Fridges, babies, scrubs and other random things I think about.

Wowza. So Josh and I have already been married FIVE Months. I seriously cant believe how fast time goes. It seems like not that long ago I would spend my weekend driving around to find the perfect shade of green napkin for our reception.

Here are some updates from our lives. Should anyone be interested.

LOST. We are back at it. Last year we took a break from pretty much all of humanity and spent the majority of our free time catching up on seasons 1-4. Our goal was to get caught up in time for season 5....which I think we actually did, but by the time season 5 came around my brain was starting to hurt from all the time travel and Darma and spirit of the island mumbo jumbo. So we stopped. But now that season 6 is on and EVERYONE is obsessed...we are feeling the need to watch season 5 and holy cow...it is GOOD! Suddenly I want to name my kids Jack and Kate and Smoke Monster. Just saying.


SCHOOL. This is a big one. I am debating going back to school to pursue an associate's in nursing. We're not completely sure how feasible this is and it will be a long journey, but I've wanted to go back to school - well, pretty much since I graduated and my mom and sister are nurses so it's time to stop denying who I really am! My greatest fear right now would be passing chemistry, biology and of course, inserting a catheter into an old man....but hey, I just might be up for a challenge! Anyways, this is not a set decision - but something we are praying about and taking some time to consider logistics and all that good stuff. It's not like I am already picking out cute scrub outfits. Well, maybe I am....


FAMILY. No, I am not announcing a pregnancy via my blog, although when and if that day comes I cannot WAIT to put up a picture of my uterus for all to see! But we did just welcome our third nephew (on my side) into the world - Callan James!!! He is so sweet from the pictures I have seen. In the next few weeks we will also have a brand new niece Kloe Lynn and I absolutely cannot wait to have a baby niece who lives in Arizona! Here is a pic of Callan. Josh says he looks like popeye here. Oh well...he's cute!


HOUSE. People always ask how are house is coming along. It is coming along nicely! We are really loving our home! It has some quirks and WAY to many plant shelves...and the sunroom still has a weird odor BUT it is ours and it is improving with every trip to Lowe's that we make. I am still in search of the perfect throw pillows and shall make my way to the Anthropologie clearance section this weekend to see what they have. Just this week we heard that the government is offering a $200 tax rebate for old fridges - and we currently have TWO so we MIGHT get a new stainless steel pretty fridge. I am super excited about this prospect. Ah....I have totally reached the age where a new fridge excited me. Hello adulthood.


Now, if I had the money and the decorating skills I would want one of these fridges....seriously, how freaking cute is this?





But alas, stainless steel will just have to do! And I would be super thankful for a new fridge. Ours is just off white and I think from 1992. Totally keeping food cold and doing it's job, just am not loving it's largeness and off whiteness and scratched-ness.

Anyways....that's our life in a nutshell. And by nutshell I mean really long blog with lots of pictures. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Hello blog readers.

Well, I've been completely unmovitvated to blog since the death of my digi cam. I've been reading lots of blogs lately and they all have lovely pictures and I have major blog envy. And then I think - "Lindsey, you can paint a picture with your words." But I actually think that might be a crappy picture and who wants to read 1000 words when they can just look at a picture and be done with it?

But shoot, I am just gonna go for it.

As far as home improvement goes, we have not done too much. We are ALMOST at a stopping point. Meaning, nothing is driving me TOO crazy. We have replaced most of our super ugly ceiling fans, and some brass light fixtures and finally painted our room a light light grey. Currently, I love the color grey and would paint my whole entire house shades of grey if josh would let me.

The next project will probably be project skylight.


You see we have a skylight in our kitchen - but what did the previous owners do? They stuck a giant flourescent beam of light IN the skylight. People - the sun is meant to light that space, not this ugly bulb. So alas, I think we will take that light out, paint the skylight white and put in another light where one final horrendous brass ceiling fan remains. I don't think I need a ceiling fan in the kitchen anyways. Especially if it is brass and looks like it hasnt been cleaned since 1993.

In between projects, I must say I spend way too much time spying on my neighbors. They are not really all that interesting. I dont suspect they are running a meth lab or a drop house or anything, I just like to watch them for some reason because I am creepy and curious like that.

I am not sure of thier names, but they have a cocker spaniel named moxie and they take moxie and their sweet little son on a walk every single night. It is a young-ish couple, the dad is in med school. They seem lovely and one time the lady brought us over pumkin cookies but I was in the shower and josh answed the door and had to take the pumpkin cookies without me meeting the lady. I was sad, but I still ate her pumpkin cookies and they were very good.

Along with baking pumpkin cookies and taking moxie on walks I also gather that this lady loves flags. I know this because each major (nd minor)holiday there is a new flag outside their house to celebrate. Usually it has snoopy or Charlie Brown on it. So far she has had a fall flag, a thanksgiving flag, a Christmas flag, a winter flag, a st. patricks day flag, a spring flag, a valentines day flag and an easter flag. We haven't even made it thru the year and I have made note of 8 flags. Although I am not a flag decorating kind of person I certainly appreciate the effort she puts forth in being festive.

It makes me like her and her flag tendencies. Also, it makes me think that she is Type A. I mean, as soon as Easter was over - there was a new flag up by yesterday morning. I call her the flag ninja because I have never seen her change a flag, yet after each holiday - the very next day there is a new flag celebrating the season. It is totally endearing. Menwhile, I will probably keep my "this way to the bunny trail" cheesy wooden Easter sign in my lawn till mid-July. Oh well.

My Camera: 2007-2010 RIP

Well blog readers, I am sad to report the death of my digial camera - my little canon elph.

I had written a whole blog about the ugliness of the ceiling fans in our house, and as I was roaming thru the house trying to take pictures of the ugly ceiling fans to show you - it died.

Boo and lame.

The shutter will not close. It says "lens error." Until I am able to get a new camera I think I shall try using the camera on Josh's droid....takes decent pictures for a phone.

Anyways: Here are all the things josh and I are doing for the house this week.

Lukily, I have taken lots of "before" pics throughout the house before the death of my camera so I know what things looked like.

We changed out or old super 80s, bathroom mirror to two, stylish black framed mirrors from TJ Maxx home goods. Now, one mirror was like $75 bucks at home depot - but we got two from tj maxx for way less than that - so we were very pleased. Go TJ Max and Ross and Marhsalls. Seriously love those cheap decorating stores! I had to dig around awhile to find matching mirrors....but so worth it.

Here is the before:



And here is the in-between.






I say in-between because the mirrors are not hung and the cabinets are not painted. Temporarily, I think I am going to stain the cabinets black and put on some new hardware....in the long term we'd love to do something like this:



or this



But really, who can afford all these updates at once? Not us:) So, they are just dreams for now. Who dreams about sinks? Weird.

We are painting our room grey. Yes, I am in a grey rut. I don't know why - I just love grey. It is kind of modern and clean looking and I am painting everything I see that color. Oh well.

Ok, this blog is suddenly my decorating diary. Sorry about that! I just like to document home improvement stuff:) Makes me feel like we are making progress! Taking our house out of the 80s one ceiling fan at a time.

A few of my favorite things...

Well - its been way too long since Ive posted anything on here!

Unfortunately, not much is new to post by way of house decor. I like to post little projects josh and I are working on, but we havent done much - except update our super old 80s light fixture - which is actually a big deal to me.

We currently have a pile of ceiling fan parts in the corner of our living room that Josh plans on getting to soon. Yay to updating fixtures:)

This month I made the mistake of stepping into Anthropologie. OH MY. If I could buy up a whole store besides target - it would be anthropoligie. And I am not talking their clothes, although I do like their clothes. But mostly their stylish household items! Holy cow, I love everything about their decorating.

Just look....


Aprons: If I had 40 dollars to spend on an apron - I'd spend it here...so cute.



and tiles. If I knew how to tile things I would use these tiles and make a cool something with tiles.




and monogrammed mugs....now these are actually pretty affordable, $6. And SO cute. I swear if you put an L on anything I would buy it. Is that narcissistic? I just think the letter L is pretty and lukcily, is the first letter of my name.



And tea towells. I just like these. And they sure beat my boring blue "ross special" tea towells. But alas, tea towells from ross get a job done and so I am not complainng - just saying, that in high school these tea towells would be cheerleaders and ross tea towells would be in the marching band.



And a sweater clock. Oy vey. A cozy little clock. So cute. I know it's kinda weird, to add a clock to a sweater, but it's not as if the sweater is to be worn. Just hung on your wall. And its not like the clock has sleeves, just the material is sweater-y.Ok, I am going to stop defending the coolness of the sweater clock.






And on that random note - I am off to make dinner. It's pizza + biggest loser night for us! I know, kind of ironic - but the pizza is mildly healthy version from trader joe's so don't judge!

Frugal Girl!

I think I have just found my new favorite web site. Frugal Girl!

http://www.thefrugalgirl.com/

This web site is really cool - and the girl is a Christian who takes joy in living simply. I love that.

I constantly have to remind myself of the value of simple living. Especially when I drive because the only thing that prevents my car's windshield wipers from going all the time is an old subway napkin I had to stick in the steering wheel - ghetto fab people!

Anyways, I am getting more into saving money. Nerdy? Maybe. I even bought a coupon book. So far I have used one coupon and saved one dollar on lean pocket quesadillas that Josh didn't like....so I have got a ways to go until I can be as savvy as those moms who like feed their whole family for 40 bucks.

Frugal Girl also offers some how-to's.

I loved this one on how to paint wood furniture

If you want, you can read the article here, I can't get the hyperlinks to work!

http://www.thefrugalgirl.com/2009/03/how-to-paint-wooden-furniture/

There's something so cool about a piece of furniture that you can put your own style into by changing the handles or the paint color.

I swear, if I could, I would learn how to build cool furniture and be like that girl carpenter on Trading Spaces who could like build a whole entertainment center. But alas, I can barely put together a coffee table from IKEA.

Check out this awesome before and after she did...

ugly night stand thing before....



totally cute looks-like-you-got-it-at-pottery-barn-after...



Anyways, home ownership on a budget has brought me to some super fun blogs and I can't get enough of HGTV. I even have Josh drive thru the neighborhood slow at night so I can look in people's windows and see their decorating ideas....I am so creepy! I am like a peeping tom, except I just look at people's decorations and furniture. I draw the line at hiding in bushes though.

Anyways, just thought I'd share some inspriation (and some totally creepy factoids about myself.)

:)Lindsey

DIY Cabinet staining

Well, for the past few weeks Josh and I have been trying to bring our kitchen from the early 90s....to present day.

The walls started out very beige. And I mean beige, no color anywhere! Which I guess gave us a blank slate to work from, so I can't complain. The cabinets were just a classic oak color, not horrific by any means, but just boring. Like the new times roman of cabinetry.

We knew they had potential for greatness.

So we got to work.

We started by painting the walls a light brown color and then we added the chalkboard wall to the pantry.

Then, we decided it was time for some cabinet staining. We were excited because staining cabinets is super cheap and it makes a big difference. All we bought were a few paintbrushes and some stain. The handles is where it can get pricey - but even so, this whole project cost less than $75.

Now things aren't perfect, but it looks much better than before!

We're also in the process of deciding on a cute backsplash. I found this backsplash tile piece at home depot that looks like an old school ceiling panel, which I just think is so cute and we love the look of the silver. Hopefully we will finish the backsplash shortly, but for now I just have part it propped up on our super old, can't-wait-to-get-a-new-one stove:)

Here is the kitchen before:




Here it is after -

with stain and new handles

Before



After




Here's another view...



Here's a close-up of the handles and me clearly demonstrating the ease of opening them....



So, little by little things are coming together. I am obsessed with design blogs lately and hopefully we will make some more cute updates as the ideas come, but things take time and we are thankful for a house to work on.

Alright, this post is not one bit witty and I am sorry. But, I wanted to get these pics up:)

today's deep thought

Tonight I killed a cricket who tried to take cover next to my shoe rack. That's like a human trying to take cover in a pack of wolves. I mean really, if I was a cricket the safest place to be is the place that is furthest from a stockpile of shoes.

And that's all I have to blog about today. Sad, I know.