1. Blue Damask Lamp Shade – $13.97

2. Acrylic Ball Lamp Base — $19.97

3. Linen Drum Lamp Shade — $14.97

4. Antique Mercury Glass Lamp Base — $34.97

5. Floral Lamp Shade — $19.97

6. Blue Glass Lamp Base – $21.97

I almost never go to Lowes. For some reason, when I need home improvement things, Home Depot is my store. Isn’t it strange how we form habits like that? But this weekend, I was trying to finish my DIY folding chairs (I’m almost done, I swear!) but when I went to back to Home Depot to get one last can of spray paint, they were out. Lame!

I tried back a few days later and they were still out, so I decided to try Lowes since it’s right down the street. Unfortunately, I struck out there too, but discovered a totally unexpected welcome surprise–Lowes has really cute (and cheap!) lamps + shades–like really cute. Plus, they looked amazingly high end!

I am dying to find a bedside table (I currently build one out of pillows every night…yep, that cool), so I can buy that blue glass lamp base. Swoon!

Have you found great deals in unexpected places lately?

Happy Monday everyone!

At this time next week, we should be on the road driving through Kansas on our way to Colorado–I can’t wait! But in the meantime, I have about a gazillion things I want to accomplish around the house before we leave. I kinda took vacation seriously last week and spent most of my days working out or lounging around the house. That’s what vacation is for, right?

But I woke up this morning with a list in my head of all the things I want to accomplish: deep cleaning, finishing some forgotten DIY projects, writing, and making a fabulous dinner. Oh and not least of all watching my fav, Hanson, on Good Morning America this morning! There’s nothing quite like kicking off a week with your inner teeny bopper!

One of the things I actually did accomplish last week was making a few batches of this black bean humus. I’ve been meaning to make hummus for awhile and when I came across this recipe in the free preview of The New Way to Cook Light e-book on my iPad, I was instantly inspired.

On a side note, the preview of that book looked amazing–I think I took screenshots of half of the recipes! The kindle version is only $4.99 (the hardcover is $22-ish), so I may be downloading the rest soon for more inspiration.

The only problem? annoyance? with this recipe is the cost of the tahini–I think I paid about 8 bucks for the a peanut butter  sized jar. Plus, tahini’s shelf life is short, and it expires mid-August. So I’ll either be making a whole bunch of hummus and freezing it right before that date, or if you know any other recipes that use tahini, I’d love to hear!

Black Bean Hummus

Makes about 1.5 cups

*Adapted from The New Way to Cook Light

Print recipe!

Ingredients:

1 shallot

1 14oz can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 lime, juiced

1/2 cup cilantro

2 tablespoons tahini

2 tablespoons water

1 tablespoon olive oil + more for shallot

2 cloves garlic

1/2 serrano pepper, deseeded

1 teaspoon cumin

salt, to taste

Steps:

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Cut the tip off of the shallot and place on a piece of aluminum foil. Pour olive oil over the shallot and then tightly seal the sides of the aluminum foil to form a ball.

Place the shallot in the oven and roast for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine the black beans, lime, cilantro, tahini, water, olive oil, garlic, pepper, and spices in the food processor.

When the shallot is finished roasting, add it to the food processor as well and pulse until it reaches a smooth, creamy consistency.

Enjoy!

Time: 15 minutes

1. Berry Delicious Summer Salad

2. Camp Pizza with Caramelized Onions, Sausage, and Fontina

3. Grilled Salmon with Cucumber Dill Salad

4. Pepper and Chicken Nachos

5. Blueberry Lemon Drops

 

Moroccan Pillow

Slatted Mirror

Owl Ceramic Table

Glass Measuring Cup

Iron Grill

Bobby Flay Debossed Bowl

]]> http://www.aslolife.com/2013/06/15/home-ideas-home-around-the-web-22/feed/ 0 http://www.aslolife.com/2013/06/14/blacksburg-living-vintage-antique-market/ http://www.aslolife.com/2013/06/14/blacksburg-living-vintage-antique-market/#comments Fri, 14 Jun 2013 10:11:41 +0000 aslolife http://www.aslolife.com/?p=8187

Happy Friday friends!

Have any exciting weekend plans? I’m hoping to drag Jeff out of the house early Saturday to go on a hike–I need to get outside!

Two Sundays ago, I changed up the route of my normal run to make a quick stop by the first Vintage & Antique Market of the summer at the Market Square Park in downtown Blacksburg.

The city is hosting the market one Sunday a month over the “summer” from 10am-3pm on the following dates:

• July 14th
• August 18th
• September 15th
• October 13th

I didn’t purchase anything this time (a little difficult to carry things back while running–I’m not that talented!), but there were so many intriguing nicknacks, vintage kitchen items, framed prints, and lots of gorgeous costume jewelry.

A few local vendors were also set up selling coffee and breakfast goodies.

Next time, I’ll try to plan a little better and bring my bike (+ bike basket), so I can actually do a little shopping!

You can find more information about the Blacksburg Vintage and Antique Market on the Blacksburg Farmers Market Facebook page here.

Have a great weekend!!

The weather has warmed up a bit in these parts, but while this outfit may be a little too hot to wear during the heat of the day, it’s the perfect casual inside/evening wear. At least until the nights start getting hot as well!

I actually created this look with a casual work day in mind. Jeans? Check. Fun but conservative top? Check. Layers? Check. And sandals? Check. All of the essentials for casual work days!

I will always be a sandals girl. No matter how many cute pairs of tennis shoes or boat shoes I buy, I always gravitate towards sandals. Really, I prefer to wear no shoes at all whenever possible–what can I say, I like having free feet! But when I saw these bright patent Corso Como sandals on RueLaLa a few months ago, I knew I had to add them to my already expansive sandal collection. Aren’t they fun? Plus, I’ve always had great success with Corso Como and comfort.

See the pink necklace on the shirt? It’s actually attached! Waaay back before statement necklaces were a thing, I stumbled across this tank at Loft and fell in love. Although it’s kinda hard to see in the photo, the rosettes are attached at the ends by two matching colored ribbons that tie around the neck to give the illusion of a necklace. I think now, with all of the statement necklace options, I’d probably get more use out of a plain white tank + detachable necklace, but I’ll always love the unexpected feature of this shirt.

Straight Leg Jeans: Gap

Attached Necklace Shirt: Loft (Light pink bib necklace, bright pink bib necklace)

Floral Sweater: Loft (more orange-y, expensive)

Turquoise Sandals: Corso Como Solar Sandals in Ocean

Linking up today with Mix and Match Fashion! 

What a start to a Wednesday!

I woke up early to bribe  make homemade waffles + (not homemade) bacon for Jeff before he left for work because well, he made orange chicken the other night while I served as sous chef and forgot to write down the recipe… So the plan was to get him in a good mood with lots of yummy goodies and then force him to write down the recipe.

Which, I thought was a pretty darn good plan. But while I was cleaning up, I noticed Padfoot staring intently at something out the window. I was expecting a bird or another cat (PF thinks she can attack the birds through the window…), and was a little surprised to see a raccoon in the middle of the street. There were birds, crows to be exact, but they were dive bombing and attacking the raccoon and after watching for a few minutes, I realized that the raccoon was not exhibiting normal raccoon behavior. Which, in my experience, means rummaging through garbage/prying open ice chests/creating all out mayhem a la those insurance commercials.

Nope, it was stumbling, walking aimlessly across the street and back again, unable to step over the  curb. And though I have no other experience to reference, I’m pretty sure it was rabid or at least severely sick or injured. Where’s Atticus Finch when you need him? (Yes, I just reread To Kill a Mockingbird, but seriously).

I called animal control which in turn directed me to call the sheriff’s office who are now looking into the matter… So long story short, I totally forgot to get the orange chicken recipe. Hopefully you aren’t too disappointed!

But while you wait for this one, here are a few homemade orange chicken recipes made with real ingredients like real oranges — no corn syrup or whatever flavoring they add to that Panda Express orange chicken in sight!

All Recipe’s Asian Orange Chicken

Martha Stewart’s Orange Glazed Chicken Thighs

Cooking Light’s Orange Chicken

Better Homes & Gardens Honey Ginger Crusted Chicken

I will update this post with the recipe ASAP, I promise!

One of the things I look forward to the most every summer is putting together a summer reading list full of guilty pleasures and books I keep putting aside thinking I’ll read that later and then never getting around to it. I’ve always been a voracious reader which comes with its blessings and its curses–once I start a good book, I have a hard time communicating with the “real” world until I’m finished!

But since I have a little extra time this summer, I’m counting on that being a good thing. Here’s a sampling of my absolutely must-reads this summer:

PS Follow me on Goodreads for my complete book lusting collection!

1. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. I’m not sure how I’ve made it all this time without reading this book, but that is going to change this summer. I fell in love with Kingsolver while reading The Poisonwood Bible in high school and when asked about my favorite books, that one is always near the top of the list. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is Kingsolver’s non-fiction account of living only off of her own garden and food produced in her own neighborhood for a year. Plus, her farm is located only about an hour and a half away from Blacksburg, so I’d say it’s an appropriate time to finally be reading this!

2. The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley. I’ve reviewed several other of Susanna Kearsley’s books here on the blog (here and here), and I cannot wait to read her latest, The Firebird, which came out last week and includes her signature weaving of fantasy + historical + realistic fiction.

3. Sea of Trolls Trilogy by Nancy Farmer. Hooray for young adult books! YA will always be one of my favorite genres, though I’m actually reading these on assignment for school next year. Nancy Farmer is a fantastic, unique writer who infuses her experiences of living in Africa into her tales. (She now lives in Menlo Park–maybe I’ll be able to be her neighbor someday!)

4. Inferno by Dan Brown. Robert Langdon is back baby! Who wasn’t obsessed with The Da Vinci Code when it came out, right?  I’m hoping my hold on this at the library is up soon–read faster people!

5. And the Mountains Echoed by Khalid Hosseini. Hosseini is just one of those poignant writers whose stories and descriptions stay with you for a long time after you finish that last page. I read The Kite Runner when it was assigned as the “freshman reading book” for Jeff’s first year at Cal Poly, and I cannot wait to see what he’ll make me think about next.

Happy Monday everyone!!

Summer is officially here for me, and I am looking forward to enjoying every moment of it! I can’t wait to get back into making lunch at home (tomorrow = using this leftover salad as a tostada with a little mozzarella cheese melted on top. And yes, I never stop thinking about the next meal!) and having the energy to make healthier, flavorful dinners.

Plus, we have lots of mini-vacations planned and an truck load of DIY projects to tackle. Though, I spent most of the day Sunday reading the new Real Simple magazine and the last book in The Giver series, Son (which was fabulous, for all of you who read or have littles that read young adult fiction!).

Once I finally peeled myself away from the last pages of my book, I decided to get serious about dinner. I had one more frozen fillet of salmon which I was planning on baking in parchment paper with a little homemade pesto, but needed a side dish to complete the meal. Jeff? He was making a burger–with organic, grassfed meat at least!

Since my pickled squash + peppers were ready for consumption, I decided to make a fresh summer-ish salad with the anaheim and one jalapeno out of the jar. Then, since we no longer have a barbecue, I broke out the cast iron griddle to grill some buttered, paprika-y corn.

The peppers still retained quite a bit of their heat, so I decided to make a Greek yogurt aioli for the dressing and stick with the Mexican spice trend: cumin + cayenne + more paprika.

Delish!

Grilled Corn & Pepper Salad

Serves 4-6

Print recipe!

Ingredients:

2 ears corn

butter

paprika

salt

pepper

1 pickled anaheim pepper, chopped

1/2 pickled jalapeno, chopped

3 green onions, chopped

For the dressing:

1 tablespoon plain non-fat Greek yogurt

1.5 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 lime, juiced

paprika

cayenne pepper

cumin

salt

pepper

Steps:

Heat cast iron griddle on the stove or heat barbecue.

Coat the corn with butter then evenly with a pinch of salt, pepper, and paprika and place on grill.

Grill until the kernels are lightly blackened, turning regularly, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, place anaheim and jalapeno peppers in a bowl and set aside. If you do not have pickled peppers, saute them in a little olive oil before adding into the bowl.

To make the dressing, combine yogurt, olive oil, and lime juice in a small bowl. Add a pinch each of paprika, cayenne pepper, cumin, and salt and pepper to taste.

When the corn is ready, cut the kernels off of the cob and add to the pepper mixture.

Pour the yogurt dressing over the corn and pepper mixture and mix well.

Enjoy!

Time: 20 minutes

1. Minty Lime Frozen Mojito

2. Tomato-Goat Cheese Tart with Lemon-Basil Vinaigrette Recipe

3. Grilled Asparagus Soup with Chile Croutons

4. Sweet Corn Soup with Toasted Corn Guacamole

5. Quinoa-Nectarine Gazpacho with Crispy Spiced Tortilla Strips