I Guess I'm Just a Mediocre Harry Potter Fan

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I haven't seen the new Harry Potter movie yet. I am going tonight though, with my Gryffindor scarf. And we're getting Indian food beforehand, which is popular in Britain so relevant to the whole theme of the evening, right? 


see more Lolcats and funny pictures

The last few movies I have gone to the midnight premiere, even taking a half-day off work the next day for some extra sleep, but this year I just couldn't muster the strength for a midnight showing. I guess I'm getting old. That and the whole part where they're hanging out in the woods was pretty boring in the book so I'm not sure how much I'll really like this movie, although I've heard wonderful things about it.

I am fairly determined to make it to the midnight premiere for the final film though, since it's well, the final film. *sniff sniff*

Bon Voyage, Blue Carpets!

Our home is rid of blue carpet and the hard wood floors await installation on Monday! Now if we can just finish getting the trim painted...

C-A-T-S! CATS! CATS! CATS!

Saturday my sister and I got to go the UK vs. Vandy football game! Go Cats! : D


Here come our boys!!

In the middle of the field, the guy in blue on the left, is the Randall Cobb. Most of my game time cheers are basically, "I love you, Randall Cobb!"

TOUCHDOWN!

The band played Somebody to Love by Queen, which made sister and I think of Glee.


And we won! It was a wonderful football Saturday, but I'm glad it's basketball season again. ; )

Re-evaluating

She looks so thoughtful here. Almost like she's not the kind of dog to enjoy eating cat poop. 


Remember when I made all those New Year's resolutions? Yeah that was fun. And (not suprisingly) fairly unsuccessful. I was reading a blog post recently on whether we're more likely to stick to goals if we share them or keep them to ourselves. I think either way, it's about a 50/50 shot for me. But it's nice to write things down, and now that we have a little less than two months left to 2010, I've been thinking about what I really hope to do by the end of the year:


+ Read 5 books. (I've already got 2 of them started.)
+ Scan all those pictures our parents gave us for our wedding slide show so we can have a copy and then finally return them.
+ Sell old electronics and the swing set left by the previous home owners on Craigslist. (If you want a swing set, new all-in-one printer that can't print borderlessly, vacuum with broken hinge (but still sucks in the way vacuums are supposed to), old laptop or old digital camera (runs on AA batteries!), holla.)
+ Finish the birthday present I was going to make for my friend's daughter's second birthday. She's now 3 years and 2 months old. 
+ Clean the grout in the bathroom.
+ Go through all the boxes in the basement. 
+ Paint all the trim in the house white (in progress). 
+ Bake bread (I bought the ingredients a couple months ago).
+ Take one day or evening and spend some quality time with DSLR tutorials and my Nikon Charles. 


Here we go... 

Things with Wings

I had these elaborate Halloween plans of dressing up as Rachel Berry (I'm a bit of a Gleek.), coercing Lee to go as Finn and making a slushie costume for Zoey (puppy t-shirt with iron-on slushie cup + child's clown wig = adorable puppy slushie). But after a day of unsuccessfully searching for a cheap Rachel-esque skirt that would match my purple cardigan cardigan, I gave up. There would have to be an easier and cheaper solution.

So we went batty. Lee quite literally.

I drew my inspiration from here and simplified it even further. Just some fabric cut with pinking shears to avoid fraying or heming and sewed onto a black, long-sleeved tee. The ears are felt with a loop in the bottom so they would slide over a headband. Not to brag, but I was pretty impressed with myself.

Along with the theme of "things with wings", I picked up Zoey a butterfly costume at Target. I don't think she was as excited about her costume as I was about mine. 

But she was excited to be reunited with her ex-roomies Simon and Jenn. (I was too.) 

Week in Review: 10/29

Remember my dry-erase weekly menu? Here's the same concept for a perpetual calendar. So easy and clever.

The bummer in my pursuit to not eat things without weird preservatives (Exceptions made for Oreos and Halloween candy of course.) is that it's hard to find easy, instant, warm food options. Until I was introduced to making my own frozen burritos. I left off the jalapenos and added onions. Yum.


This headboard is amazing, but even more so when you see how the chevron pattern was made from normal striped fabric.

This is my new favorite site. The product descriptions (especially for the headache and allergy medicines) are hysterical, but then when you click on "bored?", the magic really begins.

Have a wonderful Halloween weekend!

Something's Missing

Let's see, there's Duke Blue, Carolina Blue, UCLA Blue, Tufts Blue (Tufts?!) ... WHERE IS KENTUCKY BLUE?!

disappointing image: Wikipedia

Some New Note Cards

Last Christmas I made a lot of stamped note card sets for gifts, but since then, I kind of lost interest (At least I didn't buy that many stamps...) and have been designing the cards in InDesign or Photoshop Elements to print out. Here are some I made this week. I want to pinch their cheeks I think they're so cute.

I'm also trying to decide what I want to do for Christmas cards. Do I want to do postcards like I did for our housewarming party? The pros are that I still have a bunch of postcard stamps (Someone promised to get all their coworkers' and friends' new addresses but never did. I won't name any names. ; ) ) and additional postcard stamps are less expensive than regular ones. However, if I have the postcards printed professionally, that will cost a bit of money, they'll be digitally printed (to keep the price down and since it's a small quantity) which always results in shoddy cropping, and I'll have a ton of extras since we have about 60 people we mail these to and the quantity choices are normally 50 and 100. If I printed my own postcards, they'd likely get wet in the mail since they wouldn't be shiny and waterproof. Any other solutions out there? I think I'll be printing at home and mailing in envelopes.

And the Paint Goes On

House progress is coming along slowly. The kitchen wallpaper stripping and painting and office painting wore us out, so we've been putting off further projects. But it's time to get back to the home improving.

My parents kindly came in one weekend and we were able to get the living room, dining room and guest room painted Olympic's Quaking Grass. 

Before you think I've completely lost all sense of taste, please know that the hardwood floors will be installed in a couple weeks (Good riddance, blue carpet!) and I've picked out some neutral slipcovers.

And then one Saturday I got the pantry painted, shelves relined and organized. It looks so much crisper and cleaner now.

Next on the agenda: painting the trim white so it will be ready for the quarter-round once the new floors are in. Exciting!

Week in Review: 10/15

I wish my weekend plans involved the above. But there will be some barbecue, so you take what you can get.

I never wanted to go to Iceland, but it looks pretty fantastic.

In honor of my new stainless steel dishwasher and my new stainless steel stove (As soon as I pick it out. What are your thoughts on gas vs. electric?): how to polish stainless steel.

Adorable spray-painted cups

My First Craft Project for the House

Ta-da! My first craft project for the new home. So easy one can barely call it a craft project. I combined this dry erase board idea from paper n stitch with this adorable menu printable via How About Orange. Now if only I could start using it regularly and sticking to it. ; )

Feeling Very Hipster

Maybe hipster's not the right word. Trendy? I don't know. In the past week-ish I have acquired a bike for transportation, an iPhone 4 (There's been much happy dancing.) and a yoga membership, so what does that make me? Cooler than two weeks ago? Probably.

In what Lee defines as my habit to "Name Any Purchase Over $100" (We should name the house!), meet Helen. Helen is named for Helen of Troy because they both have a gorgeous design that has led men (and women) to engage in expensive and obsessive behaviors. Please play Words with Friends with me. (I'm kmearley. You might also include a message letting me know who you are because stranger = danger.)

Have you noticed that as iPhones get smaller, they need bigger cases, and are now quite large? I have no idea what the actual size of my phone is because of her gigantic case. With the case, she is probably one of the bigger phones I've ever had, rivaling my first cell phone from 2000. (I've had a cell phone for the past decade. Wow.)

My bike does not have a name yet, but she's pretty sweet. She has taken me to work and back twice and we even went through the bank drive-through together. That was classy.

And special thanks to my dear husband for successfully attaching my basket (It was $15 (with coupon) from Michael's. Yay for not spending $50+ on one!) with a classy combination of zip ties and wood. I've questioned Lee's use of zip ties but it has held up well.

(Okay, I admit the zip ties were originally my idea but that was before I realized there are holes on the rack for screws, which seem sturdier than zip ties. But so far, so good.)

Dinner for 7

The site of a recent family dinner.

I think we need a bigger dining room table. Although this setup is kind of ghetto fabulous.

Lee on Pride and Prejudice

Lee likes to make cheesy jokes.

While shopping for wedding cards...

Lee: None of these are funny. Let's just get a thank-you card and write "Thank you for not eloping."

Me: Seriously?!

Lee: Or if she had read Pride and Prejudice we could write, "Thanks for not being a Kitty."

Me: Lydia was the one that eloped.

Lee: Doesn't matter, they're both sluts.

Shiny New Dishwasher!!

After much indecision on my part (Surprise!), we have a new dishwasher! (It's this Kenmore from Sears and so far, so good.)

It's so shiny! And it doesn't leak! And it isn't a fire hazard!

In other news, the ice maker is now in the business of making one gigantic hunk of ice...

An Act of Kindness

The first thing you should know (in the interest of not being dooced) is that I work for a wonderful company, filled with wonderful people. But inevitably, you have a bad day. I share an office with two other coworkers, so when one of us has a bad day, it's not a secret. Especially since the three of us also suffer from tendencies to talk to ourselves.

So I had a bad day. A project was taking way longer than expected to finish and the program I was using was running ridiculously slow. In addition to the moral support given to me on that bad day, the following week one of my coworkers brought me flowers. So so so so so sweet of her.

Please notify me of any good gluten-free desserts you know of since clearly this act of kindness deserves something in return (and coworker has gluten and soy issues).

Lately

+ Our big housewarming party was a success. Having 40 of our friends and funny running the house was overwhelming, but it's always nice to have so many of the people you love in one spot. Especially if there's beer and corn hole.

+ September 6 was our second wedding anniversary. Sadly, our dinner and a movie plans were disrupted by a plumbing situation (We spent the next four days living by a "If it's yellow let it mellow" policy. Boo. But now we have a plumber that we like so call me if you need one in the Louisville area.) so we opted for Arby's and Netflix instead. Tomorrow night is the fourth anniversary of our first date so something nicer than Arby's might be in order.

+ In addition to the plumbing meltdown, our dishwasher is a fire hazard and no longer in use. The fire hazard was located while someone was trying to fix the dishwasher's leak for the fourth time. Fortunately (and unlike the plumbing situation), this is covered by our home warranty. Now if I can only decide on a new dishwasher.

+ Despite the past two items, we've reached our savings goal to get rid of the blue carpet in the living room and dining room and get some hardwood floors. Now to specifically pick the floors.

+ Lee's sister is engaged! *happy dance*

+ In two months and two days my cell phone contract will be up and when I renew I'm getting an iPhone 4 to replace my boring, not-cool, normal phone. I'm ridiculously excited. Please send app suggestions. Specifically I'll need a good Twitter app and a good note-taking app and perhaps a separate grocery list app.

+ It's college football season, the sport world's tasty appetizer before the main course arrives. The main course being college basketball of course. Go Cats!

+ I've been playing with my blog layout (again!) so if you're reading this in a reader and you haven't actually visited lately you may want to.

+ I just discovered this last night and kind of love it.

Harvest

Remember my "vegetable garden"? Okay, it was just a tomato plant. The last time we saw it the tomatoes were about the size of large pearls. They made it to about the size of ping pong balls, and after several weeks of seeming like they would never turn red...


They did! I was so proud of them! Even more than I was of myself.


Apparently I'm not good at remembering to water them. Oops? I thought that's what the rain was for, but apparently it's been a dry summer. I was just trying to make sure I didn't over water them, which I'm sure is equally dangerous.

Lee got me a book on organic gardening so hopefully next year the tomatoes will be bigger and less droopy. I'm already working on a too-large list of items for next year's garden: potatoes, garlic, basil, parsley, rosemary, lavender, cucumbers, spinach, green onions, green beans...

Best Picture of Zoey Ever

Lee's sister and her fiancé have been staying with us lately. While fiancé and Zoey were left at home, this picture transpired. It's truly a treasure.

Hilton Head Part 3: Beachy

Hello, Beach!


We even got up early one morning to catch the sunrise.




Good morning, Sun!


Despite some clouds, it was gorgeous.


After going back to bed, we woke up for some more beach-ing.

Part 1
Part 2

Hmm...

I've been quite absent lately, because I've been quite busy lately. (And there were some minor technical glitches that I was too lazy to work around.) Which makes me think about my time, how I want to spend it, and what is my actual purpose in hitting "Publish" five times a week. (Other than liking the sound of my own voice...err...in a visual way.) Things will be back to normal soonish.

Hilton Head Part 2: I'm on a Bike

One of my favorite things about Hilton Head were the wonderful bike lanes: wide, often separate from the road, extensive, and passing through some beautiful scenery. Our condo was centrally located so we were able to bike to many places.

 
To the Piggly Wiggly.


To the beach.


To the pirate mini-golf.


To the cupcake shop.


The bike lanes had their own little stop signs. Adorable!


And the paths would cut through some woody spots which was the perfect amount of nature to experience at a time.


Adorable bike bridges helped to separate us from the alligators.


Alligator

Week in Review: 8/27

Nom nom nom...tasty dessert from Redhead Recipes.

I really really really want to sew more but I haven't made the time. This is a tempting project.

Can I live here?

The big party is next weekend so I might have to try one of these fancy tea recipes.

I was kind of wanting to put a map in our office but I'm intrigued by this first idea.

Happy weekend! : )

Hilton Head Part 1: I'm on a Kayak

This is the first in a yet-unknown-number (more than 2, less than 7) series in which I share my vacation photos with you. If you're really really eager to see all the pictures right now, you can just go to my Flickr (Sounds  dirtier than it is.).

Let's start with our kayaking tour. This was a big step for me since:
A. I don't like nature very much. (I'm glad it's there, I just don't want to spend a lot of time with it. This is mostly due to my fears of bugs, snakes, bears and drowning. See item C.)
B. I have the upper body strength of a mouse. (Apparently this is more of a core exercise, not that I have much of a core either.)
C. I don't swim well (doggy paddle FTW) so being in the water in something other than a medium-to-large boat makes me a little nervous.

But Lee likes nature, is strong, and can swim, plus has previous kayaking experience, so kayaking we went!


We departed at 6 p.m. from Shelter Cover Harbour.


We were told not to wear flip-flops but that was all we packed, so we went to Walmart just to get some non-flip-flops. After spending $34 on shoes we don't really like, we gathered with the rest of the tour and most of them were wearing flip-flops. Bummer.


I was both nervous...


and excited. (And a little sad that Lee didn't take me up on my suggestion that we wear matching nautical-themed pashmina afghans.)

You might also notice that I'm sitting in what some people call "the princess seat", but I like to call it "the photographer seat". Someone has to get these sweet dolphin shots.


Yes, there were dolphins. And even though we only saw about 20% of their body, they were still cool.




There were also a lot of birds. They were nice, but no dolphin. This one is an anhinga and is sitting on a barge.


I'm sure you recognize the pelican from Finding Nemo.




In Broad Creek (where we kayaked, it cuts through the middle of Hilton Head Island) there are also oodles of oyster beds. We saw some young American Oystercathers which is rare and none of the pictures turned out but they were still cool. Apparently oyster knives are based on their beaks. And even though oysters seem pretty defenseless, if they sense an oystercatcher approaching, they can clamp down on their beaks and hold them until the tide rises and drowns them. Neato and creepy!


If you're traveling to HHI and/or care, we did a two-hour nature tour through Outside Hilton Head. They were lovely and are not paying me (unfortunately) to say this.