a joco girl's troubles

Last week I tried to be crafty. I was at Half Price Books looking for a book for my roomie and a lightbulb came to me. Or a thought cloud. Or whatever. I think it was a lightbulb cause it was BRIGHT! Suddenly I knew I had to go to the gardening section, find pictures, of flowers, and frame them. I've been telling some friends lately that I needed something interesting for our living room wall to bring in a little bit 'o fun and this would be the perfect thing. So I found this great book called "Flower Pictures." Descriptive right? Its like it was made just for me. And it was $7.

Long story short:

• Flipped through the pages several times enjoying the book.
• Cringed a little as I cut out seven pictures
• Found seven wooden 8x10 frames at Target for $4 each -HOLLER! They don't even have them online, thats how much of a bargain they were.
• Went to Hobby Lobby to get mats but they were $2 each and I thought that was a little expensive for white cardboard so I drove like 5 miles to Michaels where I found them for... are you ready for this?... $2.49 each. Hobby Lobby was closed so I just bought six of them. Yes, six. All that driving must have impaired my brain cause I completely forgot how many frames I had. Whatevs. I'm not going to calculate how much I lost on that little escapade, but I'm going to pretend like it was less than the cost of my hazelnut latte yesterday.
• It snowed.
• KU lost. Oohh the pain of it all...
• I went to work on craft-therapy matting, framing, and hanging. I even used a level folks. A LEVEL WITH A BUBBLE to make sure all seven :-) pictures were perfectly straight. The pretty little crocuses, mums, roses, gardenias, peonies, etc were all smiling at me!
• Then hubster comes upstairs...

I will start by saying that I love this man dearly. And besides, he was right. He looked at my pictures and said "why are they so straight?" Everything is so symmetric in this room! I can't help it! I'm a business person.

So the question to you my, dear friends, is how do I make my six little lovelies not so straight?
I would cluster them, but our room is too long. I would hang them on pretty little ribbons, but I'm not sure thats the right move. I would put a plant on one side of them to add a little somethin-somethin, but I kill plants. (Ironic? Indeed.)

As a bonus, can someone please find me some replacement pillows? I need something cheap that will be fantastic with my new photos.

AND THEN don't you love the "and then" in stories?
Last night, a great friend of mine stopped by.
Hubby- "It's pathetic that these are the kinds of problems we have: how to hang our pictures in an interesting way."
Friend- "You have to make the world's problems your problems"
Hubby and I- Humbled. That's why we call her "friend".

Okay maybe that wasn't exactly long story short, but I'm not very good at "short." Just deal with it, people.

Read more →

March 27, 2011

Hubster's birtday. not birthday. birtday. there is no "h" in this word when he says it. we've practiced, but it will just never be there.

• The day KU lost to VCU. Such a gut wrenching game. 
• AND the day my roomie calmly watched the falling apart of his favorite team and was even in a good mood for the rest of the day. Bless-ing! Cause when he's mad, oh boy, you just don't wanna be around! Jokes. I've got jokes.
• The day we hosted two large parties only three hours apart. Not that interesting, that happens quite regularly actually.
• The fourth or fifth time I attepmted Mom's mac&cheese and failed. I got it right once. Just once. But the other four or five times it just isn't creamy enough. Kills me. 
• The day I invented cinnamon roll cupcakes. They were real yummy. Wanna know a secret? I used a box mix for the actual cake part. I totally cheated. Remember how I said 3 hours between parties? Yeah. Mac&Cheese and cupcakes plus homemade, hand piped, cinnamon cream cheese icing swirls oooh and ahhh everyone. its the beginning of my cake decorating career. a 5 year old could have done what I did today, but it was success* nonetheless all happened during those short 3 hours.
• The day the hubster asked me how to spell the name of my company. It is one word. One.
• The day I died my hair blonde. BAH! Just kidding. Got ya :-)
• The day I posted on my blog with no pics. Womp womp. Sorry all. Maybe tomorrow.

*Confession: Every time I type success I hear my junior high cheerleading squad cheering S-U-C-C-E..SS, Cyclones, Cyclones, fight for success! That's how I know how to spell it. 

Read more →

Cappuccino muffins

My next baking project.

Via Cappuccino Muffins courtesy of The Pioneer Woman

 Let's all drool together, shall we?

Read more →

welcome home, home

New York was great (see my last post for the in-the-moment-hectic-post). I don't have any pics though cause I couldn't stop to take them. Sorry... Anywho, it was good to spend time with the in-laws and laugh and snarl and freeze our patooties and walk our feet off. And Mary Poppins on Broadway was especially wonderful. BUT all in all it was good to get home. It only took about a bajillion hours in airports and on planes to get home, but once we got here our little gray house said WELCOME HOME!

Some of the ways it said "welcome home" were very sweet. Like the fact that all the trees are starting to bud and the grass is greener than before and my daffodils are in bloom and I have access to my own food. Other ways were not so sweet. For example, the piles of running-out-the-door stuff, and the dust bunnies, and the mucky bathroom, and the dishes, and the laundry. Yes, my laundry said "welcome home" in a very grouchy, sarcastic sort of way.
 

In the beginning was the laundry.

And the laundry was on my bed.

And the laundry was my bed.

You see yesterday we got home at about 2:30am, found Mackster with a red and swollen eye, slept for about 5 hours, went to work, left work to take Mackapoo to the vet he will live now, went back to work, went to a "beauty appointment" (one of the terribly painful ones that shouldn't count as a beauty appt), went to the grocery store to stock up since we'd been living on popcorn and cereal, and came home and crashed real early. Tonight it was back to the grind! I prepared myself by listening to "Happy Little Working Song" from Enchanted at least 4 times today. It certainly helped :-)

In order (post work of course):

• Homemade pizza and salad. I cheated by using pre-made dough though
• Dishes.
• Vacuum. Everything. Possible. Even move the bed to get under it.
• Clean window sills. Yes. I really did that. Proud?
• Started to tackle baseboards and thought better of it.
• Dust mop.
• Mop.
• Hubby comes up from the man cave where he has been hanging out with his pal enjoying March Madness and says "ah! Just looking at the floors gives me heartburn!" The fact that I had the ability to laugh at this comment and not immediately drop to my knees scrubbing is quite the accomplishment if I do say so myself.
• Clean all kitchen appliances
• Scrub bathroom. Notice mold growing where our sink is evidently leaking. Shrug it off for today. 
• Dust everything in sight.
• Trip to Target. 
• Baked a batch of peanut butter blossoms. 
• Folded the massive pile of 5 loads of laundry that had accumulated throughout the night including all bedding.

I did not tackle the paperwork taking over the office. The office is just a very very scary place these days. I think I need a shredder to start picking up after my darling. His bosses nor his clients will mind if I just shred it all, don't you think? 

*Sigh* So I just ended my night with a handful of peanut butter blossoms Wait, did I say handful? I meant serving. Yes, definitely just one serving and sipping a little bit of Bota out of plastic cup.

And to top off my night my convo with my roomie goes as follows:
"What detergent did you use? It smells like we were at the pool all day." 
"That's because I used bleach."
"Why?"
"To get the smells and bacteria and whatnot out."
"Who told you to do that?"
 *Smile*

Yes, welcome home indeed :-)

Read more →

I'm a country girl. Who knew?

New York. It was nice meeting you, but I think it's best that we part ways.

Times Square to me is like a super-sized meal from McDonalds. It clogs the heart and shortens the lifespan.

This trip has been very hard for me. It has consisted of a lot of anxiety and frustration . I don't deal well with crowds. And the streets here are permanently crowded. It's like Crush and Squirt say in Finding Nemo- you've got to ride the wave. When you get off you get off, but you can't slow down or stop to look around along the way. And being in a group of seven, even if it is family, just makes it all the worse. Don't get me wrong, I love my inlaws, but when I can't breathe very well it severely limits conversation so it changes the whole dynamic.

Brett and I agreed that our favorites parts so far have been the upper west side, the lower west side, the lower east side, and central park. In other words, everything but the middle (Times Square, Rockafeller Plaza, Grand Central Station, etc.) At least KU has won both of their games since we've been here. And at least the rain today has kept a lot of people inside :-)

I'll post more details once I'm home and have regained my footing.

Read more →

opportunity costs

When your boss asks you to consider leading a project
in an industry you've never worked
in a function you think is interesting but have never done
in Philadelphia
for four months
during the spring
(which is gardening season)
when the audit busy season has just ended
by yourself...

What do you say?

Opportunity cost: The cost of an alternative that must be forgone in order to pursue a certain action. Put another way, the benefits you could have received by taking an alternative action.

Read more →

forging through it

today I got a QT coffee. and a sprinkled cake donut. one that looked like this.

and it was tasty. but it didnt solve the problem.

you see the problem is that i dont wanna work. dont make me! i dont wanna! if i have to respond to another RFP or tailor another bio or create yet another project plan i might just keel over.

if i was able to bake. and garden. and learn to sew. and travel to europe. and travel to japan. and buy a Dyson. and my favorite Marc bag that is on sale for 30% off this weekend... THEN i would be okay.

oh the lies of it all...

back to work i go.

TTFN.

Read more →

floral is good. contentment is better.

I love floral things. So I'm so glad they are "in" this spring just like every other spring in history. These little pillows were calling my name at Nell Hill's yesterday. Armed with a green tea chai latte, a personal fave, and forging a drizzly day, I was in need for some lovely pillows.

Like these. 

Hello dainty yellow paisley. Do I love you? Why yes, I do.

But what I do not love are their price tags. These beauties each fell in the $100- 200 range. Yikes!

So of course, Pottery Barn read my mind and emailed me this morning telling me that their pillows were cheaper and there was free shipping for a limited time. So naturally, I drooled over these beauties...

And when the roomie was being a twerp earlier (not really, but I was just trying to make excuses) I told him that if he didn't behave I would buy four of these yellow lovelies and two fun blue guys, and a handful or so of the others so that all of our couches would look like this:

Perdy, idn' it?

And then I read more of my wonderfully cozy little book called Keeping House. I really would recommend it to you all. And tonight Marge (Margaret. But I'll call her Marge.) told me:

"Instead of nurturing dissatisfaction with the shortcomings of our present home, whatever we my perceive them to be, perhaps we can turn our energies toward receiving as gifts the homes we have and to creating in them enough order and tidiness to promote convenience and peace and hospitality."

Read more →

Tragedies

What is worse? The earth killing people in Japan? Or people killing people in the middle east? Or the fact that my worries today consist of what wall decor I will be able to find that will bring about the right color scheme in my home?


Humbled. And saddened. And aware.

Matthew 6:19 

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, 

where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,  

but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, 

where neither moth nor rust destroys 

and where thieves do not break in and steal.

Read more →

ash wednesday

Genesis 3:19b

...for you are dust,

and to dust you shall return.

dust symbolizes our mortality, our sin, and the purification God makes for us.

how deep the Father's love for us,
how vast beyond all measure
that he should give his only Son
to make a wretch his treasure.
how great the pain of searing loss,
the Father turns his face away
as woulds which mar the Chosen One,
bring many sons to glory.
behold the Man upon a cross,
my sin upon his shoulders.
ashamed, I hear my mocking voice,
call out among the scoffers.
it was my sin that held Him there
until it was accomplished.
his dying breath has bought me life
I know that it is finished.
Stuart Townsend

If you read that as a song, go back and read it as a story.

Because its the prophesy of Isaiah 53:4-6

Surely he has borne our griefs
   and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
   smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions;
   he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
   and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
   we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
   the iniquity of us all.

And the true story of Christ in 2 Corinthians 5:21

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin,

so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Think about that today and for the next 40 days. I am.

Read more →

the love of my life

Special update (kinda like a special build in Settlers of Catan)

Nothing makes me smile quite like dancing around the house with my bestie. However, a close second is asking my roomie to turn on music and he turns on Grooveshark to a Glee mix and sings along.

This also seriously melts my heart. Meltier than the meltiest cheese.

**Huge grin**

Read more →

admitting defeat is a beautiful thing

On my honor

I will try

To serve God

And my country

To help people at all times

And to live by the Girl Scout Law

And to never again wash my floors more than once a week unless absoutely necessary.

Oh yes, I did.

Last night after watching Enchanted after going to dinner after going to church with my sister and her bf after going for a really cold jog, I decided- at 10:00- to scrub the wood floors. I'm what you might call a woman on a mission. I got down on all fours with my Bona Wood Floor Cleaner and a few towels and went to work on a 3' x 3' square. I scrubbed and scrubbed that same little square for a full 30 minutes and guess what? Still smudges. It was better, sure, but I refuse to ever care that much about floors. Therefore, I pledge to never be a freak about the floors again. I'm not even remotely a clean freak, so why has this little tiddly-bit been bothering me so? No reason. Therefore, I admit defeat and move on!

Which takes me to my next point: Enchanted is wonderful. Girls, boys, people of all ages, watch this movie! You will laugh and dance in your seat and you will love it like my roomie and I do.
Giselle: Why are you staring at me?
Robert: I don't know. It's just that... it's like you escaped from a Hallmark card or something.
Giselle: Is that a bad thing?

So good :-)

Read more →

Today

Today was a much better day.
Highlights:

• Spending time with my bff.
• Finding a floor cleaner that works better , even though it's not quite magical
• Buying a new spring wreath. It's perdy.
• Oklahoma Joe's with family and friend
• Discovery #1 
• Discovery #2

You're dying, aren't you? You're just dying to know what discovery #1 and discover #2 are, aren't you?
Okay, enough suspense.

Discovery #1
Background
We have a down comforter on our bed covered in a duvet. I'd had a duvet since high school or so and I love them for several reasons of which the top two are the fluffy wonderfulness of the down comforter and the slim-packin's of duvet covers rather than full comforters. But the downside to these suckers is that its tricky to keep the comforter in the right place inside of the cover. (If you don't have a visual, skip to discovery #2 cause it isn't going to get any better.) Well today I had a monumental discovery.

A


+ B

= HOORAY!! no image but you get the idea. No more wiggly comforter! This is great news!

Discovery #2
Long story short: I've been sulking because we planted approximately a million tulips more like 35 last fall and none of them are coming up. Well today as we were finally taking down the Christmas lights I looked down, and for a moment the world stopped and angels sang. (Yes. That was admittedly extreme exaggeration.) Check it out friends!


Do you see them? These beautiful little buds are popping up all over my garden. I was quite literally jumping up and down and pumping my arms frantically as if KU had just won another National Championship! No, that is not exaggeration that time.

I'm excited for spring :-)

Read more →

Yesterday

Yesterday was a largely poopy day at work. But enough about work.

At lunchtime I went to get my car to drive home from work when i saw
DUN-DUN-DUUUUUUN

 The tail light was busted. After explaining this to a few people, I thought to myself, why am I refferring to it as "busted" when it would be far classier to say "broken?" You know why? Cause I've been listening to Mercedes. I'll bust the windows out ya carrrr.And no it didn't mend my broken heart...

Back to my story. It was broken and I don't know why. I didn't hit anything. And nothing else was damage. Oh well. We're waiting on an estimate to get it fixed. Poor car.

Speaking of car- this is funny- this morning at the grocery store this guy sees me and the conversation goes as follows:
"Hey, they don't make those anymore, do they?"
"No, I don't think so." I later found out they definitely do. I wasn't trying to lie. It just happened!
"I've been trying to find a used one, but there just aren't many out there."
*Hmm... I should ask him how much he's willing to pay...* but instead "Yeah I think there's a reason they don't make them anymore actually. Blah blah blah. I think you'd be better off with a Matrix if you're looking for a similar car.

But after dealing with my vehicle that I don't like but am very grateful for, and aside from work I'm not talking about work right now we had dinner and watched a movie with a few of our neighbors last night. Always a good time.

Read more →

Shamrock shake time!

I don't know that I follow a lot of traditions... who knows, maybe I do... but one that I never miss is my annual Shamrock Shake. Now the more I talk about these little lovelies, the more I come to find that people have no idea what I'm talking about. So just so we're all on the same page, this is what I'm talking about:

It is a fabulous minty vanilla-y shake from McD's that debuts at the end of February and hangs out until mid to late March. They aren't everywhere though, so if you go to a McD's and it isn't there, don't be shocked. One year I drove 30 minutes and hit 4 or 5 different stores with my high school boyfriend just to find one that had them. Oh high school boyfriends... 

Anywho, today at lunchtime I was super excited to go get my annual Shamrock shake. So I went.

But it looked more like this:

Icky. It looked and tasted very icky. So I was forced to do this:

 

Yep. That's the trash. Very tragic. I've been scarred now. I'll have to wait a while before I try one again. Maybe 2 or even 3 days. Hopefully that will give me enough time to get over my sadness. 

In the meantime, you should go get one! They really are quite tasty when made properly*!

*This year they are putting them in plastic cups instead of paper/wax and are topping them with whipped cream and a cherry. This is not the proper preparation for a Shamrock Shake. Consider yourself warned.

Read more →

with the spring comes the mud

Today we left the Mackster-baxter outside after lunch. He likes to be outside. He wreaks all kinds of havoc!

Today he tore open a bag of hay... or was it straw?... I think it was straw... that was meant to go inside the fieldhouse, but instead he strew it everywhere (is that the correct use of that word?) He also dug two massive holes: one because he likes to dig, and one because his friend, Kat, likes to come under the fence to play and clearly she needed a bigger hole. I'm sure her owners will not be grateful for the amount of mud that will cover her coat in the coming weeks. And finally, he destroyed more grass.

Grass is scarce at our house. We planted lots of seed last year and some of it took, but some of it was mauled by a cute little puppy who loves to play. This year, it will be a cute large dog who loves to play. Twice the size, twice the mess.

My solution: astro-turf. Or gravel. Or weeds. You can't kill weeds in a yard no matter how hard you try so maybe if we plant weeds they would stick around and prevent the mud.

Hubster's solution: Mack should never be left alone outside. His exercise should come from the dog park and walks and jogs, but he cannot be left alone outside.

Both of our solutions: Unrealistic. But I have to say that even though it was very stressful for the hub, I enjoyed coming home from a less than wonderful day of work to find muddy puppies running all over the place just having fun. Fun is such a wonderful thing :-)

So for now we will live with the mud until we come up with something brilliant. And wonderful ideas?

------------------------------------------
On another completely secondary and unrelated note, I love the Pioneer Woman's blog. And today, I love gawking at the abundance of pancakes on display. I don't even like pancakes, but they are calling my name. Which is really odd cause the Nutella cookies she posted don't even whisper. Hm. Oh well.

Sionara!
Funny. My spellcheck didn't like how I spelled that word and the second word on the "did you mean" was "missionary." Kinda ironic in my world. 

Read more →