I {Heart} Fridays

Beating the Winter Blues Part II

Today, I want to focus my degloomification (this is my own word here) on the house. I found some really bright and cheery items- perfect for the Jan/Feb freeze. Enjoy!

Beware of Dog Welcome Mat, $19.99, amazon.com

Singin' in the Rain Shower Curtain, $20.00, FredFlare.com

Heart Rug by Bowron, $107.90, Spacify.com

Original Mustache Love Magnets, $6.00, hownice on etsy.com

Couture Dishwashing Gloves with Print Ruffles, $16.95, fabsugar.com

Pop Art Toaster, $29.99, amazon.com

Beating the Winter Blues

I am totally struggling with the winter blues right now (a common occurrence for me at the end of January- beginning of February). Is anyone else out there tired of the snow and the cold? I can hear the amens and sighs ringing out- it's just plain rough this time of year.

In order to add some spice to my life during these winter months, I've been keeping an eye out for interesting, colorful objects I can place around my house to cheer me up. Today, I actually found some items more applicable to school and my job. I was lucky enough to stumble across these amazing office supplies on the web (goodness knows I spend the majority of my life sitting in my cubicle at work).

Check em out:

A Cup Full of Love

Today I am loving the insulated cup that my hubby gave me for Christmas. He bought me one of those amazing eco-cups that looks like a paper cup. Mine has a logo on the sleeve that says “saving the world one cup at a time.”

At first, I was a bit concerned about the silicone lid on the cup. I was worried that the lid would leak whenever I tried to take a drink. Fortunately, except for one time when I didn’t have the lid securely fit on the cup- I’ve had no spills. The only complaint I could come up with would be the smell of the lid, but the smell only lasted about a week.

In case you are in the market for your own eco-friendly cup, here are some awesome ones I found on Amazon:

(In order: Lock & Lock Eco Mug- $14.64, Smart Planet 12-Ounce Eco Travel Mug- $12.95, Eco-Cup Tea Lovers- Blue Floral- $12.99, DCI I Am Not a Paper Cup- $15.45)

Bathroom Update

A couple of weekends ago, I broke out my paintbrush and got to work priming the wood paneling in our bathroom. I was so tired of the gross wood paneling- I had to paint it and I am so glad I did! I want to share those pictures with you now. The project is not completely finished because it is so hard to get behind the pipes and radiator- but it is close.

If you scroll down, you can see how far our bathroom has really come.

Enjoy!

There's a Hole in the Floor

Hubs and I are in hyper drive with the house remodeling because we are going to be hosting a baby shower in April. My little sister has a bun in the oven, so she is going to be flying north to attend the shower. At first, I was trying to figure out how we were going to host a shower with no pregnant lady present- thinking my sister wouldn’t be able to make the trek. Turns out, all my fretting about Skyping her in and setting up a projector are for naught because she is coming!

Of course, we want to have the master bedroom and the bathroom finished before the baby shower. I would hate to have a lot of guests over and still have a hole in the bathroom floor (from the water pipe that was connected to our claw foot tub, which is now hibernating in the basement). I would also like to finish the craft room, so that it can house some of my family during the shower weekend.

On my I-would-love-for-this-to-be-done-but-it-isn’t-mandatory list I have new window hardware for the living and dining rooms. I also really want to buy or make some curtains (we’ve been in the house for a year, but we have no curtains or permanent blinds). Right now, we are using a shower curtain rod to hang a fabric shower curtain across the picture window in our living room. Most guests confess to never realizing that the rod is for a shower curtain and while that may be true- all I see when I look at it are the suction cups found on each end.

Later on this weekend, I am going to post pictures of the progress being made in the master bedroom and in the bathroom. Particularly, I want you all to see how the bathroom looks now that the wood paneling is mostly primed. I think the white paneling verses the wood paneling makes the bathroom look brighter and more clean; I am loving it.

Blessings on your weekend friends.

Barf and All That

Last night we had our little nephew over for a sleepover. Originally, we were just supposed to have him for a while today, but his mom called to say their dogs were due to their groomer early this morning, so could we please have the little guy spend the night. Hubs and I were excited to have him over. We've had him sleep over a while ago and we had fun.

Around 8 last night, his mom dropped him off saying that they had both been sick with what she thought might have been food poisoning. She said that the little guy hadn't thrown up recently, so she thought he was doing better- if anything went wrong, we should just give em a call.

The first hour of the sleepover went well and our nephew seemed to be his usual self, maybe a little subdued, but it was almost his bedtime, so we didn't think anything of it. We finished watching Despicable Me (cute movie) and then Hubby went upstairs to put our nephew in his portable bed; one we keep in the guest room.

I had placed plenty of blankets in our nephews bed just in case the heat went off during the night (darn boiler still isn't fixed; our HVAC guy is stumped). Hubby read the little guy a couple of books and laid him down with a pacifier. He seemed to fall asleep quickly after that.

Hubs came back downstairs and we watched Dinner for Schmucks (not that great really) until we started hearing our nephew whimpering upstairs. Before too long the whimpering turned into hardcore crying. I went up to check on him, but when I entered the room, he looked like he was calming down and he stopped crying. The calm lasted only a second and then he was wailing again.

Hubs and I really don't know that much about kids, let's just be honest. We had no idea what to do. The little guy didn't want his pillow pet, he didn't want his pacifier, he didn't want a story or to lay on our big bed. We were stumped and he wouldn't stop crying. After probably 10 minutes (it felt like hours), Hubby took him back into the guest room and sat with him on the guest bed.

I went into our master bedroom to wait it out, wondering if maybe we should text his parents to come get him. I was just about to pick up my cell when Hubs called me in the room, I guess he had gotten our nephew to the point where he was ready to fall back to sleep, but he wanted me to tuck him in (hallelujah). I put him in his bed and tried to reassure him that we would stay in the room until he fell asleep. I laid on the guest bed next to Hubs and we let out a collective sigh of relief.

I'm sure you all know what came next... maybe only two minutes went by and our nephew started barfing all over his pillow pet, blankets and bed. Bless his heart, but Hubs cannot handle barf and had to leave the room. I felt so bad for our nephew, standing in his little bed and everything around him was a mess. No sooner had I pulled out the soiled stuff, but he went for round two.

I'm really proud of Hubby and I- for rookies, one of which can't handle barf... we really rallied. We were able to get our nephew cleaned up (it is surprising how perky and happy he was after he let it all go) and we swiftly got his parents on their way over to our house. We were bummed we weren't going to be able to watch him the next day, but at the same time, it was a relief to see him headed home to his own bed (and his parent's laundry territory).

Note: Hub's brother texted us today to say that the little guy hasn't thrown up since leaving our house- go figure.

Of Mice and Men

This is completely disgusting, but I just have to mention it. Aren’t you excited?

I was calmly sitting at my desk, making phone calls to donors, when my co-worker (we share a partition wall) called me into his office. Naively, I poked my head in the doorway to see what he needed. He held up the remains of what was once a blue polo shirt.

He explained that a while back, he was given the shirt by a friend who didn’t want it. Unfortunately, after accepting said shirt, my co-worker realized the shirt was too small. He ended up shoving it into one of his filing cabinet bins and then, promptly forgot about it.

When my co-worker returned from Christmas Break, he decided he needed to do some light cleaning. When he opened his bottom drawer however, he got a bit of a surprise… A mouse had evidently been living (or at least doing some heavy hanging out) in his filing bin!

When my co-worker lifted out the forgotten blue shirt and shook the wrinkles out of it, he could see right through it. The mouse must have loved that shirt because it is sporting a lot of holes.

The thing that really spooks me about this whole mess is that my desk is maybe only five feet from that filing bin! Even though I don’t keep food at my desk and I clean everything weekly, the little rodent is in my mind and I keep thinking I see fur out of the corner of my eye.

Dis.gust.ing.