Francesca's

Last night my good friend and I went shopping at Francesca's, a new boutique in Oxmoor Mall, and it was fabulous! They had a beautiful collection of dresses in all kinds of colors and beautiful patterns and all very reasonably priced. Their accessories and handbags are quite enchanting. I just Googled it and apparently it's a national chain, although it does have that unique-boutique feel which I love. I'm officially a big fan.

A Plethora of Internet Awesome

One of my favorite things about working in advertising is that I can watch funny commercials on YouTube and it's "research"! (Technically, these videos are normally in blog posts from advertising blogs so I find them when I am actually reading industry news so it's totally legit.) Today I have found some pretty funny stuff.

Not a commercial, but Craig Ferguson blaming advertising for creating the Jonas Brothers. Sorry, world. (found via The Denver Egotist)



The next two are from Adrants. The first is the story of my life with subtitles; the second is a beautiful tribute. Dwight Shrute's new title should be "Assistant to the Magician's Assistant."

I'm a Carnivore for Polyvore

I'm not sure that headline really makes sense. I mean, you can't eat Polyvore, but if you could I would. Anyway...

I just found my new most favorite site ever (for this week): Polyvore.

Polyvore allows users to create their own fashion spreads using clothes from stores across the price spectrum, from Forever 21 to Alexander McQueen. So while you're shopping for clothes and you click on a cute top, it will show you the other items that users have paired it with. Exactly what I've always wanted clothing websites to do! And of course, you can go in and pair things together to make an ensemble! There is so much to love here!!!

It's also a fabulous place to get ideas. For someone who can be a little retarded when it comes to color combinations and being creative with fashion (Which I'm working on because my clothes are very dull. Jeans and top everyday. One of three different pairs of earrings. My wedding bling. That's about it.) (Actually I can be pretty dull on most decor and fashion fronts, as I frequently discuss, most recently here.)

I've played around with it some (Okay, a lot.) and here's my first two creations! Ta da! They might not seem like much, but so much more fun than what I wear everyday!

Summer Shopping by KatieEarley featuring American Eagle Outfitters

Fun with Leggings by KatieEarley featuring KaTang shoulder bags

And of course, all items were priced under $50 because I'm budget friendly.

Now go forth and Polyvore! You can post your creations in comments!!

Penny Pinching

Lee and I have a monthly budget that we try to stick to. Normally, this works out fine, but lately it seems that something comes up and we always go over a little. We keep some extra in the checking account so this isn't necessarily a huge problem (yet) but towards the end of the month I always go into crazy-mode (One might say I stay in crazy-mode.) in an attempt to stay within the budget.

As of Sunday, we were exactly at budget for July. I'm determined to make it through the rest of the week without spending another penny! (In theory.) This month I feel like I've come up with some mildly special ways of stretching our current lack-of-dollar, so I thought I'd share.

• There was 1.5 things we really did need. Kitty litter and milk. Fortunately, I got a $15 rebate from the last time I bought Zoey's flea and tick medicine so that extra income has covered those extra costs covered!
• I have absolutely no eye makeup remover left, so I googled other options because I knew I had heard of some. I wound up using baby oil and it worked better than the stuff I was out of. Score!
• I had been craving chocolate but we were out of pre-packaged treats. I did have some chocolate-chip cookie ingredients though!
  
• I'm running low on breakfast bars so I'm bringing bread and jam and making toast and jelly at work. This is probably a fairly obvious solution, but I hadn't thought of it before so I felt clever.
• Also not ground-breaking, but as I was pouting about our lack of chips until I remembered that we have a lot of popcorn.

Ultimately, the moral of this story is: Really evaluate what's lying around because there is probably something that will work.

There are a few small things that might push us no more than $5 over but I think we did a good job this month! *pats self on back*

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosscrawford1/ / CC BY 2.0

I Feel So Popular

A couple weeks ago my dear friend Caitlin invited me to write a guest post for her blog on my beloved Jane Austen. Since we have been real-life best friends from back before when blogs were cool (Actually there wasn't ever Facebook then! Gosh I feel old. When I started college (7 dorm rooms down from Caitlin) in September 2002, there was no Facebook.), this wasn't too surprising because we're obviously each other's biggest fans. However, Hannah from Journal of a Rock Angel liked my post so much she asked to repost it! I feel so popular! I'm also a huge dork. Anyway, just go check out Hannah's blog and read my thoughts on Jane again. (If you want. I mean, how can you tire of her? I can't!) Thanks Hannah!

In other English dork news, I'm loving this:

The Real Flava' of Love

So last night Lee and I were eating dinner (I had cooked some chicken (With this recipe but I just put the sauce on the chicken in a skillet.) with corn on the cob and green beans (sauteed with garlic salt and butter, a recipe I stole from Jenn). Yummy!) Anyways, we were talking and Lee (He is so cute!) said, "This is the real Flava of Love" (as opposed to this Flava). Aww... :)



In other sweet news, just in case you live under a rock and haven't seen this awesomeness yet...


Caitlin, how much would I have had to pay you to do that?! ;)

Red and Aqua?

I've realized that I have this tendency to excessively color coordinate my home, even though when I look through decorating blogs and websites I appreciate a more eclectic feel. So I'm trying to un-Sears catalog the home. Slowly but surely.

Currently I'm thinking about changing up the couch pillows and throwing in some new color spice on the mantel and bookshelves. The couch is red with coordinating pillows that came with it from Value City. Not fun, as seen in this photo from a couple years ago.


Aww...are those anniversary flowers? I think they are!

So I'm thinking, to jazz things up a bit, I'll introduce some aqua. Yes, aqua. Here's a fabric swatch I'm lovin' and more evidences of the awesome power of this color combination here at Party Perfect, oh brooke, and The Inspired Bride.

It may be months before this plan goes into action, but I'm excited!

Tuna

Is it wrong to post about tuna the day after I posted about my new Betta fish? Hmm....

So I tried Cooking for Assholes' tuna salad recipe last night and it was pretty yummy. I don't know about the weighting-it-down suggestion to soak the bread though. I am anti-soggy bread. In fact, when I pack a tuna sandwich for lunch I pack the bread and tuna separately and usually toast the bread.



Yummy!

Meet Kevin

We now have a Betta fish. His name is Kevin.



My brother-in-law and his wife went to a wedding this weekend and this was the centerpiece at the rehearsal and they brought us one! And then they decided that they didn't want the additional one they had brought to our apartment and promised to take with them. Awesome. Or not.



Actually, I picked Kevin out early on as the one we would keep since he played dead the least. Since then, I've kind of fallen for him. He's pretty awesome, as you can clearly tell. And we've found a home for Not Kevin. (Yes, that has become his name.)



So welcome to the family Kevin! We are now officially outnumbered by the animals.

The 100th

This is my 100th post. Wow.


I must admit that writing post 1 I didn't there would be a post 100. I had some free time and had started reading some blogs and kept having thoughts like, "I should write a blog post on [something mildly amusing that just happened]." Add that with my missing writing. Even though I only write when I have to (I don't have journals filled with random thoughts and poems and stories), I really enjoy it and needed a reason to start again.

In the beginning I thought this would be full of mildly-prolific thoughts on real things. I had actual visions of this being "deep." It's not what I thought it would be, but I've had a lot of fun with it, and I hope this little side project continues to grow and be worthwhile for me and you guys too. Even if that's nothing more than a shared appreciation for humorous YouTube videos.

image:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10413717@N08/ / CC BY 2.0

Stitch-tastic Cards and Awkward Photos

I was trying to be clever and easy at the same time and decided to try my hand at stitching some cards for a birthday present.

It was easy and it wasn't at the same time, meaning it took a couple nights (while watching Season 1 of The Big Bang Theory) and the hole punching (Push pins work better than the embroidery needle, in my opinion.) was a bit tiresome and produced some hand cramps, but I'm generally pleased.



I got the fireworks pattern from Sublime Stitching's flickr. I was really pleased with these.



The "e" is my favorite; the tea cup is my least favorite. The tea cup is taken from some random clip art and I just printed off a big "e."

I'm still working on my technique a bit, but I think there's some potential here.

In other DIY news, in an attempt to save money I've decided to try to trim my own bangs. I bought some real-deal hair scissors yesterday and gave it a whirl. I am quite relieved it turned out alright.



I never know what to do in photos. The standard smile seems too cheesy but then my other faces are just weird.
I'm awkward.

PJ Pants Part 1

I finished Lee's PJ pants! They are pretty sweet, not gonna lie! Here he is modeling them before I put the drawstrings in.


(I've been trying to take better pictures and tried to edit this a little but I think I just made it worse. I'm just going to blame the apartment kitchen lighting.)

Hopefully in the next month I'll have my matching pair completed. (We are such nerds!) In case you're wondering, I used this Simplicity pattern (and adjusted them to fit more on the hips than waist).

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Rocks!

Yes, I was hardcore and did the midnight showing of Harry Potter last night and it was awesome and totally worth the lack of sleep! (Especially since I took a half-day and didn't go to work until after lunch so not too bad.)



I really think all the HP movies do a fabulous job of translating the books into movies, adding and deleting scenes so we get an excellent visual of the 700+ pages of text in 150 minutes. Especially since I haven't read this one (or any of them) since the Deathly Hallows release, my memory was a little too vague to be picky. My main thoughts on the film, and feel free to discuss in comments:

Beware coming spoilers for this movie/book and the next.

Is it just me or did they foreshadow Snape being on the good side a bit more than the book does? One of the reasons I re-read all the books before the last one came out was I determined to find some sort of clues about where Snape's loyalties lie and came up with nothing. I think the movie gave more pro-Snape clues.

Where was the battle?! The Death Eaters attacked Hogwarts, they didn't just come to watch Dumbledore die and bust some windows.

A little more Ginny and Harry time is always appreciated.

I can't remember how important the Percy vs. rest of the Weasleys tension was in book six, but a lack of Percy in this film makes me concerned he might not be in the next, and one of my favorite scenes is when Percy comes to Hogwarts to fight and they have the big family reconcilation before the final battle.

Emotionally, I held up better than expected. Normally when I read Dumbledore's death I cry to the point of sobbing sounds and moans, but last night I kept it to a steady stream of tears. Although I must admit, I started crying before they even made it the cave. The whole "You have to do exactly as I say even if that means leaving me and saving yourself" speech...*sniff* *sniff*

I very much appreciated the extra humor in this film as it helped soften the ending a bit. I don't think I've ever laughed so much during the movies.

All of this reminds me how much I want a Book 8.

I'm on a Boat

In case you haven't noticed (here) I spend some time planning things in my non-existent house. The other day I was wandering Etsy's blog and found an interview with an artist who has a print that I want to base my non-existent son's nursery on. (I spend a lot of time planning for non-existent things.) It's a beach scene that says "If you want to know how much I love you count the waves." Beautiful.

I was telling Lee about this and how we could do a whole nautical thing around the print and it would be awesome. Lee's response?

"Then our baby could be in his crib and say, "I'm on a boat!"

Yes, the "I'm on a boat" featured below. I showed it to Lee last week and have not heard the end of "flippy-floppies." I must admit though, I love it too, and really want to ride around on a boat with this gem blaring from the speakers, while I wear my flippy-floppies.

My New Dream Job

I have a new dream job. I hope to get things underway by the end of the month. I haven't told Lee yet but I'm 110% sure he'll be on board.

Apartment Therapy posted a link to this PERFECT $7 million castle in RI that is screaming, "Katie, make me a B&B!!"

Well, I've been talking with some of my good friends and we have a bullet-proof business plan for this. Jenn and I have long debated the merits of us becoming professional wedding planners so we will make this castle a charming B&B and ideal place to have your wedding. Jenn, my favorite cook in the world (We used to live together and boy do I miss chicken tortilla soup when I'm sick and pasta with vodka sauce when I'm sad!) is in charge of the kitchen and horses, since she is also an accomplished equestrian. I'm decorating with Caitlin and we'll also coordinate guest services. Cynda, my history major friend, is our historical tour guide. Jenn's husband will handle the finances and mine will handle the Wifi website.

Rhode Island here we come! : D

image: Franco Folini

Substitutions

I had a small kitchen victory this week.

I like cooking but I'm not much of a natural at it. I follow recipes and rely on them a good deal. I'm not one of those people who can just whip stuff up or who has a sixth sense about what would be a great addition or what spices to toss in. My hope is that after enough time on the recipe crutch I'll get better at spontaneous culinary masterpieces, but I'm so not there yet.

However, the other night I was making mashed potatoes and only had about one tablespoon of butter, so I added some cream cheese and it turned out pretty well! Way to go me being clever in the kitchen!

(This is probably a pretty duh kitchen substitution, but I was proud of myself. It's the little things.)

(Those aren't my mashed potatoes in the picture. They belong to Manuel Alarcon.)

It's Possible!

I always thought to have a secret room in my house that could only be accessed via bookcase, I would have to spend millions on a haunted Victorian mansion, but not so my friends!



I found this on Lifehacker today. Secret bookcase rooms can be accomplished with some Ikea shelves and basic tools. I'm going to go ahead and add "secret bookcase doorway" to Lee's to-do list for the house we don't own.

Happy First Birthday Reagan!

It's Reagan's first birthday! We guess. Lee's parents found her on their way to our rehearsal dinner on September 5th and guessed she was two months old.

This is the little fur ball when she came to live with us in October.


This is her today, with her squirrel tail.


I got her some new catnip toys to celebrate!


Zoey enjoyed the catnip too.

And on the Fourth of July They Signed It

Happy Fourth of July! Do you have any special holiday traditions? I always try to watch some Schoolhouse Rock and 1776 because I'm a huge dork. Lee's hoping to squeeze in a History Channel special on the secret lives of the Founding Fathers.

Yay for democracy and freedom!

My First Guest Post

My bestie, Caitlin, likes to blog too (We have fueled each other through this obsession.) and invited me to write a guest post for her blog because she's awesome. Her blog commonreaders is all about books so I'm sure you'll be shocked (irony) to know that I wrote about my dear Jane. Check it out, and all the other posts Caitlin writes because she is awesome.

The Hangover

I went to see The Hangover last night, and in short, it was brilliant. Trust me, I'm not exaggerating on this one. (Okay, well, maybe a little. It does require a certain sense of humor. Like a college frat boy sense of humor.) After the movie my face hurt from laughing so hard. At one point, I laughed so hard I cried. Randomly last night while I was getting ready for bed I would start to giggle, Lee would ask why, and I would mumble something about being a "one-man wolf pack." (That would be the scene where I laughed until I cried.)

Here's another one of the hysterical parts I kept quoting last night:




On a local note, the Tinseltown in Springhurst has $5 movies on Tuesday. Very good to know.