Phase One Kitchen

Or should I call it phase 0.5? I don't want to call it phase one because that makes this stopping place sound intentional and it was anything but.

I wrote earlier this week about hanging large art and serving wine at the Christmas Eve Eve party we're having next week. Well... here's how we got to that point!

The jumping off point. Striped on the top, then a farm scene border, with gingham on the bottom. D said he thought it "looked nice". I repeat FARM SCENE BORDER! So... while he was out of town for a training course, this happened:

My parents came over to help me destroy the kitchen tear the wallpaper down. We did the two step process where we pulled off the vinyl of the wall paper then went back and got the paper underneath and glue off. We used a paper shark for the first step. I can't say if it helped much. We tried my sister's steam mop... not much luck there, either. Really, it just took hot water in a squirt bottle and lots of elbow grease.

This was after the vinyl was off and just the paper was left. 

Oh yeah! And we got a new back door (one we could put a doggy door in). I wanted to use the old one for like the coat closet in the entry way but it's too wide for any of my inside doors :( Guess it's off to the ReStore.

Once all the wallpaper was down, we sobbed in to our pillows that I made the fatal mistake of getting in to the sheet rock while tearing down the wallpaper. I've never been the most gentle, careful, cautious person but this was one of my more time-consuming bloopers. But a couple buckets of Spackle later, we were back in business.

At this point, the This Old House tutorial said we needed to apply oil based primer to make sure the sheet rock is nice and sealed. This picture is mid-priming. FYI, everyone, oil based paint does not come out of your hair. Or off your hands. It's a stage 5 clinger.

But that's the last picture of the process... because that's as far as we got! We put a good layer of primer on and then said, "Who are we kidding" and quit for the holidays. Owning a house for the first time puts a different priority on doing it really well instead of really fast. So to avoid a rush job, we cleaned up our mess and called it a wrap.

The view from the living room is much more tolerable in my opinion. 

BEFORE:

Phase 0.5:

Here's where we landed. I may throw some curtains up before the party if I have time. Oh, and also D changed out the ceiling fan for a new light fixture! He even picked out the light fixture! He showed it to me and was like "It's simple but vintage, like you like" :) *tear* I'm so proud!

The next half of this phase will be to get the texture paint up on the walls, paint the trim and walls, add board and batten... this is my inspo pic:

Totally doable, right? Right. Thanks for the reassurance. 

Anyone else applying the breaks on a project until the holidays are finished up? 

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A Few of My Favorite Things

One of my favorite things is favorite things lists. Also, I want to throw a Favorite Things party! Where you invite 10 girls over and they bring 10 of one of their favorite things. And then you share them with everyone and you leave with 10 NEW things to try that your friends recommend! That'd be fun, right?

Also, I did a bit of a "favorite things" theme in my mom and sister's stockings this year - but I can't go too far in to that!

A couple of my favorite bloggers (Hi Sugarplum and Remodelaholic)  have recently collaborated with 320 Sycamore in a series about their favorite things of 2013. I laughed out loud when I opened Remodelaholic's list! Her favorite makeups was basically a list of what's in my makeup bag! Twinsies!

I thought I'd make my own list of the great things I couldn't have made it through 2013 without! 

Beauty:

1. Aveeno Positively Radiant Daily Scrub - it's basically a Proactiv dupe! Works just as well for me.

2. Maybelline New York Lumi Dream Concealer (for highlighting)

3. BABY OIL for shaving! I think my sister and I did this when I was like in Junior High but I've come back to it. It gives me the very closest shave and my razors last FOREVER

4. MAC Zoom Fast Black Mascara

Food:

1. Brookside Dark Chocolate Pomegranates 

2. Folger's Gourmet - I like it better than Starbucks K cups!

3. Lara Bar (Especially Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough)

Closet Candy:

1. My Louis Vuitton Tivoli 

2. My Uggs

3. Gap Body "Dance Pants" - SO COMFYYYY

Extras:

1. No, not the Game of Thrones books... but Audible.com! (GOT is just what I happen to be listening to these days) It has gotten me through many long commute days! 

2. These cushioned pet harnesses. I get mine at TJ Maxx. K prefers them to any other he's worn.

3. Yurbuds

4. My Birchbox subscription

Alright girls, now dish. I want to know what makes your Favorite Things of 2013 list! It'll give me something to shop for during the after holiday sales!

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Creating Habits

Lori's Post about creating healthy habits inspired this one...

But mine is not a 'how to' post. Mine is a cry for help.

You know how most girls freak out about Fall? They just rave about pumpkin spice everything and their eyes shine brighter and they wear scarves all the time? Well, I have similar feelings about New Years Resolution season. I LOVE setting goals for myself. I love clean slate season. I LOVE fitness/diet challenges. New desk calendar day? THE BEST!

This image on Pinterest speaks to something deep in my soul. I immediately repinned it and sighed a deep, crackhead sigh. I love getting a good 'challenge' fix. This is part of why Mel is such a great friend to have because she always was planning some great, themed event that would require me to be in a swim suit so I always had some short term goal I was working toward! But then she up and moved to Belgium and I'm over here all... unmotivated and bloated.

And I don't want to give it up. I don't. P90X, Whole30, 22DSD, Juice Cleanses... how will they pay their bills without my continued support?!

But really. I need to get myself a routine. A sustainable, healthy, responsible routine. I need to stick to a bedtime. I need to grocery shop. I need to do entire loads of laundry instead of just underwear and socks. I need to embrace this whole "late twenties" thing but it's haaaaaaaaard. There's so much good TV on these days! And I work a lot and (insert a billion other excuses here).

So, without using any buzzwords, how do you do it, responsible people? Fill me in. Where should I start? Do I need more mason jar salads in my fridge? Cancel my Shotime subscription? (ain't happening) Is it the 64 ounces of water you all drink every day that gives you magical powers? SPILL IT! (the secret, not the water)

In the meantime, to feed my challenge cravings, I'm going to do this whole "responsible adult" thing in phases. My first phase is going to be around sleep habits. Bedtime - 10:00 (which will be easier next week since I have ballet rehearsal until 10pm this week... but go with me here) Wakeup time - 5:15 EVERY WEEKDAY. (Weekends I'll give myself until 6:30). If I don't have to wash my hair, cool. I'll do the dishes or make a smoothie or something. I'm going to treat it like a challenge. I'm just going to not put an end date on it (even though mentally I'm telling myself it takes 30 days to make something a habit so after 30 days it should get easier so it's KIND OF like a 30 day challenge... but not. Because it's a LIFESTYLE CHANGE)

Oh, also, D and I have set a goal to climb a mountain next year. Not like Everest or anything that involves carabiners or harnesses or anything... but he loves hiking and I think I could love hiking... so maybe we'll do that next year too.


Also, I want to be able to hold a handstand next year.





And I want to learn to cook a really great steak.



I JUST LOVE NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS!!!!!



Any other New Years Resolution fiends out there?! I can't be the only one!

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Oh Hi!

Hi there, family (because I'm sure most everyone else has given up on me entirely!) Merry Christmas Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve! Count em up, eight sleeps until the big day! Where have I been, you ask? Well, allow me to do a photo dump to catch you up a bit!

Let's start with Christmas, shall we?

I decided to hand sew Miss Peyton some felt play food for her play kitchen for her present. She has just started pretending so I thought she needed some. I made her a pizza, some eggs and bacon, donuts, cookies, a sandwich and a watermelon. I wanted to make her more nutritious foods but they're much more difficult to make out of felt. 

Kanye is upset by the lack of presents under the tree (nothing to chew up or destroy!) This year, our family decided to draw names and only buy gifts for one person. It makes for a slightly depressing Christmas scene but it did make it possible for me to adopt SIX angels off the angel tree at work! I had so much fun buying bicycles and remote control cars and clothes for some kids in need and it helped me refocus this year on the reason for the season (don't worry, I got K a new dog bed, a bone shaped like a candy cane and a penguin toy, but don't tell him)

Also, in the excitement of throwing my first party (Christmas Eve Eve Party) for all of my family now that I have a house, I ripped all the wallpaper (and a little bit of the drywall, womp womp) down in the kitchen while D was out of town. When I realized what I'd gotten myself in to, I called a handyman to come give me a quote to fix the mess I'd made. $700!!!!!!!!! to texture the walls in my little breakfast area. I was like, girl please, even though it was a dude. So after reading a couple This Old House tutorials, I got to work patching drywall. After this picture was taken, we got the oil-based primer in our hair on the walls and are ready to texture but we don't want to be half way through that step with a house full of Christmas partiers so we're going to hang giant art in the kitchen to distract everyone from our unfinished reno and serve lots of wine!

In news unrelated to Christmas:

The Nutcracker has consumed our lives! We have rehearsals every. day. of. the. week. From 8 to 10pm And we had our first performance this weekend with a call time of 9am and a curtain call of 8pm! Oh yea... 11 hours of dancing waiting around to dance. 

Stage makeup is a whole new world to me. This is the FIRST makeup wipey I used before washing my face.

Also, I built a tower. Well, I didn't build a tower... I had some people build a tower. It will hold radios high in the air so that the wells in town can communicate over trees and buildings and such. It was some very scary work but I'm happy to report the tower is still standing. It was a long day. I've never cursed so much in my life. Definitely not in front of my bosses and coworkers! I had to evacuate that building to the left because it was in the fall radius. Right behind me where I was taking this picture is a bank. When I went to the bank to introduce myself and explain the work I was doing and let them know they were not in the fall radius, and answer any questions they had, the VP of the bank asked me if I was the engineer's assistant! I could not help but laugh when her face fell when I said that I was the engineer! I mean, I can't blame her. I was just explaining that I might drop a tower on her building (KIDDING, but the risks I mentioned were pretty serious). I sent this text to D right after my conversation with the bank VP:

Hahahahaha hilarious response, right? (To clue people in, Tom Brady wears Uggs, proudly. He loves them and has endorsed them) The sleeveless hoodie comment is a Bill Belichick reference.

Also, I did a juice cleanse! And I fell madly in love with it! It was the easiest cleanse I have ever done. 3 days of nothing but juice and water and I wasn't hungry ever. I felt so great I immediately begged "Santa" for a juicer for Christmas. It's under the tree and I can't wait to start juicing the bejesus out of everything in the fridge!

ALSO! We have a new addition arriving in late January! I wanted to do a whole Facebook puppy announcement similar to baby announcements but chickened out. I mostly didn't want anyone to misconstrue the message as I was pregnant and a puppy was breaking the news to Facebook (although I'm hiding it well for 8 months pregnant if that were the case). I also didn't want it to seem like I was making fun of people who announce pregnancies on Facebook. All in all, I just thought it might come across wrong so I am posting the picture here! Valentine is just 4 weeks old now so she's still with her family in Dallas but we put a deposit down and the breeder has been sending me pictures as she opens her eyes and does cute puppy things! I can't wait for Kanye to be a big brother!

I'm sure other exciting things have happened in the last month and a half but these are the highlights. Work has slowed down for the holidays so blogging on my lunch break will be easier for a while! 

XO!

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