The Realization of Moving

It always happens this way. I know we are moving, and I prepare for it well. But every time I move, there is a point where it all hits me. It's not a bad feeling, just a realization that things are about to change even more than they already have. It happened to me Thursday night after the moving company came and loaded all of our stuff on a truck and hauled it away. Sometime around dinner time, when we were sitting on the air mattress in the middle of the floor in the living room eating store bought sushi without plates or utensils. It's a feeling of relief, anxiety, and excitement all at once. All of our stuff is gone and we don't have to worry about it for a while-relief. We are soon to be theoretically homeless and jobless-anxiety. We are about to take an amazing road trip across the country and be reunited with all of our friends and family from back home-excitement! While these feelings can be overwhelming at times, the changes that come with them are always worth it. I like moving and starting fresh. I like experiencing a sort of carefree life for a while where we don't have to worry about jobs, bills, or schedules. I like house hunting(as terrible as it can sometimes be) and that feeling you get when you've found the place you'll be spending the next year or so. I like road trips. I like my life right now. It's not a life fit for everyone, but at the moment, it suits me.

Persie is sure gonna miss her spot on the back of the couch. She guarded it until the movers came.

Julian loved having towers of boxes everywhere.

Iggy in my pine cone wreath. "Please don't pack this, I love it too much. Just put it in my suitcase"

The pups being sad before the movers came.

Iggy loves cardboard.

So full of stuff. We've collected quite a bit in just a year.

Tim having a paper cup of cereal. 

All clear! The animals were having little panic attacks. So confused.
This is how we'll live for a few more days until we take off down the road.

Such a big empty white kitchen. No more of my favorite orange :(

Eating sushi off of a cardboard box. Classy. And it's store bought at that.
The kitties get all shifty-eyed when they smell fishies in the house.

Berry medley off of a cardboard box.

And morning doughnuts from the Safeway up the block. Buying food when you crave it is great.

A Few New Kitchen Buddies

We have a new friend hanging around our kitchen. Tonight I bought a pot and fashioned a hanging basket using some jute, all for under $5. The lucky plant that gets to live in there is some tropical grass courtesy of my friend Kristi. We also bought a curtain that was on sale. It's a perfect rusty orange, but just a bit too long. I plan on hemming and splitting it down the middle to create a double panel cropped curtain that ends just at the sill. We bought a few more things at the old depot, such as some butcher block oil, some large container garden size pots, and some sweet drill bits. There will be quite a few projects happening tomorrow at our house. I also just got around to putting up a few Christmas presents from my sister Angie. Unicorns and owls, oh my!

New hanging buddy!

New rusty orange curtain needs a bit of sewing and  ironing...

A jute rope contraption.

A strange but awesome unicorn cross stitch that Angie found in my grandma's sewing pile.
Why would grandma make a unicorn cross stitch? Because unicorns are awesome. 

 

Yep, unicorns.

A new mini owl tea set, complete with a sugar and creamer. A Christmas present from my Angie.

Our Collected Kitchen

It's been a few months, but with Christmas and all, we have still yet to get our new place in order. The room that is the closest to being complete: the kitchen. We have solved it's main issue, lack of counter space, by adding a sweet butcher block table very similar to the one that graced our kitchen in Richmond. We have recollected some of our favorite things that we had to sell when moving, and have gained quite a few more new pieces. Our new kitchen has such great open wall space on one side. We have started to fill it up, primarily with functional but pretty things, like enamel bake ware and a few of our colored glass mugs hanging from hooks. The left side of the kitchen is still quite boring, as it is all cabinets and refrigerator, so I don't have any pictures of it below. It looks pretty much the same as when we moved in, and as far as decorating goes, I am at a standstill. The only thing I can fathom is to paint the faces of the cabinets and our lease says no painting. Hmm... I'm sure something will come to me. Until then, enjoy some photos of the right side of the kitchen.

My sittin' stool, for when I want to sit while I stir.

My salt and pepper shaker cabinet.

Our new awesome pot rack system from Ikea. Slightly cluttered and perfectly accessible.

Sugar bird, bird shakers, and coffee storage.

Butcher table from Ikea, self stained our favorite dark walnut. About $50 total project cost.
Our knife storage is in the works. Magnetic wall things are on the Fix It list.

Drying my rosemary.

New kettle with a whistle. Tim likes them to whistle.

Kitchen cactus. Very stabby.

Love my orange pots.

A few open cabinets for my pretty things, and my raisin canister.

Thanksgiving in the new kitchen

This was our first Thanksgiving in our new house, in our new city, with our new Newton. We cooked the entire meal ourselves(minus the cranberries) and it turned out just lovely. Our menu was a combination of old favorites and some new recipes. We were in the kitchen for the majority of the day, preparing both lunch and dinner feasts. For lunch, we made the same Butternut Squash Soup that we have been making for the past two years. It was just as good as I remembered it, and we were very thankful that our stock pot made it back from Virginia in time. In fact, all of our final kitchen items were shipped and we have a complete kitchen again. We also recently spent the day at IKEA purchasing some finishing touches for the kitchen, including some much needed storage for our pots and pans, and a butcher block table. These things made cooking our delectable smorgasbord much easier. 

For dinner, we prepared an herb and scallion bread pudding, a Tofurky with roasted carrots, shingled baked potatoes, a green bean casserole, and whole cranberry sauce from a can. It was a decadent meal to say the least. I can't tell you how many sticks of real butter we used, because if I did, it would put Paula Dean to

shame. There were also a great many onions and garlic cloves sacrificed to make the meal. If you don't like garlic, onions, or butter, don't come to our house. It's that simple. For dessert we had a store bought pumpkin pie with whipped cream. It was a nice easy ending to our homemade feast.

The entire day Newton wanted so much attention. He wanted to be held, I'm assuming so he could see the food being cooked. If we did not hold him he would scratch and bite our ankles. The compromise was, if we held him, he would wear a sweater the whole day. He did and it was adorable. He is getting very big. He weighs as much as Persie used to before we got him. She has put on some weight, probably from getting into the puppy food. One of Newton ears is about to stand up(the left one I think), and once that happens, the pups will look so much alike. I can't wait for everyone to meet him, especially Glorybee. 

I am happy with the way our Thanksgiving turned out. It was a nice relaxing day of feasting and enjoying each others company. We ate way too much, but that was expected. I can't wait for the upcoming holiday meals, which will be shared with family and friends back in Virginia. While preparing the whole dinner was a great experience, it will be nice to have someone else do it next time :)

We better get as many of these limp ear pictures as we can before they pop up! 

These are the carriers I'm going to fasten together to make one carrier for the plane
ride with Persie and Newton. Iggy is weird and like to get in them.
He wants to take another road trip.

So much garlic! Our new butcher black table from IKEA($58 including the legs).
I stained it myself with a lovely dark walnut stain. 

Our new IKEA things!

I like to have many dish towels ready when I need them.

Roastin' the butternuts.

Stirrin' the bread pudding, which to our surprise, is just egg bread. Like a savory french toast it was. 

Mmm... all roasty.

Sippin' on some egg nog.

Many inches of chopped onion in that pot.

Sweater goblin.

Mmm...

Chickenless Chicken Broth

Our amazing food processor and blender combo.

Giant bowl of soup.

Sandwich Face!

He was afraid of the blender!

Little old man.

It actually kind of look like a turkey.

Basting the Tofurkey with a soy sauce glaze.

So decadent! 

Teehee.

Butterball

Not the healthiest meal at all.

Carving it up.

It was well worth the effort...