Your mom . . . no MY mom

I wanted to post this so that I don't forget it.  Its a sweet email my mom sent me on my birthday.  Its kind of a running joke in the family about who "the good one" is.  I have two sisters and my mom always tells us individually that we're "the good one". 

TOP TEN REASONS WHY EMILY IS “THE GOOD ONE”

1.        SHE IS A GOOD DAUGHTER WHO KEEPS IN TOUCH WITH AND SHOWS CONCERN FOR HER PARENTS.
2.       SHE IS A GOOD WIFE AND PARTNER FOR HER HUSBAND.
3.       SHE WILL BE A GREAT MOTHER.
4.       SHE IS FUNNY, QUIRKY AND ENTERTAINING.
5.       SHE IS SMART AND INSIGHTFUL.
6.       SHE IS BEAUTIFUL.  JUST BEAUTIFUL.
7.       SHE IS CREATIVE AND LOVES TO TRY & EXPERIMENT.
8.       SHE IS ALWAYS GOOD FOR A CRAZY, FUNNY STORY.
9.       SHE IS THE CHILD SHE WAS – SHY AND WORRIED, CRAZY AND FUNNY, ADVENTUROUS, WITH A SMART & FAST MIND.
10.   SHE IS NOT LIKE ANYONE ELSE.  AND THAT IS A GOOD THING.

Mom

 My younger sister, mom and me

Drinky Drinky!

I'm participating in this serial blog post from April Elizabeth .  What's that?  Today is Friday and not Thursday? Well its my birthday and I do what I want! :P


1. What is your favorite cocktail (or beer)?
I'm a beer girl.  My go-to drink of choice is Miller Lite, classy I know.  A light beer is easy, predictable and I know just how much I can drink before going off the deep end.  This talent was aquired from years of practice in college.  I wish I was a wine girl because it seems so much more sophisticated and classy, but I have a very sensitive stomach and wine usually makes my belly attack itself.  I do drink it from time to time though. My absolute favorite alcoholic drink of ALL time is Lindeman's Framboise.  It is a beer that is brewed from fruit--rasperries--rather than hops. Its pretty pricey and a case is well over $100. But try a bottle or glass of it sometime.  It tastes like liquefied fizzy raspberries that get you drunk. Heaven.

2. When is the first time you had a beer?
I was always allowed to taste sips of my dad's beer when I was little, but I guess that doesn't really count. The first time I really had my own beer was in college as a freshman.  It was at a typical house party and I was so cautious drinking it.  Every couple minutes I would think, "am I drunk??" but of course I wasn't.  The first time I was DRUNK was at a frat party when I was visiting friends at Penn State (of course, how stereotypical). I drank a couple of beers and was dancing and all of a sudden my legs didn't work anymore.  I think I actually fell to the ground and said I couldn't walk.  My boyfriend (husband, now) picked me up and set me up on a random schnasty couch until I regained my footing.  I kept freaking out because I thought I was going to die. Now looking back on it, I was just barely buzzed but unused to the feeling.

3. What is your funniest I was way too drunk story?
Sadly, there are too many, but here's one that pops into my head. My bachelorette party.  We went to a bar with a tiki hut theme.  Lots of grass huts over the booths, water falls and little pools everywhere.  The water was lit from below and was dyed blue.  At one point my friends were looking all over for me and finally found me in a hallway, drinking blue water out of the decorative waterfall.


4. How long ago did that story take place?
2 years ago

5. Tequila or Whiskey?
I don't really have a preference because I don't drink either that often.  I can't shoot either one straight.  I think I like the taste of whiskey better though

Stenciled Pillow Covers Part 1

I have been looking for new throw pillows for my sofa.  It's a pillow-back sofa, so its four giant pillows along the back and then two smaller ones on the sides.  Everything is beige, blech. I found a couple of cute smaller throw pillows at target for 9.99 (they are actually outdoor pillows and I will show them in a future post).  I still needed some bigger ones though.  I'm also super picky and when I have an idea of what I want something to look like, I can't settle until I found it. I wanted a geometric trellis kind of design.  So I decided to make my own pillow covers, and you can too. Here's what you need:

A stencil (this was from Joann and was $5)

Fabric paint and a sponge brush

You also need fabric.  The fabric I found was on clearance and is a thick canvas kind of material.  The thicker home decor fabric is a little more expensive than quilting fabric, but it holds up and will take the paint better.  Cut a square of fabric for the front of your pillow.  You can buy a pillow form at a craft store, or just cover an old pillow, like I'm doing.  My pillow was 18" square, so the fabric I cut was 18" square. My seam allowance will take up about 1/4 inch on each side, but I wanted to cover to be really firm.  The pillow that I'm covering is kind of flat. I'll be fluffing it up in the drier to perk it up a bit. 

To get my stencil perfectly centered, I placed the fabric square on a piece of cardboard (actually, the back of a drawing pad).  I lined the bottom of the fabric up with the bottom of the cardboard and eyeballed it to center it.  The stencil was five inches wide, so I measured up from the bottom of the cardboard 6.5 inches, made a mark, and then made a second mark up five more inches.  I repeated this on the other side.  Then I laid the stencil on the fabric so it fit between these marks. 

Then you can tape the stencil to the fabric to keep it from slipping.  You'll notice that some of the following pictures have little pieces of thin tape and other ones have giant strips of clear packing tape.  That's because I'm speshulllll and can't paint inside the lines.  If you're speshul like me, I suggest you use the big tape too.

So on the THIRD TRY, I finally did not get paint outside the stencil. Just use the sponge brush to dab paint straight up and down on the stencil.  Don't use strokes because the paint can get squished underneath the stencil.  I also had to hold the stencil nice and taught so it set against the fabric.

Then, pull the stencil off and voila . . .

Stay tuned for Part 2 when it becomes a magnificent throw pillow!

Quarter Century Year Recap

Today is April 15th, the last day of my 25th year on this earth. Tomorrow I will be 26, and officially heading out of my twenties. This year has been relatively calm and sweet, compared to the previous year which included getting married, moving in with my husband, quitting my job, etc. Here is a recap of my accomplishments at the age of 25:

1. Bought a house - We managed to save up enough money to put a good down payment on our townhouse. Our timing and good credit afforded us an incredible mortgage rate and our hard bargaining skills got us a great deal on the house. I L-O-V-E being a homeowner and have spent this year flexing my design and decorating muscles.


2. Adopted a puppy - We got Wilbur when we moved into our new house at the end of May. Neither of us had ever owned a dog before, so it was totally new to us. Somehow, we didn't screw him up. He is a great, smart dog who does his business in the yard and doesn't eat our furniture. Success!


3. My big career accomplishment last year was that I got published. This year, I got published and paid for it. In a real, print magazine. And I got paid at a pretty decent rate. I now have a somewhat regular contributing writer relationship with a magazine. Now if I could just get ten more similar jobs, I could actually make more money in a year than someone who makes license plates in jail . . .

4. Two new babies were born into our family. This is actually a slow year for my husband's family, who multiply like guppies. However, they make the most gorgeous children, so some pictures are mandatory:

Eva was born with nearly shoulder-length hair that is streaked with golden highlights. And her blue eyes decided to stick around. Lucas lives in GA so we don't get to see him much, but we are so excited to see him next weekend for him mom and dad's wedding! Why are 1/4 asian babies so so gorgeous? Can't wait to have a few of my own!

5. Went on an amazing week-long trip to the Outer Banks with twenty of our bestest friends. I arranged the whole vacation, finding an amazing HUGE house just steps from the beach. I know that pretty soon we'll have to grow up and have babies and stop binge drinking, but for one week we were able to be young, go through 30 cases of beer, have dance-offs, skinny dip, get sunburns, do shotguns at 11 am and stay up laughing until 6 am. I love these kids!






So yeah, it was a good year.

Presents!

So my birthday is on Friday, but my impatient ass begged and begged my husband for an early present. It's not that I wanted a surprise. I hate hate hate surprises. I knew what I was getting and I when I get something in my mind that I want, I have to have it NOW. Luckily, he complied :)

So without further ado, my new camera:


It is the Canon EOS Digital Rebel Xsi (450 D)

I had been pining for a DSLR for a while. A couple years ago I took a film photography class and loved it. I retained a bit of knowledge about aperture, ISO and film speed but it was bare bones. So I definitely consider myself a complete beginner. Besides, the camera I was working with then was my dad's Nikon from the 70's. Its funny how a good SLR camera can literally be used for decades. Using the digital SLR is kind of intimidating because of all the extra modes and settings. I'm trying to make myself stay out of the automatic modes so that I can really learn how to have complete control over my photos.

Here are a few pictures I have taken so far. Hopefully you will see some improvement as I learn to use it more!

On (lack of) Self-Control

Several weeks ago I bought a dress for my brother-in-law’s wedding, which happens to be in two weeks. I have a lot wedding related events coming up and I was uber-excited to buy a different dress for each one of the. Because, of course that is necessary. But I’m a reasonable girl and I knew that I had to stay within budget. The first dress I found was at TJ Maxx for $20 and will be perfect for my cousin’s wedding shower. Then I hit the jackpot at Ross, where they had a bunch of different Calvin Klein satin dresses for $50.

I love fitted dresses as opposed to flowy dresses made out of flimsy fabric. They look good on other girls, but not this one. I have rather large breastases and I like my dress to be able to smush them down and make them appear smaller or at least higher. I tried them on and OF COURSE I was between sizes. So I did what any self-respecting girl would do and I bought the smaller size and decided I would starve myself for the next several weeks.

Right.

When I KNOW that I have to control my eating in order to physically fit into something, I start playing mind games with myself. Where most people would panic and start a diet and exercise program similar to DJ’s in the episode of Full House when she passes out on the stationary bike, I do the opposite. I put it out of my mind until we are one week away and I physically can’t fit my leg into the dress.

Things were going great for a while. I was at the gym every day. I spun my heart out until I broke my ass and my knees. Then I got sick. My crazy bad cold kept me in bed for several days and generally feeling like crap for more than a week. I didn’t have an appetite, so I lost five pounds. BONUS! When I stared feeling better I decided I would just keep the same eating habits that I had when I was sick, which was like, eating a cracker and then sleeping for five hours. Didn’t work so much.

So not only had i gotten out of the habit of going to the gym, but my appetite also came back. Now I have gained back the five pounds plus three more. I look like I’m about three months pregnant. I think I should start posting weekly belly pictures.

But it’s not all my fault. Things just keep HAPPENING in my life that basically require me to eat massive amounts of food. Lets take this past weekend as an example.

Friday: We had something to do in our old college town, which is like one mile from downtown. We were there around rush hour, so instead of braving the traffic we decided to get dinner and wait for rush hour to be over. We went to an Italian restaurant and I had to get my favorite thing on the menu, herb chicken over penne in a marsala sauce. I think I looked it up one time and it was like, well over 1200 calories. Still too early to get on the road. Might as well go to Mad Mex for a drink. What’s that? Oh its happy hour? Oh, Big Azz margaritas are only $5? And they are 900 calories? Well . . . I can’t pass up a SALE.

Saturday: I had to work on a magazine article I’m writing. There is a section of my city that is a long strip of warehouses that sell stuff on the streets on the weekend. Really authentic Italian breads and meats, lots of asian grocers, Polish grocers, a giant fish market, etc. My job was to interview a bunch of the street vendors about what they sell. Of course, what kind of investigative reporter would I be if I didn’t actually sample the products that I was writing about? Which led to a lunch that consisted of (and in this order):

1. Gyro Meat

2. Canolli

3. Funnel Cake

4. Chicken on a stick

5. Pad Thai

6. Another Chicken on a Stick

7. Roasted Peanuts

8. Kettle corn

9. Falafel Sandwich

That night, I was still feeling the effects of my culinary trip around the world. I decided I would have a light salad for dinner. Then my friend called and said she was in town and she is the type of friend who will not speak to you for a year if you don’t drop your plans and see her when she is in town, without any warning. I decided I would just get a cup of soup and a water. I sort of stuck to this. It was clam chowder, which I’m sure was loaded with fat and calories and I added a ceasar salad. And the waiter asked if I wanted some grilled shrimp on my salad. What the F kind of question is that? Duh.

I rolled myself home and realized, oh shit, I have to go out to lunch with my best friend tomorrow. We have a tradition of going out for crab legs on each other’s birthday. And any other day of the year that we can justify it. Which led to Joe’s Crab shack, some bad decisions, and a pot the size of a camping cooler filled with a thousand crab legs, a million shrimp, corn, potatoes and some random sausage. We weren’t sure why the sausage was there, but I don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

Don’t judge me. I am now drinking green tea and water and eating only fruits and vegetables until the wedding in order to at least shed some water weight.*

*This will probably end up being a lie.

Uncategorized

Well it has been quite a while since I posted. I was having some reservations about posting because I wasn’t sure how I wanted this whole blog business to work out. I wanted some kind of central theme, whether it was home decorating and renovating, crafting, writing or something. People, I even considered the possibility of making a baby so that I could have a baby blog. For realz. But I’m not always in the mood to be crafty. And a lot of the time I can’t get the motivation to vacuum, let alone tackle a house project. And sometimes I want to get drunk, so pregnancy is out for the time being.

I guess I really don’t have an underlying theme to my life right now. So i’ll just stick with that for now, an uncategorized blog. Hopefully I can tell some funny stories, make some people laugh, organize my thoughts. It will be fun, I promise.