Holiday Weekend and Countertop Decisions

I can't believe it is already Wednesday but I absolutely cannot WAIT for the long weekend. I am so looking forward to having an extra day off from work that I almost can't stand it. In fact I think I will be taking the day off on Friday to give myself 4 full days of relaxation and fun. Not to mention this will be the first full weekend I get to spend with Erik since February and we get to go to a wedding together (this is where you can picture me with a big smile doing a little happy dance--weddings are always fun and I love the thought of spending a full weekend with my boy).

Yay! Let the summer begin!

In terms of cottage updates there hasn't been too much to speak of. I am in the process of trying to decide whether I should replace my kitchen counter tops or not. My parents just got new quartz counters at their house in St. Louis and my mom told me she would save her old laminate toppers for me if I wanted. My brother went to spend time with her at Mother's Day and brought back a piece for me to test out and see how I felt.

Current Countertops

Sample countertop from my mom's kitchen

What do you think? The laminate counter tops would be a slight upgrade on what I have now but would require a significant amount of effort to a) transport all the way from St. Louis, and b) cut to fit my existing counter space. Would it be worth the time, effort, and money to do this or should I just leave the counters be for the time being?

Such difficult decisions...

See How My Garden Grows

My garden has gone into overload. Check out all this green!

Peppers!

Tomatoes!

Mint and Basil!

As a reminder this is what it looked like a few short weeks ago:

Amazing!! Fingers crossed that everything continues to flourish...

That Retro-Modern-Cottage-y Feeling

One of the best things about owning my own home is that I have full creative reign on my décor. It has been so nice to create spaces that I love and not have to worry about anyone else’s opinions. Of course it can also be challenging at times too because the possibilities are endless when it comes to design and sometimes it’s nice to get some feedback and I am always interested in hearing my friends’ opinions when they stop by for a visit.

I’ve tried to figure out if I have a particular “style” when it comes to my decorating but I don’t think I really do. If I had to put a label on it I would say it probably wavers along the line of retro-modern-cottage-y which sounds totally contradictory in a lot of ways. Basically I’ve just tried to work with the things I love (for example my modern couch and my retro dishes) to create a feminine but modern look for the house. I didn’t want it to be too girly but even if it has turned out that way who cares? I am a girl after all.

In the process of decorating I have really tried to upgrade what I am putting on my walls. The days of posters in plastic frames has passed I’m afraid and it’s time to be a little more grown up with my art decisions. I have tried to take my time in making these important decisions because I want to find things I truly love and that are meaningful. Of course my budget these days won’t allow me to purchase any one-of-a-kind art pieces but framed prints seem to do the trick for now. For example I found this print on Etsy called “Bursting With Love” that has really captured how I have felt this spring (the new home purchase, my new man, etc):

I picked up this print at one of my favorite stores in Atlanta, Young Blood, because I loved the colors and the retro look (and who doesn't love a little "Home Sweet Home" artwork in their first house):

Getting a little creative, I made this artwork to hang on the walls in my dining room (all it took was some cheap frames from Ikea and a couple sheets of scrapbook paper from Michael’s):

I still have a ways to go in terms of decorating the walls of the house (both bedrooms are sorely lacking any type of visual wall interest) but it is one area of new homeownership where I am okay being patient. Currently I have been on the lookout for a wall clock to hang in the dining room. Here are some of my top choices so far (all from Etsy of couse):

This one is probably the front runner so far

Im thinking this one may be a bit too retro...

This one kind of reminds me of Salvador Dali whose work I love

I think all of them capture my retro-modern-cottage-y style and (most importantly) they are all within my budget. Im still not quite sure which I like better so if you have an opinion please let me know!

**On a side note, after browsing through the retro/vintage clock selection on Etsy I think I could become a crazy clock lady. There are so many fun and interesting clocks out there. Check out some of these awesome examples:

Would love this for my kitchen

Retro Clue Game Clock--absolutely adore!

This one would be super cute for a kids room

If I had the money this Keith Moore clock would be the first pick for
my dining roombut $200 for a clock? I just cannot justify that.

 Would it be too weird to have a wall clock hanging in every room of the house?  I mean how can you resist with options like these??

She's Crafty

I was reading through posts on some of my favorite blogs the other day and came across this one about a do-it yourself project inspired by the store Anthropologie on Little Glass Box. First let me just say that I love Anthropologie--it is one of my absolute favorite stores. I drool every time I get the new catalog in the mail and dream of a world where my closet is full of their clothes and my house is full of their linens (I say this because their stuff is ex-pen-sive-o but so so cute).

Anyway, the post on Little Glass Box featured these treat pedestals as seen on BHLDN (Anthropologie's wedding website):

Super cute, right? But $78? Yikes.

Courtney over at Little Glass Box took one look at these pedestals and saw the opportunity for an easy and cheap do-it-yourself project. So I am copying her idea (because it was a great one) to make a home made version of these Anthropologie treat trays. To start, all I had to do was look no further than my local Goodwill where I found these cute little sorbet dishes:

Next I began the hunt for some lonely vintage china plates but instead opted for these more modern looking dishes which I snagged on clearance at TJ Maxx:

Put them together using a little epoxy glue (or not if you want to use the plates and dishes separately later on) and you get this:

Total cost of my home-made treat pedestal: about $3 (the dishes came out to $0.85 each and the plates were $2 each). 

You know, I think I may actually like my cheap-o version better than the $78 one from Anthropologie (not to mention they are going to make great gifts for someone). Hooray for thriftiness and innovation at its best!

Geocaching!

With money matters always on mind lately I have tried to think up free and/or cheap fun things to do with Erik. There is a really great website that my friend Monique introduced me to called Atlanta on the Cheap that features deals from all over the city if you are looking for promotions, cheap tickets, etc. that I have used a few times to get movie tickets and ideas for future outings. It is one of I'm sure a thousand great resources out there for cheap-o's like me and definitely worth checking out. But websites and coupons aside, one thing that I thought would be really fun to do and relatively cheap (almost free actually) is to take Erik out and go Geocaching. Geocaching is an activity that I first discovered about 7 years ago and really, really, enjoy. Most people I have met have no idea what it is so I am always more than happy to introduce them. So blog world, consider this your introduction if you have never heard of this fantastic “sport.”

Geocaching is basically treasure hunting with a GPS device. “Caches” (usually metal or plastic containers) are hidden and GPS coordinates are logged in to the official Geocaching website. People who wish to find the caches simply log on to the website by entering their zip code to find coordinates of local stashes and then enter those coordinates into their GPS and begin hunting. The caches always contain a logbook of some sort for people to sign and leave a message and often times will have little trinkets people have left behind. The rules of geocaching allow the seekers to take anything from the cache they wish but they must always leave something of equal value in return.

Since its inception in 2000, Geocaches have been hidden all over the world and as GPS technology has gotten better this game has become accessible to just about everyone. When I first started Geocaching back in 2002-2003 I was using a handheld Garmin black and white GPS unit that was a couple hundred dollars. Back then I would I have to load maps from the computer into the GPS and manually enter the coordinates for each new cache I wanted to find. Talk about a pain! Now I am using a $10 iPhone App that connects directly to the geocaching website and instantly directs you to local caches. It’s pretty amazing.

Throughout the years I have tried to find at least one Geocache in each new city I visit. So far I have had successful hunts in Texas, Oregon, Louisiana, South Carolina, and of course my home state of Georgia. I’m telling you—these things are everywhere and it is so much fun to find them!

In terms of cost the only thing you really have to pay for nowadays is $10 for the App if you have a smart phone (which I think most people do or at least know someone who does) and gas if you have to drive to your start point. I’ve found that places like state parks are great to start out in because usually there are multiple caches and all you need are your own two legs and maybe a picnic lunch. But I’ve also been to very urban areas with multiple caches (think the campus of Georgia Tech) too so it’s very easy to find these things in your own backyard.

For Erik’s first time I took him to the same place I went for my first Geocaching experience: Arabia Mountain State Park near Lithonia, GA. It’s only about a 30 minute drive from my house and is a huge park with lots of trails, different landscapes, and of course multiple Geocaches. The caches we found in Arabia were especially cool because each one had a little history about that particular location of the park the cache was hidden in which made it really interesting. We ended up having a really fun afternoon hiking, finding a couple of caches, and having a picnic lunch in the woods by a lake.

Erik's first find.

Opening our second find of the day

The lake where we had our picnic lunch

In the last several years I have introduced many of my friends to Geocaching and it’s always fun to see their faces when they find their first cache. I know when I describe the sport to people I always feel like they are looking at me skeptically kind of like “yeah, uh-huh sure there are really all these hidden “treasure” boxes everywhere.” So it’s always a fun validation when that first cache is found and you can be like “see, I told you”!

If you want to learn more about Geocaching including all the rules, how to hide a cache, etc. click here. It really is a family friendly activity (for all you moms and dads out there) and always an entertaining way to spend an afternoon so go check it out. I promise you won’t be disappointed!

Happy Hunting!

Speaking of Deception

Who would believe that this sweet little kitten:

Would turn out to be this sweet little chunker:

But I wouldn't have my Z any other way!

Master of Deception

I always have to laugh when people come to visit my new house and one of the first things they say is “Wow, it looks like you’ve lived here forever”! That is because I am a master deceiver my friends.

You see, the key to being a master of deception is to shove everything you don’t have a place for in a) a cabinet, b) a closet, or c) under the bed. I think every 10 year old probably knows this and I am here to say that this 29 year old is still a faithful follower of this principle.

And it’s not that I don’t like organization or that if you open my closets a mountain of stuff will fall out on you. Anyone who knows me well will tell you I am the exact opposite. I love order and organizing and putting things in their place. It’s just that when you are living on your own and working full time finding the time (and desire) to organize becomes a challenge.

But yesterday I am proud to say that I finally mustered up the energy to organize my kitchen cabinets. You see when I moved in 3 months ago I was in such a hurry to get stuff in the house and put away that I didn’t really care where anything went in my kitchen just so long as it was out of boxes and off of the floor. My mom was helping me with the project and she did the best she could with my frazzled, short responses of “I don’t care” to her questions of “where do you want this”? And it was true—I really didn’t care because I knew I would probably just go back and reorganize everything later. I didn’t think later would be 3 months later but c’est la vie.

So now, all the spices are in one place next to the stove (yes, I made a list of all the spices in my cabinet and posted it on the inside of the door).

All of the baking supplies and cooking oils are united.

And all of the dry foods and canned goods are happily side by side.

Ahhhh. Organization is a beautiful thing I tell you.