Shape up!

One of our goals for this year was to get our butts in shape. Andy and I have fallen prey to the if-you-are-happy-then-you-eat-more/gain-weight-stereotype that I have heard many people in happy relationships do. So we decided to start taking better care of ourselves. Andy already was a pretty healthy eater but I am a lover of carbs, snacks, and junk food, I would eat mashed potatoes and ice cream every night for dinner if I could. So my first goal was to start eating healthier before anything else. I took out the book The Women's Health Diet: 27 Days to Sculpted Abs, Hotter Curves, & a Sexier, Healthier You! and read it cover to cover in a few days. I really liked the book but I wouldn't really call it a diet; it's just eating better. I sort of adopted the eating habits they cover in the book and slightly modified the way they distribute the calories through the day since I work more nights. I am really simplifying this but basically the book says (read it if you are looking for a good diet book) more protein, whole grains, fruits and veggies, less sugar, carbs and processed food. I have to say I have probably cut my carb consumption in half, which is incredible for me and I've also really increased my protein intake which is a feat for me because I have never been a big fan of meat. I probably eat just as much now as I did before but I eat a lot healthier. I'll be honest I haven't been sticking to it as much as I should but I have got the hang of it and I am going to be a little more strict now since we are getting closer to vacation.

Being 70 some days out from our vacation I realized I needed to do more than just watch what I eat, it was time to start working out. Ugh. I hate working out. Every time I get started I end up crashing after a week or two because I just resent it. So I decided to try something new this time. I broke down and bought Zumba for the Wii and I love it! I have been doing it for about a week now and it's been great, I've combined it with some light weight lifting and ab work outs and I have to say that I think I found a something I can stick with. What's nice is that I can mix it up if I need to. There are classes in our area I can hit up if I need the extra motivation but when I don't feel like going out I can do it in my living room. The best part is the workouts are only 20 minutes so there is no reason for me not to do it, 20 minutes is nothing! Plus I can do more if I feel like it.

I'm really excited and really motivated to get myself healthy by the time we go on vacation in May!

Anyone have any tips for staying motivated and sticking with a diet?

Adventures in Adulthood

I very rarely feel like an adult, usually I feel about 16, but a really awesome 16 year old who lives with her BFF and has expendable income. Anyway, I sometimes get a wake up call and realize I have grown up. One of those wake up calls happened the other day when we decided to go shopping for tile and I got excited. Like freak-out-OMG-YAY excited. Yes, I got that excited about tile. WTH happened to me? I remember hating going to home improvement stores as a kid but now I love it. It's moments like that one that make me realize I am a little bit of a grown up. Only a little.

Anywho, more on the tile later. Yay!

A Demo

We have only been living in the house a couple months but we have already found an area to demo. Right off of the garage there is an area our builder calls an e-zone. Basically, it's a small desk area and in the model it seems like a great idea. In reality it's really just turned into a dumping ground. Take a look:

Yep, it's not pretty. It's a cluttered mess and I can't stand it. So we decided we are going to rip it out and replace it with a mini-mud room area. Allow me to show you our inspiration:

Anna White's Smiling Mud Room

House of Smith's entry-way

Small mud room- found on Ana White

These are the three inspirations we are working with to come up with our design. Let me share what we love about each one. From the top, Ana White's smiling mud room is lovely, very bright and open. What I loved most about this design was the curved dividers and openness which we need because there are light switches and sockets in the way. From the House of Smith design I really loved the mail slot idea with the metal boxes and the bead board, plus they took a space they hardly used and turned it into something useful which is the same plan we have. From the last design I just love how they utilized the small space. As you can see the space we are working isn't very big and I wanted to make sure that we utilize every inch.  Before we start we have to know what we are doing and Andy also need to wrap up work on the media console before we can start on another project. I have been working on a design right now, trying to measure and draw out (rather poorly) what we want. Hopefully, I can share something with you in a few days just as long as you promise not to laugh at my ridiculously poor drawing skills.

Poof, I'm back!

I apologize for taking the blog off the public sector for a little while, we were dealing with some legal stuff with our old rental company and didn't want anything to come up. I don't want to get into it too much but we decided not to pursue it anymore as it's not really worth our time and energy. We would like to focus that energy on making our new home kick ass.

I will be honest there wasn't really much to post about while we were offline. We kind of took a bit of a break from all things house after the party. We were in hyper drive for a few weeks so I think we needed a break. However, now we are starting to get rolling on some stuff and I'm excited to share it with you. Just a little preview of the plans in the works:

• A demo will be taking place in the near future
• A journey into the land of grout and tile
• More painting
• Some awesome hand-drawn designing
• An adventure in re-covering

Plus I should probably share some pictures of the house since we painted and furnished it. All this and more to come in coming days/weeks!

Ohh em gee!

Seriously, I apologize for the lack of blogging, it seemed like Andy got home last Wednesday and we hit the ground running. We've been planning a get together for the first weekend in February since we moved in, partially to hang with our friends but partially to light a fire under our butts to get the house in some semblance of order. With him being gone so much it's been a bit of a challenge, especially last week when I managed to hurt my neck and couldn't do much more than laundry. However, he got home Wednesday afternoon and once I got home from work we started running errands and really we haven't stopped since. There's been a lot we've needed to pick up for the house and a lot we've had to do. I have lots of projects to share but just haven't had the time to share them. Promise to do so soon.

Also if you are around Saturday night stop by the new place, we would love to see you!

Hobby Lobby FTW

As you know, we have been slowly acquiring bits and pieces for the house even before it was finished. Now that we have moved in and started work on the house I wish we would have waited. Things just aren't shaping up the way that we thought it would and we've bought a couple things that I would like to return. Luckily, Hobby Lobby, where I bought one of the items in question, offers returns for credit for returns without a receipt. Woohoo! that's going to make things a little bit easier for me because I am certain I can find things to buy at Hobby Lobby. In fact I had a nice little find this past weekend when I was visiting my parents. We decided to pay a visit to Hobby Lobby because all their wood and metal ware items were 50% off this past week. That's where I found this:

Pardon Murphy's nose, he's a curious pup

It's a wall mounted coat rack, which is going to be perfect for the area just inside the front door. I'm weird because I've always wanted a standing coat rack. I'm not sure why, I just really like coat racks. I know I'm odd okay? Moving on...a standing coat stand would not work in our front hall, there just isn't enough space there, so this wall mounted version is perfect! The best part is that it was only $10! I can't wait to see how it looks on the wall. Slowly but surely the house is coming together. I promise to do a house tour post pretty soon, I just want a little distinction between the rooms.

Living Room Partial Preview

So our living room is coming along nicely. This is the one area in the house I would love to have finished by the time we have our house party since we will be mainly be hanging out there. I apologize in advance for the crappy cell phone pictures, I'll drag out the good camera when everything is actually done. Also please ignore the pile of crap poking out from the side of the couch, that's stuff that doesn't have a home yet and the TV out in the middle of the living room, we need our media center to be done.

General view from the kitchen

Shelf behind the couch

 Just so you get an idea of where we are going: there is going to be some kind of art behind the couch the media stand will be pushed against the far wall (which isn't really pictures here), I'm going to add something to those lamps to make them look bigger (like maybe foam wrapped around the spindly part), I'm going to get some matching frames for our pictures to put on the shelves between the mirrors, I'm going to get a glass bowl with filler for the long shelf behind the couch, we are going to add another chaise to the other side of the couch plus another shelf behind the couch, we are going to make a coffee table, and last but not least we are going to get/re-purpose a chair for the far wall. Whew, I'm a little tired even typing that out, but hopefully it turns out like I'm picturing it in my head.