Curtains…Installed…Finally!

I’m having rather busy days for being on vacation from work.

I got my new ZIN DVDs. Once you’re certified to be a zumba instructor, you can choose to subscribe to ZIN and as a benefit, you receive new songs and DVDs with new choreography every month. Neat, no?

I kept lunch simple: Trader Joe’s Organic Foursome, TJ’s Masala Burger (has less protein than I had hoped for), some GHBC Oat Bran toast (defrosted/toasted from freezer) topped with some fresh ground honey-roasted peanut butter (to make up for that lacking protein).

I enjoyed lunch whilst reading more of Lovely Bones. And, no, I didn’t pose Bailey there. He loves that chaise. We call it his “throne”…heehee.

As a side note, we may be moving this furniture into the formal living room and getting something more casual in here. I actually think the furniture fits ok in here, but we’re having an easier (and more affordable) time finding casual sofas than formal ones.

Afternoon plans to crochet were pushed back, so we took a short trip to the yarn store. I forgot to take photos…doh!

Well, I guess I snapped this one with my iPhone for a twitter update…but I didn’t get any of me and Kat! Boo!

I actually didn’t get much crocheting done, but I did sew the face onto my little amigurumi bunny!

I went to my friend Kat’s zumba class tonight and busted out my new zumbawear – even my new zumba hat! I normally don’t do hats very often. I just don’t think they look right on me. This hat is tolerable, but mostly I like how it makes me look more zumba-y. lol

I had a BLAST in Kat’s class and enjoyed seeing some of her different songs. She has so much energy…I wish you guys could see for yourself!

I didn’t know what to get for dinner on my way home, but I happened to be near Pasta & Provisions (where they have FAB homemade, fresh pasta), so I decided to stop.

I picked up some fresh linguine (1/2 lb for me and hubby), frozen cheese mini raviolis (for a rainy day), primavera sauce, & rosemary foccacia bread.

I love how they put the cooking time on the labels – I always forget to look when I’m in the store.

I cooked the pasta, heated the sauce in a pot (I don’t like microwaving things in general), reheated the foccacia in the oven with a drizzle of EVOO and sprinkle of salt.

I just put the sauce on top of the pasta. Not so many whole grains here, but plenty of veggies in the sauce.

The foccacia at P&P is amazing. I MUST get some every time I go.

I served the foccacia with some of their delish Greek White Bean dip for protein.

Seconds – more pasta, sauce, and a 1/2 of foccacia.

Random shot of the day – a scene from our Christmas tree! What? I only get to enjoy this for a few more days, so I have to take photos of it while I can.

Dessert – a pumpkin cinnamon chip scuffin from Great Harvest. I picked one of these up for Kat earlier today and couldn’t resist getting one to try, too.

I swear I don’t put Bailey in the photos like this. The sneaky little guy is always around…especially when I’m doing my food photos. What do you expect? He’s a corgi! They LOVE their food.

I ate about 1/2 of this guy. I’ll save the rest for breakfast.

Perfect with TJ’s vanilla soy milk.

House Update – Curtains!

Firstly, thank you sooo much to everyone for your curtain suggestions! I’m way too Type-A to install the curtains too high knowing they aren’t supposed to be that way. I tried to talk myself into not caring so much about this, but I know it will bug the crap out of me if they aren’t hung up right. I would inevitably always look at them thinking that they’re too high and wondering as people came over if they noticed, too.

So…the solution? Return those other white curtains and replace with new. Turns out those Pottery Barn curtains I got are dry clean! I don’t think it’s reasonable for us to have curtains that are dry clean only. I’d much rather just toss them into the washing machine. (Not to mention 1/3 of our curtains were on back-order and took 3 weeks to get here instead of the 1 they quoted us originally). So, we picked up some Vivan curtains at IKEA. They are 57″ wide and 98 1/2″ tall. They are 70% polyester and 30% cotton. They are machine washable and get much softer after their first wash.

We purchased these curtains during our trip to IKEA yesterday, washed them, dried them and today, hubby installed curtain rods and hung our curtains in our bedroom. Hooray!

It seems a bit ridiculous that we’ve spent so long looking at curtains and thinking about how to hang them and now that they’re up, they look so…simple. But, hey, at least I’m happy with them the first time so we don’t have to re-do them, right?

The curtains came in a pair so we put one per narrow window. Hubby suggested we put two up per window to give it a fuller look. We may just do that! Time for another IKEA trip?

As for the length, I’m going to let them puddle for now. We may try to hem them or use the no-sew sticky hem that came with the curtains, but I’m just happy to have curtains period!

I love how these let the natural light in (I’m infatuated with natural light) but still give you privacy.

Way to go Hubs!

I have so many things I want to accomplish over my holiday vacation, including, but not limited to:

• find a recipe to use my new food processor
• find a recipe to bake from my new cupcake book
• select a vegan recipe to try from my new vegan cookbook
• actually cook/bake with the recipes I pick out
• continue reading Lovely Bones
• buy more curtains/rods and install
• buy furniture from IKEA (possibly)
• work on crochet projects
• bake bread – from scratch
• organize my gmail
• make Christmas gifts

We’ll see what happens. I definitely need some RELAXATION time, too!

Quick Reminder: Pencil me in for January. I’ll be hosting an Eat in Month Challenge. I’ll do a separate post later, but the basic concept is to eat every meal IN for the WHOLE month of January. Any takers?