Archive for November 2009

homegoods has a new style quiz - my results were earthy modern. i get the modern part, but was surprised by the earthy... but the description kind of sounds like me. except for the drama part, i'm not sure what that means :-)

we had a busy weekend at our house - lots of errands and a movie on friday night, saturday was the game (great game by the way, go bucks! mike wasn't very happy but at least he wasn't expecting a win this year... i'm trying to be nice and not talk about it). after the game i ran some more errands, including hobby lobby to pick up some project supplies (more on that later) and to one of my favorite stores, homegoods. after being tempted by about a dozen different things, i only ended up purchasing a christmas decoration and some baskets for our bathroom - exactly what i went in there for. i was proud of myself. yesterday we spent most of the day hanging up christmas lights outside because the weather was beautiful! don't worry, we won't turn them on until after thanksgiving. i took some pictures but ran out of time to transfer them this morning. we also went to check out the new rec center that opened by our house. it is really nice but was extremely crowded because they are having a free week for their grand opening. i think we will probably join, but i'm hoping that there are a few less crazy kids running around once the memberships start :-)

tomorrow is the day. the day when our household divides. it's the ohio state/michigan game. we are originally from columbus, ohio - a city that lives and breathes buckeye football. we take it very seriously, i have always been a huge buckeye fan. mike, on the other hand, at some point in his childhood decided that he wanted to be difficult (go figure) and thought it would be fun to be a michigan fan in a buckeye obsessed city. for those of you who don't know, ohio state and michigan are the biggest rivals in college football.

when mike first asked me out (a long long time ago...) he sent me an email that included all of the lyrics to the michigan fight song. i'm still not sure why i agreed to go out with him, i clearly had warning to what the relationship would be like.

on our wedding day, our favors were 3 little boxes, each with a little treat, that represented the different cities that we've called home. having started our relationship in columbus, i thought it was only appropriate that we include a candy buckeye as the treat for columbus. mike thought we should do something with our high school colors since that is when we started dating. except our high school colors are the same as michigans... it was the only disagreement we had while wedding planning. i was also not allowed to play "hang on sloopy" at our wedding reception. and yet for some reason i still married the guy.

as part of the tradition of the ohio state/michigan game, i always make buckeyes:

when living in ohio i had to make them by the dozens because i would take them into school/work and everyone knew what they were and loved them. now that i'm st. louis, it takes some convincing.

me: "this is a buckeye, a yummy candy treat that i make to support the greatest football team ever. they play their biggest rival tomorrow, stupid michigan, so go buckeyes!"

any st louis person: "buckeye? what is that? and football? um, we like baseball here. football doesn't even really exist because we only have the rams and whatever game they are playing is clearly not football"

(side note - college football and pro football are completely different. do not ever try to tell me that pro football is better, it is not. it's not even close.)

me: "come on, i promise you will like the candy buckeye, i will give you one if you say "I-O" after i say "O-H", and make the letters with your arms. that's what real buckeye fans do"

stl person: "so you're telling me that you love a football team who's mascot is a small piece of chocolate covered peanut butter?"

me: "what?? no, that would be silly! a buckeye is a poisonous nut. obviously that is a way better mascot."

stl person: "yeah, i don't really care anymore, i'll eat that candy, but you can't make me spell "ohio" or do you silly hand motions. by the way, spelling ohio? maybe if you were spelling something more complicated that would be more impressive"

me: "fine... at least you don't like michigan."

last night, i made buckeyes and they are awesome. this also reminded me of last year when i made buckeyes and how much easier it is to cook in a fully functioning kitchen. i make my buckeyes a little different than most people, just because that's how my mom makes them. we use crunchy peanut butter and rice krispies and make crunchy buckeyes. i thought i'd include the recipe in case anyone else wants to make them:

Crunchy Buckeyes

2 cups confectioners sugar
1 1/4 cups chunky style peanut butter
1/4 cup margarine
dash of salt
2 cups toasted rice cereal (Rice Krispies)
1 6oz. pkg. semisweet chocolate chips
1 Tbs. shortening

Cream sugar, peanut butter, margarine, salt, and stir in cereal.
Melt chocolate chips with shortening in microwave about 1 minute and stir until melted. Roll peanut butter mixture into 1 inch balls. Dip each in melted chocolate, covering most of ball. Refrigerate until chocolate becomes firm. Store in refrigerator. Makes about 3 1/2 dozen.

for christmas my mom also makes them with some white chocolate caps and red and green sprinkles.

so tomorrow afternoon mike and i will be eating buckeyes while watching the game. (yes, mike loves them even though he hates my team. i could be mean and not share, but secretly i'm hoping that his love for chocolate covered peanut butter might someday translate to his love for all things buckeye. or i'd at least settle for something less than hatred) we will be watching the game at home, away from other people cause, let's be honest, sometimes it gets a little tense... at least we both know that anything said during the game doesn't really count. and usually by the next season day we are back to normal.

..I-O!

every single time i get a "new sale items!" email from you, i get all excited. you see, i really want this rug for our bedroom, but it is way expensive. so i've been patiently waiting and hoping that someday, someday you will have it on sale. and still no sale... sigh.i also like this rug from ikea, but i'm worried that it might be too light for our room. esp. since the dogs will more than likely sleep on it.

sorry blog friends, it's been awhile since my last post and i've been trying really hard lately to post at least a few times a week...

- speaking of tv, i am in love with the tv show mad men and am sad that the season finale was last week. but i loved the finale. i cannot wait until next season. plus i really just want to move into their office/the draper house.

- 2 friends are working on planning visits to st louis (one in early december, and the other for new years) and i am super excited. but i'm also stressing trying to think of something fun to do on new years eve. any of you st louis people out there feel free to give me some suggestions.

- i am still getting up early to take the dogs for a long walk/run before work! i'm very impressed with this because i am not a morning person at all. i've been doing this for about 2 months and i actually find that i'm more awake in the mornings now. there is also a new ymca opening up close to our house next week and we've been talking about joining. so maybe soon we'll be getting some more serious work outs in!

- we decided to wait on the floors until early next year, i can't remember if i posted that on here or not. after looking at a calender we thought it would be too stressful to try to get them ordered and installed before thanksgiving and i refuse to have everything torn up for christmas. i do have a few other small house projects that i'm hoping to work in though, so maybe i'll still have some fun house posts in the next few weeks... but for now you might just have to settle for life randomness :-)

about a month ago i came across a st louis real state listing for a house that i just can't seem to get out of my mind. i no longer remember what i was looking for (i tend to look on real estate sites for photos of similar houses when i'm trying to figure out something in our house) but the images of this house have stuck with me.

thanks for the feedback on the bed post below. i still haven't made any decisions, but hopefully i'll come up with something soon!

on to issue number 2... lighting. we currently have a ceiling fan light but need to come up with something different for bedside lighting. we have 2 paper lamps that i got from ikea years ago that have worked fine, except that the cat has decided that he likes to eat the paper so they are pretty much ruined at this point. and our new nightstand and dresser (that is being used as the other nightstand) are different heights. i don't think this would bother me as much if the bedside lights were at least at the same height. so i've been looking at wall mounted swing arm lamps. i think this is a great solution, esp. since i like to read at night before bed... and then i found this:
the tolomeo wall mount lamp - love it. really love it. really want it. don't love the price ($320 each is way out of my budget!)

so i kept looking, and found this one:
the reading room wall lamp - not at all the same, but for $80 each, it's getting closer to what i can afford. i'm going to keep looking, but anyone have any other suggestions?