Works For Me – Decorating Ideas

This week, what works for me, has to do with decorating. In February, Hubby and I bought our first house. We’re so excited to be here, and we LOVE our cute little cape code. We don’t, however, love our furniture too much. Most of what we have are hand-me downs or cast offs from family members. In fact, most of our furniture are cast offs from my brother in law, who received those pieces as cast offs from aunts and uncles. I would have loved to have bought our house and bought new furniture for our living room and family room, but we couldn’t afford that, and there’s no reason to go into credit card debt to furnish our house. So what’s the daughter of an owner of and architecture and interior design firm to do? Make a plan!

I love to thrift shop and antique shop, but man, that can suck you in fast. You really need to know exactly what you’re looking for, otherwise you’ll end up with a mish-mash of stuff that won’t work together, or just plan too much stuff! So, if I couldn’t buy everything all at once, I decided the best thing to do would be to come up with a plan. First, I decided what pieces I really wanted to add to my room, and what peices I already owned would work in my redesign. Then, I put all of the pictures together, so I would have a referance for what the room would ultimatly look like. I’m not positive all the things that are my inspiration will end up in the room. For example, I found the acyrlic ball lamp at my favorite on-line retailer for over $200. I KNOW I can find one with a similar look at Target or even Urban Outfiters for $50 or less. Now, when I’m furniture browsing and see a great price on a piece of furniture, I’ll be able to assess if it really fits the look I’m going for. It definely works for me!

Choping an Onion to Make Martha Stewart Proud

It’s Work’s For Me Wednesday!

One morning, as I was getting ready to go to work, I saw Martha Stewart on the Today Show teaching the cast how to cook some scrumptious dish. She asked Ann to cut an onion, and was immediately APPALLED and Ann’s onion cutting skills. She gave her a brief description of the “proper” way to cut an onion, and promised to send over a book on knife skills. I decided to try Martha’s way of onion dicing, and found I liked it more than traditional dicing, which always seemed to take forever. Martha’s way really works for me, but alas, her website doesn’t have directions with pictures, which I think is really helpful, so here’s my version of Martha’s onion dicing.

Start with a nice, big onion.

Peel it anyway you’d like. I like to cut mine in half (the next step) before peeling it, but you can do this however you’d like.

Here’s what they look like peeled and halved! I did make make one half a little bigger than I wanted, so I just halved it again, which worked fine, but try to get them even, it makes the process easier and faster.

Next, start making cuts along the onion. Start on one side, making them angled, and work your way around. The middle cut should be straight up and down. Make sure you cut all way the through the onion on these slits — the knife should hit the cutting board. Once you’re made all your cuts, the onion half should look a little something like this:

Now, Martha says its best to use your knuckles to hold the onion in place while you cut. I usually use my fingers, but here I am using my knuckles in the photo so I can make Martha proud.

Now, make cuts across the onion in the opposite direction of the first cuts. I love cutting an onion this way, because, as you can see, you get a relatively uniform size, and once you get the hang of the first cuts, it’s a lot faster than dicing the “original” way.

You will, however, have a nice little end piece left to dice “traditionally.” No big deal, the hard work has already been done!

I cut one onion, in three halves (because, apparently, I am not goo at cutting things in half), in about 15 minutes, including photo-documenting every step. And let me say, it is very difficult to take photos of yourself cutting something.

Cutting an onion this way works for me, and for Martha. Find out what works for others here!

Still Job Hunting

I am presently not sure of my job situation. I am not happy with the working environment in my current job – waaay to middle school for me most of the time, and I could really do without the drama. We don’t need to gossip, we don’t need to be rude, lets just come to work, be kind (I’d be happy with civil as well) to others, and get on with our lives. Its just retail. Its just a job. It is not our life. I recently applied for a different job, not the one I mentioned earlier, but a different one, and interviewed there today. I very much enjoyed the interview, but just about as soon as a sat down I was told they were looking to fill another position they hadn’t advertised, and wondered if they could interview me for that position as they felt my skills might be more suited in that area. I agreed, but after hearing more about the position, I’m not sure I agree. It involves coordinating lights, sound, power point and music, making copies for orchestras and singers, and making sure everyone is on the same page and things are organized to flow smoothly. I have found a love and deep appreciation for the work and creativity that go into lights, have run many a power point, and love being involved in music, so this fits all of my interests, but I’m not sure I’m qualified to fill the position. The other is much more writing centered, and my training lies more in that area. I’m willing to learn, but I’m just not sure if it’s the right position for me. I want it to be, but I want to be sure. There are many things I like about it –a supportive, friendly and caring environment, its just down the block from my husband’s office so we could carpool (save money on gas!) and have lunch together. I have recently gotten to know one of the ladies who formerly held the position, and the one who is looking to retire from it, and the woman who would train me, is an old family friend of my husbands. I could be creative in this job, and it would certainly challenge me, but I want it to be the right fit.

Snacking!

I have a new favorite snack — low fat cinamonn grahm crackers, with low fat strawberry cream cheese, banana, and a little drizzle of honey. Its a wonderful mid-morning, or lunchtime snack. I found this idea on the back of a grahm cracker box, and its love at first snack. Usually, I don’t do things on the back of boxes, in fact, I’ve never made anything from the back of a box before, but this just might make me start looking for more scrumcious box recipies. This snack is totally customizable; you can change the flavor of the cream cheese and use any other fruit or berry you want. Yum!

Life Long Friends

I hadn’t realized how much I missed my friends until I got to see many of them this weekend. I’m still amazed at how much, and how quickly and strongly we all bonded during college, and I am so thankful for each and every one of them. Now, the bonds that we formed are expanding to include boyfriends and husbands. I know I, and I think my friends do as well, genuinely want to be friends with, and supportive of each and every one of the “significant others.” What still surprises me most about all of these relationships is that, by and large, they weren’t something that were intentionally formed. Yes, we are wanted to have friends, but I don’t think any of us thought, “let me be friends with every one of these girls, and hopefully we’ll all be close.” Now I find myself looking for friends, trying to make them and have the same close bond with them, and I am learning that it doesn’t happen as easily or as quickly as it seemed to in this case. I know I have been blessed with something special, and I hope to remain friends with everyone for a long, long time. It makes me sad to know I won’t see this friends as frequently as I once did, every day, but knowing how special our bond is, I think it special and strong enough to last, even if we only see each other face to face a few times a year.