I Resolve To...

I think a problem I have with keeping a blog is I don't want it to be completely mundane.  I live a very average life, and I know I'm not going to gain a large audience constantly talking about how lazy I am, or how I need to clean our house.  Sure, I could tell stories about our weekends that can sometimes be hilarious, but I don't know that I want to be known for stories about drunken fights between a pink bunny and a penguin.

I think if I stuck with the themes that I originally laid out for this blog it wouldn't be all that bad.  Those themes might not be interesting to everyone, but are interesting to enough people. 

But I need to have this blog at the forefront of my mind when I'm doing things.  For example, Hubby and I went fishing about a month ago, and I took a lot of pictures trying to get comfortable with my camera.  But I haven't even gotten the pictures on my computer yet!  I also cook 3 times a week on average, but I haven't done any posts on cooking.  I have also read 4 books since The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo trilogy, but I haven't written about any of those.  And finally, last week I made a lamp shade for a costume party, and I didn't take a single picture to document it!  So that's examples of 4 of my topics, and yet it's been a month since I've posted anything on here!  This will have to be a New Year's Resolution for me...

Home for the Holidays!

Well, I’ve got to start cleaning up again!  My mom, step-dad, and brother are coming down here for Thanksgiving! 

This will be my first year hosting Thanksgiving.  When Hubby and I got serious enough while we were dating that we wanted to spend our holidays together, we made the decision that we would alternate holidays.  While we were dating we somehow managed to always still go back to my hometown and be with my family.  (I swear I didn’t pressure him in any way!)  Last year was our first year as a married couple and we had Thanksgiving at my parents’ house.  Then, Hubby and I hosted Christmas with his family (our house is big enough, and it’s neutral territory), and it was fun and turned out really well, but I missed my family. 

This year though, my family is coming down here, and his family is coming over, and we’ll all be together!  I’m super excited to be cooking for everyone, but I’m not looking forward to having to clean the house so my mom can stay over.

I will freely admit (and I believe I already have admitted this) that I am not the best housewife.  I'm lazy.  I'll clean my kitchen, because that's where I spend most of my time, but I hate ironing, vacuuming, scrubbing showers and toilets, sweeping, mopping, etc.  I would so much rather lay on the couch with Hubby and watch our shows.  (That attitude also says a lot to explain our expanding waist lines...)  BUT, I keep up with the housework as needed, I don't want us to live in filth.  Our house may not be as clean as some others, but I don't think our house is nasty, and as long as I'm keeping Hubby happy and people are still fine with coming over to our house, I'm comfortable with the state of our house.

My mother, on the other hand, thinks differently.  Her house stays clean, because she works at it, but I wouldn't say it's spotless, and neither would she.  But, I remember the first time she came over I had spent a week cleaning our house from top to bottom.  I was so proud of how clean the house was, and just knew she wouldn't be able to find anything wrong with it.  After they got there, we were cooking dinner together, and she points to the back of the stove, where the clock is, and says "You know, you should wipe this off every once in a while..." 

Recently my cousin has had some personal family problems.  My mom called her up to let her know she loves her and if she needs to she can always come stay at her house any time.  She goes on to say "You can also go down to Suzanne's house.  You can bring your dogs because she has a dog and two cats.  But of course her house is filthy!"  I don't know why my mom decides she has to call people up to tell them how dirty my house is. 

So, Hubby and I have some cleaning to do!  We both have tomorrow off from work, and we're going to make it a fun, relaxing day off together.  But, thrown in there, we're also going to take our slipcover from our couch to the dry cleaners, and we're meeting an exterminator at our house at 2:30.  (Last night we heard something scurrying around in our attic, and I've had the hibby jibbies ever since!)  Hubby says he just wants me to get all the cleaning done as quickly as possibly so I can actually enjoy the holiday and having everyone in our home.  And I plan to!

The Girl Who...

I just finished reading the trilogy by Stieg Larsson: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest.  They were amazing!  The first one, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, was pretty slow to get into, but once it picked up, it was extremely suspenseful!  The second one didn't start as slowly, so I had trouble putting it down right away.  Then the third one picked up right where the second one left off!  I hear that several other books were written or at least outlined before Larsson died, and his editors are finishing them off.

I cannot wait for the movies to come out.  I think the entire trilogy will be instantly successful.  Salander, the main character, is such an interesting and unique character that I can't wait to see how she transfers over onto the big screen.

Although, I'm usually disappointed when a book is made into a movie.  I refuse to see movie version of The Notebook -- I love the book too much!  It's mainly for 2 reasons: 1) Key events that happen in the book, don't happen in the movie.  For example, in Gone With The Wind, Scarlett had another child in the book that wasn't even thought of in the movie!  I understand that if every detail was captured, the movies would probably be twice as long, but still.  2) I always have characters and scenes pictured in my head while I'm reading, and then seeing whoever is cast for a part is disappointing when they don't look like I would picture.  For example, in The Divinci Code, I would've never cast Tom Hanks as the lead!  He's nothing like I pictured!  Oh well, I'll have to wait and see how this series will turn out.

Finally, the Cushion Update!

When I think of how I would like the rooms of our house decorated, I picture classic, comfortable, and a little country look.  In reality though, I'm drawn to bright primary colors.  For example, our dishes are Fiesta in Scarlet, Sunflower, Shamrock, and Cobalt.  So then, naturally when I decided to make a new cushion for our glider, I went with brighter colors again.  Here's how the whole process went...

First, I bought 3 foam egg crates and folded them in half. 

My mom came up with a brilliant idea for a cheaper choice of fabric.  Beach towels!  I bought 3 beach towels and sewed them end to end.  Then I sewed each side.

As I mentioned in my first post, I've had very little experience with a sewing machine...

Hence, the bent needle.

So, I had to break out the manual to learn how to replace the needle.

Luckily, Nanny had some in her bag of supplies that came with the sewing machine.

So I get the needle replaced and I'm sewing along, when something goes horribly wrong.  I realize that I have somehow managed to sew the towels to the sewing machine!  I don't even understand how that's possible.  But apparently, if anyone can do it, I can.

I cut the towel off the machine, and take the whole thing apart.  Somehow, the tread wound around the bobbin casing.

How am I supposed to fix this disaster?  Back to the book...



Finally, I get everything re-assembled, and it's smooth sailing from here.

What the...

OK, this is really trying my patience, but I get everything untangled, and finally, finally, finally, get everything sewn.

Ta-Da!!

It looks like it should fit just fine, but when I started putting it on...

it was a little tight. 

Luckily, Julio was always nearby to help, or hinder...

Finally, after much struggling and accidentally punching myself in the arm, I managed to get the cover on!

All I had left was to sew up the fourth side by hand.

I searched everywhere for bright red pillows.  During my search, I realized it was the wrong time of year to be looking for bright red anything.  When I was about to give up, I found the clearance aisle in Wal-Mart and UGA 24" pillows on clearance for $7.50 a piece!  The Georgia G logo was only on one side, so I bought 5 of them, brought them home, and this is how the whole thing turned out!

Pretty cute, huh?  I am exceedingly proud and impressed with myself!

Checking In

I'll be posting an update on the progress of the cushion later, but I just wanted to check in.

Anyone who knows me well knows how phenominally lazy I am, so they wouldn't be surprised to find out that a week has passed by and our porch is not clean yet.

However, I have gotten a lot done with the cushion, which was my first goal.  Then I decided it was pointless to throughly clean the porch or the house because it would just get dirty again.  Same thing with the yard.  Then this past weekend we went to Pirate Fest, and we were in no condition to do anything on Sunday. 

Tonight I have to make 100 oreo truffles for hubby's co-worker, who is getting married this weekend.  Wish me luck!!

Our Redneck Porch Makeover - Part 1

We are throwing a "Tailgating Diaper Baby Shower" for our friends in a little over 2 weeks.  I realize that "Tailgating Diaper Baby Shower" sounds pretty redneck in and of itself, however I do not want our back porch to look as redneck as it currently does. 

Therefore, I am making our back porch my project for this week.  Hubby left again today, so I'll have a little bit of extra time. 

The following are a few embarrassing photos of the current state of our redneck porch.  Don't judge me...



The view from one side of the porch.

The view from the other side of the porch.  Notice the redneck beer selection of choice.

 

You can't notice the spider webs that much in this photo, but they are bad!
The flower pot holds my failed attempt at growing herbs.

Our catch-all corner.

Everything is sitting on an old church pew here.  Also notice the old dryer that we need to sell or get rid of!

 

This kegerator came with the house, and was actually a major selling point.
(It hasn't been used in 10 months...)



This glider belonged to my grandmother.



My first step in this project is a cushion for the glider. I actually started it a little while ago, so it shouldn't take too long to finish!

My Weekend Was...

Complete the sentence with one of the following options:

Happy.  Fun.  Unproductive.  Boring.  Relaxing.  A Reunion.  All of the above.

My hubby has been traveling for work.  A lot.  In the past month he's been to London and Bristol in the UK, Toronto, and Las Vegas.  He got home Saturday evening from Vegas, and has to leave again tomorrow for Kentucky. 

I thought that I would be fine with his traveling.  I mean, I used to be a pretty independant girl!  But I seriously just miss him constantly when he's gone!  I told my friend Sarah the day after Hubby left for London that all I wanted to do was crawl under the covers and wait for him to get home. 

I'm not sure when I got like this.  I'm not sure if I've just grown so dependant on him, or if I've somehow developed some sort of social anxiety disorder.  I hate calling people to see what they're doing because I'm afraid it'll sound like I'm inviting myself along to do stuff.  When Hubby is home, I usually just wait to see what he comes up with to do, and then go along with it.  It always works fine for me, but when he's gone for 2 1/2 weeks, it doesn't work out.

Anyways, he came home on Saturday and we went to a few bars to watch football and to see some friends.  Sundays I usually try to get some things done around the house ("try" being the key word) but this Sunday since Hubby was exhausted, and I was pretty tired from the night before, we tried to catch up on our recordings on our DVR.  We did a pretty good job of it too!

In The Beginning

Since I'm planning on this blog to be about Life As I Know It, I'm going to write about Life As I Know It.  (Clever, huh?)  I have one or two hobbies that I enjoy, but I would also like to explore and get better at several others.  This blog will help.  I've divided the hobbies into several categories.

The categories are...
Cooking
Photography
Household Projects
Sewing
Life List
Books I Love

Cooking:  I LOVE to cook.  I'll admit, most of my cooking is comfort food, and definitely won't win any awards for being healthy or low fat (as my hubby's and my waist lines can verify), but I love the act of creating our meals, and my hubby loves eating them!

Photography:  A few weeks ago my hubby gave me the best birthday gift I could imagine - a Nikon D5000.  The past year or so I've had a growing facination with photography, but never imagined owning a digital SLR myself.  I have a LOT to learn about my camera, and photography techniques, but I'll document it all as I go.

Household Projects:  We've been in our house for about a year and a half now, and I'm embarrassed to say how little we've done with it.  I have an extensive list of projects, both large and small, that I would love for us to accomplish at the house.  Any tips or suggestions are welcome, and I'll share all kinds of before and after photos.

Sewing:  This category ties in with Household Projects, but I'll give it it's own category.  I've got my grandmother's sewing machine, and I have little to no experience using it, but I think sewing things myself could be a cheaper option than purchasing certain things.

Life List:  I borrowed this idea from Mighty Girl.  Soon I'll have a list put together of all the things that I would love to do before I leave this earth.   And I'm excited about crossing those items off!

Books I Love:  Growing up I was always the girl with the most stars on the reading chart.  I still love books.  I may not read the books that win literary awards, though.  I mainly just love a good story, and a chance to be entertained.  I belong to a defunct book club, so if we have any more meetings, I'll write about those books, but I mainly just read on my own now.

I hope you enjoy my life as much as I do!