Haven’t seen much of me on here this last semester, huh? Well that should be changing soon.
Last weekend, this happened:
My freshman roommate and first friend at Tulane, Sarah.
The graduation was held downtown at the Superdome.
My little sister, Kelsey, graduated from High School on the same day as me, so our family split up for the graduation ceremonies. My brother-in-law, Bob, niece, Georgiana, and mom came to mine.
Drew’s mom and dad, Susie and Bob, also came down for graduation.
I graduated cum laude from Tulane University with a B.A. in English and Studio Art (concentration in painting). After four tough years, I’m so happy to have those college days behind me. This past semester in particular was just so insanely hectic that I feel like I haven’t had a real life in forever. I’m happy to be getting back to the real world. The world of friends, cooking, sewing, gardening, house projects, travel, job searching, and not thinking about French classes or studying until late into the night. I’m excited to get back to blogging! I’ve got lots of things to share with you!
P.S. The Dalai Lama spoke at my graduation ceremony. How awesome is that? :)
I’m back for the second day in a row! I just couldn’t wait to share this cookie recipe, it is just SO good!
I’ve baked a lot of different recipes of chocolate chip cookies and these by far are the absolute best. I dare you to try them. You won’t want to go back to another cookie recipe after tasting these!
New York Times Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
makes about 18 large cookies
recipe found here, originally from here.
Ingredients:
2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour
1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
1 1/4 pounds chocolate chips (My favorite are Ghirardelli chocolate chips and I use half semi-sweet, half milk chocolate)
Sea salt
Directions:
1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
2. In a mixer, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla.
3. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds.
4. Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours. **The chilling step is very important! It will lead to a much better cookie!!**
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
7. Scoop dough into 3 1/2 ounce balls (the size of generous golf balls) and place onto baking sheets.
8. Sprinkle dough balls lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes.
9. Transfer baking sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a little longer.
10. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day.
Enjoy!
These cookies are big! Here is my hand in comparison. That is one of the secrets to them though. They are big enough that the outside can get a little crunchy, but the inside still stays a little soft and gooey. Perfect combination if you ask me.
***And for those of you that are wondering, yes I am still sticking to the health plan that I talked about before, so no I can’t eat more than a bite of these since they contain both gluten/flours and white sugar. I’ve been doing great and feeling so much better since starting that health plan. When Drew and I started it at the beginning of January, we boxed up all the wheat/sugar/processed food products in our pantry that we couldn’t eat. They have been sitting in our hallway since then unused and we weren’t sure what to do with them. It is a lot of stuff, so I didn’t want to just throw it away. The last few weekends we have been invited to get-togethers where we had to bring a dish to share, so we’ve been putting all that stuff we can’t eat to good use feeding other people! Drew made these cookies to take to a Craft Beer Bottleshare he went to tonight. Hope the boys like them!
DIY Make-Up Brush Cleaner
It’s been a while, huh? I’ve missed blogging this semester. I have so many things I want to share, but this semester just leaves no extra time to do so. Just over one more month until school is over and I graduate! I can’t wait!
This week is my spring break, and although it is just as busy as any other week with schoolwork, I thought I would at least drop by for a minute and share a quick tip that I did last week:
I haven’t been wearing make-up very often lately. I used to wear it everyday, but with the late nights and early mornings of college, I’m just not getting enough sleep. Even if putting on make-up only takes five minutes, right now I have a million other better things to spend those five minutes on (like sleep!). My weekends this semester have mostly been spent on my couch reading school books and writing papers, so even on the weekends I haven’t been getting very dressed up for anything.
Anyway, I wore make-up almost every day over Christmas break with all the family get-togethers and pictures being taken. At that same time, with the winter weather making my skin really dry, I had a strange reaction to the face cream my dermatologist had put me on and one of my eyelids got really red and itchy.
Fast forward a month or so when Drew and I were going to a Superbowl promotion concert here in New Orleans. I got out my make-up bag and put my make-up on without even thinking anything of it. The next day I woke up to my eyelids all red and swollen. At first I thought I might be developing an allergy to my make-up. I’ve worn Bare Minerals make-up since I very first started wearing make-up in middle school and I really like it and didn’t want to have to switch to anything else. Then I remembered my red, itchy eyes at Christmastime! I thought it might not be the make-up, but maybe just the brushes holding in nasty germs! So I started by replacing my mascara with a brand new tube and then did some research online for a good DIY make-up brush cleaner. This is what I did:
DIY Make-up Brush Cleaner
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon liquid dish soap
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1. Mix all ingredients in a cup or bowl.
2. Wash each brush thoroughly in the mixture. Mine were really dirty, so I made a fresh batch of this for each brush. If you do this regularly, you might not need to make multiple batches.
3. Rinse each brush clean with warm water.
4. Squeeze the excess water out of each brush with a towel.
5. Shape the bristles into the correct shape.
6. Lay flat on a towel to dry.
This is how dirty the water was after slightly washing just ONE brush! How gross! There is no telling how many dead skin cells and who knows what else was all up in those.
I can’t believe that I had never thought to wash my brushes out before! I had been using these same brushes for the last 8-10 YEARS without cleaning them at all! I will now be doing this regularly!
Since I wanted to make sure that my make-up was clear of any leftover germs from my eye issues, I also took a slightly damp towel and cleaned out the lids of each of my make-up containers as well.
Drew and I drove home this past weekend to see my little sister, Jillian, in her high school musical and I wore make-up the whole weekend without any red, itchy, or swollen eyes! I’m so happy to have easily fixed the problem and I don’t have to invest in all new make-up. Plus, the brushes are so much softer now too!
Our Home, November 2012
I haven’t posted any pictures of what our entire house looks like since we moved in and it was empty. I thought after over a year and a half of living here, it was time for another house tour. I always love seeing how homes and their decor evolve over time. I took these pictures in November, but with Thanksgiving, finals, Christmas break and all that the holiday season entails, I’m just now getting this post together. Our house has been tweaked a little in several rooms since these were taken though, so this is not 100% what it looks like right now.
Our House Tour — November 2012
Foyer Before:
This is our foyer now:
The aesthetic of this room is one of my favorites in our house. I like that it has a good mix of traditional, contemporary, and cottage/farmhouse. I love that it has pops of color, but the color isn’t overwhelming (like in some other rooms in our house). I love how light-filled this room is. Because of the amount of sunlight this room gets, it has the most plants of any room in our house (although almost every room in our house has at least one plant — only the bedroom and laundry room don’t). It is also the most multi-purpose space in the house — foyer/entry, dining room, and Drew’s office.
Curtains are from Pottery Barn Teen (looks like they are on sale right now!), plant/console table we built ourselves, dining room table is from the Nashville flea market, dining chairs are from Drew’s mom (originally belonged to a family friend), rug is from Target, baskets on the console table shelves are from Target, milk glass on console table, small white cabinet and desk chair are thrifted, Drew’s desk is from Craigslist, black lamp was given to us by Drew’s mom, Self-Portrait woodcut is by me, other art are framed engagement photos taken ourselves, and the glass jar candles on the table and console are from our wedding.
Things on our to-do list for this room: sand and paint the little white cabinet (I like it white, but the paint is old and chipped/peeling), sand and either stain Drew’s desk a darker wood tone or paint it (I’m not a big fan of blonde wood), hang art above Drew’s desk, and create a little entryway/mudroom area right inside the door (on the side with Drew’s desk) with a little bench, a mirror, and maybe some coat hooks or something.
Looking from the foyer into the living room before:
Looking from the foyer into the living room now:
Living room before:
Living room now:
Couch and loveseat are from Compass Furniture in New Orleans, television/media cabinet is from Target (can’t find a link for the same one), black coffee table was thrifted years ago (it used to be in my bedroom in my parent’s house), white bookcase is from IKEA, painting was a wedding gift from my sister and her husband (by New Orleans artist Adam Hall), gallery wall photos were taken by me, curtains I made out of drop-cloths, crocheted blanket was made by my mother and I (directions here), most of the couch pillows were made by my mother, “Give Thanks” pillow from here, light blue pedestal side table from Nadeau in New Orleans (love that place!), cream and white damask throw, wire basket (filled with yarn on bookshelf), and wooden @ symbol from TJ Maxx, floor lamp is from Lowe’s, silver table lamp is from Compass Furniture (scored it for $15 with a Living Social Deal!), 8×10 area rug from Lowe’s (scored it for $15!), glass candy dish and basket (on the floor at the end of the loveseat) were thrifted, basket (with magazines in it behind the french doors) was a wedding gift, painting on the bookshelf was a wedding gift (painted my Drew’s mom’s good friend and my 8th grade teacher!), globe was mine from when I was little bought for me by my Mamaw, and the chalkboard message board was from our wedding (originally from here).
Looking down the hallway from the living room before: (This hallway, right off the side of the living room, runs all the way down the house. The kitchen is the first door on the right, my office/studio is the second door and then at the end of the hallway is the laundry room. At the laundry room, the hallway turns to the right with the bathroom straight ahead and our bedroom to the left.)
The hallway now:
Hallway bookcases are from IKEA, little cabinet of drawers was thrifted on a vacation in Savannah, GA, LOVE painting was a bridal shower gift from my friend Tonya, streetcar cross-stitch and ROWLAND sign (made out of photos of tools) were gifts from Drew’s mom (both made by her), small country scene painting was a gift from Drew’s mom (painted by her friend/my 8th grade teacher), the rest of the pictures are either wedding photos (by Stephanie of Stephanie’s Photography), small paintings my me, or random things like framed fortune cookies, a painted piece of wood (not sure why that’s up there actually), or prints collected over time (a couple are from our honeymoon).
On our to-do list for the hallway: we actually bought paint last summer to paint this room and still haven’t done it (a light grey color, to still keep it neutral, but lighten it up and break up all the tan in this house) so we need to get on that, we’ve thought about extending the frame gallery down the wall on both sides because we have a lot of art to hang, but still haven’t decided if we’ll do that for sure or not, and I really want to find a pretty hanging light fixture for in here (maybe thrifted and refashioned).
The kitchen before:
Our kitchen now:
Kitchen rug is by Dash and Albert, checked hand towels are from Target, green utensil holder is actually a plant pot from Hobby Lobby, glass pasta jars, ceramic apple and stool are from TJ Maxx, artwork above the sink is from here, cookbook holder was a wedding gift from Target, baking station cabinet is from Nadeau in New Orleans, small table on the other wall was thrifted.
On our to-do list for the kitchen: curtains! This room is seriously lacking in that department. I want to make some roman shades as soon as I find the right fabric. On the wall with the small wooden table, I would like to find or make a cabinet of some sort that has better storage than the current situation. I would love to have a cabinet with an open shelf or two to display my cookbooks and pretty kitchen things. We are also thinking about making some sort of a hanging spice rack to go on the wall between the pantry and the windows. We don’t have a lot of storage in here and we need a better way to access our spices (right now they are piled up on one tiny shelf inside a cabinet and they are overflowing and hard to get to).
My office/studio before:
My office/studio now:
My desk is from IKEA, desk chair is from World Market, white bookcase is from IKEA, baskets are from Target, tufted pink chair is from World Market (on sale right now), rug is from Target, curtains I made from Heather Bailey’s Pineapple Brocade fabric, white pedestal side table is from TJ Maxx, easel is from Hobby Lobby (I stained it darker), pink curvy glass lamp is from Home Goods (got it on vacation years ago in Charleston, SC), standing lamp is from Target, table printer is on is thrifted, shelf brackets/wood shelves from Lowe’s, big white ornate frame is thrifted, tiered cake stand was made out of thrifted vintage plates for our wedding, elephant print from this Etsy shop, Live Simply print from this Etsy shop, green elephant piggy bank is from Urban Outfitters (on sale now), jewelry stand was a Christmas gift from my little sisters years ago (was from Urban Outfitters), and all the artwork hanging everywhere is by me.
On our to-do list for my office/art studio: goodness what isn’t on my to-do list! This room is a wreak! Since this is my studio, where things get sewn/painted, etc. it is a catch-all for incomplete projects. There isn’t enough storage, so I don’t have places to put everything (which is why things are piled up in the corners!), so tackling better storage/organization is on my to-do list. The curtain rod needs to be hung higher and I need three curtain panels instead of two. I want different curtains anyway, these ones are too colorful/busy for me in this room. (I actually just made new curtains for this room this week that I need to share soon! I also had Drew move the curtain rod up) I would also like to put nice wooden blinds in this room instead of the cheapo plastic ones that are in here. We hung the shelves on that wall right after we moved in, before we really knew what we needed in this room. They aren’t anchored into studs (the walls in this house are crazy), so I’m afraid to put too much weight on them (I’m scared my sewing machine will topple at any minute! ) and they aren’t really very functional. I’m thinking about taking them down and DIYing a whole wall of built-in bookcases along that nook area. I actually already hung a different painting in here (that fits the scale of the room better) above the white bookcase on the other wall. I had to hang that clothesline up to hang up paintings that I was working on for one of my painting classes, so now that can be taken down. I do want to hang up more of my artwork in here (in a more professional looking way), but the walls in this house are crazy and I can’t get any nails into the wall by my reading chair, so I need to come up with a different way to hang things there. Right now this room just looks like an explosion of mess and color, so I’d like to just work on everything about it. (I also took this picture right as I was heading into finals, so excuse a little of the chaos for that reason alone)
Laundry Room before:
Laundry Room now:
The curtains in our laundry room are the same ones that used to hang in my freshman dorm room (originally from Wal-Mart), the laundry basket I’ve had forever (I think it came from Wal-Mart when I was in middle school), the ironing board and cover are from Target, ladder from Lowe’s, vacuum cleaner my mom bought for me several years ago (originally from Sears), my dad bought the washer and dryer for me (they were from a friend from our hometown that used to live in New Orleans –she was moving from New Orleans and didn’t need to take them with her), the deep freezer is from Lowe’s, the rug and the wire baskets on the shelves are from TJ Maxx, and the shelving Drew and I bought from Lowe’s.
On our to-do list for the laundry room: I’m just so happy that our apartment has a laundry room! The shelves were the best thing we ever did in here, they add so much extra storage room for everything — lightbulbs, toilet paper, paper towels, tools, iron, candles, batteries, laundry stuff, cleaning products, etc. Even though they look messy, they are actually organized pretty well. I do think we could pare down our cleaning products a bit though so they didn’t take up so much room. This room is tight, so eventually I might need to add some other forms of organization for things stacked in the floor — like leftover wood scraps and paint cans. The bi-fold doors in here need to go back on my office closet (they got broken when we had guests staying in there). I would also maybe like to add some cheery artwork to the walls in here. Other than that, this room is functional as is.
Bathroom before:
Bathroom now:
Shower curtain from Target, creme-colored rug from World Market, coral-colored bath mat, flower painting, towel rack, and magazine rack from TJ Maxx, and still-life painting and houses plant pot from Drew’s mom.
On our to-do list for this room: everything!? We haven’t really done much in here. I bought the magazine rack to cover up a drywall patch, but it needs to be organized a little better. I want different artwork, but haven’t figured out what to do in here (its a bathroom, so it gets a lot of moisture that would ruin most artwork). This room overall really has no direction. I need to figure out the artwork, then go from there. My favorite thing about it right now is the plants. They give so much life to this room (quite literally, but they also add a cozy factor that makes it feel like a real room rather than just a functional space).
Our Bedroom before:
Our Bedroom now:
Headboard made by us from an old door, floral pillowcases made by my mom, sheets from Target, coverlet/bedspread and lamps from TJ Maxx, dresser from Drew’s childhood bedroom, curtains from the pergola at our wedding (originally from Target), rug from Target and stitchery made by me (in the hallway coming into our bedroom).
On our to-do list for this room: sand/stain/refinish Drew’s dresser (I want it all back to the original wood). FIND NIGHTSTANDS! Nightstands have been on our list for forever! Since this room is small and they have to fit underneath the overhang from the headboard, they have to be a really specific size and I haven’t found the right ones yet. Hopefully soon! I would like different artwork on the wall with our engagement photo on it (the wall with the guitar leaning against it), perhaps some botanical or watercolor prints or sketches. I would also like different lamps, but since these are perfectly functional, I probably won’t get new ones unless they are a super great deal. Overall, I think this room just feels a little blah. It just needs a lot of little tweaks.
—————-
It is so neat to look back and see how far our house has come in the last year and a half! We’ve still got work to do though!
Goodbye 2012, Hello 2013!
I hope you all enjoyed your holiday season! Mine was great! However, just like the rest of 2012, it was so hectic and went by so fast! Drew and I visited our families in our hometown over the holidays and it was so nice to see them. We also got over 16 inches of snow while we were there! It was so fun and so pretty! I really miss that about winter when I’m in New Orleans!
Check out my Instagram to see more photos of our holiday vacation, including the snow, the scarves I crocheted, and our quick getaway trip to Saint Louis while we were home as well.
I know it is after Christmas now and I should have posted this sooner, but I wanted to share with you our first ever Rowland family Christmas card!
It was extra special this year being our first Christmas as a married couple! Drew’s birthday is also on Christmas, so it is always a special holiday around here.
I’m naturally a really self-reflective person, always re-evaluating my goals and how I’m meeting them, but I love how the holiday season gets everyone in a reflective mood — focusing on family and what is important, thinking over the past year and then making goals they want to meet in the upcoming one.
2012 was a really crazy year for me/us. A whole lot of wedding planning, Drew graduating from college, Drew starting work in a salary position, expanding our business, getting married, going on our honeymoon (to Boston, New Hampshire and Maine — I still need to blog about that!), working on making our apartment our home, and me getting closer and closer to graduating as well. It was a great year, but a really busy/crazy/hectic one, and I’m happy it is now over. School has gotten more and more intense as I’m getting closer to graduating and this past semester really seemed to take over my life. I was at school from early in the morning to really late at night (some of my classes didn’t get out until 9:30 at night!) and didn’t have time for a whole lot else (including blogging — that’s why I’ve been so MIA). I’ve really been stretched thin lately, and I don’t see it getting too much better (actually probably much worse) until this upcoming semester is over and I graduate.
However, even though 2013 will probably be a hectic year as well, I’ve got a lot to look forward to! I graduate this year! I could not be more excited for that day to come! I’m so over the whole college lifestyle and everything that comes with it. I’m also excited to see what job opportunities lie ahead and what I end up doing once I get out of school. So many exciting things to pursue!
I also have a lot of big changes in my life for 2013. As of the new year, Drew and I are now on Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover. This is such an important change for me this year. As a single woman, I had a older, used car paid for by my parents when I turned 16 and a scholarship that covered pretty much all my college expenses. I knew people lived in debt, but never really knew what that felt like. When I got married, I inherited from my husband a car that has monthly payments, a lot of money in student loans, and a small amount of credit card debt. Debt sucks, y’all. A couple months of that stress and I decided that is all I could take. Dave Ramsey’s book really is life-changing. It makes you think about money, spending and debt in a whole new way. We have re-evaluated our budget and are doing all we can to diminish our debts as quickly as possible. Our goal for 2013 is to pay off all credit card debt and Drew’s car by the end of the year. Hopefully in the two years following that we can get all of Drew’s student loans paid off. Those payments are not something I want to live with for any longer than humanly possible. Even if that means sacrificing a lot of other things along the way (like eating out, spending money on things for our house we don’t need, extra television stations, extras on phone plans and bigger things like waiting to buy a house or start a family). So hopefully we can get that over with and get on with our lives! Really, I know we are just starting this, but if you have any debt or need tips on managing your money, saving for retirement, saving for college for your kids, or just want to live in financial peace, read Dave’s books. I really think everyone needs to read them. Your life will be changed. I’m warning you.
If that wasn’t a big enough goal to start out 2013 with, I also have big lifestyle changes in the health department. Over this past summer I found out that I have hypothyroidism. That basically means that my thyroid doesn’t produce enough thyroid hormone and in turn causes a whole slew of other problems — exhaustion/tiredness, lack of concentration, impaired memory, depression, headaches, acne, digestive problems, problems being able to stand cold temperatures, problems with metabolism, weakness, muscle aches, etc. I’ve been experiencing different levels of these problems for the past several years and didn’t know what was wrong with me. Being in college and therefore working late nights, being stressed out and not getting enough sleep also tended to exaggerate these problems. I was so thankful to finally figure out what was causing the symptoms though. Hypothyroidism can be treated — but that means I have to take thyroid hormone supplements every day and likely will have to for the rest of my life. After I started taking the thyroid supplements and got my levels in the right place, I was feeling much better, but still not perfect. So I didn’t stop there.
After the endocrinologist didn’t say much different, I headed to my dad’s nutritionist to see what was the cause of the hypothyroidism and how to better combat it. I never believe that medication is the only right and final answer to anything! I want to get to the source of these problems and treat that. So I met with this nutritionist and although we are still working through my hair analysis to figure out what nutrient deficiencies I have and what vitamin supplements I need to take, I’m as of 2013 on a much stricter diet to maintain optimal health. I found out that I have sensitivities to wheat and milk (I had suspected this before), so although I’m not necessary “allergic” and I’m not going to break out in hives when I eat/drink them, I can’t digest them as well as I should be able to and they are therefore not helping me or adding any needed nutrients to my diet. I also have sensitivities to soy as well, so I’m staying away from that. Soy has a lot of hormones, and my levels of estrogen are already really high, so soy isn’t good for me because of that. In addition, my diet suggests I cut out corn products, they are so genetically modified these days that there isn’t much good left in them and white rice as well (starchy, carbohydrate-rich foods aren’t really so great for anyone). So this year (and for likely the rest of my life), I will be doing my best to not eat wheat, white rice, corn, soy or milk. Yikes! I also need to up my meat intake and my vegetable intake. I can still have other less-genetically modified and more nutrient rich carbs like red and white potatoes, beans, peas, lentils, quinoa, oats, sprouted grains, wild rice and limited amounts of brown rice. I also need to limit my sugar intake (as does everyone) to practically zero, so I’m trying to use only honey, agave nectar, and very limited amounts of turbinado sugar as a sweetener and limiting my fruit intake (again most fruits today have been so genetically modified that they contain so much sugar and not as many nutrients anymore — but I can still have it all, just a limit on my daily intake). I also am limiting my salt intake and only using Celtic sea salt (pure salt, no additives). The diet only lets you drink water as well (along with herbal teas), but I already only drink water, so that really isn’t a change. There are some other rules as well about what to eat with what (eat meat and veggies together and then eat starches like potatoes, peas, beans, lentils with vegetables, but don’t eat meat with potatoes/beans/lentils, etc. One is acidic, one is alkaline, so eating them together limits nutrient absorption) and the doctor also told me a lot of really great health information, but I’ll leave it at that. I would recommend everyone see a good nutritionist and start eating right for themselves!
I’ve been at it for the last week or so, and really so far, it isn’t that hard. You just have to change your mindset from eating for comfort to eating for health. There are also a lot of really great recipes out there that are gluten/rice/corn/soy free. I really didn’t eat that much corn or soy before anyway, and not enough white rice to make it that hard to cut out (plus it is easy enough to sub for brown rice or wild rice). Wheat is the big one (pasta, bread, baked goods, etc.) but there are lots of gluten-free options and lots of other flours to bake with (almond flour, coconut flour, quinoa flour, oat flour, etc.), so it really isn’t that difficult either. I haven’t missed milk yet, but I can always sub that with almond milk or small amounts of raw milk if it becomes a problem. I’m excited to start feeling better and being healthier!
So here’s to a healthier year this 2013 in many ways!
Do you have any goals for the new year?
Reindeer Run (I ran a 5K!)
Hey y’all. Long time, no post. School has been pretty serious this semester and therefore has left very little time in which to blog. But I have lots of wedding pictures, house posts, and all kinds of stuff to share with you whenever things settle down! Trying to finish two majors is no joke!
Anyway, I wanted to share this little tidbit with you. This past weekend I crossed something off my bucket list! I ran a 5K! If you know me personally, then you know that running is not something I do. Side stitches, aching muscles, bouncing boobs, panting out of breath, what is fun about that!? Well, a few weeks ago, my friend, Sarah, asked if I would run in the Reindeer Run with her. My immediate response was, “Me? Run a 5K? You must be kidding!” But she reassured me that it was a fun thing and wasn’t too serious and that my super slow self wouldn’t be left behind. So I did the crazy thing and signed up for it!
I didn’t practice at all before this run. But I figured that if worse came to worse, I would walk the whole thing and at least be able to say that I put myself out there and did it. I didn’t have enough notice for training beforehand. I did do some research on running though — (how to breathe while running, how to keep your pace, tips for non-runners running 5Ks, what to eat beforehand, how to not get side stitches, etc) — which I definitely think helped.
I was still pretty nervous on my way to the race though.
But once I got there and saw that my race packet came with reindeer antlers to wear and jingle bells to tie on my shoes, I felt a little better.
The race itself was really fun and actually way easier than I thought! 3.2 miles goes by pretty quickly when you are chatting with friends! I can’t say that I really ran much, I pretty much speed walked/jogged the whole thing, but I was pretty happy with the pace I went and I kept it up the whole time with no side stitches and no out-of-breath-ness. It felt really good! I also did a good 30 minutes of pre-race yoga/pilates though, which I think really helped.
It was a really fun environment too. Everyone with their jingle bells and antlers, the Christmas lights all lit up at night, and the track we ran through downtown Baton Rouge was really neat! We looped around the Louisiana state capitol building!
It was such a great time and I’m so happy that I actually did it! (I think Drew was convinced for a while that I was going to chicken out at the last minute!) I definitely will be jogging and hopefully one day running more 5K’s in the future!
Estate Sale Finds
I love houses. I love houses like most men love sports. I’m obsessed with them. The architecture, the styling, the character, the colors, the decor, the layout, I love it all. I am obsessed with home blogs, books and magazines. People renovating their homes, people decorating their homes, how people live in their homes, make the most of their spaces and how people bring their own style and sentiment to their homes.
We live in houses, we share moments and memories in houses. They are safe havens, spaces to relax, spaces to craft, cook, work, sleep, play and live. The spaces inside them bring people together. Growing up in them, they help build us and shape us into who we are. We attach memories and times of our lives to them. There is such a complex network of things that houses allow.
Anyway, lately I’ve discovered something that is like dessert to my love of houses & my love of decorating my own — estate sales. For the past few weeks, Drew and I have been spending our Saturday mornings going to tagged estate sales. I love adding things that have history and character into our home, and I also love vintage things and pretty, old, well-made things. Since estate sales are generally for homes of older people that have passed away or are downsizing to a living facility or something, estate sales really offer unique and vintage finds and more often than not, they have real wooden furniture and things that are older and much more well made than some newer things today.
I do like going to them to look and see if I can score any good home finds, but I also love going to them to see the homes as well. It is so interesting to me to see how people live in their houses, how they decorate and furnish them, and to imagine what lovely memories took place inside those walls. I think it is neat to see how much a person’s home tells about their character and what they were like. You can imply a lot about a person by the things that they own. I love walking through and trying to figure out what the person was like that lived there and what these items meant to their lives.
Although, I always get kind-of sad walking through a house and seeing the remnants of a person’s life. It always makes me wonder what happened to the person and why their family doesn’t want to keep more of their belongings. If I do buy something, I feel like I’m providing a good home for something that used to be meaningful to someone else. I love feeling like I rescued some well-loved possession of theirs that is now going to live in my home and add to my life story. I love beautiful things that have a history.
At one sale, I got most of the items in this post. I immediately fell in love with this vintage crewelwork embroidery and the beautiful frame that it is in. I wonder if the lady that lived in the house stitched it herself? I added the glass to it, to keep moths from continuing to destroy it. You can see they they had started to eat away at some of the stitching. It was $5.
I also immediately fell in love with this adorable little tulip-shaped, white, floral plant pot. I need to figure out where in my house I want to put it so I can check the lighting conditions and find a plant for it.
We don’t have any napkin rings, so when I saw these beautiful wooden ones, I had to get them. Aren’t they so pretty next to our white dinner plates and our brightly colored napkins?
These pink, purple and green floral cloth napkins were a dollar or something, so I bought them (a set of six). I thought they would be cute with our white plates for a springtime brunch.
I love this cute little lace pillow I found there as well!
These vintage sheets were a dollar or two, so I picked them up as well. I thought the pattern was cute and I could use them as fabric to make something. Pretty cheap for the amount of fabric.
Between two different sales we went to that day, I amassed this collection of vintage Reader’s Digest books. I’ve always loved them and I’m so happy to have some in my home. Aren’t the covers just gorgeous? I love those patterns and colors! The spines look so pretty on a shelf as well. I think they were maybe 50 cents or a dollar a piece. The dates on them range from the 1950s through the 1980s.
One of the sales we went to was the estate of an old watchmaker. His house was so interesting. The office where the man used to work was just full of neat tools and watch parts and lots of really cool things. He had also fought in WWII and there were piles and piles of love letters that he and (his wife I’m guessing) wrote back and forth to each other. How sweet! There was also a Nazi flag, some huge bullets from some kind of crazy tank/gun or something, and lots of other war history memorabilia. Much of it belonged in a museum. It was so neat. We ended up buying a couple of the Reader’s Digest books there and also this beaker and Erlenmeyer flask. Drew bought them to use in his homebrewing, but how cool and unexpected would it be to use the Erlenmeyer flask as a vase to hold flowers? It totally brings back memories of high school Chemistry class.
I think we spent maybe $30 total on all the items that we bought in this post. Pretty good for all those lovelies, huh?
We didn’t end up buying anything at a few of the other sales we’ve been to lately, but the houses have been just as neat. The last one we went to was the home of a former interior designer and her house was so awesome and eclectic and had so much character! I fell in love with it and wanted to buy it so bad! (except for the fact that it was already sold and had sold for almost $400,000!) But it was a really neat one to go and see and I ended up with some old magazines and wallpaper samples that were free. Another one we went to had an awesome ornate mirror that I fell in love with, but someone else got to it before I did. It was sad. It would have looked awesome in the little welcome/entryway area I’m trying to create in our foyer. Another house was right off St. Charles and had the most awesome rooms with 13 foot ceilings and amazing high-end wallpaper. It was gorgeous.
I can’t wait to visit some more next weekend and to figure out where I’m going to hang my crewelwork embroidery! How about you, score any great vintage finds lately?
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***Rhoda from Southern Hospitality does Thrifty Treasures posts with great vintage/thrift finds from different people. I’m linking up there, you should check them out, here! There are always such neat treasures!
Hello all!
The last several weeks have been crazy around here! If you were watching the news lately, you saw that Hurricane Isaac made its path straight for New Orleans the last week of August/first week of September. Even though it hit New Orleans, only minor flooding and damage occurred (mostly just power outages and a few trees down). For most, it wasn’t bad at all. School was cancelled for me and work for Drew, so we decided to make a trip up to see our families in Southern Illinois. We thought that sounded better than sitting in our apartment that was bound to lose power during the storm! (August in New Orleans = HOT with no AC!) It was a good thing we did leave because our apartment didn’t have power for 4 or 5 days. We had lots of food in our fridge, freezer, and deep freeze to throw away when we got home. :(
Anyway, we had a nice week-long hurrication that allowed us some much needed relaxation and family time. Once we got back from that, things have been going along here at super speed! My schoolwork has jumped in double time to make up for time lost from the storm and so I have been busy non-stop! Lots of abstract painting, ceramics, digital media, impressionist art history, and 19th century literature by American women writers for me! I’ll be so happy to finish up this last year of school!
Anyway, other than catching you up with the happenings of my life, this post is really to celebrate 2 years of Icing on the Cake Blog! September 4th was my 2 year blogging anniversary (so you can see this post is a week or so late!). You can check out what I had to say last year about my 1 year blogging anniversary, here.
In the last two years, it has been so nice to be able to document the happenings of my life. It is a great resource for me to look back on things that I’ve done, house projects completed, to look up recipes and just re-live those memories. I love blogging for that very reason.
Over the last two years, I’ve posted 245 blog posts, with 750 tags (that is a lot of topics!), and had 458 comments. I’ve also had over 25,000 visitors to my blog.
My first year of blogging, I averaged about 3 1/2 blog posts per week, but this year I’ve only averaged 1 1/2 posts per week. I do feel that my blog content has gotten much better in the last year though. I started posting on all sorts of topics and in the last year feel like I have better narrowed down my blog focus — mostly to things related to the home — decorating, crafting, and cooking.
I feel like blogging might take somewhat of a backseat in the next year, since this school year is going to be a pretty tough one. I want blogging to stay as something that I enjoy and lately it has become somewhat stressful in my already busy life. Another thing demanding my attention. Don’t think that I’m going to disappear though, I just might not be posting as frequently! I still have tons of house projects, wedding photos, recipes, and all kinds of stuff that I’ve completed this summer that are just waiting to be featured! I simply haven’t had the time to do so lately!
A big thank all of you lovely readers that stop by to see what is going on over here! Here’s to another great year! :)
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