Day 141/365--Bedside

My daily contiribution to my year long "Around the House" photo project. 365 photos. Blogged here.



I found this lamp at the Salvation Army before I even met my husband. I fell in love with the textured plaster and the hourglass shape, which nestled just right into my arms as I browsed. I probably would have bought it even if it hadn't worked. I loved it that much. As part of my I'm-getting-my-very-first-apartment repainting spree I took this little duckling from a criminal beige with gold accent to an olive green with silver accents. And then I searched high and low for a lampshade. It was epic. We've been inseparable ever since. Luckily, the hubby knows an AWESOME lamp when he sees one and it's been a happy bedside lamp in several abodes. (I think. I mean this one at least makes two. I'm fuzzy on the others right now).

Anyway, point being it is finally set up again! And we've color checked it against the bedding and the new teal pillows (which are nearly, nearly done) and it passed. Hooray!

Simply Joy Sunday # 29

The things that made me happy this week. Check out Cool Zebras for other's joys.

1. Huge, crunchy fall leaves.

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2. A hubby who cooks a mean turkey.



3. Really good food and leftovers enough to not to have to cook for days and days.



4. Cats who roll around on the floor fishing for belly rubs.



5. Three hours of exercise in the form of raking. (Who knew owning a house was such a good workout program?)



6. Knocking out a triple batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough in under an hour with the help of my lovely hubby.



7. Buying our Christmas lights at Target and seeing the ones already up in the neighborhood. (No, we didn't buy these, but I got such a kick out of them, that I took a picture anyways.)

Day 140/365--Just the Right Spot

My daily contiribution to my year long "Around the House" photo project. 365 photos. Blogged here.



When my husband and I were newly engaged, we took a trip out to Arizona to visit his grandmother, aunt, and cousin. His aunt, an amazing florist, had volunteered to do all the flowers for our wedding (which was in Los Angeles, she is a saint) and wanted us to pick out what we wanted. While we were there, she gave me a sample bouquet to "practice" with. When we got home, I dried the roses and put them in a simple wall vase I'd picked up previously. (Probably from a thrift shop in college). When we moved to Alabama, the roses stayed safely packed away to prevent kitty destruction.

While unpacking the house, I came across both the roses and the wall vase, and today, in the craft room, inspiration struck! The perfect, nearly kitty-proof home for my beloved flowers--among the art!

Day 139/365--Dust Bunnies

My daily contiribution to my year long "Around the House" photo project. 365 photos. Blogged here.



Before moving into this house, I never truly grasped what exactly "dust bunnies" were. Whenever I had pets, I had carpet. And the one previous time I had lived somewhere with hardwood floors, we had had no pets. So it was a bit of a surprise when we moved into this house to learn exactly how much fur had been getting ground into the carpet in the rental. This is just what I swept off of the stairs this morning. Just. Off. The. Stairs. No wonder the cats need so much food. They are creating dust bunny colonies to take over the house.

Flashback Friday # 3

Take a trip back in time with me every Friday. Continue your journey over at Christopher and Tia's.



Digging through our artwork, sorting out what needs to be framed and what needs to go, I found this. I'm not entirely sure why we've hung onto it for so long but it's a poster that the hubby and I collaborated on in college. We enrolled in an entry level communications class together since I was required for our degrees (Apparently our university had been getting feedback that engineers couldn't communicate well. What? Really? What a shock.). The class was awful. It was so basic as to be completely boring and the instructor (knowing pretty much everyone was there only because they were required to be) had dumbed down projects ridiculously for a college class.

This project, for example. We each had to read a book, find examples of some of the communication concepts we had discussed in class, make a poster, and present it to our discussion group. I remember doing that for book reports in elementary school! Luckily, we also took an upper division communications class which, while covering much of the same material, was intelligent, thoughtful, and completely worthwhile.

Skip Day

Today's skip day is brought to you by a hubby who wasn't feeling well and managed to his nap into my nap. Oops. He's so cute though, it's hard to hold it against him*.



Although I will hold against him the fact that he won't let me post the adorable photo of him napping with Abby tucked up under the blanket with him. Seriously, it's a cruel cruel world over here in the Dragon household.

Day 138/365--Orange and Yellow

My daily contiribution to my year long "Around the House" photo project. 365 photos. Blogged here.



Playing around with the camera while waiting for the hubby. The intersection of the dining room and the kitchen.

Gratitude

It's early(ish) Thanksgiving morning. The hubby is still asleep and the cats, well fed and content, have curled up next to me while I type. The only sounds are the slight whir of the heater and the clacking of the keyboard. It's a perfect holiday morning with space to reflect about how absolutely pinch-me happy I am.

This year I am thankful for:

The People...

*My wonderful hubby--He's patient, loving, kind, and fiercely intelligent. He never once scolded me for crashing the car and, in my mind, that says it all.

*The kitty babies--they are warm purring cuddly balls of destruction and they make everything better.

*My friends--who make a dedicated effort to keep in touch, even though we are far away.

*Bloggers--all those wonderful people who put their thoughts, ideas, tips, tricks, and lives on display. They are a never ending source of inspiration to me, from the quilters who make me wish I could make a quilt a week just to make all the amazing things I see to the mommy bloggers whose refreshing honesty gives me hope for the generation they are raising.

The Big Things...

*Our new house--It's beautiful, colorful, spacious, and has everything we ever wanted and then some.

*My job--I have a job I adore. I get to learn new things everyday, work with amazing people, and help bring products into the world that improve people's lives, even if only a little.

*My hubby's job--A job that lets him do what he dreamed of doing with coworkers he likes and respects.

*Our amazing new hometown--the lush trees, the clean air, the friendly people.

And the Little...

*Online shopping, especially Etsy--I love being able to shop handmade year round and gift people with things that are made with love.

*Serendipitous decorating--the way all the random things we've collected over the years are pulling together to create an amazing whole.

*Netflix--not only do I not have to drive to the video store, but the hubby can stream all the scary movies he wants to his heart's content.

*Little mouse shaped cat toys--and the way Abby carries them around the house

*A super cute haircut!

What are you thankful for?

Day 137/365--Imagine

My daily contiribution to my year long "Around the House" photo project. 365 photos. Blogged here.



My boss let us out early today in anticipation of the holiday (huuray for four day weekends!) so by the time the hubby and I had gone grocery shopping and had dinner and vegged out...we still had evening left! So I snagged the opportunity to work on my craft room. Which led to getting wrapped up in the small things--finally cutting up a card and collaging it to be able to hang it (and then finding the frame had no hanging hooks), completely redoing my inspiration board from an insipid mess into what I had always envisioned it as. And, quite happily, finding a home for my little imagine letters. I collaged the box, er, a year and a half ago? Longer? I intended to epoxy the letters in place and add a hanger, but for now this is beautiful, function, and colorful. Everything I am striving for in the craft room. Imagine indeed.

Day 136/365--Lock Down

My daily contiribution to my year long "Around the House" photo project. 365 photos. Blogged here.



Jack has a lock on how to open our handled doors (and drawers too now, as several of the kitchen drawers that were most definitely shut this morning were most definitely open this evening.). The most common victim to this madness is my craft room door because it swings open very easily. So to prevent the madness and mayhem that comes from two cats with unfettered access to paper, fabric, and tasty stuffy toys we have devised this ingenious so-far kitty-proof device mechanism--place broom behind handle. It's very classy.

Skip Day

Today's skip day is brought to you by one of my oldest friends. I wasn't really feeling up to much of anything, so I called her just to chat. Over two hours later, it was bedtime for me and past dinnertime for her so we grudgingly said our goodbyes and hung up. I ♥ my friends.

Here we are together in October at my dad's surprise party.

Simply Joy Sunday # 28

The things that made me happy this week. Check out Cool Zebras for other's joys.

1. Getting art up and framed. Cutting the prints just so and getting it right.

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2. Handing out the invites for our housewarming party and meeting most of our neighbors in the process.

3. Snoozey kitties.



4. Enjoying our newly organized and clean closet.

5. Discovering that Target's store brand frozen spanikopita is really good. Really.



6. Sorting through artwork with the hubby and ordering things (!) online to complete a few more spaces.

7. Making quite a dent in the things to be unpacked and put away in the spare room and the craft room.

Day 135/365--Stripes and Circles

My daily contiribution to my year long "Around the House" photo project. 365 photos. Blogged here.



Because my craft room simply can't have enough color. Because being able to say "Yea I made that" is pretty cool. Because it got things out of boxes. Because it's unexpected and fun. Just because.

Etsy Love

Despite the fact that I am no longer selling on Etsy, I still spend a lot of time on the site. It's my go to place for art, housewares, jewelry, and just about anything else. I prefer handmade, original, unique goods to mass produced. And, although handmade isn't always practical, I always try to look there first. For many things, I no longer even bother looking at the mass produced stuff in stores. Because it just doesn't have the love and care behind it of a handmade good. You can see a more in depth discussion of why I ♥ handmade in this post, but for today, I want to show off some of my latest buys. : )

1. Collars for the cats.



When the cats were kittens, we bought them collars from Paws N Tails. After two years of constant wear, Houdini escape attempts, and kitty brawling they had held up amazingly well, but were a bit faded. (Upon taking Jack's off we discovered worn spots, apparently he was more vigorous in his escape attempts than we realized!) So we headed back for more, in even brighter colors! Abby's fur almost completely covers hers, but Jack's new lime green is quite sporty!

2. Housewarming invitations!



These were listed as bridal shower invites but PepperDot was happy to customize them for us. I am thrilled with how they turned out and the people I have given them to so far have been quite taken with the cuteness. ^_^

3. A catch all for the hubby.



Not being one to carry a purse, murse, or briefcase my husband does what many men do--carries all of his stuff in his pockets. Which lead to predictable results when he would get home and empty his pockets. Stuff everywhere. An explosion of clutter that was never guaranteed to be in the same place. I had been wanting him to get some sort of catch all but he'd never found one he liked. Thank heaven for The Cat's Paw who made a bowl that he was happy with. For my part, I was impressed with how sturdy the basket is (not floppy at all) and with the fact that my husband is now using it! Hoorah for stuff being in one spot!

Day 134/365--Illuminate

My daily contiribution to my year long "Around the House" photo project. 365 photos. Blogged here.



Today, I pulled down the shade in my craft room for the first time and was struck by the way the light flowed around the edges of the shade. The few times I've pulled it down a touch, I haven't been able to get it to go back up. Hopefully, this is just a matter of needing to pull it all the way before it will return, or I may be stuck with the shade down for the foreseeable future.

Flashback Friday # 2

Take a trip back in time with me every Friday. Continue your journey over at Christopher and Tia's.



Back in the summer of 2007, I hearted a fabulous new to Etsy artist Tim Chumley. A short time later, he convo'd me asking for shop advice. I wrote him a novel and in return he offered me some prints from his shop. He said pick 2-3, so I sent him my top three choices. In return, he sent me four prints. I was absolutely floored by his generosity and kindness I even blogged about it at the time. The prints have sat, carefully tucked away, for the last two years. We had no good place to hang them in the rental house. But when the hubby and I were sorting through art a few weeks ago, we found the perfect place for them in the kitchen. Four frames and a few nails later and they are up and hung. I love having them up and out. Not only because they are beautiful, bright, and full of life. But because they are a constant reminder of the generosity of strangers. A reminder to be open and kind. To send out good into this world. And it makes for a heck of a story. : )

Day 133/365--Contained

My daily contiribution to my year long "Around the House" photo project. 365 photos. Blogged here.



My husband's new catch all (more on that in another post!) struts it's stuff (and his stuff) on the nightstand. Now to get the rest of that clutter cleaned up!

Day 132/365--All in a Row

My daily contiribution to my year long "Around the House" photo project. 365 photos. Blogged here.



In our quest for framing, we were having a hard time coming up with 8 x 8" frames, let alone in the mahogany color we wanted. So I turned to Amazon where I found an amazing seller. They arrived today and tonight I was able to get our kitchen art framed and up--all by myself! Yes, that row of pictures over the door, that was me and my tools. Isn't it gloriously straight and level? See, this home improvement stuff is starting to improve me!

Crunch

I have been driving for 11 years. In that time I've come to know a few things. Speed limits are usually suggestions (unless you are in Texas with out of state plates and a carload of stuff, holy cow). Other drivers will usually compensate for any momentary lapses of judgement on your part. You really need to pay attention to the gas gauge. (Especially when driving through shady parts of town.) The spare is in the trunk, you just have to look *under* the carpet. You can see lights change even if you aren't looking directly at them.

The only problem with that last one? It doesn't guarantee that the light has changed to what you think it has changed to. Like when a certain left hand turn arrow turns out to actually be the green light for general traffic. And when you've already started your turn? You get to be close acquaintances with oncoming traffic, a friendly EMT, and the local police. Just in case anyone is wondering, the back of police cars are remarkably small. And pokey. But, hey, it sure beats walking.

I'm fine and the damage really is minimal (an AC line came unhooked and the bumper needs replacing) but that's one lesson learned the hard way.

Day 131/365--All We Need

My daily contiribution to my year long "Around the House" photo project. 365 photos. Blogged here.



When the hubby and I got married, we had the bright idea to use the silver letters we found on clearance at Target to spell out cute things on some of the tables (food, gifts, etc). Only...they were on clearance and the letters were pretty picked over. So my mom, myself, and one of our best friends hit up every Target even remotely near us. And we came back with quite a haul, but still some key letters ("O", "E") were missing. My mom found some gold letters at Steinmart that came on black bases and painted them silver to match. After the wedding, the letters were boxed up and packed away. My mom told me I could use them for our eventual house and I wondered where in the heck I would put them. And then, a couple of weeks ago, it clicked. These little knicknacks are perfect for our little knicknack shelves in the rec room. I chose to spell out "Love", which seems perfectly appropriate given all the love that surrounded our coming to own them.

Day 130/365--Up

My daily contiribution to my year long "Around the House" photo project. 365 photos. Blogged here.



I've taken a lot of photos of our amazing entry light framed by the picture window on the second floor. A few weeks ago I stood in the foyer and looked up and thought "Wow! That is gorgeous! I should totally take a 365 photo of that!". So tonight I did. I love the depth and texture that the shadows create on the ceiling and how simple the light looks from this angle.

Day 129/365--Big Job

My daily contiribution to my year long "Around the House" photo project. 365 photos. Blogged here.



As I mentioned yesterday, we have our work cut our for us getting ready for the housewarming party. One small detail I overlooked when my hubby and I made a massive list of things to do...the fact that my paper crafting paper table is, uh, nowhere close to ready. Oh, and there is that stack of boxes in the corner. And the random stuff in the closet (mostly just gift wrap, I think)...Looks like I'll be keeping plenty busy.

Simply Joy Sunday

The things that made me happy this week. Check out Cool Zebras for other's joys.

1. Finding the perfect frame.



2. Making progress on my quilt.



3. Finding old family photos and having the perfect excuse to finally join in on Flashback Friday.



4. Perfect weather.



5. Making a dent in the raking.



6. Our little piece of paradise in suburbia.



7. Getting all the laundry done, folded, and put away. Including the clean laundry that's been sitting in baskets for ages.

Day 128/365--Closet

My daily contiribution to my year long "Around the House" photo project. 365 photos. Blogged here.



Today, I cleaned our closet. Great, right? We have a housewarming party coming up and instead of doing the most pressing things (clean up my craft room desk, which is a pile of stuff; put away all the emptied and flattened boxes, hang art...) I decide to finally give away some clothes I don't wear and resort the closet. Right. Priorities for the win! But doesn't it look sooo good?

Day 127/365--Giving In

My daily contiribution to my year long "Around the House" photo project. 365 photos. Blogged here.



Cool Zebras is about to start a new Aweigh challenge and this time I am planning on participating (more on that in a another post). However, this required the purchase of a scale since we've never had one. So last night, we headed out to Target and picked one out. Which led to an interesting conversation on aesthetics. While my husband has excellent taste and fully understands and embraces the need for decor, he doesn't really extend that aesthetic to functional objects. You just buy what works and whatever it looks like, oh well. I, on the other hand, want the objects in our home to be beautiful. If they have a function, of course they must serve it, but they cannot be outright ugly. I refuse to spend money on something that will make me anything less than happy every time I look at it. (Of course, I am also not going to waste money needlessly, but I try to balance) This was our final selection and I'm very happy with the way that it recedes into the background. And the hubby had the perfect home for it. ^_^

Skip Day

Today's skip day is brought to you by leaving my memory card at work. And then not being able to figure out how to delete the pictures already on my internal memory off my camera. So yea, no memory = no photo. Which is too bad, I had the photo all picked out. So instead, you get my Flashback Friday post. Where you can see more gems like this one:

Flashback Friday # 1

Take a trip back in time with me every Friday. Continue your journey over at Christopher and Tia's.

Over on her blog Elegant Snobbery Marissa has joined in on Flashback Friday. And it looks like fun! I've been thinking about jumping in for awhile now but today I finally found the perfect excuse. I accidentally left my camera's memory card at work (oops!) and when I went to take pictures on the camera's built in memory, I discovered it was full! Of pictures taken when I first received the camera for Christmas nearly two years ago.

Here's the requisite family shot.


It's funny how the changes show up mostly in the hair--my baby brother (on the far left) has cut his hair, my mom's is much "blonder" than it used to be, and my dad has since shaved his head and beard (keeping only a mustache and goatee (which he now dyes). I've also made serious progress in revamping my wardrobe. At the time, that was a cute outfit--walking shoes instead of sneakers and a fairly new (only 2 years old) hoodie.

This photo cracks me up:


This is my brother, one of his oldest friends, and my hubby. I have no idea where we were driving to but it is so them. My brother going "what are you doing?", Mikey trying to thug it up, and my hubby, happy to go along with my picture taking antics.

And this one is pretty priceless too. My "why in the heck are you taking pictures of me first thing in the morning? And isn't that MY new camera?" look.



The funny thing is that if I took these pictures today, I probably wouldn't even have uploaded them. Of course, I also would have had quite a few more to choose from. (Apparently the memory standard on my camera only holds 14 pictures. 14. These people are crazy.) Still, it goes to show how much easier we often are on the us of several years ago than the us of today.