Miscellany Monday

1. Le Sigh. Here are the requested pictures of the new home--with one major caveat: if any one buys this home out from under me, I will hunt you down. Seriously.  If it sells, I will stalk the PVA to figure out who ruined my dream. 

I know it's a long shot that our house will sell in time for us to buy this one, but it's worth the try, right?  Again, if anyone wants to buy our house (or pass our house details on to friends who are looking to buy), you would make my (and hubby's) year :) 

Without further ado, here are pictures of the home we are lusting after: 

 

It's on a half of an acre in the neighborhood my husband grew up in.  We love the outside; but, the inside cosmetically could use a little work (which is right up our alley).  It would be a forever home--if we get it, we plan on staying put and making it exactly what we want.  I love all the windows and the natural light and the bones of the house are great (detailed crown moulding, cherry built-ins, roughed-in basement, hardwood floors).  That said, I should point out the bathroom, upstairs carpet, kitchen, and color scheme need some updating. 

Fingers crossed that someone comes and looks at our house soon so we can hurry up, move in, and start sprucing it up!

2. Weekend.  Although neither of us would admit it, we were both hoping to at least show our house once this weekend since it went on the market Friday.  No such luck.  But, we spent a significant portion of the weekend cleaning up the house and the yard.  Saturday we watched the game and went to Panera for a quick dinner.  First of all, when did Panera start putting calories on their menu? It is an ingenious idea, but it definitely changed around what I order.  Clearly, I hadn't been to Panera in a while.  

 We wanted to try out Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt, but my gosh I see now why they are opening up three more locations.  There was a zig-zag line throughout the store and literally out the door around the sidewalk.  It was so crazy we decided to immediately turn around and just go get a Blizzard from DQ.  Not froyo, but still delicious. 

After polishing off our blizzards, we headed to the Beer Trappe. 

We had never been and were very pleasantly surprised at what a fun place it was.  We went with another couple (he's in my law class and she's in Jr. League with me)--it was great to just have a relaxing night enjoying good beer.  The most interesting beer I tried was the Three Floyds Gumballhead. It had a lot of hop to it and is a great spring/summer beer (i.e., it got me prepared for this wonderful 50 degree weather we are supposed to have this week). 

On Sunday after church  I came home and napped (I'm still recovering from my extra long week) while Cam cleaned up the yard and washed the cars. Does he win the award for best hubby ever?  Cam's brother hosted family dinner night and it was good for the 4 of us to get together. Hope you all had a good weekend!

3. Be mine?  Cam and I never really all out celebrate Valentine's day. Between Christmas and both of our birthdays, it kind of gets lost in the shuffle.  We generally have a $25 policy and cook a nicer dinner together.  Tonight I have night class, so we will keep it even more low key than usual.  What V-Day traditions do you have? What are ya'll doing to celebrate?

Have a great Monday and Happy Love Day! :) 

Eye Candy

I couldn't sleep last night, so I decided to start reading the discovery for my Innocence Project case that I copied on Wednesday at 10 last night.  I didn't fall asleep until page 730-ish, which I think was between 3 and 4 AM.  The alarm clock still went off at 6:50 this morning--so needless to say, today I am dragging. 

I feel like I do this a lot: I have one or two days a week where I just can't fall asleep.  At least it's been a productive day--outlined this morning, finished reading the remaining 100 pages of the discovery, did a presentation for the Innocence Project, and am now doing my article incorporation for journal.  I clearly lead an enthralling life, I know. 

Because I'm frankly too tired to do a real post, how about we all just have some Friday eye candy of my favorite kind: dresses.  I'm not the a collector of shoes or handbags, but I just love dresses.  Something about them feels so feminine and put together.  

I love these recent dresses from Modcloth: 

I really hope this one comes back in stock so I can order for New Year's--I adore it!

Modcloth's awesome dresses: just another reason I'm excited to start working so I can actually afford to do more than lust. 




Happy weekend everyone, and what a great weekend it will be: beautiful weather, the beginning of basketball season, and a home football game! Ah, love...

Ten on Tuesday: Bathsuits

The final semi-annual sale day at Victoria's Secret is today, and I'm absolutely lusting after these 10 bathing suits and cover ups.  Le Sigh. Hopefully they will be back on sale at the end of the summer.

Remodel Lust for Kitchen

So I stumbled upon this GORGEOUS kitchen remodel at Design and Dump. I adore the changes she made to the kitchen and realized how similar of a space our kitchens are (although we don't have the nice island, the layout is almost identical with the door and cabinet placement and table space with window). She and her husband did all the work for renovations themselves. Check out these pictures of her before: 

and after: 

Parts that I would love to incorporate into our kitchen if we decide to renovate it (which I think we should, but its just a matter of if we would get it back in a resell):  

• The granite color (minotaurus) and how it complements the wall color(s)
• The ivory-ish tile blacksplash with a darker grout
• The island with the breaskfast bar (ours would have to be 4' x 3 1/2'--do you think an island that small is worth it?)
• The large message board on the wall. The kitchen is such a hub that it would be the perfect place for memos/messages, etc. 
• Her large damask curtains that take up the wall. I have three windows too and was unsure how to properly dress them with curtains
• the crown moulding. Our kitchen is the only room lacking it downstairs so I think it would help the flow of the house...
• I love the black cabinets. Hubs doesn't think we should paint our wooden cabinets from a resell perspective (ours are stained cherry), but I love the sleek look of the black. But, it probably wouldn't complement or blend well with our current (ivory) appliances that came with the house (and are decent enough not to get rid of)--but that beside the point, right? 

We probably won't remodel our kitchen anytime soon, but if we did, the Design and Dump kitchen basically exactly what I would to do. 

 
Other renovations I would LOVE to do in our kitchen (that are semi-feasible in that they don't involve ripping walls out and changing the house layout): 

• remove the sofits and replace the lighting to be up-light above the cabinets.  
• I also would love to put in more pull out style drawers and lazy susans in the cabinets to make items more accessible
• replace our sanitizer only as it just bakes food on and doesn't clean dishwasher. It is the bane of my existence some days.
•  Run lighting to the table/bay window area and place small downlights over the table
• I would die for stainless steel applicances, but that won't happen as ours were basically new and work fine.

I shouldn't complain though about home renovations, hubby is currently cutting all new beds for flowers in the yard. Hopefully we can plan this weekend and I am thrilled to be finishing up our outdoor landscaping.

Since we are talking lusts, here are some to-die-for kitchens that I just A-D-O-R-E.

  

I want to do a light like this one if we do put in an island.

 

Which is your favorite? Do you think a kitchen remodel is worth it?

Woke Up Swinging

First and foremost, congrats to my CATS for fighting it out last night in the Cornell's practically home arena. Let's take it all boys! In honor of them and my mood, I thought the following photo is appropriate.

Thanks google!

I literally woke up fighting mad this morning. I dreamt Ca and I took a trip and he literally forgot me and flew home himself. He told me to rent a car and drive the 20 hours home myself.  I was so angry with him that he abandoned me and didn't care. In my dream, we got in a screaming fight and decided to get divorced. I just kept thinking about how I was going to kick his butt when I saw him. 

The dream was so vivid that I literally was extremely disoriented and furious with him this morning. I was so angry I almost punched him when he woke me up and it took me a while to realize that we really were not getting divorced. 

Once I fully woke up, I knew it was silly that I was so mad at him, but I couldn't snap out of it right away because it felt so real and I had so much emotion running through me.

C and I never fight, never threaten or even talk about divorce, and I rarely have bad dreams; but, my silly stupid dream has put me in a weird mood all morning because I keep thinking certain parts are real. I just keep laughing at myself about how silly it all is now. 

Poor husband, having to deal with my craziness. Anyone else have crazy vivid dreams that seem to cross over to real life? 




In other news, we found the desk and credenza we want last night.

Amish Signature Executive office furniture

We are still negotiating out the details, but we are leaning towards cherry wood with a deep cherry stain with the black leather inlay. We will just get the desk and credenza, not the additional bookshelf and side table. I also think we are completely sold now on Amish built furniture. The quality was the better than what we saw at high-end stores and all pieces are custom made to the exact sizes, woods, and details we want. I am so excited to work out the details, save up a little bit, and get this ordered so that we can begin the re-do of our front room into an office.  

What do you all think? Anyone have any reviews on Amish furniture?

Happy St. Patty's Day and Z Gallerie Lusts

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Someone sent me this brain teaser via email so I thought I'd pass it on. Try to find the four leaf clover: 

We went shopping again today because it rained. I finally got a pair of red canvas Toms--I am so happy, they are so comfortable! Cam got this gorgeous Luchiano Visconti men's dress shirt: 

We also went to Z Gallerie and found some things we like there. We want to redo our formal living room first so everything else is not a priority to buy, but I liked these pieces a lot. It is so hard sometimes to redo anything because I prefer modern and Cam prefers traditional/antiques. It's often hard to agree on anything it seems like. Does anyone else have this problem when it comes to decorating? Here are a few we (generally) agreed on at Z Gallerie:

 

Z Gallerie Manchester Dining Room Table $1,499.00

 Barracuda $120 (they remind us of our honeymoon since we saw them on both our dives)

Riddler Wine Racks $45.95-$89.95

Kabuki Dinner Brulee set of four dinner plates: $31.80 (I would use the dinner plate as a charger) 

Big Mouth Fish Bowl $38.00

I hope everyone is having a fantastic Wednesday!

ModCloth Lusts...

Right now, I've come to the conclusion that home may be where the heart is, but spring break is where my mind is.


I am SO ready for vacation it isn't funny. We always find great deals at the outlets on vacation, so I decided to begin that vacay a little early by around online for perfect outfits at great prices that I can wear out or to the office. Here are some of my favorites--all from ModCloth.

There's Something About Dress           Count the Ways Dress

$64.99                                                        $79.99

Muralist Top                                     In the Limelight Dress

$59.99                                                     $79.99

Paper Bag Lunch Skirt                   This Time Tomorrow Dress

$24.99                                                 $54.99

The Singh Top                                  Twist and Style Sweater

$59.99                                                     $39.99

I now believe ModCloth has some of the cutest things. Anyone had any experience with their clothes--is the quality good? I have a few I want to order, but I hate the hassle of returns.

Good news girls--the weekend is almost here :)