MIA

Yes, I have been missing in action. Again. I started my summer job, and haven't really had the time, or desire, to blog. Not that I have completed any of my projects, anyway. I have this coming week off for a family reunion, and since we aren't leaving for Williamsburg until Wednesday, I plan on using these few days to work on some of my projects that I've been scheming.

I've been making a list of the funny (to me) things kids I babysit say. Now, most of these are 'you had to be there...' or 'if you only knew the person who said it' quotes. I realize this. Also, these quotes are compiled from several families, over the past 6 months, and there are several kids that fit each age. Trying to keep this somewhat anonymous, obviously.


Age: 5
"I love vineyards."

Age: 3
Her: "This is yellow baby.
Me: "She's pink."
Her: "She had an identity crisis."

Age:4
Me: "I'm so tired today."
Her: "You should take a nap."
Me: "You're my favorite."

Age: 5
Her: "There's a lake, so we must be there."
Me: "Do you know how many lakes there are in Virginia?"
Her: "Yes. But I want it to be this one. Its so lake-y."
Me: "That's a stream."

Ages: 5 and 3
3 y/o: "I like to sit on lots of people. "
5 y/o: "That's not normal."

Age: 3
"When my mommy was a boy she drove daddies car. When she was little."

Age: 3
"You be the mommy, I'll be the daddy, and I have a baby in my tummy. It will be my sister."

Age: 5
"What's wrong with you? You're so whiny."

Age: 5
Me: "You need patience. "
Her: "I dont have my patience today. It might be back tomorrow."
Next day...
Me: "I thought we talked about having patience?"
Her: "We did. It's in my drawer. I might take it out tomorrow."
Me: "That's what you said yesterday."

Now on to sleeping in for the next week :)

What Three Years of Marriage Has Taught Me

This past Saturday, Peter and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary. Three years, people! I know, in the grand scheme of things, three years isn't a whole lot - and next year, I will probably freak out about it being 4 years - but it still feels unreal. I have never been attached to another person, immediate family aside, for this long.

Anyway, we celebrated by going to Richmond and having dinner at The Tobacco Company Restaurant. I fell in love with the old time charm of the building, as well as the food. Seriously, check out the pictures on their website. After dinner, Peter bought roses from a street vendor, and we walked around the Capitol. Peter and I sat on the steps of the capitol building and talked - and that was, honestly, the best part of the night.

For the past few weeks, I considered writing a post listing some of the things that marriage has taught me. Maybe I can keep this up for anniversaries? Hmm...

-When dating, you do things for each other because you're in love. Your first year of marriage, you do things for each other just because. The second year, you find bribery works well. The third year, bribery doesn't work as well as it once did...I expect that by next year, it wont work at all?

-Anything can be put off if it means you get a few more minutes together.

-Laundry will not fold itself and dishes will not put themselves away like they magically did in high school [thanks, mom!]; Chances are, the hubby isn't going make that happen, either.

-You really do need to keep 'dating' once you're married.

-Waking up next to someone is far better than waking up alone. Even when that person snores, talks in their [her] sleep, and steals the blankets [her, again].

-It will be rare that the toilet paper, or paper towels, will make it in the dispenser [not just on, next to, or in the same room].

-Laugh. At everything.


I'll probably add more as I think of them :)

DIY Photo Collage

I've wanted a photo collage in our living room since last fall, but have been turned away for several reasons:
           - Photo collage 'kits' (I guess you can call them) only had select frames. I wanted most frames to
             be matted, and I didn't want frames that fit several photos.
           - Frames are expensive! At $15+ each, it was a little more than I was willing to spend.

After months of debating and searching, I finally had the frames that I wanted. This is where my OCD kicked in. I knew that I wanted the collage to cover the majority of the space on the wall, but I wanted to make sure it was generally centered, and that they didn't look exactly spaced out.

I arranged the frames on the carpet to get a general pattern and to avoid placing several of the same frames next to each other. 

One of several attempts.

 

 

After, I found an extremely helpful tutorial on how to hang them. You trace the frames onto cheap paper (I used moving paper that we have for projects, but paper grocery bags work well, too), and cut them out. Label each cut out with a short description of the photo. Line the cut out to fit the back of the frame. With your fingers, feel for the loops where the nails will go and punch holes into the paper. (I didn't get a picture of this step).  With blue painters tape, tape the cut outs in the pattern you want. This makes it easier to move the cutouts and make adjustments. When you are satisfied, locate the holes you punched and nail the cut outs to the wall. Replace the cut outs with the frames.

 

 

 

 

Sorry for the poor quality; It was evening.

 

Final result - slightly different than my original template.

Puerto Rico

Peter made Rosetta Stone's "Circle of Excellence" for 2010! As a reward, we received a week-ish long, all expense paid vacation. This year, the location was the St. Regis, Bahia Beach in Puerto Rico.

I'm so proud of him! Hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on some of the pictures from the award dinner.

  
Here are the highlights: (I suggest you look at the pictures I posted on my Facebook. Blogger makes the process of posting pictures unbearable)  

Beach in Rio Grande

The narrow streets of Old San Juan

 

Zip lining in El Yunque Rain Forest

I love the bright buildings

Smitten Kitchen

 Smitten Kitchen

Their recipes are pretty amazing.

Check 'em out!

5 Things Friday

Oy. It's mid March and I have yet to post anything.

I'll just get to the gist of things and post my 5 things - it's been a couple weeks since I last wrote a '5 Things Friday' post. This week I've tended to concentrate less on actual things - quite a change for this shop-a-holic - and more on the rest of my life.

1. The Early Bird Catches the Worm - It's official. I'm a morning person. Yes, I just admitted that and the walls are still standing around me. I've had to get up early (+ Daylight Savings) to nanny all week and some of last week, and managed to get up over an hour before the time I needed to leave by. I accomplished so much in that hour!

2. The Return of Peter - He's been gone all week - no surprise there - and he comes back tonight/tomorrow; either way, I'll be asleep! No, it's not an accomplishment, but it's worth noting that I haven't been bored all week, and I haven't killed Kona [maybe that is an accomplishment...] Yay for staying very busy :)

3. Chocolate Milk - I love chocolate milk, but I am so picky about which brands I like that I often don't get any. The family that I have been with this week had the best chocolate milk. Looks like I'll be making a trip to Whole Foods this weekend. It's not only organic, but comes in a glass bottle :)

4. Walks - I am so grateful that the baby I watched this week loved going on walks just as much as I did. As soon as I walked in the door, he would grab his jacket and hobble over to the door waiting to go. Super cute :)

5. Warm Weather - It hit 80 degrees today. I love spring/summer :) Broke out the sandals and capris today.

Five Things Friday

I am so grateful for this break from winter weather the past 2 weeks. Though this week wasn't as nice as last week [today is the first day in a week where the sun has really been out], not having to worry about snow, ice, and the freezing cold has been wonderful.

 

[Tomato paste in a tube] I hate opening a can of tomato paste to only use a tablespoon or two. Though I intend to use it in another recipe, I rarely do and it gets thrown out. I finally found this at our local Martins.

[MacBook Pro Charger] My oh so sweet dog, Kona, ate my charger on Valentine's Day. A week later and my new charger arrived. So grateful to be able to borrow one from a friend, but it's nice to have my own again.

 

[Bamboo Silverware Organizer] I think my obsession with bamboo has gotten a little out of control. From cutting boards to organizers, I love it all!

[Sandals] I love sandals, esp. wedges. This pair from DV by Dolce Vita makes me even more excited for spring. 

Other things from this week: Kona was able to have a raw hide without getting sick, meaning her explosive upset stomach wasn't due to her love of raw hides. Peter was home the whole week [though that is very likely to come to an end next week].

 

Couponing

Growing up, my mom went through phases of couponing - and I dreaded it. I didn't mind trips to the commissary [military grocery store on base], where we could easily fill up two full grocery carts upon my dad's return from a deployment, but that was actually 'normal.' Going to a grocery store off base, which was where a lot of the 'special' deals were, drove me nuts. I hated waiting for the cashier to scan all the coupons and watching everyone stare at us because it took an extra couple minutes - not to mention, sale items weren't anything that I had any interest in.

Now fast forward 10-15yrs.

While I hate paying retail for most things, I never thought I would get into couponing. And I guess I don't really 'coupon' [with the exception of Michaels coupons], but rather skim the ads for weekly VIP-type savings where you just have to have the individual stores member card [which is free]. It allows me to stock up on a lot of things that we go through pretty regularly. So, it's not couponing like my mom would do, but the same concept. Anyway, it's saved us a lot of money :)

5 Things

Too bad "Five Things Saturday" doesn't have the same ring to it as "Five Things Friday." The point is that I did it, right?

[Bamboo cutting boards] Who would have thought that I would be obsessed with cutting boards? But seriously, I love them.

[Fancy cupcake liners] After holiday sales make $3-4 cupcake liners a little more justifiable. Michaels and Target's had some great deals on Valentines Day stuff; Michaels also had select cake decorating supplies on clearance. This is also a great website for some awesome cupcake liners as well.

[Flip flops] 70+ degree weather this week warranted wearing flip flops for the first time this year.

[A dozen red roses] The hubby bought me roses for Valentines Day and we went to the Joshua Wilton House in Harrisonburg for dinner.

[Blueberry Muffins] Probably the best blueberry muffins that I have ever made. And I got to use my fancy new cupcake liners!

At some point I will actually figure out how to add pictures, I swear.

Word of the Week

em·u·late [v. em-yuh-leyt; adj. em-yuh-lit] –verb (used with object)

1. to try to equal or excel; imitate with effort to equal or surpass: to emulate one's father as a concert violinist.

2. to rival with some degree of success: Some smaller cities now emulate the major capitals in their cultural offerings.

*A word that seems to be slipping into my vocabulary a lot this past week. Or month.

5 Things Friday

One of my favorite blogs, Cupcakes and Cashmere, does a "Five Things Friday" post every week highlighting 5 things from the week that made her happy, essentially. I love reading her Friday posts specifically, because she not only gives great recommendations (she often posts products, decorating ideas, and recipes), but it makes me think about what made me happy as well. I know, that statement sounds really lame and stereotypical, but it's true :)

I've hesitated posting because, well, I'm terrible at keeping up with my blog for starters, and posting pictures of the 5 things makes the post better, but since getting a new computer a few weeks ago, I haven't figured out how to do that, exactly. If anyone with a Mac wants to give me a tutorial, feel free! None of my uploading techniques have worked.

Finally, I realize that today is Saturday. I began this post yesterday - a day late is better than nothing at all, right?

[New green kitchen towels] I'm switching our kitchen colors from red and black to green, off white, and black.

[Light My Sapphire] OPI nail polish.

[New green teapot] Stove top teapot that matches the new kitchen colors. Great way to add more color to the room when you can't paint the walls.

[Chicken with Rosemary Sauce] While I tweaked it a little, this chicken was amazing.

[Maebel's birthday card] I will have to post a picture of it after her party today, because I was a dork and sealed the envelope before taking a picture of it. Happy first birthday to my little BFF, Maebey baby!

Something Fresh

Have I mentioned that I love having a mini herb garden in my kitchen? Because I do. An herb garden has been on my mind since early fall, but I was reluctant. The thought of weeding was enough to completely turn me off, but renting our place also makes it a little more difficult.

In one of my more recent trips to Martins (local grocery store), I saw locally grown, organic herb plants $3/ea. Awesome. No weeding! I found mini washtub-like bins at Target for a couple dollars, thanks to the [almost] dollar section. So, now I have an awesome mini herb garden in my kitchen.

Something that I never really thought about was fresh vs. dried herbs. I mean, really, who does? It just seemed like something that would help me experiment with more cooking [see my NYE regarding this], and get something fresh into the house.

Just don't get me started about picking all the little leaves off the stems ;)

Busy [Queen] Bee

You know, it's so weird. Life can be busy without it really being busy. I guess it seems inaccurately busy. I measure how busy my life is based on how much I accomplish, not really the effort of time spent. I will spend an entire day grocery shopping (going to multiple places depending on weekly specials and Walmart for everything else) and then look at what I bought and think to myself "I did one thing today, and there's not even that much here. I needed to get _____ done too." When in reality, I went to up to 3 or 4 stores and battled the lines (I swear the stores always seem busy), and it took 4-5 hours on top of it all. Not a whole lot accomplished; it just feels like I should have gotten a lot more done.

'Queen' was used in the title because I am definitely not a worker bee (that would be Peter, since he does most of the work), while the queen bee does relatively little in comparison. I have no idea how people with kids get anything done. I find it difficult with a dog.

Anyway, this isn't the post that I intended to write. I should work on becoming a better writer by using the word "I" a lot less. Just a note to self.

New Year's Resolutions

I've had Blogger open on a tab all day, hoping that I would get around to a post eventually. It's taken me a while to come up with a few resolutions, since in the past I've mainly done it as a fad-like thing my friends were 'doing' (but never followed up with). For some reason, I don't know why, I've felt the urge to follow through this year as much as I can. So, I guess I need to make a few that are actually realistic, huh?

1. Read 1 book a month from the 'Great Classics' list. Maybe 2 months, depending on the book. [Alison, you'll have to help me with this one!]
2. Learn more about cooking. [Julia Child, anyone?]
3. Be more patient. With Kona, Peter, life...It is a virtue, after all ;)
4. Take more pictures. Of the almost 3 years we've been married, we have taken almost no pictures. Part of that is due to not having kids, and part can be attributed to laziness.

I'm sure I will add to these...we'll see when that happens. Happy 2011!

Welcome, 2011

...So long 2010, it's been great, but don't let the door hit you on the way out!

A lot happened in the last year. Looking back, my biggest accomplishment was graduating college, hands down. While I can look back on other things Peter and I have done, no need to re-list any, I am looking forward to what the next year has to bring.

I know, this is a week-ish late...but that is apparently how I do things :)