Swimsuit Season

Since we are heading to Vegas in the near future and will most definitely be visiting the pool on a daily basis I thought I had better pull out the old swimsuit and assess the damage. Well I am surprised to say, not as bad as I thought. Apparently I did a pretty good job picking out a suit last summer that holds in all the jiggly parts and covers everything else and has a little bit of a retro feel (it isn't as matronly as it looks, don't worry). Which is good because I don't have the time or the mental and emotional strength to hit Macy's again this year looking for a new suit.

I did notice however that my legs are a startling shade of white so I bought some of this tinted tanning lotion stuff that is supposed to tan legs more slowly and evenly. We'll see if it works (I am a tad sceptical).

Also last night I received a package from my mom containing these:

3 pairs of new sneakers! She has a cousin who works in the sports goods industry and sent her lots of free goodies and they shared the love with me! I am wearing a pair to work today. Gotta love free stuff! Thanks Mom, thanks Donna, and Hi Aunt Mary!

I have a dentist appointment today so I had better floss and do an extra good job brushing so that Valerie won't be mad at me during my cleaning!

Weekend Update

We have been having a great weekend and I remembered this time to take photos for my blogger friends.

Our little air conditioner has been chugging along and making the downstairs nice and warm. Not hot but warm. I guess I keep thinking that because I'm not chilly or cold then it isn't working but that is what I hate about air conditioning, being too cold. This little unit cools the air just enough that we aren't sweaty and uncomfortable or hot. That is a victory in my opinion.

Saturday morning I did some more organizing around the house. A trip to the container store on Friday got me 2 drawer organizers that are working out great. The first is in the kitchen. We have a lot less drawer space in this kitchen so most of our tools go into one drawer and it was a jumbled mess. I found a drawer organizer that you cut to fit as you need it and it works great to divide up some of the tools and keep them from sliding around and making a big mess. The divider did displace a couple tools that were really just too big for the drawer. One was our handheld strainer (which we love and use almost daily). I was listening to a pod cast on organizing and the professional organizer mentioned that the inside of door cabinets is a huge untapped resource and she specifically mentioned hanging your colander there. So I mounted the strainer and splatter screen on the inside of the door with 3M hooks. I also worked on organizing my main cabinet so that I could fit my appliances inside and get them off the counter top where they had been sitting since we moved. I want the counters to be clear most of the time. We are used to pulling out appliances as we need them and just leaving out appliances that are in heavy use (like the blender when on a smoothie kick, or the toaster when there is a new loaf of yummy bread). That system works for us. (The counter photos shows where they used to all sit. Now it's clear).I also want to share my lazy susans. My main food cabinet is a large corner cabinet which means it is almost 20" deep. It was impossible for me to see all the way back there and to arrange things so they were all visible. I found these heavy duty 18" lazy susans at the container store (they can hold 100 pounds each) and they have made a world of difference. I can spin them and see everything, even on the second shelf. I can still hide a few things on the side if I need to but most importantly I can see everything I have. Love them.

The other drawer I organized is the little file cabinet in the office. The Bronx apartment had a built in desk that held all our pencils and staples and stuff. We bought this small Galant file cabinet with drawers from IKEA to replace the built in. I found a great organizer at Container Store that is expandable on the sides and it fills the drawer perfectly and had lots of spaces for all our office supplies. I love it when I find the perfect product for the job.

Saturday afternoon Greg and I walked around the neighborhood to take a look around. We poked our heads into the vegan bakery down the street only to find out it isn't a vegan bakery really. They specialize in making vegan marshmallows (remember that marshmallows are made with gelatin which comes from boiled animal bones, hooves and tissues so it isn't even vegetarian) and marshmallow products and apparently they only sell wholesale. The girl who owns it told us that they will be selling soon in local Whole Foods Markets so be watching for Sweet and Sara products. She was so sweet and gave us some free goodies. We got 2 peanut butter smores and a box of coconut marshmallows. All were super yummy. Greg hates coconut so those are all mine. We shared a smores bar last night and it was da bomb. Marshmallow on a thick layer of sweetened peanut butter on a layer of graham cracker crust all covered in dark chocolate. I am salivating just remembering it. Luckily there is another one down in the fridge!

Then we had lunch at De Mole where Greg tried a grilled cactus burrito. We were trying to figure out what cactus tastes like. Kind of like bitter bell peppers but in a good way. I had a boring quesadilla (not a lot of vegetarian options) but it was all really yummy and the guacamole and salsa were really good. Only negative in my opinion was they don't sell margaritas although if you bring them tequila they will make you one (no liquor license). That is pretty common in NYC. We are so happy to have so many great little restaurants around us again.

Then it was home for a nap and another trip to IKEA. The new catalog is out by the way! They sent me a postcard to let me know my desk was back in stock and that they were holding one just for me. Unfortunately when we got there is turned out to be a computer glitch and they were still sold out! Man was Greg mad. He already hates IKEA and that was just the icing on the cake. I still say that despite the constant lack of stock and computer errors like that the customer service is pretty good. They offered to ship the table top to me for free since this was my 3rd trip. I was going to demand that anyway so I am glad they offered. So it should be here this week. It is exactly like the scrap table (Galant) but it is smaller and will be at normal desk height. That's all. We finished our evening with dinner (sloppy joes and salads) and Greg searched online for a non-IKEA alternative for our dining room chairs and then some TV before bed. It was a great day!

Beautiful Bathrooms

It seemed like our furniture and decor fit perfectly into our old space. When we moved all that stuff to our new apartment it just didn't fit as well and it seems that every room needs a large amount of tweaking which can be overwhelming. I know that it takes time to find new things, rearrange the old things, and pull a room together. It took me 4 years to get our Bronx apartment the way I liked it. Well, yesterday I took the day off of work on a whim and spent the day putting together the new furniture in the office and made a trip to Target for some cleaning supplies. I also managed to find the remaining things I needed to "finish" the bathrooms. I picked the 2 smallest rooms to pull together first. It gives me a sense of accomplishment in a manageable chunk. First the upstairs.

This is our main bathroom and it is SMALL. I hunted all over town to find towels in a brown/grey color to match the tile detail on the wall and I happened to stumble upon some new towels at Target that were perfect. I also settled for an all white shower curtain after searching for a printed or brown/grey one for a long time. The plain white really makes the room seem larger and gives it a clean crisp feel. We also added the little stick-on-the-wall toothbrush holder in brushed silver which I love. I would still like to find one decorative item for this room but it has to small since anything too busy makes this room look like the postage stamp that it is. I also need to find a better solution for the toilet paper. The owners put in this toilet paper stand but it is way to big for the room. There just isn't much room for a roll to hang on the cabinet. Then the downstairs:
Remember that this room is as wide as the vanity you see on the left! Tiny! I hate the wall color but everyone who comes in to see the place thinks it is great so it is staying for a while. I had these fake orchids in my old place by the fireplace. I separated them and re-potted them in these cute white IKEA utensil holders. The leaves inspired me to go with a dark green accent. I bought the towels and a tiny rug at Target yesterday. I hung the print and the little shelf on the back wall above the toilet and added the fake grass (all items from the old place) and some black stones for detail. I LOVE this room now. My only problem is finding a garbage can that will fit next to the toilet. There is only about 5" of space between the toilet and wall so it has been really challenging to find a small enough container.

Greg helped me finish putting together my scrapbook table last night. I LOVE IT!!!! I took a que from my sister and made it waste height while standing. I am going to get a stool for when I want to sit down (it was sold out at IKEA of course!). I am determined to become a standing scrapper. It will make retreiving stuff from my shelves easier since they won't be right behind me anymore. The table is 63" wide and 31" deep. I spread a bunch of stuff out on it last night and can I just say wow! It is so nice to have room to spread out. I put my old cutting mat on the table which used to FILL my old little table in the hall. It looks like a tiny place mat on the new table! I will definitely need a new cutting mat. Here it is from last night. I was pulling out some new supplies I had gotten in the mail during the move. Last night was my first chance to really look at them in over a month. Now I just need to organize organize organize.Something we did before buying our table which I would recommend is to cut out a piece of paper the size of the table (you can see mine underneath) and lay it out on the floor to see what it will be like spacially. Originally I was going to get a smaller table (it looked so big at the store!) but when I laid it out I realized I had room for a larger table and the small one wasn't much bigger than what I had before. It was a big help.

July Highlights

What a crazy month July was. We found a new apartment, moved in drips and drabs, had my mom out for a week and then I had a grant application due at work (meaning I was really busy and stressed). Toss in a 6th wedding anniversary and time with friends and it seemed like a whirlwind. We are still trying to get settled into our new place and learn the neighborhood. Here are some highlights:

1. Decided to get a second air conditioner for the first floor but the only place it can really go is in the kitchen so it isn't great at cooling the living room. Any relief is good relief so we aren't complaining.

2. We found out there is a Fairway Market in Redhook, Brooklyn just 15 min from our house so we are super jazzed about that. (We used to shop at the Harlem Fairway and were really sad to leave it because it is such an awesome grocery store.) The Redhook local is actually bigger and better than the Harlem one. YIPPIE! The grocery stores around here just didn't carry the "health food" that we eat.

3. We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary with a much needed nap. It was wonderful. Of course you know my rule if you have read this blog for very long. I need an anniversary photo and since we didn't do anything really photo worthy that day it means Greg will have to be subjected to a photo shoot at home! HAHAHAHAHA (maniacal laugh).

4. The trip to IKEA finally happened last night after 3 failed attempts. It was quite the ordeal clocking in at 6 hours of total trip time. We were there long after closing dealing with typical IKEA drama with missing inventory and then customer service errors. But we got the main things taken care of. I now have a bookcase, a scrapbook table, a working file cabinet, and an office chair. We also managed to pick up a bookcase for friends and it all fit in Suzan's Matrix. It was amazing what that car held in the end and still had room for more (the book case was over 6 ft long!). I will have to go back for the computer table but we are hopeful we can fit it in our car. I also found my camera cord so here is a photo of the office right now. It still needs a ton of work. 5. My mom had a good time on her visit and hopefully will share some photos with me. Hint hint. Pull out those instructions I made you on emailing photos mom!

6. Greg managed to get a converter kit and hooked up our washing machine so it can run off the kitchen sink. That is a relief because otherwise we'd have to get rid of it.

7. We finally after all these years got wireless DSL at home. WOW! What were we waiting for? It is so awesome to be able to do all the surfing I do at work but at home (I am typing and uploading photos from home right now!).

8. We are planning a vacation out west in August. So Seattle readers let me know when you are free for a visit. We will be in Seattle for 5 days. (I don't want to post dates here just in case bad people read my blog.) Then we are off to Vegas for 4 days of R and R. I am not excited to put on a bathing suit but I am looking forward to some pool time. Dry heat is always better than wet heat. Trust me!

That is all I can think of right now. Our goal for August is peace and relaxation. Summer is almost over and we don't want to totally miss it!

Arghh.

I got dressed this morning and put on a brand new mail order shirt that is super cute and I feel cute even though my sinuses are killing me and the last thing I want to do is go to work. I feel so cute I decide to go the extra mile and curl my hair and put on make-up. I recently ordered some lipstick samples from my favorite make-up catalog so I could find THE perfect color. Well I go to open one of the samples and as I peel back the foil the lipstick splatters all over me and my new shirt! It kind of exploded out of the wrapper. What?!?! Of course the lipstick is "constant color" meaning it is like paint on your lips that lasts all day and wouldn't you know I can't get it out of the shirt. The brand new shirt! I tried water, soap, detergent, and even rubbing alcohol. And I mean it doesn't even help a tiny bit. Not one morsel of pigment has come out of that thing. I was so livid I got online and emailed the lipstick company to complain and to find out what they suggest for their lipstick on fabric. I then told them that if their lipstick is that permanent on fabric there is no way I want to buy it and put it on my face (and eat it. Let's be honest, that's what happens to it!).

I also ordered another shirt. Not a good start to my day.

Fry-day!

My brain is fried! It has been a crazy week and unfortunately I have to work all day tomorrow too (Saturday). My boss gets on a plane on Sunday so it will settle down after that but until then we are all working like mad.

I am trying to get my friend Suzan to drive me out to IKEA tonight. Unfortunately she is working on the figures for the grant we are trying to put to bed so getting away will be tough but I am determined. I want to get the desks for the office/studio tonight. It is the only room in our new place that is still all in boxes.

I promise to take some photos this weekend to share. Have a nice weekend!

I'm Back

Just a quick post to say I am back! Sorry to all my loyal readers for my lack of posting. My mom was here for a week and boy were we busy. She helped me unpack and organize the living room and dining room. I am glad to say the whole apartment is livable. I still have lots of organizing and fine tuning to do but it is totally usable at this point. Then mom came to the Bronx with me and we finished painting the living room of my old apartment and then we finished the cleaning. We are officially out of the old apartment and have turned in the keys. It feels good to be free of the old place and not be living in 2 places at once.

I have a busy work week ahead of me. My boss leaves for a month long vacation at the end of the week so I have a lot of projects to finish up before she leaves. I will try to be a good blogger this week. I really need to find the camera and some fresh batteries and show you some of the projects I have been working on around the house. I think I know where the camera is!

Heat Wave

Sorry, I have no new photos to share today. We are in the middle of a heat wave it has been pretty unbearable. When we're not at work we pretty much just sit in the bedroom and watch TV because that is where our air conditioner is. It is really annoying because I have SO MUCH to do and unpack in the apartment but it is too hot and oppressive to do anything. I did manage to do a little shopping at Target last night (where it was cool!) and got some things for the bathrooms. They are now stocked with essentials. I am still looking for some organizational fixes for the cabinets so my next stop is the container store.

I had hoped to start painting and cleaning the old place this week but so far it has been too hot. The heat is supposed to break on Thursday so maybe then I can work in the Bronx. Greg is going to buy the paint tonight.

The only other things I have to report are that I finally measured the new place and it is a couple feet shy of 1000 square feet. That is a 350 sq foot improvement over the old place. And my commute is significantly better in the new place running about 30-45min. Greg's on the other hand is significantly worse. I think it took him an hour and 45 min to get to work yesterday. He still has to optimise his route and connections. He drove today and it took 30min so he may just end up biting the bullet and driving to work and paying the tolls. We'll see.

Someday I hope to have my scrapbook studio set up and have some craft updates for you!

Out with the old

When we told our landlords we were moving out they asked us to take photos of our old place so they could advertise it. My mom asked me to post those photos so here they are.

First up is the living room. Things I will miss: The cute faux fireplace. The 13 foot high ceiling. The little steps. The massive amount of light. THE HARDWOOD FLOORS! This room has lots of charm and personality. Things I won't miss: The drafty windows. The front door that constantly popped open (it was hard to latch). The cords and phone lines running all over the ground because of the lack of outlets. Greg won't miss the metal shades we weren't allowed to remove.

Next up is our bedroom. It was originally the dining room and you can see that they built a fake wall out of cabinets to make it a room. Things I will miss: The ceiling fan. Uh.........that's it. Things I won't miss: The fake wall and crummy door. Being above the boiler room and always being too hot at night. The damaged molding from the previous tenants. The lack of a closet in the room. The fact that going to the bathroom in the middle of the night was a long way away around the fake wall. The desk (in the fake wall) that didn't fold down right. Keeping so much non-bedroom stuff in the bedroom. I couldn't photograph the whole kitchen because we had already started packing and there was a mountain of junk piled on the table and floor on the other side of the room. Things I will miss: The amount of cabinet space. The separate stove and oven was nice. The cute decorative shelves by the sink. The sheer size of the room. Hook-ups for the washing machine. Things I won't miss: The pink counters (really WHO chooses pink counters!?!) The really poor lighting. Having only one outlet to use (there were 2 more far from counters). The old cabinets that "weep" sawdust and little pebbles constantly all over our dishes and pots. The sticky grease that covers everything in the room from the ancient range/gas combination. The bathroom. I didn't even photograph the shower for fear it would turn people away. Things I will miss: Turns out the medicine cabinet was huge. Who knew! The radiator in the bathroom was nice on cold mornings. The separate tub came in handy as a utility sink. Things I won't miss: The "cave shower" as we call it. Small and enclosed and so dark you could barely see the soap. The teal tiles. The low flow toilet the landlords gerry rigged. The separate tub and shower. I know I said that was a plus but think how much room they wasted by separating them! The electricity going out when I tried to blow dry my hair (all the time!). The leaking shower that got worse when the landlord "fixed" it! Lastly is the hallway. Not really a room but we used it as an office and scrapbook room. The hallway was our favorite part of the apartment when we moved in. I will miss: The extra storage cabinets. The giant hall closet (the only closet). I won't miss: That when someone sits at the computer it is near impossible to get past them. Using the hallway as a room!

So there you go. We are still working on the old place. It was a great apartment for us for over 4 years and I think we will remember it fondly!

Housing Update

I hope you all had a nice holiday. We kept thinking it was Saturday all day on the 4th! Well there was no traffic so we were able to make 4 trips to the new apartment and moved about 70% of our things. That is 8 trips over the Whitestone bridge at $4 a pop but at least it is cheaper than a truck. The owners still had their stuff everywhere so we just piled our things in 2 of the rooms. We actually ran out of boxes on Wed so we had to take a break from moving. On a fun note we noticed there is a vegan bakery down the street from our new house! Don't you love those little confirmations that you made the right decision.

We collected over a dozen more boxes yesterday and packed a bunch more last night. We are pretty much down to essentials now so we decided that if they are done working on the place this Saturday that we will move in a week early and start sleeping there. Of course our furniture won't be coming until the 14th because that is when we have the truck reserved but that is OK. I can live without furniture easier than I can live without stuff (and without being able to cook!). We are borrowing an air mattress from a friend in the meantime. Then next week I can focus on unpacking a bit and also getting the Bronx apartment cleaned up and painted. Did I mention that we have to paint our super cute living room back to white? The landlords didn't like the color brown we chose. How can you not love this?

That is one of the photos we took for our landlord so she could advertise the place. She got over 20 emails the day she posted it on Craig'sList. They are showing the Bronx place to potential renters this weekend so I need to clean it up a bit. When we moved some of our furniture that has been in place for 4.5 years we found huge dust bunnies living in there. I wondered where those things bred! Apparently behind bookcases! On a side note, our landlords would love to find Christian tenants to take our old place. If you know of any trying to relocate to or in the Bronx please let me know.

A Sneak Peek

We visited the new apartment last night and took a car load of stuff over. The landlords are still working on the place. They have been painting the entire place pretty shades of pastel colors. Not my favorite but at least they are doing a really nice job. They still have lots of work to do so we told them instead of trying to do it all on June 30th to take their time and work all this week since we aren't moving in officially until the 14th.

We solved a couple mysteries last night. I had imagined a closet across from the kitchen that turned out not to exist and then we found a closet in the half bedroom that we hadn't seen when we originally walked through. It was hidden behind the door when it is open. A fun surprise! That brings the total to 6 closets! Wow, I am so jazzed to have lots of storage. We found out there is cable in most of the rooms. So now we have to choose between DirectTV or standard cable and DSL vs. Cable modem. Any suggestions readers? We haven't had any of them before so we are at a loss. The only thing I don't want is that stupid dish on the side of the house but Greg says they may be able to put it on the back side which would be OK. We also have more kitchen cabinets than I remembered which is great since we don't have that imaginary closet after all that I was going to use as a pantry. We also looked out back and there really is no place for our little table and chairs and BBQ. They use every inch as a parking lot so we will have to dump that stuff on Craig's List or something. There is a small planter in the kitchen window so at least Greg could grow a tomato or something if he wanted. There is also a mystery button in the kitchen. It looks like a doorbell and even the landlord doesn't know what it is for. Kind of weird. We met our downstairs neighbors, a young couple, who seem really nice. I think that is all of the discoveries we made last night.

I managed to snap a few photos but the landlords were there and when I whipped out the camera they started cleaning up all their stuff which I didn't want them to do. I want them to finish up and get out, not stash stuff only to have to get it out again. So I only took a few shots.

We are going to stay in the Bronx tonight to pack and then we will probably take a bunch of loads on the 4th and do some more planning. We want to get as much over by car as possible so that we can get by with a smaller truck and only 2 trips for furniture on the 14th. We'll see how it goes with our tiny little car.

It is so hard not to be in the new place but packing takes time and we don't want to rush unnecessarily. It is an exercise in patience for me.

First is the photo of the front of the house. We are the right side of the duplex (white building) on the 1st and 2nd floors.

The view of the dining room from the living room. I didn't get a shot of the living room for some reason but the 2 rooms are the same size. The living room has 3 windows and the dining room has 0. You can see our little staircase off to the left. We have 2 under the stairs closets. Lots of storage!

Next is the kitchen. Don't mind all the junk, it is for the painting and repairs the owners are doing. I wish the stove was a full sized one. This type is very common in NYC.

Across from the kitchen is the downstairs bathroom. It is really narrow. Just a toilet and sink. If I get too fat I won't fit in this room! Just a pit stop so you don't have to run upstairs all the time to pee.This is the back bedroom. We plan to use it as an office and scrapbook studio. I am not jazzed with the yellow and the striped wall paper. It has a large closet.I didn't get a picture of the "master" bedroom. It is on the street side of the house. It has a "step in" closet which is very nice and will hold all our clothes effortlessly. The photo is the view from the master bedroom looking into the half bedroom. We haven't decided how to use it at this point. Guest room, Huge closet, or pinball arcade. So many possibilites. You can see the closet that was hidden behind the door. This room has no windows.

And lastly the upstairs bathroom. It is completely new. Really small but super cute. All upstairs rooms are connected by a long hallway.

That is all for now. I probably won't blog tomorrow so I hope you all have a really nice 4th of July!

whirl-wind

I don't have time for a long post today but I did want to share that Greg and I found an apartment on Saturday and signed the lease. We now officially live in Sunnyside, Queens... and in the Bronx. Long story but we have both apartments for the month of July.

We are heading to the new place tonight and I hope to get some photos to share as well as take another look. It all happened so fast I can't actually remember how many closets or outlets there are or if it has cable or a dishwasher or what exactly is out back. Greg and I have different memories.

I can tell you it has 2.5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 floors, and at least 5 closets maybe more, and it is 2 blocks off the 7 train (41st st stop).

I will have more specifics tomorrow for sure but at least the hunt is over!

New Profile

Well we saw 2 more apartments last night. Both in nice neighborhoods in Manhattan. Both totally wrong for us. We have an appointment in Queens tonight with a broker so we will see how it goes.

My friend and co-worker Suzan is working to develop and design a new web page for the lab so yesterday she set up a little photo studio and took everyone's picture. She did an awesome job with them in photoshop. The webpage is far from finished but I forced her to hand over my pictures so I could use them here.

My new profile photo:

Here was the other photo she got:

They are practically Glamour Shots! Plus in the second there was a garbage can next to my head (photos were all taken in the lab) and she artfully blurred it out in photoshop. Everyone looked amazing in their photos when she finished with them. Everyone will want to work here with the "pretty people" when they see our web page. Now I just need her to do my Christmas card for next year! Here she is:

Best Birthday Ever

We didn't look at a single apartment last weekend (not much on the market). Instead we focussed on cleaning out our current apartment. We are only about 50% done but it felt so good to toss stuff. We worked systematically through each room, each cabinet, each shelf and evaluated every item together. Did we use it, did we love it, did we need it, did we have more than one. We both encouraged the other to really be honest about what should stay and what should go. We tried on every article of clothing we owned. Here is an example:Two dresses I have been holding on to for years. Why? I don't know. I never intended to wear them again. So instead I tried them on for kicks and then tossed them in a bag. One of the best parts of the decluttering weekend was remembering the stories behind some of the stuff. That is why we keep the stuff, to remind us of things. Well, take a picture and write down the story! The black dress was purchased for a New Year's Party organized and heavily attended by the BSF Young Adults class in Seattle. My best friend Katie and I went. I was having a really hard time finding a formal dress. Katie and I tried on this same black dress (she found it first and she looked great in it!) and she wanted to get it but I liked it too and I wasn't having any luck so she let me get the dress. Such a good friend! I loved that dress that night! The other dress was the Maid of Honor dress I wore to Katie's wedding, and I felt gorgeous in it that day. Both were way too small for me now! Now hopefully they aren't too out of style to bless someone else.

Here are just some of the bags of stuff we decided to get rid of. The whole area under the table was full and a lot had already been taken downstairs. Some garbage, some recycling and lots to take to the GoodWill. I wish I had taken some before and after shots, especially of the desk. Yikes that was crammed full of junk and now looks so neat and tidy. Now we need to tackle the kitchen, Hall Closet, craft and music areas! Is it weird that I thought this was the most fun way to spend a weekend?

Birthday Blogger!

I don't usually blog on the weekends so this is my official Birthday post. This Sunday I turn 31 years old. Where did the time go? It seems like just yesterday I was planning the big 3-0 party.

Tonight we are having a small scale celebration. Greg got us tickets for Shakespeare in the Park tonight (Romeo and Juliet) and we are meeting some friends for a low-key dinner before hand. I am actually really swamped at work today so I hope I can get out of here on time to make it to the restaurant.

Then this weekend we are trying to get some appointments set up to look at more apartments. Not the way I would like to spend my Birthday but I would like a nice new place to live in my 31st year so it is a must.

I snapped this photo while sitting at my desk today so I would have something to post. Not bad for a self portrait right?! And mom, notice the earrings!

So I leave you with this:

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31 Things I Love (in no particular order)

1. My husband Greg

2. iPod Video and watching TV on the train

3. KI Memories scrapbook products (just placed an order yesterday!)

4. Chewy Runts and Chewy Gobstoppers Candy

5. Caffeine Free Diet Coke

6. Driving in the car on a sunny day with the radio blaring

7. New clothes from H&M

8. Naps in the mid-afternoon!

9. Homemade Pizzas warm from the oven

10. Aussie Licorice (did I mention I love candy!)

11. Long tank tops from Down East Basics

12. Hot Showers even in the summer

13. Manis and Pedis

14. Discovering a cool new blog and then reading all the archives

15. Throwing things out and decluttering

16. Getting into the Scrapbooking zone

17. Talking to myself

18. Finding shoes in my size that are cute (11 is a tough size!)

19. Remembering something totally random at the perfect moment

20. Getting my teeth cleaned at the dentist

21. The Office on NBC

22. Snuggling with Greg on the couch

23. The moment when I am just drifting off to sleep

24. When my house is really clean

25. Opening the mail, especially if there are packages

26. Margaritas, preferably frozen with no salt

27. Being at home all day

28. Seeing friends and family after a long absence

29. Getting into a made bed

30. Making up new silly lyrics to songs and annoying Greg

31. Anything miniature sized!

Wow, I could go on and on but I will have to wait until my 32nd Birthday!

Busy little blogger

We sent the last 2 evenings in Queens looking at apartments. We came REALLY close last night to finding a place only to decide that it was going to be a little too difficult of a commute for Greg. To bad too because it was 2 blocks from the Beer Garden and fairly spacious. The commute of course wasn't the only problem with it but it was by far the best apartment we have seen so far. It gives me hope that there are good places out there, we just have to keep searching. Each place we look at helps us know a little better what we want and need.

Work has been a little bit hellish this week so I don't have much else to report on right now. More later!

Scrapbook Update

Well I finally finished the theme album for my co-worker Karen who recently moved to Maine. The album has 40 single pages (20 double page layouts) so here is just a sampling to give you an idea of the design.

The title page. The whole album featured Urban Chic paper by Basic Grey, brads and paper flowers. The majority of the pages look like this. A main photo with catchy title and then a photo collage on that theme opposite. This one is about Campus life and shows photos from the building, lab and park.There were 3 layouts like this that feature people. Faces from her 6 years in the lab. We have a lot of people come through this place each year. Post-docs, techs, and lots of students.

Then in between the collage pages I would stick these layouts that feature individual people and their well wishes/sentiments for Karen.Some layouts featured parties or events. This one shows our trip to New Orleans. A bunch of us girls from work went. Other layouts show lab clean-up days, happy hours, baby showers, bachellorette parties and birthday parties. We have a lot of fun in this lab!Near the end of the album I made this layout. I raided her desk one day while she was out and pasted in a few of the items she had stuck up in her work space. The last page is this one where I listed lots of random memories of work. Just little blurbs to jog her memory and make her laugh.

Overall it was a really easy album to make. I did all the photo collages in Adobe Elements and had them printed out 8x8 at scrapbookpictures.com then just slid them in. The last shot is my planning day where I laid all the blank pages out and planned the order of everything. Now I just need to get it in the mail to Maine!

Flat Tire

On the way to church last night we got a flat tire just as we had come off the freeway and made our way across the bridge into Manhattan. I of course couldn't do much to help Greg except watch. That is until I remembered that I had my camera. This first shot is of the area where we pulled off. It is a small median area where the road splits. A lot of people were cutting across the median area pretty close to the car. Crazy NYC drivers!

Here is Greg removing the flat. He was really annoyed that I was taking his photo. Poor guy. It was really humid out and at one point he had to lay on the ground to position the jack.
This is our 2nd flat since moving here and both times they happened around the same place. There was no major incident just rough roads in general. Today Greg is out buying 4 brand new tires. Hopefully they will last a while!

Scrapbook Update

My June Kit arrived from Jenni Bowlin Studios. Unfortunately I haven't even touched the May kit. I haven't been doing any scrapbooking in a while. I barely managed to crank out a Father's Day Card for my dad and the scrapbook for my co-worker is still sitting here 95% done.

Here is the kit. Pastel purples and greens. The things I am most excited to use are the damask flower sticker from Heidi Swap and the Heidi Swap Ghost Flowers (I've never used her ghosts before so I will have to do some research and figure out how). I read that Heidi Swap is going to start her own monthly kit club so I may have to join that one instead since I love all her stuff.

As far as weekend plans I don't know if I will get any scrapping done. I am going to Renegade on Saturday and then may be meeting with our broker to look at apartments all afternoon. Maybe on Sunday I will try and get one small project done. Sometimes just a minor accomplishment is all it takes to get the juices flowing again and get me revved up to scrap during the week. I need to move my scrap table to the living room so I can watch all my new favorite shows while I scrap. Hell's Kitchen, So you think you can dance, and Last comic standing to name a few. Why are summer reality shows so much better than what's on during the rest of the year?

More Crafts!

This weekend is the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn. It happens twice a year in Dec and June. This year they will be having 200 vendars. I have been to it 3 times and can tell you that is it really cool. NYC doesn't have many honest to goodness craft fairs and this is the real deal. It is pretty sweet so if you are local and want to meet up let me know. I won't be missing out on some hipster homemade crafts! They have a vendar list so you can even pre-shop!

Craft Club

Last Saturday I attended another craft club. This time we learned how to make dishcloth aprons with Peh. She actually made us HAND SEW them. I haven't hand sewed anything in years. But it only took about 15 min to do the stitching and these babies were done. Super easy but super cute. I have been wearing mine all week in the kitchen. Thanks Peh and thanks to Kelly for letting us meet at her house and feeding us a yummy lunch.

The rest of the weekend was spent looking at apartments and listings with our new broker and friend Joann. She is trying to convince us to buy an apartment so now we are going through the motions to see if that is even possible. So much stress!Greg had his final class all day yesterday so now he is officially done. He has to deal with all the administrative crap now to file for graduation and get his thesis credits counted. Hopefully it will go smoothly. Of course he still wants to write a paper to get his thesis results published but that is an added bonus and shouldn't be too hard.

Thursday

The apartment we saw last night was not for us. It was next to the Hell's Gate Bridge and much too small. It was a convertible 2 but they were calling it a 2 bedroom apartment. I hate that! Anyway, the hunt continues.

Another thing we did last weekend was visit this:

It is a modular home that was built during a design contest. Designed to be used in Africa. I don't know much about it (the boys, Greg and John were more into it than I) except that it is being auctioned off at Christie's and it is set up here in Queens for public viewing. The architect is pretty famous. Maybe Greg will enlighten us in comments. It was rainy when we went but it was interesting to see. I think this home is bigger than my apartment! You can see some of the restoration when you look at the support leg in the foreground compared to its partner.

I can't believe...

...it has been a week since I blogged last. I have been having really bad allergies and migraines lately so it seems when I have some free time I feel too lousy to post. Here are some updates:

• We are working on our housing issue. In fact Greg and I have an appointment to look at a place in Astoria tonight. It sounds promising but I have learned never to get my hopes up when it comes to NYC real estate.


• I am 95% done with the gift album for my co-worker and will try to photograph it this week. Otherwise I have done no scrapbooking in almost 2 weeks.

Last weekend Greg and I spent some quality time together. On Saturday we ventured over to Connecticut to visit the Barnum Museum. It explores the life of P.T. Barnum (from the circus). It was a very small museum but was interesting and fun to check out. I took a whole ton of photos and then noticed on our way out a sign saying "no photography please". Oops! Anyway, here are some shots:

The highlights:

Barnum really came to fame with roaming sideshows and saloon appearances. The museum actually didn't talk that much about the circus which came very late in his life.

Barnum struck it rich promoted a "little person" named Tom Thum and promoting Jenny Lind the famous singer.

The top floor of the museum featured a hand carved scale model of a circus. It filled almost half the floor.

Barnum also claimed to have a mermaid, a mummy, and a 160 year old woman in his company. The woman ended up being only 88 when she died, the mermaid was a monkey body on a fish tail, but the mummy turned out to be authentic. Barnum also featured Siamese twins, bearded ladies, skinny men, and all the other "regular" side show type attractions but Tom Thumb was his most famous.

The photos above from the upper left:

-Greg with Tom Thumb image to show his scale.

-The mummy

-The scale model of the circus from above on a catwalk

-Circus items

-A circus buggy

-An elephant replica (Barnum featured a baby elephant long before he started the circus. He used to use the elephant to plow his fields near the train track so train passengers would want to come and check out his show).

-The Barnum Institute from the outside.

-Greg next to Tom Thumbs carriage.

After the museum we enjoyed a mediocre lunch at Taco Loco. The LOCO thing is that they were voted best Mexican food and best margaritas in town. The people of Fairview need to get a clue!