Work in Progress

For the past few weeks, I have been preparing (in my head) my new "hobby room". I'm so excited about it, but I need my other party (Brian) to get on the same track. We have a 4th bedroom upstairs that Brian was supposed to use for his "Man Room". I think I have seen him use it once, so we have agreed that he will get to take over the entire basement and I am going to take over his Man Room.

I origianlly wanted to make the 4th bedroom another guest room. We inherited some really nice wood twin bed frames from his grandmother (I hope she's not jinxing me to have twins) but Brian was pretty firm that he didn't want 3 guest bedrooms. So the beds are in my storage room waiting with the rest of my furniture that won't be used until we get a bigger house (Does anyone else hoard furniture in hopes that one day it can be used?)

So I think this is going to be the weekend that I start the beginning process of my hobby room. After reading this blog, I am pretty motivated!

Under The Table and Dreaming has turned into one of my favorite blogs! This woman means business when it comes to DIY projects. Check out her workshop!

So these are some pictures of the 4th bedroom as we speak... as you can see it is basically our junk room (I'm a lil embarassed to even post these but keep in mind all the other rooms were 20 times worse then this when I moved in, I actually helped junk this one up). The mirror on the right is going to go in the nice living room as soon as I can finally convince Brian to hang it up. It is super heavy and I hope it doesn't tear the walls down!
Some plants we inherited from my dads big move that we have NO ROOM for and the kitty has completely knocked them over. You can tell we are in a really big rush to pick them up (actually when I do finally pick them up, they will be going straight to the compost). I have big ideas for that blue chair in the back - I've been looking around for just the right fabric for it, I can't wait to get it covered but unfortunatley it won't be getting done anytime soon.

Now you can see all the work I have to do to make this a rockin hobby room!
In the meantime, this post is TO BE CONTINUED...

I couldn't resist

So this is supposed to be what Brian and my kid will look like:




It worries me a little that you can't tell if this is a boy or girl...and I really think that my dominant dark hair is going to be inherited to our child.

Wanna try it?

A Munchkin What???

I'm going to start this post out by telling you that this is going to be my last post that I write about cats... atleast for a little while. See, told you I have turned into the crazy cat lady.

Well I just wrote about the dining room table I saw on Craigslist and have to share our visit to check the table out. The girl selling the table was around my age and really really nice, but while she was talking to us, I kept hearing the loudest cat meowing. I asked her if in fact it was a cat and that I didn't mind if she let him out of the locked room.

When the cat came runnnig out of the room my mouth dropped and the first thing I could ask was "What is that???"

"It's a munchkin cat, a certain breed of cats" replied the seller.

I quickly became more fascinated with the cat than the dining room table. Have you ever seen a munchkin cat?? Her cat, Felix, looked a lot like this.

It kind of reminded me of a weiner dog. And she was telling us something along the lines of how this breed of cats really likes to play fetch. She tried to demonstrate but Felix got a little shy.


I'm almost contemplating getting a Munchkin cat. What do you think?

My New Favorite App

I've never met anyone so obsessed with Craigslist than Brian. I don't think I even knew what it was until we started dating. Brian checks Craigslist as much as I check my email and Facebook (I'm slowly backing down from Facebook, bout time too).

Now he's made some really good purchases (example our TV, bathroom cabinet) and some REALLY bad purchases (the couches, Halloween decorations that he was really trying to be sweet about but totally got ripped off).

I have not made my first Craigslist purchase yet, I came really close to getting this dining room table But it turned out that the table photographed a lot better than it actually looked. Oh well.

One thing I do not like about Craigslist is that if you go to look at something, you feel more inclined to buy it. And we usually end up buying it too. I've tried to come up with body language signs to let one another know we either need to walk away or totally go for it, however, Brian hasn't 100% agreed to cooperate with this...yet. In fact, I was really proud that we DID walk away from the dining room table.

And Craigslist takes up a lot of time too. But now I have a new app for my phone that makes it so much easier to scroll through Craigslist. And it is free!!

The CraigsPro Application let's you narrow down what you are looking for.
For instance, I have my settings only to show me post with pictures and post by sellers only, no dealers. And it shows me the picture as I'm scrolling down.

This has definitely turned into my new way of killing some time.
So I'm still waiting for that special piece to pop up on my CraigsPro but until then, this app definitely makes Craigslist a lot more enjoyable.
Happy Hunting.

Happy Earth Day!

Ok - so I'm a day late, but I ran out of time yesterday.
I LOVE RECYCLING! I love the color green and I try really hard to live green! And a lot of time living green means spending less green ;) (my big pun of greens).

I am an avid recycler - When I was younger, I would get a pen and paper and sit under the bathroom cabinets and write everything in their that had the recycle symbol on the bottom, that way my parents would know what could be recycled (I prob didn't have very many friends at the time either). It's funny cause I've always made list. Brian was just commenting the other day on all my little notebooks I have for everything. I'm a journalism major, all those ideas in my head need to be on paper!

Ok, back to recycling. When I moved in the townhouse, their was no mechanism for recycling - sad. That was probably my first big change I brought to the townhouse. I called the city and ordered a new Rosie (Recycling bin). Brian had an older rosie that he used to pile trash in so he could just roll it down to the dumpster when it was full. Oh boys. Brian is definitely better at recycling than he used to be, but I still pick stuff out of the trash that should be put in the recycle bin.

It's kind of a pet peeve of mine, but it bugs me when I see stuff in other people's recycle bins that I know can't actually be recycled. It's hard for me, but I do keep my mouth shut about it. Lexington is not capable yet of recycling boxes that contain refrigerated items like coke boxes and microwave dinner boxes. We also can't recycle Styrofoam - hopefully one day!

I really wanted to cut back on the amount of trash we were producing so I started looking into composting. Brian immediately said NO; it would attract animals and I wouldn't keep up with it etc... do you think that stopped me?? I had also just read that the city was giving out free compost bins that they had made out of the old trash bins. So I went and picked one up on my lunch break one day
This is behind our fence so when we are dining outside, we don't have to see it. We've been composting for almost a year now and we love it (and I get to hear Brian say "you were right about composting"). We have totally cut back on our trash and we were able to use our composted dirt for our new garden (pictures to come later). I have a little silver compost trash bin that stays under the kitchen sink and I just take it out every few days. We've had no problems with animals - in fact our neighbors help out and add their scraps to it as well.

I really want to spray paint the compost bin but not sure what color will help it, any suggestions???

Brian went to the grocery this week and came back with Sun Chips IN A COMPOSTABLE BAG!! I was so happy to see him thinking green! And Sun Chips has my business, I hope the trend catches on.

Composting is really starting to catch on, I just saw this on one of my favorite blogs this week.

Check out Life in the Fun Lane's DIY Compost Bin
They def get a green thumb award!

My friend MC bought cute bins for her pantry to help organize and sort her recyclable goods.
I love seeing people recycle!

I'm pretty pumped because starting June 1st, we no longer have to sort our glass from our other recyclables, they can all go into the same bin together. Can it get any easier?
Trying to make every day an Earth Day.
I don't mind being green every day either =)
Happy Recycling!

Mary Kay Andrews

Summer is coming up and if you are looking for some good summer reads for the pool or back porch, than I have just the author for you! After reading her first book, "Savannah Blues",(I just happened to stumble on it in the bookstore) I was hooked and immediately went back to buy her other novels.

All her stories take place in the South (my fav - I think if I were to pick up a book that was based up North, I wouldn't get past chapter one). And all her main characters are strong independent/stubborn women (they kind of remind me of Scarlet- my favorite heroin of all time!). Oh, and all her main characters are amazing at what she calls "junking" - I use the term thrifting, my mama would be proud! And junking is one of Mary Kay Andrews favorite hobby's as well. She has a beach house in Tybee Island that one day, I plan on renting and taking a girl's trip to visit.

All these books are a must read!


This past summer, she came out with her newest book, "The Fixer Upper"
This book just happened to come out on my birthday! And my amazing best friend got it for me as a present (one of the many, she had a scavenger hunt for me). And the best part was that same week, Mary Kay Andrews came to Lexington! I got to meet her and have her sign my book...and Stef, the best friend that she is, came along as well.
She was telling us that for some of the names she uses in her stories, she looks in the obituary section and she said one time she came across the funniest name, Picklesimer - she thought it was a hoot! I thought it was a hoot because my law firm used to be called Picklesimer, Pohl, Kiser & Aubrey. Glad it's not anymore, that would be a mouth load telling people where I worked! I hope she has a new book out soon and makes another trip to Lexington!

So Mary Kay Andrews, I think you deserve a big Derby Hats Off - thank you for writing such lovely and entertaining Southern novels! Maybe one day you can write about a Kentucky girl fixing up a townhouse and the chaos of planning a wedding at the same time ;)


Mary Kay Andrews is also a fellow blogger, check out her site!

Patterson Kitty Dineen

Well I can't blog about the townhouse without writing about the boss man of the house - Patterson (besides, he's just too cute not to write about).

Once upon a time, I did not like cats, I was a dog person (I still love and want a dog very badly). Present day Joy- I have turned into the crazy cat lady and I will always be the first to admit this.

It all started when this cat was hanging around the front of our townhouse community. He would chase the chipmunks and squirrels all day and run up to anyone who would get out of their car - he even jumped in a few of the neighbors cars a few times. And just getting new neighbors, we assumed the kitty was theirs. We still don't really know who to blame for this (but I have a very good suspicion) but we had mounds of squirrel hair on our front porch one day - poor thing. I finally asked the new neighbors about the kitty hanging around the block and to our surprise, it was not theirs! I was hoping someone else would take care of the kitty situation but no one did and he just played and played and played in our little subdivision.

So one day, Brian and I had just gotten home from tailgating and I "accidentally" let the kitty in the house (his name was "kitty" for a long time). He jumped on my lap and fell asleep. I instantly fell in love with the kitty. I started to let the cat in the house for about an hour a night to come cuddle on the couch with me. I started leaving him food outside and I also started inquiring to all the neighbors about the cat. After numerous discussions, it turned out everyone in our townhouse community was waiting for someone else to take care of the kitty. He had fleas, ear mites (his ears were always bothering him), and poor thing was always starving. This is a pic of one of the times I let him in for an hour session of cuddling - though this particular time he chose to cuddle with Brian.
But normally he would choose to cuddle with me!

Brian finally told me that if I got a kitty litter box, I could keep him - and I had to get his fleas taken care of as well. This started the beginning of Joy, the Crazy Cat Lady.
He use to love sleeping in his own bed, now he chooses to sleep over all the furniture - I guess I am a bad cat owner and let him.
Kitty needed a better name and right around the time we decided to keep him, it was the beginning of the UK basketball season (Midnight Madness). Of course the star player for the past 3 years has been Patrick Patterson
So Patterson, aka Pitty Pat or Fatty Patty, has been at home ever since. He is also flea free and has gained 3 pounds since he moved in. Silly Kitty.

He loves hanging out in my sink when I am getting ready in the mornings - Brian thinks it is kind of weird, but I think it makes for a much easier clean up of cat hair!

And when we aren't paying attention to him, he makes it his point to be the center of attention:
(FYI; channel 214 on the DVR box is the DIY channel, our new fav!)

Even though we are sad that Patrick Patterson is going to the NBA next year, Patterson Dineen is staying around for a looooooooonnnnggggggggg time (indoor cats can live up to 17 years).

Brian's Big DIY

We have this cabinet area in our kitchen, not sure why the previous owners put it in, but the back was all just a pegboard to hang stuff up. So Brian took it upon himself to cover up the pegboards.

Brian actually started the project before I could take a good before picture. So he started putting these in - you can still see the peg board back ground. He went to Lowe's and bought the white panels for (he went to the store with measurements).

He sanded each panel till they fit perfectly.
Then he bought white sealer and sealed them in.

He is going to add 2 more shelves in for me on the left side so I can put the stuff on the top on the shelves.
I think he did a pretty good job, and the fact that he came up with this lil project all on his own makes it even better. Thanks Brian!

Updated Pictures

So here is an updated picture of the living room with the new curtains. I think it fills up the open wall a lot more than the plain white ones I had up. One of the first after wedding purchases is going to be a sectional couch like this one from IKEA (it looks just like the sectionals from Pottery Barn)

Of course it will have to be a darker color, as you can see, Patterson loves hanging out on the furniture.

And in case you didn't get enough of my lamp from the first post, here is another:

I need to start concentrating on things to put on the walls, advice is always welcome.

Front Nook

In January, my dad moved to California to be with his college sweetheart; they are getting married on May 22, 2010. My dad has lived in the same house for the past 18 years and when it came time to pack him up, it was an absolute NIGHTMARE! The house hadn't been "cluttered" out in over 10 years and between the 3 of us, we have accumulated and stored everything we have ever owned in this house. He could only take whatever could fit in his POD and where do you think the rest of it went??? It is still sitting in Brian and my garage, storage room, and basement. I have very very very slowly started unpacking stuff and selling items on craigslist. We are long overdue for a good garage sale.

However, we did accumulte some good treasures, like the wicker patio furniture. I love "front nooks". I think I am going to dedicate a post one day to cute little nooks I see on my walks. I now had some furniture to add out front, but it needed to be jazzed up a little bit.

So this past Sunday, Brian was working and I had to keep myself entertained. I went to Michaels and bought 2 bottles of black spray paint. I really needed 3, but I will add touch ups later.

(See the two grills in the back ground, these are other "treasures" that came from my dad's that have just been sitting out front cause we have no space anywhere!!)

I get sooo excited about projects and want to start them right away that I always forget one important step before painting... CLEAN THE SURFACE! Dust gets clumpy and dries in the paint. So take the time to just take a damp cloth and wipe the surface, even if your painting walls, they get dusty too!

My friend MC told me that Wal-Mart had really cute patio cushions, so I went and bought 2 green pillows for $8 each. I might go back later and get some more. I had so much fun spray painting, that I decided to get the matching ottoman out of the garage and spray paint that black too!

I've been bugging Brian to get new numbers for the front door and after my hard work on Sunday, he said we can, woo hoo! Wish there was something I could do with the air conditioning unit, but oh well. I still have a wicker chair and table that won't fit in our small front area but I can't wait to spray paint them too!

Happy Tax Day!

Around our house, April 15th is almost like December 31st, we count down every minute until tax day is over and Brian is free!! Brian is an accountant (a CPA to be exact) and for the past several months he has been working late hours and working on weekends, no fun. So now it is almost over and our taxes are always signed and mailed out on April 15th...go figure. This will be my last year filing "single" and I'll be getting a check in the mail from Uncle Sam (Obama) for my first time home buyers tax credit!

When Brian and I first started dating, he started studying for the CPA exam's and I have never seen him work so hard! He stayed in every weekend and studied, even during tax season when he worked late hours, he would come home and lock himself in his office (mine now) and study, study, study. After all his hard work, he passed last winter. These are me, the proud girlfriend, taking pictures of him finally getting his certificate.


I am still soooo proud of him and I love telling people that my fiance' is a CPA.
We will be celebrating tonight on the back porch with two cold ones.
Happy Tax Day!

Christmas All Year Round

Well, on the note of Christmas Tree's, last year I went to Hilton Head Island with Brian's family and we were shopping when I stopped dead in my tracks and saw a Halloween tree in one of the gift shops. Halloween is my FAVORITE holiday (yet I never dress up for it) so my big vacation steal was the purple tree and a few decorations to get my Halloween tree started (Tree was $25 and 2 ornaments were $5 each).


I feel like I always say this, but this really isn't a good picture of my tree and I ended up adding a lot more stuff before the big day. I promise to take a better picture this year. I loved having a Halloween tree so much that I have started getting ornaments for other holidays, I'm just trying to find a good spot in the townhouse to put my year-round trees so I don't look like a completely crazy person.

I have enough ornaments and a tree topper for a Gardening tree - tis the season, better put this up ASAP.

Mrs. D has a red tree that she is going to let me borrow for the fall for an Ole Miss tree. And for the record my heart follows Ole Miss football, not UK but it follows UK basketball, not Ole Miss (huge difference).

The red tree can then be used for a Valentines tree.

And I really want a white tree for UK basketball in the month of March, I saw this one in a Hallmark store last Christmas and this has been where my inspiration has come from:

The Blind Side

After being nagged by my boss and my dad, I finally watched "The Blind Side" and I can NOT get enough of it!!! It has been the only thing playing on my TV since Brian and I rented it (I am temporarily borrowing Mrs. D's copy till I get my own).

So why do I love it so much?? It touches a little part of almost everything I love:
-The South -Ole Miss -Ole Miss Football
-Souther Accents (I miss hearing em so much)
-Having a good Christian Heart
-A Southern Diva's Attitude
AND I LOVE SANDRA BULLOCK'S WARDROBE!





There was another dress she wore to one of her luncheons that I couldn't find a picture of... the only thing that would make these outfits absolutely perfect are some big ol' pearl earrings. I just can not get enough of Sandra Bullock's character, I love her!! I think deep down she loves Ole Miss too, this is her 2nd movie that ties her into the school; let's not forget "A Time to Kill" she was a law school graduate from Ole Miss. Hotty Toddy!

So in honor of Sandra Bullock's character in "The Blind Side", I'm sending a big Derby Hats Off to her - she definitely deserves it!


And one last thing I have to point out from the movie, I just LOVE this picture:


An Ole Miss Christmass Tree, could it get any better (and her cute little dress)??? I've been joking with Brian that I am going to have an Ole Miss tree for football season... just watch me do it!

Plain Jane

I will always be the first to admit that I am the plainest Jane ever. I love traditional colors and houses, I wear plain clothes and pick out plain everything. Brian is not so plain... He loves bold colors and contemporary/european houses and furniture. So I have to meet him somewhere in the middle on my rennovation projects.

If I had the option, I would paint every room green. I love love love green but I have to respect that Brian just doesn't love the color as much as I do, (I was able to paint 2 bedrooms green and the half bath, victory!)



However, this color green just had to go!!! This is our living room and it's the only picture I have of the living room before I painted it, (it's actually the picture I posted on Craigslist when I sold these couches). I get so excited to start my projects that I just jump right into them and forget to take before pictures. I had to come up with a color that Brian would agree on and I would like as well. After tons and tons of Facebook stalking (someone should have told me about blogs a lot sooner) I finally decided to paint the living room a dark brown. It's a pretty drastic color for me (and I must say that I am pretty proud of myself for stepping outside my norm)


I need to take some updated pictures, I have added and changed the living room a lot. I just got new curtains and decorative pillows, and I've gotten rid of the coffee table (one of the many items that will be in my May yardsale) So I promise, I will post more recent pics.

Ever since we painted the living room brown, I've been noticing the color a lot more:


(Pictures from http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/)

Sometimes I still wish I could have a little bit more of a traditional color in our open living room, but I can always win that battle another day ;)

You've Got Mail!

I just read this article on a blog that I have been recently scoping out. When I come home from lunch, the first thing I am looking forward to seeing is my sweet Patterson (don't worry, I will have lots and lots of post about my sweet Pitty Pat) but the second thing I look forward to seeing is the mail. I still LOVE receiving postal mail! Nothing gets my curiosity going more than to see a hand written envelope sitting in the mail pile. And once in a blue moon, I will sometimes receive a "happy" in the mail... nothing brightens up my day more!! Maybe I will start sending my friends more letters and packages in the mail. I've been reading on some blogs about "swapping" mail packages and I think that would be so neat to do! (That's an open invitation for anyone interested)
Hope you've received some fun mail today!
Joy

Kitchen Sink Disasters

I think everywhere I have lived, the one place I have completely dreaded opening are the cabinets under the kitchen sink. Traditionally this is where all cleaning supplies and misc. products are kept/thrown. My townhouse is no different, except now there are two of us just throwing supplies under there and stuffing them anywhere they will fit. I needed a little more organization under my kitchen sink!

The first step was to get rid of products that were waaaaaaayyyyy outdated. Hence the Lysol bottle behind that big cup in the front (my watering cup for indoor plants). The expiration date was 2004...eek!

I also got rid of bottles that were basically empty (the clear spray bottle in the front, I sprayed the rest of my counters with it's contents so I didn't waste anything). Seriously, if a bottle is almost empty, it's just taking up space.

I took out everything and gave the bottom a good scrub down. I recently purchased a "computer mat" (that's what I call it, it's a plastic mat you put down under your computer chair so you can role around easier). I had recently purchased a computer mat from Wal-Mart for $5.47 for my newly updated designated kitty litter area (pics to come shortly) and I had some extra left over. I cut excess plastic off and taped down the ends with clear tape so it wouldn't roll up on the sides. This will help future spills to clean up a lot easier!

I bought this bad boy at Garden Ridge for $7.99 (as you can see). It's a handy rotating disk that you put your products on and turn around to grab what you need instead of knocking over everything in the process.

So now when I need a cleaning product, I just turn the disk and my cleaning product will be right there at the tip of my fingers! I had the white shelf that I salvaged from my dad's big move to California, I think that was purchased at Gargen Ridge years ago as well!

Finished product! Now I can get to everything very easily and only kitchen prducts are under the kitchen sink! I moved all bathroom cleaners under the bathroom sink so I have no excuse to tackle the bathroom. I really want to get one of those dispensers for the cabinet doors that I put plastic kroger bags into. I know I should start bringing my own reusable bags to the grocery with me, but the Kroger bags are really good for kitty litter and they make good trash bags for smaller trash cans I have around the house.

Have a good Monday!

Joy