Lulu's Recipe Box

A little color

The drab cream and white colors of apartments can become really boring. However, it's not always worth it to make a lot of changes to an apt. that you won't be living in for long.  Even though we'll only be in this apartment for a max of three years, it is officially our first home together as a married couple. We want to make it feel like our home as much as possible so we decided that we are going to paint a few big walls to make an impact, one in the dining area and one in our bedroom. We started with the dining area and chose a fun apple green color that would brighten up the living area. Plus the green looks great with the cobalt blue color that I use in the kitchen. 

We definitely need to add something to this big wall which I'll have to start shopping for. So far, we just have our wine rack on the wall which was a great wedding gift. Unfortunately, the great bottles of wine we received for a wedding gift are back in Iowa, so I guess I'll just have to go buy some more!  I'll update this once we add something fun to our wall. Next up is the bedroom. We need to buy our bedding first, but we are thinking a light blue for that room. Hopefully I can show you that final product in a few weeks!

Excuse the ugly light over our table. : )

 

 
 
 
 

A New Beginning

The past month has been a whirlwind of wonderful changes (hence my absence from the blogging world). I married the most caring and handsome man on a perfect Iowa summer day. It rained the days before and after the wedding, but June 19 was a beautiful 85 degrees. It was the best day of my life. We were surrounded by our friends and family and had one hell of a party! I wish we could relive the day over and over again!

Here we are on our way to the reception as Mr. and Mrs. Mack!

 

As soon as we returned to Pennsylvania, we finished up packing our apartment and moved to a different apartment. Anyone who decides to move after a wedding is crazy (including ourselves) but you can't help when a lease ends! Luckily we had several days to take things to the new place as well as a helper, TC's mom Ann. Even though the move was stressful, it was well worth it. We have more space, central air, a small porch where we can finally put a grill, laundry IN the apartment (one of my favorite parts), two bathrooms (the key to a happy marriage), a pool and workout facility, and my favorite part by far is the nice, spacious kitchen! The kitchen at our old place could barely fit everything we had before getting married. Now that we have accumulated even more kitchen items post-wedding, we really need the extra cupboard space.

Here is the old kitchen.

Here is the new kitchen!

 

 

 

 

 

One of my favorite wedding presents is the black and white polka dot pepper mill from Pam and Mike. It looks great sitting out on the counter! Thank you Rosenbergs!

I also love my new clear glass jars to hold flour and sugar (from Crate and Barrel). I have always wanted some after seeing them on the Barefoot Contessa's (Ina Garten) kitchen counter.

Now that I have a much more spacious kitchen, lots of fun new kitchen gadgets, and the rest of my summer off, I promise I will be posting lots of yummy summer recipes! Just made lemon bars tonight so I will be posting that recipe soon!