Monday Monday

My hubby's had a rough weekend. First, news on Friday that the base is losing 6 planes. At this point we're unsure of what will happen personnel-wise, but it's very troubling. I'm trying to stay positive, because I know that we can handle anything that is thrown at us AND there's no sense worrying about something that may or may not happen. And I do feel that the two of us can do anything that we put our minds to. Still, you can't help but worry. Side note: I NEVER paid any attention to defense cuts before. Never. Just something that was talked about on the news, in my opinion. Boy, have things changed! Then today, Tom's mom refused to go to the Senior Center for the day. See, we've arranged for her to start going a couple of days a week. They have lunch, crafts, exercise, all kinds of fun things. Plus her BFF goes every day. Tom took her there to look around and she was ALL for it. So today, Tom went to her place early to help get her ready and she refused to go. Flat out refused. We're so sad about that, because we think she'd really like it once she got there. Needless to say, my man needed some cheering up today. So we went to Bob Evans for lunch, which is his VERY favorite eating establishment. In. The. World. And then we spent some time with my parents, because Curtie always makes Tom happy. And I got to see Frankie. Which was a good thing, because I miss that sweet puppy.

And then he helped me fix up a batch of the goodies pictured at the top of the post. I'm sending them to work on Wednesday, because I certainly don't need them hanging around the house! I used Hershey's Kisses and cherry M&Ms for some and Rolos and walnuts for the others. I happened to sample a few that "fell" off of the tray and BOY ARE THEY YUMMY! By the way, M&Ms are on sale at Target this week! Plus, the V-Day bags had a "buy two, get one free" coupon on them. In other news, I've been using e-mealz to help me meal plan. My BFF uses e-mealz and loves it, so when she told me about a groupon, I signed up for a year. It's fabulous! Makes meal planning soooo easy. Here's the menu for the week:

Due to some plans with family, we're only cooking 5 meals at home this week. So Tom got steak for dinner tonight, which made him very happy. Tomorow, I'll share some more Valentine's Day crafts! Have a good week, my friends!

Thrifty Thursday

I meant to post this yesterday, but was a little busy chasing a puppy around the house. Yikes! They require sooo much attention! Yesterday was a great day. I discovered thrift shops. Honestly, I've never been a big fan of them. Never been to one, and never thought I'd like them. (Used stuff? Yuk! No thanks!) But, during breakfast with my friend, Shannon, I convinced her to take me. We had time to swing by one and guess what??? I LOVED IT! I scored a great punch bowl set (with 12 super cute little glasses). Shannon and I are on a 2-woman quest to bring the punch bowl back into style. I'll post a picture of it when I get it all cleaned up. I'm thinking the next bookclub that I host needs punch. I also picked up this rug for a couple of bucks:

It reminds me of my grandma, and I needed a rug at the back door. Doesn't really go with the decor in that room, but it's cute. And I also got this mail sorter for the office. It had a few marks on the front of it, but I liked it because 1) it kinda goes with the shabby chic feel I like and 2) I love me some organizing tools!

But I didn't like the pen marks, and I wanted to jazz it up a little, so I did this:

I had some of this map scrapbook paper, which I thought coordinated with my (very small) globe collection. I am not thrilled with the result, but I showed Tom 2 other options (both floral), and he thought I should stick with the map paper. And, since it's his house too, I kept it. Shannon got some really cool things as well. She picked up a cheese plate and dome and a doily. She loves doilies. I would have purchased the cheese dome, but I have several and really just couldn't justify it. Even if it was practically a steal! So I'm all for thriftin' now! We're going again next week. Can't wait!

Chocolate Sparkle

Chocolate Sparkle. That's the color of the newly painted walls in my bathroom. By Behr. Because my mom says that Behr makes the best paint. Speaking of my parents, have I mentioned how much they rock??? They came over this morning to paint with us. We were done in no time at all, thanks to them! But back to the paint color.... I'm not really a dark paint kinda gal, and typically stick with muted tones. And I was going to do the master bath in a robin's egg blue. But then we got all of these gorgeous towels as shower and wedding gifts.

Like these cream beauties.

And this one, which is the most gorgeous shade of light steel blue. I think it was Tom's idea to go with dark brown. Or maybe not. But I liked the idea and marched right over to Home Depot for some paint. Lily & Emma helped me pick it out. So glad that Tom was happy with the color, because I did not want to pick out a new one. (It takes me a LONG time to finalize a paint color, folks.) I'm really happy with the result. With the light floor, cream sink & tile and the white trim, it's not too dark at all! I can't WAIT until tonight when I can light some candles and take a bubble bath in my "new" bathroom!

Latest Addiction

I am in love. I think about it morning and night. I toss and turn at night, my mind a flutter with ideas. Yep, that's right. I've (somewhat) recently discovered Pinterest. It's an online site that lets you bookmark or "pin" things you like. You create boards to help you catagorize your interests. And it's really, really cool. There are a million ideas from people way craftier than I am, so I am thrilled when they post cute and simple crafts. Because I love to steal their ideas. I wish I knew about this when I was wedding planning last year! Today I busted out this cute banner that a blogger that I really like had posted (simple as that blog):

I hung the banner on the mirror that sits on the mantel and added these pimped out LOVE letters:

I covered cardboard letters from JoAnn's with V-Day themed scrapbook papers. It was a super inexpensive project and pretty easy. I was inspired, of course, by another crafter who posted something very similar. I'm thinking that I could even do HO HO HO for Christmas. Wouldn't that be adorable?

Pretty cute mantel, don't you think? I think it still needs a little something.... Maybe a dash of red (felt flower or heart, maybe?) on the grapevine wreath.

I also saw a frame similar to this one on Pinterest. I made it when the girls were visiting, intending to save it for Valentine's Day. But my hubby had a rough day yesterday, so I decided to put it on his bedside table as a surprise. He loved it. You simply use a dry erase marker to change out your reasons. If you haven't been introduced to Pinterest, do yourself a favor and check it out. You won't be disappointed!

Road Trip

11 Great Things About 2011

I love the end of the year. I love all of the year-in-reviews on tv and in People magazine. I love the "Top 100 songs of the decade" countdowns on the radio. I love new calendars. (Aren't new calendars great? I spend a lot of time reviewing my planner and calendar options, trying to find just the perfect calendar. I know some of you know what I'm talking about!) I love making resolutions and shopping for work out clothes. Notice I said I love shopping for work out clothes, not working out. But before I make my resolutions for 2012, here's are 11 fabulous things about 2011:

1) I got married! On October 8th, I truly had the wedding of my dreams. We had so much fun. Even though I have type-A tendencies, I am proud to say that I kept my bridezilla-ness to a minimum. I loved, loved, loved the planning process. If I could be a wedding planner professionally, I would.

2) Honeymoon in New Orleans! Tom & I wanted to go someplace we hadn't been before, and New Orleans fit the bill. We visited the WWII Museum (amazing), took a walking tour of The Garden District (loved the cemetaries) and we drank hurricanes. Oh yeah, we also ate. A lot. We ate some of the best food I've ever had in my life. Gumbo. Beignets. Muffattas. Fresh oysters. Yum.

3) My sister got married! On November 5th, Amanda and Marc were married in Cincinnati. Gorgeous ceremony. My sister is ridiculously beautiful, so you can imagine what a beautiful bride she made.

4) I have a new brother and sister! In September, my mom & dad added Frankie & Lola to their family. Clearly my mom didn't think she had enough to do with 2 fall weddings! Curt & Cheryl have been dog-less since Lucy died last year, and they were really missing some canine companionship. Boston terrier puppies might be just about the cutest puppies in existence. But man are they rambunctious!

5) I had 2 of the best wedding showers ever! In August, my mom's friends hosted a joint shower for me and Amanda. It was so nice and so generous of them to do this for us and we loved every minute of it. Later in the month, my sis and a long-time family friend (ok - my old babysitter, but she's really kind of like a big sister) threw a shower for me. The colors were yellow and grey and it was wonderful! Friends came from West Virginia, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and North Carolina. It was so nice and I felt so loved.

6) My BFF visited! This gets it's own notation because Lori NEVER gets to go anywhere without her kids. She flew in for my shower in August and we had all kinds of crazy girl time. We stayed up late watching Sister Wives and drinking wine coolers. Fabulous.

7) I went to North Carolina! Vacations were limited this year because I was saving up my time for the wedding and wedding-related events. But I did get the opportunity to travel to the Tar heel State twice. Tom & I went in January so he could meet the Potter family. (Talk about baptism by fire! But Tom did great - was a little overwhelmed at first, though.) My mom and I went down in July so she could work on the flower girl dresses.

8) I said bye-bye to retail! I quit Toys R Us in November and haven't looked back. I haven't been able to really, truly relax during Christmas for 20 years. This holiday season was amazing. I baked cookies. I actually enjoyed shopping and decorating the house. I got lots of reading done and relaxed a lot. It has been amazing.

9) I love my book club! I really have connected to my book club friends. They're awesome and I love that our book club keeps growing. Being in a book club gives you the chance to read books that you normally wouldn't read, and we read some great books in 2011.

10) I made some great friends! Thanks to my new husband, I met some wonderful people. Some are Tom's co-workers and some are people that Tom grew up with. (Tom, by the way, has a ton of friends that he's had since he was a kid. How many of us can say that?) And every single person that I've met has just been so wonderfully nice and accepting of me. I'm truly grateful for that. I also had the chance to (finally!) meet some of my sister's closest friends. You know, those people that you feel like you already know because they've been a part of your sister's (or whoever) life for practically forever.

11) I got married! Okay - there are bunch of other things that I could list as #11. My parents are both healthy and happy, despite throwing weddings for 2 daughters. Within 30 days of each other. Mollie continues to be the smartest kitty in the world. Despite some crazy health stuff this year, everyone in my family is healthy. I made paella for the first time. We started a bunch of new family traditions (pancakes on Fat Tuesday, anyone?). But the very, very best thing about 2011 is I happened to find Tom and somehow convince him to marry me. And, gosh darn it, it took me long enough! To quote my cousin Cara Lee when she met Tom, "Well, it's about darn time"! Despite being a "bride of a certain age" (coined by MOB Cheryl), I felt like a total princess on October 8th. And that, my friends, is why I'm listing this twice.

Christmas 2011

You may notice that a very important member of my family is missing from the picture. Mollie - aka Mo - was cowering under a chair upstairs and refused to come down for the family picture. Flat out refused. Boy was he ticked at me for letting all those doggies into the house. Wynne (he's the big dog) is afraid of Mollie. Mollie is afraid of Wynne. Frankie and Lola are .... well .... these puppies aren't afraid of anything. It all started during dinner. Amanda put Wynne in a bedroom upstairs to keep away from the cheese course. Wynne just didn't understand why he was being singled out (the puppies got to go free!), and whined the entire time. When he was released from the bedroom, he happened to walk past Mollie, and barked out him. It wasn't Mollie's fault, he was just the unlucky animal that happened to be closest. Mollie hissed. Wynne barked again. Mollie hissed and meowed and lunged. It sounded MUCH worse then it actually was. But it was enough to make Mo pout all night under the chair. Surprisingly, he tolerates the puppies, which surprises me. IMHO, Frankie & Lola are SO MUCH more annoying than Wynne. (Sorry Cheryl, it's true.) But they are cute, which helps.

Considering all this, we are lucky that we were able to round up 3 of the 4 animals for our annual Christmas picture. I don't know how we're going to do this if and when kiddos are added to mix!