cooking

I love to cook and bake.  I wish I had more time and more room in my kitchen to do this.  Hopefully once we move out of our current apartment, I'll have the space.  Also my son will be older and able to entertain himself better... hopefully.  :)

A couple years ago I was introduced to "The Pioneer Woman" by a friend of a friend.  She had made a several of her recipes and told me about them.  I made a few of them and really enjoyed them.  I had never explored her blog or even watched her TV show, until recently.  I have to admit I struggled to see the "pioneer" in her pioneer woman.  Yes, she lives in the middle of nowhere on a farm but she has the most fabulous kitchen.  A dream kitchen of mine.  When I think of pioneer, I think cooking and baking with everything you grow or hand-make, also probably using a wood-fire stove.  I decided that even though she's not the pioneer I picture, I will still enjoy her recipes and watching her show... maybe do a bit of dreaming about her kitchen too. 

I think I'll pass on this pioneer kitchen...

Apartment - baby's room

It wasn't hard to pick the room for our soon-to-be-born baby when we moved in...

Not only was the room smaller, it had a nice border in the room perfect for a new baby.  It also had two closets. Which was nice for storage but when the baby was sleeping, it made it hard to access what was in the closets... like toilet paper.  :)

We have made it work, lots of planning ahead.

 We did add a few of our own touches with the existing nails.  After trying to nail one nail in, shortly after moving in, and hearing the amount of dry wall crumbing, we decided it best to not try to nail any more.  We used existing nails and holes in the walls to hang anything we wanted.  The only bad thing about the baby's room is the fact that it opens directly into the kitchen.  As Dillan becomes a better sleeper, I am becoming more comfortable about doing things in the kitchen.  However I try to stay away from doing dishes... one crash and I'm sure he'll wake up. 

snow day

It's a little late in the season for snow but when we've gotten almost nothing to date, it's good to have several inches over the last few weeks.  Better late than never... but as I always say, "I'd rather have snow in February and March than May and June."  

Dillan enjoys the snow.  Now that his snowsuit fits better, he can move around more and have more fun.  I built the snowman and Dillan attacked it.

40

yup, made it... the summit.   

Summit

You always hear phrases like "over the hill" and "it's all down hill from here".  From everything I've heard over the years it sounds like tomorrow I reach the summit and then... I'll be over the hill.

Apartment - Bathroom

Probably the most unique place in our apartment is the bathroom. Words can hardly explain it.  It was probably the height of fashion in the 1950's... maybe.  It's a lovely shade of lavender and pale green.  Including colored tiles on the wall and floor, which have been cleaned so many times the color is starting to fade.  The inside of the bowl of the sink has been repainted at least twice that we can tell by the chipping that has occurred.  There is only one towel rack... in the shower.  There is a heater, which makes a nice towel warmer in the winter, and a window to let in some nice breeze when the weather is warm and keeps the shower cold in the winter.   Our sage and clay colored towels really add to the warmth of the bathroom. 

I could hardly get a picture that would capture the real essence of the color of the bathroom.  The worst part of the bathroom is you can spend 45 minutes cleaning and scrubbing it but it never looks clean.  It's a bit depressing but you keep at it every week cause you know it's clean even if it doesn't look it. 

Apartment - Living Room

Probably the best thing about the apartment is the living room.  it's huge and spacious.  7 windows, that were replaced before we moved in, so we know they are nice and new.  It gives Dillan a ton of space to run around and spread his toys all over the place.  We are really lucky in that aspect.  Even gabby our bird has her own corner to be part of the social-ness but without being in the way.

In addition to replacing the windows they kept the cool original stained-glass windows that were put in about 100 years ago when the building was built.  there is also a nice built in curtain rod that I use to hang pictures.

The windows were really nice at Christmas.  I could put lights and ornaments in the windows.  With the long radiator with wooden cover, Dillan was kept a safe distance from the decorations.

We also had more than enough room for a large Christmas tree... and the gate to keep dillan from pulling all the ornaments off, without comprising too much of the play space.  so nice.  :)

There's also this awesome fake fireplace for our stockings and some fun decorations.  there is a plus in it if we had wanted to purchase an electrical wooden log set-up for the "real" fireplace affect. 

We would be so lucky if our next place could have such a large and spacious living room.  Fortunately we spend most of our time there so we are getting great use of it.  
I won"t mention how the new windows seal up the place so well there is constant dew on the windows so we need to run a dehumidifier to keep the windows water free.  it's not perfect but it's still the best place in the apartment.

Apartment - Kitchen

Normally the kitchen is a place I try to keep an open mind.  I want a huge kitchen with lots of work space but that's rarely available.  Our current kitchen is a decent size, however it's not laid out very well.  There's only 2 1/2 feet of counter space.  room for very little.  The appliances are old, the burners on the stove are crooked, the refrigerator makes a ton of noise when it runs.  We have our microwave on a butchers block table.  we bought additional counter space with shelves for additional storage.  My Kitchen Aid resides on that.  however there is no outlet near it so I have to move the Kitchen Aid to use it.  

Fortunately we do have this fun shelf over the sink.  I store some of my fun daily use stuff.

 

Another super duper fortunately, is the pantry.  We are so happy to have a pantry.  We were afraid we were going to have to use the closed in pack porch for food storage.

Outside the kitchen is a closed in back porch that acts as storage right now.  A lot so empty boxes as we wait for our next move.  the empty boxes from the wonderful baby things we have gotten since Dillan was born.  Plus several wedding gifts that we don't use on a daily basis and don't have room for in the pantry. 

What kitchen isn't complete without a wooden ironing board that folds out of the wall but not completely when it's too humid.

The small kitchen was one of the things that I thought I could deal with for 6-9 months, i was wrong.  but I'm still trying to work with it.  I do a lot of preparing on the dining room table.  When Dillan is sleeping, I take my Kitchen Aid into the living room and plug it into the wall and sit on the floor.  yup!  it is so time to move.