Decisions, Decisions.

What up?  We're on vacation right now (but there are rabid wolf/alligator/murderers guarding our house so don't rob us unless you want to be drowned and stabbed and then chewed up after you contract rabies) and just enjoying chatting with friends and family.  Plus, there's an elliptical machine here, so Matt, a.k.a., "fitness fool" is able to get his fix.

Vacation's been pretty quiet and gluttonous.  Yesterday, though, Matt's mom and I made a trip to IKEA because I wanted to pick up an extra couch cover for our couch.  And I lucked out like a mofo because not only did I find my white cover, but I found an extra one in the as-is bin for only $30.  So for $80 I got two couch covers.  They look like this:

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White cover pros: awesome looking, fresh, clean, pillows will look awesome on it.  Cons: a dog sits on the couch, Wal-Mart feet, general feelings of anxiety about f'ing it up.

Here's the plan.  One of these covers will stay white until it becomes too dingy or stained, at which point I will dye it grey.  But the other?  Oh, the possibilities!

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Grey couch cover pros: general awesomeness, looks very adult, won't show Mitch fur, won't show dirt, will look cool when contrasted with bright and colorful pillows.  Cons: not all that exciting, kind of dullsville.

I need your opinion here.  Keep in mind that I will already have a couple of serious grown-up looking covers, so this one is for fun and general awesomeness.  Also, the color needs to be a shade that is not too dark lest it show too much Mitch fur.

So I've narrowed it down to green, orange, pink, purple, or turquoise.

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Green couch cover pros: so fun, bright and happy, won't show Mitch fur too much, will look good against the wooden shelves.  Cons: maybe a little too bright, too similar to the turquoise in the kitchen and elsewhere in the house, lots of my throw pillows are green.

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Orange couch cover pros: so fun (!), wouldn't show fur too much, would look good with my pillows on it, is a really fun contrasting color to the turquoise that's everywhere else.  Cons: I already have a bunch of orange accents in the room, and this could be overkill; it will be up against the kind of already orangey wooden bookshelves.

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 Pink couch cover pros: it's pink, it's so incredibly fun I can't even stand it, would look really fun with my pillows, would look great contrasted with the turquoise elsewhere in the house.  Cons: it's pink, could be a little too warm since it's going up against the wooden bookshelves, perhaps overly girly.

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Purple couch cover pros: school spirit, purple is awesome, there's really not any purple in that room already, nobody has a purple couch, would look awesome with my pillows, Matt will think it's blue.  Cons: could be a little too dark, people might think that we are royalty and be nervous around us.

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Turquoise couch cover pros: um, beautiful, would look great with my pillows, would look great against the bookshelves, wouldn't show dog fur too much, it's basically my favorite color, isn't overly obnoxious.  Cons: I have already painted three rooms in our house turquoise and it might be too much.  What if I start to hate turquoise at some point.  Hell, it happened with hunter green.

So, I need your input.  What should it be?  

I See a Brown Table and I Want to Paint It ________.

I'm really challenged in the grown-up furniture department.  There are like three pieces of furniture in our house that are not from IKEA or Craigslist (even though, who cares, right, because IKEA and Craigslist are awesome!), and the few actual nice things we have came from Matt's mom.*

Anyway, we used to use this little computer table as our end table between our two recliners (one from Goodwill, one from Craigslist), but then it was always covered with cords and Reese's cup wrappers and coasters and cameras and crap, so I decided that we needed something that had storage.

Then, a few months back, I picked up this little fun table at a used furniture store by our house for $10!  And Matt and I both love it, except that I would love it more if it were painted.

Are you so jealous of Mitchell fur tumbleweeds?

It should be noted here that Matt does not want me to paint the table, and it's only been after several weeks of, "Yeah?  You're sure you want to keep that table that ugly shade of scuffed up brown?" that he's even been worn down and agreed that I can paint it.  But his agreement is all accompanied by eyeball rolling and slow head turning and shoulder shrugs, and now I'm a little conflicted because I want Matt to want me to paint the table.  And at that point we're basically Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston from that crappy break up movie, and even though we look like them (totally identical twins), we don't really want to go down that path because if we broke up we'd have to change our Facebook relationship statuses.

So you know what?  I don't care if he wants me to paint the table.  He's not going to be mad at me if I paint it, and there's a good chance that he'll realize afterward that I was totally right.**

Now, I've got some options here, and I want your opinion.  This table will be going in our ultra-white-with-bright-accents living room, and I can't decide if I should be conservative with it and paint it black.

Or if I should be more bold and do something like yellow?

 [source]

 Or orange?

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Or turquoise?

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Or purple?

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And now I want your vote.  What should it be?  The grown-up black?  Or one of the more colorful, exciting, fun alternatives?



*Without Matt's parents and our wedding registry, Matt and I would basically have an office chair and a rusty knife.  Sounds like the scene of a scary movie, huh?  


**See, also: parmesan cheese really does taste better when you shred it yourself; we should have an adventure honeymoon instead of an all-inclusive one; the dog should sleep in the bed.

I'm Basically Bob Vila.

So, a couple of months ago, I read this blog post where this girl took an old funky dresser and jazzed it up by removing the drawers and painting it. It was kind of awesome, and I thought it was something I might be able to do myself.

And just a couple of weeks after that, I was browsing the free section of Craigslist and I saw this dresser that was missing two drawers. Perfect! It was a little busted looking, but it had good bones, and I thought it had some potential for awesomeness.

After I picked it up from a very nice lady named Penny, I brought it home and put it in the office/junk room/catchall for everything in the house that has no real place. And there it sat for two months.

But then last week I got motivated. I removed the hardware, borrowed a sander from a friend, and went to town. In the house. Note to self: do not sand a dresser in the house. Seriously. It was a very stupid idea, but Matt wasn't home and the dresser was too big and cumbersome for me to move it outside myself and I wanted to do it RIGHT THEN and I, on occasion, lack patience. I'll be wiping up brown dust for the next year of my life, and I may or may not have made myself sick with inhaling all of the dust that was laced with Ebola or something comparable. Oops.

So after I sanded the dresser and filled in the wood holes, I primed it and gave it two coats of paint (The same paint that I'll soon be using on other house projects, so none will go to waste. The color is slightly off-white, Martha Stewart's color Talc from Home Depot. I plan to put the dresser in our guest room, and it'll be joining the IKEA Expedit shelf which is a little off-white as well.) I also added new hardware (which I found at Target on clearance for $13.98).

The last thing I needed to do was figure out how to do the bottom part. I considered baskets or some other kind of solution, but ended up just lining the inside with some fabric that I got from IKEA last year.

Anyway, here it is now. I'm in love.

Yeah, you can still totally see where the old hardware was. Also, I don't care.

And here's a breakdown of the cost:

• Dresser: free
• IKEA fabric: I had it already, but I paid $4 for it originally
• Paint: $15, but I only used like 1/10 of a gallon, and I'm using the rest for other stuff. So this was like $3 worth of paint and primer.
• Hardware: $13.98

Total: $20.98

I Swear I Didn't Plan It!

So, I've been trying to get Matt to let me put a TV in our bedroom for about four years.

But Matt forbids it.

He says that if I have a TV in the bedroom, I will never leave the bedroom. 

And, well, I can't really argue with that. So I don't push the issue.

Now let's switch gears a bit.  Matt and I also never get money back from our taxes.  What we get back from federal we always seem to owe to state, so it's always a wash. 

But this year we did.  It wasn't anything too crazy, but it was enough that we thought it would be okay to buy ourselves a present or two.  Last Sunday, I dragged Matt to Target because I wanted to look for the complete series of Six Feet Under (birthday gift idea!).  As he does every time he walks into my home away from home, he made a b-line for the back to look at the TVs.  We've been wanting a nicer TV for our guest room for a while now, but it was just never much of a priority.  But there were a bunch on sale, and about 15 minutes after walking into Target, we were walking out of Target with a new 32-inch baby.  Fair enough.

So we set it up in the guest room, on top of the new Expedit.  Truth be told, the new TV was supposed to help with us losing weight (because I can rationalize any purchase with "it will help me to lose weight") because we could put the Wii in there and stream Netflix instant, which would make us (and by us I mean me, because Matt is an ellipting addict already) want to work out more.

Now here's the part I didn't count on.  We have a really comfortable bed in the guest room. 

Uh oh.

This has been my view for the last few days.

Mitch loves it, too.

So, anyway, I subconsciously manipulated my husband into doing what I want.  And I'm pretty pleased with myself.



If you need me, or Mitch, you know where to find us.

Weekend Fun!

Last year I was a jealous mess when my friends and family up north were getting pounded with snow.  Then it snowed here, which satisfied me. 

This year, in what I believe is a testament to how I've worked to have a good attitude about stuff, I haven't really been jealous of other people's snow at all. 

And when I looked at our forecast for the weekend and saw that we were in for a weekend of mid-70's and sunshine, I had not an ounce of envy for those who are covered with the white stuff.

Top that with the promise of a chili dog feast with good friends, and I knew we were in for good times.

So our weekend consisted of:

Snugglin' dogs.

An IKEA rat infestation.

More dog snugglin'.

Grapefruit juice squeezin'.

Outside lunch eatin'.

Lots of ice creamin'.

Not pictured:

• Room rearrangin'.
• Phone talkin'.
• Nappin'.

And now (and seemingly until the end of time), paper gradin'. 

When I find my way out from under this stack of ninth graders' persuasive essays (my Everest!), I'll share some more fun stuff from the weekend.

Hope your weekend was just lovely!

This and That

Here's what fun and exciting in our neck of the woods.

1.  Green Bay is going to the Super Bowl.  Now, I don't care about football (unless we're talking about high school football in Dillon, Texas), but I am excited about Green Bay's success this year.  I have three reasons for this enthusiasm.  1.) Aaron Rodgers, who is their handsome bearded quarterback, won Matt a fantasy football league this year.  Cha-ching!  2.) Green Bay has the best uniforms.  3.) I bought Baby June a hat in the Green Bay colors (her dad's a big fan), and I think it'd be extra cool if they went on to win.

2.  My favorite mechanic who works on Volvos, Mike from Auto Intensive Care (he's tied with my other favorite mechanic, Paul, who is handsome and honest and is always wiping his hands with a towel in a very handsome way--oh, and he is really good at fixing cars) sent an email today where they have some car care package where you can get like $600 worth of car maintenance stuff for $99.  It's a crazy good deal, and it's crazy smart on his part.  If you live in Savannah, I recommend calling Auto Intensive Care and signing up.  (I can email you the details if you'd like--just leave a comment.)

3.  Another thing for Savannah folk: you need to go eat at Saigon Bistro.  We went there on Sunday for lunch and it was omigod good.  The food was fresh and delicious and cheap (the most expensive thing on the menu was $8), and I'll be really sad if they go out of business.  So go there already!

4.  Our new semester starts tomorrow, which is awesome because that means that the year is half over.  It's also awesome because I'll only have one prep and I'll have third block planning (So I have planning from 11:00-1:10 and can eat lunch at the time that most humans do.  Looks like someone will be getting lots of takeout from Saigon Bistro!).  I love the part of my job where I get lots of fresh starts and new beginnings.

5.  On Friday I went to Back in the Day Bakery with a friend, and while we were there, Southern Living magazine's photographers were there doing a photo shoot, like, RIGHT next to us.  Look for the April issue of Southern Living, which will be giving props to the best little bakery in the SAV, and know that I was sitting right next to that beautiful cupcake.

6.  Mitch is still insanely cute.

7.  Made marshmallows over the weekend.  I made them for Matt's godfather, who lives in South Florida and freezes whenever the temperature dips below 75.  He insisted that peppermint marshmallows had to be green, so I honored his weird request.  Ooh, and I figured out how to swirl them!

8.  Got a dresser for free from Craigslist.  I've got grand plans for it.  Get excited.

9.  When we were in Florida, Matt's mom bought me an awesome lamp for my birthday.

10.  And it has a spot on the awesome shelf that she also got for me.  Am I spoiled or what?  (Also, I am like the very last of all of my friends to get this shelf, and I couldn't be a happier copycat.)  Oh, and this will look different soon, once I get Cassie over here to help with shelf styling (already totally copied her sewing maching idea).  And, no, that's not Mitch's angelic glow off to the left; I just don't know how to take a good picture of the shelf with the lamp on it.

Hope your week is a breeze!

Cupcake Kitchen

I'm not terribly good at window treatments (or home decorating in general--like I've mentioned before, our house is slightly more sophisticated than a dorm room).  I'm not good at figuring out how to make curtains look good, and I'm way too cheap to invest money in good ones.  I'll deal with it.

But I have been looking for some kind of curtain for our kitchen window, mostly because we've had new neighbors move in next door and our houses are REALLY close together.  When I stand at the kitchen sink and look out the kitchen window, I'm essentially staring into an eight-year old girl's window.  Fortunately, she has curtains.  (But the other day I was pacing around the driveway chatting away on the phone when she stood right in her window, behind those curtains, and stared at me.  This kid's like eight, and has apparently watched a lot of scary movies.  I almost shit my pants.) 

So I want something to put in the window for those times I do dishes topless (which I hardly ever do), and to protect me from the creepy little git next door.  (I jest; she's probably fine.)

I was going to use the fun fabric that I found at IKEA, but that would 1.) require some sewing technique, and 2.) be really busy-looking.  Plus, I couldn't figure out exactly where to cut into the print. 

Crisis averted.

When Cassie came over last night to wolf down some Domino's (yeah, pizza tracker!) and to develop an addiction to MTV reality television, she was bearing gifts--super super cute cupcake kitchen towels from IKEA.  !!!!!!

They're fun, and all a little different. 

And we had an  idea.

IKEA cupcake kitchen towel curtains.  Let's do it.

So today I stopped by my local Target (because apparently my body will cease to function if I do not go there at least 6 times per week) and picked up some of those little curtain clips.

Now, I should have ironed these first, but check out how fun!

They're like the sassy first cousins to this cupcake collage I hung in the kitchen a few weeks back:

Aaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnd. . .now I'm hungry.

Enjoy your Thursday.  I'll be spending my Thursday at home, eating yogurt and ice cream, because apparently trying to talk over thirty ninth graders at a time about Shakespeare while they chatter away will make an already-sore throat feel even worse.  It's either that or Ebola.

Curtains, Curtains!

I'm pretty much obsessed with my new Stockholm Blad curtains. Here are the curtains that we had in the room before. Oh, and by curtains I mean sheets that I had chopped to pieces with a pair of kitchen shears. If I had ever taken a close-up (which I refused to do because they were so hideous), I could show you how the sheets were all frayed and wrinkled. But the best part is how the bottom of the shirtains was about a foot from the floor. It became one of those things I hated, then got used to, then hated again, got used to again, and then, three years later, changed.

(Now, these two pictures aren't a true before and after because of the completely different light, but I have faith that you'll forgive me that sin.)

Before:

And after.

I'm in love--with the curtains, of course. . .
. . .but mostly just with this dog. . .

. . .and this hilarious fabric. That there's going to be a kitchen curtain one day--and maybe a pillow, and maybe a jacket, or a pair of boots. The possibilities are endless, really.