Who needs Cinnabon?

For some odd reason I have been in the mood to bake lately, despite the fact that I am notoriously bad at everything besides making Ramen and also Hanna took away our pretty Kitchen Aid mixer. It is so hard to motivate oneself to bake or cook when you don't have the proper tools or space.Or talent.

Le Sigh.

Yesterday I spent a few hours scouring the internet for recipes and when I came upon this delectable batch of Sticky Lemon Rolls, I almost fell over. Sticky rolls laced with nutmeg and lemon zest! Lemon cream cheese glaze! Lemon filling! Be still my heart! It's a lemon extravaganza! A lemon sensation! A lemon spectacular!

HERE is the recipe, which looks way more time consuming if you do not have a Kitchen Aid mixer.
Just sayin'.

Images: The Kitchn

Sniffles.

I don't take sick days often because I have major guilt complexes and feel like the world might stop spinning if I neglect to go to work but I've been under the weather for the past week and so a proper sick day was in order. Sick days are fun because, as long as you're not on death's door, it feels like a treat. You can stay in bed all day and not feel guilty and you can ignore the pile of laundry because-hello, you're too sick to do laundry.  My most recent sick day gave me a lot of time to think. Actually, that's not true, it gave me a lot of time to lay in bed watching Damages and dozing off to have terrifying nightmares about Glen Close. However when I wasn't doing that, I tried to make the most of my time off by planning ways to use the time wisely and not just laze about until suddenly the day is over and I've forgotten to enjoy it.  It was probably the best day of my life. For serious, you guys.

First of all, I drank tea and read design blogs all morning. Then I made chicken soup and watched everything on my DVR. Then I worked on one of my scripts. Then I drank more tea and read Vogue. After I worked up the energy to take a shower, I settled back into bed and spent the rest of the evening watching TV and catching up on correspondence. Overall, a very productive yet relaxing day. Perhaps I should make this a regular occurrence.

Image: Fifi Lapin

Oh, and also I like the yellow pillow.

In my ongoing quest to find and buy a rug for my apartment I constantly find myself drawn to stripes and chevron-inspired patterns. I just love how the repeated pattern looks with florals and how it adds depth to a room and helps offset any large solid pieces like our giant orange couch. I saw this living room in Living Etc and went bananas over the rug/throw pillow/fabric-covered wall combination.

Also, why don't I have a tuxedo couch?

I've had the Ikea Stockholm Rand rug on my list for quite some time now and the only thing that keeps me from running out and buying it is the concern that my cats would ruin it or my roommate would get sick of vacuuming all the cat hair off it and would start to secretly hate me AND my stupid rug. Maybe the solution is that I get my rug BUT I learn to vacuum...

Images: Living Etc and Ikea