Trophy tour - coming to a city near you!

The World Series Trophy has been making its way around California, and I can't wait til it comes to Vallejo on February 22nd! Who wants to take a picture with the trophy and me?

Winter reads

One of my new year's resolutions is to be more sustainable and keep on workin' on my urban homestead. Well, today I came across this post on Design Sponge that included many inspirational books on sustainability, urban homesteading, and living handmade.


I'm resisting the urge to go out and buy every book on this list (another 5 days 'til payday), though I think this one is a must-buy for a weekend read:

The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-sufficient Living in the Heart of the City
Now, we don't exactly live in the city, which is great because we have a lot of space to work with (read: garden, raise chickens, maybe a goat or two?) This post may have inspired me to put my work gloves on, rotate the compost pile, and start digging this weekend.

Happy Friday to all!

What I do after 2 glasses of wine...

I make a kitty quilt! I mean, what else do people do when they are stressed out about getting CT scan results*? Yes, I'm cracked out. Let's just leave it at that. This is where I got the inspiration:

Craft: How to make a color spectrum cat bed
Now, I already had the squares cut out from a past project. Add some leftover scraps an voila! Kitty quilt heaven.

It's no pillow, but it will keep the cat hair from accumulating on the couch/cat scratch post/any other comfy spot a cat likes to sleep

*The CT scan I had Monday to see what's wrong with my ears. I'm sure I'll be fine, I just keep chanting in my best Arnold Schwarzenegger voice "it's not a TUUU-MA!"

The girls are grown up!

Well, they aren't quite grown up, but they are 4 months old today! They continue to amuse me with their antics (mostly Foghorn - she's a riot!) Anyway we're getting ready to build them their "big girl" coop outside hopefully this weekend. My cousin Alison got me this cute sign to put on the new coop. Can't wait to show you pictures of it when it's done!

Snuggle time

Not sure if any of you know this, but I've been battling a nasty ear infection since about Thanksgiving. Yuck! I've seen a specialist and am now waiting for insurance approval for a CT scan. The specialist thinks I have problems with my eustacian tubes and my sinuses - considering I've had issues with my ears my whole life, it's not surprising! Anyway I haven't been feeling like myself since this started, so needless to say I can't wait until we figure out what's going on in this noggin' of mine.

In the meantime, I'm dreaming of snuggling up in this chair. Not with a book (I get dizzy spells when I read), but with a nice blanket and my kitties.

source

Purchased

A new Bialetti coffee/espresso maker. This morning I brewed my first cup with my favorite local coffee (Santa Cruz Roasters Guatemalan picked up when I was down in Aptos). It was AMAZING. I don't know why it's taken me this long to get one. It's far less messy than a French Press, and tastes just as great. The only downfall is that the cup size is small (I got a 6 cup) - but it's espresso, after all, so it's strong. I love it!

Reminder - the Giants Won the World Series!

I finally found this on Youtube - I've been looking for it since the Giants won the World Series. I LOVE Lady Antebellum, and this version of the National Anthem gives me some serious chills (and brings back some awesome memories!) Anyway, I thought you'd enjoy...

Too many gift cards?

Like me, maybe you received too many gift cards this holiday season (or have a pile of them accumulated from years past)? I may be late to this website, but on plasticjungle.com you can sell the remaining amount on your gift cards or buy discounted new ones! I think this is really ingenious, especially if you have a few cards you know you'll never use.



Sometimes you can even score cards for 50% off! It seems like most are between 3%-10% off, which may not seem like too much - but every bit helps, right?

Lunch it, Punch it!

Just posted on Craft today - a brilliant website designed to help you pack your own lunches called "Lunch It, Punch It!" Simply pack 10 lunches (punching your handy card every time you do), and you get to treat yourself to a lunch out! This is such a great way to keep track how often you're eating in (and out), and help maintain your waistline and finances! I think I might try it, since I've been pretty motivated so far this year to lose a few L-B's.

Inspiration

As I mentioned last week, the New Year has gotten me motivated to finish many projects in the house that we haven't had time to complete. Most are small (like painting accent walls in the bedrooms), but others require some long-term strategy and finances (like re-doing the master bathroom, not to mention getting new cabinets for the kitchen!) At any rate, I checked one big item off this list which was rearranging our bedroom. Of course I didn't take a picture, but I think I will after the room is complete (I'm planning on painting a few accent walls this weekend). In the meantime, I'll leave you with this inspiration for our guest room. Right now it has a vintage feel (with an old quilt on the bed, a rustic dresser, lavender in canning jars, and a vintage wooden student desk as the side table). I really love the color scheme in this room by Karen Barlow and think it would look great in our little guest room - let me just say, I'm not going to paint the room pink! But the accent colors are pretty, don't you think?


from design*sponge

My favorite gift

I got a few really cool things this Christmas, but none of them compare to what Paul got me. A commissioned painting of my cats (our cats?) from his artist friend in San Diego. This picture is from my camera phone, so it doesn't do justice to the size of the painting. It's 3 feet x 4 feet! I really wish I had a camera to record the look on my face when he gave it to me. It went a little something like this:

Paul: "Merry Christmas!!!" (holding the painting)
Me: "What....is.....that?" (starts laughing uncontrollably)
Paul: "It's your kitties!"
Me: "I know it's my kitties, but on a painting? You are so random! I love it!"

Okay, maybe that's not the best reenactment, but let's just say I was confused, amazed, and heartwarmed all at the same time. This is a huge gift, considering it comes from the man who doesn't really like my cats. (Scratch that - he likes Jazzy, but not Uintah). Anyway, if you ever need a custom piece of artwork, let us know and we can hook you up with a great artist!

New Year, fresh start!

Wow, it's Wednesday and I'm still recovering from my vacation! I'll do a recap post soon (once the pics are uploaded), but in the meantime, I wanted to talk about my need for a fresh start this year. And by that I mean freshening up our house. As most of you know, we bought our first house in June - we haven't done too much to it on the inside - mostly just fun stuff on the outside. I told myself in June that we would wait for the winter to begin inside projects (since who wants to paint when it's 90 degrees outside)? Anyway, we scored a bunch of great Home Depot gift cards which will be perfect for our inside-the-house projects. First up, I want to paint our bedroom. Something gray and smokey - or maybe green and soothing. I'm not quite sure just yet, but Making it Lovely's bedroom has my style written all over it:


What do you think - dark gray? Or soothing green?