if you can't take the heat...

I tried to set fire to my kitchen the other night. Not on purpose, of course. And actually, it was a joint effort - I couldn't have done it without my husband.

We like to cook dinner together, testing out recipes {although most of the time, I serve as his sous chef - I am the baker, after all} and enjoying the fruits of our labor. So it stands to reason that we'd like to start a kitchen fire together.

Here's the scene : I came home late from work and Mark had started our dinner - spaghetti and turkey meatballs. The sauce was simmering on the stove, but the pasta needed to be boiled. The pot was filled with water, so I turned the burner on and walked into the dining room to chat with Mark. A few minutes later, Mark asked me what was burning. I headed back into the kitchen and began shrieking, "It's a fire! It's a fire!"

The spoon Mark had used to stir the sauce had fallen out of the spoon holder and onto the back burner. It wouldn't have been a problem, except I had turned on the back burner, instead of the front burner where the pot was sitting.

Everything turned out fine {Mark calmly put the fire out while ran around like a crazy person, throwing windows open so as not set off the fire alarm/condo sprinklers}. But our spoon is a little worse for the wear.

Moral of the story : pay attention in the kitchen, whether you're working with knives or heat sources. Oh, and invest in a fire extinguisher.

easter...italian-style

As I mentioned here, this Easter Sunday was a special treat. Since Mark and my dad were in Virginia, my sister-in-law invited my mom and I over to celebrate with homemade raviolis, chicken, pork, pasta, salad, bread and lots of dessert.

And there was only five adults and two kids.

But that's the way our holiday meals are. Lots of food, lots of fun and even more love {if you can imagine it}.

~ Nonna and L finishing up the pork ~

~ homemade raviolis from scratch...you can't beat it ~

~ M being goofy with his salad in his teeth ~

~ J checking out the dessert ~

~ tuckered out ~

~ doesn't he look like the cutest zombie ever? S just up from a nap ~

polarizing pictures

Usually, Mark's interior design taste and my decor esthetic tend to match, but when I recently purchased a series of art pieces for the kitchen, it was glaringly obvious that in this particular instance, we couldn't have been farther apart. Words like "hate" and "ugly" and "retirement home" {the last of which was particularly funny when we realized that Mark had been sporting these grandpa slippers all day} were tossed around, but in the end, Mark was sweet enough to drag out the ladder and hang the pieces for me.

~i was supposed to be handing him the screws~

smitten kitten | navy chairs

I can't take full credit for this latest obsession - Mark actually introduced me to it. And full disclosure, it had to grow on me, but now that it has, I can't get enough!

The cost for the orginial Emeco Navy Chair is just a little too rich for my blood, but thank you Crate and Barrel! They have these chairs at a fraction of the cost.

Can't you just see these matched with a sturdy wood dining room table? Oh, swoon.

killer kitchens

Looks like I've been focusing a lot on all things lovely and not so much on modernity. So as we head into the weekend, I figured I would share some fabulously clean, contemporary kitchens. Maybe it will spark a desire in you to update your kitchen or another room in your house.

* images via here, here, here and here.

What are your plans for the weekend? I'm hoping to head to the theater with some of my teammates to check out The Social Network. I hear it has some great rowing in it (it takes place at Harvard, after all). You'll have to excuse me if I geek out. 

Happy weekend, lovelies!

smitten kitten | tea towels

I blame this innate obsession on my mother - there is a drawer in my mom's kitchen that is stuffed with tea towels. Among all the things my mom passed along to me, she blessed me with a love of tea towels.

What's the history of a tea towel, you ask? (And by the way, doesn't tea towel sound lovely? So much better than dish towel.) In 18th century England, a tea towel was a special linen cloth that was used solely by the mistress of a household to dry her delicate and expensive tea china.

So be the mistress of your household and pick up some adorable tea towels for your own kitchen.

~union jack tea towel~

~mr. darcy tea towel~

~danica studio aviary tea towel~

~my favorite british WWII slogan~