Friday, July 29, 2011

no sir, i'm not 8

my night was a version of this. i know, it's a freakin' sa-weet friday.
except this time, the highlight was a phone call from a man trying to sell new siding for my home.
it went a little something like this:

me: hello?

random man:  hello there! how are you doing this evening?

me: i'm fine, thanks.

random man: i'm calling from *&^(@# company.  is your mom home?

(insert awkward pause)

me: um, i own this home.


yes, thanks for asking.  i do hate life. 

 
what in the hell?

to make a long story...well, long

cheers to you, ronnie ray

ronnie's birthday was the 7th of july.  today? the 29th.
he is still without his gift and let's just say that for his birthday cake, i threw a snickers with an attached love note in his lunch box.  to be fair, i DID ask him if he wanted me to bake him something and he said no. (although, when my mom asked him the same thing he came up with blue-goose pie).  a clear hint that a snickers was the way to go.
then an unfortunate turn of events - - ronnie did not eat his snickers that day and i somehow had it for dessert the next night.  damn.  all that thoughtfulness down the drain.
but now i'm feeling a bit guilty because it really shouldn't take this long to pull something else together.
when it came to his present i planned on buying my guy a hot, tough, sexy tattoo. 
his first.
my idea.
he punked out. couldn't make up his mind, blah, blah blah.
i had planned a evening on the plaza for dinner and even made an appointment with a tattoo parlor for our friday night date. (on the 8th of july -see, i really DID have good intentions.)
when all of that fell through, i still waited around for a week hoping to talk him into it.
no dice.

and then i forgot about a birthday gift altogether. (whoops, you can see that this is where i really dropped the ball.)
so once i remembered that maybe ronnie deserved some sort of celebratory 32-is-kind-of-old-and-you-deserve-something-nice present it was the 25th.  oh geez.

so i thought back to a night where ronnie came home explaining to me he found this old man that redoes old 1950's chain saws and he really wanted one.  (don't ask - i know no one else finds this present "cool", but ronnie gets off on this stuff.)  i texted his best friend and asked for some contact info for this old man, so even though the gift would be late - it would be great.
said best friend had no contact info.
he suggested i get him harley parts - i said no.
ronnie already spends the majority of his free time gazing, wiping, and proudly standing over his new hog. i didn't want to encourage him.
then he suggested a new gun.  another no-go from me.  i mean really.
and last, he suggested a new rod and reel.  okay - score.  that i can get behind.
i haven't actually gone to bass pro and purchased his gift, but at least i know what i'm doing now.
i'm hoping to turn this into a "birthday month" present, so as long as i make my new deadline of sunday i should be able to come out still looking like the good wife i am. clearly.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

hair care

i found this picture on pinterest and fell in love with the look.


my problem?
i had no idea how to do it or even what this braid was called.
with a little research and internet diving, i finally found what i was looking for:
the waterfall braid.

phew.

and then i went to youtube to find a "how to" video.
i like this one... she makes it look real easy.


of course i would leave out the braid at the end - and that sweet bow.
so i tried it on myself. 

it was, in fact, as easy as this mom explained.
takes less than 2 minutes.
my only problem - i didn't have a little helper to hold my loose ends - so i used what God gave me.


and in the end, i think it turned out nicely.
i still needed to straighten it, but at least i have the concept down.


and a close up

(a special thanks to ronzo for his amazing photog skillz)

i have baby sprinkle this weekend and i'm pretty sure my new look will makes it debut.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

what the font

i don't think much about font - most everything i write is in calibri and i send it on it's way.
until i saw a post on pinterest about free fonts.  this could change my crafty world.
here's a couple i found online - but there are tons!




(this is called Desiree's Cool-dots and i always write like this for madeline).

think: lights, camera, action!

cowboy party?


now i'm thinking that anytime you find one of those great "word art" pieces, you could pretty much search out a free font download and get pretty close to replicating your own, sans $$$$.

um, yeah. that's awesome.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

button up

my margie is having her baby boy in a little over a month. 
shan and i traveled to st. louis to help fanger throw her a "cute as a button" shower.
i think it's a little genius on my part to team up with two teachers who happen to be on summer break.
we ended up with the cutest decorations. a little time off must definitely help the creative juices.
look at what lyndsay made:

(crosby banner)

 (initial letters)

you'll also notice the placement of buttons throughout...

(button cookies)

 (button onesie)

 (buttons in mason jars for our centerpiece)

not to mention that i got to hang out with all my good friends.



 and it doesn't get much cuter than this:


Thursday, July 21, 2011

randoms

 

nothing much is going on here today.
i took the day off and had to be in warrensburg by 4 for a dreaded dentist appointment, so i rode to town with ronnie this morning. 
yay for unexpected day off - boo, because i'm bored.
my parents left this morning for a weekend in vegas.
ronnie left to go to work.
i called a friend to see what she was up to, but she was taking her daughter to the pool and i don't plan on making my grand entrance at the warrensburg pool by borrowing my mom's one piece.  
so here i am - with not a lot to do. and not a lot of people around. and it's too hot to do much of anything outside.  so on the computer i sit.
so let's see...
my dad turned 60 last week and the kids went in together and bought him this:
  
it's a new york times birthday book.  basically they make you a book from the date of the birthday and include every front page from the year he was born until this year.  i think he'll really like it. (we haven't been able to give it to him yet).  but it's a good idea for someone who has everything.  plus he likes to read.

speaking of reading, i need to make a suggestion.  i read THE BEST series in a long time. 
and no, it's not twilight.
it's called the hunger games series and it's only three books.  the first one is by far the best, but you'll need to read all three. 


plus, it's being made into a movie - and who doesn't love to see things end up on the big screen?  i do.
(then i can say - well, the book was much better and feel good about my life.)

saturday i leave for st. louis to celebrate a baby boy with some favorite friends. 
should be good and i'm excited to see marge. 

now i better go start scrubbing my pearly whites.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

beef - its whats for dinner


ronnie called me randomly from work last week and asked if i wanted to go in with a group to buy a quarter of a cow.
as a girl that was raised on "homegrown" beef - i said yes.
(i'm sorry, but wal-mart beef is disgusting)
so $385 dollars later, ronnie and i have a ton of meat headed our way.
since our refrigerator is not big enough to hold all this, we decided to also purchase a deep freeze.
my mother and i spent most of the afternoon pricing and comparing freezers.  i decided that since i'm only 5'4 the chest freezers are too deep for me to comfortably use and i wanted an upright one (even though they are more expensive). 
sears ended up having the most options AND it was 15% off.  score.
we ended up with this kenmore upright.
for $405.
mother of pearl.
this is what i like to call an $800 steak dinner.
got beef?

Thursday, July 14, 2011

suit style

i have TWO interviews this week.  hold your breath, cross your fingers, and say a prayer.
i'm feeling confident that eventually something will change and one day i'll be starting my first day of work at my new job. 
but until then, i leave you with my summer suit look.  i just love it.
and yes, the creams look different in these pics, but they really do match.



(this is not the exact shirt, but i couldn't find it online)



here i am before i left:



Tuesday, July 12, 2011

small edits

february was when we welcomed our new sectional into our living room. 
since then my framed "art" - really it's just a poster - has been off centered because of the difference in size from the loveseat to the sectional.



you can clearly see that the picture hangs over the two end pieces and not centered how it should be.
and it never really bothered me.
until i had some friends over and one of them asked if i meant to do that.
i guess its time for a change.
we moved it up and over - going from this:

to this:
 
like i said - small edits.

but my other edit is one of my favorites.
back in the day i desperately wanted to buy these west elm prints.



it was circa 2008-2009 when west elm's williams-sonoma collection, has entered into a partnership with savannah college of art and design. they had a collection of limited printed reproductions of original art by emerging artists for the retailer's customers. 
but the price was over $80 for the three. 
and back then - i was not spending that on "stupid pictures."
(yes, i now realize that this is only $26 a print. i was 24, leave me alone.)
instead, i've been living with this:

in case you can't tell - these are just three black and white flower photographs.
nothing that special.

so i decided to finally diy my own west elm kock offs because i couldn't get them out of my head and now they've been unavailabe for two years.
i literally googled black and white feather, then birds nest and last pearl necklace.
i found these:



so i took them to walgreens and printed them out in 8x10s.
since then i decided that the wall was too big for only three pictures - - i needed six.
wall with only three pics:

so randomly started thinking of other things i could add to make it an even six.
i decided to use a skelton key, a dandelion, and kept one of my old flower photographs.

i love the outcome.
(sorry about the glare)

here it is again before:

and after:

yay for small edits.

Monday, July 11, 2011

miss madeline and mr. ronaldo

madeline had her big first birthday and ronnie had his big 32nd birthday.
there was a lot of fussing from both of them.

ronnie's party



 madeline's party