Show Us Your Life: China Pattern

I’m participating in Kelly’s Show Us Your Life blog hop this week. It’s about china patterns, or your favorite dishes. I’m not married yet, so I haven’t experienced the joy of registering for wedding gifts (which I think will be Kevin’s favorite part of the whole wedding experience), but I do already have a beautiful set of china, so that’s one less thing I’ll need to register for once we get married (darn! ;)).

My Grandma Ruth has had a set of antique china for a very long time, and she passed it on to me a couple years ago. I felt so honored that she thought to pass such a special thing on to me. I don’t know much about china, so as I’m describing my set, forgive me if I don’t use the correct terminology. Ha!

For now, I keep my set all wrapped, nice and safe in these protective dish containers.

We rent our house right now, and we also don’t have a dining room, but once we get our own house and a dining room to display my set, they will definitely be out in all their glory!

My china set includes a set of eight: dinner plates, saucers, dinner bowls, smaller bowls, teacups and a little container for cream (sorry, I can’t think of what the name of it is!). Luckily, I have a full set of everything; but if anything broke my mom already looked online and said there are replacements available out there, so that’s always good to know. She also told me that these dishes are “soft.” I don’t know too much about “soft” dishes, but to me that just means I should be extra careful with them!

I absolutely love this china set because it has one of my favorite colors in it (red) and it also has a bunch of additional colors like blue, green, pink and yellow, which will make it easy to pair up with a certain color theme for a dinner party, and the dishes won’t clash too much.

A close up

This is the floral design in the middle of one of the bowls. Each dish has a different, little floral design in the middle.

A little history about this china: as I mentioned, it is antique and comes from the year 1795. Pretty amazing! Each piece is also hand-painted (is all china hand-painted?? I told you I don’t know much about china!) and comes from England. How my Grandma Ruth was able to keep a full set of antique china, with five boys and my mom in her house, and moving multiple times across the country, is beyond me! But I’m glad she did because now I can enjoy it!

I don’t think I’ll miss out too much by not picking out my china when we get married because I feel like the set I have is much more special and meaningful than anything I’d find in a store. :)

Wordless Wednesday

Our New Family Member!

Last weekend was a nice, relaxing one; which was nice for a change! Friday night we went out to dinner and had Thai food. I’m not a big Thai-food-fan, but I found something I liked and it was pretty tasty.

Saturday we went to the gym, then Kevin did a bunch of yard work while I laid around the house and didn’t do much of anything (which is VERY unlike me). I decided to head to TJ Maxx because I needed a dress for my cousin’s graduation party next weekend, and I’m in desperate need of a new pair of jeans. I got both and managed to get out of TJ’s for $43!! Impressive, yes? ;) That night Kevin and I went bowling. Of course he beat me, but here’s evidence that I was in the lead at some point that night. And I scored over 100 points for all three games *pat on the back*.

The score at this point, during our second game, was Kaysie: 39, and Kevin: 17. You may notice that I spelled my name wrong too (without the ‘e’). Nice Kaysie…

Kevin striking a pose. At 10 on Saturdays the bowling alley turns the lights off and they have the black lights going and a whole bunch of designs on the floor, and big screens up showing music videos and music playing. We usually are just getting done with our last game by this time, but we want to try and make it a point to bowl during the later part of the night to enjoy it. You know – to be a teenager again ;)

Afterwards, we came home and sat out in the backyard (the weather was beautiful) until 12 midnight having cocktails and enjoying some music. It was very nice!

It’s hard taking a [not the best] picture with a self-timer!

Sunday we headed to Home Depot to get a few things. We ended up getting one of those hidden screen doors for our back door so we could have some air come through the house without inviting the bugs in. Well, it took Kevin about two hours to try and install the thing with no luck. So that project is going to have to wait for my dad when my parents come to visit in a few weeks.

After Home Depot we stopped by the pet store to get Kahlua some more dog food, and we decided we needed a fish! So we got a black goldfish, and his name is Carl. We *heart* him :) So he’s our new member of the family. Granted, his lifespan with us may only be a couple weeks (because I tend to kill fish and plants – not on purpose!), but we are enjoying him while he lasts. Right now he’s in a regular fish bowl, but Kevin’s going later this week to get a 5.5 gallon tank so the little guy can have more room to swim around, and maybe get another sibling. Did you know there’s all kinds of rules and regulations for owning a goldfish? It’s crazy. So hopefully we live up to expectations ;)

Carl, doing what he does best – swimming!

A picture with the flash. He is very cute when he swims. These goldfish shimmy their bodies to get around. They don’t really make full strokes with their fins and tails. They do more of a little body/booty shake! Ha!

Kahlua saying hi to her new “brother.”

That night I had the idea for dinner that we should have teriyaki chicken burgers with pineapple on them, sweet potato fries and coleslaw. Sounds delicious, right?! Well, lets just say that the burgers that Kevin made turned out wonderful. However, the sweet potato fries and coleslaw…not so much. First of all, it probably would’ve helped to actually use sweet potatoes for sweet potato fries. I accidentally got yams and we were not a fan of yam fries. Hahaha! I accidentally put too much celery salt in the coleslaw so that was a no-go as well. But at least the picture looks scrumptious, right?! ;)

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Feeling TIP-sie!

Sometimes as I’m getting things done around the house I’ll surprise myself and come up with a good idea or solution for things. So here’s a few that I came across (and gave myself a pat on the back for) :). Some of you may already do these things, but some may not, so here it goes.

For those of you who have a washer and dryer in your garage or in a laundry room, don’t you hate it when you drop the clean clothes on the ground when you’re transferring them from the washer to the dryer, or from the dryer to the hamper? Well I do. So I placed an old bath mat under the dryer. As you can see, we have cement in our garage, and there’s a lot of dirt and stuff on the ground. This way if the clothes fall, they’ll fall on something decently clean. This is probably an obvious tip, but I thought it could still be useful.

We don’t have guests visit that often, but when we do I love getting the guest room and guest bathroom set up for them as if they are staying in a hotel :) I decided that I should provide some cotton balls and Q-tips for our guests, but I didn’t have anything to put them in. Then I remembered I had these tea-light holders and they worked out perfectly to hold these things. I like them because they’re glass and they go well with the cabinet I have in the guest bathroom.

  Here’s the cabinet. I love this thing! It’s pretty sturdy, has three drawers and then a really deep drawer on the bottom. I can put extra toilet paper in it, as well as washcloths, hand towels and bath towels. I got it from Target a few years ago and it was a great purchase.

Here are some pics of the guest room. I did the colors in purple (which is my fave), black and white. I hung only black and white pictures in the room.

  

A final tip I have is a way to get dust off of lampshades! Dust on lampshades is something that really drives me crazy. If you try to get it off with a rag, it just moves the dust around on the shade and clumps up. So then I had the idea to use a lint roller on them and it works beautifully! You should really try it. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised ;)

So those are a few tips I’ve discovered on my own while doing things around the house. Maybe you’ll find them helpful too some time! :)

Praying for Cohen

I wanted to put this prayer request out there. I’ve recently become a follower of Megan’s blog “In This Wonderful Life.” She is so funny and real and I just think she’s great! She reminds me a lot of a friend of mine from college. :)

About a year or so ago she had to go through a lot of procedures to prepare her body to be able to carry a baby. Once her and her husband starting trying, they conceived right away and found out they would be having a baby boy – Cohen! :) At about 22 weeks they discovered that Baby Cohen had several heart defects. Each defect individually, isn’t too life threatening, but because Baby Cohen has a number of them together makes his situation very serious.

As soon as they found out they picked up their whole lives and moved to Dallas to be closer to the hospital where Cohen will be delivered and treated. They’ve had to sell their house and make a number of changes and sacrifices for little Cohen – but I know they wouldn’t have it any other way.

Baby Cohen has decided to remain cooking away inside his mamma, and she’s been able to carry him to term! On Monday the 7th she is scheduled for her c-section. I’d like to put this out there that you please pray for this family over the weekend,and on Monday in particular, for Baby Cohen, his new mommy and for their doctors that things go smoothly (as smooth as possible, at least). I think she is such a strong person and seems to be dealing with this so well, and I really don’t know how she does it. I would be an absolute mess, but Megan has really found the positive in all of this and is truly amazing.

I have been praying specifically for God to provide Cohen’s doctors with the knowledge and guidance and steady hands to perform the right surgeries on Cohen and heal him completely. I’ve been praying that God gives Megan and her hubby a sense of peace, courage and strength through this difficult time and the future to come. And I’ve also been praying for their family and friends that God will give all of them strength as well so they can be there for Megan, her hubby and Baby Cohen.

You’ll see the “Praying For Cohen” button at the top right of my page. You can click on it and it’ll take you to Megan’s blog and you can find out more about Cohen’s special heart, if you’d like. Also, feel free to add the button to your page – I know they’d appreciate it :) Plus, the more prayers, the better!

You can find me praying for Cohen for the days to come…

Projects

I’ve been doing a few projects around our house the past month or so to get ready for the warm weather. When we first moved into our house a little over a year ago I hated our backyard because it was pretty much just ugly. So this year I promised myself (and I made Kevin promise too) that I’d/we’d really try and fix it up. Another incentive is that we’re throwing a pre-4th of July BBQ on the 26th, so we need to make sure it’s looking good for our guests!

A few weeks ago I spent a lot of time sprucing up two rock beds in the backyard. They were filled with old rocks and weeds, and they were such an eyesore. So in one of the beds I removed all the rocks (and transplanted them to the front yard in a different rock bed) and planted this ground cover. It has tiny purple flowers. I’ve never planted ground cover before, so I’m hoping this ground cover will spread out and blend into one another over time and just fill this entire bed up with pretty purple flowers.

Can you see that patch of grass near the bottom of the photo that is dead? That’s where Kahlua likes to do her “business.” Ugh!

This is the other rock bed on the other side of the backyard. It had a ton of weeds in it and drove me crazy!

Here it is before. Isn’t it ugly? Just imagine the other rock bed looking like this before I planted the ground cover (forgot to take a before of the other one).

Here it is after! I think it looks much improved. It took me a good four hours to de-weed this thing.

I lined this rock bed with these river rocks that we had in our backyard. Last year I was digging up a random, dead tree we had back there and there was all this river rock buried in the ground. I didn’t know what to do with it at the time so I just let them be for about a year, but I sure am glad I kept it all because they make for a great border around this rock bed and cost $0!

Another project was refinishing a patio set that Kevin’s mom gave us. Let me just say that I’ve never really spray painted anything, so I didn’t really know what I was getting myself in to. This patio set had six chairs and a glass table. I started at 9am last Sunday and I did not finish until 7:30pm that night! I was absolutely exhausted and I will not be doing that again. Ha!

Here’s a pic of the chairs before. Just imagine the table being this tani-sh color too (I had already disassembled the table at this point and didn’t get a before pic of it).

Here are a couple of the chairs after I finished spray painting them. I went with a dark brown color called Mocha. The paint I used covered so well!

Here’s one of the finished chairs with the cushion and pillow.

Kahlua wanted in on the action too! Squinting in the sun :)

  Here’s a close-up of the fabric of the cushion that I took in Home Depot with my phone. I love, love, love it!!!

The finished product! The umbrella is new. I couldn’t decide between a brown umbrella or this tan one, but I ultimately decided on the tan because the brown would fade over time and they aren’t cheap!

I love out it turned out. The chairs at each end of the table rock and they are so comfy! You can take a nice little nap in those. I only got two little pillows at the time, but I’m getting four more so each chair has one because they offer good lower back support :)

A third project was finding something to fill a space in our living room. I found a plant at Home Depot that included the pot for $20! I’ve been pricing some at other places that included a pot and they usually run for about $40, so I thought it was a good deal.

Area before. See how bare and empty it is behind the lamp?

Here it is after with the new plant! I think it fills the space just perfectly and gives the living room a good vibe. Kahlua had to make her debut as well, of course ;)

So those are projects for now. I’m sure I’ll have more coming up within the next couple weeks because my family is visiting in two weeks and our BBQ is in three weeks!

I'm still here!

I haven't posted in a while - which is unusual for me, but I'm still here :) I'm still dealing with this emotional mess and it's not really getting much better - actually worse. But, the good news is that my doctor just prescribed a different pill so I get to start that tomorrow and I'm HOPING and PRAYING that will do the trick and get me back to my old self that I like so much ;) If not, I might have to look into some happy pills.

I posted a while back about an article for the BART system here in the Bay Area. I thought it summed up the BART experience pretty well for the average commuter - such as myself! However, the following week (which was last week) and yesterday and today the trains have had delays EVERY.SINGLE.DAY! I definitely believe in karma and it's been rather bitchy the past week or so ;) Needless to say, I'll refrain from my snarky BART comments for a while. Ha!

I have a couple posts I need to do but I haven't had the motivation to get in the office, turn on my computer and post them. Pathetic, I know. But it takes a lot for me to do anything these days.

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Weekend! It looks like our weather here is finally turning warmer and I'm not seeing much rain in the near future. Finally! I'm looking forward to enjoying our backyard again (which I'll be posting about soon).