I guess it's time now for another update from Amber Land. There isn't a whole lot going on around here, we're just gearing up for my family coming next week for Thanksgiving. I haven't done much around the house lately, I guess I've been burned out. But, this past week I decided to remove the air conditioner from the spare room window because it makes it too drafty for the pets in the winter. I may have underestimated its size and weight though, because there were a few moments where I was pretty positive that me and the ac were going into the bushes. Luckily I took care of it. I've also been continuing my work on refinishing the bathroom door. I finished stripping the paint, and spent four hours over the last few days sanding it down. So now it's finally ready to paint! I would feel even better about that if it weren't for the fact that I have to do the same thing to 5 more doors. Blurg. Yes, I have been watching many, many episodes of 30 Rock on the Roku box, why do you ask? Anyway, the main reason I wanted to post is because I opened up my Etsy shop this week! It's called All the Years, which is the title of a Beach House song. I have a hard time coming up with names for things, so I went through my iTunes and found it haha. Honestly, I'm still pretty self conscious about it since there are so many people on there who are much better at the whole thing than I am, but I figured I'll just learn as I go. On that note, my shop banner is a bit of an annoyance for me. I've never really used Photoshop, but I managed to make a pretty kick ass banner using the first shop name I had. When I changed my mind about the name, I tried to remake it, but it kept coming out blurry. So, what you're seeing is the 15th try, which, unbelievable as it may be, is the best version. Hopefully someday I'll have the patience to try again. I've made one sale so far, but hope for more. So, you know, tell your friends haha. For now I am trying to go into it just to see what happens. For the time being it's just vintage items, but I have a few ideas for some handmade things to add in, more than likely after the first of the year. But, I still haven't started the laundry, so Jason has no work clothes. And there are two stinky furry beasts in the other room who need their cages cleaned, so I should probably get back to being responsible. But, on an unrelated note, I'm currently listening to my fourth Sonic Youth album in a row. Somehow, it just seems right on a Sunday night.

I thought I'd drop in before Jason gets home from work to update the blog. I got back from Florida on Friday night. I had such a great time! I'm not big into tropical vacations as a rule, but I love Clearwater. It's probably because my grandparents have lived there since I was 2, so it's a very homey, comfy place. I went to the beach, where I saw dolphins swimming around right off the shore! It was even cooler when I realized that they were dolphins and not sharks, like I had previously thought haha. My grandma and I went to Disney World. We spent time in Downtown Disney and Epcot, and we got to go to the Halloween party and parade at Magic Kingdom! It was so much fun, I love Disney World! I also believe that that was my 20th trip there. Crazy. I also ate lots of Chik fil a and bought a few cute things at Forever 21, because my grandparents love to hang out at the mall haha. And I got to see some of my grandma's family that I hadn't seen in 6 years. All in all it was a great trip, but it's nice to be back. I felt like before I left I wasn't really getting as into Fall as I normally am. But, since my brief return to Summer, I'm excited to find it even more Fall-like here. Actually, almost Winter-like, since we have snow flurries in our forecast! I've been listening to lots of folk music and drinking tea, and really, is there a better way to celebrate fall than that? I've also been looking ahead to Christmas. We have to buy a total of 22 gifts every year (yes, I've counted), when taking into account Christmas and birthdays. Our budget is going to be so tight that it's starting to worry me. But, I bought 2 gifts at Disney, and I'm thinking about some handmade options for some others, so I'm sure it will work out. I just can't believe it's already that crazy time of year again. My mom, Bob, Cory and Megan are coming here for Thanksgiving, and I'm really excited. I haven't spent Thanksgiving with my mom, Bob and Cory since I was in high school! And that was a really long time ago, since I'm pretty old haha. Also, before I forget, my goal is to have my Etsy shop open by the end of next week, so I'll post more about that when the time comes!

I finally took the pictures of the flowers in the front yard, and then I got all lazy about posting, so I didn't put them up. They're gone now, but I still can't believe how big they were. Especially when compared with the picture from early June, when they were sharing the yard with construction debris. I also like how, in the first picture, you can just make out my favorite lawn ornament, my bear with a honey pot, being crowded out by the impatiens haha. There isn't much going on here, I've been spending a lot of time at home doing...well, not a hell of a lot, actually. Our third anniversary is on Wednesday, so on Saturday Jason surprised me by renting out a theater so we could watch The Yellow Submarine. It was great, the movie was so cool on the big screen! I have to commend him, it's not something I ever would have thought of. On the 24th, I'm going to Clearwater to spend a week with my grandparents. I'm very excited, I haven't seen them in more than three years, and I haven't been to Florida in six years. And, best of all, we're going to Disney World! Yay! But that's about it, we're starting to, very slowly, recover financially from all of the renovations, so hopefully soon I'll be able to get the Etsy shop up and running, and we might actually be able to go out and do things, and, god forbid, buy things that aren't a necessity! We're certainly waiting for that with bated breath haha. Until then I've been occupying myself with finding new music and enjoying bands I've loved for a long time. I have to say, the best new stuff I've found has to be Neon Indian and Mayer Hawthorne. Neon Indian is really cool electronic psychedelic kind of stuff, a little like MGMT. And Mayer Hawthorne plays super sweet Motown-style music that I'm utterly in love with. As for bands I already liked with new albums, that's gotten out of control. I guess October is the month for good music. Atlas Sound, The Flaming Lips, and Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions have albums out this month. I'm really liking Embryonic from what I've heard so far anyway. I've been a huge fan of The Flaming Lips since high school, and I was a little bummed by their last album. Although it had a few good tracks, they have consistently released albums that are great all the way through. And I'm so happy that, after waiting eight years for the follow-up to Bavarian Fruit Bread, Hope Sandoval finally put another album out! And it's as good as the last, so haunting and pretty. Also, I love Atlas Sound a lot, and Logos is proving to be great. Right now I'm listening to Bitte Orca. I know that Dirty Projectors enjoy a lot of hype, but at least in this case it's well-deserved. I also love how, when I listen to their collaborations with David Byrne, I often can't discern his voice from David Longstreth's. Excuse the super music nerd-out, but I love to talk about music I like, even if I'm obviously not very good at describing it. Jason and I have been having an ongoing discussion on the merits of electronic music and technology in music. He's not for it, and clearly, I freaking love it haha. This has turned into a much longer post than I anticipated, and it has been filled with far too many links haha.

As a sort of continuation from my last post, I wanted to put up a video of my favorite song right now. I've been listening to Grizzly Bear's newest album, Veckatimest, pretty much non-stop since it came out. Jason hates Grizzly Bear with a fiery passion haha, but I think their music is so beautiful. Especially "Ready, Able" from this album. Here's a video of them performing the song on Letterman. I love it so much!

It has occurred to me, it being the last weekend of summer and all, that I never did post any pictures of our yard this year. It looks a little different now, I've removed a lot of the ground cover on the sides of the house because it was starting to turn yellow. I also did serious battle with a tree/vine thing that had inextricably wrapped itself around the neighbor's fence. It took two hours to remove it, and there were SO many creepy crawlers, but it's gone, and that's all that matters. In the front yard, I noticed that the landscaping had become a little lopsided. I have some mutant impatiens that have grown absolutely huge, but the ones on the left side aren't as big. So I bought some lovely dark purple mums to fill in. I realize that I don't have any good pictures of the front yard, so I'll post those later.

Today I spent part of the afternoon removing the drop ceiling from our spare room. There were three rooms with the drop ceiling when we moved in, and now it's just our bedroom. It was pretty gross and messy, mainly due to some prolific spiders that left many dead bugs behind, but I managed to get it down on my own. The walls and ceiling certainly aren't as damaged as the living room, but there are some problems that need to be addressed before the room is put to use as a nursery.

Also, I wanted to mention that I'm putting a link to my Last.fm page on here. I actually joined last year and then basically completely forgot about it until last month. But, it really appeals to my music nerd tendencies, the graphs and charts of my music listening make me happy. It's also nice because I can listen to my own personal radio station that combines the stuff I listen to on the computer and both my iPods, so that's convenient. I don't want to sound like an attention whore or anything, but if anyone who reads this (all two of you haha) wants to check out what I'm listening to, they can just click the link! Hooray for the internets!

Things are starting to calm down a bit here, and we're trying to take care of fun stuff we haven't been able to do for various reasons, like vet appointments and eye doctor visits. But I'm hoping that at some point I'll be able to go fall clothes shopping. I don't buy clothes very often, and for the last few seasons, I actually haven't found that many things I wanted. But, I need to fill in some holes in my wardrobe, like the huge collection of increasingly worn cardigans I have. I like a lot more stuff this season, particularly from J. Crew. I'm liking the 90's direction of fashion right now. I bought my first flannel shirt since 7th grade at Target last week. I've been looking at them since last year, but the thought of paying $60 for something that I used to pick up at thrift stores and Wal Mart just wasn't going to work. The Target shirt is very fitted, since I wasn't ready to move all the way into my former style. It's black and white, and it was only $15! I think I'll be able to wear it a lot. The other thing I need to do is finally get the grey corduroys I bought at Anthropologie last year hemmed, because I still haven't been able to wear them! Anyway, here are some of the items I'm pining for this season, some I think I have a reasonable shot of acquiring, and one in particular that I want so much but can't justify right now. First, some things from J. Crew.



I actually really like the pastels from them this year, but if I was lucky enough to get that beautiful blazer, it would have to be in the copper color. My sister sent me some old pictures a few weeks ago, and in one I was wearing a light blue cardigan that I used to wear with everything. I think this one would be perfect to replace it.

As far as Anthropologie is concerned, they have a lot of cute stuff, but really I just want this sweater. I love short sleeved cardigans, but I only have a couple of them.

And, in the realm of accessories, I'd like some feathers and headbands from Modcloth.


I try not to look at clothes online too much, because there are usually too many other more practical things to spend money on, but the numerous catalogues that come to our house usually do me in haha.

Also, on a different note, I got my hair cut on Thursday, finally, after 10 months! It was driving me crazy, and I was tired of being bang-less. But, it wasn't the best experience. I had a new stylist, and he seemed to think that bangs wouldn't work for me, even after I told him that I've had them for approximately 25 years of my life. It was like the episode of Seinfeld where George tries to convince his girlfriend that it's over, but she keeps telling him his arguments aren't good enough haha. He asked me all these questions like he was trying to talk me out of it, and barely glanced at the picture I brought. He did a great job on the back of my hair, but the bangs were a constant issue. I wanted them to go back pretty far, and when I showed him, he said he wouldn't go more than an inch because that was too 80's. So finally I just let him cut them, since he tapered them in, and I used them as a template to cut them myself when I got home. It was so frustrating that after waiting that long, I couldn't get what I wanted. I should have just cut them myself in the first place. But, it's fine now, I love the way they came out, except for a couple of slightly uneven parts haha.

Things have continued to be pretty stressful around here, but for a new set of reasons. The first is Harlock. She's always been a sensitive, emotional dog, but the older she gets the more extreme her reactions become. She's developed a serious case of separation anxiety, even standing at the door and crying while I do yard work, and whining at the bottom of the stairs when I go to take a shower. Last week she decided that whenever we were out of her sight, she would raid the garbage and bring all of her "treasures" onto our bed. Ugh. It's very unlike her, but we've banned her from eating anything on the bed, and that seems to be helping. Except that she ate part of a dead bird on Friday. I think she's trying to give me a heart attack, it's becoming impossible to protect her from her wild beast tendencies haha. The other big issue we have is that I saw a mouse in our living room last night. Just thinking about it gives me the chills. We believe it came from the basement, the door to which is in the living room. We also don't believe it's been hanging around too long, since there have been no tell-tale signs, and there were 3 bags of small animal food on the floor in the next room that were untouched. But, we'll still have to scrape together the money for an exterminator, we're not taking any chances. I have conflicted feelings about it. On the one hand, I know that they're icky, they scare the hell out of me, and they're not a good thing to have around the other animals. But, on the other, I hate the thought of hurting them. It just seems weird to me that we have two rodents (rabbits are lagomorphs, yes I'm a nerd haha) that we feed, care for, and love. Then another one wanders in and we must hire an exterminator. But, on the bright side, maybe we can have them look at the centipede issue while they're here. Ah, the joys of home ownership haha. When I saw our unwanted guest, I realized that there were some things in our kitchen that may have drawn him here in the first place, so I was up until 4:30 cleaning the downstairs and getting everything edible hidden. Now I have a huge migraine.

On a more exciting note, I ordered a Roku box for my birthday. It enables us to watch streaming content from Netflix on our TV. It's so cool! So far we've watched a Hunter S. Thompson documentary and Let the Right One In, a Swedish vampire movie. I'm really excited because there are a lot of old movies available, including many Alfred Hitchcock. I can watch them as much as I want for free! It also means that I can get a cheaper cable package, and a cheaper Netflix package, which are both good things.

I'm thinking about maybe picking these up with some of my birthday money. So, so cute!

I haven't been posting much because I've been feeling pretty "blah" lately. I've been dealing once again with my anxious and over-active mind. In general, I really love the direction my life has gone in, but I get frustrated sometimes and think too much. I feel like we're on the edge of another set of big changes in our lives (potentially), and I want all of the decisions we make to be the right ones. Like, when to expand our family. This feeds into another issue, which is insuring that we can pay for the little one. So, to that end, I've been seriously considering opening an Etsy shop. For the time being it will just be vintage, but hopefully I'll eventually add some hand-made items. I figured that that would be a perfect way for me to be a stay at home mom, but still contribute to our finances. But, the problem is that I have always had a crippling lack of self-confidence, and it's pretty scary to be out there doing this on my own, instead of working for a larger company. Although, if it works out, I think it will cater perfectly to my desire for flexibility, and my more anti-social tendencies haha. I just think I've been trying too hard to control every aspect of our lives and future, which is never possible to do. I can't predict the future, and things will work out the way they will work out. I've always been the opposite with my decision making, like my moving from college to college just for the hell of it, or because it was more convenient. And, Jason and I both have made a point to never make the easy decision, and to take risks. It's always nerve-wracking, but so far it has worked out for us quite well. I'm not a spiritual person by any means, and I don't believe that there is any sort of master plan to my life. But that's what I think is one of the most exciting parts of life. I love the feeling that with each decision, big or small, that Jason and I make, we are adding another chapter to our little life adventure. The problem comes in when I have too much time on my hands and the doubts and worries start to creep in. I guess I just need to learn how to relax, because it wouldn't be an adventure if we were always sure that we were doing everything right. And what fun would that be?

Sorry if that sounds ridiculous, but I feel like I'm hopefully starting to sort through some of the weirdness in my head. On a more positive note, my 15 year old brother, Cory, will be arriving on Wednesday from Illinois to spend a week with us. I'm excited, it'll be nice to have someone along for my daily activities! In anticipation of his arrival, I've been making him a few mix CDs. I know most people stopped making them in high school haha, but it remains one of my favorite things to do. It's even more fun with Cory because he has so, so much to learn about great music, and he's a willing audience haha. I've made him 4 compilations by decade, from the 60's through the 90's. It is so hard to whittle down an entire decade into a few songs, but it's been fun because I've rediscovered a lot of bands and songs I had long forgotten about. Perhaps I will peruse Youtube tonight for some fun videos from some of them to post on here!

There's been so much going on over the last month or so, I haven't had any time to write on here. In addition to our many house guests, we've also undertaken some serious renovations on our house. Like most home improvement projects, our time line and budget were completely blown, so our bathroom won't be completely finished until my dad comes back. But, everything works except the shower, and we're so happy to have two mold free bathrooms! Other than some rearranging of rooms we'd like to do sometime in the future upstairs to make the house look more like a single family, the downstairs bathroom is the only room we needed to completely gut. It was pretty horrifying, but at least our kids won't have take baths in a moldy bathroom. I'll post pictures later, I still need to take some of the vanity and other things we finished.

I don't spend a ton of time on Youtube, but I have found some videos by bands I like that are really creative, so I thought I would post some of my favorites.

I love Cocorosie, and this song is amazing considering it's done mainly with children's toys.

This Arcade Fire video is from French television, I believe. I especially like how they keep time by pounding on the top of the elevator and tearing pages out of a magazine.

This is a fantastic version of one of my favorite Beirut songs. It was actually my little brother who recommended it to me, and now that I'm looking, apparently the same guy filmed this one and the Arcade Fire video above.

Here are the pictures of the embroidery project I've been working on. I hung them in the kitchen. I used the Black Apple embroidery patterns from Sublime Stitching that I bought last year. I've also used them for two pillows in the living room. I really like how they turned out. It's a little boy, a little girl standing on books, and three tea cups in case the pictures aren't clear enough.
A word about the clock, it's Cram Cream, and I got it at Buffalo Exchange in Austin before I moved. I knew I had to have it as soon as I saw it, I mean, what could be better than elephants and apples that tell time? But, it's been stopping more and more, and I think the battery mechanism (that's a technical term) is wearing out. But, I looked online and Cram Cream stuff seems to be relatively hard to find, and the only clocks I found were little alarm clocks. But I'm hoping that I can by one of the $4 clocks at Target like the one in the library, and switch out the mechanism. I'm crossing my fingers that it can be saved.

I haven't posted any pictures of the house for a while, so here are some of the paint in the mudroom and the rearranging in the bedroom. Sorry for all the pictures, but I forgot I had them all on the computer. The curtains in the bedroom are already different, those were just a place holder, but now there's new Ikea curtains and the tie backs we bought last year. I just need to get the matching curtain rods and they'll be all set. The prints in the second picture are from The Black Apple and Elsita. The orange owl painting was done by my sister, Megan, who tried to match the color of our bedspread. We got the bedding at Anthropologie before we got married. I love the color so much. And of course, there's the ever-present golden puppy pillow on top haha. The bedside tables came from the designer collection of furniture that Target has every year after Christmas. I went when they were marking everything down, and they were 50% off. That night, when I went to show Jason, they were 75% off! I love the grey wood, it looks nice with the brown furniture. I painted that the summer before we moved here- it used to be various pastel colors. I also love, love love my crystal lamp, I got it and the shades at Urban Outfitters way on sale after Christmas. I've wanted one of those for a while. The red pencil box on my bedside table is something I was so happy to find randomly at my Mom's house. The last time we saw my great grandmother, she gave me $5 and I bought that pencil case. I was 7 when she passed away, and I'm glad my mom kept it, it's perfect for all of my odds and ends. The pink igloo at the bottom is where our last guinea pig, Oscar, is located. Some people might think that's weird, but he loved his igloo, and it's nice to have him close. At this point, my only wish for the room is that we get to remove the drop ceiling and paint it. I want to use a color that's kind of a grey-brown neutral on the walls, and ivory trim to match the bedding. Then there's the mudroom. Unfortunately, I don't think the ceiling color looks quite right in the picture, but it's such a light grey-pink that it's easy to mistake it for grey or white. But either way, I love it. In that room, we just need to paint the closet and replace the hideous linoleum flooring and it will be done. That's all I have for now, but I'm currently painting the upstairs bedroom, so hopefully I'll have some pics of that soon.

I also forgot to add that I think I've solved my sandals for summer problem. I've been trying to find some since the Anthro shoes didn't work out, but I couldn't find any in my size. So I finally settled on these from Modcloth. I'm still not sure about the size, but I guess I can return them if they don't work. But they're adorable, green, have a small heel, and were only $23.99! Hooray!

I have finally started painting the upstairs bedroom, and so far it's going really well! I painted the ceiling yesterday, and today I painted the South Sea Pearl walls. Tomorrow I'll finish cutting in. Then it's the orange walls, the trim, windows, and doors, and the closets. Good times, but it will be worth it. We're moving the guest bed up there next month, so I want as much of the painting done as possible. I'm also working on an embroidery project for the kitchen- I'll post some pictures when it's done. Last weekend Jason's parents came, we had a very nice time with them. We took them to a delicious Asian restaurant, and I had a yummy pear sakitini! Their visit marks the beginning of visitor season here at our house, and we have lots of guests planned over the summer. But, perhaps most exciting of all, the end of visitor season will hopefully mark the beginning of baby season! We're planning on trying for a baby after everyone leaves. It's even inspired me to actually find a doctor in New York and get a physical haha. They recommended some vitamins, exercise, and healthy food. I'm certainly doing my best to take good care of myself. I'm also realizing that this means that my window of opportunity for things like painting is going to close for a while, so I'm feeling some pressure to take care of that. My dad and his crew haha arrive next month to replace the porch, change out our dreaded fuse box for a breaker box, and do a ton of other work around the house. I'll be so glad to get that stuff done, but it's going to cost more than we thought (naturally) and it's such a pain to have to apply for permits and such, that I'll be glad to get it done. One aspect of homeownership that I've taken to lately is gardening. After much work, our yard looks pretty great, if I do say so myself haha. Our backyard is exactly what I've always wanted my yard to look like. I'll post pictures later. The only problem is, every time I settle in back there, I notice a weed, or some mulch that needs to be swept up, and before I know it I'm doing yard work instead of relaxing haha.

I'll start out by saying that I attempted to buy the shoes from my last post last week, but I ran into the problem I frequently do when ordering on anthropologie.com. They said the shoes would be available last week, but when I went on, all of the sizes except 8 won't be for sale until June. This wouldn't be so annoying except for the fact that this is at least the 5th time this has happened, and it usually seems to be with things that are in their catalogs. Why advertise for an item that you don't even have in stock? So, I decided that part of my graduation money would be better served buying paint for the upstairs bedroom, a new light fixture for the library, and more yard stuff. My daffodils in the front yard have bloomed, they look so pretty! I was in Texas last week, so I wasn't sure what the yard would look like when I got back. I had a good time while I was there, but it was very busy. I spent time in Austin, Corpus Christi/Mustang Island, and San Antonio. Going to the beach was really fun, and it was pretty, but the whole visible oil rig thing was just weird haha. All in all, I'm glad to be back in Binghamton. But I'm so behind on everything, the house is a mess, and I have a lot of errands to take care of. There isn't much going on around here that's very interesting. I finished painting the walls, ceiling and window trim in the mud room. But, when I painted the door, it absorbed a lot of the paint, and the wood is still showing. So, I bought some Kilz today, hopefully that will make it nice and white so I can hang it and we can put the room back together. I love the color of the room, it's like being enveloped in a pink hug haha. Jason is just happy that it looks cleaner haha. I'll post pictures when it's finished. Then it's off to the upstairs bedroom, where I'm painting two small walls Martha Stewart's Sewing Basket color, which is a faded looking orange with a little yellow in it. The rest of the walls will be South Sea Pearl, which is one shade darker than the color in the library, sort of a taupe. I'm pretty excited, but there's a lot of work to do in there. I have so much I want to do around the house in the next few months, it's overwhelming at times, but I'm looking forward to it.

I love, love LOVE these shoes! I have to find a way to aquire them for summer. They aren't exactly cheap, but, considering the fact that I haven't bought any shoes since the gray mary janes I got in San Francisco last May, I think I can justify it. They're so cute, I love everything about them, and I think they'd be perfect for spring/summer. Maybe I can use some graduation funds...

I know it's been forever, again, since I've posted. But I've been wrapping up in the library, and then I got sick AGAIN a few days ago, so I've gotten pretty much nothing else done. All that's left of the library to paint is one of the closet doors. Then I'm going to paint a set of shelves we bought at an antique store with the Spiny Sea Urchin (the green) color. I thought the alcove area could use a little more color, so I'll hang them in there. I'll take pictures once everything is finished and put back together. After I finish that, I'm planning on doing some highly exciting spring cleaning/organizing. Then, when I'm done, I'll be able to start painting the mud room. Finally! I'm so excited about my color choices. Since I picked the library colors very much with Jason in mind, this time I decided to go with what I wanted. Somehow that turned out to be two different shades of pink haha. The darker color is called Heirloom Shawl, and the lighter color is Lusterware. They're both Martha Stewart for Valspar colors from Lowe's. I'm not a huge fan of pink in all of its incarnations, but I fell in love with these colors, mainly because they have a lot of gray in them. I also wanted to find colors from the warmer end of the color spectrum, since we like green and blue so much. The lighter color will go on the ceiling, and the darker on the walls. I also found a super cute vintage style light fixture at Lowe's that I'm going to pick up eventually. But, that's all that's going on right now, nothing too exciting.

Happy Valentine's Day! Today has been a fun day. We went to Target to take advantage of the 75% off home event furniture. We got gray wood bedside tables. I love them, and the pair were less than one of the ones I wanted at Home Goods. I'll post pictures when I get them set up. Then we went and saw Coraline, which was really cute. Later, Jason is going to make lemon cream salmon and seared tuna, and we're going to drink a bottle of three buck Chuck and watch Masculin Feminin. I like Valentine's Day, but not the typical wilted flowers/gross candy/dinner out thing haha.

This month marks Werther, my rabbit's, fourth birthday. So I thought I would write a little bit about how wonderful he is. He's the most affectionate rabbit, and one of the most affectionate animals I've ever met. He can't get enough of being pet, and when the person petting him does, he stays crouched down and looking up at them in the hope they will continue haha. Werther is afraid of many things, and when he's scared, he buries his head under my arm for protection. He is also hilariously fussy when it comes to his cage and belongings. He spends hours creating "sculptures" with his toys, and if they are disturbed he shakes his head angrily. He also thinks everyone around him is after his toys. He hates the dog, and when she comes by, he starts grabbing his toys and hiding them haha. His favorite thing to do in the world is dig. He has a large Rock Band box to play in that is filled with tissue paper, plastic blocks and smaller boxes. When he digs through the paper his eyes get wide and he doesn't notice anything going on around him. Also, unlike other bunnies, he hates being on his back. Before we moved here, the vet turned him over to check his teeth and took quite a beating haha. When we went to the store to buy him, I stuck my hand in with the bunnies to check them out. Werther ran up and began licking my hand, and followed me where ever I went. I like to think that he chose me. He also gives kisses on command, if you lean in and make kissy noises. Well, I think that's it, I know it's boring to read about other people's pets, but Werther is pretty awesome in general, and I'm very lucky to have him.

I've gotten kind of lazy about posting. I have no excuse, really, just haven't felt like it. That, and my camera memory has been full because I had to take pictures of all of Jason's books so we'd know where to put them back after I painted. These are pictures of the back wall of the living room. I finally got around to taking care of some of the things on my to do list around the house. I put up the curtain rods in the living room that I bought in August. They're Simply Shabby Chic, from Target. It was the first time I'd ever used a power drill or put up curtains, and they turned out well, except the left one is slightly crooked, but I'm willing to live with that haha. I also put my vintage bird prints back up finally. Some things to ignore in the pictures- the horrible walls and the Rock Band drums haha. It really bothers both of us that the living room is completely decorated, and we have the paint upstairs, but we can't finish it until the plaster is redone. We've even thought about painting over the mess, but that would be really bad. It will be a huge job to paint though, there's a high ceiling, tons of trim, and 5 doors that we will have to strip with a heat gun (lead paint and all) and repaint. But I know it's going to look great when it's repainted, it's my favorite room in the house, and has more original features than anywhere else. It's going to be the same blue-gray with ultra white trim that's in the entryway. As for the library, it's coming along, but there's still much to do. I finished the walls, and the trim on the walls with the books, as well as the windows on one wall. I also painted 3/4 of the ceiling, enough that we could put the books back. But, I hit a snag when I ran out of ceiling paint, so until I get back to Lowe's, I'm going to paint the other windows. The bright white ceiling paint makes such a difference, since the ceiling in there is low, and it had tons of tiny cracks that have now disappeared. So, as for what I have left to paint- the baseboards in half the room, the windows on one side, the rest of the ceiling, the four doors and the door trim, the ceiling in the alcove, the ceiling in the closets, and the closets themselves. Also, we bought some shelves at an antique store that I'm going to paint with the green paint and put in the alcove. So yeah, almost done haha. I can't decide whether I should paint the closets white, or just use the leftover green paint, since we don't have anything else to use it for.
On Sunday we're going to rent a van from U Haul and get 2 new bookcases from Target, and hopefully the vintage craft table I've been wanting. We were going to go yesterday, but unfortunately Jason wasn't feeling well, so I'm crossing my fingers that the table is still there. If I have time I might see if I can put it on hold. The sad part is that the two bookcases we're buying probably won't even put a dent in all of the books we have that don't have homes. But the less sad part is that, after not being able to find them for 2 years, I finally located the cheap basic bookcases at Target that we already have. With the number of books we have, there's no way we could buy nice cases for all of them, and I think the cheap ones look nice anyway.

I have been sick for the past couple of days with a head cold. It's really annoying, but luckily I didn't have to babysit today, so I was able to get some rest. I've been feeling kind of restless though, I haven't been able to do any painting since yesterday morning. All of the walls have been painted in the library, and now I'm working around the trim. Time has become more of an issue, because we moved all of the books out of the room, and Jason doesn't like them sitting out for too long. But, all the work is SO worth it, the new colors look great. I was worried initially that the Rice Pudding color was too close to the color that was on the walls before, but now that I'm painting all of the trim ultra white, the color looks exactly the way it looked on the paint chip. So now all I need to do is finish the trim, paint the ceiling and the doors. After that we just need 2 more bookcases and a new light fixture and the library will be done. Before I start the next room, which will be the upstairs bedroom, I'm going to work on some of the smaller projects I have, like hanging the curtain rods in the living room. For the bedroom, I have picked the next darker shade from Rice Pudding, called South Sea Pearl. These are all Martha Stewart Valspar colors, I love them. Then, for two small accent walls that form a corner between the closets, and probably the insides of the closets themselves, I'm going to use Sewing Basket, which is a light orangey color with some yellow in it. I wanted to go for warmer colors in there, since we tend to lean toward blue and green a lot. The trim will be ultra white in there too. After the bedroom, I'd like to move downstairs to the mud room, because I've had a great idea for painting it. I talked about the color I want to paint on the ceiling, and I was thinking about grey for the walls. But, instead I've decided to go for a lighter version of the ceiling color, called Lustreware. They're both rosy grey colors, and they're really pretty. That's all that's been going on with the house right now.
On a far more exciting note, can we all breath a collective sigh of relief now that the Bush years are officially over? Haha, I am so excited about President Obama, for the first time in a long time I have hope that our country will have a bright future.
Jason did a typically romantic thing for Valentine's Day, and offered to buy me the pink chinos from J. Crew that I've been wanting haha. He hates Valentine's Day, so I'm just happy he did something. And, when I went to buy them, I discovered that they were $15 off! Yay! He's asked me for the Planet Earth series on Blu-ray, so I'll pick that up at Sam's at some point.

I just thought I would share a few of the funny things that have happened to me and members of my family since Xmas. This first one doesn't sound funny at first, but stick with me haha. Bob slipped on the ice on our porch stairs and fell down them, breaking his rib. We were sitting in the house when we heard a crazy noise (Cory does a great impression). Running outside, we found Bob sitting at the bottom of the stairs, waving us away. Then he stood up, lit a cigarette so he could "catch his breath" haha, and started chiseling the ice off the steps. Don't worry, he's fine, and I'd like to say that we waited until we were sure of that before laughing, but if there's anything my siblings and I share, it's a need to laugh at inappropriate moments, especially when someone is hurt. Then, later on we went to Panera. My mom was in the bathroom, and when I came in I heard her say something, sounding shocked. It looked like her purse had gotten too close to the sink and had gotten splashed. In reality, she had, quite brilliantly, decided to set her purse in the sink while she fixed her makeup. It was a sensor faucet, and it FILLED her purse with water, which she then proceeded to dump on the floor in the confusion. Her phone was messed up for the next day haha. It was crazy, her purse was like a bucket. Then, even later, we were at Wegman's getting stuff for holiday meals. We got some olives at the olive bar and I put them in the cart. But, when I went back to the cart, I realized that it wasn't our cart. By the time I figured that out, the women whom the cart belonged to had returned, and I let her leave with our olives. We kept seeing her around the store and cracking up that she was going to have some surprise olives in her cart haha.
After everyone left, last week I was in my car when I realized that the windshield needed to be scraped. When I put my foot down to get out, I slipped and fell out of the car. I slipped on the ice while in a sitting position haha. My forearm in still bruised, which has made working out a challenge. Anyway, I thought I would share all the hilarity that has ensued lately.
I'm excited, today I got the books in the mail that I ordered with my Barnes and Noble gift card from Xmas. I decided to get some books from newer authors, since I tend to read mainly classic books. I have so many books to read it's ridiculous. I got about 15 total for Xmas, I have 3 that I didn't finish over the summer, there are several Megan wants me to read, and that doesn't even count the library upstairs, which has untold numbers of books I want to read (we're allowed to read books from certain bookcases, the others are too valuable, sigh). I got Miranda July's book "No One Belongs Here More Than You". I had no idea she had written a book, I'm excited about that. I also got
St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves and Eeeee Eee Eeee. I also bought The Girl in the Flammable Skirt and read in one night. I really liked it. I've been really into short stories lately. I'm also reading some Virginia Woolf, since I can't give up my classics completely.
I also got some iTunes gift cards. Instead of buying full albums, like I usually do, I've been trying to buy just a few songs from each artist, so I can explore more music. So far I've picked up some Deerhunter, Shocking Pinks, Tiger Trap, Amusement Parks on Fire, A Sunny Day in Glasgow, M. Ward, Vivian Girls, Yeasayer, Caribou and Ra Ra Riot. And I still have $15 left to spend!

Finally I have new pictures of house stuff! I bought quite a bit of things for the house over the last couple of months, mainly things to hang on the walls. Jason bought me these decorative plates at an antique store. I like the one with the dog, he looks like our old dog, so sweet. Those are in the future guest room upstairs. I hung more pictures up there, but I'll post them later. Then I finally, FINALLY hung the deer canvas I bought in July up in the living room. We've finally resigned ourselves to having crumbling walls until at least summer, so we hung our pictures back up in there.
I have also finally started painting the library. I did the "green wall" last week. The pictures make the color look lighter than it is, it's more of a lime green in reality. Next I'm going to paint the alcove area with "Rice Pudding", which looks exactly like you would think a color with that name would haha. And don't worry, all that awful trim and the door will be ultra white, and that light fixture on the ceiling will be going soon. It's going to take a long time to finish the room, so I'm doing it in phases so we don't have to disturb the books until absolutely necessary.
I just realized that the way the pictures posted is the opposite of the order I'm explaining them in. Oh well. Anyway, next up one of my many new framed prints. This one, the rabbit on the left, was a freebie from Elle Moss. That's in the mud room. The mud room is also the location of my latest paint related idea, courtesy of the Domino decorating book. I'm thinking of painting the walls a light grey, and painting the ceiling with this amazing Martha Stewart color I'm in love with. It's a light purply-grey (it's hard to explain). Jason hates the color, I originally wanted to use it in the kitchen, but he agreed that, since no one cares about the mud room anyway, I can use it there haha. I'm so full of ideas, I wish I could do them all at once. The round frame has silhouette stickers (also freebies with my Xmas gift from Megan), from Elsita. The prints that weren't freebies are in the upstairs bedroom and our bedroom, respectively. More pics later. Anyway, that frame was on sale at Anthropologie, and I love it. The frame is so pretty it didn't really even need anything in it. That's in the living room. The mirror is at the top of the stairs. I got it on sale at Urban Outfitters, where it was originally WAY too expensive. I know it, and some of the other pics, look crooked. I think it's just our wavy walls haha.
Well, that's all for now. Up next is the next phase in library painting, putting up the new house number I bought, hanging the living room curtain rods that I bought last summer, making shelves out of some vintage trays I bought, spray painting the frame on an old mirror Bob bought us at the flea market, and put in the light fixture at the top of the stairs. I'm having so much fun getting to pick things like paint colors and seeing how they all work together. I'm also thinking that this year is going to entail my learning much more about using tools and such. As much as I think Jason is a great guy, he has this one flaw that drives me crazy haha. It takes him, months, sometimes YEARS, to complete even simple tasks that I ask him to do. He is the ultimate procrastinator. So, instead of waiting around for him to do things he will never actually do, I'm hoping to learn to do most of it myself.