Suits and Aprons is moving to DC! Well, first, I will go back to California for a few months to study for the bar in the comfort of my parents’ home. Then I will be moving to DC to start my first job as a real attorney!

What does this mean for this blog? Well, it means that I will be decorating a new apartment in DC come August, and in the meantime, I will be sharing some decor ideas that I cannot wait to try. You may recall that I am slightly obsessed with super dark bedroom walls.

Another thing I REALLY want to get into: indoor gardening. I am also hoping we might have a balcony and next summer/spring I might try my hand at growing some edible things like tomatos.

Since I do not have a green thump (yet. I am going to try to learn). I will start off this indoor gardening with the usual suspects: bamboo, succulents, and cacti. They are less finicky than some other house plants.

I already have a bamboo plant that I have kept alive for three years (knock wood!). I might add another to the mix. The one I currently have is almost three feet tall, but it’s still a table plant. I would love to try to grow something more substantial (since I am worried I will kill a tree if I splurge to buy one). I am digging the long planter and height of this bamboo situation:

I really really want a fiddle leaf fig, but like I said, I am scared I will kill it. We’ll see. Maybe once I see how I do with smaller hardier succulents. Inspiration photo for the fiddle leaf fig, unsurprisingly from Emily Henderson (actually, now I am not certain that this is a fiddle leaf dig. Either way, it’s great):

Emily Henderson – Will you please be my friend? I love EVERYTHING about this room, but for this post, feast your eyes on that glorious tree! And take a close peak at that coffee table too, while you are at it. Are you freakin’ kidding me!?

I might invest in a dwarf meyer lemon tree before too long, because 1. They are cute. 2. They are affordable (relatively). 3. I love fresh lemons. 4. They smell really good and will make your apartment smell great. Plus, I just found this apartment therapy tutorial on growing a dwarf lemon tree indoors.

And while it’s not like there aren’t a MILLION pictures of cacti and succulents all over the interwebz and pinterest right now, here are a few of my favorites:

The colors in this one from A Beautiful Mess are stunning and that planter is incredible:

This HUGE cactus from Hommemaker. If you aren’t reading Orlando’s blog, you should. Not only is he funny and self-depricately self-obsessed (in a totally endearing way), he has a giant cactus, and he’s best friends with Emily Henderson, who I adore.

Also, this TEENY tiny clay pot (made from sculpey) with this teeny tiny succulent. I would put them in many random places (and hopefully wouldn’t forget about them resulting in their untimely demise).

So tiny.

And of course, I will try to plant a little indoor herb garden, since I love to cook. I am thinking: rosemary, dill, sage, thyme, basil? But we will see, since I think I should maybe start small and see how that goes. But if I only plant one herb, then I will use that one herb in all my meals. And then my boyfriend will be like, “Rachel, why does everything taste like dill these days?” And I will lie, “Oh, no reason.”

Anyway, I must return to studying or I won’t graduate, and then I cannot sit for the bar (maybe?), and then I won’t move to DC, and won’t get to have any plants at all. AHHH!

LOVE!

Rachel

I wrote the blog post below shortly after spring break (2 months ago) but never uploaded the pictures to post it until now. I am not going to edit it for time content, because (1) I am lazy; (2) I am in the middle of finals; and (3) my rant about winter still stands. It’s now sorta spring in NYC, though it should almost be summer and the seasons are taking their own sweet time rolling in. In other news, Punxsatawney Phil might start looking for another job.

Original post follows:

This winter is DRAGGING. I mean, I thought Punxsatawney Phil saw his shadow and winter is supposed to be over already?

Because I get so sick of winter, I start pretending it’s spring. Doing things like wearing sandals even though it’s really too cold for them. I do it to spite nature, but in reality, I just get cold feet. Whatever. It’s my own personal form of protest against winter. It may or may not be very effective. Take that, WINTER!

One thing that I find is great for spiting winter without giving me frostbite is making yummy food that reminds me of warmer climes. This farro (or quinoa), feta and grape salad does just that. It’s got a great mix of textures. It’s a slightly warm salad, so it deals well with the winter chill, while being reminiscent of a warm weather meal that could be eaten on a porch or at a picnic table.  Plus, it makes great leftovers. Oh, and it’s super healthy. And really easy make. So basically, it’s freaking awesome.

Cook according to package instructions:

• 1 & 1/2 cups farro (or quinoa)

Meanwhile, saute in olive oil:

• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 stalks of diced celery

After about 5 minutes, add:

• 1/4 cup craisins or yellow raisins. Continue cooking the onion mixture until its tender (maybe another 10 minutes).

Dice (but do not cook):

• 1 yellow or red bell pepper
• 2 cups red seedless grapes (I just cut these in half, do not dice)

When farro (or quinoa) is done cooking, mix in the onion/celery mixture. Let cool for a little bit.

Then add:

• 1/2 cup or so crumbled feta cheese
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Chopped pepper
• Grapes

At this point, you can season with salt and pepper. Do not start salting the salad before you add the feta. The feta is pretty salty, so you may only need to add a little additional salt (or none at all).

While salad is still warm, serve over big bed of spinach. This recipe makes many servings (at least four or five, and then some leftovers – that’s how I roll).

If you want, you can switch out the raisins/craisins for fresh pomegranate seeds. Or, if you felt like really going for it, you could use BOTH the craisins/raisins AND pomegranate seeds! What?!?!

Ooooh oooohh! If you have access to fresh mint, some fresh mint in this salad would be awesome. Man! Why didn’t I think of that before I ate the last of these leftovers. Oh well. Next time.

Eat outside, even if it’s only 50 degrees, and pretend it’s summer.

Love,

Very Cold Rachel

PS. The sun was shining when I took these pics because I was in San Diego. It was not nearly so lovely in NYC.

All part of my master plan to Karaoke with my readers all over this great nation.

Anyway, I was surfing the interwebz when I discovered the incredible paintings of Cy Twombly. Wow! His stuff is incredible. (Click on any image to see it bigger.)

I mean, would you look at those colors? And how fast and loose Cy goes with the paint? All of these photos are from this website - which has a huge gallery of his work. Worth checking out. Not all of his work is as colorful as the ones I selected, but I liked those ones so much. Since I obviously love bright colors – no surprise there, faithful readers. I think that if I died and was reincarnated, I would like to come back as a macaw or a flamingo, or maybe a peacock (a male) because I want to be as bright and shiny as possible. Oooh – or an octopus: did you know octopuses can change color and texture? I would fit in anywhere!

Hope you like Cy Twombly. I am really digging his stuff right now.

Bright and shiny love,

Rachel

One of my dear friends once commented on how I have a strange obsession with painting all of my furniture blue. As I post more photos she will comment on how I have a strange obsession painting XXXX-type animals. I’ll let you know.

As usual, my photography  is mediocre. But, this painting, I assure you, is pretty adorable. It’s about 10″ by 12″ on canvas board in acrylic. Right now I am not into painting the backgrounds – I really dig blank canvas these days. I attribute it to my love of Matisse.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy Giraffe as must as I do.

Love,

Rachel

I don’t know when I will get to decorate another bedroom… since I don’t know where I will be living come August. Or for how long. Or you know…

But a girl can dream.

Here are a few things that I learned about dark walls (like, when I think they work and when I think they don’t):

1. Dark walls must be paired with lots of white. White bedding, white trim, white curtains. Maybe a flokati rug or two.

This vignette is great. Deep blue walls, white bedding, turquoise night stand with gold accents.

2. I don’t like them super shiny or enameled. I get the idea, but I don’t like walls to be reflective. I don’t know if it should be matte, eggshell or satin yet (does anyone have guesses on this front?).

3. They need LOTS of cool art. Preferably BIG art, or at least a gallery wall. Frames should be white or gold, with large white mats. I don’t like dark walls that are left too blank. It freaks me out or something.

The walls are a little shiny for my taste, but the gallery is awesome!

4. Dark walls look awesome with gold shelving units.

I see those shelves even when I close my eyes. Oh yeah, and can we talk about this rug? And those camel leather chairs? And this lucite table? I mean, can we just talk?

5. Dark walls are a neutral – so they can be paired with almost any other colors. Some of favorites with dark walls are turquoise, coral/tomato red, chartreuse.

More lucite and turquoise. This time, add some yellow and reds.

6. Natural wood looks great with dark walls too.

The art on the right needs to be bigger, or there needs to be more of it. But this table is to die for. And the rug is good.

I cannot wait to get a bedroom that I can paint. It’s going to be glorious.

Love,

Rachel

PS. The original links to the pictures are contained on my pinterest board.

I wish I had a bowl right now.

It’s soup weather!

Inspired by this lovely soup that I saw on a Beautiful Mess, I wanted to make a spicy shrimp soup. I didn’t have the pineapple from that recipe, so I improvised. It’s super yummy, and healthy, and satisfying after a run on a cold winter’s day.

Warm and spicy and healthy, too!

You will need:

1/2 yellow pepper

1/2 orange pepper

2 tablespoon coconut oil

1/2 pound deveined, de-tailed shrimp

1/2 pound sliced mushrooms

4 roughly chopped gloves of garlic

1/2 tsp Sriracha sauce (I always start small and slowly add more so I don’t hurt myself)

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 very thinly sliced carrot

3 cups vegetable or chicken broth (low sodium)

Salt to taste

Spicy shrimp soup with rice.

1. Sauted peppers, carrots and mushrooms in 1 tablespoon coconut oil in saute pan until a little browned, but still the peppers are still crisp. Transfer to soup pot.

2. In same saute pan, saute the shrimp with the garlic until lightly browned. Add to soup pot.

3. Add the broth, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, other tablespoon of coconut oil, sriracha, soy sauce. Play with the salt, soy sauce and sriracha to taste. Cook on low heat for about 10 minutes, until heated through.

4. Serve over small bed of brown basmati rice.

5. Enjoy!

Makes 3 lady-servings, probably 2 man-servings.

Love,

Rachel

PS. Not to be super preachy, but I generally try not to eat shrimp, because shrimp farming is incredibly bad for the environment (as in after a year or two of shrimp farming, the mangroves where the farm is barely sustain any more life). Trader Joe’s now sells wild caught Argentinian shrimp, which costs a little more money. It is a much better alternative to farmed shrimp. For more details on sustainable seafood and what is the best to eat, check out this website.

I really love the idea of mixing gold leaf with matte finishes.

This old lamp was FREE because some guy was just cleaning out his garage. I thought it was a garage sale, so I made my boyfriend pull over (he LOVES it when I do that).

This is what the free lamp looked like.

First, I sprayed it yellow. I always meant to change the lampshade, but never got around to it.

That is, until I decide to gold leaf this thing! Then, I went to Walmart and got this lamp shade for just $13.

This is the lamp after I first sprayed it yellow. Ugly lamp shade, but it was free… so yeah…

I bought the gold leaf kit for around $10 on Amazon. It includes the gold leaf, the adhesive, and also the sealer.

First, I sprayed the lamp a matte white (after taping off the cord and the electrical socket). I love the look of matte finishes with metallics. The contrast is great.

Second, I taped off the stripes that I wanted. I used two different widths of painter’s tape (which is why some stripes are beige and some stripes are blue).

Use tape to mark off the parts you don’t want painted.

Then, I applied the adhesive lightly with a sponge applicator. Let it dry for about 15 minutes, and start applying the gold leaf. If you miss any spots, it’s OK. You can come back and fill it in by adding more adhesive and more gold leaf.  You basically just put the gold leaf directly on the adhesive and rub it with a brush or your finger to make sure it’s stuck down well.

The lines aren’t perfect, but that’s OK.

Finished! The light in the photo isn’t great, but the lamp came out awesome.

The stripes are not perfect. Gold leaf is not really a tidy adventure, but from a far, you cannot really see the less-than-perfect parts.

The gold leaf instructions say that you should seal it, but I figure the lamp won’t get man-handled too much, so I skipped that step. If I was doing something that would get more touching, I would definitely seal it.

I love how it all turned out. It only cost me a lamp shade and a gold leaf kit (I have most of the kit left too, so I am like Midas – constantly looking for more things to turn gold).

Gold stripes and matte white finish.

What else can I gold leaf?

What do you think? Do you guys freaking love gold as much as this girl?

Golden love,

Rachel

I LOVE painting. I love love love it. I love the feel of the brush on the canvas. I love mixing different colors. I love having something in my head and recreating it for the world to see. I love how nothing else bothers me when I am painting. I am not worried about papers, grades, school or relationships. I am only worried about making something beautiful. I love how when I paint, I have this dumb smile on my face for hours at a time while I dab away at the canvas.

But for some stupid reason, I forgot how much I freaking love painting. I mean, I knew I liked it. But I forgot its therapeutic effects. I guess I forget the good stuff because sometimes paintings don’t come out the way I see them in mind’s eye or something.

Anyway. I had forgotten about the joy of painting. Hadn’t painted in over a year. And then I was crazy stressed out, dealing with a bunch of stuff that still makes my blood boil just to think about. Though I probably didn’t actually have the hours to spare to sit down and create, I did it anyway.

Oh. My. God. It was awesome. It was better than I remembered. I mean, how could I possibly forget that high that I get just from putting color on canvas, just from mixing colors, just from painting myself a new friend?

Well, I hope I don’t forget again. I have been painting a little more now – not as much as I would like. But enough to take my mind off things. Enough to create beautiful new pictures. And enough so that I don’t forget the magic of creating. I know it sounds corny and cheesy, but whatevs. Deal with it.

Without further ado, here is my latest creation:

Love.

Yep. It’s a blue rhinoceros. (It is really hard to spell “rhinoceros,” BTW.)

It’s 16″x12″ (I think). Acrylic.

It’s hanging in our apartment above the stereo and looks great. However, I only took the one pic. I spent all my time painting and baking bread, so I had less time for photography.

I hope you like him. I love him. And Rhino serves as a reminder to never stop doing things that I love.

Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever forgotten how much you like something and then you rediscover it and your mind is blown?

Rhino love,

Rachel

PS. This post is for Julia, who encouraged me to sit down and paint, and who was my rock this last semester.

So simple and so yummy.

You have probably seen this no-knead artisanal bread recipe floating around on Pinterest. The one you bake in your cast iron pot with a lid.

The recipe is here. She has great pictures and lots of instructions along the way.

For some reason, her recipe comes out a little too watery when I do it. She calls for three cups of flour, but this morning I used 3 cups, plus three heaping tablespoons of flour and that seemed to do the trick. Different flours can all absorb different amounts of liquid, even if the packages both say “unbleached white flour” on the front. Go figure.

There is something so European about having fresh bread with butter, cheese and coffee for breakfast. And the fact that it comes out of my oven makes me feel like a total rock star.

Anyway, just wanted to brag share with you! Give it a try. It’s super easy and so rewarding.

Have a great yeasty day!

Love,

Rachel

1. Floss more. I probably floss three times a week – but that’s really not enough. I used to floss everyday and it felt great. The more you floss, the better and better it starts to feel. I don’t know why I stopped flossing daily, but I want to get back to that. Don’t judge me, please!

2. Eat more fruits and veggies. When I am studying (which I do a lot of), it is so easy to forget to eat the daily five to seven servings of fruits and veggies. I want my five a day (at least!) and now I resolve to seek out those darned fruits and vegetables!

3. Run my second half marathon. Now, it’s true that after my first half marathon (in September) I hurt my hip and gimped around for 3 weeks. But I figure that’s because I didn’t really have enough time to train (8 weeks is cutting it pretty darn close) and only trained up to 11(ish) miles before the race.

To prevent that from happening this time, I am signing up for a 15k in Brooklyn that is about 2 months before the SF half marathon. That way, I will already be at about 10 miles well before the half, so that I have enough time to train for miles 10, 11, 12 and 13. Those are the worst miles. The evil miles. The miles that make your hip hurt for weeks.

Oh, and I’m going to add more cross-training and core-work into my half-marathon prep, including lots of hip exercises.

And when I get back from training runs, I am going to eat a piece of fruit and floss my teeth. Take that, 2013!

With love. And floss. And running. And fruit.

Rachel

PS. The SF half marathon is the perfect time of the year for me – it is about a month after law school finals and month before I take the bar. That way I won’t be completely sedentary while studying, but I also won’t have to be doing 2 hours runs on the weekends when I need to be hitting the books. Woot!