Sand ART.

Can we just take a second to admire the genius that is Bonnie Mably?  I mean for real.  LOOK AT THAT SAND.  I want one of these to hang on our dining room wall.  With a magnifying glass close at hand because you know those sparkles are amazing when they're big.

So.

It's been a while.  Let's not pretend it hasn't, but let's also just let that slide by.  So much has been happening and eventually I'll let you in on all of it, though don't get too excited, it's all pretty ho-hum, nothing crazy.  For now though can we talk about FALL?  How amazing it is?  How it's not summer anymore?  Can we also talk about boots and buffalo plaid?  The former I've never really been a fan of, until recently, and I've gone crazy for them.  The latter has always been a favorite.  So you can imagine my excitement when they both came into my life this week in their most amazing of ways. Loeffler Randall Frankie Moto Boots, Jack Spade Utility Bag I love you both.

Salted Caramel Brownies

Poor MAS, he came home, after a month of being elsewhere, to me sick and in bed.  For like, the entire long weekend.  I'm thinking he didn't really mind, he slept even more than I did.  In fact it might be ideal for me to be sick every time he returns from either a long trip or a European trip.  He always comes back wasted, I am always overly excited and plan way too much, he sleeps in, I cancel brunch reservations an hour away that I made for 10 am (really, what was I thinking?).  But this time was different.  We slept.  He made me tea.  I re-watched and he started House of Cards.  We slept some more.  There was much more tea made.  And then, after complaining for days that I just wanted a cookie, we got up and made the Smitten Kitchen Salted Caramel Brownies.  We ate half the pan and went back to sleep.  The next day we woke up and polished off nearly the entire second half of the pan. Went to bed and then come Tuesday (a whopping two days after we made the brownies) we fought over the last little gooey and oh-so-delicious corner.  In the end it was a 50/50 split.

To say these brownies are delicious is to not say nearly enough.  I'd like to have them around always, but then I'd eat them always, and that, would be bad.  I'm thinking about making them again though.  This afternoon.  I might even credit them with making me well again.  There was no sign of improvement until that entire block of brownies had been devoured.  So if you've got that cold thing that's going around and can't shake it, make some brownies, worst case you'll be blissfully happy for the five minutes it takes you to eat them.

Things that may or may not happen when your husband is gone for a month: Part I

1. Lights hanging from the ceiling - happened.  I should thank Lauren for this as she sent me down the rabbit hole of DIY-dom.  The instructions are not as easily found today as they once were, read IMPOSSIBLE, so I had to wing it from a list of supplies I found on Apartment Therapy. Overall I think in a month (or six) I might re-do the entire fixture with some sense of wiring and quality control. Also it needs a few more glass spheres, it's not nearly dramatic enough.  But for now it is amazing and I love it.  And it did not cost $1750 or whatever I had started to think we were going to spend.

1b.  Getting that drywall on the other side of the living room patched up so I can finally finish painting the ceiling - did not happen.

2.   Two dogs becoming a team - happened.  It might be the fact that I've been forcing them to cuddle with me every night for the past 30 in an effort to stay warm and snoozy, or just the simple passing of time.  Whatever it is IT IS HAPPENING.  There is still some growling on Frances' part when shit isn't going the way she'd planned it to ... but they sit on chairs together and alternate peeing on bushes that ought not be peed on and every once in a while stand still enough to photograph.  Or this could all just be because I bought them matching harnesses.  Maybe that is the answer.

I may have also applied to graduate school, planned a trip to NYC in the spring, eaten my weight in meat sandwiches, discovered mint goes with everything so long as it's in a smoothie, headed back to yoga four times a week and started and finished House of Cards on Netflix.  There is more, it was quite a productive month for me, but I'll fill you in on that later.

January Things

January started with an epic trip south, way south, to Key West.  I lost my favorite jeans, two sweaters and a mostly empty bottle of perfume.  It was something like 10 days, no two spent in the same hotel, it's a miracle that's all I lost.  It was also something like a million hours locked in a car with two dogs and a husband.  It could not have been better.

Now I'm back in DC.  After a most crazy weekend (hello Mr. President) the roads have been cleared of the scariest of metal fences and the people have all retreated to, hopefully, warmer weather.  We got a dusting of snow last night that Anna has been romping around in all morning and Frances has been avoiding.  I've been wearing my snow boots that I hastily ordered last year from J.Crew because they were just too good to pass up.  Turns out, while they may be cute, they aren't exactly warm.  I think I'll be tossing them and going with ye faithful Sorels for the rest of the winter.

I've been juicing a bit, and slowly, trying to take animal products out of our diets.  Not like 100%, I love me some meat sandwiches (hello new cheesesteak place that I cannot get enough of) and will eat macaroni and cheese until it comes oozing out of my pores, but you know, when at home and for most of the time.  It's time to up my veggie intake, like for real, and for ever.

Anna was spayed and de-dew clawed.  She came home and was totally passed out for three days.  It was terribly sad.  Especially when she would wake up just to cry.  That really happened.  IT WAS SO SAD.  She's totally on the mend now and has been approved for exercise despite those pesky (and disgusting) stitches in her back legs.  They come out Monday.  

Sometimes Frances will leave the confines of the bed and beg me to take her out-of-doors for a walk.  Three blocks later she's so beyond done I've got to pick her up.  Then we go back home, she lazes in the sun for a while, and two hours later begs to try again.  Always the same results.  Maybe once it's more than twenty eight degrees outside we'll have better luck with an actual walk.

January will be over soon and then we're on to February, which in DC I think means spring, I kid ... kind of.  I think this year I will miss it, I think this year, January might have been exactly what I needed.