Another Useful Dog

This post is an addition to my sister's series of "useful dogs."

It is a video of my boss' neice. (Don't worry, she's FINE)

Click here

Growing Up

We're slowly replacing our hand-me-down and college furniture with our own "grown-up" pieces. Here are some pics of our latest! Forgive the lighting - I was too lazy to get out the camera.

BIG thanks to my mom for her help with the filing cabinets. If there's one thing we love, it's a good deal...and she definitely understands that.

We also finished painting the garage this weekend...meaning the end of our house painting project is in sight! I am continually in awe of the difference paint can make - on anything. But more on that later. I'm going to go add some decorations to our new desk.

Design Updates

Here are some fun projects I've been working on in my "spare" time.

Invitation for our local Young Life group fundraising banquet.

Bible Study book for a local church.

It's most definitely Friday...

How can you not love Paper Source? I'm not sure what I get more excited about in the mail...InStyle, or the Paper Source catalog. It's a toss-up, and Paper Source definitely has an edge in that it doesn't come as frequently. One of the many things I love about Paper Source is their tagline: 

"Do something creative every day." 

My boss and I half-jokingly throw this one around...I say half because sometimes I wonder how different my life would look if I truly took this to heart. It's a little bit of a grey challenge, in that I get paid to be creative every day (how amazing is that??), so I'm talking about being creative outside of my work...

This week, I've found my extra-curricular creativity has revolved solely around food. And not in the gourmet, steaks-stuffed-with-gorgonzola-and-mushrooms-with-creme-brulee-for-dessert way.

One of the major challenges of working full-time in the city is finding times to get LIFE done. For example, if I don't go to the grocery store over the weekend, we usually end up eating like college students for the duration of the following week. As we spent a majority of last weekend trying to finish up our exterior house projects, the grocery store did not happen.

Enter creativity.

Monday night we had a meal that I had originally planned for the week before. Tuesday, a friend's daughter's breakfast inspired me away from cereal, and we had waffles and strawberries. Wednesday we had eggs combined with the leftover sausage from Monday night (as well as the leftover waffles). And last night we made chicken wraps out of a leftover chicken breast from the week before. (It should be noted that this was eaten at 9:15...after I came home from a meeting that I rushed out the door for and Gary had only had a protein shake after the gym...How would he eat without me? Another post for another time.) Our fridge and cupboards are very, very sad. We don't even have milk for cereal anymore!

Also speaking of sad, this morning I tried to apply my creativity to my outfit...thinking how I could make the best combination of clothes that would still enable me to wear my Rainbows. And I came downstairs wearing a tank top, cardigan and my jeans with a hole in the left leg. What can I say? Sometimes it's just too hard to be creative that early in the morning at the end of a long week.

And because of the time put into thinking about my non-creative outfit, I missed my train and forgot my mouse. And thus the title of this post.

As I was walking to my office thinking about how much I would kill to have thought to call in sick when the alarm went off for the fourth time, I saw a girl standing on the corner...similar to me - huge bag, coffee mug in hand - but wearing denim capris (notice I didn't say JEAN - they were very crisp and sharp, yet casual), a black hoodie (?? Who knew that could be cute?) a huge, caramel-colored European-style scarf, and FLIP FLOPS. And she looked casually amazing. I'm totally re-inspired. I can't wait for next Friday.

WARNING

For those of you who like to be a little adventurous with your grocery shopping from time to time, please take heed that you might want to pour a few extra glasses of water when having Trader Joe's Chipotle Pepper Chicken Sausage. HOT! HOT! HOT!

On the other hand, I HIGHLY recommend the portobello mushroom raviolis. Delish!

It's here...

Today is the first day of fall. 

My husband informed me of this earlier today. Mainly because winter follows fall. This is a picture from last winter just to remind you how much he loves the season.

I, however, am determined to embrace the season.

How can you not love fall? The cool, crisp mornings just make me want to walk down the street with a pair of new tights, a scarf, pumpkin and hot drink in hand, with the Cranberries playing in the soundtrack of my mind. (Cue Meg Ryan)

Yes, the weather is amazing, but the following are a few of my absolute favorite parts of fall:

Football. 

I become legitimately sad in January when the Super Bowl ads start and Sunday afternoon football comes to an end. There is nothing like a cool Sunday afternoon cuddled on the couch in a pile of blankets, still warm from a hot bowl of chili or tomato soup...and then waking up 2 hours later not having a clue what actually happened in the game. And the NAMES. OH the names. I could make a whole Fantasy Football team made up of the players whose parents were blessed with an extra dose of creativity. Jacksonville still remains the team as a whole that carries a majority of my favorite players. LaBrandon, I'm rooting for ya. The other wonderful thing about football season is the Sports Gal. Gary's favorite sports writer, Bill Simmons (a.k.a. The Sports Guy), gives a mini column to his wife every football season for her to place her picks for the season as well as a "rant" about anything she wishes. They are both truly brilliant writers, but I'm a little partial to the Gal.

Skinny jeans. 

This fall delight was brought to my attention by my friend Kelly. I wore mine last week and the first thing she said was, "Yes! When I see skinny jeans I just KNOW it's fall." Even though that was not the thought that crossed my mind when I was dressing that morning, she is totally right. And that made me start thinking about all of the wonderful fall fashion options. Scarves, boots, light jackets, tights, headbands (oh wait, I wear those all the time), cardigan sweaters (especially long ones), sweatshirts, puffy vests, layering...Ahhh...

Pumpkin Spice Latte.

You can say what you want about Starbucks coffee. I will probably agree with you. However, NOTHING beats the Pumpkin Spice Latte. I was so excited last year when Caribou came out with a "comparable" drink last year, and I could hardly finish it! (Disclaimer: Caribou still wins for overall best drink with the Light White Hazelnut Latte) For a season that is so accommodating for hot drinks, this is the defining drink of fall.

So now that you're in the mood, grab your camera, go for a walk and go capture a little bit of fall.