Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

Today I was finally able to have a phone date with my dear friend Lindsey! It was great being able to catch up, but I hung up the phone and realized I had more things to tell her. One would think that 43 minutes would have been plenty of time to catch up, but apparently not. As I finished my drive home I realized that the two items I wanted to tell her about would make perfect blog posts! So, here we go....

You may be wondering what today's post title is all about? Really it should have been titled great phone date with Lindsey :) But, this post is about Christmas trees and the fact that our tree is still up!

Yes, you read that correctly, I haven't had the heart to take it down. Granted all of the ornaments have been removed, so it doesn't appear as quite as festive. I took down all of the Christmas decorations the Saturday we got back from Michigan. But it was a bit chilly out that day and I thought the Christmas tree made it feel cozier inside and decided keeping the tree up another week would be socially acceptable.

Then another week went by and Tyler started classes, work was crazy and we didn't get around to it. I had planned on taking it down during our 3-day weekend, but I thought at that point I should really leave it up all January.....it only makes sense.

I realized it's not the actual tree that I'm in love with, but the lights on the tree. They add a nice glow to the living room. Then I began to think about how restaurants keep lights up all year round, so I must not the only person who thinks this.

Check out the lights on our street. Granted Palm trees don't scream Christmas, but how much more inviting does the street look?

Here is what our tree looks like today....not as bad as you thought?

Ok, I admit this one gives the allusion that it's December!

Our solution? Tyler and I have a wine barrel in our living room and are thinking of adding lights around the barrel. This is probably a much better idea and will keep us from being on one of those TV shows that feature crazy Christmas tree addicts :)

Favorite Perk

It's that time of year, ordering my new sales car! I'm sure it's not surprising that this is my favorite perk! Sometimes I have lots of options and other times I don't. But I'm smart enough not to complain about choosing between and Edge or a Flex, both are great vehicles! All I'm saying is that it's extra special when I have lots of choices and this year I have choices! So I thought I would take a quick poll and see what everyone's top choice would be?

Option One: Taurus SHO

Option Two: Fusion Hybrid

Option Three: Explorer Limited

Option 4: Fiesta

41.4%

Intriguing title? What does 41.4% refer to? The amount of body fat I lost in 2012...um no. The percentage of my closet that I donated to Good Will this weekend...wrong again. I'm still working on getting myself motivated to start a purging spree in my closet! It refers to the fact that I have spent 41.4% of my life with Tyler! Another words, Happy 12th Anniversary to my hubby! That's right it was 12 years ago that Tyler took me off the market after a wonderful date at Olive Garden.

We decided to spend the morning at Disneyland, heading back in time to watch the 49ers game. Nothing too exciting, but surf 'n turf is on the dinner menu tonight and it's 80 degrees outside. So pretty much a perfect day!

These past 12 years have been quite the adventure together and I don't think we would change a thing. Looking back I still think one of my favorite days was November 9th, 2010. The day Tyler truly surprised me and proposed. Definitely in our Top 5 moments!

P.S. Tyler and I realized that when our 18th anniversary comes around we will hit the 50% mark! 

Favorite House Project

Since moving to our loft in SoCal, I've s-l-o-w-l-y been putting personal touches in place. My favorite project so far is our photo wall! I had been browsing Pinterest for quite some time as there are so many options when it comes to a photo wall and finally found my inspiration on Frame Wall. I really like how the designer also incorporated other items with the frames.

I began collecting frames, the clearance at Target was a great place to start. I purchased 3 frames for $2.48 a piece! Of course Ikea was next on my list and we were fortunate enough to receive a couple of frames from Crate & Barrel as wedding gifts. All in all this has been one of my most cost effective house projects.


After all of the frames/items were purchased I created the shape of the photo wall on the floor. The one change I did make was to keep the shape of the photo wall structured. Typically I prefer to off-set photos/wall hangings, but this time around I felt as though a rectangular shape gave it a more modern look.

After I had the shape ready to go I realized that getting the frames on the blank wall was not going to be an easy task.....

Therefore this photo wall continued to look like this for a couple of days!

Finally I got tired of the wall laying on the ground and enlisted the help of my very handy hubby, who started the measuring process.

Tyler decided to begin with the corner pieces and work his way in, which saved us (well him) a lot of time. 

Getting closer......

And after about an hour, the wall was up!

It was just as Tyler was hanging the last piece that I realized I should have put the pictures inside the frames before we hung them up! So the photo wall looked like this for a bit. I mean it still looks nice and cozy to me :)

Choosing the pictures, turned out to be a bit difficult. Seeing that I hadn't made any prints from our wedding I had lots to choose from. Plus, I wanted it to be a bit "artsy"...we really didn't need 10+ photos of ourselves displayed. A good suggestion would be to print off more than what you need. It's nice to have options when you are making your final decisions. Below is the end result. It's great to think that all of our friends and family are close by!

Brrr, it's cold out here!

After living in California for over 6 years, it's not surprising that I have become warm blooded. I agree with my fellow Michiganders when they say I am spoiled or sound ridiculous when I say the 50s are chilly, but I can't help it. I've recently had a couple of friends from Seattle and Denver move to Southern California who thought I was nuts when I told them that come January they will be complaining about the cold. Well, January is here and they've admitted that I was correct (geesh, that doesn't sound childish, does it...).

This week, the temps have really dipped, in fact it was only 35 degrees in Los Angeles on Monday morning! That was the coldest day on record since 1949. In fact according to the meteorologist it's only been 35 degrees two other times in LA history! Needless to say people are go nuts out here. It's funny to hear wind chill being explained. The following Jimmy Kimmel clip was floating around my office today and thought I would share it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6t-EjrtD3U

What's really funny, is the fact that Tyler and I put extra blankets on the bed last night! What will I do if I ever move to a colder climate???

Friday Favorite(s)

So here is my first shot at having a theme to this blog, let's give a big welcome to "Friday Favorites". If I'm able to stick with this theme Friday Favorites will feature a variety sampling of all my favorite things! Which reminds me of one of my favorite songs "Favorite Things" featured in The Sound of Music. Cripes, I'm already digressing, as this week's Friday Favorites is actually about Les Miserables! Over the Christmas holiday my family and I saw Les Miserables, which ending up being my favorite movie of the holiday season!

Ever since 8th grade I have been obsessed with the musical, Les Miserables. I remember putting the soundtrack on my Christmas list that year and was overjoyed when I unwrapped the 2-disc set. My sisters and I must have listened to those CDs at least 100 times.

When Arielle sent me the movie trailer this summer, I was ecstatic and began a countdown to the movie's opening on Christmas Day! The plan was to see it with my family once we all arrived in Michigan and we did just that. Let me tell you all of the anticipation did not disappoint!

After watching an interview with Hugh Jackman and learned that all of the singing was recorded on the set, nothing was recorded in the studio. I was curious to see how that translated on the big screen. It was as though you were watching the play in person, but could actually see all of their facial expressions and emotions. It was amazing! Seeing it on the big screen just sucked you in. The 2 1/2 hours just flew by! The singing was fantastic, in fact I already purchased the soundtrack on iTunes! I loved it so much that I'm even thinking of seeing it again! I recommend it to everyone! For those who've never seen the play or listened to the music, I should warn you it isn't a "feel good" movie. But that being said, it's still a must see! In fact as of yesterday it's even been nominated for Best Picture!

New Year, Similar Resolutions!

Happy 2013! It's been a few months since I've posted anything, let alone since I've blogged on a regular basis. Yet with the new year upon us, I'm cleaning my blogging slate and trying yet again to blog on a regular basis. Who knows, maybe third time will be a charm. I might make it easy on myself and steal from my friends and try a "Wordless Wednesday" or "Thankful Thursday". I think having a theme could help get me in a good routine. I might even go out on a limb and try blogging twice a week! Watch out 2013 I might be successful with this year's resolutions!

I will end this short and sweet post with an ironic twist to life. Last year I began 2012 sitting in a lonely apartment in Laguna Beach, while my husband and sister continued to live our fun "Dublin Life". This year I am very happy to say that I start the year living with my hubby! The ironic part? We are spending our Sunday evening in separate rooms! I'm sitting in our office, with my back to the living room, blogging, headphones in, jamming out to "Feel Again" by One Republic, trying to drown out Walking Dead in the background. Tyler has recently become a fan of the show and knows better than to try and get me to watch a show about zombies! Although he did tell me that the show would pull at my heart strings...yeah right!

I should point out we did just finish watching a movie together, so technically we didn't spend all of Sunday evening apart. I'm just thankful to be under the same roof!

P.S. Here is a picture of our living/office room. I love the open concept, but you can imagine how loud my music is playing in order to ignore the zombie screams coming from the other room ;)