two west elm lamps i'm coveting

aren't these lamps so great?!  well done west elm, well done indeed. 1. 2. 

my perfect lunch, as of late

this meal became a fast favorite for us- it's simple, tasty and makes us feel just a little bit fancy for some reason. as lou put it: "i'd order this in a restaurant". that statement describing a salad and coming from my husband says it all, really.  i also give you the amounts below just as a guideline. when i make this i am chopping and tossing things into the bowl with abandon rather than measuring things out- it's not something i think you can mess up!  hope you enjoy!  

the what

2 cups of cooked quinoa at room temperature or chilled (how to cook quinoa here)

1/4 c. chickpeas, drained and rinsed if canned

1/4 cup red onion, finely chopped 

1/3 cup tomato, chopped

1/4 cup rough chopped almonds (raw)

2 cups of wild arugula

rosemary sourdough toast

1/2 avocado, smashed

3-4 tablespoons of lemon juice

1 tablespoon of EVOO

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp pepper

the how:

to make the dressing combine lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper in a small bowl and mix. taste to make sure you like and modify if it's too sour for your liking (add a little more olive oil if it is!)

in a large mixing bowl combine quinoa, chickpeas, red onion, tomato, almonds, and dressing. toss until everything is coated.  add arugula and mix thoroughly.

i prefer this to sit and chill in the fridge for a bit before serving. and then right before serving i squeeze a little more lemon juice and a little bit of sea salt on the individual bowls. mmmhhhmm. 

avocado toast is possibly the best thing to happen to me since these. all you need is rosemary sourdough toast, smashed avocado, chunky sea salt and black pepper. use all liberally.  

a little tip

so a friend recently told me that Whole Foods does this totally sneaky thing where they'll put a bunch of similarly priced items together on the shelf, and include one item that has no pricing info....and the sneaky part is that the item that's unpriced is SO much more expensive than all the rest! and it's easy to think that it's priced similar to everything around it or mistake another item's pricing and throw it in your basket and then not notice that you've paid $23 freakin dollars for a bottle of balsamic vinegar.  I've been keeping my eyes out and he's totally right!  I've done a little bit of my own investigating (read: bringing unmarked items to the cashier and finding out the prices) and every single time the item has been significantly more than the things around it! (in one case from the bulk section all other trail mix was between 5.99-8.99/lb and this one was $15.99/lb!)  there's a reason everyone jokes that whole foods should be called "whole paycheck" but i do believe there are ways to shop reasonably there (refer back to this post for more tips!)

* photo by lou. isn't it amazing if i do say so myself?

it was delicious, thanks for asking

vintage fur stole borrowed from lucy on her cross country adventure. 

a few more outtakes

i'm feeling a little under the weather my friends, but i'm really hoping to get better and put together a great recipe post for you this week! in the meantime, here are a few shots of our bedroom that didn't make the design*sponge cut! and by the way, holy wow! thank you for all the sweet words about our home, we are over the moon happy about the response!

it's finally here: our house tour on design*sponge!

please head over here to see our house in it's entirety, but here are a few from our living room that didn't make the cut! 

happy saint patrick's day

i will be the patron saint of anthropomophism by the time this woman is done with me.