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Some weekends I can feel the chill that surrounds me outside of the covers. I don't want to move or get out of bed and would prefer that a cup of coffee magically appears in front of me. And if I try hard enough, I can almost smell the cinnamon wafting up the stairs from the oven like it did when I was a kid and my mom was making coffeecake for breakfast. Then reality hits.

1) I am going to have to get out of bed at some point and face the treacherous task of putting bare feet to cold wood floor planks, all while cursing the fact that I left my slippers just a tad bit too far away from the bed the night before.

2) My mom is 10 hours away in Indiana and the coffeecake isn't going to bake by itself. That cinnamon smell was only a dream I was waking from as the cat was punching me in the mouth with his paw, begging for his breakfast.

Thankfully, there is hope. It just so happens that the cinnamon coffeecake that I'm talking about takes literally five minutes to whip up and get into the oven. And when all is said and done, it tastes just like I remember as a kid. Maybe I had to trade getting out of bed for a tasty morsel for breakfast, but it is most definitely worth it and makes for the perfect start of my day.

Cinnamon Coffeecake

Batter:
1 1/2 cups of flour
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
3/4 cup of sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
1 egg
3/4 cup of milk

Topping:
2 Tablespoons melted butter
2 Tablespoons flour
1/2 cup of brown sugar
2 teaspoons of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375. Mix the topping ingredients in a small bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients to make the batter. Add melted butter. Mix in the egg and milk. Grease a square baking pan with butter or cooking spray. Using a spatula, layer half of the batter on the bottom of the baking pan. Sprinkle half of the topping over the batter. Repeat with the other half of the batter and topping. Bake at 375 for about 25-30 minutes, until golden brown on top and a toothpick comes out clean in the center.
 

I'm usually not a big fan of female musicians. I'm not really sure why. I think it might have to do with having grown up during an era of Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey diva competitions. It was always this thing with these ladies-- someone had the bright idea (or not so bright idea) of sticking these women on stage together (I think this happened on the Grammys or something, but I clearly remember it being awful for all parties involved). The outcome? They would all go at it trying to out-sing and out-run each other in the most totally out of control display of diva-ness I have ever witnessed. It can be scarring, let me tell you.

Lately, it seems that the diva singer is no more and a new trend is appearing in which we have soulful singers that don't make my eardrums bleed. ZZ Ward is one of those. She's bluesy and original, and I haven't stopped listening to her album Til the Casket Drops since I first heard her song Put the Gun Down on my favorite local radio station. So now I'll let you be the judge. Would you rather listen to another diva singer battle or this?


I know which one I'd pick. How about you? What have you been listening to lately?

It has been a while since I've updated you with our home improvement projects. And quite frankly, as the Year of the House is coming to an end, we're running out of money to continue our Year of the House renovations. That being said, we've been able to get a lot done this year in order to make our row house our own.

The one project that has been a very slow process has been our half bath on the first floor. After painting it when we first moved in, with plans for putting down earthy brown tiles and wood trim, the half bath looked like this.
After a trip to the flooring store, and nearly buying new tiles to replace the ugly black squares that existed when we moved in, we decided to go with a cork floor instead. In addition, we decided to put in wood paneling in a Frank Lloyd Wright inspired fashion.
After the flooring and panels were installed, we decided that the paint color was too similar to some of the tones in the cork flooring and the maple wood we had used, so we decided to choose a new paint color. We wanted something rich that would bring out the tones in the wood. In addition, we decided to use a very light, natural stain to give the wood paneling a final touch. We decided upon a rich aqua blue paint and are extremely happy with the final result.
We love the final look of the half bath so far, but we have a few more things that we need to finish yet. We'd like to change out the fixtures to something not quite as traditional. We're also going to change out the light fixtures as well to something in the arts and crafts vein. Finally, the mirror that used to hang behind the sink will be framed in maple and stained to match before being rehung. For now though, this half bath project is pretty close to done.

What do think of the final project? What home improvement projects have you been working on lately?

Sundays are for drinking coffee, watching football, doing laundry, and taking rides in laundry baskets.

Yup, just another typical Sunday in our Baltimore row house.

P.S. Please excuse Andrew's Browns shirt. It is sad sight indeed.

There are days when I love a really fabulously put together outfit (most days, in fact). But there are also days when I like to throw on a t-shirt and call it a day. I don't like to throw on any old t-shirt though-- it has to have a good graphic. For a while my go-to graphic tees were ones that I picked up at concerts. It just seems that a lot of the bands I like also have a great art department when it comes to their merchandise. Umphrey's McGee was practically my t-shirt supplier for a while and these are some of my favorites of theirs that are camping out in my closet.

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My favorite one of all is MIA on the interwebs and is scuzzy enough at this point that I shouldn't model it for you, but it is a super soft gray shirt with a tour van driving down the road into the Rocky Mountains. If I could find a new version of this one, I would be the happiest girl in the world. (Attention to the rare t-shirt finding gods-- start doing your magic so that I can find one these!!) Most comfortable t-shirt ever. I do not lie.

John Butler Trio also has found some space in my closet with some pretty awesome tees. My favorite of all is this super soft dark grey tee. I would replace it if I could, but unfortunately it only comes in extra extra small right now (I didn't even know that was a size!).

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Needless to say, I've been looking to add a few new t-shirts to my closet for that Saturday afternoon when you don't feel like wearing anything special. I ended up finding a few that I really like that might work as good replacements for the ones that have seen better days.

Maybe this JBT shirt will suit as a good replacement for my original one.

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Love this tail feather tee from Blackbird Tees.


These five feathers printed on the side of a v-neck are fabulous! I love a good v-neck-- I'm a huge fan over the crew neck (v-necks are just way more flattering on me) and She-She seems to have mastered a great graphic tee.

Love the neutral tee and complimentary graphics on this organic shape collage tee from Crawlspace Studios.
And Uzura provides a great option with this long-sleeved feather tee.
What does your lazy Saturday wardrobe look like? Do you have any tees that you just can't rid of no matter how worn out they are? Or maybe I'm just the crazy one in that department. ;)