Show and Tell Tuesday-Home Tour

My husband and I live in one of the most expensive areas in the country so needless to say we not living in a mansion as a young newly married couple. During the last real estate downturn my very smart husband bought a one bedroom condo so that is where we currently live.  I sometimes complain about it being quite small but we really are fortunate to own something in our area. Because of the size and the fact that it only has one bedroom this is not a place we are realistically going to be staying for too much longer but this will always be our first home.

Our kitchen is a one butt kitchen but is serves its purpose.  The color of the cabinets is not great but we are not dedicated enough to bother painting it. When I first moved in we had white knobs on the cabinets but I have since replaced them with some pretty brushed silver ones.

As we have had to replace things over time we are replacing them with brushed stainless steal appliances but our trusty stove/oven is still functioning properly so it stays in its original state.

I love our dishwasher!  When I first moved in we had a dishwasher that by no means effective so we mainly used it as a drying rack.  As soon as we got a new high powered dishwasher my husband commented he wondered why he waited so long to replace the old dishwasher.  He had never had a "good" dishwasher and didn't know what he was missing.

Around the same time we bought a new dishwasher my very handy husband replaced our sink, garbage disposal and faucets.  He did a great job with it an it looks great.

Speaking of being very handy; when our coat closet had a bit of a meltdown (the whole thing fell to the floor) he rebuilt it to be better than it was before. 

As is expected in a small condo we also have a small bathroom.  We don't have a lot of bathroom storage space and I don't have any shortage of bathroom products so we have to make good use of what space we do have. These drawers have helped us store more in our one cupboard.

Our bathroom has the same yellowish cabinets that the kitchen does so I do what I can with that.

We have a little balcony patio and this year we are actually growing things on it.  Actually mostly my husband is growing things on it.  We have a couple of baby avocado trees, rosemary and basil in addition to another couple of baby fruit trees.  The thought is that by the time the trees need to be replanted we will have bought a house with a yard.

In addition to our little garden we have a little table and two chairs to sit on when the weather is nice. We also use our patio to store our bikes (that don't get ridden enough) so that takes up one side of the patio.

I have written about the other rooms in our condo in the last few months as part of another link up so hop to those posts to hear all about our living room, our dining room, our master bedroom and my future plans for a kids room/guest room.

Can't wait to see everyone else's houses and get ideas for when we have a bigger place to spread out and decorate.

Anniversary Sale Wish List

It is that wonderful time of year again where I buy a years worth of underwear.  No, really I bought a bunch of underwear last year at the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale and have not bought any since.

The sale opened to Nordstrom card holders on Thursday so first thing Thursday morning that was the first website I visited when I woke up.  There are a few things I buy every year (underwear obviously) but I had a mental list of the things I wanted to look for.

I had decided I wanted a cross-body purse for my upcoming European honeymoon so I ordered couple to look at.

option 1

option 2

I don't need two cross body bags so once they come in the mail I will have to see which one I like better and return the other one.

I took the same strategy with coats.  I am in need of a new casual everyday coat to wear this winter and to take on my honeymoon so I ordered three options.

Option 1 but I ordered it in "Oxblood" which is like it sounds a reddish burgundy color.

Option 2 but in a lovely navy blue color.

Option 3 which I ordered in the green color shown in the picture.

I like all three coats but I am really fond of the lovely green color of the third option so I am secretly hoping that is the one that fits the best.  

I have been wearing the Wacoal sports bra for years and I knew that it generally goes on sale during the Anniversary Sale so I have been waiting to buy it on sale.  I went to look for it and this year it is only on sale in white. Hmmm not sure how I feel about a white sports bra so I ordered it and will see how it looks once it gets delivered.

I have admit I spend at least a few minutes browsing the lingerie department every time I go into Nordstrom so I had seen the Chantelle sports bra but had never taken the time to try it on.  It had looked like a bra I would like so when I saw it was on sale I decided it was a sign it was time to try it out. Most of my everyday bras are Chantelle so I have high hopes for this sports bra.  I also like that it is more of a molded cup which will be great when the weather gets colder and I need the coverage.

I went to my local store yesterday and got a few additional items and I ordered a few more things to try out and I also ordered a few things that are going to be gifts but I am saving those for another day. Once I get everything I ordered/bought I will post about what I ended up keeping and how the two sports bras stack up to each other.

Now onto the main event. A years worth of underwear! I pretty much excluseivly wear Hanky Panky thongs with the mid-rise being my absolute favorites.  They are not cheap and the mid-rise are not always available year round so I make sure I really do stock up on enough to last me until next year.

FYI: My butt does not look anything like this model's. Poor girl!

Show Us Your Guest Room and Kids Room

Well I missed showing my kids rooms last week and this week is show us your guest room.  I have neither a guest room nor a kids room.  Actually I don't even have a child yet so I guess that part is ok for now.  When we have guests over they generally either sleep on our couch or on an air mattress in our living room.

I decided to just show a few things that I have on my "future house" Pintrest board.

Guest Room inspiration:

In case you can't tell I am a big fan of lots of pillows and fluffy duvet covers.  I would totally have either one of these as my master bedroom set too but they do lean just a tad bit feminine but it could happen.  

Baby Nursery Inspiration:

I am a huge fan of fairly gender neutral nurseries with just a splash of something more gender specific. I like blues and grey for bedrooms no matter what the gender is and the idea of being able to use a decor for more than one child is very appealing.  Not super evident here but I am also thinking a baby jungle animal themed nursery would be adorable too. There would be lots of cute baby monkeys in it obviously!

Not sure if I will ever have the right space to do this but I love the idea of having a book display in a kids room.  Kids books are so fun and colorful and it is a great way to keep them organized.

Someday we will live somewhere that has a second (and maybe third too) bedroom and I will be able to put my Pintrest board to good use.

Weekend Wrap-up

After getting back from our wedding in Hawaii (more on that next week) it took me a week or so to get back into the swing of real life without a wedding to plan.

My husband spend much of the holiday weekend helping his brother move so our 4th of July weekend was fairly low key.  One afternoon I took myself to a Mexican restaurant down the street that my husband only grudgingly goes to with me every once in a while. They have a fantastic sangria/margarita swirl drink so of course I had to have one. They are actually not short on alcohol and I had to drive myself home so I could only have one sadly. 

After indulging in lots of delicious foods in Hawaii I have been trying to eat better in my everyday diet. I am still enjoying special foods when I am out and about but trying to eat healthy at home and at work.  Got to find a good balance.  It is berry season so I am loving plain greek yogurt with berries and some mint on top.

With so much going on this summer my sister and I did not buy the whole season ticket this year but we are squeezing in 3 concerts in the month of July before she heads off to law school.  Our first concert was Rascal Flatts last Thursday.  I was not super excited about it being on a Thursday but it turned out ok.  Rascal Flatts was great but it was a fairly unseasonably cold evening so we left before the concert ended. We have our second concert this week so here's hoping for a little bit warmer weather.

Friday I had my yearly eye check up.  The office is about 30 minutes away from work so I left in plenty of time and got there a bit early.  I filled my time in the waiting room by playing with the fun props they had.  I always knew I would look good in teal frames!  All went well with the check up but then I had to drive home in Friday traffic.  It took me 30ish minutes to get there and over an hour to get home. 

After I (finally) got home from the eye doctor my husband and I headed out for dinner at a food truck gathering near our house. Between eating lots of fish in Hawaii and knowing that in a few months I won't be able to eat it so easily I have been trying to get my fill of sushi.  The sushi was good but it was kind of awkward eating sushi in my lap.  I think things in buns or wraps just work better from a food truck.  I had a little frozen yogurt for desert.  My husband had the winner if the night with curry smothered fried chicken over rice.

Saturday morning I got up early to meet my mom for some berry picking.  We usually pick various types of berries but this year the only berries available to pick were blackberries so that is what we picked. We were there on opening day so I didn't know what to expect.  The first two rows we were assigned to pick in where a disappointment so I was worried we wouldn't be going home with many berries.  We quickly picked what we could from our first two rows and then we were assigned a third row.  Third times the charm because this row was full of ripe berries.  Between my mom and I we picked over 20 pounds of blackberries.

A combination of staying up later than normal on Thursday, getting up earlier than I would have liked on Saturday, not getting my endorphin rush on at the gym Friday or Saturday and PMS made me quite tired and grumpy Saturday afternoon. My husband decided to try and cheer my up by asking me out to dinner.  We don't normally eat out twice in one weekend but it was just what I needed. Even though we went to a Japanese restaurant (see the sushi trend here) I decided to have a blue margarita.

Sunday I woke up in a much better mood and headed off to the gym.  I did stuff around the house and made a nice dinner.  I don't normally cook fish but my husband requested it so I have it a try.  It actually turned out pretty well.  We had crusted tilapia, quinoa and baked zucchini for our nice healthy dinner.

With all those fresh berries I couldn't resist making a little sweet treat with them.  I made a blackberry cobbler and topped it with vanilla ice cream.  We ended the weekend curled up on the couch watching a movie and enjoying the cobbler.

Stitch Fix #13

My last Stitch Fix box came the week before I left for Hawaii for my wedding so I tired it on really quickly, took pictures and mailed back what I didn't want but didn't have time to write about it.

I had put a note to the stylist that I was going to Hawaii for the wedding so she included lots of comfy dresses and dresses fit for a rehearsal dinner.  This blue dress was the only thing I ended up keeping but not because other things didn't have potential.  This dress has a comfy elastic waist and I wore it one evening while in Hawaii.

This purply pinky dress had potential when I pulled it out of the box but the little issue of me being short waisted came into play again. The waist just didn't hit me in the right spot though it was a cute dress other than that.

This dress also had great potential and I loved the idea that it was white.  If it had fit correctly it would have been great to wear to the rehearsal dinner. Short waistedness came into play again and I had the same problem with the dress that I had with the previous one. 

This pink maxi dress was cute but super long and just a bit see through so it had to go back.  At this point I have a ton of maxi dresses so if something is not special it does not make it into my closet.

The bracelet was cute but I just don't really wear bracelets on a regular basis so I decided to send it back too.

As a mentioned earlier this box came before my trip so my next box is actually schedule to come this week.  Yay! Come back next week to hear all about my next box and if you want to get your own box feel free to use my link. 

Show and Tell Tuesday...My Girlfriends

I have many wonderful girlfriends spread all over the country and the world.  Most of my girlfriends i have met though school of some sort. I have friends from elementary school (2 who I have known longer than my youngest sister has been alive), some from middle school, some from high school, a bunch from college and one from grad school.  Since they live all over the place some know each other since their paths have crossed though me and some of them I have met through other friends.  I don't see my girlfriends as often as I would like.  I really need be better about spending time with the ones that do live nearby because we all have busy lives and without the effort it can be months or years between visits. Weddings (and probably some baby showers in the future) and birthdays bring us together but we need to be better about regular everyday visits.

In addition to all my girlfriends I can't forget my sisters, cousins and my new sister in law.  They all are also a big part of my girlfriend circle and in reality (as it should be) they are the ones I get to see the most.