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Designing our sun room

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This is the first blog post that talks about our interior design choices.  My husband and I like modern, and simple lines.

One of the first rooms we finished designing in our house was the sun room. It is an enclosed sun room, and it is a small space ~5 ft by ~7 ft.

There are several things we loved, about this room, before we started:

  • the color  – its a dark cream; and
  • secondly the light of the room, it has great windows.

The floor consists of terra-cotta tiles, which I was not sure about when we first moved in, but as the room opens to the deck and backyard I have changed my mind – its the perfect surface with a 5 year-old and outdoor activities.

The room had a glass door and a fixed window which was door-sized exiting to the deck. We replaced that with beautiful simple French doors.

Some of the key pieces in the room that makes this a functional room and pulled it together for us are, the side-turned bookcases we use for records and cd’s, the two chairs,  the red lamp, the grey rug and the simple side table (adorned with a plant and a beautiful paper weight art piece). The layout of these pieces definitely make the room seem larger (this was the second layout option we tried).

    

My husband and I do appreciate art and are influenced by New Zealand artists. Some of the pieces that add interest to our room include an antique gas coach lamp which we hung in the inner window space (recycled from my husbands grandfather’s summer garden), a green tiki, and 3 pottery tiles with New Zealand native plants (NZ Cabbage tree, Nikau tree and NZ Flax).

    

I love to read, listen to music and relax in this room now. When friends come over this is where we drink coffee.  I think when designing, for us, it is about putting together items we have collected over time and making room useful but an enjoyable space.

A few of my favorite things: Savory Pies

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Pies! Pies! Pies! oh I miss Georgie Pie – a fast food chain that was around when I was a kid in New Zealand.

  

(Photo credits: kiwianarama.co.nz; georgiepienewzealand.blogspot.com)

When I go home to New Zealand, one of my must haves are meat pies. Meat pies and ketchup are part of our culture, hence on my list of one of my favorite things.

I have three savory pies that I love…smoked fish pie, the classic bacon and egg pie and lastly the potato top pie (filling is typically mince with vegetables – mince=ground beef with gravy for the US folks 😉 ). Here are the recipes for the bacon and egg pie and the potato top pie – I hope you enjoy them 🙂

Bacon and Egg Pie (makes 4 individual pies)

Ingredients 

1 sheet Pillsbury Pie Crust
5 eggs (lightly beaten)
1/2 onion (diced)
4 slices Canadian bacon (diced)
salt and pepper
1/4 cup frozen peas (optional)
1/2 cup grated cheese

  1. Preheat oven at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C)
  2. Unroll the sheet of pie crust, cut out the 4 circles – you may need to re-roll edges to get the 4th one. Place each into the pie dish.
  3. Place the chopped onion,  bacon and frozen pies on the bottom of each pie crust.
  4. Add the egg mixture, salt and pepper over the top to cover the filling (~3/4 fill). I stir the ingredients slightly.
  5. Sprinkle the cheese on the top
  6. Place in the oven for 30 mins or until the egg is cooked through
  7. Take them out of the oven and let stand and cool for 5 -10 mins
  8. Serve with either ketchup or a tasty tomato relish (my preference ;-))

NOTE: The egg will rise to look like a mountain – don’t worry as when it cools it will deflate slightly.

Potato Top Pie (makes 4 individual pies)

Ingredients

Mashed Potatoes:
2 russet potatoes (peeled and diced)
1 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup milk
salt

  1. Cook potatoes in salted boiling water for ~15 minutes.
  2. Drain the water when cooked, add butter and milk and mash. Allow to cool.

Mince:
1 tsp oil
1/2 pound ground beef (250 g mince)
1/2 onion (diced)
2 tsp flour
1/4 cup beef stock
2 Tbsp Ketchup
salt and pepper
1/4 cup frozen peas

  1. Heat fry pan, add oil.
  2. Add the onions and cook until clear.
  3. Add ground beef and brown.
  4. In a cup add the flour and slowly stir in the stock, you are making a gravy – you don’t want lumps :-). Add it to the ground beef.
  5. Add Ketchup, seasoning and 1/4 cup of frozen peas.
  6. Take mixture once heated through off the heat and put aside to cool.

Pie
1 sheet Pillsbury Pie Crust
1/2 cup grated cheese

  1. Preheat oven at 400 degrees F (200 degrees C)
  2. Unroll the sheet of pie crust, cut out the 4 circles – you may need to re-roll edges to get the 4th one. Place each into the pie dish.
  3. Put a 1/4 cup of the mince in each of the pie crusts, fill 3/4 of the pie.
  4. In a piping bag, add mash potatoes. Pipe the potatoes in to rosettes on the top of the mince mixture. Cover the top completely with rosettes.
  5. Sprinkle with Cheese (you could add a sprinkle of paprika for color on the cheese).
  6. Cook for 15-20 mins or until the top becomes golden.
  7. Take it out, allow to cool for 5 mins. and server with ketchup ;-).

Keeping the memories of your kid’s art

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I am writing today, as I am always trying to find new ways of displaying and keeping a record of my son’s art work and general work over time.

I would love more ideas from folks. Please share them – I will try them out and update the post to show you how they worked 🙂

I have tried two things so far:

  1. Frame your favorite pieces in bright colors. You can change them out if you use a standard frame size. I do all the prep work for the art work but I take it to the local framing shop for the class and frame. Below are two pieces, my son’s first at home project – a turkey feather collage and the second a colored in shark, these are hung in my son’s playroom.

       

  2. I think my son’s art work is a great present for his grandparents, so I make an album up for my parents every Christmas. I also make one up for us to keep so that we can have memories for him when he is older.

        

So, one other idea I was thinking was making plates, cups or fabric out of some of his drawings. Here’s a piece, I think, would be great for that.

  

Here’s a useful blog, I found, on www.parents.com. What are some of your ideas?