5 minute makeover

When I was in Moscow a few weeks ago I picked up this painting at the Salvation Army for 50 cents.



It's a replica of an 18th century painting by Canaletto. And it was so cheap that I just had to grab it. When I got home I went to our nearby Goodwill (it's actually titled a Goodwill Superstore, and for good reason, the place is MASSIVE) and found this framed painting.

Sorry, my computer refused to rotate the picture. The artwork is kinda dated, but the frame was perfect, and it was a mere $6.99.




So I brought it home, took out the old artwork, popped in my Canaletto painting, sanded the edges to make it more shabby chic (and remove some ugly yellow paint stains), and voila!

We now have a new piece of artwork for our bedroom. And I had just the wall to put it on.

Gotta love $7.50 art!

(PS- I'm pretty sure that painting was once in a calendar or art book or something because the back of it had a whole spiel about the author. Just goes to show you can make art from pretty much anything!)

Steelhead Brewery

Grandma Sunny (Joel's mom) came for a visit on Thursday to see Lucy (okay and probably to see us too, but really, who are we kidding? Lucy's the star). We had a great time showing her around Eugene and catching up and playing with Lucy. We walked around downtown Eugene, strolled through Hendrix park, visited 5th Street Market and the Sweet Life, and did some shopping. On Saturday we decided to try out a Brewery, and opted for the Steelhead Brewery right in downtown Eugene

We all ordered fish and chips, and all three of us agreed it was the BEST fish and chips we had ever had! It had an incredible batter on the outside and really tasty halibut inside. Plus they have great beer, Sunny and I both tried a wheat beer with orange infusion and it was incredible. Yum!

Lucy didn't try the fish and chips but she said her paci tasted the best it's had in months.

She also sampled a little bit of dad's sunglasses

When it was raining or Lucy was napping we hung out in our apartment and chatted.

And here's a gratuitous bath picture I snapped of our little cutie while Sunny was here.

We really wished Grandpa Howard could have come too, but he's working hard in Phoenix. We're all looking forward to seeing him in July though, Lucy's got a lot of kisses stored up for you!

A New Haircut and the Sweet Life

Today I went to Novo Salon and spent a good deal more on a haircut than I used to back in Moscow. But it was definitely worth it! Not only was the atmosphere of the place really enjoyable and relaxing (they offered me tea when I checked in), but the gal who cut my hair did an amazing job. She looked at pictures with me and we talked about my hair texture and face shape, and then she came up with this fabulous short cut! The best part about it is that it will look good curly too. I'm really happy to have short hair again.

Also, Joel and I went to the Sweet Life last night and split an eclair. This one, specifically:

I LOVE the Sweet Life. Such good desserts, and a fun date-night getaway!

Joel and Lucy waiting patiently in line. Sorry for cutting your head off, hubs.

(P.S. Joel says: check out Lucy's mad dog look. She gets that from her dad.)

Eugene Yard Sale

I went to my first yard sale in Eugene. It was actually a compilation of yard sales held in the Lane Event Center. It was massive, busy, and overwhelmingly full of vendors and shoppers. I did score a few fabulous finds (including a hand blender that I have now used to make ice-cream shakes and fruit smoothies). But the only ones worth taking pictures of were these two cute pictures I found for Lucy's room. Lucy's nursery has a walk-in closet, which up until recently was filled with boxes of books, boxes of clothes, and boxes of things I didn't know what to do with. Unfortunately, from my seat in the rocking chair I had a nice view of all of this clutter, and it was not making me happy. So after my parents brought me down this nice white bookshelf, and after I found these two cute pictures for $2 each at the yard sale, I decided it was time to do some organizing. At some point I'd love for this walk-in closet to be an adorable play-nook for Lucy. For now, at least it looks well-organized from my rocking chair seat, and these two pictures make a world of difference. Much better!

King Estate Winery

Our friends the Williams came to visit us this past weekend; we had such a fun time with them! We ate a lot of great food, played games, explored Eugene, and caught up on each other's lives. One of the highlights of their trip (and the only time I actually remembered to get my camera out) was our visit to King Estate Winery. This place was incredible. It's about 30 minutes outside of Eugene, and the weather cooperated so the drive was absolutely beautiful. The winery sits on over 1000 acres of vineyards and fruit trees, but the most impressive part of the estate is the winery itself. We took a tour of the grounds: through the wine-pressing rooms, into the storage cellars and the old wine-tasting room. It was so fun to learn about how wine was made, plus after our tour we were able to taste 6 of their delicious wines. Such a great time! Because Lucy had a cold we brought her along with us rather than getting a sitter. Everyone there got a kick out of her, we received several comments about "starting her off young." Notice in the last picture how she's trying to subtly sneak a bit of dad's wine.

The secret ingredient

Have you ever had a dish that pretty much everyone you know loves, so you can't help feeling bad that you secretly despise it? That's how I feel about mashed potatoes. Okay, despise might be a bit of an overstatement, but I don't think I've ever made them for dinner, and at holiday meals I either avoid them or take only a small portion to be polite.

But that has all changed.

Today I discovered a recipe for mashed potatoes that uses one simple ingredient that completely changed my view towards mashed potatoes: Lawry's seasoning salt.

Honestly, if you are like me and you find pretty much every mashed potato recipe bland and uninteresting, you have to try adding seasoning salt! I'm confident that mashed potatoes will now begin showing up regularly on dinner menus at the Cohen casa.

Here's what I'm serving with the mashed potatoes: a good old fashioned pot roast. Can you say comfort food??

Baby Legs

I get a daily email from Babysteals that lists one item per day at a reduced price. I've never actually bought anything from them before, but when I saw their email on Friday for babylegs, I just had to!

I've wanted to get Lucy a pair of babylegs before, but at full price they were just too expensive. The ones I got from Babysteals were only $20 for a set of four, so I went ahead and bought them.

They came in yesterday, and they're adorable!

!

Lucy has, shall we say, a somewhat round stomach, and I always feel bad putting pants on her, even stretch pants, the elastic can be pretty tight. These little legwarmers go up all the way to her diaper if I want them too, but the elastic is around her thighs rather than her stomach.

This, incidentally, is one of Lucy's favorite new perches. She can watch the Heffalumps and Woozles song on our computer from that spot, like she's doing in this pic:

Sometimes, if she's feeling particularly fancy, she sits on her bumbo on the couch.

Anyway, I'd highly recommend babylegs. They're good quality leg-warmers, and oh-so-cute!

In which Lucy and her Mom go on an Adventure

Remember that hill behind our house that I posted about? Yesterday it was gloriously sunny and got up to 62 degrees, so Lucy and I decided to climb the hill. Here we are! Off to go on our adventure!



At the top of the hill we found this little copse of trees



I don't know my trees very well, but these were really neat looking even in the middle of winter! I can't wait to see what they look like in the spring and fall.



And the view out over Eugene was magnificent:





We wandered down the path through the trees, and on the other side of the butte as it started to slope down we came across a cemetery:





The grave markers were so interesting to look at. Here's one from 1853

And another one with a family name on it. Any connection? Who knows!



All in all it was a fabulous little walk and we both enjoyed ourselves immensely. I know Eugene is not normally this glorious in the winter-time, but we're loving this abnormally warm weather!

Getting the Christmas Tree

We went with my parents to a tree farm a little ways out of town for our tree this year. It was a very, very cold day. So of course we needed to get Lucy all bundled up to face the cold trek through the snow to find that perfect tree. She has three snowsuits, and naturally I first pulled out the only one that is 0-3 months. This is what she looked like.



I have to admit, Joel and I laughed long and hard after putting her in this suit. I'm not sure she appreciated the humor, but she still managed to look very cute.



So that suit was nixed, and we pulled out the second suit, which actually said 3-6 months but looked smaller. I think this one was from grandma sunny and grandpa howard. This one fit much better.



Off we went to the tree farm, and here Lucy is settling down for a nap in dad's arms before we began the walk out through the trees.



Even though it was frigid, the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. We found our trees and the guys sawed them down. Behold Joel using his strong muscles:



After conquering the tree:



Joel and I next to our felled tree:



Mom holding Lucy while she slept:



Lucy Sleeping:



A landscape shot:



Here's Joel and dad loading the trees into the truck. They were both over 10 feet, although we cut them down to about 8.



Lucy was exhausted from all her hard work. She napped in the car on the way home...



and continued her nap in her snowsuit in her crib once we got home.



She somehow managed to sleep through us dragging the trees into the house and putting them in their stands. But they look great! I'll have to post pictures of our decorated tree later.