Five on Friday

This seems to be the only thing that gets me to blog these days, but oh well-- I'll take it and run with it!

one. no snow!!
For the first time in an entire month, there is ZERO snow in the forecast for tomorrow!  It will still be frigid, of course, but there will be no snow falling from the sky, and for that I am grateful!  There may still be multiple feet of snow on the ground outside, which likely won't melt until May, but this is all that I can picture when I think of "no snow." 

two. make the house OUR home!
Last Sunday we painted our master bedroom Benjamin Moore "Revere Pewter" and I am in love with the way it changed the feel of our room!  Our new king mattress and box spring will be delivered on Monday morning (squee!) and now our mission is finding new furniture for the room.  We've decided to make the best of not being able (or wanting) to get out much with the cold weather and just paint everything that we want to in the house, so tomorrow we tackle our guest bath and the office.  As I've stated before, I'm a pretty #basicbitch, so I tend to lean towards the greige colors for rooms-- simple, classic, can pair anything in the room with the walls and they'll be complemented.  Well, I'm taking a big step out of my comfort zone and painting the office NAVY BLUE.  I can't wait.  It's Sherwin Williams "Naval" and I think it will look fantastic with the white trim/crown molding and the dark hardwoods in the room.  Our downstairs half bath already has white beadboard around the bottom half of the room, so I'm thinking the navy will look great in contrast.  I'm taking lots of pics as we go and am thinking I might designate a day each week to share the updates we're making!  

Below are a couple of homes that have used "Naval" in an office and half bath-- I can't wait :)


three. sunday brunch
One of our favorite weekend traditions is brunch on Sundays.  Now, I love a good brunch out at a restaurant (Bloody Mary bar, por favor), but there's also something super relaxing and comforting about waking up, making a special breakfast, brewing coffee (Brian loves to pull out his French press, and I don't complain!) and mixing up a batch of your own breakfast cocktails (that's a thing, right?).  Brian's favorite breakfast is Eggs Benedict, so I think I might attempt that this weekend as a special treat, as long as he makes the batch of Bloodys, yes?

four. it's all about the hair
I have an entire Pinterest board by this exact name, devoted to any and all things hair-related.  For basically the entire year leading up to the wedding, I would get a small trim to keep things healthy and growing, but aside from that, we let it grow.  When Brian and I went home in January, I chopped off a good six inches and while it was definitely shorter and healthier, it still feels so long.  By the way, have I ever mentioned that my hair stylist is the only person who has ever cut my hair?  As in, since I was in 4th grade and started regularly getting a trim/blowdry/style.  She introduced me to the wonders of the CHI, did my hair for all high school occasions, and taught me how to tease it to Jesus and curl it like a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader (per my request).  She is my hair savior, and few things more like home than sitting in her chair with a Diet Vanilla Coke from Sonic and chatting away while she makes me feel human again.  Anyways, I can't help but admit that I'm itching to possibly chop just a little bit more off for the spring/summer.


five. HOME
Next Saturday morning, I will be cozied down on my flight HOME for a long weekend.  I cannot wait.  We were just home in January but sometimes you just need your (original) people.  Yes, Brian and Molly are my people/dog now, but Mama, Daddy and my not-so-little brudder will ALWAYS be my original people!  My mom has already cleaned my bedroom and my dad has stocked up on my favorite wine, and we have the menus planned for every night that I'm there.  I'll be there through Tuesday morning, so I'm looking forward to coffee on the back porch with my dad and continuing on my mani/pedi tradition with mom.  Home is good for the soul!

Happy Friday, lovelies!

five on friday

Happy Friday, y'all!  After so much GRAY and BLAH outside lately, the sun finally showed up today and I swear it has made me a changed woman.  There is absolutely zero precipitation falling from the sky, and it may be 10 degrees but it's sunny!  I had a solo karaoke session while driving to work while sipping my large iced coffee (Friday treat) and just felt so content and happy-- love starting my day like that!  Now, without further ado, let's get to it!

1. snow
I think that I speak for many people in the state of Massachusetts right now when I say that we are all SNOW OVER ALL OF THE SNOW.  Seriously.  I made it through the first two storms this year feeling chipper and loving being snowed in with the husband and our Molly,  heck I even loved shoveling our driveway out, but now they're predicting another 12-18 inches to fall on Sunday.  Y'all.  People are kind of just talking about it and saying "But where is it going to go?  I don't understand.  Yea, no-- I'm just going to say that it isn't going to snow anymore and maybe it won't."  Oh, but it is.  And people are LOSING IT.  This will be the fourth consecutive week of 12+ inches of snow falling in our area of the state, and we all have that truly valid question-- where in the heck are they going to put this snow?  It has to be moved off of the streets so people can drive, but the snowbanks are over 6 feet high!  We're a little bit more in the safe zone since we live a good half hour outside of Boston, so there's more space, but it's the city that's really struggling because... it's a city.  They're starting to dump snow in Boston Harbor!  Fingers crossed that this storm this weekend is a quick one-- in the meantime I'll be stocking up (again) at the grocery store for a crockpot recipe and figuring out workouts to do at home if we're snowed in because, as it turns out, snow day calories do in fact count.

snapped at a stop light while driving to work

the view out of our front door on monday morning.

i think that this about sums up our feelings towards all of the crazy.

2. master bedroom
Now that we're all moved in and unpacked, I have been bitten by the decorating bug.  Everyone keeps telling me to take it one room at a time, and while that's so hard (!) I know that it makes the most sense, and I know that I'd rather focus on a room and fill it with good quality pieces that really mean something to us, versus just scrambling to fill the empty with... stuff.  We decided to knock out our master bedroom, which will also take care of our guest room-- we currently have a queen size bed and want to upgrade to a king, so once we buy our new bed/mattress, we'll be moving the queen bed and the current furniture to our guest room.  Ugh, I'm great at Pinning ideas, but when it comes time to execute, I can't make a decision to save my life. 

The room is currently a greenish gray, and with the hardwood floors it just feels very... dark.  I'm leaning towards painting a light gray or bright white (#basicbitch comes out to play!), and bringing in pops of color-- below are a few inspiration pics that I swoon over daily-- which do you like?!?  Any input is more than welcome.








3. workin' on my fitness
With all of the cold and snowy weather, getting to the gym has (sadly) been at the bottom of my to do list.  We start the day with good intentions, but by the time 5pm rolls around, fighting the gross parking lot at the gym is the last thing I want to do, and Brian sits in traffic for an hour and a half, so he's over it too!  I'm SO a morning workout person and finally bit the bullet this week and made myself get up and get to the gym by 5:30am.  It has already made me feel so much better (that, as well as my caffeine, has I'm sure attributed to my jittery happiness this morning) and I make much better choices during the day when I've already worked out.  

I'm still trying to figure out a routine, but as of now I'm doing Body Pump on Monday, Wednesday, Saturday plus 30 minutes of cardio, and on Tuesdays and Fridays I'm doing an hour of cardio plus legs (I feel like my arms get more of a workout in BP than my legs).  Thursday and Sunday are optional days-- our goal is to make those days that we take Molly for a really good long walk once it's warmer outside, but for now, they're optional.  It feels good to be back in somewhat of a gym routine for the first time since the wedding!  Plus, as they say, summer bodies are made in the winter!



4. y'all need jesus
I know I cannot be the only gal out there who has just wanted to up and say this to someone-- it's the truth, and I may need this shirt pronto.



5. VDay
Last but not least, Happy Valentine's Day!  I love love love this holiday-- the sappy cards, the flowers, the men running around CVS scrambling for a card and that last box of chocolates.  I've always loved this holiday, even when I didn't have a special someone, and now I've got my forever Valentine (I know, enough with the cheese) and I'm so happy that he's mine!  We always go to dinner on the 13th and then cook our own Valentine's dinner at home on actual Valentine's Day, so that's our plan this weekend.  Not sure of our menu yet, but it will include wine (I gave up drinking during the week except for Thursdays, because what is Scandal without wine?! and by the time Friday night hits, mama needs a glass of wine!) and chocolate lava cakes from Trader Joe's (thanks for the idea, Megan!).  Whether you're with your man/lady, having a sassy girls night out, or rocking tonight as a single sista, have a glass of wine and a chocolate (or three) and have a fantastic day!  And because these never, ever fail to make me laugh...






Happy Friday, lovelies!

An Ax for Valentine's Day

Last night, while watching TV after dinner:

Katie: "Hey, Valentine's Day is coming up pretty quick.  What should we do?"

Brian: "I don't know-- should I make a reservation somewhere?"

K: "Considering there would probably be nothing left at this point to even try to stress you out, I'll just tell you that I made reservations two months ago.  So no, got that covered."


B: "Okay, well do you want anything, like a gift?"

K: "Meh... maybe flowers delivered to work?  I always like that.  And a card-- you know, first Valentine's Day as a wife and all.  Oh, and there's a set of salad bowls that I'd really like from Sur La Table.  What do y--"


B: "I want an ax.  For chopping wood and things.  Now that we have a house, I definitely need an ax." 

K: "You want an ax?  For Valentine's Day? *silence as I ponder the romantical feelings of my husband*  Deal. Send me the link."

Just keeping the romance alive over here, folks.