Roasted Curried Cauliflower

This is a delicious side dish, and it's so easy! I used to steam all my veggies, but roasting them in the oven is my new favorite way to cook 'em (check out my parmesan roasted broccoli!). I never would've thought to put curry powder with cauliflower, but it makes a wonderful finished product! I could snack on these little roasted cauliflower bites all day!

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
1 medium head of cauliflower
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp curry powder

Directions:
1. Wash the cauliflower and cut the florets into bite-size pieces. Discard the leftover stalks.
2. Toss cauliflower in a large bowl with the olive oil, salt, and curry powder.
3. Put the cauliflower in a single layer on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake for 16-18 minutes at 475 degrees, stirring every 6-7 minutes (or until it's browned in spots and crisp-tender).

(bite-size florets)

(ready to go in the oven)

(all done!)

(yummy!)

Ta-da!

Enjoy!

Craft Room Plans

I know I've already shared some brainstorms about the craft room, but I've been thinking a lot more about it lately and I pretty much have a plan finalized. It's totally different than anything I said last time we talked about it (for example, I did a total 180 on wanting a desk against a wall, and on Scrabble art). That's why I spend so much time thinking about a room before I do anything... I change my mind a million times before I figure out what I really want! 

Currently, my house decorating priority list is kind of like this:

1. Finish the piano room. This is basically just sewing curtains and hanging some art on the long, empty wall. 
2. Finish up the laundry room. I'm actually really close to this, and I can't wait to show it to you!
3. Find something to do with the walls in the entryway. I have one giant wall and one smaller wall, and I just can't seem to figure out what I want there!
4. Totally re-do our master bedroom and move the master bedroom stuff into the second guest bedroom. This is a BIG one. It's going to require quite a few dollars, so we're waiting until this summer when we'll be a double-income couple. It's basically the total redecorating of two entire rooms (and probably the accompanying bathrooms), so it's gonna take a while.
5. The craft room.

Considering how far down on the list the craft room is, I really shouldn't be daydreaming about it just yet. But I am. I have it all planned out already. 

Here's what it looks like currently...

... and here's my idea board for what it will look like one day!

Pretty, right?

This is the one place in the house where I can decorate all girly and cute. Jeff has veto power on the rest of the house, and he routinely vetoes anything purple, pink, or flowery. So, I want it to be feminine and cute! 

I also want to avoid spending a ton of money on this room because (1) it feels selfish to spend a bunch of our money on it because it's really pretty much my room, and (2) I know when we eventually start having kids, the craft room will probably be the first thing we get rid of to make room for a nursery. 

So, let's talk about the plan! I want to paint the whole room a lovely shade of light gray, which I think will look just lovely with our glossy white trim. Then, I want to use a bunch of stuff we already have, and go on a giant Ikea shopping spree!

The wall under the slanted roof is where the purple sofa will go. Or maybe two chairs instead of a sofa. I'm still deciding. I just want it to be a place where I can read and study. Those two white Pottery Barn frames will hang above it (with the mats re-painted in an eggplant color and new pictures in the openings).

Ikea Ektorp sofa

(source)

Close-up of my frames!

In front of the sofa will be the gray and white rug (which I may or may not have already purchased because it's so cheap!) and maybe a white coffee table.

Ikea rug

(source)

Ikea's Liatorp coffee table

I really love this one because you can pull out that drawer and put stuff in the four compartments under the glass!

(source)

Okay, let's talk about the wall with the door. To the left of the door, I want to hang the purple file holder (an amazing HomeGoods find!). 

To the right of the door, I want to put a couple filing cabinets (possibly spray paint some we already have so they match... we'll see!). Above that, I'm planning on hanging these floral prints (I found them on clearance at Target and just couldn't leave without them!).

I'm also trying to convince myself that it isn't totally insane to do this to my closet door:

Source: layersofmeaning.com via Katie on Pinterest

Moving on... let's talk about the window alcove!

Eventually, I want this to be the home of a crafting table. I like this one from Ikea:

(source)

I already have four chairs (we bought them at the furniture auction for less than $10 each!).

I actually have the fabric and batting for the seats ready to go... it's a gray-on-darker-gray patterned fabric, and I'm excited about it! I just need to get some eggplant-colored spray paint for the wood!

For the window, I'm in love with this curtain from Urban Outfitters:

(source)

I think I'd do it just like that photo... one panel with a tie-back and a curtain rod with clear knobs on the end. Beautiful! 

Okay, so this picture is what you see when you enter the room. For the wall on the left, I want two of these Ikea bookshelves:

(source)

For one of them, I want to buy the doors for it so it looks like this:

(source)

Of course, I'd fill the open one up with cute purple and pink and green things. I'd love to put our Penguin Classics collection there too.

(source)

The only wall I haven't talked about yet is the one on the right in this photo (across from the wall with the slanted ceiling):

That wall is where I want my desk to go. I'm really enamored with this desk:

(source)

On the desk, I'd put my sewing machine and a cute little silver office lamp that I already have... and maybe some pretty things too. :) Above the desk, I want to DIY some art like this:

Source: lh6.googleusercontent.com via Katie on Pinterest

So, that just about covers it except for one thing.... I want to replace the light with this:

(source)

Isn't that the most fun light fixture you've ever seen?!?! I love it. It's kind of expensive for a light (well, compared to what we normally spend on lights), but I think I'll ask for it for my birthday or something. :) 

So, that's the craft room plan! I'm really, really, really excited about it. Like, really excited. Now I just need to go to work and make some money so I can make it happen! I'm hoping we can do it this summer (along with our bedroom and the second guest room... we'll be busy!). 

What do you think? 

Brown Sugar and Balsamic Glazed Pork Tenderloin

Here's an easy, yummy dinner recipe! Brown sugar and balsamic vinegar is such a delicious combo of flavors!

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
2 pounds boneless pork tenderloin
1 tsp ground sage
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup water, divided
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp soy sauce

Directions:
1. Combine sage, salt, pepper, and garlic. Rub over the pork tenderloin. Place tenderloin in a slow cooker with 1/2 cup water.
2. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. 1 hour before it's done, combine 1/2 cup water, brown sugar, cornstarch, balsamic vinegar, and soy sauce in a small saucepan. Heat and stir until mixture thickens into a glaze. Brush the tenderloin with the glaze 2-3 times during the last hour of cooking.
3. Serve with remaining glaze on the side!

(rub ingredients)

(rubbed tenderloin)

(glaze ingredients)

(glaze)

(after the second glaze)

(all cooked!)

Ta-da!

Enjoy!

Unexpected

A week ago, Jeff's Uncle Bill passed away quite suddenly. He was an absolutely wonderful man who was like a second father to Jeff while he was in college in South Carolina, and we were pretty much devastated. The entire family was completely caught off-guard, so it's been a tough week. We've cried a lot. We bought last-minute plane tickets on Monday and left for South Carolina on Valentine's Day to get there for the Wednesday funeral.

I skipped three days of class and Jeff took three days off work. It was crazy, but we had to be there, you know? It was just so precious to us to be there with our family. The funeral was beautiful... the church was so crowded that people had to stand in the back, Jeff's mom sang (she has a choral performance degree and a really lovely voice), and Jeff's cousin (the priest who co-officiated our wedding) gave an amazing sermon. Still, it's been really hard.

We were able to spend some quality time with Jeff's aunt, his cousins, and the rest of the South Carolina family, and I'm so glad we were there. It's always nice to see everybody, but I definitely wouldn't have wanted it to happen under these circumstances. Life can be so tragic and unexpected sometimes.

I met Uncle Bill for the first time in 2008 while Jeff was still in college, and I have a lot of wonderful memories from the few years that I knew him. The way he immediately and warmly welcomed me into the family meant so much to me, and he was always so interested in what was going on in my life. He loved to ask Jeff and me a bunch of questions about school and our plans for the future, and he always threw little pieces of advice into our conversations. I treasured those moments because they made me feel like he cared about me just like I was one of his own nieces and nephews that he had known for years and years. He was a genuine man full of love.

When we got married, we asked Uncle Bill to do one of the readings at our wedding. I'll always treasure the memory of him doing that reading for us. I think it meant a lot to him to do it, and it meant a lot to us that he was so excited about it. He read from Jeremiah, about the covenant between God and His people. It was a fitting passage for him to read because he lived his life with such a desire to serve his God. We had no idea at the time that God would call him up to heaven so soon.

"I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people . . . All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the Lord." 

We'll miss you, Uncle Bill.

Would You Rather?

I saw this on a friend's blog and thought it was so fun, so I'm playing along!

Would you rather be given $5,000, no questions asked or lose 20 lbs with the guarantee of never gaining it back?
$5000 easily. Honestly, I think I'd look weird if I lost 20 pounds. And, umm, $5000 could buy a really nice master bedroom redo. :)

This is what I want our bedroom to look like.

(source)

Would you rather be poor and work in a job you absolutely love or be rich and work in a job you hate going to?
I wish I could say I'd rather be poor and love my job, but that's totally not the truth. I really kind of hate law school (my current "job") a lot of the time, and I've realized that even though I don't currently like what I do for 8+ hours a day, I still have an overall happy life. I'm still a happy person. I still have a happy marriage and I still get to do things I love doing. So I'd go for being rich and hating my job (because eventually I could save up enough to retire early and stop working altogether, right?).

Would you rather have your flight delayed by 8 hours or lose your luggage, only finding it after your trip is over?
Definitely flight delayed. I actually don't really mind hanging out in airports. There are places to buy coffee and I usually have a good book or magazine and it just doesn't bother me much.  Actually, when we went on our honeymoon, our flight was overbooked and they asked for volunteers to take the next flight instead and get a $400 travel voucher, and we totally did it. We sold ourselves out to Continental Airlines and skipped five hours of our honeymoon for $800. 

This is us, finally on the plane to Jamaica, looking like we got up horribly early and then sat in an airport for a long time (because we did).

Would you rather go without Internet or car for a month?
Car. I love my car, but I'd go crazy without the Internet. Law school would be impossible, the blog would be impossible, and I Google things pretty much constantly. I never drive anywhere other than school anyway, and maybe HomeGoods and Target every now and then, and I'm pretty sure I could just get Jeff to drive me around for a month.

Would you rather be a member of the cast of Friends or Sex and the City?
Friends. Is this even a valid question? Who wouldn't rather be on Friends?!?! 

(source)

Would you rather date someone 20 years older or 10 years younger?
Well, considering ten years younger than me would be only TWELVE... definitely 20 years older.

Would you rather always have to say anything that comes to your mind or never be able to speak?
I'd rather never be able to speak. There are some pretty crazy things in my head sometimes. I'd learn sign language and be just fine. 

Would you rather marry Kris Humphries or Scott Disick? 
I had to Google this to find out who these people are. I think Kris is better looking. Apparently they're both kind of crazy. I have no idea.

Would you rather be banned from Facebook or Blogger?
Facebook, easily. I actually don't use Facebook that much. I use Blogger every single day though.

Would you rather skip Christmas or your birthday?
My birthday. I don't really like being the center of attention, so I think I could be content letting my birthday slide by. But Christmas... Christmas is the birth of Jesus! There's so much festivity and family time and I love giving presents to everyone. 

A year without my Santa soap dispenser would just be sad!

Anyone else want to play along? Would you have skipped five hours of your honeymoon for $800 in airline vouchers?

Sharing My Life on the Internet

The second part of the question I answered yesterday was this: Do you ever have hesitations about things you share on the blog? Here's the answer:

Yes. Of course I do. When you blog regularly, you have to decide where to draw the line between what goes on the Internet and what doesn't. Obviously, there are things that I share with my close family and friends that I would never post on the blog for everyone to see. For the most part, I try to be pretty open on Spirals & Spatulas because I think it's the personal posts that are the most interesting. I think I write better when there's some emotion behind my words. But, I do carefully evaluate everything I post.

Whenever I write anything that's personal in nature, I save it as a draft and then re-open it a few days later and read it again. Sometimes I decide I don't want a post to be published after all and I end up deleting it. Sometimes I decide to go ahead and publish it. Sometimes I decide to edit it a bit and then hit Publish. It just depends. 

A few posts immediately came to mind when I first read this question. The biggest one was my post on Jeff's Confirmation story. That post felt really emotional to me, but it was really Jeff's story to tell, not mine. I usually try not to post a bunch of stuff about Jeff  because it's not his blog. He's not the one that decided to share his life with the Internet, and he shouldn't have to just because I have a blog. But, I felt like that post could be really helpful to anyone in a similar situation, and I so badly wanted to document my memories from that time. So I told Jeff he had total veto power and asked him to read it and let me know what he thought. He ended up asking me to edit a couple things, and then he said to post it! I honestly thought he might just say no, don't put that on the Internet, and that would've been totally fine with me, but I'm really glad it did end up as a real post. 

Every now and then I write kind of lovey-dovey stuff about Jeff that I feel a little embarrassed to post, but because I use the blog to document our life, and because I want to remember how it felt to be a newlywed, I end up sharing posts like "What Life with a Husband is Like" and "On Houses, Husbands, and Happy Faces." There's nothing wrong with people knowing that I like my husband a whole lot. :)

Another one was more recent... you know that post where I was brutally honest about how tough law school can be? That was really hard for me to write. It's hard to admit that your life isn't perfect. It shouldn't be so hard (because no one's life is perfect!), but it is. I almost didn't publish that post, but I'm so glad I did. I think a lot of people were able to relate to it (not just law students, but anyone who happens to be working through something hard to get somewhere better), and I was proud of myself for being honest and letting myself admit that law school is really, really hard sometimes.

I definitely have limits though. I obviously don't write a blog post about it every time Jeff and I have a little argument or every time I have a bad day. I don't disclose my grades on the blog (because it's likely I have classmates reading), and I've already told Jeff that when the time comes to start having kids, I will NOT be informing anyone via the blog that we're trying for a baby! Haha. I don't share how much money we have or what we paid for our house or how much I weigh or any of those things that you wouldn't tell people in real life.

Of course, there are also the personal safety concerns. I don't share our last name on the blog (and I blur it out in pictures), and I blur out our house address and license plates in any pictures that have our house or cars in them. I don't ever say the name of the company Jeff works for, and I won't be sharing the name of the law firm I'll be working for soon. It's all probably unnecessary, but you can never be too careful, right?

It's an interesting balance, I think. I've recently seen some wonderful things come out of bloggers sharing parts of their personal lives... one blogger I follow has written recently about her struggles with her husband's upcoming military deployment, and another has written a bit about her recent miscarriage. Both of them have received so many encouraging, kind comments, and they have so many people praying for them. Sure, those kind commenters may not be "real friends," but they are sending up their prayers, and that's worth a lot! The Internet can definitely be used in amazing ways.

I'd love to get some other bloggers' thoughts on this! How do y'all decide what does and doesn't get posted on your blog?

Becoming a Blogger

One of the questions from my Q&A post was this: How did you get into blogging?

I started blogging in 2009. A combination of three things led me to start Spirals & Spatulas:

1. I took an English class on memoirs, and as part of our classwork each student had to start a little blog. Each week we had to write a post reflecting on the memoir we were reading, and then we had to read five other people's posts and leave them comments. I really enjoyed the dialogue that ended up happening through the blogs (it was way more insightful than in-class discussions tend to be), and I enjoyed the quick-and-casual writing style of my blog posts.
2. I got hooked on Weddingbee. I was almost engaged at the time (but knew it was coming), and I loved the daily blog posts on Weddingbee... such a wealth of creativity and ideas! I thought blogging seemed like a great creative outlet.
3. I was one semester away from graduating from Texas A&M, and starting a blog seemed like a great addition to my constant procrastination-of-schoolwork efforts. :)

When I first started, I had no idea what I was doing. The blog had no purpose and no direction, but I just wrote it. I didn't tell anyone other than Jeff that I was writing a blog for a while. A lot of the posts at the beginning were so ridiculous that I eventually went back and deleted them. Some of the ones that are still there are pretty ridiculous too (and now you're all going to go read them and see how awkward at blogging I used to be... don't make fun of me, okay?). It was at least a year before I really found a "blogging voice" and a niche of things I like to write about.

When Jeff and I got engaged in December 2009, I immediately started to treat Spirals & Spatulas as a wedding blog. I didn't want to be constantly talking about wedding planning all the time in real life (I didn't want my friends to get annoyed with me), so the blog became my outlet for wedding stuff. During the wedding planning phase, Spirals & Spatulas really started to get more readers. My friend Amy started sending Facebook messages to everyone she knew telling them that they should read Spirals & Spatulas, and I think my first 20 or 30 followers were all thanks to Amy. Haha! I eventually started blogging for Best Bridal Blogs, and a lot of my early readers found me through there (are any of those people still reading? I feel like my readers have changed a lot since then).

After the wedding, I didn't really know what to do with the blog. I recapped the entire wedding, which that took a couple months, and then I just kind of kept going. I never really sat down and decided that Spirals & Spatulas would become a DIY/recipe/home-decor/life-in-general blog (in fact, I think I originally intended to just stop after the wedding), but I was hooked on writing blog posts, so I just kept writing them! Eventually, blogging replaced scrapbooking for me as a way to document our lives, and now I just write about whatever's going on!

I don't know if I'll blog forever, but it's something I really enjoy and it gives me a reason to write, which I love. I sometimes think that once I get out of law school and start working full-time the blog will fade away, but who knows what will happen! For now, I sure love sharing all my DIY projects and recipes and random moments with you all!