I think he’s forgiven me because the bathroom before was quite a dungeon. And now? Now it’s so pretty! Really. I think I want to live in it.

See for yourself!

Before. Let’s see.. ugly wood paneling, ancient rusty mirror threatening to fall and kill someone, 80′s shelf thing. Just not pretty.

Step One. Buy new HUGE mirror. Check out that price tag. Big Lots for $30! It was amazing. I almost cried. Okay not really. But deal of the century? Yes I believe so.

The next room for painting is our living room. We have the routine down, so it should be pretty quick. If only I could stop being such an insane perfectionist. Really I think that doubles the amount of time it takes for us to paint. What room in your house are you itching to paint?

I’m trying very hard to celebrate the small things. The little things around the house that I manage to finally complete. I have lots of little projects scattered all over the place; projects that depend on another project to be completed before another can be started. I inherited an old china cabinet from my grandma, and I had a wonderful idea to spray paint it black for some extra storage. It’s currently in our shed, half painted and just a few hours work from completion. And once that is complete I can finally put away all our glasses and barware that’s residing in a box on the top of our fridge.

I feel so torn lately, I would love to wallow in my own self-pity and frustration. I don’t feel like I’ve been the most productive with my free time, but have no clue how to make things better. How do you find a way to get your own personal “me time” as well as keeping everything together? Cleaning? Laundry? Organizing? Projects? Seriously. All that along with my poor neglected husband. And sometime in there I want to take care of myself and keep my manicure shaped up.

Ugh what a grump am I? What else did you expect with my haphazard blogging schedule: something cheerful? I am making little steps to get better. I started the 365 project on January 2nd. Some nights I don’t quite make it, but I’ve dragged my camera out three more times than I would have had I not started this project. And if that’s not taking an active role in getting my personal endeavors squeezed into my crazy day to day, then I don’t know what could be better.

I’ve also been reading Julia Child’s memoir My Life in France and spend most of my days day-dreaming about what my life would be like living in France. Until that day, I’ll just continue to slowly work on learning French and feasting on bread and cheese. That’s the same right?

A view from the top of Notre Dame. Taken on our honeymoon.

How has the winter weather been affecting you?

sidenote: No I’m not depressed, so don’t start sending me brochures on getting help or anything. This is what happens when I write a blog after working into the night.

side sidenote: If that title is not correct in French, I blame Google translator.

It’s not home until there are some puppy kisses

We moved. Our lives were packed in boxes and moving in between two houses starting Wednesday of last week until this morning. (yes drawn out and painful).

And I’m TIRED. But we’re in our new home. Enjoying the ability to stretch out and getting used to all this space we now have to breathe.

One hundred thousand thanks to my mom, sister, and brother who came up for Thanksgiving this weekend, but got roped into cleaning the old house and moving a few straggling items. And all the help that came from Cale’s family in the heavy lifting and car swapping. Seriously who would think it took all that just to move out of a tiny little cottage?! Yikes.

So tell me, how was your Thanksgiving?

P.S. I don’t miss the old house so much after scrubbing behind the washing machine.

But in the dream of more space, I started browsing Craiglist for two bedroom houses to rent. I had no expectations of finding anything. Clearly it was a far reaching dream: two bedrooms, a big backyard, a detached house, in Sunol, with lots of trees and nature, all for only a little bit more than our already ridiculously-amazingly-low rent for the Bay Area. Who was I kidding? Impossible.

Apparently not. There it was. Two bedroom, overlooking Cale’s favorite golf course. Of course the rent was quite a bit higher than what we wanted to pay, but with utilities included, we thought it wouldn’t hurt to at least look at it. Horrible horrible idea. We both fell in love. Cale’s eyes went so wide looking at all the space. You would have thought it was a mansion. I liked it a lot, but wasn’t sure how I felt about the added cost. We talked it over and came to the conclusion that the added expense really wasn’t worth it. So we put it out of our minds (as much as we could).

Then a couple weeks ago, I left for training. And waiting for me when I landed was an email from the landlord saying they were going to lower the rent, and since they were really keen on us, wanted to know if we would be interested. What a wonderful distraction when I’m all the way in Arizona! Cale was a trooper fielding all my questions, videotaping a detailed tour of the house so I could envision how we could make it work and ironing out all the details. You would think that I was on board right off the back, but I really wavered. We have had such a wonderful experience with our current landlords and cottage. What if it wasn’t as good? Do we want to spend the extra money? But over the week, I became convinced. We both canceled our gym memberships to offset the additional rent. When I got back home, we met the landlords at the house again, and finalized all the details.

So over Thanksgiving, instead of stuffing ourselves and taking a nap, I’ll be busy painting and Cale will be moving our things to the new house. To say that my stress levels at the moment are high, is a drastic understatement.

goodbye our little gravel road

sidenote: If you have our current address, we will be keeping our Post Office Box, so there will be no changes there.

After those hundred-degree days last weekend, my garden demanded that it was about time I mulched. My hydrangea was looking quite wilted and sad. So this past weekend I had a date with about 13 bags of mulch. (Boo on our favorite landscaping place for being closed all weekend long so I couldn’t just get it by the truckload). Not only that, but because my mother-in-law has such a green thumb, she has plenty of plants to spare and loaded me up with pretty shade plants for our garden in the back. The amount of greenery back there has literally doubled. I am constantly looking out our windows to look at everything I accomplished this weekend.

Not only did I get some gardening done, but I was able to get our house looking a little more orderly and added some cuteness to our bathroom window.

a little wire birdie (that needs a tealight.. note to self)

little purple flowers

lavender in a French soap dish

ferns in a pretty wine bottle. Cale knows how I choose wine: by how pretty the bottle is. He actually picked this one!

The amount of joy I get from something so simple is just a little pathetic perhaps, but still, it makes my day to see the little details and everything come together so nicely. What are the little things you do around your house that make you smile?

Friday night I got off work later than most, but earlier than some. Early enough to grab a late dinner of sushi with my husband, to make it to Target and get through checkout right at closing time, and to see a late showing of I Love You, Man (the blowie portion of this blog title). Have I talked about our sushi place before? It’s amazing. The food is good, but the owners know us and are the kindest people ever. It’s so great to have a place that makes you feel at home, in a city where we really know very little people. At Target, we were roaming the bedding. Ours was disgusting. Really. People with dogs: do you let your dogs on the bed? For us it’s going to stop unless they are clean and specifically invited. Because woah, our Pottery Barn quilt could not stand up to the destruction of our two dogs. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Target had a quilt similar to what I was looking for, but in a color I liked better! I’ll post about that a little later. After Target, we got to the theatre just in time for the last showing of I Love You Man. This movie was SO FUNNY. I highly recommend it.

The rest of the weekend I got to clean, something that has been much needed in our little cottage. The dogs got groomed on Sunday. Combine that with the new bedding and a nice freshly cleaned home, I was on cloud nine. The weather on Sunday actually turned out quite wonderful, after a light rain on Saturday, so Cale was able to test out our new push mower on the lawn.

This weekend we also sat down with a couple of blu-rays we got through Netflix. The first was Milk. Oh that movie was amazing. Really. Even though the ending was quite sad, the movie is so uplifting because it shows that change can happen. It might not happen right away, but it will. It really lifted my spirits and showed me that it just takes perseverance and a good heart. Someday. Someday.

I also sat down and watched my third French movie, allowing me to cross an item off my list. It was Il y a longtemps que je t’aime (I’ve Loved You So Long). It was very touching. Of the three French movies I watched so far, this is my favorite. I loved this item on my list. I enjoy foreign films, after all Life is Beautiful is one of my all-time favorite movies. And getting back into them is just a wonderful way to spend a few hours. A peek into another world. And I’m hoping the more I immerse myself in the language, the easier it will be for me to start learning. We shall see.

Another item on the list I’m planning on crossing off after this week is #11 Go an entire week without turning on the TV. So my dears, under no circumstances shall you tell me what happens on Grey’s this Thursday. Understand? I’ll have to wait until Monday to be able to watch it. But really I’m excited for this week, and I believe Cale is even more excited. I have a couple books to keep me busy, and last night we went to the gym for a couple of hours. I’m hoping this can help us get into a healthier routine during the week without the TV sucking us in and wasting our evenings.

So there’s a little snippet into my life right now. Later this week I’ll finally update you on some home decorating items that I’ve been working on, including showing you our fabulously soft and clean new bedding.

So how have your lives been?

Or… I got something else and Cale’s sickness is still waiting to attack. I vote for option number one.

Otherwise I’ve had a great weekend relaxing and getting a ton of sleep. Yesterday the craziest thing happened though. Around 11 am, I felt this huge surge go through our house. It was short, and our house felt like it just jumped for a second. My first instinct? A car hit our house! Or a moose. Keep in mind we live in California. And our house? On a gravel road off the street. A little cottage in the woods. In California. Yeah a moose being one of my first instincts?! Or a car? Both are quite impossible. But I checked out of the windows anyway. Nothing.

Yep… watch out for all those crazy cars and moose.

So then my husband comes out of the bedroom: “Did you feel that?”

“Yeah, what was it? I thought a car, but there’s nothing out there.” (yeah I didn’t fess up to the moose idea until later that night)

“Maybe it was a shockwave from an explosion.”

“What is a shockwave? Could it have been an earthquake?”

[I took artistic liberties in this conversation because I'm not that great and can not remember the exact words.. but you get the gist.]

Cale quickly dismissed the earthquake idea, saying that it was too short for that. Nor was it from an explosion because, well, we were still here. There was even mention of an atomic bomb… Finally we found out thanks to the majesty of the internet that it was indeed an earthquake very close to our house in fact.

That was our adventurous Saturday morning. Moral of the story: If there is actually a big earthquake.. hopefully we’ll recognize that and get in the doorway. You know, instead of looking outside for a moose.

On Monday I went to the mall early and did all our Christmas shopping. Yes that’s me. I waited until the week of Christmas to do our shopping. Not that we really had all that much to buy. Like most, we cut back this year, partially because I personally find spending a lot on Christmas to be a big fat waste of money, but also because I have been trying to keep the holiday in perspective. In all honesty I secretly wish that instead of buying “things” I could donate the money I spent Monday to go to a good cause. But I think doing that would be about as well received as it was for Chandler on Friends.

So even if you didn’t go the charity route for Christmas, you still can help make a difference. For each comment Jennifer receives, she is donating $1 to a charity of your choosing. So go!

Even though we didn’t go the charity route, I really liked the shopping we did this year. Each present is actually something I think that the receiver might like. No longer will I give out the packaged body washes and other things that you know are going straight into either the trash, the bag for goodwill, or the back of the closet to be lost forever. Just knowing that the gifts are fit for their receiver makes me excited for exchanging gifts, something that in prior years I was more anxious about than excited. Next year my goal is to at least start earlier or work on making some gifts because Ashley’s adorable presents have totally inspired me.

I purchased a book titled Green Christmas at the beginning of November with the intention of reading it all and sharing my favorite tips. Well I’m on page 34, and it’s Christmas Eve. So instead, I’m going to share what we did this year instead:

1. We did not go and buy new Christmas decorations. I know some might want to change up their decoration year after year, but that is very wasteful. Now given this is only our second Christmas as a married couple, I’m excited for the day when our decorations slowly grow over the years and we develop our favorites. Things that we see and feel Christmas.


Only ours probably won’t be like this creepy wall hanging my mom has had forever… It’s like she’s staring at me….

2. We did not put out lights. Granted we don’t exactly live on a street that does that sort of thing. But eventually once we have a bigger house, I want to copy what I’ve seen in some adorable little houses in downtown Pleasanton and just hang evergreen garland over their windows in the front. We do have lights on our tree, but those are plugged into the light socket that is controlled by a switch, so once our living room light goes out, the tree does too.
3. Wrapping paper. I didn’t buy any. Instead I used Trader Joes bags that I have accumulated the many times I’ve forgotten to bring my canvas bag inside. I also reused any gift bags we have received in the past.
4. We didn’t send out cards. Didn’t notice? Oh well.. yeah. We didn’t. Saving paper.
5. But all those cards that we received last year? I cut off the cute parts and used them as gift tags this year

Nothing majorly huge, but I think the best part of trying to be green is knowing that you are making an effort. I’ll never be perfect, but hey I tried. This is my favorite quote of the book (from what I’ve read so far):

Christmas is a magical time of the year. Close your eyes and think back on your best holiday memories. Chances are they don’t have to do with elaborately wrapped gifts but instead involve moments of laughter at an old family joke, a snowy night of caroling with friends, or the sudden appearance of an unexpected friend. Wonderful moments of love, fellowship, and community.

Maybe next year I’ll have read the entire book so that I’ll have more words of wisdom to share with you.

Until then, have a wonderful Christmas with friends and family. I hope you get a chance to relax in all the chaos and enjoy yourselves.

Two Favorite Ornaments. Our C and Cale’s Yoda.

My Exposaroonie shot and our little tree with presents underneath