Why?

Today we've got a 3 for 1 special in bad shelving -

I didn't plan on this becoming a weekly question, and still don't. . . but come on. . . look at it. . . WHY?

having just said that, if you spray painted the deer one matte black it would be workable

I Own This:

I'm not sure why I decided to share this with you, but, oh, well, here it is. . . and well, I like it! I like gnomes, and I went to FSU, so there. . . you have a problem with that? I didn't think so. . .

This little guy currently lives in the corner of my "great room". I'm not exactly sure where he'll end up in the long run, I wanted to put him but the front door, but he's kinda cheaply made (who would have thunk it) so I'm afraid he'll get broken outside.

Garden Stools

Now that I've been putting some thought and a lot of time into my yard I have started to notice these ceramic garden stools, well, pretty much everywhere. . .

(Costco)


(Home Goods)

I'm still on the fence on whether or not I actually like the these stools or not, but if I find myself on the "I like it" side I think I'd have to head back to pick up this puppy from Home Goods -

Yep, that's really a garden stool. . . cool, huh? (and yes you can see my reflection in the stool)

Virtual Shopping: First Aid

I've always had a thing for first aid kits, I don't know why, I just have. . . And now there are many adult friendly first aid boxes on the market. . .

Kikkerland



Blue Ribbon General Store



American Science & Surplus

I really like the white on white one, I might have to put that on my wish list. . .

Why?

Seriously? Why? I just don't understand. . .

Itty Bitty Break

I am tired - like really tired. So I am taking a few days off from the blogging thing to just nap my days away, I'll be back when I stop yawning every 58 seconds or Thursday, which ever comes first.

Virtual Shopping: Work From Home

As I mentioned before, I don't have my own computer. . . It wouldn't really matter if I did, because as it is now, I wouldn't have a place to put it anyway. That's the problem when you put 2 adults and a dog in 624 square feet. But just because I don't have room for a desk doesn't mean I don't dream about one day having one -

CB2


West Elm


Ikea

It's almost a good thing that I currently don't have the space for one because I'm not sure if I could ever really make up my mind with all these options! Though no matter what desk would get chosen I would have to top it with this super cute desk caddy -

Urban Outfitters

Kitty Update

It has been awhile since my last kitty update, and there is quite a bit to share. . .

Licorice is doing well. . . she did have me worried when she took off for about 3 days, but since then she hasn't strayed to far from the yard. She has been letting me get closer and closer to her. Her "run away zone" has gone from a 3 foot radius to a 1 foot radius, in fact I have touched her 5 times now. Notice that I said touched, not petted. . .

In other kitty news: remember that annoying little cat that followed me home one night?

Meet Elsie* -

Before Christmas I put her up on Craig's list as a found cat, and then as a up for adoption. . . there were quite a few people interested in her. . . until she went into the wrong neighbor's yard and got herself a nice bite taken out of her back. . . After that no one wanted her anymore, so I nurse back to health, got her fixed, and she has been meowing endlessly ever since.

*at first we just called her Annoying Little Cat, then we called her A.L.C. for short, then we called her L.C., which quickly became Elsie - which is very fitting seeing that she eats like a cow.

Time to Get to Work (con't)

What follows a Friday night of buy materials? A Saturday of back braking (and leg aching) manual labor. . .

My dad showed up with a truck full of steeping stone and a shovel.

First we put down a row of stones to get an idea of where we would start, then my dad busted out the tape measure and the "Great Geometry Debacle of 2009" began. My dad wanted everything to line up exactly, lots of right triangles and squares. . . and I was cool with eyeballing it. . .

After 3 hours of math, measuring, and moving (heavy stepping stones) we came to a compromise - we eyeballed it, but pretended that everything was perfectly precise.

So, after we were already worn out, we got started with digging, raking, sand spreading, and tamping. Then we laid the stones out. We decided to go with a staggered pattern, which fancies the whole thing up -

but not having thought this all the way through we had nothing on hand to cut the stones, so as of now the edges are still on finished. It's okay though, because by sundown I was the proud owner of an pretty much done patio!

We still have to finish the edges (and by we, I mean my dad) and then spread super fine sand on top to fill in the cracks. . . now if I can just get the grass to grow in . . .

Time to Get to Work

I have been think, and planning, and rethinking, and replanning my back yard for a while now, but I was completely unprepared for what happened Friday night.

My mom called and told me that she and my dad would be down to pick me up in about 20 minutes to go pick out pavers for my patio. . .

Pick out pavers! I had even decided if I wanted pavers yet, or where exactly it was going to go, or what my budget was, and they were on their way, NOW! The down side of free manual labor is that sometimes you have work on their timetable, not yours.

So I sat myself down and did a very quick, very rough sketch of my back yard -

and then we were off to Home Depot. After some quick compare, price figuring, and a little bit on eeny, meeny, miney, moe I choose to go with 12inch square stepping stones. They worked out to be the cheapest and least amount of work (smaller required too much precision, larger were just too heavy to haul without a lot of help).

Virtual Shopping: Bowled Over

Sometimes you just need a little whimsy in your decor -

These vintage bowling sets can be found at Sweetshorn Vintage.

Wallpaper Wild

I'm not sure what has come over me, but lately I have been wallpaper crazy. I've spent way to much time looking at wallpaper, especially in shades of gray. . .

Funny thing is - I never really liked wallpaper. . . in fact I hated it, that is until I bought a house with unwallpaperable (hey, I made up a word) walls. All the walls in my house are majorly textured plaster, very wallpaper unfriendly, and now all I can think about it wall paper. . .

I blame Door Sixteen

Sad Realization

Tonight I am having my best friend and her two beautiful little boys over for dinner (her hubby is out of town) and I just realized that they are the first people I've had over for dinner.

I've had my parents over for pizza, I've made dinner for the roomie and myself, and I've had a huge holiday party, but in the 6+ months that I've lived in my home I have yet to have someone over for a home cooked dinner. . . I hope they like pot roast!

Feeling Lucky

I've had a recent string of good luck - in the past two months I've won two blog contests (more about those later) and a charity raffle. . . I've also had some good luck in the shopping department - I was in desperate need of casual pants and I find a super sale where I end up scoring 4 pairs of pants for under $30!

My luck was in full swing Friday. I wrote about this radio/alarm clock/iPod dock from Crosley and what do I find on clearance at Target?

Oh heck yeah - within a few hours of my posting about it I found it for $41, and to top it all off I found the Aerosmith edition of Guitar Hero for $13.98, thus making me the best aunt in the entire world. . .

I realize that posting about my lucky strike will probably jinx it, but it's been a good run so I'm willing to take that chance.

I want this:

I have been looking for an iPod dock/radio/alarm clock for a while.

This might just be it. . .

Back Yard Planning

Now that summer* is here all I can think about is my back yard and my many many plans for it.

All this summer dreaming has led to the creation of my very first mood board:

products from Ikea, Target, CB2, & Plow and Hearth

I know for sure that I want the Target table and the Ikea chairs and I would be a crazy to pass up the CB2 astro turf balls, I'm pretty flexible on the rest of it.

* April 2nd with a high of 92. . .

My Secret

Out of utter frustration I thought I would share a secret with you all. . . I don't have a computer.

Yes, I am a computerless blogger. I have to rely on the kindness of others (and their laptops) in order keep up my blogging habit. There are periods of time when I have all the access I want, there are other times when I start going into withdrawals.

I'm sharing this bit of information but I am currently extremely frustrated with this situation and need to vent.



And, no, this is not my lame attempt at an April Fool's prank.