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New & Improved 30 before 30!

2012-01-24T22:16:00.000-05:00

I will turn 30 in about 10 months. 30 years old. *BIG eyebrow raise* :)

Last year, I had made a '30 before 30' list which comprised a bunch of goals I hoped to accomplish before turning 30. I revisted that last a few weeks ago and discovered that many of those goals were no longer relevant to my current life. It was time for a new list.

And after a lot of thought, I didn't carry over any accomplished goals from my old list - I was starting fresh!

Here's the list I came up with:

1. Visit St. Augustine Fort

2. Meet the Amazing Miss Puckett

3. Get a tattoo

4. Drive from coast to coast

5. Read a classic novel.

6. Have own apartment.

7. Take a class.

8. Write a story

9. Spend a day outdoors doing nothing but looking at water, reading & eating fancy cheeses.

10. Drink more wine.

11. Have a silly sleepover with my sister.

12. Apply to go back to school.

13. Create a budget.

14. Join a choral group.

15. Attend 5 new and random social events.

16. Buy Tokyo Milk #10

17. Visit Cumberland Island

18. Go on a camping trip with Kira

19. Volunteer at a local nonprofit.

20. Visit Mesa Verde

21. Have a pedi/mani day

22. Go 2 weeks without eating out

23. Have my wisdom teeth out

24. Make some challenging, new (to me) gourmet dish

25. Order new glasses

26. Complete a Pinterest project from my cleaning & organizational board

27. Plan a 'Turning 30' trip with the Amazing Mrs. Puckett

28. Do something completely new with my hair

29. Try to attend synagoge at least once per month

30. Complete a photo scavenger hunt.

These are in no particular order. Well, except for #1 because I actually completed that one!

~~1. Visit St. Augustine Fort~~

Visiting the Castillo de San Marcos was on my previous list, along with the admonishment to quit cheaping out on paying the admission. When I read last month that admission to the National Parks would be free over MLK Jr. weekend, I knew that this was my chance! I'd be able to visit the fort and STILL cheap out. Whoo hoo!

My friend Anne & I drove down to St. Augustine and visited the fort after a lovely breakfast at Sara's Crepes. We had (you'll never guess) crepes! They were delicious!

Afterwards, we went to the Fort and took a great deal of pictures. Because that's what one does at a fort.

Actually inside the fort! :)

After leaving Castillo de San Marcos, we drove just a bit further south to Fort Matanzas. Because you can never really have enough forts. Take that 40 before 40 list!

So anywho, 1 down and 29 to go before November!

I Believe in Good People.

2011-12-24T23:27:00.003-05:00

Ending a 7 year relationship is hard and shitty. Even more so during the holidays. I've definitely veered toward self pity this week.

This weekend, Elissa is on a camping trip with her new girlfriend and I am making excessive quantities of baked goods to eat.

Today is Christmas Eve. I spent the morning watching episodes of Bewitched in my pajamas. Industrious, I know.

I finally got up to go to the grocery store and my car wouldn't run right. Max speed? 10 mph.

I called Auto Zone to check if they were open today. Lo and behold, they were open for one more hour. When I arrived, the men working at 6pm on a Christmas Eve were so sweet to me.

They code checked the car and it came back that I needed an oil change. I was thankful for their help but a bit bummed out since no auto place would be open til the 26th. When they heard that, they looked up the number of a local guy, Angel, who they assured me would do an oil change. I called and Angel said he'd be right over. At 6:45pm on Christmas Eve.

Even though the store had closed 10 minutes prior, the guys at Auto Zone waited with me until Angel came and completed the oil change. They made me laugh as they wondered aloud whether the Virgin Mary had yet been experiencing labor pains so many years ago.

After Angel was finished and I had paid him, I got in my car to return home. Where I promptly discovered that the car still didn't run right.

It was definitely a bummer and I'm sure at some point this week when I take the car in for repair, I'll be stressing the bill. But for now, tonight, I just feel happy to know that there are so many kind people in the world.

And while this probably won't go down in history as my favorite Christmas ever...it's an important one. Because it's mine. All mine to craft and spend as I will. So in just a few minutes, I'm going to take a pie out of the oven. And then I'm going to get dressed and go to a midnight mass. I loved going with my grandfather when I was a little girl and I'm excited to revisit those memories.

So that's it. Good night everyone and I hope you're having a peaceful evening wherever you are.

2011-06-14T19:46:00.001-04:00

hru pinterest, I came across this amazing site called Daily Drop Cap run by designer Jessica Hische. Free illustrative dropcaps are posted...and they are amazing! You can spend quite a bit of time looking through all the different lettering.

I immediately wanted to do a project. At the time, I was also struggling to come up with a spring/summer wreath for our front door. And I valiantly struggled to make the two work together until I eventually decided it just wasn't flowing this time. So I made a lima bean wreath (don't believe what they say - NOT easy or fun or painless!) and focused on making some mantle art with the drop caps.

I chose to do the word 'home' and chose some of my favorite letters. Via photoshop, I changed some of the coloring to suit my palette and added some backgrounds. Here's my final result:

I may reprint the letters in a larger size down the road. I was stuck with 3.5 x 5 frames. Which are the perfect size when you're contemplating hanging them by a ribbon on your front door...but not quite the right size on the giant mantle they wound up sitting.

I like that they give a bit of whimsy with the owl shaped O and the bunting background of the E. :)

And this is where I am...

2011-06-11T19:36:00.001-04:00

Today was Yucky. Tonight was Nice.

2011-05-29T02:12:00.002-04:00

Some days, the only solution is to to rent a romantic comedy...

"You did great. Here's a Balloon."

make chocolate chip cookies...

Don't judge my well-worn cookie sheet! :)

and maximize movie snuggling by pushing together couches and creating the ultimate 'sofa bed' fort.

I <3 Us.

Hope you're having a happy Memorial Day Weekend!

HVAC Wall Registers

2011-05-23T09:45:00.002-04:00

I seem to have stumbled across a rarely discussed home decor topic...HVAC Wall Registers. Or, as I would have called them before my extensive online research, those air vent thingies near the ceiling. I've removed the ones in our breakfast nook and kitchen because I've been painting. And I'm not putting them back in because they're sorta almond-y and old looking.

The obvious choice would be to pick up new ones at Home Depot. The one pictured above is perfectly nice and costs about $8.

BUT.

Do you see these pretties? Do you? Be still my beating heart. They are gorgeous. My particular favorite is the one on the bottom right. Sadly, they're all between $35-55 in the sizes I would need.

By my count, I would need at least 13 if I wanted all the registers in the home to match. As pretty as they are, that's an even prettier penny.

Even if I were only to replace the registers in the main living areas (the foyer, breakfast nook, dining room, kitchen & living room), that's still 5 registers and would cost $175-275.

So the search continued until I ran across these two options.

I'm not exactly professing my undying love BUT these registers are only $13 & $12 a pop respectively.

We've now chugged into a magical land I like to call Justifiable Junction. Toot! Tooot!

This is when I realized that there's not a lot of discussion about this issue in Blog Land. I've been trying to find advice on the right colors to use in wall registers. Should it be painted the wall color? Should I leave it bright white? Should I funky it up and go with the nickle color?

These are BIG QUESTIONS!

Right now, I leaning toward a nice, clean, bright white. I think it would look classical.

A small part of me is worried that I may be over stylizing the house by going this route though. For example, we saw light switch plates this weekend that feature crown molding. Crown molding on the switch plate. Now, I'm a girl who loves her crown molding. For reals. Loves. I can wax poetic for hours on the importance of crowning your walls. But seriously? I'm just not feeling the miniature crown molding on your switch plate.

The registers are different though...right? RIGHT?

Laundry Room Mood Board

2011-05-13T16:51:00.000-04:00

I'm excited to move forward with the laundry room a bit. You may remember that I painted the walls and removed the flooring a few months ago.

Since then, we moved the washer & dryer into the room - we like wearing clean clothes afterall - and not much else has been done.

I've made this mood board to get an idea of what direction I'd like to go with the room. I'm sorta kicking myself for the paint color choice we made. Really, I thought it was gray. It looked gray. It was called 'gray heather'. I definitely should have 'splurged' on the measly $3 for a sample.

I'm not repainting though. That room is too small, has almost no ventilation and I just can't bring myself to do it again so soon.

I think that choice of working with 'what I got' has been good in an expected way. The room is very different from designs I'm normally pulled towards. I tend to like designs with a big pop factor. A bright painting or busy floral fabric...something that draws my eye immediately. This room is much more neutral than that but I kinda like that. It seems calming to me.

1. Fabric - I'd like to make a new cover for our ironing board and a curtain to hide storage under the counter. One option I've found is called Truro and is pretty affordable at only $11 per yard. I think a wide stripe neutral will help to calm the screaming lavender. :)

2. I saw this print 'It feels Good to Get stuff done' on Pinterest and fell in love. You can purchase it here. It's currently listed as sold but I can only imagine that she'll be adding more. Such a wonderful design! I can't imagine anything more appropriate in the laundry room.

3. I like the clean look of white floating shelves. I want to do some minimal display of a few tchotchkes and what not. I think this would also be a good place to displace/store some of my prettier craft items.

4. I'd like to find a paneled door from our local Habitat store to paint white. The doorknob pictured is amethyst glass from anthropologie. At only $38, I think it would bring a lot of character to the room.

The floor. Oh, the floor. I don't regret ripping the floor up on the fly. I've enjoyed the bare cement far more than I would have liked walking on that dirty, old vinyl. However, the floor has been a major stumbling block for this room. E wanted to just go ahead and lay tile but I was bothered by the fact that the tile wouldn't match the adjoining hallway. So I thought we should lay new vinyl instead but E was troubled at the idea of having to pull it all up again in a few years when we do lay new tile throughout. Finally, we came to the conclusion of painting the floor. That way the floor will have a finished look, be cost efficient, and simple to just lay tile directly over top when the time comes. I'd love, love, LOVE to use this stencil from Royal Design Studio on the floor but sadly $149 is just too much for me to justify. So I found a baroque like pattern as pictured above at our local AC Moore store. I happened to have a gift card so price = free! It normally would run about $25. As for the what colors to use, I have spent hours looking at painting websites and color wheels...this purple-gray color is HARD to coordinate with. Finally, I decided to just use the only 2 colors Glidden lists as coordinating with its Heather Gray color.

When we first purchased our washer & dryer set, I was outraged at the idea of spending $200+ on pedestals. For what? A glorified drawer? But the research I did on building a platform was not positive. I read a few sites that said you ran the risk of throwing your machine off balance, platforms were noisy, etc. They hadn't actually tried building pedestals but their concerns seemed reasonable so I let it go.

But now, 3 years later, there are all sorts of DIYed Washer/Dryer pedestals. No one seems to have reported their machine suffering as a result and I'm eager to join them. My favorite platform was built by Sausha of {show & tell}. Ana White of Knock Off Wood made a building plan based on that design. So that's the plan....hopefully it turns out as gorgeously as Sausha's!

Anywho, while I partly want to warn you away from ever even glancing at a purple-gray paint color...I'm also a little excited that this 'oopsy' has caused me to stretch out of my normal design tendencies and explore more neutral color schemes.

Note from Yours Truly...

2011-05-12T14:20:00.000-04:00

Here's what I hate:

Oil-Based Primer (Odorless my ass, btw)
Turpentine to remove said primer from my hands
Having just painted my nails a lovely shade of coral yesterday

Here's what I like okay:

Focus on the painted trim...not my 'vintage' vinyl

Finally getting primer on the breakfast nook trim
Not really caring if a couple drips get on the floor because I mean really? Who would?

And here's what I love:

Ice cold wild cherry pepsi rewards
Listening to Madonna really loudly on the radio

That's all. Just like to keep you updated. :)

Sooo...2 months later...

2011-05-10T13:24:00.000-04:00

I've been so busy lately. Not doing anything in particular really. Just a combination of errands, and dinners, and dates, and appointments and LIFE. Busy stuff. However, I feel more settled right now than perhaps any other time of my life. Things aren't peachy perfect...money is tighter for instance...but my world is just making sense to me right now. It's a really good feeling.

In the past few months, I've...

made an Irish dish called Colcannon - so good that it may replace Mashed Potatoes this Thanksgiving.
Enthusiastically celebrated Mardi Gras at Orlando's Universal Studios
Spent my mornings and afternoons learning the ropes of soccer-mom-dom
Baked an April Fool's joke.
Canoed in the Everglades on a quest to see salt water crocodiles
Celebrated the birthdays of our 2 beautiful sisters
Said goodbye to an old ring and hello to a new one
Reconnected with an old friend
Spent seder with the Orans (all grown-up but still at the 'kid's table').
Gone bike riding around our beautiful neighborhood several times.

I'm feeling happy.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-20T10:20:00.005-05:00

Um yeah so I like holidays... :). I banished Kira upstairs so that I could decorate the dining room and make a special dinner.

I think we all had a fun night. Steak Au Poivre, Mashed Potatoes, Salad, Bread Pudding & Homemade Caramel Sauce. A lovely bottle of Sparkling Grape Juice completed the evening lol.

We surprised Kira with a 'Valentine-y' purse...it had some pink and purple flowers on it. She was adorable because she had dressed very PINK all day.

The highlight for me was that E designed a treasure hung that had me racing all over the house (and outside) for clues. I was racing from room to room and just generally being super goofy.

Success! :)

Knock knock!

2011-01-28T11:20:00.001-05:00

So our front door has a new mezuzah. And I LOVE it. I've been kinda mezuzah obsessed in the past few months. Here are some of my favorites:

Caesarea Arts

Emily Rosenfeld


Contemporary Aluminum Mezuzah

But I kept (like many things) overthinking my options and not actually making any decisions. Finally I was at a synagogue gift shop this past Sunday when I spotted this mezuzah that I instantly loved. I was so close to waiting some more but I decided to just go for it! I had purchased a kosher scroll back in August so I was all set on that end. Here's the mezuzah I found:

I really like this little bird. It's customary for mezuzot to have the letter shin on them which is the first letter of one of the names of God, Shaddai. I love that this little birdie is 'tweeting' or singing God's name, so to speak.

Putting up the mezuzah together

It couldn't go on the inner side of the door frame because it wasn't a flat surface. But I kinda like this placement because you can see it from a distance. :)

January 14th - The Day of Reckoning.

2011-01-13T03:53:00.000-05:00

Confession? Our Holiday decor is still up. Yeah. Not on the outside of our house - don't wanna be that neighbor. But all over the interior. It's like the North Pole in here.

Not Even Half of It. For Reals. Bad Jew.

For some reason, my head has deemed January 15th as the date that ALL CHRISTMAS MUST BE GONE. I always have that date in my mind. Maybe because 3 weeks is the absolute maximum I can justify my holiday clean-up procrastination.

So today's the day that magic must happen. A small elf is going to come and wrinkle his nose (like Samantha from Bewitched) and all my ornaments, snowmen, stockings and lights are going to fly into their neatly organized boxes.

Yesterday, I washed and ironed all our Holiday linens so that they're ready to be packed away and pulled out fresh next year. That's a big part of the holiday process for me. I hate ironing. Seriously.

Today, I'll do everything else. No biggie. Yeah.

Kira's Room Sketch

2011-01-08T23:28:00.001-05:00

Designing a teen room is so much fun because I can use lots of COLOR. For your viewing pleasure, here is a working sketch of how I think Kira's room is going to look:

Here's my progress so far:

The bed is already made and primed. I just need to give it a final coat of paint.
I've already purchased the purple bins for underneath.
I have all the pillows shown in the sketch but I do need to pick up the teal sheet set I found at Target.
The side table is currently one of those cheapie clear plastic 3-drawer things that I've been using to store craft supplies. I want to make it a little pink/purple slipcover.
I already own the teal lampshade and lamp.
I have a pattern for the valance but I need to get the fabric and make it.
Hmmm and maybe I should look for a lime area rug?

I'm almost completely idea-less about the overbed art. I want something with a high visual impact that is hung horizontally on the wall. I'm thinking I might save that as a project Kira and I can do together once she gets down.

The other side of the room has a desk for school work and a comfy little reading corner with chair and ottoman.

So fun stuff up ahead - let's see if I can actually figure out how to work the sewing machine!! It's awful but I'm actually a pretty great hand sewer and I'm wondering if the time it takes me to fight with the machine could just be better spent sewing!

Wish me luck!! :)

Happy New Year! :)

2011-01-06T15:08:00.001-05:00

I never do New Year's Resolutions. I mean - NEVER. They seem like a great way to add extra guilt into my day-to-day life BUT here goes nothing...

Guest Bedroom: I was excited to learn over the Holidays that my 15 year-old sister is going to be living with us and attending school in Jacksonville this spring. Our guest bedroom is officially 'Kira's Room' and I want it to be finished nicely for her. Here's on my to-do list for the room:

Make Curtains
Finish Bed
Hang Art
Move bookcase out and dresser in
Cute linens

Kitchen: The stainless steel, french door, 2 drawer freezer refrigerator of my DREAMS is now in place. Time to make everything else look like it belongs in the same kitchen. :)

List old fridge on Craigslist
Find permanent counter home for my new & lovely Kitchen Aid mixer
Paint cabinet doors
Hang stainless steel magnet art
Paint walls

Family: I want to do some things outside of decorating land as well.

Start meal planning and cooking meals at least 3 times per week. Figure out how to plan meals that have fewer leftovers so we're not eating the same thing for 4 days in a row!
Continue couponing (Southernsavers.com - you are a dream!) and expand into drugstores as well.
FRESH PRODUCE. Lots of FRESH PRODUCE. A large part of our getting a french door fridge was that I think we'll eat more fresh produce if it's stored at eye level. It's my theory. So far, it seems to have some truth to it and I want to make sure we could up the momentum.
Register for classes this summer at UNF.
Attend synagogue with E and Kira at least 12 times this year.
We love concerts! Pay attention to concerts that are going to be in town BEFORE they've already came, played and left lol.

Okay, that kinda turned into a long lists of stuffs lol but hopefully writing it down will add the extra dose of encouragement because I'll want to be all like "I did it!". And also, when I forget what they were - which I promise you I will do - I can more easily locate my blog instead of the random piece of note paper from January they were written on. Makes sense, yes?

Happy 2011 Everyone!!

Acorn Squash

2010-11-17T11:50:00.000-05:00

Growing up, my favorite fall time food each year were acorn squash. I freaking LOVE acorn squash. They're like nature candy. Anyways, I was talking to a friend the other night about making them and how easy they are to cook.

#1: Cut the acorn squash in half, throw out the seeds inside and place facedown on a cookie sheet. I use tin foil as I am not an industrious dish scrubber. Cook at 350 for 20 minutes.

#2: Take cookie sheet out from oven. Carefully turn squash so they are facing up. Use foil to create a stable base so they don't tip over.

#5: Put 2 Tbsps butter and 2 Tbsps brown sugar inside each squash. Measurements are a bit subjective depending on the size of your squash. I make sure the center is FULL, sometimes that's a little less, sometimes it's a little more. (You can also play fast and loose here with the ingredients - anything sweet is a win. Feel free to substitute maple sugar or honey, add a bit of cinnamon...whatever you want!)

#6: Put back in oven for 20 minutes. Take out and eat with a spoon - YUMMY.

Um. Or a fork as I just noticed that's the utensil I featured in the picture lol.

I'm going to start a one-women acorn squash marketing firm. :)

Shutterfly Cards

2010-11-05T23:15:00.000-04:00

I'm already a pretty huge Shutterfly fan. I've ordered photo books through them before (here and here) and just loved the results! So when I saw that they were doing a blogger promotion of 50 free holiday cards, I was super excited.

I love sending out seasonal cards to my friends and family. Well, I love to pick out the cards...I love to write the cards...I even love putting them in their little addressed envelopes...but I'll admit that the final step of actually sending the cards sometimes eludes me. Not this year! ...fingers crossed...

I loved the Holiday Story Cards but I'm not sure if we could do that as we don't currently have any kiddos...it seems like it would just be weird if we bragged on ourselves lol.

Anyways, check out the Thanksgiving cards or the Holiday cards and see what you think! :)

Aviva

PS ~ Another thing to love about Shutterfly is that they provide free photo storage! I'm always scared I might lose photos in a computer crash so I try to upload them into Shutterfly as a little 'just in case' insurance.

Civic Duties, etc. :)

2010-11-03T00:28:00.000-04:00

So I realized yesterday morning that I had forgotten to update our voter registration cards when we moved. Not a huge deal, it just meant we had to drive over and vote near our old apartment at 'Calvary Baptist Church'. Where I'm from (Harrisburg, PA), voting was held in high school auditoriums or fire stations...it always seems a little strange to me that polling places are generally places of worship here in Jacksonville. Separation of church and state? No?

I seriously love voting. Election day always falls near (and sometimes on) my birthday. Maybe that's part of why I associate such happy feelings with it?

I remember going into the booth with my mother when I was little. She would let me push the buttons and help her choose which candidate to vote for. At one point, I believed that my mother was single-handedly responsible for choosing all our elected officials. :-P

In 1992, my birthday fell on Election day between Clinton & Bush. My birthday celebration was my mother handing me an unwrapped Barbie doll while she watched the results come in on TV. I can't blame her, I'd probably do the same thing.

In 2000, I turned 18 four days before the election between Bush & Gore. I was calling people months in advance to make sure that was enough time to get registered. It was actually the cut-off date. I was ecstatic. A special birthday present from the state of Nebraska to me. :)

This year, I voted for a non-Democratic candidate for the first time in my life. But only because Bill Clinton told me to do it. :)

Another poll booth memory to add to my collection...

Hanging Artwork

2010-11-02T19:19:00.000-04:00

The wall over our fireplace has been pretty empty. I wanted a large sized piece of artwork to hang there but large sized artwork seems to come with large sized price tags. I happened upon this at Homegoods a few weeks ago.

E & I generally don't make large impact decorating purchases without the other person seeing it so I was on the fence about purchasing it. But Homegoods is one of those stores that you can come back tomorrow and whatever it is you wanted will be gone. Sooo I took the chance. And Elissa loved it. I kinda knew she would.

It has a sorta modern, lodge vibe to it and introduced colors I'm really excited about.

Just to make sure it would work, we had it propped up on the mantle for a couple of weeks. Verdict? Perfect.

So the other night, it was finally hung. Um yeah. So this was our 'scientific' way of going about that.

We eventually decided to go with 20 dvds high which roughly translates into 13 inches above the mantle. I thought it was too high at first but E pointed out that it was good in terms of the high ceilings we have above the print.

It's so funny because in real life, our mantle doesn't look quite this bare to me but the picture really illustrates the need for some 'beef-i-ness'. I guess I'll get on that! :)

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T02:26:00.004-04:00

The only year we cut pumpkins was our first Halloween together. We got a little kit and cut a magic castle looking thing. It was fine. But I've never felt the urge to do it again. Kinda messy, ya know?

So when Elissa told me that she would need to carve a pumpkin for a competition at her school, I was surprised to realize that I was excited. I don't know...I guess enough time had passed. :) She teaches 2nd grade and basically, her students were to come up with a 'pumpkin concept' on Thursday and the pumpkin was due on Friday.

I was immediately busting out with pumpkin ideas. I scoffed when she reminded me that the kids would choose the design.

"Babe - they're SEVEN. Just guide them to something simple. Like a turkey." (That's right, I was really pitching this super cool turkey idea...there were feathers, that's all I'm saying.)

Anyways, so on Thursday when Elissa got home, I was really psyched to find out what the 'pumpkin order' was.

"What did the kids come up with?"

"Umm, yeeeeah..."

"No, really. What? You guided them, right? Is it a turkey?"

"I was a little distracted..."

"Oh no. What's the pumpkin?"

"Justin Bieber."

"Huh??"

That's right. Evidently, Elissa had them all share an idea which she wrote on the board and then they voted. Some of the ideas were hilarious. My favorites include:

Vampire.
Scary Vampire.
Boy who transforms into a very large dinosaur.
All of our faces.

Once the Justin Bieber suggestion was thrown out though, idea time was over. The kids JUMPED on it. Elissa said her classroom suddenly errupted into choruses of "Baby, Baby, Baby."

I've thoughtfully provided a link to the video for the poor souls like me who've never listened to Justin Bieber:

For anyone looking for their very own Justin Bieber pumpkin, I couldn't find a free template but this one wasn't priced too badly. Yes, we paid money for a Bieber pumpkin. Don't judge. It's for the kids!! :)

Happy Halloween!

Sloooow Breakfast Nook Strides

2010-10-28T01:02:00.001-04:00

Okay, so yesterday after I blog-bitched (blitched?) about how little I've accomplished on the home front lately, I got busy. By that, I mean I watched about 2 hours of 'How I Met Your Mother' reruns from Season 1 until the internet inexplicably went out. Pretty sure that the universe was trying to send me a message. Yet for an hour, I still fruitlessly tried to get the internet running again. Nada.

Sooo...I went out to the garage and got my spackle and trusty spackle-scraping-thingie. (Technical Name) I went over the walls and filled in any nail holes, uneven places, etc.

I think part of my Breakfast Nook hang-up has been that our walls in that area are damaged. When we took the wallpaper off, we definitely took bits of drywall off with it. Spackle doesn't fill in these chunks. So part of my hesitation was the knowledge that once I paint the walls, some of these imperfections are going to be glaringly obvious. At this point though - C'est La Vie!

These are 2 different pictures...and yes, that is an intercom system. Which doesn't work. But plays the radio so whoo-hoo!

I just want the paint up. It's time to 'giterdone'.

So tomorrow, I'm putting up primer. Fingers crossed it all looks good in the end!

Seriously Yummy Soup

2010-10-26T11:21:00.001-04:00

I talked to my little sister last night and I mentioned that I made a potato soup. She was like "hmm." And I could tell it was a bad "hmm." It was like "Oh, intriguingly poor choice sister...I shall now question your every judgement." So I was all like "What's up with that? You don't like potato soup??"

After questioning Kira, I realized she had only had potato soup prepared by my mother. *Shudders*

My mother is a great cook when she's following recipes or at least a prepared menu plan. But when she just walks into the kitchen and decides to cook with what she has? *Shudders*

Here's her most common substitution: milk = water. Which makes for mediocre scrambled eggs. But when making potato soup, water turns it into Russion-Orphanage-Quality Gruel. GRUEL, I tell you!

So I've assured my sister that when she next comes to visit me in Florida, I'll make her this soup by Centsational Girl. Because it was gooooooood!

In other news, my best friend whom I looove is coming to see me next week to celebrate my birthday with me. (28!) I've known she was coming for like 2 months. Here's what I was supposed to do in that time: Find her a wedding present and paint my breakfast nook so I can hang blinds on my naked windows. Here's what I've done: Made a pretty fall wreath and caught up on 'How I Met Your Mother.'

Le sigh.

Autumn Wreath

2010-10-20T15:43:00.001-04:00

Okay, so I'm reasonably crafty. I've dabbled in most every aisle at the craft stores. Sewing, scrapbooking, cross stitch, latch hook, cake making, fimo, wood burning, painting, jewelery, etc, etc. But there's one section of the store that I have always avoided. The floral department.

Here's my reasoning:

1. Too many different options.

2. Seems dusty.

3. I will pair flowers of different seasons together and a passing botanist will laugh at my ignorance.

I've managed to avoid floral entirely. For the past 5 years, my autumn 'wreath' has been the wooden head of a scarecrow that I painted and hung with twine. But I wanted an actual wreath this year...it seems so 'grown-up' and 'home-owner-y'.

I set out looking for a wreath but couldn't find one I liked within my budget. I wanted a BIG wreath. Classic looking without any elements of Halloween. (I like Fall decor I can use throughout the month of November...not sure if that's frugality or straight-up laziness, but I digress...)

When I couldn't find a ready made wreath, I turned to the interwebs...but a lot of the tutorials didn't seem very helpful. The wreaths were beautiful but the instructions seemed lacking. Example: "I picked up some autumn stuff at the dollar store, creatively glued them in place and it looks wonderful!"

That is not enough direction for me. Not nearly enough. What fall stuff should I pick? Where should I stick it? And where is your dollar store because mine is not comparing.

Tres intimidating.

So finally, I just braved up and headed out to the dollar store. I bought 2 garlands of fake leaves and some ribbon. Next stop, Hobby Lobby. While there, I found a few fall themed floral picks and a grapevine wreath.

I was going to thoughtfully take pictures of every step of my process. But as it turns out, you just kinda glue them all on the wreath. All those tutorials were right - I just needed to have a little more faith in my arranging abilities.

So here is my wreath:

I love it! It's the perfect size for our door and it makes me smile every time I pull in the driveway. :)

One concrete bit of advice I can offer is this website...I had no idea how to tie a wreath bow and this video saved me. Not only was this bow really easy to recreate, it also didn't require any wire which was convenient since I didn't have any. :)

Picking paint and miscellaneous meanderings...

2010-10-13T02:42:00.003-04:00

So we were in Lowes last month to debate paint options for the kitchen cabinets. Which white to go with? Cool or warm? White or cream? Decisions, decisions!

And at some point, E says, "You know, our great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents would probably be rolling over laughing to see us discusing which color is the 'right' white."

I started to smile and agree.

But then I realized. My Nana had style. And I bet the rest did too.

I think they'd understand my quest for the 'right' white.

:)

In other news, I haven't blogged in quite a while. Settling into this new house is taking more time that I first imagined. I am in AWE of the many amazing bloggers I read who attack project after project each weekend. I had this initial gusto that has tapered down to a very low flame. But I think I'm starting to get back into the swing of things...fingers crossed!

Envisioning the kitchen...

2010-06-24T17:52:00.001-04:00

Alright, so this is what our kitchen looked like when we bought the house:

Um yeah. We've already removed all the wallpaper so big yaaay there. :)

Here's my idea of what it will look like by the end of the summer:

Excuse the photoshop job. It's not going to go down in history as the coolest thing I ever manipulated in PS.

At first, I HATED the counter top. And I can't say I really like it now. But I think once the cabinets are white, it will really tone down all the WOOD that is screaming right now.

So in short, I want to paint the cabinets white, add brushed nickel hardware, tile the floor, hang a new light fixture, paint the walls and hang some new faux wood blinds.

Please excuse the even crappier photoshop job lol but in the next year or two, I would like it to look like this:

The big changes here are stainless steel appliances, crown moulding & granite counters. The granite counters probably won't happen for a loooong while but we'll call that a year or two. Optimism, people!

Last night, we finally decided on colors for the kitchen and breakfast nook. The walls are going to be Olympic's River Reed which is a pale green from their Audubon collection. The cabinets are going to be Valspar Dove White which is more of a creamy color than the tan-ish one on their website. And finally the trim in Valspar Ultra White.

We went to get the paint today during lunch. We had it all in our buggy. When E turns to me and says, "Are you sure we're not being too neutral? I mean, we're young, should we do some wild color?"

For those of you who don't know E, those are words that have never crossed her lips. And probably never will again. Too neutral?

Something wild? Whoa. She then proceeded to show me the 'wild' color she was thinking of (see left) and my world was instantly righted. Yeah, that's my One. :) Wiiiiiiiild!

So for now, we've only purchased the paint for the trim. We're going to weigh our options between green...and grey green.

:-)

Launching a Sculpture Defense

2010-06-18T17:28:00.000-04:00

So today at lunch, I went into Michaels.

And while there, I spotted these super cute grey stripe-y pencils. For 50¢. I grabbed a pack.

I walked around the store. Started to think about how I have tons of pencils, pens, markers and sharpies.

I reminded myself that these were unneccessary.

I walked back to the clearance bin to put them away.

"I don't need these pencils. No matter how cute they are."

And then...I grabbed all 4 remaining packs and giggled as I walked to the register. My grand total was $2.14 for 32 pencils. Totally worth it.

So here are my pencils in all their glory:

I will never use them. That's what I do with things I like. They will sit in a cup for all time.

Or until E tries to use them.

She won't understand that they're actually small pencil sculptures meant to liven my desk.

Maybe I'll find a glass with spikes? Or get a very small guard dog?

Hmmmm....

:-)

Candied Cookies

2010-06-18T01:35:00.006-04:00

My future little sister-in-law (she would probably object to the 'little' part but it is my blog) is going to a friend's house tomorrow. She wanted us to make cookies or something to bring. So we swung by Michael's last night and spotted these candy molds. They're by Wilton and were only $1.99. I've never done anything with candy melts so I was SOLD. I like making new stuff.

While I was at work today, I was reading that I should have gotten special candy food coloring. The icing coloring is water based while the candy melts are oil based. I contemplated going out to buy the right supplies buuuut I stayed true to myself instead and went about it laissez-faire.

The whole thing turned out to be much easier than I expected. First, I put half a bag of candy melts inside a disposable plastic icing bag. I placed this bag in a glass bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds. I checked at that point but it was still unmelted. 45 seconds later though, the icing was done. I opened the bag and dripped in about 2 drops of food coloring.

The next part was tres annoying. We carefully massaged the bag so as to disperse the coloring without making a giant candy mess. You'll notice 'lil SIL with the writing on her hand. (The joys of being 17!) It took a few minutes to get the coloring all around. Once the color was uniform and to our liking, I cut a hole in the tip of the bag.

We carefully filled in the flower indentation in one color. We then gently tapped the tray so it would release any trapped air bubbles. The trays were let to sit & harden up for a minute or two. Then we came back and filled in the top with an alternating color. I found I had the best results when I ran the icing thickly around the sides and then filled in the center. Once that was done, I pressed in an Oreo cookie. The tray was placed in the refrigerator to cool. The candied cookies popped out with a gentle tap about 10 minutes later.

Easy peasy and we had some candied cookies!

My worries about the food coloring were unfounded. Using the wilton icing coloring worked just fine.

I was also worried that they would need hours to cool in the fridge which would be a pain in terms of reusing the tray. But that turned out to be unfounded too. 10 minutes in the fridge while we worked on the other tray and then we'd trade out basically. Very simple. Although I would advise getting 2 trays if you're making a lot.

One more picture:

They are super cute. Although, I can't attest to their taste because the 'lil SIL won't let me have one. They're for her party. Each and every one of them. She's a mean little girl.

It's chilling how mean she looks in this picture. I'm sure you can see it in the eyes.

:-)

Let there be light!

2010-06-16T18:13:00.001-04:00

E's dad came to town this weekend and was soooo SWEET and helped us with some projects around the house. I felt bad because we live in Florida and it's June. Translation: It's VERY hot right now. But he helped us a lot by putting up some ceiling fans despite the miserable temperature.

I am totally kicking myself because I don't have before pictures of either lighting fixture that was replaced. How is that possible? I take pictures of everything. Well, I missed the boat here so just try to picture it.

The one in the master bedroom was fine except it was pretty ugly (read: brass) and provided VERY little light. It had a leaded glass cover over the light bulbs.
The fan on the screened porch was in HORRIBLE shape. It looks like they installed an interior fixture in the room. The problem with this is that the fan blades had become water logged and just hung straight down like a wilted flower.

This a photo of the outdoor fan after it was removed from the ceiling. As you can see, it is well and truly dead.

And this is a picture of the pretty NEW fixture:

The interior fan is a Hunter Augusta in pewter and the screened porch fan is a Hampton Bay Coleburn.

I will say that the bedroom fan has really nice metal pulls whereas the outside fan only has plastic ones. I don't know if that's a difference between the two brands or just the fans we chose.

But the new sweet spot in the house is definitely underneath the master bedroom fan. There's an A/C vent directly across from the fan and the cold air is just funneled straight to you. I know where I'll be spending all my time come July.

Sidenote: Any magic advice about popcorn ceilings? I'm not liking it! But E's anxious that I'll just make the ceiling splotchy if I attack it with sandpaper. Hmmm...

She'll think twice about playing video games next time...

2010-06-08T15:43:00.006-04:00

Before we bought the house, I was focusing a lot of my imaginary design efforts on the laundry room. There were 2 reasons for this:

1). It seemed like a good 'first' room to tackle before the actual machines were in and we needed it to be functioning.

2). It's completely non-intimidating because I mean, come on! It's just the laundry room. I could paint a fairy mural on the wall and who really cares?

So when we moved in, I gleefully began eyeing the laundry room. I took down shelves with recklass abandon. I scrubbed the walls. I yanked out screws of every shape and size. (Seriously.) I spackled.

I opened my first can of primer and ran from the room in search of air.

My normally super-frugal self took it one step too far when I bought Kilz Original Oil Primer. I saved $5 over the odorless variety. And I paid for it because priming that room took us close to a full week.

In contrast, once we began putting the actual paint on the wall, we finished 2 coats in a matter of hours. So anyway, ignore the weird dots all over the picture - what can I say, it's from a cell camera.

I really love the color. It's Glidden Grey Heather.

Once the paint was up, it made the wood molding stick out like a sore thumb. I mean really, it's glaringly ugly. So I began the process of preparing the molding for paint. Taping off the walls, sanding the wood, and finally, washing to make sure it wasn't dusty or grimey.

I'm sitting on the floor doing all this. Just staring at the nasty 1984 linoleum with rust stains and holes when something inside me snapped. 20 minutes later, Elissa takes a break from the xbox and pops her head in to find this:

Um yeah. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. On the plus side, you'll notice I've taped off the moulding and it's ready for paint! :-D

She's 28. But I'm not. Yet.

2010-06-05T16:24:00.027-04:00

E's birthday was yesterday. She's 5 months older than me. This is good because I always have 5 months time to get ready to turn whatever age.

For example, the 5 months before my 25th birthday, I kept turning to her and being like "Whoa. You're 25." Probably wasn't super fun for her but it helped prepare my psyche lol.

H A P P Y

B I R T H D A Y

L O V E!

This year, with her birthday on the horizon, I was wandering around like "Whoa. We're going to be TWENTY-NINE this year." Until E pointed out that we were currently only 27. :-P Reprieve!

Wallpaper Removal is NAHHHT Fun.

2010-06-01T14:48:00.006-04:00

That was said in my best Borat voice.

This is the powder room as of last night:
You'll notice the obvious absence of wallpaper but also maybe the hole I made in the wall? Yeah, I hated that ceramic toilet paper holder. Elissa was like "they cemented it in. we'll just have to keep it." And I was like "ahhhhh! nooooo!" So I went over to 'test' wiggle it annnnd ended up completely yanking it from the wall. Whoops.

This morning we had to take the guinea pig into the vet's office because he has an infected eye. We're sitting there and I mention to Elissa that someone in my office has a guy who will repair dry wall holes very affordably.

Me: "Yeah, Cathy said it doesn't cost much at all."
E: "Well, that's good."
Me: "Yeah, and then we don't have to mess around with those 3 holes."
E: "There aren't 3 holes."
Me: "There will be when I start wiggling that ugly ceramic towel holder over the toilet."
E: *Smiles*

And we reached consensus.

We bought a house! :)

2010-05-31T23:03:00.006-04:00

I haven't been blogging about this at all because I felt semi-certain that something would happen to upset our closing. I just didn't want to jinx it. Sure enough, the day of closing, our lender suddenly requested this a document about a CD that our bank couldn't give us. Our closing was at 1pm and we didn't leave the bank until 12:45. Still with no document. They sent the lending package through anyway though so there was a giant sigh of relief. And a key. To our HOUSE.

Here's a picture of the front...

One hour after closing, we were doing this:

Caption: Whooot-whoooot!

Two Hours after closing we were doing this:

And that pretty much sums up the rest of our weekend. More pictures to follow but we already have one room completely devoid of wallpaper and most of another.

H A P P Y

M E M O R I A L

D A Y ! ! ! ! !

:-D

Coming up Yellow!

2010-05-18T17:33:00.007-04:00

Okay so I am really into the idea of making our own furniture. Ever since running across Knock Off Wood, I have been maintaining lists in my head of everything I want to make. I definitely have some favorites. Among those, is the Farmhouse Canopy Bed based on this design by Pottery Barn.

Ever since I saw picture to the right, I have reeeally lusted after this bed. I like it. A lot. And this picture proves that one can make a bed yourself and have it come out lookin' goood.

Now, the main thing about this bed is that I immediately pictured it in a goldenrod yellow color. Immediately. Knowing that Elissa was having trouble seeing my 'vision', today I went looking for pictures to back up my assurances that a yellow four-poster bed was way cool.

I found these inspiration pictures...

And one more...

Now, I'm sure you think I'm including that last picture to be funny. Buuut I'm not. I wanted to share a story that I had COMPLETELY forgotten until that picture came up on my google image search. When I was in middle school I BEGGED for that bed. No, no typo. That's right. I said middle school. I was convinced that it was a super cool settee seating option to have in my room. A little reading nook if you will.

My mother will back me up on this. Everytime we passed it at Burlington Coat Factory, I would climb in and demonstrate how it could adequately fit my 5'10 frame.

Anyways, that's just a little memory that flew back at me when I saw that picture. See? I've always been a fan of quirky home decor elements or surprises. :)

I do think that the yellow canopy bed may be a slightly more mature demonstration of my furniture daring though. What do you think?

DIY Art

2010-05-13T15:38:00.011-04:00

I have a love of personalized art. I really like when I can find things that mean something to me. And aren't just a pretty vase or bird or whatever.

Etsy is great for things like that. In fact, last year for our 5th anniversary, I ordered this print which I just love from Vol.25. (I highly recommend her as a seller - she was great!) Bonus? The print really fit in with our nature-y themed bathroom.

As we're about to close on our first house, I find myself pondering art for various rooms. I know that our budget for something like that is going to be pretty low given the need for larger improvements like new appliances and flooring.

I'm really drawn toward things that remind me of memories or places. Which makes sense when you see the art work I've been bookmarking most frequently...

Art is by Signs of Vintage, qaDesign, Weizen and capow.

Subway Art signs (pictured first) are super popular right now and there are a number of DIY directions on how to make one yourself with place names that are important to you. I was starting to make a list of places when I realized that the subway itself is important to us.

D.C. is really special to the Elissa & I. We first met in 2001 but we didn't become close friends until we were both studying at American University in D.C. for a semester. A lot of my memories of D.C. that fall are of being on the Metro.

So here's what I've come up with using Photoshop...

I used google images to find a high resolution jpeg of the Metro map. It was in black and white. I opened it in Photoshop and changed the lines to pastel versions of what the lines are normally colored. I put a heart on the metro stop for Tenleytown because that was our stop by A.U. And I really do heart Tenleytown. :)I'm not sure but it may possibly need a huge WASHINGTON, D.C. going down one side. So end of story, this is what I'm currently envisioning in the powder room:

I wouldn't normally be such a copy cat but unfortunately, qaDesign doesn't offer Pennsylvania or Oklahoma as options in her etsy shop. So I found maps from google images and just grouped plain color on top. PA's heart worked out perfectly because Harrisburg's the capital and it's my home town. But Oklahoma made me think a bit. I didn't know if I should do Ponca City which is where a majority of E's family lives and most of her memories of visiting OK as a kid. Then I remembered, she was born in Oklahoma City and it was an easy-peasy choice.

So that's it! I'm sending these off to Shutterfly to print poster prints. My grand total should be $20 for all 3. Yay to inexpensive yet personalized artwork.

There's no such thing as 'perfect'

2010-02-25T16:30:00.013-05:00

Okay so I haven't really done anything in the realm of creative lately. But I did have this mental 'ah-ha' for myself on Valentine's.

See, I had planned this whole breakfast thing to surprise Elissa with. (She's a late weekend sleeper). I was planning on rainbow heart shaped pancakes, a hand made banner/garland of sorts, paper placemats...and then a wrench was thrown into my works. Are you ready?

I couldn't find my white table cloth.

That's right. I almost threw the whole idea out because my vision didn't include a tuscan-style, floral table cloth.

I'm so glad I didn't listen to me.

Trying on Wedding Dresses...

2009-11-19T17:47:00.003-05:00

So I went with Misty to try on dresses today and she AWESOMELY took pictures so that I could look through them later. Super helpful when deciding what things I like/what thinks I do NOT like.

But upon looking at the photos, I noticed a trend and made this delightful montage for your enjoyment:

My Proposal Story...

2009-10-30T15:52:00.002-04:00

Elissa and I actually met in a Women & Gender Studies class at Sweet Briar College the 2nd semester of my Freshman year. I thought she was amazing and will readily admit to having had a crush on her. We debated things in class together, often on completely opposing sides. I was more apt to quote Wendy Shalit than Kate Bornstein. At any rate, it made for lively discussions.

Fall Semester of 2003, we both attended the Women & Politics Semester at American University in D.C. A.U. is where we became ready friends. We did everything together. We stayed up for hours just talking until we fell asleep on the sofa. We met each other for lunch every day. We vandalized furniture together. And we had a dedicated Face Mask Night. Every Tuesday was 'Face Mask Night'. We'd get together, order a pizza, rub mud all over our faces and settle in to dry. I'm not sure how it started or when we realized this was a Tuesday night tradition but there you have it.

This past Sunday (Oct. 18th), we had a supremely average weekend day. We met her father and step-mother for lunch, we went sofa shopping, E did work for school and we had dinner at O'Charlie's. When we got home, Elissa asked me if I'd like to put on face masks. This is a weekly tradition that has long since fallen by the wayside...it would be more fair to call it a bi-annual traditon now. Anyways, we had fun putting on our masks and were giggling and taking lots of pictures and just being silly. I glanced over at Elissa and realized that she was holding my ring! My beautiful ring!

She said simply, "I knew when we were first putting face masks on at A.U. that I loved you. And I love you today. Will you Marry me?"

And I said "oh wow! yay!!!!" Or something equally inelegant. :)

I evidentally teared up. Photographic evidence.

Boeuf Bourguignon

2009-09-12T12:50:00.013-04:00

I think part of what made me want to make Boeuf Bourguignon was reading Regina Schrambling's article "Don't Buy Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking", subtitled "You will never cook from it." Ordinarily, that's probably quite true. I chuckled while reading and nodded my head. Then I went and saw the movie, Julie & Julia. As we were leaving the theatre, we said our goodbyes and were all raving that the food had looked so good. I (of course!) agreed but said I was far too impatient to ever make those dishes and related the above article as well.

Elissa & I left the movie theatre and went directly to a wine shop, followed by a visit to Publix for cheese. (mmm Butterkasse) We wanted to cook something challenging, something more gourmet than our usual box approach. The next night, I made Chicken Kiev from my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook. I had always avoided that recipe because it involves pounding chicken flat which seemed super complicated. It was not! I had a lot of fun slamming my chicken breast with a can of soup (no mallet!) and in fact, dented my can. The chicken was a success.

So I got to thinking the next day, that I wanted to make the Boeuf Bourguignon Schrambling had spoken so derisively of. I finally found an exact copy of the recipe on the publisher Knopf Doubleday's website. And we were off! Except not. Because it turns out the lardons Schrambling speaks of are pork based. Makes sense (duh! LARD-ons) but presented a huge problem because I don't do anything with the pork products. Giant big yech. So I called in an expert - my Grama. Who said it was a wonderful dish and thought I'd do fine to replace the bacon with butter and olive oil.

Mmmmm....butttttter...

One stop at the Fresh Market later and I had accumulated my ingredients. My tasty, tasty ingredients. I also had to purchase a dutch oven because I didn't have any pans that could go from stove top to oven. Elissa at first suggested that I could just trade out between a pan and casserole dish but that really wouldn't be feasible. There are a couple points where you take the dish in and out of the oven in a very short time. I definitely recommend getting a fireproof casserole dish.

The recipe is pretty much self-explanatory and very detailed. I loved cooking with this because there were very few incidents of my being like 'huh?' There were, however, a few 'incidents' because I never manage to cook without one or two! :)

1) Dry each of the meat cubes individually. I was out of paper towels. I used paper napkins but I wish I had thought to pick some towels up.

I sauteed the meat about 8-10 pieces at a time. I occasionally had to re-up my butter/olive oil. Each time, I would wait until completely melted and hot. As the meat was browned, I moved it into a glass dish. After all the meat was browned, about a third of a cup of beef blood was accumulated in that dish - you know that oily blood puddle when you cut into a rare steak? Well, I retained the blood and added it to my beef stock. *shrugs* I figured it was flavorful and why not?

3) The one vague portion of the recipe is that after browning the carrot and onion, you pour out the liquid but retain the vegetables, adding the meat on top. The next line of the recipe is speaking of coating the beef in flour so I spent a few minutes like "well where did the veggies go??". They're in there. Silently getting coated as well.

4) I only added 2 cups of stock. It said 2-3 cups and at 2 cups, my meat was pretty well covered. In retrospect, I would add 3. I'm not sure if it's because there was an absence of bacon, but at the end, I only had about 1.25 cups of sauce instead of the 2.5 the recipe says I should have.

5) I used Chianti. I meant to pick up Burgundy but didn't have a chance to get back to the wine shop. Never use cooking wine. Only a wine you, yourself, would drink. Cooking wine is gross.

6) Now we come to the most magical dish I have ever had the fortune of making...Oignons Glaces a Brun. Oh my God. New Rule is that I'm only eating things that have been braised in butter. Especially small baby onions. Mmmmmmm. Okay, here the recipe got a little vague again. "Peeled white onions" Easier said than done!!! After some googling, I found this magic video which explains proper peeling technique. Basically, you should blanche the onions, cut the pulpy side and yank.

7) Braising is letting the whatever simmer while covered for 40 minutes...I found myself wishing I had used the pan with a lid. Not to be defeated, I turned to a trusty cake pan. (He's pulled double lid duty before).

8) Ah and now the mushrooms, my one tip here is that I sliced half the mushrooms and quartered half the mushrooms to see which I liked better. I usually like to slice mushrooms because they look so pretty. However, the mushrooms I quartered were much more hearty in the stew. I'll quarter all the mushrooms next time.

For all the parts of the recipe, I felt like I was setting up a triage. Mushroom cutting station, followed by bowl of cut mushrooms, followed by pan of searing hot butter, followed by complete mushrooms. :) I did burn the butter one time, luckily there was nothing in it and I was able to just dump it and rewash the pan.

This is just gratuitous onion porn:

Mmmmm...

9) After the onions are done braising, Julia says the liquid should have evaporated. Mine didn't really - perhaps the lack of a well fitting lid? Anyways...I removed the onions but didn't know what to do with the liquid. Throw it away? Sacrilege! So I got a piece of bread and ate it. Yes. Ate it. Melted butter & Onion Juice. It was like a small piece of the divine.

10) I later regretted (kinda but not really) eating the liquid because I could have used it when I realized I was 1.25 cups of broth down. I ended up just adding more beef stock and wine. It was still suitably thick.

I meant to notice the moment that the house began to smell wonderfully but it began pretty early on...browning the steak tips in butter. Yummmmy. As it simmered in the oven for 2.5 hours, the house truly began to smell fantabulous. I mean, really, really good. The wine, the stock, the meat - plus I was in the process of braising baby onions and sauteing mushrooms. The house smelled good ALL DAY long. Including during dinner 3 hours later.

I used this recipe for the accompanying boiled new potatoes. They were tasty, tasty, tasty. Very neutral which was good because it didn't take away from the Boeuf Bourguignon.

And because inquiring minds want to know...Boeuf Bourguignon is pronounced here. The Boeuf part is like a mix of Poof & Puff...the vowels meet in the middle somehow. As for Bourguignon, I remember it by picturing the color BURgundy+a bottle of gin (which is somehow pronounced soft g+in in my head) + a yawn.

I'll leave you with my attempt to take a picture of the two of us before eating. As you can see, Elissa is a little...distracted. The food smelled GOOD! :)

I'm ba-ack?

2009-09-10T19:08:00.001-04:00

hmmm it's been quite a long time since I last posted! :) Okay here's what we did this summer...

1) I took a surprise trip to San Juan, PR to join Elissa at a conference when her roommate didn't show up.
2) We moved. Yet again.
3) I've been making a number of cakes...
4) We drove to PA with Sebastian for a week.
5) I've begun having HORRENDOUS migraine headaches. (Not a highlight)
6) Elissa is back at school teaching 2nd graders this time...oooooooo! :)
7) I got a sewing machine...that I can't operate. Not for long hopefully!

We moved to yet another apartment this summer after being robbed at our previous ground floor unit. Luckily, we weren't home and nothing too irreplaceable was lost. Moving to the 3rd floor was a bit of a challenge in terms of our washer and dryer ;-X but we made a decision to go with movers this time. Brilliant! :) I'm pretty sure they would have fallen into the pool otherwise. This picture is misleading because we DO have our dining room table set up buuuut...a LARGE amount of items are in boxes stacked in the 2nd bedroom. I am so OVER packing and unpacking but it's definitely on the list to make our home office a usable space instead of a storage facility.

E has started school again, this year teaching the 2nd grade. I bought a sewing machine in anticipation of making curtains for her classroom. So far though, they're still a work in progress. Any day (more likely month) now! The hallway bulletin board was completed though and worked in with her theme of camping/hiking/the great outdoors.

And I continue trying to cook/bake new things. Most recently, we had Chicken Kiev which was quite tasty. Tomorrow, I'm attempting Boeuf Bourguignonne. We saw the movie Julie/Julia this past weekend and I just loved it! All of the food just looked so incredibly yummy! I decided I wanted to make this recipe as it's supposed to be more of a Julia Child entry-level meal. The only thing I'm changing is omitting the bacon. But that met with my Grama's approval so I can't imagine it will matter. :)

Anyways, I feel a little rusty with this whole blog thing but wanted to make a reappearance. I really do enjoy writing and taking pictures and journaling! It kinda maintains a record for me of things I would otherwise most certainly forget.

I'll leave you with a photo of the magnificent cat Sebastian on his 13 hour drive to Pennsylvania.

I'm no BM...

2009-05-22T14:31:00.004-04:00

So I've been reading all these wedding blogs. And they keep using abbreviations that I find mind numbingly stupid at best and utterly confusing at worst. Chief among the confusing is FFIL, FSIL, FMIL and FBIL which translates to Future Father in Law, etc. It took me DAYS to translate these. My 1st favorite abbreviation is for Save the Date cards..."We're almost ready to start sending out our STD's!!!" And coming up close behind is BM. This took me a few minutes. I was reading a post about purchasing BM gifts and suddenly "BAHAHAHA, she means Bridesmaid!!"

Well, Nayomi and I have a MOH pact. We're going to be each other's maid of honors someday. Goooo us! As her MOH though, I would also like to help with another duty. I'd like to be the CM. Cake Maker of course. Above, you will notice, that I now know how to make roses. And clowns. She is going to save sooo much money on cake toppers. I'm going to let her be the clown slumped in the corner who's had a few too many. Because that's what BFF's do. She's a lucky girl. :)

Distress is helped by cake.

2009-05-14T16:53:00.013-04:00

One of my favorite songs in high school choir (yay Voices!) was 'Count Your Blessings'. I hum it to myself sometimes when I'm having a trying day. I've really been trying to count them this week.

1) Our deciding that we would purchase a really kick-ass washer & dryer set instead of a new bed or sofa is a total blessing in disguise.

2) My being so allergic to the bites is a bit of a blessing too because we found out we had a problem sooner than we might have otherwise.

and

3) Our apartment disaster happening concurrently to my taking a cake decorating class is a small blessing in disguise. Distress is helped by cake.

By the end of the summer, I hope to be 400 pounds and have icing permanently smeared on my nose. This will go largely unnoticed though because I will also be covered in 400 ginormous insect bites.

WHOA - reigning in my thoughts and switching back to my blessings. Running out of event-related bright sides. About to start listing things like good health, a running car & food to eat. Not being homeless.

Whatever. Here are current pics of my home.

oooo I know. I am SO grateful I never found a sofa off craigslist or at a thrift shop. I would eternally be blaming myself for this experience. Instead, I get to blame my apartment managers.

And here's someone who doesn't seem to mind having some cots set up in the living room. Traitor. Super cute, cuddly, baby traitor.

Below is my perfectly lovely cake. Dark Fudge Chocolate with strawberry filling. Mmmmm. And my tip of the day? I used a cookie cutter to stamp a shape on the top that I could then fill in with stars. Click on it to see the bea-u-tiful detail. Ignore the small brown flecks in the yellow icing. Still haven't perfected not getting cake crumbs in my icing. I'm working on it! I attempted to make a rose last night. And I have to say that it may be impossible. Roses are complicated. I'm just going to perfect my star tip and do everything with small stars. If I want a rose, I'll find a rose cookie cutter and go from there.

What's on the agenda tonight? Why, LAUNDRY! With occasional cake breaks. Welcome to my life.

bugged out...

2009-05-11T15:06:00.011-04:00

I don't even know how to write about this weekend. I'm feeling pretty deflated.

Last Sunday, we went to the beach (See right). While there, a red ant bit my thumb. He was immediately smashed but the bite had happened. As the week progressed, I realized I had a few other bite marks on my arms. I kept thinking that they must have happened while laying on the beach. I thought that maybe I just didn't notice at the time.

By Wednesday, it was obvious that these were separate bite issues. I was thinking maybe a spider? Our apartment does back up to woods so it wasn't inconceivable. By Friday, I had over 30 bites on my right arm alone. This was no spider. But why in the world didn't Elissa have any marks?

We were beginning to toss around the dreaded words...'bed bugs'. Still, I found myself hoping for some weird spider infestation. You know things are bad when you're HOPING to be told you have some strange spider 'nest' in your bedroom.

Friday night, we slept in the living room. Just in case. Saturday, we went to Elissa's teacher graduation (yay her!) and came home to do bed bug research online.

We found out 2 important facts.
1) Only 40% of people are allergic to bed bug bites. Which explained why Elissa had none. It's also creepy when you think that other people might have them but never know they're being bitten because there are no welts.
2) Some people will have bed bug infestations for YEARS and NEVER see a bed bug. They're elusive, transient & mainly nocturnal.

I was still rooting for spiders. We slept in the living room again. Sunday? Elissa actually found a bed bug. She had been examining every cranny of our mattress with a flashlight and actually bagged one. We immediately went to our apartment management company.

If there's been one shining light this weekend, it has been that they are taking this VERY seriously. This morning, someone came to inspect the room and tell us how to prepare for treatment. Here's what we are doing:

1) EVERYTHING fabric is being taken from the room and put into giant trash bags. I'm washing them on our sanitary setting (whoo-hoo!) that reaches 158 degrees. Then, they're being dried until completely dried plus an additional 20 minutes. Then I take them out and place them immediately into plastic bags. If it's clothes we don't often wear, I'm putting them into trash bags. If they're clothes we do wear, I'm putting them into giant Ziplock bags.

2) All the drawers need to be removed from our furniture for treatment.

3) We have to vacuum everywhere with the crevice tool. Then take the canister out to be dumped. Then come back in and SCRUB the vacuum clean with hot water.

4) Our boxframe will definitely need to be thrown out. Our mattress may need to be too. We're not sure yet. At this point, I want to throw out EVERYTHING.

On Wednesday, the pest control guy comes back. He'll shoot pesticide dust into every cranny of our furniture. Like he's going to take the nail heads out of the bed and put powder in there before replacing it. Then he's lifing the carpet up at all the edges and shooting additional powder under there.

Afterwards, I have to put double sided tape around the legs of all our furniture. I am so unbelievably skeezed out.

Pest control guy said it probably won't work the first time and they usually have to come out for multiple visits.

The apartment people were nice and said we could transfer if we want to once the problem's taken care of. (because if we just moved now, we'd inadvertantly bring them with us) I think we might have to because we're both soo freaked out buuut I JUST moved. The concept of doing it again is EXHAUSTING.

What double sucks is that we haven't done anything we can pinpoint as being a cause. We haven't stayed in any hotels and we haven't purchased any used, upholstered furniture. Since almost all my bites are on my right side and I sleep in the corner, we think they may have predated us in the apartment? Like they probably were in the wall behind a power outlet. The pest control guy said that was likely. I'm normally the deepest sleeper but we're both sleeping lightly now. I kept waking up in the night and grabbing a flashlight to make sure nothing was on us. Sick.

So to complete my longest post ever. Here's a picture of my right arm. It was hard to get a good picture because of the flash but I think you can make out the bite marks.

Cake Class

2009-05-07T15:20:00.005-04:00

So I've been so psyched to start my Wilton Cake Decoration class - Course 1. :) What I was most excited about was learning how to ice a cake without getting any cake crumbs in the icing.

Last night, during the FIRST class, the instructor answered this question for me. What was this stellar advice?

"Use lots of icing."

Doh!

Chicken Dance/Cake!

2009-04-24T22:14:00.012-04:00

Okay so Elissa's sister Shannon likes Chickens. She even asked for a chicken for her 16th birthday. I have a feeling, she would prefer a fancy chicken to a car. Very unique for a 16-year-old. :) Well, while not in our power to get her a chicken...I can MAKE her a chicken! I couldn't find a recipe or reasonably priced pan so I decided to go it alone based on this picture I found.

First off, I made these cakes:
I wasn't sure how many I would need but I had a general idea. I planned on using the round cake for the body, cutting a loaf cake into the tail and using a cupcake for a head. It would have been easier to make two round cakes and cut one in half but I only had one pan in that exact size.

So I did this:
I measured a circle based on the round pan and then cut the corners off the loaf cake. There were two major flaws in my cake planning and we ran into the first one right now. I placed the tail cake on the body...and it slid off. Just slid right off. Elissa had to make an emergency run to the store for lollipop sticks. I just slid them in at a bit of an angle to hold everything in place.

So there we are! Beginning to look like quite the chicken. Or turkey. I think some chocolate or german coconut icing would make this perfect for Thanksgiving. Anyways, we hit Major Problem #2 right about now. I bought canned WHIPPED icing which turns out is WAAAAY too soft or something for this sort of cake. I think next time, I would buy a nice cream cheese icing.

As for the beak, I used a wheat thin cracker covered in orange icing and dipped in yellow sprinkles. And 2 little jimmies became this chicken's baby blues.

Anyways, I think I've held you in enough suspense. Presenting my CHICKEN CAKE!!!

Other good news? I signed up for the Wilton Cake Decorating Course 1! I'm so excited...I found somewhere where they haven't been canceled!! I think it's going to help me - a LOT. :)

insomnia

2009-04-21T03:30:00.006-04:00

It's 4 am. I can't sleep. My head is pounding. And the quiet of my suburbia was just shattered by a squealing car and about 10 shots. I thought drive-bys were a thing of our past. Maybe it's an unavoidable part of apartment living.

I took this video earlier...

Still have some work to do buuuut there you have it! My little warm, cozy, apparently not too suburban home.

~~~~~

I am in love with quotes. I mean I literally quote them to myself all the time. And the reigning supreme 'quotess' is Colette. She's my bomb-diggity as it were...

In its early stages, insomnia is almost an oasis in which those who have to think or suffer darkly take refuge.
~ Colette

Which is totally true. But then it just wrecks with your mind, you can't think because you're sleep deprived, you're non-stop groggy, and everything starts snowballing from there. I just want to sleep.

Concert Coming to Town...

2009-04-18T08:22:00.017-04:00

So last night I brought up a concert to Elissa...

There's a concert I kinda wanna go to on Thurday..."

"GROAN...it's country, isn't it?"

"No. Worse."

"Oh God. Who?"

"REO Speedwagon."

Silence.

This is actually quite a tricky place for Elissa because on one hand, neither one of us want to see REO Speedwagon. Neither one of us want to be stuck for 2 hours in the Florida Theatre with the people who do want to see REO Speedwagon.

Buuut...as fate would have it....our song is 'Can't Fight This Feeling'.
We didn't choose this song. It chose us. We were sitting in Subway 5 years ago, sorta discussing our feelings (or more accurately not discussing them) when 'Can't Fight This Feeling' started playing...I can't explain why but we were both like "Oh yuck, this is totally our song." And it is. Everytime it comes on the radio, I get a little smile and turn it up.

So Elissa can't just dismiss REO out of hand.

I think we both feel as if we probably should go to the concert. It would be sweet on some level. Especially in retrospect. And presumably they won't tour forever.

But it's hard to feel motivated about spending $80+ on REO Speedwagon. Elissa continues to narrowly avoid this concert through my insane frugality. Maybe we can go sit on the sidewalk outside lol.

***NOTE*** I had never seen the music video for this song. It is creepy. And weird. And double yuck. I think my favorite part is the floating child. Or perhaps the TV-screen Face Zombies. Or the hair. Too many to choose from.

Red Kitchen 'til Death do Us Part...

2009-04-17T15:07:00.005-04:00

So when Elissa & I got our first apartment, we had NO household supplies. Absolutely nothing. I had never realized until that year that things like kitchen accessories cost money. Actual money. I had always grown up with a pizza slicer and a cute little hard boiled egg slicer and a broom, etc, etc. I can imagine myself when I was younger rolling my eyes and thinking "It's just a...whatever...mop." And then suddenly, you're having to purchase all these things. All these small $10 items begin to suddenly add up to a lot of dollars.

Well, anyways, at the time, I was in love with anything Red by Kitchenaid. I'd wax philosophic on how I thought red appliances were something I would always love. That it was different than the avocado or pink tiled bathrooms of yesteryear - Red would always be a festive kitchen color. For birthdays, holidays...anything really...I'd encourage Elissa to get me red kitchen stuff. Can't go wrong with Red!

Fast forward 5 years and YECH. The red reminds me of growing up, how my mother would color code everything meat with red. It seems dark and dreery and anything but fresh. Now I like green. Bright, fresh, grass green. But I'm stuck with my red kitchenaid products because when I tally them up in my head...it's unthinkable to just replace them. I'm being punished with quality products that will probably hold up for years upon years upon years. ;) I guess there are worse things to complain about.

I now understand how my grandmother can have a white refridgerator, almond stove and stainless steel microwave...things just look prettier some years than others.

Craigslist - Argh.

2009-04-14T16:35:00.013-04:00

Okay so I just want to take some time to make fun of Craigslist. Some of the people posting on there are OUT OF THEIR MINDS and there's no where for me to comment on this. These 2 are the ones who annoyed me today:

"Purchsed for several thousand dollar a few years ago.... only asking $500!" Um, say what?? Several thousand dollars? Really? Well dude, you got FLEECED. That's my only explanation. And it is most CERTAINLY not worth $500. I think you'd be pushing your luck asking for $100.

"very nice dolphine scupltured table - $250" Mmmm-hmmm. I guess I can't really speak to this. Maybe $250 is a very well priced 'dolphine' table but I somehow think not.

Although - One of my biggest dreams in the world is to have infinite wealth and be able to build the ugliest/tackiest/most-New-Jersey home ever known to man. Then I will invite people over and pretend that I'm just in love with my good taste and keep 'subtly' asking for compliments on things like my aquarium toilet. This table is going to fit right in. Also, I'd love to see Elissa's face if she came home to this. "But it was only $250! That's practically a steal!"

OMG and I could do an entire post on the horrific spelling errors on Craigslist. Maybe we'll save that for another magical day. I keep checking Craigslist because I know people who've found great things on there. And I do love that desk I bought. Buuuuut I have to say it is largely disappointing.

In other news, here is the beautiful cake I decorated last night....sooo tasty too! :) Salivate!

I meant to decorate it with my nifty Wilton Cake Decorating set but it's been buried under the piles of boxes. Another day! Also, I got this bundt pan that I've been eyeing for what seems like years. (Yes, I am that dorky.) I cannot WAIT to try it out. I've got cakes just piling up on my to-do lists...much yummier than assigning homes to everything we own! :)

Today taxes are due and per usual, I will be spending a large part of my evening waiting in line at the post office. I can't find my stupid 2007 AGI so I can e-file. Although, since I'm a private contractor...I don't get a refund. I send money in. And I'm not sure why they need such tight security for me to PAY them money. Sigh. But I get it.

Final Move-out Video

2009-04-14T12:58:00.008-04:00

Update on past week: Hmmm...cat escaped yesterday morning. Ran into the woods. It was 8am and Elissa ran into our room screaming "Wake up! He got out!" I was too tired to even panic. I pulled on a sweater, grabbed a can of food and stood outside tapping it. Sure enough, little Mr. Trouble Maker's head popped up out of forest...tilted like "eh? cheezeburger?" So he's now safe and sound.

And okay, we are officially out of our apartment. We threw away sooo much stuff and took THREE car loads of things to the Salvation Army. But it's done! Bye-Bye Holly Bell! Here is a video tour of our mostly empty house from Sunday. I freaking love Elissa. Isn't she adorable and super funny? Yes. Yes, she is.

There's a song by Meiko called 'How Lucky We Are' that I am in love with. For your viewing pleasure:

All this month, we've been wandering around humming it under our breaths. According to Elissa, it's not a song one can ever play at a wedding because of the line 'One day, we'll move out of this shitty apartment...' But I think it would be absolutely hilarious just to have an obvious dub-over with both our voices saying 'less desirable'. We'll see. I may have to cede this battle.

Anyways, that's about it...I made a cake last night. We're icing it together tonight. Going to be soo pretty. I'll have to post a picture of it.

Pet Food Tray...

2009-04-08T15:57:00.010-04:00

So our cats tend to eat their 'kibble' a little messily...our kitchen floor needs a LOT of sweeping to get all their little nibbles cleaned up. In the past, we've gotten little placemats for their food dish but that doesn't really do anything to contain the problem.

I was at Target in the dog isle and I noticed this: The 'Staynplc' Mat. So for $10, it was in my cart and we were headed up front. That's when I happened to stray into the kitchen section. I noticed the little breakfast trays. You know the ones you use to bring Mom breakfast once a year? And I realized that that would look a LOT cuter on my dining room floor than the puke plastic I was carting around.

And then suddenly I'm thinking that I bet a lot of people get rid of their Use-only-on-Mother's-Day Trays. Ahha! Quick Trip to the Sal Army later, we have procured this number... ...for a grand total of? $1.49 And I think it looks way better on my dining room floor than Mr. Glorified Cafeteria Tray.

I swear to you that the tray was on the ground less than 10 seconds when a cat ran up and knocked food out of the bowl and onto the tray. But not on the floor! Success! :-D

We have a winner!

2009-04-08T14:10:00.005-04:00

Wow! Thanks for all your response! We have a winner! Using random.org to generate which of our lucky comments is the winner...
Why it's Reader Naomi! Congratulations Naomi! Please send me an email regarding dates to claim your prize. ;)

In other news, we now have 3 days to get everything out of our old apartment. Everything there is basically stuff that we should keep but don't really know how to organize or store. Alternately, it's stuff we should not keep (i.e. the 15 headlights for Elissa's Crown Victoria) but probably will. The hardest things are stuff like...mmmm...sports equipment for example. We don't need 2 sets of binoculars. We bought them when we went to Lion King 2 years ago. Buuut...someday will we want binoculars for something? Sure. So do we throw them out? It's a conundrum.

Today, I sold Elissa's weight bench to some guy from Craigslist. This weight bench had literally been a giant oversized hat rack for us. Yeah. It had a lat pull which was a convenient place for my 2 cowboy hats (pink & green), bonnet (Yes, a bonnet. I'm bringing those back), gardening/safari hat and Jaguar Baseball cap to reside. This also brings up the fact that I own 5 hats which all correspond to events/vacations.

Pink Cowboy Hat - Yellowstone
Green Cowboy Hat - St. Augustine. 1 Day.
Bonnet - Oklahoma/Colorado
Gardening/Safari - Cruise
Jaguar Baseball Cap - Jaguar Game

None of these hats were ever worn again. But I'm keeping them all. With the exception of the bonnet. Turns out those don't survive the washer too well. Hmmm...I think I need a new hat rack.

Siiiigh. My days as a packrat are not quite ended.

Giveaway!

2009-04-07T23:45:00.003-04:00

I'm sponsoring a giveaway of 2 weeks stay in my guest bedroom/nursery to one lucky commenter...

Also included will be a trip to the Atlantic Ocean for Mermaid Spotting.

To top it all off, I will bake you a cake.

So here you go Readership of One - just for you! ;)

Recession meets Thrift Shops...

2009-04-06T18:21:00.012-04:00

So I've been visiting quite a few thrift shops in the past week or so. I'm on a decorating quest, you see. I used to stop by thrift stores quite regularly but stopped a few years ago as our apartment could not physically hold any more junk. Life is cyclical because I'm back.

Anyways, I've noticed that the current offerings are slim indeed. Economic downturn has not been kind to charity stores. I guess people are deciding they could live with their like-new sofas a little longer because the one's being donated are anything BUT like-new.

Paradoxically, many shops like the Salvation Army seem to be attempting to meet their pre-recession sales goals by charging obscene amounts of money for utter crap furniture. This morning, I noticed this fetching painting in the locked up glass cabinets at S.A.
Yes. This Charmer is evidently a theft risk. The tag suggests it would be perfect for a child's nursery. Say what? And while a price tag of $40 might have made me scoff...the actual price of $180 pissed me off. Seriously?? For a clown painting?

Here are some other fantastic finds we've bumped into recently:
Thong Man needs no explanation. The middle picture is an entire wall of hideous wooden black & white cats...I guess donated by a cat making factory? And finally there is the ugliest bride mannequin ever...this mannequin would induce NO ONE to purchase anything EVER. I'd be more likely to purchase a wedding gown worn by a Christmas light-up Sant-y Claus.

So for now, I'm hoping to sew covers for our old sofa cushions and we'll celebrate 'Moroccan' Poofs at the Keisling-Davis household. Or buy several boxes of these...

FRIED Peanut Butter Banana Sandwiches...YUM!

2009-04-05T21:58:00.005-04:00

Okay so my favorite snack when I was growing up was sweet pickles covered in peanut butter. Don't knock it! Absolutely delicious. So anyways, I've establishing my early love of peanut butter. When I was about 12, I read in some magazine that Elvis's favorite snack was Fried Peanut Butter & Banana Sandwiches. It was as if a little light shone down on me and angels sang...my mind was flabbergasted. Peanut Butter could be fried?!? I ran straight to the kitchen to try it out.

So after some trial and error, I perfected my favorite sandwich.

First step, peel a banana and stick it in the freezer. I try to do this the night before. This isn't REALLY neccessary but it makes the banana super easy to cut.

The next morning, get out the butter to let it soften. Take a sharp knife and begin to thinly slice the frozen banana. Spread peanut butter on 2 slices of bread. I prefer Peter Pan's Honey Peanut Butter(*See Sidenote Below*). Lay 1 layer of bananas on top one of the slices of bread. It's important to not put really thick bananas on top or too many layers...otherwise the sandwich will be a bit soupy.

Put a dollop of butter in a frying pan and turn on medium low heat. At this point you have a fully assembled sandwich sitting in front of you. Butter the outside top bread slice. Place the sandwich butter side down on the frying pan. Carefully butter the top slice so that you're ready to flip this bad boy.

When delightfully golden, remove from pan. Serve with a little powdered sugar on the side. Delightful!

Sidenote: I love Peter Pan Honey Peanut Butter so much that when it was recalled a couple years ago...Elissa had to literally pry it from my hands. My point was that we had already eaten like half the jar - there was no salmonella in ours! But Elissa refused the logic in that argument. So I was without my PB for like 6 months. Very trying time. :-P

St. Augustine

2009-04-04T22:15:00.004-04:00

We spent the day in St. Augustine. Here's a secret - I HATE antiques. I mean - I HATE them. Even when I see something I like I think: "Gee, that would be so awesome...if it were new." It's like walking through a clutter minefield of other people's lives. A whole bunch of junk that someone's grandchildren had to deal with when they died. Giant big "NO, THANK YOU!"

But after a lovely Pizza Alley lunch, we spent quite a bit of time sitting by the fort on the water. Which was absolutely fantastic. I love Florida in the spring...in 2 months, you won't be able to pay me to go outside! :)

Bed!!

2009-04-03T19:08:00.003-04:00

Elissa is putting our bed back together right now - all I can say is THANK YOU! I slept so poorly last night that all I've done today is whine about my back and strangely enough, my toes. I think I pulled a nerve?

We went to see the Komodo dragons today - the new Asia exhibit is really nice. Still kinda bare but nice. I liked the coi better than the dragons lol - they were positively zippy. I'm not sure why we keep getting zoo passes because seeing the large animals in cages that are CLEARLY too small just makes me feel sad. Like they have this one lonely bobcat in a cage about 12x8 feet day in and day out...I wouldn't put my housecat in a cage that small for all time.

I thought we were going to get our dining room rug today but Elissa didn't realize there was a border of lime all around so we're back at square one. We're pretty lucky because our taste usually match each other pretty closely. I have no idea what couples do who don't have that common base. Like if she loooved tea roses and doilies? We'd have some compromising issues lol.

Off for sushi dinner! Mmmmmm...

Moved the Furniture!

2009-04-02T21:25:00.007-04:00

Kay - so we got up this morning and got a truck to finally move all our furniture out of Holly Bell. I could NOT lift our sofa which we took as a sign from the world that it wasn't meant to move with us. Not to mention that Sebastian had ripped it to SHREDS on the back. BYEEEEEEE! :) This was us at our old apartment. I need to go back and take some pictures of the buildings/area for our own memories. No worries - I won't subject other people to them. ;)

Anyways, our move was relatively seamless. We dropped the mattress in the grass at our new apartment which was annoying but if that's the worst we do in this move - yay! Then we spent the rest of the afternoon trolling thrift shops for a new sofa. Why not - we already have a truck for the day! Alas, no luck. I wish I had taken pictures of some of the godawful options there were. We're talking horrendously ugly for only about 50% less what it would cost new. Uh no thanks. So we're going to go Moroccan floor cushion style for awhile. ;)

Elissa made dinner just now - chicken breast stuffed with asparagus & cheddar with a side of risotta and salad. Mmmmmm. 'Cept we're thinking risotta is a pain to make and we'll stick with wild rice next time. Sebastian was making a nuisance of himself and had to spend dinner in the bedroom...still tried to make an appearance though! Look at his cute little soft paws! I love seeing him scratch things now because HE CAN'T HURT ANYTHING! Absolutely amazing - and he doesn't seem to mind/notice them at all. Kicking myself that we didn't purchase these YEARS ago. Tomorrow, we're hoping to visit the Zoo to see the new Komodo Dragons. Fingers crossed there's no torrential downpours! Good night!

CUPCAKES!

2009-04-01T10:30:00.008-04:00

I was so bummed yesterday. I went to sign up for Wilton Cake Decorating 101 and was told they canceled the class. BIG SIGH. I wanna make pretty cakes come. Well, last night Elissa & I went to Wal-Mart (where I found a WRECK! yay!) and got cake making supplies. There was a HUGE thunder storm and we didn't get home til about 10:30 so I ended up making cupcakes instead. Delicious beautiful cupcakes of joy.

First we got new eggs...the Disney ones again and this time I got a picture of their cute little stamped insides. I love these eggs. And they're packed with Omega 3's and from cage-free grain fed hens. I used to bitch because the eggs we bought were one or the other. Omaga 3 or Cruelty-free. But not both. So everytime I went grocery shopping I was faced with this seemingly minute ethical decision that was guilt inducing either way.

So anyways, I mixed up my little cupcake batter. The middle picture below is my success with the silicone cupcake pan we have...turns out it bends lol! The cakes came out okay in the end so it worked out though. As soon as they were out, I popped them in the freezer so they could be decorated THAT NIGHT! Perfect solution too. Although I got them in that freezer so quickly that Elissa was left to lament later "There's no warm cupcakes?? Not even one?" She has been known to take a cake that should be cooling and just cut a melty hot mess slice onto her plate and add a spoon of icing on top. I come back later to ice a cake and there's a giant HOLE in the side!

Here is a beautiful cupcake with its perfectly applied icing. I got an icing spatula last night...I normally just use a knife but I have to say my spatula made the whole thing that much more fun. And later with perfectly applied jimmies...oh jimmies how I love you! Mmmmm....

I found one!

2009-03-31T23:50:00.008-04:00

Okay, so one of my favorite blogs is 'Cake Wrecks'. My aunt Kelly posted a link on facebook and ever since I've been following religiously. Absolutely hilarious.

Elissa has grown to accept that whenever we're grocery shopping, we have to go through the bakery. I walk through HOPING to find something grossly horrifically BAD. Tonight, I finally found one! The only sad note for me was that it was at Wal-Mart...which almost doesn't seem like a challenge. I bet there are a LOT of wrecks coming out of Wal-Mart. ;)

But when I saw this bunny, I positively squealed and even Elissa agreed that my search was over. She immediately took out her cell for the following picture.
There are no words.

Except that I think his carrot looks penile.

Radio Madness...

2009-03-30T23:22:00.006-04:00

Okay so we went to the hospice thrift store to pick up our radio console today. When we first saw it...we were like "Ummm perhaps purchasing something on whim 2 minutes before the store closes isn't the best idea?" We realized it had ZERO storage...those doors do not open at all. And the TV can't really go on top because the sliding panels are the only way to access the inside. Not to mention it is CRAZY, CRAZY, CRAZY heavy. I mean HEAVY. The advertisement the original owner had saved inside says it's either walnut or mahogany. In all seriousness, there are advantages to Ikea MDF.

So anyways, we were both staring at each other like 'uh oh'. The guys there loaded it in our car and we rode home with our seats pulled so close to the dash that I couldn't drive. Elissa had to. I sat in the passenger seat and focused on imagining I was about 18 inches shorter. We somehow got it out of our car and started bring it in. We had to stop mid-way through to go inside and get socks for our hands...that's how heavy it was! I think our couch weighs less. Anyways, we finally got it in and it works! So sweet!

This is me dancing with glee. This thing makes me want to learn the jitterbug! Or something equally suitable. It came with an old Mills Brothers record and I have to say that I could get way into big band type music. Especially on this thing...it just sounds so...effervescent. So now we have this thing. Normally we listen to the radio on our cell phones...which takes up significantly less space than this (60" x 31'). But I love this funky little find for however long it lives with us. I still think it would be sacrilegious to hack it so sooner or later, it will probably end up on Craigslist. But for now? I'm gonna get my jive on...

Pottery Barn

2009-03-30T16:15:00.003-04:00

Okay so I am not a fan of Pottery Barn...whenever I read blogs or hear people raving about it...I just mentally roll my eyes. BUT. I've become obsessed with rugs. Obsessed. I check in every couple days and now am able at a glance to tell which ones are the 'new additions'. Color me red with embarrassment.

Or take pity on me and send me these:

Daydreaming Davey...

2009-03-29T22:37:00.003-04:00

Ooo, and because Davey is a little under-represented...
This is where he's spending his time. Sitting on our desk staring at the pool. One can only imagine that he's dreaming of Felina Coladas and small kitty-sized sombreros...

A weekend in pictures...

2009-03-29T22:03:00.012-04:00

Elissa found him on our Welcome mat!! Crazy cute Mr. Toady. When we put him back outside, Sebastian escaped for the first of what I'm sure will be many times. Luckily, his focus was on catching a toad and not on flight so we caught him pretty easily. Mr. Toady escaped unharmed.

Sebastian made a rush for the fridge while it was open. This is his "I'm not coming Out!" face. Luckily, closing the door for about 1.3 seconds convinced him otherwise.

Saturday night, we made a little bed on the floor b/c we wanted to stay in our new apartment. Elissa was like drunk on sleep deprivation and kept rolling around on the floor while calling herself a 'roll-away bed'.

We got eggs for breakfast and found out that Disney sells eggs now!!! How strange is that? All of them are stamped with cute little disney characters. Elissa informs me that this is actually Wall-E but I'm sticking with my original interpretation which was Miss Piggy's nose. :-D And also, I am NEVER buying anything but Disney eggs ever again.

Afore mentioned delicioso fried egg on sourdough bread sandwich...mmmmmm....was so good.

Owl & Bongo Steve making the move to the new house. Owl was my first stuffed animal ever...given to me by my aunt Mara when I was about 3 days old? He's a cat. But I called cats 'Meows' or 'Ows'...which over the years somehow translated into Owl. He's a stud.

Oh and on Saturday, we stopped by the Hospice Thrift Store...omg I found the most fantastic entertainment console. I'm totally psyched. It's a vintage magnavox radio console with like a working record player inside. Very retro 40's looking although I'm sure it's not quite that old. I WISH I had taken a picture because I saw it for all of 2 minutes before we bought it and had to leave because the store was closing. Totally mint and still has its tags from Macy's. LOVE. And? It was $40. Amazing. We were planning on finding something like it to strip and refinish high gloss white or yellow. But I'm not touching this baby. Not sure how it will work yet (we pick it up Tuesday) but for $40 it was a no-brainer.

So that about sums up my weekend...it's Elissa's spring break this week so hopefully we will get fully moved out of the other house. I am going to be sooo spoiled because we don't have to officially be out until April 11th. I wish all moves could be this low-stress. Goodnight!!! :)

Panic...

2009-03-28T12:10:00.004-04:00

I'm utterly amazed sometimes by how fragile my mental state is...just having to drive Elissa's car instead of Callie is enough to throw me into a spin. Elissa's car is a 1997 Crown Victoria Police Interceptor that she inherited from her grandfather. It's a giant boat with giant V8 big boy engine and it is LOUD. Her name is Vicky.

Sidenote: I'm infamous for naming things really obvious plays off their name. Our Dodge Caliber is named Callie. My impatiens plant is Ima though I toyed with Patricia. Elissa jokes that someday I will have a baby and name it 'Baby'. Which quite frankly...could happen.

Anywho, so I'm driving along and all of a second, I am FREAKING out. My heart rate is up there with the mice and I am close to sweating. I had just arrived at a drive-through ATM machine but I ended up just pulling right through. Just drove myself back home where I could be calm and peaceful. Which sounds crazy buuuut I know from experience that if I just try to ignore it, it will get worse and worse until I'm like at full-blown panic attack.

It really, seriously helps me to know there are other members of my family that deal with this. That I'm not crazy in a vacuum...that my sometimes absurdly nervous energy comes from somewhere. haha and unsurprisingly, it comes from my family. Ahh, the gifts they give me...

Wheat/Bread Uh-Oh

2009-03-27T23:49:00.003-04:00

So I'm coming to the heartbreaking conclusion that I might be allergic to wheat or yeast. For months now, I've avoided beer like it was the very devil. My arms and shoulders would ACHE afterwards. I'm talking after having sips. Tonight, I had crusty french bread & baked beans for dinner. (I know! How very British of me!) And I practically passed out in pain afterwards. It's past midnight and my shoulders still hurt. This saddens me as I will never give up my breads...so I am destined to live a life of pain and misery. haha it's like I was channeling 15-year-old Aviva right there...but in all seriousness...major sucky. :-/

The Dark Side of Gardening

2009-03-26T15:07:00.008-04:00

Okay so we've had our Impatiens (She prefers to be called Ima) for what? 36 hours? I go outside and a lovely family of bees has decided to move into the neighborhood. No, No & NO!! Elissa will be de-hiving later this evening. And I guess I'm rethinking my plan to get anymore flowering plants...Ima might have to be an only flower (hehehe!).

Now this guest was a bit more welcome! :) I love these little lizards although I hope they have more good sense than to sneak into our house...Davey is a FEROCIOUS lizard hunter.

***EDIT*** Elissa just saw the above picture and evidently they're not bees. They're yellow jacket WASPS...I would NOT have used a macro setting and gotten 2 inches to a wasp hive. *Shivers* But it worked out in the end because I love my picture! :)

Someone's not happy about the move...

2009-03-26T09:53:00.003-04:00

"There are loud noises here!" The dishwasher & washer/dryer (while hits with me) are not going over with the kitteh too well. He was brave during dinner (perhaps too brave...we discovered the breakfast bar being jumping distance to the Fridge was going to be a pain) but immediately after he crawled back in his carrier. After that, he'd switch from hiding behind a chair to behind a painting. Poor Sebastian. We haven't really moved any furniture over yet so finding hiding spaces is actually challenging. I saw him throw a few questioning glances to the ceiling too. NO MORE CEILING TIME, CEILING CAT!!!

Sister Book Completed!

2009-03-25T08:16:00.011-04:00

Whew! And in time for her birthday too!

The cover is pretty similar to my 2007 book - I really like that format. It displays a lot of pictures, it pretty but still doesn't look distracting. At least to me lol! :)

Click here to view this photo book.

I don't think I've posted the last page so here it is...I totally scrap lifted this awesome layout from someone...buuuut...I'm not sure who. :(

Doesn't Kira look so grown up?!? :)

In other news...we went over to the new apt. last night. Elissa got salad and steaks that she grilled on our patio. I did laundry and organized some kitchen stuff. We were the very picture of domestic bliss. After dinner, we went over to Ross and got a little patio rug. Then on to Lowes where I've purchased my first house plant...I am sooo hoping not to kill her. LOTs of crossed fingers over here. She's a beautiful Impatiens named Ima. Then we headed back for a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit. We didn't get to our original apartment until about 10:30! Poor cats. We haven't moved them over yet because they'll be a huge pain while we're trying to get everything together. Buuuut it's not cool to leave them here all day. Sebastian gets crazy upset about it. He's taken to climbing into his carrier whenever he sees we're about to leave. Like "please take me with you". Such a little guilt tripper!

something went bump in the night...

2009-03-24T08:30:00.005-04:00

I'm sitting here holding my beautiful little baby cat this morning...even more grateful than normal to be doing so.

Last night around 11, we're going to bed and Elissa doesn't see Sebastian - which is unusual. But I knew he was around here somewhere because I had just given him a delightful can of canned cat food - which is an especial treat he does not usually get to enjoy. So we went to bed. Around 3, we both woke up. Elissa went to get water and noticed she still didn't see Sebastian. This time I'm a little concerned but still like "He has to be in here...we didn't open the door after we came home." And then Elissa says...

"He went up the hole."

WHOA...I'm immediately crying and standing on the toilet calling his name. I grabbed another can of food and was tapping on the lid. This normally brings him RUNNING. I didn't even hear a peep. So I used my hands and ripped more of the ceiling down until it was big enough for me to stick my head up and call for him. I heard the faintest collar tinkle. I raced outside for Elissa (she was looking just in case) and called her back in. We got out a hammer and a crowbar just in case we had to remove more ceiling. I just stood there crying and making kissy noises. A minute or two later...a cat dropped from the ceiling.

We think he went up there to explore and got lost. It probably didn't help that his mommies went to bed shortly thereafter and turned off all the lights. It's hard to find a hole in the dark. He was super thirsty afterwards. I can only hope he didn't inhale too much powder-y bad stuff. Elissa made fun of me because I gave him another can of cat food..."I go in the hole and they give me TREEEEEATS!" But normally, so soon after eating, he would have been totally disinterested...he GULFED it down. So I think it was an extra sneaky way of getting more liquid inside him.

So anyways, my little cuddle cat is now permanently barred from the bathroom until they fix it or we move him into the new apartment. A brave baby might be well and good but he gives him mama HEART ATTACKS.

Kitchen Cabinets...

2009-03-23T17:41:00.005-04:00

So we moved in over the weekend. We have a 3 week overlap with both apartments which is absolutely wonderful for my stress levels.

On Friday, we brought over boxes of books, knick-knacks that I had packed previously. We had dinner at this little Italian place named Matt's we happened to pass while driving. We were just going to walk by and see if they had a menu but the second we opened our car doors, it just smelled GOOD! Really intimate setting with reeeeally tasty food.

The next morning we got up (with an actual spring to our step!) and went to Best Buy to pick out a Washer & Dryer set. I have to tattle on Elissa that the majority of our buying decision was based on being able to have it delivered the next day instead of a week from now! :) But it's a very nice, white LG front loading set with a sanitary setting...which was crazy important to me. It has an additional heater in the unit that heats the water to 158 degrees for 'extra' cleaning. I'll stress the crazy in crazy important.

On Sunday, we were at Target and Elissa decided to start a registry. Yes, a registry. I had no idea that we could do this but she started a private registry that only we can see. Then we went around shooting everything we want/need for our house. Sorta a personal wish list so that we can start prioritizing it all. It's cool because I can log into it from home too and check stuff out. And comes in remarkable handiness when one of us is like "remember? that brown rug?" and the other looks at her blankly. :)

Since moving in, we have discovered a few things that need fixing. The disposal is blocked and the cold water washer hookup is corroded...but we were told they would be done today.

I discovered that our pretty cabinets are actually just new doors on cabinets that are positively ANCIENT. Which was quickly remedied with pretty, pretty contact paper. If you had asked me before, I would have grouped contact paper application in the 'easy peasy lemon squeezy' category of home fixin' uppin'. In actuality, it is SUPREMELY cuss-worthy...which doesn't bode well for more advanced projects. But I'll persevere!

Anywho, we also went to Home Depot to get stuff for our patio. We have outdoor space! Whoo-hoo! We could have moved in a week earlier but I wanted this apartment because it backs up to a little wooded area...which is much prettier than the parking lots most of them seem to face. We have a little dirt area but the dirt has been eroded until there's like a 10 inch gap between the bottom of the fence and the ground. It was important to figure out a good way to fill that because WHEN Sebastian runs out the back door, we want to make it as difficult as possible for him to make it to the woods before we grab him by a back paw. :) So we brainstormed a pretty good solution for that dilemma (I hope!). Pictures to follow...

2009-03-20T18:17:00.003-04:00

The bathroom ceiling repair person FINALLY came by. I opened the door and was like "I AM SO GLAD TO SEE YOU!"

Upon opening the bathroom door, this is what he had to say: "Whoa."

Um, yeah!

He then kept asking me if I was sure no one had been out since Monday because someone definitely should have been out. Again...um, yeah! I'm sure.

But it's fixed! Well sorta. In that the bathroom tub is no longer just permanently running water. And that he assures me there is no longer a leak...wait...was that just a water drop that landed on my shoulder? And of course, there is still a giant hole.

But I don't care because I just talked to Elissa, she has signed our new lease and picked up the keys! It is official - Good-byyyyyye Holly Bell! It's been fun! :)

hehe which reminds me of the single greatest song from any movie ever...enjoy!

Sproost

2009-03-19T17:41:00.002-04:00

Okay so this was fun!
Sproost
I came out 'French Eclectic' which seems pretty spot on after reading. I have so much trouble figuring out what style of home decorating to pursue because I really like classic, simple lines...but I'm nuts about eye popping elements & COLOR. Love color. Anyways, this is a fun one...

Craigslist Desk

2009-03-19T13:33:00.006-04:00

Okay so last night, I made my first Craigslist purchase. A very cute desk for only $40! I'm very excited by this find. It's ostensibly for Elissa but I found myself eyeing its cute little hutch drawers...don't they look like they'd be a happy place for bits of ribbon and pretty stickers to live? hmmm... Commence plotting!!

I'm determined that none of our craptastic furniture is going to follow us to this new apartment. This is how I'm defining craptastic: Primarily built of metal. So watch out furniture!

My sister's birthday is in about 2 weeks so I have to get that scrapbook ordered. I'm mainly done but I think there's one more page left. As soon as it's complete, I'll post the finished result! I'm not even trying to do scrapping right now though...all of my creativity in spent in furnishing imaginings. And washer/dryer research.

Speaking of which, on my request, Elissa is taking over the washer and dryer decision making. I can't be trusted. Really. My powers of reason are GONE. There's precious little difference between the white set and the bahama blue set except maybe 1 or 2 extra drying options...and $600. I'm trying to tell myself that a pretty blue/turquoise exterior is not worth it. But I don't actually believe that. My normally frugal self is shamed.

I called the apartment and our move-in date is tomorrow! *Insert Giant Big "WHOO-HOO" here!* Fingers crossed that everything is as it's supposed to be...I plan on spending tomorrow evening making snow angels in the new carpeting. :) hehehe

Apartment Craziness

2009-03-18T09:16:00.008-04:00

So we put in notice at our apartment...I keep wondering how many times I'm going to unconsiously drive there when we're no longer living there. In August, we would have been in this apartment for FIVE years. I love how large our apartment is, how friendly the office people are...

I know we're ready to move though because in every other year prior, we would go look at apartments and decide that with the $1200 extra we'd have to pay, we'd rather go on a vacation. Well that has changed! I would volunteer to never vacation again so long as I live if it meant having a washer and dryer lol!

This switch has turned on in the past 6 months or so where I want to start nesting...not exploring the world. So our notice is in and in 3 short weeks, we'll turn the keys back in.

BUT...because the universe works this way for Elissa & I...we couldn't move without one parting issue. Two nights ago, our bathroom ceiling caved in.

So currently:
1). There's 'ceiling' over everything in our bathroom.
2). Our cats are spending the day locked in a spare bedroom in case maintence comes. There are (to put it mildly) displeased.
3). Our apartment is trashed because I've been ripping everything apart and packing. I'm super embarressed to have the maintence ppl have to step over boxes but *shrugs* and c'est la vie.
4). There's a good chance that in order to fix the bathroom, they're going to need to rip the ceiling out in our bedroom as well. Fingers crossed that there's minimal ceiling on everything in there as a result.

Also, since packing these are things I've discovered:
1). Hotel Shampoo from the Rosen Plaza where we have not stayed since July 2004.
2). A lipgloss I used in high school.
3). Innumberable candles which have been mostly burned...but for some reason not all the way burned because I wanted to save them.
4). Elissa saves massive quantities of buttons and flashlight bulbs.
5). Clothes as far back as middle school that do not only not fit right...but that I would never wear regardless.

We are packrats.

But that's okay because acknowledging the problem is the first step.

Here are new things that I want to aquire/horde forever...

Wood Grain Rug
I am in love with this carpet. I can't really begin to find a need for it buuut...I want it! I was thinking maybe as a runner in the living room?

East Village TV Stand
This is just gorgeous. It seems so 40's style, romantic, catching a train to me...is that a furniture style? Mixed with something that screams Dagny from Atlas Shrugged. It's a very complicated emotion for a TV stand to achieve.

And finally...
Jen Ski's Home Sweet Home
How beautiful is this? Modern graphic pop but with a timeless country message lol. Love it! I have to be so careful with art though... :( ...I can easily get carried away. I've taken down everything hanging in our current apartment and Elissa was like "oooo preeetty...white walls..." LOL I guess it was a little cluttered. I think the new rule will be NO framed photos. Esp. those measly little 4x6 size prints!

Kay, so that's all folks!

hahaha

2009-03-11T16:45:00.003-04:00

lol so my creativity is supremely limited right now...I got to take it where I can get it! :) And I am presenting my craftiest activity this week...drumroll please? A Kindergarten Activity sheet. Yep, that's right. I crafted this baby.

Page post...finally!

2009-03-10T01:56:00.004-04:00

My head is POUNDING tonight...not good!

We went apartment shopping on Saturday. I thought we'd go see like 50 different places but it took us all afternoon just to see 4. BIG SIGH. I liked the first place we saw. Enough that I'm just like "omg let's move THERE and be done with this!!" But Elissa is insisting we visit more than 4 apartments. I admit this is reasonable...buuuut I don't Wanna!! :-)

Anyways though, I'm getting ready for the big move. I've been packing everything up and most importantly - throwing a LOT of stuff out. Including every bit of scrapbook scrap paper. Which may not sound like a lot but is crazy impressive. I developed some unexplainable attachment to my papers...they remind me of things...like where or when they were purchased, what project I used (or planned to use) them in...I like my papers! But goooodbye...I am done with you!

Anyways, this is a page I made for my sister's scrapbook. I had a lot of older photos that I wanted to include with a story. But economically I had to figure out a way to do it using only 1 page...and it looking good! :) Hopefully I accomplished that.

Inspiration

2009-03-06T13:06:00.004-05:00

Okay it turns out I have no aspiration to creating at present...but I'm loving all these blogs!

And this project makes me want to go out and buy a sewing maching ASAP. :)
http://craftsanity.com/?p=1893

In other news...we have decided to MOVE. We have lived in our current apartment since August 2004...yes, that's almost FIVE years. I love how large and cheap our apartment is but I find myself needing certain amenities. Mainly a washer and dryer. A washer and dryer is becoming for me like winning the lottery might be for others. I daydream about it. Seriously. It's time.

So Elissa and I decided this week that we will find a place and make a decision this weekend. Yes, this weekend. She's really impossible to apartment shop with because she's very good at finding the faults in things. Which is awesome in that I don't think we'll be surprised by anything lol. BUT there simply is no such thing as an apartment roughly the same size, same cost but in a nicer neighborhood with W/D connections. It does NOT exist. So something's gotta give. We're either shelling out more or downsizing. Stay tuned! ;)

haven't been here in awhile...

2009-02-25T14:36:00.002-05:00

So I haven't been posting anything because I haven't been scrapping anything. I mean anything. Totally burned myself out. I finished 2007 (yay!) and had it printed through Shutterfly. They did a fantastic job. I'll try and post a picture...it was a lot bigger than I imagined for some reason.

I'm probably going to begin 2008 soon...just needed a nice long break. For some reason, having this blog, I feel more encouraged to get stuff done after posting. So maybe I'll just post on here for the next few weeks and soon, I'll be ready to create.

Recently, I've been scanning all these photo's of Elissa as a baby. I WISH I had photos of myself as a child. I think there are possibly 3 photos of myself as an infant? Totally why I'm such a photo nut today. The pendulum is totally going to swing in the opposite direction for my kids... I am going to take SO MANY photos that by the time they're adults, they'll NEVER touch a camera. That's okay though - I'm up to the task of photo-documenting my grandchildren too. :)

Anyway though, here's a little to-do list for myself tonight:
1. Take a picture of my delicious 2007 album and post here.
2. Do one simple thing in Photoshop. Even an Lol Cat! Post here.

Okay, Blog, hold me accountable! ;)

8th Grade Graduation

2008-11-15T14:38:00.008-05:00

Okay so this is kinda hilarious. My sister is graduating 8th grade this year from the same Jewish school I graduated from. They have a yearbook and every year, the 8th graders get their very own page to design however they'd like. The only 'requirement' is a paragraph saying goodbye to the school and that you find a friend, teacher, etc. to write a paragraph about you.

I REALLY worked on my page. I mean I was VERY excited about it. My uncle was a graphic designer at the time and he helped me set everything up. And to this day, I remember my page as being one of the 'cooler' ones in the book. It had a drawing I did of myself (that streak in my hair was green btw), it had a 'favorites' section...and of course, it had fairy stickers. But look at it! My, has photoshop and time changed my perspective. This is NOT a super cool page. Although, it's nice to see some things will never change. You'll notice I've listed my favorite animal as a unicorn. HAHA!!! :)

Now these are the pages I just made for my sister to choose from. She's going with Option #2 since they're more pictures. And the yearbook is in color now too. Lucky her!! :) Now I'm off to try and make curtains today! Wish me luck!

Roots Writing Exercise & Colorado Cover

2008-11-14T14:12:00.003-05:00

Okay so first - here is the Cover I just completed for the Colorado book. It's going to be a gift for Elissa's aunt Grace.

I like it because it's so 'woodsy'. I used a lot of the elements from that Weeds & Wildflowers kit I raved about a few days ago.

Today is Day 5 in my class over at JessicaSprague.com. Today we're supposed to begin gathering our thoughts/Memories in the Roots section of our 'sparks'. Questions that are designed to spark memories.

One question that caught my attention was: What's your earliest memory?

In 1985, when I was about 2, we moved out of my grandparent's house on Montrose to a little apartment on Green Street. I don't remember anything of the apartment really. We must have lived in the basement level because I remember the windows being really high up like casement windows. Although, honestly, I may have just been that small. I guess I should check with my mother. I picked a flower outside. You know those little yellow flowers that are actually weeds - just don't try and tell a toddler that! My mother must have humored me because I remember this little flower was in a dixie cup I had filled with water. And my mother lifted me to let me set it on the window sill myself. It's truly a joyful memory. I just have this imagery of sunshine coming through the window to rest on the flower I had picked myself. I had a very big sense of 'I did it!'.

I never would have thought of recording that story. And even before I began, I was thinking that it's something neat to write down...but I wouldn't scrapbook it. But now, trying to describe the joy and the light and the flower...my mind is just racing trying to think how I could express this digitally.

Ms. McBragginton the Braggartly Rockstar

2008-11-13T23:18:00.007-05:00

Okay so excuse me but I'm just going to have to take a moment and brag on myself. The following photo is one taken of us by another tourist while we were at the Rocky Mountain National Park. It is the ONLY photo that everyone is in from this Colorado trip. The ONLY photo. And as you'll notice, Elissa's eyes are closed. Just click on it if you don't believe me. They're good and closed.

Well, below is the magical AFTER photo. And it is SEAMLESS! I took a photo from later on in the day and resized, rotated, flipped, blended, etc, etc until I finally got this. SOOO PLEASED!!!

So yay me! :)

Opening Page

2008-11-13T02:58:00.004-05:00

Okay, so I'm getting back on track in terms of scrapping our summer trip. For whatever reason, it's generally hard for me to make a first page in an album. I want it to evoke something of the entire album and sorta serve as a table of contents but of course nothing that formal. So I made this page which has a variety of pictures from during the course of the trip and also a little introductary statement.

On Digital Scrapbooking Day last week, Weeds & Wildflowers was running a FANTASTIC sale and so I bought all these great outdoor elements to work with. It was a totally worthwhile purchase since it seems like a good third of my photos are outdoors! Which is amazing if you know how whiney I can be lol. http://weedsandwildflowersdesign.com/shoppe/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=265

At any rate, I'm going to be majorly rushing to get this done in time - fingers crossed!!!

Crazy Cool Site!

2008-11-12T16:45:00.005-05:00

Okay...so you know whenever you're staring at a photo and trying to decide what colors you should go with? This site lets you upload photos and then generates a palette of available colors.

So just as an example, here's this photo of me. When I upload it to the site, it comes up with all these colors it's pulled from the photo. I love that ice blue color...but I don't think it's the direction I would have gone in before. Needless to say, this doesn't always help...but it's a great spring board for those photos/color schemes that are stumping you.

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/colors.php

Misty's party

2008-11-11T00:07:00.003-05:00

Here's the latest page I made. It's from the bachlorette party of our friend, Misty. I wanted something with lots of fun bright colors and animal prints. I'm still kinda fiddling with it. I like the little arrows with everyone's name that I put on the main picture. But I'm thinking it looks like something is missing in the upper left corner? Who knows though...I might just be having a problem with blank space again.I'm so excited to be doing a class by Jessica Sprague called 'Stories in Hand'. It started today and it looks AWESOME!!! I have a chipboard album that I'm going to decorate this week. This will be my first hybrid project and I'm really excited about it. One of the sections is on our 'roots' and there's an accompanying quote I just love:
"In all of us there is a hunger marrow-deep to know who we are and where we have come from." ~ Alex Haley
I think it's a perfect quote for scrapbooking especially. I know that knowledge about where I come from is so sparse or, in most cases, non-existant that I think I scrap in part to rectify that absence for future generations. I can't touch the people that I come from but I can contact the ones yet to come through what I leave behind.

Election Blues

2008-11-10T16:40:00.002-05:00

It's been like a week since I last posted. I have to say I've been suffering a bit from the election blues.

I was so happy when Barack Obama won the election. Honestly, I would have voted for whoever the democratic party nominated. And originally, I was extremely excited at the idea of Hilary Clinton winning. But seeing Obama speak last month and seeing how excited our country is about him...has completely sold me. On Tuesday night, our country made a historic change and elected a black man as president. Hearing stories on NPR of parents who for the first time didn't feel as if they were just spouting a cliche when they told their children they really could be anything they aspired to be...just brought tears to my eyes.

The next day, while driving to work and again, listening to NPR...I heard that Prop 8 in California had passed. I spent the afternoon in tears. Just trying to go hide out in the bathroom so my co-workers wouldn't notice. The idea that our nation could celebrate turning the corner in a long history of discrimination while simultaneously denying rights to another group of people was heartbreaking. The idea that people think it's okay that I never be able to marry my girlfriend of almost 5 years is heartbreaking. The idea that people would deny my future children the legal protections of having married parents is terrifying.

I live in Florida and wasn't surprised when the marriage amendment (#2) here passed. It was pretty much expected. But I find myself walking around, knowing the 60% of everyone I pass voted to deny me basic rights. 60% of everyone around me thinks that I shouldn't be able to visit my partner on her deathbed. 60% of everyone around me thinks that I shouldn't be able have health insurance with my partner. 60% of everyone around me thinks that the life we have built together is of lesser value than their own lives. I just feel a crushing sadness about the whole thing.

Consider signing this petition if you support marriage equality. If nothing else, take a look at hrc.org - it's a pretty good resource.
http://www.hrcactioncenter.org/campaign/millionformarriageac

Goodbye 2007! Finally!

2008-11-02T02:41:00.003-05:00

Yay! So 2007 is DOOOONE! Wah-hoo! The only page I've had left for a few days now was this Christmas page but I just could not get inspired. Luckily, this week I've begun my holiday shopping - and that never fails to inspire me! I could listen to holiday music and eat hot cocoa for the next 2 months! :-) Maybe I'd mix it up with a little Apple Cider too.

I based this layout on one I saw in the Shabby Shoppe. Loved the cuteness of the tree and how I could fit in 10 photos! I realized that I have NO photos of me from Christmas. Talk about getting out from behind the camera! I need to be a little more careful about that. Luckily, I had a photo of a present with my name spelled out in large letters. That'll have to do!

The work of a scrapper is never done though - now I have to turn my attentions to our trip to Colorado. Hopefully in time for Christmas giving! :)

But for tonight, I'm going to celebrate the completion of my 2007 album!

2008-10-31T00:43:00.005-04:00

Wow - it's amazing to me that October is almost past! I made this page about going fishing for the first time last year. My favorite element is the little ruler - which seems very fishing oriented. :)

I only have ONE more page left to complete and then I am done with all my scrapping for 2007. INCREDIBLE. I had sorta decided that it was going to be impossible for me to scrap every last year and that I should just try for evens. That's how long every physical scrapbook page use to take me!! I am thrilled to have discovered digital scrapbooking. Although now I have to pay Shutterfly :( for my 2007! I'm trying to rationalize it because at least now I'm not paying a red cent for paper, an album, elements, tools, etc. If the cost is going to be $150 a year...I think I'm still probably coming in under! Hard to imagine.

My most recent obsession has been homemaking. I've been searching and visiting all these homemaking blogs/sites which is kinda hilarious because they're generally run by conservative-minded stay-at-home-mom's who also homeschool their 12 children. Not necessarily the blogs I'm normally an avid reader of. But I'm loving cooking again! I've been making menus and refusing to eat out. Tonight I made a shepherd's pie with meat-substitute crumbles that was AWESOME. It was so gratifying because Elissa read the recipe and was like "eww. Please don't make this." And then in the course of my making it, she was sure that certain substitutions I made were big mistakes. I kept reassuring her that despite all evidence to the contrary lol I know how to cook! And when I pulled this dish out of the oven - it was PERFECT. Elissa was raving about how we should have this every night for dinner. Talk about contentment! And the simple joy of being able to say 'I told you so!' :)

Now, tomorrow night is veggie jambalaya. Which I have to say I'm feeling a little 'eh?' about so we'll see how that one turns out. Worse case scenario? Extremely EXCELLANT shepherd's pie leftovers tomorrow. :-D

And because who wouldn't want to see a random picture of my efforts lol...I present to you my tasty, tasty shepherd's pie!

Oooo and also here's a picture of how my lovely t-shirts turned out! :)

I just wrote Sister's Cruise at the top. Then a big anchor and little hearts all around. Underneath our names (Aviva & Yekira) with the date.

Back from Vaca...

2008-10-24T01:41:00.006-04:00

It's been sooo long since I posted! Well, I'm back from vacation with my sister. We went on a 5 day cruise to Mexico and then drove to New Orleans and spent 3 days there. I loved New Orleans. Way more than I even imagined and I can't wait to go back.

My little sister was kinda like a toddler at their first Christmas that only wants to play with the box the expensive toy came in. She probably would have been just as happy if someone had provided her with ice cream and cable TV for the week. While we were at the Mayan ruins (Uxmal), she whined about how she'd much rather wait on the bus. Yeah. I was ready to kill her. So long story short, while I had an excellant time...I'm not sure I will be going on any large trips with my 13-year-old sister in the near future. I've also assured her that I will be giving her a hard time about this for the rest of her life. I may leave a recording in my will so I can virtually give her a hard time too.

Anyways, this is a layout I just did about the zoo membership we had last year.
Journaling: "Okay so I had been whining about going to the zoo for YEARS! Finally, theywere running some sort of promotionwere an annual pass would only be $25each. Sooo worth it! I loved havingthat pass. I’ll admit, we didn’t go asoften as I thought we would but thedays we did were just so calming. Wealmost treated it like an exercisemembership. We’d just walk around,check out all the animals & talk. I’lladmit that I never really did get manygood pictures. I guess that just wasn’treally my focus while we were at thezoo. I think my favorite animal was theBlack Jaguar...so stately. But we probably spent the most time watching the chimps. They are so incredibly like us. It’s almostimpossible not to believe in evolution if youjust spend a day observing how similar ourspecies are. I see the future lol and I knowwe’re both destined to be retired birdwatchers in matching khaki shorts & poloshirts. Get Ready!"

Credits: Nicole Young, Zoobaloo; Creashens, Tamed & Bye Bye Birdie; Lauren Reid, December

T-shirt Painting Night

2008-10-09T00:28:00.003-04:00

Journaling: "We both turned 25 this year. I don’t think either of us have any major hang-ups about aging but turning a quarter of a century old was certainly odd. On your birthday, we had just gotten Callie a few days prior so I tried to get a lot of ‘car’ themed birthday gifts. Sealant, cleaners & a little dust vac were highlights. I went to Super Target and got the ‘fixins’ for a really nice birthday dinner complete with tiramisu and champagne. Sometime later, we headed over to Mayport to hang out with Judy, Aurora, Cori & Christine. We ended up going swimming at like 1am in our underwear thanks to your credit-card lock-cracking-skills. :) A surprising finish to the day and a lot of fun."

Credits: Fei Stuff, Crazy.Beautiful

I painted matching t-shirts for Kira & I tonight. I think they'll turn out cute. It's so we can wear matchy shirts on our cruise. :) I'm so excited to go with her! I'll have to post pictures of our cute little shirts. Hopefully we don't feel too silly actually wearing them! I tried to make them look nice. As nice as a puffy-paint shirt can look lol.

I found out (when we went for shirt painting supplies) that our AC Moore is going out of business. Even though I've sworn off paper scrapbooking, I was a little like a kid in a candy shop. Or an addict in a drug shop lol! There was a light box there that I could've gotten for like $30 - except I have a gift card so it would be FREE. By my reasoning. I somehow tore myself away. I DO NOT NEED A LIGHT BOX. Sigh. But they are sooo nifty. I'm trying to limit myself in the accumulation of junk. I'm like the little engine that could..."I think I can...I think I can..." So I made it out of AC Moore. I'm safely depositing my entire gift card in Elissa's hands and she can go get stuff for her students/class. And I'll remain appliance-'I'd-only-use-twice-a-year'-free.

First & Last Pages - done! :0

2008-10-07T00:17:00.003-04:00

Wow! I am a scraplifting fiend! :) I got into a good place this weekend and was a little creativity ball!!! The first page is going to be the intro to my 2007 album. It's a sort of table of contents by month.

The 2nd page will be the last page. Just a collection of photos that are cute...but didn't make a page of their own. Both of these pages are scraplifts of pages by Kellie Mize of Digital Designers.

I'm still keeping busy, busy, busy getting ready for our cruise on Saturday. Already booked our excursion in Progresso (Uxmal!) but need to get busy on Cozumel. The fantastic news is that I just got Elissa a 1-way ticket to join us in New Orleans the weekend we get back! Which is fantastic for me because as dorky as this is, I was getting super/sad/homesick thinking I wouldn't see her for 9 days. 7 is still a lot but it's better! :)

Magnolia Farms

2008-10-04T10:11:00.006-04:00

So last year, Elissa & I went to Magnolia Farms with our friend Misty and her son, Gregory. I was so excited to scrap these pictures because I'm in a Fall sort of mood! :) This is a popsicle pop template that I've tried to use a few times but it's never worked before because the places for pictures are so odd sized. But I think it worked for this page. I had so many cute pictures of Gregory that it was hard limiting myself!!!

Also, I have to admit, I broke my rule to never ever purchase digital scrapbooking stuff. I've only EVER used freebies buuut I was on Funky Playground today and this designer whom I LOVE (Lauras Kathi) had a grab bag for $1. So I broke my rule. By a $1. Practically a freebie, right?

Go get one! :)

http://www.funkyplaygrounddesigns.com/store/product.php?productid=20384&cat=47&page=1

I already managed to use it too! The red, tiled-looking paper is from that kit. And the heart element. Yayaya! :)

Credits: Popsicle Pop template, Lauras Kathi Turning 30 Grab Bag, Daniella Peuss word art and PODD Pocket Collection.

Also, I've redone the page from yesterday. I thought the pictures at the top that I had altered shouldn't be on pink paper because it made the hair look red. Which was kinda not the point of the page lol! So I switched to a more yellow paper.

***EDITED*** okay so this cracks me up because it looks like there is absolutely no difference between the 2 pages BUT trust me!! There is!!!

Blonde Day!

2008-10-03T09:38:00.003-04:00

Journaling: April 20, 2007So I have wanted blonde hair for I don’t know how long! Just to try. But whenever I had tried to do it myself - the result was more orange than anything. So I was finally making okay money & decided to SPLURGE! I found a salon called ‘Colorworks’ - makes sense, right?Called & made an appointment with Lindsay. I told them I had really dark, thick hair.But they said an evening would be fine. I got there around 5...and she wasn’t finished until 10;30! Elissa had leave and go pick me up dinner at some point! I LOVED having blonde but until we win the lottery, it’s not really a feasible thing to keep up. Someday! :) Also, The color was ‘blonder’ than these pics show.

Credits: Laura Skathi, Funky Nature; JM Designs, Crazy Alpha; Corina XoXo Alpha

And another one bites the dust!

2008-10-02T23:54:00.004-04:00

:) I almost forgot to scrap this day! Which would have been awful because it was soo much fun!

I tried being a little more 'poetic' with my journaling instead of just relating the facts.

Credits: Designer Digitals, Ad Challenge; Michelle Coleman, Bohemian Summer

October already??

2008-10-02T01:00:00.003-04:00

It's incredible to me that it's already October. The summer just FLEW. Actually, the year flew. I really had no idea when I was younger how fast time would pass. Do you remember when it seemed like something only a week away would never get here?!? I can't imagine that anymore. Now it seems as if everything is just flying.

My shock when I realized it was October was compounded by the fact that my sister and I are going on a cruise on October 11th. Yes, in TEN days. Allow me to emphasize that NOTHING is ready. This is NOT the sort of travler I am!!! So the next week or so is certainly going to be busy! The fantastic thing about cruises, though, is that as long as I get to that boat...nothing else matter. Forget something? *shrugs* Guess you don't need it! That is the sort of low stress I am looking for!

After we get back, we're going to spend 2 days in New Orleans - that's where I'll catch up on all that missed stress lol.

Anyways, here's a layout I just completed for Valentines Day last year.

Hope everyone else is doing better organizationally than me!!

Shana Tova!

2008-09-30T22:35:00.004-04:00

I'm so excited - I made kugel this evening!

I have the largest sweet tooth of anyone there is in the entire world. Seriously.

And all week long I have been WHINING about wanting kugel. And I looked for a recipe online...but they didn't seem right. When my wonderful aunt offered to email me her great-grandmother's recipe - I was like "YES!" :)

I stopped at Publix on my way home from work. Got some challah, apples & the kugel fixings. I even got us some Grade A Fancy honey instead of just our normal bear. Fancy, fancy!

Anyway, the kugel turned out FANTASTIC. I can't wait to scrapbook it. I can't remember the last time I even had kugel - which is totally insane!

EDITED: Okay and I couldn't wait! :)

I finished!!!

2008-09-27T00:38:00.002-04:00

Yay! I finished my photobook for Oklahoma. Overall, I'm really pleased with it - I might touch up a few things here and there down the road...But probably not! I still have 2007 to finish lol! :)

Click here to view this photo book.

Stickers!

2008-09-26T00:33:00.004-04:00

So I was never super impressed by these 'stickers' that I'd see on other people's layouts...but I was just about finished with this one page when I suddenly realized that THAT's what was missing! And of course all those times I ignored the tutorials about how to do it...now I decide I have to find one. :)

Well luckily it was super, super simple. Just simplify the layer, go to Edit -> Stroke and select an outline that's 10px and outside. yay internet!

Here's the layout I made. I'm REALLY trying to book it now - everything is due to Shutterfly tomorrow by midnight. Luckily, I only have one page left now! yay! Unfortunately, I still need to go back over all my pages and check the journaling. I have big problems with journaling. It all reads so stilted to me. "I went to the park. It was nice. The trees were pretty." Elissa was saying I need to stop recording the factual events so much as talk about what I was feeling. I'm pretty certain she's right lol.

Fingers crossed that by Sunday I'll be able to post the entire - COMPLETED - album!

so FINALLY! lol...

2008-09-25T01:18:00.002-04:00

I don't why but it has been impossible for me to make any sort of layout recently. I think I just took a two week hiatus. I MADE myself make a cover for a photobook tonight. I had wanted to get a book printed at Shutterfly before the end of Friday to take advantage of a sale...buuut that might not happen. I still have to complete a title page, back cover, spine & back page. As well as fiddle with a # of pages to make sure they're perfect. Bad procrastinator! Bad!

Honestly though I might be able to make it - I tend to make quicker decisions under a deadline. Which for me is 75% of what takes me so long normally!

I don't feel like taking the time to resize the cover to repost here - suffice to say, it's pretty utilitarian...it gets the job done buuut not the coolest thing ever.

Kay, I really am going to try and push myself back to creating a page a day. Maybe I'll adjust that to 5 a week. That is my new goal! 1 down, 4 to go by Sunday. Totally doable.

busy, busy, busy

2008-09-21T20:49:00.003-04:00

So I haven't posted in awhile - I have been CRAZY busy. Much more busy than I would normally like lol. It's crazy how time flies. Elissa's been busy with teaching kindergarten...we were both sick this past week...yada yada yada. Yesterday was fun - but even CRAZIER busy than I can pretend to handle lol. At 11am, I went downtown to the Barack Obama rally with some ppl. Didn't get back until 4:30pm...had time to wash the grass clippings off my feet, get in the car, and go pick up Misty for the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) show downtown. Afterwhich, we went to Mavericks at the Landing for linedancing. Got home at about 3am. I feel OUCH all over!!! Also, I'm feeling old because I'm having trouble sitting or standing without making some sort of noise. How old lady is that?!? But I guess crazy busy is better than crazy bored.

Unless you haven't scrapbooked anything in like TWO weeks!! So today, I'm making myself scrap like 3 pages. So far...I've looked at my pretty papers, read people.com & whined about my sunburn. So maybe I'll revise my goal to one page. Just one little page before bed....lol yeah we'll see...

This is the best photo I took yesterday. Can I say I LOVE my camera? I think scrapbooking is about 90% quality photos...and this one ALWAYS comes through for me. Even when I'm being jostled by 1,000 other people, holding the camera high above my head and PRAYING it just works...it does. So I forgive it for being large and bulky and annoying to carry around at times. :)

Day of Reflection

2008-09-11T21:50:00.004-04:00

So today is September 11th. And I spent the day as I have every year...reluctantly drawn to news articles that make me cry. I feel compelled to read survivor accounts & loved one's memories of those who died...my own little recognition of the day's horror. I'm not sure I can explain.

When the first plane hit, I was already at my first class of the day. Some girl who came in mentioned that a plane had hit one of the world trade center towers but we all thought it was like a tiny plane. It didn't seem like a big deal and we continued with our class. When I left, it was BIZARRE. All these girls on my campus were running around on cell phones in tears. I still remember pausing next to a religion professor who was watching CNN and saying something to the effect of "what is with these people? Why is everyone overreacting?" And he just said something to the effect of "This is going to be huge." So I wandered back to my dorm since classes had been canceled. Which also seemed weird to me...why cancel classes because of a plane crash in New York? And then I called my grama at her office. She answered the phone clearly crying. And for the first time, my heart lurched.

I spent the next month reading and reading and watching tv...and I still can't think of 9/11 in any degree of depth without crying. I mean any degree whatsoever. If I'm driving and NPR has a story...I start crying. I still don't think I fully understand how huge this event was...but I think it was just utter shock that something like this could happen here in America. That people could die horrible, horrible, terrifying deaths for simply being an American and living their day-to-day lives. Maybe that's hubris...I try to remember that people all over the world have lived their entire lives like that for generations. But I haven't.

The Diane Rehm show today had on a guest who said something like 75% of Americans expect there to be a nuclear attack on one of our cities...within the next 5 years. That's huge. That we are all going about our days with so much fear in the back of our minds...I find myself sitting in my office occasionally wondering what I would do if some crazy person starting shooting a gun. How bizarre is that? But it doesn't seem crazy to me...it doesn't seem like something that could never, ever happen...

I think that's one of the many reasons 9/11 is so painful...for me, it became an introduction to fear. My introduction to an everyday, minding-my-own-business-but-you-never-know-what-might-happen fear.

Update

2008-09-06T13:07:00.003-04:00

Okay so I'm holding off on my dream to see the Olympics...afterall there's presumably going to be an Olympics every other year for the rest of my life. But Madonna? She's 50. How many more tours is this woman going to be able to do? :) So I'm going to see her in November in Philadelphia...sooo psyched. We even have the next tier up from shitty seats. Fantabulous!