Ahi Tuna Salad

One of my favorite starters to order at a restaurant, aside from the cheese plate, is the tuna tartare.  To satisfy the craving at home, I make something similar once in awhile.  This recipe does call for a couple of unique ingredients you may not necessarily have on hand, but you can pick them up at most grocery stores.

Ingredients

• Ahi tuna


• Tomato


• Avocado


• Scallions


• Spicy mayo (I get it from the sushi counter at my store- it's about $1.00 for a small cup)


• Wasabi paste- comes in a tube in the Asian aisle 


• Black sesame seeds

I sear the tuna in a skillet over medium high heat for about two minutes per side and them remove and let rest while I dice the tomato and avocado.  Add in a bit of chopped scallion, the spicy mayo and wasabi paste to taste and sprinkle with the black sesame seeds.  

Are you into sushi or not so much?  I know people love it or hate it.  I'm definitely in the love category!  This is one of the recipes on my health and fitness blog, Honey We're Healthy.  Join me over there for more! :)

Thank you, Pinterest . . .

for finally alerting me when I'm about to pin something I've already pinned!  I've done this so many times in the past and on Sunday, got this friendly little message twice:)  Has this happened to you?!

You can follow me on Pinterest HERE.

Kid Spaces

Perfect timing for today's post from some of my favorite people over at Small Fry blog.  As you know, I'm in the midst of making over my son's nursery into a toddler room, and below are two creative kids rooms I know you'll love.  Don't these girls look like fun?! Their personalities translate into their children's spaces too!

Jenna:

I started the concept of Quinn's Room with the colors I wanted:Aqua Blue, Orange & Grey. I can't remember where I got my initial inspiration for those colors, but color is where the room started. It was important for me to have a room that was very little boy inspired but still masculine. I'm not a fan of sports themes or any of the typical "boy room" designs so I stuck to bold patterns, simple ikea furniture & beautifully painted walls. I had five versions of the aqua i eventually used on my wall for a month! I sent over my ideas to my designer friend, Kirsten & she helped me find the striped bedding from West Elm & the beautiful rug from CB2. Both bold patterned pieces I think make the room! I love being in Quinn's room, it is cheerful, happy & calming  & the perfect room for my little boy.

Emily:

When we found out we were having a boy, it was around Christmastime and my husband had this awesome teal cashmere sweater that he would wear. It was the coziest thing ever, I wore it around all Winter. I fell in love with the color so I took the sweater to Home Depot and had them color match it! It represented comfort to me, and isn't that what a nursery is all about? We knew we couldn't do more than one wall teal without the already small room feeling smaller, so we painted one, picked a complimentary lighter blue for the others. To add texture my husband installed some pine flooring on the one wall, with original plans to do a high gloss white, but we sort of loved the natural wood, so it stayed!

We are huge music lovers and had a collection of concert posters that we wanted to put up in the nursery. They all had a mustard yellow hue to them, so that became the secondary color throughout the room. I was like Jenna in the sense that even though it was a nursery, I wanted it to feel masculine and ageless. The gallery wall helped with that tremendously. I found a super cheap rust colored rocker, and threw that in for good measure. By now my color scheme was all over the place, so my goal with the crib bedding was to tie it all in some how. Low and behold I found this adorable woodland creature print with you guessed it, mustard, teal, rust, and light blue. My husband built the shelves and hanging racks into the standard closet, and an Ikea shelving system gave us extra storage. 

Thank you Jenna and Emily for sharing your inventive kids' rooms with us!  

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Kristen at 6th Street Design School kicks off her series this week and I'm honored to have chimed in with what works in our house as it pertains to kids + good design. 

Cleaning Up

I'm feeling a whole lot lighter after tackling a chore that I'd been avoiding for a couple weeks- cleaning up the accumulating mess in my office.  It's the result of James' art projects from school, home files, Stella & Dot stuff, craft things, and magazines.  It's all the stuff that didn't belong downstairs, and so I rightfully bring it up, but instead of putting it away properly, I just dumped it on my office floor.  You do this too? Move one pile to the next until you can't stand it anymore.

I avoid my office completely when it looks like this so it was time to get it cleaned up.  It didn't take long to throw out the trash and put things back where they belonged. 

So much better!  Doesn't it feel so good to get things organized and cleaned up?  It's a fresh start to the week!  Hope you have a great one!

Living Room Before & After (Danielle Moss)

I'm a big fan of Danielle Moss (Breakfast at Toast/The Everygirl) and really appreciate how honest she is about not just the successes in her life, but the struggles too.  We all have them, trust me.  But, blogs are generally our "happy place" so let's enjoy her gorgeous apartment!  Have you seen it already??  So bright and full of personality in the little details.

In true Danielle style, I love how she shares the unglamorous "before" photos.

*all images via Breakfast at Toast

Amazing what some paint and styling can do to a room!  And I'm reminded to "enjoy the process"!

A metaphor for why Goodness of Fit tests are, well, not very good.

I am proud to say I learned my econometric from Art Goldberger, who had little use for R-squared.

Anyway, a smart friend of mine (who works in industry and therefore might not want to be named) pointed out that he could probably fit the brushstrokes of a Jackson Pollack painting with a 17 degree polynomial and get an excellent R-squared.  But he still couldn't predict what a next brush stroke might look like.

Big Boy Bedroom Plan

My 3 year-old son will soon be sleeping in a big boy bed.  He's been quite content in his crib (only crawled out once!) all this time.  I took my time searching for a new bed and didn't go with the car bed although I did consider it, opting instead for a better quality twin bed and "Cars" bedding.



I searched everywhere, looking online and in several stores.  I almost bought one from Wal-Mart.com, but the reviews weren't that good and said the color (Walnut) was more orange/red than pictured.

via Wal-Mart $229

I really loved the dark blue Pottery Barn Camp bed, but it was $599 (on sale from $749).

Ultimately, I chose a twin bed (Hampton Classic Bed) from Pottery Barn Teen that is on sale for $399.

I found Cars bedding at Target

and also a red and white patterned sheet set with a red jersey knit pillow case (for "accidents" and when I want a change).

This West Elm shower curtain will become his drapes after a little sewing to make them longer (thanks Amanda!)

and the upper part of his walls will be painted something similar to this, Indi Go-Go by Benjamin Moore.

There will be pops of red, perhaps one of these bean bag chairs from Pottery Barn:

It's a start - finally!

*This post contains affiliate links.  

Happy Mother's Day!

Hope you have a great day!

DIY or HIRE??

You might remember me talking about wanting to paint our media cabinets dark grey last week.  They are currently Sherwin Williams Divine White (flat) and Jamestown Blue (Sherwin Williams??) on the back wall.

And I want to paint them dark grey like this:

I actually don't WANT to paint them myself, so I called the painter who painted my office for $100 (well worth it in my opinion) to get a quote.  I'm not sure what I expected, but it sure wasn't $750!  He said he would paint it with his spray gun and the cost is really in the care he has to take in covering everything else in the house so it doesn't get sprayed with paint.  

I politely declined. 

My question is:  Is this something I can tackle myself?  I painted the back wall, but that was easy, no drawers and doors, etc.  I really admire all you DIYers out there that wouldn't even hesitate to paint this yourself, but I'm very hesitant because I want it to look good, especially because it's such a focal point in the room.

Would you paint it yourself? 

What do you think is a reasonable price to pay to hire someone?

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And please come say hi to Jenna at SAS Interiors- she invited me over to talk about creating a meaningful home.  Thanks for having me Jenna!

BOY

My little baby is turning into a full fledged BOY.  We had a date night last Friday which included a trip to the bookstore (his request) and dinner at a restaurant, just the two of us.  I told him when I dropped him off at school that when I picked him up we were going on a date.  Hours later when I returned, the first thing he said when I walked into his class was, "Are you ready for our date, Mom?"  So sweet!

But he's not all sweet all the time anymore.  He wants to play rough, pretend he's Darth Vader, and challenge me.  We can't go anywhere without his lightsaber or Mack/Mater/McQueen.  He tells me, "No," goes straight to time-out for one minute, and then chastizes with that pouty face, "Don't be ugly to me!"  And he wants to negotiate all the time.  Mr. Let's Make A Deal, I swear.  

He's developing his independence and exploring the world.  Finding out what he likes to do and what makes him happy.  Testing boundaries and asserting himself.  Asking questions and making connections.  Struggling with discipline and rules. Getting so good at talking and communicating.  He might be more and more boy, but he is still so friendly and outgoing, talks to everyone, and loves to give hugs and kisses.  He's already teaching me more about myself as a person and woman and mother than I'm probably offering him.  I get lessons in patience and self-control and staying "in the moment" daily.  I'm so proud to be his mom- I feel like I should thank him on Mother's Day for coming into my life and making me a mom.  It's the best thing in the whole world.  

Abby M. Interiors

Happy Monday friends!  Over the weekend I was thrilled to hear my friend Abby announce the launch of her new interior design blog, Abby M. Interiors.  I've been following Abby since she first started blogging (A Delightful Design) and we started our blogs around the same time- hard to believe it's been about 3 years now!  I think Abby is so talented and beyond classy and I'm just so happy for her success.  It takes a lot of bravery and determination to follow your dreams, so big KUDOS to you Abby!

Here is a sampling of some of her work, but you can visit her new blog for more photos and info about hiring her for your own project.

All photos via Abby M. Interiors. 

Have a great week!

A painting by Morgan Green

Basket Addiction

Happy almost Weekend!  If you have a chance, head on over to my friend Jen (I Heart Organizing) where I'm sharing my tips on how to organize your home with baskets!  I must have at least 50 baskets over here, what about you??

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