it's a great day to get more fingernail polish

today's agenda: cook, clean, go to target and buy a new shade of nail polish (because why not), play games/watch movies with anthony and his sisters (they're hanging out today and tomorrow with us), babysit for a family i used to nanny for (i haven't seen the kids for awhile so i'm really looking forward to that!) and just...chill.  i'm good with that plan.

how about you? anything crazy happening over your weekend?

hey, it's ok (2.21)

hey, it's ok


...to take a day off when it's handed to you (rather than going into the office of your other job even for just a couple of hours)
...to alternate bouts of productivity with moments of rest 
...to keep the kleenex box next to you at all times (today that's not just ok it's necessary!)
...to reorganize a kitchen cabinet 3 times in one afternoon
...to be likely to organize said cabinet again in the near future
...to not have blogged in a long time (oops)
...to have discovered that we really like annie's boxed mac and cheese on occasion
...to be sort of addicted to juicing
...to wonder if the laundry will completely overtake us one of these days


(go visit amber's amazing blog and join up with your own list!)

thursday's ten: pinterest love

have i mentioned i love pinterest?


today's list is compiled of ten ideas i've ACTUALLY used from the site!  these are the first ten pins i've completed, but i'm sure there will be more editions to come :-)






(1) my very first one was this idea to use magazine racks for pantry organization.  i did this pretty much when i moved in in august.

"pinspiration"

i started with one...

and ended up with a "few"

verdict: LOVE.  our cans are no longer out of control!

(2) i FLIPPED when i saw the idea of the date stitched into hem of your wedding dress so i asked my friend who was doing the alterations if that was a possibility.  she replied that she was already thinking of surprising me with that very thing!

pinspiration

unfortunately, my dress is currently at the in-laws and i can't post a picture of my result...but i'll try to remember to do that later!


verdict: loved making this my something blue, and love it being permanently on the dress!

(3) then i kept seeing a pin for a crock pot breakfast casserole.  tried it one saturday morning...

pinspiration

actuality

even though it went IN looking good!

verdict: one time only.  it was dry and even though it tasted ok, it's nothing spectacular.




(4) then i saw one using spice shelves for organizing the bathroom sink.  since i was frustrated with our medicine bottle organization, i decided to adapt it.

pinspiration

our take on it

verdict: it's not perfect, but it's WAY better than before!






(5) then i saw this one.  it was two dressers back to back to make a kitchen island, but that's not what drew me in.  see, we had repurposed a similar dresser as our entryway piece, and i wanted it not to look like...a dresser!  and i already had some fun bird and branch wall stickers...

pinspiration

result

i love the bird on top :-)

verdict: i really like i, and so does anthony!  it's subtle, but just quirky enough to be "us" AND bonus: it makes the repurposed dresser "fit" more in the living area.




(6) i thought these crescent roll desserts looked yummy...

pinspiration

adaption 

verdict: we loved them and experiment with other flavor combos when we make them :)


(7) i found another idea i thought was brilliant: sheets stored in their own pillow cases.  i decided to try it out.

reality

pinspiration

verdict: it may not look as neat as the original but it definitely makes life easier!

just wanted to prove that the closet as a whole is neater than that shelf!

(8) natasha and i wanted to make one of the several recipes we have found on pinterest.  we settled (easily) on buffalo chicken tacos.

pinspiration

we did a build your own bar 

Anthony's plate was a work of art!

verdict: we loved them!  definitely a keeper recipe

(9) the idea of wine cork journaling was intriguing to me -- basically you open a bottle of wine and have the guests who are there that night sign the cork.

pinspiration

our ONE example :-)

verdict: it's a great idea, but we don't open wine for every occasion that we'd like to remember...and some wine isn't corked!  so we'll use it when we have a chance :-)

10) menu dry erase board

pinspiration

ours

 verdict: we've just started using it, but so far i'm a fan!


are you a pinterest lover?  have you used any of the ideas from the site?  tell me!

Thursday's Ten: a day off

today's blog comes to you from a little haven

where i'm shaded from the sun

surrounded by a few boxes that i'm either going through or taking back to storage

and where breezes are blowing the windchimes

it's just a carport

but i'm loving it :)

the family i'm nannying for this summer

left for a week

i drove them to the airport yesterday

and now i have a loooooong holiday weekend to look forward to

some of it will be busy

but i hope most of it will be just like today

i find myself more productive on days where i don't feel rushed or stressed

(anyone else like that?)

so here's what i've done so far today, or am planning to do as the day goes on

1. slept in

(ahhhhh)

2. planted and watered in my little garden

(i should have ripe tomatoes soon!)

3. introduced emi to her new surroundings, outdoor edition

(i know we've been here 2 months nearly, but i wanted her to be comfortable INDOORS first, and today is just gorgeous so it was perfect)

4. cleaned out a bit of the carport

5. returned some emails

6. chatted with the neighbors

7. ate some fresh fruit

8. fixed myself another iced coffee

9. cleaned out the cooler from yesterday's chicken adventures

(that's another blog in itself)

10. sat in the carport with my little macbook on my lap and enjoyed relaxing...because i deserve a day to relax!

oh, there's plenty on the agenda today...like laundry, organizing, cleaning, etc. but i figure i have the whole looooong weekend to do these things. so for now, i'm kicking back with my iced coffee. (which may turn into a nice iced bloody mary later on this afternoon--only 3 hours til 5 pm!)

what about you? what are you up to today...or what do you normally do on a day off?

Thursday's Ten: things that have happened in the last 7 days

i've been BUSY, y'all!



1. packed and got overwhelmed by all the packing to do
2. called in the troops, and between the army and i we got the entire house packed and cleaned by 10 pm sunday night!
3. witnessed anthony's little sister hailey get baptized at church on sunday
4. was hit by a car in the wal-mart parking lot on sunday
5. said goodbye to my house with more than a few tears as we locked everything down on sunday. thankfully, at that point only anthony and his parents were there to witness that.
(and jiminy the cricket came back in from the backyard one more time.)
6. turned in my keys to the real estate agent on monday and received a check in return
7. went to dinner celebrating hailey's baptism at maggiano's on tuesday night
8. followed dinner with an er visit. i'd been short of breath all.day and between anthony and his parents was forced...ordered convinced to go see a doctor
9. was admitted to the hospital overnight (with the threat of it being more than an overnight stay). turned out to be asthma exacerbation--a flare up of a condition i thought i had grown out of at the age of 12. anthony says i gave him quite a scare--i'm sure the oxygen mask, ivs, my incredible pain at being stuck the first time they drew blood, and the fact that i still couldn't catch my breath even by the time they got me into my hospital bed didn't help in that at all.
10. was released approximately 14 hours later (noonish wednesday) and taken to anthony's mom's house until she deemed me fit to go home. she came and vacuumed all my furniture and did a little extra unpacking too when she dropped me off onto her couch. amazing woman that she is :-D

so they say bad things come in 3s. i'm thinking starting with anthony's granddaddy's illness and death, the foreclosure, and this er visit and hospital stay we're due for a run of good things.

can i get an amen?





(for those of you who are new followers from monday--thank you! i promise i'll get to each and every one of your blogs if you commented--i had internet for approximately 5 hours before i started feeling really bad)

Thursday's Ten: A Few of My Favorite Things (Home Edition)

Welcome to this week's Thursday's Ten! I'm excited about this one, although I must admit I had a bit harder time with this one than I thought I would! Because of that, I'm running a little late, so please feel free to make this a Friday's Ten :)



This week's theme is your 10 favorite things in your home. I would LOVE to see pictures, but if you can't take/upload/post them please just tell us about your favorites :)

Most of the things I've listed here aren't uber expensive or all that "special" from a monetary point of view. I'm very much a sentimental saver. Hence the movie stubs, football tickets, and playbills in my scrapbooking cabinet. So most of these things have more of a meaning to me than anything else!

Here's mine, in no particular order:

1. wall cross. I found this at Hobby Lobby a few years ago and LOVE it.

2. my antique rocking chair passed down from a great aunt to a grandma to me. I also have a vanity that matches it in my bedroom but it's so covered in crap er, hard to photograph because of the light...yeah...that I didn't get a picture of it this time around.

3. my prayer board. this hangs in the bedroom next to the vanity, and I made it myself (along with another memo board in my kitchen). sometime I'll explain the meaning--it looks a little bare right now because I'm in the process of changing it out...plus some of it's "confidential" enough not to put on my blog!

4. my laptop. where would I be without it?(answer: well...in the office upstairs on the dinosaur PC that wouldn't get me very far...)

5. the Madonna A gave me for our anniversary in August. Isn't she beautiful?!
and in the same picture
the picture I took of the Eiffel Tower when I was in Paris in 2002. It was WAY before I had a digital camera, so I was thrilled with how well it turned out!


6. the vintage jewelry tree LaJuana gave me for my birthday last year. It's *fantastic*

7. my recycling bins--my first ever purchase at IKEA, and so nice for organizing the recycling that often explodes in my house!

8. my iPod docking alarm clock station. This was a Christmas gift a few years ago, and now that I have my iPhone the only time my nano leaves it is for a run.


9. various dishes I've inherited...they're just special, ya know?

10. my bedding. it's Pottery Barn and I totally bought it brand new on ebay for under half the price. All except the shams. Which they double sent me from PB, and when I called to ask if I should mail the extras back or return to the store they told me to keep them. :)

(erm, sorry it's all wrinkly. guess I shouldn't sit on the bed right before I take a picture...)

What about you? I would love to see (or hear about) your favorite things...please link up or comment so I know to visit you, and grab my button if you don't mind!
(code for said button is right there to your right...under my followers!)





Next week's theme: favorite restaurants/recipes

Monday's Memory -- The One Where I Buy My Own Place

Wow, do I ever look young in that picture.
Well, I was. I still remember the guy at the first mortage company I called saying "Most 23 year olds don't buy houses."
This one did. And went with an option other than Mr Grumpy-pants. Ok, so I was 24 when I closed and moved in, but the deal was set in motion before that birthday.

I was a lot skinnier then, and my walls were not the color I would have chosen...there was an awful border around the kitchen...and my dad spent the weekend he and mom came to visit fixing 2 of the 3 toilets in the place.

But it was mine.

The furniture and decor was "early graduate" or "late college poor"

But it worked.

And while I accumulated more "stuff" and bought better furniture eventually, I don't know as I'll ever forget the moment when I signed those papers.

Responsibility, adulthood, and overwhelming joy.



I've had a few scary moments over the last 13 months when I thought I may not be able to keep the house. Thankfully (so far) the mortgage company has been very understanding and willing to work with me.

But it's definitely reminded me not to take this home, this place of refuge for me, for granted.

Blessed.