New Home, New Design

My husband and I have just finished moving to a new children's home to continue our ministry of relief house parenting here. Fun fact: all the houses are painted bright white on the interior. Everywhere. No options! So whats a mamma to do?
Decorate in black and white of course!!!
I am really excited about this change in style for me and I though you might enjoy coming along for the ride. We are still moving in; so, I will not post pictures until next week. Still, I though it might be fun to give you the low down on my decorating plans :)
My basic outline, as I have already indicated, is black and white. Obviously my walls are white. I am thinking I will do a creamish window treatment throughout the house and lots of wrought iron and other cute black decorating items. I will add cream in here and there as I see fit.
The other concept that I am really excited about is my color accenting. I plan to do a different accent for each room to give them all their own personality. The kitchen will be red, the living room will be gold (which I am loving most of all so far!), our bedroom will be a soft gray (hopefully very sexy :), our bathroom will be zebra print (I know it's not a color, but a theme works too I think...this is my way of having fun, but not being too out of this world since only we will see our bathroom :), and our kiddos' room has yet to be determined (we will decide next week when the sex of the new baby is discovered).
Anyhow, I hope this is a fun process for you to take a look at and I hope it inspires your inner decorator!

Ta ta for now!

Mediterranean Pasta Salad

Last night for dinner I made my favorite pasta salad and whole artichokes. As always it was a success. Now I am going to share this with you. This is literally years of perfecting; so don't take this lightly. What I am about to reveal to you is pure happiness. It all started with Homemade Gourmet's Mediterranean  Pasta Salad. My mom used to buy and make the mix all the time. I would eat half the bowl and be craving more for months. Then I moved out on my own. No more pasta salad (sigh). Thus began my quest to recreate this delectable salad. As this was a patented recipe, I could not find an exact match to the original. However, I also couldn't find anything close to it. Finally I compiled a mismatch of recipes and a bit of my own ingenuity (probably the only bit I'll ever have), and viola:

1 pkg bow tie noodles
1 c sun dried tomatoes
1 c pine nuts
1 container basil and sun dried tomato feta cheese
1 1/2 c Parmesan cheese
3 c fresh basil
Juice from 1 1/2 lemons
6 cloves garlic
1 1/2 tsp honey
1 1/2 TB sea salt
1/2 c pine nuts

Directions:
Boil and drain noodles
Chop Tomatoes, Reserving a few for pesto if desired
Place noodles, pasta, and tomatoes into salad bowl
In food processor combine remaining ingredients and reserved tomatoes
Pulse until blended
Mix into bowl

Optional: add a few whole basil leaves in with the noodles

Note: Because we are working with fresh ingredients, flavors may vary from batch to batch depending on the potency of products. For best results, perform multiple taste tests and adjust as needed ;)