I miss my husband...

So, the past few days have been kind of bad for me anyway, but the internet on his end seems to be worse than normal. Our webcams don't load as quickly, or he isn't able to connect at all (or keeps getting disconnected). So it's been rough all around, and this morning I really wanted to talk to him and true to that need the internet decided it didn't want to work. Even before I woke up I could see how many times he had been knocked offline since 2:45 in the morning, so I knew my chances were not good - oh well.

Today is supposed to be rainy with a high in the 50's, so not as nice as yesterday but I checked and the same weather is supposed to be happening where he is. It makes me feel closer when the weather is the same...almost like we're in the same zip code.

So today my plans include working, gearing to get Simply Whimsy open (because it hasn't been long enough already?), work on some proofs, and studying for exams and quizzes this coming week. My hope is that at some point he'll be able to get online.

I love my husband.

Loving that craftiness

So while I have finally settled in to my apartment (although it would be that much more wonderful if Grant was here, but I digress), I have set about fine tuning the things that will make it more beautiful to me. I absolutely love coming home to a clean apartment, but there are a few things missing.

So here is the dining room as we last saw it:

I'm still not sold on it, but it's okay for now. I need to fill my photo collage divider as right now it just has the factory brown inserts. I really would like to add in some stools for the counter there on the left, and maybe once I do that, I'll be able to rearrange the whole dining room to a more appealing layout. I also need some things to fill the walls. Maybe I'll create something tonight or tomorrow for that, and then I'll submit that with my photos that I want printed for the stand.

Second, I have my living room portion that I love, but it still needs work. Now because the apartment is only temporary, and we'll be purchasing a house next year sometime, I don't want to buy too many things that may not fit in there. However, I hate my curtains. They're brown and ugly, and I want something to brighten the room. Since I have white walls, I've decided to go ahead and try and find red curtains. Yeah, that's not easy.

I did stumble upon this wonderful fabric site: Kitty Craft. I adore almost all of the fabrics, and who wouldn't with such cute stuff as this:I think I've decided on this one though:
I think the freshness of the design and the red will be perfect, but I'm still hesitant to purchase unless there is truly a red fabric that I like with some sort of design. Maybe I will wait a week, and

To see, or not to see?

Well, of course, I'd like to see, but I hate wearing my glasses. I hate having to put them on and take them off. I hate how I can't wear my nice sunglasses that my husband purchased which you can see here:
I love, love, love them, but they don't work with glasses. Actually, I tried the whole glasses with the sunglasses over them, and it sort of (emphasis on the not) worked but not really. So I finally decided to try contacts, and so far it's a love hate relationship. I love that I can wear my sunglasses, but I hate how they feel. I love that I don't have to wear glasses, but I hate how long it takes me to put them on. I love the idea, but I hate the added expense. So yeah, I'm not sure. Right now I'm on day three, and I ended up taking them out a little early. Because I'm at home and didn't really need to wear them, I decided to give my eyes a break, but the real test will be on Monday when I go back to school and have to see a board.

So right now I'm just not sure about them. What I might do is request we try a different kind when I go for my follow up on Wednesday, and maybe one with a little more hydration. I'm sure it will take my eyes some time to get used to them, but if by Wednesday I'm still having problems with them feeling on the dry side, then I'll request a different kind. Oh how I loathe thee dry eyes....

You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles...

Tonight I have been studying for my last final which is at 10:45am today (who needs sleep anyway?), and true to my studying nature I've had movies on in the background. Thus far I've "watched" Mean Girls, The Princess Bride, and now The Notebook. I absolutely adore those movies. Well, I love lots of movies, and I think I finally have a favorite actress. She's in the first and last movie from tonight, and she's in another of my favorites, The Wedding Crashers. Her name is Rachel McAdams, and I think if I could meet any actress she would be it. For a favorite actor, I'm not sure yet. That's still debatable, but maybe I'll find one.

The coming week I'll be working on some of my illustrations and working with Illustrator, so hopefully I can post some updates on here. Maybe some freebies for those who read my blog.

Now it's back to vectors, but I will post updates later today on how my exam went.

Java you are not my friend

I think I just disliked it because I couldn't the java class I really wanted to, so I was very not interested in what we were doing for this course. I wanted to take the java class where you created applets and things of that nature, but I ended up taking a course that was essentially a repeat of my previous java course = NO FUN. What's wonderful is that it's finished, and I shouldn't need anymore java. I may need C++, but no more java! That is fantastic, and that's all I have to say about that.

As for finals I'm three down and one more to go tomorrow morning, and hopefully it won't be as scary as I'm thinking it will be. I can't wait for spring, and I'm even starting to get excited about next quarter (what a nerd).

Hopefully though this year goes semi-quickly until Grant gets home, and then time can slow down again. He just got back from 14 days on a lone island with no communication, and he's leaving again soon to once again a no communication area. Sigh. No communication = MAJOR NO FUN. Hopefully though he'll be able to email at least.

Also, an IKEA opened only about 40 minutes from here. I'm so excited! I finally get to go to IKEA, but that trip is scheduled for after my last exam. Here's to studying just a little more for this quarter!

Still making the apartment home

Well, it's home in the sense that when I leave school or need to eat or sleep, it's my home. I think I've decided that until Grant is with me it won't be home. However I needed to get the dining room set up. Before it just had the table and was rather bare, but the living room was sort of overwhelmed with too much furniture. So I moved some over.

Here is how it looks now:

The box in the lower left hand corner is part of my collection to get rid of 100 items and declutter my life. I will hopefully have the auctions up this weekend or next, but we will see. It will be nice to no longer have that box of stuff I don't use anymore.

Physics: Studying Never Ceases

So tomorrow I have a physics exam, and part of the exam is on optics. While I must say that optics have not been my favorite subject in physics, I do enjoy it more than when we first started. I even created a quick ray diagram for fun:

Now I must return to studying!

P.S. I found this photo on Flickr today when I was searching for physics photos (yay! I'm not the only one), and I about died laughing! Here it is: Elephant.

Chef April

So while I'm not normally a cook, with the new apartment and added expenses, eating at home is much cheaper. Now I'm forced to learn to cook some new dishes or at least improve on the ones that I already know.

Yes, I have been eating a lot of pancakes and eggs recently, but I have also branched out. I've started to include more greens including broccoli and spinach like my wonderful salad here:

I also made yummy sugar cookies for Valentine's Day to send to Grant:

I'm not a huge sugar cookie fan, but I loved these. I can't wait until he receives them (sadly, he has not received them yet).

In addition to the wonderful cooking/baking I've been improving upon, I'm getting better at venturing out of the box and creating some newer spins of the foods I love (like an egg sandwich with a pancake as the bread). Grant will still reign supreme in the kitchen though, especially since I find many other things I enjoy much more.

My website!

I absolutely can't wait to unveil the new website design. I'm waiting on the security certificate to be updated, so that way your information is kept safe. I will be updating with more information tomorrow hopefully.

Seriously Neglected Scrapbook

So while I worked very hard on the pages that I have. I have seriously neglected it, so my plan is to work on it next weekend some. I do have an exam on Monday and a list of things to do this weekend, so it will have to wait a little longer. Here are some previews though:

Bills, bills, bills and funny e-cards

So, now with all of the mail and bills coming in, I really need a good way to organize everything, and I'm trying to figure out a good way to do it. I think I'm going to use a spot on the counter in the kitchen, but I don't really like the idea of having it in the kitchen. Hmm...I will figure it out.

But now on to more funny things. I was led to this site by a friend: Some ECards. I absolutely love it, and it's too funny. Here are a few of my favorites:
Anyway, check them out, because some of them are absolutely hilarious.

My Kitchen

So I finally got all of the kitchen boxes moved in, and I have everything at least in a place that's easy and organized for me to get to. Here are some photos:

I have a physics exam on Monday (the one a week away - not tomorrow), so I'm starting to study for that. I will update as the week progresses on how that is going.

On a more sad note, my dryer died. So I'm now in need of a new dryer, and I really don't want to buy a brand new one. So I'm on the hunt for a used one that works fairly well, and it won't cost too much. Wish me luck!

Declutter

Every time we move it helps us to gain perspective and remove a bunch of the items we no longer need or use, and part of this move and the new year I have decided to get rid of 100 items. I'm donating several bags of clothes, and then I'll auction some off at Mompack Auctions. Anything that doesn't sell I'll donate as well.

I also hung up several of our photos (some of my favorites) on the wall behind the couch today. I'm not really sold on it. There's also a lot of white space, and I am just not sure yet. I also hung them with red ribbon, and I'm not sure about that yet either. Here's a general photo without any other furniture. I should have some apartment photos up here in a few days.

Hmmm...I'm just not sure yet. I still need to find some cloth to sew pillow covers for the couch pillows. I think that will add some more color to the room, too.

Resolutions

Here are some of my resolutions. While I don't really believe in New Year's resolutions, I do believe in resolutions. I just don't always wait until New Year's to decide to make the change.

Business Resolutions:

• Get the Simply Whimsy website up and running
• Once the website is up and running, begin marketing it
• Increase my wholesale accounts (see above)
• Increase sales on Simply Sweet Announcements
• Change the direction and web design of Simply Sweet Announcements
• Update Simply Sweet Announcement's blog design

Personal Resolutions:

• Eat more green foods
• Drink less "sugary" drinks
• Eat more protein
• Get A's in all of my classes (I love my classes this quarter, so it should be easy.)
• Participate as much as possible in Relay for Life including raising my $100
• Volunteer more than I do now

I'm sure I will think of more and will add them accordingly.

Breaking down boxes

I'm finally getting through the boxes and breaking them down. I'm hoping to have most everything in place by the end of this weekend, and I think that can be accomplished. I'm very excited, and with the studio coming together, it's making it much easier to work already.

Conversation pieces

I absolutely love weird, cool things that you find and put into your home. When you see someone's home or visit, I always wonder who picked what, what does that piece reflect about them, why did they choose that? Some things are cool looking, some are an interest, some have sentimental value.

When we moved to North Carolina I received a lot of furniture that had been other family members that were in excellent condition. A few of those items include two end tables and a coffee table that was my great grandmother's from the 1950's. They look like I just brought them brand new, and I love them to pieces. The coffee table is something I'm working on because it needs a need glass plate for the top, but I will hopefully have it in working order by February. Here are some photos of how the end table looks. I'm hoping to have more photos by next weekend of the apartment once the sofa comes in, and I finish moving things around to the places I like.

Happy New Year!

Whew! With the holiday rush and everything going on, I haven't been posting the past few weeks, but that's because I was in Japan! I went for the holidays to visit my husband, and it was a rather last minute decision. I was so happy to see him and spend time with him. I will update this post with photos shortly.

Moving = No fun

So while if it was just myself moving, this move would be a breeze. Maybe not a breeze, but finished in one day. Unfortunately, this is not the case. We had to move all of the boxes from the garage in my grandparents' house to the storage downstairs, and then all of the boxes on the trailer downstairs (notice STAIRS). Now we are moving my stuff tomorrow upstairs, and then boxes from my parents' house to the trailer and downstairs. Then the furniture from the new house to the other house, and if you guessed then move it downstairs, you are correct!

Did I mention I hate stairs?

Dishes, Sofas, and packing

While Grant purchased these absolutely gorgeous plates and serving dishes from Japan last year, we are need of actual every day dishes. We had these wonderful glass plates and bowls, but alas, they did not last. They cracked and chipped, and then I threw them away and donated the ones that lasted. I made a drastic different purchase of plates tonight. They're black and more of a rounded square. The bowls are "squarish", and so are the cups. They're quirky, and I like them.

I only purchased a set of four, because I found a different style that are red and black. I think I'm going to get that set, too, and mix them. I love them both. I'll post pictures once I move in and open the box. As of right now though, they're going to stay in the box until I move.

Hopefully all of the paperwork will be complete by Tuesday, and I can move in on Wednesday. That would be wonderful. That also means I need to get a move on with packing everything .

Also, after thinking through everything. I have decided I don't have to have a sectional sofa with a chaise, so I'm going to get a regular sofa in white. Then later purchase a separate chaise to go with it. I think the original sofa we had chosen, well, I was falling out of love with. Something simple, but comfortable where I could maybe update the pillows some would be perfect. I am on the hunt now!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

With all of the holiday marketing and trees, I've started feeling more festive! I will post pictures soon of my holiday decorating. I've been a little behind on photos and with my near future move (next week!) I'm not going to go all out until I'm in the new place.