The Nester has featured the cottage again at Nesting Place! I hope you will click over and read about her visit last weekend.
The cottage is a very special memory-making happy place, a sleep well and eat well and take in fresh air place. It is a quiet break from the usual place, a see a bobcat or turkeys in the yard place. It is a soak in the hot tub under the stars and moon place, a see for miles with an everchanging view place.
The mountains surrounding the cottage are now gearing up for their spectacular annual fall foliage show. Autumn in Appalachia is nothing short of amazing.
After the leaves drop, silvery sticks prickle on the slopes (people, I’m using the best of my skills from my creative writing 101 class). Getting snowed in with four of my favorite people on earth for a long weekend last winter counts as one of my very favorite memories. The cottage is such a good place.
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Thank you, Nester, for writing about your stay and loving the place like I do. You are always welcome to stay!
The cottage was a labor of love. Want to see what I consider the best of the cottage after remodeling down to the studs?
by angela | the painted house on 08.31.2010
in food
We saw the movie Scott Pilgrim over the weekend–have you seen it? It is based on a comic book series by Bryan Lee O’Malley. In order to win the hand of mysterious punk princess Ramona Flowers, Scott must defeat her seven evil exes.
The movie did nothing to squelch my secret desire for pink hair. Nothing.
I enjoyed the movie but had my biggest chuckles as Scott faces off with ex #3, Todd Ingram, the bassist of The Clash at Demonhead.
Todd just happens to be the boyfriend to Scott’s ex-girlfriend Envy; and Todd also just happens to be, as Envy shares with a good dose of smugness, vegan. The scene continues poking fun at veganism and ends when Scott defeats Todd by tricking the vegan into drinking a cup of coffee with half-and-half. It is Todd’s third offense with the Vegan Police (1st, gelato; 2nd, chicken parmesan), and he is out. Turns out that Todd’s special vegan powers couldn’t save him–he even claimed that vegans use all their brains and the rest of folks only use 10% because the other 90% is filled with “curds and whey.” Hilarity.
As we left the theater, I told hubby that this scene was my favorite.
“Yeah, that was funny–they really captured the pretentiousness of vegans perfectly,” he said.
“Well, it is because our health is far superior!”
“See? See what I mean?”
“Sheesh, I’m joking! Don’t take it all so seriously.”
And then we went out for gelato and chicken parmesan.
Kidding. But, yeah, I was a wee bit enthusiastic about eating vegan when I switched over two years ago–people usually are when something dramatically impacts their life in a positive way. Thanks for bearing with me. Like Todd, I dig me some tempeh, some cashew gravy, some almond milk. We’re 100% vegan at home and try to be when we are out but I do have citations from the Vegan Police.
And this is where I share a good vegan muffin recipe (you can also substitute with dairy)–just in time for the beginning of fall.
Maple-Drizzled Apple Muffins
1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup quick-cooking oats
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup soy or rice milk
1/3 cup Earth Balance butter, melted
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 ENER-G Egg Replacer for one egg
2 cups grated, peeled apple
pecans
Glaze:
1/3 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
Combine flour, oats, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon. In another bowl, mix milk, butter, syrup and egg replacer; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in apples. Fill muffin cups. Top with pecans. Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes. Mix together powdered sugar and maple sugar for glaze and drizzle on top of cooled muffins.
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Visit Your Vegan Mom or VeganDad for other awesome vegan recipes. Yum-yum!
by angela | the painted house on 08.30.2010
in fashion
Last week: the final summer splurge at the beach before…
…school starts this week. Today–goody, goody gumdrops!
Driving to the beach, I was finally able to flip through that stack of magazines I’ve neglected the last couple of months. I was stuck by this little darling in the August InStyle, from Zac Posen’s Fall 2010 Collection–which got me thinking.
I miss back-to-school clothes shopping. I think this would make an impact the first day back from summer vacation. I was always the goody-two-shoes–why not go back as the tart?
Yeah, I still couldn’t pull it off.
Not just because I’m still a goody-goody, but because I’m now an older goody-goody.
by angela | the painted house on 08.25.2010
in house,shop
It is hard to stay away from the blog…so I’m making an appearance.
One of my favorite parts of the new study/homeschool room is the 1946 Mengel Module cabinet. I bought it to sell at Scott Market–and maybe if it had looked this good it would have sold. But I didn’t put the elbow grease into it beforehand and just as well. I get to keep this bad boy now.
It was dark and scuffed before, definitely not its original finish.
I got a quote of $900 to refinish it. I bet it would have looked so debonair with its mahogany all slicked up–but how do you think it would have liked hanging with the kids in the homeschool room like that? Slicked up mahogany likes cocktail parties not homeschool. With all its flat surfaces, this refinish job looked like something I could handle…and save $830 in the process.
Seventy dollars bought me an orbit sander and paper.
I disassembled the cabinet and got to work. What a clever, well-made modular system this cabinet is. All the pieces work and fit like a charm after nearly 65 years.
A few passes of the orbit sander whisked the dark away. Now it was time for my secret weapon…
Feed-N-Wax. I love this stuff. I first used it on a couple of tables at the cottage and figured it could help Mengel out, too. The product wipes on and conditions unfinished wood. So easypeasy it will make you queasy…with excitement. Mengel now glows warm russet–and imperfections are almost unidentifiable. Feed-N-Wax isn’t a protective or slick finish so it isn’t the answer to all your wood needs. But until the day we decided to upgrade Mengel to another room or life, this solution is working really well.
Thank you to those who have linked to the study B & A!
Holy Experience
modobject at home
Nesting Place’s Nest Files
If I missed your link, please let me know!
