Thursday, April 30, 2009

Patio Idea Board

I guess technically this should be called a Deck Idea Board, but while a deck is what we have, that word just conjures images of something more nautical or water related. We definitely have no water in the backyard, aside from the puddles accumulating with all the recent rain. One of the things I have been looking forward to since we decided to buy a house is having some outdoor space. It's nothing fancy, in fact there are currently tall weeds (again, all that rain) and some sparse patches in the grass. But we have a shallow but long deck and a view of it all from our large living room window. This weekend's trip to IKEA was my chance to pick up a lot of the furniture for our outdoor area. I just need to layer in a few accessories, get the lighting issue figured out, and then this rain to stop so I can put our furniture together and get everything just so. I can't wait to be able to entertain our friends and family outside, along with being able to sit and have a cup of coffee or do some reading anytime I please.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Baby Boy

Our friends Spencer and Deb are having a baby boy at the end of June. I picked up a few things for him on Etsy yesterday and I can't wait to get them so I can wrap them up and deliver them! These cuties came from veryKIKI. I ordered them each in a different size- 0-3 months, 3-6 months and 6-12 months, so they won't all be obsolete as soon as he sprouts. :) I also made sure to get the 6-12 months in a long sleeve version since it will likely be chilly when he's ready to sport it. I really like the colors and I think they will too. I know Deb loves orange, and along with brown it was their wedding color scheme. And the nursery is being done up in shades of blue, green and brown, so everything should fit right in. I hope they think they are as cute as I do!

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

New Tool

I'm hoping this will help tip the cleaning scales in favor of the white furniture. And the cheap Big Lots price didn't hurt.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Weekend Roundup

This weekend didn't turn out quite as I'd planned, but it was still a blast. We're going to try to make it to the museum this coming weekend instead.

Friday:
-Work, yuck
-Start laundry
-Clean bathrooms
-Dry swiffer kitchen/living/hallway
-Still doing laundry
-Grab some grub
-Finish laundry
-Hit the hay

Saturday:
-Rise and shine
-Shower
-Mango smoothie and sourdough toast for breaky
-Finish getting ready
-Pick up truck at John's
-Meet up at Steph & Rodney's
-Caravan-it to IKEA
-Wander our way through the showrooms
-Lunch
-Slowly make our way to the warehouse
-Grab all the patio stuff
-Mad dash back for slipcovers
-Remember desk legs, back through line again
-Guys get it all loaded up
-Hit the road
-Unload at the house
-Hit Target for rug pad with Holly
-Return truck to John
-Back home, put new hangers to use
-Steph and Rodney come over for quick pre-dinner hang out
-Snookie's to see Clifford and dinner & drinks
-Back to casa for DIY Karaoke- a laptop, a microphone and an iPhone, voila!
-Adios to Steph, Rodney and Rylee
-Bedtime

Sunday:
-Oversleep
-Put desk together
-Make meal plan and grocery list at new desk
-Cheese toast for brunch
-Get ready
-Home Depot for outdoor pillows, Lowe's for mower and blower
-Drop stuff off at house
-Grocery shopping
-Put everything away
-Heat up leftovers for dinner and eat
-Sweep back deck
-Wet swiffer kitchen and drum room
-Clean and prep veggies for the week
-Clean kitchen up
-Night night

Friday, April 24, 2009

Weekend Plans

I am very excited for this weekend! We have lots of plans that I am looking forward to. Tonight I've got a lot of chores, including laundry, but I'm going to make some tomato soup and grilled cheese and make some time for a little relaxing too. Tomorrow we're borrowing John's truck and heading up a caravan to IKEA with Steph & Rodney and Holly. Can't wait to grab some lunch and finally get a chance to take my time there. Hoping to get so much stuff- patio furniture, a desk, frames, plant pots, a rug pad; the list goes on and on. We might stop by Jen & Jason's garage sale before we have to be at Steph's at noon, but not sure. And then Sunday we're going to make time between assembling all that the frustrating IKEA furniture to go to the Amon Carter Museum. There are three photography exhibits going on that I really want to see. One ends in just two weeks and then a week or so after that they are closing part of the first floor for renovations, so I want to make sure to catch them all while I have a chance. Hope everyone has a great weekend and that mine turns out as fun as it seems!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Happy Earth Day















In owning our own home we've been trying to be as ecologically responsible as we can in tandem with our budget restrictions. We bought Energy Star rated appliances, CFL light bulbs, and lined the kitchen cabinets with renewable cork. Here in Texas we have a deregulated energy market, which allows us to purchase our electricity through Green Mountain Energy. We have all the electronics we can plugged in to surge protectors so we can eliminate as much energy waste as possible. The house we bought has new energy efficient windows and extra attic insulation. I do my best to run laundry and dish loads at maximum capacity and do any drying back-to-back to use residual heat. Josh and I have both taken to turning the shower off while we lather up andthe taps at the sink when washing faces or brushing teeth. I've become almost obsessive about turning lights off. This weekend we collected 5 garbage bags full of leaves to use in my future compost pile. While there is so much more that we could do, I feel good that we do at least this much and hope that we'll just keep getting greener and greener. One of the upsides of having our own little piece of Mother Earth is getting to see her at work. Along with our house came two lovely rose bushes, and I love to spy new blooms every day. Happy Earth Day everyone!

EDIT: I just convinced our boss to switch from ordering bottled water to buying a filter for the faucet!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Someone's in the Kitchen....

Take a peek at our new kitchen over at my food blog, Small Time Cooks.

Weekend Roundup

A day late again with this weekend's roundup. I don't like to dwell on my myriad of random health problems, but lately I'm getting my butt kicked by them. Yesterday I needed a sleep-in after a rough night, thanks to some severe acid reflux and an IBS episode. Anyway, that's enough about that. I dwell on this stuff enough in my head, and I'd rather not do it anywhere else.

Friday:
-Sleep in
-Random house work
-Laundry
-Grab some Sonic dinner with Josh
-Shower and get ready
-Head to Lola's for Fate Lions show
-Hang out with Veronica, Jerko and FL crew
-Post-show tour of house for Niki and Jerko
-Bedtime

Saturday:
-Sleep in
-Late brunch of french toast and fruit smoothies
-Finish getting ready
-Head to Wild About Flower Mound for Rock School show
-Stop by Whole Foods on the way home, pick up local grass-fed eggs and local beer
-Home to tidy up
-Dinner at Rosa's with Matt & Ashley
-Back home for chatting and eyebrow grooming
-See M&A off
-Into bed

Sunday:
-Sleep in
-Uncured bacon and fancy eggs for breakfast
-Sweep up drive-way, rake out front beds and clear sidewalk and porch
-Make meal plan and grocery list
-Shower and get ready
-Hit Old Navy- score sweater and shirt for $11 total
-AT&T store for new modem
-Late lunch at Chili's to use rest of gift card
-Grocery shopping at Target and Central Market
-Put up knife storage
-Sharpen knives
-Clean and prep salad veggies
-Clean kitchen
-Hit the hay

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Going Shopping

Josh actually asked me today if we could make some time to go shopping this weekend. Any guess as to my response? He wants to go to Old Navy. Me likey these, hope they have them in store when we go.


Things Floating Around

I finally finished reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma" this week. I heart Michael Pollan. But aside from that, it has set a lot of different thoughts floating around my gray matter. Gonna do a little free-thought list here.

-Pig tails make me sad.
-I don't want to stop eating meat.
-I don't want to eat industrial meat.
-I want to start composting.
-About 1% of me would like to try hunting.
-98% of me is too squeamish to take that other 1% seriously.
-1% knows I'd break my shoulder if I shot a rifle.
-Is buying a large quantity of meat the best option for consuming local grass-fed animals?
-Is there any spot in my yard that will get enough sun for a garden?
-Why is our farmer's market not super awesome?
-Would it be super awesome if more people utilized it?
-How many people I know might be interested in buying local meat? Enough to help defray costs for all?
-I need to widen the variety of vegetables and grains I eat.
-Should I buy a chest freezer for the garage to store all this meat in?
-How hard would it be to make cheese?
-Why haven't I figured out baking bread yet?
-How many things could I really take on myself with the amount of free time I have?
-I want to re-read "In Defense of Food".

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Weekend Roundup

Was feeling a bit blah yesterday, so here it is...

Friday:
-Sleep in
-Coffee and smoothie for breakfast
-Laundry, laundry, laundry
-Clean out some boxes in guest room
-Dishes
-Even more laundry
-Josh home and makes dinner
-A bit of pampering while Josh and Matt practice
-Finish last load of laundry
-Bedtime

Saturday:
-Oversleep
-Coffee and reading in bed
-Get ready
-Justin & Emily's for Easter lunch
-Back home to change and get ready
-Meet up at Steph & Rodney's
-Kobeya for Steph's birthday dinner
-Back to their casa for hanging out and karaoke
-Head home
-Hit the hay

Sunday:
-Sleep in
-Coffee and reading in bed
-Oatmeal for breakfast
-Remember I can't grocery shop
-Work on built-in
-Show Steph and Rodney house progress
-More reading
-Head to Deana's for dinner
-Catch Words & Music and hang out with fam
-Home late, crash into bed

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Photo Inspiration

First off you'll really have to forgive me. Ever since last year when we decided we'd be looking for a house I started collecting inspiring decor pictures. Of course in my fervor I wasn't really paying any attention to where I was getting the pics; I just saw, liked, saved. So if you know where I got any of these pics fill me in.

One of my big loves are old black and white photographs. I plan on including a lot of them in our house and I spent a few minutes this weekend looking through some of our family collection at my mom's house. My grandfather had an interest in photography, even at one point heading the photography club when he taught high school in Illinois, so we have a wealth of pictures that have been inherited over the years. I can't wait to be able to display these bits and pieces of my personal history in our home. Here are some images that have been inspiring me in how to use these little pieces of art in our space.

Photobucket
via design*sponge

Photobucket

Photobucket
via apartment therapy

Photobucket

Photobucket
via martha stewart

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Vacation with a Capital V

We have our next vacation in the pipeline. We'll be headed to Washington DC at the end of May. This trip will be killing a lot of birds with one stone. With one simple vacation I'll be crossing an item off my life to-do list, I'll be working on two NY resolutions (to travel more and to cross of 5 things from that life list) and we'll be attending our wonderful friends' wedding while there. I miss Steve & Meri terribly and will be so glad to see them, even if it is for an event that won't allow a lot of visiting time. It's a very small wedding, so not so bad but we all know how hectic weddings can be. And Josh has already acquiesced to my need to jam-pack our few days with as much sightseeing as possible. There are so many places I want to travel to that when I get a chance to go I feel the need to see everything that I couldn't suffer missing, just in case I never get to go back. Because I always want to go back, but then there's always that growing list of other places to see, ha. I can't wait to walk the National Mall and see the Museums of Natural History and American History. I love to learn on my vacations and I can scarcely think of a better place for a homegrown educational holiday than our country's capital.






















Photo via flickr

Monday, April 6, 2009

Weekend Roundup

Friday:
-Work, boourns
-Home for two loads of laundry and vacuum bedroom
-Hit Big Lots, $12 bamboo blinds for office and random food stuffs
-Make cubans for dinner
-Catch up on 30 Rock
-Grab some cold treats
-Bit more TV
-Bedtime

Saturday:
-Oversleep
-11 years together, sweet!
-Get haircut, yay!
-Container Store for towel rack and food packaging
-Mom's to borrow lawn mower and rake
-Fuel up for yard work, eggs, toast and an apple
-Lots and lots of weeding, raking, digging, sweeping, etc.
-Back to mom's, look through pics while Josh mows front yard
-Lowe's for some home supplies
-Grab Sonic on the way home
-Shower
-Start building dining room cabinet
-Stop at halfway point
-Work on grocery list
-Hit the hay

Sunday:
-Oversleep again, guh
-Breakfast and coffee
-Finish cabinet
-Put hinges on built-in
-Finish grocery list
-Grocery shopping, eggs- .49, asparagus- .91, strawberries- .99!
-Quick sandwich for late lunch
-Tidy kitchen
-Start on Coconut-Pineapple Loaf Cake
-Make guacamole
-Make vegetable enchiladas and cilantro-lime rice
-Eat dinner
-Get food for Josh's boss and leftovers all put up
-Clean up kitchen
-A bit of Newsweek
-Sleepytime

Friday, April 3, 2009

Weekend To-Do List

Lots to try and get done this weekend!

-Build dining room cabinet
-Get hair cut, bangs how I've missed you!
-Smooch Josh, 11 years!
-Unpack at least 4 boxes
-Put doors and shelves back on built-in
-Clear rocks and sticks from yards
-Weed and cut backyard
-Cut front yard
-Clean house, especially vacuuming
-Grocery shopping
-Make enchiladas and cilantro-lime rice for Josh's boss for recovery dinner
-Try and get at least one room ready for some photographs
-Finish laundry
-Drop film off for development