The Wine List

The Richmond Wine Expo, a fancy festival of wine and cheese tastings, was this weekend, but my friends and I decided to forgo the hefty entrance fee and be recessionistas by throwing our own wine and cheese party!

Here are a few differences between our wine tasting and theirs...

* The wine expo had connoisseurs to spout off pretentious wine descriptions ("oak on the nose", "notes of baritone", "smooth, silky finish" and the like). We had our own descriptions ("grapey", "oakey", "I dunno... it tastes kind of dirty").

* We wrote our descriptions on my friend Mali's dining room wall. In black Sharpie.

No, I'm not kidding. Mali had stripped all the wallpaper off her dining room the day before and is planning on giving it a good coat of Kilz paint later this month, so she wrote all of our descriptions on her wall so we could keep the wines straight. We were keeping it classy.

* Did we nibble on fussy appetizers? Yes, but then we also gorged ourselves on cupcakes, cookies, fruit, cheeses, and artichoke dip. Complete gluttony.

* No one did the elaborate sniff, swirl, sip, and spit, although Mali lugged around an industrial size dump bucket for anyone who couldn't finish their glass.

* At the Wine Expo, they discussed the growing seasons, harvest conditions, and regions where the grapes were grown. Our discussions were more like, "Oh, you bought the Riesling from Cosco? I got my Chardonnay for five bucks from Whole Foods."

Here is an absolutely terrible picture of Dan and me standing in front of Mali's wall where we wrote descriptions:


Believe it or not, this was the best of the pictures we took. Dan looks a bit psychotic because he opened his eyes really wide after taking two pictures with them shut. He was a bit tipsy by that point.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and we didn't take that many with Mali's camera, but you get the general idea. A very classy event indeed. No box wine for us that night!

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On an unrelated note, I wanted to write two quick thank-you's to two of my favorite blogs!

First, a big thank you to Josie from With a Wink and a Smile for my "You're a doll" blog award! So sweet and encouraging! If you want to see an incredible blog on fashion (from how to find steals to updates on Project Runway), hers is definitely the one to visit.

Second, I actually won an amazing giveaway from Hanako66 at Through the Looking Glass! Thank you so much! If any of you are interested in checking out a new blog, hers is amazing! Fabulous outfits with amazing photos (this girl has style), quirky Etsy finds, fabulous recipes (marshmallow milkshake, anyone?)... she has it all. I highly recommend.

Note to self

It hurt Dan and I to wake up at 6:00 a.m. this morning. We were left irritable, cranky, and a little doughy after our "snow vacation" with all its blissful baking of cookies, mauling of cinnamon rolls, drinking of beer, lunching at restaurants, surfing the web, and renting of every video at Blockbuster. You know your scraping the bottom of your video queue when you start renting old ass favorites. Pretty Woman? Ferris Bueller's Day Off? The late 80's called and they want their movies back...

That snow vacation consisted of five blissful days off from school, sandwiched between two of the laziest weekends of all time. (Mmmm... sandwich... body. in. withdrawal. still. craving. carbs...) Then, today, there was no gentle weaning from total slothdom, no two hour delay to cushion the impact of a full day at work. Nope, instead we were thrown back in the grind. You can't imagine how crabby my hubby was this morning. You know that scene in Anchorman where Ron Burgandy is at his ultimate low, sporting major facial hair growth and stumbling down the street, scaring small children?! Meet Dan.

Beer and cookies for three days straight was a bad choice.

Not that I was much better. I tried to overcompensate for my grouchiness this morning by channeling Mary Poppins with a splash of Rachel Ray in front of all my classes. I literally saw a sea of confused faces when I chirped, "Good morning, G blockers! Everyone ready for reading stations today?!" They looked a little relieved when my perky veneer later cracked, revealing the frazzled English teacher they know and love. "This is individual work- there should be no talking- please turn your work in the box- Hannah, I can't talk about your grade now-James, did you just hear me explain that you all need to take out your iBook- I said no talkingnotalkingturn your work in the box-not my desk-I saidnotmydesk!!"

The other teachers are in SVW (snow vacation withdrawal) too. They are glued to weather.com. There have been whispers that there may be an ice storm tomorrow, voices with a hard, frenetic edge. We've had a five day snow fix, and it wasn't enough.

Where was I? Oh yes. Refer myself back to post-it.


Update: Hello, snow day #6! I'm sitting in my p.j.'s after having polished off a couple of blueberry muffins this morning. Very happy girl!

The Office

No, not this office:


My office! I finally am getting around to posting my pictures of my (very) mini office makeover. Remember how I talked about redoing my office this past summer? No? Well, it happened. I actually finished my mini-office makeover several months ago, but now that we have our house on the market, I figured I'd show it off before it was too late.

This is by no means some amazing makeover, but I thought it turned out pretty decent for under $200.

Here's the breakdown:
* Can of paint (Behr's wheat bread)- $30
* Sample size jar of paint (Behr's ballerina pink) - $5
* Frame from Target- $17 (all other frames I already owned)
* Lamp from Ikea- $15
* Two pink vases from Ikea- $10
* Boxes from Ikea- $15
* Curtains from Ikea $40
* Four Anthropologie mugs to spell out "WORK" (idea from YHL!)- $24
* Chair from Ikea- $15
* White paint- leftover from doing trim around house- $0
* Crate and Barrel "ABC" bookends- free (Christmas gift!)

Full office shot before:

After:
I primed and painted the walls a soft gray, hung curtains, and painted all the furniture white.

Here was our organization system before:

Organizational system after:

I bought four huge white boxes and two smaller ones, labeled them, and organized everything. I also painted the back of the bookshelf pink to make the boxes stand out. I use the "WORK" mugs to store pens, paper clips, and rubber bands.

Our desk area before:

Desk area after:

I printed some favorite photos in black and white and framed them. I also framed a caricature of Dan and I that we had drawn at a fancy NYE party.

I also framed a few photo strips of me and my sis and a few of me and my hubby. I painted the matting the same ballerina pink in order to break up all the white.


It's not exactly a full blown makeover, but a decent start. Just wanted to share! :)