Weekend Review and Some To-Do's

As I alluded to in this post, we had a very busy yet productive weekend.  Here's how it played out:

Friday

• Bought two new pairs of pants (jeans and khakis) at Old Navy during their BOGO half off sale
• Made ham and bean soup with leftover hot ham and this jalapeno cornbread, substituting smoked gouda for cheddar
• Had JY over for drinks and conversation.  He brought some delicious chocolate whoopie pies which we consumed quickly!

Saturday

• Woke up early and went to the first Ferguson Farmer's Market where we bought garlic greens, kale, andouille sausage and a bag of gorgeous mixed greens!
• Re-organized our kitchen pantry--details and photos to follow!
• Took a nap
• Made kale chips in the oven which were delicious and quickly consumed with some cold Schlafly beers (Kolsch for me, APA for J)
• Made lemon-garlic green risotto for dinner with fresh lemons from my parents' backyard and garlic greens from the Farmer's Market

Sunday

• Got up early again and finished season 3 of Mad Men--only one more season and we are all caught up!
• Meal planned and grocery shopped for the week
• Went to church
• Took a nap--are you noticing a theme here?  I can't seem to sleep in past 6:30 or 7:00 on the weekends which I make up for by taking naps in the afternoon!
• Saw the movie Prom with my Little
• Came home to J making a roux for our andouille sausage and shrimp gumbo
• Two and a half hours later, after lots of chopping and stirring (and dishes), we finally sat down for gumbo!
• Ate happily and went to bed

J's law school graduation is a few weeks away and as such we will have lots of family in town: my parents and grandparents, J's parents, uncle, and more--a total of 12 people! His graduation will take place on the morning of Friday, May 20th and as such, most if not all of our guests will be in town starting Thursday afternoon (Wednesday afternoon for J's mom and my mom!).

Since many of our family members have not seen our apartment, we are going to have an open house with drinks and appetizers on Thursday night.  This also means we have a lot of work to do around the house to get it in tip-top shape for our guests in addition to shopping and preparing for the open house itself.  To keep myself accountable (and sane), I thought I'd create and share a to do list of projects to complete before our guests arrive.

Clean out kitchen pantry
Clean out and wipe down the refrigerator
Clean and pare down closets--two in the hallway and one in the office/guest room: one closet down, two to go!
Reupholster our dining room chairs with fabric I've had since January!
Reorganize bookshelves and dining room hutch
Clean all surfaces including baseboards: spot cleaning of apartment needed week of graduation
Wash slipcover on couch
Plan menu: Taste of St. Louis theme
Set up bar
Shop for said menu and bar--my dear friend Ashlee has said she will help with this!

Whew!  I'm tired already.  I think many naps may be in my future!

Image via

How was your weekend, friends?  Any major to do's on your plate this month?  Do tell!

Follow Through = the Name of the Game

I'm ready to tell you my secret now:  I see unfinished projects.

Pardon that lame Sixth Sense reference, but in all honesty I have a few unfinished projects around the house that I'm hoping by sharing with you here, it will hold me accountable and I will actually finish them.

The first is reupholstering our dining room chairs.  I upholstered them over a year ago (in fact it was my first blog post) and while I really liked the pattern, I bought a rug for the space a while back that just doesn't work with the fabric.  The rug was fifty percent off at Target, and since it was a percentage off that I rarely see at my local Target and a great price for a rug (34.99), I snapped it up!  The fabric (a bold blue and white patterned print pictured above) is sitting in my basement waiting to be stapled onto the chairs.

The second is repainting and reupholstering this little stool I bought at Goodwill this fall.  I had always planned to paint or dress it up somehow but never really got around to it.  So while I had the paint and sandpaper out for another project, I decided to paint the legs dark blue using some of the paint left over from painting my dresser this summer.  Now I want to stencil our initial "R" onto the woven basket and reupholster the top, perhaps with some of the fabric left over from the dining room chairs!

The third project is reorganizing our hutch in the dining room.  Right now it is crammed full of things and the display is not very pleasing to the eye.  I am hoping to spend an afternoon (or morning or evening) taking everything out out of it and reassigning some of it to the living room and some of it to our closet so that we can properly display what lovelies we do have.

The fourth is to finish spray painting two owls I bought during various thrift store trips white.  So far I have spray painted them with a primer coat and need to finish the job with a top coat.  You can see the owl cookie jar here and the owl statue here.

The final project involves repainting and re-purposing the wine flight set I bought at a local thrift store a few months ago.  My plan is to turn it into a lovely flower vase set.  So far, I have filled the hole in the tray where the menu would have sat, sanded the piece and painted the base of it white.  All that's left is to prime and paint the insets where the wine pitchers turned flower vases will go blue for a little color!

Please tell me you are like me and have unfinished projects laying around!  

How'd I Do?

Last week I shared my to do list with you all and I thought it would be fun to go back and see how I fared.

• Make turkey soup with the bones from our Thanksgiving turkey--done!  I even made homemade stock with the leftovers, crossing off another item on my 130 Before I'm Thirty list
• Unpack--finished, finished, finished
• Clean house--including floors and baseboards!--I scared Woods quite badly with our vacuum cleaner while vacuuming up dust bunnies but I got the job done.  Seriously, the sounds Woods was making are some I hope never to hear again!
• Decorate for Christmas--our apartment is festive and ready for Christmas!
• Buy/Make Christmas gifts for family and friends--J and I have over half the gifts for our families done, due in part to a very successful trip to Barnes and Noble yesterday
• Wrap said gifts and put them under our tree--I am picking up more wrapping paper after work to finish the job!
• Clear off my desk--work in progress.  I am hoping to finish this project this week!

For a busy week, I am proud of what I was able to accomplish.  Here's hoping I can have yet another productive week!

What about you?  Have you had any recent success on crossing off some big items on your to do list?  Let's hear it!

Long Weekend in Review and To-Do List

Happy Monday everyone!  I hope all those in the States had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend--J and I certainly did!

As I alluded to in this post, we spent the weekend with my grandparents in Peoria, IL.  Because I like lists, I am going to recap our stay in bullet point format.

We:

• Ate lots of turkey and fixings.  For a recap on our menu, click here.
• Watched lots of football.  Nebraska and more importantly, Notre Dame, won their games this weekend!
• Cooked and baked a lot, including hot breakfasts (eggs, waffles, and omelets) every morning
• Read and finished two books (okay that was just me!)
• Ate Agatucci's, the best pizza in Peoria
• Visited with my aunt, uncle and cousins
• Put up Christmas decorations with my grandparents and trimmed their tree
• Conducted research for a future blog post--that's all I can reveal for now!
• Took several naps (again that was just me!)

And to continue the bullet point theme, here is my to do list this week.  I hope I can get it all done!

This week I will:

• Make turkey soup with the bones from our Thanksgiving turkey
• Unpack
• Clean house--including floors and baseboards!
• Decorate for Christmas
• Buy/Make Christmas gifts for family and friends
• Wrap said gifts and put them under our tree
• Clear off my desk

How was your weekend friends?  Any exciting To Do's on your horizon?  Let's hear it!

Busy, Busy

I thought I would share with some to do's that are floating around in my head at the moment:

• Sand and paint Ravenswood wine flight tray from Value Village
• Finish spray painting owls (I primed them last night)
• Buy cat food for Woods
• Buy shrimp, lemons and crusty bread for dinner tonight--I'm making this and adding shrimp
• Visit Bed, Bath and Beyond to see if they have shelves like this
• Begin planning Thanksgiving table setting, now that Halloween is over
• Take down Halloween decorations
• Clean house
• Relax
• Try not to catch the cold I feel coming on...

What's on your to do list?

130 Before I'm Thirty

I'm a big fan of lists: to do lists, grocery lists, bucket lists, you name it.  So, inspired by Twenty Six to Life's 101 in 1001 Days and Making It Lovely's 30 Before I'm Thirty, among others, I decided to create my own list, with a twist.  Here is a list of 130 things I want to do before I turn thirty.

My 30th birthday is December 12, 2016.  Think I can do it?  I'm sure going to try and blog all about it along the way, of course!

Note: I've been working on this list for several weeks, but because work has been hectic lately and I worked all weekend, I haven't had a chance to share it before now.  That's why one of the items, number 57, is still on the list even though I accomplished that last week! I'm not cheating, I swear...

130 Before I'm Thirty

Gardening

1. Plant a garden and can the fruits of my labors
2. Grow a pumpkin from seed
3. Grow two heirloom vegetables
4. Grow a fresh herb garden with thyme, rosemary, dill, basil, and oregano
5. Grow my own lettuce
6. Grow potatoes
7. Go to a grape stomping, like this one
8. Start composting
9. Plant a tree

Cooking
10.  Make Ina Garten's homemade chicken stock
11.  Make Beef Wellington
12.  Make Boeuf Bourguignon
13. Bake homemade sour dough bread
14. Start a wine cellar
15. Cook and eat an all locally sourced meal
16. Cook my way through an entire cookbook, Julie and Julia style
17. Make pasta from scratch
18.  Make homemade gnocci
19.  Buy an immersion blender
20.  Make an authentic Spanish meal, complete with tapas and Paella
21. Make an authentic French meal
22. Make an authentic Indian meal
23. Join a supper club
24. Go vegetarian for a month
25. Complete a Chopped-style challenge at home
26.  Cook with a meat I've never cooked with before, like bison, duck, or goose
27. Write my own recipe for one dish

Reading
28. Read all of the books on my friend JDP's Must Read Book List
29. Join a book club
30. Start a book club
31.  Go to a book signing
32.  Meet Nancy E. Turner, author of my favorite book, These Is My Words


Civic Engagement
33. Volunteer on a Native American reservation
34. Volunteer for a political campaign
35. Have a letter to the editor published
36. Write a letter to a public official about an issue I am passionate about
37. Vote in every election
38. March in a political parade or participate in a sit-in

Travel
39. Travel to Europe
40. Go to either the Kentucky Derby or Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event
41. Visit Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park or Niagara Falls
42. Go backpacking with J
43. Go camping with J
44. Sleep on a boat overnight
45. Go on a cruise
46. Visit at least 3 presidential libraries with J
47. Plan and go on a staycation with J
48. Go to NYC to visit Megan
49. Take a trip by train with J and sleep on a train overnight
50. Visit a local museum in each new city we visit
51. Write postcards to ourselves on each trip we take

Blog
52. Host a giveaway on the blog
53. Learn how to use Photoshop
54. Buy Photoshop
55. Get own domain
56. Have 50 followers on my blog
57. Get featured on a blog--accomplished 10/15!

58. Blog twice a day, five days a week for two months straight
59. Buy a good camera
60. Comment on 10 blog posts in one day

Education
61. Relearn Spanish
62. Research family tree
63.  Attend an academic lecture for fun
64. Take guitar lessons
65. Learn finger picking on the guitar
66. Take voice lessons
67. Learn to restring guitar

DIY
68. Reupholster a piece of furniture
69. Sew our wedding quilt
70. Scrapbook our wedding pictures
71. Refinish and restore a piece of furniture
72. Learn to knit
73. DIY a home improvement project in our own house
74. Give all homemade gifts for Christmas one year
75. Buy a sewing machine
76. Create craft room or craft desk

Fitness
77. Join a couples bowling league with J
78. Carry a 150 average in bowling
79. Bowl a 160 game
80. Get to ideal weight
81. Learn to play tennis
82. Buy bicycles for J and I
83. Complete a Half Marathon
84. Complete a Triathlon
85. Take ballroom dance lessons with J

Equestrian
86. Buy a dressage saddle
87. Compete in a Dressage training level horse show
88. Own a horse again
89. Go on an overnight trail ride
90. Volunteer at a equine therapy facility
91. Learn Parelli games
92. Teach my future horse Parelli games
93. Buy a horse painting
94. Attend Chincoteague Pony Swim
95. Spend time with a foal

Big Purchases
96. Buy a new car
97. Buy at least a queen size bed, if not a California King
98. Buy a house

Finance
99. Pay off new car (when we get one)
100. Save 20% of income for 2 years
101. Create a 6 month emergency fund
102. Create a 9 month emergency fund
103. Overpay on mortgage payment at least three times (when we have a mortgage)
104. Pay back J's student loans
105. Deposit one year's tax refund directly into savings account

Miscellaneous
106. Learn to drive a stick shift
107. Learn how to change my oil
108. Learn how to change a flat tire
109. Learn to sail
110. Start writing letters to my sister again and write consistently with her
111. Go on a retreat with J

Health and Beauty
112. Go to the dentist
113. Learn to French braid my own hair
114. Grow my hair out
115. Dye my hair brown
116. Cut my hair short and donate to Locks of Love
117. Get eyelash extensions
118. Get a couples massage with J
119. Buy a great pair of jeans
120. Buy J some new great smelling cologne
121. Wear makeup every day for one month

Entertainment
122. Attend a local play production at least once a year
123. Watch ten new-to-me films that won the Oscar for Best Picture
124. Watch Citizen Kane and It's a Wonderful Life
125. Watch five new-to-me Broadway musical films then see a live production of the same musical
126. Watch all of Alfred Hitchcock's films
127. Go see all of the Best Picture nominated films during Oscar season one year

128. Go to a drive-in movie with J
129. Go to a dinner theatre
130. Attend a murder mystery dinner

What do you think?  Do you have a similar list with less or more items on it?  Would any of my "to do's" appear on your list?  Let's hear it...