Field Trip - Quilcene

On Sunday we drove out to Quilcene to visit a guy who has a tiny lumber yard and also mills lumber out there. His name is Marc Waltz and his lumber yard is called Waltz Lumber. We found him one time a few years ago when we were out there admiring the countryside. He is located in an old church right in the middle of town, and besides lumber, he sponsors some music classes and has sort of a recording studio set up in there, and basically does whatever work he can in his space to keep it all going. The best thing for us is that he can access great huge pieces of wood and if you have any ability at all to cut and sand and seal it yourselves - it's a great way to save money on an awesome design trend. He usually has some stock of cedar, fir, alder and maple.

We have an island in kitchen area of the Seattle apartment and have been planning to find a piece of wood with a live edge to be it's top. We have been using a temporary top til now, but as of Sunday, this project is ON! Here is our wood (maple) in it's raw state. We bought it and left it with Marc to cure for several weeks. Then we will pick it up and do the cutting and sanding ourselves and seal it with something and then boom, we're done! I'll share the process as we go, because I think it will be sort of a slow go, working on it for a few weekends, but I wanted to show you the wood as is, and Marc's place too. 

Marc doesn't have a website, so if you are interested in sourcing wood from him, you can reach him at 

Waltz Lumber

11 Old Church Road

Quilcene, WA 98376

360-301-3866

Call him first if you are planning to go out there. He isn't always in the shop, so make an appointment to visit. He is a really cool guy - and his prices are really reasonable. So, because of that, don't call him up and start asking for wholesale pricing, that's basically what it is now - so just pay the guy! 

This is ours. We'll flip it over, cut a straight edge down one side and the end and leave the outside edge raw.

Another view of the maple.

Wood inside his shop.

Here is some maple he finished for a table top. We don't want ours to be quite this shiny,
but look how beautiful it is!

More wood pieces

Marc's sweet old dog

Sign out front. Go visit!

Fall walks with Friends

On Saturday we spent the night in Port Orchard with friends at their beach house. We played croquet, ate great food, had a good time sitting around laughing and telling stories. On Sunday morning after it rained like hell, we went for a walk in the brisk fall weather. It was fantastic.

Later that day we went on a little field trip. I'll post about that tomorrow - we got something GOOD!

Kristie and Seva - best dog ever!

Dog and cow meet and greet!

Adoption Agency

Here's the latest in the long list of items on Craigslist and Ebay just waiting to be adopted by you (or me)! 

Reminder - don't get sucked in by the used and tired words "shabby chic" in craigslist or ebay postings. That was 25 years ago people - and if your house is full of that stuff, it pretty much looks like a dirty little rat's nest. Try to be careful not to pick up stuff that other people have painted or recovered badly - they will probably call it "shabby chic" instead of "I fucked this up and don't want it in my house now, so YOU buy it"! But that's what they mean. Look for quality stuff at reasonable prices, and the less tampered with, the better. Now go forth and get something awesome.

Nesting tables $150 - I love nesting tables.

Small server - $250 - This is pretty unique and if you have a smallish space, it would make
a nice little place for snacks or cocktails. The top folds out too.

Set of 4 chairs $100 - I would maybe re-cover them but the design is really nice.

Dresser - $75 - I have a dresser similar to this and it's a really nice bedroom piece or put
it somewhere in a hall or main room.

Teak lamps - $75 - Replace the shades with wider shorter drum shades and they would be
great and modern looking.

Antique mirrors on ebay -$124 buy it now. These have never been out of their box according to the listing.
Side by side, I love them.

Mirror - $99ish- Nice over a fireplace - and since my fireplace mirror broke into a million pieces,
I'm in the market. Maybe this would be good as is, or painted?

Etsy and Iphone cases

I'm embarrassed to tell you that my current phone case looks like a DUDE. It's the ugliest thing you've ever seen. I bought it the same day I got my phone ( two hears ago) and I was trying to be all protective and not get my phone junky before I found a cute case. That particular day, the Apple Store had zero cute cases, so I went to Verizon and got a plain black UGLY one, thinking it would be temporary until I got the cutest case ever known to man. Now (2 years later) it's falling apart and even uglier than it was to start out with and I just keep on keeping it and it looks like it belongs to the dude in the black pants at Radioshack . Horrible. Sorry Radioshack guy.

I'm getting a new case, damn it, and the best place to find the cutest cases seems to be Etsy! Etsy is an awesome site for a lot of crafty stuff, but turns out a lot of crafty techy-types are making phone cases too, and they are way cuter than the ones on the normal sites - and way way way cuter than my RSG (radioshackguy) case.

Here are some of the cute ones I found, all by various and different sites within Etsy. Just google Etsy and search iphone cases - you'll find loads! All of these were under $20 bucks too. Any thoughts on which I should choose. I kind of like the Giraffe and the Fox. Pretty cute!

Get yours monogrammed!

You can choose one of these colors - awesome!

Soup's On!

Another weekend, another soup to cozy up to!
This time it's Creamy Cauliflower - easy and delicious. I added mushrooms because they are in season. It's great with our without! As my friend Kerry (who gave me this recipe) says " this is really a good one for people like my husband who think they don't like cauliflower!" 

Creamy Cauliflower Soup

1T olive oil
1 Large onion
1 Large head of cauliflower
3 Cups vegetable or chicken stock
Salt and Pepper to taste
Chives or Truffle oil as topper

1. Start chopping

 2. Heat your oil in a pot on medium.

 3. Saute onions until tender, about 5 minutes.

4. Add in loosely chopped cauliflower (including stems). Cook 1-2 minutes until the cauliflower browns lightly.

4.5 I veered off the recipe this time because I had a ton of great looking mushrooms - and I thought they would be good to add, so I threw them in also.

 See.

 5. Add broth and bring to a boil, then reduce and cook 15-20 minutes, covered.

 6. Puree it all for 3-4 minutes. If you don't have an immersion blender, you should get one. Saved you a lot of mess - and totally awesome. 

 Then it looks like this. 

 7. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with chives on top, or with a drizzle of truffle oil. Nice to serve with a salad a french bread.