Nourishment for the Soul

If you have read any of my posts before, you should have a pretty good idea that I love food. I love everything about food; the preparation of it, the look, the smell, the taste, the way it brings people together around a table. I married a man whose passion for food exceeds my own so its no surprise that when we travel we arrange our trips and excursions around cuisine.
 
Our most recent voyage brought us to Miami, home of the Bazaar by Jose Andres. It was a culinary marathon of 20+ courses ranging from small bite size salami and caviar to a dragon fruit ceviche and finished with a deconstructed key lime pie.
 
What I loved about this experience was that it was a 3 hour culinary journey I got to share with the love of my life. Its not just about the food, but how the food is experienced and shared and how that united us. In 30 years from now, my husband and I will remember this meal just like we remember the time we ate at Daniel's in New York or the place we picked a fish on the beach and watched them cook it for us in Thailand.

These meals create lasting memories for us that we can cherish for the rest of our lives. Sitting at tables all over the world, from Miami to my mother's kitchen counter, these meals make me stop and slow down and cherish what I have and who I am sharing these meals with. No matter what food you enjoy or where you eat it, I pray that you each can slow down and enjoy the nourishment, not just for your body but for your soul as well.

 

Bon Appetit

New Year, New Start

 

So many people have opinions it seems about making New Years resolutions. For me, I don't see why anyone wouldn't. Life is a journey, and we should take every moment and opportunity as a chance to grow and better ourselves. I love being able to reflect on 2012; all the past mistakes, opportunities lost, experiences that changed me and made me different today. 2013 is a chance to hit reset and change things for this year. I hope that when I am 70 I am still trying to better myself. So here it is, my goals for 2013.

My Husband
Honestly, I love this man more every day. He is my rock and without him my life would be so grey. My goal this year is to be more intentional with my relationship to him. I love being a wife, and I am blessed with a job that lets me be able to focus on taking care of my household as well. I feel there is a big difference in managing a house, and being intentional with every action. Serving my husband a plate of dinner after work is different than intentionally making a meal he enjoys, plating it well, serving a sit-down-not-in-front-of-the-tv dinner to him. Doing the laundry is different than intentionally cleaning folding, pressing, and putting his clothes away. Saying 'I love you" is different than intentionally saying the words and meaning it every time I say it. Going out to dinner for a date night is different than intentionally being present in that evening and putting all my stresses and anxieties away to spend quality silly time with the man I am so blessed to have in my life. I want to enjoy our lives together and flourish rather than just trying to just survive our days. I want to be silly with him. I want to make memories with him; not just on big days, but every day.

My Family
God has blessed me with amazing family and the opportunity to move closer to them. This year I want to work harder and building closer bounds and getting deep relationships with them. Its one thing to call someone a sister or a mother because they are blood; I want a long lasting relationship with my family that supersedes everything else. No more petty fighting and worthless energy spent over hurt feelings. At the end of the day, I want to focus on what is really important.

 

Friendships
2012 really opened my eyes to what friendship is, who my true friends are, and what a blessing a real friend is. No matter how many miles apart or time spent face to face, a real friend will stand by you through it all. I love all my friends and this year I want to make sure they all know it. Much like my husband, I want my actions with my friends to be intentional.

And Lastly...
Yes I want to work out more; I know it is cliche. But generally, I want to be healthier...both physically and mentally. I want to find workouts that I don't dread and that make me feel better. People say the best therapy can be found in the gym and I want to experience that feeling. I also want to become up close and personal about the demons I carry around me with..so to do that I think I might use this blog as a tool to express myself and try to overcome some of them.

So that is it. A long list of hopes and goals for the new year. I might fall a little, but I think the important thing is to say them out loud and allow myself some grace in finding out how to live life better every day.

Details Make a House a Home

It has been 3 weeks since we got the keys to our house! It has been full of lots of projects, hard work, and nothing but joy in all of it! For those of you who didn't read it, I posted some of my inspirations and ideas a few weeks ago of projects I wanted to do. http://biggestlittleblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/happiest-friday.html

I love details; I feel like all the details are what make a house a home. Personalized touches that make your house uniquely yours. I just wanted to share with you some of my favorite details in my new home!!!

My entry way! I have always wanted a cozy and inviting entry way. I blogged about a picture that inspired this in the link above. The shelf in the original picture was pottery barn and hundreds of dollars! Instead, we went to home depot and got 2, 6 foot long boards, molding for the edges, white paint and hooks. We built the whole shelf for under $30! I still want to play with decor for it, but I love the shelf and its super sturdy so all my guests can hang their coats and purses with no fear of falling! The bench will be perfect for little feet one day; walk in, take off shoes and coats...kind of like an entry way/mud room idea.

My dining room is one of the rooms that is uniquely our style, and not for everyone. We had a good friend who is an artist come and mimic Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc pig on our wall. For two foodies, we LOVE our dining room. If nothing else, it has become quite a conversation piece when people come over.



I love our family picture wall down our hallway. I have pictures of us both as babies, our families, travel we have done, etc. It is full of all the people we love and tons of memories. Eventually, I want the pictures to cover the entire wall.

I adore how my office turned out. I work from home so I wanted an office that was going to be calming and comfortable. We have this cute nook that had a built in desk and shelves so we painted the whole thing white to lighten it up. I love butterflies, (http://biggestlittleblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/rainbows-and-butterflies.html) and my sister sent me some beautiful prints she took that I framed and hung up. We took some puddy, and added three coats to flatten the wall from texture. I then painted three coats of chalk board paint over it. We then took some molding, painted it white, and framed the whole area out. I love my chalk board, I think its useful but also adds a lot of character.

What are some of your favorite details of your home?