Relax, here I am

ALRIGHT! I'm back!  Sorry to all 4 of you who have been patiently waiting for me to blog about something.

I've been kind of busy, but finally my life is settling down.  Praise the Lord.  I figured I would do a quick photo post on some updates in our house!

Hello Scooby. 

My homemade wreath, thanks Whole Foods guy for giving me all the cuttings from the bottoms of your trees!

Hello Mae.

One day I will write about our wedding

 

House Update!

Well, I know it has been a while since I last wrote, but I've been a teensy bit busy! For some reason acquiring a new house and planning a wedding take up a good amount of time.

Excuses aside, Evan and I have made some serious progress on the house! Thought I'd share a few pictures to prove it!

Let's start with some cute pictures of the cats having fun with fire

Yes, it is cold enough now that we used the stove for the first time!

Next up, living room shot.  It's still a bit of a work in progress, mainly because so much of it is brown... My next project is to recover the ottoman- any suggestions?

The dining room! Evan has worked tirelessly on the exposed brick wall, and I think did a fantastic job! We both really love how it looks.

We also painted the entire room white, after spending many weeks going back and forth on other color choices.  We're loving the white though, it feels so much bigger and brighter!

The bedroom update is mainly that we hung the big map haha

That's all for now!

Have I told you lately that I love...

VINEGAR?

Oh yes, I am mildly obsessed with the magical stuff.  There is a running joke amongst myself and Evan that in response to any health question/ cleaning question/ general what-do-I-use-for-this question my answer is almost always VINEGAR! Sore throat? drink VINEGAR! Clogged drain? pour VINEGAR!

Vinegar is a great all around unbelievably useful and CHEAP alternative to almost every single thing in your life.  Trust me.

here

One of my favorite things about it is that it is completely safe and natural, which means using it all over the house is ok for pets (or kids, if you have those).  It's naturally disinfecting which is why it can be used to clean the bathroom AND kill a sore throat.

I generally stick to an Apple Cider Vinegar for all things body related and White Vinegar for all else rule.  Also, I "splurge" on the organic raw Bragg ACV (it has more active enzymes and whatnot if it has not been distilled) but buy the cheapo white stuff by the gallon).

Here goes:

ACV:

• Put a table spoon in a glass of water if you have an upset stomach or feel a cold coming on, or after you've had a lot to eat; it will help settle your stomach, aids in digestion and helps fight colds. 
• Add a few drops to pet's water; it'll naturally deter bugs, and helps keep their skin and coat healthy.
• Soak a cotton ball in ACV and smear on your skin if you have acne or eczema.
• Apparently drinking a bit of it every day helps to lose weight.  

WHITE VINEGAR:

• If the shower head is not performing at full speed, take it off and soak it in warm white vinegar for about 30 minutes.  It will clear away any build up inside.
• If your pet had an accident in the house, spraying the spot with vinegar kills the smell, keeping them from going back to the same spot to do their business.
• Soak/spray wooden cutting boards with a mixture of vinegar and water (I keep a spray bottle under the sink) to kill any germs.
• Run a mix of vinegar and water through your coffee pot to clean it (which makes for much better coffee, mind you). 
• Spray the windows and wipe off with black and white newspaper.
• If the drain is slow, pour some baking soda down it followed by vinegar (remember making volcanos in elementary school? Same reaction).  Run the water about 10 minutes later to clean it out. 
• Put some vinegar on a clean rag with a few drops of essential oil and throw in the dryer with the wash, eco dryer sheet!

INDIA ARIE!

INDIA.ARIE HAS A NEW ALBUM COMING OUT IN OCTOBER! I AM WAY OVERLY EXCITED!

House work has begun!

Evan and I closed on the house on Thursday! And almost immediately got to work on it!  I didn't have my camera to take before pictures (damn!) but I did take video... which I will someday edit down and make into something fun to watch... but until then I will steal the pictures from the realtor's site and use some we took when first looking at the house to show some before and during picture comparisons! We have been working non stop, and have almost finished painting  the first and second floors! Plus a few other changes which you will see.

Let's begin:

Before, with someone else's furniture

Living room during! With random bits of furniture.  New paint, new light bulbs (they make a huge difference!) and no ugly 1970's porn mirror above the fireplace

Please forgive the awkward blurry picture in the "office".  It was very dark in there like a cave.  Evan called it "old squash soup" color

Office during! New paint, new light fixture, patched walls, no curtains (yet)

Master Bedroom before

Master bedroom during

Dining room to living room before

Living room to dining room during

Painted walls and hallways.  White trim is the next project

Dining room during.  Evan exposed the brick! New light! Yet to be painted

Porch looking in!

We've made a lot of progress already, but there is so much to do!  We're loving it! 

Shoes shoes shoes!

Wedding planning for the most part has been pretty fun/easy for Fiance and myself.  We both have simple taste, aren't out to impress our friends and family with over the top food (lobsters stuffed with kobe beef stuffed with caviar stuffed with truffles covered in gold!) or pricey decor and entertainment (nix the juggling monkeys and Barbara Streisand and the Cirqe Du Soleil act) or even expensive clothes.  We're making the beer, buying the wine, using Whole Foods as our caterer... you get the idea.  I got my dress (thanks to a tip from my best friend who is getting married just weeks before me) from a great little consignment shop in Ardmore- Sabrina Ann's- totally recommend it.  While they had/I tried on a few dresses in the multiple thousand dollar range, the one I fell in love with and ultimately chose was only $125! Imagine my surprise!  I almost peed my pants out of pure joy.  In my attempt to be just a bit old fashioned, I will not show you a picture here on this blog (in fear that Kim Kardashian will see it and steal my look, obviously) but I can tell you it does NOT look like this:

Or this:

 Or even this:

 

Well actually, it's more like this last one than the others.  INTRIGUED?!?!?!

And while I've been totally ok about sticking within budget, and not being extravagant... 

...my weakness is SHOES.  I love shoes, I really do.  In fact, I bought these before buying my dress, rationalizing the price by saying "I'll wear them in my wedding!"

 

Then I got a dress and realized these would look TERRIBLE with it.  And in reality, they wouldn't look good with a wedding dress at all.  But I'm keeping them.

Moving along...

Because my dress is pretty simple, I'm now leaning towards a more classic weddingy shoe.  Here are my latest obsessions.  Some of which would cost MORE than the dress.  Whatever.  I had initially said "no big heels" but I am short! And I can't resist!

 

 

 

 

Maybe I should buy them all and change shoes every 14.5 minutes? Thoughts?  WHAT'S A GIRL TO DO?!

Yum

Summer cherries force me to practice self control. I could plow through a pound of these in one sitting!  One bowl at a time, Hilary.  

Paper cutting crafty time

I was perusing Etsy where I came across some very beautiful and very expensive graphic maps and found myself saying  "I ain't paying nobody for that. I could totally do it MYSELF." It only took me a few months to assemble all of the components, which is pretty pathetic considering all I needed was paper, tape, a Google map and an exacto knife.

I taped down the card stock on a cutting board, then taped the Google map of West Philly on top and went at it with the exacto.  It took a few hours, and it made my hand tired, but ultimately it was not that bad! Threw it in a cheap thrift store frame (I will upgrade eventually) and voila! Personalized graphic art for under 5 bucks!