the first day of spring

via Hanna's Room

It is sunny and going to be 65 degrees in St. Louis - the perfect weather for the first day of spring! Today, is also the last day of the Terrain + Gardenista Signs of Spring Pinterest contest so I thought I would share some of my favorite images from my entry board. 

1. via The Agrarian Kitchen  2. via Gourmet Trading Company  3. source unknown  4. via Daniella Marie  5. via gin 'n' bird

sectionals

Sectional or L shaped sofas seem to be a hot item in the world of interior design and I totally get why. They are extra comfy, they provide lots of seating (usually 7 butts as we like to say at work) and they are very family friendly. My parents recently purchased one for our northern Michigan home (see design post here) and Jeff and I loved lounging on it during our post-wedding staycation. They are, however, not the easiest piece of furniture to work with. They are difficult to size and visualize in a room (lots of measurements involved), are generally expensive (its more like buying two sofas than one) and are often times sort of sloppy looking (think a giant recliner). Needless to say, we are sourcing quite a few of them at work so I have them on my mind. Here are a few of my favorite "sectional" inspiration images. 

1. via House Beautiful design by Cary Tamarkin  2. via Architectural Digest design by Standard  3. via Lonny design by Hillary Thomas  4. via Lonny design by Jamie Meares of Furbish Studio  5. home of Rachel Bilson design by Kishani Perera

happy st. patrick's day

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Yesterday, we celebrated the luck of the Irish by cooking with friends. Jeff made Guinness beef shepherd's pie, I made sauteed cabbage and soda bread and our friends brought over bangers and mash. It was a delicious and filling meal with probably way too much beer consumed.

Seeing as we celebrated early I thought I would share our recipes in case anyone is in need of an Irish inspired meal for tonight.  I made this Irish soda bread recipe by Ina Garten which I don't think qualifies as official Irish soda bread seeing as it has orange zest in it but either way it was delicious. Just a little bit sweet, nice and crusty and actually quite easy to make.

via Food Network

I also made this sauteed cabbage recipe from Epicurious. It calls for Savoy cabbage although I used green (is there even a difference?). I also used green onions instead of scallions (again is there a difference?). This recipe only took 15 minutes from start to finish and was a well needed vegetable amongst all the potatoes and meat.

via Epicurious - photo by Stephanie Foley

The bangers were from a local butcher (Bauman's if you are in the St. Louis area) and the mashed potatoes were just your standard deliciousness. Jeff's shepherd's pie recipe came from Picture Perfect Meals. It took almost 2.5 hours but it was well worth the wait and effort. We modified the recipe by using less beef and substituting white cheddar for aged cheddar. If you have the time today I would highly recommend it. Happy cooking! 

via picture perfect meals