2009: a year of changes, if you will

As 2009 comes to a close, it's always fun to look back. So let's recap this year, shall we?

March 2009: I got laid off. It really did turn out to be a blessing in disguise. And I did find the silver lining but it was hard to hear those cliches at the time.

March 2009: Jeff went to Chile for 2 weeks so I went to NC and stayed at Jen & Jon's house for 2 weeks and had a wonderful time. Jon was so great at dealing with 2 women watching girly movies and gossiping all day and all night. Kudos Jon.

April 2009: I may or may not have enjoyed being unemployed. Ok, it was awesome.

June 2009: I started a new job which has kept me busy ever since. Like, I actually have to work at this job. I know, it goes against everything I believe in. But nobody is lining up to pay me for anything else.

Summer: we went on vacation. Nothing huge like the year before, but still worth mentioning. We went to Jeff's family reunion in Yellowstone, my cousins wedding in San Diego and finally got to see the balloon festival in Albuquerque.

September 2009: We said goodbye to our tiny rental and bought our first HOUSE! We spent all summer looking for the perfect house. I almost gave up and thought we might have to settle, when we found the house for us. So far, no disasters. (Just by saying that, I'm sure something in my house is breaking right now.)

October 2009: I turned 30! It still sounds weird saying that. But I'm officially in my 30's.

Don't get me wrong, a lot of stuff happened in between too. I look forward to another year of happiness, health, good friends and lots of memories.

Cheers to 2009 and I look forward to what 2010 will bring.

Home Repair: Bathroom Cabinet

So we have this cabinet in the bathroom that stores all our crap. It used to have an old rickety wood frame with a curtain behind it. We wanted to replace it with something nicer. So here's my before shot, but I didn't get a picture of it before because Jeffrey took it out to measure it.

Anyway, here's the "in progress" shot.


Here's the after. It's an oak frame with rain glass behind it. And a little glass knob.


Sure, Jeffrey built it, sanded it and glued it. But it was my idea to put another coat of black stain on it. So I can't help but take most of the credit for how well it matches the other wood in the bathroom.

Heres a picture of it in the reflection of the mirror in the bathroom.

Christmas 2009

We had a wonderful Christmas. We spent the day with family and we got tons of great loot. Here we are showing off some of our loot:


And just because he's so adorable, look at Jeff's nephew Carson playing with this new horse he got on Christmas day! (the dog was so confused by that toy because it made horse sounds when you squeeze the ears.)


You'll see more posts on the other gifts we got later. I can't ruin all the fun in one post!
Hope you had a great holiday as well!

Merry Christmas!

I've been an absent blogger all week, and I apologize. But I haven't been absent in my duties to bring holiday spirit to my wardrobe. All week I have been (and will be) wearing red and green.

You're welcome in advance for my holiday spirit.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah! (you never know, I may have a Jewish reader out there!)

What to do in the event of a snowstorm.

My winter advisory is as follows.

When the roads look like this:


It only makes sense to stay home and do this:

and that is how I spent my Sunday afternoon. That and cuddling on the couch with my sweetie. (too mushy? ok, just cuddling on the couch then.)

I didn't hear you, what'd you sew?

Ever since I got my trusty sewing machine, I've been sewing a ton of stuff. Maybe too much. Jeffrey is actually complaining that I'm too crafty! As if that could even be a crime!

So what? I've made slip covers for every pillow in the house. Big deal! I like to call it COORDINATING colors. But I'll let you decide if you think I've gone too far. (as if that's even possible.) Even if it were a crime to be too crafty, then I accept the charges: Guilty of making my house too comfortable. Who doesn't love to rest their head on a matching pillow?

I give you....
Exhibits A -E.

Exhibit A - The couch downstairs


Exhibit B - The chair downstairs


Exhibits C & D - A chair in the office and the couch upstairs.

and...


Last, Exhibit E - The curtains in the basement.


If you send me to jail, do you think I could learn to make roman shades there? I'd love to cover every window in my house in something like this:

oh Christmas tree, oh christmas tree

Here is my sparkly Christmas tree. I was pretty excited to decorate this year. Because I bought a ton of sparkly ornaments last year after Christmas. It's pretty blinding when the light hits all those ornaments at once. Mission accomplished!
So feast your eyes on this:

Now I'm just waiting for Jeffrey to put all those expensive gifts under the tree for me. (AHEM! hint, hint!)
.
I also broke down and bought some stocking hangers. It goes against everything I believe in to buy Christmas stuff BEFORE Christmas. I usually like to wait for all the sales after Christmas. But last year, all the good stocking hangers were gone after Christmas. But these were too cute to resist.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!