Names & Monograms

I love it when I look at a catalog like Pottery Barn and see my monogram on an item. I know it’s simply a random coincidence, but I feel like they’re showing me what things would look like when I order them with a big “C” on them. I also love it when I see my name on things in catalogs. Growing up, that never happened. You could find almost any girl name sifting through the racks in tourist spots but mine, so seeing my name on things now is sort of making up for it. Especially when I see this on a website’s front page:

It’s a cute white Christmas stocking with a ceramic name plate and, though I already have a beautiful stocking that was knitted for my first Christmas and emblazoned with my name (not kidding – it is r-e-d), I still have to crush the urge to order it. The site is however giving me lots of ideas for making a simple ornament or two to gift this Christmas. Besides, if I make the gifts, I can easily apply my own custom monograms!

New Year’s “resolutions”

I’ve decided I’m not making any resolutions for the year that involve unattainable goals but rather make changes in my life that will effect myself and others in a positive way.

In other news, Christmas brought me a camera, new kitchen gear and a cuttlebug – 2011 is going to be great! Happy New Year all!

Hermes

I love an eye catching advertisement. I love fashion. When the two meet? Ooh la la! This campaign from Hermes is swoon-worthy – so modern and hip and full of those classic orange boxes!

30 years later

I’ve been kind of fascinated with the Royal Family since my Mom pointed out the date similarities in our own families –  Di and Prince Charles were married a month before my parents and Prince William was born a month before me. So naturally with all these intersections (as a kid, mind you) I thought he and I would meet and have a good time laughing about the dates and see we were perfect for each other. (That little thing about me being an American is just a pesky afterthought we could surely cast aside! Edward VIII did it for Wallis Simpson …)

Riiiiiiight.

At least, with today’s announcement of their engagement, there will be a Royal my age who has sound fashion tastes (YES!!!!) and great style (Who made that gorgeous blue dress she’s wearing? It’s stunning!). Can’t wait to see her wedding gown … Maybe Joe and I should send them a sample of our work! London would be so much fun!

Over it

I’ve been out of commission for the past few days (third time I’ve been sidelined by a sinus infection this summer) and haven’t wanted to get off the couch and blog. You can deal.

There is a lot of stuff I need to catch up on but for time being, I’m watching my Bobcats be crushed by a bunch of OSU nuts … As I write, the band has begun to play Carmina Burana. As if I cued them. Great.

Til tomorrow, when I can actually get time together and write a proper post, I leave you with this video, shared by my high school friend Stan.

They have more available at upandoverit.com

My first golf outing

In just 2 weeks time I will be taking my first hack swing at a golf course. And I’m a little nervous. I’ve been to a driving range and I’ve even been on a par 3 – though that was a true life experience, let’s just say I let a lot of people play through – but this is my company’s annual golf outing and, having just acquired my first full set of clubs this summer, I’m not exactly green-friendly.

I figure that this outing will be good because, while I won’t have to pay the green fee, I’ll be out with a lot of people who regularly play golf and they may offer a pointer or three. I’m not going to pretend that I’m anything but a novice, so I may get relegated to driving the golf cart earlier than expected, but I’m going to have fun.

I do have to go and buy a few golf balls and tees, which could be an interesting experience on its own … Though, from what I understand, it’s the end of golf season shopping which sounds just like my annual spring shopping trip for clearance-priced winter boots. Discount!

Game Time

I may have grown up in a different state and cheered for a different professional football team, but we still had the same crazy fans that the Steelers seem to attract,  which is why it boggles my mind to see this happen during a game:

See the people? They’re walking AWAY from the stadium. AWAY. From the STADIUM. Where the game they were attending was STILL happening.* OT had only just begun and the score was 9-9 after both the Steelers and the Falcons had scored 3 field goals a piece (btw: what a weird way to score for the whole game) so you knew there had to be more to come – and these people left!

One of my biggest pet peeves is fans leaving the game stadium early. First of all – you were stuck in traffic on your way to the game, so what’s the big rush to beat the traffic home? Seriously!

Second – you paid for the ticket – Stay. You never know what might happen – you could miss the greatest TD run of all time or an incredible triple play or a game comeback likely never to be repeated. Sit your butt back down and wait til the time clock runs out.

I stayed for the entirety of the Pirates/Brewers game on April 22, 2010 and saw the Pirates get smacked down in a 20-0 loss; the most historic loss in the 124-year history of the franchise – but it ended up being one of the funniest days of my life. And the coolest part is that I was there. Ok. Yes, they would have still lost if I had left (I’m not one to put too much stock in team Karma like that) but I got to see the whole thing – something I can claim in my story whenever I tell it (which isn’t often because who wants to be known as ‘that pirates fan’).

Point of the whole story: All those people who walked by my office before the game ended and didn’t get to see Mendenhall’s run are forevermore listed as fair-weather fans in my book. Even though I don’t actually know their names.

*If this group of people did not actually attend the game and merely tailgated with the desire to walk home before the fan-traffic began, then my apologies … But I find it extremely difficult to believe that all those who walked past my office window before Mendenhall ran 50 game winning yards in OT to beat the Falcons were not ticket holders for the game.

H(tm)ell

Misery

I give up. I have no idea why I can’t post YouTube videos and actually make them visible in blog posts read on any computer other than mine.

I don’t know why WordPress’s HTML coding will not allow me to include or exclude certain images from galleries.

I have tried everything I can think of and nothing works. If you have any idea and would like to attempt to help me save my sanity, please, leave a comment.

Project time

A couple weeks ago my Mom and I made a trip down to Ikea and were looking for a cabinet for my living room. We’ve been on the hunt ever since I got my new desk last October (the arrival of the desk started a domino effect of furniture moving room to room within my place … which I’ll post about later)

The trip was good; We found a modular piece-it-yourself cabinet that would work but I wasn’t too keen on the doors. I figured, though, that with the amount of storage it would provide I could get over the doors not being quite what I wanted. The price being more than I was ready to pay (windshield wiper fiasco wiped me out there for a bit), I figured out the pieces I would need to make my return trip a quick one … but my Mom had other ideas.

The Cabinet

She thought a second hand chest of drawers would be best (she did not like the Ikea idea at all … even after I showed her my out-of-season bedding situation) for both price and style and, though she didn’t find anything on her own, we found a great solid wood cabinet when we went out last weekend.

I already mentioned the cake and pie carrier I found, but my Mom found this tall dresser while we were waiting for a chair she had previously bought to be loaded into her car.

I’ll admit, the fact that it had a $39 price tag on it was a lot more tempting than the Ikea solution, but it needs a lot of work. And I was really wanting furniture that was ready to go. But I argued the missing handle on the left door was worth at least $10 bucks off. For $29 this Sherrill Furniture dresser is mine!

This cabinet is huge – just under 4 feet wide and a shade over 5 feet tall – and it is heavy as hell. Somehow, with the help of the guys who worked at the store, we got it on top of my Mom’s car … but I had no idea how, without the 2 guys and the loading ramp, we were going to get it off the car and up the stairs into my second floor apartment.

Only a hope and a prayer are getting this thing down

It's in!

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Don’t ask how, but we finally got the cabinet untied and into my apartment, albeit upside down, but the key is: it’s in my apartment.

After a lot of scrubbing with some diluted Mr. Clean, the piece looks pretty good. It could use a sanding and I’d like to paint it, but the reviews on that are mixed: My Mom thinks I should go for it and make it a really cool painted cabinet … but the wood is pretty nice and could just as easily be cleaned up and restored. Decisions, decisions!

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Here’s a look at a few other pics:

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