Shout out to my bro

Nate, my older brother, bought a house last fall in Augusta, GA a couple blocks away from one of the gates to the Masters golf course. Immediately upon purchasing the home he started the demo, tearing out the cracked and broken pool in the backyard, bringing down walls to create an open floor plan, and moving the kitchen to a completely different location. I am so proud of him and the work that he has been doing on the house. He has high ambitions that this is the first of many project houses. He has done most everything himself in this house, from the plumbing to the electrical to the dry walling and kitchen cabinet installation. He even installed the hardwood floors himself! I was down there in January to help him paint and pick out different items for the house, but at that point it was still pretty bare bones...

Last weekend I was able to get away for a long weekend, meet my mom in Atlanta and travel to Augusta to help Nate with more of his house. I was eager to see Nate's progress on the house, the kitchen, the carpet and the hardwood had all been install since my last visit and most of the walls were painted with the colors I had advised him on earlier! While in Augusta, I was able to help him paint the two bathrooms and the trim that will be used for the baseboards, window and door casings. I also got to do some tiling work in the master bath (although I was quickly demoted on account for not being very fast/skilled with the trowel)!
I can't wait for the next stage of his house: decorating! I'm having so much fun picking out colors, artwork, & furniture!

Jasmine Rice, how I love thee...

Photo by lazysheep1

...with your wonderfully arromatic and fluffy nature.

This past weekend my friend, Jon, and I made the most delcious meal. As it's getting closer to grilling season I picked up some pork-chops and asparagus for the weekend, thinking we may grill out. But not thinking things through thouroughly (like I'm starting to do lately, who am I?) I didn't get any characoal for the grill! So we came up with a different game plan... I have been craving jasmine rice, so we made this most delicious Asparagus Rice Pilaf. Mmmm, pure deliciousness. I changed the recipe slightly by cutting down on the butter (of course), ommitting the spaghetti and adding fresh celery and mushrooms for more vegetable goodness.

We also made Gorgonzola and Apple Pork Chops... not my fav, but they were OK. I kept wanting to add more vegetables (onions, garlic, & celery) to the mix, but refrained for Jon's sake. Although, he thouroughly enjoyed them the way they were.

Start of No TV week

Illustration by hberends

Today marks the first full week of my 24th year of life... I had a great weekend to celebrate, spending my entire weekend with one great friend and hanging out with several others. I've been reading the book Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and it seems that her self-exploration to find peace withing herself has rubbed off on me.
I am having the time of my life right now; meeting new people, working out and strenghtening my body, gardening, and reading. I think I've finally found a healthy balance for my life, being social and meeting people, work, and time for personal reflection and growth. Most of my life, I have put too much importance on the "work" part of my life. I'm always saying, "I'm too busy" and after examining my life, there are too many times when I could be more productive and work on the projects that I really want to work on versus going the easy route in sitting myself in front of the boob-tube.

So I'm declaring this as my "NO TV WEEK."

I typically have the thing on for background noise, but really it's more of a distraction... why do I need to add another layer of "noise" to my life? My roommate and I will often watch TV together, but when she asks me a quetion about what just happened I have no clue... because I'm not even paying attention! So this week I will be TV-free, I'm not even going to turn it on for the alluring comfort of background noise. We'll see how long this thing actually lasts...

My golden birthday!

So it's been awhile... and I don't foresee any new posts soon, because it's my golden birthday tomorrow! That's right, I'm turning 24 on the 24th... so let the celebrations begin! I've already put on my gold party pants...

Where is America's happiest place to live?

...well it's not Disney World folks. I couple of days ago I heard on the radio mainstreet.com published their "happiness index" based on household income, debt, employment, and foreclosures. Nebraska ranked numero uno for the happiness place to live economically, while Iowa followed in second place.

It makes me so happy to be from Iowa! Not to mention, I spent a good amount of my childhood in Nebraska. So maybe my frugality partially comes from being an Iowan... which in turn makes me happy!

Quilt Update

Last weekend I spent several (16) hours working on the quilt... and ta-da here it is! I really hoped to work on it more this weekend, but was busy with some of my other projects. Now I only have the quilt top border, the quilt back, the binding, quilting it together, and sewing on the label(s) left!

Overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, I can't wait to get it finished!

Food is the way to a man's heart...

... but flowers are the way to a woman's.

Thursday I got the most gorgeous bouquet of flowers at work. A beautiful mix of orange tulips, lilies, gerber daisies and mini chartreuse mums. (And no baby's breath in sight!) This bouquet may be the best bouquet I've ever gotten (sorry Mom) and the perfect combination of my current color and flower preferences. I couldn't have picked a better bouquet myself!

It just so happens a couple days ago I read the following in the March edition of Martha Stewart Living:

"Women who were given flowers as part of a 2005 study by Rutgers University reported elevated moods for up to three days after receiving the bouquets. Those given fruit or candles reported no such change."

I think this bouquet may elevate my mood for longer than three days, it sure made me giddy all afternoon on Thursday. In light of the research above, I'm trying to send more flowers to my friends lately. So far I've given three bouquets to others in the past four weeks.

Oh and the picture doesn't clearly describe the awesomeness of the packaging the flowers came in, it was great graphic design. Icing on the cake!

45!?!?

Recently I have seen a lot of quizzes to test your mental age. With my 24th birthday coming up in a couple weeks I thought it would be appropriate for me to check into this biz-ness. My mental age ended up being 45! 45? What? Seriously? I know I'm pretty domestic, but 45? I can't seem to get over this. Perhaps it's because I enjoy gardening or my love for naps or my preference for a real news channel over Access Hollywood...

I mean 45 is practically my parents age... and I thought 27 was jaw-dropping old! Geez.

Sew Much Fabric, Sew Little Time!

My roommate and a couple other friends have been making baby quilts for their friends that are expecting and I want to join the bandwagon! When I found out my cousin and her husband were expecting, I was elated. Not only for them and the baby, but I finally had a reason to make a quilt too! Another cousin and I are planning the design and colors of the quilt together, which will make it even more special. We were even able to pick out the fabric together (shown above left). For our first quilt we are keeping it simple and going with a similar style to the square quilts above.

I want to keep this a surprise, so maybe posting on my blog isn't the best idea... but I am so excited about it and don't think my cousin reads this. So shhhh! Help me keep the secret!