Savvy & Sweet Blogs: Sea of Shoes

Sea of Shoes is the blog of Jane Aldridge- a 18 year old Texas fashionista.  She was recently profiled in the January edition of Teen Vogue and was invited to be dressed by Chanel at a debutante ball in Paris this past November.  

(from http://seaofshoes.typepad.com)

(from http://seaofshoes.typepad.com)

(from http://seaofshoes.typepad.com)

She's got and incredible sense of style and much of her wardrobe is vintage, thrifted, or found on eBay.  She also has a line of shoes that she designed exclusively for Urban Outfitters.  She has near daily photoshoots with her mom, so there are always plenty of photos showing off her sense of style.  Her mom, Judy, is also a lover of vintage and also has a blog- Atlantis Home.  Check them out for some beautiful and unique styles!

Check Out That Bling!

Well this just made my day today!  So remember at the beginning of this month when I told you about Weddingbee as my Savvy and Sweet blog recommendation of the week?  It's the wedding website I still check religiously because I just love it so much.  There have been ongoing installments of reader engagement ring photos featured on the main page lately and today I saw this:

Yippeee!!  That's my photo that I took of my engagement ring back when I was still and unmarried lady and there wasn't a wedding band soldered to it!  I don't think I can really explain how much I love Weddingbee and all the wonderful blogger bees on there without sounding like a complete lunatic, but I'll just tell you that seeing this photo of my ring on the site today just really, really made my day.  And with the fact that the Weddingbee site gets around 300,000 hits a day- it's pretty cool to think that my photo made it up there :)

A Savvy and Sweet Wedding: The Introduction

Hubby G and I have been married now for exactly 7 months and I have serious wedding planning withdrawals.  In order to keep my withdrawals at bay, I've decided to do a series of posts here to sum up my wedding planning adventures and our wedding day itself.  I'm going to keep blogging about the other day to day life stuff that's happening here and now, but these wedding posts will just be woven in here and there.  Before I dive in to any of the details, I have to set the scene for you:

 

I'm a very laid back planner of any type of event.  I rarely stress out.  This is important to keep in mind whilst I give you the low-down on our wedding because I may have literally had a heart attack if that wasn't my style.  Why?  Well, the two weekends before the weekend of our wedding I had two big events for work- we're talking stay awake and on your feet for 30 consecutive hours type of big events.  THE TWO WEEKENDS BEFORE WE GOT HITCHED.  Yeah.  Completely crazy.  But here I am- I survived, the wedding came together beautifully, and Hubby G and I had a great time.

 

As I re-cap my wedding planning and the big day, sometimes it might seem like I just didn't really care much about the wedding in general- that's not true.  Like I said, I am just very laid back and I didn't have any pre-concieved notions of what would be 'perfect' for our wedding- I just took what I had or what I could find and made it work how I wanted it to.  And I knew that if I did that, our day would be perfect.  And it was.  I think sometimes we get wrapped up in all the wonderfully delicious details of planning an event and we forget that really, when the big day comes around, the wrong shade of pink in the flowers or even a dress that's impossible to bustle correctly won't really matter.  The day will be perfect because you're marrying the love of your life and surrounded by the well wishes of people that care for you.  That's what you can't loose sight of. 

 

Don't ask me how in the world I've seemed to perfect this attitude (and I haven't by the way- I still stress sometimes!), but let me tell you- it is as close to event planning bliss as anything I know.  The fun and joy of planning an event without tons of stress (que the sky opening up and angels singing).

 

I'm excited to share our wedding adventure with you!

The First Woman To Walk Around The World

Last week I had the privilege of chatting with the first woman to walk around the world.  No joke.  She's a full time motivational speaker now, and I actually listened to her speak about 4 years ago also.  This time around I got a chance to chat with her one on one before she started her program and she was really excited about an upcoming meeting with her publisher about her upcoming first book.  Who is this lady?

Her name is Polly Lutofsky and she began her trek around the world in 1999 from her home in Colorado.  Her journey took her over 14,000 miles and through 22 countries over the course of 5 years.  She used the entire span of her walk to promote breast cancer awareness and raise funds for breast cancer focused organizations in each of the countries she traveled through.  She is a fabulous speaker- very down to earth and funny.  Who wouldn't have some great stories after making a journey like that!

(from Polly's GlobalWalk Facebook page)

She's really fantastic- if you ever have a chance to hear her speak, make sure you go.  And want to know something else that I thought was really cool?  Polly and I became friends on Facebook the day after we had chatted at her speaking engagement and I found this post on my wall:

Polly Letofsky 

I voted for Colby. He's a honey! Must say I voted for Yoga Kitty too 'cuz she was soo cute -- and I'm kind of a kitty girl....I got two rescue kitties. Fat old ladies.

She voted for our little pup Colby in the Bissell MVP contest!  It was something so little and random, but it just reinforced my feeling that Polly is so down to earth and personable, it was really wonderful.  And it made my day.  And I told Colby that even though he didn't win the Bissell MVP contest, the First Woman To Walk Around The World voted for him, so that's gotta count for something.  It does in my book anyway.

How I Somewhat Inadvertenly Ended Up With 4 GMail Accounts

I've been trying to keep these darn accounts straight quite a bit lately. 

I started off with just one- firstname.lastname@gmail.com
Then I got a new one that was firstname.marriedname@gmail.com
Then my college email acount lastnamefirstinitial@college.edu got switched to a GMail account when the university switched over to Google
Then I created another GMail account for this blog- savvysweetblog@gmail.com

And really, the fact that I have 4 GMail accounts isn't really an issue because I have them all set up to forward to one, so I really only need to check one of them (ahh the beauty of Google).

The problem I have is not being able to apply that same concept to one specific part of a Google account- my Reader.  And you all know how much I love my Reader.  Sure, I can easily export/import my subscriptions from one account to another, but I can't preserve all my favorites and shared items. 

Why does this matter? Why don't I just stick to one Reader in one account and be happy with it?  Well...

Right now my primary Reader is in my firstname.marriedname@gmail.com account.  And I would love to share more of my favorites and shared items from my Reader with all of you, but I also would like to preserve some amount of my privacy and not have my firsname.marriedname out all over the place.  I want it all in my savvysweetblog@gmail.com account.  Makes sense right?

Anyway, I'm trying to decide if I just want to move on with it and start from here on out marking my favorites and shared items in my Savvy and Sweet account...I guess I don't have much a choice....maybe I'll Google it...

Savvy & Sweet Blogs: Dooce.com

Heather Armstrong is the author of http://www.dooce.com/ . She is one of the most well-known bloggers out there.  Right from the get-go I'll tell you that some people hate her.  For awhile she had a whole seperate page to her blog called "Monetizing the Hate" where she posted mean comments that people left for her on dooce.com and she put ridiculous amounts of advertising on the page so she effectively began to make money off of the very people who were ridiculing her.  She's definitely not for everyone.  She is who she is and makes absolutely no apologies for it.

So who the heck is she?  Well, she started blogging when she was a single woman in L.A. in 2001. A year after she started her blog she got fired from her job because she had blogged about people at her workplace.  She's kept at it since then and in that time she's gotten married had her first child, went through a traumatic postpartum depression, and just recently gave birth to a second daughter.  In 2005 dooce.com had become successful enough both Heather and her husband Jon could work from home and dooce.com became their only job. 

I like her- I don't necessarily agree with everything she has to say, but I still like her.  I think she's got a great knack for writing and exaggerating for comedic purposes.  And she takes beautiful photos.  And I would LOVE to be in her position- where blogging is your CAREER, so much so that your husband can even quit his job and just help out with the website the blog is on.  She gets paid (via advertisers on the site) to just blog about her life and stay home with her kids and never get out of her pajamas- just try and tell me that doesn't sound at least a little bit amazing.

Turning Twenty-Four

I am now officially one year older.  It got me thinking: there are some points in our lives-specific ages is what I have in mind- that we're all doing about the same things.

At 10 years old most of us are in  5th grade or there-abouts and learning the same type of things.
At 18 we're officially adults, most of us finishing up high school and figuring out what the next step is going to be
At 30 many of us are on some type of somewhat steady career path
At 50 we're being called over the hill
At 70 we're nearing the end of the average U.S. life expectancy.

That somewhat middle area known as our 20's?  Is so vastly different person to person.  Some people spend the bulk of their 20's in school, some spend it starting a career or a business, some spend it starting a family, some spend it in the military, some spend it doing the millions of different scenarios there are out there for a 20-something.

Here's me: I'm officially 24 as of today and I've been married to the man of my dreams for nearly 7 months now.  We are home-owners.  We are dog owners.  I have a college degree.  I work in a job I absolutely love and have been working in my current position for almost a year and a half.  I can't remember the last time I went to a party or a club.  I spend the majority of my Friday and Saturday nights at home.  For all of my 20's thus far I've lived 9 hours from my family.

I'm definitely lovin' life- I'm a homebody and definitely prefer staying home to going out, that's just my personal feeling.  I think of other people I know who are around the same age as me and it just seems so crazy how different our lives are.  I'm not at all saying that one way is better than another, it's just that the broad spectrum of the life of a 20 something is so unbelievably variable.  I'm sure some 20 somethings look at my life and think that I must be absolutely crazy- married and staying home all the time, what's the fun in that? And here I am loving every second of it!  I'm over here on my side of the fence thinking, "Dating? Parties? Clubs? No thank you!"

I know that statistically speaking I am a little bit on the young side of the average for U.S. women as far as getting married goes, but that's what I'm talking about people- our 20's are so unbelievably up in the air!  I guess that even though I'm a bit younger than the average U.S. woman, I feel like the change in that variable is exactly what your 20's are about.

Is there such a thing as a "typical 20 something"?  I don't think so.

What are/were you doing in your 20's?  I'm interested to hear the variety!

Campaigning for Colby

My mom sent me a link to the Bissell MVP (Most Valuable Pet) contest the other day and we think Colby is a pretty good lookin' candidate, so we entered him!

There are 12 different photo submission periods along with 12 different voting periods.  Right now it's the second voting period and it just began today!  Voting ends next Thursday, January 21st which just so happens to be my birthday, so if you want to grant me a little happy birthday wish, go on over to the Bissell MVP page and vote for Colby!

If he wins during this voting period he'll move to the semi-finals.  At the end of the whole contest all the pets who are in the top 5 will get their photo on one of the Bissell vacuum boxes- Colby could become famous!  Bissell will also donate to the pet charity of our choice if Colby is in the top 5, which is even better! (Since we got Colby at a shelter, we'd love to have the money donated to the place where we found him!)

There's a little button on the right side of this page that will take you right to Colby's photo so you can cast your vote and pass the message along!  If you decide to enter YOUR pet in the next photo submission period let me know and we'll vote for them!

(if you're having a hard time finding Colby on the Bissell MVP site, he's entrant #0204401 or you can just search for "Colby")

We Have Furniture!

Because our apartment that we lived in before purchasing our house was very tiny and because I have been working full time less than a year and a half and G has been working full time for less than a year the only furniture we owned was a mattress and box spring set, a bed frame, a kitchen table and chairs handed down to us by G's grandparents, a glass top coffe table that I bought at a garage sale for $10 and a somewhat beat up couch, chair, ottoman set that we bought from a crazy dude on Craigslist that transported said furniture to our apartment in his convertible.

That being said- our new house was looking pretty bare furniture-wise.

We got some good deals on Black Friday- a set of 3 bar stools for our kitchen, a new cover to update our old couch, a rectangle ottoman for the main floor living room, and a set of 3 lamps all from Shopko while we were in the U.P....but we needed more!

So we scoped out Art Van Furniture and picked some furniture out!  On the top of our list: A bed frame.  In addition to deciding not to use any of our nice new wedding gifts until we moved into our new house we decided not to use the fabulous bedding we recieved as a wedding gift until we got a bed frame.  That was definitely added incentive to start buying!

We started in the clearance center and quickly found a bed frame we both liked.  There was also a matching tall dresser, a nightstand, a mirrior, and a short and wide dresser available in the clearance center.  After talking it through and deciding which combination would be best for us, we went with the bed frame, two nightstands and the wide dresser.

(Above photos from http://www.artvan.com/ from the City Crossings Collection if anyone is interested in snatching this set up for themselves!)

Next on our list: a new couch and a recliner.  Our new house has a main floor living room and a lower level rec room and we decided to put our old couch and chair in the main floor living room and get new furniture to put in the lower level rec room.  We figured the room on the main floor would be more of a formal sitting area and the tv could go downstairs.  We have a ridiculous collection of movies that we like to watch, so we wanted comfy to furniture to view those movies from!

It was a toss up.  I liked this modern-looking couch with giant pillows and a chaise lounge on one end, and G fell in love with this dual recliner loveseat that could be a stand alone piece or could fit with a big sectional sofa.  The dual recliner that G liked matched a regular couch that you could purchase as a sleeper sofa if you wanted.  G's argument was that we could both recline and watch movies in the loveseat that he liked (it was incredibly comfortable).  My argument was that if we ever had anyone over they would have no where to sit, so it would be better to buy a couch and a seperate recliner to give us more seating.

Our final decision?  We got the dual recliner that G loved AND the regular couch that matched it with the sleeper.  That way we have plenty of space for people to sit if we have company and an extra bed too!  These couches weren't found in the clearance center, but there happened to be a sale on all couches, so we got a deal on those too!

(Photos from http://www.artvan.com/ from the Paloma Collection)

And we got one more thing...while G fell in love with the dual recliner, I fell in love with this big square ottoman in the clearance center.  We decided that our glass-top coffee table didn't really match much in our house, so we put it in the basement for now and purchased the ottoman to go along with the new couch and dual recliner in the rec room. 

(Photo from http://www.artvan.com/ Cocktail Storage Ottoman)

Check out our sweet new set-up!

So our pockets are lighter after all this furniture purchasing, but our house is definitely starting to feel more like our home!  And that dual recliner has definitely gotten some use while we watch our movies :)

What's your favorite piece of furniture that you own?

Savvy and Sweet Recipes: Macaroni and Cheese Bake

I just have to preface this post with this fact:  I am not savvy nor sweet in the cooking department.

 

I've had my share of cooking/baking mishaps and I don't particularly like cooking.

 

Or so I thought. 

 

Lately I've caught some sort of cooking bug- and it is intense.  I'm seriously considering the possibility that I was abducted by aliens in my sleep and they took over my brain.

 

A couple of weeks ago I got it in my head that I wanted to make macaroni and cheese for dinner and I wanted to make it myself from scratch for the following reasons:

 

1. We got this green Le Creuset dish for our wedding and I absolutely love the color and I hadn't used it yet and I just felt that baked macaroni and cheese would be perfect in this dish.

(source)

2.  I love macaroni and cheese.

 

3.  We also happened to have bacon AND onions at our house already in addition to all the other ingredients for macaroni and cheese so I didn't have to make a trip to the store.

 

The biggest kicker in this whole macaroni and cheese making business?  I DIDN'T EVEN USE A RECIPE.  Yeah, I just straight up walked into that kitchen like I owned it (let's look past the fact that I do actually own it with Hubby G) and threw whatever I thought sounded good in a dish and prayed that I wouldn't burn down our new home in the process of making this creation.

 

Our house is still intact.

 

And the macaroni and cheese bake was A M A Z I N G.  Like, I almost died when I tasted it because it tasted so good and I was completely shocked that I had actually made it WITHOUT A RECIPE- did I mention that before? Because it was delicious and I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE IT.

 

Anyway, of course I documented the making of this dish because it was a truly historic event for me. 

 

What you need:

bacon

onions

macaroni noodles

16 oz. block of cheese (I used Colby Jack)

butter

milk

flour

garlic (optional)

salt & pepper

 

Step 1: Boil your macaroni noodles.  How much macaroni?  Well since I wasn't using a recipe I had no idea, so I just put some uncooked noodles in my Le Creuset dish and guessed.  I put in enough uncooked noodles to fill up the dish about 1/3 of the way.  Then I dumped that amount of noodles into a pot of water to cook.

 

Step 2:  Grate your cheese.  I strongly believe that this mac & cheese turned out as good as it did because I grated my cheese myself and didn't use the pre-shredded stuff.  I have absolutely no basis for this belief, but I'm just saying.  I have a feeling.  Set your freshly grated cheese aside for later use.

Step 3: Fry up your bacon- as much or as little as you'd like- in a big fry pan.  You can even omit the bacon if you so choose- I have no idea what I'm doing, but I don't think it would turn out terribly without the bacon.  But everything is definitely better with bacon...that's my opinion of late anyway.  Put the cooked bacon on some paper towel to soak up some of the grease.

 

Step 4: Drain out the bacon grease from your fry pan.  Add about 2 tablespoons of butter, some chopped onions and a bit of garlic -if you love garlic like I do- to the fry pan and heat it up (on medium-ish heat) until the onions get soft.  Like the bacon, use as many or as few onions as your little heart desires.  I can't tell you how much I used because I didn't measure.  But I love onions.

 

Step 5: Pour in some milk...I have no idea how much.  I'm telling you, I was flying by the seat of my pants whilst making this creation- no time for silly things like measuring.  I'd say go conservative on your milk pouring because you can always add more to get the consistency you want.  Add a big spoonful of flour as well and stir it up.  Add more milk if it's looking like the flour is clumping together.  

 

Step 6:  Gradually start adding your cheese into the mix.  If it's looking too thick just add more milk as you go.  Keep adding the cheese until you have just a small handful left.  Cut up your bacon and add it to the mix.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

 

Step 7: Put half of your cooked macaroni noodles in your baking dish.  Pour half of your cheese sauce mixture over the noodles.  Add the rest of the noodles on top and pour the rest of your cheese sauce mix over the top.  Put that last handful of grated cheese on top.

 

Step 8: Bake for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees.  Remove from oven and do a happy dance to celebrate you cooking prowess and the fact that you managed to keep anything from catching fire.  

 

Have you ever whipped something up in the kitchen with just a vague idea and no recipe to help you?  What were the results?

Why I Blog

I only have a very vague idea of who might be out there reading my blog, but the thought crossed my mind today that some of you may not know me very well or at all for that matter and I was just thinking that if I were you, I might wonder why I started this blog.

Well...if you've been following along you know I love blogs.  That was a big part of my motivation.  The other part?  I really wanted something that I enjoyed doing to help fill my time alone.

Now you may be asking yourself, "What? I thought you were a newlywed? How come you're not hanging out with Hubby G?"

Well, Hubby G and I unfortunately have very different work schedules.  I work a fairly typical week day schedule and Hubby G works almost every evening and every other weekend.  That means that the only time Hubby G and I get to spend hanging out together is one day a week when I get home from work and then every other weekend.

I definitely wish we had more time to hang out together, but I'm also not complaining because Hubby G and I are very fortunate to both have full-time jobs which isn't something anyone can take for granted these days.

I have quite a few evening meeting commitments for work but I still spend the majority of my week day (and weekends for that matter- I'm definitely a home-body!) evenings at home- just me and Colby.  What life would be without that cute little fur ball I can't even imagine.  I'd be so much lonelier!

(The sticker says "KEEPS YOU WARMER" very true of my fuzzy little pup!)

So, blogging helps me fill up some of that time.  It's something I really enjoy, even if this little blog of mine doesn't have much direction at the moment.  I've been putting some thought into exactly what purpose I want this blog to fulfill though, so we'll see how it progresses!  Right now, I'm okay with it jumping all over the place :)

I'm sure at some point down the road when we decide to start a family I'll be wistfully remembering the days when I had a minimum of 5 hours nearly every day all to myself, but for now- it's a bit much and I'm glad I have a cute little pup and a little Savvy and Sweet to fill my time.

The Kindness of Others

We got a bunch of snow this past Thursday- I left my office Thursday evening and brushed off a good four inches of snow from my car.  My wonderful co-worker was parked next to me and generously helped brush off my car.  It saved me from trudging through the snow around my car and it was very greatly appreciated.  As we were brushing the snow I commented that I was not looking forward to getting home and shoveling out our driveway- yuck...last thing I want to do after spending a full day working is come home and do some shoveling.  I drove home slowly as the snow was still coming down and as I pulled up our driveway I thought to myself "geez, we must not have gotten as much snow here...the driveway seems pretty clear to me" and then I realized- our wonderful neighbors had cleaned out our entire driveway for us with their snowblower!  How wonderful is that!?  I got inside and gathered the ingredients for some bread as quickly as I could and got it going in the bread machine.  It takes about 3 hours for the bread to be done, so at 9:05 when the timer went off I got it out of the pan as fast as I could and wrapped it up and brought it over to the neighbors along with a thank you card.

To my co-worker who helped wipe the snow from my car and my neighbors who cleaned out our driveway- you're stunning examples of human kindness.  I think sometimes we forget to take a minute to recognize those little things and think of the little things that we can do for others that would be so very appreciated.

Thanks for making my life just a bit easier and making me smile!

Savvy & Sweet Blogs: Weddingbee

Finally!  It's taken me awhile to get back on track but now I'm ready to resume my favorite blog series!  I'm going to aim to put up a new post in this series every week, so watch for them from now on!

Ahh Weddingbee....I don't even know where to start.  This is one of the blogs that I follow religiously in my Reader. Of course this all started when I was wedding planning, but even after the wedding I still go through every single update on the blog.

The way it's set up is that brides who are wedding planning can apply to become a "bee" on the site and blog about her wedding planning. Each bee has a name matched up with their icon, and there are all different categories like shoes, flowers, junk food, dogs, drinks, bugs, the list goes on. Some of my favorite bees are Mrs. Apple Cider, Mrs. Star, Mrs. Powder Puff, Mrs. Sea Breeze, Mrs. Peony, Mrs. Mascara...I could go on and on. Of course each of these bees starts out as a Miss So and So and then moves to Mrs. So and So once their wedding passes.

Bee Kim (Mrs. Bee) is the founder of Weddingbee. It started as a place to blog about her own wedding and launched it as it's own site in 2006.  It currently gets over 300,000 page views per day (source).

At the moment there are 22 "Miss" bees blogging about their wedding planning adventures and misadventures.  With so many bees blogging about their wedding planning all together in one place, it's really nice to see all the variety- different budgets, different levels of craftiness and DIY projects, different cultures and traditions, different attitudes, the list is endless. 

In addition to the 22 "Miss" bees, there are 135 "Mrs." bees going back to 2007.  Only a small portion of these Mrs. bloggers are still active bloggers for Weddingbee- for example, they usually stick around Weddingbee after their wedding long enough to recap all the details of the big day and the honeymoon (that's a lot of stuff so it can take awhile to update everyone!) and then bid farewell to Weddingbee blogging.  Their blog posts stay up in the Weddingbee archives however, so there is a continuously growing library of wedding planning play-by-plays that is unbelievably valuable for any woman who is planning a wedding.

On top of all that awesome-ness there is a ton more on the Weddingbee site- classifieds, wikis, discussion boards, and more.

I love weddings (and am suffering from wedding planning withdrawals), but I also love any type of event planning, and so I still keep up with Weddingbee.

And the best part?  A ton of the bees from Weddingbee have their own personal blogs.  Which means I subscribe to them and add them to my Reader (you're really getting a good idea of how easy it is to become addicted aren't you?). 

Even if you're not wedding planning, I still recommend checking out Weddingbee- there are tons of great ideas for crafts, invitations, and more that can apply to all sorts of things other than weddings.

This Is How My Addiction To Blogs Has Spiraled Wildly Out Of Control...

I'll freely and proudly admit it:  I'm addicted to blogs.  I can't get enough.  Aside from spending time with Hubby G and Colby, my favortie thing to do at home is catch up on the blogs I follow.

And that is no small task my friends.

Currently in my Google Reader I'm subscribed to 109 blogs.  That's right ONE HUNDRED AND NINE.

Now, I'll tell you right now that I don't keep current with all 109 of those.  There are some I read religiously and some I leave unread for weeks or months.

(This is an actual screenshot from my Google Reader Trends...woah.)

I have to back up one second because I would never ever keep up with even a handful of these blogs if it weren't for my Google Reader.  It's actually Google's fault that I have become addicted to all these blogs because my Google Reader makes it so darn simple to do so!

For those of you who don't know, Google Reader is a feed reader where you can add all the blogs you'd like to follow and organize them into folders.  This way, instead of going to 109 different websites to check for blog updates, I just open my Google Reader and they're all there waiting for me showing me in bold which ones have new posts and how many new posts each has.  After I've read them (or scrolled through just to look at the pictures which I also do frequently), they're automatically marked as read.  And they automatically update every time one of those 109 blogs posts something new.  See?  Google practically asked me to become a blog addict.

I'll admit, when my friend first told me about Google Reader I was intrigued, but skeptic.  I love just about anything Google (the intrigued part of me), but I didn't really follow any blogs, so what was the point (the skeptic part of me).  My friend assured me that I would love it and showed me how to add blogs to it.  And we got it set up so that we're Google Reader friends and we share posts that we like with each other.

That sharing posts business?  That's what will begin to make your blog addiction spiral out of control.  This is how it happens:

1. You set up your Google Reader and add 1 or 2 blogs you casually follow.  They're updated a couple times a week, so if you only check in to your Google Reader once a week there's just a few new things going on.

2. Your friend shares something with you via Google Reader that she thinks you'll like.  Your friend is correct and you do like it.  And it's from a blog you've never heard of.  You decide to subscribe to that blog to see more of that thing you like.

3. That blog is updated almost daily, so now you start to check your Google Reader a few times a week to see what's new.

4.  You start to wonder what other cool blogs might be out there that you would like.  You Google search and quickly find at least 5 more that you think you'd like.  You subscribe to all of them, figuring you can just unsubscribe if you decide you don't like them later.

5.  While reading posts from the blogs you follow, one of the authors links to another blog they've been inspired by.  You think you might get inspired from this other blog too so you add it to your Google Reader.

6.  Now you've got quite a few blogs you're following and even if some of them aren't updated frequently, others are updated very frequently, so every single time you open your Google Reader there is ALWAYS something new.  So you ALWAYS want to check your Google Reader.

7.  And you're still finding new blogs via your friends sharing and your blogs linking to other blogs.  So you keep adding more new ones.  And now you know about this whole blogging world so everytime you're interested in something you look for blogs on that topic to add to your Google Reader.

And that my friends, is how the addiction happens.

To give you further insight on my Google Reader/blog addiction, here's what my Google Reader folders look like:

• Crafts: (22 blogs)- I really need to clean this folder out though because I haven't been looking at it as much lately and there are some blogs in there that I wouldn't mind getting rid of.
  
  
  
• Design: (9 blogs)- One of the blogs in this folder is updated around 15 times per day, so there is always alot to look at.  The blogs in this folder cover interior design, home improvement and construction, fashion, and graphic design, so it's got a wide range of content.
  
  
  
• Life: (13 blogs)- This is kind of a miscellaneous folder.  It's mostly quick and light stuff- Funny animal pictures, and funny people pictures or funny snippets from people's lives, but there is also music recommendations, tips on how to have a more eco-friendly lifestyle, and basic tips for a happier life.
  
  
  
• People: (32 blogs)- This is by far my favorite folder.  I read or scan through every new thing that ever comes up here.  It's real, it's true, it's happening right now.  They're basically just people's lives- kind of like Savvy and Sweet, they just talk about day to day stuff.  In my blog addiction neurosis I refer to these people as my blog friends- even though (with the acception of a couple) I've never ACTUALLY met them.  Don't judge.
  
  
  
• Technology: (8 blogs)- I'm a techie, but I don't keep up with these ones as much.  All but 2 of them are Google blogs- I told you I love Google.
  
  
  
• Wedding: (9 blogs)- Okay, I know I'm already married, but this folder was vital last year while wedding planning.  And I still religiously follow at least one of these just because I love weddings.
  
  
  
• Woof! (a.k.a Dog Blogs): (11 blogs)- We just got Colby a little over a month ago.  I went on a hunt for dog blogs on training, dog products, cute dogs, funny dogs...you get the picture.
  
  
  
• Work: (5 blogs)- All of these blogs relate to my area of work or professionalism.
  
  
  

I swear I'm not insane.

If you just read this post and it's the first time you've heard of Google Reader and are intrigued/skeptic like I was- leave a comment here and I'll help you get yours set up (Seriously- I would love more Google Reader friends to share stuff with and to share with me!)

Welcome to the dark side.

Trans Siberian Orchestra

Hubby G surprised me a month or so ago with tickets for las night's Trans Siberian Orchestra (TSO for short) show in Grand Rapids.  We've always wanted to go, so we were both excited!

Before the show we went and got dinner at the Bull's Head Tavern.  It was very good and very reasonably priced for what we ordered.  We tried out their spinach and artichoke dip as an appetizer and it was some of the best I've ever tasted.  For dinner G had roasted duck and I had the prime rib special.  My meal came with "horseradish red skin mashed potatoes" and they definitely weren't messing around with the horseradish- it was way too strong for my taste, but the rest of the meal was wonderful.

We finished our dinner almost an hour before the show was to start, so we walked closer to the arena and grabbed a drink and some dessert to kill time (not a bad way to pass the time if I do say so myself!).

We headed over to the arena and found our seats for the sold-out show and anxiously awaited the start.  The only unfortunate thing of our whole concert experience was the guys sitting behind us.  They talked through the ENTIRE show (no easy feat because the music is really loud throughout).  Other than that, the show was amazing!  We brought our camera, but it was tough to get any good pictures because the lights and lasers are amazing and flashing and going off constantly.  Here are a couple that we got:

It was really awesome.  At one point the "String Master" (the girl on the platform with her arms up in the photo above) ran up into the crowd just to the left of where we were sitting and continued her performance for a few seconds from there before running back down and climbing aboard that platform you see in the picture.  It was an amazing show and a wonderful treat for me and Hubby G!  If you ever have the opportunity to check out TSO, I would definitely recommend it!  Below is a clip from their website and the show is every bit as good as the video makes it look!

Thank you from Colby to Guinness

(We gave this bone to him today and we haven't heard from him for the past hour!)

Hello 2010!

2009 was a truly amazing year for G and I!

• My family threw us a super fun western-themed bridal shower at the same place where my mom had her baby shower when she was pregnant with me
• G's family threw us a beautiful shower along in conjunction with brother-in-law C and his wife T who also got married this past summer 
• G graduated with his bachelor's degree and got a full time job (the offer came the day before graduation!  Can't get much more perfect than that!
• I planned 3 amazing events for work in addition to our wedding (2 of those events were the 2 weekends before our wedding...can you say S T R E S S?!)
• I celebrated my 1 year anniversary at my job that I love.
• We got MARRIED at the university where we met and made our first charitable donation as a part of our wedding.
• We house shopped A LOT
• I started this blog
• We bought a beautiful house in a great neighborhood for a steal AND we got the first time home-buyers tax credit!
• Every wall in our house got a fresh coat of paint
• We rescued the sweetest little puppy from the Humane Society while we were on a fantastic Thanksgiving vacation
• We got new furniture (post on that coming soon!)

Whew!  That's one AMAZING year!!  It seems like it will be pretty hard to top all that...but I think we can do it!

I think one of the great things about blogging that in addition to sharing our lives with all of you, it serves as a great record for us- a way to look back on all the memories.  And a great place to put my goals for 2010 in writing!

My Goals for 2010:

• Keep blogging.  At least 3 posts per week every week.
• Keep up Monday night date nights with Hubby G, but make more plans for those date nights.
• Cook more
• Run in at least one race this year that's more than a 5k.
• Put things on the walls in our house and make it more "homey"
• Get to know the town we live in better- I think the only places I know of in this town are the grocery store, the pizza place, and Jimmy Johns...that's bad.
• Hang out with my girlfriends more
• Get to know our neighbors better
• Go on vacation with G since we never went on a honeymoon
• Finally put together a photo album of all of our wedding pictures
• Do something fun to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary

I think that's a pretty decent list of goals for 2010!  And I think they're all achievable.  Hopefully at this time next year I'll be reminiscing about how I kept up with all of them!

What are your goals for 2010?

Christmas Update 2 of 2

Christmas around here was pretty quiet this year.  G had to work 2nd and 3rd shift on Christmas Eve and then had to go back again for 2nd shift on Christmas Day.  We weren't really doing much gift exchanging either because we just spent all kinds of money on new furniture and new carpet, so we figured we had gifted ourselves with enough lately!

Since I knew I'd be chillin' home alone on Christmas Eve I armed myself with a project to keep me busy!  I was going to make puppy chow (Chex cereal coated in chocolate, peanut butter, and powdered sugar) and sugar cookies!

First of all: NEVER go to the grocery store on Christmas Eve.  That place was a zoo!  And they were sold out of Chex!  I substituted Crispex though and moved on.  We also shopped for some breakfast food- we were planning on having Christmas brunch as our one little Christmas celebration on Christmas Day before G had to head back into work.

Second of all:  Sugar cookies are A LOT of work!  I don't really bake or cook that much, so I had no real idea of how long they would take me.  Plus I didn't refrigerate the dough, so it was super sticky to begin with and I had to empty my whole cannister of flour to make it through the project.  That whole business took long enough and then frosting all of them seemed to take a million years too.  BUT- they turned out very yummy and definitely achieved their purpose- they kept me busy all night long on Christmas Eve :)

On Christmas morning I got up when G got home and hopped on Skype and watched my fam open their Christmas presents.  We took a little break from Skype so that I could get our breakfast/brunch made and we let Colby open his Christmas present from my parents.

(He loved tearing up all the wrapping paper!)

Then G woke up and we had our Christmas brunch.  The spread included coffee, juice, eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes, and cinnamon twists with chocolate icing- yummmmmmmmmm!

We opened our gifts from my parents and my sister and then G had to leave for work again.  Me and Colby spent the day playing video games and watching movies.  It was very relaxing :)

I also got some great shots of Colby in the afternoon- he is too cute for words.

So no big fanfare over this way for Christmas this year, but it was still wonderful.  Even though G had to work, it was kind of meaningful and fun for us to have Christmas 2009 in our new home!

Christmas Update 1 of 2

Gabe, Colby, and I spent a good chunk of the weekend before Christmas out at G's parent's house to celebrate Christmas!  G's younger brother is in the Army Reserves and he just got home the Friday before from Fort Sam Houston in Texas for a 2 week holiday before he has to head back.  We haven't seen him since he stood in our wedding in June (he left for boot camp shortly after), so it was great to finally see him!  I only have one sibling and even my extended family is pretty small, so it's a totally different experience for me to hang out with G's family- he's got 4 siblings.  I'm going to shorten everyone's names to keep things moving here!

In total, there was:

G, Colby, and I

G's Mom and Dad

G's twin brother J and his fiance MB

G's younger brother C, his wife T, and their black lab Guinness

G's other younger brother D (home from the Army Reserves)

G's younger sister KC

Whew!  That's 10 people and 2 dogs all cozied up in my in-laws cute house!  It was so fun having everyone together and Colby and Guinness definitely had tons of fun playing ALL DAY LONG.  Even when they were too tired to stand they just kept playing laying down :)

We headed out to G's parent's house late Saturday night- it's only a little over an hour to get to their house from ours.  We unloaded all of our stuff- we had a lot of it for only staying one night (it turns out that packing for our puppy Colby is quite the job since we're still in the process of training him!). We hung out and G and D played video games until they were tired of hearing me whine about needing to go to bed :)

On Sunday G's twin brother J and fiance MB came out early for church and G's brother C, his wife T, and their dog Guiness came out shortly after.  Colby and Guinness pretty much kept everyone entertained for the bulk of the day before lunch/dinner- they never quit playing!

We had an awesome lunch/dinner- G's mom is a wonderful cook and there was tons of yummy food to fill up on!  After eating, it was time for gifts!  Everyone got stockings full of goodies- including Colby (he is so spoiled!).  Guinness' big bag of rawhides couldn't fit in his stocking, but he didn't seem to mind :) Even though Colby had his own goodies from his stocking, he was only interested in stealing the rawhide bone Guinness was working on, but he generously shared and put up with him- now that's the spirit of Christmas even from a dog! :)

After gifts, we played some games and just hung out and enjoyed each other's company!  G and I ended up staying quite late watching a movie, but we eventually packed up all of our stuff and headed home for the night.  Colby was totally wiped out from all the fun of the day, so he was ready to sleep well for the night!

(All 3 above photos courtesy of brother-in-law C's wife T because I was a bad blogger and didn't take any photos!)

Because of G's work schedule we weren't be able to head north to see my family for Christmas, but we got to 'see' each other via Skype instead :)

Deck the Halls!

I'm getting close to being caught up with this blog!

So after we returned home from our wonderful Thanksgiving vacation to the U.P. and got settled in with our new furry family member we realized that we needed to get our new house looking festive for the holidays!

Many of our neighbors already had their Christmas lights up before Thanksgiving, so we were kind of feeling like the Scrooges on the block without any lights on our house!  Hubby G, Colby, Sister W, and I tackled the project in a few hours on a Saturday. 

Here was how we broke down the work for this project:

Hubby G: In charge of putting the clips on the roof and actually stringing the lights up there

Me: In charge of handing the clips and lights to Hubby G up on the ladder.  Also in charge of stringing the lights around the top of the big pine tree in the front yard.

Colby: In charge of using up tons of energy by playing in the snow and looking extremely cute (he took this job very seriously and was very good at it).

Sister W: In charge of keeping an eye on Colby so he didn't get into too much trouble...like constantly attempting to chew on the strings of Christmas lights and unplugging the all the lights!

It was cold and took awhile, but in the end it looked GREAT.  We added a few bows to the lights on the garage and porch as well.  Total cost of our outdoor house-Christmasification? ZERO DOLLARS.  Yup.  All of the icicle lights were purchased after Christmas last year for our wedding this past summer, so we put them to good use again for the holidays!  The regular strings of lights that went around the tree and around the porch stairs were also from our wedding.  The red bows were given to us by my Gma G while we were up north for our Thanksgiving vacation.  Pretty good deal!

(Another blurry picture taken with a phone...still looks good though!)

We also got our first real Christmas tree!  My dad is obsessed with Christmas lights (I say that with love dad!) so my mom gave us a few extra strings of lights while we were up visiting to use for our tree.  We put it right by the big front window so that you can see it from the street along with all of our other pretty lights outside!

(Blurry picture of Colby checking out the tree taken with my Blackberry)

Did you decorate the outside of your house for the holidays?