The purple room & jewelry update

I’ve been working on lots of things lately, not just jewelry related. K and I finally painted our dining room. We did something daring (and quite possible dumb). We painted the walls a light gray color and left the trim and door white. That’s not the dumb daring part– painting the ceiling grape purple color was. WHAT WERE WE THINKING??

My original plan was to paint only one wall because I messed up the paint when I was taking down pictures that were hung on it. Warning: do not use double sided mounting tape to hang picture frames or you run the risk of pulling off chunks of paint when you take them down. Anyway, we went from one wall to my husband’s philosophy of, “Go big or go home,” and ended up going with painting all three walls in the dining room. Our dining room is connected to our living room. Then he said, “Let’s paint the ceiling.” I hesitated at that point but I said OK since I didn’t really get him involved with the furnishing of our home. So after a few trips to Home Depot, we compromised with gray walls and a purple ceiling. I partially blame Pinterest for the idea of a dark ceiling– they all just looked sooooo pretty on there! Our dining room isn’t having the same effect on me as the photos on Pinterest did. I anticipate painting the ceiling a bright white some time in the near future.

So that’s what’s going on with our home. Jewelry wise, I just got done with a few pieces that are in my collection of crystal bracelets. They are now available in my Etsy shop. They’re extra blingy, extra feminine, and perfect for the holiday season!

As far as Baby K updates, well, she’s no longer a baby anymore. My baby is officially a toddler *gasp!* She turned two a couple weeks ago. And she’s starting preschool tomorrow. December 3rd, 2012 marks very sad day for me as a mommy :(.

White chocolate champorado

One of my favorite things for breakfast growing up was a filipino dish called champorado which is basically chocolate sweet rice. When I first moved out of my parents’ home, it was all I ever wanted for breakfast but everytime I tried to make it up, it just didn’t taste right. It never compared to mom’s. Why try to duplicate a recipe when you can re-create? And why not make it white… white chocolate, that is.

White chocolate champorado
1 cup sweet rice
5 cups water
1 1/4 cup white chocolate chips
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp cinnamon
salt

– Rinse sweet rice.
– Place sweet rice and water in a pot over medium high heat. Be sure to constantly stir so rice doesn’t stick to the bottom. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to medium-low. Allow to simmer until rice is soft.
– Stir in white chocolate chips, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and a pinch of salt.
– Continue to cook until chocolate is melted.

You can add sugar if you’d like or more chocolate chips. I usually don’t add any though. I find the chocolate adds just enough sweetness while not being overwhelming. This dish will thicken the longer it sits. I like it best when it’s first cooked.