I've been a little busy...

Okay, so, I promise I didn't have a total mental breakdown. I am alive and well and of sound mind (sort of).  I realize the last post I wrote was a bit of a downer but since I only have like, 5 people, who follow my blog (6 if you count that annoying voyeur at work who reads just to make fun of me--you know who you are, FBP!) I figured it wouldn't be a big deal.
Anyhow...

So, why have I been so busy I couldn't blog? Well, I've been immersed in plenty of busy important things that people of my stature must attend to to make the world go 'round. Mainly:

Vacation.
Yup, since it's summer I've been busy with lots of vacationing. In between that time I have managed to decorate and craft but I just haven't blogged about it. Another reason may be because my camera finally died (RIP). I have yet to get a new one and all the above pics were taken with my iphone. (yes, even the firework pic).
Anyhow.

I will try and pick up my slack and start blogging again so if you're still here I thank you and promise to try and blog more often (cuz I do have things to blog about!)

What do you want for lunch? I'll have a mental breakdown with a side of gravy please.

Because everything is better with gravy y'all.

Do you ever have one of those out of body experiences where you're looking down at yourself and wonder, "How did it come to this?"

Suddenly I was floating over myself as I laid in bed (because today was just one of those days were I thought to myself, meh, not worth it...you can still go another day without acting like a functioning adult-- totally okay to still be lying in bed at 1:34 in the afternoon.) Which, to be fair, is like 1:34 in the morning to me because of my work schedule so when I think about it it really isn't that bad that I was lying in bed- not having showered, not brushed my teeth or hair, with possibly a food stain on my t-shirt- plenty of people do this. Let's not mention the fact that the vast majority of those people may possibly be homeless with a wide variety of mental illnesses. Scratch that. Homeless people wouldn't even have a bed to lie in so, really, I'm ahead of the game.

Anyway. Where was I? Oh yes. I'm staring at myself lying in bed not showered, stained t-shirt, crazy unkept hair yelling at Luhvah about LeRoy Selmon's being the Anti-christ. The restaurant, not the man. I never knew the man- I'm sure he was a lovely person. So, there I am yelling about Selmon's food and apparently it's got a vendetta against my marriage because here it is trying to divorce me and Luhvah. Apparently Sweet Heat Chicken was made in the 7th ring of hell and well, that's pretty fitting because, see, Selmon's is the Anti-christ people so of course it would have a whole hell themed menu.

But I see myself crazily yelling about Sweet Heat Chicken and I wonder how exactly Luhvah and I are arguing about food. And I wonder to myself, "Can this possibly get any worse?"
But it can because I'm also thinking about how awful it is that we're arguing about food choices when so many people don't even have food let alone a choice of food and here it is tearing our marriage apart. First world problems. Oh, how they vex me.

And then, adding insult to injury, I wonder how exactly Luhvah is still married to me in the first place cuz I'm yelling about chicken and his choices and how pizza is that ex that nobody really wants but everyone falls back on when they feel insecure and ugly because the ex is always there hoping you finally finally love them but really it's just a ego boost because you're too emotionally stunted to behave appropriately and tell them the truth of the situation-that you're just feeling crummy and that you need to feel attractive and its easier to backslide with them- they are just your back up plan for down times.
Pizza, the ex-files ego boost. 

As I'm yelling about ego boost Pizza and Anti-christ Chicken I realize that it's amazing if this man can keep up with my nonsensical thought processes and perhaps I should cut him some slack cuz heck, at this point I'm a little concerned myself about where my mental stability lies so I should just shut up but does my pride allow that? Absolutely not. So, finally Luhvah just sighs and walks away leaving me to my convoluted reasoning.

And that's how I ended up spending the day reading a book alone in bed with only a stained t-shirt to keep me company.

Happy Hunger Games!

Confession: I am completely obsessed with The Hunger Games.

Great book (trilogy actually) about a dystopian future where our country is now controlled by a few (called the Capital) who enslave the rest (the districts) and punish them each year by conducting the Hunger Games in which 1 boy and 1 girl from each district is chosen to fight to the death for the Capital's entertainment.

It's a wonderful series narrated by the protagonist, Katniss, a girl of 16. I *heart* Katniss. She's everything I think I am but, like, 50 million times cooler. (Last January my NY resolution was even to learn archery and be a bad ass like Katniss--I still haven't given up that dream yet). I am so in love with these books I even dedicated my pumpkin carving to it back in October if you remember.

I've been a HG fan now for 3 and half years but with the movie just being released it has gained popularity in leaps and bounds. My daughter and I have been on the band wagon awhile but it's amazing how many other people are now coming to us with, "Have you read the HG?" to which we reply, "OMGosh YES!" and go on to gush about how much we love love love 'em.

It's a growing phenomenon. Almost all the women at my work have read them and even a few officers are at least aware of them (one Corporal even mentioned how his wife is obsessed with them). My family calls me up, "Hey, have you read...?"
Ummmm...old news peeps, old news.I'm already obsessed.
But I love when people approach me about it cuz then I can go on and on and on about how awesome they are and they at least get it. This Christmas my father in law even bought my daughter the HG because he had read it and liked it (not knowing she already read them and we owned them). LOL

So, since we've been waiting for the past year ("we" meaning my daughter and I) for the movie to finally arrive we were ready when opening night came this past weekend. A whole group of us were going and since I'm a fanatically crazy person about the HG I decided to do it right by having a mini party before the movie to celebrate.

First, I browsed the trusty internet to find all kinds of HG themed things to do for my little potluck party. I made invitations for those coming over:

For the main course I made pulled pork BBQ sandwiches (since they were so easy to throw together) but luckily I figured out how to incorporate the dish into a HG theme:

Cheesy but whatever... I mean we're talking about a themed party so cheese is par for the course, right?

For those of you who are not aware of HG a lot of this will be confusing so my apologies (you should totally read the books-have I mentioned they're awesome?)

We had sleep syrup for drinks:

And Prim's goat cheese with Peeta's bread (spinach/artichoke dip with bread):

And for dessert we had "nightlock" tarts (the deadly berries):

For decoration my daughter and I hung parachutes up around the house, a poster on the front door to welcome those in, and some quotes we wrote on poster board just to get people in the HG mood!

It was a blast and really didn't require a lot of effort (except the posters) or money (about 10.00 in all for decorations) but made the night just a little more exciting and special.

So, if you haven't had a chance I recommend reading the books (books first-not movie!!) and remember:
 
May the odds be ever in your favor!!!

To My Sister...

So, 2 days ago my sister had a birthday. I remembered it. I even called her.And her present will be in the mail within the next week (I promise!) But I forgot to blog about it (which has been a longstanding tradition for the past 2 years-basically, the life of my blog). Anyhow. I meant to blog about it and it slipped my mind, which, let's be honest, is no big surprise since my mind's pretty much been MIA since I've been on mids the past 2 months.

But let's pretend that I was just stretching out those younger years for her so she didn't feel older. Yes, that's it folks- I didn't forget her blog post- I just postponed it so she could soak in a few more days of her younger age. How nice am I, right? So now that I'm putting up her birthday post it is officially official (<<---technical terminology):  

Today my sister is old(er).

And even though her present has not yet been sent (okay, okay, so I'm a procrastinator-whatevs!) I figured this would cheer her up:

I'm sure she'd rather have this guy telling her Happy Birthday instead of me. So there ya go.
And because my brain is mush and I have no amount of wit left in my body  I'll leave it at that.

Love,

Before/After...dresser obsession cont'd.

Soooo, a really long time ago I started to paint and makeover this dresser:

Unfortunately, I couldn't find the hardware I wanted at the price I wanted so it sat naked forever, and ever, and E-VER. Then miraculously I found what I wanted (Ebay) at the price I wanted (approx $1.00 per pull) and all was right with the world! But then I sat on pictures for-EVUH again and that leads us to this day.
A bit anti-climatic but nevertheless, here is my finished product:

It's just basic white paint, distressed a little, with spanish pull rings. If only I could rip out the carpet to give it a beautiful showcase on pretty floors. Oh well.

Something that took me all of a day to makeover took me more than a year to show you.
Yup, that's me. Right on time. I think I need to distress the embossed detail on the top drawers a little more to show their distinction but overall I'm satisfied.

Nerds 101

The other day I realized that Luhvah and I are raising a total geek (like us). Luhvah would prefer to say, "we're raising her right" but imagine my surprise when I read this note that my daughter left for me before heading off to school:



That's it. That's all she wrote.

If the reference is unknown to you just check out this video (start at 5:28min):

Now, let me explain. My Luhvah likes to be weird (I'm sure other dads out there like to tease and be weird with their children too) and since Star Wars is one of his favorite movies (hers too) he's taken to quoting stupid things from the movie.
It goes something like this:

Luhvah (yelling from another room): Hey, monkey! (his nickname for her)

Daughter (yelling back---as you can see, we're a loud family): What?!

Luhvah: I need you to do me a favor! (still yelling)

Daughter (whining): Uuuuuughhhhh. (insert teenage angst and drama here). Yeah?

Luhvah (frantically screaming in a panicked voice): SHUT DOWN ALL THE GARBAGE SMASHERS ON THE DETENTION LEVEL. SHUTDOWNALLTHEGARBAGESMASHERSONTHEDETENTIONLEVEL!

And she laughs hysterically. And the first time I heard it, I did too. Cuz it's totally outta no where. Like, we'll just be watching t.v. or something and he'll suddenly say it to her. And we're a totally geeky family because we get the reference without any explanation.
So, imagine my surprise (and laughter) when I got the note. Because this is one of those weird "dad" things that she laughs at, not really that she instigates.

Yeah, we're raising a lil' nerd. We're raising her right.

Happy Valentines Day!

I know it's been awhile but I've been here:

The graveyard shift, that is.
I am working nights and it's pretty much F-ed up my whole life this past month or so. Plus, I'm really busy with work (hey, those drunk college kids aren't gonna arrest themselves) so I've been out of pocket for awhile. The good thing about working mids (midnight shift for all you non-police peeps) is that my laundry is, like, always clean. I mean, what else am I gonna do while my luhvah is sleeping? It's not like I can sand the stairs or anything (ummm, mom... that's not a euphemism, 'mmmkay?). So I've been doing laundry like a BOSS as of late.

And here I am, back with a vengeance because, even if all my time has been sleeping, eating, and working (oh, and eating while working, or eating while sleeping -don't even ask me how I'm capable of doing this...) I've still been able to do some crafty/decorative things in between all that eating and sleeping and mids shift work. I just haven't had a chance to blog about them.

Now, whether or not you're a luhvah or a hater of V-day the colors are just dreamy and romantic, right? Pink, white, and, my all time favorite, red. Consequently, I'm a hater of V-day even though I'm in a lovingly squishy relationship. But the edgy sarcastic side of me just eats up the hate on V-day (awful, I know). I saw napkins at the store the other day which I wanted to buy but weren't really appropriate for me so I passed on them but they were sooo cute:

 

We celebrated Vday last weekend when my luhvah got tickets for the theatre to see Les Miserables. Ummmm...it.was.awesome. I've never seen the musical  but I've read the book and I've always wanted to see it. So, we went to dinner and the theatre for our Vday night. That's like, my perfect date night. And the cool thing was that Luhvah suggested it-I didn't even know it was coming to town. He really does have the key to my pants to my heart! What a wonderful, lovely man. Le Sigh. I've been singing tunes from the musical all week long.

Anyhow. I wanted to show you my Valentine's decor. There's not much, just my mantle and a small table.

I made the heart wreath from inspiration off of, you guessed it, Pinterest. You can find the original link with details on Tatertots and Jello's blog. I amended it to fit my needs (a heart instead of circle and I used mini foil cups only because I couldn't find pretty swirly cupcake holders like she had). I think in total I spent 3.00 on the wreath. I couldn't find a heart form so I made a redneck version with duct tape and pink piping that I already had lying around the house. So, the only thing I bought was the cupcake holders. A $3.00 project-awesome.

The framed hearts was another cheapie. Do you remember this picture?

I snagged this cute little frame from my friend when I helped her with her garage sale.

I took out the picture and left the glass and decided to quickly paint the frame pink (acryllic paint and foam brush already had). Then I added ribbon I already had on hand and glued on these cute glittered hearts (1.00 walmart) to finish it off. Uh-dorable. And only 1.00 for the whole project! Love it.

The roses were 5.25 (Walmart again) so the total for this mantle makeover was only $9.25 (already had the candles and red filler). Not too shabby. And most of that cost was for the flowers.

Then I also bought some pretty Valentine's candy (let's be honest, that's what Vday is all about for me). And put them in some apothecary jars I had. Easy-peasy. The candy probably cost me 10.00 in all but will definitely not go to waste.

And that's it. I meant to hang a pretty V-day wreath on the front door but didn't. Oh well. I figure I'm pretty much a vampire now and no one visits us at night so who cares?
Happy Valentines Day!