5 Merry Christmas!

Hope you had a lovely holiday!

We had five lovely family gatherings for Christmas this year along with a birthday dinner within three days. Two of the five requested a dish to pass. In total, we traveled about 149 miles. Yikes!

With all of those festivities, let’s just say our house is terribly messy. I’m sure many of you feel the same way. Needless to say, the rest of the week will be spent whipping it back into shape.

The night before Christmas, my sister had asked if we would pick up the puppy (teacup Shih Tzu) and bring her over Christmas morning. So we spent the night with this little sweetie pie:

Cell Pic

5 A Dinner Party, A Recipe, and a Sneak Peek!

This past weekend we hosted our first dinner party with a lovely couple we know. This was probably the first one I hosted since living in California. Well besides a family gathering for father’s day mid-renovation chaos I may add. But I digress. Unfortunately, I cannot show the lovely table setting as it would show some areas of the house which I haven’t posted yet, so someday hope to post some holiday festivities.

Instead, I’ll go over some details. We made Barbecue Chicken Pizza and red velvet truffle cake, and my friends brought the salad. I also threw together a tastefully simple cheese spread.

0 Holiday Shopping

My apologies for my absence, graphics take quite a bit longer to make than expected.

It’s hard to believe Christmas is less than 1 week away and even more surprising, I started and completed Christmas shopping in about 2.5 hours --get this-- YESTERDAY! Normally my shopping is complete on or before cyber Monday. This year I guess the time just slipped.

Unfortunately for me, my budget was quite small this year as I took the plunge on entrepreneurship at the wrong time of year (I know queue the world’s smallest violin). On the other hand, fortunately my list was small this year.

2 Purchasing a Home Part 1

This series of home posts are events which occurred in the distant past, please bear with me until I catch up to the present.

Part 1, is our story.

Part 2, contains helpful tips and tools I used to make things easier.

Where to begin on the house buying experience? How about right here:

I was actively trying to purchase a home with a few failed attempts (Delayed, Postponed,  Disappointed anyone?). But everything happens for a reason right? Anyway, last winter and after D-day (you know the dreaded word: Divorce), I wanted to keep my home buying dream alive even if it meant waiting another year or so for financial obligations to clear up.

Graphic by: Trisha D.

10 Day off

Today I am taking a day away to make life a bit easier like setting up Photoshop Actions (sheesh where have these things been my whole life?!) and catching up on some house chores so we don't look like Hoarders.

And mainly because no one likes running out of spoons, although obstacle courses can be fun.

Graphic Credit, Words: Trisha D.

8 Young House Love and Chi-town

Yes, this is a better-late-than-never post on my Young House Love book signing adventures in Chi-town a few weeks back; let’s make it a big bang-- either that or an extremely wordy post with some pictures.

2 Monday Morning Update

Ok the title may be an ode to the old job (where they would send out breifings on upcoming events, past events, etc.) but if the shoe fits…

My wizard of Oz t-shirt.

2 Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty I’m free at last!

As the famous Martin Luther King Jr exclaimed in his 1963 “I have a dream speech.”  This is totally relate-able as I am fortunate to follow my dreams.

2 A fresh new start

A new me is on it's way. I resigned from the job to pursue my dreams of entrepreneurship, and today is my last day. Gutsy, I know, but it is now or never right?

In the near future, I hope to have a few things crossed off my good 'ol to do list:

• Update the blog look (started a few pieces already)
• Post more frequently
• Outline my house experience- buying, remodeling, etc bringing up to present
• Throw in some current-ish events
• Spice up some old posts (better/more pictures, more content)
• Get photography site up and running
• Work on an Etsy store
• Promote and gain followers
• Complete my volunteer photographer efforts for a Cancer benefit (more details to come)
• Take a blogging class
• Mentor a photographer and/or attend seminars or workshops

There are a whole lot of things in store, so hold on tight.