Slacker

I'm still continuing to be a slacker! The lack of posts on here is depressing. Good news is that things are progressing! I finally have chargers for the cameras. The back office room is somewhat organized though we have no seating in there and the desk still needs to be painted. I have so many things I want to post about but no pictures with me. So stay tuned for:

• My house decked out in holiday decor (I know its past Christmas)
• Snow at our new house!
• New paintings
• Great Christmas gifts

Those are the big ones. Today Uly is getting declawed. I feel terrible for it to have to come to this but we have tried everything from a plethora of scratching posts to cutting his nails daily. We covered the couches in double sided tape, We covered the couches with blankets and tucked them in but he still gets underneath them to claw the couch. We tried the claw covers that you super glue on (which he manages to get off within 24 hrs). No punishment works on this cat either! If there is trouble to get into he will find it. I will have to take pictures of our poor couches. We are using the laser declaw method which is supposed to be less painful and an easier recovery. Poor kitty has to sleep at the vet tonight. Rocker and Setzer my families old cats were both declawed and they were still able to catch animals and everything so I think Uly will be fine. I still feel really bad about it though.

Christmas morning seemingly overnight Penguin and Uly became best friends. They play and wrestle constantly. I think Penguin ends up getting fed up with it since Uly doesn't tire or give up. He is getting big too. Hes almost 9 lbs and is taller and longer than both the other cats. His paws are huge so I know hes going to continue to grow. I'm so glad to have kitties that frolic! He loves to play with Kathy too who usually lets him do whatever he wants to her but she will play with him sometimes. So cute. I seriously could spend all day simply watching my pets. Pretty sad. When there are four of them though something is always going on.

Justin's Painting

Here is my latest creation, This is a 36" x 48" acrylic on canvas.

This is way more of a landscape than I usually do but I like how it turned out. Hopefully Justin loves it and it has found a good home in his apartment!

I can't believe how long it has been since my last post. Good news though! Janet just got me some chargers for our cameras FINALLY! I should get them today or tomorrow. Plus with Zach's new macbook pro it is a lot easier to update my blog now since I don't have to sit sideways on the couch to use my computer. Sadly the back room still looks like a war zone.

I LOVE WEST ELM

I am in love with all of these things from west elm!
Christmas is coming up everyone!
I NEED this duvet. I have wanted a nice fluffy comforter to go with my new quilt on our bed. This is similar to the one at Anthropologie but only $120 instead of $300+. I will buy this with christmas money if I don't get it... hahaha

I love glass bottles and these antiqued ones are awesome! I especially love the mint green one and the dark green ones.

 These little owl ornaments are too cute.

I forget that I don't have a Christmas tree skirt every year. My mom gave me her old one but it doesn't fit our tree stand. I actually really like this faux fur one. I think it would be super simple to make too...

I think this garland is pretty. I saw these branches with little silver leaves on them at this little shop called Shore Gallery. I really wanted them to put in a glass cylinder for the holidays but they were $65 a bunch! Bummer. I figured I could make my own with paint and normal leafy branches but I have yet to find the right thing.

Since we got new kitty he is enjoying scratching up our couches. We've tried the little claw covers and he chews them off. For whatever reason our other cats don't scratch the furniture much. So our couches are covered with blankets galore and even with 3 throws on one the other is still bare. Plus the blankets don't match the room so it looks stupid. These faux fur blankets look awesome though and I desperately want one! Like the grey. Or really any. SO COZY!

West elm also has a ton of awesome pillow covers....and guess what I have like 7 pillows that need covers. I know if Zach reads this he will say WE DON'T NEED MORE PILLOWS OR GLASS BOTTLES! But these are just so nice and sophisticated! Plus since our house all has a somewhat similar color scheme things like pillows are interchangeable between rooms. Its always nice to be able to shuffle things around.

I adore this last pillow but I think the kitties may like it as much as me. Doesn't stop me from wanting it!

I am also in need of a fresh batch of tights, and if you know me you know I pretty much wear tights daily. I prefer dresses and tights to jeans any day. Most of my favorite tights have gotten life crippling snags which turn into giant holes and runs. So most of my favorites have recently met the trash. :( So depressing every time it happens, but trust me that I got their use out of them. Minus one that I got last Christmas which I somehow managed to put a giant hole in the first time I was putting them on. Now that was sad.

Anyways I'm just dreaming about how beautiful my house would be with these wonderful things in it! And how beautiful I would be in those tights! Just kidding.

Images courtesy West Elm and Anthropologie

Best of Friends

Ulysses seems to have won over every ones hearts! (We named the new kitty Ulysses) Lurina is the only one still a little grumpy about it but she only seems to be irritated when he chases her or pounces on her. Kathy doesn't know what to do when he gets rambunctious with her. Penguin plays with him chasing him around, I am waiting for them to wrestle but they haven't gotten that comfortable yet. He was so sick and underweight when we got him. His bones were sticking out however we've been feeding him kitten food and he has gotten SO much bigger in two weeks. Its crazy. He doesn't know his name yet, I usually call him little man or Uly (yew-lee) because Ulysses seems like a mouthful. Seriously though how cute is this!?

He was super mellow and laid back when we first got him. However now that he is feeling better he has gotten way crazier. Just the normal antics of a little boy kitten though. He is a great cat though and we love him!

Halloween!

I love costumes and dressing up! I thought my costume this year was super successful. Bummer that my cameras are still lacking chargers so I had to revert to the cellphone for pics. My makeup was really good too, its a bummer you can't see it perfectly. I scared the poor lady at CVS when I went to buy lipstick...

Corkboard

My corkboard is finally complete! Thanks to Earl and Kay for giving me all those corks to use! The frame is 24 x 36. There are 540 corks used on that board! It was pretty easy too. Janet and Mike cut me a piece of 1/4" thick wood to use as the backing and I used clear drying caulk to glue them on. My original plan was going to be to use a hot glue gun but I figured that wouldn't hold good enough. I think it looks awesome though! Now if only we could complete my desk so that I could start straightening the room up....

Im still stuck using cellphone pictures. I have had no luck finding our camera chargers and no stores around carry them! Ive tried RadioShack, Best Buy, and Batteries Plus.

New addition to the family

Sadly the camera chargers/cords are still nowhere to be found! It is awful! However there is some good news!

Unless something goes terribly wrong we will be welcoming this little guy into our family on Thursday!

Zach and I are still debating over what to name him.

Camera Woes

Well I am very sad because I had the day off yesterday and several wonderful things I wanted to blog about. However my cameras had different ideas in mind rather than photograph things in my house for me. Both mine and Zach's cameras are dead. PLUS neither of the chargers are anywhere to be found. Believe me I searched every nook and cranny in our house. I may have to go out to buy a battery charger.

I will figure something out sooner or later. Now that some of my house is closer to being in a condition that I actually like I can start thinking of the next things on my home makeover list. The living room and kitchen are starting to look good and less like works in progress. Here are the things I am itching to get done:

• New countertops for the kitchen- currently there is white laminate that is stained and falling apart on part and awful white tile on another. I REALLY like this one laminate that is in stock at lowes. It has a nice edge so it looks more like granite or higher end that plain old laminate. Plus I think it would look awesome in our kitchen. AND its affordable. I think total it would be $300-$400. Although we still have a $150 Home Depot gift card from the wedding. So I think this will be happening soon!
• Glass backsplash in the kitchen, I already have a set plan in mind and it will look awesome!. I hate how our current white and grey checkerboard tile is only on one wall and not behind the stove.
• Curtains for the bedroom. Now that my bedroom is making progress in the bedding department and actually has a color scheme, the olive green curtains need to be moved to another room and replaced with some charcoal grey ones. At least thats what I have in mind.
• Accent wall in bedroom- I also want to paint the wall behind the bed charcoal grey. Super easy fix.
• Paint office.
• Finish and paint desk- this project has been taking way too long. We need to just get it done!
• Cork board- To make this I need wine corks. So far I have like...8. Sad. I need WAY more. Anyone drink lots of wine and have corks to donate? I'm considering asking restaurants to save some for me. At least the frame is done.
• Paint halls and back room. I already have the color picked. I think its benjamin moore's owl grey? I could be wrong.
• Refinish kitchen table and chairs. If I get the counter tops I want then my plan for the table and chairs may be changing. I was going to paint the table white and the chairs this aqua and sea foam green color. (two of each) I am starting to think that I should do a weathered stained look? Not sure.
• Finish the top and paint the tv console in the back room.
• Paint other furniture in back room.
• Comforter for the bedroom. I now have a wonderful quilt but I really want a comfy maybe down grey comforter for my room. I would love the Anthropologie one but I may have to look into similar cheaper options. I've seen some at West Elm, and Bed Bath & Beyond.

Thats about it for my list of things I really want to do! Maybe by the end of next year we will have some of this done...

sleepy cat

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Two down, five to go

I am feeling super guilty for not blogging! I just have not had any time. Plus my computer at home is so uncomfortable to use, however hopefully that will be changing very soon! We finally have the materials to finish the desk, just now we have to do the work! Zach is off work this weekend so I may be putting that on the honey do list.

I spent my day off yesterday slaving over some curtains. I have been desperately in need of curtains for the majority of the house. Now I can officially say I have some for the living room and the kitchen. Next on my list will be the bedroom. Here is a preview since I have yet to hang them. I am hoping to get hardware tonight after work.

I have so many ideas on things I want to do for the house and it is really nice to actually get some of them done! I feel very accomplished. Hopefully I will get some real pictures up soon as well as my birthday presents!

Speaking of my birthday... Zach and I ended up going to eat at Warriors Grill. Which is always good and inexpensive. I noticed their light fixtures. I thought they looked pretty cool and would be real easy to make something similar. I don't exactly have a place for it but it would be neat and simple.

whos the cutest dog in the world??

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Paintings for my dad's office

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Zach's surprise

Zach made me a plethora of desserts! From left. Jewish gooey bars, grandmas special apple pie and dark chocolate brownies! Yum!! I love that my hubby can cook and bake too!

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Beautiful Glamping Princesses

This weekend we went camping in West Virginia with some friends. It was super fun! While the boys all went white water rafting Alyssa and I went and climbed on the rocks... and sunbathed. There were some crazy hippies taking over our campsite, hanging out at our tents and putting crap on our tables. We decided to go  into hiding until the boys got back because the invasion of our space was freaking us out. We got nail polish and painted our nails. So I guess we were glamping. (Glamorous camping). I actually really like the nail polish I got.

I am pretty sure it is impossible for me to paint my nails without messing them up somehow.

Tomorrow I turn 24. Zach has class so I won't really see him at all. He is taking me out tonight and apparently working on some surprise that involves 3 phases. I have no clue what he is doing and I am excited!

Fabric Resources

One of my favorite blogs: Design Sponge posted this about a week ago: Fabric Resources. I love fabric and personally feel like the selection locally is lacking. There is Joann's and Hancock. Which are convenient. But also chains that are very basic and limited with their selections. Fabric Hut off of Little Creek is good for bridal, and special occasion fabrics. They do have basics as well but it is expensive. Blaney's in Norfolk has upholstery and home decor fabrics. I need to check out The Second Yard, especially since I hear good things about it. It is close by on Laskin Road and my mom's friend works there.

 Still, in Hampton roads we have nothing even remotely comparable to Mood.

Image courtesy Mood

Which I drool over every time I watch Project Runway. I am in love with that white and grey print, third down from top on the far right. I am a bit weary about ordering fabric online though. You just can't see what it will look like in person through the Internet. Maybe some day Virginia Beach will get a giant fabric store with an endless selection of awesome fabrics. But for now I will have to settle for the ordinary or take a road trip.

Brandon Flowers

Zach loves The Killers, so of course he had to buy Brandon Flowers new CD Flamingo the day it came out. I've been listening to it a lot, and I can't get enough of the second song Only the Young. This is the best video I could come up with.

alyssas painting

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The start of Alyssa's painting

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painting for sale

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In love

I am so in love with these two things. I want them more than anything. Why do they have to be so expensive?? :(

Janet just refinished this side table for me, a thrift store find for $6. It is going to go in the living room where my computer currently is.

Now the only thing left will be curtains.

Birthday wish list continues...

There are so many things I love, especially when I have no money to get them.

I really want an over the shoulder purse. Here are some beautys from Anthropologie, plus some cute shoes there.

I really looove this one.

I think this last pair is SO cute. Especially with tights! Too bad they are way pricey.

Here are some Nine West shoes

I would always love some of the Dunny 2010 series. I dont have any yet :(

Polaroid Film. Find it here.