An Exchange with the Husband

I try not to be the type of girl who plays mind games with her husband. The one who comes home and asks if he notices anything different about her, and then gets all hurt he didn't notice her new pedicure or subtle, 1/2" hair trim. I try not to be, but I'll admit I do it a little bit. My hopes are never high, and I never get upset if he doesn't notice what I want him to. But I have to say it's amusing for me to see what he notices sometimes.

Take the linen closet- I added the linen closet to my declutter/donate/organize list and attacked it Sunday while H was taking down the Christmas lights outside. I went through the whole closet and I was able to put two whole sheet sets, a comforter, and 8 full size towels (in perfectly good condition, mind you- I don't know what I was thinking with the colors I chose for my first apartment. Nothing matched, I picked one of every obnoxiously bright color towel I could find), which is about 1/3 of what was in the closet. I refolded and organized everything too, so it looked even emptier. As I was sitting back admiring all the extra space, H comes in. And the following exchange takes place...

Me: "Honey, do you notice anything different about the linen closet?"

H: "Yeah!"

H sounds enthusiastic, like he knows he's right and I'm going to be impressed with his response. My heart skips a beat (it doesn't take much), thinking he's going to compliment my fabulous organization skills.

H: "It's filled with linens!"

Me: "No... no, not quite"

Sigh, oh well.

Christmas Eve (only a little late)

I just realized I never posted any pictures of our Christmas tree this year. I took a few, and meant to, but just never got around to it. And as I sit here and think about how I already miss the holiday season, it seems like a perfect time to!

We had an amazing holiday. We had Christmas Eve all to ourselves, which was absolutely wonderful. I compromised and made a 4 Fish feast: linguine with red clam sauce, shrimp and scallop scampi, and Parmesan tilapia. Everything was delicious, and we even cracked (popped) open a bottle of champagne we received as a wedding gift. Afterward we cuddled on the couch and watched Love Actually (love that movie!), and H only asked how long it was once. We then opened our presents and called it an early night. It was a wonderful first married Christmas together.


Sorry for the crappy image quality- we had "romantic" lighting that night.

Irish Car Bomb CUPCAKES??

I'm not an Irish car bomb type of girl. Really. Not even in college. Something about chugging a glass of curdling concoction... just doesn't do it for me. The ingredients however? Now that's a different story!

So when I saw these cupcakes on EastVillageKitchen, I was excited to say the least. Those beauties are Guinness chocolate cupcakes with a Jameson chocolate ganache filling, and a Bailey's buttercream frosting. WOW. My first thought was "what a great St. Patrick's Day treat!" but I don't think I can wait until then...

(images from EastVillageKitchen, recipe here.)

I told you this post would be a bit more exciting ;) I think I'll be baking these this week...

My Fresh New Start

As promised, (thrilling, I know) I'm checking in to report the results of my "Five Days to a Fresh Start" challenge. I took a bit more than 5 days, and I didn't get everything done, but I put a large dent in it and I'm really proud of my progress. It feels really good to have everything a little neater and more organized. Let's hope we can keep things this way for a while!

Declutter

• my closet- done

• office- mostly done

• night stands/dressers- done

• linen closet- done
(what, that wasn't on the list before?!? Well I added it to the list, and it's done!)


Donate/Recycle

• clothes from closet- mostly done
(not donated yet, but they're in piles and ready to go)

• old office desk- done
(we listed it on craigslist- for free- weeks ago, and each interested seller fell through. Finally someone picked it up!)

• stuff from office- mostly done
(we had a lot of working, but old electronics that we are able to donate, and the non-working ones we recycled. I still have to go through the books and CDs to see what we can donate.)

• old dishes/glasses- mostly done
(In piles, ready to go. I just have to check to see if my brother wants any for his apartment before they go to goodwill.)


Organize

• my closet- done
(feels so good to be able to walk through it. It used to be a total waste of a perfectly good walk-in closet)

• kitchen cabinets- mostly done


Store/File

• As organized as I am, H is usually the one who takes care of filing bills, tax info, medical stuff, etc. I have a tendency to "clean" too often and throw away things we need, so important papers are safer in his hands. I'll see if I can interest him in filing away some mail, pay stubs, and papers. However, this is something I try to do on a daily basis so I'm not sure how it will turn out...- done!!!
(I am so thrilled, he cleaned out the filing cabinet! He got rid of so much that we didn't need, it feels 50 lbs lighter. I love him so much!)

• holiday decorations- done
(I was able to sort out everything from the old "wedding" bin and store our Christmas decorations there.


Clean
This constantly needs to be done throughout the whole house, but I guess that's a bit ambitious... but what really needs a good, thorough scrubbing is:

• the upstairs bathroom- done

• laundry area- done

• downstairs bathroom- not so much... maybe this week

I promise my next post will be a little more interesting!

Some Modern Bedrooms

As you can see in this post here, our master bedroom was, and still is "minimalist" if you can even call it that. Granted, we've put up some curtains, but there is really no decor whatsoever. And I have to admit the stark-ness is beginning to wear on me a bit.

So I searched for a bit of inspiration...

Love the color! And the hand statue that I think is being used as a jewelry holder.
(image from metropolitan homes)

Love the wall color, and bright colors of the bedding. Also love the arrangement above the bed.
(image from homeinteriorzone.com)

Love the palate, and how it manages to feel cozy and modern at the same time.

(image from decorpad.com)

Love the peaceful feeling and the arrangement above the bed.

(image from arabeyemag.com)

Love the red, and the painting over the bed. And the view :P

(image from sheknows.com)

It's Been a Busy Decade...

I've heard so many people say "I can't believe it's 2010 already!!" Well, I can't believe it either...kinda. I can certainly believe it's a new year; they fly by fast enough now that's it's not exactly a big deal. A whole new decade though... I'm having a bit of trouble wrapping my head around that one. I was 15 when the last one started and I cannot believe how much has changed and everything I've gone through in the past 10 years.

I went to prom / got my drivers' license / graduated high school / had my first real, "grown-up" boyfriend / started college / lived in and explored a city of 1.5 million on my own / traveled to Europe / lived through being completely and totally broke / got over the "just a friend" stigma to start dating the most perfect man in the world / fell in love / went to Vegas (haha, not what it sounds like there) / graduated college / traveled to Hawaii / created a portfolio of work I put my blood, sweat, and tears into throughout college (literally, I've cut my fingers with xacto blades more times than I can count) / saw my little sister start high school / watched my brother go away to college / landed my first full-time, real-world, adult job / rented my first apartment on my own / helped one of my best friends look for apartments in NYC / got engaged / got laid off / used professional connections and a revamped portfolio to score a new job / became a home-owner / was a bridesmaid for one of my best friends / became someone's wife / had a kick-ass wedding celebration with all of our friends and family / had someone I truly loved pass away / celebrated our first holiday season as our own family...

I've met so many incredibly people and learned a lot about myself and those around me. I've become so much more confident and sure of myself. I am so grateful I gave a "friend" a chance and ended up marrying the most perfect person for me. I've developed a whole new love and appreciation for family, I've become closer to my siblings, and I am so proud of the amazing adults they've become.

I can't even begin to imagine what the next decade brings. But whatever it is, I'm ready for it!

One Very Handy Kitchen Shelf

You know how when you move into a new place, and you look around at all of the empty rooms and closets and cabinets and think, "what am I even going to do with all this storage space!?!" And then you get all your pots and pans/ furniture/clothes/what-have-you in there and all suddenly all this space all but disappears.

Well, it's happened to me. Multiple times. Perhaps I need to become a better judge of space, but what's done is done. And that being said, I really do like our kitchen; the problem is a lack of a pantry. My parent's house growing up and even my old apartment both had pantries so I've become used to the huge amount of extra storage space they provide. Without one, our food has begun to take over the space for our pots, pans, dishes, glasses, and gadgets. We decided to do something about the pots and pans, because they were the biggest headache to store and would give us the most room by moving somewhere else.

I decided my ideal solution would be to put a stainless steel grated shelf on the empty wall above the "coffee corner" and hang the pots and pans from S hooks all sexy commercial kitchen style.

So we took a trip to Lowe's and looked at kitchen shelving- it was pricey and smaller than I preferred. So then we looked at garage shelving, and found some that was the perfect size and only $50 for 2 shelves. That was about a quarter of the average price of the kitchen shelving! And eventually we'll put the other one in the garage, so it won't be a waste to have two. I debated it for a while, wondering if it looked too industrial. But I decided the most industrial-looking part of it was the slightly textured black/silver finish, and that could easily be taken care of with a couple coats of spray paint come spring.

(we obviously need to shorten the light fixture that is just resting on top of it now)

Another problem our kitchen had was my height. That's right- all 5'2 of me. Each kitchen cabinet had 3 shelves, which would have been great- had I been able to reach them all. The top one was just out of my reach, and I've strained my neck and shoulders countless times trying to reach something up there. Enough is enough. So I had H take out the top divider and move the bottom one slightly up to create 2 larger shelves instead of 3 smaller ones. Now I'm able to stack boxes and cans and tall bottles on the top shelf and still reach them by grabbing the bottom one.

(this one is the corner cabinet, so much room now!)

Nice! We've tackled two top cabinets so far. I'm not sure if we'll do the other two, since they do provide some extra storage for things we don't use as often.