Month of Sighs

This month has been cuh-razy so far. Between turning 27 (sheesh), graduating nursing school (holy crap), procuring a nursing job (HOLY AWESOME AND SCARY), and writing a speech for our nursing school graduation (sweaty palms anyone?), I have had a lot on my mind.

On top of all that, my dad has been nice enough to spend a couple days at our house, putting up some finishing touches that have been a long time coming - HELLO CROWN MOLDING IN THE KITCHEN!!! Soooo, super awesome, but super stressful too. AND it's freaking cold here in NC, which makes my fingers le cold and stiff. AND the cold makes it impossible to spray paint my awesome brass chandelier I got at the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store for $10... hmmm.

Anyways, just wanted to say hi to everyone out there, and say that I am still here - really stressed and happy for my pharmaceutical assistance - but still here. And really happy that nursing school is alllllllmost over.

I shall try to update more often - especially over the next month as all I do is eat, sleep, study for the NCLEX and work at the restaurant.

MUAH!

Well I WAS on a Roll...

And then I got distracted. It happens.

I HAVE been doing a lot of stuff around the house - but in the last month school started back and the weather started to get nice and Labor Day happened and I started my new schedule at work and yesh. So I've been doing stuff, just not blogging about it - which is actually what most of the world does. Hmmm.

Sooooo here are some random what-I've-been-doing-for-the-last-month pictures. More soon. Promise. =)

My Homemade Jewlery Organizer, a la Centsational Girl:


FINALLY a place to put out back door and shed keys...
FINALLY a curtain in the full bath (now I just need to add a blue ribbon border...)
I spray painted the then-black shelves a crisp white! AND we got a great rug at Ikea for $20! (the gray one under the kitchen table)
We FINALLY put all the closet doors back on (after repainting and spraying the handles oil-rubbed bronze), except mine - I requested flowy curtains since I can walk into my closet. ALSO see the Dwell Studio rug in the hall? Target. Clearance. $40. What what!
I modge-podged a curtain scrap onto the light switch, after I repainted the dining room (after caulking ALL of the wood paneling)...

I FINALLY finished my book page wreath - a la Living With Lindsay- and hung it in the family room.
I STARTED painting the brick out in the sunroom - eventually this will be my reading room!
Even M got in on the craft action - he made an Arsenal decal for his car!
Whew. I TOLD you I was busy...

Bathroom Blues

We are trying to renovate BOTH our bathrooms (one fully, one just paint and fixture fixin) before my inlaws get here in A WEEK.

Sigh. You can imagine that I hate my life just a little bit right now. Memorial Day weekend was full of trips to Home Depot...I think that between M and me, we made about 9 trips over three days - NOT EXAGGERATING PEOPLE. So. Instead of being blue about the fact that I can't find a paint color that goes with the ugly beige and brown tile in my full bath, I'll watch this video over and over:



That's right people. I'm going to be POSITIVE. Sigh.

Keepin' it Short and Simple

That was my theme at work tonight. On another note, I have a TON OF SHIT TO DO, so this post shall be VERY SHORT.

I just bought "Hello" on iTunes...the GLEE version. =) I know Cory Monteith is super cute and all, and I know Jonathan Groff's character is all skeezy...but I LAV HIM. sighhhhh. I also bought the GLEE version of "Like a Prayer." Bitchin.

Our friends had their baby and she is the sweetest thing I have EVER SEEN.

Our kitchen cart is DONE AND LOOKS AWESOME (pics to come).

Love y'all, but I gotta go...
(I wish I was here!!)

The Kitchen - Before

Ho-kay. I wanted to write about the kitchen when it was COMPLETELY DONE, but I have the feeling that it will never really be done. At least, not until I have a bajillion dollars. BUT, our widdle kitchen has come a very long way since we moved in. And I have the photos to prove it. Tomorrow I'll take some photos of how the kitchen currently looks, but for now let's reminisce about where we started.


What up 1960's - knotty pine cabinets, black barnyard handles, big-ass brown stove, rainbow tile and GREEN counter tops. Awesomeness personified.


Yes, I said rainbow tile. These people were not messing around in the 70s (trim throughout the house had also been included in the rainbow theme).


And, YES - that is an original 1960s (I think that's the right decade) BIG ASS STOVE. Like, ridiculously large and ugly and big and gross. I realize some people LOVE these things, but I am not one of those people. I am not nearly hipster enough for that stove. It HAD to go. Immediately. Sorry for the fuzzy picture - I was probably shaking with confusion/disgust.


Let's look closer at the cabinets, counters and floor, shall we? Hmmm, maybe not tooooo close - cause they are le ugly. Unfortunately, we still have the counters and floor...but we're hoping to lay tile in the next 6 months. It's the same linoleum my parents have in their BATHROOM, only this linoleum has a slight greenish tint to it - maybe to complement the counters? Anyways...the counters aren't SO bad since we painted the cabinets and walls...they'll do for now.


All of the kitchen drawers and cabinets has this loverly primary color graph-like contact paper inside - M and I spent a whole night de-contacting every freaking surface. There was paper EVERYWHERE. It was a pain to take out too. I realize it's a fast and easy way to cover up grossness (I did it in our bathroom when we moved in - after I cleaned and gagged), but come on - a primary colors graph pattern? Sheesh.


On the other side of the kitchen, next to the dining room, is a built-in wine rack. In knotty pine. And it's somewhat off - they should have just stuck with the 5 lower holes and skipped the top two - they don't really line up. OH WELL. At least it's a nice pantry with a lot of space!


Across from the pantry/wine rack was a giant island. GIANT as in about 4 feet tall and 5 feet long. So long that there was only about 2.5 feet between the island and the fridge. Don't ask me. ANYWAYS, I couldn't find an intact-island-picture. Mostly because as soon as we bought the house we ripped it out. =) But here you can get an idea of the island's largeness.


Soooo lastly, let's look above the kitchen sink. Yes. That is a scalloped wooden border thing (and FREAKING GREEN MINI BLINDS). And OH HOW I HATED IT. I begged M from day ONE to knock it out...because for some reason I just couldn't stand the thing. The day I came home and the scallops were no more was a very awesome day. VERY.


And what, pray tell, is hiding BEHIND the scalloped wooden thingie??? An ugly light. Of course.

Anyways - that is what our kitchen looked like when we moved in. How I ever convinced M to buy this house when the kitchen looked like that is a testament to my persuasive prowess. "During" and "After" pictures to come soon!!

SuperSweetness

Awesomest news ever – my Adult Health test is now next WEDNESDAY instead of next MONDAY. I’m not quite sure that you can really understand the awesomeness of this schedule change until you know what this week looks like for me…

Monday – class in the morning, work at 5

Tuesday – work at 11

Wednesday – class in the morning

Thursday – OFF (so, studying all freaking day…)

Friday – work all day long

Saturday – work at 5

Sunday – work from 9 to 4ish, then Easter dinner at my aunt’s house

So yesh. I am VERY excited about this widdle schedule change. I need that extra 2 days to study, since this test consistently produces the worst class average. woot woot!

On another note, I had a loverly dream last night that involved going on a date with Robert Pattinson. I’m not quite sure what the date entailed, but it was kinda like he was the same person as one of my college boyfriends, and M was totally OK with the whole thing (since I was asking him for dating advice in the dream…). Anyways. There was no biting-of-the-neck (sadness) and a lot of lusting-general-wanting. I don’t have these types of dreams often, so I wonder what in my subconscious spurred it on. Perhaps it’s the fact that I watched New Moon the other night. Sighhhhh. I love those damn books.

PS – WE GOT OUR KITCHEN CART. The only problem is that I really don’t have time to clean and prime the thing. Maybe I’ll do it on my day off when the weather is supposed to be nice. I can sand and prime and have a loverly time. And THEN I promise to post pictures of my kitchen. Maybe I’ll post the before pictures later tomorrow…

‘Till then, talk to you latah dahlings.

Wishful Thinking

Here are a couple things that I would LOVE to blog about, if I didn't have paperwork for TWO patients staring me down from the living room.

- How I read Traveling With Pomegranates and how it made me want to take a trip with my mom (and how jealous I was that they got to travel internationally SEVERAL times in a few years).

- How I'm now reading Then We Came to the End and can pull MULTIPLE quotes that refer back to the time just before my layoff. Like, "Both were good stories and together they killed a good hour. Some of us loved killing a good hour of the company's time and others felt guilty for it afterward. But whatever your personal feelings on the matter, you still had to account for the hour, so you billed it to a client." So freaking true. So far, the book is scarily accurate.

- I really, really, REALLY want to post another before and after about the house - this time about the KITCHEN which isn't completely finished, but it's PAINTED THANK GOD.

- OOOH and then there is the fact that I got to do a make-up run-through with my friend that's getting married this weekend. I think in another life I was a makeup artist.

However, I will stop blogging and get to work. Only 4 clinical days left this semester!!! Then on to babies and mothers and kids!!! YAAAAAAAY!!!

I should be studying...

But instead, I've been sucked into the DIY zone - a place where you envision making your house homier on a super-budget. And I'm in love with this website - The DIY Show Off - where peeps come to... umm... show off thier WONDERFUL projects. That site, along with Martha Stewart's web site, is the reason why I probably won't do well on my test tomorrow. Oh well. At least I have plans for the house...you know, for all my spare time. (insert eye roll here)

Soooo, I'm going to make this for Deacon's poopy bags! (aka plastic grocery bags...) Isn't it pretty?
And this post at Decorating Obsessed gave me hope for finding a cheap buffet that we can fix up on the cheap:

Everybody now: OOOOOOHHHH AHHHHHHH. I am totally headed to Goodwill ReStore this week...

Lastly - this project is PERFECT FOR MY FIREPLACE. Which currently looks like this:
But following the blogger at Storybook Ranch, I COULD get it to look like THIS:
I COULD go on about how I want to spray paint the toilet-paper and soap cubbyholes in the bathroom to make them look oil-rubbed bronze, or how I'm going to paint the tile in there so it doesn't look like 1965 exploded... but that's for another day. I REALLY need to get back to studying...congestive heart failure isn't as glam at DIY, but I am in nursing school. Sigh.

A Brief Glimpse of Spring

It is January 19th and there are birds chirping outside my window - quite loudly, actually. My windows are open and my fingers are only a wee bit cold (they are ALWAYS cold...unless it's mid-July, and then they swell). Sigh. This is why I love living in the South. Please feel free to remind me of that when it's July and 98 degrees with 90% humidity. Anyways. It's been about two weeks since I last blogged, and I think it's because we have done so much CRAP around here, and school started back and we had to take Christmas stuff down - YOU know. The reasons why January always flies by and then you're freaked out because Valentines Day candy is at the grocery store.

Oh well. I intend to make it up to you with lots of PICTURES. They are RANDOM, but so am I. So deal with it. K. First up - our bathroom ceiling is chipping. And not just a few widdle chips here or there. It's chipping EVERYWHERE AND I WANT TO SCREAM. It's actually chipped SO much in one place (Yes, I know I could make this a bit better by not taking scalding showers, but then what would the point of the shower be??? Hmmm?) that the giant chip is about to fall off. I took a picture for posterity.

Mom says not to worry, that the idiots who previously owned our home just painted without priming and probably painted with regular old paint (instead of that brand new stuff that is made for bathrooms), so it'll be fine. But it is still annoying. Actually, the whole bathroom is REALLY frustrating. Young House Love just renovated their bathroom (which, once again, is creepily similar to ours) and it's GORGEOUS - see here. Can they come do that here? They did all that for under two grand. Sheesh.

On another note - I want this buffet from Overstock.com. It's so preeeeeetty. It would be lovely in my dining room.

OOOH and I bought TWO pairs of shoes for under $50 at Off Broadway shoes - thanks to a birthday gift certificate from my in-laws. Thanks M & E!! Take a look at one of the pairs... S says that this picture looks like the cover of a romance novel. I agree.

Hmm. Things have been going on that don't have pictures: M is insulating under ALL the hardwood floors (God bless him), M insulated the pull down door to the attic and the front door (you could actually see light under the threshold before he started - and it was 15 degrees outside), I have read 5 books already this year, and I almost set the kitchen on fire last weekend. Yep. I was going to make tea, and turned on the wrong burner. The burner I DID turn on had a towel on it. Yup. Thankfully no lasting damage was done to the house or the stove. Sigh. So Yesh. More to come about school and stuff, but my fingers are starting to get chilled. =)

1-2-3

(either The Jackson 5 or Britney Spears - your choice)

1 - It's freezing in my house, but I don't want to turn the heat any higher. I can hear my dad in the back of my head saying, "Put on a sweater!" Well, I already HAVE a sweater on (dad), but I guess I'll go find my robe. My dad's frugal gene is waaayyyy to deep for me to try and chunk it out of my genetic makeup.

2 - I had my second clinical evaluation today - this time with my new fave instructor. She was pleased with my progress, and thought that I was doing critical thinking with the information that I DID have (there is still SO MUCH more to learn...). One thing though - her last sentence of the evaluation said something to the tune of how it wasn't required in clinical for me to be so perky, and that I needed to learn that it's OK to cry with patients. I was like, ummmm can we talk about this?? It's funny because I was a cheerleader for one year in high school and I hated it - I hated this spirit fingers and the happy-joy-joy look we were expected to have. I am usually a sarcastic, semi-mean person who keeps it all candy coated. However, it seems that in clinical I'm PILING on the candy-coating, in order for the patient to feel better and/or for me to bury my emotional side. Then, I usually come home and disintegrate into a million pieces over something little. Welllll, let's just say that my clinical instructor was supportive and understood, but encouraged me to get it out throughout the day and not let it build. Sigh. I'm working on it.

3 - Mike has installed the hardware on the kitchen cabinets and has all of the bottom ones installed!!!! They look SO LOVELY - SEE??? As a reminder, this is what it looked like when we bought the house:
I'm so excited. Now if only we could get the rest installed, paint the walls, install the wainscoting, lay down new floor, replace the mini-blinds, and install the light over the sink... we would be in business!

Wishing, and hoping, and praying...

Sometimes I wish I was better at certain things - not philosophical things or mental things - but hnadys dirty get in the mud and fix it things.

Like my care stereo. M's friend left a stereo in M's trunk more than a year ago. And I finally went out and bought the adapter kit so we can pimp out my '92 Honda - and by pimp out I mean I'll finally get a CD player (I haven't had one since the 10-disc changer it came with konked out 5 years ago).

BUT I don't know how to change out the radio/stereo/thingie. Yes thingie. That attests to my utter ignorance right there. I have googled this multiple times, but I'm terrified. I could just get M to do it - but he doesn't get home until it's dark, and I have to work tonight and I'll be taking my car, and then he'll leave for work tomorrow and SUDDENLY it's Thanksgiving and I have to drive to the parent's house with just the radio to keep me company. Sigh.

It's other mechanical-ish things too. Like my washer is making a weird gurgling sound. And I want to install the new light we got for over the kitchen sink. OH and there is a KITCHEN SINK IN MY TRUNK that needs to go where the current sink is residing. But alas, I need the beefcake (aka M) for all this shit. And it annoys me a LOT.

Because what if I wasn't married? What if M didn't know how to do all this stuff? I would be out in the COLD sistah-friend. So the solution? JUST DO IT, right? Well, I would ... but I am REALLY Type A and I don't like messing things up - and how crappy would it be that we have all this cool stuff and due to my impatience it gets all messed up??? Not cool.

So yeah. Back to square one, right?

I WANT THAT FAUCET!

Just a quickie- 'cause I am supposed to be studying...

One Project Closer is doing a BITCHIN' giveaway... and I want to win!

Check out the nifty faucets they are giving away, but DON'T ENTER UNLESS YOU WANT TO WIN AND GIVE THE FAUCET TO MEEEEEE!

-Love, a crazy tired-of-studying Dani

Our First Taste of Yard Work

Hmm. It started with pulling a few dead pieces off a plant... and turned into us thinning out the main front yard island AND the "island" that runs along the wall we share with our neighbor. Sheesh.

Forty-five minutes later, we had filled an entire trash can with yard waste and I was no longer chilly. I have one cut and multiple mosquito bites. I HAVE seen multiple spiders, NUMEROUS mosquitoes (when do those freaking things DIE already?), a wasp nest and a tiny brown snake. Woot woot!

It was actually fun - but don't tell M that or he might make it my permanent job! Also, no raking was involved...which is why it was fun. I hate raking. Blah. And with our neighbor's bajillion-year-old Pin Oak tree next door, we have enough leaves to rake all winter long. (That same tree has caused many, many tiny Pin Oak trees to pop up in our yard too - some of which we can't pull up by hand since the roots are already so freaking deep!)

Anyways, back to reading about intercranial pressure - but that was a nice break. And our front yard looks a wee bit more civilized. =)

Our Widdle House: Part Two

The peeps that formerly occupied our house enjoyed beautiful mossy green carpet, which we ripped up. Instead of extending the carpet across the whole floor, they only carpeted to the bricks on the floor (in front of the fireplace). In order to keep the pretty green scheme going, they actually painted the brick on the floor ... to match the carpet. Yes. painted it green. Isn't it pretty? Well, needless to say, I really hated that green brick and wanted to paint it white. We had ripped up the metal that connected the carpet and brick when we ripped up the carpet, so at least that was out of the way.
All I had to do was prime and paint...right? Yeah. DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY WIDDLE GROOVES ARE IN BRICK? Of course you do, you aren't retarded like me. I thought it would be soothing, sitting on the floor and painting. It actually was a pain in the ass. Getting the brick covered was really difficult - it took two coats of primer and then two coats of oil-based paint of death. All those little grooves were GREEN, so they had to be covered well. Meh. But doesn't it look pretty? (Eventually the fireplace will be replaced with something loverly...but for now, it stays.)Here it is up close, with one of my mom's housewarming presents. =)
I heart Jane Austen...and zombies. More to come (including our NEW STOVE) lata! But I guess I need to study some today. ::pout::

Meh Meh Meh

Soooooooooooooo sorry I haven't posted in a bit - but I got a nasty cold after a very busy weekend and now I'm nearly at the weekend again. So, random thoughts are all you get.

- M bought a spray-painter thing to paint all the cabinets. I am intrigued/scared and I do NOT want to know how much he paid for it.
- Umm DOORKNOBS ARE EXPENSIVE. Ok, not ALL of them, but the pretty ones I LOVE are. ::pout::
- My patient for tomorrow is absolutely terrifying. And it's my fault (I told my instructor that it was hard for my to do my care map when the patient really didn't need anything. I AM AN IDIOT.)!
- Are you watching GLEE? YOU BETTER - it's freaking AWESOME.
- Does anyone have good advice on how to hang heavy pictures that have TWO hooks on the back? I can't ever get them to line up straight...

K. That's all I have for now... off to do patient paperwork and take another cold pill. SIGH.

Our Widdle House, Part One of One Billion

So. M and I bought a house. Our first house. We thought, "Hey! Let's get a house that we can work on, and make it just like we want..." Ha. HAHAHAHA. Hrumph. Anyway, for those of you who have NOT seen it, this is it - our KUH-UTE widdle 1950's ranch house. It's in an older neighborhood, with mature trees and nice neighbors. The neighborhood is fairly close to the city, so we're close to M's job and the hospital...for when I EVER graduate nursing school. So...umm, I'm kind of intimidated to start this whole "documenting the house" process, so I'll start with the hardwood floors. And who KNOWS where we'll go from there? Here are some of the "BEFORE" pictures that everyone just loves to see. Just so all of you can see what we were dealing with. Fancy older hardwood floors, under WONDERFUL moss green carpet. The floors are about 50 years old, so that lovely orange-y color was from old polyurethane (says my dad). Soooo we ripped up all the carpets (which included three million staples and carpet tacks...)
...and found only ONE spot of damage - along a wall that has the bathtub directly on the other side.
Not too bad really. We hand-pulled all the nails and staples, and let the refinishers get to work (there was NO way that we were going to do this ourselves. My dad thought we could do it...but M and I decided to leave it up to the professionals...this time at least.

So, after only one day of refinishing the floors, the damaged portion of the floor looked like this:
Pretty! At the beginning of the second day we were forced to make a stain decision.

I HATE decisions. Sigh. We went with a middle brown color, although my heart pines for dark espresso. We have a cat that LOVES to shed, and light gray cat hair + espresso floors = CRAZY D from cleaning ALL the time. So yesh, middle brown it was.

Finally, Day Three Arrived.
SO PRETTY. I can't begin to explain how pretty the floors are. I also cannot begin to tell you how the house STILL smells from paint and polyurethane and blah blah blah. The point is, the floors looked great. Which was a good thing. Because as much as I spazzed about that stain color, IT BETTER LOOK FREAKING GREAT.

Whew. That was a lot of typing/picture editing/editing in general. I don't know HOW those Young House Love kids DO IT. However, I'm happy to share just a piece of this crazy process with all of you. More to come!

Seeeee Youuuu in Septeeeeembeeerrrr...

YAY September! I love this month. The weather is always SO NICE (although, to be fair to NC, this summer hasn't been as hellacious as normal.) and college football is back - ok, so I don't care about THE GAME as much as the TAILGATING. But whatever.

Also. In only 3 short months NEW MOON will be in theaters. Oh yes. I am not ashamed that on today, my first day of Internet access in WEEKS, I spent a good amount of time on the New Moon official movie site and www.newmoonmovie.org/, a sort of Perez Hilton for only New Moon - DO YOU HEAR THAT AUNT K?? Tell UNCLE M!!! Hahahaha.

Anyways, last note on New Moon - I thought this quote from New Moon director Chris Weitz was very funny, "We have to have this very fine balance between having too much and too little Edward. If you have too much Edward, it will be a terrible thing because you want the audience to experience that longing as well, and if you have too little Edward…I’ll be hunted down and killed."

Very True.

On the HOUSE front - I am currently painting the front door. woot! It's actually more exciting than it seems, and I am surprised that I'm still excited to paint after our painting BINGE that first week. It's wearing off quickly though - my hand hurts from gripping the brush! I swear I'll post more pictures soon, and more info about our oven-shopping experience, why our neighbor PROBABLY thinks we're alcoholics, and more fun tales from home-ownership-land.

TaTa!

I WON!

I read a very cool blog called Young House Love - where a young couple, very much like M and I, fix up their older brick ranch house, very much like M and I! I have found ALL sorts of ideas and inspiration from their site, and it's a much-loved part of my Google reader.

John and Sherry of Young House Love do a "Fab Freebie" about once a week, and I've entered about six ... and I WON the last one!!! They were giving away a set of four crystal drinking glasses from the Mikasa Cheers Too line - SUPER CUTE.

All we had to do was leave a comment, starting with "I'll drink to that" and telling about the best toast you have ever given/heard. This is what I left:

"Comment by Dani on August 24, 2009 @ 3:49 pm

I’ll drink to that!

The best toast ever was one that my husband did at my friend’s wedding – he told the ENTIRE room that he met these two girls training at a restaurant (me and my friend), and he really liked one…but since she went home for the summer, he was stuck with the other one…and MARRIED HER (therefore … me!).

The whole room (me included) cracked up. =)"

Yay for my winning entry! All that was left was to pick the type of glasses I wanted - white wine, double old-fashioned or highball. After MUCH deliberation, M and I picked these - super cute right?? Yay housewarming present for us!!!

Paint colors are the devil.

Ummm I never knew that taupe could have so many freaking variations. One does NOT expect this shit when you sign up for house-painting. we decided on a gray - see below - FAR LEFT (PS - the walls look WAY PINK in this picture. I SWEAR it looks a lot more GRAY GRAY in real life. Sigh.). However, the tan that we want to put throughout the house is eluding me. Right now we are leaning toward the one on the left - but it looks to freaking GRAY in this picture. We just painted some on moving boxes here at the apt in order to put the color next to the couch and bed, and they both look fine...and neither is gray. Sigh. Blast you natural vs. artificial light!
Also, in this picture the WALLS look Gray. Sighhhhhhhhhhhh. I guess we'll just GO with it...right???

I hate making decisions!!!

Floors

I think that leaving my house in the hands of floor refinishers is kind of like how I'll feel when I leave my newborn with a babysitter for the first time.

Ugh.

One another note, HAPPY 22nd BIRTHDAY LITTLE BRO!