Swedish Meatballs for Dinner

So whats the best way to wind down after a very stressful yard sale?

By dragging your mother to Ikea!!

I haven't been to Ikea since July and I was dying to go check out their seasonal items (none which I purchased) so I drug my mother kicking and screaming to out into the Everglades for some Swedish meatballs!

I put my yard sale money to work and picked up a few things in the black & white family.

I swear I wasn't going with a theme - it just turned out that way.

No More Yard Sales - EVER!!

Before I start complaining I will state for the record that our yard sale was a success.

That said - I am never going to go through that again!!! South Florida yard sales are just too draining. Now, I have heard that in other parts of the country having a yard sale can a pleasant experience, but that is not so true here in south Florida. If one more person were to shout at me "quart'a" I think I might have truly lost it.

There were a few good old fashion "out for the thrill of find" yard salers, but for every good apple there were 5 bad. People stealing, breaking things, being down right rotten.

At least I made a little cash for my trip to Ikea. . .

Weekend Plans

I have had a very busy week, working up to tomorrow - when my mom and I are going to have a huge garage sale. I've got a ton of stuff that came back to south Florida with me from college and that I have no intention of bringing to my house.

I will have a garage mega-post for you all on Sunday, if I survive.

Oh, and I am going to try to drag my mom down to Ikea tomorrow afternoon, but there is a pretty good chance we'll both be too tired.

In my spare time I am going to bust a move on Christmas decorating!!

Wish me luck.

Thanksgiving Plans

This is the extent of my Thanksgiving decorations -

Yep, that's it. I didn't even put a special hanger in the wall for it, I just plopped it on a nail that had been in the wall when I bought the house and that I couldn't pull out by myself, (I didn't feel like calling my dad just to yank out a nail) so I painted over it.

As I said before, this year we are not doing the traditional family Thanksgiving thing. Some of you might have noticed that Emmett becoming a Floridian happens on Thanksgiving, and well that is not entirely true. Emmett doesn't actually come home with me until the Saturday after Turkey Day, but I will be spending Thanksgiving with him.

My mother and I are meeting my aunt, cousin, and of course, Emmett in Savannah for Thanksgiving! My mother and I are getting up bright and early and driving to Georgia on Thursday morning - we are hoping to get there by 1 p.m. so that we can change and hang out with Emmett before us humans head out for Turkey dinner. So where are we having our Thanksgiving feast you ask - at The Lady & Sons, Paula Deen's Savannah restaurant. We got the very last reservation they had available, which is why we are eating at 3:15 in the afternoon. I am so excited!! I love love love Paula Deen (shh, don't tell anyone).

We figure we Thanksgiving evening will be spent by us laying around our hotel room holding our stomachs and groaning. As for Black Friday we are going to hit Savannah's riverfront and maybe a square or two. I am trying to plan the day so that Emmett can come along.

Then come Saturday, mom, Emmett, and I are heading back to south Florida - and Emmett will finally become a Floridian!!

(Oh, and my dad plans on spending Thanksgiving fishing, and my sister will be eating dinner with her boyfriend and his extended family.)

Too Many Totes

My little sister loves tote bags, she especially loves Target tote bags. I want to pick her up one for Christmas, but I can't decide which one to get. I've narrowed it down to these eight from Target.com (since they are no longer carrying them in store), I just can't make up my mind.

I think I'm leaning towards the sunglasses tote, but I'm just not sure.

Which one would you get for your super picky teenage sister?

I Don't Want to Become the Crazy Cat Lady

Last night I went out to look for a tool my dad had left in the carport, as soon as I stepped out the door something brushed up against my leg. I looked down to see the biggest gray and white tom cat that I have ever seen, even bigger than Licorice's boyfriend. Unlike Licorice, this big Bubba was used to being around people, the whole time I was outside looking for the tool he did figure eights around my ankles until I reached down gave him a good scratch behind the ears.
At first I thought that maybe he had come for food, but he completely ignored Licorice's freshly filled bowl.

I love cats, but I have no intention of becoming the crazy cat lady. Licorice is plenty of cat for me.

She's finally stopped looking like a starving ally cat and her coat is filling in nicely.

An Overview of Holiday Plans

This is my first holiday season in my first home and I am so excited. I tend to go a little overboard when it comes to Christmas (imagine 4 Christmas trees in a 500 sq ft apartment), but I can't help it, it's my favorite time of year.

This year I have some big sparkling plans. Seeing that we are not going to have a traditional Thanksgiving I am going to try to get my Christmas decorating a jump start this coming weekend, no reason to wait until after black Friday. The highlight of my holiday season will hopefully be my Holiday Openhouse / Housewarming Party - it will be the first time most of my family will have seen my little "mid-century cottage", heck, when they get the invites will be the first time most of my family finds out I bought a house, that includes my father (I'm a bit nervous about that).

My mom and I sat down and wrote out the official guest list this past weekend and the numbers were reaching well over 60. Thank goodness I have a large yard!

I also think that I am going to try to do Christmas Dinner at my house, there is only 5 of us, so we should fit no problem.

There is just so much that needs to get done before my openhouse, so I am afraid that you all will have to put up with my party plans for a few weeks, but heck, maybe I'll even have a good idea or two that you can borrow, guess you'll have to stay tuned and see for yourself.

“This post was written for Houseblogs.net as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by SC Johnson’s Right@Home.”

Houseblogs' “Home for the Holidays” Contest
Right@Home

Virtual Shopping: On the Sly

I have been eyeing this lamp at Urban Outfitters for awhile. It's a steal at just $14.99!

He would make a fun addition to a little boy's room, or my room for that matter. I may not have a place to put it, but you might.

The Lost Week

I'm not completely sure why, but this past week I have barely given any thought to my house. Maybe because I had such a short weekend last weekend or maybe because I'm just been distracted by work, I don't know, but my house has been the farthest thing from my mind.

This weekend will be different though, this weekend focus will shift back to my little "mid-century cottage". I've decided to have a holiday openhouse / housewarming party on December 13th, giving me a deadline to finish up all the half finished projects should get my butt in gear.

If all goes well this weekend I should have a ton of posts for next week.

Emmett Countdown

Just 15 more days until Emmett become a Floridian!!

What Got Done

So I had my list of things I wanted to get done on my half weekend off.

1. Go to the bank and close an account, and then open a new one
   
2. Hit the local farmers' market
   
3. Clean the house
4. Do laundry at my mom's (does dropping it off and then picking it up count?)
5. Pick up some more Emmett supplies
6. Go to the supermarket
7. Go to dinner with my mom (twice)

I didn't too bad, unfortunately I barely even touched the house, swept a little and did the dishes, but nothing beyond that. In other news my "Virtual Shopping 3 Post Extravaganza" went off without a hitch. Between those three and my Halloween theme Virtual Shopping post I think I may have gotten my holiday decor themed posts out of my system, and I will be returning the simpler two or three object posts of the past.

Virtual Shopping: Have a Martha Christmas (part 3)

Here we are at our final post of our 3 post extravaganza (woohoo) and I have saved the best for last!!

I must admit that I am not a fan of shopping at Kmart, even if there are tons of Martha to be found inside. The local store here are all pretty run down, and the staff, well if you can find someone, are generally not all that helpful. But I am more than willing to put my dislike of the big K aside for this years Martha Stewart holiday decorations!!

Martha offers a few different collections through her Kmart line, my favorite being the confection themed ones. They are fun and festive and yummy!! You can find them in store or through kmart.com.

Virtual Shopping: Have a Martha Christmas (part 2)

Are you looking to personalize your holiday decor? Well Martha Stewart Crafts' holiday kits help you do just that.

From baked goods to festive villages, Martha's craft kits allow you to customize your Christmas, available online and at Michael's Arts & Crafts.

Virtual Shopping: Have a Martha Christmas (part 1)

I know we're only a week into November, but I've decided to skip straight to Christmas. Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday and all, but we're not doing the family Thanksgiving thing this year so I'm just gonna skip it decor-wise.

So on to Christmas we go, and no one does Christmas better than Martha Stewart! So for this very special three post Virtual Shopping extravaganza we are covering 3 very different Martha Christmas collections.

We're starting off with some Martha holiday ornaments from her Macy's collection. These ornaments are perfect for someone whole loves an old fashion Christmas filled with eggnog and tradition.

These ornaments can be found in the Martha Stewart section of macys.com.

Weekend Plans

Unfortunately I have to work on Sunday so my weekend is being cut a little short, but the overtime pay makes up for it somewhat. So basically I am going to have one very busy Saturday.

To Do List:

1. Go to the bank and close an account, and then open a new one (long story)
2. Hit the local farmers' market (it's opening weekend)
3. Clean the house
4. Do laundry at my mom's
5. Pick up some more Emmett supplies
6. Go to the supermarket
7. Go to dinner with my mom (my dad and sister are going camping)

Oh yeah, and I'm going to try and post a record 3 Virtual Shopping post. Hopefully on Monday I will have everything crossed off my list, if not, oh well.

My Dad Rocks

As I've stated before, I have pretty much given over all control of my yard to my Dad. And boy has he taken his duty as Landscape Designer to heart. I tend to come home and with no warning what so ever, find him the middle of a huge project. This past weekend was no exception. He's planted tree and added a path, so it was time for sprinklers!!

In less than an afternoon he had all the trenches dug and most of the pipe laid out, he came back the next day and did some detail work. Next thing I know I have a fully operational sprinkler system!! Woohoo, no more having to hand water all my newly transplanted trees. . .

Like I said, my dad rocks!!

A Little Late

Well I had a great Halloween. My family came over for dinner and to help pass out candy. I grew up in a neighborhood where we maybe got 1 or 2 trick-or-treaters (most years we got none) so being in a neighborhood with lots and lots of children was a big change. My dad and my sister decided to crave a pumpkin while I cooked and my mom handed out candy. Next year I think I'll skip cooking and just order pizza - I spent so much time in the kitchen that I missed most of the trick-or-treaters, we had over 100 of them!!

First thing Saturday morning I started to de-Halloween my house, I was almost done when I realized that I hadn't taken any pictures of all my decorations! So the photos above are all I have to share, but the house was very festive, I swear!!

Don't forget to set your clocks back a hour and enjoy your extra hour in bed!