hey, i put some new shoes on.

so i mentioned that as part of my weekend shopping spree that i picked up a pair of shoes for myself. now, you have to promise not to laugh at me before i tell you anything else about them. promise? pinky swear? ok.
well, they're those toning kind of shoes - you know, the ones that will give you better legs and a nicer butt just by lacing them up. stop laughing right now or i'll break your pinkies! 'cause they're not like the ones with the giant rocker on the bottom or even the balance ball inspired ones. in fact, if the box hadn't told me they were the special toning shoes i might not have known it because they're actually pretty cute and normal-looking. 

i wore them for the first time to jazzercise last night. ok seriously, enough with the giggles its a really good and fun workout! i could feel a difference in my legs, but i wasnt entirely sure if that was a good or a bad thing. i guess the good news is that i could still walk when i woke up this morning, but it kind of felt sometimes that the shoes just didn't fit quite right and i was a little off-balance trying to make up for the extra bounce in the sole. but maybe that's just how the shoes are supposed to work. i guess i'll have to wear them a few more times to know for sure. i suspect that these shoes will either give me really nice legs, or make them fall off, and i'm wierdly excited to find out which it will be!

shopping spree.

this weekend, i did a little shopping. well actually, i did kind of a lot of shopping. i hit up yardsales, and craft stores, and hardware stores, and department stores. i got some things that i needed, some things that i wanted, and a bunch of pretty sweet deals. so let me share with you some of my spoils.

Saturday morning i got up pretty early to check out some of the end-of-the-season yardsales. most of what i saw was either a bunch of leftover junk or a lot of baby stuff, neither of which i had any need for. i was on my way home when i spotted one last sale. it was there that i found the best stuff of the day - an all-wooden futon, and a fun ikea mirror. she wanted $25 for both, but agreed to take my $23, since i'm such a convincing barterer. and/or that's all the cash i had on me. we think the futon will eventually live in the basement and give us extra room for guests, once we get a mattress for it. we have no idea yet where the mirror will end up.

after helping me unload the futon, Mark spent the rest of the day catching up on some work stuff, so i got to do some more solo shopping. i was supposed to be looking for curtains for the fireplace room. because our windows in there have been nekkid for far too long. but i didnt find any that i liked in any of the three stores i visited, so i did not buy any curtains. or curtain rods. but i picked up some swatches of fabric in case i decide to make curtains. and i did find some finials for the curtain rods at BBnB that i really like and that i could get 20% off of, so now all i need are the rods. (i'm not really sure why i didn't just go ahead and buy the rods at the same time. just not ready to fully commit yet?)

i also found this awesome little wheely-garlic-cutter that has been on my "i really wish i had one of those" list ever since my sister-with-the-babies told me about hers, but i wasn't willing to buy one for myself. until i found this one that was 1/2 off. score!

another little thing that brought me great joy was the bedskirt that i found on clearance for $4 at Target. i ironed it and put it on the bed in the guest bedroom, and now i can stop feeling self-conscious about the no-longer-exposed frame because it is all covered up and looking fine. doesn't it just make you want to come visit? what? you say you would also like a headboard and some bedside tables? be patient y'all... all in good time.

i made one last stop on Saturday at Home Depot to pick up a small lattice for our thornless raspberry plants. they were about to out-grow the pot we had them in, and needed something to support themselves so they would stop growing along the ground. Mark transplanted them into a bigger pot, the one my Mom got me for my bridal shower, and i think they're really going to like it there.

on Sunday morning, i made the unsettling discovery that i did not like any of my pants. so since i had 30% off at Kohl's to use (and because if you get the 30% you can't NOT go shopping) i spent the afternoon figuring out what size pants* i wear in grown-up sizes** and making the most out of my extra discount. i ended up with 2 pairs of pants, 3 pairs of capris, 2 shirts, and a pair of shoes for me; and 2 pairs of shorts, 1 pair of swim trunks, and 2 shirts for Mark. i shopped mostly from the clearance racks, except for my 2 pairs of pants, and i ended up saving around 4x what i spent. i think it was a good day.

did anyone else do any shopping this weekend? anyone know where i can find a futon mattress? who wants to help me pick out curtain fabric? anyone have a sewing machine i could maybe borrow? and when are you coming to visit and sleep in my guest bedroom?

*definitely NOT a size 4. what was i thinking? also, neither is Kirstie Alley. sorry hon.

** a rant-y aside to the Womens Pants Sizing Makers of America (WPSMOA: presumably pronounced whip-some-mo'): may i seriously suggest that you get your act together and start standardizing your wacked-out system for sizing women's pants? just because i might be classified as 'petite' does not mean that i am also extra skinny. i'm just a little shorter than average. but according to you and your crazypants, i'm about 6 inches too short for 'average' pants, and yet somehow still about an inch too tall for 'short' pants. and why can i fit into a size 6avg but need a size 8short?  YOU MAKE NO SENSE! thanks for making me feel fat and short all at the same time, all while not making any pants that actually fit me..
what's wrong with the way men size their pants? i know that i can pick up any pair of pants that say 32/32 and be guaranteed that they'll look great on the hubs. why can't we do that? because i would LOVELOVELOVE to find a pair of pants that fits me around my hips and butt and are also a comfortable length - you know, somewhere between needs-to-be-rolled-three-times and hey-where's-the-flood? to be able to pick up a pair of pants in my size and be guaranteed that they'll fit me without having to take three pairs of the same pants in different sizes into the dressing room only to find that NONE OF THEM FIT?
save us some time. save us from dressing room meltdowns. save us from wearing the same pants we've had since highschool because we dread having to shop for new ones. and FIX THE WAY YOU SIZE OUR PANTS.***

*** ok, i'm done now. i feel a little better.

happy independence day!

...in Mexico, that is.

to celebrate, i made chicken fajitas for dinner. i was kind of excited to try a recipe for fajita seasoning that a friend of mine had given me last winter, but it wasn't until i got home from work that i realized i did not have all the spices i needed. so, time to improvise!

i sauteed some onion and an orange bell pepper in a little bit of olive oil, until they started to get soft and a little brown around the edges.

then i cooked up some strips of chicken in a little more olive oil, until they were cooked through and a nice golden brown color on the outside.

then instead of the fajita seasoning i was planning on making, i added part of a package of taco seasoning - i just added some water and kind of sprinkled the seasoning on until the meat looked seasoned enough. then i added the onion and peppers back in to heat it all up again together and viola! fajitas.

it only took me about 20 minutes to make this whole dinner. and Mark said it was really good, so i'll just go ahead and call this quick, easy meal a definite win!

hope you all had a happy Mexican Independence Day, and have a great weekend!

almost there.

since i'm in a state of denial about all things football related this weekend (my likely fantasy win doesn't really make up for that embarrasment on sunday) let's just focus on some other happenings of the past few days. what? things exist outside of the NFL? the world revolves around something other than football season? why apparently, it sure does. and just in case you've forgotten, in our little world everything revolves around the neverending fireplace room project.

thanks to all the rain this week, Mark's softball game was cancelled on Tuesday night. he made the most of his evening by starting to fix the doorways into the room. he managed to remove the old too-small door casings without having to remove the existing trim on the other side of the door. this apparently saved us a lot of time and frustration. i was duely impressed. 

by the end of the evening, the lengths of all the pieces had been calculated and double-checked, all measurements had been measured at least twice, and everything was cut to length and fitted into the doorways before it was taken to the basement for the first coat of primer.

over the next few weeknights, the pieces all got two coats of primer and two coats of paint. i would be lying if i said i helped with that at all. not that i didn't offer, just that i was not needed at this stage of the game.

when the weekend finally came, we knew that before we did anything else with the doorways, something had to be done about the floor in the fireplace room. because not only was it getting kind of hard to work with all the stuff to step around and avoid stepping on, but all that junk was also covered in a nice thin black dusty film of spraypaint gunk. it was almost entirely imperceptible until it was transferred onto your feet or hands and then left black painty fingerprints and footprints all over everything that did not need to be covered with black painty fingerprints and footprints.

we meticulously wiped down absolutely everything in the room with a damp rag, and rolled up the plastic as we went. we put away tools that we were done with, but kept close the ones we might still need. then i vacuumed the floor, and swiffered the floor, and wiped the whole thing down with a wet rag on my hands and knees, and swiffered the floor again, and then swiffered it all with a wet cloth too. and for about a half an hour, the whole room was spotless.

oh, and i took advantage of the freshly clean environment to take another pic of the fireplace in all her trimmed-out spraypainted awesomeness without the clutter on the floor or tape on the ceiling to take away from how good she looks.

anywho, then it was back to the business of the doorways. Mark started with the kitchen doorway. he nailed the frame together lying down, then stood it up to fit them into the doorway. and thanks to his careful calculations and measurements, it fit perfectly!

then Mark used his studfinder so he would know where the studs were in the wall when it came time to put up the trim and make sure everything was all secured and in place. i didn't help with this part either, because i don't need a studfinder to find my stud. (ba-dum-bum-chissshhh) (i told mark when i took this picture that i was going to make a really funny studfinder joke that he wouldnt think was funny at all. he mostly ignored me.)

since Mark was doing most of the work at this point, and doing SUCH a good job of it, i took it upon myself to simultaneously enjoy my super clean floors and the first time we've seen the sun all week by sprawling out in the middle of the room and staring out the window at the gorgeous blue sky. a major contribution on my part, honestly. i am so helpful.

my cloud-gazing break had to end when Mark had moved onto the front room doorway and needed my floorspace. so i kept blue glove buddy company in the kitchen for a while.

fitting the second doorway into place had a few more bumps than the first did. turns out the opening was just a hair too narrow, so Mark had to cut back about a quarter inch of drywall on each side of the door. this made sure the doorframe would fit, and also made a mess on my freshly-clean floor.

since my help was only needed sparingly, i transitioned into a role not unlike a supervisor who watches the workers, offers encouragement or a helping hand when needed or requested, but who mostly sits around and does nothing. see how helpful i am?

i am happy to say that thanks to my diligent oversight and surveillance of the process, this was our only nail gun casualty of the day. no fingers or toes or animals were victimized, just the hub's patience. bonus points to anyone who does not mention this or point this out to him when they come to visit, as it is kind of a sore spot for him. extra bonus points to whoever finds out where in the world that nail went.

wow, this is getting long. i guess you should just be glad i'm not sharing all almost-80 pictures i took of the whole process. but to make a long-ish story short-er, the doorways are officially fixed! i am so thrilled. i had almost forgotten what the room looked like with real finished doorways and trim and baseboard.

oh, you'd like to see what it looks like too? no problem, i'm happy to share. we ended up having to borrow a smaller nail gun from Mark's dad to put up the quarterround at the bottom of the baseboard on sunday, but everything was in place and cleaned up in time for the Sunday night football game.

i'm never quite sure that the to-do list ever gets any shorter for this room, but the things on the list are of a much smaller scale than they used to be. we are definately in the home stretch here, and it feels good.

Still To Do:

- fill all the nail holes with wood filler and sand smooth.

- put a thin layer of touch up paint over the nail holes and fingerprints.

- clean a few paint splatters off the brick.

- clean, paint, and re-install the air return vent covers.

- put up all the light switch and outlet covers.

- re-hang the light fixture in the nook.

- figure out what to do about window treatments.

insert interesting post title here.

it's been almost a full week since i've updated at all, so i feel like i should say something here. but the thing is, i don't feel like i have anything to really say. at least, not anything that anyone else would find extremely interesting, or funny, or worth writing and/or reading about.

i could default to the weather, and gripe and complain about the non-stop rain we've been having here on the east coast thanks to a crazy confluence of hurricanes and tropical storms. but the rain hasn't really affected us personally. yet. (knock on wood, grab a lucky rabbit's foot, and search frantically for a four leaf clover) our basement is dry. we don't live near a creek. our road isn't closed. we can still get to work. school closings dont affect us. we haven't been evacuated. all the trees are still standing in our yard. the only inconvenience we've suffered was Mark's cancelled softball game on Tuesday and the knowledge that we'll probably have to mow our grass twice next week once this all dries up and the sun comes back out. so yeah, not so much to say about the weather.

i guess i could talk about work a little, and how an unexpected power outage on Tuesday led to me having most of a day off, which led me to working 9-hr days the rest of this pay period to make up the glorious extra hours i spent at home, except that i know a few people at work who read this so i wouldnt want to do any sort of complaining or whining that might in any way endanger my job. because i like it. so yeah, no discussions of work here.

i guess i could tell you about the progress we're making in the fireplace-room-door-fixing process, (and by we i mean Mark) but i kind of want to save that so it can have its own post once they're done. you know, to try and keep the total number of posts about the work we're doing in that room down below 30 or so. so yeah, forget that i mentioned the fireplace room.

of course, i could always lament my lack of general housekeeping abilities and regale you with anecdotes about how i spent all day Tuesday cleaning my house, all day Wednesday messing it up again, and the rest of the week not doing a single lick of housework. but then you would all know that my kitchen sink is full of dishes, i didn't wash the ravioli pot from last night, my bathrooms are a disgrace, and you don't even want to know how many hours i spent just sitting on the couch watching bad tv this week. but i can't mention any of that because then my mom will worry about me. so yeah, not so much interesting happening in my day to day life.

but wait, this just in! i just got back from a quick Sheetz run for Friday lunch and i would just not be a good blogger if i didn't share with you the fact that i totally got hit on by a stranger at the traffic light. he was sitting in a green subaru at the red light in front of me, waiting to turn left, when i noticed he was looking at me in his rearview mirror. and then he waggled his eyebrows at me! i'm not really sure what he was expecting from me, so i shot him a "seriously?" look. he responded with a look of his own that i interpreted to mean "yeeahhh, you know it" and he waggled his eyebrows again! this silent exchange continued for way too long, partly because i didn't want to just take the easy way out and wave my ring in his face, and partly because i was having a lot of fun giggling at his desperation. the icing on the cake was when he stalled out when the light finally changed because he was so engrossed in our "conversation," and then sped away to escape the uncontrollable laughter that exploded out of me at his expense. i was just really glad that he was not also on his way to Sheetz. that could have been awkward.

Dear Dark-Haired Stranger at the Red Light -
thank you for making my day, and for giving me something interesting to blog about. sorry to disappoint you, but i'm happily married. and even if i wasn't, you still would not have gotten my number. your choice of location for picking up women makes you seem desperate and awkward. you might want to rethink that for the future.

Good Luck with That,

Mando.

the day for laboring.

another long weekend made for the perfect time to knock out some more of the fireplace room to-do list. this weekend, the fireplace itself was due for some lovin'. we had decided a while ago that the gold finish on the fireplace was just not quite our style, and figured that since we were doing so much in this room already, we might as well try to modernize it just a little bit to make it look more like it belonged in our house and less like your grandmother's fireplace.

our weapon of choice was a can of heat-resistant black spray paint. we taped over everything that we wanted to stay its original color, or anything that was going to be exposed to open flame at some point, to lessen the chances of lighting the house on fire. 

after the first (very thin) coat of paint, it was still looking rather shiny, and more than a little splotchy, but it wasn't drippy so i was feeling pretty confident that our investment in that one can of spray paint was going to be worth it.

since it was raining, we couldn't paint outside, so we set up a secondary spray station in the basement to spray the doors so we wouldnt have to wait for a nice day. because we're nothing if not determined to get this project done in a timely fashion. and also kind of stupid for putting that many fumes into a not-very-well ventilated area. (don't worry Mom, we took plenty of fresh air breaks on the front porch)

four (very thin!) coats of paint later, and the doors looked like this:

and the fireplace surround looked like this:

so then we put it all together and whaddaya get? a brand-spankin'- new fireplace thats what! i'm still kind of amazed that it's the same fireplace, just a different color. i'm a little bit in love. (i would be even more in love if the spray paint hadnt also left a coating of black paint/dust all over every horizontal surface in the room, but i'm just going to take a big breath and not get into that rant right now) 

while i was busy painting the fireplace and watching paint dry, Mark tackled the crown molding and trim that went around the fireplace. first, he used some paint stripper to remove some of the paint that the previous owners had so kindly left on the brick when they had painted their old trim. this was the most time consuming part of the process, and the results were subtle but i think it made a big enough difference to be worth the effort.

then, because there were no joists in the ceiling right along the fireplace and because you can't shoot a nail gun into brick, Mark made some backer pieces out of an old 2x4 and super glued them to the ceiling to make sure the nails would have something to grab into and keep the crown molding from falling down over time. oh, and those blocks on the corners were necessary because of there will be trim running vertically around the fireplace as well as the crown around the top, and there is no other way to make them look nice where they all run into each other. there are similar blocks at the bottom to tie into the baseboard and quarter round too.

because i got to be a helper in the actual putting-up-the-trim process, there are no pictures of that. so thanks to the wonder that is the internet, viola! here's the fireplace as she looks right now - all painted, doors on, crown molding up, and cove trim along the sides.

sorry the picture's not the greatest, and please ignore the tape on the ceiling and the giant mess that is the whole floor in that room. but honestly, that's what the room looks like at this very moment. we didnt have time to clean it up and stage a good shot, heck we just barely got all the pieces up before we had to rush out the door because we were late for a labor day picnic. 

Mark and his blue-glove buddy that i made him on a fresh-air break outside are proud of what we accomplished with our weekend. Mark is already itching to get to work on the last big part of this room: fix the doors.

pins and buttons.

i've had a pinterest account for a few weeks, or maybe it's been months, i dont really know. i've pinned 132 things that i like, or think are cool, or funny, or that i would like my house to look like, or look like something i could do. up until this week, i had done none of them. and then when i was hunting for ideas for Mark's cousin's birthday, i pinned this:

and a couple days later, i got excited and i made this:

i'm pretty happy with how it turned out. actually, if i could get over the fact that the fabric has a couple little wrinkles in it and there is that one button that i probably should have moved over a half an inch, it might just be my favorite thing i've ever made. maybe i should start thinking about some of those other potential projects i have pinned...

...or maybe i should focus a little more on that fireplace room project first...