Happy Monday!

Since JJ's been gone traveling for work, all the plants have died.

I'm making it up to myself with a little vino and trashy tv.

PLUS

PLUS

PLUS

Top that! 

Our home has a few new things I wanted to share with you.

These beautiful silhouettes were made from one of our wedding pictures and were a gift. I told you about these at Christmas time but I just now got around to framing them. Don't they look beautiful on either side of our bed! This is what the bed usually looks like- sorry to disappoint you.

Our contract for our loft requires us to cover 80% of our floors with rugs to buffer noise for the apartment below us. I'd been drooling over this rug from Ikea for quite some time but the sweedish are tormenting me but neither shipping things from their website or bringing a store to the midwest. And yes, this is our laundry drying over the dining chairs. Sorry to disappoint you.

It's really starting to feel like home!

Story Time

I am now eating my words about wishing I was a cat person. I royally failed at cat-sitting for my neighbor this week. My responsibilities were so few......crap.

Every day last week I would go over to her loft, feed the kitten, and scoop a little poop. When I was growing up, I would always {like the three times I actually pulled my weight and helped clean out the litter-box} flush the "business" down the toilet. So, reverting back to childhood, I threw this little guys "business" into my neighbor's toilet, shut the lid, flushed and came home. I did this six days in a row. On the last day I noticed that the toilet had backed up and over flowed into her white bathroom.

I kid you not, then the kitten jumps into the toilet.

In a panic, I went down to the concierge downstairs in our building and begged her for a plunger. She teased me for a bit about my "bathroom habits" then finally gave in. I used my charm and convinced her to come upstairs and plunge the toilet for me. It took us a half hour to fix the toilet and another half hour to persuade the soaking wet kitten to come out from behind the couch.



This is all JJ's fault, by the way. He's the one who volunteered me to cat-sit because he thought I needed the company while he was traveling for work.

In an effort to make the apartment smell less like fresh paint, I plugged in one of those outlet air freshener things. But {as usual} the "thing" was smarter than me and this is what my floor looked like a few hours later....

The "runny smear" {I apologize if my word choice created less than pleasurable visuals for you} is the scented oil mixing with the paint and creating a huge sticky mess. It took days for the mess to dry out enough that I could fix it. Luckily this gave me time to dig through the dozens of Tupperware containers of paint our landlord stashed under the kitchen sink.

From my hours of HGTV watching, I whipped out some sanding and painting skills that would have put Nate Berkus to shame. Good as new!

Check Check Check

I've got the first three crossed off my checklist...

via

I'm going to get real with you

I agree, friends, that I've withheld pictures of the new apartment for long enough. I'm going to get real with you for a moment- it's a total work in progress. We have not hung a single curtain, bought any rugs, and have hung less things on the walls than I have fingers. But, this is my home and I'd like to share it with you. You can click on any picture to make it larger.

As you first walk in the front door, here is what you see...

To your right is the kitchen...

Through the kitchen is this amazing pantry. It is litterly big enough to turn into a home office, if either of us ever did anything on our computers that didn't involve lounging on the couch. In addition to housing all of our food and kitchen appliances, I also displayed some of my favorite things in this pantry.

Past the kitchen is the living room with the ottoman I got for Christmas and my brand new chair. The antique telephone stand is currently being used as a mail station {even though I am not getting any mail delivered here}.

To the right of the living room is the dining room {which is actually just part of the living room that I put my table and fireplace in}

To the right of the dining room is the guest bedroom and bathroom. The guest bedroom is the most neglected room in the house {I'm embarrassed to show it in this state but I really want some guests!}. The guest bathroom has the most amazing "rain" shower head from Sharper Image. I don't know why it took me 3 weeks to try it out but now that I have, I am taking over this bathroom as my own!

To the left of the living room is the master bedroom and bathroom. JJ and I both have our own closets which is really nice {and by nice, I mean marriage-saving}.

The jar in the last picture is filled with memorabilia years of special times: ticket stubs, matchboxes from special restaurants, airline tickets, etc. Those books are antique copies of my favorite classic novels. Someday I'd like to put a chair and reading lamp next to them.


So there you have it- our REAL, nothing on the walls, take it or leave it new apartment! What do you think?

I love getting mail too

It has been a nightmare trying to get mail in our new place. For some reason the mailmen are having a hard time comprehending that I could have a maiden name AND a married name. Grrrrr.

It kills me to know my Elle Decor and Rachel Ray magazines are just sitting in my mailbox in Columbia. In the mean time, who wants to send me some mail? I'll send you some back! But not in that creepy chain letter kind of way. More like a "my husband travels three weeks out of the month and it would make me so happy to find some lovin' in my mailbox" kind of way.

Say Yes to Fun

My dear friend made the new year's resolution to "Say Yes to Fun" for 2011. As I was chatting with her on the phone tonight I realized that I have really been neglecting the fun-potential of this new chapter of my life. I wish I could say that I used the time I was unemployed to embrace Kansas City's museums, culture and resources.

It totally reminds me of this movie:

So thanks to Erika, here is my new goal: to say yes to something every day. I am going to {try} not to say no to anything that could be potentially fun. We'll see how long I last until I get grumpy and cynical.

We were not put on this earth to have no fun. I am certain God would not have put us on this earth with fun things like sprinkles and giraffes and expect us not to have fun.

The 4-1-1

I am flattered by the number of sweet emails and text messages I received today in response to my posts about the interview and the job offer. Here's the 4-1-1 on the new j-o-b.

I am working in the prevention and wellness office of a mental health services center that covers three of Kansas City's counties. I will be overseeing/planning/orchestrating all of the substance abuse prevention campaigns for area middle school and high school youth. I'll be doing lots of public relations and marketing to legislatures, parents, teachers and students about trends (huffing spray paint, alcohol energy drinks, etc.) and substance abuse glamorized in the media. Add some grant writing and event planning and you've got my new job.

I am really excited because:
-I get to do what I love: talking to people about things I am passionate about
-I really love the director and other staff
-I can make a difference in kids lives before they jump off the deep end
-I will be using skills I already have so I get to skip that awkward training period
-I get to have a normal, productive schedule again!

My first day was wonderful. They made me feel very welcome and we ate lots of chocolate. I already know that I get tomorrow off because we are supposed to get 8" of snow tonight. I wish my husband was in the same state as me so we could enjoy the snow day together.

Wanna see my business card?

Guess what I'm doing this morning? I'm going to work!

I accepted a job offer yesterday and I'm back among the world of productive people today. I'll tell you all about it later but for now I'm doin the happy dance...

{me}

It's snowing here again but Mother Nature can't get me down because this is the view from my window...

We have four big windows and they all have amazing city views. Mountain Man could care less but I am smitten.