Tuesday, May 10, 2011

This what happens when I read other peoples blogs...

I think I am cool and artsy.

This past weekend Mr.A had to work. So left alone to my own vices I decided to start on a new gallery wall for our living room. I was so inspired by Young House Love's gallery wall that I thought I would give it a try and see what kind of mess I could make.

A little background history for you. I bought a bunch of gold picture frames for our wedding that we used on the guest book table. I loved them for the wedding but I hated them for our house. I intended on selling them but after that failed I put them away in the closet and did not think about them for 6 months. After falling in love with what John and Sherry did I decided I needed to try it out. I had done a very basic gallery wall in the apartment when we first moved in. I used mismatched frames and just made it work. It actually came out pretty good considering I did not measure anything and I had no plan when I started it. But I never really loved it and I always wanted to try something new.

The ugly gold frame example. Just one of sooo many!
After I started to pull down the gallery wall I used to have. But you can see the space.
So this weekend I devised a plan. I would go through all of my frames and organize them. Then I would spray paint them to match! I. am. a. genius. So after I laid out all of my ugly gold frames and thought this is going to suck. So I ran to Home Depot and picked up some primer, masking tape and Kaki colored matte spray paint. I hit my first snag when I realized that the back of some of these frames did not come off. Meaning that I could not spray paint these frames very easily without them looking cheap. So I left the glass in the frames and taped them up as you can see here:
I found a use for all those copies of Time we have laying around. Read them you say? Never.
I then went to town on my frames out on my balcony, after the guy at Home Depot told me to wait because it was to humid out and too hot. NONSENSE I said. I have special powers. And I began. Turns out he was right. It took much longer for the paint to dry than the ten minutes it said it would on the can and I also sweat a lot more sitting in the sun while spray painting.

Looking good so far, I think!
Oh so many frames... At this point I want to die from heat exhaustion.

Up next, I will show you how I am going to lay out all my frames and plan the space. Let me give you a hint, I needed more frames... and I am still not done with spray paint.



Once again, no, I am not a stalker...

I just really really want to be like Kate Middleton.

I bought these shoes yesterday. Do you think Kate and Wills would want to go sailing with me!?!

Monday, May 9, 2011

I know I am late to the "Party", get off my back.

In my last post I said I was going to post about the royal wedding. I really had planned a huge post about the food I cooked and the drinks we drank and my friend's colorful opinions of all of the hats. But I just never got there. Last week seemed to fly by and then this weekend was like, POOF! So I will give the abbreviated version for you all.

Let me start by saying as a little girl I honestly dreamt of marrying William. I really had this whole idea that because I was part English I could totally marry him. His birthday is the day after mine, but he is just a year older than me. I would look to see what schools he was going to so I could apply to them. I totally looked into St. Andrews and totally would have gone if I could have. Then history would have been different. Kate for sure stole my idea. That B. But now I am in love with Kate too. So I have gotten over my rage of not landing the prince and decided to celebrate their marriage.

By now you have seen THE DRESS. All I can say is WOW. She looked amazing. Every part of the look was spot on. I am so glad I did not get married after her because I would have totally tried to copy her veil, dress and whole lookand it would have totally cost me a lot of money.

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 Then there were all the cute moments, that really brought the wedding down to a level that we could all relate too. I loved that they were not robots, that you could tell how much they were in love. I loved that Harry took a peak at her before his brother. How cute was it that William joked with her dad at the alter? All of it made you realize this was not just a royal wedding, but a wedding of two people really in love.

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I loved the kiss, and I totally love again how real the moment was. Kate even said "Oh WOW!" as she walked out on the balcony. I thought it was so sweet to see both sets of parents taking in the moment off to the side. Charles even seems like a warm person, holding up Camilla's grandchild so he could see. Just so sweet.

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 Most of all I thought it was so cool of them that they drove off in a car together, just like normal newlyweds! Never mind that it was a rare Ashton Martin that is worth more than most houses, and they were driving from one palace to another palace... it was still so cute!

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I will finish with my normal craziness. I am totally convinced that if Mr.A and I moved to Anglesey and we ran into Wills and Kate at the market we could totally be friends. I imagine Kate inviting me over for a glass of wine and a chat. We would totally hang out. I know it. In the mean time I will continue to obsess about everything that Kate wears and grow my hair out just like her. She would not find that weird at all when she met me at the market, would she?

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

The weekend that never was...

This weekend recap is going to a huge rant about why it sucked, sorry. Reviewing all the BS that happened will make you want to slit your wrists, sorry again. It is now Wednesday, deal with it. So here goes.

Friday we had our normal movie night, except when giving my dog belly scratches I realized that he had two ticks. Fast forward to us calling the doggy hospital and running to Pets mart  to buy flea wash and meds. (I was already taking him to vet the next morning but we felt we should not wait) Then Mr. A washing the dog in flea and tick bath as I try to make french macaroons for brunch the next morning. Over beating the macaroons while helping the hubs get the meds on the dog and then realizing the tea sandwiches are not quick to make. Annoyed, I then am up till about 1130 making sandwiches. Go to bed, then hear a helicopter floying around my house, I look outside there are about 10 cop cars parked across the street and three helicopters circling. I try to wake Mr.A, he tells me to hush and snuggle, says its nothing. I am scared to death that some man hunt is going on outside. So I read my book, "Huger Games" (awesome book by the way), and try to fall asleep. As soon as I dose off, Mr. A wakes up and announces he cant sleep and that I woke him up. He goes to living room, I dose some more. I am woken up by him whipping open the door and telling me to lock the bedroom door an stay in the room with our dog. I panic and do the only rational thing you can do, open the door and go find him.

I find him in the man cave putting together our gun, (why we have a gun is a whole other story) that I make him have in 6 pieces. He then says someone is trying to break in to the apartment downstairs, I freak out. We sit in silence in our living room, waiting. Now both of us are terrified thinking that the man hunt going on across the street that just ended has begun again at our front door. Well about 30 mins go by and nothing. We calm down but not enough to go to bed so now we decide to watch the classic movie, Fast and Furious because you know, that is what you do at 230 am when terrified. So we do and then we fall asleep around 330am.

Saturday morning at 7, we take the dog to the vet for them to get the ticks off of him, turns out my dog just need to exfoliate more. He has a freaking BLACKHEAD on his pee pee and that is what we were worried about. UGH. So after $150 bucks at the vet and $80 on his tick meds and wash we are not happy. We head home, I start hosting my friends at the house to watch the Royal Wedding.

I totally want to write whole other post about the wedding because it was AMAZE-BALLS. I will do that tomorrow. The girls were great, everything looked perfect. We start having fun. That's when it hits me, I am going to throw up! I sit down before I pass out and my friend Whitney helps me by making me a mimosa, because that cures everything. I feel better and I ignore the dizziness. Nothing can stop me from day drinking and wedding history!

Meanwhile my dog starts to poop everywhere in the living room. Runny gross stuff. It was not adding to my ladies brunch I was hosting. SOOO I get that cleaned up while wanting to toss my tea sandwich all over the place. Whitney, again helps me by making my dog some rice to help with the runny poo. Dog poops 4 more times in the house throughout the day, leaving them spread out all over the house like special gifts for me to find. I am not happy.

Hubs gets home, I am still sick, he eats leftovers and we pass out.

Next AM, our dog shits again everywhere we take him to the animal hospital. THREE HOURS later we get out of there, $100 bucks lighter. He needs YOGURT!!!! The dog prescribed yogurt and relaxation apparently he was stressed. REALLY!?!

SO now that my dog is ZEN I worry I am totally prggers, I have convinced myself of this while waiting at the pet hospital. I then rush to Walgreen's and buy 4 tests. I pass all of them!!! WHOOO WHOOO no ginger baby around these parts yet! So the hubs and I celebrate with mangia pizza and too much wine. All the while not figuring out why I am dizzy and sick. Ehh we will worry about that later.

SOO how was your weekend? Better than mine?

Thursday, April 28, 2011

I am totally obsessed

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With the Royal wedding just a few hours away I am finally going to come out and say it. I am totally obsessed! My job is mainly about serious stuff and I just never get to have "fun". Its the path I have chosen and for the most part I really love what I do. BUT that being said I am totally in need of some girly fun stuff, and I am obsessing over the royal wedding. I find myself trying to read every article I can about Kate and dreaming of what she must be feeling like. SO much fun!!! As a recent bride I want to know if even on the scale of her wedding if she is just super excited to see William on the big day. I wonder if he knows what her dress is going to look like. I wonder if she has had that last single girl kiss. Ahhh I just love it all!

Also, I am kind of tired of people judging her for being too skinny and saying she is not a good roll model. First of all if I were getting married in front of a billion people I would be a freaking skeleton. I would be so effing skinny for fear that some photographer would somehow get a picture of cellulite (not that she has much to begin with). But gosh damn give the girl a break! Every bride is too skinny. She is just under about a billion times more pressure!

Last ranting point, I am SOOOOO over people being too cool for the wedding and being all, "I don't care", whatever you people. Lighten up. It is all in good fun and what little girl my age has not dreamed of marring Prince William? I remember thinking because I was half English I had a better shot. I even remember looking into what college he was going to go to so I too could go there and meet him. Guess Kate had the same plan! But whatever, lighten up people. I love love!

Plus I just DYING to see her dress!!!! Congrats to the happy couple!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Skinny is My New Fat

About 2 years ago I stared my WW's journey with my good friend Kelly. I weighed about 165 pounds and was a size 10. I never thought of myself as FAT per se, but I knew I was not as skinny as I was when I moved to Austin. On weight watchers over the course of a year I lost a total of 30 pounds. I am now a size 4 or 6 depending on the store. I feel so much better and I am so proud that I have been able to keep the weight off for another year. On top of that with my injury I was not able to keep up my workouts and I still only ever gained about 5 pounds back.

For my wedding I of course stepped up the weight loss and working out. I will be the first to admit I was a little too stressed out and I lost another 10 pounds and was a size 2, I was for sure really super skinny. I have never shot for that kind of weight loss and I never really thought I would maintain that weight long term. But I will also be the first to admit I freaking LOVED being a skinny bitch. I have never felt sexier or more comfortable in my body.

As a result I went out bought lots of new clothes for my honeymoon (let's face it we all use the excuse to buy a whole new wardrobe). Well this weekend I took all of those clothes out of winter storage this weekend and CRAP I feel fat now. I weight my goal weight that I had set two years ago. I work out and eat right but still feel horrible about myself in these beautiful clothes!

So now we come to the title of this post, what was once skinny to me is now kinda "fat". Not that 135 pounds is fat by any means but man! So I am going to be working out as much as possible and eating even better. I will be tracking my weight watchers points and gosh darn it I will fit into my honeymoon clothes again!

PS - we have a big announcement that will make this post make even more sense! :-)

Me about a week before I started WW's.
At my first goal weight. I felt so skinny back then.
Me at my most skinny. I can't find many pictures of me other then from my wedding from then. If I had only known I would have been naked all the time.
Gratuitous skinny shot of me in a wedding dress. I know.

Friday, April 22, 2011

How my garden grows!

So in my last post about gardening I mentioned I wanted to tackle something that scared the crap out of me. I always kill everything and that I had no idea what I was doing. Well... that is sill the case. But, and this is a big but (hehe I said big butt) things are not all the way dead and we have added even more things for me to kill!

Mr. A was so excited about the first plants we bought that he took me out and bought a whole herb garden set up! I know, so cute! We bought sweet basil, thyme, sage, and got fancy with some upside down tomatoes and peppers!

We were told to get organic planting soil because we would be ingesting the stuff. We also got liquid seaweed apparently a great organic plant food! It seems to be going fairly well so far. Things are dying but they are also growing. I am hoping they are just in shot and will come back to full health soon!
Here is how things look as of this morning:

My tomatoes are sprouting! We will be turning this pot upside down soon and then they should grow big awesome tomatoes! I can't wait to see if I kill these!

These little guys have actually got much bigger, and we have little guy to watch over them!
These are not dead just yet!

The peppers are coming along. I have had to fuss with them a bit though. Who knows, I may just kill them anyway. I am so good at that.
And my herbs. I am going to be cooking with them tonight!