Very Tall Ceilings

It’s official! We have a lease, movers are booked, and (like the good little procrastinators that we are) not a single box is packed. The apartment we ended up renting is in Davis Square. The loft is 1600 square feet of beauty and for the last two weeks I have been envisioning CK and I living there like a couple from a romantic comedy. In case you’re wondering, CK will be played by his idol Ryan Reynolds and I envision myself as Princess Anne (aka Anne Hathaway).

Into the Kitchen

I know I said that I was devastated about losing my kitchen but I’m fickle and pretty much over that completely now. This new property has so many cool design elements like radiant heat flooring, rainwater recycling, and this really wild walkway system between units that makes you feel like you’re in an Ewok movie.

Cool Countertops

It’s so hard to tell what a furniture-less space is truly like in pictures so you’re probably looking at these images and maybe not feeling very into it, and that’s ok, but trust me when I say that when you see the apartment in person you’re going to love it!

Gigantic Closets

The floor plan is open, but the middle of the unit is broken up by several large closets. This is a bit of a miracle because CK and I looked at a number of typical city apartments that literally had one closet on the premises. That obviously made my head explode as did any apartment that plastered their kitchen layouts with laminate countertops and cheap white appliances. Our new home has these really cool butcher block countertops. Of course the one drawback in the kitchen (as you probably noticed) is that there aren’t any cupboards so a trip to IKEA for creative storage solutions will be in order.

The New Office/Place For You To Sleepover

Our Bedroom

Thankfully we will still have two bedrooms and two bathrooms. I’m not sure if I could ever share a bathroom with CK at this point. We also scored a coveted garage parking space again, a closer commute to work, and I’ve heard rumors of a community garden being in the works. Needless to say we’re both extremely excited to move in! Now if you’ll excuse me I have to try to find a million pairs of cute curtains that are at least 90 inches in length.

The Living Room

The kitchen the day we moved in: crisp, clean & empty

As you’re probably aware, via my incessant lamentations via Facebook and twitter, Chris and I have to move this spring as our home has been sold. Our pretty apartment that we’ve lived in for almost 3 years has always technically been a condo, but we were fortunately able to rent it (at what I’ve come to realize was a spectacular price) when they came on the market.

I originally chose our particular model because it featured an enormous eat-in kitchen with a large island. The floor-plan was pretty screwy otherwise. The master bedroom is ridiculously large and has the unfortunate distinction of having teeny tiny closets while the guest bedroom boasts a pair of more functional closets as well as a connected bathroom. But this seemingly mismatched room situation didn’t bother me. I only had eyes for my kitchen. I seriously miss it already.

We’ve looked at several places so far, all very very expensive and none really met my expectations entirely. If I could pick my current place up, clone it, and drop it off in Davis or Porter I’d be happy. Obviously that isn’t going to happen. So I need to come to terms with our impending separation. Goodbye fabulous and functional island! Goodbye oodles of cupboards! Goodbye gas stove that bakes perfect chocolate chip cookies! Goodbye shiny refrigerator!

Chris and I do have our hearts set on one place. We’ve applied for it and are waiting to hear back. I don’t want to say too much because this will inevitably cause some sort of jinx to occur. Time will tell. In the meantime I need to begin parting with a large amount of accumulated things for the inevitable home downsizing that is about to occur and also attempt to curb my book buying addiction for a few weeks. The great moving purge must go on even if we don’t technically have a new home yet. Farewell pretty kitchen. You served me well.

On occasion the kitchen was used very strenuously. Especially during high stress times of pre-dinner party prep, but we always took care of her afterward.

A little honesty for you.

In six very short months I’m going to be 30. Needless to say I’m in complete denial about it. Having spent the latter half of my twenties essentially in a fog of anxiety and angst, mostly due to the fact that I flitted about aimlessly from one horribly demoralizing assistant job to another, it was a huge relief to end the decade on an upswing. Thanks to a friend’s confidence in me I was finally allowed the chance to prove that I can do more in the workplace than photocopy and order catering.

Since beginning this new position, heavy on the web 2.0 decadence that I adore, the world has become a decidedly more shiny and happy place. I’m not sure what would have happened if things hadn’t worked out so wonderfully (for once). Honestly I doubt if CK could have stood my “down and out mood” for much longer. One can only hear someone loudly declare intense hatred for their job, usually followed by a flurry of tears and a bottle of wine so many times, right?

So back to this whole turning 30 thing…now that my personal and professional life is essentially in order I thought it would be appropriate to take this time to work on becoming the best damn 30-year-old I can. I wasted a big part of my twenties being miserable so my overarching goal for the next decade is to be as entertained, happy, and healthy as possible. The following is a list of goals (some serious and some on the more frivolous side) that I’d like to attempt to complete before the clock tolls on June 3rd. It will certainly be interesting to see which items I actually manage to accomplish.

Note: This post is inspired by Georgia; one-half of the fabulous duo behind the Alie & Georgia cocktail videos.

1. Lose 30 pounds. (This will NEVER happen but a girl can dream, right?)
2. Learn how to cook a steak properly so that poor CK doesn’t have to eat my horribly rare or overdone entrees anymore.
3. Find a way to actually enjoy blogging again because right now it feels like a HUGE chore to keep up three sites.
4. Wear red lipstick with confidence.
5. Level my World of Warcraft Human Warlock up to 50. (See I told you they wouldn’t all be serious).
6. Save $3000 (again…another reach goal).
7. Read Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens.
8. Run 3 miles without dying.
9. Learn how to back-up my MacBook so CK doesn’t have to do it for me.
10. Visit friends in Portland, Maine.
11. Book a fabulous getaway for the Fall. Preferably somewhere in Europe.
12. Enroll in Grad School again…or at least find a class to take.
13. Buy the new Apple Tablet (I suppose that will cut into the above goal of saving $3000 but priorities are priorities…).
14. Organize ALL of the closets in the apartment.
15. Figure out what to do with the overabundance of books I own and donate the ones I don’t want to keep.
16. Actually read the magazines I subscribe to.
17. Clean up my Google Reader. Do I really need to subscribe to 333 feeds? Probably not.
18. Try to get in at least one session of Yoga each week.
19. Finally eat at Hungry Mother.
20. Try my hand at canning something. Bread and Butter Pickles perhaps?
21. Stop freaking out so much about the cats shedding on the furniture.
22. Re-watch all of the Anne of Green Gables movies.
23. Purchase more organic foods.
24. Find another little crafty project to complete.
25. Write ten-pages of something (anything) that doesn’t go on a blog.
26. Finally buy some Truffle oil since I love it so much.
27. Take another cooking class.
28. Meet Jennifer Garner (ha ha … it could happen. She comes to Boston pretty often).
29. Wear more color. Less black.
30. Learn how to properly use my fancy camera.

The kittens decided that our little Christmas Tree was the best thing since sliced bread. It lasted in our living room for all of 6 hours before Chris woke in the middle of the night to a number of suspicious sounds and found all 12 pounds of Dexter precariously perched in the top branches.  Now the traditional tree is in our bedroom and I never see it. To compensate for my sad Christmas Tree-less living room I decided to fashion a faux tree on the wall with lights and then hang all off the felt ornaments that I made this year on it. I realize that the whole thing is beyond tacky but at least I have some semblance of a tree to look at, and thankfully the kittens don’t bother it at all.

Wouldn’t you say that Dexter’s expression pretty much says it all? It appears that Dexter, like the rest of us, would really rather just stay in bed on this cold winter morning too. Happy Tuesday everyone! Grumble…grumble…

I’m trying. I really am, but I simply cannot find the Christmas spirit this year. Somehow I managed to get my cards out last week (with a little assistance from Watson) but other than that I’m completely behind. My shopping isn’t done. I haven’t purchased pretty wrapping paper. I’ve yet to bake a single cookie and my tree isn’t even decorated. My to-do list seems overwhelmingly out of control. I’m attempting to give myself permission to not care that all of these holiday chores aren’t done (because that’s exactly how they feel at this point) but it’s seriously weighing on my mind. So here’s my evil Christmas “to do” list in all its glory:

• Decorate tree while stringing a million popcorn and cranberries
• Decorate house in cat-friendly manner
• Make cookies for work holiday party on Thursday
• Finish annoying felt ornaments
• Bake and prep for pre-Christmas with Family in Maine
• Plan and shop for actual Christmas dinner with CK
• Finish Christmas shopping
• Find cute wrapping paper and matching accessories, then wrap all the still-to-be purchased gifts
• Watch holiday movies
• Figure out something holiday appropriate to cook and post on Erin Cooks

See what I mean? Even a viewing of Love Actually seems like a big pain in the ass at this point. It’s really going to be a very long month if I don’t snap out of this anti-holiday sentiment soon. I mean…come on…I’m the Christmas Queen usually?! What gives?

I’m keeping it real this year and have decided that my motto for the gift giving (and receiving) season is “be practical.” That means if you’re expecting a present from me it will be something that you can actually use, wear, or should it come to it “re-gift” without shame. To that end I’ve made my own wish list a compilation of items that will serve me well throughout the entire year.

1. I tried to make homemade strawberry jam this summer for the first time and ended up with a very large batch of strawberry sauce. Unfortunately my jam never solidified but it’s great on ice cream. I blame operator error and the fact that I didn’t really have the right equipment to get the job done. This kit appears to be the key to my becoming a canning and preserving Queen.

2. The obligatory Apple product this year is the new Magic Mouse. I inadvertently picked out a really bad mouse when I started my new job and I really dislike it. So if Santa puts one of these under the tree for me my aching right hand will thank you and I’ll also be able to scroll from left to right again.

3. I love Julie Powell. She was my “I hate being an assistant and there’s hope for me yet” inspiration for many years. Now that I’m no longer working in an administrative capacity I thoroughly look forward to reading her latest memoir, Cleaving, about butchering, adultery, and quite probably lots of drinking.

4. Make cheese at home. Need I say more?

5. During the holidays I always curse the fact that I don’t own an extra bowl for my KitchenAid. When I’m in the midst of a baking marathon it is such a pain to constantly re-wash my one bowl. If I had another I could definitely be more efficient. This means more cookies for you!

6. I’m trying to branch out a bit and lately and I’ve been doing a little crafting. I’m not sure how long this interest will last, but frankly I’m sort of modified that I’m almost 30 years old and I can barely sew a straight line. If the zombie apocalypse happens tomorrow how will I sew clothing for my family in hiding? We’re all going to have to flee from high-rise to high-rise in tattered rags!

7. I adore Ellie. I also desperately need to start incorporating more light and healthy meals into our dinner repertoire. You know…dishes that aren’t slathered in butter and sour cream…

8. Ad Hoc at Home sounds like an incredible cookbook. Thomas Keller doing comfort food — how could you possible go wrong?!

I will happily bake and cook my little heart out but I find it next to impossible to get into traditional crafts. I’m a failed knitter, embroiderer, and decoupager. But when I stumbled upon these adorable Felt Christmas Ornaments the DIY bug somehow thoroughly infected me yet again.

After consulting the craftiest person I know on where to buy felt I took a little trip to Play Time Crafts in Arlington. The store itself was on the same mess level as Old Navy gets during a Black Friday sale but they had absolutely everything you could possibly want from stamps, to beads, oodles of ribbon, party supplies, and a rainbow array of felt. Instead of traditional Christmas colors I chose turquoise, magenta, lavender, and pink for my ornaments and then found several spools of matching ribbon.

This evening I attempted to sew my first ornament. It took me a little over an hour. I ended up having to use a martini glass to trace circles onto the felt. The finished product is a bit lopsided and you can unfortunately see all of my stitches but all-in-all I’m pretty proud of myself. However, I think it looks fairly good since I’ve been known to send shirts to the dry cleaner if I need a button sewed on.

Tomorrow my friend Kristen is going to give me some pointers on how to polish the craft project. Hopefully the next one will be a tad more attractive. At this rate though it will probably take me until Christmas to finish the 12 ornaments I’m hoping to make, but I’m determined to finish every single shabby one.

Happy Friday the 13th! CK and I will spend tonight enjoying some messy BBQ from Red Bones and perhaps finally catching up on the large number of Sons of Anarchy episodes collecting dust on the TiVo. Friday the 13th is nice and all, but growing up I was obsessed with a little ridiculous movie called Saturday the 14th. Have you heard of it? I loved this movie. I watched it over and over again along with Dirty Dancing, Once Bitten, and Annie — what can I say…I was a weird kid…

It’s essentially a horror movie spoof of some of the more popular scary films pre-1980, but that was way over my head then. I just thought it was funny when a woman got eaten by a “fur coat” and a shark fin appeared in the bathtub.  At that time in my life I was convinced that there were monsters in the lake where our camp resided and that things would eat me if I didn’t close the closet door so you can probably see why I’d find a movie like this so near and dear to my heart.

If you can dig up an old VHS copy from someone’s basement or happen upon one in a really funky video store you should absolutely gobble it up and watch it immediately. Sure, it’s bizarre and very dated at this point but seeing Jeffrey Tambor vamp it up is absolutely fantastic and totally worth it.