Category Archives: Home

An Evening of Decor & Fashion!

La Dolce Vita

Good evening!

OK, so I had better get with the program and get a posting out there tonight! This evening, I have been feverishly going through decorating books, and fashion magazines. I am not exactly sure what I am looking for, but I know it is time for some slight modifications to my immediate world around me – namely my living room decor. I am bored with it. Which, when I think about it is not too surprising! I have always been very nomadic in my life, moving from place to place to place, and we have lived in our condo for 5 years, which may be longer than I have lived anywhere!! Well, I am bored with it all! My favorite thing about moving all the time was that moving not only gives you the opportunity to go through all of your belongings and decide what is important to you and what isn’t, it also forces you to redecorate for each new place you move too. I LOVE decorating, and I kind of have a natural talent for it!

I would LOVE to be able to house all of my books in one room. I have more than 1200 books, so that, right now is a problem, because space is rather tight!! All the same, I have just ordered my new Ikea catalog for some storage/creative use of space ideas, and I am dreaming about what this living room could be!

I would love to see this room have more seating, and a much more comfortable couch for visiting with company AND for cuddling up to watch movies!! I would like it to be in a more neutral color, so that I can decorate with throw blankets and pillows, and easily change them on a whim – whenever the mood strikes! Having a red couch has been fun, but if I had given it some real thought, I would have preferred a neutral-colored couch with a red slipcover!!! That way I would have had some real versatility!

Alkemie

I love the idea of being surrounded by books, art, and music. Being comfortable in your space, but at the same time, have a sense of plushness, and sophistication – all while being able to cuddle up in a blanket with a good book, while your bare feet are thrown over the arm of a chair! Simply divine!

Alkemie

I also LOVE the idea of some more versatile lighting in this place. I have a few lamps in this room, and in the Winter I utilize the glow of candlelight quite a bit. I know that someday, when we are in our actual house, then I will have a chandelier in our living room, and it will be very chi-chi-fab!!! I can just picture it now! 😉

Alkemie

Anyway, I am going to put together a design board for my dream living room, and then modify that so that I can have my “dream room” on a smaller scale for this place, so that even though my sweetie and I have to be here for a couple of more years, it will still feel like home – at least for now!! 😉

Alkemie

Have a FABULOUS evening!!!

An Aunt Dimity Kind of Sunday!

Good evening!

I have having a really good Sunday!!

I am reading the first book in the Aunt Dimity series, by Nancy Atherton. The first book is called, Aunt Dimity’s Death. This was one of the series that was left to me by my Grandma Kay, and I have to say, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE it!!! The book is fun, and the premise is interesting. Matter of fact, the character reminds me so my of my sweet Kay, and even her lovely cottage in the English country-side reminds me SO MUCH of the sweet, homey vibe that I always felt out at Kay’s beach house.

Here is the book description from the inside of the cover:

When Lori Shepherd was a little girl she used to lie in bed at night with a stuffed rabbit named Reginald and listen to her mother’s stories of the indomitable Aunt Dimity, who lived in far-off England. But now Lori is a newly divorced, down-on-her-luck grownup, her mother is dead, and Lori’s long since realized that Aunt Dimity was just a character in a comforting bedtime story.

Or was she? One day the bedraggled Lori is summoned from the latest of her dreadful temp jobs to the Dickensian law firm of Willis U Willis. There Willises Junior and Senior inform her that Aunt Dimity was indeed a real person–a very rich real person who’s just died and left Lori a respectable bequest. Unfortunately, there’s one catch: Lori must visit Aunt Dimity’s English cottage and find a secret hidden among the treasure trove of letters written by her mother and Dimity over the four decades of their friendship.

What begins a fairy tale in a improbably cozy setting becomes a mystery–and a ghost story–as Aunt Dimity’s gentle spirit leads Lori on an unotherworldly quest that Dimity could not fulfill in her own lifetime. And for Lori, Dimity’s bequest is even greater than she dreamed, as she discovers that in this life, true love can conquer all.

I am almost done with this first book, and I happened to get my hands on Aunt Dimity’s oatmeal cookie recipes, so I decided to make them for my sweetie today. They are very light, fluffy, and cake-like!! I HIGHLY recommend giving this easy recipe a try! I got a copy of this off of Nancy Atherton’s website.  😉

beth’s oatmeal cookies    

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Makes approximately 6 dozen cookies.

  •  1 cup butter or margarine
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 jumbo eggs
  • 5 tablespoons raisin water (see below)
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
  • 1 cup raisins
  • 2 cups water
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

In small saucepan, combine raisins with water and bring to boil; lower heat and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Set aside to cool. When cool, reserve 5 tablespoons raising water, then drain raisins in colander.

In large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and raisin water and mix well. Blend dry ingredients into creamed mixture. Add nuts if desired. Add raisins and combine well.

Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls, 2 inches apart, onto greased baking sheets. Bake 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown and firm on top when touched with your finger. Cool on wire racks.

DELICIOUS!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Nesting on a Saturday Night!

Good evening!

I am having quite a lovely evening at home hanging out with my sweetie! I am busy running around the house, nesting my little heart out. Redecorating, reorganizing, arranging fresh flowers, and generally just having a GREAT time!! I feel like I am totally in my element right now!!!

Jason and I went to lunch with a friend of ours, and then the three of us went to the movies and watched Captain America. Good movie, by the way – Captain America was EXTREMELY HOT! 😉 I can’t wait to see the movie, The Avengers next Summer. There is something about the idea of Stark, Thor, and Captain America in the same movie – YUM!! Ok, so apparently I revert back to a teenage girl at a moments’ notice! 😉

After dropping our friend, Don, off. Jason and I headed over to Borders to see if there were any good deals to be had, which I am happy to say that there were. 😉 I did pick up a few books, but I didn’t stick around at all because it is not longer “my” Borders. I think I will make one more pitstop in about two weeks or so, there are a couple of literature books that I am really looking forward to adding to my collection, but if I can get them at a better deal, then it will be worth it to me to wait for it!

I wanted to tell you that the pictures this evening are all taking of my favorite building downtown. This building is the building that houses the US Bank downtown. It is called the Ladd and Bush Bank building, and was built in 1867. Isn’t it lovely??

As I finish toodling around the house tonight…

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Funky Mood!

Good evening!

I am in a bit of a funky mood! Do you ever feel like that?

I had a pretty good day at work, and this evening, as soon as I got home I pulled all of my bills together to schedule them to be automatically paid, like I do every month, and I had a little surprise on my cable bill.

Back in November, my sweetie and I decided that we had too much tele in our lives, and we took the huge step, at least at the time it felt like a huge step, to cut our super-duper-duper-CABLE back to regular, bare-bones basic cable.

Well, today, for the first time since then, I actually looked at our bill – what a novel concept right? I know, I honestly don’t know what I was thinking, thinking that the cable company would be looking out for me!! Anyway, I found a $16 discrepancy on our bill, which isn’t so bad all by itself, BUT I have been paying that $16 for every month for the past 8 months – OUCH! Ok, so maybe it isn’t enough to break the bank, but still I am giving away my hard earned money for nothing!!

I called their “Customer Service Line” and well, let’s just say, the customer wasn’t served very well! HOWEVER, I am not going to let it ruin my day, Jason is going to go down tomorrow and make sure that it is taken care of.

So, there you go!!

The thing that started this whole effort this evening, is that I have decided that I have got to stop turning a blind eye to my finances, pretending that I am thriving, when in reality I really had no freaking clue how I was doing!! Well, I have taken stock, and I am not doing as well as I thought I was doing, and it is going to take me a while to flip my financed right side up, but I have done it before and I will be more than able to do it again!! With LOTS and LOTS of patience!! 😉

I will keep you posted of my efforts!! Right now, I need to set up an actual budget to see what will be manageable!! Not to mention get ready to have some dinner with my sweetie!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

 

He’s Still Got It!

Good evening!

Jason and I had some lovely visitors yesterday while we were having our garage sale, and I had just happened to capture a few of the cutest pics that I wanted to share with you.

This is my nephew Morgan, and my niece Megan. I really miss these two cuties – we haven’t spent too much time together recently – their family has been SUPER-BUSY!! 😉

Here is our nephew, John. I took 5 pictures of him, and he was frozen like a statue – EVERY single picture was IDENTICAL!! TOO FUNNY!! 😉

This is our adopted free-spirited little sister, Cicily!! She is taking a break from helping with our garage sale to enjoy some rare Oregon sun.

Now, when these two get with their Uncle Jay-Jay hilarity ensues!! What you can’t see is that Uncle Jay-Jay is tickling them!! 😉

and here is little Miss Megan acting shy peeking out behind her mamma!! I definitely need to get some Auntie Time scheduled!! We need to go get some serious pampering time in!!!

I hope you enjoyed these pictures! Even though their visit was short, we made a swim date to get together again on Tuesday – I REALLY can’t wait!!! 😉

Until tomorrow…

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

A Little Bit of Truth

Well, ladies and gentlemen.

I would love to tell you that I am having a great night, unfortunately I am not.

I would love to tell you that everything in my life is perfect, alas, that too, it is not.

I would love to tell you that I always have the right words to say, but sometimes the words get all used up and depleted. I feel a little like tonight is one of those nights.

I am going to share something seriously personal, and I want what I have to say to remain in this room, if you don’t mind. 😉 My sweetie and I are trying to decide if we should stay together or not.

Wow! even though I felt like I was whispering that so quietly, reading it here feels like I am yelling it at the top of my lungs.

You know, the fact of the matter is, is that I love that man like crazy, but I am learning that maybe sometimes love isn’t enough. Sometimes the annoyances of real life, and a lot of stupid little nothings get in the way of happiness. Sometimes choosing to stay with someone is just that, a choice. A choice to be happy. or a choice to be miserable. I can’t tell you which choice is which. and I honestly don’t know what choice is going to be made this evening.

I honestly couldn’t imagine my life without Jason. He has been my lover, soul mate, playmate, shoulder to cry on, cheerleader, protector, and my best friend for the past 17 years; but maybe it will all just turn out for the best. that is what I am banking on. one way or the other.

How sad is this posting – right?? I am sorry to be such a stick-in-the-mud, but I think instead of just pretending to smile and tell you all that everything is going honey-dorey. I thought a little bit of truth might just be in order.

As I close this post for the evening, I would love to tell you all to have a fabulous night, but I think I would rather just tell you to take care of yourself, and be thankful for those around you that you can share your love and life with, even if just for a short amount of time. Share your love with them completely, don’t hold back. Life truly is too short to be wasted.

Thank you so much for letting me go on, I am sure we will have it all worked out in the morning. We will see.

~Christina 🙂

Motivated!

Good evening!

This morning I stumbled across this quote that I haven’t been able to get out of my mind all day.

“What you can do or dream you can do, begin it, boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”
~Johann von Goethe

There are so many odd projects laying around the house that seriously need my attention, and I know that I need to spend time crossing each one off of my list! But, right now, the big project is Jason and I are participating in a large garage sale this Saturday. This is the perfect opportunity to clear out a lot of the miscellaneous stuff that in all honesty Jason and I haven’t seen in years!! We spent a few hours this evening going through boxes, and it was so energizing to let go of all of that old stuff. It is true what they say about stuff literally weighing you down, mentally! I am learning to believe that is true.

Ok, confession time!! I might be just a bit of a shop-a-holic (ok, Jay, stop laughing!!). Ok, I’ve said it!! I don’t think I go too crazy money-wise because I pay myself first, pay all of my bills, I have a nice retirement fund and a savings account, but where I think it is really starting to hurt me is in my living space. We live in such a small condo, and it seems that no matter how much stuff I have leaving this place, I just seem to fill the new space with almost twice as much stuff! (That might be a slight exaggeration, but I am sure not by much!)

My biggest areas I have problems with this is books, and fashion!! I can’t pass up a good book, ESPECIALLY if I can find it for a FABULOUS price! and ANYTIME I find a cute dress, or other clothing item that makes me feel good, I just snatch it up – and sometimes in multiple colors!!! This is really starting to become a problem! I would like to tell you that I could stop anytime I want too, but I find that I use shopping to sometimes fill a void that I can sometimes feel in myself. Like something I am needing and I am hoping a certain book, or a certain top will somehow fill it. Crazy, I know! I hear myself saying it, and just think,

“SNAP OUT OF IT GIRL!!!”

Sad, I know!! I am hoping that our garage sale this weekend will really help me make a serious dent in all of the “STUFF”!! I am a little nervous that I am going to be making my hubbies head spin by how fast and how much stuff is leaving this house! I am being seriously RUTHLESS in what goes and what stays!! If we haven’t even seen in since we moved in here 5 years ago, why the heck do we have it still!! Now, there are some memorabilia that I have a different set of rules for, but for the most part, that only pertains to things like cards, and photos, which don’t take up a lot of room in this house!! Thankfully!!

And, if my sweetie and I are going to stay in this condo a few more years, then I owe it to the both of us to make every effort to turn it into our home, and not just a stopping point – like a sad hotel!! Now, a GLAMOROUS HOTEL??? I am SOOO there for that, but not what we have been living in up to this point!!

Also, I have realized today, that I have so much extra home decor and what nots that I could actually start an online home boutique. Don’t think I am not seriously contemplating that either!! That has always been one of my dreams, and this quote above is making me thinking that I just need to get brave, and open my own boutique!! How cool would that be??!!

Oh to dream out loud!!

That would be BLISS!!!

Anyway, I am going to head up to bed for the night, and dream of my new clutter free home!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

Aaaaaah Hope!

Good evening!

You know what I’ve received as a gift today??

HOPE!!!

HOPE that things will get better, HOPE that I am not stuck in my job, HOPE that I am not stuck in my condo, and HOPE that I will get the opportunity to make my dreams come true! Someone gifted that to me today, and she may not even have known it! That someone was my realtor Nicole Shuba!! She was the same person who helped us find out condo, way back when – can you believe that we have been here 5 years????

I met with her after work today to find out if we had any kind of options, housing-wise,  in this market, or if we are just going to have to be a little more patient and wait it out! Her answer surprised me!!! She did say that we may have to just be patient and ride it out, but she also gave me a few ideas on things that I could do in the meantime, which was a breathe of fresh air!!

Not only that, she shared with me some of her goals that she has already accomplished – some goals that I also have on my list, mind you!! She showed me that if I just remain diligent, then I will be able to accomplish some of my goals too!!! Owning my little farm, traveling to Paris, and Italy, owning my own little business on the side, while I am waiting for the market to turn around, or at least for me to get my nest egg to where I want it to be so that I have some breathing room.

My meeting with her just reminded me that I am truly blessed, and that not only is God watching out for both my sweetie and myself, but He has bigger plans for us than we could have ever imagined, and they are on their way to us!!

Thank you, Nicole!! You truly did make my week!! I needed to hear everything you said, and to see your smiling face really put me at ease!! I can’t wait until I am able to have you sell this place, and help us purchase the next place – won’t that be an amazing day???

For all of the rest of us. I challenge us to go out of your way reach out to someone in your circle and share with them some words of encouragement! You may not know it, but maybe you will be making someone’s week too!

Have  a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

Taking a Time Out!

Good evening!

I am have given myself a time-out! LITERALLY!! You know, when you are a little kid and your parents ground you to your room, and it might as well be the ABSOLUTE WORST THING POSSIBLE??? Well, I wish my mom were around now to ground me to my room, because that is exactly where I want to be!!

I left my artist date early, brought my tired self home, and have given myself permission to just veg out for the evening! My official plan is that as soon as I am done blogging, I am going to climb up the stairs, get into my pj’s and climb into bed. Is that sad??

NO, I think that there are some times that you just need to know when to say, ok, I have had enough for the night!!

I am sure that after a great night’s rest I will be able to make it all the way through tomorrow! Until then,

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

A Random Sunday!

Good evening!

I have come to the point in my book-loving life that I have too many books, and not enough time to read them all! Not to mention, some of them were given to me and I have NO idea what they are even about. I need to get two comfortable reading chairs and place them in my living room so that I can get some more reading time squeezed into my days! All of my friends and family think that I read all of the time, but really, I only read about 1/2 an hour before bed every evening. I wonder if that fact would surprise any of them??

Well, Jason and I are getting ready for our association’s annual garage sale, which is coming up this weekend, so I am doing my part to help get rid of any miscellaneous things in the house. Apparently Jason is going to be placing a whole TON of his things from his storage unit out for sale, which will be good, I think! When Jason and I lived in the old house, we used to hold 2 or 3 garage sales every Summer, so keep the plethora of belongings at bay was much easier than it is now!!

I have been dreaming about our farm that we hope to have some day. I have made an appointment with my mortgage broker for this Tuesday to find out what kind of options I have for either getting out of our condo, or refinancing so that we can pay a lower mortgage payments every month. I haven’t refinanced for the last three years, and I know my credit score has gone up, and interested rates have gone down. SO, hopefully I will hear SOMETHING good!! just as long as she doesn’t tell me that we will be stuck in this condo for the next 10 years – UGH!!! 😉

As for today? Well, Jason and I started early this morning, with the stereo playing some happy music to make our chores a little more fun!! I just LOVE having a clean house!! Then I had pulled out my mother’s no-bake cookie recipe that I had misplaced, but found this week, and decided to surprise Jason by making him a batch of those. They are so much easier than I remember, and still DELICIOUS!! Needless to say he was PLEASANTLY surprised!!! 😉

So, tonight, I am going to finish going through some of my books, set out an outfit for tomorrow. Oh, on a side note, I have to text Chris (one of my co-workers) every morning to make sure that she and I are not wearing the same thing – it happens a lot!!! 😉 So, I have started to setting out my clothes every evening, so that I am ready at a moments notice if I have to change anything!! LOL!! What we do for our friends!! 😉 and then I am going to climb into my freshly made bed this evening and catch up on a little reading before I fall to sleep!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

PS: By the way, all of these pictures were taken by me while my sweetie and I were having our morning breakfast of steel cut oats – YUM!! 😉