I always love to see before and after photos of remodeling projects. These are a few from our house. The before photos were taken on the day we looked at the house for the first time. The over all color scheme of the house was, in a word, outrageous.

The layout was dysfunctional, to say the least. Notice the mirrored medicine cabinet? I couldn't even see my entire head in it. The previous home owners must have been really tall, 

and without the need for toiletries.

Above you can see the color scheme has changed significantly, and so has the layout for that matter. We moved the sink to the dead space on the other side of the room and added a vanity with plenty of counter top space for my need of beauty accoutrements.

I am still using the old sconces, waiting to find the perfect pair to find me, and we kept the floor tile. It was fine and fitting for the age of the house and frankly the idea of ripping it out was just too much. Tearing out the wall tile was difficult and messy enough. I replaced it with a white subway tile that is finished nicely with tile crown molding and a rope border under the mirror.

    The toilet is perhaps a smig close to the new uber deep soaking tub, 

but again we kept the flooring so it stayed put.

I love how it turned out and don't mind sharing that it was done on a very strict budget of less than $1000. It helps when you can do most things in-house.

Chocolate Sauce Trials

I've been making ice cream for awhile now and yesterday I decided to try making chocolate sauce. Since I have two wonderful ice cream books complete with sauce recipes, I thought I'd try two: one with dairy and one without.

The sauce with dairy, from David Lebovitz's, The Perfect Scoop, is perfection in a jar. It is rich and thick, with the perfect chocolate flavor. Next time I make it though, I will add some instant coffee. Not for flavor, but an extra jolt.

To see what would happen if I tweaked the recipe a little, I separated the batch into a couple of different jars and added Grand Marnier and Jack Daniels Honey Liqueur to one and Chambor (raspberry liqueur) to another. The jar with the Jack is now empty. Mamasita, that was delicious.

The non-dairy chocolate sauce is from Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream at Home book, which I love and have become addicted to. In fact, I'm thinking of joining some sort of support group. Not to quit eating it, no. We would all sit around and sample our favorite flavors, wiping each other tears (of bliss), and talk about how it has affected our home lives (everybody wants to come over for dinner and dessert) and how people in our office whisper behind our backs about the spectacle we made of ourselves at the Christmas party: ice cream dripping from our chins, crazed look on our eyes etc... OH, where was I?
Non-dairy chocolate sauce, right.

The idea behind the concept is that it tops ice cream, which we all know, is mostly dairy so the sauce doesn't need it. It also works for people unfortunate enough to be lactose intolerant, they will not TOLERATE lactose!! In Jeni's defense, I made the sauce wrong...twice. The recipe suggests (I always consider a recipe a suggestion, by the way) that the water, sugar and corn syrup get boiled first and then the cocoa powder is added, well, I added the cocoa powder at the beginning and it never really smoothed out. I also replaced the water in the recipe with strong coffee, which could have lead to it's deep flavor. It is very delicious and ultra-chocolately. If you appreciate intense chocolate sauce that is more like syrup and you refuse to tolerate lactose, make this one.

I will not be sharing the recipes on this blog. Buy the books!

Here we go...

I've always been interested in everything decorative, embellished, flavorful and whimsical, whether it be a lovely home, a person beautifully dressed, a story told to perfection, a cake that has been masterfully decorated, a cookie that's too pretty to eat but so delicious you find you've eaten the entire batch before your guests arrive, or even an illustration on a Christmas card  that can inspire a sweet smile for the sender and receiver. I love these things so much that I have dabbled in each and every one of them from time to time with marginal success, I guess, depending on the viewer, eater, listener, or reader.
Lately, I've had anxiety about the idea that I should focus on one of my interests over another. But I feel like if I do that, then some aspect of the talent God gave me isn't being used and that's just not right darn it!
In an attempt to treat my interests as the collective work of a creative person vs. some sort of schizophrenic bounce from one thing to the other, I'm adding pages to this blog for the various topics as well as links to my websites. And it you think about it, they are all kind of related. Right?