Under a Red Roof

It’s Official

May 18, 2024 in Cooking + Baking, Decorating, Gardening + Nature by Colleen | Permalink

Despite the snow on the mountain horizon, I do believe spring has officially arrived in Colorado Springs! As ever, it feels as though it came at exactly the right moment, too. It was so thouroughly balmy that I wore shorts today. Huzzah!

Cherry blossoms blooming

Lilacs bursting and filling the air with their intoxicating scent

A cacophony of birdsong, here, there, everywhere! I do believe this is a Phoebe.

This guest room refresh happened ages go, but I only just remembered to photograph it. We painted the closet and paneling, got new lamps after a horrific electrical storm burned out the other two, updated the bedding, got a new rug, and slip-covered the headboard. I am super pleased!

Two of our latest eats: steamed eggs, which taste like the most delicate savory custard, Hummus Bling Bling with pickled raisins and homemade pita, jazzed up with store bought tulips. Happy Spring!

Chocolate Cake

April 18, 2024 in Cooking + Baking, Decorating, Friendship by Colleen | Permalink

Hello! How are you this not-so-fine, at least in Colorado, weather afternoon? Spring time in the Rockies – a real crap shoot, I tell ya.

But chocolate cake is nearly always a win! I hadn’t made any in ages, got the itch, and got it done. Greg was delighted. I was, too! I saw a recipe somewhere that had salted caramel frosting, which added a jar of caramel to buttercream, but that seemed like a lot, so I caramelized a little sugar in the cutest tiny pot from Grandma Tess, added some vanilla paste and a little water, and voila! Fabulous chocolate cake.

Bebe, my first and best beading pal! We’ve been friends for thirty years (I am nearly the age she was when we met) and making jewelry together for six. She is my sister from another mister and positively lights up my life.

And now, for a little presto-change-o! The Sundance Catalog had a ridiculously good sale on their outlet items (Thank you, Robert Redford!), and I had been eyeing these chairs for a while, so I went for it! For the original price of one chair, I bought two, a very cool shirt, and a gold necklace. I mean, seriously.

We were saving the rug for Taos, but those plans, as construction materials are still crazy expensive, are on the back burner. But this is looking more and more like our living room once the house is built, which makes my heart so happy. Plus, that chair model! More, please.

Tags: Cooking and Baking

Magpie

March 27, 2023 in Cooking + Baking, Decorating, Eating, Friendship, Shopping by Colleen | Permalink

Hiya! A little bit of everything for you today. First, some lovely morning light illuminating our hang up your hat station. The beautiful tree print on the left is one of the treasures we bought from Lezle Williams at Laughing Crow Studio during our stay in Albuquerque. I love how it harkens back to Gustave Baumann.

I made delicious chocolate cupcakes with torched marshmallow frosting to celebrate a visit from Jeff. We ate at our favorite 503W, walked the Juper-dog, played Firefly (two by two, hands of blue), and this cool-looking city building game whose name totally escapes me. Always a stellar time!

I spent Thursday, Friday, and much of the weekend clearing out the house, Marie Kondo style (this item brings no joy!), building IKEA furniture, organizing both of our offices, and a couple of kitchen cabinets. We have a mega pile of boxes to cart off to various charities and chests puffed with pride at the state of our spaces.

The above photos are what it looks like when you take nearly everything out of a 9×9 room in order to make it marvelous!

A peek into my office closet, reorganized and rather dandy.

The view from my wheelie chair is a goodie! We bought the desk at Crate and Barrel in Pittsburgh, and it mostly did nothing in the basement since moving to Colorado Springs. Then, I got a bee in my bonnet to clear the clutter off my much larger desk and realized the smaller one, with an actual drawer and little storage nook, would suit me better. It really, really does!

It is a heart-filler to stand in the door and see this view! I’ve got my favorite portraits of our dearly departed kitties, a very girly trash can from Grandma Tess, and my desk cycle. I attach a velcro “leash” between it and my chair and am prolly last place in the imaginary races but feeling the burn!

The shelf is another IKEA find and perfect for my highly controlled magpie tendencies! It makes for a lovely display. The cute stuffed animals on the chair are Greg’s. I’ve added my yellow ducky and may take a picture of the cheery trio at a future date.

Painted, plus…

October 17, 2022 in Decorating, Exploring by Colleen | Permalink

Hello! Welcome to wonky lens land. I really do need to get on this camera situation, and pronto. Ugh. I am really torn, as I like my camera and know it so well, but it would also be nice, maybe, to try something new?

In that new department, how’s about the paint? It only took three weeks to finish, but goll-ee, is it ever an improvement. I failed to take before photos, so use your beautiful brain to summon an image of a dark chocolate brown with crayon green accents, and you’ve got the main section. Then, for the now black plinth area, change the dial to maroon, with a huge chunk of brick missing (which Greg repaired) from some previous owner calamity. The painted panel was the color of the east wall. All in all, dark and gloomy and not terribly well matched to one another.

But, oh, how I like it now. Juniper is going to have to share her couch with me more frequently, as the space is so much more inviting!

Turn your back on the new beauty of the fireplace, and you’ve got the workout and sauna area. We replaced the floor when we moved in, and painted the beams this time round, but, as with the bathroom below, had never shared before, and are a a five-day-a-week when not painting part of our vida loca. I am particularly fond of lifting five pound weights while dancing on the rebounder. Just in case you were wondering.

The bathroom is awfully bright for a basement, which makes up for being rather diminutive. Gotta love the light of the high desert!

The guest room, also in the basement, and kind of like a suite with the neighboring bathroom, is super cozy without feeling cramped. I had wanted to paint the panel and closet doors for ages, basically since moving in, but the thought of sanding in all of those nooks and crannies was so daunting, I put it off. Then, while watching some home improvement show, heard about Liquid Sandpaper/Deglosser (we used Klean Strip), where you take a damp cloth, saturate it with this liquid, rub in a circular motion on the varnished surface, and wait for it to dry before applying paint. I mean, seriously, it was so, so easy.

Now I have a lovely color on what was once a very maple syrup hued and not so buena vista. Um, yes!

Damn lens again, wah! It only regularly focuses properly at the bottom of the frame, so you are missing out on some super crisp stair imagery I cropped out. But we were together in Manitou Springs, with my parents and Uncle Chris, and it was such a fun day, I had to share.

More Manitou Springs! At least these are clear.

Happy Monday…

Mad for Organization

January 29, 2022 in Decorating, Loving by Colleen | Permalink

After our we got our 50th birthday espresso machine, which we still LOVE, our counter got a bit crowded, so I asked Greg to put up a shelf for the radio. Luckily we had some from IKEA left over from a previous project, because I am a gal who is not only mad about organization but likes continuity, too. It looks super, and the stations are even a bit clearer off the counter. Who knew?!

The painting was a gift after we hosted Nate Seay and his lovely girlfriend Jenna on their VanLife adventure. I found the Camaro logo lying in the street. Lucky me! Oh, and the orange spray bottle is homemade hand sanitizer. 65% alcohol, 35% water, a little avocado oil, and a whole lot of zested orange strips. It smells as good as it looks and isn’t as drying.

We got rid of a bunch of books, which made our living room shelves a little empty. So, I moved all my cookbooks to the living room, freeing up these shelves. Now we have easy access to our most frequently used pantry items. It’s a win!

In domino fashion, all the space created from moving the pantry items to the shelf made for a serious pantry overhaul, and this is it, peeps. In true let your freak flag fly style: neat rows of jars, bottles, and cans gives me all the feels.