Elle Decor -December in the mountains

Below photos from Elle Decor...I'll take a little trip to these homes any day please and thank you.

Its my birthday and I'll Party like a rockstar

I turn the dreaded age of 29 years old tomorrow.  Quite depressing, being my last year in my 20's before i hit the forbidden (gasp) number 30.  When I was younger, I assumed that by now I would be married, with children, and a stay at home mom, cooking nice dinners and cleaning as I sang the lyrics to musicals around the house.  Things didnt quite turn out that way though and for that I am thankful.  I do have a wonderful husband, a man who is truly the best thing to ever happen to me.  We have our small, kidney-stoneless pup who brings joy to our life every day of the week.  I also have a group of amazing friends that I am so grateful for, who would do anything for me in a snap and that I have grown more mature with (sort of, if you dont count how we act in public).  This weekend, my best friend Jenn and some others are coming to visit and we are going out for two nights on the town.  Nothing "crazy" like years past, or at least that is what we are telling ourselves :)

perhaps I buy myself a little birthday gift- any of the below would work out just fine:

 A skirt like Miraslava's

 Fur coat as seen on Bleeker St

 Skull necklace for my hard-ass side

Or a sweet lace dress to be worn with black tights and gray heels

Trendsetter

Where Did You Get That is one of the 10 or so blogs I read every single morning when I wake up.  Karen Blanchard, the Brit behind this blog, shows off some amazing and fashion forward looks and shows off the trends before they are trends.  Her Balmain-like capes and thrift-store finds from old doc martens and fedoras to long gowns always pop up on a variety of sites and after following her consistently for almost 2 years, I can absolutely vouch that her blog is the place to be if you are looking to find out what will be hot in 6 months.

Nobody Does It Better

We Made It!

We made it out alive, barely.  After cooking Thanksgiving dinner for 15 and 4 days of house guests, the husband and I were elated to spend last night on our respective couches watching football and drinking wine.  Overall, the dinner went off without a hitch (minus the ridiculous amount of family members who thought it was a good idea to just stand in the middle of our small kitchen while we were trying to cook).  I had to instill a one in- one out policy to control the madness.  In other unrelated news, the pup has gained 2 lbs since his surgery and is having a bitch of a time trying to hop up onto anything because he doesnt realize how fat he is all of a sudden.  The chunkster cant even make it up the stairs without falling and stopping for a rest halfway up.  So pupster and I will be sweating it to the 80s tonight, to work off the pumpkin pie we stuffed ourselves with this weekend. 

Trukey Day and a slight update on where I have been

Hi All- its been a while and to be honest, I sort of forgot about this blog for a little bit because my head was full of other random things like the house, the pup and his kidney stones, my big 29th birthday that is coming up and the stressful situation that is 13 people coming to our home for Thanksgiving and the scary realization that I have never cooked a 26lb turkey before, or even a whole chicken for that matter.  We have been busy over here, raking leaves into piles that get blown around 3 minutes later, ponying up some hard earned money to take the enormous kidney stones out of our tiny pup and rearranging furniture until I am happy.  The house is finally coming along and the decor is all starting to make sense.  The husband and the pup are both growing into their "man stages" which basically means they are gaining weight at incredible rates of speed. I will post soon after the holiday with the success of my first hosting gig, but in the meantime i leave you with this to ponder- is it "high chair" or "height chair"????

Prague Photo Tour

I know I said I would do a city each day with photos from our vacation but clearly I was losing my mind when I said that, because 2 weeks later I have done two cities.  So up next is Prague- my personal favorite from our trip.  I was most excited to see this place and did a fair amount of research to prepare for the big 2.5 day affair.  We traveled by train from Berlin to Prague and arrived for our stay in somewhat dreary weather and a bit of a hangover that a croissant and hours of sleep couldnt cure.  Our "hostel" was more like an upscale apartment than the slum pit I expected to see.  2 floors, with a roof deck and a kitchen and a modern bathroom fit just for us.  We immediately threw out crap down, changed clothes and went out to explore and eat, because naturally after a whole 2 hours without food we were quite famished.    We saw a ton in Prague and walked around alot.  The History of the city is pretty amazing and the castles/cathedrals/bridges and parks were better than I imagined. 

The highlight of the tour was the night we got arrested.  See how i threw that in there?  You thought you read something wrong didnt you?  Fear not chickens, we made it home alive.  But not after a good shake up by the Czech Secret Police!  After a long day of hunting for fried cheese sandwiches and beer, we decided to head to an authentic Czech dinner or meat, potatoes, and meat and potatoes at a local restaurant.  We ate enough for a small country and then hit the bar scene, eager to try some absinthe and really "get crazy".  We stopped at a martini bar, and decided that we would have shot of Absinthe at 930pm.  Clearly this is where the trouble started.  After swallowing the minty lethal liquor, we headed to an Irish Bar (yes, thats right, we Americans do not wander far from our comfort zone) and were greeted by a large group of Brits who complimented the husband and Adam on their great taste in women and possibly landed a backhand on mine and Jenn's behinds.  We were in for a great night.  We sat in the back and ordered beer after beer, until we were so drunk and so into singing 80s songs that the men getting NAKED at the front of the bar didnt seem too out of place.  Naturally we took pictures, and then kept ordering beers.  Fast forward to 4 hours later.  None of us are speaking English and the husband is asking the waitress what she thinks a good tip is, because his math skills went to sleep 2 hours prior.  This is what Absinthe will do to you.  Funny thing is, this isnt even the good part.  The following night, we take it easy, have some cocktails and see the extremely overrated Astronomical Clock.  On our way home we jump on a trolley, and Jenn tells us fairytales about how the Czech police dress in street clothes and arrest people for not paying the trolley fare.  Not 3 minutes later, we find ourselves on the side of the road with two large Czech policeman who are demanding we each pay them $700 Krohns (might I add they took our passports- we are f'd).  So we pay them (700 Krohns is equivalent to approximately $30 dollars- so what if I cant pay my EZ Pass for one week) and head home.  I am giving the short version because the long version includes a lot of anxiety, tension, nerves and scared-shitless-ness and really who wants to hear about all those details?

 Steepest and longest escalator in the world

 The husband and I- we like hats.

 Who doesnt love a peeing, rotating statue?

 Beer. the root of all evil.

J & A

 Absinthe- the REAL root of all evil

 This sums up the whole trip.  the husband playing like an ape, Jenn being short and Adam searching for food to eat

 BFFs

 Largest castle ground in the world!

 be serious!

 Astronomical let down...err I mean clock

Fried Cheese sandwiches all around

Help is needed

We had quite a busy weekend- traveled out to Texas with the parents and the husband to visit the brother and his girlfriend.  Ate way too much food and drank way too much...everything.  Now I am back and excited to say that the husband is putting the finishing touches on our farmhouse table.  Now I get to pick out a lamp for above the table and I am having some major anxiety over it.  Some of my favorite options are below, although I am still on the hunt for some others too if anyone has ideas...

 Above- the Sputnik.  He is my favorite and the silver would be a great balance for all natural wood in the room

 Very modern but I am afraid it will be too much white (the chairs I have yet to purchase will be white)

 I like this too...very organic and plain feeling.  Maybe I could buy two in different sizes?  

 Boring old drum pendant but this one is majorly over-sized...would easily be a focal point but again this could be too much white?

 This beauty hails from IKEA and for $89, it is a steal.  I need to make a trip to compare because my gut is telling me that this looks cheapo in person

Another VERY modern fixture that bugs me a little bit but for some reason I cant take my eyes off of it.  I wish it came in beige.

The husband told me I couldnt get a new light just yet, since the one we have works fine and since it looks like the 9 lb pup will need surgery for bladder stones (the surgery costs 3 times as much as he did).  However, this morning I noticed one of the bulbs on our current light was out, so I replaced it and low and behold, it still wont work...which means it is broken and we cannot have a broken light in our dining room unless we want to look like hobos.  So a new light is definitely on the menu!

Manhattan Nest...

Recently I somehow stumbled across one of the funniest blogs I have found to date- Manhattan Nest and I have become slightly addicted to it- literally checking it every single day for updates on the apartment and the hilarious stories that go along with fixing it up.  Check it out...it is absolutely worth your time and I promise at least 100 laughs.

Erin Wasson for Scanlan & Theodore