Be our Guests

Today Kaitlin and James are getting into DC around noon. We're going to hang out in the city, take them to a couple places they haven't been before and then grab dinner somewhere in the city. 

Tomorrow is our March Mix-off Madness! I tried some of the infused alcohols today but the were still pretty strong. Will need mixers for sure! I'm interested to see what kind of mixers people bring and excited to taste everyone's concoctions! 

Today we had the electrician come over in the morning and finally install the dryer outlet! Sketchy's been working on the dryer vent situation all week. We have to drill a hole in the house to allow the hea out of the basement. The stupid drill keeps running out of battery so this project has been long term! Sketchy's really close though. Hopefully by Monday we'll be able to do our first load of laundry in the house (three months later!). I'm so done with the laundromat.

Happy Easter/Passover weekend to everyone! 

Feng Shui & Dress Shopping!

Today I built the little bookshelf to add to the living room space. Here are the before and after pictures again and then the additional pictures with the new bookshelf. 

before. closed off.

closed off.

more open and crazy.

the new bookshelf!

things organized properly. 

The only issue might be that the couch is really near the tv on the far end. This won't be an issue once the TV is mounted on the wall (hopefully over a fireplace situation). I really think I like how much more open it makes the living room. I can also see what Lucy and Charlie are doing more easily from the kitchen now! She used to hide behind the couch where I couldn't see her! 

Melanie randomly sent me a link with some details on big dress sales going on around the city. One of the places was Hitched. This is a salon I had read about before and really liked their story! It's a cute story of two best friends who did all the education, get a good job BS and then decided to stop doing that to do something they loved! 

Anyways, they were having a huge sale (which I now realize happens every end of quarter). Up until now I had not tried on any dresses and really have avoided it because I obviously do not want to buy a dress in my current size. Sigh. I keep saying I'm going to work out and lose weight, but that doesn't seem to be happening and the reality is that I need to start looking in the near future for a dress. Evidently one should buy a dress 6 months from the wedding date at the latest. Craziness! Anyways, my pinterest board suggests that there is one very specific type of dress I like which I think will fit the theme. The flowy/ruffly bottom type dress: http://pinterest.com/nalinip11/simple-shore-elegance/

The things that I really love are the ruffles and lace. I obviously want something with a big flowy bottom. 

So anyways, I went in and tried on 6 different styles and materials just to get a feel for dresses. The first two were a disaster! I really didn't like the material of one and three were pretty good. It was a successful experience because I figured out what kind of waistline/fit I like and also decided which materials I did and did not like! It was good to give some dresses a chance because I ended up liking things I never thought I would. 

The event we went to was only to try on the dresses on sale. Their sales were ooc. Dresses that were regularly 3k-5k were anywhere from 500.00 - 1500! So the sizes and styles were limited during this try-on session. 

Some dresses looked INCREDIBLE in person but then pictured so horribly! How a dress looks in pictures is almost as important as how I FEEL in the dress. 

Here's the one I think I loved the most. I felt great in it, it made me look better than any other dress and it had lace and a big bottom. It also has a sash/ribbon aspect which i really like because I think I want to have a ribbon or sash of sorts that matches the bridesmaids color (grey, dark pink or teal). 

Once it's the right size and fitted -- it would look even better! 

The funny thing is I very much dislike the gathers and look of the bottom of this dress (other than the lace) because it looks very traditional and general, but i LOVE the gathers and bottom of this dress in conjunction with the lace! The back is also the prettiest back of a dress I've seen (so far in my looking at dresses). 

Random sidenote: picked up some easter egg necessities for drunken easter egg hunt after cocktail party! =)

So very excited for cocktail party!

Restlessness Around the House

This morning I took my Insurance Licensing Exam. Passed! w00t! Was pretty uncertain about that test. The questions are super tricky and there's a hellova lot more to know about insurance than one would think! 

I had originally applied for quite a few jobs right after I gave my two weeks notice. I'm starting to slowly hear back from those jobs (I guess the application period is now closing since it's been a couple weeks). Should have a couple interviews this week. Doesn't hurt to see what else is out there. I can easily drop the insurance job if something better comes along. We'll see how the interviews go. 

After the exam, I came home and was really lazy and restless. I watched a few episodes of ridiculous daytime TV (something I don't think I've EVER done). Then I decided to clean the house, and then decided to feng shui the living room. 

Here's what it looked like before -- was sectioned off.

Sectioned off.

This is what I did today. It seems so much more open! 

Lots more space in the middle for the dogs and I really like the way the floor looks. I got too lazy to straighten out the rug. I'll be building a smaller bookshelf tomorrow and probably arrange a little differently as well. 

Tonight, I also decided to do something with the slanted bookshelf sketchy put together last night. It's going to serve as our temporary bar in the mancave. 

Since I was putting the bar area together, I decided to move everything downstairs and set-up for the March Madness Cocktail Party this Saturday. With Kaitlin and James getting into town on Friday I want to have fun and do things with them Fri and Sat and not worry about prepping for party! 

the full set-up

The infused liquors

Some mixers, selection of wine and a few new beers to try as well

You can kind of see how the liquors took on the colors of the fruits! They look so good! 

So tomorrow I'm going to go shopping for the rest of the party things and we'll be all set! 

Three days! Exciticus. 

Free Movie Screenings!

At one point, I was really good at going to the movies and knowing what was out. Lately, I'll hear a movie title and not even know it was a thing. Recently I've been scouting gofobo and other free screening sites to look for free screening passes. It seems they've changed things a bit. In the past, there were quite a few movies where you could just click on a link and print the pass. Now, it looks like there are way more movies which require a 'code.' It seems easy enough to google the codes, but generally the passes are already all gone!

Anyone have suggestions for good free screening sites? I've found this one pretty good -- http://advancescreenings.com/ but it takes a lot of clicks! 

I lucked into a random set of links that sent me to ABC's web site which instructed me to simply send my name and address to a certain e-mail address. I did so and received my tickets in the mail the next day! ABC now has one more person's mailing address in their database and I have two tickets to Jurassic Park 3D and The Place Beyond the Pines! Jurassic Park I got just for the hell of it to give to someone who wants to see it. I actually really want to see The Place Beyond the Pines. 

In other news we got another piece of furniture today. The slanted bookshelf! 

Sketchy worked on building it tonight while Lucy and I observed.

The final project looked really good in the living room. Not sure where and what we're using it for right now so didn't take a picture -- tomorrow. 

Going to be a long night. Licensing exam is tomorrow at 10:00am and I haven't even finished half of the online course yet. Le sigh. 

Sunlight, Movies and North Carolina Roadtrip!

This weekend was super eventful. Caution: Long post ahead. 

Friday was good.

I started a massage envy membership last April. You pay a set rate for an hour massage monthly. If you do not use the hour, it rolls over. Here we are in March and I have gone 2 times since last April. Yes, I have about 1932 hours left to use up by April or I need to continue month to month. Guess who's going to be getting weekly massages? 

I went for a 1.5 hour massage on Friday morning which was amazing. 

There are two things in this world that are the best/most relaxing and stress-relieving experiences I've ever had:

1. massages
2. yoga. 

Nothing, and I mean, NOTHING can top those two things (or at least thus far I haven't found anything). If you do either of these, you understand. If you don't, you really should try it out. 

So why don't I keep up with it if it's so great? I have a crazy high right after, but then life gets in the way and I fail to schedule a massage or yoga classes and then I just forget how amazing the experience is.  

Anyways, after an amazing massage, I got some studying done and then Sketchy got home around 4:30. Friday was our first weekend day we got to enjoy the sun hanging around later! I opened every blind in the house. The natural light was so sweet. More days like Friday makes the whole world happy.

Sketchy got a lot done in the horrible yard of ours. So much left to do and no fricking good weather to do it in! 

Charlie watched Sketchy the entire time

doing this.

I got quite a lot done inside the house. This next picture is pretty embarrassing but here is our current closet situation:

Yes, we're using an entire room as our closet. This is how it's been since we moved in. =( We have three closets that are full of random clothing in no kind of order. I emptied out all three closets into this room (did not take a picture of that because it was way too ooc) and started folding and sorting items. I got one of the three closets completely done which was good. Two more to go. Sigh. 

In sorting clothes I found a lot of clothing items we've been looking for. I found a lot of clothes Sketchy evidently didn't realize he owned. Every time we need to dress up to go somewhere, he literally goes out and buys a new dress shirt because he 'does not have any.'

This is a picture of T W E N T Y plus of Sketchy's dress shirts I found

After feeling productive we got Pho, which seems to have become almost a routine weekly thing. I'm on the hunt for Pho bowls. Can't find them anywhere! And Pho spoons. Will check out some of the asian/international markets around here, but if anyone has suggestions for where to find them, please let me know! 

Then we watched some of the tournament games. As I mentioned before, Sketchy and I filled out brackets in a small friends group. Sketchy actually printed out everyone's bracket and has been keeping track with a red pen and yellow highlighter. It's pretty cute and funny how serious he is about updating his paper brackets. =)

 

After the games we finally sat down to watch This is 40. The movie was really good. Funny as expected, but also very serious -- not expected. The movie was such a good real life depiction of a relationship and all the issues they face. Also just generally about life -- and real life issues with various relationships whether sibling, father-daughter, husband-wife or friends. I'd def recommend it to any and everyone! 

Saturday morning I headed into DC to check out the status of the Cherry Blossoms and check out photo angles. I'm going to take pictures of sketchy's cousins who are pregnant with pretty blossom background (maybe. if winter ever ends). That was pretty depressing. 

The next two pictures is where they are right now:

vs. where they need to be (pictured below):

This picture above is from last year. The pink in the background are the same trees that are pictured below (but from a different angle)

they look so depressing. It was more sad to see all the tourist out and about who probably planned on seeing pretty trees and ended up seeing THIS.

I really hope there's something on those trees by this weekend. Blah.

Sapna and Sketchy's dad came over to hang out Saturday afternoon. Sketchy's dad was actually able to get the wall quote up above the door. I'm not sure how we're going to get the frames up. He had to stand on the top of the ladder which makes me nervous. There's really nothing to hold on to and really easy to fall. So basically i risked his life for this: 

Looks off center from this angle, but it's not in person. We'll have to figure out a better plan for getting the frames up around there. 

We had lunch here and then went out to watch Olympus Has Fallen. That movie is probably one of the most intense movies I've ever seen. It was really good though. Definitely my favorite Gerard Butler movie. The plot, delivery of lines and cinematography was so good!

Sapna spent the night Saturday. Sunday morning we got a call that a friend needed some help about 15 miles from the North Carolina/VA border so we hopped in the car and spent the day road-tripping around VA. 

There was a lot of this and then lots of driving in snow. 

Overall, a super eventful weekend. I'm excited for getting through this week, taking my licensing exam on Wednesday, then Kaitlin and James are visiting later this week and cocktail party this weekend! 

Still can't believe it's almost April! 

Productivity!

So tonight after writing my last post I got really motivated to get some things done! I decided to get the blog post for Friday written and posted ahead of time (very rare).

First, I sanded down and stained the little wine cabinet thing for the wine wall.

Before

After

Complete wall

Things left to do:

-Find a pretty hardware piece for the drawer handle
-Do something about the metal pieces on the side -- either lighten them or polish? 
-Add slits in the shelving area to hang wine glasses upside down like a real wine glass rack. (i'll leave one shelf for the stemless glasses.
-Get an anchor for one of the mounted racks so that I can finally put the bottles in the racks.

It's crazy that this is STILL in process. But it's seriously near the end now. 

On to the mudroom. 

I told you about the white piece of crown molding I painted. We mounted that and added the hooks. The hooks were really tricky to get on and into the wall, but it's all done!! 

Thinking about adding a decorative mirror or something above the hooks. That will complete this mudroom area -- like the inspiration I showed you guys from pinterest: 

Okay, so now that the entryway is almost finished, I'm finally going to post a picture! This is one of those other pieces of the house that's gone through 10 stages already and is still not quite complete.  

The black dresser thing is actually a shoe rack -- the one I found on pinterest and had to make mine no matter WHAT it took. It's so handy. We have over 20 pairs of shoes in there so all the work was worth it. 

It was so difficult to figure out how to position the shoe rack in that space. We couldn't put it where the hooks are because the door wouldn't open (it opens inwards, boooo). 

We couldn't put it against the wall opposite the hooks because there's a vent there and also because it would be taller than the main floor ledge (you can see it on the left hand side of the picture -- the light wood) which was just awkward! 

So we had to put it on the wall it currently fits against. BUT it was too big for that space. 1 it was going to be taller than the ledge that it now is even with and 2 the counter part of it was too wide and blocked the door from opening. 

Solution: We had to first shorten the width of the top so that it was flush with the sides. You'll notice the difference in the two example shoe rack pictures and ours (it's the same product, just ours is altered). Then we had to cut the legs to shorten the shoe rack. Finally we had to mess with the bottom left leg. You'll notice it's shaved down and not the same size as the right leg (you actually may not be able to see this since shoes are in the way). We also had to cut the crown molding to make it fit! Sketchy and his dad did an awesome job. They deserve lots of props especially since they had to deal with my ranting and raving about how stupid the dimensions of the house were and how much I did not want to return the shoe rack!

 

So here's a (bad) picture of the space above the door where I want to do the wall quote with a frame collage around it. I think it'll be pretty and it's a blank wall space that can be seen from all areas of the top floor! 

All we need for this space is the frame collage, some sort of decorative mirror for above the hooks and a little area rug for in front of the door. 

Now the last thing I did tonight (seriously... did more tonight than in the last couple weeks!). Remember the upholstered corkboard? It was nice, but it definitely needed a border. 

I got a cabinet door from IKEA's 'as is' section for about $2.50. Their as-is section is amazing for shelves or any kind of scrap wood you'll need for any project! I actually got a really large awesome piece for 10.00 which I'm going to try to turn into a headboard for our king size bed -- hopefully will have pictures on Monday of that! 

Anyways, back to corkboard border. I cut the existing corkboard and fitted it into the border. It matches the bookshelf perfectly! We moved it up a little to accommodate the white board at a perfect height for me while I'm sitting at the desk! May need to paint that white board border black so it matches the other things in the room! 

Anyways, I'm really happy with the results. 

Checked off quite a few small things from the to-do list! Hopefully we get some good spring weather this weekend so we can be as productive on the yard as we were inside last night! 

If only I can be this productive in studying for the rest of the day!

Happy Friday folks! 

March Madness Bracketing!

Gah, this month has moved so incredibly fast. I can't believe we're already almost at the end of the month.  Anyways, it's officially spring regardless of the flurries we've been seeing the past few days. The days are longer which has been so so nice and March Madness is upon us! 

I made my bracket thirty minutes before the deadline today. Picked some crazy things methinks but whatevs. Here's my bracket:

Anyone else doing brackets? Who's in your final four? 

TV Tangent:

Last night was a new episode of Criminal Minds. I was actually counting down the days until the episode since the last was a cliffhanger. It was a bit disappointing as it didn't connect to the cliffhanger at all. I haven't been into shows since my early undergrad years when I got into House, The Closer and Bones because a few friends were avid watchers! Then in Junior year I stopped watching TV when I started working a lot more.

The couple years before I met sketchy I was definitely in a TV lull. I cared more about going out and hanging out with people in real life, rather than sitting around watching TV. Sketchy, on the other hand, basically watched at least one show a night religiously. Until he met me, then we went out way too much and he started getting behind. At some point I allowed him to rope me into TV fantasy world and started liking a lot of these shows.  

The past few weeks we've been really good about watching the shows when they're new -- LIVE, rather than DVRing for a later date. I think it's made Sketchy really happy to finally be able to do this. 

Anyways, Criminal Mind might be my favorite of the shows. It always amazes me how they can keep coming up with new twisted and crazy storylines! 

I'm not really sure who my fav is but probably the tall geeky one all the way to the left of the picture. Does anyone else watch this show? Who's your favorite character? 

I've also been a big fan of Law and Order SVU. This is a love/hate relationship because I get caught up in the show even though I know it basically gives me nightmares and disgusts me! lol 

I'm still not too big on Psyche (Sketchy's fav show) or NCIS (but it's a good show still). I still don't like Leverage and am glad that's over! I still think I prefer my HGTV to the majority of his real life-serious shows. 

Alrighty, dinner time. Also going to do at least ONE house project tonight. Will put up pictures tomorrow!