White lights and bubbly baths

I recently hosted my very first dinner party at which I (finally) used the china from my wedding. 

Mikasa Gothic Platnium

Well, the plates at least!  I don't have a full set of the other stuff, which has never been a problem until now! I used the decorations from a baby shower I hosted earlier in the week to create a cool blue and white 'wintry' feel.  The guests stayed 'till midnight (on a weeknight!) and we had such a great time!

Oh, and also I got this good stuff as a hostess gift!

 Lollia bubble bath in 'Believe'.  It smells great and foams up really well!

My newest favorite quote

Seriously, sleeping is near the top of favorite activities.  Maybe not the favorite, but I love to sleep.  I don't understand those people who say, "I'll sleep when I die." What is that?  Sleep is a part of life!  I look forward to my dreams and waking up refreshed.  I do admit that I have awesome, enjoyable, story-like dreams, which often make sleep like watching or participating in a movie.  Anyway, I stumbled upon this quote and I love it:


O bed! O bed! delicious bed!
That heaven upon earth to the weary head.
~Thomas Hood, Miss Kilmansegg - Her Dream
Sourced via QuoteGarden

Things I love and don't love

My B-I-L burst out laughing the other day when I exclaimed "I love tabs!  How did we ever live without them?"  Referring, of course, to the tabs in your browser.  This got me thinking about other things I love and those I don't love so much. (There are lots more than this, I know, but these are the ones that quickly came to mind!)

Things I love:
Tabs in my browser and email (!)
CTRL ALT 'click' to launch a new tab
Browsers that spell check
The 'define' function on a search engine
Fat Quarters
Having enough red/pink laundry to run a load at least once a week
Clean sheets
Friends' blogs
Pinterest

Things I don't love:
The five unread emails I can't find in my inbox (grrr!)
Laundry
Dishes
Alarm clocks only beep, buzz, or ring
Walking barefoot on dirty/sandy floors
The fact that I'm a bad speller and grammarian
Sentences that start with 'Being that...'
How commercials are always way louder than the program you're actually watching

Skillz

Tonight I participated in a 'knife skills' class at one of our local upscale supermarkets. It was a lot of fun to use 'correct' chopping techniques with well sharpened knives!  (And made me realize my knives need to be sharpened.)  I was glad to take the class, not only to learn a few new skills (how to cut a bell pepper, for instance) but to learn, once again, that there are many 'right' ways of doing something and that holding myself to some ethereal ideal is just silly.  Not only did I know a lot of the techniques - from just plain figuring them out - I realized, that, as with everything, each person brings their own unique method of accomplishing a task (in this case, chopping veggies and fruit into common sized portions!) to the table.  So, all in all, a fun, reaffirming night.  Everybody needs one once in awhile.

Laundry DIY

I've spent the weekend DIYing my laundry room.  Well starting to, anyway.  Pics to come soon.  But I've had a great time working on it and it will be an ongoing process.  Right now, I'm still at the beginning stages, but I will say the hubs was a painting super-star and helped me get it plus my pantry painted this weekend.  Loving the new colors in both.  Pics and plans coming soon!

Motivated

Today I did something I've never done before - I went to the home store and bought a whole bunch of supplies to start a new project.  It isn't that I haven't done projects before, it's just that I've always taken my hubs with me to do the shopping and have depended on him (a lot) to initiate the actual project.  But life changes and he's super busy right now and I have some stuff that can't wait.  Really, like literally can't wait.  I have junk spread out all over my house for three 'domino' projects.  By domino, I mean one project bleeds slightly into the other which bleeds into the third.  I can't truly call any of them complete until all of them are complete.  And thus I decided to do them simultaneously, which may or may not be a good idea, but I want all of this settled like yesterday. 

So anyway, all of this is to say, I took charge of my own plans!  I had hardly any idea what I was doing, but I asked and they helped.  And I got what I wanted.  And we may need to go back, but so what.  At least I started.

Slowly goes it

I'm working on my house.  Actually, I'm working on lots of different projects in my house and outside of it.  I have so many ideas, but the fact of the matter is, I'm slow.  It seems to me, that what other people get done in a day, takes me two, or maybe a week.  Or what should take just a few minutes, inevitably turns into an hour.  Frustrating yes, but over time, I've learned to compensate.  When I estimate how long it will take me to do something, I usually at least double the time, mentally, so as not to be too frustrated when I'm not done as expected.  When planning for events and parties, I've learned to 'under-commit', meaning, I take what I think I'd like to do and half it!  I've learned that I'm not great at actually preparing to do a project, either.  Perhaps one of the reasons things take so much time is that I'm constantly running for supplies -whether it be to the garage or to the store.  I think, though, that I've started to be realistic about this aspect of my personality.  I try to be honest with people, letting them know that I need lots of time to plan things - whether its a visit to my house, or a craft project, I need to know when something is 'due', so to speak, weeks in advance.  That way I can factor my slowness into the equation and still come out with an experience or product that I find acceptable.  Do I like my slowness? No.  But I've come to accept it.