Today

This is what our house looks like today, isn't it cute? We have had more record breaking snowfall here in South West England, which is great for enjoying cozy days snowed in by the fire. We just hope that Mother Nature sorts herself out by Wednesday so we can drive up to London for our flight to Houston on Thursday. It looks like we should be okay, but it's a bit concerning for the obvious reason that if I don't get Mexican food soon I'll most likely wither away and perish. But since there's nothing we can do about it and since I can't get into work today and since we have plenty of sloe gin in the house, Sam and I are going to enjoy the snow day. We will probably also spend the day helping people get their cars unstuck outside our house which is what Sam is going right now...

P.S. This is my 100th post.

mi cocina

For those of you who don't know, mi cocina means my kitchen in Spanish. It's also the name of one of the best Mexican food places in College Station, Texas, and I wish I hadn't even thought of that because I'm starving right now. I'll probably feel grouchy for the rest of the day.

Anyway, I realized that I never posted pictures of the kitchen after it turned red. The redness of the kitchen came about back when Sam and I were in our local home improvement store buying supplies for our banish-the-wallpaper project which I believe took place during most of May of this year. We were choosing paint for the hallway and I really wanted a nice shade of light sage-y green to spice things up and Sam wanted white because that's the colo[u]r walls should be. Toward the end of this discussion, when I realized I was most likely defeated, I defiantly said something like , "Fine, but this just means I'm going to paint the kitchen red," which in my mind was a bit of a crazy thing to suggest--so crazy that it would convince Sam to let me have my way with the sage-y green hallway. To my surprise he said something like, "That's a great idea, I think that would look really good." And that is how we found ourselves painting the kitchen red before we had even finished the hallway. When I put the first coat up I had my doubts, it's a deeply saturated red--think blood. But we have light coming from three directions in that room so it's actually quite bright and cheery in there, and I apologize that these photos really don't do it much justice.

I really like our kitchen (in spite of the shocking back splash tiles which I haven't saved up enough money to replace yet) because we have lovely solid wood cabinets which must have been pricey (thank you very much previous owners) and because it's huge compared to most kitchens you find in England--especially cottages of this size. We have tons of storage space, and I like being able to have our table in there. If only our bathroom would take a hint from this space and not be such a dire, wretched little hole. But I digress.

Please also note our new refrigerator, complete with a freezer, which we lived without for over a year. Can you even believe that? Although it was probably good for my waist line, now we have no excuse not to buy ice cream.

And just in case you forgot what it used to look like, here it is in Magnolia.

I kind of like it this way too. Uh oh. Oh well, I always knew I'd probably paint it a different color some day. I'm crazy like that, I like change and I like it often. Anyway, the white/natural look is in these days, which I think would really emphasize our lovely cabinets. But first I think we'll banish that linoleum...

I also have big plans for that table and those chairs.

a heartbreakingly beautiful walk

The day after Thanksgiving (which is celebrated on the Saturday after by our family here) we went for a nice long walk to try and burn off some of that pie. And because it happened to snow and it was too beautiful to miss. I couldn't take enough pictures. I am thankful I get to live here and have walks like this in my back yard.