anthro lovelies

First - I just have to say - I think I hobbled rather gracefully to my car this evening.  I channeled my inner ballerina {ha!} and walked only on the tippie-toes of my left foot.  I definitely got a few strange looks, but I think they were just admiring my grace.  Navigating the stairs was interesting, but I made it.  Hopefully I can say the same for my shoes after I take them in to be repaired. 

Other than breaking shoes and ballerina dancing to my car, I spent some time perusing Anthro's website today.  So many pretty things.  I totally understand how people feel when they go to the pound and want to take home all the animals.  I feel the same way about all the lovelies at Anthropologie.   They must be mine.  It breaks my heart to leave them behind at the store. 

All I need is some sunshine for these sundresses & free shipping.  What is with Anthropologie never offering free shipping?  If anyone knows the secret, do tell.  I'll love you forever. 

Every Girl's Worst Nightmare

My beautiful, go-to black pumps have been reduced from this:

to this:

Kate, girl, you've left me in quite the lurch. 

I know it's hard to tell from the crummy Blackberry picure, but there are six tiny screws that used to attach the shoe to the heel.  Not so much anymore. The screws are now protruding and won't go back into the holes they used to occupy - leaving the shoe totally useless.  How the hell am I supposed to get from my office on the 6th floor of my building to my car on the second floor of the parking garage across the street with one damn shoe? 

This is going to be good...

me likey tv

Taylor at Jimmy Choose & a Baby Too! has chosen a topic for this week's "Top Two Tuesday" that is near & dear to my heart - television. 

Oh my lord, do I love television.  Other than eating, it's pretty much my favorite thing to do.  Is that sad?  I don't care.  I'd probably give up my cell phone before I'd give up my dvr. 

Because I'm as indecisive as I am lazy, I couldn't possibly narrow down my favorite tv shows to two.  So, I'll give you my "Top Two" in a few categories. 

My Top Two Comedies:

Big Bang Theory

and 

30Rock

My Top Two Dramas:

Damages

and

Southland

And my Top Two new shows this year:

Modern Family

and

Glee

Honorable Mentions {in no particular category} go to Parks & Recreation, Top Chef, The Good Wife, Jeopardy and The Office. 

And if you ask me, {I realize no one did} I think Brothers & Sisters, Private Practice and Grey's Anatomy have been pretty terrible lately.  I've just about lost interest in BS and PP.  If they don't improve soon they're going to lose their place on my dvr.

Anyone else willing to fess up to watching as much tv as I do?

i pity the fool

{long, whiny rant ahead. consider yourself warned.}

Unfortunately, this time, I'm the fool. 

I try to keep things upbeat around here.  It's not hard, my life is pretty great and when it's not, I'd really rather not focus on the bad things by writing about them.  It's usually all sunshine, puppies and rainbows in my little corner of the interwebs.  I like to think Pollyanna would be proud.  {You know - Pollyanna, find the good in everything, yada yada. btw - i love me some hailey mills.  Parent Trap, Miss Bliss - what's not to love?}

But today - I. Am. Not. Happy.  And I have no one to blame but myself. 

{I shall now proceed to blame my husband, the Atlantis resort, and the federal government for the mess I'm in.}

You see, I never wanted to change my name.  {cue the part where I blame my husband} While my maiden last name was pretty sucks-ville, I was content to keep it.  I lived 28 years with that last name.  It was on my first report card, my high school letterman jacket, my law school diploma and was monogrammed on more items than I can count.  It was my name. 

Before we even got engaged, The Mister and I had many talks about how I felt about changing my name.  While I wasn't a fan of the idea, he felt strongly about it.  I explained to him my reasons - you've heard them, I won't repeat them - and he said I was blowing smoke up his, well you know that too.  He thought my real reason was "I'm an independent woman and I'm not doing it."  {He may have been right. Sort of.} Over time, however, we both came around to see each other's points of view.  By the time we were engaged, he was happy with whatever I decided, though I knew he'd love it if I took his name, and I wasn't sure what to do.  I was, after all, still an independent woman.  I had accomplished a lot with that name.  Why change it?  But, my last name was sort of crummy... and his is a GREAT last name for a lawyer.  Plus, people were going to call me "Mrs. So and So" whether I changed my last name or not. 

The wedding came and went and I still hadn't decided.  {And I'll be darned if 90% of the wedding cards weren't made out to Mr. & Mrs. So and So anyway.}  After 3 or 4 months of being questioned by just about everyone but my husband as to what the hell I was going to be calling myself, I finally decided to add his last name to the end of mine.  A compromise with myself I guess you could say.  So, I went to the social security office and the DMV and changed my name.  I changed all my work documents and updated Facebook, of course.  You know, the important things. 

Or so I thought. 

You know what I didn't change?  My passport.  You know where I'm going in 18 days?  The Bahamas.*  Do you know the current turn-around time on an expedited request for a name change on a passport?  Three weeks. 

I'm totally hosed. 

So, guess what I get to do to remedy this situation?  Take a day off work, drive to Miami and get the passport changed in person.  People who haven't been to Miami think it looks like this:

It actually looks like this:

On a good day.  And it's never a good day.  The trip is close to four hours with minimal traffic.  The last time Miami had minimal traffic was 1962.  Kill me now.  And I better not get lost because my Spanish el-sucko's and it can be tough to find people who speak English down there.  {I'm not joking or being racist - I'm serious.  Last time I got lost visiting a friend on the way to Keys and I had to go to two gas stations and a Mickey D's before finding someone who spoke English at a....wait for it....Taco Bell.  I wish I was kidding.}

I thought I'd found a pretty good solution to this problem.  My sister is flying to Miami for business on Friday on her company's private plane and she offered me a spot on the plane.  Perfect.  The plane ride is less than an hour, I'll rent a car at the airport, hop over  to the passport office and get this worked out, meet her back at the airport and be home in time to get in a few hours at the office that afternoon. 

The federal government had other plans.  {time to blame the federal government} You see, Friday will be 16 days before I leave for the Bahamas.  And the feds won't let you make an appointment at the passport office until 14 days before you are scheduled to leave the country.  They do not care that the difference of two days means you will have to drive at least 8 hours by yourself to Miami instead of hopping a private a plane for free.  They said I can call back on Sunday to schedule an appointment.  grrr  

So, there you have it.  My obnoxious rant.  Poor baby, has to drive to Miami so she can go on vacation to the Bahamas.  If you're wondering, I know exactly how ridiculous and spoiled I sound.  And I do in fact realize that this is entirely my fault. 

I pity the fool. 

*{wherein I blame the Atlantis} We booked our flight through the Atlantis because they're offering an awesome by-one-get-one free flight deal.  What's not awesome?  They didn't ask for our passport info. when we booked the flights like the airlines usually do.  Had we gotten the head's up at booking, I could have made the expedited cut-off and handled this via the mail. 

confessions of decorating commitment-phobe

Confession:  We've lived in our house for a year and a half and have yet to hang one damn thing on the walls.  Seriously.  Not one single picture, painting or shelf.  We did replace the flat screen tv over the fireplace, but since we had to have the Geek Zone from Best Buy come out and install it, I've decided that doesn't count. 

I realize this makes me a terrible person. 

It's not that I haven't tried.  We've purchased many things to hang on the walls.  I'm sure I don't have to remind you about the mirror.  {Still sitting on the bedroom floor.}  I have a collection of Pottery Barn frames which would be perfect for a gallery wall, but they're sitting in the den waiting to be filled with pictures.  And then there's the collection of plates I've been accumulating for my plate wall.  They're gathering dust in a kitchen cupboard.

I think it all boils down to one thing: a fear of commitment.  Decorating commitment that is.  What if it looks terrible?  Or what if I choose the wrong pictures for the frames?  Or I put a giant hole in the drywall trying to hang something?  Or maybe it would look better on that wall over there... The fear becomes debilitating, nothing gets done and here we are a year later with a house full of bare walls. 

So, I did the only reasonable thing.  I hired a handyman to hang everything.  No, wait.  That's not what I did.  I bought more shit. 

I might have gone a little overboard on a recent trip to Ballard Designs.  Here's what I picked up:

The Cool Mist Giclee print.  {For the record, I'm already having buyer's remorse. I'm wondering if I should have bought this instead.}

I got this chandelier {with different colored shades} to replace the hideous modern glass fixture currently over our dining room table.  It seems that our house was renovated by the only gay man in the Western Hemisphere with bad taste.  Oprah gets Nate Burkus and I get the moron who thinks modern fixtures and chrome look great in a 1925 bungalow. We got these as wedding gifts {a year ago} to replace the god awful neon blue glass pendant lights currently over the island in our kitchen. {They're sitting in boxes next to the empty picture frames in the den.}

                 

I think I'm most excited about this wine rack.  I'm looking forward to getting my wine bottles out of the pantry so I can actually see what I have.  I can't wait to have more room so that I can add to my collection stash.

I also picked up this set of prints.  I think they'll look good in our hallway.  Or in the box they came in sitting on the floor.  I should really start picking home decor based on the box it's packaged in.  That's all I seem to see of it anyhow. 

I've heard the first step is admitting you have a problem.  I HAVE A PROBLEM.  I'm pretty sure the second step is calling a handyman and getting. shit. on. the. walls.

Oh, and if someone can call Ballard Designs and ask them to cut me off, that would be great.  Because I've got my eye on this:

              

and I just don't have the floor space to store it.  ...sigh...

Quick Update

Many of you have asked, so I wanted to post a quick follow up - the jambalaya pasta was delish!  {Recipe here.} As I mentioned, I made some substitutions to lighten it up a bit - evaporated skim milk instead of heavy cream, high fiber pasta instead of regular, hot turkey sausage instead of andouille and slightly less olive oil and meat than the recipe called for.  Oh, and no thyme.  I didn't have any on hand. 

It was spicy and creamy without being too heavy.  I loved it and The Mister thought it was great, though it was a touch spicy for him.  I must admit, it was pretty spicy  Bless his heart, he kept eating, runny nose and all.  He even ate it for dinner again tonight.  {It made a TON of pasta!}  I wish I had taken a picture but by the time I got home from work and finished cooking it was nearly 8:00.  I had to kick my husband out of the kitchen three times before it was ready as it was.  Had I tried to take a minute for pictures I probably would have had a mutiny on my hands.

Overall, it was a successful Mardi Gras meal.  Hope everyone else had a great Fat Tuesday.  I'm looking forward to Friday...

Putting the "Fat" in Fat Tuesday

I'm not French,  I'm not from New Orleans and I've never been to Bourbon Street, but that's not going to stop me from celebrating Mardi Gras today.

Since I've got a capital "B", capital "G", Big Girl job where they actually expect me to show up and function like a human being tomorrow, I can't celebrate by adorning myself in beads and drinking 12 hurricanes.  {seven years later and I still can't believe I'm not in college anymore.  sad face.} So, I figured I'd go for the next best thing - food.  Though I never need a reason to make a special meal & stuff my face, I do love when one comes around. 

I thought about what to make in honor of Mardi Gras and a few thoughts crossed my mind - King Cake, beignets, gumbo - but those were all quickly dismissed.  I only realized that Mardi Gras was today, well, yesterday and King Cake and beignets require yeast {scary!} and time to rise.  Since my husband has yet to agree to let me quit my job and stay home to play in the kitchen all day, I just don't have time for that risin' business.  At least not on a weekday.  The problem with gumbo - it requires the perfect roux.  Yikes!  I've made roux plenty of times for mac n cheese and other cream sauces, but never for gumbo.  The potential for disaster was too high. 

I was stumped.  Then it hit me - BAM!*  Mr. NOLA himself will have the answer.  Emeril to the rescue!  I found an awesome Emeril recipe on foodnetwork.com for Jambalaya Pasta & I was sold.  The Mister and I will be feasting on this for dinner:

I'll be making a few changes to lighten up the recipe, because this girl is Bahamas bound in less than a month.  Bathing suit + heavy cream - not on your life.  I've read that evaporated skim milk is an acceptable substitute for heavy cream - anyone have any experience with this?  Becky, Jessica - I'm talking to you!  Let me know if I'm headed for disaster... 

Hope it works out because if not, we'll probably end up having hurricanes for dinner. 

Anyone else ouside the French Quarter celebrating Mardi Gras today?

*I know, I know.  I couldn't help myself.

happy sappy love day

Jackpot!  My not-so-subtle hints were received - The Mister got me a chocolate caramel apple for Valentine's Day.  And he got me flowers too!  I didn't even drop hints about that.  Such a good guy.

Between the apple and the chocolate covered strawberries I made, we're up to our ears in chocolate around here.  Just the way I like it.  Other than that, it's been a typical Sunday.  TV and takeout.  In other words, heaven. 

Happy Valentine's Day! 

shopping. and not the good kind.

Does anyone like car shopping?  Because I am dreading it.  The Mister and I are headed out in a little bit to look at cars.  My lease is up in 30 days so I really can't put it off any longer... 

I remember when getting a new car was exciting.  That was probably when I wasn't the one paying for said car. It's so much more fun to pick out the perfect color {obvs the most important car-related decision} when you're not trying to calculate in your head how much more a month it will cost to add the sport package.

I'd love to just lease the same car again, but I have a feeling I'm in for a bit of sticker shock on the monthly payments.  Last time I looked, they want about $159 a month more than I'm currently paying to lease the same model car in the current model year.  WTF?  I thought we were in a recession.  I'm hardly enthusiastic about the prospect of coughing up a pile of cash for a car, particularly since I could probably walk  to 90% of places I go.  My office, the grocey store, the gym and Starbucks are all within 1 mile of my house. What else does a girl need?  I should really scrap this plan and get a bike.  Damn Florida, with its humidity and daily rain.  Plus, let's get serious - I'm far too lazy to walk everywhere.  I'd end up homebound. 

So, I'm off to the dealership to haggle with the sales staff and try to get myself a sweet deal on a new ride. 

Wish me luck. 

Oh, and because I hate posts without pictures, here's one from our engagement session that cracks me up everytime I see it.

Happy Saturday!

what i've been doing instead of cleaning...

Attending a Super Bowl themed Birthday Pub Crawl...

(note the obnoxious "i'm-trying-to-make-my-arms-look-skinny-hand-on-hip-pose" in both pictures - gag)

Cheering on the Orlando Magic....

Baking (and eating) Peanut Butter Blossoms....

Attending an adorable Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter Tea Party Bridal Shower...

and eating my weight in guacamole.

What have you been up to?

winner, winner, chicken dinner!

The winner of my 100th post giveaway is....

...Kristen at Now You Know!  Congratulations Kristen!  Hope you have fun spending your Target gift card.  Thanks to everyone who entered! 

cupcakes

Who's got two thumbs and loves cupcakes? 

    

Maybe.  But I was talking about me. 

I love me some cupcakes.  My hands-down favorite place for cupcakes is Crumbs Bake Shop.  These people know how to make a cupcake.  They're gigantic, have the perfect cupcake to icing ratio and are incredibly moist {sorry sis - the usage of the word "moist" was in this case, unavoidable}. Sadly for me, but lucky for my arse, there's not a Crumbs within 1,000 miles of my house.  I've looked into having them shipped, but seeing as how the cost was nearly $40, I thought it better to pass. 

While there are some acceptable substitutes in my town,* I usually prefer to make them myself.  One of my favorites - the funfetti cupcakes from the box.  Judge me if you want, but those are some tasty cupcakes.  I know you can make funfetti from scratch, but why would you when Pillsbury has already acheived perfection and packaged it up for you?  I also make a mean carrot cake cupcake with cream cheese frosting. 

I love cupcakes like, well....like a fat kid loves cake.

A few weeks ago, I hit the motherload and discovered cupcake nirvana. Bake It Pretty.  Everything you could ever need or want to make your baking beautiful.  Love & Olive Oil {a fabulous cooking blog - check it out} hosted a giveaway for Bake It Pretty's "Best Ever Cupcake Icing Kit." 

As soon as I saw it, I knew it had to be mine.  I didn't win the giveaway and when I went to purchase the kit, it was sold out.  So, I did what any rational person would do.  I stalked the website until they had more in stock.  My patience was rewarded on Friday night when I checked the site and found that they had kits in stock.  Oh happy day!  Now this kit, a pile of adorable cupcake liners and decorations are on their way to me.  Can't wait to make up a big pile of buttercream and start practicing my swirls. 

Don't forget to enter my giveaway - it ends at midnight tonight!

*If the locals are wondering, Publix and Sprinkles {not the chain} are two.  Sweet is not.

it's the little things

It's been a crazy week at This Old House.  We were out of town all weekend, we got behind on the laundry & cleaning, I haven't cooked a proper meal all week and the to-do list is approaching an epic length.  To put the level of chaos at our casa in perspective - I had to borrow The Mister's deodorant yesterday because I ran out and didn't make it to the store.*  So, instead of smelling powder fresh, I smelled like a boy all day long.  Only marginally better than b.o. if you ask me. 

Enough with the shameful confessions.  I want to talk about the simple things in life.  The things that are easy to forget when life gets hectic.  Kelly at Kelly's Korner did a post on "Simple Pleasures" and it reminded me to think about all the little things that bring a smile to my face.  Even when the sink is full of dishes and I'm wearing Right Guard. 

...a  few things that brighten my day...

a day spent in pjs

the smell of clean laundry

cupcakes

pictures of weddings & babies

80's movies

guacamole

a tivo full of cooking shows

comments

wandering the aisles of Super Target

 my blanky

fountain diet coke

a phone call from my family

my husband's goodnight kisses

What are the little things that brighten your day?

*I went to the store last night & am happy to report I am powder fresh once again.

...one hundred...

One hundred posts. 

I have to say, I never really expected this to happen.  I have a tendency to get really excited about things, only to lose interest after a few days, weeks or months.  Whether it be scrapbooking, dieting, being a lawyer, or running*, my initial enthusiasm always fades. 

But not this time.  I love blogging.  And I enjoy it more today than when I wrote my first post six months ago.  And that's because of all of you who read & comment.  You make this so much fun!  I love reading your blogs and your comments, and have so enjoyed getting to know all of you. 

So, on the occasion of my 100th post, I'd like to say thank you.  In my six months in this blogging world, I've learned a few things. One of which is this - there's no better way to say "thank you" than a giveaway! 

One lucky reader will win a $20 gift card to one of my favorite places.  The best part - you get to choose which of my favorite places you'd like a gift card to!  Here are your choices: Target, Starbucks or Barnes & Noble.

Here's how to enter:

Comment on this post & let me know which one of the gift cards you would like if you win.  (1 entry)  If you were a follower before this post, let me know.  (2 additional entries).  If you're a new follower, let me know that too.  (1 additional entry).  Please make sure I can get in touch with you to let you know if you've won.  ie., if your email address isn't accessible from your blog/profile, make sure to leave an email address. 

That's it.  Easy-peasy, right?  No need to repost this on your blog, tweet it {I wouldn't know if ya did!} or Facebook it out to all your friends.  Wouldn't be much of a thank you if I made you work that hard for it, would it?  Entries will be accepted through Sunday, February 7, 2010.  I'll choose a winner at random.  (Hopefully I'll be able to figure out that random number generator you all use.  I do not want to be fishin' scraps of paper out of a bowl.} I'll post the winner here and contact the winner via email & they'll have 48 hours to get back to me to claim their prize. 

So, what's your pleasure?  Shopping, coffee or reading?

*While no longer enthused, I am still running jogging.  I'm on week 5 and I still think it's about as fun as poking myself in the eye with a sharp stick.

civic duty

That's right kids - I'm at jury duty today.  Be back with tales from the justice system (or the jury pool waiting room) very soon. 

Looks like my next post will be my 100th!  What the what!  Guess it better not suck...

Till then...