Thanksgiving & Black Friday

Thanksgiving and Black Friday were both great. We had a small family (and Kim, who is basically family!) gathering at our house. Our first Thanksgiving in our new home! Unfortunately, my mom was working a double shift and couldn't make it. Blaine's mom brought turkey and ham and I took care of the rest. I made Tofurkey, gravy, mashed potatoes and rolls plus some other stuff. I took on making mashed potatoes, rolls, apple cranberry crisp and pumpkin pie from scratch and lucky for me they turned out great! Lucky for Kim too because she's the pickiest eater I know and she just ate rolls and mashed potatoes. And pumpkin pie. Blaine's grandparents stopped by in the morning and dropped of his grandpas famous beans. He even made a meatless batch because he knows Blaine and I don't eat meat, how sweet! Unfortunately, they aren't comfortable driving in the dark so they left before dinner.










And just for fun... Roxy guarding "her" leftovers. She's so funny. Anytime there is food, dog bones or even rat food (how is that appealing to dogs?) on the floor she stands guard and growls at any of the other dogs who come by. I think it's cute and it's actually helpful because she doesn't actually touch the food and prevents the other dogs from doing so. I love that old lady.



After our Thanksgiving dinner, we hung out for a little bit then Kim, Blaine and I opted for a nap before Black Friday shopping. I like to go every year. It's fun and I don't take it too seriously or actually try to get any of those crazy deals that people start lining up for days ahead of time. It's just a fun time for me to stay up all night and shop, what could be better? Most years I don't really buy gifts or much of anything for that matter. This year, though we did get a new TV which we were so excited about. We got extremely lucky, at Target. Someone had abandoned their TV that they had waited in line for in one of the aisles. Score! We also went to the mall and of course Joann's to stock up on fabric for my business.











Apart from the TV we got a dust buster (finally). And I got fabric for Neelia's Nook, five dresses, tights and nail polish. In the photo above the nailpolish and tights cost me more than all the cute dresses on the right. We left home at around 12:30 and got back around 9:30. It always amazes me how long we stay out because it did not seem like we were shopping for 9 hours in the middle of the night. Then of course we came home and took long naps. Thanks for the great deals, Black Friday! And thanks for people who were civil this year, and for Target and how organized they were with all the people in line (in comparison to Walmart at least).

Monday, Monday.

Happy Monday! The photos above are from my bedroom window at about 6:30 this morning. When Blaine leaves around 4am on Mondays and Wednesdays, I usually have trouble falling back asleep so sit in bed for about an hour and then I just end up getting up. I love being up early, though, because there is something about sunrises that I love. They're so pretty and while they look similar to sunsets, it feels much different. We're working on getting some chairs out on the front porch so I can just sit out there while the dogs play in the crisp morning. I usually have to sit on the edge of the concrete porch which is waaay too cold.

Today I'm spending the day relisting and packaging an etsy order, sewing up some of my orders from my pet bed business and then hopefully continuing to get my studio nice and organized. I do have quite a few orders to get through though, so I may just chug away at those all day to get ahead of schedule.

My dad stopped by randomly on his way home from LA and we hung out for a while which was nice. We mostly laughed at the dogs playing in the front yard and we planned for me to come over for our Tuesday tradition, which is dinner at the Mulligan Room. Then I'll probably hang out and watch a few of our shows, I think we're going to start watching Terra Nova which I'm excited about.

I have some updates and photos from Thanksgiving and our weekend that are in the works so I'll be back with those today or tomorrow. For now, I feel like I'm procrastinating so I want to get going on my ever growing to do list.

So thankful.

As the years have passed, I've gone from angsty teenager who thinks the world is against her and totally unfair to really understanding how lucky I am to live the life that I live. While I do my best to be thankful on a regular basis, I wanted to dedicate a post to some of the many things that I am thankful for.

Blaine. My husband (calling him that still gives me butterflies), the love of my life and probably the only person who knows me better than myself. I am so lucky to have found someone to take my life, which is already great, and just make it so much better. Blaine everything he can to make sure I am the happiest girl in the world and he does it well. He's the most caring, thoughtful man I've ever met and I am so so lucky to have his love in my life. I just know that we will grow and blossom together as we age and the world changes around us.




My family. I am so lucky to have the family that I do. My parents and my sister are my best friends and I am so happy that we all enjoy spending time with each other. Though my sister and I are adults now, we still look forward to family vacations and giant holiday celebrations with our entire extended family. My family is hands down, the best ever.



My friends. Now, I really don't have a lot of friends. I have plenty of acquaintances, but not a lot of people that I truly consider friends. But the ones that I do have, I am so thankful to have in my life. They put up with my crazy personality and may even be just as nuts as I am.



My fur family. I've always felt that pets should be included as family members and that means I have a large fur-family. They love me unconditionally and can always, always cheer me up. If I get mad for one reason or another, they don't hold grudges, they still love me a split second later. They're always there for you, always happy to see you and you are their number one, how can I not be thankful to have them in my life?



My life. I am so thankful to have a happy, healthy life full of the love and support of loved ones. I would not choose any other life.


Of course I'm also thankful for your typical materialistic things like my DVR, my iphone, cute dresses, ebay, amazon, iced tea, comfy sweat pants, our new house, beds, coupons and pretty nail polish.

Window Shopping Wednesday

I can't believe this year is almost over. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and Christmas is just around the corner. We're just settling into the house, still unpacking, but I can see the finish line! I've been dreaming of decorating my home in cozy holiday cheer since I can remember and this year I finally get to do it. Etsy is a great place to get some inspiration, it's flooded with great holiday goodies! Plus - you get to support an artist during this holiday season. Have a handmade holiday!

Burlap Poinsettias ($10 for 2)

Red & White Frames ($72)

Distressed SANTA Letters ($30)

Heart 2011 Ornament ($9)

Mr. Grinch Sign ($18)

Glitter Deer ($9.50)

Weekend Recap

This weekend was a busy, busy one as usual. On Friday I casually went dining table shopping with my parents and kind of fell in love. The only problem is with all the other house stuff we've been paying for (and the wedding), we were on a strict budget and this was more than double. Yikes. Luckily I have the best parents in the world who offered to split it with us. I told them that I would only accept that offer if it was an early Christmas gift from them, so we bought it! (Thanks, mom & dad!)

We picked it up early Saturday and Blaine put together the bench and the table. We love it to death. It's exactly our style and the perfect size. The only thing I'm hesitant about is that it's a lot more cherry wood looking than I expected. Our floors are dark, muted, greyish brown and our kitchen cabinets (until I can convince Blaine to let me paint them) are a light wood. So now we have three different stains of wood in our kitchen. Oops. I'm going to do my best with any additional decor to try and tie them together so it's less awkward. Either way, I love our new table AND now we have somewhere to put our Thanksgiving feast in just a few days!

Once we were done putting together the table, we spent the next few hours cleaning/unpacking/organizing. You know, the usual. I feel like this is what normal life is now because we have been doing this every weekend for a few months. I know eventually we'll be done, but I'm enjoying it for now. I also made a few of my Kitty Cuddler mats for my dad to give to a friend for her birthday, she's got kitties. We went to drop off her present/meet my dad at the Country Club. We we invited to stay, although we didn't even really know the person who's birthday it was. However, when realizing it was kind of a sit down dinner and that everyone was about 20 years older than us we decided against it. And I got out my plaid shirt (see photo above), big belt buckle and cowboy boots just for the occasion (the party had a western theme). Bummer. So we moseyed on home and caught up on American Horror Story while cuddling with all the critters before heading back home to our house.

Sunday was a day of home cooking and even more unpacking. I spent most of the day organizing my fabric stash. Once I filled up the entire top shelf of the closet we had to head over to Home Depot to get supplies to make more shelving. I think we've been to Home Depot more than any other places combined over the last few months. Despite the fact that I have way too much fabric, I love owning my own business and I love it even more now that I have a dedicated space that doesn't have to spill into my personal space. Hip hip hooray! Having my own studio/office has seriously been a dream of mine for years, so when Blaine offered to let me have the biggest bedroom in the house that just made it even better! And the best husband award goes to...

After spending hours working on unpacking and anything else house related, I made some fresh tortillas with the new tortilla press and cast iron pan that we got as wedding gifts. We had dinner then we snuggled on the couch to watch Sixteen Candles. Neither of us had actually seen it before. I know, terrible. Blaine is so much better at watching movies than I am. He gets so engrossed and knows exactly what's going on. He also actually remembers the movies he sees, unlike me. Meanwhile I've got movie ADD/ADHD. I noticed "the principal from School of Rock" (her name escaped me) so I had to look up what her name was, Joan Cusack, then had to look it up in my phone to see if it was actually her ("Geek Girl #1", I believe), and then I saw that Molly Ringwald was in The Facts of Life, then I had to burst into the theme song for The Facts of Life (to Blaine's amusement/horror), then I had to look and see if Joan Cusack was related to John Cusack (also in the movie). They're siblings, by the way. And that was just in the first half of the movie. Lucky for me, Blaine is (usually) a man of patience.

Today I was pretty lazy. I cleaned a little, did/am still doing a few loads of laundry and ran down to Bakersfield to go to the fabric store. I picked up 3 different fabrics to make kitchen towels from, a fabric for more scarves for the shop and several yards of some adorable babushka fabric that I have no idea to do with yet. Now I'm about to make my bed and sleep, although it'll just barely be 9pm by the time I get there. Early to bed, early to rise, right? Happy Monday!

Music Monday: The Fray "How to Save A Life"

I still love this song. I remember listening to it all the time right before I met Blaine. It actually reminds me of a guy I was dating right before Blaine and I'm not sure why, but that's definitely not why I love it ;)

Recipe: Tofu, Shirataki Noodle & Veggie Stirfry

I just randomly whipped up this recipe and it actually turned out really yummy! Because the wedding is over people seem to think I can breathe a sigh of relief and eat whatever I want now. Technically true, I don't need to fit into a dress, but at the same time I still want to maintain a healthy lifestyle. This recipe makes a lot. I split it into two meals. See nutritional information below.

Ingredients (pictured above)

2/3 of 16 oz Package of Tofu (you can use it all, I just didn't want to make too much)
1 Package of Tofu Shirataki Noodles
1/2 Bag of frozen Broccoli & Cauliflower
2 Tbsp Hoisin Sauce
3 Tbsp Soy Sauce
2 tsp Sesame Oil
Olive Oil (not pictured)

Directions

1. Cut up tofu into 1" cubes
2. Pour some olive oil into a pan
3. Fry tofu on medium to high heat until they start to brown
4. While you're waiting for the tofu, prepare the noodles as instructed on the back of package (rinse thoroughly and microwave 1 minute)
5. Add frozen broccoli & cauliflower. (Will take a while to cook, but I'd rather wait than get more dishes dirty and have to wash them later, haha.)
6. Once broccoli and cauliflower are heated, add hoisin sauce, soy sauce and sesame oil
7. Stir fry for a couple of minutes
8. Add noodles last, stir fry for another minute or two

Then wait for it to cool down and enjoy! I'm kind of in love with this because it's delicious, but also look at the nutrition information below! Keep in mind that is for the whole recipe, if you save half for later you can split the nutrition info in half. And there's most of my protein for the day since every non-vegetarian I know seems to be concerned with my protein intake.

Nutrition Information (recipe calculator at MyFitnessPal.com)
Calories: 486
Carbs: 35
Fat: 25
Protein: 34

Shop update + excitement!

Today is being spent uploading some scarves to my etsy shop and going through my vintage collection that needs to be put up as well! We finally got internet at the new house so I'm hanging here in my GIANT studio getting stuff done. I've decided to start calling my craft room a "studio" because it just sounds so much better. But then at the same time I feel like it makes me sound kind of arrogant, haha. It's just weird, when I picture a craft room I picture this messy room full of hobbyish crafts all over the place. When I think of a studio, I picture a well organized space with supplies and finished products nicely displayed. So I'm going with studio, maybe it'll help me keep my little world organized.

In other news, I'm in love with the scarves I finished sewing up last night! I only bought a couple of yards of each fabric since I wasn't sure how much time I'd have to work on these scarves. Once I get this place all set up, I might run down the hill and grab some more scarf fabric.

I'm just so excited because I have been waiting so long to have an organized space so that I can start creating more and collecting more to add to the shop. Now I can run my little business from it's own little room, instead of living and working out of my bedroom at my parents which is always just a disaster. Exciting things are going to be happening!

Check out my shop here.

Moving Messes.

 

This is what my bedroom at my parents house looks like right now. I'm in the middle of going through all of my junk to pack and trying to put a lot of stuff in the "yard sale" pile for next spring. How embarrassing is this mess? Sorry, mom. Just look away ;)

Monday Night Link Dump

"Monday Night Link Dump" doesn't sound all that flattering, I know. It's been a while since I've done a Weekend Link Love post and I've got links piling up on me. So many good finds on the internet lately. A part of me wishes the internet were less inspiring and distracting, but that's where my own discipline (or lack of) comes into play.

Tonight I'm linking up, watching Glee reruns and then hopefully doing a little more packing since my room has become quite a disaster over the past few weeks. I'm sure (hoping) I'll be up late since I took a four hour nap. Yep. Over the past weekend I've just wanted to sleep all the time which is totally opposite of how I usually am. I literally fell asleep watching Blaine install a ceiling fan and talking to him. Who does that? Hoping I'm all caught up on sleep now, though.

This tumblr on Reasons to be Fit is totally inspiring. I'll be visiting every time I need to motivation to get out and move.

Lookbook Cookbook, their slogan "(vegan) food + fashion" says it all.

With the holidays coming up and all the gift wrapping that will be going on, I think this tutorial for Painted Fabric Gift Wrap would be super cute!

Feeling uninspired? This post on working hard and the secrets to success is a quick inspirational pick me up.


Lasagna Cups? Delicious and adorable all at the same time!

Have you heard of Sevenly.org? Each week they pick a charity, design a shirt and $7 from each shirt goes towards that charity! Plus, the shirts are well designed too.

While getting some extra weight off before the wedding, I found my love for Spaghetti Squash. Now I'm all about squash so this post on what you can do with a Banana Squash looks pretty yummy.

The saddest and cutest news story ever. A couple that was married 72 years dies holding hands. I teared up, not going to lie.

Another funny story. Drunk moose found in apple tree. I think I may have shared this already, but it still cracks me up.

And finally, this youtuber is helping me to be a better girl.  I've always been a little bit of a tomboy, but lately I've been wanting to do my make up once in a while and I always feel ridiculous because I don't know what I'm doing.

Weekend Recap

We're almost done, we're almost done! So much has been done on the house lately. I really need to upload some photos because it's looking AMAZING. We have all of our appliances, we're just waiting on them to install the sink, dishwasher and microwave. We made a frozen pizza in our new oven and let's just say washing a baking sheet in a small bathroom sink is pretty challenging. We're also waiting on carpet for a closet, new windows and some other small repairs.

I married such a handy guy. Just yesterday he installed two ceiling fans and three curtain rods. We have 10 foot windows in two rooms. I'm glad Ikea carried some curtain rods that fit our gigantic windows! We also moved in our couches from a friend of the family and managed to BREAK the bed frame we bought. The box spring wouldn't fit in, so we were trying to squeeze it in and the wood just split. Boo. While I'm super sad because I liked it, I'm just happy Blaine managed to talk the guy down to $60 because that's not as bad as a couple hundred bucks. I guess we'll just continue sleeping without a cute bed frame, we'll survive I'm sure. I'm more worried about a dining table. Less than two weeks until Thanksgiving at our house and still no table! I'm working on trying to find one, I'm not sure if we can make one in time. We'll see.

All our furbabies got to hang out in the house all weekend! We fenced in the front yard, it's a little ghetto but it works for now so the dogs can go outside. The dogs love the house, they have so much space to roam and I love that the whole bottom floor is hard so that any accidents can be easily cleaned up. The cats love it too. I found one of them hiding in a bathroom drawer the first morning, but other than that I think they're all ok with it. Blaine is pushing for me to just move in already, but I'm wary about living alone most of the week. Though, now that we've introduced all the pets and spent time there with them, I think I'll be much less hesitant with all the animals around.

Today I have to drop off the key to the uhaul truck, get an oil change then go home and get started on some orders. I'm also going to work on some projects for Christmas and my etsy store. I'm having internal conflicts about the store name/my blog name. I'm going to brainstorm over the next few days and see what I come up with.

Hello!

Just wanted to pop back over today to say hello. Don't you love that Blaine lives in the girliest room ever at his parents house? Besides the random snowboard in the corner. When he moved out his room got painted mint green and totally decorated grandma/little girl style with floral everything. It's too funny.

Thanksgiving table... optional?

It's official: We're having Thanksgiving at our new house! Yikes! That means I have about 2 weeks to make it look like a warm, cozy home. It's probably going to just be Blaine and I, his parents, my dad and my bestie, Kim, who will come late so we can go Black Friday shopping in the morning (or that night). We'll definitely be inviting more friends and family, but we know a lot of people have plans and don't want to drive an hour and a half to our house.

We are picking up a Uhaul today to pick up our hand me down couches and the queen bed frame Blaine bought last week. I cannot for the life of me find a dining table I like at any of the thrift stores. I was hoping to find one on craigslist or at a thrift store for $200 or less and then refinish/restain it myself so it's the way I want. Nope, no luck. If we don't find one in the next few days, we'll be BUILDING our own table. I know, crazy. For a while I tried to figure out how we could stain and finish a picnic table to work inside our house.

Until then, I'm collecting tons of inspiration.

Benchwright Reclaimed Wood Dining Table - $1,099 @ Pottery Barn

Toscana Dining Table - $799 @ Pottery Barn

 

Modern Farmhouse Table - $1,998 @ Anthropologie

Wedding done. Now what?

Pictures are from spending our first night at the house. Our new mattress came so we used new sheets we got as wedding presents and old comforters that we have had forever and were packed in boxes from a couple of years ago. Blaine was adamant about spending the night there. We also had to use a little tiny heater since the gas wasn't on and it was 30 degrees that night.You can barely see, but the window sills still need to be painted white. They're dark blue from what the room was before we painted it. The second photo was our view from the side window in the morning.

Life has definitely slowed down a lot since the wedding. To be honest, it's taken the past few weeks for me to feel like the wedding is actually over. I'm not even kidding, there have been a few random moments of panic thinking the wedding was soon and I had a lot of stuff to do. Silly. I know the wedding is over, but my body and mind have been so used to being in a constant state of "so much to do" that it's just starting to wind down.

After the wedding my uncle, who took photos along with the photographer we hired, gave me a USB stick with all of the photos. Of course when we came home to pack for the honeymoon, I misplaced it. I'm pretty sure I put it somewhere I wouldn't lose it, which means I hid it from myself really well. I tend to do that. I'm still waiting on the photos from the photographer, but I hope to find these photos soon so that I can upload some with an official wedding recap post.

Now that the wedding is over, what am I up to? Tons. I've got orders for my business to sew up today, though I think I may have to run to the fabric store because I'm out of one color needed. Other than that, I'm in the midst of packing up my room to move into the new house. The flooring is down and this week the stucco is being done, appliances are being installed along with ceiling fans (i.e. lights in the rooms!) and the gas is getting turned on so it's not completely freezing in there. This week (and probably next) it's my job to take my densely packed bedroom and pack it up to move over there. Meanwhile I'll be throwing many, many things in a donate/yard sale pile. We are committed to keeping our new house clutter free.

Tomorrow night Blaine will be coming and picking me up and taking me back down to his parents house so I can go shopping for furniture. A friend of the family is giving us their old couches and he's renting a truck on Friday to bring them up so it's a good time for me to hopefully find other pieces like a dining table and possibly a bed frame. The couches are several years old, but the couple has no kids so they're in amazing condition. I'll be buying some couch covers just because they're blue and don't go with the style we're going for in the house. I'm so excited to get to decorating and DIYing fun things for the new house!

Life Lately

1. Me in our hotel. People kept thinking my tights were tattoos. 2. Unhealthy snacks in Mexico. 3. Our gorgeous hotel. 4. Our plane after arriving back at LAX. 5. Frosty King, I've missed you! 6. Waterfall on our ATV tour in Puerto Vallarta. 7. Snow! 8. Creating "home". 9. Unpacking wedding gifts. We are so lucky to have gotten so many beautiful gifts to fill our home!

Happy November!

I'm excited for November, it's going to be another exciting month. I'm definitely loving it here in Puerto Vallarta, but I am so excited for it to be cold when we get home! The summer-like weather is great, but when we are relying on walking as our primary transportation it gets HOT. We're talking 90+ degrees, humid, gross drippy sweat, I want to shower like twice a day, HOT. But we're definitely getting our exercise so I'm hoping we won't come back five honeymoon pounds heavier. Yesterday alone we walked about 4 to 5 miles so I'm crossing my fingers.

I can't wait to start nesting in our new house just in time for cuddling season! Cold weather is for cuddling, soft blankets, hot cocoa and baking goodies and we finally have our own place to do that again. I can't wait to start cooking and baking and just making our house a home. Happy November!

We got MARRIED!

I'm typing from our hotel room in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico while we enjoy the AC and watch Road Trip with Spanish subtitles. I have so many pictures from the wedding and this amazing honeymoon to sort through and post when we get home. The past few weeks have been busy, but definitely amazing and memorable.