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There are plenty of pros and cons to moving.
Pros – learning a new neighborhood (particularly the wine & cheese shops across the street), making your furniture work in a new space, decorating, shopping & finding the new things you need and getting to play with all your fun things (particularly if they have all been in storage for the last two years).
Cons – actually moving, unpacking the 1,000th box and realizing you have umpteen million more to go – even worse if you just packed them too, and having to wash everything once you get it all out of the boxes.
Then once you get settled, and think things are coming together, there is a huge mess of cords and wires just taunting you. Or at least taunting me.
For a television stand, we are using an open bookcase – which is great because with books, picture frames, vases, lamps and the like, the TV doesn’t command too much attention. The bummer is that it is doesn’t offer an option to hide all the cords required for the television, DVD player, router, etc.
So here was my quick fix.
Since the wires were too numerous and thick to simply tie up and tape to the backs of the shelves, I had to be a bit more creative. And I wanted it to be a cheap solution too. I simply taped construction paper to the back of the shelves.
I happened to have some cream colored construction paper that more or less matched the color in our (rental) apartment, and so I taped that to the back of the open section where the cords were visible. In this case, the paper was a bit shorter than the height of the shelf, but the books covered the bottom part.
As for the top part, where I wasn’t able to use the paper trick, I just tucked a frame on top of the DVD player, which also hid the router, that doesn’t need to be visible to send a signal.
For a fancier, and admittedly more stylish look, you could line the back of all the shelves with a fun wallpaper. And seeing as how it wouldn’t take much, still a pretty reasonable priced alternative.
So what do you think – not bad for a no cost, 5 minute fix, eh?
Do you have cords that you have to hide? If so, what are your solutions?
P.S. Sorry for the lack of posts last week. Moving, work and a broken computer slowed me down a bit. But hopefully we are back up & running!
P.P.S. The bookcase is (obviously) not finished and styled, but it’s a start… 
Oh, and while the color difference is visible in this picture, it is not nearly as noticeable in person.
I am pretty sure I have mentioned this before, but I really love the using online resources to get an idea for dinner based on specific ingredients in my kitchen.
And since we are moving this weekend, I was trying to use the last of the produce in the fridge, along a few other things that needed to be used.
So I went to epicurious.com, foodblogsearch.com and a few other places and entered: ”sausage, fennel, pasta.”
I knew the flavors would work – fennel and sausage are obviusly a match made in heaven, but I was looking to use the actual veg, rather than the seed.
And I wanted a bit of guidance to make it really work. Something more than the hodge-podge I often throw together.
And low and behold, I found the perfect recipe on Amateur Gourmet.
“Ziti with Onions, Fennel & Sausage” by Lidia Bastianich. I believe Adam originally found the recipe in the back section of a cookbook featuring Italian chefs and their favorite recipes, but it is also found in Lidia’a Family Table.
It was exactly what I was envisioning, only so much better than if I would have just winged it.
How do you eat? 3 square meals day day? 5 smaller meals? Lots of snacking throughout the day? I can’t say exactly how I eat, since everyday seems to be different. But I do love snacks.
And many days for lunch, that is exactly what I have – a glorified snack.
Especially right now, as things are busy with work and we are getting ready to move – that this is about all I can handle.
This combo was a nice medley of end-of-the-season figs, bocconcini (baby mozzarella balls), basil, and reduced balsamic. And of course a lil’ drizzle of good olive oil and a few flakes of sea salt. I would have loved some prosciutto in the mix, but alas, there was none in the fridge.
This combo also works great just arranged on a platter for an antipasti. In fact, I recently recommended it to a friend who was making a “first dinner” for a new beau. Rumor has it, it was a hit!
Although, it really may have been that she was a hit. But I am taking the stand that it was both.
What are your favorite snacks-come-meals?
I could use some new ones to add to the rotation.
I literally might be too excited to sleep.
After two years without our precious belongings, we are finally moving and bringing all of our stuff with us. Since we did LA → NYC → SF in a {relatively} short period of time, if didn’t make sense to drag all our stuff with us across the country and back. But now that we are {more or less} settled, we are finally ready to unpack it all.
And so thankfully the move won’t require too many purchases, and it will still feel like Christmas! Finally getting to use all of our wedding gifts, plus our old kitchen stuff – I can’t hardly take it.
And the real bonus is there is room for a real dining room table! All of our old places have been short in the dining space, so this new place means two things. Scoping out a dining table and honest-to-goodness dinner parties!
I am thinking that we want a nice long table – like a farm table or a library table. How great is that top one from a Vicente Wolf dining room? I have had that pic stored on my computer for as long as I can remember.
These options above are nice, but my goodness are tables expensive!
I know there are cheaper options, and please, many times I go that route, but we spend so much time around our tables, that it is nice to have something that isn’t so, well, Ikea.
I am thinking about maybe even having something custom made. That way I can get exactly what we want, use reclaimed wood and maybe even save some pennies!
Have you tried having tables made – any thoughts?
And to finish it off, I think the end chairs should be a bit bigger and special … and bonus – we can always move them to the living area if we need extra seating.
What do you think?
And don’t worry – we will have some majors soirees once we get settled. And chances are, you’ll be there too!!
Top Image from Vicente Wolf via Coco + Kelley. Table resources below. Bottom Image from Robyn Karp via Little Green Notebook
Resources:
As you may have noticed, I don’t often chat about eating out, restaurants, and the like. I think it is fun to include things that can be done/made/experienced anywhere. And plus – loads of folks do restaurant revirews better. But every once in a while, I come across things that are worth sharing. And since food trucks are popping up everywhere (or rather, have been everywhere, forever) – I figured I would be remiss not to tell you about how fun they can be.
Many cities are experiencing a food truck revolution and San Francisco is definitely part of that. In fact, it is even host to Off the Grid (@sfcarts) – a regular meet-up of many food trucks around the city in different locales.
And on Friday night, Trisha & I finally checked it out at Fort Mason.
As you can see – we sampled quite a bit:
- Seoul on Wheels (@seoulonwheels)- Koren BBQ Beef Tacos
- City Smoke House (@citysmokehouse) – Pulled Pork Tacos with coleslaw
- El Porteño – Chicken Chorizo Empanadas and Mushroom Empanadas
- Creme Brulee Cart (@cremebruleecart) – Dulce de Loco (Caramel Goat’s Milk Creme Brulee)
- Kika’s Treats (@kikastreats) – S’mores with homemade marshmallows and chocolate graham crackers
and even took some home for later:
- Hapa Ramen (@haparamen)- Ramen with Pork Belly and Egg
- Happy Dumpling – Pork & Chive Dumplings and Pork & Cabbage Dumplings
But even with all we tried, we didn’t begin to make a dent in the options.
The pork buns at Chairman Bao (@chairmantruck) looked great, but the 30+minute line was a bit aggressive for our tastes. Do you have any weird tricks for spelling some words? Whenever I spell aggressive, I immediately hear “A-GG-R-E-SS-IVE,” thanks to my lovely cheerleading days in high school. Probably similar to the internal ‘song’ many people sing with “M-I-SS-I-SS-I-PP-I.” Nothing like a tangent on a Tuesday night for you…
Anyway, we left very full and very happy – with plans to go back soon and check out all the goodies we missed.
Have you been enjoying the food truck craze where you live?
And if you have been to Off the Grid, let me know what I need to try next!
P.S. – Did you notice how many of the food trucks have Twitter handles? It is so they can tweet their location each day to their followers. How is that for technology today? Sure makes things different than when you had to know the location of the really good taco truck.
P.P.S. – Apologies for the iPhone pics. Now that I have a schmancy (to me) camera, I forget to throw my lil’ Sony in my bag, and until we started eating, there were no plans to document the night. Plus, a big camera is a bit much for standing while balancing tacos and cheap wine.
I’m not gonna a lie. I have a fun set of friends – store owners, vintage e-tailers, fashion designers, farmers, and those are just the ones that I can ‘link’ to…
So when I recently got invited to a blogger event for Levi by mi amiga, I coudn’t pass it up. Cute retro snacks and a pair of jeans. Sign me up. (Just hoping no one called me out and realized there is a lot of talk of food round these parts – let’s flag this under the ‘friends’ and ‘surprises.’)
So, as you may know, Levi just launched a new style of jeans based on porportion, not size, called Curve ID.
What you may not know is that since I snagged this pair 2? 3? weeks ago, all other jeans have sat in a lonely heap in my closet.
These suckers really fit.
So that is it. I like my Levi’s and love my friends. Hope you have both jeans & friends you love … cuz without those things, Thursdays (and any days really) can be rough.
xx
I know it is now properly fall, but seeing October on on my calendar isn’t nearly as big of a signal for me as seeing winter squashes pop up in the market. So when I first saw butternut squash arrive, I through one in my bag, with plans to make Orangette’s warm butternut squash and chickpea salad with tahini.
Expect then it got hot. Hot like I didn’t know it got in San Francsico. Hot like there is no way I am eating anything more than ice cream tonight, let alone turning on the oven to make a cozy fall dinner.
So the butternut squash was relegated to sitting on the counter while we soaked up/hid from that heat wave that flushed over California.
Thankfully winter squashes are hearty and can handle just hanging out, being neglected for days on end. It really comes in handy come winter so you can stock up in advance to wait out the storms. But I have a feeling we won’t be having too many of those in the coming months – I’m pretty sure we left them all in New York.
And so once the heat broke, and things were again looking like fall, I was happy to know that this salad was still waiting for me – just hanging out until I could pull it together.
