My American Life

I realize that I am waaaaaaaaaaaaay late to join this party, but I have recently become addicted to listening to "This American Life" on NPR.  I love Ira Glass and all of the interesting stories on the show.  I downloaded an app on my phone so I listen to them on my headphones while I'm working out (I'm trying the Couch to 5K workout again...) or doing dishes.  I think I've listened to 5 in the past 5 days.

If you've got 12 minutes, check out Act 3 of this recent episode on deception.  It's just David Sedaris reading an excerpt from one of my favorite books ever, "Me Talk Pretty One Day."  The book is truly hilarious.  Probably time for me to re-read it again.

Speaking of this American life, here are some recent scenes from mine (at least the fun parts - you will note that there are no pictures of me at work):

Big bear photo bomb.  We all love her flower chair from Grhonda and Grandbob.

She was really working the tutu last week at our friend Amy's house.

I super love our new wreath - on sale now at Target!

My funny Valentine.

Like a Boss

A friend of mine at work ordered a few of these for her office walls - so awesome!  They are called "emergency compliments," and I think they would be great anywhere and would make cool gifts.  Check them all out here.

 

No, really.

Home for the Holidays

So weird and awesome to be in a real home (of our own!) for the holidays. Didn't have much time since we've moved in to hunt down much holiday decor, but did want to share some of the decorating fun we had. The pretty little wreath above is from Target. The first wreath I bought had ornaments and goodies all over it and was awesome, but was way too wide to fit between the real door and the glass door. Boo. Needed something really narrow, so this one fit the bill. (Dear Target: You never let me down.)

Some of our indoor decor:

Pretty little music box tree from my grandparents, with our real tree (well, our fake real tree) behind it.

Sparkly mini tree and a sparkly deer (from World Market), sitting on top of the awesome cabinet Dac's parents got us as a housewarming gift.

Pretty star dish from my friend Rachel. Love mini ornaments in a bowl. Got the shiny charger for $1.50 from Target (like I said...).

Stockings hung by the chimney with care. Plus some poinsettias that were $1 a piece on Black Friday (Lowes),  and a good ole Fossil tin on the mantle. :)

Then there was our first outdoor light experience. We decided to keep it pretty simple this year. Everyone had been talking about how easy net lights were, so we gave them a try ...

... for the one and only time. Our bushes are just too big for them - they pretty much only cover the top (although I'm sure we could find bigger ones). We actually thought we had bought enough for both sides of our front door based on the footage, but we were way off (didn't help that one of the sets we bought was busted and had to go back). And I don't like that the cords are so noticeable during the day. 

We also hung a lit garland around our door, once again from Target.

Dac putting the finishing touches on it. We just used really small nails in a few places to hang it.

Next year maybe we'll attempt lights on the roof, or at least cover all of our bushes. :)

The List, Part 37

Sorry that all of my posts lately are random thought dumps, but...here we go again.

So in love with this house posted on Young House Love today.  Also, my mom and I get to meet John and Sherry (of YHL) on Saturday at a book signing - so excited!

I really want to make this skillet lasagna I saw on Annie's Eats.

I want to make this table. I want someone to make me this table.

Is Jessica Simpson really pregnant again?

I often eat lean cuisines for lunch (or dinner...).  This is my most favorite frozen meal - ever!  It's so good.

 

Lonny, Lonny, Bo Bonny

As I posted last fall (whoa, almost exactly a year ago...I guess my mind is on an annual cycle, and the beginning of November is my favorite time to think about periodicals.  Hmmmm.) I have magazines coming out of my ears.  The time I now devote to sitting down with one is negligible at best (though I did read part of a People magazine this morning on the metro).  Because I've already got a huge stack to catch up on, I never get around to reading the awesome online magazine, Lonny.  The latest issue came out a few days ago, and though I haven't read it, I did peruse some of the photos, and found some beautiful stuff:

All images are from the November 2012 issue, found here.  If you do have time to add a magazine to your rotation, might as well check out this gorgeous (and free!) publication.

Weekend Treasures

We just got back from a really special weekend in Indiana, for Nora Jayne's baptism. It was super quick  ... we were in town for less than 48 hours (and as you'll see below, at IKEA for a handful of those), but every moment was super special. It was so great to see the whole fam and celebrate NJ. Just couple of my fave Nora pics from the weekend (I'm sure Katie has more coming on all of the festivities):

Praying during the ceremony.

Silly afterwards.

We made a special trip to the IKEA in Cincinnati while we were in town. We crammed it in on Friday right after we got in. The hour drive each way after our 9 hour drive? Worth it. Of course we left with some odds and ends from the Marketplace (I think I said to Dac, which he then kept saying himself to make fun of me, "Now this is where I really get into trouble. You'll need to hold me back.") But for the more exciting items...

The Docksta table that I mentioned recently, which will be going in our kitchen when we have a chance to put it together:

And this awesome rug, which I've seen in some really beautiful living rooms on blogs/Pinterest and have had my eye on. The plan is our family room for this one, but it could move around to just about any room as time goes on.

And that's about all the house budget could handle at the moment. I had to really restrain myself from buying the Expedit shelves (for the office) and a Rast dresser to makeover (both mentioned in this post). Need to learn to take things slowly and remember we're going to be here for awhile. Home, sweet home. :)

Also, news flash: Tomorrow is Halloween. I keep forgetting.

Privacy Problems

So I have been keeping a list for awhile now of things I knew we would want for our new house, so we could review, edit and prioritize once we actually moved in and knew the kind of funds we were working with. 

Some things at the top of my list:
- New TV
- Dining room table
- Nightstands+Lamps for our bedroom
- Rugs

Something not on my list at all?
- Bathroom door

But guess what jumped right to the top after we slept in our room a couple of nights and realized our doorless bathroom has great acoustics? Perfect for shower singing, but not so great for middle-of-the-night bathroom going (or really anytime bathroom going). Our bathroom is really pretty. It's pretty much perfect - other than the fact that it has no door. The doorway is larger than normal, so we will likely need a custom door of some kind.

We talked about maybe a pocket door, but that's likely expensive and we may run into some electrical issues. We also thought maybe some type of double door would be cool, but it's not really a wide enough doorway for that.

So now we're wondering if we can pull off one of these cool urban-meets-farm sliding door deals:

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Thoughts? Any other door ideas?