Update

Friends. Just wanted to let you know that L & I are now 24 days away from Costa Rica. 24. Glorious. Days. Away.

My brain can't comprehend much more beyond that fact so that is what I will leave you with.

Happy Wednesday!

Oh, Happy Day

L has been gone since Thursday doing his Army thing. The days seemed to go by super slowly and I was a little bummed. But, secretly, I was a little bit excited because that meant that I could go out for my first garage sale shopping weekend of the season! He probably would have joined me if he were home, but he just doesn't get it. The thrill of showing up to a house not knowing what it holds. Finding treasures for a buck a piece. It's brilliant!

I found some fun things on Saturday, and they have already been placed in my home. See those 3 tree things? 4 dollars for the set. That super cute green table thing? 2 bucks. I'm thinking about painting it maybe sometime, but not sure. I kinda like it. The birdhouse? 50 cents. That definitely needs to be painted.

And then I got this awesome vase. Love it!

In other news, we don't have a fence for our backyard, so I got a tie-out to hook Sophie up to when we're playing outside this summer. It came with a stake that you hammer into the ground, and the stake had this warning:

Can you read that? It says that the warranty does not cover abuse, misuse, or an act of God. What? An act of God? Funny. I'm pretty sure that if there ever were an act of God, the stake in my backyard is the last thing I'll be worried about.

Favorites!

This week! My favorite things!

My discovery of this girl and this project. She is incredible. Hop on over. Meet her. Know her. Love her. She is super creative and crafty and I want to do what she does. I think I need to head over to my local ARC Store and buy all things old so that I can create some treasures.

Favorite thing #2 is simply the fact that I was able to turn in my 6th article for CinCHouse. This job fell in my lap with the greatest of ease (coincidence? I think not. Thanks, Jesus!) yet for some reason I still find it hard to believe that this is actually my life! I love writing. I love CinCHouse. I love writing for CinCHouse. I love the hope that my words are able to help others and bring life to dark places.

# 3 of the week is that my house has been filled with people nearly every day this week. We were given a gift in the house that we're able to live in right now, and I completely believe that if we were blessed with this much space, it's meant to be used. For us, that means people feeling like it's their own second home. For it to be a safe space that they can walk in the front door, open the fridge, and start chatting with us. And we're on the way to that. It's fun.

Favorite Thing #4 was this discovery. It was funny. This girl is not allowed on our couch. I have gotten home many times and had a sneaking suspicion that she had been on the couch, but have never caught her red-handed. Red-pawed? However, yesterday I got home and CAUGHT her! She was completely asleep, dead-to-the-world, so I had to get photographic evidence to prove her guilt.

It's par-tay time!

I've never been one to turn down a party invitation, so when I learned that the nester was having a mantle link-up party, I had to come along!

To preface this, my mantle is weird. It's not a mantle so much as a collection of rocks. This is a rental house though, and perfect for us for the time being, so I'm workin' with what I got.

Notice: the glimpse of the beautiful armoire to the right that my sister-in-law gave me. In exchange for a night o' babysitting, but seriously. It's beautiful.

My ragamuffin garland, O how I love thee.

I'm semi-addicted to old windows. This is just one of many to be found throughout my house... all found for cheap or for free at garage sales, junk yards, piles of trash... there is no limit to my dedication to finding treasure.

See the stones that stick out that comprise my 'mantle'?

I'm not sure if you can tell from the pictures, but the walls in the room are aqua. As in, circa 1981 neon blue. Also, this house very much has a 1970's retro feel with the window treatments, giant floral wallpaper as well as the choice of paint colors. I recognize the gift of us being able to live here practically for free, but I also have been dying to redo the place. I was hanging out with the lady who owns our house yesterday and finally got up the guts to ask her if it was okay if I did a little painting and re-doing for her... and she gave me the go-ahead!

Prepare yourself to be amazed, my friends. The before and after pics will be Epic. Tobacco Road paint, here I come.

It's that time again

So, remember my love of all things organized? Well, I love all things clean too. Not always do I love the cleaning process, but sometimes I get crazy and that happens. I love the finished product enough to keep me truckin through the chores I don't enjoy at least.

I am a clean person. However... imagine the cleanest person you know, multiply that times 1,876 and you will have my husband. He is a freak. He is OCD about it in the most loving sense of the word. It is not beyond him to, after I have already cleaned the kitchen, call me back in and show me the spots I did not get on the counter. If I don't fold his shirts the 'right way' when doing his laundry it is not beyond him to re-fold them. He is constantly teaching me the 'best' way to pour/fold/wipe/put away/get out.

So, it is with appreciation for my husband that I am going to be cleaning our house this week. Spring Break used to mean beaches, friends, and doing a whole lot of nothing in my college days. Now Spring Break means Spring Cleaning. Ugh. I feel like such an adult.

Just in case there's anyone else out there who is in spring cleaning mode, I'm putting up a list of what I'll be doing as well. It'll be fun- we'll be cleaning buddies!

Spring Cleaning Checklist 2010, baby!

* Clean out Fridge and Freezer. Take out contents (put in a cooler if needed) and wipe down with a solution of 2 Tbs baking soda per 1 quart hot water.

* Move fridge forward and clean underneath it

* Clean microwave. Put a microwave safe bowl with water and lemon juice and heat it to boiling (2-3 minutes) ; the steam will loosen particles and the citric acid will cut through the grease.

* Scrub kitchen appliances, cabinets, and backsplash

* Take cushions off of couch and vacuum each part

* Bring cushions outside and hit (is there a more technical term?) to freshen and loosen dust

* Dust bookshelves. Remove books and decorations from each shelf to get every space

* Wipe down walls and baseboards with a mild soap and warm water mixture (make sure wall paint can handle water)

* Vacuum or dust blinds and curtains, ceiling fans, and crannies to get rid of dust and cobwebs

* Replace cold-weather clothing in closets with warm weather wear

* Put any clothes you haven't worn in at least 1 year in a Goodwill pile

* Go through toiletries and make-up and toss anything too old

* Remove lint from clothes dryer hose

* Re-stock first aid kit

* Reseal grout

* Deodorize carpets: Sprinkle about 1 Cup of baking soda or cornstarch per room. Vacuum after 30 minutes

* Clean windows and window screens. Windex always works wonders, but here's another solution: 2 tablespoons cornstarch, 1 cup white vinegar, 1 gallon warm water; Mix the ingredients in a bucket and use to scrub windows.

* Organize files in home office. Make sure policies, contracts, etc. are in place and up to date.

* Scrub bathrooms

* Clean gutters

* Sweep/Dust/Mop floors

Okay, that's good for me. It's time to get cleaning!

5:1

Happy Day After Easter, everyone!

We had a wonderful weekend hanging out at my parents' home, and then celebrated the big festivities on Sunday at my sister's house with all of my family and extended family. These get-togethers are super fun because all of my cousins and sisters (notice I wasn't added in this sentence... hmmm. Maybe sometime soon though...) are in baby-making stages of life so there are tons of little ones EVERYWHERE at these things. It's adorable. And fun. And chaotic.

Even though it's Spring Break (#2 for me! One for UNC and another for District 6 schools!), my brain still feels a little fried. I think it's still in recovery stages from my busy previous week in addition to the weekend. All that to say, I have no original thoughts to post on here today. So instead, I wanted to mention something that has been brewing in my mind for the last 2 months or so. I saw this on one of my favorite news programs (CBS Sunday Morning News) on Valentines Day and figured that now is as good a time as any to post it considering I'm a full 60+ days late on this.

There is this man named John Gottman; he's a smarty-pants psychology professor and marriage researcher. He knows relationships. He's an author. I like him. He found the key to successful marriages and that it can even be expressed mathematically. The key WASN'T not fighting. It wasn't always having peace, keeping hurts from each other, or the absence of conflict. Those happen. They have to happen for it to be a healthy marriage.

Gottman's key to a healthy relationship is the 5:1 ratio: There need to be FIVE positive interactions for every ONE negative interaction.

What's a negative interaction? It can be anything from criticisms to picking fights to getting defensive to withdrawing. It can be rolling your eyes or shutting down and not talking. Anything that doesn't give life to your relationship.

Positive interactions? A squeeze on the shoulder. Laughing at a joke. Giving a compliment on how they look that day. Saying thank you for a chore they did. Anything that shows appreciation for the other.

It's not that there can't be negative interactions- rough patches, complaints, fights- those are inevitable when you share life with someone. It's just that for you to have a healthy, stable, vibrant relationship there needs to be 5 more good ones.

I think that appreciation is key. These last 5 years with my hubby has developed an appreciation for him more than anything I could have dreamed of. I'm so thankful that I get to share life with him; he's pretty great.

Gottman might be onto something: a key factor to the success of marriages is the 5:1 ratio. It sounds right to me, it sounds beautiful and life-giving to me. And I figure, it can't hurt anything, so why not be super focused and aware of trying to have more positives than negatives?

And just because I'm feeling like it, here's a picture of me and my boy moments after we got engaged in September 2004. L took me on a hike up to this beautiful summit overlooking Fort Collins and surprised me with wine and cheese waiting at the top right at sunset. Amazing, amazing! I'd say that was a pretty positive interaction.

Favorite Things Friday

Hello friends!

I am sure that you were waiting with baited breath for my second edition of Favorite Things Friday! I LOVE Fridays with all of their goodness and especially because they're Friday Follow days!

Favorite Thing One: This week the winner goes to....

THIS project:

The idea came from my friend Brooke who got it from this awesome lady...I think. That was all awhile ago and I'm just now getting around to it, but it's super fun and super cute wherever it came from. They did it with picture frames (brilliant) but I got crazy and used a set of drawers. I have loathed that piece of furniture for years now.... BUT after this project it has all changed. It now has a prime spot in my home and receives much love. This project changes things, people.

Honestly, when I first painted this thing I had hopes of it being a beautiful accent piece in my home... little did I know that it would be NEON blue and blind eyes if stared at too long. It needed to go.

Basically, this is to make things look Shabby Chic. AKA beautiful, in my book. Because

seriously, look at that color. NOT beautiful. This is to make it look old, worn,

distressed, and loved over many years. So you take some candle wax and

rub it over the areas that would have got most banged up over the years. The wax

prevents the paint from really sticking and makes it easy to

get off with sandpaper.

I'm nearly 100% certain that I did not do this step right. But hey, it works. It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful, huh Nester lovers?

Step Two: Paint your piece whatever color your little heart desires. Let it dry, then take some sandpaper and rub on the areas where you had put the wax and it will come right off leaving the color you had underneath.

Step Three: After re-applying wax to your sanded areas again, paint your final coat (you can do 2 or 3, whichever works best for you) and let it dry. Then, take some sandpaper and re-sand around your choice areas; it can be as much or as little as you want to get the look you want.

Step Four: Admire and adore your new work of art.

Step Five: Fall in love with the fun knobs you found at Hobby Lobby to take the place of the previous ugly one.

On to Favorite Thing Two:

This was inspired by this post by a New York Times columnist. I think it might be something in the water of the blogosphere, but there are a lot of people talking on the discussion of what were the most influential books in there life. And it got me thinking: What books have shaped me? All the other blogs excluded major religious texts, so I followed along the same lines and thought of books outside of the bible for me.

I love this topic. I am a voracious reader. Any others out there? At any given moment in time I am reading at least 2, if not 3, books. Currently, it's The Power of One, Hinds' Feet on High Places, and The Far Pavillions. Normally there is at least one super interesting non-fiction in the mix, but these are my three for now.

Books have always shaped my life. Early on it started with being tucked into bed by my dad throughout elementary school and reading Nancy Drew mysteries together. I was even on the Battle of the Books team in 5th grade and we won for our county! I wear that badge of honor with pride.

Next it was seeing the worlds created through the eyes of C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series and Roald Dahl in the BFG and having those help shape my imagination and creativity. Here is my well-worn and loved copy of the BFG... favorite book of my younger years... that I still own... and is next of my list of books to read. Again.

Then books became a way to open my eyes and new ways of thinking and I found them as a means of education. Biggies were God's Politics by Jim Collins; incredible, incredible book. Then, I am such a history nerd that any work by David McCullough that helps teach me about history steals my heart. And lastly, Not on Our Watch by Don Cheadle opened my eyes to the world. I love books.

Favorite thing number Three:

When L walked into the kitchen last night (after a week of leftovers and me not cooking) and exclaimed with such glee and joy: We're having REAL food tonight?!? It smells SO good!

You gotta love him.