My New Kitchen

As we are starting to get settled into our new house I thought I would post pictures of it. So far I've only managed to capture decent photos of the kitchen. It has a very nice layout and so far I've really enjoyed cooking in it. (I've now made 3 dinners!) Moving from left to right we have a refrigerator, dishwasher, sink, range, and microwave. I love the hardwood floors but we added the green mat for Mary to play on (on loan from Woodley's advisor). It is very nice and cushy and works perfectly since she is now mastering the fine art of balancing while sitting up.  

I especially like the refrigerator. It is very tall and narrow with lots of short shelves. I think it would be possible to store quite a bit of food in it, although I don't think I'd be able to reach anything on the back of the top shelves. 

The freezer also has a great design. I love that it is on the bottom and that it has four drawers which makes it really easy to organize the frozen food. 

One of the things our pre-furnished kitchen is missing though is dish towels. We've looked for them at two different grocery stores and so far haven't been able to find any, although we have purchased several things that we thought might work. As you can see below, we have quite a collection of "klut" or cloths. The one on the bottom was the first one we purchased. It turns out it is not very absorbent and is actually supposed to be used for cleaning the floor. We also have "universalklut" (multipurpose cloths), "parkettklut" (wooden cloths), and "fonsterduk" (which I can't find a translation for). Most of them appear to be designed to clean wooden floors (a good thing to have since we have a lot of wooden floors) and none of them are at all absorbent or good for use as dish towels. 

I think we'll now give up on trying to find kitchen towels at the grocery stores and we'll try Ikea next weekend. Mary really enjoyed playing with the cloths so at least they were good for something. 

Today I put Mary in the little jacket/cardigan that I sewed for her while I was pregnant. It fits her perfectly and she looks so adorable in it! It was the only girl item I managed to finish sewing so I'm glad I got around to putting her in it before she outgrew it. 

It might be even better if I get around to adding a button to fasten it in the front. 

And to finish up, a picture of one of our new favorite evening activities - skyping with friends and family back home!  

And now I'm heading to bed for what I hope will be a more peaceful night than last night was. Yesterday Mary slept pretty well from 6 pm to midnight (only waking up every 2 hours) and then woke up every 30 to 60 minutes from midnight through 5:45 am when we finally gave up trying to get her back to sleep. Where oh where did the days go when she slept straight for 6 hours at a stretch?! Is it teething? The new location? The time change? We are dedicatedly reading our "No Cry Sleep Solution" book and dreaming of longer stretches of sleep. Perhaps tonight will be the night! (I can always hope...)

~ElizabethRose~

What to wear to the ball...

Above is one of my favorite pieces of lace. I got it awhile back for less than a dollar on ebay and I love its elegant look. We use it as a dresser scarf in our bedroom and I just adore the way it looks!

Tonight is the Stanford Viennese Ball and I must start getting ready for it just as soon as I post this. The ball is a fabulous event that Woodley and I have attended together the past 4 years. We should have gone together 5 years ago but we had just met a couple of months before and we didn't know each other very well yet. I remember sitting on the floor of the dance hall during one of our discussion breaks. It was a week or two before the dance and Richard (the instructor) asked us to raise our hands if we still needed a date. I had already promised a different friend that I would go with him but as I glanced around the room I saw Woodley raising his hand. I'm not sure I even knew his name at that point, but I remember distinctly thinking that I really ought to be going to the ball with him. And here we are 5 years later going to the ball together for the first time as a married couple. It's so funny how things work out!

I have several dresses that I am thinking about wearing tonight and I'm still trying to decide which one it will be. We need to leave in a little less than an hour so I suppose I should quit writing and start trying them on! I'll have to report back tomorrow about which one wins out. There are a few floor length choices: the gold one, the vintage 50's forest green one, the pale satiny blue one that I wore to prom in high school, and the black satin one with the feathers around the top. Then there are 4 or 5 shorter ones that would be about mid-calf in length. They all are 50's style with full skirts and strapless tops.

Notes from Today:
It looks like Valicia's kitty Laila will be joining our small household for the next few months and we are so excited! To help get ready for her arrival I got in touch with the landlords about the pet deposit and started cleaning. We're having company over for dinner on Sunday night and what with the ball and the kitty's arrival and church I thought I'd better get the house in order. I started in the kitchen where I did all the dishes, wiped down the counters, cleaned out the sink, and cleaned up the stove top. It's so nice in there when it is clean! Below is a picture of my vintage style timer that I keep on the stove. I just love it!

After I finished cleaning the kitchen I moved over to the sun room where I vacuumed and dusted. After that came the dining room where I again vacuumed and dusted. I also cleaned off my green glassware that I had sitting on the counter by the window. That counter is kind of like a window seat and I thought it would be a very attractive place for Laila to explore and sit. Since I didn't want her to accidentally knock over the glass with her tail I decided to move it to the basement and to put a cat bed in that place instead. Below is a picture of the glassware before I started cleaning it off. I absolutely love blue and green vintage glassware. I collected a ton of it before our wedding and we used the pieces as vases for our centerpieces. They were absolutely lovely! I'll have to post photos of that later!



Now I'm off to get ready for the ball!

~ElizabethRose