Sun Gold Cherry tomato and Sugar Sprint pea beginnings.

When we moved in to Casa de Baya, the bedroom had a very make-shift curtain hanging in the window. Made from a sheet, it had faded pink flowers and was generally sad. It wasn't my style and it just looked out of place, especially after the fresh coat of sage green paint that we put on the walls. I found this fabric online (it's a Robert Kaufman fabric, panda print in tangerine and it's a bamboo/cotton blend) and ordered 4 yards of the 54" wide fabric.

The trickiest part of this project was ironing the fabric. I only have a mini-sized tabletop ironing board, so it took a lot of shifting and hoping that it wouldn't re-wrinkle as I ironed the next piece. Then I cut it in half and hemmed each edge--twice. Once to pull back the raw edge and the second time to hide that raw edge (I decided not to line or make the curtains double sided in any way, the thought of wrangling that much fabric made me blanch). Then I folded the top over to make a pole pocket, hung them up and had curtains. The fabric was less expensive than panels big enough to cover the window, especially since I wanted a custom length as the window sits above a baseboard heater. It did take about 8 hours of pinning, ironing and sewing time, because I am both fastidious and slow because of my relative lack of sewing experience.

One choice D and I have made this year is to try and cut back on our meat consumption. This means more mushrooms, more whole grains and hopefully, more beans and bean-like objects. I have a great aversion to the slightly gritty texture of beans though, so I'm searching hard to find ways to enjoy them. I like hummus, so that's one. And now I like this lemon-y, onion-y, olive-y salad. It's a great balance of crisp and soft and tangy and salty. I highly recommend it, especially on a piece of seeded whole grain toast. My next recipe to try? Crispy roasted chickpeas. Then maybe I'll move on to another member of the bean family!

We're settling in here at the new house (In all my nerddom I've dubbed it Casa de Baya or "Berry House" for it's pale pink color on the outside.) Our move was both spur-of-the-moment and long-coming all in one. We tend to spend quite awhile debating big decisions and then move on them in one fell swoop. So far it's worked out pretty well for us.

The benefits of Casa de Baya are many. We're only attached to one neighbor and separated by a garage. We have a garage. And a washing machine and dryer. The kitchen is a huge upgrade. We can have a dining room table. We were able to pick paint colors. I have room for container gardening. The neighborhood is awesome. Mostly, we feel at home here. And that's the most important thing for us right now.

Those are frost covered leaves of the sweet jasmine plant that grows on one of the two arches in the front yard. I cannot wait to see them blooming and lovely, even if it means a lot of painting and yardwork between now and then. (Speaking of which, painting an entire house in two weekends is quite possibly one of the least fun things I have ever signed on to do. Worth it in the end, but less than ideal during the process.)

Also, I've decided to document every day this year with a photo. You can see all of my photos here, at flickr.