bedroom which is being used for an exercise room and place to do our art and electronics projects. It was so filled with stuff that you couldn’t walk around in it.

I got my office set up how I like it…

All the knick-knacks are on the bookshelves, so until we get a full size dining table, the dining room is mostly done.

And the basement, which was pretty dirty when we moved in, is getting much more usable as we clean it out. I’ve got a laundry area set up and we’ve moved a bunch of long-term storage downstairs as well.

And we’re getting a few projects done around the house to make it more comfortable. Jeff hung the curtains in our bedroom and I spent some time crafting a drawer organizer to make the silverware fit better in the narrow drawer.

And the cats are loving it too. Liam has apparently just rediscovered sunbeams (our last place was in a basement so it was kind of dim.) I can be sure to find him in a different patch of light each day.

Lucas gets too hot in all the direct sunlight and has to occasionally take a break by stretching himself out languidly to diffuse the heat.

Handsome devil.

Today I roasted the other batch of pumpkin seeds I had from carving the jack-o-lantern. I tried to do a Japanese flavor using toasted sesame oil, soy sauce, mirin, nori kome furikake, and togarashi spice.

They’re alright, not good enough to share the recipe though. I think the toasted sesame oil is just overpowering the other flavors.

This year is just flying by, I can’t believe that Halloween has already gone by and we’re headed straight into the winter holidays. It’ll be 2012 before I can blink.

November 1, 2011 Alayna Discussion 8 comments

I *think* that things have finally slowed back down to normal now.

I cannot tell you how much happier I am now that we’ve moved. I didn’t even realize before how all the little frustrations I had with different aspects of our last place were adding up to affect my overall mood. It took all of about 2 minutes to feel completely at home in our new place, though. I honestly already feel like we’ve been here a long time, and that this is a place that we’ll continue to be happy in for many years.

Tour time! Here’s the living room setup, just needs decorating now. There’s a small room of to the side of it that I’m using as an office. The natural light in there will be great for blog photos!

Lucas and Liam are loving it. So many new windowsills to sit on, squirrels to watch, things to sniff…

We have a small dining room adjoining the living room and kitchen. We went out and bought this corner bookshelf from Ikea on the first day to add to our bookcases since there’s nowhere in the house that all three of the standard size ones can fit side by side. See me in the glass?

And I still have a few more books to put away…

Then there’s the kitchen. It’s pretty small, but there’s a ton of good counter space and lots of cabinetry.

Jeff even gets his own cabinet for tea. Well, he generously gave up a shelf for my spices since I can find nowhere else to put them for now.

And this little beauty, a gas stove! Everyone knows that the pros use gas. This is my first time using one and I already love how evenly it cooks compared to an electric.

The pantry is out in the hallway. Actually, I think this is supposed to be a linen closet, but with how much kitchen stuff I have there is absolutely no room in the cabinets for food. Pantry it is!

This might just be my favorite part of the house though….the shower!

We had a really gross and crappy shower in the last place. This one is large and clean and has these nifty little stone shelves built right in. Seriously, for me at least, a hot shower is one of life’s greatest pleasures. I wish I could spend hours in there.

Our bedroom is pretty large. It does have a relatively small closet though that Jeff and I share, but it seems to be just big enough for us.

And the other bedroom is currently housing a bunch of stuff that we need to put in the basement. We need to clean the floors down there first though, so what will one day hopefully become a nursery is for now a junk room. The closet in this room is really small and the staircase leading downstairs cuts into it so there’s very little usable storage room there.

And here’s the creepy steep staircase down to the basement where our washer and dryer are. It’s a tight squeeze and my hamper actually doesn’t fit through the door! I’m on the lookout for a bag-type hamper that I can throw over my shoulder like a backpack to replace it with.

That’s it for now, I’ll show some more as we get it decorated some. I’m really ready to get back into posting recipes and such though, so hopefully I’ll have something new for you soon.

I’m sitting here listening to the sound of walnuts loudly thunking the rooftop as the wind blows them out of the trees. It’s a sound I’m already coming to love as a part of our new home.

October 19, 2011 Alayna Discussion 8 comments