Long Weekend

We over here at casa de Santagate have been gearing up for the annual Memorial Day Bash.  It's alot of work and frankly, I am burnt out (not to mention my allergies have reappeared...WTF who has allergies now???).  I am looking forward to a long weekend of relaxing with family (my parents and aunt and uncle are coming down, yay!) and friends and enjoying what is said to be a "summer like weekend".  Here's to eating and drinking well, and of course getting a kick start on my much needed tan!

Loving This

How beautiful is this porch?  Nothing crazy over the top, but simple and usable.  Definitely going in the "back porch inspiration" file for next year:

Tuesday Humor

Here's to the new Black

TGIF

Seriously people, thank god its Friday. I have been looking forward to this day since...well...Monday.  I have been cleaning out our house all week, looking for stuff to sell in our big yard sale that we are having tomorrow.  Lots of good stuff out there, if you happen to be driving by Broad St between the hours of 8am and 2pm.  I can tell you this, nothing feels better than putting all the crap you dont want in a pile and sticking a price tag on it.  Hopefully I have some good stories to share from all the rift raft that stops by tomorrow. I have been so sick all week though, all I really want to do is this:

And dont think I forgot, this Sunday marks the annual "buy your mother stuff to make them happy weekend" aka Mothers Day!  Just kidding mom!  Thank you for everything you do for me, for the husband and for your granddog.  Sorry for being such a pain in the ass growing up and thank you for putting up with me for 29 years (and counting).  Its an honor to be your daughter and most importantly your friend.  Love you!

Oh boy dont we look pretty! Happy Weekend everybody!

Happy Humpday and some new stuff around the house

Happy Wednesday everyone.  Tomorrow is Cinco De Mayo, so after I tip back 3 too many margaritas, Friday is going to come awfully fast.  And I cant wait.  We went out last weekend to hit up some furniture stores in search of a new dresser.  The dresser we had been using is the same dresser I have had since I'm 2 years old.  Broken drawers, missing knobs, old necklaces jammed into the corner of the wood, its a real beaut.  So we headed over to some local stores and checked out the goods.  The husband found some huge ass dressers he "loved" but in the end, we ended up buying a Chesser (half dresser, half chest) on the spot from Raymour and Flanigan.  We arranged to have that badboy delivered on Monday when I was working from home and sure enough, at 11am on Monday, the delivery truck pulled up with two men and in came the chesser.  Only these men, who deliver large furniture on a daily basis, were idiots.  Lets back up for a second.  Our house has a stairway directly in the middle and a bit of an overhang above the steps.  The chesser is taller than it is wide.  These morons try to lift the chesser through our hallway and up the stairs, the long way.  With the legs still on.  They look at me, and they say, and I quote, "it aint gunna fit".  Well no shit sherlock, you are an idiot.  So I make them back down the stairs, take the legs off, and reposition the chesser, so now they are carrying it the long way (thats what she said) up the stairs.  And low and behold, it makes it with no problems at all. Clearly these two deliverymen had parents who did drugs.

So now we have this beautiful chesser in our room and it looks HUGE.  Like way beyond what I remember it being in the store.  I say this to the husband, and he agrees, although we have purchased a floor model which translates to "we are stuck with it."  It does have a ton of storage though, so thats nice. Cut to last night around 7pm, I hear the husband upstairs sounding busy.  I race upstairs because this, my friends, is something that excites me.  I find him picking through a large pile of his socks, which have been spread out all over our bed.  And he is picking through the socks, one by one, like they might fall apart if he moves too quickly.  I immediately situate myself on the bed and start asking questions like "why do you have so many socks?"  "Why do your socks have holes in them and why are you folding them?'' (seriously who the F folds socks?)  30 minutes later he has finished moving his socks from our old dresser to the new chesser.  I go downstairs because he is obviously going to be at this until midnight and watching it is making me want to scream.  This is the man who will wear a stained shirt and drink old milk, and he is folding his socks.  Unreal.  Cover your heads people because the world is ending.  4 hours later (really it was about 40 minutes) he comes downstairs with random clothing, throws it in a bag and tells me not to touch it.  I wait til he goes back upstairs and i touch it all, pawning through it for stained/ripped clothes that he is going to try and keep.  I take out the paint stained waffle shirt and throw it in the trash.  I feel so much better.  So now, here we are on Weds and the old dresser is cleaned out, and the new chesser is loaded up with his goods.

So what do you think?  I actually love it now, that I am getting more used to the huge size.  Its going to be great to store all sorts of clothes in and i love the modern lines it has, while not be too trendy. And for reference, here is the old dresser.  Sorry for the gross styling effort, and the missing drawer (oh and missing knob, crap).  The husband is repairing the drawer so i can sell it in my yard sale this weekend:

While we are on the topic of new things, here are some other additions to the house:

Whats that you spy in the first picture?  Why its my new Sputnik light!  Hells to the yeah.  I love love LOVE it.

And my subway sign from Paris.  I wanted the Brooklyn one but damn Homegoods didnt have any left.  So i scooped this up and hung it in the office.

Come and Knock on my door

We are currently in the paint/clean up/freak out mode here about the state of the outside of our house.  Well I am.  I hate that the paint is faded and that the whole house needs a serious power wash.  I also cant stand the front door, with its weird glass pattern taken right out of the 90s and improperly installed frame.  Every time I walk through the door way my body cringes and I know that sooner or later, this door baby has to go.

We are going to paint the outside of our house- probably trade in the gray shutters for black ones and keep the rest of the house white.  Im sure it will look so much better with a fresh coat of paint.  But now I am turning my attention to the new front door (and storm door) that we are getting and of course we cant figure out what we want.  Initially I said I didnt want any windows, because when I am home alone, the last thing I want to see is someone creepin up to look into my home. We have large bay windows on either side of the door, so if I need to see who's a-knockin...I can look out the windows.  Now I am seeing some cute square-windowed doors that are speaking to me in a language of love and flirting with me...telling me they will match so well with my bay window panes.  Who knew doors could be so romantic.  But really, the biggest decision to come is what color the door will be.  I vote green, the husband, well he wants wood colored.  So I figured I would search around and get some inspiration that would hopefully help us both decide on a door that is welcoming, but not too far out there.

My favorite- the orange.  Maybe we will keep the gray shutters and do a pumpkin colored, orange door. Hat would make me VERY happy. 

We are landscapers

We ripped out the nasty office-type bushes that were half dead and ugly looking in the front of our house.  In classic fashion, I cannot find one photo of the outside of our house that shows these horrible bushes.  However, here is the after.  Sparse, brightly colored flowers/shrubs/plants that will grow much bigger and better than their current state.  We only planted these 3 weeks ago...so we have a ways to go.  (Update!  The japanese maples are starting bud...hallelujah!)

It does look sort of...empty.  But the plants we bought are going to grow to be 2-3 ft wide and at least 2 ft high, so it will fill in, even if it doesnt happen until next year.  On a brighter note, we have no idea what we planted, how it will fare in all day sunlight, and if it will come back again next year. 

Easter Recap

After all my traveling to the West Coast last week it was nice to be back home, relaxing, with no crazy plans for Easter Weekend.  The husband and I took advantage of our "down" time and the nice weather and got some major yard work completed.  Now we no longer look like we are bringing down the neighborhood on the "good" side of the street.  It rained on Saturday, so I went out and got some errands done, including getting a nice little Easter gift for the husband.  After I presented it to him (he actually looked in the trunk of the car and saw it before I could surprise him), he handed over to me a large Easter basket, filled to the rim with chocolate.  My first thought was, "wow, he really knows me" because he picked out all my favorites.  My second thought was, "is he trying to fatten me up to trade me in for a younger more fit model?"  Of course I realized that couldnt be the case, so I just went on my peppermint patty eating way.

So after putting away a massive amount of chocolate at 10am on Sunday morning, we headed outside to do some serious cleanup.  I played project manager while the husband mowed the lawn, raked, seeded and watered.  I did spray some weed killer on the sidewalk and also swept the front stairs.  I know, I know, all in a days work.  I wandered inside, cleaned up a bit and then realized I hadnt heard from the husband at all in about 10 minutes...so I crept outside to the garage and found him entangled in a loving embrace with the new love of his life....

Yes folks, thats a Harley.  And yes, we are now the proud parents of a Pomeranian AND a Harley.  The husband is obsessed with it.  He pets it, starts it up just to turn it back off, and I have found him staring at it more than a few times.  Good thing the neighbors are friendly, because this sucker purrs loud.  Looks like more trips to the beach are in store this year on our (I mean the husband's) pimp new ride.

It's Finally Here

Monday is D-Day for my best friend Jenn- as she is running the Boston Marathon!  I cant believe that someone with such little legs is going to run a whole 26.2 miles- its awesomely insane and I am so proud of her.  I wont be at the finish line but the husband and I are setting up camp in Wellesley, right around the 15 mile marker to cheer her on.  I still find it pretty amazing that people run this far and don't die.  Rewind 2 weeks, and check out the hot pics the husband took as I prepared for and successfully finished my first ever half marathon!


Lisa, Marybeth and I, before we lined up with the other 11,000 women running

holy crap thats alot of people

if you look close enough (bottom right hand corner) you can see my waving as Lisa and I run by the husband

Around mile 12- which also happened to be right when the migraine started...awesome.  I look like I want to throw up...and thats funny because...I did, about 35 minutes after this photo was taken.  I know, stay classy.

and off I go, running towards the finish.  Adrenaline pumping.

Yea woooo finished.  And never doing that again.

Done and not looking so happy.  head was pounding and I knew that the inevitable was coming...

Sucking down the gatorade, which quickly prompted me to boot all over Central Park.  Turns out I got a major migraine from not having enough sodium in my body and got super sick.  At least I finished and got a shiny medal though!