Remembering

Perfect Punch

A wonderful colleague and friend of mine shared her delicious punch recipe with me (Thanks, K!). I made the punch for a very well-attended baby shower and it was quite a success. Next time I will take pictures.

Ingredients:
1/2 cups sugar
4 cups water
1/4 cup real lemon juice (or 3 tsp of lemon juice from a plastic lemon)
2 quarts pineapple juice
2 quarts cranberry juice
3 tbs almond extract
2-4 liters ginger ale
Fruit slices/berries to garnish

Directions:

Bring sugar & water to a boil until sugar is dissolved, making a simple syrup.

Remove from heat and add juices & almond extract. Freeze in a bundt cake pan with sliced fruit/berries.

When ready to serve, run hot water over the bundt pan until frozen mixture slides out.

Serve in a punch bowl, adding desired amount of ginger ale.

Turns into a delicious and beautiful slushy punch.

Recipe fills two deep bundt pans.

~photo from weddingbycolor.com~

My kitchen... what's next?

My kitchen is in need of a lot of love. I am thinking of painting the cabinets a green/grey color and then finishing with a dab of stain and sandpaper. Let's hope my amazingly talented husband is up for helping me with this! Here are a few color options:

At the moment my cabinet doors are off, but I think I should rehang them. I am hoping to replace the frosted glass with chicken wire or new glass fronts. How much chicken wire is too much?

















I also need to add either a wall of shelving, using lovely shelving brackets and painted wooden planks of course....

... or finding a beautiful piece of furniture like this to serve as my pantry:


















The kitchen has granite counter tops, which is wonderful and I know this should make me satisfied enough, but they are very dark and not what I would have chosen. Even though replacing the granite is not currently high on my priority list, I can still dream! I would prefer a white counter top, much like these:



























I am also going to skirt the metal cabinet holding my perfectly stunning old porcelain sink. Here are a few pics:































The only other things I will need to work on are:
lighting (chandeliers vs pendants),
flooring (we currently tiles, which I would like to replace or even cover with a few pretty, bleached rugs)
window treatments (a set of window treatments, most likely white sheers

It will be perfectly beautiful one day soon! I can't wait.

Jindabyne

Loved this film!!! Such an amazingly raw story about the challenges of truth.

Frida

Frida (2002)
A must see.

Cache (2005)

This film is super-creepy and amazing. Long moments of no dialogue, no music and with the extra-special treat of Juliette Binoche.


Cache trailer from Mike z on Vimeo.

Radio Bikini (1988(

This is one of those movies you watch and ask to yourself:
"How the did I not know about this already?"


Radio Bikini from editorlisa on Vimeo.