. . .and I'm back!

Let me start by apologizing for the lack of posts. I'll make the excuse that I worked long hours 2 weeks ago then went out of town for a week. I trust that you are all willing to forgive me so let's forgive, forget and move forward.

Kimmy Dumont and Megan Hebenstreit are my 2 besties. Don't ask why, it makes no sense. Especially to Kimmy, the hippy who lives very intentionally (kiss kiss Kimmy). I think they tried to get rid of me by moving a whopping 982 driving miles away from me. Well being the genius that I am I just bought a plane ticket and flew out to Denver. Suck on that Bitches (don't worry, it's endearing).

Side note- This was only the second time that Nick and I have been apart in our 3 year marriage. I have to like you A LOT to leave Nick to visit you.

Kimmy and I had a master plan to surprise Megan with my visit. We had to keep it under wraps for about a month. Wild, because Megan and I call or text about 10 to 20 times a day. Well we did it and I showed up on Megan's door step last Tuesday. I was wearing a dress so I flashed her when she opened the door. I figured, had someone already blown the surprise of my visit at least she'd be surprised by someone exposing their underpants at the door.

Nothing too crazy happened while I was in town. It was incredibly cold and snowing so our options were limited. I got a great massage one day. Megan got more than she paid for from her masseuse. I crocheted mittens, ate lots of Megan's baked goods. Megan and I found a little sibling for her amazing cat Thany, aka Nathaniel, Nate, Natey. I slept in the ghetto where Kimmy lives one night. We saw a gang of 3 seedy looking boys walk down the street at about 2 am : / I went to work with Kimmy and found several pictures of myself up in her office.

We pretty much just did the usual, make fun of each other and innocent bystanders. Laugh a lot. It was a fun trip!

From there I flew to the OC. Kimmy and I planned it so that we would fly there together. We got to fly over the Grand Canyon and that was awesome. I took so many pictures.

My sissy-in-law Kristy and nephew Chase picked me up from the airport. We had some time to kill until my brother was done working so we walked around Balboa for a little bit. Chase was adorable as usual. We hit up my brother's work Halloween party for some free candy and dinner. Chase was absolutely the cutest kid there. He was the Angels's rally monkey, could you die?

Then it was on to Temecula for my mom's 50th b day party. I got to be in charge of decorations and center pieces. So fun! I got several mason jars and mini candle holders and candles and went wild. I also used the lids of the jars and the bottoms of mini terracotta pots, you know that little part that catches the water, to hold candles. I filled the large mason jars with water and used floating candles to add a water elements and give the little light show another level. We hung white japanese lanterns around the pool and glued battery opperated flickering "candles" in them. It turned out very nice.

The only failure was the floating candles for the pool. We just couldn't keep them lit or away from the wall of the pool. We ended up throwing them all in the jacuzzi and just let them go out when they did. We couldn't spend the whole night hovering and re lighting.

At the end of my trip Nick and I got on the plane to take off and there was quite a bit of turbulence. When the plane started to really bump around I thought for a second that we were going to die. Not because I'm afraid of flying but because I had spent the last 6 days with the people I love the most and I thought, this may be how I'm meant to go.

So this one time. . .

So this one time Nick and I were driving across the desert on our way home. We brought our good friend Chad with us and were having a great drive, no music just great conversation and snacks. The mood got mellow for a short time so I grabbed an empty bag of flamin' hot cheetos (pretty much my fav "bad" snack) and started enjoying the left over crumbs. After a few tiny bites Nick glanced over at me and his face turned to absolute horror. At that moment we both came to the same realization.

About a half hour earlier in the drive Nick had decided, no better time to clip your nails but on a long drive. He had no where to store the clippings but an empty flamin' hot cheetos bag! That's right I was munching on my husbands finger nail clippings.

Neither of us could get a word out through the laughing/gagging so Chad was in the back of the car shouting "What happened!? What happened!?" We finally got the words out and Chad was the only one level headed so he was trying to calm my gag reflexes telling me not to throw up.

Somehow I managed to not vomit and was left with a great story.

5 Things I Love

Alright, I'm going to try to do a "5 Things I Love" every Tuesday. It's Tuesday, here we go again. . .

1- I love making and eating chocolate chip cookies! What makes my cookies different? Well I wasn't always good at making them, so I would just buy the break and bake. Nothing wrong with that. Break and bake cookies are delicious, quick and easy. But when you feel like baking, break and bake just doesn't cut it, you know? So I got to thinking "Why are these so much better than my made-from-scratch cookies?" I observed the ready made dough and thought "this is so much thicker than my dough." Duh, thicken up your dough, right? Well I did that by adding lots of extra flour at the end of mixing and tasting to see if it needed a little extra brown sugar or vanilla extract and TA DA, homemade cookies just as good as the pros. Oh and if you are like me with chocolate, double the amount of chocolate chips and/or chunks!
(The picture on the right says "Tear here to make sweet memories")
P.S. I LOVE making cookies for others so if you want some just let me know.


2- No picture for this one. Good thing too, I don't want to cause all you ladies to lust. I love Conan O'Brien. That's right L. O. V. E. love! I don't think I need to elaborate because the reasons are obvious. Who doesn't love a funny man? And yes, I find him very attractive.



3-Dressing Lexi up. This is the latest creation stripes, polka dots, and a leopard print bow in her hair. We're breaking all the "rules". You know what I say, No rules=Endless possibilities!







4-Mugs! Didn't know that I loved mugs until I started running out of room in our cupboard. I'll touch on some of my favs. Our wonderful friends Jess and Eddie came across the 2 San Fransisco mugs at a garage sale and thought of us. So glad they got them for us, I love love love them! The Brown and Blue Disneyland mugs I hold close to my heart. I bought them with the Disney dollars that Disneyland so generously gave me for my b day. It's written with the traditional font and they they are so beautiful in person. Pretty heavy and sturdy, the font is raised with a stitching printed on it. When you take a sip you see the beginning of Walt's speech on the opening day of the park "To all who come to this happy place, welcome" written inside. Makes me tear up every time I hear it. Disneyland and San Fran are 2 places that will never get old for me.


5- And now for my love/obsession. My day planner. Yes, I carry it everywhere. And I keep my checkbook in it and balance everyday and compare it to my online statement. If people tell me they don't keep a checkbook it makes me feel oddly sick. You can't count on the on line ledger, it sometimes takes a week for things to clear! What if you overdraw!?
I also plan out our dinners for 2 weeks and write them in the "to do" section for each date. This really helps with not wasting any food and keeping the pantry and refrigerator clean and organized.
And duh, I write in all the days that I work, plans that I make, vacations etc. . .

What would I do if I ever lost this!?

Just Refurbishit!

I love to decorate. In our first apartment I thought I knew what I liked. We bought a set of living room furniture(couch, love seat, chair, coffee table, end tables, matchy, matchy , matchy. . .) We painted the walls a darkish green/gray and bought ALL dark wood. When we were done setting the place up I realized, I liked the look but not for my house. Too traditional and predictable. It just didn't capture my essence.

When we bought our current house I had about 6 months to shop and look at magazines and get ideas while the house was being built. I determined that I love colors, floral patterns and some vintage items. Little did I know decorating your house is a never ending project! In a good way:) Nick and I are constantly rearranging, disagreeing and just changing things in the house.

When you discover you love to decorate you soon discover most furniture out there is blah, blah, blah boring. So, Nick and I love to buy stuff that will fit where we want it, then do what we want with it. It's fun and something to be proud of. Not only does it show your guests a little bit more of who you are but it also makes your house your home.

Here are some things I've done with boring furniture, paint, new knobs and some imagination.



Just completed this desk yesterday. I'll let you in on a secret, I sketched out those flowers before I painted them. Nick was nervous about me free handing it.





I'm in love with the knobs!







This is our old black coffee table. I painted if off white and sanded the edges to make it look worn.







Another adorable knob from Anthropology that jazzed up the old coffee table.





This is the new coffee table, since I stole the other one to paint and put in the loft. It was all white in the as is section at IKEA and Nick painted the top and I did the pattern on the bottom.





Tell me what you think!