Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Target is as trendy as I get

I'm always the last to catch on to a trend. Case in point: I bought my first pair of skinny jeans and high boots combo this January when everyone else had latched on to this look about two years ago. Side note: I was surprised that I ended up loving said skinny jeans because they are actually comfortable and stretchy, like yoga pants. Now, I'm just hoping the trend isn't over, say, next month.

Anyway, I'm the same was about home design trends. You know how the past few years blogs and then Pinterest have been all about the chevron print? These zany stripes look so chic and I-didn't-try-too-hard-because-I-am-bold-enough-to-do-crazy-pattern.





via House Beautiful

via here

I finally jumped on that home trend! Yep, 2010 is calling and wanting its print back. Target finally has some chevron pillows and lamp shades for $20 a pop. Dan indulged me by driving with me twenty-five minutes so I could snag the last two in the greater Richmond area.



I decided to replace the brown pillows in my living room:







I wanted to play off the turquoise in the flowery print I have on these pillows:

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Ignore the clashy yellow walls (they're getting a new color this summer) and focus on the magic of chevron. Ooh... crisp! And they distract from the fugly green couch!


In my bedroom, I decided to perk up the corner, which has the same pillow (I buy three of anything that I like which is unoriginal but makes matching easy), chair, and some homemade paint chip art:

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Since the paint chip art has gold in it...
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... so I went with the gold chevron shade. I was worried the gold would look like something, say, Mariah Carey would have in her diva dressing room, but it I kind of like it against the blue.
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The Ikea lamp post probably needs another coat of white spray paint, but over all, I was pretty pleased with the look:
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Any trends that you are loving right now? Or have you also jumped on the chevron bandwagon before it officially creaks to a stop?


So I went with two of these chevron guys:Photobucket

Saturday, January 28, 2012

The Guilty Pleasure List

Sometimes I can’t believe how long I’ll go between posts on my blog.

I’ll think, “Oooh, I should do a post about this!” all the time about something dumb, like how I kind of have Dan addicted to The Bachelor with me, but then I end up falling to bed exhausted after grading another class set of essays and wasting time on YHL. This month has been especially tiring and cold and blah.

When I’m feeling overwhelmed, the first thing to take a backseat is being creative and anything social technology related, like updating Facebook or replying to e-mails. Instead, I kind of fall into a stupor and just randomly start surfing the web. Seriously, if you could see my browser history this month, you would cringe. But sometimes you have to indulge in some frivolous time wasting...

During January, I’ve Googled any guilty pleasure I can think of just to take the edge off, like:

1. Bachelor questions



via hereI’ve only watched The Bachelor once when I was in college, and had no interest in it until this slow January when I heard Dan guffawing at the premiere episode after accidentally flipping to it. We watched it ironically, only to make fun of how seriously the girls vying for the attention of Bachelor Ben are about the whole thing.

**We also did a faux drinking game where we knocked back invisible shots of vodka every time a person says “amazing connection”. If we had been really drinking, we would have both needed our stomachs pumped. **

While we still watch the show just to laugh our ass off when another girl sighs smitten after five minutes alone with the bachelor, we started asking questions about the show. “You think girls get paid for being on the show?” “Do the girls get to tour these cities, or are they told to stay in the hotel if they are not on a date?” “How many weeks do these girls take off for the freakin’ show??” Yep, I Googled every one of those questions (answers are: “no”, “no”, and six-eight weeks, in case you were interested). Don’t judge.

Okay, go ahead and judge. You know that sarcastic viewing of this show is bordering dangerously close to actual interest when the viewers are debating who should get the rose: Emily or the one that wears more make-up than a kid from Toddlers & Tiaras.

(Answer: Emily. Duh.)

2. Cupcake Wars

I know... I know... How original: a girl who likes cupcakes. But this is my guilty pleasure list for an otherwise slow month, so I have to include them. There are two amazing cupcake shops in Richmond, and one is around the corner from the school where I teach. I indulge in one every Friday, especially the tiramisu ones. Creamy marscarpone frosting, chocolate flakes, expresso soaked cake with a fluffy center= best. dessert. ever.

Anyhoo, I went on their website and saw that they recently appeared on Food Network’s Cupcake Wars and made their tiramisu cupcake. Thus, a full Google search for the exact episode ensued, followed by an hour of watching the bakers talk smack about whose icing and cupcake display are better. It is an hour of my life I'm not getting back.

3. Useless trivia



My friend Mali turned 31 on a Wednesday, and just to mix things up, we went to trivia night at Penny Lane, a Beatles-themed bar owned by a couple from Liverpool. Dan is pretty amazing at trivia; he even made it to the second round of a Jeopardy try-out a couple years ago. But even he couldn’t save our team from being in eighth place. I guess the regulars at the bar are hard core about their trivia.

Anyway, I have been Googling non-stop useless trivia topics from that night ever since. It’s become a sickness. Can you say which celebrity had her ass x-rayed to prove it is real? Or what movie President Obama used to parody his life in his Correspondents’ Dinner speech? I’m ashamed to say that I can.

We’re already planning on making the occasional Wednesday trivia night, just as a
Also, I’ve been listening to “Eleanor Rigby” on repeat, which I heard for the first time while I was there. It’s the perfect rainy day song for this rather dreary month.

4. Books that don't make me think, like...

I just needed easy reading this month. How can you not breeze through a book like this one by Kelly from The Office, which had a deliciously quirky chapter: Alternate Titles for This Book, including:
The Girl with No Tattoo
Harry Potter Secret Book #8
There has Ceased to Be a Difference Between My Awake Clothes and My Asleep Clothes


Still reading? It's been twenty days between blog entries and all you got was this lousy post about cupcakes and the Bachelor.

Hope we still have an "amazing connection".

Sunday, January 8, 2012

12 Restaurants in 12 Months

Last year, while everyone else made resolutions to try Jillian Michaels' work out tapes, tone their abs, and stop reaching for the staff room doughnuts, Dan and I made a vow of a different sort:

Try (at least) 12 new restaurants in 12 months

Lazy? Yes. Fattening? Uh-huh. Best resolution ever?


Oh, yeah.

Not that it was a hard one or anything, but we nailed this resolution. I believe you've already heard about these three places:


* Food: Creative seafood and killer mojitos

* Decor: King Tritan meets Miami Vice

* Memorable quality: creamy avacado tart for dessert!

Lehja
* Food: Upscale Indian

* Decor: Domino magazine and a belly dancer have a love child

* Memorable quality: best. naan. ever.

Amuse

* Food: Artsy and creative
* Decor: Art museum chic with a splash of The Jetsons' retro-mod

* Memorable quality: Celebrating our 5th anniversary there



And for anyone interested, here are a few more, broken down superlative style.


Most creative: Sprout, who used old vinyl album covers to hold their menus.

Ignore this terrible picture of me, and check out the Carly Simon album for the menu:
They served healthy, local food, like this mushroom tarte.



Biggest Tree-huggers: Urban Farmhouse, a granola coffee shop that had organic everything, right down to the potato chips


Best brunch: The Black Sheep's rhubarb french toast, that had lavender marscarpone on top.


It didn't last long enough for me to take a picture of the dish.

Most frequented: A tie between Cafe Ole, which became our go-to Mexican place during the summer for the mango, fish tacos and The Mill, which is an American place three blocks away from our house


Best drinks: Xtra's Cafe, which made a mean bellini



We went to this restaurant with two other couples. Yes, my friends and I look like we're trying to be a lame "look-how-sex-and-the-city-we-are" in this photo, but I had to get a picture for the blog of those delicious drinks. I'm such a Carrie.


Totally kidding.

Best make-over: Tarrant's, which used to be an old-fashioned drugstore. I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of the gorgeous stained glass windows it still has


Most old-fashioned: The Courthouse Grille, for its sweet, nostalgic decor to fit with the 100 year old building and the good ole homemade pimiento cheese on everything.









Oldest crowd: Little Venice, the Italian restaurant we went to on NYE since I had a gift certificate. It had amazing tiramisu, and the oldest crowd I've ever seen. Seriously, it was like it was bingo night at an assisted living facility.

Our extra credit restaurants were:

Most haunted: The Pink House in Savannah. See this post.

Best place to feed and be fed: The Crab Shack on Tybee Island, where we fed alligators . See this post.

Most fattening: Amen in Charleston, which served us deep-fried green tomatoes. Can I get an "Amen"?



That was one delicious year.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Tardy for the party

Happy New Year!! Errr... a bit belatedly!

Don't mind this teacher's tardiness. It's all I can do to get my body back on school schedule and not "stay-up-until-2:00 am- looking-at-endless-trailers-on-You-Tube-and-then-sleep-in-until-11:00" time. Winter break rocks my world. :)

Sorry also for the cheesiest title ever.


Since NYE is "amateur night", we try to stay out of the bump-bumpin' clubs and scary roads. This year we just did dinner out together and then some champagne and games with friends. Oh, and the new Italian restaurant where we ate calamari, steak, and the best tiramisu was our twelfth new restaurant in Richmond this year. Yes, this means we completed our resolution to try 12 new restaurants in 2011! Yay for finally completing a resolution, albeit a totally easy, indulgent one. More on all that deliciousness tomorrow!

Dan and I kept our New Year's Day traditions, which include:

Buying a lottery ticket



The above picture is from last year. Ours for this year isn't a scratcher. We'll be watching the drawing to see if we're millionaires tonight. And cashing a surfboard size check tomorrow.

Registering for the HGTV Dream Home

Every year, HGTV starts a contest for a dream home on New Year's Day. We're all in. You see, Dan's the eternal optimist who really thinks he has a real shot at winning any contest. I'm totally all about home shows and blogs. Put us together and you have a couple who tries daily to win the dream home. Every. Single. Year. And feels genuinely pissy when we don't win. :)

Making brinner
As I wrote last year, I once went to a wedding where the couple served breakfast food for dinner because "you have breakfast when you start something new". So sweet and fun and unconventional. It's the beginning of a new year, so I have adopted this as our tradition. Really, though, any excuse for waffles works for me.

As for resolutions, I tried to come up with something fun, like my 2009 one to "take more photos". Dan suggested that I do a "try six new things", which seemed conveniently vague, so I may do that. I've toyed with coming up with a different date idea each month, or learning to play tennis. I'll let you know what I settle on.

** Update:  We decided to try twelve new things (restaurants, activities, ventures, etc.) this year.  
Honestly, I am loving reading all of the blog resolution posts. Some are so ambitious and impressive, which inspire me to want to sweat it out at the gym. Others are refreshingly sweet, like "keep life simple" and "just be". I love the latter. I have a tendency to want to jam too many goals in at once, so there was something about that one that stuck with me.

I thought I'd leave this first post of 2012 with a peak at one definite goal:


Bring the beret back in style.

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This very blurry, iPhone pic is of Dan and I sporting berets.

Think we'll succeed in igniting a trend? :)


Why are we wearing these stylin' hats? They were a gag gift from my sister-in-law Emily. She wanted to help us look tres chic because Dan and I are going to France later this year! Can you tell we're excited??



Side note: I'm pretty sure if we wear these for a novelty photo in front of the Eiffel Tower, we will be the most hated Americans in Paris ever.

If any of you have been to France and have tips or suggestions, this girl is all ears.


Au Revoir, 2011. Bonjour, 2012!


pictures via here

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

30 Memories of 2011


It's that time again! Time to reminisce about the past year. My family and I are mildly obnoxious about musing about the past. We've been known to drive away from a vacation and immediately launch into a round of, "What was your favorite part of the vacation we just took?" Even Dan and I have begun doing this, asking questions such as, "Remember how that waiter surprised us with free sambuca?" mere days after it happened. Uh, yeah, I was there...

You know that I don't just pick the best moments a la a suburbanite's Christmas card. This years had its ups and downs and the below list reflects that. Since it was the year I turned thirty, I decided to pick thirty memories I musn't forget to remember:


January
 In January, I:

Resolved to eat at twelve new restaurants
* Updated my living room
* Celebrated friends turning 30 and dreaded my upcoming birthday



February

In February, I...

* Said goodbye to a classy lady here and here
* Made art for my bedroom

March


In March, I...

* Turned 30 and discovered my new favorite U.S. city
* Fed alligators
* Beat my 10K time from last year



April

In April, I...

* Kicked some brass
* Savannah vs. Charleston showdown
May

In May, I...

* Ran a mud run
* Started to work on our backyard


June

In June, I...

* Kayaked along the Potomac for Dan's birthday
*
Saw our city as tourists
* Finished our backyard make-over

July

In July, I...
* Updated our bathroom
* Went on beach vacation with our family
* Played golf for first time ever... at night


August


In August, I...

* Biked 8 mile night time ride
*
Survived Earthquake 2011!
September


In September, I...
*
Opened up about our loss

October


In October, I...

* Danced in a flash mob to this song
* Won a costume contest
* Listened to the wedding roast... errr... toast
* Hiked the Appalachian Trail

November


In November, I...


* Wrote about an odd type of gratitude
* Officially became a published writer!
NOTE: After four years of corresponding with a Virginia Tech professor, I was finally sent a copy of this book containing a lesson plan I created on The Outsiders! Never blogged about this because it's kinda boring to anyone who doesn't teach eighth grade English, but Ponyboy would be proud.

December



In December, I...

* Went to an "H is for Holiday" party
* Restored my belief in Santa
* Rocked a resolution


Want more memories? Remember that time I was a juror for a murder trial? Or when I almost passed out after bikram yoga? No? Then, go to the 2010 breakdown here.


I'm nothing if not thorough in my reminscences.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

I believe because he made one of my husband's biggest wishes come true. And on Christmas Eve at that. Nice work, Santa.

Dan has been in a fantasy football league for the past seven years. Each September, he shells out 100 bucks in order to join the trash talk and male bonding that is fantasy football. He seems to forget that I know nothing about sports and agonizes over who to start each week to me. Anyway, he is the complete underdog. He has come in last place twice and almost last several other times. He's even been forced to work the fantasy football board at their draft, which is the equivalent of being the "asshole" in the popular college drinking game by the same title. Dan and his friends are pretty merciless at heckling one another, so when he was in last place there was no shortage of comments requesting that he turn in his "man card". In short, he had no where to go but up.

By the way, if you are like me and totally unathletic and are about to stop reading, I promise that is the extent that I will discuss fantasy football. I'm also going to end with belated pictures of my holiday decor. Stick with it. You're almost done.

Somehow, Dan made it to the final "superbowl" in his fantasy league this year. The culminating "game" was on Christmas Eve. (Notice the over-use of quotation marks as fantasy football is still crazy confusing to me). He kept sneaking peaks at the computer to see the score in between opening fabulous gifts and our decadent crabcake dinner. When he realized that he had squeaked by a win, he launched into a full-on happy dance complete with fist pumping. The conversation went like this:

Dan: YES!

My mom: What's going on?!

Dan: YEAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Me: Hit refresh to make sure.

My dad: Did you win?

Dan: WHOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!

Me: You did it? You actually won?

Dan: YUHHH HUHHHH! *&%* yeah!!!!! WOOO

Me: Seriously? That's great, hon!

Dan: HOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Yes, on that magical Christmas Eve, my husband couldn't stop himself from relishing in his win. His text to his friends that night?


Merry Christmas and a happy new year, from your league's champion!

Hope you all suck less in 2012.



On second thought, maybe Santa created a monster...

As promised, I thought I'd share a few rather blurry photos of my holiday decor to inject some estrogen into this post:
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If these twelve days of Christmas plates don't counterbalance all the football talk, I don't know what will...

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Hope you all had a wonderful holiday with your families!
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