I Believe: A Link Up!

Linking up with Amanda and Megan for a MLK Jr. post today!

I believe...in the golden rule. It's not that hard to live by. Quit being assholes, people.

I believe...that a sunny day spent outside can fix almost any bad mood or day.

I believe...that people the don't have pets are weird. Unless they have allergies, that's not their fault.

I believe...that men should have PMS and cramps just once in their lifetime.  Just so they know.

I believe...that math is way more fun than people give it credit for.

I believe...that sometimes you just need a little retail therapy. Even if it's just window shopping.

I believe...that Pinterest is going to be the demise of my bank account one day! :)

I believe...there are more important things in life than 90% of the things we worry about.  

I believe...that a good convo with your BFF over coffee or wine could solve all the world's problems.

I believe...in the good in all people.  You just have to look for it.  Sometimes really hard.

Master Bathroom Decor

I am so excited to write this long overdue post on my finished master bathroom!  I've had the wallpaper for this room since last summer and just got around to having it put up a few weeks ago.  Add a few minor touches, and thus completed my bathroom reno. I apologize in advance for the crappy iPhone pics.  The lighting in that room is awful, hence why I do my make in the master closet.  A post on that is under works since I finally got around to ordering the window treatments!  Yay!

So, the bathroom is in need of a major overhaul, but since I'm not into spending that much money I decided that some cute wallpaper and custom accessories were in order.  The wallpaper is made by Thibaut and the shelf above came from Target (I can't find it online anymore).

My mom bought be the quote hung on the wall.  She sang that song to me and my brother growing up for years.  It was kind of funny when she gave it to me, she asked "do you remember me singing that to you guys?" I jumped up and ran into my office and grabbed the subway print of the entire song I have framed in there.  Of course, I remember, Mom!  Some things just stick with you :).

So do you see the toilet paper holder in the pic above?  I installed that. By myself. Upside down. Because there was no other way to do it than that.  The old holder (which looked like something out of a horror movie) left a screw anchor that I couldn't get out or around when installing the new holder.  Whatever, it still looks better than the other one.

I ordered the custom shower curtain from a local linen store, Bedded Bliss, that specializes in fancy, overpriced linens.  It took forever to come in (damn Italian summer breaks) and I had it monogrammed in town.  I busted the bank on this one, but I absolutely love it and hadn't found anything pre-fab I liked after months of searching.

The vanity isn't exactly the most posh place in my house, but it works and has enough counter space for one person.  I'd love to redo the medicine cabinet, but I don't know how to even go about that without losing the storage space behind it.

The bathroom is pretty small in terms of master bath standards, so I don't want to lose any much needed storage.  But darn it if that mirror isn't ugly.  Oh well.

This is across from the sink, which is in a separate room from the toilet and shower.  I do really like that feature.  If only I could get the pocket door that you can sort of see on the left to work.  It's stuck inside the wall and no one can seem to get it to come out.  One day, just add it to the list of teeny, nonessential repairs to be done!

I think it looks way better than it did before, without a huge renovation.  Thank goodness yellow and grey is back in style!

Happy Friday, y'all!  I'm looking forward to this weekend and hope you are too!

Never Have I Ever...

Remember that goofy drinking game you played in college where you had to drink every time you had done one of the crazy topics mentioned? Well, I have some hazy memories of it too, and happened to stumble upon a link up with this as the topic!  Seems like fun, I'll play along (without the booze and a with a PG rating, this time)!

Never have I ever....

broken a bone. Although, I regularly flung myself off of my monkey bars in hopes of a cool cast. I was a weird kid...

traveled to the far east. This will not stay this way forever.  I'm dying to travel that-a-way, I'm going to need to pad my savings account a bit more before doing so, though.

seen the karate kid. I wasn't allowed to see it when I was younger, and haven't gotten around to it since then. I'm not really that concerned.

lived more than an hour from my hometown. I guess that happens when you stay in state for college and work for your family business your whole life.

been employed by more than one company for over two weeks.  See above. I've worked for my family's business since I was 15.  Although I had about a ten day stint at Kmart that I don't count, this has been my only employer my entire life.  This June marks my 18th year!  That's a whole adult person. And makes me a middle age person, I suppose. Shoo-whee!

been able to make one of those paper football thingies. This is a bigger point of contention than one would think. I really like all things football, including pretend kicking games with notebook paper and finger uprights. Ha ha!

successfully snapped with my right hand. I have no idea why.  I can snap with my left hand, but not my right.  So weird.

gotten a second piercing or tattoo. I have one hole in each ear and nothing else.  I hate needles. 

Here's the link up info:

Ending 2014: A Holiday "Wrap" Up

December was a whirlwind of plans, activities, and holiday festivities.  I'll post more on them all seperately (maybe, don't hold your breath) and in more detail some other day.  But for those dying to know how my holidays were spent, here's a quick recap.

1.  I had a colonoscopy.  Yay adulthood.  I'm fine.  Moving on...

2.  Christmas was spent with family and for the first time in my 33 years of life, I invited my boyfriend to spend it with us. Big steps, folks, big steps. We spent Christmas Eve at my aunt's house on my dad's side.  The boyfriend and Dad enjoyed alley-ooping all the discarded wrapping paper into the garbage bag.  It was rather humorous.  I think my dad has a man crush...so cute!

Christmas morning was spent with just the two of us exchanging gifts and stocking and enjoying a quiet breakfast and coffee.  Later that day, the boyfriend headed home to spend the afternoon with his son and family.  Dad and my brother Will joined me for brunch later that morning.  It was a quiet, relaxing day and I couldn't have been happier!

The day after Christmas, Will and I headed up to Cincinnati to spend time with my mom and her side of the family.  It was a great day, and I got home early enough to watch a few episodes of Six Feet Under.  And yes, I am finally getting around to watching that entire series.  Anyone else a fan?

3.  I took the last two weeks of work (which was actually only 5 days of vacation) off to spend time with friends that traveled back home for the holidays.  The only reason I love Christmas is because I get to see some of my oldest and dearest friends and have an absolute blast getting together with our old crew.  So much fun!!!  One of our get togethers was for the UK vs. UofL game, and despite being a nerve wracking game, UK pulled it out and kept their perfect season in tact.  Go Cats!!!!

4.  NYE!!!!!!!!  For those of you who didn't know, New Year's Eve has long been my most favorite holiday of all time.  This year did not disappoint, as we rang in the ball dropping at The Palace for a concert with Jason Isbell and Shovels and Rope.  Although, Isbell isn't the most "happy" music, per se, it is beautiful and the boyfriend absolutely loves him.  It's totally worth it seeing him geek out over one of his favorite artists.  

Earlier in the evening, we hosted his younger brother and girlfriend for a fancy dinner at the house and had some friends meet us for drinks before the show. I'm not gonna lie, the champagne we had after getting back to the house may have been the straw that broke the camel's back in terms of feeling like a**hole for the entire next day.  I am no longer in my 20's, needless to say.  Ugh.

So all in all, a great holiday season.  I have pictures, but alas, I do not have my camera cord to upload them to my computer as I write this.  I'll post them soon, mostly so I can use them as an excuse to make up another post with very little content.  Blogger of the year, here, y'all!

Until then, I'm looking forward to dinner tonight with my Lexington girls and our significant others at Willie's Locally Unknown.  Love nights in Lexington with my ladies!

Have a great weekend, y'all!

Book Challenge Update #2

Here's where I stand with my Winter Book Challenge this month.  As you can see, I didn't really get much reading done in December.  I was a little too preoccupied playing Santa!  I have a feeling I will finish the challenge this month since I have a lot more free time now that the holidays are over.

Read a book with a song lyric in the title; 25 points

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

Song: High Fidelity by Elvis Costello (great song, btw)

I've seen this movie about 84,000 times,  It might be my all time favorite.  I've never read the book, so I figured it was about time.  And since I am a sort of purist when it comes to reading a book before the movie, I wasn't sure how I'd feel about any differences that arose. I tend to side on the side of the original source, but having seen the movie so many times I was afraid I would prefer that version. And that would just turn my entire belief system upside down. Seriously, I'm kind of nuts. Ha ha!  But I am so glad that I read it, because it was awesome!!! Not so different from the movie that it made me mad, but different enough to hold my attention. I was picturing John Cusack the whole time, though.  There are worse things...I think he's really cute.

Score: 5/5  323 pages

Read a book by a local author (Kentucky): 15 points

The Cornbread Mafia by James Higdon

I had heard rave reviews about this book for years from family and coworkers, so it was an easy choice.  It's non-fiction, which usually doesn't hold my interest, but this book did not disappoint!  Plus it's always cool when you know the places being discussed in a piece of literature first hand!

Score: 4.5/5 400 pages

Previous Total: 75 points

New Points: 40

Current Total: 115 points

Half Crafted

Anyone else out there in Blog Land that only seems to be able to fail when attempting crafts found on Pinterest?  Just me?  Seriously?  Fine, whatever.  Continue onto another page, because this blog obviously isn't for you,  Just kidding, stay awhile and revel in the fact that you are crafty and have it all together.  I, my friends, do not. Ever. I'm okay with it, though.

Anyway, point of this diatribe is, I FOUND A CRAFTY PINTEREST PROJECT THAT I DIDN'T SCREW UP!!!!!!!

See the original pin !

Well, I went to work on a few of these last night, and other than one of them falling off the wall and breaking the frame, they turned out great!!!

I mean, how hard is it to cut out a map and glue a picture on top?  Not very, or I wouldn't be able to do it.  Anyway, I made six of them from some of my favorite trips and hung them gallery style in my office.

I am amazed that these are even remotely level and spaced evenly.  Two cheers for Command Strips!  Please ignore the disaster that is my desk on the left.

WTF, iPhone?  Why so blurry? That's Maui, by the way.

Pics from Telluride above!

And just for fun, here's the one that fell off the wall.  No project is complete without me destroying something! 

So here's to the people out there that can't DIY to save their life.  I'll drink one in your honor this weekend!

Cheers, and happy hump day, y'all!

Winter Book Challenge: Official Check-In Numero Uno!

If you haven't been following along, I decided to join in on the Winter Book Challenge hosted by Semi-Charmed Kind of Life.  I've really enjoyed it so far, any excuse to read is a-okay by me!

Here's where I stand so far:

Freebie: 5 points
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

I really enjoyed this one.  It was just enough fantasy to catch my interest, and the characters are all very likable.  I thought it was a bit fluffy, but overall a great read. There are a few more books written by the author that use the same characters, and I'm sure I'll read them at some point soon.

My score: 3.5/5 

304 pages

Read the first book of a series that is new to you: 10 points

Divergent by Veronica Roth

I love me some young adult fantasy/sci-fi fiction!  I knew I would enjoy this one, especially since it was a big enough hit to make into a movie. I read this one while at the beach and tore through it so quickly that I went out and bought the rest of the series while there.  I finished the whole series in two or three days.  Obsessive compulsive much???

My score: 4.5/5

487 pages

Read a book that was first released in a language that is not your native language: 15 points

The Dinner by Herman Koch

Original language: Dutch

Originally I had chosen this book for the last category of the competition, a book with a meal in the title.  Turns out that it was also a translation, and once I figured out that the book I was originally using for this category wasn't 200 pages, I swapped it out to fill this one.

I really enjoyed this book, and grew quite attached to the main character, even though you end up realizing that he is a sociopath of sorts.  It's very intriguing and I finished it one evening.

Score: 4/5

304 pages

Read a "bookish" book: 20 points

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

I had originally planned on reading The Loop by Joseph Coomer for this category, but ran out of books to read on vacation and ended up picking this one up at the airport.  I'm glad I did, because OH. MY. GOSH. I loved it!!!  I won't write about much of the plot line, but it was such a unique take on Nazi Germany during WWII.  And the characters, man, do you fall in love with them!

Score: 5/5

552 pages

Read a book from a genre you don't usually read: 25 points

 Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin

"Chick Lit" (FYI, I find this term sexist and archaic) is definitely not my jam.  But I knew it was probably the only genre (besides Harlequin Romance) that really fit for me in this category.  And man, there is a reason why.  I HATED this book. The characters are deplorable, self centered, miserable people. Ugh. I just wanted to scream at them during the whole thing.

Score: 1/5

322 pages

Total as of December 1, 2014: 75/200 points
I need to hurry and get back on the reading train!