Street Stripes

A few months ago a woman stopped Shannon and I on the street to take our pictures for a street style blog, and today I noticed it was posted! I'm still a bit confused as to why I was stopped, I'm pretty sure it's because I was with my stylish coworker who gets stopped a lot, and I happened to be with her, but I'll take it. The picture of us? Not the greatest, but hey what the hell.

I'm NOT ready for winter

But I am ready to be able to mask bad hair days with a beanie.. the messy bun is getting a little old.

found here

Stove 1, Maddy 0

I'm slightly embarrassed to admit tonight was the first time I've made dinner in the place, and therefor the first time I've used the oven. When we moved in there was a laundry list of things that was wrong with the oven (including a numberless dial on the stove), which I promptly emailed my landlord about with false admirations of a new sparkly over appearing in my life. Shockingly, that didn't happen, instead I got a "new" dial, which today I learned is far from accurate. I'm pretty sure our "handyman" waltzed down to a junk yard and plucked one off some old busted appliance and called it a day. Why I believed for a second the temperatures would be accurate I blame on naiveness and wine.

Needless to say, I discovered this evening you can break a glass pyrex dish in a gas oven, simply by turning the dial all the way up, who'd a thought? Word to the wise, who happen to own a 40 year old gas oven, get an internal thermometer. Minor snafus aside, the meal actually tuned out pretty damn good, mostly due to the fact that it was slathered in butter, but also because it's from a great cookbook which I highly recommend. My mom bought me Alice Waters; In the Green Kitchen, which is a great book to teach you some basic cooking techniques. Honestly the first thing I made out this book (a salsa) I wasn't a huge fan of, but the book more than redeemed itself with this simple recipe:

Baked Rockfish with Lemon and Parsley Butter

Make the lemon butter by combining 1 shallot (minced) with the juice of 1 lemon, and let sit for 10 minutes to macerate. Add chopped parsley, half a stick of butter, lemon zest, salt and pepper. Set aside and bake the rockfish in a shallow pan at 425, being careful that you're not actually baking it at 900 or what ever the hell I did. Bake for 8 minutes, cover in sauce and serve with a simple salad and bread, which you can also slather in your yummy butter. Simple, quick, and delicious.

Oh, and one more thing that makes my new kitchen a billion times better than the old one... THE VIEW!

The Return of the Lazy Weekend

Will and I had a good 'ol fashioned lazy weekend this labor day and although my blood was pumping with 'we must do something epice' anxiety, it was actually kinda nice. What did we do? We sat in the sun, swam, wandered around the city pretenting to be tourists and ended up at Bumpershoot thanks to Aaron's extra tickets. The one thing I did do which I haven't in a while is bring my camera with me, even if it was just for the wander around the city day, it's nice to get back into photography, it's really been too long sense I've wandered around with a camera in my hand.

New Place: New Art

I spent a few hours putting things together in the new place yesterday and it dawned on me that we could use some new art. I'm just getting a little bored with the same 'ol and feel like we could use a little refresh. One style I've had my eyes on for quite some time is the bus scroll. Of course, my first thought was "I can totally make that" and I can, and probably will, but in the mean time here is one on etsy I found.

The Gold Watch Obsession

I've been wanting a gold watch for a while now, but I'm too chicken to take the plunge. I see them online a lot, but have a hard time ordering something without trying it on first, watched included. I have this vision of wantering into a little thrift store and seeing the perfect funky gold vintage watch, but it just hasn't happened yet, and it's been months. Keep your eyes peeled people, and let me know if you see one!

Image via The Day Book, an awesome blog you should check out.

Movin'

Holy hell moving sucks. Luckily for us, this was the easiest move we're ever going to experience, as it was after all, up a flight of stairs. Did it suck? Well yes, moving always sucks. Did I have amazing friends who heaved heavy boxes up stairs all day? Why yes I do. Was it worth it? Hell ya.

I will put up pictures once it's been decorated, but as of now here are a few random images of simple white rooms that are inspiring me...