Happy Sukkos!

I unfortunately don't have photos of the living room walls yet (have been working crazy hours at work) but in honor of the Jewish holiday of Sukkos (or Sukkot) that begins Wednesday night, I baked and decorated some (not PCOS diet approved) cupcakes. 

Okay, so I cheated on all of it. But I made them after coming home from work at 11:30pm so I think I deserve a pass on this one. They're half Duncan Hines' Devils Food and half Classic Yellow cake mixes, and store-bought frosting mixed with blue food coloring. I used yellow jumbo jelly beans for the esrog (etrog), green sour sticks for the lulav, cereal (Shreddies from Canada) for the sukkah and green/white jelly beans for the schach and sukkah door. Happy Sukkos everyone!!

Oh, and here's a photo of our Esrog this year: 

Love it!

Once You Pop, You Can't Stop

Okay so if the suspense hasn't killed you by now, you're probably my Facebook friend and know the results of Paint Indecision 2013. We finally went for it. We picked a color. Are you ready? Remember, it was between Benjamin Moore's Dolphin AF-715 and Benjamin Moore's Galveston Gray AC-27.

And the winner was....
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.
.
.
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Galveston Gray (!!!):

We went with the lighter of the two choices. I wasn't sure it could hold it's own against the Benjamin Moore's Bird's Egg 2051-60 in the hallway, but it totally does. E repeatedly let me know that it was ultimately my decision, but that he thought that Dolphin would be too dark. That kicked my anxiety into high gear, and although I loved Dolphin and was leaning towards it the entire time, I just couldn't go through with it in the end. Galveston Gray is a nice, toasty gray. It's the same tone as Studio Taupe, but more gray than beige on the greige scale (Studio Taupe is the opposite- more beige than gray). For the sake of full disclosure, it's still a little bland behind the beige couches in some lights (I wish the couches "popped" more) but it's definitely better than before, and I love it with everything else in our living room. It's part of BM's "America's Colors" collection, and I'm guessing it's named after Galveston, TX, but I'm not really sure what's so greige about Texas. I'm a New England girl, remember?

Here's a sneak peek:

My warrior of a husband worked an overnight shift, went to grad school, and picked up a gallon and a quart of this bad boy from Home Depot "on his way" home for me. Okay, it's not exactly on his way. It's pretty much out of his way, actually. Which scores him even more props.

I'm not sure why, but we usually get our Benjamin Moore picks color matched to Behr paint+primer in one. I used to think it was because I liked the Behr coverage/application more, but people always seem surprised when I tell them that. So I'm piecing it together that it's actually a combination of Home Depot's hours being way more convenient (open till 10 or 11pm) than those of the smaller hardware stores that sell BM paint (which all close by 7pm) and the fact that BM "sample" sizes are like $6+ each vs getting a color matched to a Behr sample size costing $3-4. I'm sure the Behr gallon is also cheaper than the BM gallon. So that's probably why.

Then on one of his next overnight shifts, (the night before Yom Kippur actually) I hit my breaking point of not being able to handle the patchwork quilt of paint swatches on our walls (see here) and decided to just do the edging. That way it'd be easier when I decided to do the full walls... I'd just have to move all of the furniture to the middle of the room and go for it without worrying about details.

Yeah, but that didn't happen. Once you pop, you just can't stop.

Ok, this might be TMI but it happened to be really hot and humid that night, and I don't think I've EVER sweat that much in my life. Someone should make a DIY Workout video. I literally thought I was going to pass out (I'm sure it had nothing to do with the paint fumes).

Anyway, this little Brooklyn apartment living room of ours is feeling more and more "us". E walked into the room the next morning and said "It feels so much more home-y!" BOOM. Those were the exact words I was looking for. BTW Our new theme for the house is somewhere between "Urban Lumberjack" and "Urban Hobbit Hole". Yep. I've clearly given this too much a lot of thought.

I'll post some photos of the actual room tomorrow (or "soon"), but first you should know that I've been at it again with my poor poor photoshop skillz. No, it's not even photoshop. It's from "Instacollage" on my iPhone. I'm hanging my head in shame, don't worry. But this, my friends, is our current collection of paint colors in our apartment.

The guest room might get repainted with Behr's Studio Taupe at some point (we have a bunch leftover from our first living room painting experience- and I love the color, just not in the living room) but for now it's Stone, which is a gray with purple undertones. And after this super uncomfortably hot painting experience, it might be awhile before I tackle a paint job again. 

Regardless, I'm actually pretty pleased with the combination. It honestly goes together better in the photo than in real life, but we'll roll with it. And speaking of rolling, I'm out of here. Hopefully I'll get that next post up tomorrow!

50 Shades of Gray

Yeah, I went there. No, I haven't read it. I don't even know much about it. Okay, fine. I saw one parody.

And honestly, the title is actually a low estimate of how many shades of gray I've considered for our living room. Like maybe multiply "50" by 3 and we'll be closer. I'm not joking. I'm that much of a crazy woman. And by the end of this post, you will all have lost any respect for the decorating abilities that you *thought* I posessed. Spoiler alert: It's all trial and error, baby.

It started back in 2011. We were moving into our THIRD apartment in the span of just over 2 years. We loved our first one-bedroom apartment, but found a two-bedroom for less money per month, in a building where a bunch of our friends lived. It was in a sketchier neighborhood, but we jumped on it like white on rice (what?!). Less than a week later it was broken into and we were robbed. COOL! We somehow lasted 8 more months there, but one day I snapped. We started looking for a new place that night, the next morning we went to look at an apartment, and by midday we had signed a new lease. True story.

We really wanted to mark this place as a fresh start, so we asked for permission to paint from our landlord. The exact words: "I wouldn't do, say, 'burnt orange' or anything, but otherwise yes, you can paint." GREEN LIGHT!

Turns out, I had no idea what I was doing. The only paint-picking experience I had up until then was picking my room color when I was a kid. I'd go to the store with my mom, I would point to a color I liked, and that was it. There was no bringing home paint chips and seeing what they looked like in different lights. There were no paint samples that you painted on walls to compare. There was no process, you just did it. So... that's what I did this time. I went to the store and picked out this awesome "greige" for the living room (Studio Taupe by Behr). I was so in love with it that I wanted to paint the whole apartment that color. E, thankfully, stopped me. Because that would've been weird.

Then we moved our furniture in. I don't think it hit me for awhile, probably because of all the excitement of moving, but as time went on I realized that this paint color was mighty similar to the color of our couches. And once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it. I've been searching my computer for a photo, but the best I can come up with is this:

It's doesn't even look that bad there. In real life the color has more brown undertones. The couch and walls just look bland together. Side note: that rug kicked the bucket awhile ago. Even though it was way too small for our living room, I miss it because it really tied the room together.... OMG!!!

My life is now complete. I can't believe I just worked that into this blog. YES. 

ANYWAY. We I started looking obsessive-compulsively searching for "the perfect gray" back in March or April. Yes, it's been that long. I tried Benjamin Moore, Behr, Martha Stewart, Glidden... I'd have added Sherwin Williams and Olympic and Valspar into the mix too but Lowe's is harder to get to while carless in Brooklyn (we I learned that lesson while doing this same exact process for the hallway). Even Home Depot is a pain(t) in the tush of a trip, but sometimes a girl needs an excuse to head to Manhattan. ;) We hung up paint chips, painted paint samples, conducted extensive Pinterest, Houzz.com and google image searches. I've literally probably lost weeks of my life to this quest... Just take a look. This is only a small selection-- most of this process took place before I had considered starting Fruitful Furbishings, so I didn't document it. But prepare to be shocked and appalled.

Here's the earliest photographed stage. At one point there were way more paint chips taped to the wall and they were admittedly all roughly the same shade of gray. I'm already hanging my head in shame: 

Stage two. We had it narrowed down to two colors. Zinc #MSL267 by Martha Stewart, Dolphin AF-715 by Benjamin Moore. But then we I still couldn't decide. So I started tapping into our previously vetoed paint chip and paint sample supply. In the first photo, the top right is MS Zinc, the top middle is BM Dolphin, the top right is BM's Dolphin at 75% strength (oh yes I'm serious), purple-ish one on the bottom right is Stone 2112-40 by Benjamin Moore (which we had bought for the kitchen, hated it there, and then used in our guest room), and the light one on the bottom left is Galveston Gray AC-27 by Benjamin Moore: 

 Stage 3. We narrowed it down to two very different looks. Dark: Dolphin AF-715 by Benjamin Moore and Light: Galveston Gray AC-27 by Benjamin Moore. I painted over the majority of the other paint samples (missed a small block of MS Zinc in the 3rd pic). Please excuse miscellaneous items and dust balls that made their way into the shots. And the blue paint chip stuck into that frame is our hallway color, Bird's Egg 2051-60 by Benjamin Moore, and there for reference.

 

I couldn't decide- I could honestly go either way but it's two totally different vibes. My husband is adamantly pro-GG. So I did the mature, well thought-out thing. I posted a photo on Facebook and asked my friends to decide. I'm not kidding. There were a few votes for one wall dark and three light walls, but one of our walls already has faux brick detailing so I thought the combination would be too much. There were also rogue votes for blue, green and burgundy. 

In the end, team "Dark" won the Facebook poll 27-17. 

But which did I we actually decide to go with? You'll have to wait and see. E's at Home Depot right now.... I know, the suspense must already be killing you. 

Procrastination Station

Here we are, less than 20 hours until Rosh Hashanah here in NYC, and I haven't started baking. We're going to friends for all of the festive meals, but we're in charge of dessert and a green bean side (I haven't even BOUGHT the green beans!) and I have this big plan in my head to also bake cookies for all of our hosts. Deciding whether to sleep now and bake in the AM or to bake now and catch a nap tomorrow. Either way, the one thing I do have prepped is this:

I drew this guy while working an overnight the other night and I took a photo with my iPhone. Tonight I got it onto the computer, googled "photo editor" and ended up on Pixlr.com. On there I colored it in like in old school Microsoft paint (Does that still exist?? I've had an Apple since like 2003.) Slapped on a little textual Thank You note, and baddabingbaddabang, there we have it. Graphic design is clearly not my specialty, but I'm kind of impressed with myself. Unlike yesterday when I realized the rod I bought for our closet is the wrong size. Womp womp womp.

Anyway, have a great Rosh Hashana!!!

Gone Fishin'

Yeah, not really. I think any fishing trip I attempted would result in something like this (maybe it'd get me some hits on here, haha):

No, this is not a fishing story. This is a shopping story. See, on (yet another) Home Depot paint samples run (still for the living room! Ahhh- I know!!), on a particularly hot August afternoon, I happened upon Fishs Eddy. I actually spotted it out of the corner of my eye from across the street, got almost a block past it, and then felt this unbelievable urge to turn around and head back to check it out. I'd heard about this place for years but had never actually been in there. It. Was. Awesome. I never planned on doing this kind of post, but as soon as I stepped into the store I knew there was no avoiding it. Check this stuff out, and it was all pretty affordable too:

I was pretty much sold on this place as soon as I saw all of these teal bowls and the POLKA DOTS!

I've been drooling over cutting boards like this on Etsy for years. These were crazy cute.

I'm a sucker for blue and teal. These fish plates were really calling my name- especially the bottom ones.

If I hadn't been carrying as much stuff from Home Depot as I already was, this bottle would have come home with me. I LOVE the cow detail. 

How adorns is this squirrel nut cracker??

High Five Teddy & Bear? I thought my history-buff husband would think this was cute. 

My one complaint about Fishs Eddy was how everything is just kind of out there, and most of it is fragile. My 6'5" husband might be a bit of a bull in a china shop (almost literally) if I tried to drag him in there. I'm sure he won't need too much consoling over not being "invited" (aka dragged along). ;)

On my way home I was melting walking through Union Square and caught this really intense photo of the sky. It was extra cool at the time because there was a small jazz band playing some really festive music right by the farmers market (which was closing up for the evening). I <3 NY.  Sometimes. Even in August.

The Not-So-Hellish Diet-From-Hell.

I've been owing you this post about my actual "diet" for 4 months now... so here we go! 

One of the things that drives me the most crazy about having PCOS is how out of control it makes me feel. Not in a wild way. I'm not Animal:

Excuse the poor video quality. Um, I'd definitely burn some major calories if I had that much energy.

I've tried a few different PCOS-friendly diets. First I tried balancing my sugar throughout the day, diabetic-style, but that was sort of short-lived. Possibly because it was too free. I didn't have the self-control to be able to eat a huge variety of things and still make appropriate choices. So then I tried the Paleo diet, also known as the Caveman diet. Because, apparently, I'm an extremist? That lasted a little bit longer but I was struggling with the idea of making two dinners every night- one for me and one for The Man because I felt bad subjecting him to my restrictions. Since there's only two of us (haha that's kind of the point of this blog isn't it?), if my husband isn't going to be on a diet with me (and why should he be??), things get a little complicated around dinnertime.

I'm not a huge fan of excuses. I guess I just wasn't ready for the full-blown commitment, maybe. Not until I saw this video:

If you watch that video, she spells out the guidelines for the PCOS low-amylose diet and tells her amazing story... you can read more of her journey over at The Subfertile Frugalista.

But to make a long story short, here are the rules in a nutshell:
       1. Avoid all simple sugars- no candy, soda, cake, ice cream, canned fruit, yogurt, cookies etc. AKA: ALL OF MY FAVORITE FOODS. Oh Em Gee.
       2. Avoid vegetables grown underground (except onions and garlic), corn, bananas, and foods enriched with maltodextrin or corn syrup.
       3. Avoid wheat, rice, rye, barley, and oats- yeah, that means no oatmeal, bread, pasta, cereal. You know, all of the easiest/quicket possible food options in existence.
       4. Eat a minimum of 3 servings each of above-ground veggies and fruits daily.
       5. Eat at least 6 ounces of protein every day.
Avoid low-fat foods.
DON'T count calories (holla!).

We're currently on a break from Reproductive Endocrinologist appointments for a number of reasons, so in the meantime, we've been trying this diet out (in addition to my Metformin prescription). I've also pretty much cut out all soy as well since I've read it messes with your estrogen levels and that's pretty much the last thing I need. I've been doing this since April! Almost 4 months! Things do get complicated with dinnertime, like they did with the Paleo diet but after seeing that video and her success story, I just had to make the commitment.

So. What HAVE I been eating? A whole lot of chicken and nuts. More dairy than I should probably should be having (mostly milk). I started out with a ton of smoothies with lots of fruit and vegetables but I've kind of been slacking on that- gotta get back into it. Those Chocolate Brownie Bites I posted about were a major staple for awhile. Some fish. A bunch of different almond flour and coconut flour experiments. I've got this fake cookie dough recipe that uses chick peas that I need to post about! And I've been doing this since April!

It can be done! Clockwise from top left: An avocado & salmon appetizer from a sushi restaurant on a trip to Montreal; homemade salmon kebabs; grilled chicken with a spice rub while visiting my parents in Massachusetts; homemade cauliflower tortilla with kielbasa (questionable) and veggies.

Err, actually, this past month has been a bit harder, I've "cheated" more than I'd like to admit (today we came back from vacation, throughout which I only moderately cheated, but then I declared today a MAJORCHEATDAY and have so far only eaten a doughnut and an ice cream sundae. Yep. Back on track as of right... now!), and therefore my weight loss streak has tapered off a bit, but I've been a lot better about taking my Metformin 3x/day. And yes, with me that is something to write home about. All-in-all I've lost somewhere between 9 and 15 lbs more than the number on the scale that I'd been repeatedly getting stuck at for the past 2+ years, and 15-28lbs since my highest weight spike ever. So... BOOM.

Worth it. (and for realz, we're officially back on track!)

A Fine Establishment

Welllll look who decided to show up. TWO days in a row!

IDK if you happened to notice, but in the last post I started using a real camera. That's right. No iPhone there, friends. You see, my trusty Canon (see what I did there) had been MIA (zing!) for over a year. I started making photo yearbooks a few weeks ago, and I have NO IDEA what I'm going to do when I (eventually) get to 2013. It's going to be an entire yearbook of Instagrammed pictures. No joke. I'm like having anxiety over it already.

But enough about that. For awhile now (like years) I've REALLY been wanting to get one of those framed signs that people make of your last name (or kid's first name) made up of random black and white photos of letters. But those things are EXPENSIVE. I almost sucked it up and bought a Groupon for one on like 8 different occasions. But my cheapness kept getting the best of me.

So then I decided to make my own.

I even bought a nice frame for it on a trip to Ikea! And I actually found a website with free printable photos of letters AND I sorted through 100s of each letter, and narrowed it down to a few of each, and finally picked ONE of each of the 7 letters in "Sherman". I did it! But then it was like 4am and I needed to go to bed.

And then, suddenly, it was like 5+ months later. Oops. So now I don't remember what that awesome free letters website was, but I'd be willing to bet that I found it on Pinterest. :)

But tonight was the night. I found that Ikea Ribba frame and I whipped out my iPhoto album of the 7 photos that I'd already turned black and white, and I did a little bit of math and figured out that each one needed to be 2.6"x2.6" to fit (errr after a few miscalculations and wasted printouts. Math was never my specialty). I'm not sure if I'd recommend this particular frame, btw. I would have preferred it to be a bit shorter and wider so that the photos fit better but that's what you get when you do things on the fly. DO NOT tell my husband that I just admitted that I make rash decisions. Umm... Hi honey! ;)

Here's how that came out:

Next step was to pull my signature lazy person move and flip over the piece of paper inside the frame to get a white background. Except... wait for it... here's my Oh Sh*t! moment:

There were INSTRUCTIONS printed all over the back of that paper! What?! Thinking fast (also not my specialty, but this time that brain of mine *almost* pulled through), I grabbed my bag of scrap fabric and a few rolls of wrapping paper. Chaos ensued:

...Nothing worked. My vision had been for the letters to be against plain white. I actually sat down on the floor at this point, feeling defeated (and overdramatic). That's when I saw it: The pile of my husband's scrubs. At first, I was like:

But thennnn I was like: 

Because guess what color they were, and guess what I'd thrown a pair of into my designated cleaning cloth pile earlier this week (and hadn't used yet)?! That's right. WHITE. SCRUBS:

Now, of course, that added a whole ironing-and-taping step. But hey, sometimes life throws us curve balls. Look, Mom, I ironed!!! ....Yeah, it's really kind of a big deal. I honestly don't know why we even own an iron and ironing board. MAYBE for this exact moment?? ;)

 Aaaand to end a very long story almost-awkwardly quickly, here's the finished product:

Ta-daaa! I threw in a printout of "Established 2009" for a little extra kitsch and because it looked a little weird when it was just the letters centered in the frame all alone. Yeah, that "R" is a little bit higher than the rest of the letters, and therefore driving the OCD in me CRAY-ZAY, but it honestly might be another 5 months before I fix it. True story.