Adding Accents

We have a very small kitchen, and we desperately needed more space. I found this little stand on Amazon.com for a little over $50 (it has since gone up in price).

White Stand  

After assembling it, I needed to find a way to make it flow with our kitchen. 

 I looked through my kitchen dishes and entertaining pieces. The matching tray and pitcher were both wedding gifts from our registry at Target. I had bought the glasses about a year ago at Tjmaxx (a favorite store for purchasing home decor), and I've had the white cloth napkins for years. 

 It looked a little strange with the items sitting on just the white stand, so I searched some more, and pulled out the bamboo serving try for the top. 

 This little stand now mixes in with the rest of the decor so well. It mirrors my larger island with the white cabinet space below and the wooden top. 

New Years Fortune Cookies

So we're going to a New Years party tonight, and I decided I would attempt to make fortune cookies to take along. I've never made these before, and it took me almost 3 hours  to make them yesterday, but I had lots of fun doing it. 

I found an easy recipe from Allrecipies.com

Fortune Cookies

I bought the glittery stars at Michaels in their cake decorating section, and I sprinkled them on before baking. 

For the fortunes, I used famous New Years quotes from this website:

New Years Quotes

Can't wait to try one tonight!

Food as Decor

I love to decorate in the kitchen with food. It is something you have to buy, and you can get creative with it. Here are a few pictures of how I incorporated it into my kitchen.

 I love to use fresh basil when cooking- it has great flavor. It also brings warmth to your kitchen in those cold winter months when nothing outside is green or fresh. In the summer I grow my own in my herb garden, but I bought this fresh basil at the local grocery store, put it in a vase with some water, and displayed it on my new cake stand I got for Christmas. 
Cake Stand - dBO Pomegranate Ceramic Dessert Tier from www.westelm.com

 Our Kitchen is yellow-I've always wanted a yellow kitchen. Although my tastes are changing some, I still love yellow accents. I got this colander at a Harry and David store last year. A local high school FFA group was selling the grapefruit, so we bought a box, and I've incorporated this fruit into our kitchen decor as well. I often fill this colander with other fruits - apples, bananas, peaches, etc. Fruit always looks good on display, and adds natural color. 

My New Years Resolution

So my New Years resolution this year was to start a blog. I thought I would start a day early. 

I'm a small town girl, and I have been married to my high school sweet heart for 2 1/2 years. We have a lot of dreams and aspirations for our future, but right now we're living in a small apartment saving as much as we can for our future. We hope to one day have a small farm and market garden, and we hope to build a house together in the next few years. The last two and a half years of marriage we've been trying to make our apartment a cozy home by getting creative with what we have or what we can buy on a limited budget. I hope to share some of these ideas with you. I also love to bake, and do so at least once a week. I will of course share some recipes with you as well. Though I live in the north east, I've always felt I should have been a southern girl. Everything about the south appeals to me...especially the warmer weather and the southern hospitality :)