Progress in the Garage

NavyGuy and his new shelves. And the mallet. So manly :)


And voila! All of the random garage items that had no home, now neatly organized in one place.

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Squeaky Clean

As a bribe / morale booster, the skipper gave NavyGuy's command Friday and Monday off. Which is excellent, because it means we can institute spring cleaning a few weeks early!

NavyGuy is thrilled.

Nope, that's not the word, but we'll go with it.

I am PUMPED! Friday is garage day. We're going to Lowe's to get shelving, so we can stop storing everything on the extra swivel stools stashed in the garage. NavyGuy doesn't know it yet, but I'm also going to find something to bet him over, and when he inevitably loses the bet, he'll have to mow the lawn (which has gotten way out of hand and makes our house look like it should have broken down cars and empty Blatz cans scattered about the grass).

We're also planning to get a medicine cabinet for the master bathroom (because I'm sick of digging through the Xerox paper box in the office to find bandaids or cold medicine). If there's time, the oven needs a good cleaning.

What spring cleaning task would you love to tackle? (or pay someone to deal with while you sit comfortably with a cool drink...)

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Reader Question, Answered

Keep your questions coming here!

BeeHive asked:

Do you ever miss Pensacola?

Great question! The answer is yes, and no. There are tons of things I definitely don't miss, including (but not limited to), sweet tea, Southern accents, the oppressive heat and humidity, bugs, fear of hurricanes, and more sweet tea.

Yet, I've realized there are several things that I do miss about Pensacola:

1) That it was a big city. Pensacola had tons of restaurants, stores, bars, and other important city components. Even though the geography of the city could make traveling from one part to another a bit of a challenge, it was still all there. And Anacortes just can't compete there.

2) That it had a fairly substantial sized airport. Traveling home (or anywhere) was vastly simpler when we lived in Pensacola. Drive twenty minutes to the airport, and hop a flight. Now, it's a two hour drive to the aiport in Seattle. Additionally, the Pensacola airport had lots of flights to Wisconsin, which was great for us.

3) That it was relatively closer to home than where we are now. Traveling from Wisconsin to Northern Florida is totally do-able. NavyGuy and I drove it in two days. Flights were a simple jump to Atlanta, then a short connecting flight to Milwaukee. Pensacola is also in the Central Time Zone, so it was easy to keep in touch with friends and family back home - no irritating math to try and figure out if I'm going to wake someone up or interrupt someone's workday. Northwest Washington to the Midwest is a different ball of wax - basically, you have to allot an entire day just for the trip, which cramps my jet-setting style.

4) That it had beaches. Lots of beaches. If you're going to get technical, Washington has beaches. But if I have to wear a wet suit and winter coat to go swimming, it ain't really a beach.

5) That Pensacola meant I could see lots of NavyGuy. Let me explain. When NavyGuy and I were in Pensacola together, he was still in flight school, so he'd go several days without having to do much of anything. Maybe show up for muster at 8am and then back home for the rest of the day. One or two flights a week. So, I got used to having him around. And I'll always associate Pensacola with us. It's where we started our Navy journey, and despite all the struggles, sweat (literally), and sweet tea - I'll always miss Pensacola just a little bit.

Where have you previously lived that you can now look back on fondly?

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Home Again Home Again, Jiggity Jig

Is there anything more comfortable than your own bed after an extended vacation? (Typing from said location, I'll simply say, ahhhhhhhh)


NavyGuy and I arrived back in Washington Monday night, many pounds heavier from all the wonderful eating, revived by all our family and friends, and one of us nursing a vicious cold (apparently my immune system has lost its previously powerful Midwest winter strength and made me susceptible to anything and everything). NavyGuy has to go back to work right away tomorrow morning, but I'm looking forward to slowly easing back into regular life. Aside from tackling the vacation laundry, I have little on the schedule. Rest, catching up on my Google Reader (151 unread posts!), and savoring the comfortableness of home.

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Escape to Wisconsin: The Plan is Hatched

So... as soon as we confirmed that NavyGuy would be spending the last week of January training with his squadron in Las Vegas (more on this later), I knew there was no way I would be moping around the house by myself the whole time. I could have gone down to Vegas to visit him, but why go to beautiful Vegas in January when I could go to beautiful Wisconsin in January?!?!?

The plan began to take shape. How fun would it be for me to sneak into Fond du Lac (under cover of darkness via a red-eye flight), run through a Culver's drive-thru to snab some french fries, and then show up at my mom's classroom all, "yeah, I just got bored and really wanted some custard and some cold weather, so I came home for the weekend!" Answer - wicked fun. As soon as I told NavyGuy my plot, he agreed that it could work, and that it would be a pretty awesome surprise for everyone.

I had to do some reconnaissance though before the mission could take place. First up, I put Sister in charge of chatting up Mom and making sure that she didn't have any major plans for the weekend in question (she didn't - she'd planned to get her taxes done... which clearly is way less fun than having her favorite daughter visit). Next I needed a babysitter for Tally pup, since both NavyGuy and I would be gone, and much as Mom may have liked a visit from her grandpuppy, there was no way I going to try to travel alone with the Tally. Third, I contacted an ally at Mom's school (one of her teaching partners) to nail down the bell schedule, where Mom would be at what time, etc. etc. Lastly, I had to not tell anyone! SO HARD!!! (But so worth it.)

So by last Thursday, we were ready to rock'n'roll...

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Holiday Decorating: Part 3 The Home Tour

After finally completing the Christmas decorating process, I'm ready to show off the house. NavyGuy and I staged a little home tour, complete with Tally cameos and my general ridiculousness when on film...

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Delivery!

Okay guys, this big brown thing is kinda freakin' me out, and I can't get to any of my toys. If you're done taking funny pictures of me, can you please get me down now?

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New Food, Free Food, and a Place to Set Food

*Next week Tuesday, Starbucks launches its new holiday drink... the Caramel Brulee Latte. Before we sell any new drinks, we baristas have to practice making them and tasting them, so that we can speak truthfully when guests ask us what they taste like or if we enjoy them. And enjoy them we do! I tasted one for the first time today, and I can tell they are going to be pretty popular. The caramel brulee latte is espresso shots, steamed milk, and a new caramel brulee syrup, all topped with whipped cream and crunchy caramel pieces. The drink is pretty sweet, which is great for those of us who don't jive on regular coffee; for those of you who don't like as much sweetness, just ask for it with fewer pumps of syrup. It's sort of like a caramel macchiato, but the flavors are all mixed together, unlike the more layered macchiato. Even if I didn't work for the company, I'd recommend you try this new holiday treat next Tuesday when it debuts!

*NavyGuy and I had dinner at Applebee's tonight, because the restaurant gave a FREE MEAL to every military veteran today (in case you missed it - it's Veteran's Day people). Not surprisingly, the restaurant was packed, and the bartender we talked to said it had literally been non-stop chaos since they opened the doors at lunch time. I'm not surprised that the Applebee's in our area was so busy, considering there's a Navy base right down the road, but I hope that lots of veterans got to take advantage today. Way to go Applebee's... for saying to all those who've served our country, thank you... and now have some free hot wings and cheeseburgers!

*I've been searching online - for weeks - for a new coffee table for the family room. We have been using my small, rickety, found-it-in-the-hallway-of-a-dorm, 1970s coffee table. And while it's held up okay, before the masses descend in two weeks (Thanksgiving), we wanted to upgrade to something a bit more substantial. So I did what any sensible, 20th century shopper would do - a thorough internet search, comparing prices, sizes, shipping fees, storage capacity, design elements, and NavyGuy's all-important "can it hold my soda can?" test. What did I find? Nothing that fit all of my requirements.

So, losing patience, NavyGuy and I hit Ashley Home Furnishings tonight before dinner, just to see if, on a whim, they might have a solution. I kid you not, 87 seconds after we walked into the store, we found this:The perfect coffee table. (Not, not the sketchy woman lounging on the couch.) It is everything I wanted. Square. Dark-brown. Leather. Ottoman. With storage. In the form of four pull-out drawers, thus creating the perfect combination of being able to set stuff on top of the table, and not having to move all that stuff when you want to access the storage spaces to get at your blanket or stash of Halloween candy you've been hiding from your husband... oops.

Anyway, it's due to arrive on Saturday, and I'm positively giddy. Plus, in order to appease NavyGuy (and meet his one coffee table requirement), I get to shop for a decorative tray tomorrow so he can set his drink on the table without fear of it spilling! This coffee table just gets better and better!

P.S. Tally's still great. Oh, and she agrees with me that the coffee table is awesome.

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Turkey Day Decor

I've been trolling the web in search of Thanksgiving decoration ideas, and I'm clearly veering away from orange and pilgrims this year:

I love this simple napkin ring idea; you could put people's names on the paper and have them double as placecards, or come up with a nice Thanksgiving themed quote.
More Halloween-y than Thanksgiving-ish, but I love the concept...
Gray-blue? For Thanksgiving? I'm kind of lovin' it...
Again, muted tones and white pumpkins. Starting to sense a theme here.
Robin's egg blue? Again, if you added some browns and taupes and caramels, plus the white pumpkins, I think it could be a really modern Turkey day.

Cool tablecloth. The pop of red is also unexpected.

If I've learned anything about decorating, it's if you're going to stick with one color, you need lots of it. Hence, the large grouping of ivory candles and pumpkins.
Seriously - where am I going to find this many good looking mini white pumpkins?!?!

Oh Martha - you never fail to impress. Overturned pie plates, a few paper leaves, and some DIY pumpkin candle holders. I know I said I was avoiding orange, but the hanging lanterns are such a fun idea. Great color splash, and an easy way to add a chandelier for a special occasion dinner.

I've got just about a month to whittle down my ideas and amass supplies... you'll have to wait 'til then for the final results!

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Home Sweet Home: Fall Decor

If Sandra Lee can do "tablescapes," then I can rock a "bookcase-scape."



Not gonna lie - I'm pretty impressed with myself! I used a couple books from around the house to give it some height (which all my decorating books say is crucial), and took the dust jackets off to make the colors fit in with the other items. The black candle holder on the left is from PartyLite, the fall pumpkin candles were a Target sale item that I picked up this week, and the orange vase is from IKEA, with a Michaels 30 cent scarecrow stuck in instead of flowers.

How did you celebrate yesterday's first day of fall?

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Home Sweet Home: Lights, Camera, Action!

We left our design story here; I hinted that the white balls hiding in the schnazzy bookshelf were more than they appeared...



I KNOW! So FLIPPIN' awesome. Mom and I found them while we were wandering IKEA and checking out the showrooms for inspiration. The FADO table lamp was probably originally designed to be a general table lamp, or bedside light. A popular design blog, Apartment Therapy, featured it earlier this year, but they didn't have the cube bookshelf to really showcase it.

Cute, but I prefer our version. When NavyGuy and I watched a movie this past weekend, we turned off all of the other family room lights and just left the ball lights on - it worked great! Best of all, they were super cheap at $15 a piece! Which means when I eventually get sick of them, no guilt!

So, here's where the family room is at for now:



A work in progress, but very liveable for the time being.

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Home Sweet Home: Pretty Storage

Mom and I made our biggest find at IKEA within twelve seconds of entering the building:Mom and I basically lost our shiznit when we saw it. I know - you're thinking, huh, yeah, so it's a cube thing. What's the big deal? The big deal, is that when you lay it on its long side and dress it up a bit, it's freakin' awesome. Just trust me people, would I ever lead you astray? No.

So, it's the Expedit Bookcase (otherwise known as, my current favorite item in the house). The one catch was that I didn't want to store tons of stuff on the shelves out in the open, because it would inevitably look messy.

There are baskets that you can purchase separately, but they were about $15 each! Oh no no no. I think not... there must be an alternative solution... hmmm...


Brilliance! What else could we do with the 40 or so odd bankers boxes we had used for moving that were still camping out in every room of the house!?!?!? Oh blessed boxes, would you fit in the cubes? NavyGuy doubted me, but he was foolish and has since learned never to question my design ideas... the boxes fit perfectly.

We dressed the plain boxes up with contact paper (sticky paper) from Wal-Mart. They have tons of neutral patterns and you can find the contact paper in the kitchen storage / housewares type section. We covered a bunch of boxes, some for the bookcase that would go in the family room (and some for the other bookcase that I'll show off when I take pictures of the craft zone!).


Mom was in charge of this project. Essentially, she cut a piece of contact paper, with at least a 1 inch border, for each side of the box (excluding the bottom).



The contact paper peels off revealing the sticky side, which you simply stick to the box. Lay it on carefully, using your hand to smooth out any bubbles or wrinkles in the paper. Eventually it will stick firmly, but you can reposition it as you're working with it.

Then you're going to cut the contact paper at the corners, so you can fold it over the sides of the box and create clean edges.

If you pick a pattern with stripes (and you're ANAL with capital letters), carefully match up those stripes! We chose this pattern for the mix of basic colors, including a blue that matches the new family room curtains.

I'm in love.

No, wait. Now, I'm in love.

No, we did not measure the inset space between the fireplace and the wall; we are just that lucky good, and the shelf totally fit there. Several more covered boxes, a few open shelves with pretty books and knickknacks, and what? What's that? What is that round white ball in one of the cubes, you ask? Well friends, you're going to have to wait and see...

Are you in love yet?

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Home Sweet Home: Book Nook

And here's what happens when two book nerds get married...



Embarrassingly, we both have books still at our parents' houses, I have several boxes of books from my classroom being stored in the garage, and there's an empty bookcase (not seen in the photo) just waiting to be filled.

Truth be told, we're thrilled about our little library; I'm not giving up hope that we can install a sliding ladder just like Belle had in Beauty and the Beast. It's a great use of the extra space off of our family room downstairs. The majority of the bookcases are from IKEA.

Like most of our house, this is a work in progress. What would you ideally add to the book nook? (Personally, I'd be jazzed if we could rig a secret hidden room that reveals itself when you pull a certain book of a shelf ;)

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Home Sweet Home: Hanging Curtains

Window coverings for the basement family room was one of the major projects I knew we needed to accomplish while Mom was visiting. The family room is right on the ground level of the main road past our house, so all night long we could see headlights going by and people could see into our lounging area. The entire upstairs of the house has nice wooden slat blinds, but we don't have the funds to outfit all the basement windows with such luxuries right now, so inexpensive drapes needed to work. Per usual, IKEA came through for us.

IKEA Curtains - Lenda 2 pair with tie backs

The size we needed (55x98) was on sale for only $14.99! WHOA! Way cheaper than anything I had seen online at other stores, so we picked up three sets. That way, we'd have six panels to cover the span of the two large windows and sliding door.



A separate trip to Lowe's where we found two curtain rods and the necessary hardware, and we were in business! NavyGuy got to work installing the rod while Mom and I took turns ironing the large blue panels. Above, you can see NavyGuy gingerly working around the television; Mom refused to get anywhere near the TV lest she damage it in some way and forever be the mother-in-law who broke her son-in-law's baby television set.



Can you see what's on the television while we worked? Inspiration of course! Basically HGTV is the only channel that all three of us could agree on, so we soaked up many episodes of House Hunters, Color Splash, and Bang for Your Buck while we worked.



Voila! Window coverings! They look slightly ghetto in this photo for some reason, but take my word for it - they look much better in real life (and anything is better than two blankets push-pinned into the wall...). I'm pretty excited about the blue color as an accent for the basement. I'd say for about $75 dollars and some time on a step ladder, we got a good end result.

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Before Pictures

Since some people... (you know who you are... Mother) have expressed interest in seeing the new house in all its chaos and insanity, here's a glimpse into the mess. My mom suggested I call these "before" photos, like on the decorating shows on HGTV where you see the hideous 1980s kitchen with gold drawer handles and then the after photo pops up and the kitchen magically looks thoroughly modern and beautiful.

All you're getting for some time is the before version, but eventually there will be after photos (with thoroughly modern and beautiful rooms!).

Future Office / Craft Room

Future Family Room / Library (Yes, those are all boxes of books... and you can't see all of them.)

Future Kitchen and Livingroom

Future Diningroom

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Updates and Blogkeeping

* Happy Belated Fourth of July! NavyGuy and I celebrated by going to the Anacortes parade (there was an Uncle Sam on stilts!), and watching the fireworks downtown. For a small town, Anacortes puts on an impressive display of pyrotechnics.

* Everything went well with the house inspection - better than well in fact. The "brickkicker" found almost no problems in the entire place. Essentially, there's one screw missing from a downspout on the side of the deck, and the blinds on the sliding door upstairs need to be re-positioned farther away from the door (currently, they catch when you slide the door open). The appraiser comes tomorrow, and then we just have to wait patiently for the financing to be complete... though patiently might be asking a little much.

* Sunday morning was my first shift at Target. I've been assigned to the Starbucks in the Target, so while I'm technically a Target employee, I will be trained on Starbucks first. Confusing, yes. After my first shift, where I was trained by a 24 year old, I learned that a) I'm going to have to taste all of the drinks (ew, I hate coffe), b) the saran wrap box is smarter than me, and c) I have a LOT to learn before I can be left alone in the Starbucks. I have another shift tomorrow; we'll see if I make any progress.

* NavyGuy has been on "holiday" since last Thursday, and it's high time he go back to work.

On a separate note, I realized I missed my 1 year "blog"-aversary on June 25th!!! I meant to celebrate somehow, but the date just slipped by. That's okay. It's really just shocking that I've actually stuck with this for so long! I tend to grab new hobbies and obsessions for a while and then let them drift... Nonetheless, since we missed the date, I'm going to celebrate a different milestone - 500 posts! This post marks #475, so I have a few more posts to come up with a way to party with all of you. Feel free to leave any suggestions in the comments - I'm thinking maybe some giveaways? Or a countdown of favorite posts? Posts from some of the frequent guest stars like Mom, Sister, TWP, NavyGuy, or HistoryGirlie? Let me know what you'd like.

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Another step closer...

We had our inspection today for the new house - everything was great! The house was just built in 2006, and was lived in for a very short time, so we sort of expected that things should be in order, but we were still worried. You never know what hidden surprises could be waiting for you once you send an inspector into the house. Luckily, Dan our "BrickKicker" inspector, rocked, and found not one major problem.

While NavyGuy followed the BrickKicker around, I took more photos of the place, and made some measurements so I can do a little furniture planning :) If you'd like to check out our new digs, here are the collection of photos that I took, and that were provided by the real estate website:

You can also view the photos individually here. We're so excited!!!

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Breaking News! We're Gonna Be...

Homeowners!

OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's all pending inspections and appraisals and the other closing stuff, but we've been eyeing up this house for a while, and I'm psyched!!! There will be lots more details and stories to come, but for the moment, let's all just celebrate and drool over our fingers crossed new digs! :)

Casa de NavyFamily!

Upstairs kitchen and livingroom/diningroom - NavyGuy loves the view, I love the cabinets.

My pink KitchenAid mixer is gonna look so fabulous on the counter!!!

Downstairs family room, with a second fireplace... lots of room for scrapbook paraphernalia...

More details about the house, and the whole process we've been going through coming later this week... I'm off to do more celebrating!

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I {heart} Target

Another new weekly feature - the best of the Target ad! Each Monday I'm going to highlight one sale item at Target that I heart and even if I can't buy it - you definitely should :)

Week of February 1st: Double Storage OttomanOn sale for $59.99!!! This ottoman is my baby. It's been on my drool-worthy list for over a year, and it was the first item I added to the wedding registry. Because the gods love me - it now resides in our bedroom, and when it's a really good day, NavyGuy has not used it as a makeshift clothes hamper... (I'm still explaining ottoman rules to him). I would recommend the dark brown, but it also comes in black.

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Lazy Sunday

The rain has come down for the fourth day in a row. I now understand the phrase "stir-crazy."


NavyGuy and I tested out our new griddle this morning and made pancakes. We tried to make breakfast with our old griddle (a hand-me-down from his parents) several months ago, and when the Teflon started to come off the griddle and mix with the Bisquick, we knew it was time to invest in a new one. Luckily, we got a griddle from his grandma at the bridal shower, and now we're back in the hotcake business - there are simply no pancakes like griddle pancakes! The griddle spreads out the heat so each pancake browns evenly, and they are simply delicious.

Instead of spending the day moping inside while it rained, we road tripped to Bellingham (about 45 minutes north) to check out a scrapbooking store. PaperZone is my new crack supplier; two ink pads, a couple sheets of lace cardstock, four clearance rolls of ribbon, and a pack of 50 envelopes later, and NavyGuy has now banned me from going to the store without supervision. Barnes and Noble next, where we kept losing each other around the store, until finally we found each other next to the end cap of The Watchmen paperbacks (his original purpose for going in the store that until that point he hadn't been able to find), and we took that as a sign it was time to go. One lap around the Bellis Fair mall (fair to middling), a run through the Dairy Queen drive-thru (Blizzards never disappoint), and home again home again, to watch it keep raining.

Now we're commentating on the Golden Globes. My thoughts so far?
1. I'm glad Sister and Bro-in-Law got us John Adams for Christmas, cuz by the number of awards it's getting, it must be good.
2. Tom Hanks needs to drink less at these events.
3. Renee Zellwegger and JLo need new stylists.
4. If they're going to insist on doing interviews with the stars on the red carpet, then for god's sake, don't try to do them right in front of the SCREAMING throngs of SCREAMING fans. It's uncomfortable enough to watch the interviews when the stars can hear the questions, but when they're just making up answers based on their minimal lip-reading talents, it's unbearable.
5. I would like to say here and now, that I watched 30 Rock before it was cool, and before Tina Fey was the most popular woman in America. If you're still not watching it, start damnit!
6. When I come back in my next life, I want to look like Kate Winslet.

Yes! 30 Rock just won best comedy! (Okay, fine, they won the award like three hours ago, but off in the far-away land that is the West Coast, we're just getting the news... don't get me started. Wait, I've started! How is it that the Globes are live in Hollywood, the same time zone I'm currently in, and yet the Globes weren't on TV here until 8:00 at night!?!?!? Whew, okay, sorry. Just had to get that off my chest.)

Here's hoping Monday is less lazy (and less rainy!).

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