Monday, Monday

Hey everyone! Hope you had a wonderful weekend! Here in Indiana, we enjoyed a little taste of spring yesterday – it was 55 degrees outside! And despite the fact that it was raining off and on, it was a much-welcomed break from the cold temperatures. The pups were also very happy happy to have a little extra outdoors time, a rare treat in January. It has me itching for spring to arrive!

Yesterday was an all-around awesome day. We had friends over for the Colts game (which they won!) and a pizza party sponsored by Digiorno. I had applied a while back through House Party and was chosen as one of the lucky hosts, so our pizza was provided  by them (along with some other fun items). Who doesn’t love free pizza?! I’ll admit that I’m not a huge football fan, but the excitement involved with the big games is contagious and that always makes the atmosphere fun. Of course, our buddy Mr. Brown helps makes things fun too.

What’s been going on

Holy be-jebus! I can’t believe another week has gone by. I seriously have the best of intentions when it comes to this blog, but for one reason or another, I can’t seem to find the time and/or resources to do the things I plan. I am incredibly frustrated with myself. And as much as I hate to give you another “quick update” post, it seems to be all I’m capable of at the moment. So here’s a lovely bulleted list of the goings on as of late. (Yay for bulleted lists!…right?)

• One of the many things I lost when my hard drive crashed was software. I had iLife and Photoshop before (graciously installed by the person who gifted J the laptop) but now am forced to find other (cheaper) alternatives to photo editing, storage, and organization. Any suggestions?

• The good news is that a guy J works with is a certified data retrieval specialist (or something like that), and he has offered to take a look at the dead drive for free! Yay! So I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he will be able to retrieve some of what was lost.

• To prevent this situation from ever happening again, J and I made a trip to our local Fry’s last weekend and purchased an HP MediaSmart server and an additional 1 terabyte drive. Both of our computers are now doubly backed-up automatically every hour. Another bonus to having a server is that our printer is now networked, so I can print wirelessly from anywhere in the house (something I’ve been asking for since I bought the printer…two years ago). The server also automatically finds pictures, movies, and music on our computers and saves them to separate folders which are accessible from anywhere…including our PS3. Pretty cool stuff. And a wise investment, indeed. (Oh, and to those of you who actually know what any of this stuff is, I apologize for my layman’s description…and to the rest of you, sorry to bore you with geek talk )

• Finally, I have kind of a big announcement…well, big for me anyway, not so much for you…drum roll, please….I’ve decided to go back to school. Well, actually I’ve already started classes. Last week was my first week in the Library Science Master’s program at the local university. I’m super excited to finally get my master’s degree and to know what I want to be when I grow up. I honestly can’t believe it took me so long to figure this out. I think I was born to be a librarian. So, that’s part of the reason I’ve been busier than usual lately. I’m taking a full load, 12 credit hours, all evening classes so that the pups won’t have to be here alone for long (at least until we get a fence installed) and so that I can still look for daytime work. Everything’s going great so far, and I should be able to finish by May of 2011! I already can’t wait to graduate and get working!

• Okay, I lied, there’s one more thing I wanted to share with you, just because I can’t bring myself to leave another post without a picture, despite my lack of editing software. Here’s what I did with my birthday money last month:

An espresso machine! I’ve been wanting one for, well, years, and I’d had my eye on this particular one for months. So when it went on sale at Amazon, I snatched it up. And let me tell you, it works like a dream. I was having a little trouble with exploding coffee grounds at first, but I think I’ve remedied the problem (user error, go figure). Now I can enjoy pumpkin spice lattes and peppermint mochas any time of the year! Woohoo! A big thank you to all of you who made this dream possible. I couldn’t have done it without you! Mwah! (that’s supposed to be me blowing all of you a kiss )

A Quick Update

Just wanted to pop in to say that my laptop situation has been remedied, and regular posts should resume very soon. We purchased a new hard drive, but so far have been unable to retrieve anything from the old one. There’s one more thing we can try, but it’s sort of a last resort, so we’re thinking it over before making a decision. So I’m literally starting the new year with a blank slate. I have to admit that it’s kind of refreshing…if I don’t think too hard about all the work lost. Oh well, lesson learned.

Crash and Burn

Due to a holiday hard drive crash, I am currently sans laptop, not to mention everything it contained. Backup your work people, seriously, do it…right now. The crappy part is that I’d been bugging J to get me an external drive to do just that for, like, two months. We even went to the store once to get one, but they didn’t have exactly what I was looking for. So incredibly frustrating! So for now I’m using our old desktop and trying not to cry over everything I may have lost until I know for sure that there’s no getting it back. (Sniff, sniff.)

Sorry if I’m not around much these days, but I can’t imagine that my regular posts (if you could call them regular) will resume until this whole situation is remedied. I do have some things planned for the near future, and I hope to fill you in on them soon, despite this setback.

Anyway, hope you all had an excellent holiday and are enjoying the new year. Here’s hoping I’ll be back here soon!

(One of)My Current Obsession(s)

Lately I can’t get enough of all things numbered. Like these spice jars from Antrhopologie.

Can’t you picture a whole row of them on a kitchen shelf?  And I love this project idea from Jessica at Zakka Life.

I actually have a bunch of cork coasters I picked up at Goodwill a while back that I hadn’t decided how to embellish. Now I’m just waiting for the ink pad I ordered to come in the mail…Yay!

Numbered goods seems to be a kind of a trend, and I’ve had a thing for them for some time. I recently found these images buried in my design file. (sorry for the poor image quality of these scanned pages)

This one’s from Pottery Barn, but it would be pretty easy to recreate this at home, perhaps with a chair like this or this. They also had bar stools in this same line, and I was thinking of doing something similar for our basement bar, maybe using a stool like this.

And these are from the October 2006 issue of Cottage Living, their Idea Home issue. (Oh, how I miss you, my old friend!)

See those numbered plates…I love them so! They’re a Christopher Jagmin design and are still available (though out of my price range).

Having all of these numbered items in one kitchen (or even one house) might be overdoing it a bit, but I think one or two items spread around different rooms would work. What do you think?

Bah-Humbug!

For some reason, the Christmas spirit has alluded me this year. Maybe it’s the fact that we’re not hosting a party this year and other than a possible post-Christmas trip back home to Nebraska, don’t have any big plans for the holiday. Or maybe it’s that the stores have been shoving Christmas down our throats since before Halloween, but I just can’t seem to get myself excited about the big day. In fact, my Christmas spirit has waned since Thanksgiving. I had started early, buying gifts, planning what to bake and gathering ingredients. Then it all just stopped, and I lost interest. I haven’t done any baking and my decorating was limited to a small 3-foot tree, minimally trimmed. So, in short, I’m feeling very bah-humbug these days, and nothing is getting done. I guess I’ll have to depend on good ol’ last-minute cramming – maybe my procrastination will cause the Christmas spirit to come out in full force just in the nick of time. Well, here’s hoping anyway.

For those of you enjoying the season and all of its carols, cookies, and crowds, there has been plenty of inspiration out there in blogland. I, however, will not have any creative projects or beautiful decorations to share anytime soon – unless I’m bitten by the bug in the very near future.

In other news:

• J’s company party was an interesting affair. The food was good and it was nice to meet many of the people I’ve heard him talk about, but we were both fairly disappointed in the execution of the event. We all felt very rushed to get through the meal and “agenda” (as they kept calling it), but once it was over there was nothing left to do for those of us who didn’t feel like shaking our booties on the dance floor. So we left. We didn’t even get to take a tour of the stadium. People stood in line for half an hour without ever getting to go. Not very well planned.
• My birthday on the other hand was a blast. We went bowling with friends, and though it was a simple party, we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves – perhaps a little too much, which we paid for the next day.
• New Moon was great. I have to admit that I was a little disappointed in the movie – which is so often the case after reading the book. It felt like they tried to put too much of the book in the movie, which meant that none of it got the attention it deserved and everything felt kind of shallow (for lack of a better word). But it was still worth going, and I really did enjoy the whole experience.
• I’ve been neglecting the blog and both shops lately, and for that I apologize. I’ve had the best intentions, but sometimes “real-life” gets in the way. I’ve been busy with other things and trying to prepare for an even busier year to come. I hope to give this part of my life more attention beginning in January. I have many, many ideas, and once other things are back in order, I should be able to set aside a little time to focus here. Well, here’s hoping!

What the?

Is it seriously Friday already? It can’t be. I might be losing time here, folks, cuz I sure as heck don’t remember an entire week passing since last I was here. Geesh. I think I need a calendar.

Well, I guess my plans for posts and blog updates will have to wait till next week. Tomorrow is the big company party, and then Sunday is my birthday – the one that will make me officially “in my thirties.” But it’s just a number, right? Right.

Hope you all have a great weekend. See you Monday!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tomorrow is the big day! I can’t wait to enjoy some turkey, stuffing, and all the fixin’s. I’ll be taking a break till Monday. I hope you all enjoy the long weekend!

(via)

My Confession

I’ve tried to ignore the subject and bury my shame, but it seems that I can only hide the truth for so long. It seems the time has come for me to come clean.

This summer, while I was away from the blog, I spent some time reading. I re-read many of my favorite classics, including the Brontes and Austen, but I also read some newer fiction. …No, I need to go back further than that. You see, it all started with a movie. I’d heard so much about it that my curiosity got the better of me, and one weekend while J was away I rented it. I had no idea what I’d started. I fully intended to laugh at it, thinking it would be nothing more than teenage drivel, and I was surprised…no, shocked to find myself enjoying every emotion-laden moment of it. Still, I wasn’t fully convinced. The books were the true test of the saga’s worth, so I ordered the first two the following week. I read them in two days and immediately ordered the fourth online and drove to the nearest bookstore to buy the third, thinking it would get me by until the fourth book came in the mail. I was wrong. I ended up finishing the third and then re-reading the first three books before the fourth one arrived. All-in-all I’ve read them four times. I couldn’t put them down. I didn’t want to leave Forks and return to Indiana; things here were so much less interesting.

Since then, I’ve been holding my breath till the second movie was released, trying hard to show restraint and not soak up every leaked image and official trailer so that it would all be new to me on the night I finally saw the movie. The tickets were ordered weeks in advance, and J was informed that he had no choice but to join me on the night the movie is released. That night is tonight. That’s right; I’ll be watching New Moon this very night. I’m as excited as a 12-year-old girl.

Yes, folks, I am a Twilight fan. I hope you won’t hold it against me. I’m certainly not alone, and I’ve put together a few Twilight-inspired finds to prove it to you. I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend planned. See you on Monday!

1. Twilight Inspired Crocheted Cloche 2. I want to live in Forks earrings 3. Be Safe sterling silver ring 4. Yes I Read Books About Teenage Vampires Button 5. Forever Ring 6. Sanguis (blood) Soap 7. Bella’s Bag 8. Bella’s Ring

Dress Shopping

As some of you may know, J started a new job this year, one where he is an actual employee and where he gets all the many benefits that go along with being an employee (versus being self-employed as he has been for many years previous to this one). One of those perks is the company Christmas party. We’ve never been to one before, and we’re both kind of excited. Plus, it falls on the day before my birthday, so we figure we might as well go all out and make an event of it. That means a puppy-sitter, a hotel downtown (the party will be held here), and breakfast at the cafe of my choice the next morning. Woohoo! (I’m very easily pleased, really.)

According to J, the dress code is “optionally fancy.” Which apparently means that you can dress up or not and that some people do and others don’t. I say, take the opportunity to get all fancied up when it presents itself (which is rarely for us). So, I need a new dress. I’ve been doing some online window shopping, but I can’t make up my mind. There are several stipulations to my searching, like price for one (it has to be cheap, like around $50 cheap), and it has to be comfortable. Oh, and it has to keep me warm because it’ll be December in Indiana. Here’s what I’ve found so far:

(from here)

It’s definitely cute, and looks comfortable. Plus it’s a wool blend, so it should be warm. And at $54 it’s certainly affordable. The downside is that it’s gray, and I was really wanting something with some color. Though I’d be sure to get some future use out of a classic gray dress.

(from here)

I really like this one. I love the vintage feel of it, and the color is beautiful. But it’s slightly more expensive ($69.99) and I’d have to order it (there’s a local store that carries the other one).

What do you think? Any suggestions? I need to make a trip to the mall and try some things on, but ugh, holiday shoppers. (yeah, yeah, I know, bah humbug.) I’d seriously love any help you guys can give me!