Monday, March 25, 2013

monday morning

Happy Monday!!  It's pretty chilly in Seattle this morning, but the sun is beating down against my window at work, so it's making me feel cheery and excited for some spring-y goodness regardless of the cold.

I ordered my first-ever cappuccino today at Tully's, and was surprised to feel how light the cup was after the guy handed it to me.  My first thought was maybe he made a mistake and was handing me an empty cup...?  So now I'm just staring out at the sunshine reflecting off the buildings, enjoying my cup 'o foam.


In other news, I'm super excited to be featured on Just Stay Lovely this morning as part of Candice's "Girl Behind the Blog" series while she's in New England visiting her honey boo boo.  Candice started blogging in February of this year, and her blog has totally taken off in such a short amount of time.  I'm happy I found her when she was just starting out!  I encourage you to check her out!

Hope your Monday morning is off to a great start!


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Thursday, March 21, 2013

throwback thursday

Christi's post has just inspired me to do my own Throwback Thursday post.  So, without further ado, let me introduce you to The Mullet.

You can see how it gradually changed over the years, but the fourth picture takes the cake.  This is what I like to call my "first-day-of-kindergarten-mullet", and it's simply amazing.  How did my hairdresser know that I was equal parts business and party at such a young age?  (Also, how awesome were my parents' yellow doors??)

It's alright though, I'm not ashamed of my mullet years.  In fact, I'm not sure you can call yourself an 80's kid if you didn't sport something similar.  How about you?  Did you rock the mullet?



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Monday, March 18, 2013

mud on the tires

This weekend, Lynsey invited me to a bbq at her friend's house who happens to live in my little town of Gig Harbor.  I've lived in Gig for about a year and a half now, but sadly don't know anyone in the area since I still work in Seattle.  So I was stoked to meet some of Lynsey's friends that live near me.  

Their home was huge and was on about 10 acres.  A house with this much property only meant one thing:  Off-roading.


Scared for our impending doom, Lynsey and I tried to guzzle as much wine as possible out of our fancy-schmancy mason jar wine glasses before hopping in the truck with Cindy, the homeowner and our death-defying driver.  I'd only done this once before in high school and slightly recall being scared for my life at the time.


And now the action begins!


By this time I was squeezing Lynsey's arm so tight that I'm sure I left imprints!  Sorry, Lyns.


Well I'm happy to report that we barely survived to live another day.  And I was finally able to give Lyns her deer silhouette painting that I finished last week.  Looks great in their camper!


The rest of the night was spent eating yummy food, warming up by a bonfire and mingling with new people.  Oh, and there may or may not have been a dance party.


On Sunday morning, Tony and I celebrated St. Patrick's Day by eating breakfast at one of our favorite places, Kelly's Cafe, which just happens to be Irish.  I even splurged and ordered the Lucky Charm Latte!  Which, from what I could tell, was just a regular latte.  I was hoping for some green sprinkles at least!

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We did some grocery shopping later in the day and found some more fun St. Patrick's Day treats.  Double Rainbow Beer and Double Rainbow Soy Cream!  I don't usually buy soy cream but I just had to, it matched our beer!  It was really good, and almost tasted like cookie dough.  The beer was okay, too.


I hope you had a lovely weekend and a safe St. Paddy's Day!  Anyone get pinched??

Don't forget to link up!














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Friday, March 15, 2013

high five for friday

Do you ever hear Rebecca Black in your head when you start writing your H54F posts?  No?  Just me?  Ok then.

Linking up with Lauren for High Five for Friday.  Here we go!



1.  Ooooh, a mystery item!!  This potential highlight is job-related, but I don't want to jinx myself by giving any info just yet.  Stay tuned for more on that!

2.  This was actually one of last week's highlights, but since I didn't do a H54F post last Friday I'm going to carry it over.  That's allowed, right? Candice over at Just Stay Lovely nominated me for the Liebster award!  She's a new blogger and you will love her.  She's so....lovely!

3.  Zero work emails left to deal with!  You know you're jealous of my empty inbox.  I can't even describe how good this feels.  I had such a productive week and was able to get so many things crossed off my never-ending to-do list.  Such a weight off my shoulders!  (I'm trying not to pay attention to the emails slowly creeping in as I write this post...)

4.  This is a teeny highlight but still deserves a mention.  I recently discovered Pomegranate Greek Yogurt by Oikos, and I'm so hooked!!  It's my new favorite flavor, and I must fill my fridge with it right away.  Ever tried it?

5.  I made this deer painting for my friend, Lynsey!  Tony and I have a larger version hanging in our living room, so she requested a smaller one for herself.  Check out this post to find out how I made it.

What were your highlights this week?

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Monday, March 11, 2013

roses are pink, violets are blue

Wow, I can't believe I didn't do a High Five for Friday post or a weekend recap post!  All my thoughts lately have been centered around one thing, and that's our potential new house!  Our realtor sent all the paperwork to the bank on Friday, but because the home is a short sale, it could be weeks before we find out if we get the house.  And I'm going to be pretty bummed out if they don't accept our (generous) offer!  I know more options will pop up during the spring and summer months, but I've already re-painted and decorated the entire house in my mind, and I really don't want to start again from scratch...in my mind.

Today's post is going to be a short one, but I just wanted to share the mood board I created for Chloe's new room.  I just love this color palette!  It's so sweet and girly.  She told me she wanted a "blue and pink" room (which immediately made me think of cotton candy), so I want to do soft aqua walls with coral accents.  To a kid, that is blue and pink.  Technically, she requested "blue and pink zebra-striped walls".  A girl can dream, right?

Top: Behr Cool Jazz / Ikea bed / Etsy throw pillow
Middle: Etsy print / vintage vanity / Etsy print
Bottom: cloud pillow / ombre dresser / striped curtains

How cute is that cloud pillow??  Adorbs!

So, what do you think?  Any other great recommendations for a wall color?

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Thursday, March 7, 2013

the other house

Hola!  Just wanted to give you a quick little house update.  A lot of you had great things to say about the potential house I posted about earlier this week.  I still agree that with a little TLC, that house could be amazing and I hope the right person finds it and makes it shine like new!  However, because of it's location and the fact that split-levels have a bad rap for some reason (personally, I love them!), our realtor let us know that the resale value for that house would most likely not be great.  The more we thought about it, the more we fell in love with our second choice, due to it's awesome location in a great neighborhood close to Chloe's school.  (I hope I'm not hurting it's feelings by calling it our "second choice"!  I love you, house!)  This place needs some serious updating too, obviously, but not quite as much as the first house.  

I'll let you be the judge.

All images found on themlsonline.com, link not provided for privacy

Bonus! There's a third bathroom that's not shown here, along with a laundry room and a 2-car garage.  The house is over 1700 square feet, which is a big improvement over the 900 square feet we're currently working with in our rental.  I'm really looking foward to DIYing a lot of the updates in this house, and of course blogging every step of the way!

If you can't tell yet, I'm pretty psyched about this place!  I've already started a Pinterest board for paint colors and am so excited to just get in there and get 'er done!  That is, of course, if our offer is accepted.  I'm probably jinxing myself with this post but I was just too excited not to share.

Hope you're having a terrific Thursday!

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Monday, March 4, 2013

a birthday & a house

Now that I've survived my horrendous commute to work and am settled in at my desk, I'm ready to start working blogging.

On Friday night we went to a birthday celebration for one of Tony's high school BFFs.  We all met up at a bar in Seattle called Bravehorse Tavern, which is a Tom Douglas restaurant.  In case you're not from these parts and don't recognize the name, Tom Douglas is an awesome chef who has a bunch of restaurants in Seattle, and he appeared on Iron Chef in 2005.

Bravehorse was super packed when we got there, but we were able to wrassle up a table and secure a shuffleboard table pretty quickly.  They had awesome black-bean veggie burgers, which I scarfed down in 3.5 seconds.  Anyplace that has a veggie option that doesn't consist of a microwaved Gardenburger is a winner in my book!  They also had amazing truffle popcorn, which I wasn't sure about at first, but after awhile became super addicted to it.


Tony and I were plaid twins for the night, which was 100% unplanned! We drove there separately after work so we didn't know what the other was wearing.


Our friends Laura and Leeza were there, so we had lots of time to catch up on girly talk while the guys hogged the shuffleboard table all night.



I was super excited when these nerds showed up!  I'm pretty sure they wandered over from Comicon, which was going on just a few blocks away at the Convention Center.  I had to get a picture with them! (Nice photobomb, Jared!)


They even posed with the birthday boy, too.


A fun night was had by all!

After taking a few hours to recover on Saturday morning, Tony and I actually had the chance to go and look at one of the houses we've been eyeing.  It was so exciting because it's the first house we've looked at together!  Besides our rental duplex, of course.  We met up with our realtor and checked out two different houses, but after weighing the pros and cons, we decided which one would be better for us.  It's definitely a fixer-upper, so we're still deciding if we want to take on so many projects, or keep looking for something a little newer.  It doesn't even have appliances in the kitchen, which is a bummer.  The house is an amazing deal though, which is why we're still considering it.  I didn't take any photos while we were there, but here are some pictures from the online listing.

As you can see, the place is pretty huge!  The deck wraps around the whole house, and there is also a hot tub in the back!  And a swing set.   Even though the backyard is full of blackberry bushes that need to be cleared, the property is pretty huge.  We'd need to add a fence at some point, since we want to get a dog.  A goldendoodle, to be precise!


This is the front room, which would definitely need new paint and trim.  I don't love the tile fireplace but it would probably stay.  The kitchen is behind the wall on the right, so we'd want to tear down the wall to create an open floorplan, and then expand the hardwood floor into both rooms.  We'd also want to replace the baseboard heaters with something called a cadet heater (according to Tony).


The kitchen needs work, obvi, but I can easily see it's potential.  We'd paint the cabinets, add stainless steel appliances, replace the part of the floor that's missing, paint the walls, and eventually change the backsplash (I'm obsessed with white subway tile in kitchens!).  Oh, and add new lighting to the ceiling.  The dining area is connected but I don't have a picture.


This is one of three upstairs bedrooms, the only one I have a picture of.  They all pretty much look the same except that one is slightly bigger.  I'm a little bummed the rooms aren't larger, but not much we can do about that.  They all need paint, trim, and window treatments.  Speaking of windows, all the windows are new, which is nice and would save a lot of money on our electric bill!


This is the downstairs living area, which would be where we'd put the big screen and sectional sofa.  It probably needs the most work though.  We'd rip out the panel ceiling and add insulation and sheet rock. I'd love to paint the wood panels on the walls but Tony likes the rustic look so we'd have to figure out a compromise.  There is also a fourth room down here, which isn't pictured, but it would make a perfect office/guest room.  It doesn't have a closet so they can't technically call it a fourth bedroom.


Here is the main bathroom, which has been remodeled.  I don't love the tile but at least it's modern!  We'd still have to paint and at some point replace the sink with something nicer, but that would probably be last on our priority list.


So what do you think?  Can you see the potential in this house??  You'd probably laugh if I told you how cheap it was.  I actually had a dream Saturday night that two other couples looked at the house after we left, and we got into a huge bidding war with them.  Things got ugly.  I guess if we're serious about it we should probably put in an offer so that doesn't actually happen!

What did everyone else do this weekend?  Anything more exciting than meeting a couple of nerds and fantasizing about old, rundown houses?

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