Herringbone Floors.

I have recently become obsessed with herringbone floors.

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It's no surprise it looks fabulous in the bathroom.

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I'm not even sure I could put bath mats on top of this gorgeous tile.

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And my homeboy Tommy Smythe knows how to rock it in the kitchen.

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I am looking to join Herringbone Floors Addicts Anonymous. What about you?

5 things . . .

5 random things . . . 

1.  I'm reading the Happiness Project and the Marriage Plot.  I've asked myself why I've decided to read two books at the same time.  I really don't have a good answer for that -- maybe I'd be happier if I committed to less!  If you've read either of these books, what did you think?   

(photo: here)

(photo: here)

2.  Nine years ago this past Tuesday, Justin proposed to me.  We were in college at the time and he proposed in front of the Capitol building in Austin.  It's so fun to think back and remember the excitement of that night.    

3.  I apologize in advance to all of you who were good and made a new year's resolution to eat healthier, but it's not fair for me to keep this to myself.  Ben & Jerry's Coffee Heath Bar Crunch ice cream is amazing.  Try it.  You'll thank me (your thighs are a different story).   

(photo: here)

4.  I scored a super deal on a coat from Lands End.  Down in Texas, we don't have the need for a jacket like this except for maybe 1-2 days a year, so I hate to spend a lot of money something I'll hardly wear.  But I got this coat -- regularly $139 -- for $65 (and free shipping)!  It fits great and is super comfy and warm.  Perfect for some snow . . .  

(photo: lands end)

5.  On a related note, we're headed to Breckenridge soon (hence the reason for the jacket)!  Does anyone have any tips for places we have to see or things we have to do while we are there? 

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The Big 6-0.

My mom turned 60 this past weekend, and we wanted to celebrate her.  We had about 45 or so people over at our house to help celebrate her too!  My mom has so many friends and family who love her so much.

Overall, we kept the decorations simple. We found this great string decoration that we zig-zagged across the living room ceiling.

We also bought some fabric from Ikea and used Heat n Bond to finish the edges to make runners.  I liked the idea of having them run horizontally, rather than vertically.   
 

 (Oh, and you can see our "replacement" light fixture in this picture.  It's from Home Depot.)

I kept the flowers simple -- I don't think you can't go wrong with white hydrangeas.  And I like low arrangements on the table so they don't block your view of the person across from you.  The confetti on the table was a mix of stars and the number "60".    

After the party, when it was just family around, I gave my mom her gift.  I borrowed this idea and compiled "Sixty Years of Memories" for her.

It was so fun watching her read through them all.  It was late and everyone was tired after the party, but it was totally worth staying up to see her reaction and laugh about some of the stories (along with her sister, brother, and mom).

I already knew this about my mom, but so many of the stories had to do with her selflessness, kindness, and caring heart.  My mom really is one of the most thoughtful people there is, and I'm so blessed to have her as my mom and friend. 

(me, my mom, and my grandma)

Please note my mom is totally cheating in the picture by standing on our stairs (she is slightly height-challenged).  But since it was her birthday, I let her get away with it!  And if I can look like my grandma does when I'm 81, I will be a happy camper. 

We had a fun time celebrating with her!  Happy 60th, mom! 

J Crew Shoes.

It seemed like almost every day for the few leading up to Christmas, I was getting emails from J Crew with special deals -- free shipping, 15% off, 20% off, and then the amazing 30% off.  I miss those days and the 27 tabs I had open in Firefox with various items to add to my cart.

I got an email earlier this week from J Crew with a different kind of excellent news.  No there was no sale, but they do have the best pair of shoes ever again!  J Crew used to have peep toes called the Joley, which they no longer sell.  I have 2 pairs of them and wore my black ones all-the-dang-time.  So much so that I wore them out.  Sadsies.  I couldn't fathom the thought of not having my go to basic black peep toe pumps, so while shamefully wearing shoes I clearly should have retired a while ago, I hunted on ebay and craigslist for a pair.  I didn't have much luck and thought I would have to move on to a different, less-perfect, pair.

But the recent email had the following image:

   
Do you see it (look very very closely)?  The bottom right chick.  I saw her and thought "Hooray!  It's a New Year Miracle -- the Joleys are back!"  And then I went to the women's shoe section of the J Crew website in record time.  Well, they're not the Joley peep toes, they're called the Drea now, but they are super close (if not identical) to my favorite pair of shoes.  My store doesn't have them in stock, but I should be receiving my pair in the mail any day now.  I can't hardly wait!

And like my other pair, I'm of the opinion that you really need more than one color.  This blue color is speaking to me. 

(all photos: jcrew)

Yep, that's right, I've officially dedicated an entire post to a pair of peep toes (say that 3 times fast).  They are that good, people. 

Have you ever had a product that was discontinued or a piece of clothing you missed out on and then it came back and made your week? 

In non-shoe news, my mom is turning 60 on Saturday! We are hosting a party for her at our house with about 50 guests. I'll be back post-party! Have a wonderful weekend!

House Tour: Kitchen.

It's been a very long time since I've done a home tour post, but I thought I'd start 2012 off right.  So here's a tour of our kitchen and breakfast room.  This area may be the part of the house I'll miss most when we move. 

 

All of the lighting in the kitchen is from Restoration Hardware (even the light over the sink that I forgot to turn on). 

The best part about the space is how the kitchen is open to a den/large breakfast room area.  Everyone always congregates in the kitchen and it's wonderful to have a large space for people to mill about/keep you company while you cook. 

It's funny seeing this next picture because I've gotten used to the new chandelier we hung up when we put our house on the market.  The lighting over the breakfast room table is was from Z Gallerie.  I guess because the area can be set up in any number of different ways, there was no lighting installed over the breakfast room area (except for the pot lights) when we moved in.  We put in the light over the table and the pendants over the island.  What a difference lighting makes -- the kitchen looked naked before (and believe me, no one wants a naked kitchen).

From this angle, you can see the little seating area in the "den" off the breakfast room and kitchen. 

As much as we try to keep the dogs off the settee, they love lounging on it when we are in the kitchen.  They usually start off following us around when we're cooking hoping that we will drop something, then they sit and beg from us, then they give up altogether and go lay on the settee.  There's not much cuter than our dogs laying around on this couch. 

We keep our bar ware and more "embarrassing" alcohol (i.e. handles, peppermint schnapps, sweet tea vodka) in that black cabinet.  And the black box on top of the cabinet is a speaker -- I've got to have my sweet jams while I bake.  

And of course, my favorite kitchen accessory -- the bar cart.  Justin thought we may turn away buyers with our excessive impressive stash, so we've removed many of the bottles seen here from the cart and tucked them away along with the embarrassing alcohol bottles.  I don't know why he thinks the large amount of wine bottles that line the pantry floor are any better; but hey, pick your battles, right?        

 
Up next is the living room, which you can see as you walk out of the kitchen.   Then we'll head upstairs to the third floor!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend ringing in the new year! 

A New Year.

We had a wonderful Christmas celebrating with family and friends.  We celebrated Christmas Eve at my mom's, then we hosted Christmas dinner for 11 people at our house, hosted our annual Christmas party on Monday evening, and celebrated my brother-in-law's birthday Tuesday night.  I feel like I need a couple days just to recuperate from all the celebrating!   

Can you believe 2011 is almost over?  I certainly can't.  Every year for work, I create a new spreadsheet to track my hours for the year (oh the joys of the billable hour).  It really does seem like just yesterday I was starting a new year and creating my hours spreadsheet for 2011. 

Speaking of work, I am taking the remainder of the week (and likely part of the weekend) to wrap up a pending, urgent work project.  Otherwise, we don't have any big plans for ringing in the new year.  Frankly, sipping champagne while watching Midnight in Paris sounds just about perfect to me.

What are your NYE plans?  I hope they involve some sparkle!    

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See you in 2012!

Merry Christmas.

It's pretty easy to get Riley to pose . . .

It's not so easy to get them both to pose . . .

Unless you are holding a treat, in which case, they will only look at the treat . . .

I hope you have a wonderful holiday spending time with family and friends!  Merry Christmas!  

Christmas Roundup.

Putting our house on the market really altered our Christmas decorating plans. We're a little (actually, a lot) behind schedule. This weekend, I am finally putting the finishing touches on our holiday decor. Better late than never, right?  While I'm busy getting my act together, here's a roundup of some of my favorite Christmas pins.

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Oh, and on a totally unrelated note, have you seen this video about what girls say?  It's too funny.  I admit that I say the majority of these things on a regular basis. 

(hat tip: meagan)

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

2 things . . .

There have been a couple of things going on here that have prevented me from blogging and keeping up with you guys as much as I've been wanting to.  One thing is exciting and the other is not so exciting.  Let's get the not so exciting thing out of the way first, so we can end on a happy note!      

1)  I've been feeling pretty crummy for the last two months.  I've been getting lightheaded several times a day -- sometimes it lasts only a minute, other times I have to lay down for a while.  It's been miserable, to put it mildly.  After trips to several doctors and a variety of tests (for example, see here and here), a wonderful cardiologist was finally able to figure out what was going on.  I won't bore you with all of the medical details, but evidently I have some form of an autonomic dysfunction, which has caused me to have low blood volume and for my heart to race.  Hence, the lightheadedness. It was totally interrupting my life there for a while, and I was getting way past frustrated with not feeling normal.  Thankfully, the treatment so far (which includes increasing my salt intake - yum!) has been helping to reduce the symptoms.   

(photo: pinterest)

Now for the exciting news . . .

2)  We are selling our house!  Yep, you read that right -- we are selling our house.  Can you believe it?  Me neither.  It's super exciting, but it's also sad at the same time.  I came home from work the other day and started crying when I saw the For Sale sign in the yard.  I love our home and it will always be special because it was our first home.  But at the same time, I'm very excited about finding a new wonderful home for us.   

So maybe you're wondering why we're moving and where we're moving.  If not, just skip this part!  :)  It all started when we called our mortgage broker to refinance a few months ago since the interest rates are so low.  He said it really only made financial sense for us to do so if we were going to stay in our house for at least 2 more years.  We were kind of thinking we would be here for a maximum of 2 more years.  So after thinking things through, and hearing about the current rates to buy something new, we decided now is the best time for us to sell.

 (photo: here)

As a little background, we always knew our current home wasn't going to be our forever home for a couple of reasons -- it's a townhome, it's 3 stories, and it's not zoned to the best schools in town (and we aren't overly interested in paying for private school once we have kids).  None of those things mattered when we bought it because we knew we wanted to wait several years before we even thought about having kiddos.  Even though we still don't have any immediate plans to have kids, the time is at least getting closer and we are thinking about a more family-friendly house.  As far as the house hunt, we haven't found anything yet, but we think we have narrowed our search down to a couple of areas, neither of which aren't too far away from our current home, which is great since we love the area. 

So to round this out, we've been busy doing a bunch of little things around the house to get it ready to show.  Our list wasn't too long, but things never go quite as planned!  We took down all the chandeliers in the house and replaced them with fixtures I'd be willing to leave behind.  We also did a bunch of paint touch ups and I've gone through so many Magic Erasers cleaning the cabinets and all those pesky scuff marks that inevitably happen.  And if we weren't the ones doing to fixing up (there's no way I'm climbing up to clean our 3rd story windows!), we were meeting people at the house to do so.  But thankfully, that part of it is done.  Now we just have to remember to make the bed everyday in case we have a showing!    

Is it poor form just to link to our online listing in my "home tour" tab?  :) 

Phew, that was a lot of info with fairly lame pictures!  If you made it through, thanks for reading! I've totally missed blogging and definitely missed being an active reader of your blogs.  I am hopeful that the hard part of both things is over and I can be around more.  Thanks for bearing with me, friends!