Favorite Finds Friday

Linking up again over at Friday Favorites....

Favorite Find #1: HGTV Magazine

My mom got me a subscription to this 2 years ago for my birthday, and I'm still loving it.  The magazine itself makes me happy even before I open it...the cover is always so bright and cheery and glossy!

I love that they always have a splurge or steal section for household items, handy tips about everyday issues that you can easily take care of yourself with the right directions, and of course, tours of other people's gorgeous homes (which is right up my alley, I love being nosy and seeing where other people live, haha!)

Favorite Find #2: Croft and Barrow Sole (sense)ability ballet flats

I was in Kohls over the summer and as I was getting ready to leave, something caught my eye on a clearance table.  It was a pair of ballet flats in a nice neutral/metallic color, with a cute little buckle on the top with a darker toe.  I turned over the shoes to check out the price....$9!  And I had a 15% off coupon...score!

I didn't wear them over the summer because I tend to stick to open toed shoes, but now that fall is here, I wear them nearly every day to work.  They are SO comfortable.  They're not super thin on the bottoms like some other ballet flats that I've had.  I'm that person who wears a pair of sneakers into work, then changes shoes once I'm at my office if said shoes are not 100% comfortable....but no changing is necessary with these, I wear them for the commute.

Lovely carpet in my office, yes?? :)  I can't find this exact pair online, but they have others that are similar in the same brand here: http://www.kohls.com/product/prd-946386/sole-senseability-flats-women.jsp 

Favorite Find #3: Friday Night Lights (the real thing!)

Last Friday, Brian took Jake to our local high school's football game!  Our neighbor has been helping Brian out with some yard work and lawn mowing since his shoulder injury, and he happens to be the captain of the football team this year...Jake loves to go outside when he's working in our yard and ask him football questions and hear him talk about practices and games :)  So needless to say, Jake was super pumped to be going to see him play in person!!

All up in a snuggie.

 The game didn't start until 7:30, and Jake had been up late the night before at the Light the Night Walk....but that didn't stop him from making it to the very end (and he got to see them win!)  Brian said about an hour in, he was looking like he was going to fall asleep, but kept insisting that he was "wide awake" and wanted to watch the end.  (kind of sounds like me at night when I'm struggling to stay awake and watch some of my favorite shows....) 

What's a post with a reference to one of the best shows of all time without some quotes from the show?  You're welcome.

image courtesy of 5minutesformom.com

image courtesy of invyn.com

Texas forever, ya'll.

Now THIS is great weather!

I am the first to admit that I'm a whiner when it comes to the weather....I enjoy fall the most and I like a little bit of snow around Christmastime, but other than that, I hate extreme weather. I hate freezing at the bus stop. I can't stand to break a sweat, so I really despise heat waves in the middle of summer. And you know what else is annoying? Getting bypassed by this little season called "spring", which is exactly what was happening here in the burgh recently! Oh sure, mother nature....I just love going from 30 degrees to 85 degrees in the course of 48 hours....super fun!

Fortunately, mother nature seemed to hear my whiny pleas to bring back spring because this past weekend was perfect. In the mid-60's, sunny and not humid....ahhhhhhhh. Look how pretty everything is now that it's blooming:



We went to the zoo Saturday afternoon....we've gone to the zoo dozens of times and out of all those visits, never once has Jake even looked in the general direction of the gift shop. But for some reason during this trip, he decided to veer into the shop and announce "I go shopping!" We let him look around at the merchandise, figuring that the allure of looking and not buying would soon wear off, but then I turned around and saw him hoisting a PPG Zoo sippy cup with elephants on it up on the counter and saying "I buy this now". We had a good time once we finally got him to leave his shopping expedition....I felt his pain, I know what it's like to leave a store empty-handed *sigh*


On Sunday, we put together his new Sand & Water table that was a Christmas gift from Aunt Missa, Uncle Dennis & Ben....it was a big hit!!



Gracie finally got her hair cut and feels like a new woman...she had some extra pep in her step and even took time out of her busy napping schedule to join us outside for a bit.

Giving credit where credit is due....

While I feel I gave Brian all of the credit in the previous post about the house updates and he appreciated the fact that I didn't try to pass it off as any work that I had done, he felt that I should have mentioned what I was doing while he was out doing back-breaking labor in the yard.

98% of the time, I was sleeping.

But-let's keep in mind that most of this work took place when I was in my 1st trimester of pregnancy last summer, thus, I was in a coma the majority of my days. As Brian puts it, he would be out in the yard doing his thing and would peek in through the living room window to check on me....what he would normally see was me passed out on the couch, drooling on a pillow with some mindless TV re-runs on the screen. ahhh....those were the days.



I would also like to point out that I did help out one day (the week before I found out I was pregnant; which, had I known at the time, obviously would have given me a "get out of manual labor free" card)....I started the day off by spray painting an old set of table & chairs.



You can tell by the picture that I'm really passionate about my work. Later that day, I pulled a bunch of ivy that was taking over every square inch of our house and fence. It's harder than it sounds, that stuff is serious business. Brian claims that after doing this for an hour or so, I found him in the front yard & made a dramatic announcement that I was about to fall over and die and I was done for the day (this was around 11am).

That was pretty much my first (and last) experience with manual labor in the yard. I did plant some flowers this year, which I feel is a step in the right direction. we'll see, maybe I'll go crazy next year & help spread mulch...(don't hold your breath though!)

Outdoor House Updates

Brian has been slaving away on the outside of our house for the past year and a half. He was "that guy" that you'd see out there uprooting trees with his bare hands, spreading mulch like his life depended on it and planting flowers in the pouring down rain. But his hard work has paid off! the previous owners had pretty much let everything go outside (ie-did absolutely nothing at all in the years they lived there) so Brian decided to rip mostly everything out and start over. Here are some before and after pics:

Before: ugly shutters & door, overgrown half-dead bushes

After: fresh paint on shutters and door, ripped out all of the dead bushes, new plants

Before: the owners must have loved to watch ivy consume their house, more overgrown half dead bushes growing alongside the driveway

After: peace out, ivy! new flowers and plans along driveway.

Before: gazebo with ripped canopy top

After: new gazebo frame and cover, Brian leveled the sidewalk in front of the gazebo and put down new stones

Before: backyard, where the owners thought it would be a good idea to have HUGE bushes growing right smack in the middle of the yard (yea, those things that look like trees are actually BUSHES. in the middle of the yard.)

After: Brian ripped out all of the trees, planted new grass and built a retaining wall on the bank going into the backyard.

Before: patio area that was made up of wood chips and a huge playset (which we sold on Craigslist, go us)

After: had a patio installed, put plants in on the bank

Happy Memorial Day!

I really wish every weekend were 3 days, it makes such a difference! We managed to get a lot of work and play in this weekend and in a shocking turn of events, the weather actually cooperated ALL weekend. (that's practically unheard of!)

The house stuff is coming along...Brian got one set of shutters painted on Saturday (from the nasty chipped beige color to this new black....it makes the whole house look cleaner) Here are some before, during & after pictures:

While he painted, Jake & I sat in the shade and read "People" magazine...Brian looked disturbed when he overheard me reading out loud "And then, Angelina & Brad took Maddox and Shiloh to the beach in Venice...." but reading is reading, right? it was an educational experience for both of us.

Unfortunately, I caught Jake's pink eye from last week (ew, ew...I know, it's gross) but I managed to suck it up & help out...outside. Yes, you heard right...I worked outside. (I helped pull weeds & ivy one day last summer and nearly died, it wasn't a pretty sight.) But it was pleasantly warm all weekend, not sweltering hot yet, so I took it upon myself to slap on some SPF 292 and pot my own plants that I put in the gazebo (go me!) It's not completely set up yet, but I'll be sure to post pictures once it is.

Sunday, we went into Oakland for a picnic (that involved Uncle Sam's subs, mmmm!) on the Cathedral lawn, followed by a walk to Dave & Andy's (it's days like these that make me REALLY miss living in Oakland!) Jake had a great time looking around (and smiling at) all of the people and hanging out on the blanket.

The picnic was pretty tiring, so we had to wait while 2 members of the family took naps:

Monday we went to the little park in our development, where Jake went down a slide for the first time:

We're pretty sure that Brian had more fun than the baby, but that's ok. Gracie also had a good time, running around the open field as free as a bird...she then slipped into a coma for the rest of the afternoon.

Happy Memorial Day!

You know you're a parent when....

You realize that everything that belongs to your baby is nicer than most of the stuff you own. Case in point: bedroom furniture. Jake's furniture is great & I love being in his room...then I walk into our room & stare at the furniture that was Brian's in his college apartment (and if you had ever been in Brian's old apartment, you'd be even more disturbed that we still have the same furniture) I was especially reminded of this yesterday when I went to put laundry away & when I pulled a drawer of the dresser open, the whole drawer practically cracked in half and a bunch of clothes came tumbling out. Brian's temporary fix? To stuff the clothes back in, shut the drawer & pretend that it never happened.

You also know you're a parent when you don't care that the baby has nicer stuff than you, more clothes, etc...and you actually enjoy buying him stuff more than you do buying stuff for yourself at this point. (his stuff is much cuter anyway!) here are some pictures of his fabulous nursery, for those of you who haven't seen it: