Wishlist Wednesdsay: It's a bird! It's another bird!

So if you haven't noticed already, I really like birds.  I am a crazy bird lady at heart and one day it will be just B and me in our house with a huge collection of owls staring down on us.  For today's wishlist wednesday,  I was looking through my etsy favorites list and realized that there were quite a few items with birds or in the shape of birds.  Note that I haven't bought any of these yet, but there's still time yet...

Mini speckled birds by Koalachickens

Love bird vase by Redhotpotery

Owl tea cozy by Robinandmould

Love birds sculpture by Artmind

Bird planter by Prettyrandomobjects

Bird creamer by Whitneysmith

Vintage Monday: Russell Wright and Vera

My love of Vera and Russell Wright combined in one post!

Snagged this gorgeous grey pitcher from Russell Wright's modern dinnerware collection and this lovely Vera linen tea towel at the City Wide Garage Sale last weekend.  I'm pretty sure I squeaked when I saw the pitcher, then had to send B in to bargain as I had lost all credibility.

Reading: Catalog Living

This new blog Catalog Living is absolutely hilarious.  The author takes pictures from catalogs and comments on the oddities within this picture perfect world.

Examples:

 Titled: Making do

It broke through the wall during the last big storm and we just decided to leave it.

Titled: Letting the universe know

Oh that?  That's my wish plant.  It's where I clip pictures of people who I want dead.

Favorite Friday Recipe: Lettuce Wraps

These lettuce wraps are delicious and nice and light for summer fare.  B was surprised we actually had a meal without rice for once--it was that good!

I got the beautiful lettuce cups from Costco and kind of adjusted the recipe around.  It originally was inspired by this cashew and chicken recipe but I had no chicken or cashews so I just improvised! (which explains the lack of accurate measurements)

Ingredients:

• Ground turkey (1lb)
• Water chestnuts  (1 can chopped)
  
• Ginger (two thumbs worth)
• Garlic (3-4 cloves)
• Onion (1/2 chopped)
• Sesame oil (1 tsp)
• Rice vinegar (1 tbsp)
• Brown sugar (1/4 cup)
• Soy sauce (1 tbsp)
• Oyster sauce (2 tbsp)

 Directions:

• Cook ground turkey in your pan
• Add minced garlic, ginger, onion and water chestnuts
• Whisk together the sesame oil, rice vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce and oyster sauce.  Taste and add more to your liking.  
• Add sauce to the meat mixture and let it incorporate for a few min before cooling and serving in lettuce cups

 

Wishlist Wednesday: Vacation

As work gets more insane by the minute, I am holding on with daydreams of our upcoming vacation.

(we will be those people in just 10 days!)

Flowers of the month: June

For this month's flowers I decided to head down to Austin Flower Co. to see what they had in store.  I had previously ordered my wedding flowers from them and really love the different varieties and quality of flowers that they offer.

They have a little cold room in back with all the flowers and I was in absolute heaven! (1.  b/c it was hotter than hot outside and 2. flowers!  lots of flowers!)


It was difficult to choose from among all these gorgeous varieties!

Hydrangeas of every color:

My favorite ranunculus:

Huge peonies:

Icelandic poppies:

And I didn't get the name of these but they're so lovely in a wildflower sort of way

So what did I come home with?

PEONIES of course! 

They're a different variety than the kind I usually get--I think they might be Coral Charms.  The petals are heavy and succulent and after I cut and arranged them in a vaseful of water, they started opening almost immediately to reveal their bright yellow centers.

Vintage Monday: Stained glass window frame

I am happy to report that there were lots of treasures to be found at this month's Citywide Garage Sale!  I'll have to spread them out for other Vintage Monday posts but for today, we have this gorgeous vintage stained glass window frame for show and tell.  We were happy to speak with the man that imports them from Europe and then either reframes, paints or sands down the original frames.  He also places two hooks at the top if you'd like to hang them against a window.  This particular one we chose is from the 1930s and hails from England.  We really loved the colors and the pattern and I'm pretty sure we're addicted now and will be paying Dale a visit at his store in Universal, TX soon!

It was really difficult to get a good picture of it to show off just how beautiful and vibrant the colors are.  Here's my feeble attempt!

Happy Father's Day!

(ps: whatever it is, it wasn't me!)

DIY: Vegetable garden tomatoes

Our harvest this week from the garden.  I was a bit alarmed at the two headed tomato but they sure did taste delicious!  And it was much easier to incorporate into our meals than our first harvest here. 

It's the magical weekend of the Citywide Garage Sale again and I'll be dragging B along this afternoon.  Wish us luck!

Favorite Friday Recipe: Oven Ham Sandwiches

Another fabulous recipe from Tasty Kitchen.  These are so easy and delicious and take very little prep time. Perfect for a quick lunch or to bring to your next poker party, shower, potluck or picnic! 

Ingredients:

• 6 ounces, weight Thin Sliced Deli Ham
• 12 slices Swiss Cheese (we used Muenster)
• 1 package King Hawaiian Rolls, 12 Count (you could use regular rolls too but the sweetness of Hawaiian is amazing)
• ½ cups Butter, Melted (I halved the amount of butter and it was still plenty)
• 2 teaspoons Onion Flakes
• 1 teaspoon Poppy Seeds
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
• ½ teaspoons Ground Mustard (didn't have this, and it still came out wonderfully)

Directions:

• Put ham and cheese in between sliced rolls. (You can do other meat/cheese combos as well!) 
• Melt butter and mix all other ingredients and spoon over sandwiches
• Let set overnight or several hours (I tried it once overnight and the day of and it's slightly better when it sits for a while, but not by much if you forget to prep beforehand) 
• Bake on 350F for 10-15 min before serving

Wishlist Wednesday: Sugar and creamer sets

I have an inordinate love for sugar and creamer sets.  I love the English tradition of taking cream and sugar with my tea though I hardly get a chance to do so (pesky work).  Ah to be a lady who lunches!  Frivolity aside, there are multiple uses for these little sets (or so I say to justify my growing collection)--you can use the creamers as impromptu vases for flowers and the sugar jars are perfect for cotton balls, buttons, jewelry and other little treasures.  Here are some of my favorite sets gathered from google images:
 
I have this set from Anthropologie--it's sitting in the guest bathroom and houses qtips and cottonballs!

Another Anthropologie set

A retro turquoise Melmac set

Russell Wright in action

Cobalt and orange sets from Fiestaware

A modern white ceramic set

My absolute favorite Franciscan Starburst (the teapot isn't too shabby either!)

Lovely vintage jadeite set

Some bright and quirky vintage sets

Vintage Marcrest (I found the sugar jar in Tallahassee and am looking for the creamer!)

And just for fun, a little whale set

Hotel, motel, Holiday Inn...or the Aloft Plano in this case

Part of our Dallas fun trip this weekend was checking out the Aloft brand of hotels by Starwood.  I am a huge fan of Starwood (see SF Palace Hotel pics here) and Aloft is touted as the younger sister version of the W brand of hotels.  Aloft offers "urban-inspired, loft-like guest rooms, enhanced technology services, landscaped outdoor spaces for socializing day and night, and an energetic lounge scene."  Yeah you read that correctly.  When we checked in on a Friday night, there was a DJ in the lobby complete with strobe lights and dancing guests.  B looked at me and yelled, "I hope our rooms aren't close to the club!"

But anyways, here are the reasons why we chose Aloft Plano for our trip:

(1) Location: close to my favorite hunting ground, Nordstrom Rack and Lion City--a Singaporean restaurant where we ate every meal (it was that good).  However, quite far from downtown (where the Dallas Flea was held) and my beloved Northpark

(2) Comfy comfy beds:  I've always had the best night's rest on a Starwood Westin Heavenly bed (gotta love the Texas touch on the headboard)

 (3) Really pet friendly: no pet deposits and our two pups were happy to be greeted with a plush dog bed, water and food bowls, treats and toys.  Plus they put us right on the 1st floor by the exit for easy access for potty breaks.  The way they treated our pets and how they accommodated us made a HUGE impression on us.

(4)  Free wireless internet (this really should be the standard everywhere) and a 42 inch flatscreen tv with CABLE! (this is very significant if you are like us and live off a digital antennae--we're like kids in a candy store when we see all the cable channels)

 (5) Great facilities like a workout room and pool (although we didn't use either because, well see reason #4) as well as coffee maker, fridge, magazines, etc in the room

(6) My absolute favorite BLISS products!

(7) The decor: yeah so some of it is too urban and hipster-ish (hello Dwell magazine?  DJ in the lobby? Greeting me by saying "aloha?") but I did like how streamlined the room decor was and wanted very badly to take this little clock home

(8) Very inexpensive: rates run at about $79-89 a night and we got an even further reduced rate through the website with the second night at 50% off.  When you account for the free parking, internet access, pet friendly, free water/coffee, etc. it all adds up to a really good value.  We usually stay at the Palomar in Dallas but now there's some friendly competition from Aloft!

ps: this is no way an ad for Starwood hotels and I was not paid for this. Yes I am this crazy about traveling and hotels in general to be blogging about them.  And yes, I can also be bought to review any other hotels, just sayin'.

(pictures: top two from google images, the rest of the fuzzy ones were taken by me)