Tag!

Peeps, I’ve been tagged by the lovely Megan at Notes From the Bench to tell you 7 random facts about myself.  And would I turn down an opportunity to share more of my quirks and craziness with you?  Never. 

Let’s get this party started.

1.  I’m a creature of habit.  I love routine, and I tend to get stressy (my own word) if I’m taken out of my routine.  Of course, this includes going on vacation…something that normal people get super excited about.  Don’t get me wrong, I get excited for vacation too, but it comes with a lovely added side of stress because ZOMG…THE ROUTINE!  SHE IS CHANGING!  I know, I need help.

Ok, I’m not this wrapped up in my routine. 

2. I  really, really want to open up an animal shelter with my husband when we both retire.  (Preferably said shelter will be in a warmer locale than where we currently reside.)  I have loved animals ever since I was a little kid, and adopted my cat 2 weeks after I moved into my first apartment after college.  Luckily, hubs is just as much of an animal lover as I am — hence our 2 dog and 1 cat menagerie at home –so I’m pretty sure he’s on board with this plan. 

 Indeed I do.

3. When eating, I eat things one at a time and finish whatever I’m eating completely before moving on to the next thing.  For example, if I have chicken, potatoes, and veggies, I will eat all of the veggies first, then move on to the potatoes and finish all of those, and then finish with the chicken.  No mixing or going back and forth.  I used to do this without realizing it, until someone noticed at lunch one day.  Ever since, I’ve noticed it…but I haven’t changed it!

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4.  My favorite color is pink (um, hello…have you seen my wedding pictures?!) but when we have kids, if we have a girl I’m adopting a “no pink” policy.  In fact, hubs and I have agreed that when the time comes for bambinos, we’re not going to find out the gender of the baby until he/she is born.  Yep, we’re doing it up old school.  This always generates the question, “but HOW will you decorate the NURSERY?”   I’m envisioning something like the nursery that Sherry and John at Young House Love created for their daughter, Clara.  It’s so gorgeous!

Photo: Young House Love

5.  When I was in elementary school, I entered a Halloween crayola coloring contest.  I ended up winning (!) and got a gift certificate to Toys ‘R Us, which I promptly used to purchase a Play-Doh fun factory.   To date, it’s one of the few things I can ever remember winning!

So much fun!

6.  I like to clean our house.  (Yes, I realize that this might make me a bit of a masochist and/or Monica from Friends)  It’s a great feeling knowing that our house is in order — the kitchen and bathrooms are clean, the carpets are vacuumed, the floors have been steam mopped (thanks for the steam mop recommendation, Megan!) and the laundry is done.  I hate clutter, so I’m constantly picking things up and giving them a “home” (be it in a closet or in a garbage can).  The upside of this?  If we have people randomly drop by our house, I never have to worry that it looks dirty! 

I couldn’t find a pic of Monica cleaning, so this one will do. 

7.  And finally, you know how sometimes people get a song stuck in their head?  It repeats over and over in their mind, and makes them a little nutty?   Yeah.  Well, that happens to me, too…but it also happens with weird words, and odd names (like that  Ochocinco guy).  

Yep, I’m weird.

 

Alright, I think that’s about enough from me for one day!  To pass this award on to some other lovely ladies,  I’m tagging:

- Beth, at Cotterpin House
- Laura,  at The Luckiest in Love
- Amy, at Little Miss Wedding Planner
- Jaime, at Rabbit Stew
- Morgan, at The Handcrafted Life

Have fun, girls!    Can’t wait to read your answers!

It’s Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas…

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…okay not really.  That is, unless you go to any major department store right now.   Or unless maybe you go into our spare bedroom and take a peek at the bride & groom Christmas ornaments I’ve already purchased for our tree this year. 

I have a sickness that I affectionately refer to as ”Christmas Crazy”.  I love all things Christmas.  When I was young, every time I saw the 25th on the calendar, I would count the number  of months left until Christmas day.  As an adult, when radio stations started playing Christmas music 3 years ago the day after Halloween (aka two days after my birthday), I may have rolled my eyes and said “that’s so ridiculous!” along with everyone else…but secretly I was belting out Christmas carols on my way to work in November. 

I also may have already put together a list of 5-10 different types of Christmas cookies that I want to make this year.  (Recipes/reviews to come, obviously, but let’s just say one of the recipes is for caramel corn cookies.  YUM.)  I like to plan out which days I’m baking what, and I may or may not have that already planned as well. 

And…I’ll admit it.  Our Christmas tree / decor is usually up before Thanksgiving.  Yep…before.  Don’t worry, we close our blinds  at night until December so nobody else can see our Christmas Crazy.  (I’ll give you time to unsubscribe from my blog now.)  You see…I used to wait until after Thanksgiving to put up my tree.  But when Hubs and I first moved in together, I realized that he is a Christmas Crazy enabler.  He is the one who suggested, one random Friday night aprés Thanksgiving, to go purchase a tree and put it up.   Him!  Granted, it didn’t take much prodding from him to get me to agree to it.  So now, every year we put up our tree before Thanksgiving….because now it’s tradition.

So really, it should come as no surprise that I have already combed through the troves of photo Christmas card options, selected one lucky finalist, and placed our Christmas card order.  We’ll have them on our doorstep next Friday at the latest (aka over a week before Halloween).  Yay for planning ahead, right?  …..Right guys? 

OK, maybe I’m alone on this one (annnnd maybe I’m also alone on putting up our tree so freaking early).  But I was super excited to have our wedding picture disk with high-res digital files/printing rights — they were burning a hole in my pocket.  I needed to work on designing something!  Originally I was going to do a design through Minted, but then realized that with the number we’d need, we would have to eat Ramen noodles for dinner for a week.  Same goes for Tiny Prints.  I thought about finding an Etsy vendor, but the sheer number of vendors made it a little daunting.  So, I finally settled on Shutterfly.  They’re reasonably priced (especially if you have some coupon codes!) and I’ve received prints from them in the past and have been happy with the quality.  I figured this was a pretty safe bet.

Granted, because our wedding was in June and everything was green and lush and summer-y, they’re not exactly the most “Christmas-y” cards, but I’m really happy with the overall design and I’m excited to see them in person!  Want to see ‘em?

Ahhh….it takes me right back to summer, our wedding, and everything awesome and beautiful about that day. 

Are you ordering photo Christmas cards this year?   Have you already ordered them, or are you a sane person (unlike myself)?  Or…are there any of you out there that secretly have a little bit of Christmas Crazy in you, too?  C’mon, admit it!  We can start a support group.