Gnocchi with Butternut Squash, Sage and Pine Nuts

There are so many recipes for side dishes for Thanksgiving that go beyond the traditional, I can't even tell you where to start. I will throw in my two cents however, on what I think you should definitely consider making to grace your Thanksgiving table this year.  This is the second time we've made this, it's a delicious gnocchi dish with roasted butternut squash, sauteed fresh sage, and pine nuts.  It is delicious!

We found this recipe last year, when we were going to a Thanksgiving Potluck, "Friends-giving" as it was called, and I believe it was the week before the big day.  We wanted something different.  So, using my favorite way to find recipes, we just knew a few ingredients we wanted to use and just plugged them into good ol' Googy.  In this case "Gnocchi with Butternut Squash" pulled up a ton of results, and we chose {and loved!} this one.  It's pretty easy, pretty affordable, and always a big hit.  So when you're browsing the thousands of recipes out there for something new this year, consider my advice and try this! Hop over to Savory Spicy Sweet where Liz will give you the step by step. Thanks Liz!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, have a wonderful day hopefully filled with great food, family & friends!

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How To: Wiring Pendant Lights

Hello again! I figured since yesterday I posted a DIY light fixture, that now would be as good a time as any to touch up our knowledge of some wiring tips and tricks.  Wiring up lamps & lights is one of those things that always intimidated me, but now thanks to the internet & actually trying it a few times, I'm no longer scared! Still though, when dealing with electricity it's always good to proceed with caution & get an expert if things don't seem right.  Otherwise, It's fairly straightforward.  One of the most helpful posts I've seen was over at The Ambitious Procrastinator, where they give a step by step on wiring up a set of decanter lights.

Aren't those things awesome?! Maybe I should just do a huge cluster of those in our kitchen, or maybe that Mason Jar Chandelier from a little bit ago. So many choices! Maybe I'll start collecting decanters just in case. Hop over to The Ambitious Procrastinator for the full scoop on not only wiring up those beauties, but how they made them in the first place. 

As for what I've been up to, things are getting crazy hectic with the moving, but I've had a few spare moments here and there to play with some new string art ideas.

I love that blue elephant! I had actually done a red one prior, then someone wrote me asking if I could do blue. Of course I can!   The "home" tablet was a really fun one, and has been on my  mind for a while. Not only the aspect of filling in the negative space vs. the letters, but finally tackling cursive. I think it came out pretty good, and would work with any word.  The modern ones are still my favorite, and that set of 3 was a custom order I was thrilled to do. I can't get enough of those circles lately.

If you are interested in a string art tablet, I'm still making them, but if you need them before Christmas get in touch with me ASAP.  Things get SO crazy during the holidays! Here's a link to my etsy shop to get started. 

Make it a good day!

-J

 

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How To: Wooden Cube Chandelier

Last week I talked about the kitchen lights, and a few of the ideas we're playing around with for the tall ceiling above the work space. We want something big and bright, but nothing too visually heavy that will crowd up the room. We want it to feel really open.  Here's one of our contestants, it reminds me so much of the Ghost Lamp style, where bare bulbs shine through a beautiful skeleton.

I love how it's still the natural wood, and is so modern with it's fun angles.  I think for the kitchen area I may have to rig this up with 3-4 light bulbs to get the light we're looking for. Maybe Edison light bulbs? This is a great project, and you can get the full tutorial right here, from the creative folks over at Vintage Revivals.  Enjoy!

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Kitchen Light Surprise

I think my favorite room in the new house, would be the kitchen - hands down.  I've always wanted a large kitchen, and this house delivered! It's nice and open, so we have a clean slate to work with here.  These are the old photos, so they still have the real estate agents staging stuff in there.

One of the things we want to do right away, is whitewash those beautiful open & tall ceilings.  I love the look of wood, but in a light limited area, we need to do what we can to brighten it up in there.  I think we'll whitewash the wood so we can still see the grain, but reflect a little more light down.  One of our ideas was to eventually put lights in the eves.  You can see where the wall meets the ceiling, there is a gap - perfect for lights to shine up and reflect down.  So it went on the to-do list. Then something amazing happened...

Last week I was at the house taking care of little jobs, when I got the craving to hop up on the counters (I'm not a tall person!) and see if it's possible to even put lights in there.  Surprise! There was a lighting fixture in the eves! Not just one either, but 8! One in each section of the roof. I was so excited I yelled.  However, no switch would turn on the lights, even with a fresh bulb.  But hey, at least the wires are there, right? Then.... something amazing happened...

I was showing Ralph, to see if he could figure it out, and we were still stumped.  As luck would have it, I happened to turn on a few light switches right as he did and BAM! Let there be light! We were so happy we ran to the hardware store to buy 7 more bulbs. Apparently, the lights have two switches, and both have to be turned on at the same time.

Pfft! I'll turn on 10 switches at the same time if I have to, this is fantastic! I was so happy to see these there.  I wish all projects got done that easily, we dreamt it up - planned it out, then all of a sudden it was done. Perfect!  They add a lot of warm light to the room, and once that ceiling is whitewashed it will add even more.  I'm extremely picky and sensitive with lighting, how it looks, where it's placed, the whole 9 yards.  I can't wait to get some under cabinet lighting in there too, that will look incredible.  Speaking of lighting, did you notice a certain light culprit in the photo above? Look at this bad decision:

Mmhmm. Not only is it just one of those standard hallway lights, but it's seriously 12 feet in the air... and the bulb is burned out {ofcourse!}.  I tried getting up on the very very top of the ladder {I know, I know I shouldn't do that, so don't try that at home!} and I still can't comfortably reach, it's only a five foot ladder - give me a break!  Anyway - the dead bulb is only half the problem, the other problem is I really don't like the fixture. It's too high for something so small, and I know exactly what kind of light will shine down. That faraway, weird kind of light. Maybe I'm crazy, do you know what I mean though?  So we're in brainstorm mode now, something bright, something big, and something fun since it's a huge space.  One idea is a large wood "skeleton" cube, with a few bare bulbs inside:

I love the look of the wood! It would be great to make a really big one, or a hexagonal one... the other idea, is to find some wonderful old brass chandelier, preferably something wild from the 70's, and spray paint it some amazing color.

Source: repinly.com via Matthea on Pinterest

Maybe something along the Mission style side of things..

Thought we may be getting up there in the price, and after everything we've had to buy to just get in this place - it's a shoestring budget for me.  I think for now we're leaning to the spray paint route, but we'll see. Stay tuned, I'm going to post the tutorial for that wooden cube light soon, isn't is awesome? Have a great weekend!

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Porch Potential

***Update: The Porch has reached it's potential, see the mega update here - but be sure to scroll down and see the crazy looking before shots***

Well we haven't wasted any time getting into the new house and tackling any project we can.  Luckily we have two months to complete this move, so that gives us a little flexibility.  We haven't been able to just start hauling things over yet since we were waiting for it to be fumigated. Sounds gross, right?  It's normal, I swear!  Oh, for those of you not living on the west coast, termites are a pretty common pest around here.  So it's a standard sight to see a house dressed up like a circus tent now and then...

I can't wait for that thing to be off! I wonder what the neighbors think... ha!  I'm really happy we were able  to do this before moving in, I've heard it's a nightmare to bag up all your stuff for this, and move out for a week.  Now, why exactly the termites prefer to eat the wood of the house instead of the 3 million trees surrounding it is a mystery to me.  But it is what it is, and now that this is out of the way we can really get to work. One thing we did last weekend,

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