It was a slow weekend for cooking and crafting. There was foodie book club at the brooklyn kitchen, farmer’s market shopping, dinners out with friends, and a roller derby bout (We – the Bronx Gridlock – won!). All those things combined with a cheesemaking class at the brooklyn kitchen – taught by Anne Saxelby and Elizabeth MacAlister – left me with little time to prepare any food.
Cheesemaking class was super interesting, though I think it left me with more questions than answers. It wasn’t a hands-on class, which was kind of a bummer. It also focused on cheeses that really need to be cave-aged, which of course presents a bit of a problem when you live in a city apartment. (You can rig up a refrigerator to serve as a cave; however, I think I’ll stick to some fresher cheeses like mozzarella and ricotta to start.) Nevertheless, Anne and Elizabeth are both incredibly knowledgeable, and after seeing them go through some of the stages of making cheese, I feel a little more prepared to try making it on my own. Anne recommended a few books and websites, and I fully intend to give things a go once I get some of the necessary supplies!
Bringing it back to the title of the post, the other thing Ian and I have been up to is putting the finishing touches on our apartment. We’ve had the boxes unpacked and the furniture set up for ages now, and we’ve finally gotten motivated to hang pictures and arrange the details. My mom’s impending visit might have something to do with that. Maybe. At any rate, I wanted to give you a peek at some of my favorite spots in the apartment.
The above photo is of our guest room, which is also known as Franklin’s clubhouse. If we’re hanging out around the apartment and can’t find our cat, he’s almost guaranteed to be lounging on that bed. My great-grandmother crocheted that blanket, and I love it and its insane colors.
Those walls are both in our insanely long living room. (No really, it’s about 30 feet long by 11 feet wide.) The one on the left is at the “dining room” end, which is closest to the front door and the kitchen. The pizza peel, on the left, was a relatively recent purchase from Ironwood Gourmet. I knew I wanted to be able to hang it on the wall, as our kitchen doesn’t have an immense amount of storage space, so I sought out one that I thought was particularly pretty. The trivets on the right were my grandparents, and they fit well with the peel, I think. In the background of that photo, you can see the hanging racks that Ian installed for our utensils. We have ONE drawer in our kitchen, so hanging storage was crucial!
Ian and I had been admiring the Brooklyn poster for a long time (I fell in love with the Seattle one first, and he really wanted the Chicago one, and Brooklyn made sense for both of us), and he recently purchased it for our living room. I’m so psyched about how that screen print looks on our Kermit-the-Frog wall.
One of our favorite places is the kitchen. Ian really likes to cook, and I enjoy both cooking and baking – especially baking! – and we both like fun kitchen gadgets. I bought that kitchen timer back in 2004, when I was picking up items that would work with my vintage-looking kitchen in Seattle. On the right are silicone pot grabbers that were gifts. And last but definitely not least, we picked up the “at home on your range” salt and pepper shakers at a vintage store in Arkansas after visiting my parents this past Christmas. I’m obsessed with that particular store, as they have amazing finds for really reasonable prices. I can’t wait to go back this year.
Finally, this is my indoor garden, most of which will be transplanted in a few weeks! This corner of our apartment is sandwiched between a north-facing and a northeast-facing window, which has been providing amazing light for my little plants! The half-and-half container at the front holds lavender sprouts, the orange container behind that is rosemary, and the three cans are different varieties of tomatoes. The little watering can is currently hosting cucumber seeds which will hopefully sprout soon, and I’ll be putting mint in there after that. The plant in the back is an ivy that Ian got me last August, and I’m pretty sure it’s doubled in size since we moved into the new place.
So that is a quick little tour of some of the things about our apartment that I love. Hope you’re having a wonderful Monday!
