Pure Projects # 12

Good morning!  Ok, so like I mentionioned on Friday, I'm attempting to be back on track with the "Pure Organization" Projects Series!  (which I'm now calling "Pure Projects" because not all will be organization :)

{Just as a reminder, in case you're a new reader or forgot (it's been a few months! ;)  every Monday I'll be blogging about  a little project we can do to get organized, make things better, prettier or more fun.  It's my way of holding myself accountable (or attempting to) and I thought it might be fun for us to do this stuff together.  So, if you want to join in, I'm using Mr.Linky at the end of this post and you just have to click on the little link at the bottom of this post and link up to your actual post.) 

This week's project is to pick flowers and/ or greenery (either on a walk, or from your yard or from a nice neighbor's yard) and put them on your table to enjoy...  Just a little simple, free way to add a little beauty to your meals.  Here's a picture of some zinnias I plucked from our (very weed-infested) garden:

They just make me happy.  I love having a small arrangement on our kitchen table so we don't have to move it at meal times.  (When the table somehow always gets trashed...  Washing ours off after dinner yesterday it looked like a little food battle had taken place...)   Anyway, hope you had a great weekend & that you'll join us today with some hand-picked pretties!! 

If you're linking up, make sure to link it to your actual project post URL instead of just to your blog so that we can click over directly to your project. Also, please only link up if you're taking part in the project.  Thanks so much!!

Pure Organization- What???!!

Do you remember when I started "Pure Organization" this past January 2010and was all set to get organized?  Well, as you probably noticed, I totally slacked off on that front and we spent more of our time redoing rooms & on other projects that on actually organizing.  (Kids, work, life too, you know ;)

{Coat Closet Reorganization}

BUT, as the school year nears (noooooo!! ;)  it's time to get thinking about organization again & being productive.  But this time, since so many of our weekly projects are decorating-focused or food-focused, or whatever-focused, I'm renaming it "Pure Living 2010."  Mr.Linky will be back on Monday if anyone want to participate & I've decided that lots of the projects will just be fun, simple things that make us happy so that way we have some super-productive projects to get things done and then some fun ones to keep us going. 

{Paint Touch-up Jars Project #1}

This Monday's proejct (#12 I think??) will be to create a pretty simple, summer flower arrangement using flowers or herbs from your yard/ windowsill/ neighbor'd garden ( hee hee ;)  whatever.. but something that didn't cost you anything, and add it to your table for dinner and as many days as it will last.  I'm off Spring-Summer break and am ready to rock so I'll be back on Monday with pics of my flowers.  I am SO not slacking this time.  Ummm... and if I try to, can you convince me to stay strong?? :) 




ps- I just joined Twitter and am not quite sure how it works yet so we'll see how that goes!!  If you know how to find me on there, please do!

Munster Interiors Magazine!!

Thanks so much to Lorna of Garrendenny Lane who included me in her Munster Interiors Magazine (of Ireland)  Blogwatch article:

It's so fun to think that when we write blogs, people from all over the world are reading.  Here's the article: 

To read the full article, (which includes some of my favorite bloggers) go here.  Have a beautiful weekend!!!  We're "getting organized" - ha!

Open publication - Free publishing - More bloggers

Homemade Baby Purees

Justin's at the age now where he's loving his purees and I love making them for him.  I'm not strict about it and he eats out of a jar just as often as he eats homemade baby food, but when I have the time, I really love getting out the blender and making it myself.  There's something that feels so good about it...  maybe it's the fact that I end up snacking as I'm cooking?? 

My two go-to books for inspiration when making baby food are Top 100 Baby Purees by Annabel Karmel and Jessica Seinfeld's Decpetively Delicious, which I'm sure you've heard of: 

When my babies were brand-new, the level of exhaustion Dave & I were at made it a bit difficult to really feel inspired or get excited about cooking although, normally, it's one of our favorite things to do.  (WE LOVE EATING and a good meal at the end of the day is such a nice way to wind down.)  Once babies are ready for purees (mine were there around 5 or so months) things have gotten drastically easier.  I found I was excited about meals again and had so much fun chekcing out these 2 cookbooks.  I love how Jessica Seinfeld's has this adorable vintage feel:

She goes over a bunch of different vegetables and includes their steaming/ cooking times which is so helpful for someone like me who was new at it. The concept pf her book is all about "sneaking" vegetable purees into your kids's food.  I know people have given her flack  about the idea, saying we should teach our kids to eat veggies and yada yada, but regardless of whether you tell your kids the veggies are in there or not (and we do) it's a great concept to add more nutrition to almost anything.  It kind of becomes second nature once you really get into it and you find yourself wanting to add a puree to everything.  (We often do carrot puree in our burgers and it's such a yummy moist burger but you really don't taste the carrots.)  It's fun to follow along with the recipes and then get creative and make up your own.

Top 100 baby Purees is my other go-to.  I kid you not, these purees are seriously good.  When we do these, I'll typically make the same thing in an un-pureed version for Dave, Christian & myself because I already have all of the ingredients out. 

And kids love them!!  (Even Christian is always asking for Justin to "share" his food.) 

When I'm doing veggie purees, I like to do a bunch at once because I have all of the gear out.  If we're slammed for time, I'll even get the precut organic vegetables from the grocery store (I know it costs more but there have been times when a butternut squash sits and rots in my fridge because I never felt like cutting it up...  how bad is that??)  So wash all the veggies...

And then steam them:

{Ikea steamer/ pot}

I love this steamer from Ikea.  It's seriously one of the best purchases we've ever made (about 4 yrs ago.)  You can bake or cook the vegetables any way you like (think roasted red peppers- the kids love those- or baked butternut squash) but steaming retains the most nutrients and the fresher (is that a word? ;) your vegtables are when you get to them, the more nutrients they have. 

I don't have a food processor or one of those magic bullet things, but the blender works just fine.  Add in some of the leftover water from steaming because it's chock-full of nutrients & because you'll need water anyway to get it to the right consistency.  (You can even save it and use it for making broths if you have more leftover.)

We got a bunch of these "fresh baby" puree trays from Babies R Us when we had Christian.  They're amazing because they have lids.  I've used ice cube trays too in a pinch, but love the fact that I don't have to get into messy plastic wrap or any of that with these.   (And you know I'm not one for gadgets, so if I get them, trust me, they're worth it.) 

So we just fill up the little trays and label them for the freezer:

And you pop a couple of cubes into a little bowl and microwave until they're warm whenever you need them.  (transporting them is super-easy because they're frozen so they just unthaw for you.) 

And then let your little one go to town on them:

(I still haven't figured out how to make this process easy ;)

Decompressing

After 4 days of 6+ hours of driving per day, I'm in decompression mode.  First home to Virginia from my dad's in Illinois...  That took 2 days (we split up the drive for the kids' sake) and we delayed leaving because we were having such a good time SO that led us into 2 more days of straight driving up and back from NY to celebrate with some friends. 

{Justin "up-up-up-downing" at our McDonald's makeshift picnic on our roadtrip home}

Before we left though, we did get some fishing in at the lake...

I'm a terrible fisherman  ("fisherwoman" just sounded odd there) but I love it now that Christian has so much fun doing it:

He kept reeling it in and seeing the minnow (for bait) on the hook and thinking he'd caught "a little fish!"  (We didn't have the heart to tell him.)

Dave's learning too...

I love those cloudy days at the lake where you just relax.  There's gray beauty everywhere...

{"One-two-three-four-five-six-seven... SEVEN snails" says Christian}

He was so excited to catch his very first bass with his Nanoo (my dad)...  (It was definitely the smallest bass we'd ever seen ;) 

My dad's an awesome fisherman and even mounted "my" very first bass that I caught at four years old.  Here he is now in the playhouse:

I wasn't ready to leave for home but I guess it's always better to leave while you're still having fun.  We're finally home from an amazing time in NY at Eddie & Jaithan's where we got to see & meet some amazing blogging friends in person.  ...Debra of5th and State, Patricia of PVE Design, Michele of My Notting Hill, and the Vamp (Valorie of Visual Vamp) to name a few...  it was like meeting old friends and they're just as amazing as you'd expect in 'real' life. As my usual I'm-having-too-much-fun-to-take-pictures-self, I didn't take any but in true Eddie & Jaithan fashion, you can bet it was beautiful.   And when I got home, there was a beautiful package waiting for me from Patricia who had no idea we were even going to meet when she's sent it the week before:

She'd found an amazing book that she thought I'd love for $1 and sent it to me!  (Now this is the kind of person I want to be.  She's so incredibly thoughtful and generous!!  And seriously chic- oh my goodness!)  Anyway, It's called Found Style by Amy and David Butler and the photos are incredible:

I plan on taking some time this week to read it and another book (Living With What You Love) this week ad am attempting to decompress from our whirlwind of driving. 

I've got a great week set up with clients to get back into the swing of things (if any of you are reading I missed you!! ;)  ... tonight we had an awesome dinner-  a Greek Salad with ground tukey (I swear it's good) and life is beautiful.

I hope you're having a great summer too& are enjoying any minute you can. 

ps-  This is so odd, but for the past 5-7 days or so, I haven't been able to type...  I don't know what's up but it's worse than usual!!  (I keep mixing up all the letters and leaving letters out.... ??hahaha  ....  ok only funny if it stops.)

Sneakity Peek: Rugs for Pure Style Home!

As I recently mentioned, we're working on getting an online store up & running for Pure Style Home.  It's going to be filled with one-of-a-kind things I absolutely love and want to keep.  (But because I'm not independently wealthy and don't have ten houses, must sell ;)  I am SO INSANELY EXCITED over the rugs we just recently found to be sold in the shop!!  (We were only able to buy 4 to start out with-  rugs are a serious investment- eek!)  All of the rugs chosen are hand-knotted, have an antique washed feel, and I want to keep every single one.  I'm in the process of photographing them and was just too excited not to share with you.  This one is a Mamluk rug, created in the style of rugs produced during the Mamluk Dynasty in 14th Century Egypt.  It's full of golds and browns with splashes of pale blue-green:

It's approximately 8 x 11 and I'm seriously in love,  Here's a close-up:

I'm really not a sales person but have started this venture out of my love for stuff.  Yeah, there I said it, I LOVE STUFF.  But I can't keep it all, and in my job, I see so many beautiful things that it's hard to walk away from them.  It's hard for me to "sell" things to anyone, but if I don't, I'll end up with either a house smashed-full of beautiful things and an empty bank acoount or having to continue to walk away from all of these treasures.  So, the new shop will be my outlet for making these items available to clients & others who love them as much as I do...  a place for my "uncommon finds."  I hope you never feel that posts like this are "salesy" and that I'm trying to push anything on you...  I hope you see it as me being so excited that I want to share things with you because that's truly what it is.

{A bunch of the other items in the photos above will be for sale too, but I'm not sure which ones yet as I'm having trouble parting with them- ha!}

 

I'm adding inventory to the store daily and am trying to get it up and running as quickly as possible.  I'll keep you posted!!  Would love to know what you think of it!!

The Tempel Lipizzan Legacy

A few miles from my dad's lake house (where we're visiting now) are the Tempel Lipizzan Stables which house Lipizzans, Europe's oldest domesticated horses, owned by the Tempel Smith family (of Tempel Steel).  The grounds are incredible and we love going to see the shows.

 

{The Stables}

According to Lippizan.com, "Lipizzans are Europe's oldest domesticated breed of horse. They not only possess beauty and nobility, but also a rare combination of courage, strength, ability, temperament, and intelligence.

The Lipizzan breed had its beginning in 1580"... and was created by a combination of different breeds... They have been moved throughout the past 400 years numerous times to survive various wars including the Napoleanic Wars, and World Wars I & II.  "In 1945 General patton executed a daring rescue of the Lippizzans, the story of which is told in Disney's The Miracle of the White Stallions."

{photo of a photo I saw in the stables}

"In 1955, millionaire Tempel Smith (Tempel Steel) of Chicago, imported 20 Lipizzans from Austria, 11 from Hungary, and 6 from Yugoslavia..."

{Me creepily taking photos of one of the riders who was resting between performances...  he totally caught me- oops!}

..."Tempel Smith devoted 15 years, until his death in 1980, importing and breeding his herd to over 400 horses. Since Tempel Smith's death, much of the herd was disbursed. However, Tempel Farms still breeds a number of Lipizzans each year, and they still successfully compete Lipizzans for Tempel Farms."

 

{The Show...  The woman above was so beautiful & poised...  exactly what you would imagine. }

This year, the weather was perfect when we took Christian & Justin to see the show.  The horses are just incredible:

I can't believe how high they jump!!!

The boys had so much fun and even 7-month-old Justin was into it...

 

 {I loved this photo from the stables}

And Christian loved the old "fire truck"- 

I'm apey over the Guest House, which sits high up on a hill overlooking the grounds:

 

It can be rented for private events and there's a pool in the back:

  

... which overlooks this:

 

And the stables house some of the best design I've ever seen:

The hallway was gorgeous. 

 

They've kept everything as it was in the 50s:

Check out the heat lamps the horses use when being bathed:

...And of course I can't see all of this and not start to think about interiors.  Oh my gosh, please someone call me with a horse fetish!!!  (err passion ;)  I'm dying to do a home for a horse-lover now!!

  Check out these photos taken by Roger Davies for Elle Decor of Mark Badgley and James Mishcka’s home:  Mmmmmm.. love it!

 And this one from Nuevo Estilo Magazine via La Dolce Vita:

(I can't help but get a little bit excited for Fall when looking at all of these images but I'm holding it back because Summer's still in full force.)  

And one last picture of the horses as we drove by another day on the way home to the house...  You can see them right on Hunt Club Road: 

  

{The Tempel Lipizzans}

If you're still in the mood for horse-inspired interiors, definitely check out these 2 posts full of equestrian eye candy:  (so gorgeous!!!)

Chic Equestrian Style in Home Decor by Simplified Bee
Equestrian Chic by La Dolce Vita