Reunited.

I don't really know what I'd like to tell you about. I could tell you about the smoke coming from under the hood of my car. I could tell you about how I accidentally waxed off half my eyebrow last week. I could tell you about how I made this recipe for 2 single cupcakes, but I used baking soda instead of baking powder so they tasted like chemicals.  But...I don't really feel like it.  So, I'll tell you about this other thing instead.

I picked this awesome little thingie up at Goodwill for a few dollars a while ago.

I thought it was cute.  And it went along with my collection of pretty white things. And then I saw it on the Nester's china buffet in her book page decor post.  And I realized it was a two part little stand thingie. And I thought that was neat.

And then, I went thrifting with Freya, and found the second tier!

Originally priced at $1.99. Luckily, Salvation Army has a 50% off deal once a week. So, it only cost me $1.00 to reunite them! Umm, score.

The smaller one has the little brackets for yet another tier. I don't think I'll be so lucky as to find that one too. But you never know.

Little Punkins

Lara decided we were going to be super cute and fallish and walk her dog down to the pumpkin patch by her apartment for a girls night of pumpkin shopping.

The sign used to say "The pumpkins are coming!" For some reason I have to say that in a british accent.

Her friend Karen had two spare dogs she brought along. Dogs all around! 

It sounds cute on paper, but it wasn't going very well.  The chocolate lab is only 5 months old, and she was going nuts. She was barking, and jumping, and attacking, and growling. She was going to scare the children. 

We were at a loss. We thought she'd calm down on the walk, but it just made her worse. We were just about to turn around and walk home because there was no way we could bring the dogs around little kids when they were acting like that, but then I decided to try one more thing.

So I got down, and I looked deep into her eyes. I told her we couldn't have fun if she continued to act badly. We'd have to go home, and she couldn't see the pumpkins.

She behaved perfectly the rest of the night. I'm serious. It worked. We even got COMPLIMENTED on her behavior. 

Just call me the Dog Whisperer. 

I bought 4 tiny pumpkins. The cost me a whopping $2.00. I played with them for a while to figure out where our little burst of fall would make the biggest difference.

I finally just lined them all up on the kitchen window sill.  They look good with my new window treatment, yes?

The window "treatment" involved a large leftover piece of canvas dropcloth, three tacks, and two strategically placed staples.  I was planning to sew it, but the tacks and staples worked so...yea.

I asked Cory what he thought about it.

Without looking up he says,"I think they're beautiful my love. You are sooo fancy."

I am so fancy.

Desperate times/measures

Yesterday I wrenched our steadfastly closed kitchen window open, and let the fall breeze blow in. It made me kind of giddy. And I did the dishes, and wind blew in through the window, and  I stared outside for a while. And noticed there were leaves in the gutters. And this surprised me. The weather has been increasingly lovely, finally somewhat cool and comfortable. The first "official" day of fall was last week (or so I heard from friend's facebook status reports). That should have tipped me off, yet, I'm still surprised to see the leaves falling. 

We don't really get a crazy riot of colors down here. Everything just goes kind of brownish from Octoberish to Februaryish, and then perks back up in March-ish. So I took a walk, and enjoyed the new brownishness of a Northern Florida Fall.

After my walk I was feeling rather motivated and decided to tackle a problem we have. We own approximately 23 cups. And we've developed a very, very bad habit of using them. All of them. I've been irritated/impressed with it for a while--two people should not be flying through 23 cups a week!--but had yet to do anything about it. We'd fill up the dishwasher with cups in 3 days. Things were out of control.

 I mentioned to Cory a while ago that we should limit ourselves to one cup, that we rinse out and reuse. But neither of us followed through with that.

So, I hid the cups. Well almost all the cups.

So far its working!

General Conference Weekend

It feels so good to just step back and listen to the wise words of the prophet and apostles. 

So relaxing, inspiring, and very much needed.

Yesterday we streamed the session online, and my hands painted while my mind listened. 

(You can see the painted project here, if you're so inclined)

One line I just can't get out of my head: "It's okay to scrimp and save." 

It's more than okay! Get with it.

It's a huge weakness I have, but luckily Cory is what I like the call the "Anti-Spend."  So I'll follow his lead.

via

A little spacey

It all started yesterday. Saturday morning Cory woke up early to meet a friend for a round of golf (the ONLY thing in the world that could wake Cory up early on a Saturday morning is golf.). 

He kissed me goodbye as I snoozed, and I heard him open the door to leave. Then I heard "LIN-dy!"

(Its a very particular gaspy tone Cory has of pronouncing my name when my behavior has really shocked him. I hadn't heard it in a while. I heard it a lot while we were dating. I suppose he's grown accustomed to my ways...(name that movie, and we're going to be great friends. Bosom buddies!))

Back to the point...

Yea. Apparently I forgot one key step (Ha!) when I was coming home on Friday night. Namely, bringing the keys with me. I'm just glad they were still there in the morning.

I had some other stories to tell you about things that I forgot about, but, very appropriately, I can't remember them right now. Just know, it's been happening a lot lately.

Oh, I remember one! Today I forgot to feed Cory dinner. 

He has a huge test on Tuesday, and he's been a little distracted with that. He was gone for a large portion of the afternoon today, and I ate a late lunch while he was out.

Cory came home, we talked for a minute, and then he went right back to the books (and youtube videos that teach "Signals and Systems" from a man with a heavy Indian accent. He pronounces "third" as "turd". And "thirdly" as "turdly." And, it turns out, a lot of the concepts come in sets of three.)

Anyway, Cory comes out at 10:00, and mentions that he's hungry. Oh yea...dinner.

He forgets to eat routinely, so this isn't out of the ordinary for him.

 So, I made him some dinner. Just whipped it right up.

I'm reallly awesome.

Speaking of orange juice, I bought  a gallon of it yesterday.

This is what it looks like today.

It's not even the GOOD orange juice!

Impressive, yes? I don't think we're going to have to worry about the October 21st expiration date. What a relief.

Love at Home

So, the other day I saw this cute little printable on pinterest.

via

And it's true. Cory is definitely the best part of coming home. 

But I like other things about our home too. Especially this new place.

For instance, if I use the centrally located bathroom plug, I can vacuum the whole apartment without unplugging even once. This makes me so happy.

And did I mention it's the perfect jogging (maybe biking??) distance from work? Two miles. Perfect work out.

Also, I feel safe. Which is a really nice, previously taken for granted, perk.

Most of all, we're finally starting to be really settled in. It is awesome.

Ready for a before/after? If not, prepare yourself.

This was the view right as you walked in the door on moving day:

It's only taken a mere 3.5 months (ha!) to get to this: 

I found the rug at Target on clearance a few weeks ago. I had some birthday money set aside just for such an occasion. That bad boy came home with me, and Cory loves it too.

I know that Cory loves it because he protects it as if it were our first born child. "Don't spill on that the carpet!" is his battle cry. So far the rug has escaped unscathed.

And I'm just dying to tell you that our curtains are really table cloths. The cheapest kind you can buy at Wal-Mart. I just had to get it off my chest.

The little clips are also from Walmart. 3ish bucks a pack. Now anything clippable is curtains!
This was a game changer for me...

The pictures in the corner are the very same wedding pictures of our parents and grand parents mentioned in this post. I wanted a grid of pictures, and these were the lucky winners.

The 11x14 frames were $5.00 each at Walmart. Which adds up pretty quickly, but it was the cheapest I could find. 

I "matted" the pictures with poster board and tape because I used up all my monies on the frames. ($30.00 total project budget. Well, actually I used monies from the "grocery budget" for this one. And Cory hasn't even missed the cheese and bread.) 

The real mats would have cost me $7.00 EACH at Micheal's. $42.00?? For mats?

 Too rich for my blood.  Maybe I can save up for them, and have real mats in a few years.

So, I'm loving this mostly finished room. I have one little, tiny problem. It's called "this whole entire wall above the couch."

I don't know what to put there. I thought the shelves were a great idea but..nothing I put on them seems to work. So, I turn to you. Ideas?

A few tiny things.

My basil is growing up. I'm so proud of it. I watch it change a little more every day, and my chest swells every time I walk in the door and see that it's not dead yet. I imagine this is what parenting feels like, only quieter. And with less poop involved.

Anyway, the following story happened a few months ago, but I forgot about it. And, it's been a while since I've shared a "Cory's take on interior design" story. So, here's a little gem, from me to you.

Just before he left for his mission, Cory's younger brother, Brendon, purchased a new watch. The watch came wrapped around a fancy little pillow that fits into the palm of your hand.

Brendon gave this little pillow to Cory. Maybe because it said "Denmark" on it. (Cory served his mission in the Netherlands. (Update 9/23/11: Cory has since informed me that Denmark and the Netherlands are in no way related. My bad.) Maybe because its just the type of random thing that would appeal to Cory.

I honestly don't know.

Regardless, Cory accepted his gift.

I can only imagine the thought process that transpired as he tried to find the perfect place for his new little friend.

 A few days later I discovered this:

Look closely. It's there. Tucked ever so gently between the yellow doily pillow, and the orange leafy pillow.

I guess he figured every other pillow we own is here, so why should this one be treated any differently?

Why indeed.

P.S. I left it there. It makes me smile every time I see it.