Thursday, June 16, 2011

Day 4: Photo Challenge

Day 4: Something green

Day 3 photo challenge

Day 3: Clouds

taken with my blackberry today from the cafe in my building at work, Cafe 37 (appropriately named since it's on the 37th floor)

Monday, June 13, 2011

Day 2: photo challenge

Day 2: What you wore today

Clearly, this is a huge test to my creativity, because I found it impossible to make this interesting!

not pictured: black pants 

Sunday, June 12, 2011

homemade sugar scrub

One of my favorite parts of getting a pedicure is when my legs get slathered with the fragrant lemon sugar scrub and the technician exfoliates away. "Heaven!" she always says, and I couldn't agree more.

Sadly, I don't have someone willing to exfoliate my skin for me at home. Summer is here and bare skin is essential, so exfoliation? a must! So, I'm sharing my awesometastic soothing Lavender Sugar Scrub.

Lavender Sugar Scrub
1 part sugar
2 parts oil 
vitamin E capsuls
Lavender essential oil

For my scrub, I use Sunflower oil. I just happen to have a huge bottle from my homemade facial cleanser (you can read about that here) Olive oil is totally acceptable as well. You could substitute Lavender oil for whatever fragrance you'd like... again, I just happen to 1. love lavender and 2. have it on hand. 

For my scrub, I gathered all my ingredients and a cute little jar I picked up recently at Ikea

I added a cup of sugar, and a smidge more than 1/2 cup of sunflower oil (personal preference, I like a bit more oil). 

 
Next, I punctured 4 vitamin E capsuls, and squished the liquid out into my scrub
please excuse my out of focus edamame thawing in the background :)

Next up, 5 or 6 drops of lavender essential oil

Give it a quick stir and VOILA! you have a wonder sugar scrub!

Does anyone else make their own scrubs? What's your favorite recipe? 


as an added bonus, a gratuitous photo of Cisco, who enjoys knocking over and arranging the throw pillows however he sees fit:

Saturday, June 11, 2011

and so it begins...

T minus a month and a half until moving day, and your obsessive compulsive goddess here has already begun the packing process. I admit, I'm pretty much a packing nazi. I'm in the business of packing and purging.  The thought of having junk around the house that we haven't touched in over a year, packing said junk, and moving it to another house makes me itch. I do a little each day so it isn't overwhelming and in 6 weeks it is all done. Of course, the downside to this process is having a room in your house that looks like this:
And it only gets worse from here on out. actually... I took this photo two days ago and it's already worse today! Luckily, we sold our dining room table on craigslist this past week, since we're upgrading, so the room is a wide open space. Unfortunately, it's a wide open space through which we have to walk to get to the kitchen, bathroom or bedroom. But, it's a small sacrifice to make for 6 weeks to have a perfectly organized move, right? RIGHT?

Wanna take a closer look at the piles? Of course you do! 

I picked up these cushions for the new patio furniture. I love the bright colors and patterns. Our decor indoors tends to be a bit for muted, so I wanted bright bold colors outside. I even found a matching drink bucket:
Note the bright colorful place mat/napkin set I found last week. Seriously, it's going to be like bold colors puked all over the patio, and it's going to be awesome!
Though, we'll likely leave the Tiffany candle sticks indoors (a wedding present from work, I don't typically shop for home decor at Tiffany's).

Day 1: photo challenge

Day 1: Self-portrait


I had great intentions of attempting at least a semi-cute photo of myself. But the moment I grabbed the camera, Cisco got a wild hair and catapulted himself up in my face for an attempt to lick my entire face off.
This, right here? a pretty accurate photo of my life.

Friday, June 10, 2011

30 day photography challenge

While browsing pinterest today, I ran across this pin:
I've seen a million of these, but this one? I actually like. So, I think I'll give it a try. It won't be 30 days consecutively.. I can already promise you that. I'm hoping it'll spark my creativity and renew my love for photography, a subject I studied for years in school. Ya know... in the days of 35mm and dark rooms. The days before digital and photoshop and every person with a Nikon thinking they're suddenly Ansel Adams.

So I've typed out this list (from whitepeachphoto.com) for anyone who's interested in joining in!

30 Day Photography Challenge


Day 1: Self-portrait
Day 2: What you wore today
Day 3: Clouds
Day 4: Something green
Day 5: From a high angle
Day 6: From a low angle
Day 7: Fruit
Day 8: A bad habit
Day 9: Someone you love
Day 10: Childhood memory
Day 11: Something blue
Day 12: Sunset
Day 13: Yourself w/13 things
Day 14: Eyes
Day 15: Silhouette
Day 16: Long exposure
Day 17: Technology
Day 18: Your shoes
Day 19: Something orange
Day 20: Bokeh
Day 21: Faceless self-portrait
Day 22: Hands
Day 23: Sun flare
Day 24: Animal
Day 25: Something pink
Day 26: Close-up
Day 27: From a Distance
Day 28: Flowers
Day 29: Black and white
Day 30: Self- portrait

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Texas, our Texas... all hail the mighty state.

Texas our Texas, so wonderful, so great!!!
Those of you not from Texas probably didn't read the title while singing, as you're unaware of the rocking Texas state song. if you're interested, I personally like this kid's dramatic interpretation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua_dJzcacHU&feature=BFa&list=ULa6R_Bppbe2k&index=1

Okay, now that I'm done with my patriotism, lets move on to the subject at hand. A month or so ago, I while scouring pinterest for anything of interest, I ran across some pins that really caught my eye.
I believe this particular pin linked to an etsy shop... however I pinned a few variations of this, all linking to general locations. So basically, I'm pretty sure I'm not stealing one person's idea here. 
I picked up some paint, canvas and brushes at hobby lobby and searched the internet for a silhouette of Texas, which really wasn't difficult at all to find. Since I didn't have any cardstock on hand, I printed it on regular paper, taped it only a manilla envelope and cut out the shape then decided where to place it on the canvas.

Once I picked a spot, I taped it down to the canvas and began to paint around it.

Once done, I carefully removed the Texas from my canvas.

I painted the sides of the canvas, and ended up putting a second coat of paint on it. When all was dry here was my result:
I haven't decided if I'll add a heart shaped pin around the location of Houston... or if I'll pin it in some other way. I do plan to make an Illinois version of the same thing to represent where the hubs is from. I think they'll be cute side by side in our new place! 

Anyone else out there have anything they've recreated from pinterest? or any art projects like this? 

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

the neurosis begins...

A few weeks ago, the man and I signed a lease for a townhouse in the burbs *moment of silence*
Despite the fact that I'm leaving the city that I love, I'm in true domestic goddess form... obsessing over where all the furniture is going to go, what will arranged how and what needs to be purchased/sold/painted, etc. obsess, obsess, obsess. What can I say, I'm a planner. In fact, the day after our first viewing, I sketched a little floor plan from memory:


My drawing skills are mad-yo. I know.

I used my memory, and the photos we had been provided, but there were still things that were fuzzy. When we returned to sign the lease, I brought the camera, for all those places I had questions about. Once armed with additional information, I found a site online and created these:




Now, they still aren't perfect. I'm missing closets and my dimensions aren't totally correct. But for the basics, it totally works. I can use it to mentally arrange furniture (especially since I highlighted windows on the paper copies I printed). The current tenants are pretty awesome. The wife is admittedly as neurotic as I am and is happy to answer any questions I have (Is there an electrical outlet on that wall in the kitchen where you currently have a pantry?) and she's passed along some great information, such as avg. utility bills/highs and lows/ recycling etc. All super helpful in planning!
With less than 2 months to go, we're slowly buying new things and stashing them in our current place. We'll be upgrading some items (new dining table!) buying new stuff (new guest bed!) and re-purposing items in different rooms than that in which they are currently being used. There's lots of planning and brainstorming going on in our casa lately. But that's just the way I like it. I don't have time to be a "figure it out when we get there" kinda girl. Especially since I hate living in chaos... oh and did I mention my parents are coming for a visit like 2 weeks after we move? Yeah, there's that too.
So, if anyone out there is wondering where the heck I've been... chances are instead of blogging, I'm tossing around ideas on where to put the bookcases, dreaming of the extra kitchen storage I'll be building in the basement or I'm packing. Yes, I've already started. That's just how I roll.