Day 2

To celebrate our 4 year wedding anniversary, Carlton and I took a Royal Caribbean cruise to the Bahamas. It was fun and relaxing, the sun was warm, the food was filling, and it was so nice to just hang out together. Just the two of us. I snapped this shot with my camera on the drive back from the cruise.

Photo a Day in February

I'm coming back (for now) and I've got a little project that will hopefully get me back into the swing of things. The idea of a photo a day in February is catching on all over Pinterest and I'm one of bajillions of women who are probably going to try to do this for 28 straight days.

There are official lists with an assigned topic for each day of the month, but I'm going my own route here and attempting to catch up the dear ol' bloggy poo with the goings on of the Joneses since I last posted. I figured a picture (or, in some cases, a series of them) a day to catch me up won't do any harm, and then after that I can coast on into regular blog updating again.

So, without further adieu, I present you with my photo for February 1:

Our group of friends traveled down to St. George Island for a long weekend (or, in the teachers' cases, a week) of easy beach life at a house called The Blue Wave. What a great weekend we had together! (Yes, I am sparing you the obligatory jumping photo in exchange for the photo where everyone's faces can be seen.)

Alright, be ready to catch up with the Joneses one photo at a time over the month of February! So happy to be back.

213 Gardenia, Part 5: A feminine touch

With all the leather and wood furniture we have in the living room, it was high time I added a little floral touch to the house to make things a little prettier. Don't get me wrong, I am crazy about our living room! But enough is enough when it comes to masculine stuff everywhere.

Lady Luck was on my side a few months ago when we drove to Cartersville for our niece Katie Anne's birthday party: Carlton's mom bestowed upon me a beautiful blooming orchid plant made of some sort of wax and plastic and silk. Everything about it said "pretty" to me, especially because it wasn't something that needed upkeep (except for a light dusting now and then). I also sorted through a plethora of my leftover college stuff-worth-saving that my parents had in storage in their basement, and I came out with some very sentimental posters (ahem, Chelsea Ray, my antique-ish poster of the map of Paris was re-discovered!!!) as well as some long lost perfumes. I usually stick to one for everyday use (Givenchy Very Irresistable) and one for special occasions (Coco Chanel). But every now and then I like to mix things up a little bit. Hence the pretty bottles I brought back with me to Moultrie.

Fast forward a couple months and that orchid plant has a beautiful spot in our hallway bathroom, along with a lovely glass wall shelf and those very noticeable perfume bottles. The bathroom went from a plain, typical extra bathroom to a feminine floral fancy spot. Well, fancy for me at least.

For now, here's how things went. First, I stood in the doorway of the hallway bathroom and pouted for about five minutes. The towel rack on the wall has been naked for a few months. I asked Carlton to do some laundry. He did a load of "whites"--mostly towels (almost all of our towels are just white) and a few t-shirts. And then he decided to be a doll and toss in the stepping rug from the floor in front of our front door. Which was black, and had never been washed before. So, needless to say, the towels which used to be white (which included my white, beautifully monogrammed towels that were a gift from Grandmama) are now all a sort of mushroom color. But only in large, amoeba shaped splotches. While they are all linen fresh and folded neatly for shower drying off, they're not really fit for display anymore. What a travesty!

Anyway, the hand towels always ended up on the countertop anyway (Carlton), so the towel rack was really only there for show. Sort of like the one remaining half of our toilet paper holder that a sleepover guest so carefully ripped out of the wall, stripped the screws, tore the sheetrock, and left for us to fix. But I'm not bitter or anything.

Anyway, back to the here and the now. Here's the before:

I took down the towel rack. It was useless to us for the most part, and it was taking up some valuable wall real estate. (Vicki, please don't freak out on me... but I tore up one of the pretty gardening books you gifted me a few years ago to create "art" for the walls.)

I found about five or six photos in this decorative coffee table gardening book and tore them out to compare them next to each other. I needed two coordinating 8x10 photos to go into the two frames I had leftover from this wall decorating project in our dining room. (Hmm, it appears I enjoy making framed art by destroying other stuff!) Here are my two choices:

Next, I cut the pages to fit into the frames. I didn't want any matte inside the frame around the pictures, so all I did was cut the paper to fit into the frame. Simple and so incredibly quick.

Then I hung them on the wall that once showcased a naked towel rack. I didn't take the time to fill in the screw holes and smooth out the sheetrock behind the frames. I'll do that when I decide on a paint color for this bathroom. In the meantime, at least I have something feminine and pretty to look at!

Thanks so much, Vicki, for the gardening book and the orchid plant! They have both helped make this hallway bathroom beautiful! I decided to display the brightly colored pink and orange and yellow and purple perfume bottles on a glass shelf that I originally purchased for our master bathroom. It was never hung in there because it's such a tight space and the shelf didn't really create an extra "real" storage. Well, it works perfectly here! It's the perfect display spot for the pretty bottles and it's not bulky or ugly in any way. Finally, something pretty to admire in this hallway bathroom. Ahhhhhh.

Epigram of Good Riddance to The Spider Who Scared Me

Good Riddance, you Spider Who Scared Me.

You will never touch, touch, touch, creepy-step in my windowsill again.

For you are dead in my kitchen sink, 

Curled up in a disgusting wrinkled wad of spindly legs 

And your own dusty web

Underneath the noodle strainer I used for spaghetti night.

My fear and my reality

Since our recent kitchen clean-out aka painting and hanging shelves (two weeks ago), I was really careful about cleaning the trim around the window, around the doors, and the baseboards. That's how I know the content of these two following images is brand spankin' new.

Meet our roommate. And no, I'm not happy about it. At all.

You can sort of see the creepy strands of web this guy laid out. He has been pretty successful in catching his own wild game. It's too bad I find him one of the most repulsive, disgusting, creepy, crawly, scary creatures on the face of this planet. Actually, it's not too bad at all. He deserves it.

Give me rats. Give me cockroaches. Give me snakes, please! Give me whatever you're afraid of and I'll gladly give you spiders. Or any arachnid. They're just so... creepy! I'm afraid of them and I don't care if you think it's stupid, or if you argue, "Trisha, they catch and eat mosquitoes and gnats and flies and beetles and other pesky insects!" You know what? So do bats. Give me bats! Please, give me bats. I LOVE bats! Bats are really cool because their wings ARE their hands. They fly by sonar in the night and they're still mammals. Mammals without eight disgusting jointed legs.

In case you didn't find the first picture gross enough, here's a picture my camera took all on its own, without any editing at all (except for my text) to support me in my efforts to have spiders outlawed and sent to Mexico to live with scorpions and centipedes and millipedes and other -pedes. Oh, and those terrible sand spider things they have over there in Afghanistan that they put into a ring to fight other giant insects. Actually, let's just send them all to Afghanistan. Load 'em up now! (I'm sending out a petition as soon as this is blog post goes live.)

Of course, any person who suffers from this right-of-mindedness others choose to call "arachnophobia" will tell you that it's not the size of the spider that makes the skin crawl and the mind panic. But I'm also here to tell you that a big spider is especially terrifying! The spiders that choose to make his kitchen windowsill their catching grounds are some of the most terrible spiders I've ever seen in my whole 26 years of being alive. They're black, but they're brown. They're about an inch in diameter. Their legs are long and lanky and spindly and creeeeeepy (I just shuddered) and they like to touch the surface they're walking on a few times before they actually take a step. Like they're smart or something. I know this because Carlton made me watch one once so we'd know where it was by the time he got a shoe to squish it. I had to watch it touch, touch, touch, creepy-step. Touch, touch, touch, creepy-step. Carlton took way too long to find a shoe. I think he did it on purpose. Because when I'm terrified, I tense up and my breath stops and I freeze and can't make any noise. I'm not a screamer... I'm more like a fainting goat, only without the convenience of the fainting part. Uh, that just made me sick to my stomach.

Okay, guys, if there is one thing that makes me think bad thoughts about South Georgia, it's these spiders. They're big and gross and they're in all my windowsills, littering them with insect carcasses and messing them up with gross sticky webs. And I can't see them. Because my window frames are black. And they tuck themselves in like it's comfortable in there or something. It just creeps me out. I can't wash dishes in my own kitchen sink without being afraid one's gonna go creeping across the windowsill. Because that happened once.

So, if you're out there reading this, keep me in your prayers. Please! Carlton sprayed the entire window frame with a strong bug killer. Here's hoping this creep goes outside to die a miserable, guilty death. And that I never find his curled up body anywhere. Amen.

213 Gardenia, Part 4: Ekby Bjarnum saves the day!

When we bought this house, I was very excited about a lot of things. However (oooooh here we go), I was more than a little hesitant about one of its vital spaces: the kitchen.

While one side of the kitchen lures you in with a new dishwasher, two-bowl stainless sink, freshly painted satin black solid wood cabinets, brand spakin' new countertops, and even a pretty little lamp light over the sink, the other side is... more than lackluster. Crowded out by the laundry room and its folding shutter doors and the fridge that is quite tiny (thank goodness there's only two of us!), the previous owner opted to furnish the rest of those 5-6 feet of empty space with a round kitchen table complete with two chairs.

While that worked for them, it's not really my thing. And we only have one table to eat at anyway, and it's "borrowed" from my parents, and it's in the dining room. Basically, my kitchen is totally lopsided. While I can work in there with a sort of efficiency because there's nowhere else to go, I have a hard time doing more than one thing at once... because there's nowhere to put multiple things! To fill in the empty wall space where a kitchen table could go, I have had the trash can, multiple empty cardboard boxes that once housed various Coca Cola products as well as Budweiser beverages, and a 7' shutter-style separation wall thingy. While it filled in the empty wall space, I was getting tired of it just... being there.

(Before paint and shelves)

While my grand plan for making this place awesome calls for a stretch of base cabinets, a long length of counter space, and open shelving above with a pretty light fixture that matches the sink light to replace the ceiling fan... oh! and a new light fixture to replace the gross-neon-ultraviolet-old-school florescent rectangular box that stretches across the kitchen ceiling --  that's not all in the budget as of yet. (Remember the Dave Chair? That sucker wasn't exactly cheap. Neither was the sofa. Or Carlton's Barcalounger. And that stuff was first on the list, definitely!) The cabinets and countertops and electrical work might have wait a little bit longer, but I figured I could at least get started by painting the kitchen (a long standing desire of mine) and installing the open shelving along the wall. Right?

 (Before paint)

Well, my opportunity came quicker than I thought while I was enjoying my BFF Weekend with my BFF Chelsea (okay, I'll stop with the links already). Our shopping trip to Ikea opened my eyes to the perfect shelves for my kitchen. I found some simple, straight stainless steel wrapped shelves to hang on the kitchen wall with low profile hardware, and they were exactly what I wanted! I purchased two of the Ekby Bjarnum "Mossby" shelves for $44.99 each and the hardware to secure them to each other as well as to the wall in the kitchen.

I've gotta say, with the walls painted (more on my obsession with Benjamin Moore's paint color Revere Pewter in the near future) and the shelves installed, I don't think I could be any happier! I can just see it now: this kitchen may be a wonderful place to work after all! That is, once the cabinets and counter tops are installed. For now, I can just sit back and work in the kitchen with a little bit of open space and fresh paint on the walls.

I staged the shelf for pictures, but as far as the kitchen goes... well... I tidied up a little bit. But I was also prepping supper, so try to give me a break guys! Below is a picture I took of the counter next to the stove, where there was once an empty wall. I purchased 8 of these pretty little lace cut-out dishes using a Christmas gift card from my parents last year, and finally hung 3 of them in the empty wall space. Perfect! I just love the different lace embellishments around their edges. I had painted one coat here and was re-patching some old nail holes in the wall, so that explains the spackle here:

Now that I've got this strong start on making this kitchen into what I really want, I'm so motivated to keep the pace going! Next up? Cabinets and a counter top!

Rock N Red

For about two weeks now I have enjoyed wearing nail polish on a fully grown-out fingernail. It's like I've been reunited with a long lost relative or something, having this fingernail back to normal after a long and exhausting growing out process after this terribly terrifying incident.

What a relief it is to fit in with the rest of my well-groomed coworkers! It's considered a part of important grooming practices at my job, with customers watching our hands as we count their money, that we maintain well manicured hands at all times. Needless to say, this gruesome sight of a disemboweled fingernail just wasn't acceptable in my line of work. And keeping the tip of a busy finger bandaged is a full time job on its own! (If you're ever in need of this info, here's an FYI: regular sized, regular shaped--not the finger shaped junk--woven cloth BandAid brand bandages are the way to go if you ever stupidly injure yourself like I did. Wrap one over the tip of the finger first, then wrap one around the finger horizontally. It'll last you a few hours if you're typing and working your hands in a money counting fashion.)

Everyone, please give a round of applause for our returning beloved fingernail, The Bird!

She's making her online debut in her favorite Spring shade, Rock N Red by petites, a convenient brand of nail polish I found at WalMart. The convenient part? It's a tiny bottle (only about an inch high, or two inches if you include the brush nob), so by the time it's dried up to a gummy paste you've used most of if anyway. The other convenient part? It only cost me $1.00. Brilliant! Because I took these pictures under lamp light at night, the color looks pretty rich and dark when it's actually really bright and borderline toenail-color-only quality. It's a good thing tomorrow's Casual Friday at work!

One part vinegar

Spring is here!!!

 The azaleas are blooming...

 Vespa has been having fun exploring the back yard and all the chirping, buzzing, squawking noises it has to offer...

...and looking just absolutely lovely as always...

I've recently received my Real Simple and Martha Stewart Living magazines within a week or so. Both of them featured some pretty in-depth tutorials and tips on doing a good, thorough Spring cleaning for your home. And as not fun as that may sound to most, I do enjoy the satisfaction I get from finishing a good, thorough house cleaning job the right way.

I was ready to get started on this deep Spring cleaning right away. These magazines really did their trick--I was motivated!

I started in our master bedroom. I had Carlton help me move the bed out away from the wall, where I dusted and vacuumed and... wait... what's that???

As I dusted the baseboards on the wall that our bed was against (I strongly recommend you check that spot out in your room--you'll be grossed out!), I discovered that our walls were dusty. Like, grossly dusty!

The couple that lived here before us has a pet cat with long, luscious, thick fur. Her name is Libby and she's soooo sweet and cuddly and beautiful. I desperately wanted her to be a part of the bargaining in the contract for the house. Carlton did not concur. So, she still lives with her owners who are good friends of ours (so I get to see her often!). But her fur? It's still floating around here every now and then. For instance, it was stuck to our bedroom walls! Along with dust, eyelashes, and Carlton's awesome man body hair, our walls were practically furry! From this picture below, though, you can tell why neither Carlton nor I ever really noticed how dusty the bedroom walls were. They look normal and... normal. While the walls are a peculiar shade of washed-out pea soup--something I never would have personally selected--I love the color and I'm planning on keeping the walls the color they are.

But when I got up close to the walls and actually looked at them really well, I discovered how disgusting they were! The picture below was taken in one of the corners of the room, where the most dust, etc. had accumulated. Prepare yourselves to be totally grossed out!

And if that didn't set in well enough, here's a picture of two of my dusting cloths. They both started out like the one on the right. The one on the left is what cleaned the walls in my bedroom with 1 part vinegar to 4 parts water.  Aside from the wet balls of dust bunny carcasses that I removed from the rag before taking this picture, this rag on the left should be a testament to the grossness that was my bedroom walls!

Oh! As an added bonus, that pesky can't-seem-to-get-rid-of-it dusty scent in our bedroom is gone now!

I had a conversation with a friend a few months back about the hair and fur on her bedroom walls and I was grossed out! I remember asking her what she thought the problem might be. She said she had a feeling it had something to do with her ceiling fan running along with pets (and a husband) who shed like crazy. I've taken a close look at the other rooms in our house, and there seems to be a theme going here: while our master bedroom (complete with ceiling fan running a lot of the time) had dusty walls, our kitchen and living room do not have that problem.

My advise is this: inspect your walls! If they're furry and dusty and can be wiped down (aka not flat paint), wash them NOW!!!!!

A BFF weekend for the books

This weekend was just maybe perhaps possibly the best weekend I've had in years. I finally, finally, finally got to see my best friend in the whole wide world after what feels like years! In fact, I think the last time I got to see Chelsea was last year in July (!!!) for a shower we co-hosted in honor of my sister. July? Really? Had it really been that long? Can real BFFs go that long without seeing each other (or hardly even talking) and still be BFFs?

Chelsea and I sure can. We have before, we did this time, and I'm certain we will in the future. It happens just like other people who have true BFFs say it happens: when we finally, finally, finally see each other again, we run to each other, embrace, sway a little, shake with excitement, tear up a little and wipe it away so the other won't see, embrace and sway some more, stomp our feet to get out all the extra energy, and then pull away, look at each other, and sigh with relief; the wait is finally over, and we're back together at last. Well, okay, another enthusiastic hug or two. And then for real this time. It's out of our systems.

Now what trouble can we start?!?

Chelsea and I had planned this Ree Day & BFF Weekend for months. Seriously! We schemed and made lists, and even took an entire vacation day away from work to make this weekend as magical as it actually turned out to be.

Ree Drummond, known out here in the blogosphere as The Pioneer Woman, was in Atlanta this weekend. If you know me, then you know that I'm a huge fan of hers, as is Chelsea. When Chelsea broke the news to me that "P-Dub" was going to be in Atlanta for a book signing, we immediately made a set of "Ree Day Rules & Such" (which we have decided to keep strictly to ourselves for fear of utter embarrassment or even a restraining order if Ree herself ever read it!). We worked up plans for an entire BFF weekend that included meeting Ree, shopping at IKEA, dining on tapas, enjoying cocktails, listening to great music, resting at my sister's house, cooking recipes from P-Dub's aaaah-mazing cookbook, and who-knows-what-else. I had a countdown on my calendar at work. I purchased a flattering, flowing, flowery, flouncy blouse because a) it's flattering, flowing, etc., and b) it's Ree's favorite sort of blouse. Why not coordinate for the photo op, am I right?? And yeah, I was totally shopping for a compliment.

So our countdowns finally dwindled down to 3, 2, 1!!! and so I packed my bags, drove to up Macon, and Chelsea and I hugged like BFFs hug after not seeing each other since last July. It was pretty awesome. Then we loaded up her car and headed for Atlanta! Of course, our Ree Day schedule worked perfectly, so we made it with a few hours to burn. What's a girl to do besides shop in a two-story Target complete with escalators for people... and buggies, too??? That's right, an escalator for your shopping cart. We stood there and waited for someone with a buggie to come along so we could see how it worked. And it was really cool. After we exhausted our will to shop anymore we headed to a little place next door to the Borders book store where Ree Drummond was scheduled to make her appearance just a couple hours later. What was next door to Borders?

Pinkberry.

Not familiar with Pinkberry? Well, it's only pretty much one of the best things to ever eat for a snack. Ever. It's fat free yogurt mixed with fat free milk and flavored with natural stuff to make some freaking amazing frozen yogurt. Oh wow, it was so good! I immediately checked out the floor (paved in tiny pea-sized pebbles), furniture, lighting, and color scheme. What fun!

Then Chelsea and I were educated on Pinkberry--how it's made and what it's made of--and then we got a tour of all the amazing toppings (as long as it fits "comfortably" within the rim of your bowl, it's included in the price of the yogurt!). I was so pumped to look at the menu and read Blood Orange as a yogurt flavor! That's one of the Lamberth ladies' favorite flavors. On top I opted for something rather simple: fresh, handmade blood orange syrup, pineapple chunks, and raspberries (on the right). Chelsea went for a double flavor bowl of coconut and mango yogurts and just about every fruit there was (on the left)!

Then the time came to wait our turn. We were in group "E" which meant there were groups A through D ahead of us. Bummer. We camped out in the childrens books section and watched Ree stalkers and judged wardrobe mishaps and hairstyle don'ts, and once our letter of the alphabet was announced, we stood in line with letters A through E. 

While we waited in line, Chelsea found this really cute little hedgehog finger puppet perched on a 

book shelf:

Then we found a stack of PostSecret books and left our own little secrets for someone else to discover and read for themselves. I know PS is supposed to be anonymous, but we signed one of them anyway:

 And then the time we had been waiting so long for finally came! Chelsea and I met Ree Drummond, aka Pioneer Woman, aka P-Dub, aka our new BFF. She was absolutely delightful. She had a sort of Midwestern accent. Her dimples were totally cute, and her red hair was just red enough. And did you notice her blouse? Well, she surely noticed mine. That's right, people, Ree loved my flattering, flowing, flowery, flouncy blouse and totally told me she loved it. Then we talked for a couple minutes as she wrote little notes in our cookbooks. Chelsea and I asked her if her face had gotten tired of smiling yet, and she replied that that's just kinda how her face is, and we said, something like "how lovely to have a smile stuck on your face all the time!" and then we snapped this picture. Can you see how nervous we were? Well, we were totally nervous, and we felt so stupid for being so nervous. But we were nervous anyway. And then, as we finished up our little nervous and giggly conversation with Ree, she said, "It was just lovely to have met the two of you! Oh, and can I borrow your blouse?" And then I melted. And exploded. And then I melted again.

(Oh my goodness, I still can't believe we met Ree! She was divine and lovely. And so pretty! And those dimples. And that red wavy hair. Ah!)

Oh! And did I mention that her utterly studly husband was there as well? Well, he was. Marlboro Man, dressed down to the boots, Wranglers, and--yes, even he cowboy hat, score!--was there. Here's the picture that Ree herself posts on her blog all the time that defines what she thinks of her husband, Marlboro Man:

Chelsea and I were determined to get our own shot of this famous behind, chaps or not. He was surrounded by women who were fawning all over him, gasping and giggling and groping and taking all sorts of pictures and hogging all the time he had while lots of other women waited and snapped pictures from a distance. But what did Chelsea and I do? We staged a Photo Bomber session. And for those of you who don't know what the art of Photo Bombing is, it's basically standing in the background of a picture that's currently being taken and doing something funny. They person taking the picture, as well as the people in the picture, don't see what you've done in the background until they get home and relive their memories of groping on Marlboro Man's sweaty chest at the Borders Book Store in Peachtree City! I've got to say, I really hope it was as successful from other womens' cameras as it was from mine!

Then, after we cooled off from that fun little game, we went around the corner to a tapas restaurant called Twist and enjoyed tapas, a fun and noisy atmosphere that neither of us was used to anymore as old and grown adults, and some outta-this-world delicious cocktails. Before we knew it, we were coming down with a serious case of the sleepies. Maybe it was the cocktail that got us just warm enough to want to snuggle up to a cool pillow. Maybe it was the fact that our Ree Day adrenaline was finally subsiding. But we were ready to settle down and get out of that noisy restaurant, so we headed for my sister's house.

After a couple glasses of "hello, we're here, and thanks for letting us crash in the guest room" wine, we all went to sleep without an alarm clock set! And oh my goodness, that felt sooooo good to wake up without an alarm screaming at us! We played with the pups, watched My Girl ("And don't come back for five to seven days!!!"), ate orange-and-cranberry muffins along with sausage for breakfast, and just basked in nothingness for a whole four hours.

And then it was time to IKEA. Do you IKEA? We sure did! For some reason, we decided to take a picture on the way OUT of the massive superstore. My apologies for the dishevelment! OMG I'm looking rough. Those big yellow letters always blow me away. How tall do you think they really are?

Bless my little sister's heart for shopping with us that afternoon. I don't know if she meant to or not, but she kept me and Chelsea moving at a (somewhat) acceptable pace. I'd get caught up in the gadget kitchen drawer organization section and Chelsea would come to a standstill while admiring random coat hangers and storage shelves. But Kristen would always remind us that there was something else more interesting just around the corner. And thank goodness for that, because even with her guidance (towards the exit door) and perseverance (aka constantly walking about two steps ahead of us with our shopping cart), we shopped at IKEA for over 4 hours! While that does include a delicious lunch of Swedish meatballs and mashed taters, the shopping just dominated this IKEA visit. To the max.

That being said, IKEA did us in. Chelsea drove herself and me back to Macon like a champ where Andrew greeted us with copious amounts of wine (yum, shiraz!), salmon, ribeyes, potatoes, mushrooms, and a few other accoutrement. Morgan and Larry, some of their great friends there in Macon, met us at their house where we ate a lot, drank a lot, laughed a lot, and played a lot of Phase Ten... until a lot of wine was spilled all over the playing cards!

(Yes, that's my bendy straw in a glass of red wine. I didn't want PLS (Purple Lip Syndrome) from sipping on that wine all night, and that's my brilliant solution for it, okay?)

After a long, long, loooooooooooooooooong night of playing "Watch That YouTube Music Video and Remember When That Song Was Awesome" with Andrew and Chelsea, we retired for some well deserved and much needed rest.... at 4:30am!!! Needless to say, sleeping until 12:00 in the afternoon was an accomplishment for me, and I woke up rested and ready to get home to take a nap in my own bed... after some steak and eggs prepared by the Ray Household resident chef, Andrew himself! 

Like I said, this weekend was just maybe perhaps possibly the best weekend I've had in years. And it's definitely one for the books. Thanks to Chelsea, my Very Best Friend of over 14 years. May God bless us with at least 14 more!!!

Makes me wanna nom nom nom nom nom

I've discovered a new marinade that I'm crazy about. Sure, it's a salad dressing, and I'm positive it's really good on some crisp, sweet butter lettuce topped with Kalamata olives, cherry tomatoes, and fancy sliced radishes. But I'm loving this dressing because I've just used it as a marinade for dressing our meat for dinner twice within a week.

On Thursday night Carlton fired up the grill and I whipped out a gallon size ZipLoc bag. I put in four little 1/4" thin sliced bone-in pork chops that were BOGO (buy one package of four and get another free, woohoo!) at the grocery store with a generous squirt of the dressing and let it sit while the coals got themselves all hot and ready. I've gotta say, those pork chops were soooooo delicious! The dressing/marinade charred around the edges, caramelized in some spots, and got tangy and zesty and salty and all sorts of rich and delicious on those pork chops! I'd say that if you're cooking anything over open flame that takes more than 8-10 minutes to cook completely, I wouldn't marinate the meat first, but rather baste it onto the meat after it's gotten started cooking on the grill because it was cooked just right for our skinny little 1/4" pork chops. I served the pork chops with something I've only recently discovered in the freezer section of the grocery store, and Carlton and I both agree--they're delicious! Alexia Sweet Potato Fries. This time I bought the chipotle flavor and they were soooo good along with the pork chops! (This is the one and only way I will eat sweet potatoes thus far... they must be oven fried and Trisha loves them!)

Then tonight I took those individually frozen chicken tenders you buy in the big bag from the frozen meats section of the grocery store, and I put them in a baking dish, frozen, straight into the oven for the 20 minutes of recommended baking time. Once the 20 minutes were up, I took the baking dish out, squirted my dressing over each of the tenders, and turned the oven onto high broil for about 4 or 5 minutes... just long enough for the dressing to start to caramelize around the edges of the chicken. Delicious! We had some starchy sides tonight--no veggies because I wasn't in the mood for any. Some herb baked potato wedges and Sister Schubert's Dinner Yeast Rolls. What a delicious and easy meal! I dirtied one baking sheet, two dinner plates, two forks, one butter knife, and two drinking glasses! Carlton was lucky that his "doing the dishes chore" (aka put the plates in the dishwasher) was so quick and easy.

So, if you're tired of the salty zest of Dale's Seasoning and you're not up for Spicy Buffalo or Sweet, Smoky Barbecue flavors, go Greek! Feta and oregano? Yes, please!!!!

213 Gardenia, Part 3: Sofa, So Good

Until about August of last year, we were still living off of Carlton's sofa from college.

I know. Gross.

It was a good ole fella with a strong back, a tough exterior, and the ability to practically force you to lie down and sleep. The gunmetal gray upholstery never showed a stain, never ripped, never showed stress or wear. The tough hardwood structure underneath it all was sturdy and--one might think--made of a boulder. And you'd understand that if you ever tried to move the thing. And we did... multiple times!

But the cushions. Oh, those terrible, terrible cushions! Now, the seat cushions were just fine. They stood the test of time and college-aged boys like the rest of the sofa. But the back cushions just about disintegrated into a sad amoebic state, all wobbly and irregular and squishy and mushy and deformed. A person with intentions of sitting on the sofa like a normal human being would either a) have to sit and lean forward towards the coffee table as if he was eating a floppy slice of pizza, or b) turn sideways, curl her legs up underneath her bottom, and prop her elbow on the arm of the sofa as if she was knitting or reading a handy home decorating magazine. Either scenario was not conducive to comfortable TV watching or any sort of social interaction whatsoever.

And then the cushions, or the fabric, or the something just started to stink. They didn't stink like they were old, or like they were dusty, or even like we'd burried an entire dead animal in the sleeper mattress which was folded up inside the sofa. They stunk like there was some sort of fungus or mildew growing inside them, and it was overwhelming. The smell would just waft up to my nostrils and I'd smell it on again and off again. Have you ever left a load of laundry in the washer and forgot about it for a month? Well, neither have I. But I have forgotten about a load of washed laundry in the washer for about 2 days or so. And that yucko smell when you open the washer and suddenly remember that there are rancid clothes awaiting your return? The college sofa was just about like that, times 10! It wasn't constant. It would just suddenly waft up and surprise you like a slap in the face. So you never knew when it was gonna come around next. I was particularly paranoid about having our friends over at the house. Dinner would be served and everyone would enjoy the meal, and then conversation and full bellies would lead us all to the living room to lounge and joke around. But what hostess wants to risk a stinky sofa catastrophe when she's entertaining? Not this gal! Nobody wants the Jenga bricks to topple because of a sudden sofa stink.

And Febreeze, baking soda, Lysol, and other stink stomping remedies never would permanently work. Okay, so you get it--it stunk.

I got the OK to shop around for a sofa only a few months after we'd moved into the house. But actually following through and purchasing a new sofa was going to be a difficult task for me to complete! I had a very specific list of requirements I wanted to check off of my list before I was going to dish out the cash. First and foremost, I must have a guaranteed buyer for the Athens condo sofa before a new sofa is purchased. Then my new sofa must have: two seat cushions (because I like the look of two longer cushions as opposed to three smaller cushions), a tight back cushion (no loose pillow cushions like the Athens condo sofa had, no loose looking cushions that are sewn onto the back of the sofa), nailhead trim, heavy linen woven fabric or something that looked similar, and a sturdy composition. Nothing flimsy, nothing too fru-fru, nothing too traditional or contemporary. And I must be able to test the sofa out before purchase.

Then Pier1 came to the rescue. I'd never really paid much attention to their upholstered furniture, but as I browsed through one afternoon on a day off work, The Cameron Sofa just caught my eye and I knew it was the one! It had two seat cushions, a tight back cushion, a square back profile, nailhead trim, and the upholstery was a lovely taupe color. Even though it's a very short pile chenille fabric, it has a thin line pattern in it (sort of like the matrix has that line pattern), so it gives a nod to that linen look I think. So, a few weeks later, when the sofa was on sale ($100 off the floor model price!), my parents came to town and we borrowed a friend's pickup truck to drive the sofa from Valdosta's Pier1 store to the house. AND IT'S PERFECT!!!

I couldn't be happier with this purchase. It's a beautiful addition to our furniture and a very sturdy and heavy duty piece of furniture that works great as a focal point for the room.

The rug in the picture is also new! It's the Chevron Rug from West Elm in the charcoal color and it couldn't be more perfect in our living room. With these strong neutral permanent fixtures, I have had fun changing out seasonal throw pillows on the sofa. Over the holidays I had some bright red and green pillows. This spring I've got some lemon yellow, gray, blue, and green pillows to brighten things up a bit. Over all, it's great!

The two lamps were wedding gifts from my parents that were originally topped by beautiful bright teal dupioni silk shades which sadly died in one of our many moves. I replaced them with some pretty woven mini-twine shades from Target. The end tables are from Carlton's mom and Grandmama, and the coffee table is the one remaining piece of furniture from Carlton's college days (besides his "desk" which we will cover in a later post). I absolutely love the color, shape, style, and ability to withstand bangs and dents and glasses without coasters and just about anything else in the world. It's staying because I love it! It has three drawers to hold just about anything you might need to hide when company is coming over in 2-and-a-half minutes. And it's the perfect size for our living room. The picture on the wall over the sofa is a blown-up picture of one I took inside the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris in 2006 during a photo taking contest with Carlton. It's beautiful and I love looking at the low light by candle, the stained glass in the background, the strong stacked marble pillars, and the blurs of praying patrons below. It's peaceful, colorful, quaint, and lovely. I got lucky when this shot came out so perfectly. Wonderful!

So, that's the sofa and her surroundings. I love everything about it... obviously!

(Please forgive the picture. I took it at night under lamplight, which is the only light our living room gets. Fortunately, when I got up to take the picture, Vespa decided to ask me nicely to open the front door so she could "go outside" and her little pose was a perfect photo op! I couldn't trade this picture out for one I took during daylight because of her opportune vogue.)

213 Gardenia, Part 2: The Dave Chair

This story goes back to a long time ago, waaaaay back when. Carlton was still in college at UGA and his BFF/roommate Dave was preparing to move out of the condo after he'd graduated. Maybe it was laziness, maybe it was the tired I-give-up attitude we all get when we're moving, maybe it was because he had a brown set just like it, or maybe it was a little parting gift: Dave left a black leather chair and ottoman with Carlton.

I was super psyched--not because I wanted Dave to go, because I was really sad about that--but because I absolutely loved the chair and ottoman set! They were black leather with a beautiful curved back side made of wood that just about wrapped around you. The chair and ottoman both sat atop chrome legs that just finished the total look.

Well, as most of us know, Carlton's UGA college years were over in a flash--only 6 years, and that guy was outta there! Not too much time passed and the epic Athens condo was sold. And--really bad news for Trisha--her favorite chair and ottoman combo were gone with it. They never got moved out before the condo belonged to someone else!

I obsessed over the chair and whined and pined away for the chair. I knew it just wasn't in my future to own a chair like this. Why? Well, because it's the famous Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman and the starting price on the set is about $5,000.00. That's five thousand dollars if you can't read zeros very well. I studied this furniture designer in college as an interior design student. Eames is a really big deal! And what made matters even worse was the fact that this chair is in just about any commercial or television show you will see... ever!!! The chair was speaking to me from the grave and there was nothing I could do about it. I secretly hoped that the scratch-off lotto tickets we got as a little $15 gift at Christmastime would win us the money to buy one. And that didn't happen! How rude.

Then Carlton got sick of listening to me whine and whimper about the freakin' chair. He shopped around online for a few weeks and revealed an excellent discovery: they make knock-offs! Duuuuuuh, Trisha. This meant I didn't have to resort to buying a ghetto ripped-up original on Ebay and pay tons to have it reupholstered in top grain leather and then attempt to find an ottoman to go with it. I could have a new one for a tiny fraction of the cost!

I have a new favorite corner in our living room: The Dave Chair is so comfortable to curl up in and watch TV. It just wraps around you and hugs you all over! The leather gets warm once you're settled in. The wood wraps around the back of the chair flawlessly and beautifully, and the legs shine so bright with their perfect chrome finish.

The Dave Chair is accented by a retro two-tier table with beautiful exposed dovetail details all the way around the edges and metal peg legs. I found the wooden lamp at WalMart as well as the ecru colored shade. The shade didn't really stand out against the color of our walls very well, and it seemed kinda blah next to the strong black statement chair, so I hot glued some black grosgrain around the top and bottom which finished it beautifully (I saw the idea in someone's blog once a while back... was it yourse?). The frames on the wall are also from WalMart, though the pictures to fill them are (hopefully) still waiting for me to pick them up from CVS. The green cracked glass candle sconces are from Pier 1 and were only $6 each! The Dave Chair is what makes this my new favorite corner in the living room.

213 Gardenia, Part 1: No palm pillows.

Since we moved into our first house at 213 Gardenia Drive in September of 2009, I have yet to show anything online about the decorating I've done to make this our home. Maybe I've shown a piece of something here or there, but I haven't shared any little stories or personal reasons behind our choices. So, I'm starting a little series (not sure how many "parts" there will be quite yet). I'm starting with the new furniture we've purchased for our living room. It's kind of a big deal because we've purchased a lot of new furniture to live in! 

We've selected everything very slowly a) because we wanted this to be high quality furniture that would last forever (aka a little more $$ than would allow us to purchase everything at once), so we wouldn't have to keep re-buying cheap furniture again and again, and b) because Carlton has given me all artistic, decorating, and wifely privileges of selecting the furniture I wanted so the house would turn into a space we're happy with, something that is well put-together, something that is well decorated, and something that is well thought out. So I have been taking my time and making sure everything was juuuuust right. Of course we're not completely done (by far), but we've definitely made some excellent progress.

So, without further adieu, I proudly introduce you to The Living Room Furniture:

Part 1: The Barcalounger

I'll go ahead and apologize in advance if you own a recliner that is stereotypical to La Z Boy's puffy pillow-laden style. I'm about to bust it up with hatred. I've got a big problem with the typical "recliner." I absolutely hate the puffy, puckered-up, over-stuffed, chenille clad reclining chairs. Their gross wooden handles on whichever side of the chair make me cringe. Their floppy and overstuffed headrests make me actually lean my chin towards my chest when I'm sitting in one of these abominations... how can that be considered comfortable??? And what's with the extra padded armrests on top... of the... armrests? The palms of my hands really don't need a pillow. Thanks very much. 

 

So when Carlton put his foot down that he was "gonna have a recliner no matter what" and I put my foot down that he absolutely was not "gonna have a huge ugly puffy piece of ugliness in our house no matter what," we started shopping around. A lot. Thanks to Barcalounger and their smart design, The Hubs and I are both really happy. Carlton's Barcalounger stands tall, square, and proud. Its leather has already worn in nicely. See on the footrest, where his leg wiggles constantly while he concentrates on a book or a game? It's the same effect on the arms where he pushes back to recline, and as well where his head rests--the leather is darkened and buffed a little. And Vespa's cute little puppy scratches are on the arms of the chair, too. She jumps onto the Barcalounger when she's excited, i.e. when she knows she's going to get to go for a ride. On the side that's facing the camera, near the back at the bottom right corner, you can see the animal's natural hide--wrinkles from the animal's armpit or leg skin wrinkling and folding, and even a few bug bite scars! It's totally natural and susceptible to the wear of our everyday life... and it's supposed to look like that. Which I love. It's different than our parents' leather furniture because it's imperfect and because not run through embossing machines to give it that "natural" (not nearly!) bumpy look that, in my opinion, resembles jewel toned styrofoam (not hatin', just sayin'!). I could just squeeze this chair, I love it so much. And it smells good, too. And it doesn't hurt that we got it for 30% off, either. It's all good with the Barcalounger.

 

While Carlton says it's not a "sleep all night" kind of recliner, he sure does seem to like it until around 11:00 to midnight every night when we go to bed. So, we're both happy: he has a man chair recliner to lounge in at night while I have a beautifully square, non-puffy club chair to admire. No palm pillows in this living room.

Slappin' da bass

First off, this is not a love letter to Paul Rudd. But if it happened to be one, I would totally gush. My love of his absolutely hilarious body humor is just kinda outta control. I loved him in F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and I have loved him in so many movies I can't even count! The way he can move his body all crooked and snap his neck to the side and pronounce his words to bring laughter to his audience is just unparalleled in my book. It's good old fashioned goofy comedy. Not that this is a love letter. Just sayin'.

Before I move on, you should watch this clip of Paul Rudd and that good old fashioned goofy comedy. Be sure to watch the entire scene of him and his fiancee after they've discussed one of his favorite hobbies, slappin' da bass (which she had no idea about) and one of his favorite bands, Rush (which she has never heard before):





Now on to what happened the Thursday night.

I was lying on the sofa, just minding my own business semi-watching Hollywood Week on American Idol. It was the first time the contestants were performing on the Hollywood stage by themselves. I was suddenly interested when contestant Casey Abrams's presence on the show was already being chronicled (only a few episodes into the season). Was this crazy-interesting performer going home already?? His audition with the air blown keyboard thing was one of my favorites! The kid wasn't afraid to be crazy and have soul at the same time. I liked him because he was really different.

He was being chronicled because of his crazy audition attitude and crazy audition musical instrument, all because he was about to make another crazy move: this guy had a bass in hand and had planned to use it on stage for his next performance! I'm not talking about a Paul Rudd rock band bass here, either. I mean, this guy was wheeling out a taller-than-himself string symphony style string bass.

This is gonna be... interestinnnnnnng???

And then this happened:




Yes, I realize his voice was pitchy and off tune and pretty much all over the place about half the time. But what a performance!

I'm a true stickler for a few select songs. You've gotta sing them right. You've gotta have the right voice. You've gotta have the charisma. And in a few cases, such as Georgia On My Mind, you've just gotta be Ray Charles. No excuses!

Well, unless you're Casey Abrams, apparently. I hate it when singers have pitch and tone problems--who doesn't! He was pushing himself when he selected this song to sing. But the performance overall literally got me to sit straight up, clap, laugh in disbelief, renounce my Ray Charles or die rule, and rewind it to watch a few more times thanks to TiVo.

I've just gotta say this: I'm a fan of Casey Abrams. What a performance! I'll keep watching the show this season just to wait for another performance by him!


P.S. This experience has happened to me once before and I wrote about it here. Adam Lambert stole the show when he sang Mad World, a creepy-beautiful song featured in the cult film Donnie Darko (which I'm bothered that I love so much), and I watched American Idol that season just to see what Adam Lambert was gonna do next.

P.S.P.S. I do really like Paul Rudd, though. Like, a lot. Don't tell Carlton.

Q & A

Q: What happens when you go to CVS late at night to buy Liquid BandAid for a rather inconvenient finger injury?

A: Your husband and you decide to hit up the candy aisle for an after-dinner sweet snack. And of course, since he's in the mood for something rich while you want something fruity, he goes for the PeanutButter M&Ms while you grab the Skittles.



Q: What happens when you opt out of registering for candy dishes as wedding gifts for your nuptials three-and-a-half years ago because they're silly little crystal bowls that are useless and unnecessary and a waste of money according to you?

A: Your husband's PeanutButter M&Ms are piled on the table next to his recliner for easy access, just a few at a time, because he only wants a little corner cut from the bag "to keep them from ending up everywhere if they spill."



Q: What happens when a few of those PeanutButter M&Ms stay behind on the table overnight and throughout the next morning, afternoon, and evening because the ole Hubster got full and decided he was done eating said PeanutButter M&Ms?

A: Those candies stay exactly where the Hubster put them overnight. They stay there through the next morning. And probably throughout the afternoon because Puppa sleeps most of the day. But in the evening, Momma and Poppa come home from work to find a little tan puddle of puppy puke on the floor. Hmmm, Momma is puzzled but tosses the small step rug into the wash.

Then just before dinner, while Poppa and Puppa are cuddling in a newly washed white comforter, Momma notices a rather dazzling stripe of neon blue across said comforter. "Hmmm," Momma thought. "That must be the little Clorox laundry booster thingy I put into the washing machine with the comforter and sheets to get things extra white. Maybe it didn't rinse all the way out if the comforter was all tangled up around it?"

Then Momma looks over at Puppa. Puppa's little white beard is slightly coated in the same neon blue color like a teenager who has decided to highlight her pretty blonde hair with Blue Raspberry Lemonade KoolAid (because that really does work). Panic stricken, Momma is terrified that Puppa may have smelled the sweet laundry scent and decided to nibble on what was left? That could be another "that can't be good" moment in this household... and that can't be good.

Then Momma looks at Puppa's paws. Same neon blue! What's going on here?

Puppa jumps down, picks up something from the floor, and jumps back onto Poppa's lap. She spits out a round neon blue something shaped like a marble. Poppa notices it as a PeanutButter M&M. Momma is totally relieved.

This explains the little puddle of tan puke. It explains the neon blue beard, paws, chest, and comforter. It explains why... ALL OF POPPA'S LEFTOVER PEANUTBUTTER M&MS ARE MISSING FROM THE TABLE!!!

Vespa finishes her last little neon treat with a happy little smile on her face. Because dogs can smile. It's been proven.

Hey, at least it wasn't bleach!

(I hit the fun little Saturate button in my Picasa editor because I wanted to be sure the blue could be seen even in our dim night time living room light. That's why Vespa's little undercarriage looks so hot pink. But the blue? It's really that bright!)

"That can't be good."

Those were the first four words that actually came out of my mouth after this happened:

The next four words were: "Carlton! Come here! Quick!!!" And then something like, "Carlton, WAKE UP and get in here now, I've hurt myself!!!" (I made the picture that poopish color instead of actual color because it's really even grosser in actual color. (Spell check didn't give "grosser" a red squiggle, so it counts in my book!) Yes, this was a double parenthesis. Woot!)

Because just minutes before I did that up there, I had taken this picture:

He was napping because we like to practice what we call "Lazy Sunday" around this house, and it was definitely really nice Lazy Sunday. Until. Poor guy got a loud, panicked wake-up call.

Just a few things here and then I'll be done:

1. I'm so glad I was using my fancy ceramic knife because it was really sharp (obviously), thus I wasn't really pressing down on the knife that hard (which would have made the above poopish colored photo even more gruesome).
2. I was holding the handle of the knife with my left hand because I (not true--->) like to pretend (true--->) I'm a southpaw.
3. I was pressing down on the top of the knife at the tip of it with my right hand (hand pictured above in poopish color) for a little help, and to make things safer (laugh*) by not having to press so hard on the knife from the handle. *Funny how I was using the hand I'm not good with to help out the hand I am good with.
4. My right hand slipped down towards the cutting board.
5. I reacted HOW I SHOULDN'T HAVE reacted for a split second, jerked my hand back towards me, and SHWING!!!!!ING!ING!ING!!! That was the sound of a steel blade shwinging, though I wasn't even using a steel blade. Kinda like cars erking to a stop in a movie when they're on cobblestone streets. Basically, not really possible at all ever.
6. I sliced my fingertip, including the nail, open.
7. Was Velveeta cheese dip really worth it?