Bathroom facelift

I felt we'd mostly solved the overall beige-ness of this apartment, but for some reason, the one room still plaguing me was the bathroom. Now, I've never cared that much about bathrooms. In fact, they've often baffled me. Flipping through a home and garden magazine, I'll marvel at the cavernous bathrooms--how much stuff could you possibly want to keep in there? I'll puzzle over the phenomenon of his and hers sinks--does marriage hit a point where you suddenly *need* two sinks? The only thing I ever covet in those photos is a whirlpool tub (relaxing). But all I really dream of is a bathroom with adequate ventilation. One day...

Anyway, consumed by the boringness, I decided that bathrooms actually do matter in their own little way. We finally used a housewarming gift certificate to give our bathroom a little facelift. (Note: You'll see from these photos that we still have weird fluorescent lighting. Not much we can do about that.)

Rather than aggressively fight the beige, we attempted to work with it, using sort of muted colors. We found sage green towels on sale and a super-soft oatmeal-colored bathmat.

They looked good hanging on our existing white towel rack, too.

We added a tissue box cover (an item I'd formerly deemed as useless) and stuck a bunch of dried lavender in a Ball jar we had hanging around. My glass jar of lotion blended in nicely, as did a little framed mirror that used to be in our NY bedroom. Three rolled-up white hand towels gave it kind of a "spa" look (the spa thing was all Chris!).

We also bought a soap dispenser, which was a big step for me. (True story: I kept the same plastic dispenser in NYC for 3.5 years.) Finally, we threw some of my favorite milk and olive oil soaps into a glass apothecary jar. (We have green and white soaps; I'd like to add a few lavender bars, too.) I love all of the things we found, because they're pretty neutral and we can take them with us to our next place. We'd still like to add a little piece of art to the wall, but Roger liked it so much already that he decided to move in.

You know what they say: The more things change, the more they stay the same.

(Note: Very observant readers will see that the framed mirror is missing in photo 1. We added it later!)

Summer mocktail of the week

As I've mentioned before, I drink a ton of water here in CA. Here's a refreshing little way to jazz up your water and make the most some farmer's market finds: Throw a few slices of lemon and cucumber into your water, along with a few sprigs of fresh thyme.

This next part isn't a drink, but some of you have probably heard me rave about my "special" grilled cheese: crusty bread, raspberry jam, gruyére cheese. Here's my latest, more savory version...

-Thinly slice onions and white mushrooms. Cook together in butter. Butter is key.

-Spoon some of the onion and mushroom mixture into a sandwich of—what else—crusty bread and gruyére (I used ciabatta below). Grill that puppy until your cheese is nice and melty!

We may not have it all together...

We saw these words posted on a sign in the Coastal Maine Popcorn Co. store in Portland (P.S. Parmesan garlic=heaven!). A little corny, perhaps, but they've become our new favorite saying.

East Coast Nostalgia

Saturday night, I went with the boys to see Captain America. The old-timey New York backdrop tricked me into thinking that I was about to step out into modern-day Times Square, about to make the no-win choice between the depressing 7^th-to-8^th-Ave. tunnel (aka “The Tunnel of Doom”) or pushing through throngs of tourists/darting in and out of the bus lane to make it to the 7 train. I really thought for a minute that I’d be impatiently standing on the platform late at night, smelling that peculiar Times Square subway smell of stale popcorn and axle grease. I thought I’d be coming home through the dingy front hallway of our Queens apartment, pouring myself a glass of water in our kitchen with the sunny yellow paint, throwing Roger treats to scrabble for along the hardwood floor. It was a little freaky when I realized I was still in California.

You see, we just returned from our first trip “back East,” and I’m having some strange flashes of East Coast nostalgia. I’ve been steadily downing the California Kool-Aid for a few months now, but this trip reminded me of my lazy, leisurely summers growing up. I thought I’d hate the humidity, but I realized that it’s a mixed bag. I actually quite liked it at night, when I sat outside in Portland, Maine, in the exact same linen top and summery shorts I’d worn during the day. At night, humidity makes everything feel sort of tropical and romantic. (During the day, it wreaks havoc on my hair.) It reminded me of sitting out on the back patio at Bull McCabe's in NYC, or of listening to friends play the guitar on the shore in Bristol, RI. Even the heat (though we left before the extreme heat!) reminded me of days spent reading in the backyard; attempting to make it through the small classics shelf at the Pontiac Free Library.

On our way back from the East Coast, we had to switch planes in New York. Catching our shuttle from JFK to LaGuardia, I really felt like I should be explaining to a cab driver how to get to Woodside instead, following his movements despite his insistence that he knows where he is going. (Otherwise, the exit inevitably comes and goes, and we go on a nauseating and unnecessary tour of Queens Boulevard.) We had a very New York interaction with the shuttle ticket seller, that special kind of exchange in which you, as a customer, ask a service provider a simple question (“Is this where the LaGuardia shuttle stops?”) and s/he acts entirely offended that you have dared asked her/him to perform the job s/he is paid to do. The city felt harsh, but still felt like home.

When we came back to our current home, our apartment building didn’t really feel like “home” yet. Only when we picked Roger up from Sam’s did it start to feel “homey” again. (I think I’ll put that on a cross-stitch sampler: Home is where your cat is.) I’m still very happy here, and I think it will feel like “home” before long….but Northeastern summers will always hold a special place in my heart.

Whirlwind travels

Wow, summer has been quite full of travel for this West Coast couple! We are settling back in at home, letting the memories of everything we've seen sink in. This isn't a California post, but here's what we've been up to...

We kicked things off with a trip to Park City, Utah, for the Evo blogger conference. (I went for work, and Chris was able to tag along and stay at the lovely resort.) I met so many fun and inspiring women, and I saw mountains...I mean, REAL mountains. These mountains do not mess around. I made sure to squeeze in 2 gondola rides before we had to hit the road for the airport.

Once we got home, we hosted Snick Night, a 90's nostalgia fest complete with childhood snacks. (Remember these?)

We screened Clarissa Explains It All, Pete & Pete, All That, and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, and ate pizza off orange plates (in honor of the Nick color and the big orange couch). (Oh, and then I found out about this. We are trendsetters, I guess!)

Next, it was off to RI for my cousin's lovely wedding in Providence. My favorite part was my brother's last-minute heroism--it was an outdoor wedding, and HOT. As people walked from the ceremony site toward the (indoor, AC'ed) cocktail hour, Jim provided free Del's lemonade to all of the guests.

After the RI festivities, it was off to Portland, Maine. This town is now high on my list of

favorite places. All of the little shops are independent, and there's amazing food, music, coffee, and art at every turn.

When we drove in, I wasn't sure what to make of it--it was a grey day, and the cool stuff is not immediately visible from the edges of town. It looked a little like some of the bleaker places in Providence, but once we drove further in, the greatness became apparent. Everything downtown is housed in old New England brick buildings, and most businesses have kept the original faded signage from eras past. (I love painted signs. This is one of the less-pretty views, but a good sign.)

Every shop and little cobblestoned street was unique, and all of it beckoned to me in an artsy and entirely non-pretentious way. It was as if the city was saying, "Welcome to Portland, where we make stuff." We popped in and out of so many adorable galleries, and I was continuously delighted by the sheer diversity of the art. From interesting jewelry to quirky metalwork to traditional pottery, there was an element of personal attention in just about everything we saw there. Unlike New Paltz, one of my favorite hippie towns, the options for food, music, drinks, etc., seemed inexhaustible. And unlike Newport or Mystic (or even Park City), the boutiques are not just "boutique"--there's such a range of clothing and goods that it's doesn't seem like it's just for tourists prepared to spend a lot of money. I could picture actually shopping at a lot of the places downtown as a resident.

On our second day in Maine, we got some sunshine. We took a ferry to Peak's Island and biked around, taking in the cute houses and the peaceful, rocky shoreline. It was a perfect way to wrap up the trip. (We even saw a seal from the ferry!)

We're back home now, and rather zonked! (So is Roger, who had lots of fun poking around in closets and boxes at Uncle Sam's Sleepaway Kitty Camp.) We hope to have more posts soon, now that we're done jetting around for a while.

Summer cocktail: Watermelon gin lemonade

Happy 4th, everybody! To celebrate, here's a recipe for a summery cocktail we whipped up recently. We sipped these while watching Wet Hot American Summer (Amy Poehler! Bradley Cooper! So many hilarious and now-famous folks).

You need:

-2 cups watermelon juice (from about 5-6 c. of cubed watermelon)

-juice of 1 lemon (plus an extra lemon for wedges, if you like)

- 2 tblspns. sugar

-1 c. gin

-tonic water

-crushed ice

Cube your watermelon and run it in a blender until it becomes juice. There will be a little pulp, so be sure to strain the juice. Pour 2 cups of strained juice into a cocktail shaker. Add the lemon juice, sugar, and gin to the cocktail shaker. Mix well.

Fill a glass with crushed ice, then add the cocktail mixture until the glass is about 3/4 full. Top the glass off with tonic for fizz.

[Full disclosure: Making the watermelon juice is kind of a pain. I had to run several batches of watermelon cubes because our blender couldn't handle much at once. But if you have an overabundance of watermelon, as we did, it is truly a cool and tasty way to use it.]

Credit: Recipe adapted from this watermelon gin and tonic idea, only I discovered we had no limes, and added lemon instead.