Amazing Decor and Organization

With all of the organization that is going on around here, I've been looking at more sites for ideas, namely Pinterest. Addicting I tell you.

Through Pinterest I found I Heart Organizing. She has this amazing colorful, organized, and functional house. And it always appears clean despite having three boys. One day I WILL achieve my goal of being that awesome. Just you watch.

Dream home projects:

Built-ins for the living room

Master bedroom closet, sans doors. We are going to do 3 mirrored doors instead.

Built ins for the master

The colors in this room are amazing, and we are halfway there with the design, we just need to add accessories

Linen closet

Or how about these baskets for the linen closet?

I love organized linens!

Can you imagine an entire room just for your cooking gadgets and baking supplies?

Blue, brown, and white bathroom, this would work for our front bathroom I think

And a similar style with a double sink

Easy shelving for the bathroom

Gray, brown, and stone bathroom

There's just too many ideas on Pinterest, I'll have to save some for another day.

Figuring out the future

Surprise! I'm here! I'm actually still alive. Go figure.

Here's what you've missed.

More time with the baby. I wish I could keep him because he's just so gosh darn cute. But he's not mine, despite the fact he looks like he is. =)

My first Christmas Eve with bf's family. Picture with his aunt and uncle.

Christmas with bf and my family. My dad and brother played a funny, funny joke on bf. My brother bought him this very nice glass mug with the UCLA (he's an alum) emblem on it. And the stinker and my dad put a USC sticker on the bottom. Bf has started saying that you'll always find a trojan at the bottom of the barrel.

I had dinner with my amazing friends from high school. I wish I could have them around me all the time.

We spent New Years at bf's brother's house with the family...

And the baby...

Playing the Wii.

Now that we're all caught up, on to other things.

So... I was supposed to be working for the company I temped for a year and a half, but they had other ideas. Some shady, shady ideas that I don't want to be part of. Despite the fact that I worked my little tooshie off and really wanted to work at this place, and was promised this position, life just doesn't work out that way. I suppose that's God's way of telling me to move on and start my career, rather than just another job. I just have to figure out what I would like my career to be. I'm taking a couple of weeks off to relax and do whatever.

During this time I get to work on a ton of projects I've been putting off. Like organizing the pantry, the kitchen cabinets, the cleaning supplies, the bathroom cabinet, the linen cabinet. I get to make blackberry jam (have you seen how cheap blackberries are right now??), sew curtains for the bedroom, paint new baseboards, extend the pantry shelves, work on the master closet (having bf and his dad build it, I'll put the clothes in it), finish my quilt, start a new quilt for the bedroom with my extra fabric lying around, fix up the front bathroom, clean up my garden and prep for next season. Basically I get to be a housewife for a little while. And I'm loving it!

Yesterday I started on some of my projects and organized like crazy. Bf asked me why I don't just relax and I honestly can't until I'm organized sufficiently. And a clean house makes me happy. I'll post pictures when I'm done with my organizing and everything looks pretty.

I made 19 jars of blackberry jam today and had my neighbor fix a terrible haircut I got yesterday. Now I'm applying for a job in my town since it would be the best commute ever (other than a work from home job) and make enough money to keep us going. It's weird thinking about a job in terms of what would be best for our future family, but it's also really exciting.

BF and I have talked extensively about our future family lately. I guess unemployment and the prospect of finding a job that could be the last job I have gets you to thinking. What if we need someone to take kids to baseball practice? What about Girl Scouts in the afternoons? If one of the kids gets sick, am I close enough to get to them quickly? Dad will get them every Monday since he's off, but who takes them and picks them up the other four days? How do working parents do it all???

I should probably start looking into ways to make a decent salary working from home just in case. I loved that I had my dad with my brother and I during the day and my mom at night. Sure it didn't give them much time to be together, but for us it was awesome. My dad made every single tennis match I had (even the away games!) and coached my brother for years in baseball and golf. My mom had all the not-so-fun nighttime routine with us, but I always remember her making a special snack before bedtime and reading to us every night. And cleaning, she cleaned like a mad woman all the time. Poor woman must have been exhausted all the time.

But what do you do if you don't have one parent available during the day and grandparents aren't close enough, or willing, to help with childcare? Bf's work has an on-site day care center/ pre-school, but 11 1/2 hours a day in day care is a looooooong time. I can only pray that we figure out a situation that works best for everyone and allows us to still live comfortably.

I wish I could be one of those women that is super creative and can sell that creativity online. Like on etsy. Like this woman. Not only does she have three little boys, she's super creative and so organized. I have seen all these amazing organization solutions on Pinterest, and shocker, they are all hers. And her husband also allows her to use COLOR in their home. And patterns! Bf is just going to have to learn to deal with a little bit of change. Not everything needs to be brown, navy, and stainless steel. I'll let you know how that goes. I think I'll start with some damask shelf liner. Slowly work things in.

Projects in the queue:

• Finish binding on quilt
• Start designing new quilt. Maybe a flannel baby quilt from the leftovers from my bib and burp cloth endeavor that failed
• Organize cleaning supplies under kitchen sink
• Line shelves and drawers
• Make a printable grocery list
• Create a blueprint for the master closet system
• Buy metal shelf for extra/bulky kitchen supplies and organize
• Various mending projects
• Check on compost and spread under rosebushes if ready
• Start a new compost pile/bag
• Pull out old, super thorny rosebushes in the back
• Prep side yard for this spring's crops
• Paint pantry door
• Put bag holder and broom/mop holder on pantry door
• Create a photo calendar for the year
• Sew bedroom curtains
• Create a menu board with our favorite foods on tags, ready to pick out for the week- so easy! Alternately, create a list of our favorite foods/meal combos and pick from the list before we go to the market

Anniversary

-One year ago I went on my last first date. It was 10 hours long and amazing!
-We were supposed to start our day by going to the gym. Bf called me this morning to wake me up, but said I sounded too warm and cozy and should stay in bed. Sounds like a plan to me.
-We are going to go back to the place of our first date, even if it is pouring rain. (we went to the tide pools)
-He bought me diamond stud earrings yesterday and couldn't keep a secret so he gave them to me yesterday. Also so he wouldn't lose them somewhere in the car again.
-I am horrible at keeping secrets too, which is why I'm shocked I've kept his gift a secret for a whole week!
-He's my favorite. See below


-Fred apparently also means peace in some language.

Christmastime at Disneyland

I love Christmastime at Disneyland, the fun, the joy, the lights! Seeing as I've been ready to decorate for a while, going to Disneyland where they already have, made me feel all warm and cozy inside.

That's one giant tree!

Main Street

Sleeping Beauty's castle. Even more beautiful at night.

The 2009 Presidential Pardoned Turkey

Our friend and two of her kids with Santa & Mrs. Clause

Opening ceremony for Small World, the first time they lit up the ride

Taking God out of the equation

Today I actually pulled the car over and got out to take a picture. This doesn't even capture how awesome it looks today.

I even climbed up a giant hill. I know, I'm practically spectacular.

Please excuse the random flow of thought below...

These past few months have been eye opening in terms of the blessings we have been given. I think sometimes when you're in the trenches of life, you tend to not see all the blessings. It's also much easier to see blessings in someone else's life or when comparing your life to someone else's.

For example, our friend came to Christ about a year ago and now she is a leader and example for us. She's exposing her kids to the realities of this world and making them serve. Literally. She is going to have them volunteer at a Thanksgiving dinner for the homeless. She encourages us to do the same and to get out there and be His hands and feet. What better way to demonstrate your Christianity than helping those who are less fortunate.

Because of my friend, I think I would now say that you can sometimes learn more about faith from a new believer than a mature Christian. This is especially true with my friend as she devours everything she can to learn more and puts herself in situations to act on her faith. She has been one of the biggest blessings these past few months. It's also really nice to have a girlfriend in town to hang out with.

I caught myself saying yesterday, "maybe we should prioritize the groups we help this season" because we have been blessed enough to help out many organizations. Blessings abound in our home. I like that my church does "in-reach" during the holidays, meeting the needs of those in the church first. Our city will help out those in the community first. Of course we should help everyone we can and donate to organizations around the world, but what does it say about us if we cannot take care of those in our own communities because of it?

I read a blog post recently that talked about a wife being a financial blessing to her family by doing certain things such as shopping at thrift stores, couponing, not eating meat because beans are cheaper, and staying home to stay away from the temptation of stores. Nothing about these is inherently wrong, but something about it frustrated me and I couldn't pinpoint it until I discussed it with bf. It is the Holy Spirit that gives us the ability to stay away from temptation.

We can't follow these ritualistic tenets to reduce our consumerism and overconsumption (I completely agree we have problems with it). One in particular I'm thinking of is by a Christian group that will take 7 months and help you reduce your reliance on fast-food restaurants, time spent on electronics, reduce your wardrobe to just 7 pieces (two shoes, two pants, three tops? really??? that's how I would figure it would go anyway), become more green, etc.

I will admit it was the clothes thing that put it over the top for me. Will limiting yourself this much really bring you closer to God? Or will you just resent Him because you feel you are restricting all fun from your life. Of course we should spend more time with our families and with God than on the computer. Of course we should make more of our meals at home. Of course we shouldn't buy so much junk. But why do we need some man-made guidebook when we already have the Bible? We take God out of the equation by using these "programs." We have already taken God out of everything else, can we really afford to take him out of our everyday lives and rely on something other than Him to help us succeed?

Beauty in everything

Today is one of those "see the beauty in everything" kind of days. A stark contrast to how yesterday started. I'm not even sure why it started out so bad yesterday but it turned around once our friend came over and we had an adult day out. We went to the mall and discovered Teavana (like nirvana for tea, yummy!), took pictures with Virginia in Macy*s and wrote Santa letters. We came back and made a yummy dinner and did laundry. Like I said, adult day.

Virginia didn't want to behave and flew around. This one looks like Melissa flicked her out of the way.

Macy*s donates money to Make-a-wish Foundation for the letters that are sent (once they reach a million) to Santa. And guess what? You don't need to be a kid to do it!

Worth the read if you can zoom. I love this crazy guy.

How my yesterday started. It should have been a perfect day, I just let myself get in the way.

An amazing view of the mountains. It's snowing again!!

We tried to kill a rose plant but instead they came back as mini roses. I combined them with some large roses from the front to add a little girl to the house.

I used my mini pie maker for chicken pot pies for bf and my family. Just enough for lunch, or add a side for a full meal. I love it!

Recipes and holiday ideas

Since I've been MIA for a while, I figured I would share what little I have seen online.

Recipes I want to try out:

Deep dish mini-pizzas

Scallion and potato soup

Why does this recipe always pique my interest? Macaroni & cheese with cauliflower

I wonder if I can use this in my pie maker? Chicken and vegetable pot pie

Slow cooker beef stew, perfect for a day like today

Chili for a crowd, spiked with a little lager

I love me some beef stroganoff! I can't help it, I'm a Russian girl at heart

Cranberry and orange sauce, can I start putting this on my turkey sandwiches yet?

Baked spinach and gruyere. Reminds me of a spinach lasagna but gruyere is one of my favorite cheeses

Pumpkin bread

I've had such a mad craving for french onion soup lately.

Southwestern Beef Chili with corn

Black bean soup with roasted jalapeño salsa. Perhaps I could use some of my mini serrano peppers from my garden.

The scalloped potatoes I've been thinking about since I saw them in the magazine. I can't wait to start my menu planning for next week.

Holiday Decor:

I'm so ready to be decorating the house already, I've even been playing Christmas music. How about a few of these ideas to spruce up the house.

We have just the mirror for decorating, I may have to steal this very look for our house.

What a great way to display photos and decorate the house.

Kind of like a chandelier, but so much cooler.

Cookie cutters to spell out holiday greetings

What a great way to display kids photos every year. I can imagine doing this every Christmas once we have our own kids.

Gift Ideas:

If you haven't figured it out yet, I've been trolling around Real Simple's website after checking out their latest issue. I found a couple of gift ideas that could be a little bit fun and different...

• Remote controlled helicopter that uses an iPhone. I should mention that this is on their teenager's gift list. Oh well, we all have a bit of kid in us, don't we?
• Lego mini figure alarm clocks. I'm kind of seriously thinking about getting one, maybe Yoda for my dad.
• Microscope for your iPhone
• Salt and pepper shakers- the website, perpetualkid.com, sounds like just the type of website where I could find a whole host of fun gifts

Real Simple has a feature on what to buy in bulk. Particularly handy if you have the room for it. We have a plan in the works to fix up the pantry closet and extend the shelves to give us a bit more room. One of his friends said I was nesting. I think she may be right. (not in the pregnant way though, promise!)

In other news... and the only reason I've been able to spend a few minutes writing a post, my mommy had another surgery. They found that these protrusions she had last year had combined and formed a sac of aneurysms. They went in via angiogram yesterday and put titanium coils in each of the aneurysms which would prevent the sacs from dispersing (and causing clotting) in her blood stream should they ever explode.

The surgery took a bit longer than was supposed to, but turned out to go very well and my mommy is doing brilliantly. Right after the surgery she was smiling and laughing which was such a reassuring sight. She's at home now resting and watching movies with me.

I took yesterday and today off to be home with her, my first string of days off that could almost be considered a vacation. I think I need some more time like this to myself, it's so lovely.

Thank you to all those who prayed for her and our family. Once again, we were comforted by Him. It is only through Him that we were able to come through this experience once again.

I love tailgating!

And I'm starting to like football too. Go figure. Bf and I went to our second game of the season, but we took his dad this time. They hadn't been to a game together since Bf graduated from UCLA a number of years ago, so it was definitely time.

We did pretty well with our tailgating. We made Polish sausages with bell peppers and onions and lovely sides of ranch and avocado dips. Oh yum!

It couldn't have been a more perfect day for a football game.

The team walking into the locker room

I love the school spirit here! The band, tall flags, and cheerleaders (the guys running with the flags) started out the game

Two happy UCLA fans after they won, just barely! It was one nail biter of a game, all the way up to the last four seconds of the game when ASU missed the field goal.

In other news...

It's been raining a bit, which necessitated these awesome boots. And yes, I am posing in Target.

Enjoying the lightning storm out on the patio in my boots and his flip flops.

I bought a mini pie maker from Williams-Sonoma (my friend works there, discount!) that makes four pies in about 10 minutes. And since I'm less than proficient in making pie dough, I bought some pre-made stuff. A few berries, some sugar, flour and 15 minutes later, four pies were ready for the eating. I'm trying out some pumpkin and chicken pot pies soon. Apparently Costco sells a six pack of pie crusts so I shall be kept occupied for a good long time.

Our first mini-pies. Yummy

After that magnificent rainstorm, we were left with some beautiful snow topping our local mountains. I think a trip to play in the snow is in the cards, yes?