white > yellow

if you follow me on instagram you'll know that this week i've been working like a mad martha stewart with a paint brush!

here's the dish: when we first moved in, the apartment was already furnished (very weirdly. we ended up moving everything [except for a few small things] out and into a storage unit, replacing it with our stuff.) and the walls were painted this color ------>

 

now ya'll are probably like "oh, well that doesn't look so bad, it's like a country bumpkin yellow..."

well wait until you live here and then you'll see the problem: it's a light sucker! for some reason the color takes SO MUCH light out of the apartment (which is CRAZY considering the HUGE windows). so no matter what time the day- regardless of the fact that all the lights are on- even if i have make-up on (the days are dark without it...)- it was still toooooo dark for ANYONES liking.

 

so i had to contact the landlord to get permission to paint, she is apparently a interior designer, which i'm extremely skeptical about, considering the color of the walls and the furnishings that were here when we arrived. if she really is an interior designer she will totally approve the idea considering that white it only the hottest color ever and it will really boost the resale value of this place... are you convinced/on team white now?

 

got approved on monday at 10am. by 11am i was putting blue tape all over the place.

 

^ the kitchen was a monster with all of it's teeeeny, tiiiny over the cabinet crannies! ^

 

^ by tuesday afternoon i was sporting many random strands of white hair and dead arms, but a very big smile... can you see the light come back into the room? it's like the sun is poking it's little head out from some big, ugly, yellow clouds. ^

 

 

wednesday: start painting at 8am with t-minus 11 hours until my dinner guests arrive. this is clearly a job for martha stewarts conqueror, {me}. with the help of my mom and her ladder, the entire apartment was white washed by 2:30, cleaned up by 4, dinner was on the table by 7.

 

the paint gods were really on my side this week!!!

 

 

^^ check out the vintage TV. LOL, already here, so why not keep it?? ^^

 

^^ my favorite rug purchase yet ^^

 

^^ thanks to my sweet friend, [hw], for such a cute addition to my nightstand. i LOVE it! ^^

 

^^ and thanks to my mom who temporarily donated (haha) this vintage window for the beautification of our bedroom. when we move out, it's all yours again:) [can you tell which furniture is in the process of being replaced/is the result of the "interior designer" landlord?? college dorm Target nightstands don't really fit in, do they?^^

 

 

SO there it is. before i just liked  our apartment- now i love  it. it's just so much brighter and so much friendlier. it feels like we've added an extra 100sqft (it's an illusion...), and we finally sit down in the living room and actually want to be there.

 





chocolate chip cookies on steriods.

paula dean would seriously hate me. but guess what? i hate butter. if there is a recipe that calls for butter... then i'll use avocado or applesauce or pumpkin. i hate to be such a crazy, but seriously, if butter and i were to ever get in a fight... i would totally win.

so the other day i made some chocolate chip cookies with avocado instead of butter ( cause ya know, butter hater!!) and whole wheat flour instead of white, and secret LOVED it. he seriously kept referring to them as "healthy cookies". my sweet boy. i had to remind him that they weren't healthy! they still had sugar and choco. chips in them! they were just healthIER....

it was only after hearing "oh these delicious heathy cookies" 43 times that i thought "you want healthy cookies?? OH, i'll give you healthy cookies..."

so the challenge began.

i pulled out a cookbook that i never use (for various reasons, but mainly because one shouldn't have to hide vegetables AND by hiding vegetables you're enabling your eaters to be picky eaters, blah, blah...):

 
this lady's philosophy is to hide vegetables in your normal food by blending them up. so i opened up her book and sure enough- there is a recipe for chocolate chip cookies WITH: chickpeas (now we're getting somewhere!).

i liked the idea, but just chickpeas?? come on jessica, you can do better than that! so i decided to take it to the next level:) some of you are thinking: this is just wrong. no one should ever try to alter the buttery, celestial state of a good chocolate chip cookie. to that i whisper with a sly smile.....watch me.

BEHOLD!! THE REFINED, but unrefined, AND EVEN HEALTHIER:

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE.

 

 

(jessica seinfeld's choco. chip cookie recipe) (my replacements are in caps)

prep: 20 minutes 

makes 2 dozen

 

INGREDIENTS:

 

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar (SUCANUT [unrefined sugar usually found in organic stores])

3/4 cup margarine spread (HALF OF AN AVOCADO)

2 large egg whites

2 tsp vanilla

1 can chickpeas drained and rinsed (blend them up real good)

2 cups choco. chips

3/4 cup walnuts (optional)

2 cups all-purpose flour (WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR)

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats

A GOOD AMOUNT OF FLAXSEEDS

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

 

INSTRUCTIONS:

 

1. preheat oven to 350. coat baking sheet with cooking spray.

2. beat sugar and margarine/avocado until smooth. beat in the egg whites and vanilla, then the chickpeas and chocolate chips. add flour, oats, flaxseeds, baking soda and salt. mix on low speed until thick dough forms.

3. drop dough in the spoonful onto the baking sheet, flatten with fork if flatter cookies are desired, bake until golden brown or 11-13 minutes.

 

** can be stored for up to 3 days.

 

 

SO that is what i made ladies and gentlemen. DID secret like them? no, he LOVED them! did i "one-up" this recipe? indubitably! do i feel guilty eating 3 in a day? n o   i   d o n ' t.

 

with that said: if you ever make these cookies, give me a shout out! i'd love to hear how other people liked (or didn't like) these cookies! some friends of ours who tried the cookies said: they taste healthy... hahahaha and that my friend, is because they are!

 

until the next recipe re-do!

 

 

 



welcome to slc.

there are two possible [reasons] for why i haven't blogged in forever:
1- i've been so terribly busy that i just haven't been able to find the time to write.
2- i've been moderately busy, having plenty of possible time to blog, i just haven't felt like blogging.

option 2 definitely trumped 1 up until now!

here's the run down:
> last blog post we were crazily looking for our next home... from marmalade district to sugarhouse, from the avenues to gateway.... we were seriously looking EVERYWHERE. EVERY and ANY sign we saw that said "renting" or "leasing" we called. i was an  hourly regular on ksl.com and craigslist. it was getting pretty ridiculous.
> after a very long day of looking at apartments, we decided to settle with a very cute home in the avenues. it was super exciting, but it just didn't feel right (we all know that feeling). SO i hopped on craigslist one last time before bed and found an ad for a loft apartment that i had looked at months ago! it was being shown between 5:30-6 the next day and i was totally pumped.
> long story short > we made the open house, INSTANTLY fell in love, made a deposit right on the spot and the next day we had the keys (sorry to everyone else who was looking at our apartment... you gotta be quick!)!

> so here i find myself, 3 weeks later in our new apartment. pictures to come in the following weeks!

BUT in the MEANTIME, as secret said earlier this week "slc has pleasantly surprised [him]". we are in a prime location for public transportation, malls, markets, restaurants, our church, etc. we just feel so blessed! and being a native of utah, i have had this drive to expose secret to all the fun activities this state has to offer.

yesterday was the first day of an entire day of {slc adventuring}.
starting with the farmers market------->

^ you know you've found a good egg when he carries your leafy greens... ;)

^ i LOVE this street a block away from our place! has darling restaurants, antique and fabric stores!

^ the only upside to 100+ degree weather is the amazing thunderstorms that take over the afternoon!

 

 

 

as a child i remember visiting [timpanogos cave] and really loving it. so i thought it would make a good first saturday adventure! (the best part is that secret didn't even know where we were going until we were in the parking lot:)

 

^ first a picnic down by the creek...

 

^ a pretty intense hike to the top means stopping to breathe and take it in!

 

^ this face captures the fun we had in the cave! he kept telling our tour group to slow down... "are you even seeing these stalagmites???" 

^ don't worry, that's just sweat on his shirt from a crazy hike straight up the mountain.

 

^ unreal!

 

 

so there it is! day one of our adventures! we're super excited to start the next chapter of our lives here in slc and can't wait to see EVERYTHING that it has to offer! we are excited to make new friends and have new experiences. we feel very blessed to be where we are and know that for the next two years this is where we're supposed to be!