Hodge Podge

Since winter is a time of hibernation for some of us, it's a great time to catch up on some TV!  What's everybody watching?  We watch way too many TV shows, admittedly.  Our favorites are Dexter, Sons of Anarchy, Boardwalk Empire, The Walking Dead, American Horror Story, and the one I can't wait to return... Game of Thrones! Season two trailer seen here.  Sons of Anarchy completed it's fourth season last week and although I've been hearing disappointment from many Facebook friends, I was pretty satisfied.  It was a "set up" ending which pretty much laid the groundwork for how season five is going to go.  If you haven't seen this show I would highly recommend it.  It's not all about biker gangs...well, ok it is but more about their subculture including terrific characters, intense plots, and complicated story lines.  I was hesitant at first but I was hooked after one episode.  Note though, you must watch from season one - not something you can jump into.

Hanks and Olmos

Dexter... Oh how I love you.  This season is much better than the last, in my opinion.  Season 6 of Dexter is thematically about a couple of religious extremists trying to bring about the "end of days" by performing acts in Revelations.  It guest stars Colin Hanks (son of Tom) and Edward James Olmos.  Both of these actors are playing the parts tremendously and are very convincing as a pair of nutjobs.  Colin Hanks is incredibly creepy and as always Edward James Olmos brings depth to any role he portrays.  Dexter is something if you haven't seen previous seasons you'd be just fine jumping into any of them, as most plots are self contained. 

American Movie Poster

Whatcha reading?   I just finished (finally) the Stieg Larsson trilogy, The Millennium Series.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, etc.  The first two of these had me burning through the pages.  The third...not so much.  Overall this series is great with Larsson's portrayal of  social outcast/hacker Lisbeth Salander and in fact I can't wait for the American version of the movie to come out this month!

I'm now onto The Hunger Games.  It's been on my  list for months and I started the first book last week.  So far it's totally worth the hype!  The synopsis is a post apocalyptic North America, now called "Panem" has now transformed into districts after a series of fires, storms, you know, apocalypse stuff.  The "Capitol" as it's referred to, controls these districts and every year as a "tribute" for the districts waging war on the Capitol and being defeated, are a series of gladiator style games where one boy and one girl from each district fight to the death.   I'm about halfway through the book already and can't put it down.

O hai.  Tanks fur dis new bed.

In other news... it's December 12th and I'm officially finished with Christmas shopping!  Everything is wrapped up and under the tree ready to open by their recipient!  I really went all out with the mint theme...not easy as mint stuff isn't always easy to find!  The cats seem to think the Christmas tree is exclusively for them and won't come out from underneath it.  The Duchess Ferguson has made a permanent kitty bed out of one of the gifts... awesome.  Ever try to discipline a cat?  No?  Me neither.  Pretty much an effort in futility. 

13 days til Christmas!

Bargains Bargains Bargains!

I thought my Mom and Stepdad were insane when they started hitting up the auction scene, and hitting it hard.  I think I got my first taste of extreme bargain hunting yesterday when a few uncovered gems made their way into the house.  I wanted something for the library (by library I mean spare bedroom that contains bookshelves) that had character.  I wanted something old, possibly even distressed looking, ideally from the 20s or 30s era.  What I got isn't that old but fit the bill perfectly!  I eyed this old console record player/radio and it was still in amazing condition.  With the exception of needing a new cord this should actually be operational...if I had any vinyl to play on it.  Michael and I dragged this sucker inside in the pouring rain, and it made a great addition to the room!

New console record player

A great auction find!

Vanity seat - pre-reupholstering!

Other super cheap finds from yesterday were a couple of benches.  The foyer has looked pretty barren since we moved in and I couldn't find anything that would be the correct size for it.  I picked up a $19 bench that could stand to be recovered but will do for now. Same goes for the vanity area in the master bedroom.  Around $20 and voila, new seating!  It desperately needs to fabric as the current is a very 1980s looking pastel motif.  It honestly reminds me of the color scheme on The Golden Girls...maybe it was Blanche's.  I threw a nice cream colored throw over it for now...it has nice bones and some ornate wood on the frame. 

Bench

Bench in use

The Holidays are Approaching!

The tree is UP.  The mantel is adorned with stockings! Thanks to Kohls and their lovely 60% off Veteran's Day sale I scored lots of holiday loot for less!   I'm notorious for jumping the proverbial gun on putting up the Christmas cheer.  This year I was only 6 days earlier than what is typically socially acceptable.  That day being the day after Thanksgiving.  Saturday I was on a cleaning frenzy to prepare for our dinner guests that evening and why not go ahead and decorate.  Rigby's stocking came in the mail on Friday along with my new favorite thing - candy cane stocking hangers!  I've been on my mint themed Christmas kick for several years now, I haven't tired of it so far.  I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and bring on the Black Friday shopping!

Mint tree is up!

Everyone gets a stocking

Couldn't pass up the mini tree and matching skirt

Got these gems from Bronners.com - LOVE THEM!

Happy 1st Birthday Rigby!

Happy 1st Birthday to a very special Australian Shepherd!  Rigby turns 1 year old tomorrow.  11-12-10 is her official DOB!  We'll be out of internet commission spending a weekend with my cousin and I wanted to give a special shout out to miss Eleanor Rigby Rue!  We brought her home 1-12-11 at approximately 8 weeks old.  A whopping 6 pounds up to a current 45.  We celebrated early with 2 new toys and lots of birthday attention. 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

My favorite pic from the night.  Us with the Pape's. 

Halloween was celebrated a few days early this year at our friend Dave & Audrey's annual Halloween bash.  This year they did a new spin on things (literally *rimshot*) by doing a trolley hop.  And hop we did!  We started out in BBC St. Matthews, which was great for us being that we live a few blocks away!  We imbibed at several different locations around the city going next to Nachbar which is sort of a hipster bar, next onto Patricks, your traditional Irish Pub.  Next was something for the ladies so we could get our dance on at Flanagan's on Bardstown Road.  The night finally came to an end wrapping up the loop back in St. Matthews at Molly Malone's.  All in all the night was great fun and Halloween once again tops my list for things to look forward to.  Great costumes this year by everyone involved... a crowd favorite was definitely "Keith Stone" as interpreted by Ronnie Eve.  Michael and Ronnie were representing two competing beer brands, Keystone and Pabst Blue Ribbon (Pibber) respectively.  If you haven't learned the legend of Tom Raper, please see this mega-Patriotic tribute here.  Another absolutely classic costume was Chaz Bono.  This costume was so dead on it was scary.  Chaz's perfect Dancing With the Stars ensemble accompanied by dancer, Lacey.  If you don't know what the real life versions look like, please Google it!  <--- There I just Google'd it for you.  I hope everyone had/has a safe and fun Halloween!  I hope to keep on celebrating tonight by handing out candy and watching a scary movie or two!  Any recommendations?

The Trolley!  Starting at BBC St. Matthews

Me with "Keith Stone" himself

 

 

Chaz himself on the trolley

"Tom Raper" and I

JR from Dallas, Robin and Waldo

Fall fun!

Creepy Cupcakes!

Zombies!!!

I get excited about Halloween.  I mean, really excited. Child-like excited.  It's my absolute favorite holiday and time of  year.  What's not to love?  Candy, autumn leaves, dressing up, scary stuff!  It's got it all.  I have had the house all Halloween-o-fied for about 3 weeks now, and now the countdown to festivities is only 1 week away.  Michael's undying love for cupcakes prompted a baking spree yesterday.  These were no ordinary cupcakes either, they were zombie cupcakes!  Thanks to an adorable cupcake kit from World Market we enjoyed chocolate cupcakes with green icing, bone shaped sprinkes, and heads, legs, and arms of zombies poking out.  We had planned to carve pumpkins but football got in the way and that will have to be tabled until another day this week.  Gotta spread out the fun. 

A couple of weeks ago we enjoyed a final warm weekend at the farm and got to enjoy some beautiful scenery.  It wasn't quite peak leaf time, but still managed to capture some great shots.  I got a beautiful one of the dogs that I'm going to have to get framed.  It topped out at around 80 degrees and was unfortunately probably the last we'll see of those temperatures until 2012!  A few little surprises also showed up at the farm.  A spunky little Corgi named Turbo, and a feisty little Dachshund we call Shorty.  These dogs have adopted my Mom and she has definitely adopted them.  Don't want to get our hopes up but after close to a month it looks like these little guys are there to stay.  And who wouldn't be with a steady supply of food, treats and toys!  Our dogs Pete and Rigby seemed to get along with them pretty well...but Pete still has that "only child" mentality.  Can't fault him for that. 

Gorgeous shot of the dogs

Us with Turbo and Pete

Love those fall leaves

Meet Shorty!  Worlds cutest Dachshund

Shorty and Turbo - two awesome pups!

The big costume shindig is this Saturday and this year a trolley is taking us around to different watering holes around the city.  I can't wait.  I think it will be even more fun than last year.  Don't want to give away our costumes yet, but Michael has a pretty clever one lined up.  I hope everyone has a safe, happy, and SCARY Halloween!!!

Living Room Wall Project: COMPLETE

BAM!  Wall ledges up.  Ignore Halloween knick  knacks.

Ledge, throw back door knob, Parisian print

Ferguson modeling the living room.

Parisian prints in dining room.

Oil painting finally hung.

 

In love with this wall clock!  

Finally...those bare walls were killing me.  As you can see, a major improvement from the bare walls a few posts ago.  Now...on to the next project:  Master Bedroom!

Year in Review

But you're saying, "Hey!  2011 isn't over yet!"  Well, I have no more travels planned and that's what I'm  mostly reviewing...it's technically the 4th quarter anyway.  So get off my back.  You weren't on my back?  Maybe I'm just paranoid.

Overall I'd say this past year has been a success.  It's also been a decent year for travel.   A trip to Louisiana before my Mom and Stepdad retired back to the Midwest, Seattle twice in one month, Las Vegas to celebrate my 30th birthday, a week on the beach in Oak Island, NC, and finally a long Labor Day weekend to visit Jennifer in Boston.  I have covered this country from coast to coast in 2011 and I've had a great time.  No international travel this year but I'm hoping to fix that in 2012!

Click to enlarge

Another huge event took place this year, I purchased a house in my new hometown of Louisville, KY.  Not knowing the area that well, we rented for a year so I could find a part of the city that jived with my needs.  Leaving the north side of Indianapolis wasn't easy...it's repeatedly voted as one of the best places to live in the country.  Also, the fastest growing.  I'm liking the east end of Louisville almost as well.  It definitely beats I-69 N traffic!

I also left my longtime comfort zone of being a sales person, to moving to the operations side of things managing our marketing department.  I'm really enjoying not having to travel all of the time, but do sometimes miss the thrill of the close!  No complaints though, I work for a great company full of great people.  I hope I'm always fortunate enough to be a part of the tech industry.

Here's to looking back on a fantastic 2011, and hoping that 2012 is half as good!

Buddah in the middle of a swamp - Avery Island, Louisiana

At the famous fish market- Seattle, WA

30th Birthday - Las Vegas, NV

July 2011 - Oak Island, NC

Labor Day weekend - Boston, MA - Harvard Yard

Living Room Wall Project

Thanks to Esty I've discovered a treasure trove of new art for the house.  A French artist called Coco de Paris repurposes antique 1920s Parisian periodicals for her canvasses:

Thumbnail versions, cropped some of the images off

"Mixed media of my original artwork in real acrylic hand painting and ink print. It's on an authentic antique paper from around 1920s of the famous Parisian magazine “La Petit Illustration” , a weekly French literary journal that published plays, novels and short stories.

Every creation is unique, you will receive the image as you see in the picture. Every artwork is handsigned and dated." 

At a going rate of about $10.00, I wasn't expecting much.  When I received these beauties in the mail (I ordered 6) I was blown away at the quality.  The pictures on the Etsy store do not do them justice, you really have to see them in person.  I was having a difficult time finding frames for these that I liked.  I ended up ordering online because when you're looking for 6 nice frames that sure adds up!  Kohls  had a buy one get one for $1 sale so I ended up getting six of these to put them in:

 

The idea is to incorporate lots of ledges and elements to go with the prints in the living room.  I've picked up several things here and there.  Large letters as seen below, ceramic figurines, smaller frames, and the like. Here is a few examples of my inspiration:

I can't wait to get this living room wall project finished!  Present home of empty walls.  Future home of awesomeness:

Looking for a fun girls or date night?

Bored with the same old dinner and a movie?  Want to spice it up on a weekly girls night?  I had a blast this past Tuesday at a new franchise of Sips 'n Strokes that opened in Louisville less than two months ago.  In Indy the chain was called Wine and Canvas, but same concept.   You go check out their event calendar, pick out a painting that you like (they have two for "date nights" so you don't come home with 2 identical paintings), make your reservation, and show up to paint and drink!  They'll have an instructor that shows you step by step how to mix your colors, technique, and walk you through to your individual masterpiece!  Everyone's ends up being one of a kind to a certain extent.  Check out how different the three of ours turned out!

Allyson (right) and Erica (left) hard at work!

Starting to come together

Erica, me, and Allyson with the finished products!