MissMarried

Delicious Dinners: Buttery Halibut with Smashed Potatoes

2011-06-02T15:18:00.001-04:00

DANG! This was a good meal! This is a Rachael Ray concoction and to be perfectly honest, I think I tore this recipe out of the magazine because it is what I could call "pretty food". I wouldn't really consider us tremendous fish eaters--- I mean, we certainly eat fish, but I only make it once or twice a month max. Regardless, the colors in this dish just looked really appealing so I tore it out and figured I would get around to making it eventually.

I was digging though my recipe binder this past weekend and though, "Huh, haven't made this dish yet. Let's give it a try".

We were not disappointed. I mean, look at this gorgeous food. Yum. (By the way, it's not my picture... I borrowed it from Rachael's website.) View her version here.

Ingredients:
6 tablespoons butter, 3 tablespoons softened
1 sun-dried tomato packed in olive oil finely chopped-- I used a regular tomato and it was more than adequate.
1 tablespoon finely chopped scallion
1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
Salt and pepper
1 pound small new potatoes
Four 6 to 8 ounce halibut fillets-- I used 2 fillets. There was no way we were going to be able to eat 2 fillets each. I didn't halve anything else in the recipe though and it worked out just fine.
2 tablespoons flour

Directions:
In a small bowl, combine the softened butter, sun-dried tomato (or regular tomato if you are me and like to make your own substitutions), scallion and garlic; season with salt and pepper.

In a large saucepan, add the potatoes and enough salted water to cover. Cover and bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until tender, about 15 minutes (mine took closer to 20 mins). Drain, then smash the potatoes with 1 tablespoon butter; season with salt and pepper.

Season the fish with salt and pepper, then coat lightly with the flour. In a large nonstick skillet, melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Add the fish and cook, turning once, until golden and firm to the touch, 7 to 8 minutes total.

Transfer the fish to serving plates and top with the tomato-scallion butter. Serve with the smashed potatoes.

Enjoy! Like I said, we thought this dinner was fantastic and it was easy to make, too! Even if you aren't a big fish eater, I would still give this one a try. Halibut is such a mild fish that you might be pleasantly surprised!

Container Gardening

2011-05-30T15:17:00.000-04:00

Despite the fact the thermometer reads 92 degrees here today, I have been wanting to get the flowers and hanging baskets that we put on our front porch together. It's Memorial Day weekend and that means it's the start of summer and considering the flowers have been out at all of the garden centers since before Mother's Day I felt like I was really beind! Not anymore!

As I was pondering what to do for the baskets and such this year, I came across what Better Homes and Gardens calls "container gardens" in their June edition. Someday when I have a huge porch or deck and tons of room for planters that are as tall as me, I will exactly copy what you see below. Gorogeous, right? I love the way that they look and great a living area on an otherwise plain looking deck.

For now, this is what I came up with. One of my favorite plants in the small lime green one in the front of the pot. It's a sweet potato vine and grows downward into this really beautiful chain like vine. Can't wait to see how it grows over the summer!

Just Keep Swimming... The Story of My Life Right Now

2011-05-25T17:53:00.003-04:00

source

Enough said. Just Keep Swimming.

Checking Projects off the List

2011-05-23T12:10:00.000-04:00

I'm beginning week two of lay off adventure and it's been a bit of a blessing. I never thought I'd be able to say that... but it has. I've had time to think about what my next career move will be, apply to openings with careful thought, and really make a smart choice, not just the quick and rash choice.
One of the HUGE positives that has come of this time is that I have been able to get some projects done around the house that MrMarried and I have been putting off ~~forever~~ for a while. They aren't hard projects, but they are just ones that we never see to get around to. It feel good to tackle a few of them though!

Our front door's kickplate-- I don't even know if that's what it's called-- had seen better days. It was showing it's old green, yes sea foam green trim that we had painted over a few years ago and really needed some TLC.

See what I mean? Exposed wood = bad.

I scraped all of the old, chipping paint off of the wood, (Be sure not to skip this step if you are going to paint over something-- it's important!) and broke out the patch and paint. I call it patch and paint, but as you can see from the photo, that's not the correct term.

Just fill in the big holes, let dry, and sand it down. Then you are ready for paint!

Not bad, eh?

Of course, I did have some help throughout this whole project. He was mostly there for moral support. It was a tough day for him. Look how sleepy he looks.

Sorry for my cat momma moment.

The new threshold looks great though and I'm glad to check this off my list!

I've Been Laid Off. {Again}.

2011-05-13T12:59:00.000-04:00

This is a hard post to write.

This is a REALLY hard post to write.

But, this is also my blog, and it’s a place where I want/need to write down what is happening in my life so in five or ten years, I can look back at my thoughts and remember what was going through my head at that moment in time.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane. Shall we?

It was January 2010 and I was working for a small start up. I had just returned from the extended Christmas holiday that the company graciously provided as a perk. I knew the company was in trouble and needed to find a buyer, as the venture capital funding they were relying on was drying up. I never thought the buyer they had found would be conducting MAJOR layoffs…. To the tune of 1/2 of the company.

I was part of the group that lost their jobs that January morning, but I was one of three people asked to stay on and transition work for a 30 day period. At least I still had a job for 30 days.

I worked my butt off, and became quite close with the new management team. If my memory serves me correctly, on the 2nd to last day of the transition period, I was asked to stay with the company full time and forget any of the layoff talk had ever happened.

I accepted my employer’s proposal to say on, because even if the situation was tough to “forgive and forget”… I was (1) still employed , (2) it was a job I was comfortable doing, and (3) I knew I could quietly keep looking for something better.

Well, I found something better at the end of March 2010. I resigned, {Remember this post? I was scared to death!} and thought I’d never look back.

I looked back this past Monday, and every part of my being screamed, "WHY? WHY? WHY?"

I was laid off on Monday. For the 2nd time in a year and half.

Ouch.

I liked my job and was happy with what I was doing. Managment seemed to be really happy with me too. I had my annual review in March and recieved glowing remarks as a result. Things seemed to be going really well. But, businenss is business, and over the last week, I've learned that the company is really struggling and as a result laid off me and three other people.

Fore me. being laid off is a soul crushing feeling. You feel like you’re worthless, incompetent, and just no good. It hurts to the core.

So, why am I writing this recap of despair for the entire internet to see? Because, if you’ve been laid off, no matter how many times someone tells you “It’s not your fault”, it can NEVER hurt to read it, see it, or reinforce the idea in your brain. I’m finally starting to understand what “It’s not your fault” means.
The first time I was laid off, I didn’t get it. I thought there had to be SOMETHING I could have done to have prevented it. The truth is, there wasn’t. I couldn’t prevent the new owners from buying the company. I couldn’t do a song and dance to prove how much talent they would be losing if they let me go. There was nothing I could do.

This time was different. Even when they were telling me my position ceased to exist, my uncontorable tears and hypervelentaing did nothing to change the situation.

I won't to get into the details of my most recent organization and how messed up it is and why at least dozen people have been laid off in the last year. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that I’m going to take hold of the things that I CAN control and that I CAN influence.

I’m going to come back stronger. It might not be tomorrow, but, watch me. It will happen, and I’m not looking back this time.

My sweet, supportive husband gave me a card this week that has some of the truest words ever written. Good old Hallmark. Here they are:

I am so sorry.
There’s nothing fair or right about any of this, and nothing I can say will make it okay—as much as I wish it could.
There’s so much suffering and loss given these times we’re in, but you’ve got to believe it’s because of the times and not because of you that this is happening.
I know that’s true, because I know you.
You intelligence, your humor, your hard work, and your attitude are just a few of the reasons that I also know you will get through this—and you know I’m hoping that happens sooner rather than later.
So please, when you’re ready, take heart, take care and trust that everything really will turn out okay.

Savannah

2011-05-09T09:50:00.000-04:00

We just returned from a long weekend in Savannah, and I will certainly blog more about the trip later. It was a wonderful, rejuvenating weekend and I'm to thankful that we were able to get away for a few days.

I have lots to catch up on before I can sit down and blog, but I thought I'd leave you with one of my favorite images from the trip.

This was taken during out biking tour of the gorgeous Historic District. I must have been Southern in a previous life because everything about this city was wonderful.

My Love/Hate Relationship with Paneling

2011-03-24T15:04:00.002-04:00

I've always thought that I had a love/hate relationship with paneling. Well, if we're being honest here, it's more like just a hate/hate relationship with paneling; but recently, I may be warming to the thought of letting some paneling back into my life.

DH and I live in a home built in the 1920's. When he moved in, saying that some of the decor was outdated was an understatement.

A. Serious. Understatement.

He worked on updating things here and there before I moved in, and after we got married, we've continued to work room by room to remodel much of the house eradicating all forms of the horrible paneling.

Remember my 70's era kitchen before photos? Okay, this isn't really my kitchen, but it looked a lot like it. I almost shudder just thinking of the old kitchen.

If you wish, you can read updates on my kitchen here and here.

Recently, however, I have really been getting into wainscoting.... and it scares the living daylights out of me.... because it's PANELING! I just tell myself that it's refined paneling and not the gross 1970's paneling that we had everywhere in the house not that long ago. I am really falling in love with it.

We have a bathroom that we'd like to remodel and I think I'm going to incorporate wainscoting into the redesign. The bathroom has a multitude of sins that come along with an old house like slightly uneven walls and sloping floors. We need to cover these things up. Enter the solution to messy walls.... wainscoting.

How could you not love this stuff?

source

From what I have read, it isn't even that hard to install. Given that, and the fact that I have a pretty handy husband, I think we will okay with this remodel! Fingers crossed, of course. If the bathroom goes well, I like the stuff enough that I would put it in other part of my home, too. Look at this gorgeous entryway. This just screams my taste. We of course do not have an entryway like this, but a girl can dream, right?

source

Does anyone have any experience with wainscoting? Let me know, send me links, school me on your wonderful ways! I can't wait to tackle this project.

Water for Elephants

2011-03-04T08:52:00.000-05:00

I was a little late to the party when I read Water for Elephants last summer, but I truly enjoyed the book that everyone had been talking about for months. When I finished the book last August and discovered it was being adapted for film, I wrote about my excitement here on my blog.

Then I stumbled across this piece of eye candy for the movie this morning, and it has totally refueled my excitement for the movie! I can't wait!

How gorgeous is Reese?

source

Love it!

A Daily Laugh Over Thin Mints

2011-02-24T09:29:00.000-05:00

The back story:
MrMarried loves Girl Scout ThinMints. It's as though the he has a magnet that attracts all Thin Mint favored goodness directly towards him.

Exhibit A: My "Thin Mint" shampoo. I had a free coupon for a bottle of Organix shampoo not long ago, so I thought I'd try the stuff. I ended up really liking what it did to my hair, and have been using it quite regularly. I noticed that I was going through the bottles really quickly, and my suspisions were correct...MrMarried was using the stuff. I'm almost sure he has completely converted to the "Thin Mint" brand (as he calls it).

link

The man has about and inch and a half of hair... he could wash it with the stuff thats $1/gallon and it wouldn't matter.... but oh well. At least his hair smells good, right?

The conversation:
An actual conversation that occurred between MrMarried and I (via text) at 9:02 AM this morning.

MissMarried: Babe, the cookies are here. (I attached this picture to the text)...

MrMarried: Finally! Bring them home right now. I'll meet you at the house.

MissMarried. Haha. You will have to wait until tonight.

MrMarried: Fine.

Now for the hilarious part: You can't really understand his tone based on this blog post, but I promise you, my husband was dead serious when he suggested that I leave work and meet him at home for the cookie exchange.

Sorry, honey, eight hours won't kill ya. See you tonight.

Dancing with the Stars-- Beginners Style

2011-01-28T14:27:00.001-05:00

Last fall Mr. Married was a groomsman in a friend's wedding. Although the bride and the groom live in Texas, they decided to have the wedding here in Pennsylvania and bring the Texas crew up here for some good old northern hospitality (if that even exists). Kidding-- I love my hometown!

We got to meet the Texas half of the bridal party before the wedding at various pre-wedding events and were particularly fond of the best man and his wife. They were just kind, fun people who could TWO STEP LIKE LIKE NOTHING I HAVE EVER SEEN... and waltz... and cha-cha... and salsa. I could go on. It was unreal.

At the wedding, Mr.Married and I were on the dance floor all night holding our own, but with absolutely no dance training between the two of us other than elementary school tap and ballet lessons we couldn't hold a match to their ~~candle~~ bonfire.

I could tell by husband's face-- he wanted to dance like that.

Then we started watching Dancing with the Stars. Religiously. I could see the "I want to learn to dance like that" flame that was lit inside of him grow a little more.

Let's pause for a second here... my husband's favorite store is Home Depot. He owns and uses(!) more power tools that a small army of handymen. Given the choice he would eat steak and potatoes every night. He lives for hockey and when the players bleed on the ice. He is just very much a manly-man. He is not one that I can consult about decorating and the fine arts.... and HE wants to Learn How to Dance?!?! This rocks! Now, for the record, you I get that you can be a manly-man and still be in touch with your feminine side, so please don't send me nasty comments.

Fast forward to Christmas. Under the tree this year, Mr. Married crafted an idea to give us dancing lessons and we are starting the week of Valentine's Day.

I don't expect it to be anything like this, beacuse let's face it, this woman has practically zero clothes on:

Or like this:

But I know it's going to be a blast. It's a 10 week class, I am hoping that we will have some skills at the end... or at least enough skills to move on to the advanced class!

Have any of you ever taken a ballroom dance class? What do I wear? What kind of shoes do I need? What can I expect? Fill me in on the details.

Have a great weekend!

January Loves

2010-12-29T09:34:00.003-05:00

I think it's pretty evident that since I haven't blogged in nearly a month, that there has been a lot going on in the month of December. Who didn't have a crazy December though? I'm proud to say that most of the work craziness is behind me, and I'm focusing on 2011 and the renewal it brings. I'm thrilled. Plus, I can deal with the daily non-work crazy... that's what makes life fun, right?

There are some things that I'm loving as January is upon us. I call them my "January Loves". In no particular order, here we go:

1. Wii Fit Plus

Mr. Married gave this to me for Christmas, and I LOVE it. Seriously LOVE. I'm finding it great for a quick workout when I can't ~~don't have an ounce of motivation left to~~ get to the gym after a long day. I'm still getting used to all the settings, but I'm finding that some of them can be quite challenging! I think it's really what you put into it. Hardwork in = results out. Junk in = Junk out.

2. Hooked on Houses Blog

I think it's a fact that I was either a real estate agent, an interior designer, or Sabrina Soto from HGTV in a previous life. House Hunters, Designed to Sell, Candice Olson's Divine Design... I could watch them ALL day... just ask my husband. Now, I never said I was actually good at decorating, but I love the shows and all things houses.... which leads me to my next "January Love": The Hooked on Houses blog.

I came across the blog because I had just caught part of the movie Something's Gotta Give, and I remembered how much I ADORED the house that they used for filming. Remember this house?

Holy Moly. I could live there in a heartbeat. I googled the house in the movie and came across The Hooked on Houses post. Apparently the exterior of the house is actually on Long Island in the Hamptons, but the interior was created on a sound stage. But the sound stage/sets, I believe, were based on the real house.

Regardless, if you love houses, this website it for you. They have so much more than just movie houses, too!

3. The Container Store and particularly the Elfa Closet Sale

I've blogged about my closet before, and to be perfectly honest, there aren't many updates on this project. We are about 80% complete, and the project has just stalled. It's frustrating. Sure, I have bought some neater storage, so the shoe boxes aren't a disaster- aka this mess is NOTHING like this anymore:

(I suppose I should post a picture of what it really looks like now. I will get around to it!)

But there are still some things that just need to get done. Hello carpet! Anyway... the reason I am blubbering on about this closet has to do with the image right under the #3 "January Love". Take a good look at it. See that beautiful white storage contraption and how nicely it fits into that funny sized space?

Now take a good look at this image from the construction phase of the closet (I think the caption says it all):

It's like the stars have aligned and the people at the Container Store (God Bless them!!) came into my house when I was sleeping and designed a solution for MY roofline. I hear the angels singing, for real I do! Call me nuts, but I'm excited about this one!

I think a serious purchase is about to happen on their website since I unfortunately do not have one of these stores in a bazillion mile radius of my house. You would think I lived on an abandoned island somewhere.

What are your "January Loves"? I hope that whatever they happen to be, they're putting you in a great mood for the year ahead!

"I Don't Get It"- Christmas Shopping Edition

2010-12-03T15:29:00.000-05:00

Have you ever had an experience where you just think...."Why is this so backward?!"

I had just such an experience last night.

I needed to track down a Christmas gift game for the Wii. Sims 3 for Wii to be precise. I checked all the usual suspects.

Amazon (shockingly the most expensive!) at $51.

Best Buy at $49.99.

Target also at $49.99.

After my research, I thought I was pretty much stuck paying $50 for the game, which is pretty typical for these types of games. My plan was to hit up Target, since it's on the way home, buy the game, and call it a day.

When... what to my wondering eyes did appear, but a miniature price and twenty bucks off of the reindeer ...err...game. At Toys 'R' Us! I never even thought to look there.

I quickly made sure it was actually the game that I wanted (it was), and changed my plans to head over to the store (also on my way home) and swoop up the game.

When I got to the store, I quickly found an associate, asked for the game, and double checked the price. The store's shelf said $49.99. I pulled up ToysRUs.com my blackberry, showed the associate my screen and pointed to the $29.99 price.

He blinked. Blinked again. Looked confused. And went to get his manager.

The manager, in her most unprofessional tone possible, (seriously, she was quite rude) stated that "Toys 'R' Us the store, and Toys 'R' Us the website are 'different companies' (huh?!) and they can't price match their website." She went on to say that, "With shipping and handling, the item would probably be more than the $49.99 price that they offered in the store."

Wrong.

$29.99 + $2.98 shipping + $2.10 tax = Drum roll please....$37.07.

Almost $13 cheaper to have Toys 'R' Us pay someone to ship the game to my house vs. me picking it up in store. Since when is that ever the case?

The manager wasn't budging, so I smiled, politely said, "Okay, I'll just buy it online, and left. Thinking to myself the whole time, this is so backwards... but I'm still getting a deal.

Now if I could only figure out a way to get off their mailing list that I will probably be on until the end of time.... eh, what the heck? Maybe it will come in handy when I have kids someday.

Thankful

2010-11-24T11:35:00.000-05:00

I’ve always been a "glass-half-full" type of person, and that little person inside of me comes out even more during this holiday season that is upon us.

I am going to get these numbers wrong, but I’ve heard it said that life is something like 10% of the situation you're faced with and 90% how you react to it. Maybe it’s even higher than that, I’m not sure.

I believe we all have a choice when we wake up every morning. We choose to wake up on the positive side of the bed, or roll out onto the negative side…. And although it’s not easy, I fight like the devil each day to wake on the positive side.

This week, one of my colleagues was whining about how she didn’t have any remaining vacation days to take off for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I just smiled and nodded, and thought to myself… I don’t have any days either, but I’m THANKFUL that I’m earning a paycheck for doing my job for three days, and then I’m still being paid to be at home with my family for the remaining two. I wasn’t complaining about the three days I was working, but I was focusing on the positive two days that I had off.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I realize this is an over simplified example. Finding the sliver lining in everything is. Not. Easy. Sometimes, it's impossible. I get that. I’ve been there. But on the other hand, when there are simple examples around me where I can just flip my mindset from complaining (about not having three days off), to celebrating (that I have two)… that’s one more life situation that now has a positive spin, rather than a negative one. I’ve found when I add up all of the tiny positives in my life, you better believe I can flip the positive side of the balancing seesaw scale to outweigh the negative side… even if I'm facing some daunting negatives.

I hope that your Thanksgiving brings the out even the tiniest positives in your life. Whether it's being able to have a small (or huge) gathering with your family tomorrow, reflecting on good health, recognizing a milestone you achieved this year, or something else that is special to you, I hope that your Thanksgiving is joyous and reflective. We are all so blessed.

I remember as I was planning my wedding, my mom's favorite saying when people would ask "Are you stressed about how much you have to do?" was "We're too blessed to be stressed."

Amen, Mama! Her saying applies to far more than just wedding planning.

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

2010-11-11T21:41:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week I tweeted about the urge I've been feeling to put up one of our many Christmas trees. We put up three trees last year, and let me tell you, those babies do not decorate themselves. So this year I've been thinking... the earlier... the better. Plus, Christmas is the biggest, merriest, and most wonderful holiday of the year for our house. Why not stretch it out as long as possible? I love Christmas!

I have also been thinking about our holiday Christmas cards that need to go out. I've read about the Shutterfly giveaway offer, visited TinyPrints, perused Minted, and looked at tons of Etsy shops and I still haven't settled on a final decision yet, but I know I need to get moving! I have written many blog posts about my love for all things paper and all things stationery, so I don't know what is wrong with me, but writing this post has put me back in the mindset.

Christmas cards were a big part of the way that my family celebrated the holidays when I was growing up, and I remember running off the bus and heading straight to the mailbox to see which family greeting had arrived in our mailbox that day.

I like to think that there are kids on our Christmas list that do the same thing, so I always try to make our cards personal. Here are some of the contenders for this year:

First, two from Shutterfly:

And two from Minted:

One thing I have learned from this... I guess I like red cards, but the search continues.

Happy shopping if you are still looking for your cards.

Lists Keep Me Sane

2010-10-30T16:08:00.000-04:00

I love lists and spreadsheets. I make make them for everything because they help me to keep myself organized, and therefore, feeling sane.

For example, we went vacation next week... the entire week was on a speadsheeted. I just feel like I have a grasp on what I need to do when it's on a list or on a speadsheet. Blame it on my type A++ personality. I can't help it, ~~so go easy on me in the comments section~~.

Remember back in the day in... FEBRUARY.... when I blogged about my closet? I'm almost embarrassed to type the would February because it was SO long ago. Sheesh.

MrMarried and I had been making great progress with the framing, the drywall, and the closet components all winter long, but when I moved my clothes into the new space in early March, all progress towards completion came to a screeching halt.

I will admit that we had a busy, busy summer and didn't have a lot of free time to work on the closet, but now that the weather is cooling off and our summer commitments have ended, it's time to finish this dang closet.

And I'm going to do it the only may I know how.

I'm making a list.

I've seen so many bloggers that publish inspiring and thoughtful life lists that detail items they would like to accomplish in the upcoming year or before they turn 30...well, I'm taking the inspiration down a notch and just publishing a "nose-to-the-grindstone-just-get-this-crap-done-list".

I'm know that if I put it in writing, I'll stick to it, or you guys will keep me accountable, or something!

Here is where we are (notice that this outline starts with #1... it goes up to #4 because that's how many rooms have projects that are in progress, but I will spare you all the details):

1. Upstairs Attic
   - ~~Hang Bridal Shower picture~~
   - Hang other art on side wall
   - ~~Guest Book sign~~
   - Kim's Art
   - "All Because" sign
   - ~~Buy Container Store shoe storage~~
   - ~~Donate old shoes and throw out old shoe boxes~~
   - ~~Clean and organize top shelf~~
   - Buy "prettier" storage for top shelf
   - Hang other closet doors
   - Hang trim
   - Hang blinds
   - Buy and hang curtains
   - Select, buy, and have carpet installed

Let's Fast Forward the Clock to Friday

2010-10-20T17:02:00.001-04:00

I've been a bad blogger lately.... so what else is new? I am noticing this is becoming a recurring theme for me. The trouble is that I LOVE TO BLOG... but I just never can seem to find the time to sit down and get my thoughts onto ~~paper~~... errr, the screen. I certainly know that I'm not alone in this, so I will just roll with the punches, and blog when I find time to blog....C'est la vie, right?

I have so much I'd love to write about centered about my job, but because I work for a publicly traded company, and I'd like to keep my job... my mouth will mostly stay shut. I will say one thing. I could write the next Devil Wears Prada with some of the crap that one of my bosses pulls. Unreal.

If you are a fan of The Office on NBC, you might remember a hilarious episode that they did on Ethics...he needs to watch it. Enough said.

On a positive note, I'm thrilled that this is last week of work until November! It sounds like November is still months away, but somehow in reality it's only 12 days away! Where does the time go? MrMarried and I are talking the last week of October as vacation time for some serious rest and relaxation. I can't wait. This girl needs a vacation BAD :)

Not a super pleasant forecast for some of our vacation next week... but hoping this turns around!

Regardless, I'm still looking forward to every second of our time away! (Side note- I love Wednesday's link on "Handling Mean Drivers" from weather.com. Kind of random for a weather website).

Counting the Days

2010-10-06T14:10:00.001-04:00

Come onnnn vacation! October (vacation month) is finally here, and I'm counting the days.

MrMarried and I have worked hard this year, waved goodbye to colleague after colleague as they, one after another, took off for a week of relaxation and fun. All. Summer. Long. Now, it's our turn.

We were married in September of 2009 and wanted to take a week away for our anniversary, but the timing didn't work out. Instead, we've decided to take a fall trip rather than take an anniversary trip.

We will be home basing for some of the trip here (a cute little harbor hotel in the finger lakes of NY):

And here (Downtown Boston):

And plan to do a whole-lot-of-nothingness other than site seeing and enjoying each other's company. Just a few more weeks to go!

One Year of Wedded Bliss... and a Gift for Us!

2010-09-28T08:00:00.003-04:00

I almost forgot!

I was so excited to blog about this little baby, that it somehow fell off my radar in the last post. I was excited, yet I forgot... strange, I know.

I have this dreadful college- dorm-ish bulletin/cork board in our living room. I was inspired by the image from Ballard Designs below, and I wanted it to be a fun keepsake board and look something like this:

...but it ended up looking disorganized and uninspired. Plus, it looked too "office like" for a living room. Probably why Ballard Designs had their cork board above a desk. Imagine that.

So... I am bagging the whole cork board in the living room idea, for something that represents a more mature style, and represents where we are as a couple.

Enter Etsy. One of my great, true loves.

I've always liked the "Family Established" signs, and I thought as a one year anniversary gift, I would give this little sign to us. I came across a great Etsy shop with some hand painted signs and decided to purchase one similar to this one:

source

I have some botantical art that has been tucked away for a year simply because I haven't found the right place to hang it that will compliment the sign quite well. We will see how it goes!

One Year of Wedded Bliss

2010-09-27T14:38:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, September 26th, marked MrMarried and my 1st anniversary. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was writing a post for our six month anniversary!

We had a blast this weekend reminiscing about what we were doing one year ago, and I never seem to get sick of hearing our wedding story (even though I lived through it!) I love how MrMarried remembers little details that I can't recall, and it's just fun to remind each other of the magic of our day.

To celebrate, we headed downtown to the restaurant that catered the meal for the wedding, and we reserved a room in the hotel where we stayed after the wedding. Even though we were in our hometown, it still felt like a weekend getaway.

MrMarried called the florist who did our wedding, and asked her to create something to greet us in the hotel room. She made a beautiful arrangement of long stem roses, and my blackberry's camera doesn't do them justice. Note to self: bring the nice camera to anniversary celebrations.

Since my parents ate the top of our wedding cake (HA! I told them it was okay to do so since many of our friends have told us that year old cake tastes terrible), they dropped off a replacement fresh cake for us to enjoy. The cake was even better than I remember. Yum! There might only be a tiny, tiny sliver left this morning. Oops.

I did want to share something I learned as I was planning our anniversary dinner. I had thought that the restaurant was in the Entertainment Book so I looked for a coupon, but when I discovered they weren't, I tried restaurant.com based on a suggestion from a friend and a few twitter people. My friend swears by the website, but I was a little leery at first. The website sells deeply discounted gift certificates ($10 for $25 worth or food, for $40 for $100 in food) to select restaurants.

When I was checking out on the website, I saw a very large area to enter a coupon code-- which is a dead giveaway that the website not only publishes coupon codes, but that they are usually easy find online. I checked out my favorite coupon site, and sure enough, found a code for 80% (!) off. I thought it was too good to be true, but the website took the code and charged me $3 for $25 in food.

I picked my chin up off my desk, printed out the paper gift certificate, and prayed it would work when we went to dinner on Saturday. Dinner went off without a hitch, and the waitress happily accepted our gift certificate. If you use the website though, read the fine print, because most restaurants only let you use one gift certificate at a time.

Have a great start your week!

Delicious Dinners: Penne with Ricotta and Bacon

2010-09-21T13:32:00.000-04:00

I haven't been cooking much lately because it's just been too darn hot to be standing over a stove after work. To beat the heat, I've opted for grilling over inside cooking, and we can enjoy the few months where we don't have to pile on the layers to keep from freezing!

Now that the weather is finally cooling down, I have been transitioning into an inside cooking, decorating, and nesting mode and thought it was a perfect time to try a new recipe.

I subscribe to Rachael Ray's magazine and really like the section it each issue that she calls "Take 5." These are meals that include 5 ingredients or less, and I have found that even though they are short on ingredients, they aren't short on taste, and that's what I love about them! Plus, MrMarried has no idea if I used 50 ingredients or just 5, so on weeknights, I vote the simpler... the better! I leave the big, complicated dinners for the weekend when I actually have the time to cook.

This meal took about 15-20 minutes, left plenty of left overs for lunch the next day, and even tasted better the 2nd day! What is it about pasta left overs that are that much better the 2nd time around? I think it has something to do with the chilling and the congealing of the ingredients. Anyway... I digress.

Onto the recipe!

source

Ingredients:
1 pound penne
8 slices bacon, about 1/2 pound --I used turkey bacon
½ large onion, sliced
15 ounces whole-milk ricotta cheese, at room temperature --I used low fat ricotta
10 fresh basil leaves, chopped

Directions:
1. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the penne until al dente. Reserve one ladle of cooking water, then drain the pasta and transfer to a serving bowl.

2. In a medium skillet, fry the bacon until crisp and transfer to a plate, leaving the bacon fat in the skillet.

3. Add the onions to the skillet and cook until golden, about 10 minutes.

4. Stir the onions and ricotta into the pasta along with the reserved pasta cooking water.

5. Crumble the bacon and sprinkle it over the pasta along with the basil.

As I said, this was honestly better the second day! When I make it again, I may try to figure out a way to make it the night before and refrigerate it. Enjoy!

Tuesday Brain Dumps

2010-09-14T10:31:00.004-04:00

I have seen a few brain dumps on blogs lately and I love the idea. Not only will it be a great post for me to look back on in a few months and remember what was going on in my life, but since I am an A++ personality, and therefore THRIVE on lists, this sort of modified list makes me feel like I have a grasp on what’s going on.

• Work trips, work trips, work trips. I'm leaving on the first of a series of work trips today. Usually, I don’t mind traveling for business, actually I usually enjoy it—I get to see new cities, interact with new colleagues, rack up frequent flier and frequent guest hotel points for free personal travel with MrMarried, etc--- but when all the trips tend to get crunched together… which they happen to be doing at the moment, it can be stressful. I get flustered that I will lose a receipt and not be able to get reimbursed or confuse a departure time or something along those lines. I hate worrying, and think it's such a wasted emotion, but for some reason business travel can bring out the worst of my worrying. I will get through it, and I will smile when we are using the points for an up coming vacation. Yes.... think silver lining.

•I’m going to be a sister-in-law! This is a big deal for me. I’m an only child, and though I had a fantastic childhood, I always wanted siblings. My BIL (my husband’s brother) has been dating his girlfriend for almost six years, and he came over to our house a few weeks ago to tell us that he had been ring shopping, and wanted me to come along to help. I was so thrilled to help with the process. He found a beautiful ring and is proposing in October. I can’t wait to celebrate. Keeping my mouth shut is killing me, but I owe it to my future sister-in-law because she knew all about my proposal and didn’t say a word. My lips are sealed.

•My undying love for audiobooks continues. I have been ~~reading~~ listening to books religiously on my commute and have been getting into biographies, political biographies in particular. And yes, I am listening to POV’s from both sides of the aisle. I certainly lean one way more than the other when it comes to political parties, but I still think it’s important to broaden your horizons and listen to both sides of the story, so I am doing just that. It's very enlightening!

•Eyes on the prize. MrMarried and I are taking a week of vacation right before Halloween to drive to upstate NY, Boston, and a few of the cape towns of New England. It is sort of a 1st anniversary trip, even though he will be taking it a month after our first anniversary. The timing just worked out better that way. We are wine tasting, whale watching, bed and breakfasting, history chasing, fall leaf looking, and NOT thinking about work. I can't wait. Get here. Please get here fast.

Have a great week!

Labor Day Weekend

2010-09-08T09:02:00.000-04:00

Labor Day weekend is always such a wonderful, yet sad time of year for me.

It's sad because it marks one of the last true weekends of summer and the shift towards shorter days with darker mornings--- sure makes it harder to get out of bed, doesn't it?

But, at the same time, it brings crisp cool air, light jackets, pumpkins, fall leaves, harvest festivals, and a cozy time before the bleh of northeaster winters.

So this past weekend I was determined to make the most of every possible second and spend time outside enjoying the cooler temps and sunny skies. MrMarried and I went for a 21 mile (!) bike ride on Sunday.... which is certainly the furthest I've ever gone on a bike, but I enjoyed every second of my time with him.

We saw some gorgeous sites along the ride, and it really put me in the mood for fall. Can't wait!

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

2010-08-31T16:19:00.003-04:00

About a month ago I got a call on my cell from an unknow number, and surprising even me... I answered it.

Caller: "Hello MissMarrieeeeeedddddddd...." (The caller didn't actually address me as MissMarried, but he really did drag my name out. It would have been something like "Lindssssaaayyyyyyyyyyyy..." if my name was Lindsay... anyway I digress).

Me: *eyeroll* "Yes?"

Caller: "This is Insurance Agennntttttt ABC with ZXY Insurance."

Me: "Yes, hello." (I'm holding myself back from freaking out about all the extra syllables at this point).

Caller: "When you got married a year ago, you decided to drop our coverage, and since it's been a year, I was hoping to have an opporunity to rebid for your business."

Me: "Yes, well, it was easier at the time to join my husband's insurance since the homeowner's insurance was in his name, along with 3-4 other reasons."

Caller: "Well, can we take a look?"

Me: "Sure. Why not?"

At this point I was dreading the process. Transitions from one service provider whether it's your cable provider, the gas company, or an insurance agent are never easy. Emphasis on never.

Lots of paperwork has to change hands, and in the case of changing insurance brokers you have to hear the HARD last ditch sales pitch as to why you should stay with the agent you're trying to break up with.

To make a LONG story short, the agent that drawwwws out his worddds was able to save us about $600(!) a year with our car and homeowner's insurance!

If he had come back and said, we can save you $50, I probably wouldn't have gone thorugh the hassle, but since my parents have done business with the man for 23 years, and we painstakingly went through the poilcies side by side, I knew I was getting a good deal and could trust this agent. He even told me he would "break up" with our old agent for us. Hallelujah! We signed some forms, he faxed them over, and we thought it was a clean break.

Wrong.

Little did I know that our old agent would call, promise eminent bodily harm would to strike at any moment, and that the new insurance company wouldn't cover us like she would. And then I dealt with a 10 minute lecture on the importance of being responsible. Ugh!

We've been with the new insurance agent for two weeks now, and so far so good. I do keep an eye over my shoulder for the old insurance agent ready to rear end my car just so she can tell me "I told you so."

I wish I was kidding.

Who Doesn't Want to Get Out the Door Faster?

2010-08-17T14:24:00.000-04:00

Don't you dare call this a sorry excuse for a blog post... I did this the other morning and it saved me at least five minutes during my get-out-the-door routine. And I've got news for you, five minutes, is five minutes to sleep longer, linger in the shower longer, unload the dishwasher, take out the trash, pick up the living room.....I could go on.

Although I can't take credit for the image, I've used this trick since college to save time as I head out the door, and Real Simple did a beautiful job of capturing the little time saver in an image, so here you go:

There's not much (I say not much because I can probably list a half of a dozen things) that I dislike more than being wrinkled. I know it's a fact of life, and often unavoidable, but when I have the time to iron and make myself look presentable, I really try my best. There are days, however, when ironing gets pushed to about #30 on my priority list, and I can't be bothered... on those days... shirt collar... meet hair straighter.

If you are careful to keep the straighter on a low enough setting, and stay away from buttons, you can make your wrinkled collared shirt look like a million bucks in seconds. And hey, I'll take it.

Note to Self.

2010-08-10T11:30:00.003-04:00

When you are on a movie date night with your husband, try not to:

1. Park on the opposite side of mall from where the movie theater is located.
2. Believe your husband when he tells you that the mall will "probably be open to walk through to get back to the car following the 9:15 show".

Time for some mental math, my friends: 9:15PM + 2ish hour movie = 11:15PM = mall closed = doors locked.

Or.... go out on a limb and do it! MrMarried and I had our first date night in a long, long time... and I was looking forward to some time with him. We had a delicious dinner, and headed over to the mall to catch a movie. After some quick shopping between dinner and the movie, we decided to not move the car to the other side of the mall. MrMarried figured since we were already inside, and could just walk back to the car after the movie. Wrong.

Fast forward 2 hours. The movie was great, but it was 11:15 or 11:30 and I was ready to go home and crawl into bed. I wasn't in the mood to walk all the way around the perimeter of the mall at almost midnight. Queue me either getting really crabby, or finding the silver lining in the situation.

I'll take silver lining party of two, please.

We had a blast walking back to the car. The stars were so bright and the conversation was so cheerful, I would have walked another 5 miles. Well, maybe.... my feet were starting to hurt.

Water for Elephants

2010-08-08T16:46:00.000-04:00

I just finished reading Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. It came recommended by a friend and I was thrilled to take the recommendation since I've been in funk lately with books that I'll start, get 100 pages in, and lose interest. I think Water for Elephants pulled me out of the funk!

The story follows Jacob, a Cornell educated almost-vet, during the summer after he would have graduated from vet school. After getting terrible news right before he is about to take his final exams, and realizing he has no where to turn, Jacob joins a circus. He falls madly in love with the poorly treated animals who are underfed and kept in horrible conditions, and sets out to try to make the situation better.

After I was halfway through the story, I discovered that the movie is being adapted for film with my girl crush, Reese Witherspoon. Reese plays Marlena, who is the the wife of one of the main circus officials, and later, the object of Jacob's affection. She will be a fantastic Marlena.

photo credit

I started doing a little research on the film and I'm already and looking forward to it's release... and I don't always feel that way about books that are adapted for film. I find that there's often something about the way the characters develop in my head that never matches what a casting director puts onto the screen. Do you find that happens to you?

Friday Musings and Lessons

2010-07-30T15:31:00.001-04:00

Two key things I learned this week...

Always have an extra pair of heels in your trunk. On Thursday, I was on my way to a MAJOR client meeting. While I was walking from the parking garage to the office, my low kitten heel-ish sandal strap decided to break free from the base of the sandal, thus totally stranding me with no choice but to walk to my meeting without a shoe! Through downtown! With my boss right next to me! Classy! The sandal just wouldn't stay on a my foot and I had no other options in the wardrobe department. Luckily, the client laughed about it, and it was a great icebreaker.

Not my shoe, or even my picture... but a similar situation to what happened to me.

Mustard helps burns. I like to cook, and I'm pretty dang good at it... but baking? That's another story. I was channeling my inner Martha Stewart this week (HA!) and decided to make some some break-n-bake chocolate chip cookies. They were on sale at the grocery store, so I figured, why not? That's where my luck ran out. I managed to burn the inner part of my forearm on the cookie sheet when I was taking the cookies out of the oven. Ouch. Back in my college waitressing days, we were always told to put yellow mustard on a burn. I managed to get out of my waitressing career unscathed in the burn department, so I wasn't able to test this remedy... until last night. It really works! I was amazed at how it took the sting away. I've been trying to keep the skin covered with aloe and bandages and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for quick healing.

My real arm, and my real picture. Ouch.

Have a great weekend and try to avoid shoe and cookie sheet hazards!

My Blood, Sweat, and Tears from this Week...

2010-07-22T09:49:00.003-04:00

...yielded this beauty. Well, the picture isn't exactly beautiful, but what is INSIDE the box is truly beautiful. Not long ago, I had a stack of manialla folders that were a mess to try to file paper into. Now, orgainzed hanging file bliss that travels anywhere I need it to go! Yes, I am an organizing nerd, and I'm fine with it. Thank you, my dear sweet Container Store, for helping to organize my life.

For as ~~obsessed~~ concious as I am about cleaning, purging heaps of garbage each week from the far cormers of our basement, and organizaing... I don't know why I didn't start a beautiful love affair with The Container Store years ago. Mr. Married better watch out.

Now that the end of July is upon us, the summer heat is putting me in a mood to shed heavy, excess baggage from my life. Whether it's clutter from my basement (this is an ongoing battle), spammy emails from my inbox, or papers from my desk, summer has really inspired me to get rid of, or at least organize, the messes in my life. It feels great.

More Bedroom Transformations and #50!

2010-07-15T15:32:00.004-04:00

50 posts? Really? I feel like I just started my blogging journey! I'm thankful for the blogging and twitter friends that I have met during the course of the first half of 2010, and for the encouragement to keep writing and documenting my thoughts.

When I look back to where I was in January when I started this blog, I am blown away with how far I have come as a working professional-- hello, I quit my job and started a new one. How much fun we have had with home improvment projects--yes, really, it has been fun! And some of the wonderful breakthrough that MrMarried and I have had as a married couple! All good stuff!

For those of you that follow this blog, you know I've been posting a lot about the decor transformation that I have been putting our master bedroom though. It was beige, and blah, and full of mismatched furniture. A night stand from here, and a lamp from there. You get the picture.

I've found that living in a house that is always somewhat torn apart with renovations, having one room that can be your haven to escape the drywall, paint cans, and endless piles of supplies is critical... and I chose to make that room the master bedroom. For me, haven = matching. Don't know why, but it does.

I still have a little bit or work to do, but I give you... the matching lamps and nightstands in our master bedroom.

Before... please excuse the dark picture.

And... after!

Another side bonus from this project is my new found confidence in spray paint. It comes in dozens (and probably more like hundreds) of colors, and when done right, can really change the look of any piece. I will certainly be reusing items and spray painting them in the future!

A DIY Painting Project

2010-07-08T14:40:00.003-04:00

I recently sought some help in bringing color into our master bedroom because I am... ahem... a beige-a-holic.

Since I can be ~~a little bit~~ a raging type A personality, one area that was driving me nuts was the fact that I didn't have symmetry (and in mind, any sense of order) on either side of our bed in the nightstand department. We had mis-matching nightstands and mis-matching lamps, so I set out to change that.

I searched far and wide for matching lamps that wouldn't break the bank. I was even open to painting the lamps if necessary. (Spoiler alert: I painted the lamps). I found a set of lamps that I really liked, but they were a pale spring green that just wasn't working with the color palate I was trying to achieve. So, I bought the lamps and a $4 can of spray paint from Home Depot and went to work.

Here are the original lamps from PB's website. They were sold out of the white, so I ordered two of the green. I'm thankful I looked past those hideous shades that they are displaying with the lamps. I can't say that I care for them too much...

I headed outside to see what kind magic I could work on the lamps.

I made sure to carefully cover the lamps with my high tech paint blocking technology-- aka, a ziplock with a rubberband. Kind of looks like a ponytail, right?

The "ponytail ziplock" worked like a charm!

I moved on to the second lamp and repeated the process.

Not bad right??

I paired them with simple white linen drum shades and I know that they look crazy blue in these photos, but they don't look crazy blue in the room. The white shades help to tone down the color a bit too.

I think spray painting might be a knew found hobby of mine.

I was going to save this post for when I actually had pictures of them in the room, but that will just have to wait until I get the new nightstands into the room. They were shipped to the store, and I haven't had the time to go pick them them. The master bedroom redecorating marathon continues :)

An Epic Reading Fail

2010-06-24T10:47:00.004-04:00

I haven't been shy about my love for audio books, and I've even divulged my little scheme to get them dirt cheap, or a special technique to MAKE money on the audio books.

Recently, I ~~was feeling lazy and~~ didn't feel like scheming to get my audio books for pennies, and wandered into the local library, which I pass almost 3-4 times a week, and ~~embarrassingly~~ haven't visited or supported in the year and a half that I've lived in the community. Oops.

I was in a bit of a hurry so I quickly headed over to the audio book section and found what I thought would be an interesting title. My excellent (HA!) skimming skills told me that the book was something about stories from women under 25 about life, love, and getting through it all in one piece. Comedy mixed in. Light, easy listening. Perfect for the car ride to and from work.

Oh. Was. I. Wrong.

This is what I actually picked up....

Kiss Tomorrow Hello: Notes from the Midlife Underground by Twenty-Five Women over Forty

Somehow I missed the part about "midlife" and "Women over Forty". Both descriptors were in the title. FAIL. Not exactly my demographic.

I will be returning the book promptly. As in, after work tonight. Hopefully my 2nd trip to the library will result in me coming home with something I actually want to read/listen to. Hey, at least I made it into the library. Baby steps, right?

I'm a Beige-aholic, Part 2

2010-06-23T11:44:00.002-04:00

As promised in the original I'm a Beige-aholic post, I quickly took some pictures last night to make the beige overload look a bit more real.

Here is the introduction to the beige (and sorry this 1st photo is so dark):

Likes:

Chocolate brown headboard wall
Art above the bed, except the pictures are crooked, oops

Dislikes:

Our nightstands and the lamps on them don't match-- but I'm shopping! I know everything doesn't always have to be matchy-matchy all the time, but sometimes having two matching night stands brings tranquility. At least for me it does.
Regardless of the fact that they don't match each other... I'm not crazy about the actual lamps on the night stands. I've ordered two new porcelain lamps from Pottery Barn-- they are green, but I plan to paint them blue-- so this problem is likely solved. I'm still working on nightstands.

Here is a close up of the beige bedding, beige bedskirt, and tiny snip it of the beige carpeting. Can you say overload much? Yikes. I'd like the duvet to say, but the bed skirt can of course go.

This is a such a great reading nook for us and I love this feature of the room. This photo also give some context for the drapes and the color of the art. The art and chair will definitely stay, but I'm up for switching out the the lamp or the shade.

Thanks for everyone's feedback so far. I have been really inspired! I'll certainly do an update with the lamps soon, and other changes and efforts to de-beige the master bedroom. Thanks again!

I'm a Beige-aholic

2010-06-18T12:01:00.002-04:00

I could use some advice in our... ahem... bedroom. DECORATING ADVICE, my friends.

I love beige. I know that sounds lame, but I do. I'm not afraid of color, but for whatever reason, I use color pretty sparingly. Currently, our master bedroom (which I really do like) is decorated with:

Beige- Surprised? Carpet, 3 walls, most of the bedding including the bedskirt.
Chocolate Brown- Headboard wall is painted this color, all the framed pictures in the room are in dark wooden frames
Soft Blues- bedding, curtains, candles, some glass art on my dresser, etc.

Hard to picture? Don't worry, I have photo help.
This is our bedding (but not our bed or wall colors).

Instead of ALL of that beige, I have a little color in two euro shams that are pictured in the back of this photo. They are the same pattern as the duvet.

And one of these fun pillows in front of all the beige.... So we have blue in the back, lots of beige, and some blue in the front...sounds like a mullet... party in the back... business in the front. Anyone? Anyone? Ha... I digress.

I also have blue and chocolate brown patterned curtains which nicely complement the blue in the shams, (and I like them, too. So no need to change these.)

Here is where I need your help.

We have already established:

I have 3 beige walls
I have beige carpet
I have a beige bedskirt

I'm starting to think that I need to go to beige-aholics anonymous!

Where can I add more color?

The carpet is brand new, and we can't afford to rip up and replace new carpeting, and I don't really want to paint again... so I'm thinking about a blue bedskirt. But, it looks awful in this photo, and I can't picture it in our room.

A complementing rug? But... ahhh! More beige.

Before I spend a dime on de-beige-itizing the master bedroom, I thought I would ask for some help.

Any suggestions?

I will try to get a picture of the real room on the blog this weekend. I'm at work-- and should be working-- but this has been on my mind, and it's a Friday-- so I thought I would write!

Have a great weekend!

Wishful Wednesday (or Thursday)

2010-06-17T16:36:00.002-04:00

I'm a busy gal, and I can't always remember the assigned days of the week that go with particular blog posts-- Wishful Wednesday, Thankful Thursday, etc. So, this week, I give you ~~Wishful Wednesday~~, err, I mean.... Wishful Thursday!

I've been making a conscious effort to send more snail mail to friends and family. It's just fun! I'll send a note to say thanks for meeting for lunch, or a thinking of you note when someone has had a tough week, or even a note just to say hello for no reason. We just don't send enough handwritten notes today. Sure, a text from a friend to say "Thanks for meeting me, and I got home safely" is great, but it's not the same as coming from work to a mailbox with a real letter in it. Am I right?

I've in love with stationery and all things related to authentic handwritten correspondence. Therefore spending way too much money on it has never been a problem. I spent some time on Etsy today exploring their "all things paper" category and came across the beautiful work of Emilie Friday. Talk about being blown away! Why haven't I see her work before??

How beautiful are these stamps?

I can't get enough of them! Gorgeous!

What fun finds have you stumbled across on Etsy?

A Change of Sleeping Arrangements

2010-06-14T14:35:00.003-04:00

How gorgeous is this hotel room I was privileged enough to stay in last week?

Hello, work conferences. It's nice to meet you.

Last week, I was in New York City for a conference near Times Square. We stayed at the Renaissance. Quite the posh hotel, let me tell you.

So while my poor husband was at home sick and barely able to sleep through the night with his terrible cough, I was slumming it up here. Not bad, eh?

If you were following my tweets from last week regarding not sleeping through the night due to the incessant coughing coming from MrMarried's lungs, I learned the hard way that it's perfectly okay to not sleep in the same bed as your husband every night if you can't rest due to his summer sinus infection/ mysterious three week cough. You are not a bad wife. You are not a bad caretaker. You just need your rest. It's perfectly okay. I don't know why I was feeling so guilty about it for a day or two. Probably because I was sleep deprived.

So...hello, guest room, it's nice to meet you. I'm thankful I sprung for the nicer linens when we were registering!

No, I Don't Have Writer's Block and Thoughts on Uncle Sam

2010-06-07T14:54:00.002-04:00

Whew. It's been far too long since I last blogged.

No, I don't have writer's block.

For today, I just need to get my fingers moving on these keys, and get back into my routine that I've been missing.

I could blame it on "being busy"-- but, who the heck ISN'T busy?! We all are. I can't remember the last time I wasn't "busy".

I could blame it on being at work from 8-6 each day, not being able to look at my computer for another second after I leave work, and a renewed sense of wanting to spend quality time with my husband when I get home (read: NO computers as distractions) But, I'm not going to blame it on that either.

Regardless, blogging has fallen by the wayside. It doesn't mean that I haven't been "writing" blog posts in my head. In fact, I write posts in my head all the time! I write recipe posts, and tales about the inappropriate things my boss says to me each day. But, there has been one post that I've dying to get into words--a post about the 1st Time Home Buyers Tax Rebate.

MrMarried and I purchased our home in August 2009, and filed an amended 2008 tax return (yes, you can file a return for the year before you bought your house. Strange, right?) to indicate our interest in receiving the tax credits made available to first time home owners-- Up to $8000, or 10% of the purchase price of your home-- whichever is less.

We filed the amended return in August 2009- got married in September 2009, and JUST received our check last week. 10 months, my friends.

I realize there is an unimaginable amount of paperwork associated with all the returns that are filed each year, but 10 months seems a little long, doesn't it? I could have gotten pregnant and had a 1 month old in the same amount of time. Sheesh!

If you applied for the rebate, know that you qualify for it, and are still waiting for your refund... don't give up! There were several incidents where I know the government was hoping that we would throw up our hands and give up, like--

1. Requesting the SAME documents be sent to them THREE times
2. Hanging up when we called to check on the return
3. Threatening letters from the tax advocate service implying that we hadn't complied with instructions

Really a friendly process, right?

Guess what Uncle Sam? I'm up for a challenge-- and when you tell me that you'll relieve my tax burden by $8000, I'm really up for the challenge. You'd better believe that I am going to climb every mountain, send back every form, and jump through every hoop you put in front of me. So thank you, Uncle Sam, for the challenge, and the check too.... even though it was 8ish months late.

Where has your persistence paid off?

Fill in the Blank Friday: May 21st

2010-05-21T17:03:00.003-04:00

We made it to Friday! Here is the weekly Fill in the Blank Friday from Lauren at the little things we do. This week's questions are all about fashion.

1. One fashion trend I really regret is stirrup pants in elementary school. You know, the ones that went under the bottom of your foot? I know it was a long time ago, but there are so many pictures of me wearing the awful things when I was growing up. How did my mother let me out of the house looking like that??

2. The one thing that always completes any outfit is the right pair of shoes. Shoes easily and effortlessly finish an outfit.

3. I would describe my personal style as all over the map. My office doesn't really have a dress code so I shop for and wear whatever I like. If I had to nail it down to one category though it would be preppy.

4. My fashion muses are all over- blogs, magazines, tv shows, my colleagues, etc.

5. If I could own one designer piece of clothing it would be a designer bag. Probably a Hermes Berkin. They are so classic.

6. I would love to raid the wardrobe of one of the girls I work with. Effortless style is how I would describe her. She puts these outfits together that look so chic no matter what... plus her outfits give me great ideas for things that I can put together with what I own. Hello free personal fashion advice. Love it!

7. Today I am wearing a casual brown wrap cardigan, navy blue pants, brown Nine West leather slides (best purchase this season, by FAR--see below).

Have a great weekend!

Wishful Wednesday and Hoarders

2010-05-19T09:17:00.005-04:00

Working at Pottery Barn in college was a dream. I was surrounded by beautiful furniture, linens, and home accessories and best of all I could purchase all of these things at a MAJOR discount. I was paid a teeny, tiny salary, but I worked my discount HARD, and bought a few choice items to fill up and teeny, tiny apartment.

With two years under my belt and a real "big-girl" job offer in hand, I bid adieu to by beloved Pottery Barn and tearfully surrendered my discount card.

Now that I've moved out of my teeny, tiny apartment, and live in a house where I don't have what felt like 30 square feet that needed to serve as my office/bedroom/living room/dining room/laundry room-- you know the drill with college apartments-- I regret that never bought items that would transition well from my college apartment to a real house.

One of these things would be the The Daily System. Which brings me to today's Wishful Wednesday/ Solutions Wednesday.

Have you seen or heard about the show Hoarders? If there was a show featuring the total opposite of the people that Hoarders profiles, I would be the star. I can't handle clutter and I really would love a Daily System to help me with my ~~decluttering obsession~~ desire to be tidy.

I'm having a hard time justifying the cost of the full price Daily System considering what I would have been able to purchase it for in the past. Oh well, for today I'll just keep dreaming.

A Major Breakthrough

2010-05-13T13:43:00.008-04:00

I had a major breakthrough with MrMarried last weekend. Major. If I could put blinking lights around the word major, I would. Trust me.

My MOH was back home for the weekend and called to see if we could have dinner together on Saturday night. She has never seen our new home, but has heard endless stories about home improvement projects, so I asked if she would want to come over to eat instead of going to a restaurant. She happily agreed, and our dinner date was set.

MrMarried and I aren't slobs, and I keep our home neat enough as to not have a heart attack if a friend called to say, "I'm in the area, can I drop by in 20 minutes?" Nonetheless, if I know in advance when a friend is coming over, there is always straightening to be done.

When MrMarried's friends drop by, we never really "clean". Sure, I fluff couch pillows and make sure the remotes are within reaching distance from the couch, but that's about it. They are guys, and straightening the house for hours would be worthless. However, when I announced that a friend of mine was coming over, MrMarried snapped into this cleaning mode that I've never seen before. Nothing was too neat and orderly for this strange man that had suddenly taken over my husband's body. It was awesome. I was excited because I could really feel a sense of pride in him. His actions were saying, "I'm proud of our home, and I want our home to look it's best when my wife's friend is here."

Melt. My. Heart.

I was SO proud of him.

So the only secret to having MrMarried help me a bit more with keeping the house orderly is inviting more female friends over?!? Doesn't sound too bad to me!

Recent Reading

2010-05-07T11:38:00.007-04:00

If you've read my previous book posts, you'll notice I don't stick particular genre when it comes to reading. I'm drawn to fiction, but that's one of my only requirements.

Eat, Pray, Love and My Sister's Keeper were two of the most recent books I've read, and while not exactly related, those two babies are practically peanut butter and jelly as compared to my two recent reads.

First up... The Associate by John Grisham.
Before MrMarried and I took our little trip to New Orleans, we were having dinner at my parents when I realized I didn't have a book to take with me. Although I've never read Grisham, both of my parents are fans, and my mom gave me The Associate for the trip.

Set it Pittsburgh and NYC, the book follows the story of a recent Law School grad, a sticky situation, and blackmail. The ending leaves quite a bit to the imagination, and there were several loose ends that were never explained in the book, but overall the story is entertaining, definitely a page turner, and perfect for a plane with the short chapters.

I could see the story being turned into a movie, but then again, every movie I've seen where I read the book first turns out to be disappointing. One exception is The Devil Wears Prada. The movie was exceptionally well acted, and was able to hold it's own when compared to the book that inspired the film... but that's another post.

Next on my recent "reads" list was Chelsea Handler's My Horizontal Life
This audio book was passed on to me from a friend who drives everywhere for work. She always listening to audiobooks to keep her entertained while she is in the car. I'd never say no to a free audiobook, so I thought what the heck?

Holy moly, Chelsea is one strange (and funny) bird.

Her stories are NOT, I repeat NOT, appropriate to listen to when you have children in the car, and if my mother was listening along with me, Chelsea's stories would make me blush in front of her. Regardless, they are still hilarious. I can't recommend that you run out and buy this immediately, but if friend offers you the book or the audiobook, you are in for a few laughs....if.... you aren't disgusted first.

Have a great weekend!

The Kentucky Derby

2010-04-30T10:32:00.007-04:00

I know very little about horse racing. My experience with the sport consists of nothing more than watching the big three races (Belmont, Kentucky, and Preakness-- aren't you impressed that I can name all three?) from the comfort of my living room each year, and one episode of Undercover Boss when the featured organization happened to be Churchill Downs. Basically, my experience is limited.

But, that doesn't put a damper on my desire to host a Kentucky Derby party.

Every.Single Year.

For the record, we have never hosted a Kentucky Derby party. But mark my words, someday I will start the planning process ~~more than one hour before the race~~ earlier, and it will be a grand old time. Someday.

But for now, I will have a virtual party on my blog filled with all of the flashiness of the day.

Mint Julep, anyone? I've never had one. Are they even good?

Huge hats in the grandstands. Hats would be required at the party of course.

Fun whimsical stationery. Again, the bigger the hat, the better!

Love it all. Have a great weekend! And cheers to fast horses!

Fill in the Blank Friday: April 23rd

2010-04-23T16:04:00.004-04:00

Thanks as always to Lauren over at the little things we do and her creative genius for another great Fill in the Blank Friday!

Here are this week's answers:

1. If I could medal in an Olympic event it would be swimming. I was a swimmer in high school and would have swam in college if I hadn't torn my rotator cuff during my senior year. I love watching the sport in the Olympics.

2. If I was stranded on a deserted island I'd take a laptop with my wifi card and running shoes.

3. Getting stuck in an elevator with wayyy too many people in it is my most irrational fear. It there were only one or two people, I would probably be fine.

4. I'd rather be deaf, than blind. I'd miss sight more than sound.

5. I am thankful that winter is behind us. I would live in an world that only had summer and autumn and be a happy camper.

6. I should really be working right now, but its 4PM on a Friday and my brain is pretty much shot for the week.

7. One of my favorite things in all the world is the extra five minutes I get each morning after my alarm goes off. MrMarried (without fail) will says to me everyone morning, "Wanna snuggle?" It's some of the best five minutes all day.

Have a great weekend!

PS. Immediately after I posted this, I realized that it was an old Fill in the Blank Friday that Lauren had posted on February 19, 2010. I have no idea why I thought that it was this week's questions, but I like my answers, so I'm going to stick with 'em. Enjoy and sorry for the mix up.

Delicious Dinners: Fusilli Pizza

2010-04-22T09:50:00.005-04:00

I've written about it before, and I'll write about it again... After working a full day, I'm continuously challenged with getting a meal on the table on week nights before 8PM. Fear not, my friends, there is good news. I'm up for the challenge, and this recipe kicks butt in the following departments:

1. Doesn't have a million ingredients ~~that I've never heard of and therefore usually skip... oops~~
2. Fast, and super easy to make
3. Something MrMarried can help with-- huge bonus if I'm running late and can call to ask him to get things moving

All pluses in my book!

This recipe comes from TheNest.com, who I must say, has some tasty dishes in their archives! So, what am I waiting for? Let's get to the recipe.

Makes: 4 Servings... Finally (!) a recipe that I don't have to do math and halve everything
Prep time: 20 Minutes... Finally (!) a dinner that I can whip together after just walking in the door!

Ingredients:
Butter, for greasing
14 oz tomatoes, peeled and chopped-- I used canned tomatoes, and it was delicious
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
Pinch of dried oregano-- I love oregano, so I interpreted a pinch as a generous pinch and used 2 or 3 pinches
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
12 ounces Fusilli or other short pasta
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese- eyeball it
3 1/2 ounces mozzarella cheese- eyeball it
Salt
Optional- 1 pound Ground Turkey or Ground Beef-- The original recipe doesn't call for the meat, but MrMarried tends to get too hungry later in the evening if he only eats pasta for dinner without an additional protein. I like my pasta with meat in it, so we both win.

Directions:
**Optional 1st Step if you are using ground beef/turkey: Brown the meat, drain any fat, and set aside.**

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease an ovenproof dish with butter.

2.Process the tomatoes to a purée in a food processor or blender.

3. Heat the olive oil in a low skillet pan. Add the puréed tomatoes and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 10-15 minutes until thickened. Stir in the oregano and basil and remove from the heat.

4. Cook the pasta in plenty of salted boiling water until al dente. Drain, return to the pan, and pour the tomato sauce over. Sprinkle with the Parmesan and toss well to mix.

5. Spoon the mixture into the prepared dish, top with the diced mozzarella, and drizzle with oil.

6. Bake for 8-10 minutes until the mozzarella starts to melt. Serve immediately straight from the dish.

Enjoy! We really loved this dish and there was plenty left over for me to take to work the next day.

The Gorgeous South

2010-04-20T11:00:00.001-04:00

My gosh, the south is so gorgeous. During our recent trip to New Orleans-- details to follow-- MrMarried and I took a swamp boat tour in bayou country of southern Louisiana. What a beautiful part of the country.

There is just nothing that I've seen in the north that looks anything like this. It was so peaceful to ride around in our boat and explore. And our boat guide was HILARIOUS. So that always helps...!

More to come from the New Orleans trip!

My Sister's Keeper

2010-04-13T22:25:00.004-04:00

I'm a bit behind the ball ~~okay, okay more like five years behind the ball~~ on My Sister's Keeper but I've had other books I wanted to get through first, and somehow I kept putting the book to the bottom of the stack. I finally put my nose to the grindstone, and finished My Sister's Keeper this weekend.

Wow.

What a story.

I cried almost the whole way through the book. And I was on a plane. With strangers. Who thought I was nuts for being fine one minute and crying the next. The story took me back to when my dad was sick, and I just couldn't help but connect with the family and the story.

I haven't yet seen the movie, but I've heard that they changed the ending. Should I see it?

Phoenix Recap

2010-04-10T14:50:00.003-04:00

So this is what it feels like to enjoy your job!

I stared my new job just over two weeks ago, and have been loving my time in my new role. Before I even signed the papers, I knew about an upcoming Phoenix trip and that I seat on a plane, but that's about all I knew.

The schedule was to fly in Wednesday night, meet all day Thursday, meet Friday morning, and then fly out late afternoon on Friday. Well, that was the plan.. but the old saying "If you want to see God laugh... make a plan" rang true for this trip.

Here are some trip highlights:

I arrived in Phoenix Wednesday night as planned, picked up my luggage and headed to the the rental car counter. After signing the agreements, I went to the designated car rental stall to see my wonderful rental car...

Now, don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with minivans, but I wasn't feeling the little red Mazda whatever it was on this trip. Driving back and forth from the hotel to the office doesn't require a car that size, and isn't half the fun of getting a rental car the chance to driving something fun?

Trudging back over the rental counter, I politely asked to exchange the car and Hertz came through for me with a little Mazda 3. Much better for my needs on this particular trip, and cute too!

The hotel was lovely, as far as business hotels go, and being my first say at a Hilton Garden Inn, I was pleasantly surprised. Paris and her old daddy-o run a nice business class hotel chain. Here were my diggs for two nights. I was loving the palm trees out front. You don't see those much in the north. Ever.

So... on to the part where the good Lord laughed at my so called "plans" to be home with my husband on Friday night. I was supposed to leave Phoenix around 3PM Pacific to head home getting me back around 10PM on the east coast. I woke up to an e-mail on Friday morning telling me that my flight had been delayed to 4PM Pacific which was no big deal. That e-mail was followed up by two more e-mails telling me the flight was delayed until 6PM, and finally the last e-mail updated the departure to 7:30PM.

Do the math, my friends. Four-ish hours in the air + a three hour time difference = Me landing at 2:30AM and a very, very groggy MrMarried having to be my shuttle service.

But... Friday was not wasted. Not even a little bit. My colleague brought his wife to Phoenix for a little long weekend after our meeting was over. They were staying at the Four Seasons, and being the wonderful people that they are, they invited me to come spend the day with them at the pool. Awesome. I was so excited to bond with my colleague's wife. She rocks.

We lunched and soaked up some sun poolside and had a blast.

Spicy Chicken Quesadilla Poolside. Delicious and it looks like art!

The Four Seasons Scottsdale. Not a bad place to be flight delayed, eh?

Not too bad for a first business trip with a new company. Happy travels if you have any upcoming excursions!

I've Been a Terrible Blogger

2010-04-05T13:56:00.007-04:00

Friends, over the past week, I've been guilty of serious Twitter and blog neglect, and I feel as though I'm been missing out. The slacker trend stops today and I promise to get my butt back in gear.

I thought I'd do a quick update post to A) get myself back on track and B) update you on the hilariousness that has been the last week of my life. So here we go.

The New Job
The job is great, and I'm adjusting, meeting new people, and learning the business as fast as I can. My boss (who is an enormous big wig in the company) works out of our west coast office, so I have a day-to-day boss here in PA and he is hilarious. Not hilarious in a "I'd-love-to-see-this-dude-do-stand-up" kind of way. But more of a "did-that-just-come-out-of-your-mouth/let-me-pick my-chin- up-off-my-desk" kind of way. Here is a quick summary of some of the ridiculousness that has occurred thus far.

Monday (my first day): Pennsylvania Bossman tells me that his 20 year old son is a pothead. Not like he smokes from time to time. But more like pot is the only thing that his son does. Ever. Great first day conversation, right?

Tuesday: Bossman tells me that he has to pay his ex-wife $4K a month in child support, and "I should aim to never have an ex." Yup. I'm on it, dude. I am planning to be married to the same man forever.

I will spare you the rest of the week's gory details, but needless to say, there were many other ~~awkward~~ funny conversations that I never thought I would have with a boss during my first week.

I love the position though and I'm delighted to be working where I am.

Cell Phones in the Pond. No Bueno.
Just call DH and I "Mr. and Mrs. Landscaper". We've taken on a major landscaping project on the hillside that is in our backyard. The hillside has been neglected and has gotten overgrown, so we are attempting to tame the jungle that is has become. On Saturday, we were working on the hillside and had our cell phones on a plastic lawn chair that was near our little koi pond, and the wind kicked up and dumped the chair and both of our cell phones into the pond.

In case you didn't know, when cell phones decide to go swimming it's no bueno. I knew what had happened and ran to rescue my l~~ifeline to the outside world and addiction affectionately known as the crackberry~~ cell phone and started the drying process. Did you know plain, uncooked rice does wonders on a wet cell phone? Pull the battery, dry it off as best as you can with a towel, do not pass go, do not collect $200, and put the phone into a bowl of rice. After about 4 hours in the rice, my brand new, company paid for ~~(aka I would have been up a creek without a paddle)~~ blackberry was as good as new.

DH's phone wasn't as lucky. The good news is that he was ready for a new phone anyway. He got a Droid this morning and has been texting me ALL day about the latest apps that he can't wait to download.

***Side note: Dear Wonderful Husband... if you are reading this, I have to work. I'm sorry I can't text back and forth about apps. xoxox, me***

Easter at the In-Laws
To keep your sanity, I have one word for you: Wine. Lots and lots of wine.

Have a great start to your week. I'll be in Phoenix for a business trip this Wednesday-Friday... so keep your eyes peeled for a new blog category. MissMarried on the road featuring me writing from 37F in the back of a 757 on a cross country flight.

Six Wonderful Months

2010-03-28T16:40:00.006-04:00

Over the weekend, MrMarried and I celebrated six months of marriage. My most favorite thing we did to celebrate was honoring the tiny tradition we've started where we talk each other through the wedding day from our own perspectives... well, if you can count something that we've done three times as a tradition!

I love to hear my husband recount the hours leading up to our wedding and the day itself from his perspective. Of course, I have my best memories from the day, but somehow he remembers little things that I just can't, and it's fun to relive the day with him. We've had this little trip down memory lane three times now- at our one week anniversary as we were lying on the beach during our honeymoon, on our one month anniversary, and now on our six month anniversary. I'm sure the "trip down memory lane" will only happen on our yearly anniversaries in the future, but I still love to relive the day.

What do you do to relive your special day?

Have a great start to you week!

Fill in the Blank Friday: March 26th

2010-03-26T10:21:00.004-04:00

I've read Fill in the Blank Friday on the little things we do for some time, and thought today would be a great day to participate. Here we go! By the way the picture is from the little things we do and I love it!

1. The best piece of advice I was ever given was to forgive and forget. Life is FAR too short to hold grudges. You don't have to be best friends with someone who has wronged you, but stressing over the situation is wasted effort. Forgive in your heart and move on.

2. If I had a million dollars to give to one charity I would give it to The American Cancer Society. My father is a cancer survivor and I think the ACS has a really inspiring mission.

3. If I got to choose my "last meal" it would be homemade Mexican food. Beef tacos, chicken enchiladas, chips, salsa, margaritas with tons of salt-- you name it-- I would eat it!

4. My hair is in a weird "I don't know what length I want to be" stage. I donated my hair to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths program right before Christmas last year-- yes, a 9 inch donation!!-- I like the way it is growing in, but I can't figure out if I want to grow it long again or keep it at shoulder length.

5. If at first you don't succeed call your mom (or dad, or husband, or best friend), get a pep talk, and try again. My mother is one of my biggest cheerleaders and always seems to know that right way to say "Yes, this situation is worth another shot, or get the heck out of the situation you are in, and never look back."

6. I have always been very obsessed with cleaning and organizing. I'm always cleaning something and garbage day is my favorite day of the week when I can get the clutter and mess out of the house!

7. Oh....and by the way.... I start by new job on Monday! I resigned this week and can't wait to see what my new career path will hold. It was a good time for me to move on and I'm thrilled about the opportunity.

Have a great weekend!

Swooning for Easter Cards

2010-03-24T10:00:00.013-04:00

I'm working on a post about the resignation conversation that took place this week (aka what I thought was going to be be scariest thing I was ever going to have to do, and as it turns out, wasn't near as frightening as I would have thought). But since I haven't gotten my head around all of my thoughts, and since I have been writing quite a few thank you notes to references, I can't get stationery out of my head.

Whenever I can't get stationery out of my head, it's only a matter of time before I can't keep my fingers from typing in the Tiny Prints site. I've used Tiny Prints in the past for rehearsal dinner invitations, friend's shower invitations, and for our Christmas cards this past year. If I had an unlimited budget for stationary, which let's face it, I don't...I would spend a year's worth of earnings at the site. For now, I suppose a little browsing of the beautiful Easter Cards will have to do.

Do you send Easter cards? I'm swooning over these two designs right now.

Have a great week!

I'm Resigning on Monday!

2010-03-20T11:36:00.020-04:00

If someone were to tell me when I woke up last Monday that the events that took place over this past week were actaully going to happen, I would have told you that you were NUTS. But, as I look back at the week that was, and I'm confident that the old adage "Everything happens for a reason" is so, so true.

Okay, okay. Enough with talking in generalities. Let's get to the scoop.

But first, to recap:

I was laid off from the company that I currently work for in January (not so awesome).
We were acquired by a firm that eliminated about half of the jobs in our office (25ish people).
I was asked to stay with the company for a transition period (30 days).
Later, (end of January) I earned my job back when the people that bought us realized ~~I rock~~ they were in over their heads. (Duh. I could have told them it would happen.)

Before I found out I was being rehired, I polished my resume, posted it on Monster.com, and started the job hunting process. When I was rehired, I didn't take the resume down, because I figured it couldn't hurt anything, and I could always plead for forgiveness if my employer ever called me out on it by saying that I had simply forgotten.

Fast forward to this Monday. I got a call from someone in HR at-- spoiler alert-- my NEW Company. The woman told me she saw my resume on Monster, and asked if I would like to interview for a position. The position didn't match my qualifications, but the company sounded interesting, and I thought what the heck? We set up an interview for Thursday morning.

On Tuesday, the HR rep called me again and told me another position had just become available-- aka the job description was still wet from the ink it had been penned in--- and they wanted me to interview for the new position also. I happily agreed, and said that I would see them on Thursday morning.

I fibbed to my current job and said I had a "doctor's appointment" on Thursday morning. Now you must understand that I've been thinking about leaving my current job for a long time. And after the layoffs in January, I had a sour taste in my mouth. As I drove to the interview, I had an overwhelming sense of calm about me. I can't describe it, but I had a feeling of-- This is it. No looking back. Review mirror is off.

And DANG, that HR woman knows her stuff because the 2nd job that she asked me to interview for fits my wants and my skills perfectly. It's a new position they've created to help carve out a specific brand for the organization. Right up my alley. Not to toot my own horn-- too loudly at least-- but I crushed, killed, and dominated the interview, again all with a reassuring sense of calm about me... things were clicking. I left feeling great.

Friday morning, I sent in some references paperwork, and heard back from the HR woman almost immediately. She told me on Friday morning, that if I was okay with everything, they wanted to come to terms of the agreement by the end of the day. WOW.

To make a long story short-- and a GIANT thank you for reading this far-- I've signed the papers and will be starting next Monday. I'm thrilled. I did my due diligence on the company and it's executives, and talked with my husband about the move to the new organization and when we look at the big picture, it's a great fit.

I just can't believe it all happens in a week. Whew! Life flies.

I'll be traveling a bit more in my new role, so perhaps that will open up a new category of topics to blog about, and more exciting adventures. I'm hopeful that the new job will have the cash to allow us to say in some beautiful hotels so I can start a new category of posts labeled "You Simply Must Say Here Before You Die"... but if that doesn't happen, I'm sure I'll find some great things to blog about regardless. Ha!

For now, I have to go write my ~~peace out, girl scout~~ resignation "speech." Any tips? I've never resigned before. I'm thinking short and sweet. Something like 4-5 sentences. I'll keep you posted.

Getting Around to Seeing Oscar Movies!

2010-03-14T21:20:00.001-04:00

It was a quiet weekend at our house-- which was fabulous! Since it rained non-stop, we rented two movies, made dinner both nights, and did some plotting for some upcoming house projects-- which as you know, we do a LOT of around here!

I fully admit that we have been totally behind the ball on seeing movies recently, but after the Oscars and all the hype over the race for best actress with Sandra and The Blind Side and Meryl and Julie and Julia, I made it a mission for DH and I to see these two movies before next year's Oscars. This weekend Julie and Julia was on the agenda. So far one down, one to go. Hopefully we make it!

I'm honestly sad that it took me so long to see Julie and Julia! What a sweet movie. I can relate to Amy Adam's character- a young, married 20 something learning to cook and learning to find herself through her hobby and her blog. Although I've never tried a Julia Child recipe, I love Meryl enough to watch any movie that she is in. She was totally fabulous in this movie by the way- and I thought the effort the producers put into recreating Julia Child was wonderful! Did you know Julia Child was almost 6 feet tall in real life and Meryl-- only being 5'6"-- wore extra high heels, stood on platforms to make her look closer to 6', and that the set's kitchen counters were lowered to make her look taller? Very cool.

If you haven't seen the movie yet, I would highly recommend renting it. What other Oscar movies do we need to rent?

Have a great start to your week!

Making Use of our Wedding Gifts and a Recipe

2010-03-09T13:15:00.012-05:00

MrMarried and I will have been married for six months this month, and it's downright sad to report how little of the wedding gifts we have been using on a regular basis. One of my bridal showers was last May- sheesh- almost 10 months ago now- and even though I was so excited to start using every gift right away, it didn't exactly happen.

I will admit I got a little scanner happy with the registry gun, but on most occasions, I came to my senses and went back into the registry manager and deleted the ~~4 sets of everyday flatware~~ extra items that we wouldn't really use. Despite my efforts to only register for things I thought we needed, I still have wedding gifts that are in boxes, or have been completely forgotten about in the last six months.

This past weekend I decided I wanted to start making use of some of our wedding gifts! Don't get me wrong, if I had the opportunity, I would be game for eating dinner each night with our fine china, but something is telling me that MrMarried wouldn't exactly be game for hand washing the dishes every night... so our everyday dishwasher safe pattern it is! Anyway-- the gift that I brought out this past weekend was our lovely slow cooker.

I must admit-- I was a little scared of the thing at first. Call me a wimp if you must. Growing up, my parents didn't do a lot of cooking in a crock pot, so perhaps that is where my initial uneasiness came from... but I have friends who swear by their slow cookers, so I thought I would give it a shot.

Baby Back Ribs were on the menu and my husband (the constant carnivore) was pumped. The house smelled great all afternoon, and other than making the sauce, this recipe had very little labor involved. And the best part is-- the ribs turned out great!!

I thought I would share the recipe with you. So... here we go!

Ingredients:
2 pounds baby back ribs
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup chili sauce
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Dash hot sauce

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Cut ribs into sections of 2-3 ribs each.

3. Generously season the ribs with salt and pepper. Place in a shallow baking pan (I used a glass Pyrex) and brown the ribs on middle oven rack for 15 minutes. Turn over, and brown another side for 15 minutes.

4. While the ribs are cooking mix together the ketchup, chili sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, oregano, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, and salt and pepper in a medium bowl.

5. Place ribs in slow cooker. Pour sauce over ribs, and turn to coat.

6. Cover, and cook on Low 6 to 8 hours, or until ribs are tender. (6 hours was plenty for me. The time might depend on your slow cooker. Just poke the ribs with a fork to check on them after 6 hours and cook more if necessary.

This recipe definitely yields a slightly sweeter sauce. If you prefer something more tangy or spicy, I would recommend cutting out some of the ketchup and chili sauce and replacing with your favorite BBQ sauce. I wanted to make my sauce from scratch-- so I followed the recipe. Feel free to adjust to your preferences.

Have you broken out some of your weddings gifts recently? I'd love to hear about your experience!

Sundays and Meet "Our Son"

2010-03-07T17:00:00.005-05:00

I love Sundays. They are just such a good way to unwind and recharge for the upcoming week. Sunday afternoons at our house are typically filled with:

Laundry. Yes, I did SIX loads today which is ridiculous considering I am only doing laundry for two people. Honestly, laundry isn't a terrbile chore for me though. I'd rather wash six loads than clean a cat's litter box anyway.
Cooking. Yum! Baby back ribs are in the slow cooker as I type this.
Snuggling. Corny? Yes. But MrMarried and I don't get a ton of couch time during the week, so we've got to take it when we can get it. Also, this couch time is shared with "our son" Midnight.

Midnight lives a really tough life. He sleeps about 23.5 hours a day. Honestly, it's all our little puffball does... but we love him anyway. Oh, the life of a cat...

Hope you are having a great Sunday.

I'd Like to Thank the Acad-- I mean, My Personal Stylist for this Gorgeous Gown

2010-03-05T11:05:00.002-05:00

Ahhh, the Academy Awards. The Oscars are one of my most favorite television events. They aren't my favorite because I am a huge movie fan, because lets be honest, I usually end up seeing most of the movies AFTER they have won awards-- not on purpose, but simply because I don't watch a ton of movies.

I do, however, love the Oscars for the fashion. The dresses, the jewelry, the hair. I'm not a crazy fashionista, and won't judge each dress based on how well it complements an actresses' skin tone, or body shape, or some other highly technical category. I simply like the elegance that so many of the women bring to Hollywood. Go, Ladies, Go!

In no particular order, here are some recent Oscar Beauties.

Kate Winslet, always classic. Always beautiful. One of my favorites.

Love this color! I applaud her for breaking out of the black box.

Jennifer Garner just rocks, and although conservative, here is a great example of when black works so well.

Reese! She always looks so fresh and well pulled together. Good Stylist? Or good personal style? Probably both :)

And how can you not love Anne Hathaway? Age appropriate and gorgeous.

I bet you can guess where I will be on Sunday evening. Enjoy the Oscars!

A Open Letter to Cancer

2010-03-03T11:12:00.012-05:00

Dear Cancer,

I hate you, and you've chosen to mess with the wrong family.

You have invaded my father's body in the form of melanoma. Invasive Malignant Melanoma if we want to get fancy. This isn't our family's first battle with you, but that doesn't mean it makes it any easier to hear the news that my daddy, my superhero, and the man that will be there for me no matter what (other than my dear, dear husband) is sick.

I'm downright tired of you. You've invaded my dad's body once before with stage IV testicular disease, and you shook our family to the core. You took everything from my father's hair to his spunk, but you never took my father's spirit. Through his last treatments, my father--the sick one-- was so strong and told me as I sat on his hospital bed with the needles and tubes and monitors all over him that things would be okay.

My dad fought like the devil against you. He fought through the vomiting and the pain. He fought through the hours upon hours of chemo. And he drove your sorry ass into remission and then drove it even further to cure the first time... and he will do it again.

We aren't afraid of you, cancer.

Cancer, I'm not writing this letter to you for sympathy, because everyone knows that you don't dish out sympathy. I'm not writing this to you to discuss how wretched you are, because the most eloquent writer in the world could do a far better job than I ever could. Instead, I'm writing this to celebrate my father's first victory over you, and to celebrate the strength that he brings to this most recent fight.

Last Friday my dad had surgery to remove your malignant tissue. When I saw him that afternoon, and he told me that the nurses were asking all day:

"What is your name?"

"What is your date of birth?"

And, "What procedure are you having done today?"

Then the nurses would check everything against his wrist bracelet and charts. He eventually grew tired of answering the same questions over and over, so he started telling the nurses that he was having breast augmentation! HA! Only my dad! The nurses joked back with him that if he wasn't nice, they would paint his toenails while he was asleep.

Cancer, I hate to break it to you, but these small victories, where my dad can bring humor to a crappy situation, are where we are building our case against you. And each building block gets us one step closer to bringing your tower of filth crashing down. We will do this. We will win.

This isn't over, cancer. I'm staring you right in the face and I DARE you to look away, because guess what? I'm not looking away first.

Love,
MissMarried

PS. As I sat in my childhood home on Friday talking with my dad about the day, he asked me to pull his sock off because he wanted to show me something. Those dear nurses had in fact painted his toenails bright purple. Every, single one of them.

Here is a picture of my dad and I on my wedding day.

He was glowing almost as much as I was all day.

Come On Spring!

2010-03-02T14:46:00.003-05:00

Since winter lasts from November-April in this part of the country, I just thought I would share an image of the most beautiful amaryllis that is blooming in my front window right now. Come on springgggg!

Delicious Dinners: Bruschetta and Cheese Stuffed Chicken

2010-02-27T10:35:00.002-05:00

I wanted to share this recipe with you because I have made it half a dozen times and every single time.. it's a hit! My husband and I don't really care for traditional Thankgiving stuffing because we both think it is kind of tasteless (I know, it's totally un-American to not like stuffing... please don't hate us).

The funny part is everytime I make this meal and my husband sees me with a box of stuffing, he (without fail) reminds me that he doesn't like it. To which I respond, "I know my love. However, I have made this before and you love it." And he always eats eveything I put on his plate and asks for seconds. Ha! Take that. Now... if I could only get him to eat broccolli... Anyway, I digress.

This meal truly is easy to make, and prep only takes about 10 minutes. I love it for week nights because it's one of those meals that I can start as soon as I get in the door and then forget about it for 45 minutes while I change my clothes, open the mail, and say hello to my husband.

I found it on the Kraft Foods website, so I thank those lovely people for their creativity. Without further adieu, here we go:
1 can (14-1/2 oz.) diced tomatoes, undrained
1-1/4 cups Mozzarella Cheese, divided
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1 pkg. (6 oz.) STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix for Chicken
8 small boneless skinless chicken breasts-- I halved this receipe for us and used 4 breast which was a little over a pound of chicken
1/3 cup KRAFT Roasted Red Pepper Italian with Parmesan Dressing-- if you can't find this, just use an Italian dressing- and some extra pepper or red pepper flakes to give the dish a bit of seasoninb

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.

2. Mix tomatoes, 1/2 cup cheese and basil in medium bowl. Add stuffing mix; stir just until moistened.

3. Place 2 chicken breasts in large freezer-weight resealable plastic bag. Pound with meat mallet until chicken is 1/4 inch thick. Remove from bag; place, top-sides down, on cutting board. Repeat with remaining chicken. Spread chicken with stuffing mixture. Starting at 1 narrow end, tightly roll up each breast. Place, seam-sides down, in 13x9-inch baking dish. Drizzle with dressing.

4. Bake 40 min. or until chicken is done (165°F). Sprinkle with remaining cheese; bake 5 min. or until melted.

That's it! Four steps. Not bad, right? Like I said, this is a great "prep it and forget it" meal because once it's in the oven you really don't have much else to do. I hope you enjoy it and much as we have. Let me know if you try it and how it goes. Happy cooking!

Show Me the Benjamins, Mr. Tax Man

2010-02-24T15:58:00.004-05:00

Over the course of the last week I have been stressing over taxes. I don't know why I have been so stressed this year, but I have been. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that we bought a house, lived in two townships, merged some other assets based on our marriage, and oh yeah... we have to somehow get all of this information onto two pages of a 1040 Form in some semblance of order before April 15. Eek.

I seriously felt like this even just thinking about it.

Honestly though, I planned a wedding for 250 people with no professional planning help, and I feel like I need a tax planner just to help me with an average yearly return. What is wrong with me?

In the past, my dad has always done my taxes for our family. I tried to work with him on my 2008 return, but with living away from home, busy schedules, and other ~~lame~~ excuses, sitting with my dad and going line by line over my return didn't happen.

Fast forward to this year to where I am trying to rely less on my father to do things like get the oil changed in my car (and oh yeah, to do my taxes). And instead, rely more on my husband for these things, because even though my husband doesn't admit it, I totally believe that he feels less manly if I ask my dad to do something. That's an entirely different post... but, my dear husband, I PROMISE I don't rely on my dad for these things because I think you aren't capable, it's more like a I don't want to bother you with something silly, because my dad is semi-retired, has TONS of time, and loves to help... but I promise, I'm working on it!

To make a very long story short, we got them done. All of them. I'll say it again. OUR TAXES ARE DONE. Hallelujah! I think the best part is that I actually know how to complete a tax return, so when next year rolls around, I will be a little more calm and independent through the whole thing.

I'm not going to lie- when I'm stressed, I shop. I don't always spend money, but regardless, I shop. I was on one of my favorite websites the other day, Organize.com, and found that they had a lovely section of tools to help with taxes. Although I didn't buy anything, I still thought that maybe if the tax fairy was listening she would place an order for me and drop these off at my door for next year.

And if all else fails...my sweet, lovely tax fairy... just bring me one of these! Ha!

Home Renovations: Closets are a Problem in our House

2010-02-21T17:09:00.004-05:00

First, so I don't sound like an ungrateful snob, my husband and I are SO thankful to be homeowners. We have friends who live in cities where housing isn't as affordable as where we live, and live in rentals where they can't make changes. For that reason, we are THANKFUL to be homeowners and to be able to make decisions about improving our home.

But... closets are a enormous, tremendous, gigantic problem in our home. No, I am not being dramatic either.

Our house was built almost 100 years ago, and we have already done a good amount of work including a total renovation of our kitchen. We love the details that you don't find in newer homes, but it's easy to see that times have changed in clothing storage over the last 100 years.

The closet in our master bedroom is downright sad. It may have worked in the 1920's, but not so much anymore. We are currently working on it, and I will do a separate post on that when it's completed... but this is what our master closet looked like when we moved in.

No, I did not make that up. And it was this deep (barely wide enough for a pair of shoes):

So, I pretty much told my husband that this sorry excuse for a master closet simply wasn't going to work. We remembered that we have a really cool feature in our house that allows us to access our attic through a full set of stairs directly through our bedroom. Bingo. Hello new closet upstairs.

The only problem was that when we started this project, the attic looked like a traditional attic-- aka no doors, no shelves, just an empty attic. So... we got busy framing out some useful space in our blank empty canvas.

Here is where we started framing the closet. It's on the left.

Hanging drywall in the closet. Kind of a funny angle with our roofline.

Finally, it's beginning to look like we have walls!

After some paint and finishing work, the racks and lighting go in! The racks are just Closetmaid brand from Home Depot. Nothing special, since we aren't going to be in the house forever...

It's crazy unorganized right now and we still need to add carpet and shoe racks... but it sure beats having ridiculous amounts of clothing piled up on the floor of your guest bedrooms and in tupperware containers. How did I even live like that? Such is the life of a newlywed who moves into her husband's bachelor pad, I suppose.

Have you tackled any home renovation projects? Tell me about them :)

The Stuff That Olympic Dreams Are Made Of

2010-02-17T22:14:00.001-05:00

Lindsay Vonn. First American Woman to EVER win the Olympic downhill. Rock on, girl!

And... from the Los Angeles Times:

"Lindsey Vonn didn't just become the first American woman to win the Olympic downhill, with a time of 1 minute 44.19 seconds.

Vonn did it with a throbbing shin under backbreaking pressure, which is why, when she won, she cried nonstop for almost two hours."

OUCH. Such a cool story and I'm so glad she won.

Delicious Dinners: Easy Crab Cakes

2010-02-16T22:25:00.003-05:00

For Valentine's Day, MrMarried requested a little surf and turf action for our celebratory meal. I have a perfect dinner that fits the surf and turf bill quite well, so I happily agreed to make it.

Get ready to feel like a chef to Hollywood celebs, because these crab cakes are so good, and SO easy, they will honestly they will make you look like a professional. I can't remember exactly where I got the recipe from, but I know it was from the Food Network website a few years ago. So, here we go:

12 ounces crab meat, cooked
5 ounces bread crumbs-- I like to use garlic flavored bread crumbs
1 egg white
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/2 tablespoon sambal-- sometimes I put this in, sometimes I don't. If I don't add it, I like to add a hint of garlic
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives-- I have swapped in green onions before
1 lemon, juiced
salt and pepper, to taste
EVOO
1 bunch of arugula, washed and patted dry

1. In mixing bowl, combine the crab meat with the bread crumbs, Add the egg white, mayonnaise, sambal, chives, and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.

2. Fold the ingredients gently but thoroughly, taking care not to mash the crab meat.(This gets a little goopy so you might want to have a plate ready to put the crab cakes onto)

3. Shape the mixture into 4 (my version makes 6-7) uniform cakes, they should be moist and just hold together.

4. Coat a skillet with EVOO and place over medium high heat. Cook the crab cakes untl browned, about 3-4 minutes each side.

5. Serve on a bed of arugula with a side dijon mustard.

Even though the recipe says it will yield 4 cakes, this last version yielded 7 for me. I find that they are much easier to flip in the skillet when they are in smaller cakes, so perhaps that's why my way of making them yields more than the recipe. Good luck! I hope you love them.

"Oh Canada, the True North Strong and Free"

2010-02-14T20:09:00.002-05:00

Oh how I love the Olympics! The pictures that I have seen from Vancouver are breathtaking, and I have added it to the "Places MrMarried and I Must Visit" list. And how about the Canadian National Anthem? I love it. I almost wrote out the full song as the title of this blog post, but I thought that would be overkill.

Now, don't get me wrong I am one the most patriotic Americans that you will ever meet, however, I just love that the Canadians have a national anthem that the average person can actually sing. The US national anthem isn't exactly easy to sing, (and sing well).

Anyway... On Friday night MrMarried and I snuggled up on the couch to watch the opening ceremony, watch the nations parade into the stadium, and cheer for the USA. When Team USA entered and had these little babies on, I about fell off the couch:

How cute are these hats?! I was on a mission to buy one and wear it when we get our next snow storm- which in case you didn't hear, we get a LOT of snow around here these days. But, I unfortunately found out that they are a cool $75, and I quickly decided that there are much better ways to spend 75 bucks.

Instead, I will just watch and cheer without a moose hat for the remainder of the Olympics. Sigh. Okay, I am kidding, I will be fine without one. I think...ha!

Lovin' From My Valentine

2010-02-13T11:34:00.003-05:00

My dear husband made my day on Friday by sending these beauties to my office. I was thrilled... too bad they were delivered at 1:55 and I had a FRIDAY AFTERNOON meeting from 2-5:30. Barf.

Attention all executives: Employees DO NOT want to participate in a 3.5 hour intensive marketing message meeting on a Friday afternoon. Just sayin'.

In all seriousness, I survived the meeting and it was so much sweeter to know that I had flowers at my desk waiting for me when I was released from ~~prison~~ the meeting.

I do have a question though. How the heck do you drive home with a vase full of flowers? I was a mess. Trying to steer and trying to hold the flowers upright. It was like an Olympic sport.

My Sweet Money Making Cash Cow

2010-02-11T10:38:00.003-05:00

I don't buy a lot on ebay. I have probably bought and sold a total of 20 items since I started using the site. However, I do believe that ebay might be one of the best inventions to come out of the internet revolution.

My most favorite part of ebay are the used books, DVDs, media and other great finds that I have been able land. My most recent find was Eat, Pray, Love (the audio book version) for $6.90 with shipping.

Why was this such a great find, you ask? Well, I have a 30-40 minute commute each way to work. I've found audio books to be a saving grace to keep me sane during the drive, and they also expose me to books that I normally wouldn't have the time to read.

The only problem with audio books is that they aren't cheap.Case in point: A new version of Eat, Pray, Love at Amazon is $26.37

I would maybe pay that for a classic hardback novel that I would keep forever. Would I pay that price for a one time read-- or one time listen in my case? Heck no. And again... here comes the magic of ebay.

As I said, bought the audio book for $6.90 and listened to it while I was in the car. After I was finished, it sat in my backseat taking up space. So, I decided to see if I could resell the book. It did... and the book sold for $13.95.

That's right. I have found a "library" that PAYS ME to listen to audio books. I "rent" the book (and buy it from the seller) and then "return" the book (and sell it to someone else) and I MAKE MONEY. I know that a profit of $7.05 isn't really earth shattering, but I'll still take it.

Or... maybe I should just start going to our community library and rent audio books from them. Ehhh... maybe that's something I'll save for next month. For now, I will relish in my money making cash cow. Okay, I'm totally kidding on the cash cow.

Do you love audio books as much as me? I'd love to hear about it.

Can I Get a Little Love for DSW?

2010-02-09T11:05:00.013-05:00

FACT: I DO work in marketing.
FACT: I DO NOT work in retail marketing, but nonetheless... I know how retail promotions work.

The formula is simple: Company A researches your buying patterns, send a weekly or monthly e-mail with a coupon to spark your interest, and then drives to you their website to BUY.

For example:
Store A is selling a pair of shoes for $50.
The same store is willing to give you $5 off a full price item and sell the shoes for $45 over the alternative (which is making zero dollars without the promotion).

BUT ... enter MissMarried with her fashionable superhero cape, web savvy shopping ability, and coupons and you have a girl that wrecks the formula!

Exhibit A: I received an e-mail promotion in my inbox this morning from DSW. And the pink little numbers in the top right corner caught my eye (except I wanted them in black), so I clicked through to DSW's website. I saw the shoes were listed for full price at $54.95, meaning that I could save $10 off a $49 purchase with the promotional code that they just e-mailed to me.

Running total (pre-shipping): $44.95:

Then I remembered I received an e-mail from the Vice President of Customer Strategy & Engagement at DSW (yes, this person exists and she is on twitter- ask me if you want to know who she is) last night thanking me for a review that I submitted to the DSW website about a pair of shoes that I bought last month. The e-mail thanked me, and included another coupon code for $5 off a purchase of $5 or more.

Running total (pre-shipping): $39.95. Hmmm.... this keeps getting better.

Let's keep a good thing going, right? Since I am a very loyal DSW shopper, I happened to have two, yes two, rewards certificates based on past purchases. The reward certificates were for $20 and $10 respectively, so I typed those little babies into the discount code box and my total kept going in the right direction-- down, down, down.

Running total (pre-shipping): $19.95 (with my 1st certificate)
Running total (pre-shipping): $9.95 (with my 2nd certificate)

And now for the killer that often stops me dead in my tracks with online shopping: shipping. I visited the DSW website, and saw that they had a free NEXT DAY shipping offer for Premier rewards members (and that's me!)

Bringing my running total for these new (~~and totally needed, errr...~~ well deserved) shoes to.... $9.95 with shipping! I could not pass these up. I immediately hit submit, changed the default shipping address to my office (because MrMarried would not be pleased if he knew I had bought another pair of black shoes), and began writing this post knowing that I got the deal of the day!

And just for further proof, here is my shopping cart. Yes, the total says $9.95.

What deals have you gotten lately? I'd love to hear about them. Happy Shopping!

***Please note, to my knowledge, I have not violated any secret marketing plans of any company. I do not work for DSW or DSW.com, and found all of the coupon codes I referenced in this post on free, public websites including DSW.com and retailmenot.com. This blog post is simply to celebrate a good deal and not to share non-public information. Just trying to cover my bases with this disclaimer. It was not my intention to offend anyone.

Beautiful Blogger Award

2010-02-08T12:25:00.004-05:00

One of my new blogger friends, Mrs. Jones, at A Real Life Wife made my week last Saturday by giving me the Beautiful Blogger award. I wanted to write a post about it sooner, but we had a little bit of snow *cough 18 inches cough cough* and I didn't really get around to writing about it. So, today is the day!

And now for the fun stuff... Here are the rules:

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award and insert a link to their blog. (Done!)
2. Pass on the award to about 15 other bloggers who you recently discovered and think are great! (Wow, I honestly don't know if I know that many bloggers.)
3. Contact the other bloggers and let them know they have been chosen for this award. (Soon to be done.)
4. Say 7 things about yourself. (Done, see below!)

Wow! 15? I definitely don't have 15 blogger friends since I am still quite new to the blogging world, and since Mrs. Jones and I blog and tweet with many of the same people, the list becomes even smaller...I may have to get back to you all on the rest of the list. Here is just one for now:

@GracieBethPSP at The Engineer in... Heels and Pearls (thanks for the fun conversation about Superbowl commercials last night!)

I would have certainly also awarded @kbrenckle, @lawschoolwife, and @areallifewife with this lovely honor had it crossed my path first. Thanks for being great twitter friends, ladies!

Now, I suppose I need to tell you seven things about me. In no particular order...

1. I'm a grass roots "save the earth" type person. Even though I won't be marching on Washington for climate change reform any time soon, I do try to do my part. Before my office recycled, I used to haul home all of the recyclable cans and bottles people drank each week, and put them on my own curb (with a free beverage fridge at work if was almost a full garbage bag a week). I also won't go to the grocery store if I don't have my cloth grocery bags.

2. One of my favorite sounds in world is the sound of bare feet on tile floor. I can't explain it.

3. My husband wants a dog, (a Lab or German Shepard) and I'm totally dragging my feet about getting one.

4. Wedding planning was really easy for me. I have lots of friends who are engaged and planning and all they do it complain about how hard it is. I enjoyed every second so you won't get much sympathy from me, sister. I will listen though and provide any help I can!

5. I'm an only child, but truly do wish I had a brother or a sister.

6. My parents love to tell a story about how I played the clarinet in elementary school. My instructor told them that I hated it, and that I used to skip my lessons and just wander around the school until the lesson was over.

7. I'm not great with proofreading. It has a lot to do with the speed in which I work. I like to write something and just hit publish because I'm excited to get it out there. Therefore, you will likely see typos on this blog. OFTEN. I'm sorry. It's not that I don't respect your time and I don't care enough to proofread. It's just how I am. I'm working on it. Regardless, I'm so happy I started my blog.

In Case You Didn't Hear- It Snowed!

2010-02-06T15:13:00.002-05:00

I think the title of this post is pretty self explanatory, however I believe any good blog post is supported with pictures- so, without further adieu, I give you the snow that arrived in all its glory on Friday, February 5th.

It all started with this little baby that decided to WALLOP us with snow last night.

It really was beautiful....

We had A LOT of shoveling to do.

This is after we finally got my car dug out. Oh how I wish we had a garage!

There weren't too many places to put the snow since there was SO much of it, so it just kept getting piled higher and higher.This is part of our FRONT yard!

MrMarried seriously loves snow... and loves it to an unhealthy degree. As for me, I would happily book a one way ticket to the equator and park my butt on a lounge chair by the pool. However, my lovely husband would move to Antarctica if I would let him.

This is MrMarried ~~practically frolicking in the crap~~ getting ready to measure the snow.

And the final count. Drum roll please... just a hair under 18 inches. Our neighbors had 19-20 in some of their yards. I guess we got lucky with only getting 18. Whew.

I hope that if you have been buried in this snow like we have, you have been able to enjoy it.

Feeling Appreciated

2010-02-05T09:49:00.002-05:00

The company where I work had a rough week. Long story short, our product had a major new release that went out, and it simply ~~was less than stellar~~ hadn't been fully tested. Many of you have followed my layoff story... and I still need to write about how it came to be that I am still working at the company that laid me off (and then subsequently hired me back) all within 3.5 weeks. But... that's another ~~hugely long saga~~ post.

Regardless, two upper level executives made my week by personally going to a local grocery store, buying ice cream for the entire company, and walking to each employee's desk and handing it out. It's the simple things that keep me going at this place.

Have a great weekend!

Solutions Wednesday: Making Laundry More Pleasant

2010-02-03T13:05:00.004-05:00

Since I'm new to the world of blogging, (and a HUGE thank you goes out to the people who have encouraged me to start writing, and have given me feedback to keep me going) I'm still discovering what type of writing schedule works best for me.

For instance, should I go with Menu Mondays, Book Review Tuesdays, Home Renovation Thursdays, and so on? Or, does a "post when I find something interesting" mentality work better for me? The jury is still out on this, but suffice it to say that I'm thinking about the best way to organize my blog and hope to have something a bit more concrete soon.

But... for now, it is Wednesday, and I have found some things I thought would be a solution of interest to many of you- so.. ta da...we have Solutions Wednesday! Today's solution was inspired by a Real Simple newsletter I received on the topic of laundry gadgets. And, I don't know about you, but I love something that can make laundry easier, especially since my husband can make about this much laundry in about 2 days-- no joke.

First up, The JABBA drying hanger from Ikea. How cute are these? And for $4.99? I love it. No, these aren't crazy looking chandeliers, but are instead drying racks for dedicates. So functional and stylish too. I don't know about you, but I could use some color in my laundry room!

Second on the list, stackable baskets. Very self explanatory... and yes, I realize these are not earth shattering. However, I must ask the question-- Why did I not know that these existed before today? I could make excellent use of these!

And last but not least, from one of my favorite organizational stores on earth-- The Container Store, I give you the Reisenthel Loop Laundry Bag. Its a bit of a splurge for a laundry bag at $49, but for how many uses I would be able to get out of this stylish tote... I think that it might pay for itself.

Laundry is not one of my most favorite things to do, but just like everything that is less than a blast, (and I can totally hear Reese Witherspoon as Elle Woods saying this)... With fun accessories, even the most boring job can turn out better. Ha! I can't believe I just typed that... but, I honestly believe it.

Do you have any laundry accessories that you swear by? I'd love to hear about them!

Home Renovations: Our Kitchen Backsplash-- Part Two

2010-02-02T11:04:00.007-05:00

Since some of the pictures from yesterday's kitchen remodeling post were a bit of a sorry excuse for photography, I felt the need to add some better quality images.

This has totally been a labor of love, so I'm sorry I am ~~bragging about it~~ posting twice about it.

Here is the first before and after...

Before and after- looking at the other side of the kitchen

See that bottle of vino that is half cut off on the right side of the last picture? My husband had to hold me back from drinking the whole thing myself after we finished! Okay... not really, but it was truly a celebratory moment!

Home Renovations: Our Kitchen Backsplash

2010-02-01T12:36:00.003-05:00

My husband and I live in a home that was built almost a century ago. It has great bones and was the right price, but needed ~~a total renovation overhaul~~ some work when we moved in. And... when I say it needed some work, I don't mean it was unsafe to live in, but it was just stuck in a different decade.

The kitchen has been one of our MAJOR projects, and I wish so badly that I had taken pictures of the kitchen before we began to tear it down to the studs... but unfortunately I didn't, so you will just have to believe me when I say it looked a little something like this....

BLEH.

So even though I don't have a real "before" picture of our kitchen this what it looked like this past summer. We have come a long way!

I'm blessed with ~~a man that could have his own show on HGTV~~ a handy husband who is willing to take on electrical, drywalling, landscaping, painting, installing hardwood flooring-- I could go on and on. You name it, he likes getting into it! He even told me that he "Doesn't mind remodeling because it he wasn't so busy with the house he would be wasting his time away with video games." Friends, that is a VERY mature statement for my husband. I am thankful and blessed. Anyway... I digress.

As I said, our kitchen has been our major project, and this past weekend we put one of the final pieces in place-- our kitchen blacksplash. So, I thought I would treat you to some pictures.

Here are our walls before. Pretty plain, but still very functional.

Same view of the counter, but a different angle.

Other side of the kitchen.

So we took a deep breath and were off to the races. I had never done a backslash before, but I was hopeful that things would turn out alright. Please excuse the poor quality of the pictures.

Making progress!

And then if you fast forward through about 10 hours worth of labor over Saturday and Sunday... we ended up with something like this....!

I will post more pictures later, because I know these before and after pictures aren't the greatest, but I wanted to share our weekend accomplishment. Happy House Renovating!

Thoughts on L.L. Bean

2010-01-28T21:27:00.004-05:00

The Spring L.L. Bean catalog arrived in the mail yesterday. Now, L.L. Bean is not typically a store/catalog that I pay much attention to. There isn't a particular reason for this, but I kind of thought they were famous for their tote bags and that's about all... you know the ones that you monogram and can haul everything in, and look like this:

Well, I started flipping through the pages just to see what was new in L.L. Beanland, and was pleasantly surprised! The pages were full of color, and the clothes were cute! Perfect (and preppy) stuff for weekend lounging. I wanted to book tickets to Nantucket for my husband and I on the spot-- but that is a different blog post all together.(Hey, Pennsylvania winters are rough, so a girl can dream, right??)

Anyway, I thought these three little numbers were pretty multi-functional, and could pull double duty for both work and weekend gear. What do you think? Are you an L.L. Bean fan?

Full disclosure- I do not work for L.L. Bean, and was not paid to write this post. These are my own personal opinions. Thanks :)

Delicious Dinners: Chicken with Wild Rice Alfredo

2010-01-27T10:00:00.003-05:00

I share this recipe with you with one warning... ~~you would be crazy if you made this on a week night~~ I would strongly suggest that this is not a week night type of dinner (unless you have the ability to start cooking before 4PM). Between the rice cooking time and the chicken baking time, this recipe can become an all afternoon affair! We tried this delicious dinner on a Sunday though, so it worked well that I could get it started early. I hope you enjoy! We certainly did.

The meal idea comes from Pillsbury, and I have found some really tasty meals through their website's newsletter. The gorgeous photo also comes from their website. I promise to start taking my own photos of my creations, however I made this dinner before I started my blog, so I wasn't thinking about photos to jazz up blog posts yet.

Here we go:

3/4   cup uncooked wild rice, rinsed and drained ( I just used a brown and white rice mixture that I had laying around instead of buying a whole new bag of wild rice)
1/2   can (14 oz) roasted garlic-seasoned chicken broth ( I made my own by just adding 3 sizable cloves)
1/2   cup water
1/2   teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1   tablespoon butter or margarine
3   boneless skinless chicken breast halves (about 1 lb)
1 1/2   cups sliced fresh mushrooms
1/2   jar (7 oz) roasted red bell peppers, drained and chopped
1   cup Alfredo pasta sauce (I used a reduced fat Alfredo and it tasted great!)

DIRECTIONS
1.   In 2-quart saucepan, heat wild rice, broth and water to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer 35- 45 minutes or until rice kernels are open and almost tender; drain if necessary. Stir in thyme. Spread rice in ungreased 9x9-inch glass baking dish.

2.   Heat oven to 350°F. In 12-inch skillet, heat butter over medium-high heat. Cook chicken in butter 8 to10 minutes, turning once, until brown. Place on cooked rice. Add mushrooms and bell peppers to skillet. Cook 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Stir in Alfredo sauce; pour over chicken.

3.   Bake uncovered 45 to 55 minutes or until mixture is bubbly and juice of chicken is no longer pink when centers of thickest pieces are cut.

I hope you enjoy. Let me know if you were able to try it and how it turned out.

Valentine's Day Love...a Bit Early

2010-01-25T16:58:00.007-05:00

For those that know me, it is no secret that I have a serious obsession with stationary. Picking out our wedding invitations was almost more fun than choosing my wedding dress, and creating our annual Christmas card is something I think about in the beginning of November.

When I was planning our wedding, I learned of the website, TinyPrints and fell in love. This is the kind of love that means my paycheck should just be directly deposited into a Tiny Prints account that credits me with points each month to buy stationary.

However, with the current state of my job- aka- I might not have one in a few days, I thought it might not be a great idea to get custom Valentine's Day cards printed. Instead, I shall dream. Here are some of my favorites.

I'm not over the moon about the "hugs and kisses" message on the left side, but I love the symmetry of this card.

Love the simplicity. Totally something I would send.

Great message, simple, and cute! And my goodness if our children are ever that cute I would send a card exactly like this.

What holidays do you send cards for? Just birthdays and Christmas? Or are you like me and find any excuse to write to your friends and family?

Quick Layoff Update

2010-01-24T15:00:00.003-05:00

For those of you that may not know the whole story (and that's many of you since this blog JUST went public- please feel free to read the back story on why I am even writing a post about layoffs- here. But, for those of you that follow me on Twitter, you may know a little bit about the story already.

Well, there has been a small update. Meaning-- the company may be keeping me. As I wrote earlier, I am part of a transition team that is in place for the month of January. My role is to transition my work to the new marketing team so they can learn the ropes of what we do and take over everything on 1/31/2010. Things have been going well with the transition, but, everything is moving much more slowly than we anticipated. At this point it looks like the new team may need to keep me on staff for an extended period. Great, right? The problem is they have no clue how long they need me. I'm trying to keep my sanity and move forward with my job search considering I may not have a job after 1/31, but on the other hand I am told that I may stay on staff indefinitely. I'm just confused because less than a month ago I felt as though my world was crumbling with the news that I was being laid off, and now they are telling me that they may want me to continue to work for the company after all. Sound confusing? Trust me, it is!

I will likely have some answers by the end of the week, and will hopefully at least know if I need to continue full steam ahead with a new job search, or if I can hit the brakes for a while, finish out my role with this company, and then look for another job elsewhere. For now, it's a waiting game.

Delicious Dinners: Pasta

2010-01-20T14:58:00.003-05:00

I love to cook, and after all the cookbooks that I got for Christmas, it's time to try some new recipes! I made this dish about a week before Christmas, but since I haven't had time to cook much since Christmas, I thought I would share this new favorite from Ms. Rachael Ray. Enjoy, and let me know what your thought about it after you try it.

Source: Adapted from Rachael Ray's 365: No Repeats

Coarse salt
1 pound penne rigate
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (twice around the pan)
1 1/2 pounds ground beef sirloin
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon coriander (I omitted this because I forgot to pick it up at the store, and it worked just fine)
2 tablespoons chipotle chili powder (I used regular chili powder)
1 large yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves
1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 cups milk (I used skim and it worked well)
2 1/2 cups shredded smoked cheddar (I used regular cheddar. Couldn't even find smoky cheddar in my store.)
1/2 cup fresh flat leaf parsley leaves (a few handfuls), chopped
1 14-ounce can diced fire roasted tomatoes, drained
4 scallions, chopped, for garnish

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat broiler to high and place the rack eight inches from the heat.

2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the boiling water and cook the pasta until slightly undercooked - a little chewy at the center.

3. While the water is coming up to a boil, preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat with the vegetable oil. Add the beef to the hot skillet, seasoned with the cumin, coriander, chipotle chili powder (or just the regular kind), salt and pepper, and cook until lightly brown, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add the onions, garlic, and jalapeno and continue to cook for 5 minutes. While the beef is cooking with the onions, make the cheddar sauce.

4. In a medium sauce pot, melt the butter and add the flour to it. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes over moderate heat, then whisk in the milk. When the milk comes to a bubble, stir in the cheese, cilantro, and parsley with a wooden spoon. Season with a little salt and pepper, stir in the tomatoes, and remove the cheese sauce from the heat. [Really, remove it or the bottom of the pot will be covered in brown cooked milk when you are done!]

5. Once the pasta is cooked, drain it and add it back into the large pot, add the contents of the chicken skillet and all of the cheddar sauce, and stir to combine. Transfer to a baking dish and place under the broiler to lightly brown. Garnish bowls of chili con queso mac with chopped scallions.

My husband LOVED this dinner, and he is really a meat and potatoes kind of guy, so this was a great addition to our normal recipe rotation. I will admit that this dinner did make a LOT of dishes. After we finished eating, I looked around the kitchen and thought to myself, WHAT HAPPENED? Luckily, my husband helped with the cleanup... but just a warning for you- you might make a few dishes.

The Start of Something BIG!

2010-01-15T14:56:00.007-05:00

I've been thinking about starting a blog for some time, and figured that based on the current phase of my life that I'm in, now would be a perfect time. So, ta da... a blog is born! I plan to make this a space for thoughts, life updates, recipes, and just adventures in being a newlywed (yes, I just got married about 3 months ago, and I'm in love with being a newlywed!)

It's a perfect time to start a blog because I have been forced to do a bit of soul-searching lately, and I truly feel as though I'm standing at a starting line.... but it's a starting line that I'm excited about!

Well, I might as well lay it all out on the table. I was laid off earlier this month. Well, kind of. The company I was working for was forced into reorganization, and about 25 people were told they would be losing their jobs. I was part of the company's marketing team, and since my team is the only division being completely eliminated, we have been asked to stay on until the end of January to help with the transition. So, I will be officially laid off on January 31st.

I was shocked, and completely blindsided, but I believe that when one door closes, another opens. I have been able to think and reflect about the situation for a few days, and I truly think this is something that will be great for me. I will certainly be blogging about the job search.

So, thanks for being here. I hope that we can connect, share some ideas, and learn from each other.