an anthro sunday

So I did something absolutely stupid this morning. I cleaned my bathroom sink wearing one of my nice shirts. I don't know what I was thinking. It was one of those "let me just wipe down the sink really quick", not a thorough scrub down. Well it came back to bite me in my shirt because sure enough there were not one, not two, but five very nasty bleach stained spots on the front of my shirt :( One was the size of a quarter and the rest were little spots at various points. Needless to say I was very upset at myself. This was one of my fave loose tops that I bought at anthropologie a couple months ago.

After my initial screams of seeing the bleach, the hubby of course ran upstairs to see what all the fuss was about. He was actually in shock as well by my cleaning blunder and he was like "we have to go to anthropologie and get a new one right now!" Isn't he sweet? So that's what we did hahaha

I rummaged through the sales racks and found this cute floral tank. I tried on half a dozen other tops, but resigned to getting just one top this time ;) BUT, I did find these oh-so soft leather boat shoes. I've been looking for some summer flats, but didn't want anything with a lot of embelishment and that also has some arch support! For some reason so many cute flats just are hell on my arch. But these loafers are so comfortable and I think the color (rose red) is great for summer and into fall. So my deciding to clean the bathroom, a task I normally loathe, turned into a good thing :)

Highs & Lows Tank

Muted Shades Loafers

Finally at home

It's officially summertime, and I'm feeling the urge to reenter the blogging world. Oh how long since I've keyed some thoughts or happenings. First, I was silly busy with settling on the house, which we did back in March :) It was a super exciting time, but also really stressful with the move, furniture arranging (and rearranging), and just the overall process of getting used to the fact that I am now a homeowner, that every house problem is certifiably my problem now. No more landlord to call. But I can't complain too much, it's been great and I really love the place, especially the wooded backyard. Though right now everything is super grown over and it looks like this dark, dense jungle. There's so much wildlife too, with deer, foxes, turtles, possums, racoons, all kinds of birds. Though right now there's this swarm of ravens that has decided my backyard as their home for the summer. Sometimes the cawing is freakishly straight from The Birds movie....yikes.

As far as home maintenance, now I understand why people travel in hoards to the hardware store on the weekends, even for a new home, there's seemingly always something to fix or improve! I suppose our upcoming projects for the house will be the landscaping and decorating a couple more rooms. We also have an unfinished utility room that we're already discussing turning into an office, but that's just us fantasizing about putting-up drywall and laying down flooring hehe

But now that the moving dust has settled, I'm looking forward to an upbeat summer, to jumpstart some of my hobbies, and also discover some new ones. I know I want to take some enrichment courses this summer, well first of all because it's too bloody hot and humid to do too many thing outdoors so sitting in an air-conditioned class a couple times a week doesn't sound too bad ;) In general it's time to relax! I think the past couple years (yes I said years) I was getting more and more uptight and stressed-out about all sorts of things, big and small. Unfortunately emotional stress can lead to physical stress and I was just getting so sick of it, I partly blame my aging hahaha At least I can laugh about it now :)

Remedies for a restless Jess

My first cold of the winter season! I've been home today trying to get better, but as usual I am having a difficult time to relax. I feel like sh** and have been popping tylenols since yesterday afternoon, I thought I was starting to feel better and could just walk around the house, make some food, sofa tv coma, clean-up a bit, and then bam...I have an energy crash and regret that I didn't just lay in bed and force myself to sleep! Last night was the worst though when I was battling a fever. Then I was totally in bed with body aches with my juice and cranky moans...I apologize to the hubby!

The next couple days should be a challenge while I will myself to get better. At least my fever has subsided and now I'm dealing with an on again off again relationship with my earache, and sinus congestion that is struggling to emerge (that annoying, tingling, burning sensation in my sinuses!) The weekend is fast approaching so I hope I get over this quickly or else I'll see myself having a very unproductive weekend. For now I'm loading-up on tea, juice, homeopathic zinc tablets (I'll try anything at this point), hot soup, and forcing myself to sit still on the sofa or in bed!

We have walls...well sorta

View from future living room to future kitchen

Since the new year we've been busy, busy, busy with the house building and meeting with the contractor/builder. Everything is in full speed so we can move-in around beginning April :) It's really surreal to see our future home from dirt to house and pick-out the nitty gritty details like flooring, knobs, bathroom fixtures...too many choices! The contractor is really good with explaining things, but I'm glad that watching all those DIY shows on HGTV wasn't a total waste of time hehe It's all a bit overwhelming, but once we move I'm looking forward to just doing nothing! I don't want to get carried away with unpacking, decorating, or buying junk to fill the space. But I'm definitely ready for home, sweet home...

Christmas Puzzle...Done!

1000 Pieces. 1 Day to complete most of it, but 3 days for the tree, wreath, and garland...

Tis the construction season

Finally! Construction started a few weeks ago on the new house, but unfortunately now there is a weather delay with the cold temps and snow. In the above photo you can see the snow dusting in our future wooded backyard. But at least the plumbing was laid and some dirt was pushed around...progress! Our project manager assures us that the concrete pouring and framing will go super fast once the weather is favorable. Better for them (and us) to wait and do it right! At this rate we hope construction will be done around April. At least it will be warmer weather for the move!

With all the house business, we haven't really gotten into any sort of Christmas mood. We decided not to put up much decorations and actually we gave away our little fake lighted tree and decorations from last year, plus with those gone it is less things to move! Also, we've just had such annoyance with that tree and our little cat. Last year she actually tried to climb it and succeeded in toppling it over. Of all the ornaments on the tree she managed to break the one ornament that actually had some sentimental value. So this year, no tree! We do have a small display of Christmas houses with the Xmas cards, so we aren't totally bah, humbug! ;)

But with the upcoming holiday, what we're most looking forward to is some vacation time! This will be the first time the hubby and I have had a week long vacation together since 2008! I know that's a long time. We've had a few 3-day weekends here and there, but a week off work and together...it's been that long! The best part is we aren't going anywhere, so I suppose it is more a staycation. We just want to spend some quality time together at home, with some real rest & relaxation. I know some people say you have to get away from your daily environment in order to really get away and reenergize, but I don't travel that way. When I'm on holiday I feel like I'm still working, with organizing day activities or visiting friends and/or family. But with the staycation, we can just be without a schedule, without any social obligations, or feel the need we should get the most out of a trip since we paid for it, etc. We basically just want to be lazy, but lazy together haha!

Views from home

Views of Afton (above) and the Shenandoah Valley (below)

Taken at Raven's Roost Overlook, BRP

The weather this November has been absolutely great so far. This Fall has been full of crisp mornings, warm afternoons, and brisk evenings. Today we decided to take advantage of this gorgeous Fall day and go on a short drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway. It's only a short half hour drive from town and a great way to get some super fresh air and take-in some wonderful scenery. Unfortunately we missed the peak season for the changing of the leaves, but there is also something very beautiful about a nearly barren mountainside with still a few late trees of bright red and orange leaves. It's times like this when I feel I should take more advantage of what's around my own home town and not just when we have visitors. So glad we made this impromptu morning drive into the mountains.

Holidays Countdown

Iconic Rosie and the 70's Cop

Alas, Halloween season is over. I can't believe we are already into November of 2010?!?! This is usually a very busy time of year for me and the hubby as the year winds down. We easily can let ourselves go with less sleep, unhealthy eating of whatever's more convenient, etc. So this time around I have my 'preemptive weight gain plan'. For the last few weeks I've stepped-up some gym sessions and tried to really watch what I've been eating. So this year with all the holiday hustle & bustle, those extra pounds won't sneak-up. I'll hopefully just plateau to my pre-holiday weight :) Bring-on the Turkey!

Getting into the Halloween spirit

I'm finally getting into the Halloween spirit. I wasn't sure if I was going to celebrate this year considering we hardly get any children coming to our door for trick-or-treating and there was no mention of a costume party to attend to as of a week or so ago. But we passed this gorgeous display of pumpkins outside of Whole Foods and decided it was time to celebrate Halloween :) We have a pumpkin all ready to carve sometime this week and I'm wondering if I should bake pumpkin scones or a pumpkin cheesecake with the leftover filling. Let the fall baking season begin!

The candy corn addition is definitely the hubby's cravings. I'm not so big on candy, but year after year he loves to pick-up a bag of this stuff at the grocery store check-out and devour it as soon as he gets home. I think this is his third bag this month haha He blames years of being deprived of this seasonal candy back in Holland... Of course I sneak in 1 or 2 candy corns myself ;) But I get such a sugar rush that I undoubtedly have my candy corn eating guilt, all the while the hubby is bouncing off the walls.

So for our actual Halloween plans next Sunday, we plan to attend a costume party of one of my co-workers. I tried to think of a "couple's costume", however, that isn't going to happen. We browsed through the costume store last night and the hubby excitedly found his so I'm left to come-up with something else. But that's ok, I definitely have something else in mind and I have already bought some of the items needed to assemble it. My costume requires unpacking my sewing machine though. It's nothing difficult that needs to be sewn, but since I only seem to break-out that machine during Halloween it is a yearly review on how to use it! The costume making process is to be continued...

Shopping Cures

Ok, I'm officially stressed. This whole home-buying-building project is taking a toll on my nerves, more than I thought they would. I try to tell myself this should be a happy experience and there's no need to worry, but that's obviously not working because I think I need an outlet to release all this stress haha. We haven't broke ground yet on the construction, but we have had meetings with the project manager, flooring, kitchen, and electrical people. I suppose this should be a fun experience, but I soon found-out that I don't really have much enthusiasm for looking over carpet swatches or kitchen cabinets and knobs. I am definitely not an interior designer and unfortunately neither is the hubby so our color combinations and selections might be interesting for some people haha I'll have more info/photos about the place as more things come along, but in general it is a three story townhouse with 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. We're slated to start construction in mid-November so with all this waiting, I've sort of found a stress outlet...clothes shopping. So far I've bought some new suede boots, a couple sweaters, a few tops, and some dress pants. All on sale of course ;) But I was never one for going out to the stores, going into the dreaded fitting room and assembling an outfit. I am usually the 'fragmented shopper'...I'd buy a piece of clothing that I liked, only to go home and realize that I don't have anything that matches or goes with it. With the new items I bought, they really complement my current wardrobe. I feel like I'm finally tapping into some hidden clothes shopping skills :) So for those couple hours spent perusing clothing racks and shelves, I didn't think about waiting for the house to be built.