food | lemon curd

A few weekends ago, we had our first guests in our new apartment - our dear friends Victoria and David. Victoria and David both love to cook (as do I, though I'm not as creative as they are) and Isaac loves to eat so we had a wonderful weekend with lots of delicious food. One thing I absolutely had to share was Victoria's lemon curd recipe (which we enjoyed with angel food cake and strawberries). I don't even usually like cake, I don't hate it, but if given the choice between cake and some other dessert I will almost always choose the non-cake option. In fact, growing up I never asked for cake on my birthday (unless it was an ice cream cake, those are great!), I would ask for pie or grandma's cherry delight. However, Victoria's angel food cake with lemon curd is what I will be requesting for every birthday from now on. Seriously, this cake is really that good.

It looked a lot like this but instead of spreading the lemon curd between the layers, we just drizzled it over each slice. Unfortunately, we don't have a picture of our actual dessert because we ate it up so fast.

Start with an angel food cake mix and prepare and bake according to directions.

While cake is baking, prepare the lemon curd.

Victoria's Lemon Curd:

3 TBLS. Grated lemon zest
3 lemons (to equal 1/3 cup of fresh lemon juice)
5 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, chilled.

Mix yolks, sugar, zest, and lemon juice. Put in double boiler or heavy bottomed saucepan. Slowly cook, stirring continually, until mixture thickens or to 170 degrees. Should be able to coat the back of a spoon well. Take off heat and stir in small pats of butter one at a time. Place in fridge.

Victoria says that it isn't that complicated but it does take patience because you have to stir and watch and stir and watch the whole time it is on the stove.

Enjoy with fresh fruit and the angel food cake!

style | look alike fashion for Fall

I've never really been on top of the latest trends or styles, but I do love to shop.   Thankfully I have many friends (and three stylish sisters) who are in the know and do their best to point me in the right direction (check out Mary's blog for great fashion posts).  For example, I vehemently refused to try skinny jeans for years.  I though that, given my hip to chest ratio, I could never ever ever wear them.  I tried on my first pair not that long ago, and it turns out that they are the best fitting (and looking, if I do say so myself) jeans I have ever owned.

So now I try to keep abreast of what's going on out there in style land.  After perusing the J. Crew website and catalogue for Fall style ideas that were unfortunately out of my price range, I discovered a few look alike pieces from Target.

I'm really loving stripes for Fall -- this top from J. Crew was top of my list until I found this almost identical one from Target (for almost half the price!).

I bought the Target version, and I love the fit and color -- great with skinny jeans for Fall.  I don't usually go for sequins, but I really like the detail at the shoulders.  It dresses up an otherwise plain tee.

I'm also loving structured dresses like these two from J. Crew and Target.

Chances are, if it has a ruffle, I'll like it.  These cardigans from J. Crew and Target are no exception.

Happy shopping!

build | our new bed

This is a basic overview of how we built our bed. Visit Ana White's website for the actual plans for our bed and many other projects.

Back story: shortly before we got married I found a free Ikea bed frame on craigslist. It wasn't much to look at but, hey, it was free. It was exactly what we needed (being free and all), but it wasn't in the best condition to begin with, and by the time we were getting ready to move to fort Wayne several of the screws had started stripping out of the wood composite. We knew it probably wouldn't survive another disassembling and reassembling, so I started looking around for a new bed. We didn't really want to go the Ikea route again (as much as I love Ikea), but every solid wood bed I found was waaaay out of our price range. I tried craigslist, garage sales, and furniture stores, but we didn't see anything that we actually wanted in our bedroom for under $200 (the approximate cost of a new ikea bed frame and our backup if we couldn't find anything else). I knew about the Ana White website and started seriously considering the merits and difficulties of trying to build our own bed.

I have a sincere love of all things Pottery Barn but a garage sale budget, so I figured it was at least worth a try.  Once I decided on a design, I got the go ahead from Isaac to purchase the lumber. For about $100 I got all the lumber we needed, plus another $20 in nails, screws, and stain.

Isaac and I worked on the bed in the evenings after work for about a week. It did take us a lot longer then the plans state (which we were expecting), but it was a lot of fun working on it together. Because this is a physically large project, we did find that two sets of hands were absolutely necessary for the construction stage. Once we got the headboard and foot board together, I went to work sanding, prepping, and staining.  I mixed one part ebony stain to two parts walnut to get our color, and once everything was stained I used a clear rub on poly to seal and protect. We did modify the original plan because the wooden frame Ana uses to attach the headboard to the foot board is rather permanent, and since we will probably be moving multiple times over the next several years, we knew we needed something more mobile. We ended up using a cheap metal bed support that screws into both the headboard and the foot board. It is incredibly sturdy yet very easy to disassemble and reassemble without damage to the wood.

The actual Pottery Barn Farmhouse bed $1,199

Our completed bed $120

Not a perfect match but close enough for me!

home | our new apartment

We've been here a couple weeks now, and it really does feel like home.  It happened a lot quicker than I would have thought -- I think jumping right into work helped a lot because it got us into a routine right from the beginning.  I'm quickly finding my way around Fort Wayne (it actually reminds me a lot of Omaha), and it's nice being in a larger area, though I do miss Hillsdale and being able to walk everywhere. 

As promised, here are a few pictures of our new place:

When you come in the front door you enter into the dinning area with the kitchen to the left.

Our apartment has a little galley kitchen but I am amazed at how functional it is -- tons of cabinet space, well laid out, and a nice large pantry.

The dinning area opens into the living room.

This hutch was holding books in our bedroom at our old apartment because we ran out of bookshelves.  I'm very thankful for the built in bookshelf in our new living room so the hutch can now hold all our glassware! 

I'm excited (though happy to wait) for cool weather so we can try out the fireplace. :)

The aforementioned built in bookshelf -- probably my favorite feature of the whole apartment.

Down the hall from the living room you will find the spare bathroom on the left.

The spare bedroom/office has a corner for me to work on projects and take care of mail and papers.

Isaac had an old office chair that he didn't need anymore so Victoria helped me spruce it up while she was visiting us this weekend. :)

Because our new kitchen is fairly small, our kitchen cart didn't fit.  However, it works wonderfully as a storage cart in the closet.

I saw something like this on Pinterest -- just find a plastic bin with holes and feed the ends of ribbon through for easy and tangle free access.

If you come visit this is where you'll sleep. :)

Isaac has a study corner too -- he has already made good use of it and taught himself Hebrew over the past two weeks in preparation for starting at the seminary!

More books. lol

Our bedroom is a work in progress -- we are currently on the lookout for nightstands.  We love our new bed!

Our bedroom opens into a walk through closet/vanity and master bath.

Vanity

Storage

On my side of the closet we installed a rod from Ikea ($2.99) and used hooks to hang jeans and pants.  It is behind the hanging clothes and makes good use of previously wasted space.  It also keeps all my pants wrinkle and crease free!

My side of the closet.

Isaac's side of the closet.  

Our bathroom.

Hopefully I'll be back to posting more regularly now that we're settled in.  I'm looking forward to sharing some of the projects that I hope to complete in our new apartment!

Update

New background, folks!  With so many cute options out there I can't seem to stick with one for too long. :)

I'm Baaaaaaaaaack!

I'm finally home!  Home as in our new apartment in Fort Wayne!  The past few weeks have been a blur of packing, moving, unpacking, flying to Nevada, Brigita's wedding (!!!), getting bumped off my return flight, spending the night in a sweet hotel compliments of United Airlines and ordering room service for the first time in my life (also compliments of United Airlines), finally getting back to Michigan, picking up the last bits of our stuff in Hillsdale, driving HOME to Fort Wayne, and a little more unpacking.  Whew.  Oh yeah, and I started my new job!

A few things (big and small) for which I am thankful:
1) This stop light at the entrance of our new apartment complex.  I have to turn left every day to go to work and I really appreciate having a green arrow every couple minutes instead of having to wait for a rare break in morning commute traffic.

2) All the people that helped us pack up and move.  My mom drove all the way from Nebraska and stayed 5 days to help me unpack, clean, paint, and set up our new home.  Isaac's dad helped us move and arranged for us to borrow two trailers so that we wouldn't have to spend the money to rent a u-haul.  Our dear friends Matt, Julia, and Josh spent countless hours helping us finish up odds and ends and load the two trailers.  Josh actually traveled down to Fort Wayne with us to help us unload as well.  I honestly don't know what we would have done without our friends and family during this move!

3) As much as I love looking for deals and sales, it can be discouraging trying to piece together a nice home on a very small budget.  For example, we really needed a couch and all I wanted was one that wasn't completely hideous.  However, given how small our budget was, hideous was about all we could find.  Until God provided a lovely family that was moving and selling their near perfect condition couch, love seat and chair SET for about half of what people were asking for the hideous couches.  On top of all that, when they found out Isaac was going to be attending the seminary, they offered to store the set for free until we were able to move into our apartment here in Fort Wayne.  Now every time I look at our couch I am reminded of God's faithfulness even in the small, seemingly insignificant, things.

4) More closets then we know what to do with!  Our new apartment has six, that's right, six closets.  A coat closet by the front door, a closet in both bedrooms, a hall closet, a small closet in the bathroom and a linen closet at the end of the hall.  I've never seen so many closets in one place before, it's like they added a closet wherever there happened to be an open space in the wall. :)

Pictures of our new home are coming soon!

I'll be back soon!

Just a quick post to say that I am coming back.....soon.  Between working, weddings, a little traveling, and packing up to move, I am taking a little summer hiatus from blogging.  However, stay tuned to see the completed bed that Isaac and I have been building.  Here's a quick preview:

Headboard -- half way through being stained

Footboard -- ready to be stained