New House: Guest Room Evolution

This project was slow to evolve from vision to nearly finished, but with our first house guests here this week (the MM's parents), we had to wrap it up! My mama played a big part in creating a gracious (albeit small) space. After spending a few nights in the room after Eleanor arrived, she had a good idea of what we still needed to make it welcoming and comfortable.

This room is definitely an example of repurposing what you already have. The Dellarobia wicker headboard is actually an old footboard from a bedroom set that my great-grandparents bought when they first married. It's followed me to college, Jackson Hole and Charlottesville! The bedside tables are mismatched--the white wicker one was in my bedroom growing up. The other is an old humidor. But they're the same dimensions and the bright, similarly dimensioned lamps pull it together. I found the retro tole one at a consignment shop in Cashiers, NC last summer. My mom thought it was goofy, but I love it in this room. 

The dressing table used to be in my parents' bedroom and came from an estate sale. The gold mirror hung in our living room in Missoula. This space doubles as my desk when we don't have guests.

I have a slowly evolving gallery wall in here, but I'm still searching for a small figure drawing or something abstract. Gold frames pull it all together.  My dear friend Rachel's interpretation of Degas' bather has also followed me back and forth across the country, but its colors remain some of my favorites. Most recently, it was in Ford's room in Missoula:

While I didn't snap any "before" shots of the downstairs bathroom, here it is ready for guests with pops of grass green, coral and a cheerful print I picked up on our babymoon in Savannah last November. I'm still looking for a cute narrow shelf to replace the wire mesh one here, but they are hard to find! 

With luck, I'll have a few more projects to share in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

Holiday Frocks and Finds

We have holiday parties and family events to attend this year and we're hosting our first big(ish) party at the new house before Christmas. I'm looking for one go-to piece that I can accessorize up or down in hopes of looking at least a little chic at seven months pregnant.

I haven't made a final decision, but here's what I would be eyeing if I wasn't starting to waddle around like an emperor penguin:

Emerson Fry

J. Crew

J. Crew

J. Crew

And then there are these HATCH Collection pieces that a drapey, soft and actually transition to non-maternity wear:

Investment pieces to be sure, but the handful of other HATCH items that I picked up on sale are my regular favorites because they feel like real clothes.  

Thanksgiving is right around the corner! It's one of my favorite holidays and I share in the general lamentation that this year more than ever, it seems like Christmas decorations and Black "Friday" starting on Thursday are trying to make us skip Thanksgiving all together. I'm thankful that we will be in western North Carolina, far, far from a big box store.  I'm taking my stand against skipping Thanksgiving with pie:

Cook's Illustrated Fool-Proof Pie Crust

Garden and Gun Bourbon Pecan Pie

Southern Living Pumpkin Pie (sans streusel--why gild the lily?)

2013 Resolution: Blog More

I started i [heart] mountains back in 2007 as something fun and for a long while I blogged as a way to share some of my more creative outlets and inspiration from around the web.  These days I'm seeing it as motivation to keep looking for creative inspiration and occasionally knit/cook/make something worth blogging about. If sleep begets sleep and exercising makes you want to be more active, can blogging regularly make you blog more? Let's hope so.

We spent Christmas in Virginia with my family and had a great time. Ford was a happy, curious little guy all week:

 That last one makes me giggle every time I see it.  Ford and his great grandmother Nene Ann!

Meanwhile back in Missoula it has been really, really cold and we are all hoping for a slight thaw so that we can do something outside.  We are certainly realizing the full value of our Missoula Children's Museum membership in the meantime.  

I had a few people over for an impromptu New Year's Day gathering.  For good luck we had our black eyed peas in a truly easy Hoppin' John recipe from Southern Living, as well as our greens, though I made it more fun and served those in a warm dip.  

Finally, the Christmas elves delivered one last present today.  After years of making coffee with a kettle on the stove, Melita cones and paper filters,

 

(If you're thinking that this looks like it wants to tip over and spill coffee and grounds all over your counter, you would be right.)

we took the plunge and plonked down some serious coin for a Bodum Bistro Pour Over drip coffee maker.  The MM and I spent a truly ridiculous amount of time researching this and reading far too many customer reviews.  In theory this machine does a good job of properly heating the water and spraying it evenly over the grounds in a gold mesh filter basket and then it drips into a thermal carafe that keeps the coffee hot, instead of burning the crud out of it on a hot plate.
The thing is taking up a lot of kitchen counter real estate, so I hope that I'll love it as much as the MM promises I will (he did a little taste test this afternoon).  It's not quite as simple as a Keurig, no, but the MM is something of a coffee snob and likes to buy whole beans and grind them himself, so this is as automatic as we'll ever get.  Maybe a full thermal carafe of fahhncy coffee in the morning will inspire more blogging.  See what I did there?

The Dolly Parton of Cakes

                                                     Photo: New York Times

"It's the Dolly Parton of cakes: a little bit tacky, but you love her," says Angie Mosier, a board member of the Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississippi in Oxford via a fun piece in the New York Times from a few years back.  Love that.

Tonight I am making a red velvet cake for a birthay party using the recipe my grandmother passed on to me at a wedding shower a couple of years ago.  This is the grandmother who doesn't do much baking or cooking, so her annotated version of the recipe has a circle around an original smudge of batter that came through on the photocopy and the note "Proof I really did make this!"

                                       Photo: SpeedM on Flickr

I like this idea of the raspberries around edge.  I hear tapping the cake pans to get the air bubbles out and only baking them at 325F helps deliver even layers.  I am not a regular baker of cakes either, so wish me luck!

Yo Mama's Pecan Sausage Balls

I like to make things that are deeply, purely Southern for parties in these far off parts.  Partly because I like that cooking connection to home and I also like to share how darn good Southern cuisine is with the rest of the world, bless their hearts.  You don't have to be born in the South to appreciate this food, but it helps if you're the one choosing the menu--most Southern women I know can put together a menu and throw a great party.  We grow up watching our mothers and grandmothers do it, hone our skills in college (sort of) and mostly have it down by the time we exit our 20s.  There are some like my cousin's wife who practically exited the womb with a hostess' apron tied around her waist, but she's exceptionally talented.

Where was I? Sausage balls.  With pecans and cheddar cheese. I made these on Sunday, along with more Garden and Gun cheese straws, for a holiday party.  The recipe comes from Bon Appetit, Ya'll, which I've blogged about before.  These are not my mama's sausage balls (giggle), but they were a hit at the party.

[Imagine the photos I should have taken of the dough all food processed and getting rolled into balls here]

I didn't have the energy to unwrap them for the photo.  Note the family silver in use. Makes it more festive.  Bon Appetit!

Latent Craftiness

I don't think I've posted anything crafty in about a year, but we have spent a major part of the past year re-"crafting" our house.  All along the way, though, I have been working on a piece of baby knitwear for a little girl who's now almost 6 months old! Yes, I did start it when her parents found out they were having a girl, but since it's still not finished, I haven't shared anything about it so as not to give away the (sort of) surprise. 

Meanwhile last weekend we visited the New York mecca of craftiness, Purl Soho.  I only refrained from spending hours and hours there because the Mountain Man was waiting so patiently for me outside.  I did pick up this Charlie Harper canvas for a future needlepoint pillow:

Although the one I bought is landscape oriented and the coral is more orange than pink.  But you get the idea.  I love that grannyfied pursuits like needlepoint are getting some street cred thanks to Purl Soho!  They also had some raffle going on and I won three skeins of The Fibre Company worsted weight yarn, apparently just enough to knit the baby cardigan in Purl owner Joelle Hoverson's newest book, More Last Minute Knitted Gifts

I don't actually own the book, but I'm sure that can be remedied.  You'll be pleased to know that when Ms. Hoverson herself popped into the store, I managed not to stare, fawn, or ask for her autograph.  It was equally as exciting as seeing Kelsey Grammer onstage in La Cage aux Folles. Really.

I'm breaking one of th cardinal rules of entertaining this weekend by trying an ambitious dish I've never made before, Coq au Vin from Bon Appetit, Ya'll that I mentioned here (one sweet friend and blog reader mailed it to me as a birthday present!).  I think I've read through the recipe so many times this week that it will come out fine.  Famous last words, right? I'll let you know how it turns out.  Bon Weekend!

May I Serve You?

On the three-tiered serving tray that I just nabbed on One Kings Lane for a song? Makes me think of petit fours and finger sandwiches and other tea time delights.

Don't Be Getting Any Ideas

But let's say I had to plan a baby shower. These are stinkin' cute, if not labor intensive. Not compared to, you know, labor, but for desserts and party favors.

Lamby Cookies. Marshmellows, Pepperidge Farm Milanos and choc chips, I think?

Stork cupcakes.  Celery sticks? I'm at a loss for the beaks.