Family pictures?

The girl who did our wedding pictures did a fantastic job (check out her work here) , and I'm seriously considering doing family pictures with her again later this year. I love family pictures. It'd be fun to send out Christmas cards this year from our little family. A little early to be thinking about this? Yes. But, it's a thought.

Chandeliers and Bamboo Shoots

Chandeliers are fantastic, are they not? I'm a little bit obsessed with them. Jus has even started to appreciate how cool they really can be. We were driving past a restaurant tonight, and he pointed out the sweet chandeliers inside. (Reason number 1,462 why I think Jus is so cool.) I keep saying our dream house will include a walk in closet with a HUGE chandelier, overhanging a deliciously plush pouf (something like this) where my love and I can chat as we tie our shoes in the morning. Well... we're not quite there yet. But, last night, we came a little bit closer.

Date night was a spontaneous trip to Ikea. One thing I love about Justin is that he likes funky furniture as much as I do. We had seen a chandelier at Ikea about a month ago, and thought it was "way cool". This weekend it finally came home with us. Love. It makes our apartment feel a little more... lavish? posh? I don't know. But I like it.

In addition to cool furniture, Ikea has some pretty interesting plants. On our way to the checkout, Jus's arms full of a chandelier box, (and red curtain fabric... couldn't resist) we ended up in the plants section. Justin likes plants. We left Ikea with a chandelier and a tender little Lucky Bamboo shoot. "Lucky" us. If you've ever seen "How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days", you'll get what I mean when I talk about our "love plant".

Good Ikea trip. The challenge is on... keep the bamboo shoot alive.

Inspiration wall

I'm starting an "inspiration wall". At this point, it consists of only one picture taped on the wall above my desk in our extra bedroom/homework/whatever room.

My desk itself is in need of a little "inspiration". I had dreams of painting it some bold color like, turquoise or red or something. In the end, we decided to go for yellow. Isn't it such a happy color? Yellow makes any sad day a little bit brighter. I believe that. Yellow spray paint on the other hand... that makes my sad day sadder, more specifically when it makes a drab desk look... um.... like poop. My fault for being too cheap to buy real paint in the first place, and trying to paint the dang thing in the middle of November. Come spring, Jus and I will paint again. But for now, its in the extra bedroom, so no one will see it. Apologies for the desk deviation. I just had to get it off my chest.

Back to the wall. There is a ton of cute DIY stuff out there! I love it. The problem is, I don't have a sewing machine, and scrapbook paper and glue can only go so far. Until today. My sweet mother consented to lend me an old sewing machine for a while! My bliss is complete. Now I can look at my one "inspiration picture" (click here) on my "inspiration wall" and feel the "inspired-ness" flow through my finger tips. I made a shirt similar as an experiment. I must have gotten cocky, or lost focus, or something, because I accidentally sewed a sleeve shut. And then tried to undo the stitching with scissors. And in the end, I ended up with a hole in that sleeve... (patience is a virtue I am still trying to attain.) Oh well. My inspiration picture will still be there next week...

-Ali

Spid-heur episode 2

The spider saga continues. After the events of a few days ago, I borrowed some bug spray from my folks. It's been sitting in our apartment, patiently waiting for Jus to come home one day and spray the heck out of our windows (all two of them) and hopefully put an end to our spiders.

Last night, we struck the blow. As we were cleaning the dishes, I confided to Jus that I hated going near our sink, which, as we know is right underneath our window. He laughed, and got his coat and bug spray. He was gonna take care of this once and for all. But... he had to read the directions on the bug spray first. Aloud. "If one is trying to kill dust mites, beetles, spiders, cockroaches, and every other disgusting thing with more than six legs, they love to live in dark, damp corners of your house, and then come out at night to party. So, spray the corners first." Whether or not that's what he really was reading, that was all I could hear coming from his lips. Strangely enough, it wasn't helping my bug-o-phobia.

It took about ten minutes for my loving exterminator to reassure me that when he sprayed, no, bugs wouldn't be scuttling around everywhere to get away from it. I told him if he was wrong, he owed me a cookie. One of those big, m&m ones from Brick Oven. If he was right, then a churro would be in order. With that agreement, he went outside and proceeded to spray (or "rain poison on the little suckers" as he put it.) It looks like we'll be getting churros soon.

My, that man is great. He told me once that he loves how I hate spiders. It makes him feel macho to kill them for me. All I can say is this. In the word's of Meryl Streep as Julia Child "Well, Dorothy, that's the man I married."

Love you, macho-spider buster-exterminator!

-Ali

P.S. I think I found my next "day-off" project. Click here to check it out!

Nutella and Such

The days are getting longer. Slowly, but surely. At least, that's what Jus and I are telling ourselves. The sun had been shining for a full seven days (until yesterday), and I was tricked into thinking that Spring would be here soon. With my sunny attitude, I went to Target and picked up a couple "warm weather" tops. Then it got cold again... Oh well. Some day, Spring will come (hopefully, with Snow White's prince).

Being married is fun. Period. I love hanging with my own Prince Charming. He really is downright hilarious sometimes! Example: Late one night, I walk into the kitchen, and see him standing there with a box of wheat thins in one hand, a jar of nutella in the other, and a guilty look on his face when he realized he'd been caught. I burst out laughing. I wonder sometimes, if we both get a little desperate for a sweet treat in our house. I know I do. Nutella is about all we have (unless you count the stale M&M's we got from Christmas.) We just don't really have stuff like that. I guess I need to look at it as a blessing in disguise, because if we had goodies, I would eat them. No bueno.

Today, with Justin being at work, and me being bored, my mind turned to our pantry. Upon opening it up, and examining my snacking choices, I see, level with my nose, the almost empty jar of nutella. Good thing I bought a bag of pretzels at the store yesterday. Otherwise, I'd be using a spoon... I was once asked what I consider my guilty pleasure. I said Sting & the Police (gotta love 90's brit. pop). I think I've changed my mind after today.

But... no more of this nutella nonsense! I need to curb my passion before it gets out of hand, and my waistline gets too big for my jeans. So, my love, next time we're at the grocery store... let's get a smaller jar?

-Ali

Spid-heur

Monday is cleaning day. It's a day I almost get excited for. I love to vacuum, but maybe that's just because our apartment is small enough, that it doesn't take forever. Dusting is fine. The lack of dusty fingerprints on our dresser is a sight to behold (or not behold, I guess.) The kitchen, however, is where I struggle. It is the biggest room in our apartment, and the only one with a linoleum floor (white, with a green diamond pattern). Before Jus and I moved in, I made sure everything was clean. The only things that I wasn't brave enough to clean were the drawer underneath our oven, and our kitchen window. Until yesterday.

You see, whenever I clean the kitchen, the window (with blinds closed), and the oven drawer are in the back of my mind. They haunt me every Monday morning. Yesterday, I decided to clear my conscience. The oven drawer battle was easily won, but the window was a different story. A month ago, I tried to clean the kitchen window, but ran into a bunch of bugs in the window track. I guess now would be a good time to tell you that I have a very irrational fear of insects. Any kind. So, rather than act like an adult, I decided to just draw the blinds over the window, and wait until Justin came home before cleaning it. You know, for moral support. I decided that I needed to get over that yesterday, and clean that window, even if it killed me.

Climbing up onto the counter, on all fours, my knees straddling the sink, I proceeded to clean the wretched window, whose filthiness had seen its final days. Or so I thought. As I was scrubbing away, down comes this spider... I shrieked. Searching for the deadliest weapon within arms reach, I picked up the little wooden stick that keeps our window from opening all the way. Spider annihilated. I texted Jus with shaky fingers and pleaded with him to help me finish cleaning the window that night. He laughed, and said he would. My knight in shining armor. It doesn't take much for me.

After taking a breather, calling my mom for sympathy (yes, I'm that big of a wuss), and cleaning everything else in the apartment, I made my second attempt at cleaning the window. This time, with a little less... gusto. When what to my wondering eyes should appear but another spider on the counter! Again, I shrieked. After knocking out spider number two with my running shoe, I spied a third one hanging out by the window. I was done. I put down my cleaning supplies, left the spider where it was, and took a hot shower. As of today, the window still has the blinds drawn. But in the end the window will not defeat me!

-Ali

P.S. My handsome fellow brought me flowers yesterday! I felt like Meg Ryan in "You've Got Mail" but luckier! Love you, bud.

Errands

I made a trip to Wal-Mart today. I always think twice about running errands if it entails stopping there. Unfortunately, today's "to-do's" did. Its becoming a game to see how fast I can make it in and out of there. I think today was a record. As I speed march towards the hair products section, I make eye contact with a few employees. This is usually awkward, since neither of us break a smile. Hmm... maybe I need to work on that. Seven minutes later, I'm back in my car and headed home. Sigh... another trip to Wal-Mart over.

-Ali

Sticky Note

Yesterday, I was feeling a little "dauncy" (in the words of Lucille Ball, "you're not really sick, but you just feel lousy."). As a result, I woke up just long enough to see Justin off to work, and promptly went back to bed. For almost three more hours. After waking up and lying in bed for a minute or two, I decided it would be a good idea to get on with my day (considering lunchtime was rapidly approaching.) Getting ready to turn on the shower, I saw, stuck high in the shower was a bright yellow sticky note... Suddenly, my "daunciness" wasn't so bad. My, how I love that man.

-Ali