Hi there. Long time, no talk. Sorry about that.

Have you ever been really hungry but can’t decide what to eat? And then thought watching the Food Network would be a good idea and end up even hungrier? Yeah, that is what is happening in my living room right now. Actually, I know what I want to fact (Apple Jacks) but I would have to go to the grocery store to get them and thats not gonna happen. I am in one of those moods when I am hungry and tired (but not sleepy). I don’t really want to watch TV but I really don’t want to do anything else (like clean, workout, or read). Ever felt like that? I am also actively dreading the mess that is our front flower beds and the work that we may being doing in them this weekend.

flower bed of doom

How have things been with you?

For the first time in a long time I am feeling content. A lot of things in my life are all going right and it feels really nice. I got a job with a company I like and they decided to promote me and make me full time. On top of that they decided to agree to let me work 2 days a week from home which is huge for me. Then B and I bought a house. I decided to let go of my second job (definitely bittersweet). Now summer is coming (meaning weekends at the beach house!) and my parents are moving back to North Carolina in a matter of weeks! Oh, and I get to see my brother, SIL, niece and meet my new baby nephew next weekend!!! To say I am a happy girl would be a gross understatement.

Piper wants to climb trees

The only downside to all of this is that when I am done working I am done with computers. I would prefer to take a walk, play with Piper, or even make a sad attempt at keep my house clean (I am a horrible housekeeper…I am neat and orderly as opposed to a clean freak). Although, not really much time in the kitchen. Less computer time definitely means less blog time. Sorry! I have never been one to be good at keeping in touch.

hitting the road

I am loving that the warm weather is here. It is only mid-May and I have already been able to talk B into going to the beach twice. Fantastic. And I am just itching to head back again as soon I can talk him into another weekend. The sun and sand is definitely calling my name.

sun and sand

What are you looking forward to this weekend?

the chipmunks are taunting her

For the past 20 minutes I have been trying to read a book….I bought 3 the other day when I was at Target because reading a real, paper book (not an e-book on my Nook) sounded really appealing and I just couldn’t decide which one. Three books may have been a little ambitious…

Anyways, as I am trying to read all I can think about is blogging, or the blog at least. You see, I got a promotion in February. Things were slow for a while but that was nice because 2 days after I got promoted we put an offer in on a house. Needless to say between work and home buying February and March were a blur. Right now life is amazing and super busy. There was a time in my life when I was crazing a creative outlet and a way to connect with people when I felt isolated at work. Now I am craving real life interaction with friends, time with family (my parents move back east in June!) and time to make my house look awesome….I may be craving a little movement in exercise to (weird). With many [many, many, many] hours spent online and on the phone at work I am finding myself more and more distance from all things technical in my down time. And in that time when things started to get hectic I kept thinking about my blog. Do I want to keep it up? Do I have the time? Do I have anything to say? Do I even care anymore?

Honestly, I am still not sure. Right now I am just gonna see how things go. For now though I figured I would post an update on how things have been going.

On the work front things were pretty slow from the beginning of February until mid to late March. It was weird. Instead of jumping head first into the massive work load that my company has there was a lot of waiting on my end which I found surprising. I don’t even know how to begin explaining my situation without going into too much detail, but lets say that things picked up last week big time. I changed teams (we have an east coast and west coast team and I was working for the west coast team because that was where the opening was) but kept my work load from the west coast team and then some. I don’t think I have ever been so busy with a job and I love it (especially since I get to work 2 days a week from home). My job involves a lot of strategic planning and problem solving which can be really stressful and somehow kind of fun at the same time. Things are good and I am happy.

On the home front, we closed on our first home on March 9th!

Welcome to our home!

We tried painting a paneled room…but then we got tired and we hired a professional.

BEFORE

AFTER!!!

Huge Difference!

Although we plan to do a substantial kitchen overhaul in the future I had to make some tweaks to the kitchen to make it tolerable until we have save up some money.

BEFORE

AFTER!!!

Another view

Although we moved some stuff bit by bit (nothing was really packed in boxes, instead lots of trips back and forth the 2 miles between houses to get small loads), we officially moved in and spent our first night in the house on March 23rd, and I wasted no time setting up our home. We owe a big thanks to some friends and family for all of the heavy lifting.After about 2 weeks in the house all we have left to work on is the 4th bedroom, which will be a workout room, and a few other organizational odds and ends left to take care of. That, of course, does not count our practically empty den though, which won’t be complete until we buy a new couch for the living room.

I have a long list of projects for the house but I am not counting them towards unpacking and general house setup because some of them are years down the road. We won’t be anything like Young House Love but I am excited to see what we can do.

So far I loooooove our house and all of the space (at least 500 square feet bigger than our last house). We now have 4 bedrooms, an office, a living room, a den, and 2.5 bath…plus a partially screened in back porch and a gazebo! And my office is awesome. I am so excited to being making this home our own. I also really love our neighborhood because we are near shopping and restaurants and still only a few miles from Uptown and the Airport. Piper also seems to be enjoying the new yard. The dog next door doesn’t seem to like her to much but Piper seems to love having a “playmate” just across the fence.

Until next time!

I can’t believe it. We are homeowners!

We signed all of the paperwork and got our keys on Friday and I am still so excited.

Much to B’s dismay (he isn’t really the DIY type), we got crackin’ on some paint work on Sunday (I would have gotten started sooner but I had to work on Saturday). Our room started out like this:

And 5 hours of taping and other shenanigans we had one primed room.

Painting paneling is a beast of a job, but it will make me appreciate the final product that much more. Now I am off to tackle some mauve trim…..

It is crazy how a month can fly by.

I honestly don’t know where the last 4 weeks have gone and what I have been doing with all of that time. Well, I guess that isn’t entirely true. February has been a complete whirlwind with several time consuming changes.

First thing is that effective February 1 I started full-time with my employer! I not only got full-time status I also got a nice promotion and I have spent the past 4 weeks (and likely several more) getting settled into my new position. I really like my company and jumped at the opportunity to grow with them. But adding 2 hours more of work to my day has really made a difference in the time flying by.

My Desk...in the office, the one at home is in progress!

Then on February 3rd B and I put an offer in on our first house! This has been a really exciting, yet really time consuming, experience. After signing/initialing 50 pages worth of loan applications you really do feel like you are signing your life away! So, in addition to working more (I still have 2 jobs) I have also been doing all of the fun stuff that comes along with buying a new-to-us, older home. Loan applications, inspections, and contractors oh my! And we haven’t even moved yet!

This is the back of the house, no street views posted here.

With a few updates to the house (there is no dishwasher right now!), moving, and the birth of my nephew March is likely to be just as crazy if not more! I am loving every minute of it (okay not every minute, like calling contractors, comparing prices, and budgeting, but I am enjoying most of it) and can not wait to see what the months ahead, which I know will include lots of paint and patience.

Our lovely kitchen...

Hopefully I can get my act together and share our journey as 1st time home buyers!

I spent last weekend sitting at the beach watching movies and trying to learn to edit photos while recovering from my cold. Fortunately I had 300+ photos from our 10 days in California to play with.

[Show as slideshow]

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It may be Friday night but my work week isn’t over just yet. I like my new job but it definitely won’t beat a weekend at the beach.

Last Saturday we had a few hours of awesome weather and decided to take a walk on the beach.

And someone may have gotten to enjoy a little off leash time.

Even though it wasn’t bathing suit weather (and rightly so since it’s January) we still had a great time with the sun and sand.

Until next time.

I can’t believe it is already January 17th. I feel like the past few weeks have been as much of a blur as the holidays.

Since I have been fighting a cold for the past few weeks and am in no frame of mind to attempt writing a real post I thought I would do a photo dump of my phone to show you some of the stuff I have been up to.

- For starters, I can tell you what I have not been doing. Editing photos.

I have read a few tutorial and now just need to put it to action. I am hoping to have some downtime this weekend to get to work. Fingers crossed!

- Working out.

And technically, I am not a January joiner because I started at my new gym at the beginning of December. I love this workout and I love this gym. It is so close to home (walking distance) so I have no excuse not to go!

-  Taking a [iPhone] photo a day.

I have been trying to do a Project 365 photo-a-day sort of thing, which is kind of fun, except I often find myself at 8 PM with no photo and no natural light taking photos of my only [semi] willing subject.

I also think I have managed to find out what breads our precious mutt is made of. After seeing this photo on Pinterest I stalked info on the dog pictured and found out he is a cocker spaniel/boston terrier mix. I think Piper and Buddy could be twins.

                                                                  Source: etsy.com via Jessie on Pinterest

What do you think?

- I have amassed a collection of Sharpies.

What can I say, Staples had an awesome sale on the markers ($3 pack) and Office Depot ran a deal on the pens. I couldn’t resist.

I must say though, I am not a fan of the Sharpie liquid pencil at this point. It just doesn’t write consistently. Really, it is no better than a Bic erasable pen in my opinion.

- I got a really great haircut that made me feel great.

This is the inspiration photo. My hair isn’t as long but I think we are on the right track.

Source: marieclaire.com via Jessie on Pinterest

I love Reese’s style!

- I have [idea] shopped for some potential DIY projects.

It is one of my goals to refinish a piece of furniture this year. Ideally I would like to recover a chair but will likely have to settle for refinishing a small table until we buy a house with a little more space.

I happen to have a house in mind, now I just need to get B to use his imagination a little and take a look at it with me.

- I have cooked.

Some of my cooking projects have include the above risotto, whose leftovers were also repurposed as fried risotto balls; green curry tofu, carrot cake cookie sandwiches, boston cream pie cupcakes, and split pea soup. B has really picked up the cooking (and cleaning) since I haven’t been feeling well, but I think I have already squeezed in some delicious meals this year.

- Made room for a kegirator.

I am not thrilled about this one. I grew up in a house where drinking rarely occurred, so keeping this kind of supply in the house makes me a little uncomfortable. Plus, kegs are expensive!

This [used] kegirator was gifted to B by a coworker who no longer had room for it. Despite living in a 1000 sq ft home B thought we could squeeze it in….and we did.

Thanks to my cousin’s boyfriend we got it in working order and shared drinks over a stir fry dinner on Sunday night.

- I ended one job and started a new one.

I am now working at the front desk of Y2 Yoga a couple times a week instead of working in the store. I will miss all the lovely ladies at the store, but I am excited about this change and future opportunities with my other job.

That’s about it for me. What have you been doing since the New Year?

Happy New Year!

I am still recovering from a 9 day Christmas/New Years trip to California….where I turned out the lights and went to bed at 11:52 PM in New Years Eve. No, I could not wait 8 more minutes to ring in the new year.

I am truly looking forward to this weekend in hopes that I can catch up. Catch up on housework, catch up on sleep, and catch up on anything else I can think of. Plus, this girl needs to get to editing some photos so I can share my trip.

The scenery is beautiful, but being away from home for so long is exhausting. I have never been so happy to end a vacation and get back to work!

Plus, I couldn’t get wait to get home to see this face!

It’s only Wednesday and I am already feeling overwhelmed! I should be checking of items on my to do list, to include cleaning my bedroom but I can’t manage to do more than this…

Although I am happy to say that I have started out the new year with some quality time on my mat and was thrilled to get back to Fight Gone Mad. I am sore and it hurts so good!

Check back next week [hopefully] to see pictures from my trip! Until then, I amy dying to know how your holiday was!

Apparently the holidays (yes, I am going to blame it on the holidays) are making me a complete space cadet. I am normally so organized with my to do lists and putting things in their place however in the past 4 days I have:

- Written and published a Tuesday Things post on Monday, while genuinely believing it was Tuesday.

- Thrown away $40 in cash along with completed grocery list and receipt and did not realize it until 24 hours later. Thank goodness we hadn’t taken the trash out yet! Although, the cash may have been damp and covered in coffee grounds when it was recovered from our trash can.

- Misplaced $800 worth of checks that need to be deposited. Brian found them and is now wondering if I have also lost my brain. It is possible.

And these are only the things I know about so far. Who knows what other items will be lost or confused in coming days. And lets hope that this does not spread from my personal stuff to my work….that is disaster waiting to happen!

It has been a while since I did Tuesday things and thought I would use this Tuesday to get you caught up.

Edited to add: I just realized that it is not Tuesday. Hah! I am not sure how I managed to get it so wrong. I could try to play it off that my scheduled post published early, but sadly that is not the case. Oh my!

Things have been busy…as is always the case at the holidays. In addition to the normal holiday business B and I also decided to go house hunting. If you think holidays with the family/in-laws/pick-your-stressful-holiday situation throw house hunting in the mix and you will take being emotionally drained to the next level!

Getting qualified for a mortgage was no problem thanks to B’s long standing, stable work history but finding the right house, in the right location, is hard. Who would have thought that moving 5 miles down the road would feel so far away. I have a house that I kind of love in a location that is [hopefully] up and coming and only 1-ish mile for our current neighborhood. The house needs some love, which is kind of what I want so we can really make it our own, the schools are icky (but that’s the case in our current neighborhood too and not a matter of concern for several years), and the house would be sold As Is. There are several factors telling me [logically] that its not the right choice but my heart is saying something different. I went through something similar when picking out our current rental property that is a good 600 sq ft smaller than our previous house and was poorly maintained by the previous renters. After 3 visits we finally signed on the dotted line and have loved life in this house although we have been a tad cramped.

I see some slightly stressful conversations in our future over the next few weeks.

In other news, which I may have mentioned before, B finally let me upgrade my camera!

Sadly, we haven’t been doing much that is photo worthy so Piper has had this lens in her face more than is fair. I hope to change that soon.

At first I let myself get overwhelmed with the idea of learning all about my camera, digital photography, and Photoshop and I quit taking pictures until I had time to learn it all. Fortunately a friend recommended a great photography website that made me remember that I won’t learn any of it if I don’t take pictures.

Regardless of how many cameras you buy, or how many Photoshop and printer profiling classes you endure, the only way to learn is to pay attention to taking pictures, and not to your equipment.

It really hit home. So instead of trying [likely unsuccessfully] to learn everything and try to shoot in RAW right away and learn to edit and process everything I am going to set my camera to auto, pay attention, and work on framing and composing beautiful photos and hope that I can grow from there. Although I will continue to read photography blogs and take whatever photography and Photoshop tutorials and tib-bits of knowledge wherever I can.

Do you have any fave photography/Photoshop how to blogs?

I have also done some cooking and some snacking in the past few weeks.

I don’t have a recipe per se but did take some pictures I could share if you want an idea of how I put it together. Let me know if you would like to see it!

I have been snacking on these delicious morsels provided by Tropical Foods. These snack mixes are delicious and my coworkers agree! I have to admit though that I have a tendency to pick out all of the chocolate first, then all of the nuts, and then finish off and share the rest.

I gotta say that although the veggie chips they sent me earlier this year (i am pretty sure that blog post was eaten by WordPress somehow) were delicious (except for the okra), these snacks were way more up my alley.

I also decorated for Christmas.

Things that still need to get done before the holidays (actually we are in full swing of the “holidays” I need to revise that to say Christmas)…which is only days, yes days, away. How did Christmas get here so fast?!

My drawers are overstuffed and completely unruly.

My kitchen is in a state of complete disarray. Although I am about to say goodbye to that icky camera bag that came with my camera for something a little more fashionable (I know, I am not fashionable, but my new bag is definitely an improvement. Promise!). Since i don’t have a photo yet I will have to share that another day.