Friday faves - brunch

We are having friends over for brunch on Saturday so why not focus on brunch for today's Friday Faves? (just call me efficient - I am still looking for recipe ideas afterall... :) )  If you have any easy, go-to brunch recipes please let me know!

I love the idea of brunch...particularly at home - it's so simple to whip stuff up and have a nice relaxing brunch at home. Added bonus: one of my colleagues is coming into our Toronto office and bringing fresh eggs from his farm! Organic, super fresh, local eggies. Yumm. 

 via Chubbette

via Brown Dress With White Dots

via Pinterest

via Kiss My Spatula

via Delicious Shots

via Pinterest

Here's to a deliciously relaxing weekend for all of you...oh and make sure to check back on Monday since my other weekend plan is to take pictures of our kitchen! Hope for good light..

Kitchen reveal part 3 - The backsplash

Hola amigas / amigos! I wish I was speaking Spanish because I was prepping for, or coming back from, a vacation in Spain, but no such luck. I'm been a bit absent from blogville this week, which can be attributed to the hard work we've been doing in the kitchen, and also the crazy hours I've been pulling at (my real-life) work.

Anyways...I have exciting news: the backsplash is done! And I'm showing you tonight!

All in all - the tiling was WAY harder than I thought it would be. Maybe not harder...but time consuming. And yes, harder. It's just not  like when they do it on TV. Anyways...enough griping...onto the important stuff - was it worth it? (spoiler alert: hell ya.).

Here's a look at our prep, and adhering the tile to the wall. The first part was easy - and enjoyable. The tough part came with all the cuts - the poor Mr. was outside on Saturday afternoon/night using a wet saw (of course getting wet in the process on one of the coldest days we've had this winter!). We used 1/8" spacers between each tile:

Once the adhesive was set (we let it set almost 48 hours...partially because of the trouble the devil outlet gave us, partly due to time) and then we grouted. I really liked the idea of a light gray grout because I like how the last picture above looks with darker spaces between the tiles...but we figured since (a)we're not pros (b) this is our first ever tiling job that white grout would be safer to blend in with the tiles. Had we gotten it done professionally and all the cuts were perfect I definitely would have gone gray on grout.

The grouting was TOUGH. This is not flat subway tile where you can just slap on some grout and scrape it off at a 90 degree angle. With the bevelled edges we basically had to put grout into each crevace and then smooth it.

The real reward comes about 2 hours after you sponge off the excess grout and you can wipe off the "haze" to reveal the beautiful shiny tile! The Mr. suggested the bevelled subway tile and I was 100% with him - I think it's a nice detail to a subway tile. Here's our (almost) finished product (still needs some caulking at spots):

Working weekend

You know those weekends where you are so focused on a project nothing else really matters?

That was us this weekend with project backsplash. We tiled for about 6 hours yesterday, and are letting the adhesive set a full 48 hours before we take on the grout tomorrow night (hence the post tonight and probably not tomorrow). Today a good chunk of time was spent with the Mr. trying to coax a devil-outlet that we were trying to extend to be able to put the cover over the backsplash. Grr. Not a fun task, but at least the circuit still works...for now...after way too long contorted under a cabinet we still have to fit everything back in and put the cover on. :)

Yesterday when we FINALLY finished tiling and cleaned up it was 9:30 and we were not in the mood to cook...and way too hungry to get through cooking anything...so we went to Pizzeria Libretto on Danforth and it was delicious!



via

Libretto and Queen Margherita on Queen E vie for my favourite pizza in Toronto title. Virtually the only pizza I enjoy is Neapolitan pizza, and both of these places do it extremely well. Libretto is more about combining interesting / unexpected flavours (duck confit pizza, anyone?), where as Queen Margherita has the BEST crust in town and very classic Neapolitan pizza. If I could only ever eat one for the rest of my life Queen Margherita would have to be the one. If you haven't been - go!

I did do some cooking this weekend, although our kitchen is still not fully together so it's not as easy as usual.  Friday night I made a delicious lentil salad that I had with tuna - great veggie option for dinner or lunch (recipe here).



Tonight I made a tagine (which was the plan for last night, but for obvious reasons that didn't turn out). I love morrocan food and this one is fairly easy to make (recipe here).



I hope everyone had a splendid weekend - hope fohe grout gods to be with us tomorow night!

Friday faves - funnies

While watching Jeopardy last night during dinner (I know, I know...but our dining table is covered with china and crystal from our china cabinet which had to be moved for painting...so couch dinner it was!) I saw 2 of the FUNNIEST commercials. Not funny as in actual comedy...but funny as in they were for real and the Mr. and I thought they were the most preposterous things:



Denim sofa via - Come on.

And...

via (via IHOP)

This is in honour of Dr. Seuss's The Lorax. Note to self - never, NEVER build a menu based on the elaborate imagination of Dr. Seuss. By the way...if you were wondering, because we sure were, what the blueberry cone cake is? Well, it's a pancake shoved in a waffle cone with blueberry syrup. Obviously.

Happy weekend all - may you not run into either of these atrocities!

PS - I just finished the Hunger Games. SO GOOD. If you've read it don't give anything away in the comments...but can't you just not wait for the movie?

Musings...

My blog is an outlet for my writing, projects, and creativity. Since it's an outlet and I decide what goes up and what doesn't, here are some random musings for you...

1. I love my 1.5 sink and new faucet. I made 2 batches of muffins tonight and clean up was spectacular. Who knew I'd ever say that about clean up?

2. Undermount sinks are right up there with the telephone on lists of good inventions. You should have seen the "gunk" that was caught under the lip of our old sink when we removed it. I am not sure how many years contributed to that, but it was a LOT of nastiness. With the undermount sink I just wipe the counter right into the sink, no lip to get caught on. Amazing.

3. Speaking of the sink...in my post about the counters and sink I didn't give any credit to the "plumbers" that hooked up the sink. However...an anonymous comment showed up saying: "Looks great but who did the plumbing to make it all functional?". Hmm...whoever could that be? Definitely the Mr. He DOES have a point - him and his friend spent 5 hours on Saturday planning,shopping for parts, and installing the piping for the sinks and garborator. And it all works! No leaks, and above all that not hiring a plumber saved us a bunch of money. (Thanks dear, and our friend F).

4. While they were hard at work I may or may not have been doing this:



via

...getting my first ever facial, and then I may or may not have browsed one of my favourite home store strips along Yonge in Summerhill. I reasoned that I was "getting out of their hair". Right?

5. Poll: Who knew Kraft Dinner could go bad? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? I was going to have some for dinner tonight - the Mr. is out at hockey, I made 2 batches of muffins, and I have been battling a cold all week so I thought a little KD might be a step up from eggs and toast (which was my dinner last night). I usually make homemade mac & cheese,which means the KD in the cupboard had been there for a while but I figured it would be fine. When I went to stir in the "cheese" powder, it was more of a "burnt orange" colour, not the neon orange like on the front of the box. I tasted some and it was NOT good. Then I looked at the box. It DOES have a best before date. It said 27 Jun 10. Woops.

6. I know a post full of words is no fun...so here are some photos that inspire the bevelled subway tile we're going to use on our backsplash.

via

via

 

via

via Eye Poetry shop

Kitchen reveal - Part 2: Counters, faucet, sink

Thank you everyone for the kind comments on my cabinet post yesterday! Now onto Part 2 - the counters!

Before I get into all the details...let's just jump to the chase. Here's what you really came for:

 (and you even get a sneak peek of what will be the backsplash!)

I never really discussed the counter selection process on the blog, except in this post where I debated light vs. dark. I knew that I wanted light counters, but was worried about the softness and staining of marble, so I did what I always do - researched and asked around for information on marble alternatives. What I found was Superwhite Granite - it's different than other granites because it doesn't have the speckled look that is typically associated with granite, but more of a veined look like marble.  We went to a few warehouses and our decision was made!

The other kitchen decisions happened fairly easily - we knew we wanted more than a single sink (sink posts here and here), and once I saw the Moen Level faucet at the Interior Design Show I knew it was the faucet for me! (Faucet posts here and here).

I am extremely happy with the granite, sink, and faucet. Oh - and did you notice the soap dispenser placement? Option Number 1 won out! Not necessarily according to plan...we were hoping to have it in the top left corner of the sink...but based on how the granite was cut there wasn't room for it...so #1 it was. All of that analysis, just to find out that we really only had one option available. haha And the sink is so roomy, I think the "1/2" sink in our 1.5 is the same size as many double sinks.

We are well underway...we are painting the kitchen now (final coat tonight), and hope to install the backsplash this weekend (wish us luck! Any tiling tips are very very welcome!). So you have a bit more time to wait for the full reveal, but hopefully this sneak peak keeps you happy for a little while :)