Completion of art work; mixed medium on canvas Walking Bridge of Chattanooga and Series (3) Morning Mist for Dr. Patterson’s Dental office in Chattanooga Tennessee has arrived.  Delivery is set with a little RR for the artist which is way over due.   If you would like custom abstract art for your home please contact Deborah at  http://www.UandIHomeDecoratingandStaging.com  She will use your color palette and create a custom piece just for you. Deborah’s art work is gracing clients walls all over Hampton Roads and can also be shipped outside of Hampton Roads.  Her friends have expressed their favorite, which one is yours? U & I

Sometimes it is just to much pressure to make sure everything is perfect, in it’s place, clean, and smellin pretty…..Especially on Valentines Day the pressure is even tougher.  I feel the most romantic place is your home…forget about going out to dinner.  Stay in and cook together.  Make something neither one of you have had before.  Think exotic and spicey if that’s the way you like your food, or something down home, comfort foods like homemade mac and cheese.  What ever your preference everyone likes to do it with your best friend.  My best friend happens to be my husband and that is what we are doing tonight….staying away from the rat race and being together in our kitchen with a lovely beverage and great night of slice’n and dice’n in the kitchen together.  I hope that you have a lovely evening with whom ever you choose for a best friend for a night filled with laughter and love.

U & I (Deborah)

Loving what I do for clients:

I have had the pleasure of doing faux finishes and mural work for clients in the past but recently have taken up using canvas.  I created a very large piece for a staging job by covering it with graphic material and viola instant color and impact.  

You can keep the cost down for these large pieces simply by using my motto I use for my company “Rethink, Reuse, Refresh”.  I shop in consignment shops, second hand boutiques, and local thrift stores.  You can find some interesting pieces from the 70’s and 80’s just waiting for a new look at a very reasonable price.  Perhaps you have an out of date painting that can be refreshed for the low cost of fabric.

You can purchase graphic pieces of fabric to fit your color scheme or if you are artistic, you can prime it and paint whatever you wish….or hire me of course to do it for you if you are not a DIY kind of gal or guy.  I would be happy to lend my talents to grace the walls of your home.

I completed a custom art piece for a client and delivered it to her yesterday.  We were having a problem finding a piece that was large enough to fit the hole above the fireplace (a blast from the past trend I keep running into, the 90’s theme in home building). When we found a piece she loved, it was either too small, too big, or too expensive. 

U & I Solution:  My husband and I made a frame to fit the specific size she needed, I wrapped a gently used canvas piece, cut and stretched it to fit, primed, and painted it for her.  I used all the colors in her décor and in the style that she was attracted too.  A gift for the artist in me came after my husband installed it.  My client walked into her living room and smiled from ear to ear and stated how beautiful it was……That is what we decorating artist live to hear.

I woke up this morning with my coffee and a lovely e-mail from her that I will share with you. 

Deborah,

Thank you so much for all your help.  I don’t have words to express my gratitude to you and your husband.  You are helping to make my house feel like “home”.

Thank you again,

Mary

 Confirmation to why I feel blessed to do what I love.  Grand way to start the year.

 Deborah Lutz, Owner

U & I Home Decorating and Staging

 

Christmas staging and decorating is so easy with today’s trends on colors from pink and purple to traditional.  Everyone’s taste is different and while walking through the stores you can see how the marketing departments have really stepped up to the challenge.  You can be creative with staging and true to the home in decorating which ever one you choose.  When doing it for someone else’s home you will use what they love but when staging you can appeal to everyone.   I am truly one of the blessed working individuals that is able to do what I love and it never feels like work.  Attached are a few photo’s of this years Christmas bling.

Thank you very much for allowing me into your home and supporting my blog by reading and subscribing to U & I Home Decorating and Staging’s.

Merry Christmas everyone.  It has been a pleasure decorating and staging with you this year.  See you next year.

U & I Home Decorating and Staging

Deborah Lutz

Here you go cheesecake fans….I have been asked for the recipe I came up with by combining 4 separate recipes.  Enjoy….Deborah

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New York style Pumpkin Cheesecake

 Crust:

Preheat oven to 400’ spray or oil 9” to 10” spring pan

Combine:

1 ½ cups of flour

1/3 cup sugar

½ cup or one stick of butter melted

One egg slightly beaten

Mix until moist and press into bottom of sprayed pan

Top with finely chopped hazel nuts press into crust (about ½ cup)

Top with finely chopped gingersnap cookies (just a few)

Press down and prick crust with a fork several times for venting

Bake 15 minutes let cool

Cheesecake:

3 (8) oz packs of cream cheese

1-cup brown sugar

One ½ cups canned pumpkin

½-cup heavy cream

1/3 cup maple syrup

One tbls. Vanilla extract

¾ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp allspice

½ tsp pumpkin spice

½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp clove

½ tsp ginger

Four eggs

Electric mixer on slow to medium mix cheese, sugar; until creamy add syrup, vanilla, and spices.  You can use the all spice and cinnamon if you do not have the others.  I like mine spicy so I use them all.  Beat in one egg at a time being sure to mix slowly and until smooth.

Pour batter over prepared cooled crust.  In a baking pan fill ½ way with water place on rack beneath the cheesecake.  Place spring pan on cookie sheet on middle rack. Bake in the preheated oven for 80 to 90 minutes, or until center of cheesecake is set.  It may be a tad jiggly but that is fine it will set up once cooled.  Not to jiggly if so, cook a bit longer watching closely every five minutes until slightly jiggly. 

Topping:

1-cup sour cream

1 tsp. vanilla

¼-cup sugar

Mix well until smooth and top cheesecake bake an additional 5 minutes then turn off oven and allow the cheesecake to set in the oven for one more hour with it turned off.  It will set up during this time.  Allow cake to cool completely out of oven, cover tightly and refrigerate overnight.  The cheesecake will take on the entire spice flavoring over night.

My friend shared a secret of downloading a picture and cutting a template lay it over the top of the cheesecake and sprinkled cinnamon from a sifter screen to create the design you want.  She did some amazing crabs for the Chesapeake Bay and I did a pumpkin.  You could do leaves or what ever the occasion is.

I want to say thank you to all my clients, this past year and years before for trusting in U & I Home Decorating and Staging for your interior and exterior decorating and staging needs. 

I am one of the lucky few who can say that I love my job and hope to assist you in the future with any new projects that may arise. 

I would also like to thank God for the abundance of blessings he has bestowed upon me through my husband, family and friends.  My life is truly blessed and full.

Please enjoy your Thanksgiving and know that we appreciate you at U & I Home Decorating and Staging.

Deborah Lutz, Owner and Founder

U & I Home Decorating and Staging

photo courtesy of Country Living Magazine

I had the lovely opportunity to learn about the art of chocolate making today from a client that I had given a color consult and furniture placement DIY guide a few months ago.  I was also enlightened about the difference between a truffle and a bon bon. We Americans like to call them all truffles when in fact they are not.  The true truffle is chocolate and cream dusted with cocoa powder all other chocolates with a hard covering are called bon bons.  Who knew?  All I know is they are delicious whether it is a truffle or a bon bon. 

Kristin Joslin is a chocolatier, and owns Cocoa Nouveau.  My husband bought me a box of her chocolates as a gift and I quickly became a huge fan of Cocoa Nouveau, only to find out she has limited times to work in her chocolate room and you need to get your hands on her chocolates while she is making them.  She studied in Germany and traveled to Paris where she finished her schooling, which is fascinating in itself.  She only makes natural chocolates; she uses the finest of chocolate from Venezuela.  She does not add preservatives so the chocolates do have a shelf life.  Who has left over chocolates anyway were my first thoughts….but when you have your delicious chocolates for purchase at a lovely storefront you need only supple the demand.  You can buy them by the box or piece at any of the locations below or you can order from her website for weddings and such.  If you add yourself to her newsletter she will send you and invite to her next batch…I feel special that she offered to let me help in her chocolate room. 

I knew her chocolates where delicious but I had no idea how labor-intensive chocolate making is.  The chocolate is so temperamental much like a woman and needs constant attention and caressing.  From the moment I stepped into the chocolate room, the aroma of the dark elixir filled the air.  I commented on the wonderful scent and Kristin quickly answered that she could not smell it anymore.  Poor soul…I cannot imagine not being able to smell such a palette-pleasing aroma. 

She was gently stirring a bowl of tempered chocolate that had a candy thermometer attached to the side of the stainless steel bowl and warming towel underneath to keep the chocolate at just the right temperature for dipping.  She had started this batches process on Monday with the infusing of creams and pouring of chocolates to cut into there perfect squares of goodness.  Some of the chocolates will receive transfers, some will receive crushed nuts, and of course, the truffles will only receive a dusting of cocoa powder.

I was able to help her with Roma, a chocolate cappuccino….so soft and creamy…yum is all I can say.  While Kristin dipped her cut chocolates, I was in charge of applying the transfer.  She does everything by hand which makes me appreciate her art of chocolate making even more.  We finished the Roma’s and started on Gibson, which is hand rolled chocolate with crushed peanuts….again I have to say soft and creamy sweet with the salt of the crushed peanuts…perfectly balancing the salt and sweet that I love.  She had prepared the chocolate rolls earlier and as she dipped and dropped them into the nut bath, I quickly covered them with the crushed nuts.  You can be safe and sure, she did not allow me to do anything that would hinder the process….smart cookie this one.  I have many talents but baking and chocolate making is not one of them.  We only had a few hours to work with the chocolate before it became too thick and had to be retired. 

I left the chocolate room with my mind full of wonder and appreciation for an art form that is lacking in our country, true chocolatier shops that only serve their chocolates and nothing else.  I admire her patience working with the temperamental substance but her patience is our decadent tasting of an exploding mouth full of delicious flavors of infused creams and Venezuelan chocolate that you must try each one to appreciate them.

Coco Nouveau website: http://www.cocoanouveau.com and a list of storefronts you can purchase her chocolates.

 If you attend the Let’s talk wine tasting in Chesapeake on November 13^th you will get to meet her.  To my readers outside of Hampton Roads she also ships.

 These chocolates will also be available at Terebinth in Chesapeake and Integrative Manual Therapy and Wellness (350 W 22nd Street, Suite 108. Norfolk, Virginia 23517. Phone: (757) 216.4151)

London: 70% with Earl Grey tea
Rossetti: 65% with pomegranate
Istanbul: 42% with black tea and spices
Turin: 42% with hazelnut
Gibson: 42% with peanuts
Tiffany: 42% with pumpkin
Brittany: sea salted caramel
Verona: 42% with pear
Paris: classic truffle
Vienna: 70% with fresh ginger
Roma: a chocolate cappuccino
Avola: handcrafted marshmallow flavored with fiori di Sicilia
Reims: 65% chocolate and champagne
Normandy: 65% with calvados

This is the last event for Rossetti, Tiffany, Turin and Verona

This is going to be a series of *Party helpful hints* from U & I….

I have given many parties in the past and plan to have many more.  During the process, it can take a toll on your sanity if you are like my neighbor Hal and I. 

Recently we participated in giving a Halloween party for our friends and neighbors.  The planning and grouping, issuing certain items to be done by certain people and then getting it all done.  Let me tell you Hal and I have decided that party given in that extreme must be left to the younger folks and we are ready to RSVP and attend. 

The party was a huge success but the time, energy that it takes to throw a fantastically fabulous party is overwhelming for those of us with OCD, and yes, Hal and I are one of those OCD party throwers.  My husband affectionately calls us diseased.  I have always thought of myself as detailed oriented…*Hint: it is all about the details*…until I met Hal….

We moved in to our community 4 years ago and that is when I attended my first Hal’s oween Party, that is my affectionate name for his Baymark Cemetery party…every tree, every decorations was out and dancing in the night wind.  He has thrown this popular Hal’soween party every other year for many years.  I never understood about the every other year until now.  The last party was to be his last because it was just too much work…Well if you would see how he decorates for his parties you would understand.  The pictures do not do it justice. 

I could not bear the thought of it being his last party because it was sooooo much fun to attend.  I guess so since I did not do any of the work.  I begged and pleaded for him to do it again and promised my undying attention and contribution to his efforts to make it easier for him.  *Hint: ask for others to help with decorating, set-up and don’t forget the breakdown* With apprehension he agreed to do ONE MORE Hal’soween Party only if we had a meeting and help was issued out.  WE AGREED…set the date and I will be there with pen and paper…of course writing everyone’s duty down being the OCD girl that I am. 

Hal began decorating the trees with lights in late August…*Hint: allow yourself plenty of time to prep, anything that can be done early do it* when I say trees, I mean every tree in the area has lights on it.  He does not just wrap or drape, he twines the lights around and the effect is illumination of greatness.  Keep in mind that an entire storage bin of extension cords used for this.  *Hint: make sure your circuit breaker can handle the load* I was able to help him just a bit with the lighting because he is a Mr. do it and it is done before you can say I can help….I love that about him, *Hint: utilize your DO IT friends*.  Slowly he brings box after box from his tiny condominium attic each day something new has appeared on the lawn.  For months he preps items to bring out as the weather permits and in the order line of battery or not battery….The amount of items he has stored over the years in the tiny units attic is beyond organization to fit it all in.  He would put any professional organizer to shame.  *Hint: keeping every thing neat and in bins is a great help next year.  Try color-coding your bins according to seasonal color for easy eye location of seasons*  I was shocked to see how many decorations one person can organize into such a small environment.  I was beyond impressed.  It was an amazing mixture of ghosts, goblins, pumpkins, bodies, heads, lights, grave yard head stones, bowls filled with candy, bugs, orange table clothes, skulls, bats, Frankenstein, black cats, scary demon heads, the batteries alone cost him hundreds of dollars *Hint: another expense forgotten, don’t forget to dispose old batteries properly*.  This guy has it all…and it all went out little by little each day.  *Hint: Hal’s helpful hint for buying party decor is to purchase next years items just after the holiday to get the 75% discounts. This is one of my favorite tips as well.* 

Each unit decorated their own decks and condo’s to their taste.  I went with the Haunted house theme with white sheets covering all the furniture.  White Sheers on the windows replaced my everyday drapery, twinkling lights on top of all the tall furniture pieces, Halloween decorations displayed throughout with screaming doormats and blinking eyes chanting I’m watching you in the bathroom…great fun.  *Hint:  white sheets, and sheers can be purchased at thrift stores.  You can cut holes, and shred them or apply black felt for ghosts and hang them in the yard with balloons underneath for heads.*  My sister helped me break everything down, washing all the sheets and folding them nice and neat while others helped us breakdown the outside.  My brother-in-law Jeffrey carved some amazing Jack-o-lanterns….5 to be exact.  The patience that man has is beyond me.  They were boofabulous…..

The food of course is potluck style with all attendee’s asked to participate in bringing a dish to share with everyone.  *Hint: This is one way to help make the process of food items easier and less expensive for the party giver.*  It was a wonderful array of items from delicious Bacon covered mushrooms with BBQ sauce, Pork BBQ sandwiches, Turkey and Ham sandwiches, Macaroni and Cheese, Meatballs, dips, fried chicken,  you name it and all delicious.   We thank the attendee’s for all their participation with food and drink as well as ice *Hint: (another expense not to be forgotten).* It really does make a difference.

The drink table/Bar was filled with Soda, Water, assorted Bottled Beer and Wine (don’t forget the Jello shooters that I am amazed congealed, you didn’t have to drink them to smell the liquor in them) *Hint: all supplied by the neighbors together in an attempt to help with the financing of the happy event.* Some party goers will bring their own specialty elixirs if the provided items are not to their pallets.  All and all there was more than enough to go around.

The evening provided us with wind and chill in the air but our neighbor Gary is always ready and prepared to build his fire to keep us all toasty and comfortable *Hint: helping hands utilized, thank you Gary*.  A tent was provided for the dining area which Hal prepared “Last supper style” with orange table clothes lining the straight line of a centerpiece filled with candles, tiki lamps, centipedes, spiders, creepy crawling bugs, and bowls filled with yummy candy.  I made some ghosts from white sheets, black felt, and balloons to hang in the tent to blow in the wind with the twinkling lights and crape paper decorations.  Overall, it was a beautiful dining area for the guests.

 The music supplied by a play list Hal worked on for months prior to the party.  We all gave him lists of the music we liked.  The dance floor area lighted with orange blinking lights, a flashing disco light that beat to the music and it was a popular stop for all the guests.  Another helpful hint: *Music can break or make a party so  do your best to keep it up lifting and entertaining and it will keep the guests mingling and happy.*

All had a wonderful evening and time……….but do not forget it does not stop there for the party giver.  *Hint: THREE LITTLE WORDS…….CLEAN UP CREW*…thank you to all of those that helped the following morning.  The clean up and break down was achieved with great swiftness and efficiency.

*I would like to especially thank my husband Chris and Hal’s husband Eddie for not divorcing us and all their patiences with Hal and I in our OCD state of mind.  Your continued support and helpful hands with our adventures, tasks, and endless projects is greatly appreciated and adored.*

Have a wonderful Holiday season and may all your parties be as successful and filled with friends, family and laughter.  Deborah

13 years ago today I married my man in our back yard.  The weather was perfect for our Halloween Costume party.  The yard was filled with hay bales, grave yards, tents, decorations, sounds of music and laughter from all of our friends.  We came as the Bride and Groom to the surprise of the guests we actually were married.  They didn’t believe it at first…they thought it was staged but the minister quickly let them know that it was for REAL…..A few of them knew….all of my Bridesmaids dressed in old prom dresses, The best man who was the grim reaper, of course my lovely daughter Scarlett O’Hara….It was a fantastic wedding filled with ghouls, goblins, clowns, Queen of the Fleet, referees, singing nuns, cherub angels, old men and women…..our friends still tell us that it was the most fun they have ever had at a wedding.  Chris and I would not have changed a thing….except for the part where he dropped the ring in all the hay and confetti.  We had to stop the ceremony, get a flash light to find it…..just when he was about to put the ring on my finger to our surprise the neighborhood kid Dare program was doing a march down the street chanting “JUST SAY NO, JUST SAY NO”…..PRICELESS

 

Every fall the leaves begin to turn beautiful shades of vibrant orange, brilliant red, and golden-yellow.  The air becomes crisp and the smell of apples, pumpkins, spice scented candles, and bon fires bring me a sense of peace.  Staring into the fire with nothing on my mind but rest and the yummy goodness of graham cracker, dark chocolate, and oozy gooey marshmallow smores.  Fall is my favorite time of year to vacation.  We try to go to the mountains each year to see the beautiful color combinations that God created for us in nature.  The colors are so vivid with deep burgundy, rusty oranges, dark brown yellows, and deep greens turning to neon green in the bright sunlight.  If you are going to decorate this time of year there is no better place to get inspiration than taking a long leisurely walk in the woods.  The burning bushes line the streets of North Carolina and they are so brilliant with the fuchsia red pink, they truly do look like the are on fire and luminescent.  Absolutely breath-taking vista’s of mountain views, babbling brooks, rock climbing and water falls.  We took a nice detour to do some zip lining in the woods at Hawksnest resort.  They were fantastic.  Their customer service was wonderful and it was a screaming at the top of my lungs fun……I hope that you will be able to take some time off this fall and truly look around at the beautiful splendor with nature.  My husband Chris,  my daughter Brandi, Lucy our very loved mini schnauzer and myself Deborah wish you peaceful bon fire nights, and clean crisp mountain air to keep you grounded with a sense of peace if only for a weekend.