30 Days of Thanks: Day 14- Something New

If I'm honest, I have to tell you that I still read fairy tales and I like them best of all.~ Audrey Hepburn

My something new is a collection of Hans Christian Anderson Fairy Tales. This book is one of the latest additions to my collection of the Penguin Clothbound Classics, with cover designs by Coralie Bickford-Smith. Not only do they look great on the shelf, but the list includes some of my favorite titles. Adding this book to the collection is also progress on Goal 36.

{image from www.cb-smith.com}

Completed Goal: Goal 99

Goal 99: Turn 30 and like it

Life is not a dress rehearsal. Stop practicing what you're going to do and just go do it. In one bold stroke, you can transform today.


~ Marilyn Grey

This was tougher than I thought it would be, but I have to admit it got easier. I struggled with the idea of turning 30. I kept having all these thoughts about where I thought I'd be by now, and whether I was close enough or just really far off. The more I thought about it, I realized that it didn't matter. When had I put this "plan" together? College? High School?

Basically I had made some decisions about what my life should be without actually giving myself a chance to live any of it first. I don't know that I could have predicted where my life and my opportunities would have taken me when I was 16. I don't know that I could have predicted what the next 14 years would bring. I could barely predict what the next weekend was going to bring. But that's kinda how things are supposed to be at 16. Now I like to plan ahead a little bit. OK, a lotta bit.

So where did I think I'd be. First, I thought I'd be married. OK- check. I thought there might be a kiddo around. Not so check. I thought that I'd have some high-powered title. Not so much with the title, but a little but on the high-power. Not that I'm quite in the C-Suite yet, but I get to work on some pretty cool projects, and overall I'm excited to go to work. I think that rounds up to a check. I thought I'd have a house. Check- a big ole mortgage sized check and a stack of design magazines with pages dog-eared to prove it.

I came pretty close to everything on that list. And to top it off, I did some things that maybe I didn't expect.

I lived in London and worked for a theatre company for a summer in college. That's a dream come true right there. I've seen Paris at sunset and the hills of Ireland at sunrise. I've stood backstage for countless performances, both at work and for shows that I was actually in, though none of those happened outside of Illinois or Indiana. I tried out for American Idol. Didn't make it on TV, but that also means I didn't get made fun of on TV. That's a win. I've stood next to my best friends while they got married and had them stand next to me. I get to come home to a dog who acts like seeing me walk through the door is the best thing that happens to him all day. I've gotten to hear my parents say that they're proud of me and that they love me. I get to hear my husband say it every night.

All in all, the first 30 years have been pretty fantastic. Who knows what the next will bring? I don't. And really that's going to be part of the fun.

Bathroom Saga- Day Two

And the renovation continues. A lot of the work today was under the floor, in the walls. All things that I can't really see. In any event, there were some pretty fun things to see today.

This is what the cabinet looks like without the crazy blue sinks. I like it better already. It's a neutral style in addition to being white so I think it'll work with a wide variety of styles for the counter and sinks.

Without the counter, this what the inside of my side of the cabinet looks like. Makeup, hair products, curling iron, and a little bit of drywall dust. We'll have to give everything a good once over when things are finished.

This is the wall of the shower. Where the cans are sitting is the shelf that we're adding. I'll be able to fit so many bottles of shampoo and shower gel up there. Not that I have that many. Well, I kind of do. It's going to be great. We had a few inches between the edge of  shower basin and the wall of the room, so this was our solution. I'm a fan.

This is the new shower basin. It's great! Although the picture is on its side. Can't quite get it turned the right direction. If you tilt your head a little bit, you get the idea. You probably don't have to tilt your head. I did if it makes you feel any better. The room feels bigger already.

Tomorrow- the electrician comes. Finally, we'll have some light over the bath tub!

Goal Progress: Goal 58

Goal 58: Renovate Master Bathroom

That's right, we started the bathroom renovation this week. You can see some of the very first pictures of the space here. We took these right after we moved in. Even before we signed the papers, the millions of pages of paper, so that we could officially own the place, we knew those stylish blue seashell sinks had to go. We also knew that a bathroom renovation completely exceeded our DIY expertise. Anything involving plumbing and electricity requires professional knowledge. At least it does in our house.

We found a contractor that we liked, that Loki liked, and that some friends and our realtor recommended. We worked out a budget and a plan, and we made some decisions about the placement of new lights, and what walls needed to go. Basically, we had a linen closet that we didn't need. What we need is light and a little extra space in the shower. As of today, we're making great progress.

Day 1 was demo. Tuesday night, we moved ourselves into our guest bathroom, and got everything unnecessary cleared out of the bathroom. Then on Wednesday, the guys got things started. Here's a peek at what our bathroom looked like last night.

This used to be the shower. In the morning it was a 3' by 3' square. Everything's been pulled up, and the new wall you see is in place so that we can have a 60" shower basin. Hello room to stretch!

I don't know what any of the stuff in this pile is. That's why we aren't doing this ourselves. Loki wasn't allowed in the room while the work was going on. He was very interested in sniffing out the details of the progress. Then he was interested in chewing on an unattended 2 x 4. He didn't get to have that for very long. You can also see in this picture that the vinyl flooring is gone.

This is our bathtub. We're not changing the tub itself- garden tub with jets can definitely stay. But we are having the tile around the top and sides replaced with the tile that we use in the shower to tie it all together. Just enough to keep things coordinated. And I do like it when things are coordinated. 

The blue sinks are gone! This change will be one of the biggest impacts we have in the space. I cannot wait to see how it all looks with a clean, sleek, modern counter. We're keeping the existing cabinetry. It's in good shape, it's white so it'll go with everything we have and are bringing in. Plus, getting a new cabinet would have blown the budget.

Because everything had to come out of the bathroom, the toilet gets to live in our bedroom. Not permanently.

So Day 1 was a big day. Lots more updates to come. It's going to be an interesting three weeks.

Goal Progress: Goal 83

Mission accomplished! I can see the top of the desk again. Of course it was easy once I got started.

Yes that's a headset you see sitting on top of the notebook. Necessary for class conference calls. I actually have one tonight.

 

Still some sorting and organizing to do in the file cabinets, but it's much better than it was this time yesterday.

I even made it to the top of the bookshelf. Much, much better.

Goal Progress: Goal 83

Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it's not all mixed up.

~ AA Milne

Goal 83: Organize paperwork/office area & keep it that way


I love being organized. It's not that I have an extreme love of order, my love of order falls well within normal ranges. I think. I'm a little bit on the scattered side, a bit flighty if you will. If given the option between focusing my energy on one thing completely or doing some combination of 5 things at once, I always choose the 5. So being organized helps me get to everything that needs to get done, everything that needs my attention.

Admittedly, that hasn't been easy to do lately. School takes up a lot of time and energy. All that means is that things go a little longer before getting organized and put away. Which isn't bad, but eventually enough things pile up that it starts to clutter my workspace. Then I start to feel like the clutter is actually overtaking my mind as well. It gets hard to focus.

That's where we're at today. Take a look at the pictures below to see exactly what I mean.

This is what a desk looks likes when it's shared by two busy people. One using it for work, and one using it for school. That's right, on top of this being my study area, this is the big guy's office. He works from home, or at least tries to with the little space left.

I'm embarrassed. I'd like to say that I staged this photo, you know added some things to it to make it look worse. But that wouldn't be true. Yup, this is the actual chaos that lives in our house right now. Fortunately it's really only here and in our closet. I will spare you the horror that is our laundry pile. It's about ready to stage some sort of revolution. That's on the list for tomorrow.  

A closer look at all the randomness mixed in with the school work. Sometimes a girl needs a break from accounting, hence the magazine and open Crate & Barrel catalog. I got right back to the accounting, don't worry. Well, maybe not right back.

Just in case you though the insanity stopped with the top of the desk- wait there's more! This is the top of the bookshelf. Again, any inch of available space has been claimed with papers and magazines, and school stuff.

My mission this evening, should I choose to accept it, is to make some order out of the chaos. To make sense out of the mess. Basically, to prove the existence of the top of the desk.

We'll have to see how this turns out.

Completed Goals: Goal 75 & Goal 78

Beauty is invigorating; it's essential to the human spirit. I can't imagine being as productive and buoyant as I am if I did not work from an office that is as carefully considered as my living and bedroom... your environment plays a big part in how you feel- and you should live in harmony with your desires.


~ Mary McDonald

Goal 75: Finish Jewelry Frame Coark Board
Goal 78: Overhaul Jewelry Box

I have a lot of costume jewelry. Not a crazy amount, well not to me anyway, the big guy may question my sanity at times. But I think he has other reasons for that completely unrelated to my bracelet collection. ;-)

I wanted something that would give me a few things as far as jewelry organization goes. I need to be able to see what I have quickly. Some of my things were so buried, I kinda forgot about them. Most of those pieces were things I got in high school, so that's probably not a bad thing, but it wasn't great either. This project took a few steps that I hadn't anticipated.

Whatever it was, would have to be pretty. I'd flagged the space above my dresser in our closet. It's a space that not everyone will see, so it can be a little more on the girly side or a little riskier than what I'd do in the main bedroom.

I'd seen a few different cork boards and bulletin boards that have been turned in to jewelry boards across the blogosphere. I figured I could try making my own. I'm not crafty, but I like to pretend. We had an auction for charity at our office earlier in 2010 and I picked up this picture for $7.  

The irises were not really my thing. This is just after I'd gotten it set up in the garage to paint it. Yes, in case you're curious that is an old Slip N Slide. Makes a great drop cloth.

What I really liked about it was the detail on the frame. That's the part I was planning to keep anyway. My initial plan was to paint the frame bright red, using the last of the red paint we still ahd from the accent wall in the apartment. After painting that wall, and then having to prime over it when we moved out, I think it's safe to say we're done with red walls.

This is the first coat of the red paint. It probably took me a bout 5 to get it where I really wanted it.

After painting, I tried filling in the frame with some cork tiles. They weren't quite the right size, so some cutting was necessary to get them to fit. A little shifting and everythign seemed to work out fine. I used a spray adhesive to keep the tiles on. Of course my trusty side kick was there to help. He didn't help very much though, I think he was more interested in searching the garage for bugs.

This is where I think I made my mistake. I painted the cork tiles. I'd painted a corkboard before, the one that hangs in our laundry room so I hadn't really thought anything about what the paint would do to the cork. Cork is absorbent. It soaked up a boatload of paint. So much paint in fact that the cork warped and pulled away from the picture. The spray adhesive did not hold up to that. So I was left with a lovely red frame and a hot mess of painted cork. This was not going to work.

I was trying to figure out how to salvage what I'd started and make the cork work. The big guy suggested cutting my losses, removing the cork and the picture and just hanging the frame. As you can see in the picture above, that's exactly what we did. I had a lot of stuff on top of my dresser. I'd like to say it was all organized, but it wasn't.

Once the frame was up it was time to fill it in with the jewelry from the top of the dresser. I took this opportunity to clean out my jewelry box. It's the red one on top of the dresser. I wound up with this configuration of some 3M command adhesive hooks to hang all my necklaces. Earrings and bracelets are still in the jewelry box.

It's much more fun to look at than the blank wall.

New Recipe: Taco Soup

this recipe came from our realtor (Thanks, Jennifer!). It's been hanging on the side of the fridge next to the stove for a while, and seemed like a great recipe for a cold day. Well, today was a cold day and since my office was closed, I had plenty of time to try a new recipe.

Ingredients
1.5 lbs ground beef
1 onion (chopped)
2 pkgs dry ranch dressing mix
2 pkgs dry taco seasoning mix
1 can black beans (drained/rinsed)
1 can pinto beans (drained/rinsed)
1 can kidney beans (drained/rinsed)
2 cans corn
3 cans original Rotel tomatoes
2 cups water

Directions
Brown ground beef with chopped onion, drain and put in crock pot. (I actually used a big pot on top of the stove.)

Add the remaining ingredients to the pot and cook on low 2-3 hours or until desired temperature.

It was just that easy. And very tasty! It makes a lot of soup. I've got 4 containers in the fridge waiting to be lunch.

New Years' Resolution

Let there be more joy and laughter in your living.


~ Eileen Caddy

I've decided not to do an official New Year's resolution this year. Really, there's enough to do based on the 101 Things list on the second page of the blog. So no specific resolution was really necessary. Instead, I'll be looking to have more of what this quote mentions. More time doing the things that make me happy with the people that make me happy. I like that. We could all use more of that, don't you think?

For example, take a look at what happened the day of our first big snowfall in Indy. This is our backyard that morning. Our very own Winter Wonderland.

And I'm not the only one who loves the snow. Don't be surprised if this picture finds it's way onto next year's Christmas card!

That's all you need for a great day. Fresh snow, a giant stick to chase, and a comfy spot for a nap. Lots of joy, and plenty of laughter.

I hope 2011 brings more of both to all of us.

Completed Goal: Goal 46

Completed Goal: Goal 46 Go to a Purdue football game with the big guy

Date Completed: 11/27/2010

We went to a Purdue football game together, and not just any game, the Old Oaken Bucket game. This game is probably my favorite game of the season. For those of you not familiar with the game, it's the last game of the Purdue football season and it's the always against Indiana University (IU). It's the big rivalry game and the winner gets to put a "P" or an "I" on the chain attached to the bucket, and bragging rights for the rest of the year. Now, I will say, the bucket has significantly more "Ps" on the chain, which I'm sure helps with some added enjoyment for me.

The really fun part about this game- I went to Purdue and the big guy went to IU. Yup, we're a house divided when it comes to college sports. We decided that a friendly wager would be a great idea for the game. No money was involved, it was just for pride. We decided that Loki would wear a collar representing the winning school for a month. We figure the bet can be an annual event, and he can wear the collar for the whole month of December.

It sounded like a great idea at the time.

 Mommy lost the bet. Even Loki looks disappointed. It's like he understands.

I suppose he can have the win, it was his birthday after all. We'll meet on the field again next year. I've got Loki's Purdue collar ready.

Completed Goal: Goal 38

Goal 38: Go antiquing
Completed: 9/4/2010

I know what you're thinking, September was a really long time ago. It's true. I've been totally slacking in getting this post actually written out and posted. We went antiquing at the Noblesville Antique Market. It's three levels with tons of things to sift through. It's right on the town sqaure in downtown Noblesville.

We didn't really have anything in mind when we got there, so we started on the main level and just worked our way through all of the displays. Just as proof, here's a picture of the big guy at one point in the shopping trip. Isn't that the face of a man who loves antiquing? It actually is, we've been several times since that first trip.

We were able to find a few cute things to add to the house. The first being a lovely ash tray for the big guys cigars. It's outside in the picture because it was September, and a beautiful day in our backyard. Well, Loki's backyard, I suppose, if you want to believe the blog title.

The other piece that we were really excited about is the crystal decanter in the picture below. The big guy has decided that a small decanter collection would be a fun thing to have in the house. So we've started one near the bar. It looks great so far. We got one decanter as a gift for our wedding and have added another as an anniversary present. Our little collection is looking good! They're all different shapes and styles so there's a lot of visual interest to the sets.

All in all, our first antiquing trip was a success! We're still looking for more decanters, and I'm always on the lookout for books.

Completed Goal: Goal 97

Three days in and I already have a completed goal. It wasn't hard, but it was a lot of fun.

Goal 97: Define our (me & the big guy) design style

Here's how I checked this one off the list. I was one of many people watching and waiting to see who would win HGTV's Design Star. I love everything about the competition and this season did not disappoint. I was especially happy when they announced the winner and it was Emily. I love the way she combines finishes and time periods with colors and patterns to really give a lot of character to a room. I also love her blog. She's funny and kinda goofy and totally the type of person I'd want to hang out with.

So naturally when the first episode of her new show, Secrets from a Stylist, came on this past weekend, I was there. And by there I mean on my couch, remote in hand ready to watch something awesome happen. One of the things I really like about her approach is the combination of styles. By defining three styles that really work individually for the person, you get a lot more to look for and combine to really get a personalized design for the home.

After watching the show we talked a little bit and picked three styles that we really like and that we want to pull from as we continue to decorate and finish getting our home the way we want it to be. I say we, but really I mean me. The big guy is interested, but I won't push him too far. Here's a peek at what we decided we like. (All images found via Google Images.)

1. Modern: clean lines, geometric patterns, chrome/steel, bright colors, minimalist style, think CB2

2. English Manor House: traditional pub style, worn leather, chesterfield sofas, dark wood tones, books/libraries, crystal

3. Hollywood Regency: metallic/mirrored finishes, high end fabrics, light & airy colors, black & white, feminine lines

Now that we've defined our style, the easy part is done. The hard part will be figuring out where & how to mix them. But it'll be fun too.

It's like the ultimate To-Do List

I've seen this around the blog world many times, and I've always been intrigued. It's 101 in 1001 list. You pick 101 goals and give yourself 1,001 days to complete them. They can be big or small, expensive or free, silly or serious. They just have to be something clearly defined and easily trackable/measurable. And it's really a good amount of time, just about 2.75 years to get everything done. Sounds reasonable, especially since a few of mine are already in progress. Maybe that's cheating a little, but I think it counts as long as it hasn't already been finished.

So what does my list have on it? Some house projects. Some items about getting healthier, because really couldn't we all make some healthier choices? Some entertaining stuff. Some work and school stuff. Some spiritual stuff. Some financial stuff. Some time with friends and family, especially the big guy and Loki.

The list has been added as it's own page, here. This will make it easier to keep track of what's done and what's not. I'll do a separate blog post about each goal as it gets crossed off the list, and I do like to cross things off lists.

So when does it all start? Today. Nothing like the first day of a new month to get you inspired about taking on a new challenge. Apparently Fall 2010 is all about challenges. I've got the 90 Day Challenge at the gym, I've got this 101 in 1001 challenge, and I've got the challenges that come with a Big 10 MBA program.

Maybe the first thing on the list should have been a vacation!