The Guest Room

So this is the guest room. I intended to post these pictures yesterday but was busy trying to clean this room and closet. I think right now it actually looks worse than this. I guess it has to before it gets better. I'm giving myself until the end of Nov. to have this room clean and painted and ready for guests. We don't have many guests but it would be nice to have a room for them if we do.

I feel Stupid.

So I was in Target shopping yesterday for fruit and vegetables. Target doesn't have the best selection to begin with unless you are looking for apples but I was tired of apples so I was looking for something new. I come upon a package of 4 apple looking things but they have a label on them that says Grapple. Hmmmm.... this is new. It says- looks like an apple, tastes like a grape. I thought, "this must be an aggie experiment of cross breeding fruit... like a pluot, I wonder if it's good?" So I grab my package of Grapples and head for checkout. It wasn't until I got home that I read the fine print "Real apple & Artificial grape flavor". What!? I would never have gotten it if I thought it was some apple injected with fake grape flavor. I don't like grape flavor. By the evening, my entire kitchen smelled like a cheep grape scented marker. The logical thing would be to take them back or throw them out, but because I'm lazy and cheep (they cost $2.50- i can't waste that money) I took one to work today to try. It didn't taste bad, but it wasn't good either. Apparently they are made by soaking the apples in grape flavor, not injecting. I went to the web site and filled out a survey. http://www.grapplefruits.com/ I left a less than glowing report- I hope they don't send me a coupon. One of the questions was "What other flavors would you like to see?" How 'bout none. The apple sat in my plastic lunch bag all morning and I swear I've been smelling grape flavor on my clothes. Unfortunatly if you are looking for some new fruit, I do not recommend this one. I need some new fall fruits, any ideas?

Crazy Weekend

It's been a crazy weekend so I thought I would catch you up at once. Friday night was my office Halloween carnival. We decorate the office and put out games for the kids and have a costume contest and eat good food. It was a lot of fun but very tiring, there's always a lot of cleaning up to do after a big party.


Saturday I got up and my friend Lori came over and we made Christmas cards. I had someone order some of my cards so I almost finished making those for her. Then I started cleaning the guest room (yes, I know that wasn't scheduled until next month but look at it... I'll need the extra time), we went to Lowes to look at fireplace screens and found nothing, did you know it was impossible to find a contemporary fireplace screen for under $400. When I got back I attempted to organize our schedule on a chalkboard in the office. I'm pretty sure this won't help at all to keep us on schedule and stress free but I thought I would try. Then we watched Transformers on DVD and it was still greatness.


Sunday morning we went to church, I left early to go to another church to help present a design for their new buildings. Then I came home, ate lunch, put away the laundry, cleaned in the guest room, worked out, and put the dishes away. I headed back up to the church for the Trunk or Treat carnival for a few hours and then headed to the grocery store. All was going well until I headed to get my last item at Target. I was standing in front of the Hostess snacks and didn't see my chocolate 100 calorie Hostess snacks. I searched and they were defiantly not there. I felt myself start to melt down. If you are thinking that seems silly, then you must not be counting every calorie. These Hostess snacks are only 1 point not the typical 2 of other 100 calorie snacks. Also, they taste pretty decent- for artificially sweetened cardboard. It's pretty much the only thing that gets me through a sugar craving in the middle of the workday. So back to the meltdown- I saw the snacks were missing and could feel myself rocking the cart back and forth as i swayed while screaming NOOOOO in my head. Just as I felt my knees start to bend so that I could curl up on the floor in front of the Hostess shelf, I thought, "It's not worth making a scene." So I dragged myself to the checkout and home. I think I'm tired. Fortunately, I made it home in time to eat dinner and get in front of the TV for my shows. I hope you are also watching TV like all good americans should be. I hope to be in bed soon.

A New Blog

I started a new blog so check it out!

Cat's Design Blog

The Hallway is Done

I finally finished the hallway. Another small area that took forever. The left side is painted the orange that you see in the pic but the other side is painted a neutral tan. I was a little nervous about painting the hallway 2 different colors and one being orange (yes, even i get nervous about design decisions) but it looks great. Aaron Brothers had a big sale so we stocked up on frames but I didn't have photos until after our vacation to California. I wanted to frame pictures that I had taken because I knew they would be special. Well, I'm off to bed in my very average painted bedroom.

It's time for new clothes.

I just put up my summer clothes and got out my winter clothes. That is the pile of summer clothes. I have about 10 sweaters for winter to replace all those summer things. Get used to seeing me wear the same thing every day. I think at the end of last winter I pulled out all my old clothes and ebayed them thinking that I could just buy new clothes at the beginning of this winter. I probably should have thought ahead- if I couldn't afford the clothes then, it's possible I won't be able to afford them later. The lady at Banana today tried to tell me that if I spend $800 before the end of the year I could get their "deluxe" membership card for life instead of just year by year. Was she kidding? Has she ever heard of a guy named Dave (See Amish Swinneys)? I can't imagine having $800 to spend on clothes in the next 2 months, that would be nice though. The weatherman is saying it's going to be cold tomorrow. Looks like I pulled out the sweaters just in time. Let me know if you find any good sales so I can stock up on some winter clothes!

My new favorite room

I worked so hard on this tiny room i can't believe it. The stripes took a very long time- because of the texture of the walls, i drew the lines on the wall in pencil then painted them in by hand. FOREVER. But, now i love it. there's a great new light fixture, floating towel holder, a new terrycloth shower curtain, it's just really cool. I've divided my home projects into months. A couple of different reasons for this, one- we can't afford to do it all at once, two- it's overwhelming to think about everything i want to do in the house, and three- i don't have time to do it all at once. So, last month was the guest bathroom, this month is the office, Nov. is the guest bedroom, Dec is a free month because I will have too much else to do, Jan. is the den, Feb. is the kitchen, and March we will start working on the yard again. At the end of the month i'll post a before and after of the office. I probably won't get it painted by the end of the month but organization is the goal and i'm already 1/2 way there.
Hope you like the bathroom. If you want stripes on your wall, i'll tell you how to do it but i probably won't help... sorry but i'm tired of stripes for awhile :-)

Our Love Tree...

If you have ever seen "How to loose a guy" I hope you snickered a little at the title. If not, rent it, it's great and no, we don't actually call this our "love tree". We did plant the baby tree this weekend, and by we, I mean Mike. I didn't do much of anything. If it looks like the ropes holding the tree up are just as large as the tree trunk, it's not an optical illusion- it's true. I think it's a little excessive but we know nothing about trees so we just bought the kit and that's what came in it. I think it's really fun to watch things grow. There's something about planting something and taking care of it and seeing it get bigger and bigger. I planted herbs last spring from seeds and they all grew so big and I used them in my cooking. Then they all died. I have no idea why but now I have pots of black herbs, like they died instantly one night and just turned black right in place. I hope we have better luck with the tree. I figure if we can grow a tree, then we might be ready for kids. I said that about the dog but we have been pretty successful with the dog and I'm still not ready for kids so we are going to try something a little more challenging. Once our little love tree is twice it's size, then we will be ready for kids. Man, I hope it's a slow grower!


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I posted about the tree yesterday and this morning I read this in Psalms 1:
Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.

So, this isn't out love tree, it's our prosper tree. :-) Just kidding. But that verse did really pop out to me because of all my "tree" talk. Whatever it takes to make the Word stick in your head. What a great verse!

Wasting Time...

Do you ever catch a movie you like on TV? That happened to me today... twice. I think it's so funny because I have seen this movie a million times, have it memorized, OWN IT, and still i stop everything i'm doing to watch it on TV with the commercials. What's wrong with me? First it was Bring it On (try to get past the fact that I own this movie- it's quite funny) and then it was Italian Job. I think the saddest part is that I actually stop doing something else to watch them. If I had nothing else to do then that's one thing but when you set aside life to watch a movie you have memorized- that's a problem. Don't worry, I still made a healthy dinner and now i'm watching Legally Blonde the musical on MTV (which is actually quite cute) in preparation for Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters. Don't feel sorry for Mike, he's been watching football all afternoon. If you don't watch Brothers and Sisters, rent the DVD's of last season- it's an excellent show!

I love fall!

I love fall, I really do. I know it's fall when Starbucks brings back their pumpkin spice flavor. That single thing makes my whole day happy. I also love premiere week on TV. I have that week marked on my calandar for months and then i'm so happy when it's finally here. Judge me all you want but I love TV. I think I have at least one show every night. I love DVR almost as much as i love my husband because it frees up my evening and i can watch my shows whenever i want. And then there's pumpkins. I think i'm happier going to the grocery store in the fall because there's pumpkin and squash everywhere. If i were in charge of america, everyone would eat one pumpkin thing a day... and i personally would have many meals of all pumpkin products. The weathers great, the food is great, the tv is great, what's not to love?

In honor of the great fall, i made a centerpiece for my kitchen table. I was inspired by pottery barn but added my own twist. it was really easy and suprisingly cheep and i'm really happy with how it turned out! Hopefully this will inspire you to create your own fall centerpiece. Notice i stuck a scented candle on top of the candy corn so that i won't be temped to eat any. Whatever works right? :-)