Entrance

Earlier I posted about the entrance of our home. It still looks the same. I want to add two new pieces to it. Currently it looks like this...

I'd like to add a mirror over the table as well as a coat hanger opposite of the table (you can't see that wall). But I think it would look nice. What do you think? I also like the idea of having a plant on the bottom the the table.


Entrance by cynthiab314

to ski or not to ski...

So we are planning our winter vacation...skiing and snowboarding is a must!! Chunk loves the snow and loves his winter sports. He hasn't been in the last 2 yrs and needs his fix. We haven't settled yet on a resort but we know for sure its Canada.

We are thinking of visiting either The Fairmont Banff or The Fairmont in Lake Louise. Decisions...decisions!!!

So if anyone has any suggestions or recommendations, pls do tell!!

FYI: I have never skiied or snow board. Which do you recommend I do first?

Cooking with Paula Deen

Actually I never really cooked with the "real" Paula Deen
but I did buy her Kitchen Classics books which incorporates both The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook & The Lady & Sons Too.

This past weekend I made three lovely recipes from it, Chicken Georgia, Corn Casserole, and for dessert....Lady Brownies.

The food was amazing!!!!! There were sooo many brownies left I had to bring them to the office if not I would be regretting later. But the star of the show was the Corn Casserole. I'm glad I made it because now I will be adding this to my Thanksgiving meal...btw, has anyone thought of what new "dish" they will be making?

BOOK CLUB

This weekend I am hosting our monthly Book Club. Octobers book is Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. If you have not become a fan of this series...let me tell you its something else!!! At the beginning of Twilight (first few chapters) you are bored...but once the "accident" happens. Oh my!!!

The book is filled with love, drama, unimaginable thrills...I mean I can go on. Don't we all search for a little of that in all books?

So since I'm hosting this lovely get together with girlfriends I am planning on making some finger food and of course wine. If any of you have any recs on any finger food..I'm open for all kinds of suggestions.

Adoring Closets

I stumbled across the Belle Maison blog today. And I couldn't stop day dremaing of these beautiful closets....can you imagine getting dressed there????

I love how the shoes are displayed in this one!!! Ahhhh....and the one below is Mariah Carey's closet in her home in NYC.

And the chandelier in the middle of the changing area is to die for!!! This reminds me of the movie Sex & the City (spoilers for those that have not watched it...please don't read) when Mr. Big makes the beautiful closet for Carrie. I'd love to have a closet that looks like a boutique!!! I guess that's just a new addition to my "dream" home.

Just been tagged!!!

By Mango Gal at Journeys of Mangonett. So I have to inform you of 8 things you might not know about me...which is a bit difficult b/c I hide them soo well I even forget. Ok lets see...

1) I am terrified of going to graduate school. I always makeup an excuse to not take entrance exams, etc. Chunkers is catching on...so he's getting on my case.

2) I eat candy/chocolate daily!!! Keep a stash in my office. I know its really bad but if I don't get my fix then I'm not a very nice person. I need a chocolate fix once a day.

3) I don't like eating out! Weird I know but I'd prefer to cook and know what's going into my meal.

4) Baking to me is a stress reliever. Some ppl use working out but I need to bake...anything. Batch of cookies, cakes, pies, etc. B/c of this DH has gained about 10 lbs but he was extremely slim before.

5) I barely eat what I bake. Not b/c I don't want to but b/c a. I usually do it at 10 PM, b. too late to eat sweets, c. I bring them to the office and the coworkers eat them all.

6) I'd love to open up a cafe one day. In my neighborhood. A small place that is cozy. But then I fear failure. Can you tell I am terrified of failure...i.e. reason for not doing graduate school?

7) Something about chunk....he eats a bowl of ice cream a day!!! And I gain weight...there's a problem in this picture.

8) I secretly wish to be like Martha Stewart.

product review

I went to the grocery store the other day and Clorox Anywhere was on sale. I was going to purchase my handy-dandy cleaning wipes (clorox kind or lysol which ever was on sale) but they weren't. But Clorox Anywhere was...and boy am I happy with my little purchase. Chunk laughs every time I pull it out b/c he considers it my new TOOL. He says I get excited over cleaning products like he gets over new tools. I had to explain to him that they are just as important. He'd be lost w/o a hammer and I now consider my Clorox Anywhere MY hammer. So when you want a QUICK clean up in the kitchen or bathrooms try Clorox Anywhere. I was reading the bottle and you could even use it on your kids toys. Not that I would do such a thing...would consult first w/my Dr.

**Note: I have not been endorsed by any company(but if someone from Clorox would like to send me a check...pls leave a comment!!)

cooking...

So I found a new blog...Good Things Catered (I wish I could create a hyperlink but I can't so view it under BLOGS. She has lovely recipes and I've tried several. They are pretty easy. So I finally I decided to take pics of what I had created. Let me just say that I'm an OK cook. Friends and family seem to think. Me not soo much. So here's the recipe I tried.

Herb-Crusted Salmon
Ingredients:
6 oz. salmon steak, about 1 1/2 in thick
1 Tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/8 tsp tarragon, finely minced
1/8 tsp rosemary, finely minced
1/8 tsp parsley, finely chopped
pinch ground mustard seed
pinch ground red pepper
1/2 small garlic clove, minced
salt and ground peppercorns

Directions:
-Heat heavy saute pan over medium high heat and set broiler to low.
-Add olive oil to pan and swirl to coat.
-Add salmon steak, skin-down to hot pan and cook until browned, about 3 minutes.
-Season top of steak with herbs, garlic, and salt and ground pepper.
-Flip steak in pan and cook until browned, about 3 minutes.
-Remove skin from bottom of steak and discard.
-Add lemon juice to pan and swirl to coat.
-Put pan under broiler and cook until heated through and fork tender.
-Flip salmon steak in pan and swirl to pick up bowned bits in pan halfway through.
-Remove pan from oven, flip and swirl on bottom of pan to pick up juices and transfer to plate.

The side dish was just a fresh green salad with strawberries, blue cheese, carmalized walnuts and for dressing plain balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Nice warm biscuits..Accompanied with a nice chilled glass of Sanata Margarita wine. And voila...no need for restaurants! (yeah right!)

Chunk had invited his friend over. And the 3 of us enjoyed a lovely FEAST!!!! Boy was it good.

the JOY of owning a home...

1st I need to give you some background. Chunk and I purchased our home close to 4 years ago. When we did our purchase we knew that the "family room" section of the house had some minimal roof damage which the previous owner "fixed". I quote FIXED b/c its has ALWAYS given us problems.

2nd...Chunk sleeps with ear plugs. Why do you ask? Because he cannot sleep if there is any noise. I am the opposite...could sleep through a hurricane.

Last night around 3:00 AM...(yes I said 3 in the freakin' monrning!!!) I woke up to sounds on rain drops falling on the roof. How weird for drops of rain to wake me up. So I call to Chunk and ask him if its raining hard. He's sound asleep and just mumbles something. I try to go back to sleep but those drops were really loud!!! I start wondering if something else is going on...so I get up (put on my glasses cause I'm blind as a bat) and proceed to the living room. Look out through the front door and yes it seemed like it rained but not hard enough to make such loud noises. At this point the "rain drops" are VERY loud. I rush over to our family room and guess what I find....

Along with a flooded floor. So I rush to our linen closet and pull out every possible think that can help us (ME) clean up. I holler for Chunk...I guess I must of screamed loud enough for him to rush over (**he has the ear plugs in). He sees me on the floor drying everything as fast as possible, moving furniture, trying to figure out if our wood floor has any major damage...Chunk is rushing for pots and pots and pots. Finally we cleaned up the mess and here is the result.
So today he will have to go to Home Depot and buy one of those lovely plastic covers (having mental block and forgot the name of it) place it over the roof. The joy of owning a home...

the entrance

I've been thinking A LOT about the entrance of my home. Pretty plain...it just has a small table. I have a bowl on there plus a vase with my mini-pears. We just put our keys there and everynow and then Chunk needs to place other misc things on there, i.e. ipod, phones, umbrella etc etc. We needed badly. I got the table, vase, mini-pears, silver bowl at Target. Ohhh how I love Target. I know we need to put a mirror above the table just don't know which one exactly. I found two that I like at Z Gallerie. Which are these two:

I know once I get a mirror there it will be perfect right before I leave home in the morning. Get to look at myself one last time!! Btw, the door you see to the right is the entrance door. I took the pic from the living room.

Think Kermit GREEN!!!

The Chunks have joined the GREEN bandwagon!!!! Or at least as much as we can do for living in Sunny South Florida and our public transportation SUCKS!!! I have not used paper or plastic bags at the grocery store for over 2 weeks. Which is REALLY good (for us)!!! Yesterday we tried something new...we rode bike to the grocery store. For many its no biggie, right? Like those that live in NYC walk to the BODEGA down the street. But for us (i.e. Miami folks) who live in the "suburbs" the grocery store is not down the street nor are we use to walking. So we hoped on our bikes and off we were. Noticed new homes in the neighborhood. We don't live in the cookie cutter neighborhoods so its nice to see the difference in architecture in all the homes. I realized two things 1) need a basket...2) HELMET, I really suck at riding bike and 3) I want a new bike. I have a mountain bike (I think that's what they are called). Which is great when I go on trails in the park. But I really want a more simple PLAIN bike. Gonna look into some. Doesn't have to be new just something that works.

I am also SLOWLY transitioning to changing our cleaning products to more EARTH FRIENDLY. My allergies become HORRIBLE when I clean. Chunk tries to clean for me b/c I can barely breath when I do (trust me I'm not faking it). So I've been cleaning the toilets with VINEGAR. The smell is horrible but its does its job. If you guys know of anything else I can change let me know. What to make the house as EARTH FRIENDLY as possible.

TGIF!!!!

1st birthday's

Okay so Chunky & I (Chunky secretly likes the show b/c of Dean being such a GUY) watched Tori & Dean last night on Oxygen network. It was the episode of Liam's 1st birthday party. I know there has been a lot of controversy over Tori & Dean's decision on having chimps at the party...but I'm not going to chat about that. I want to talk about the A-M-A-Z-I-N-G cake they had!!! If anyone saw it...you know what I mean. Now...$15k on a first party is a lot to spend. But like I told Chunk, if you have it why not spend it...not like you're going to take it to the grave with you...right???? LOL...just my little way of trying to make it OKAY to spend WAYYYYY TOOO MUCH $$$$ on a child's 1st birthday party. So this kid had an amazing party (to say the least). I mean...he got his own freakin' train!!!! I don't EVER remember getting one of those. LOL!! So about the cake...its freakin amazing (as I mentioned before). The cake was made by the BEST bakery...Hansen Cakes in Beverly Hills. I didn't know about them till the show last night. They were est. in 1520 and have had 7 generations of bakers. How freakin amazing is that!!!! Ok so here's the cake guys.....

So on the 1st birthday note...kids really won't remember their 1st bday. I'm not a mom yet...so I'm not sure what I am going to do but I know one thing I won't be doing...spending $15k on a 1st bday. LOL xoxox ya'll

Uhhh what's this

So we have owned our for a close to three years. In this three years we have completely remodeled the entire home. And amazingly...I still don't know what this is for...

Last night I was walking around the house. Just doing the regular stuff, i.e. watering plants. And then I noticed it...what's this????? I thought to myself. No lights were turning on & nothing was shutting off....what could it be. So what do I do? I called Chunk. He comes over and says....Ohhhh that opens **Nieghbors name** garage door. Of course I shoot him the evil look b/c I was completely serious about the whole thing and he mocks me. I guess we will never know!

VACATION

Don't we all love vacation time!?!?! Just a little R & R will go a long way. Late May I went to Playa del Carmen, Mexico. We stayed at Fairmont Mayakoba. This is a couples resort. I saw kids there but seriously...its meant for couples. I loved this lil' get-away we had. It was just perfect. Unfortunately I forgot the camera at home but was able to steal/borrow some pics from ppl on tripadvisor.com. Here are some....

this is the room...it was AWESOME


The main lobby.


View from lobby to the rest of the hotel. As you can see there is a river that goes around the whole property. Its AMAZING. They take you on these lil' canoes and talk to you about the property. Also, its a way of transportation b/c getting from one end to the other is TOO BIG. I actually got lost. They also have bikes & golf carts for transportation.


This was our spot!!! Actually more like the pool. The whole time of our vacation the water was choppy. Too much wind. The pool was great. Here is a pic of that...



If you guys ever go to Playa del Carmen...stay at this hotel. The experience was amazing. The entire staff were great.

HELLO....

at this point I might not have many followers but OH WELL. They will come with time. I have completely slacked for the past 2 months. WORK GETS CRAZY. and seriously when I'm at home w/o a laptop typing on the office gets annoying. But I will dedicate my lunch time to my blog. WOO HOOO to lunch time.

Today was a good day. Woke up eager to work out. Yeah...workout. I'm trying to just get a hobby. It was good...I walked. A start right? So I'm heading to work and the arss of my neighbor decideds he can block the street with his car. Like if no one needs to get out of the block. Plus the "city workers" are cleaning up (their monthly thing) and their huge trucks are in the way. I don't mind them b/c they have their right. Plus, I want my neigboorhood to look nice right. So yeah the jerk of a neighbor sees me stuck b/c of his car and he doesn't bother to say excuse my stupidity from blocking you...he proceeds to go back into his house and take his sweet time. I've already honked at him just to make sure he saw me. HOW RUDE!!!!!The rest of the day has been good so far. We haven't had any rain today (at least I haven't seen any). So let's see what the rest of the day holds for me.

backyard...

We are remodeling our backyard. Currently we have an empty pool and a lot of empty space to fill up. I want to go for a Hamptons feel in our backyard. Very causal!!!! I just love adirondacks & wood in the backyard. I know wood is a horrible material to use for outdoors in Miami but its sooo beautiful. Plus, I have my mind set. & those that know me know that when I have my eyes set on something I get it. For now...I'm dreaming of this set from Pottery Barn (PB). I just <3>this sectional.



I also want a big dinner table. Whenever I picture eating outside I imagine a dinner table full of family and friends. So I'm looking for something like this but instead of chairs benches. Chunkers gave me that idea.


And last but not leat my chaises. When we got engaged (almost 2 yrs ago...doesn't time fly when you're having fun) we relaxed on chaises like these:


I would love to relive this moment in our backyard!!! I know mushy. But they are the best things to fall asleep on. So my goal for this year is to finish my backyard. YES!!! After 3 years of working on the inside of the house we will be FINALLY moving on to our backyard. Pictures of how the backyard looks now will be coming soon.

Welcome!!!!

Welcome!! I'm chunky...actually Cynthia but you can call me chunk. I just started this blog to see how it would go. I'm gonna take you on the adventures of me & chunkers. Chunkers is my hubby which you'll meet soon....(chunk hope you learn how to navigate this too). We live in "Sunny South Florida" and for some strange reason its been pretty chilly here the last two days. We have a lil' furbaby MAX. He is the apple of my eyes. You'll see why soon. Hope you guys enjoys this as much as I will.... xoxo