The Roman Candle

Lately my work schedule has been throwing my life-balance groove for a loop.
I'm used to having a weekday off every now and then, but that's no longer the case.
So we (and by "we" I mean "I") haven't been able to keep up with the meal planning/making as well.

So tonight we went to the Roman Candle in Middleton, WI.

It's about 2 miles away from our apartment.


Cute atmosphere and great pizza.

I like it because I can get pizza by the slice, and get all the stuff Joe doesn't like.
In this case, it was Roma tomatoes, banana peppers and mushrooms (although Joe does love mushrooms).

Phases

When I started working at American Girl (I don't think I ever officially announced that on here, for various reasons), I got into a huge "buying" frenzy.

But that was a seasonal job, and I'm not there anymore, and I'm not into buying a bunch of stuff anymore, either.

Basically what had happened was this:

I worked at Chili's for a long time.
I got crappy tips for a long time
I couldn't buy a lot of things that I wanted, let alone needed, for a long time.

Then we moved to Madison, and I started breaking even.
A few months later, I started working at American Girl, and I had extra money for the first time in yeeeearrrrrrsss.

So I went through this phase where I was buying a bunch of stuff, only because I hadn't been able to for so so long.
If you know me, you know that I like stuff...all sorts of stuff.
And if you know me, you also know that I like quality stuff.
In a nutshell, the things I gravitate towards tend to be pricey.

Thankfully clearance racks exist, which is where I tend to buy the things that were once a pretty penny for a much more affordable price.

This Payson Lamp from Pottery Barn is a great example of one of those clearance things.
{And so is the green West Elm vase, now that I think about it.}


I think I am finally out of my buying phase.
There were just so damn many things that I wanted or needed for so long that everything kind of just stacked up.
All of my purchases seemed justified.
{And luckily, they still do.}

So now I am in a new phase, which is the "making" phase.
There are so many projects on my to-do list, I can't wait till some of them are finished!

It's so strange that we find comfort in habits and then get into these deep grooves with them.
I go through these spurts that usually last about 2-3 months each, and they all seem to focus on one certain topic of interest. And then I move onto something else.
I wonder what will come after this "making" phase?
Some previous habits included working out (i was hardcore into that for awhile until my life got a little off-balance), then it was healthy eating (which is still there but not quite as extreme, because of the balance thing) and I know that beer was in there somewhere for a while (good beer, i mean...not just any beer).
So we'll see what happens next...it's always interesting.

For now I will just keep on keepin' on.

Sunday

How was your weekend?

Mine is going pretty well.

Last night I started on our new rack for the bedroom:

Today I'm going to bake some banana bread with pecans.
And I'm going to Pottery Barn to return 1 of 2 lamps I bought on mega sale.
I need new pants too...but pants shopping takes months for me, so I doubt I will even look.

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Joe felt bad about not having any surprises for me for my birthday, so he told me he'd buy me the boots I've been wanting.

But now I'm second guessing the size, so I may have to exchange them...no fun!

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I've been looking at houses lately on realtor.com

We like our side of town, but I'm an old house kind of girl.

And there aren't many affordable old houses on our side.

Everything is new, not to mention expensive..and I don't like new houses one bit.

But I really like our area in general.

It's 1.5 miles away from Target.
2 miles away from my grocery store.
1-2 miles away from some of my favorite restaurants.
2 miles away from Joe's work (and my work in the fall/winter)
Downtown is 12 minutes away...and at the same time, the rolling country hills are 12 minutes away.
My doctors office and eye doctor is walking distance, less than half a mile.
And the really nice thing is that we live right by the belt line, which is the main road that takes us pretty much anywhere in no time.

But there are no pretty houses in our range.
And by pretty, I mean old and creeky.
Wood floors.
Quirky architecture.
That sort of thing.

So I don't know what we're going to do.
Not like we have to decide today, but it's fun to look.

Time to venture out into the busy world.
Hope your weekend was good.

24

Yesterday I turned 24.

Our friends John and Kait came up to visit over the weekend.
Kait and I have been great friends since 3rd grade.
She brought me some really fun stuff for my birthday!

+IKEA vase (awesome thrift!)
+Burt's Bees kit (a plantable one, at that.)
A really cool mushroom thing (I love mushrooms!)
A neat little pine tree fob (you know about my pine tree obsession...)
Sock Dreams gift card (aaaand you probably know of my knee high sock obsession)
AND 2 boxes full of chocolate covered fruit from Edible Arrangements (where she works)
(what's funny about this photo is that the owl is from them too and so is the tree...they are both from separate occasions. damn they get me cool stuff!!!)

I had to eat the fruit with a fork and steak knife because of the whole teeth removal thing, but I discovered that I like eating them better that way.
Much more satisfying.

We went to A LOT of restaurants over the weekend.
I wish I had photos, but I don't...I blame it on hating my camera. Isn't that terrible? I need to just take pictures already and stop caring.
+ + + + + + +

My list of 24 things to do over the next year:
1. learn to knit
2. learn to play guitar
3. get a tattoo (on the side of my ribs. a tall pine tree, of course)
4. plant a small garden on my balcony (tomatoes and mushrooms)
5. get a new car to replace my piece of shit car
6. walk the dogs at the shelter
7. start keeping a journal again (i miss doing that)
8. go to lots of farmer's markets
9. take more day-trips with joe
10. get new glasses (i'm bored with the ones i have)
11. make jam and give it to friends + family
12. go camping
13. start running again (i miss this one a lot)
14. pay more attention (i have a TERRIBLE short term memory)
15. start screen printing (i've had my supplies for 2 YEARS now)
16. learn how to weld
17. build a table for our bedroom (soon!)
18. keep a restaurant list in my journal (that would be helpful)
19. learn all about canoeing and kayaking (more on that later)
20. write to my penpal more
21. learn how to sew
22. stay in town more this summer (i hope for this one so much)
23. take a short spur of the moment road trip
24. enjoy life

Passing Time, Slowly. Slowly.

Wisdom teeth are out!
I'm feeling pretty good so far, with only minimal tension in my jaw area.
According to the dentist, today and tomorrow will be the worst for pain.

{shot from my bed}So what have you been up to?
Not a whole lot here, just planning out the next few things I'm going to build.

Well I got that job I was talking about, so that's good news!
More on that later, I start on Monday so I'm sure I'll have more to talk about once I get going.
The only bad thing (and it's not even that bad) about the job starting when it does is that it cuts into a zine project I was going to start on the 26th at midnight.
Looks like I will have to re-think that...

Floating Nightstands

A quick sneak peak at what I've been up to over the past few days...

:: Cut ::

:: Stain ::

:: Mount ::

This is 1 of 2 floating nightstands that I made for our bedroom.
I'm pretty excited about them!
More info about them and the items on the nightstand over on flickr.

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Next I'm making a new sweater/bag rack for our room to replace this one.

Also totally swooning over prints by Andrew Bannecker over at Charmingwall
so I'll probably pick a couple of those up, too.
(p.s. charmingwall is a neat little site. if you get a chance, check it out.)

Updates on the bedroom (before + after pics) to come.

++++++++++++++++

I'm getting my wisdom teeth extracted in 14 hours and I am a nervous wreck.
Very on edge.
Extremely irritable because of it (just ask joe...i'm sure he's noticed).
Just plain cranky.

Off to take the garbage out.

Missed It.

I was watching this fan on eBay and then completely forgot to bid before leaving for work...
Too bad because it went for $30, with shipping.

Then I found this one, and while I like it, the other one was cuter. The blades were more unique.
But I might still bid on it, since I want one that works for our "new" bedroom.

Maybe I will start collecting these old fans...I'm sure Joe would just love that...I could have snagged a million of them at that 127 sale I went to last summer, but it's so hard to know if they work when there is no electricity to try them out. Of course, I guess I don't really know for sure if the eBay ones work either. I just have to take the seller's word for it.

The bedroom is coming along nicely.
I'm building floating nightstands for us to free up some space on the floor, I'll show you once they are hung.
I'm lucky to have a cool husband who enjoys making our space look nice almost as much as I do!
I know a lot of guys who don't care and leave it all up to their wife/girlfriend/etc, so it's really nice to have one who does.

For now I'm going to finish staining the nightstands.

Oh, PS, I need these for the living room:

Hello

So I closed the shop a couple days later than I was going to, just because Thursday is the day that I ship, so I figured I could stay open a little longer since I was going to the PO anyway.

Since I haven't had to make anything on my days off, I'm finally able to focus on decorating our bedroom. Have I ever told you how much I hate using the term "decorating"? I don't know, I just can't stand it. But anyway, it's been almost 4 years since we've been dealing with primarily hand-me-down items. Fortunately, I've recently been able to start buying things that are geared more towards our style. More on that later, I'll have to show you what I've bought!

And now I'm dreaming about this alpine bed from CB2:

But it's $600 (plus $100 s&h! geez). And we could really use that money towards a down-payment on a house (or another car...damn it.) So for now it will probably have to wait, and then it will probably be sold out, and then I will probably be entirely bummed about it all, etc. So maybe I will have to win the lottery or something. I could definitely afford it if I could just.keep.working.for.another.few.weeks at my current job, but the season is ending and they are letting me go within a matter of days, I'm sure. Isn't that how it always works? Oh well, at least I was able to get my student loan and most of my credit card paid off.

Today I went and applied somewhere that seems like it would be a pretty cool place to work. I have an interview next Friday, so fingers crossed. I decided not to tell Joe because I like to casually surprise him when it comes to that sort of thing. And honestly, I don't like all the questions that would accompany the idea. I tend to get a little bit crabby when it comes to random questions that refer to something that either doesn't matter or might not happen.

Okay so that's all! Before and after bedroom shots to come soon. I'm excited! The theme is "Stormy Day, Seaside" but that's all I can say for now. I wish we could paint. Dumb. Oh well.

Off to the Post Office and then time to get Joe from work.

Announcement

Well here is the announcement that I was supposed to make yesterday...

Originally I was going to close the shop entirely, but then yesterday I got all bummed out about it. So for now I'm just going to take a break and see what happens during that time.

On my list of things to do during the break:
+learn to knit
+go snowboarding
+make a few zines
+get a sewing machine and learn to sew
+organize my studio and turn it into a place to relax rather than what it has turned into (utter chaos)
+go thrifting. lots.
+read a book. i haven't read a book since 6th grade because my mind wanders too much.
+get a road bike and go go go
+start keeping a journal again
+learn to play guitar
+volunteer
+blog about all the above experiences!

Most of these things have been on my to-do list for YEARS. So I thought that it was time to do something about it. The Yellow Canoe break will start on Tuesday the 6th of January.

Thank you everybody who has supported me in my little adventure!

Hope your new year is a good one- what's on your agenda for the next few hundred days?

To a Great New Year.

Are you ready for the New Year? I certainly am! Except for the fact that "9" is one of my least favorite numbers to write. I also have writing the number 5. 2, 4 and 7 are by far my favorite ones to scribble. WEIRD- I just noticed that those #s are the only ones that have acute angles in them. Must be a geometry thing. That was the only math I ever understood, so I guess I'm just partial to those numbers since they have something remotely cool about them.

Anyway, I have a big announcement to make tomorrow. No babies on the way, so it's not that. I would say it today but I feel like tomorrow would be more fitting, since it's a fresh start and all.


For now I have to go pick up Chinese food for Joe and his co-workers. After that is grocery shopping and then off to exchange some Christmas gifts. Hope all is well, longer post tomorrow.

Tagged

Erin from Design for Mankind tagged all of her readers.

So here we go!

Name five “unimportant” things that make me happy!:

1. real maple syrup (made in wisconsin, of course!)
2. great beer (yes dad, our beer costs 2-3 times as much as yours but tastes 10 times better!)
3. knee high socks (sock dreams, i will be visiting soon.)
4. good design (can't get enough of this.)
5. IKEA plant pots (they are so cool!)

My brother is visiting right now. Today we are going to go shopping after I pick up my paycheck. I desperately need new jeans! Wish me luck on that venture, I can never find jeans that I like...unless they have a $140 price tag on them, then they seem to fit great! Damn it.

Shona and Sia, tag you're it!

I'm Still Here

Last year around this time I told you I'd show you our handmade Christmas tree. And I never did, mainly because I wasn't impressed with the results since we were so tight on time.

Well, since we didn't have to focus on moving this year like we did last year, I was able to make a new tree.

7 hours of measuring, poking, and stringing later, we have a tree.

I wanted a sparkly pink tree and I was able to find the perfect yarn.
There is some silver in there too...I would have loved it to be solid pink, but Joe wanted silver too so I said okay. I should add that he wanted blue as well and I cringed at the god-awful sight I envisioned. When he held the 3 colors together and asked if they went together I said "yeah...very americana-like..."
Luckily that made him put the blue down without me having to blatantly say "you're kidding, right?"

So anyway, here is Rose, in all her homely glory:

We put her by the window so she could see her pine tree friends outside.

{closeup}

Anyway, what's new with you???
It's been forever, again, I know

I'm working an almost full time job now and I'm on the computer and the phone all day long, simutaneously, so the last thing I want to do when I get home is get on the computer and correspond with people. Not that I don't like you guys. But I don't even email my best friend as much as I used to, which was up to 4 times a day. Now it's about once or twice a week.

Hope you had a good Thanksgiving.
What did you do with your leftovers?
We made this awesome soup, although I don't have any photos:

Turkey Tortilla Soup
1 can chicken broth
1 can green enchilada sauce
1 can red enchilada sauce
leftover turkey, ripped into small pieces
1-2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 partial can of corn
2 roma tomatoes, chopped
1 jalepeno, seeded and minced
3/4 cup half and half
Garnish:
shredded cheddar
sour cream
hot sauce
avocado
broken tortilla chips (the good kind, not tostitos!)

Basically you just mix everything together, adding the half and half a bit later, and heat thoroughly.
Next time I'm going to add black beans and onions.
I don't know what size cans the chicken broth/enchilada sauce were, but they were all similar sizes. Maybe just over a cup each?
Made about 5 servings.

I'm definitely going to use leftover chicken in this recipe as well since it's not every day that I just make a turkey.

Okay well work starts at 6:30 am and it's almost 11. I need sleep!
Hope all is well!