la cuisine parfaite

Anoushka and Jack eat breakfast at the bar. Big kids. 

Jack and I went up to Seattle a few weeks ago to visit my brother and his wife and my beautiful niece Anoushka. They recently remodeled their kitchen and I was anxious to see what they had done. My sister in law loves to cook. She's from India, and she knows her way around the spice rack. I was completely inspired by their new kitchen. Every detail had been thought of. The biggest change (to me), besides how aesthetically pleasing it is, was how easy and intuitive it was to cook in their kitchen (I made cereal). Everything was where it should be, and easy to access. I was inspired to make some changes in our kitchen too. 

Jack and Anoushka watch the big kids dive into Lake Washington

Since we moved in I've "suffered" with our kitchen sink. The faucet never quite worked right. It leaked, and never turned all the way. The sink was a stainless steel double sided dealie that NEVER looked clean, and was too small to clean a pot or a pan. I know you are scanning the site for an 800 number to donate to my cause. How on earth does someone live like this?!?!?! 

As luck would have it the faucet finally died once and for all the other day. Roberto confirmed it. There was no fixing it. Nipper Knapp suggested I pick out a new sink when I went to get the faucet. He figured if he was going to get under there and open up a new tube of caulk, he might as well do it all. Yahoooooooo!  I picked out a double sided white enamel cast iron sink with a low center divider. I can soak my cashmere sweaters, and wash long handled pans. Free at last! Free at last! Thank god almighty, I'm... oh, sorry. 

I'd love an apron front farm sink, but they cost more than moses, and would have required a cut in the granite.

They also had these nice rugs in front of their sink, stove, and long runners, going across the most heavily travelled route from the kitchen door to the rest of the house. We have a decomposed granite patio, and path, in the yard. I asked for it specifically because I wanted it to look like Versailles. Uh, yeah. Well, I wanted it to look like a nice European something. But it doesn't. It wasn't the right color, that warm peachy sand color. It's basically just a giant litter box for the neighborhood cats. We are going to remedy this with some flagstone and pea gravel, just as soon as we have the money, the time, and the... oh let's be honest, as soon as we can afford to have Roberto do it. The other big problem with the DG, is that it's sandy, and the grit tracks into the house. Poor me. I know. I will have Laurie Metcalf make an infomercial about my family's plight as soon as possible. 

This is not my backyard. If it was, that whole fountain would be filled with stray cat poop. 

I found these perfect rag rugs from Crate and Barrel. The Sangria rug. (They're on sale right now, and will prolly be gone, soon, soon, soon) They've got the orange just enough orange to go with the rest of the kitchen, and just enough hot pink and purple to look crazy and mismatched, which makes me happy. 

Next stop pull out drawers. We had them in the loft we lived in BJWB (before Jack was born). I think it's the last thing I can do short of you know actually remodeling the kitchen, to make ours more workable. Finally I'll be able to find my pots and pans without getting down on the kitchen floor. Finally I'll be able to order take out in peace! Call Save The Children. Tell them I'm fine. 

fog, frog, flog... everything including the kitchen sink

In the last two days, I have lost my credit card, my retainer (nerds), my keys, my mind. The blender broke, and I really thought that Nipper, who has been on this big green smoothie kick (spinach!) was going to DIE. "WHAT will I eat?!" He's been moping. Today the kitchen sink decided to die, so Roberto is going to have come in and fix it. As in, he's going to have to replace the faucet which IS broken, and the sink, which is not, but I've been meaning to replace it for years, and now is as good a time as any, since he'll be in the uhm, you know, area of the sink anyway... He's (Roberto) out in the yard building Jack a tree house that has turned into kind of a McMansion. Whose life is this anyway???

Why yes, that is the piñata from Jack's party TWO weeks ago. You got a problem with that?

I thought once the pilot was safely in a Fedex box on the way to NYC, we would collapse in a heap of relaxation and do nothingness. I am starting to realize that is never going to happen again. Having a child, and a job, and a husband, and a home means, NEVER HAVING NOTHING TO DO AGAIN. FOREVER. I'm feeling like I have gone down down down to crazytown in the last few weeks though. Like I have pregnancy brain minus the pregnancy. Between the Muffintop video, the pilot, WORK, Jack, the cake, the house...I'm not keeping it together very well. Or maybe I'm always like this...ssshhh.

The lego x-wing fighter that took two days to put together and 20 minutes to destroy. Good times. 

Nip and I are both SAG members (obv) and so, we pay dues twice yearly. For this we get health insurance, and safe sets, etc... We got our dues in April. They went onto the pile of bills for that week, that became the pile of bills for that month, that became the pile of bills for spring. It's not like I don't have the money to pay the bills. Just not the time. And then I forgot about them. Or ignored them. It's a fine line. So when we both booked jobs recently we came up as "station 12" with the union. Whoops. Not a big deal, I went online and paid the minute was informed of my delinquency. But you'd think that when that happened, I would have paid Nipper's as well. Nope. I didn't. So he texted me from set just now, that he needs me to pay his dues, this minute. As in he's sitting on set and the producer is running his paperwork, and oh he's "station 12". Embarrassing.

Next life I'm going to be SO organized. And thin.