not for the vegan hearted

memorial day weekend brought with it plans of relaxing.

plans of starting a garden in our apartment.

of roasting a whole chicken.

little did we know that some of these plans would not work out quite as we hoped.

or expected.

the garden is perfect!

it was the chicken.

using a recipe from a "Real Simple" magazine i bought a few weeks ago, i decided to roast a whole chicken, something i had never done before. on my own at least.

roasted with potatoes, onions, organic carrots and an entire head of garlic, i knew this was going to be fairly simple. the preparation was, and i really enjoyed it.

everything was ready to go, oven preheated, ingredients combined, chicken stuffed with fresh herbs from my windowsill garden and lemons. so i put the glass dish filled with yummy things in the oven to cook for the next 90 minutes.

an hour passed.

i decided to take a look at the chicken (by the way, i didn't smell anything cooking, and i was planning on removing a fully cooked chicken a half hour later). the chicken was still completely raw. not even warm.

ugh.

our oven was totally busted!

we called our Super to see if he could fix it. luckily he lives right next door and is such a nice man. he looked at it and realized he couldn't fix it and thanks to the holiday, we wouldn't be able to get someone in to fix it until Tuesday evening at the earliest. ugh again.

all seemed lost.

then, our Super was so nice to offer the oven in his apartment! we took his offer and ran the glass dish filled with a 4 pound chicken and veggies to his apartment in the building next door. i will admit that i felt a little strange about doing this. i didn't want to interrupt his schedule, and it seemed so out of reach! but we put it in his oven, and went back to our apartment to wait.

patiently.

about an hour and 25 minutes later, after running over to his place, we came back to our apartment with a beautifully roasted chicken.

and it was so delicious.

new look and more of a break than i thought

hello my faithful readers!

i have been a bit MIA with the crafting since the holidays. they seem far away and yet really almost 6 months ago!

i've been taking a much needed break from sewing and making and creating, as the holidays were a very busy time for me. needless to say, i got a little burnt out and decided to let my listings on Etsy expire and start fresh! a new year, a new start. (that sounds familiar)

i have a lot of ideas rolling around in my head, most involving the decorating of our apartment. it's become a project and has taken over! the studio was going unused, and i was looking at my husband working day and night in our living room, distracted by my silly TV shows and knitting projects (yes, i still have those).

so i decided. to give him the studio to make into his study. a little moving around, a little organizing with plastic bins (i love plastic bins), putting them in closets and wallah! the clutter was gone and B has his own space where he can close the door and work quietly without hearing vampire slayage in the background (no, i'm not going to tell you what silly TV show i'm referring to).

see before as my studio. (what a mess!)

and after as B's study (B has a much hipper chair now).

this actually was finished quite a few months ago, in February, ugh! have i really been gone that long?

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in other news, i really have not been crafting. other than knitting, i have been craft-less. my sweet mother who lives in Michigan visited the week after Mother's Day, and she stayed in the study. the sofa you see in the photos is actually a convertible sofa, and turns into a nice size double bed for our overnight guests. also quite comfortable i hear.

my real reason for posting today was to tell you about my "windowsill garden" that i've started in our apartment! i have recently been longing to live in a house, to have a backyard to call my own, to grow things. i read an article in my new favorite magazine, "Body + Soul" (which is changing their name to "Whole Living" from the website by the same name), a Martha Stewart publication. it was about a woman named Rosalind Creasy, a landscape designer in Northern California. she is known for her "edible landscaping." i was so inspired that i called my dad immediately to tell him about it! (my mom and dad are amazing gardeners, see my dad's blog here, he talks a lot about their garden, and my mom's blog here, she always posts beautiful photos of flowers and such)

(newest issue on the top)

i thought to myself. just because i live in an apartment in New York City, with no backyard to call my own, doesn't mean i can't grow fresh ingredients! i bought a basil plant when my mom was visiting, and it is the first plant in my new project. basil on the kitchen windowsill.

so this weekend, i think i'll venture to the local farmer's market in Union Square and get some edible plants that will thrive indoors! luckily this window gets a lot of sun during the day!!

i know i can be happy with this.