Jen Bowles Design

Let the Halloween decorating commence

With the new puppy in the house, it's being done in baby steps.
Today I hung a glittered Eek sign on the back door.
Took a lot out of me.
The other day I put a mask on my friend, David or The Guy as we call him.
I'm digging the mask--it looks festive yet creepy and covers his vacant eyes.
Of course I'm not really ready to let go of my summer/beach decor. 
I didn't realize it as I was stooped over the sand every beach trip this summer, but my white rocks from the shore will have no trouble transitioning to Halloween.
 I'm thinking black plastic spiders will spook things right up.

I'll put that on the list for tomorrow.

No. Stools.

Shortly after moving in to our house BGD and I took a trip to the Mill Store, my favorite unfinished furniture store to buy an island and 3 stools for the kitchen.  It sat in the kitchen all summer, unfinished.  Finally, week before we picked up Daisy, I tackled the finishing.  I definitely work better with a deadline.
For the island, I stained the top and shelves cherry to match our cabinets.  The body of the island I painted Benjamin Moore's Palace White, which matches all the trim in the house.  Originally I wanted to paint all the kitchen cabinets Palace White.  I really want a white kitchen.  And one day I will have one.  But I decided priming and painting all the kitchen cabinets was way too much work (they're in fine shape).  So I changed out the hardware and called it a day.  Now that the island is all gussied up, I'm really liking the contrast.  

I also painted the stools.  It took me a while to figure out which color blue I wanted.  I think I drove the folks at the Lowe's paint department a bit nuts.  I think we adjusted the color about 3 times.  I had some sort of Peacock Blue in mind, sort of like this blue wicker stool from Pottery Barn.  That's not exactly what it turned out to be, but I do like it (it's a bit darker than it appears in the pictures, but not much).  I hand painted the No. 1-3 with a white paint pen.  I really like how they turned out. 

Of course the kids kept asking me why the stools say "No 1, No 2, and No 3".  Then I explained that No. is an abbreviation for Number. They sort of understood.  But not really.

That's okay though, because Mommy's happy.      

(Makes Me) Happy Friday

Once again, Friday is here!
This one is gray and rainy and windy but it's still Friday so let's get to it...
Making me happy this Friday:

• One of my photos that I posted on flickr last summer is gonna be famous!  Well, sort of.  It's featured on Schmap Boston, an online digital travel guide.  My photo is posted in the Back Bay neighborhood section.  Next stop:  Fodor's  ; - ) 
• Daisy, our new puppy, slept through the night last night.  'Nuff said.
• The drawings and patterns of Jess Gonacha.  Great colors and I love the playfulness.  Check out her flickr photostream here and her etsy shop here.
• I finally got Adobe Photoshop CS3 installed on my computer.  Luckily I was at the Apple store (for another issue) when I was installing it because it wasn't as straightforward as I might've hoped.  No wonder I've been putting it off for months.  But it's up and running now, so I have to make some time to play around with it so I can revamp the blog and jazz up my photos with untold fanciness.

Happy Friday to all!

Beach House

It was a beautiful, sunny day today.
BGD and I found ourselves down by the sea today, video and still cameras in hand.
We're trying out a new sideline:  real estate video production.  As in making video home tours for realtors to post with their listings.  This initial video is an experiment, a collaboration with our realtor and Facebook friend, Carolyn.
The house for today was steps from the beach (less than 100)--and location is definitely its biggest selling point.  So we took plenty of pictures and video of the surrounding area.   
We won't be going into post-production until the weekend, sure hope we can work some magic.  I'll be sure to post our masterpiece when it is complete.
Until then I'll just be happy that we're once again within sniffing distance of the ocean.
Even at low tide.  

A few commands

Of course Daisy is a bit too young (7 weeks) now, but soon we'll have to start teaching her some basic commands.
Such as:


And most importantly...

Perhaps we won't be teaching her these exact commands, but these are the ones I was able to spell with the vintage movie marquee letters I got for $1 each at the flea market on Sunday.  Just an excuse to show them off   ; )
And if there had been letters to spell 'cuddle', I surely would've gotten them too.

Happy Fall

A lovely streetscape seen last week at The Spotted Cod in Sandwich, MA on, funny enough, Cape Cod.
Personally I celebrated the first day of fall by spending 3 hours at the Apple store.  Getting my laptop fixed and taking a training class.
Because apples (or Apples) are a sure sign of Fall.
Right??

Hello Daisy!

Guess who has a brand new puppy?
That's right, we do!
Introducing...Miss Daisy the golden retriever puppy (7 weeks old)

(Makes Me) Happy Friday

Let's get rolling with Edition #2...

• How adorable are these Pewter Bird candlesticks from Beehive
  Kitchenware??  I love just about every product on their website.  And speaking of their website, isn't their home page just a vision of sweetness, yum...
• The designs at Beehive make me so happy that I'm including another item on the list. Bird Birthday Candle holders.  Again, so sweet.  At Will, Cuyler & Ebby's preschool they used to celebrate birthdays with a crown and a single candle in an animal candle holder.  The birthday child gets to pick out their animal and a special napkin for snack.  Then they get to blow out their candle as their friends sing 'Happy Birthday'.  I think that's why I have a soft spot for birthday candle holders : )
• Moving on to something that I actually have in my house that makes me happy...How about these little rolls of fabric from Tumbleweed Quilts in Barnstable, MA.  Each piece measures about 9"x11".  There were hundreds of rolls heaped in a plastic wading pool with buckets and shovels to aid in the searching and selection process.  Oh, and each piece?  Only 50 Cents.  Score!

That's it for today.  Must get to more furniture painting--not making me happy.  But I'm pretty sure finally having it finished, will.

An Almost After

I'm making progress on a few different projects.

Remember this?:  

Well, I finally painted the finish coat on it... And  added new knobs. It's not that exciting, yet, but it's presentable enough to be in the dining room.  I just painted the inside white for now, I'd like to back it with some cool paper or fabric eventually.  I was also thinking of adding some ball fringe to the edge of the shelf.  I did load it up with some cookbooks that were temporarily displaced while I paint the kitchen island.  For now, I like the pop of color in the corner.  Who knows what it may evolve into in the future...but I'll be sure to document it.

Banana Bread, Version 23

I seem to make banana bread fairly often.  Because we seem to have black bananas fairly often.
Of course no one in the family (except for me) actually likes banana bread.
Or so they think.
But I make it anyway, try to ration it out to myself or give it away.
I make it often enough that I should have a recipe for it.  As in a recipe I always use, a go-to recipe.  I have a go-to recipe for Sugar Cookies.  And Chocolate Chip Cookies.  But not banana bread.  In fact every time I go to make banana bread, I end up looking up a recipe--either online or in one of my 50 cookbooks.  The first ones I find always use butter so I have to skip those.  I don't believe that a so-called quick bread should involve my Kitchen-Aid stand mixer.  More dishes, more work-definitely not quick.  It has to be a recipe with oil (canola oil) as the fat.  I usually end up scribbling something down from Allrecipes and then spill something on the paper and throw it out when I'm done.  Next time I start all over again.
The other day I saw that I had 5 black bananas in the fridge.  Uh-oh, time to bake.  I decided to take a peek at the zucchini bread recipe I had used last weekend to see if I could retrofit it to use bananas.  I did some improvising and did indeed come up with a recipe.  When I finally tasted this batch of banana bread I decided it was too good not to write down the recipe.  So here it is, at least this way I won't spill anything on it ; )

Jen's Made-Up-But-Tasty Banana Nut Bread

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Yield: 1 large and 2 small loaves

5 medium overripe bananas
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2-2/3c. white sugar
2/3 c. canola oil
1 t. vanilla
3 eggs or  3/4 c. egg substitute

Mash bananas in a large bowl.  Add sugars, oil, vanilla and eggs.  Mix well to combine.

2 1/4 c. flour
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. baking powder

Add dry ingredients into banana mixture.  Mix well to combine and incorporate all the dry ingredients.

3/4-1 c. chopped walnuts

If desired, mix in walnuts until just combined.

Pour batter into pans sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.  I used one regular sized (9x5) loaf pan and two mini loaf pans.

Bake small loaves for 30-35 minutes, large loaf for 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out mostly clean.  Cool on a wire rack.  Wrap and give away the large loaf and one small loaf.  Keep the other small loaf.  Or vice versa.  Enjoy!