Quick Side Note

While February goes by very quickly at the Bungalow, March is definitely a blur. We don't really get around to doing much here because we simply aren't home. Mike is following my 'Eers and I'm usually at a local dive doing the same ... only locally.

But with this life away from the Bungalow comes wonderful experiences such as this past week's Big East Men's Basketball Championship tournament. My local dives were forsaken when I joined Mike in the Big Apple for four days and nights of Big East Basketball. * Sigh * we have been living the good life. The 'Eers brought home the trophy and I brought home dark circles under my eyes. When in New York you have to go hard or go home.

Which brings me to Saturday. It was almost a bust because of torrential downpours and gale-force winds. Undeterred, I set out to have a good day.

How does this relate to a blog about our house? In a very loose way, my dinner Saturday night brought feelings of warmth and hominess that some often find hard to find in the big city. Eli and Chris were kind enough to take me to chef Marc Forgione's Forge. I sat and gazed around me until I finally decided the place looks like it belongs in a Pottery Barn catalog. It was wonderful. I'll just link the restaurant's site here and let you see for yourself. Check out the menu page. I started with the Watercress & Endive Salad with beets three ways, goat cheese carpaccio and walnut oil. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Then I moved on to the Beer, Butter and Bacon Braised Suckling Pig with red cabbage and smoked whipped potatoes. All I could think of with the first bite was Irving Berlin singing "Heaven .... I'm in Heaven ...." Then I finished with the Affagato Hazelnut Ice Cream Sundae.

Here is a pic of the main dining area in Forge. Eli, Chris and I sat at the table under the big mirror. Poor Mike. He couldn't join us for the meal because he worked his fingers to the bone in Madison Square Garden all week. I made sure to order something I thought he would like to salute his efforts.

Our fabulous meal was wedged between this at 2 pm:

and this at 9 pm:

I dare you to describe a better Saturday spent in New York City!

Warning. This one might make you think Mike is sweet.

My husband is awesome. Sometimes he pays attention to me. And sometimes he actually pays attention to me during basketball season. I know. All the ladies just swooned.

Remember back in November when we started messing around with the guest room? Mike paid attention. Fast forward to January 9 when WVU played Notre Dame in South Bend. No, I'm not going to talk about the outcome of that game. I'm going to talk about my husband. He had some free time in South Bend. While walking around town he came across a storefront with an item that caught his eye. He walked in and asked if he could buy it.

WVU may have lost, but I won! This was Mike's birthday gift to me.


How cool is it that he found the exact dress form I was looking at for the guest room? And how cool is it that he walked into a quirky shop and asked them to box it up and ship it to Morgantown for his wife's birthday? If that's not romantic I don't know what is.

Take note of the print on the right. It looks very "Home Interiors" because it actually is a Home Interiors print. Miss Whitney, or "my boss" as I call her, gave it to me when she saw my ideas for this room.

As for the rest of the room's decor, it's a work in progress. The little print below was a Christmas gift from the fabulous in-laws and the Eiffel Tower was a day-after-Christmas cheap-o find at Pier One (I confess. Sometimes I buy myself things there.)


These prints were purchased online sometime after Christmas. I was inspired to get things on the walls. The one on the left is a French advertisement for hairpins. The one on the right is, noticeably, an advertisement for perfume.


The Vogue print below is somewhat disappointing. The online store didn't have the one I originally purchased. This one was a consolation prize I got for free when I agreed on the hairpin advertisement print above. Two for one! Score! Notice the little white dress form on the chest of drawers. That was a TJ Maxx find from Melissa.



The room still needs some finishing touches. And, well, don't forget I still hate the ceiling, trim and light fixture. But it's coming along nicely a little at a time. Maybe for my next birthday my wonderful romantic husband will install a new ceiling, ornate crown moulding, and a white chandelier light fixture (hint hint).

A Sunflower in the Snow

The weather is warming up around these parts. The temp has hovered in the mid 30s lately and next week should be better. I snagged a deal a week or so ago in the midst of all our snow and grey skies that brightened my day and our living room.

While shopping for Devon's Bridal Fiesta I couldn't hold myself back from Pier One's incessant pleading for me to walk through her doors. I can't help myself. I love that store. It's rare I buy anything for myself, but I always have to take a look around when I'm close by.

In the never ending quest to fill up our living room walls (you can read about that here and here) I was eyeballing Pier One's sunflower mirror. At $50 it wasn't a bad deal. But the Bungalow could wait a bit longer. Imagine my glee when I saw it on clearance for $29.99. Not sure why because it is $39.98 online. Maybe it was mistagged? No questions were asked as I paid for the Bungalow's new jewelry.

Our mirror sits above my special table in corner of the living room. Doesn't it look spiffy?

Super Sweet Sunday

Mike and I are taking in the game at a friend/coworker's house today. I was instructed to bring dessert. I thought three desserts sounded better than "a" dessert.

Cocoa rice krispie treats shaped like footballs are apropos for the day:

Take a closer look. Sure, the piping could be neater. But it will taste just as good.

There is also a pile of my crowd-pleasing orange marmalade cupcakes:

To round out the trio we will have the truffles showcased earlier in the weekend.

Geaux Saints! ... And go Pat McAfee! Clearly, I'm undecided on which team to cheer for.

Snow blogging, Part II

Short Street on Feb 6, 2010. Our neighbors made a snowman in the middle of the street (you can't really see it). This is funny because our street doesn't get plowed.


Here is our front stoop and a peek at the snow-covered Cavalier and street.

Our snowbunny Bungalow.

The Cavalier is going to remain parked for several days.

Yes, Mike's legs are through the seat of the chair. Our cable went out halfway through the WVU vs. St. John's game because our satellite dish froze. He was going to stand on the chair, climb the tree to the room, then climb to the top level of the roof to clean it off. Thankfully, this is as far as his plan got. He did end up with a scrape on his leg. Could be worse!

This part of our yard had 17 inches. Some parts had 14. Some had 13. We really don't know how much snow we have.

This is the view of Virginia Street. If you come out of our garage and turn right, this is what you face. At least a foot of unplowed snow.

This is a view of Virginia Street if you go left out of our garage. Notice the car in the ditch. This guy tried to come up the hill and ended up in the deep ditch. He walked home, but a towtruck later came and pulled him out.

We can get the AWD Equinox out of the garage. It's the foot of unplowed snow on Virginia Street we need to worry about.

Here we see Mike trying to save our holly tree by knocking off the heavy snow. It will most likely remain in tact.

This shows the 12-13+ inches of snow on our roof.

Lilo surveys the scene from the tunnel I shoveled for her through the yard.

Snow greetings from Short Street! People were skiing and snow boarding here, too. Who needs cars?

Snow blogging!

Remember those cute tins we have sitting on the buffet in honor of St. Valentine's Day? They are full of these:



I was bored tonight and made some Valentine truffles with the help of some cheap champagne and Lady Gaga.

Mike was benched by the storm and stayed in Morgantown this afternoon. He was supposed to head to NYC to Madison Square Garden to cover tomorrow's noon tipoff between WVU and St. John's. Unfortunately, the Snowcalypse came along and his flights were not only canceled but impossible. I'm excited to watch a basketball game with him tomorrow, despite his travel troubles.

Things around Morgantown were laughable for most of the day because we had a lot of rain. A LOT. WVU stopped classes at 1 p.m. and actually shut down completely at 3 pm. I'm not sure I remember that ever happening in the 12 or so years I've paid attention. Around 6 pm things started to change. Friend Courtney and I went out for sushi and I really thought I would have to walk the half mile back home. Vernal (the Chevy Equinox) goes just fine in the snow, but others weren't as fortunate. And Vernal and I got stuck behind them. No pics. Stupid me didn't have a camera.

It is a little after 1 a.m. now and we have what Mike calls "two beer cans tall" of snow. Check it out:

and here is the snow sitting on the rail along the steps to the backyard:

Here's the little tree in the back yard, weighed down with snow:

Mike's rare basketball-season-freedom led him to a friend's house tonight for some tomfoolery while Lady Gaga and I stayed home to make truffles. We'll post more pics of the snow tomorrow. It's still coming down and it's that lovely heavy, wet type that is perfect for snowmen/women. It's already up to Lilo's little puppy hips. Perhaps we'll make it to a "three beer can height" snow!

Home Sweet Home

Yay for the Bungalow! We have officially lived here a year (as of yesterday, Jan 29). We've come a long way from that first dinner on that first night. Mike had the bbq sandwich and I had the hotdog with cheese and ketchup from Sheetz. We giddily stood in the kitchen and ate our inaugural meal and wondered what we had gotten ourselves into. It's so much fun to read through the blog posts from the past year and see how far we've come. I try not to dwell too much on how much more we want to do around here.

We love a good holiday here on Short Street. Valentine's Day won't slip past the bungalow without a few accoutremonts. Last year's Valentine's Day was the first holiday we spent in our home and we didn't even put so much as one heart up (much to my dismay). We did spend a romantic day together painting; which was actually romantic and fun.

Moving on to Valentine's Day 2010. Check out the sweet wreath picked up at TJ Maxx for a mere $12. I tied a white ribbon around it so it could hang on our front door.


See that pillow? It was $4.99 at IKEA the day after Christmas. Sister-in-Law Devon and I both had to have one.

These coordinating tins also came from IKEA at $7.99 for all three.

Little pops of red and pink give the Bungalow a slight romantic vibe. Hopefully there will be some red velvet cupcakes in the kitchen in the near future and some tulips of any color (hint hint) hanging out on the dining table in the fiesta pitcher. I did have some lovely pink tulips there that were given to me for my birthday by my lovely husband. They have worn out their welcome and might need replaced for the holiday :)