Need

Our living room needs this:

Moroccan leather pouf from here

Much like my shoulder needs this:

Coach Parker Leather Satchel from Nordstrom

A Whole Other Level of Crazy

Today's weather was incredibly beautiful. It's February 8 and it was about 70 degrees and sunny. Beautiful enough that I went outside and washed both cars.

This weather has me yearning for spring. There's always one morning. You wake up, go outside to get the paper, and just know that winter's gone for good. It's always a crisp morning, but it somehow smells like the day is going to get warmer and there's no turning back.

Anyway, all that got me to thinking, "What will I be wearing this spring?" Naturally.

So I'm sitting at my computer with a delicious glass of wine, spending my evening virtual shopping while the husband cooks and decided to make a virtual outfit. Turns out it's totally fun!!!

Here's how I envision a perfect spring work look:

Daisy necklace, Juicy Couture, $48; Gladiola Print Cami, JCrew, $118; Nolita Denim Jacket, JCrew, $98; Classic Pencil Skirt, Banana Republic, $59; Genevieve Hobo, Cole Haan, $395; Felix Sandal, LAMB, $395

I'd wear it mostly jacket-less, but reserve the denim jacket (which I think I'm going to have to get at some point) for when the office gets chilly (which, now that I think about it, is always).

Of course, the $395 (fierce!) shoes are probably not going to happen and unfortunately I doubt the delicious hobo bag will either. A girl can dream though, right?

Um, yeah, hi. It's me.

So, you might notice it's been awhile since you've heard from me. Unfortunately, I have no good story as to why I haven't blogged in months. I haven't been hot-air ballooning around the world; I haven't been on a three month research project in Antartica; and I haven't been scaling Everest. Nope. I've been here in Raleigh, not blogging.

Anyway. As you might have noticed, it's 2009 now, we have a new administration, and I'm 28. Despite the fact that the economy's in the shitter, I'm feeling really hopeful about this year. I know it's unlikely that Obama's going to save the world, but I'm pretty optimistic that he'll be able to get at least a few things back on track.

Speaking of him, what an awesome day Tuesday was! Our office closed because we had 4.5 inches of snow and Chris had to work and then volunteered to stay in a hotel so he could get to work the next day, so I had the day to myself and watched, oh, 14 straight hours of television. I'm a nerd anyway and love the pomp and circumstance of these sorts of occasions, but it was extra cool to watch the inauguration of someone I'm actually excited about.

Anyway, a few random thoughts.

1) I thought Aretha's hat kicked ass. I'm not sure anyone else could pull it off, but she did. Plus, she's Aretha Franklin, so that's all that matters. Unfortunately, it seemed that the cold weather didn't do her voice any favors. (For the record, I think that Michelle's dress was perfect. It was occasion-appropriate and classy. 'Nuff said.)

2) The inauguration was pretty spectacular. Despite the fact that I watched it by myself in my house, I never felt alone. Words can barely describe it. There were a ton of highlights, but Rev. Joseph Lowery, who did the benediction, just sealed it for me. I loved him.

3) Chocolate cookies sandwiched together with chocolate buttercream don't suck. There's something to be said for having 4.5 pounds of chocolate chips in one's freezer for occasions when you're snowed in.

4) My husband rocks. He surprised me at Christmas with these red Hunter wellies that I'd been wanting for awhile. They're perfect for snow. I need to get the wellie socks to put in them to keep my toes warm though.

5) Our backyard looks pretty when it's covered in fluffy white snow.

That's all for now, kids. I'll blog more later. Promise.

New Shoes!

I haven't bought any new shoes for myself in quite awhile and to keep my head from exploding under the weight of that fact, I bought these.

I had a 20% off Piperlime coupon and since they have free shipping, they were a total steal. I hope they're comfortable and they fit and I hope they don't look super cheap.

Room and Board Carona table

I normally don't really lust after pieces of furniture, but with this table, I have lust in my heart. We have a little breakfast nook (no formal dining room) and it has a bay window which positively aches for a round table. With perfect French bistro chairs around it.


Table from Room and Board. Alas it's $1,300 and the husband says that our current table still serves its purpose well enough and that it doesn't need to be replaced. Isn't he quaint?

Hanna

I've spent a good chunk of the week in the state's Emergency Operations Center thinking about hurricanes, planning for them, and writing about them as part of my job. Good times. I've never been much of a weather geek, but this stuff is actually kind of exciting. One of the coolest things (okay, the only cool thing) that's come out of this week's hurricane prep has been finding this website. It's totally one of those dorky things that I love, along with Google Earth and Wikipedia.

Off to the upper right hand side of the screen you can play around with different functions, like the historic track, forecast models, clouds, and ocean buoys. I have a feeling you'll like this especially, Kathy.

Anyway, it's raining now as the outer bands of Hanna are approaching. The driver's side window in my car picked a really good day to stop working. Boo.

Off to the Lake

I haven't posted in ages, mostly because I haven't felt like posting. And there's not much in the way of a post in this one, either. We're off to the lake for Labor Day.

Catch ya later.

"Tell that bitch I want my purse back"

So, this week hasn't exactly been the best week of my life.

Remember how last week I posted about my exciting new Blackberry? Yeah, well it's gone now, along with this purse, my wallet, my iPod, my favorite sunglasses, and everything else that was in my purse, including but not limited to: my debit card, my work credit card, my personal credit card, my driver's license, my Costco card, health insurance cards, and lord knows what else that I haven't even thought of yet.

What happened, you ask?

Well, I got to the gym around 5:40 p.m. on Monday, changed my clothes and hopped on a bike at 5:50 with just enough time for a warm-up prior to our 6:00 session with our trainer. We had a great workout and stopped at about 6:55 which gave us enough time to go out to the car and give our trainer a case of free beer that I had gotten at my convention a few weeks ago. So I went to the locker room to get my car keys and when I got there, I couldn't find my purse and backpack, which I'd locked in a locker with my combination lock. I got one of the girls from the front desk to help me look through the entire locker room (including the trash can--yuck!) and couldn't find anything.

Chris immediately called the police, then called the bank to cancel my debit card, which hadn't been used (yet), then we called to cancel my personal credit card, then my work credit card.

When we called the various credit card companies we found out that by 6:45 p.m., Bitch Face Thief used my various credit cards to purchase $5,500 worth of stuff at Target and Best Buy.

Jaw...floor.

$5,500. In one hour.

My God, even I'd have a hard time dropping that kind of cash that fast!

All joking aside, we immediately cancelled all of my cards, then realized that the thief had keys to our house and my address from my driver's license, so Chris had to go buy a new set of locks and change the locks on the house. Then we had to disable my Blackberry, filed a police report, etc, etc.

I still don't really know how it happened. Apparently, a guest checked into the gym under a fake name and later, when the front desk kid at the gym checked out the address that she had listed, he realized it was a fake address. And this woman had also asked the girl at the front desk if there was any good shopping around here. Like a Neiman's or a Saks. Nice.

Apparently, Bitch Face Thief (or BFT, as I'll call her) either cut the lock or watched me dial in my combination and took my stuff within minutes of me leaving the locker room. I'm pissed because she got my black Hayden-Harnett purse (which I adored and is no longer on their website!), my red Coach wallet, my new Blackberry, my iPod, the DVD set I just bought for my nephew, and all the other stuff of various importance that happened to be in my purse.

Looks like I won't file an insurance claim because our deductible is so high that it's hardly going to be worthwhile. The upside is that I'll get to pick out some new stuff (like the cute wallet I just got online marked down from $170 to $42--yay!), but I'd be more excited about the shopping if I had a choice in the matter. I'm still pissed about the Blackberry and the purse. I'll eventually replace the Blackberry, but that purse is no longer available. And that purse was perfect.

Lady Suki Bag, March 2008-August 2008

RIP, purse. You deserve better than a dumpster grave.

I'll miss you...

New Discoveries

You know how there are some people that are the first people to get in line to buy the newest technology? I think there's a marketing term for those people, but I wouldn't know it because I'm clearly not one of them. I move at my own pace (a very, very slow pace) on stuff like that. (Which is all very good since I'm the IT person at work and I just figured out how to turn on a Blackberry--aren't you glad you work in my office?) I don't believe in buying first generation anything because it's always more expensive and not as good as later generations (take the iPhone for example--I'd be pissed if I bought the first generation at $599 only to find it "marked down" to $399 later).

Anyway, lately, I've found myself getting more and more up to date on some of these new-fangled contraptions:

1) Remember how we remodeled our kitchen earlier this year? Well, you know what we did? We bought a microwave. And you know what? It's amazing. We didn't have one for the last 3+ years because there wasn't one built in to the kitchen and a microwave took up way too much counterspace, so we just did without. Now it feels like my world is turned upside down! You know how when you're not done with your coffee yet, but it's gotten cold? You can put it in the microwave for 15 seconds and...get this...it's hot again! I mean, will wonders never cease???

2) Moving forward a few decades, about a week and a half ago, I bought a Blackberry. I know people have had these for years now, but this is my first PDA. And it is so cool. I bought it primarily because my old phone would constantly drop calls and then once the calls were dropped, it wouldn't let me dial out (or text) for another few hours. And you want to know how frustrating that is??? VERY. So I wanted a working phone and I wanted the ability to text better with an actual QWERTY keyboard so my phone didn't have to try to guess what I was typing, because guess what? I wasn't furiously typing "I have my mother ducking cell phone" when it dropped yet another call.

Anyway, I got a Blackberry and it's super-cool. I had to go on a business trip to Myrtle Beach last week and the whole ride there, I was fascinated with it. (I wasn't driving, FYI.) Poor Chris got multiple emails, the majority of which were along the lines of "Hey, guess what? I'm emailing you! FROM THE CAR!!! HAHAHAHAHA!" He loves that.

3) Finally, and certainly not least, I have discovered the coolest thing: Google Reader. Oh. my. god. It. is. awesome. You take all the blogs you currently read and enter them into your Google Reader account and when you sign into iGoogle or go to check your Gmail, it displays all the updated blog posts from all the blogs you read! I think it's similar to an RSS feed, but since I'm not entirely sure what an RSS feed actually is, I'm not 100% sure on that. Anyway, I'm in love with my Google Reader.

Fourth of July Weekend

A little late, but here are some pics from the Fourth of July. We spent that weekend at my parents' condo on Lake Norman, near Charlotte, NC. It's a spectacular place under even the most ordinary circumstances, but the Fourth was amazing. We saw probably a dozen different firework shows going off all over the lake and someone near us was also shooting off fireworks. Add to that a bunch of beer and wine and a meal consisting solely of ribs and dessert, and we were pretty happy.

These photos were taken with my little Panasonic Lumix, which has turned out to be a great camera for the price. Love it.

And finally, there were the baby ducks. So. freaking. cute. Actually, they were probably teenagers. Still, they were cute. There were 8 of them and they came around periodically to be fed, so we'd hold some bread over the wall and they'd jump out to get it out of your fingers:

And that, along with a LOT of rain, was our Fourth of July weekend and it was fabulous.

Totally Necessary

I really don't need this and I haven't even been looking at mobiles to purchase, but I recently got an email from Kiln Enamel saying that their mobiles are 50% off. And now I really want the one on the left. It reminds me of dogwood blooms in the spring.


Chris says I need a new mobile phone before I need a mobile. Which may be true. But I hate talking on the phone and I really like this. We shall see.

Oh and in case anyone just wants to go ahead and buy this for me, you can get it at Kiln Enamel for 50% off with the code "mobile".

Al Gore, Eat Your Heart Out

In general, I wouldn't say that Chris and I are die-hard environmentalists, but we do like to at least be semi-concious about the things we buy, what they're made of and packaged in, and how we can be less wasteful. We do what we can here and there and that includes making small changes when they're within a price-point that seems reasonable.

So, anyway, I recently found these toothbrushes on a blog somewhere in the world wide internets (can't remember where) and they looked cool, so I bought some at Trader Joe's. Amazon has them for $17.93 for six (about $3 a piece--comparable to other toothbrushes, I think) and Trader Joe's also sells them for about $2.50 apiece.

They're Preserve toothbrushes from Recycline and the handles are made out of 100% recycled materials, mostly recycled yogurt cups. Pretty cool, huh? And they're totally recyclable when you're done too--you just send them back in a little pre-paid envelope and the company recycles them. The company also makes razors, which I'll have to look into when I'm done with my Costco-sized quantity of razor blades.

Anyway, if that isn't all tree-huggery enough for you, we've also been using this:

Tom's of Maine Cinnamon-Clove toothpaste. It tastes pretty darn good, although I actually think I like their Fennel flavor just a bit better. I'd highly recommend the fennel, if indeed you like fennel and like it a lot, because the flavor isn't subtle. Anyway, it's a nice change from regular old mint toothpaste.

Okay, off the high horse for now.

A Happy Accident

The above shoes? They're mine. You like them? So do I. I love them, actually. You know that thing that cats do when the rub their cheek next to something to mark it with their scent glands? Well, I did that.

I was originally going to order the shoes that I had posted in my summer wishlist. Actually, I thought I did order them and it turns out I almost did, but I forgot to hit "Confirm" or whatever to actually finalize the transaction on the website and so like a week later when I was wondering when my shoes would finally arrive, I checked the Piperlime website and found out that I actually hadn't ordered the Seychelles sandals and they were sold out by that point. Got it? Okay. So, then I decided I really needed some chunky sandals for the summer to go with skirts and dresses and whatnot and my tummy hurt and I figured what better way to cure a tummy ache than buying shoes? So I ordered these. They were 20% off already and then I had a coupon code for another 20% off and shipping was free, so I bought them. And then I took a Pepto Bismol, and you know what? My stomach stopped hurting. So see? See Chris? Buying shoes does cure a stomach ache.

Oh yeah, the shoes also come in green and I adore them, but my size was sold out.

So Worth It

I went to The Fresh Market the other day on my lunch break to pick up some shrimp for dinner and since they always have a great selection of chocolate, I had to check out their goods before I left. I ended up picking up these two chocolate bars from Vosges.

The Barcelona bar is milk chocolate with sea salt and roasted almonds. And the Creole bar is dark chocolate with chicory coffee and cocoa nibs. In other words, they were both heaven.

At $7 a piece, they're not the cheapest chocolate bars, but they were totally worth it. I'm dying to try some of the truffles they have listed on their website, especially some of the exotic ones. Mmmmm.....

Summer Wish List

I want it all...

Seriously?

Eew. Not only does it scream "label-whore" but it's not even cute. Who wears this crap?

Blackberry Sage Ice Cream

While I can't say that it's officially summer, since the temperature hasn't surpassed 90 and the tropical rainforest-like humidity isn't here yet, it's been warm and pleasant and that's a good enough reason for me to make homemade ice cream. In fact it's better this time of year because making ice cream requires standing over a hot stove for a little while and that really sucks when it's 90 degrees and 90% humidity.

So anyway, last weekend I made Blackberry and Sage ice cream. Ever since I made Cherry Basil ice cream last summer, I've wanted to try my hand at other fruit/herb combinations. The Blackberry Sage had a wonderful flavor--tart and sweet from the blackberries, but with a subtle herbal/citrusy backdrop. I was concerned that the sage might overpower the ice cream, but I think since I removed the sage leaves from the finished product, they just infused the ice cream with the flavor instead of overpowering it.

Here's how I made it (I use The Best Recipe's vanilla ice cream without the vanilla as a base and then make adaptations from there):

Blackberry Sage Ice Cream

4 egg yolks
1.5 cups heavy cream (heavy cream really does work best, the consistency is off with light cream)
1.5 cups whole milk (I used soy milk in this recipe, since that's all we had around the house)
3/4 cup sugar
About 1 cup pureed blackberries
6 sage leaves

• In a pan over medium heat, heat the cream, milk, and 1/2 cup sugar to about 175 degrees.
• In a separate bowl, combine egg yolks and remaining sugar.
• Once the cream mixture has reached 175, use a large ladle to spoon the cream mixture into the egg mixture and stir constantly. Gently spoon in another ladle-full of the heated cream mixture and stir. Then slowly pour the egg mixture into the cream mixture on the stove, stirring constantly.
• Heat the mixture on the stove to about 180-185 to cook the egg yolks, stirring constantly.
• When the temperature has reached 185, pour the mixture into an ice bath and add the sage leaves. Once cool, place in the refrigerator for several hours.
• After several hours of cooling, remove the sage leaves from the ice cream base and stir in pureed blackberries. (The blackberries should be kept in the fridge too.)
• Add the ice cream base to the ice cream maker and in 20 minutes, the ice cream should be thick.
• Pour the ice cream into a separate container, cover with plastic wrap and leave to set in the freezer for at least two hours.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!

So as most of you know, I've been working out more regularly since we joined a gym back in December. Things are going well: I've lost both pounds and inches, I can lift more weight, and do a bunch of cardio without feeling like I'm going to die. I'm downright religious about my Tuesday night spinning class and I've started taking a Wednesday night aerobic/kick-boxing class that kicks my ass.

Well last night was said aerobic/kick-boxing class and I was hanging in there, doing well, and feeling pretty good about things because the class is hard as hell and I was keeping up alright (a lot of the gym's personal trainers take the class and they even have a hard time, so I know I'm doing okay when I can moderately keep up). I was actually even having fun.

And then.

Pop! My back goes out. It was that sharp, shooting, breath-taking, hold-on-to-whatever-you-can-hold-onto-so-you-don't-fall-over kind of pain. Good times. Really, very fun.

So anyway, I gathered my stuff as best I could and managed to get myself into the car and drove home where I grabbed a heating pad (actually, Chris grabbed it for me) popped 5 Advil and a beer. That seemed to help things (although I'm sure my liver didn't really like it) until I was able to get to the doctor this morning and get some muscle relaxers. They're doing the job nicely, but they certainly make me feel...slow. And dumb.

Anyway, there's really not much point to this post. I'm just bored. Daytime tv really sucks, if you have had the misfortune of being at home during a workday. And I'm pissed because now I probably won't be able to make it back to the gym for a few days and I kind of look forward to my workouts now. Plus I'm able to watch "What Not To Wear" on the treadmill every night at 6. And now I can't. Grrr.

Super Saturday

You know those American Express ads where they ask celebrities to describe the perfect day? Well I think yesterday was my perfect day. We woke up around 8:30 (not too early, not too late) and decided that since we were out of coffee at the house, we'd walk to our nearby Starbucks, which is 2 miles away. The trees are completely filled in now and the weather was perfect: 70 degrees or so. So we grabbed some iced coffee and a half pound of the Pike's Place Blend and walked back.


Then we made our way to the State Farmers' Market and had a hell of a time. We bought locally raised beef, chicken, and lamb, some pork barbeque for lunch, and a ton of produce: lettuce, tomatoes, asparagus, peas, beets, and these babies, a quarter of which are being made into ice cream as I type:

Then we came home, read some magazines, made dinner (lamb chops, asparagus, and roasted beets), and watched Lars and the Real Girl, which I highly recommend.

On tap for today: a little cleaning around the house and some gardening. The weather is perfect for working in the yard and the mosquitos aren't out yet. I love this time of year.

OMG

I need these in my life:

We still haven't figured out what to do with our tax refund. It might just be my patriotic duty to buy these. Hmmm...

I Want One

It's been awhile since I posted last. I don't know if it's the economy or what but I just haven't felt like shopping lately and I haven't really seen too much out there that's intrigued me.

But I really like these:

It's called the "Take Away Bird Feeder" by Eva Solo and it's $60 from Greener Grass Design. I'd buy one if I felt assured that our hyperactive 8 year old nextdoor neighbor wouldn't break it.

Week Four

Goodbye Junk!

I just finished Week 4 of the Apartment Therapy Home Cure and things are moving right along. This week was all about decluttering and cleaning the living room and getting rid of unused books, CDs, and movies.

Here's what we've been up to the last two weeks or so:

• Replaced some old favorite VHS tapes with DVD versions (sounds odd, but they take up a lot less space and you get to see the special features).
• Recycled a ton of old Real Simple and Elle Decor magazines (I ripped out the articles and pictures I liked and recycled the rest).
• Took to Goodwill: a vase, a mirror, a knife of Chris's, a deep fryer, some old beach towels, and some other odds and ends.
• Reorganized the hallway closet last weekend, purging expired medicines and old/unused linens, candles, and vases.
• Removed half the keys from my keychain (not related to the Home Cure at all, but it felt good to do that).
• Hemmed the curtain in the master bedroom (took all of 5 minutes, not sure why I put it off for 4 years...)
• Repainted the master bedroom.

It's really quite amazing to purge this much stuff. Totally lame, but it feels really liberating, like all this stuff was just taking up room and getting in the way of the more important stuff.

I'm really happy with the way the master bedroom looks now. I liked the turquoise originally, but lately it just felt like an assault on the eyeballs:



The new paint color just feels a lot more soothing. I eventually want a window above the chair to look out over the wooded backyard, but for now I'm satisfied with it as it is.


Originally I wanted to get a quilt from John Robshaw, but I swung into Home Goods a few weeks ago and found one that was ridiculously close to the JR one and it was only $59, instead of $315. So you can guess which one I went with. Yes, it's made in China and I'm sure the quality isn't the same, but it's really hard to argue with that price difference, so I'm sticking with the Home Goods quilt.

The tasks for this coming week are mostly in the home office: cleaning over, under, and behind stuff; purging files; and organizing.

Spring is here

Sorry to the family in Michigan:

A few things I want right now

There hasn't been a lot that I've been really loving this spring, in terms of fashion, but here are a few things I think are particularly lust-worthy.

I have two black purses, but neither of them are quite right. They're either too big or too small, but this may be just right! I have a 15% off coupon for Hayden-Harnett and I'm really tempted. Maybe next month though.

Love this top. It's backordered until April 15, which actually isn't that far away now. I might have to buy it.

These I wish I could buy. But I can't really envision spending almost $200 on green peep-toe Mary Janes. Oof.

I really love the shape of this Eva Zeisel sauceboat. I'd use it as a catch-all for keys, not for sauce.

A domino magazine rant

There was a mass rant a few weeks ago on Decorno's blog (which I just found and now I'm hooked on) about domino magazine. It used to be so great when it first came out and still is one of the best home decor magazines around, especially for people that aren't 80, but lately it's gotten away from decor and instead has moved toward makeup and fashion and other stuff which most readers can (and do) find in other magazines (that do this much better than domino does). So, the editor of domino chimed in on the rant and promised things would be getting better soon. So I was hopeful.

Until the magazine arrived.

I really wish I had a picture to show you. I'm not sure words adequately describe this spread and all its ridiculousness. There is a 3-page spread on organizing your purse. Not just organizing your purse, but "elegantly curating" it so that is "telegraphs both style and put-togetherness." What does this have to do with home decor, you ask? I'm not sure.

Then the article goes on to show "four impossibly chic ways" to organize your purse. Uhhh...okay....but do I care what the inside of my purse looks like? Not really.

Then they named the looks of the different organized-purse-combinations. So your purse can telegraph the image of a "High-End Bohemian," an "Executive Punk" (whaaa?), a "Girl About Town," or an "Art Student." (The introductory image unfortunately doesn't have a name, but the purse and its contents would set you back a mere $4,798, which includes a $3,275 Cartier pen. Now, I try not to judge how people spend their money: it's their own business. But seriously? A $3,275 pen??? I mean, for real, aren't there better things that a person can and should do with that money?)

The "Executive Punk" look had me laughing out loud though. The descriptions of the items are particularly great. The makeup bag is "a posh stash for your smokey-eye arsenal--and even black nail polish." And the little pink notebook is "a neon holder for all your subversive musings." Because all the executives I know are super subversive.

I dunno. I just wish they'd move away from this bullshit and get back to what they're good at.

Week Two

We're now finishing up with Week Two of the Apartment Therapy Cure. The tasks this week were to clean the kitchen from top to bottom; create room for an "outbox"--a holding place for things you're thinking about getting rid of; clear one surface in your house and use the outbox; and fix one thing yourself.

Yesterday I took a huge box of books to the used bookstore and got $33 in store credit. I've also gotten rid of a bunch of foam leftover from my reupholstery project, a bunch of miscellaneous junk, and my old laptop from college.

Since I had the day off yesterday, I sanded and started to repaint the old kitchen cabinet doors, which will be repurposed in the pantry. Hopefully I'll have those done tomorrow so they'll be ready to hang. It's only taken me like two months to get to it.

This process is helping me realize that I'm the Queen of Unfinished Projects. I have a lot of ambition when it comes to my house and I get a lot done. But I get like 99% of a given project done, then feel satisfied enough, and then stop. So as a result, our house has more than its share of materials for these unfinished projects. I'm hoping these 8 weeks will help me get some of those projects done.

Last weekend I was able to finally finish reupholstering my chair. It's not the greatest job in the world, but I think it looks better than before.

Before (it was a yucky green color and the fabric was scratchy):

After (I'd maybe like to play around with the fabric near the arms to see if I can get it a bit tighter):

Our trash collectors are going to hate us

I've decided to participate in this Spring's 8-week Apartment Therapy Cure. )I know we live in a house and not in an apartment, but I don't think they're going to kick us out for that.)

I didn't really think our house was in too much need of help, especially since we've remodeled the master bathroom and the kitchen, but when I took photos of the house? Oh. my. god. We have a lot of stuff. I don't know if it's because we've lived here almost 4 years, or because we have pack-rat tendencies, but we've accumulated a lot. Far more than I ever remember purchasing.


But aaaanywhoo. This week's tasks were to:

1. make a complete list of repairs and solutions (see below)
2. vacuum and mop floors (today's project)
3. remove one item from the house and put it outside or donate it (I'm getting rid of my old stereo from high school and college)
4. buy fresh flowers (done)
5. sit for ten minutes in a part of your home that you never sit in for new perspective (done)
6. look into Earth friendly cleaning products (done).

So here's our to-do list. A lot of this is not going to get done in the 8 week cure, but I'm hoping to at least get rid of a lot of junk around the house and fix some things that have been bugging me.

1. Add hook to entry-way closet for scarves
2. Finish reupholstering living room chair
3. Buy a new entertainment center
4. Declutter bookshelf in living room
5. Refinish and install cabinet doors in pantry
6. Sell books to used book store and donate the rest to the library
7. Sell some cds and store the rest
8. Purchase organizer for gift wrap
9. Fix windows in guest room and office so they can be opened.
10. Insulate attic pull-down
11. Install new showerhead in guest bath
12. Install crown molding in guest room and office
13. Hem curtain in master bedroom
14. Install bamboo blind in kitchen
15. Install new screen doors
16. Fix crack in wall in master bedroom
17. Hang full length mirror
18. Get rid of under-the-bed clutter
19. Remove most tools and paint supplies from guest room closet

There is just a LOT of stuff to get rid of: old cell phones, books, scraps of paper, cds, half-used candles, etc. Our trash collector is going to hate me for this.

Can I have a do-over?

Last weekend was glorious. Really, really splendid. It was the first weekend in forever where we didn't have anything that HAD to be done. So hubbykins and I went to the farmers' market on Saturday, cooked great food, and strolled around downtown on Sunday to buy good coffee and sit for a beer.

Veggies from the state farmers' market

Cool sign across the street from the Hibernian (I liked the font)

Guiness

This weekend could not have been more different, however. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say it's been total and utter misery caused by the Death Flu: full body aches, fever, a nasty cough, and massive congestion. Chris was a saint and got me baked ziti on Friday night in addition to more NyQuil. However, it was only after he got back home that I used up the last tissue in the box, which also just happened to be the last tissue in the house. No biggie, right? Just use toilet paper, right? That's what I decided I'd do, only to realize that the only toilet paper we had left in the house was single ply, which we still have leftover from a massive Costco-sized mistake.

Even though we've since gotten real tissues in the house, I don't think my nose has forgiven me yet and it still feels like it's about to fall off. Fun.

To make matters worse, I was really looking forward to seeing my mom this weekend. She flew from San Diego to Charlotte on Wednesday so she could drive over here and hang out with us this weekend, but because of the nasty weather and the Death Flu hanging over our house, she decided to stay in Charlotte (and I honestly can't say I blame her--I've been Captain No Fun this weekend).

Anyway, despite the totally crappy turn of events this weekend, the light outside our house yesterday evening was spectacular and I was able to capture this, even though it doesn't do it justice compared to what it looked like in person.

Okay, must lay down again. Hope your weekend was better than mine.

Dispelling any notions that I have good taste

I just downloaded the following songs:

• Easy Lover (Phil Collins)
• Man in the Mirror (Michael Jackson)
• Billie Jean (Michael Jackson)
• ...and here comes the kicker...Against All Odds (Phil Collins)

I think it's fair to say I have ZERO street cred.

Deja Vu All Over Again

Source: About.com

So, I keep seeing things on tv and gossip blogs about The Jonas Brothers and I really have no idea who they are (probably because I'm no longer 14). I don't think I've heard them sing before(probably a good thing) and I just feel utterly clueless when I see pictures of them, like they're a joke I just don't get.

Anyway, the one thing that's bugged me about them, aside from being ridiculously over-styled and sensitve-looking, is that I swear I've seen them before. I've put more time into thinking about this than I care to admit.

And then it came to me.

Source: taringa.net

Good luck to you, Jonases.