Funny and Totally True

 All credit to http://theoatmeal.com/

if you can't read it, just click on the picture to enlarge.

Jessica's Christmas Tree

Well Jessica is huge into getting a real christmas tree and has definitely let me know that when we have our own place we are not having any of that fake christmas tree stuff in our place.  Well my sister also knows Jessica's passion on christmas trees and called me up to show me a mini tree I could get for her for christmas.  That would be perfect except I already got Jessica's presents and went over budget as it was.  So I told my big sis that I wasn't able to get it for her because of all that.  Well my sis would not have that! So my big sis (Amanda) got the tree for us (*cough* Jessica) and I can't wait for jessica to get home and see it.

This is the tree and stuff that came in the package.  I came with a picture frame christmas ornament, pack of 12 ornaments and then a set of mini christmas lights.

This is a picture of what Jess will see when she gets home.

I wish I could of been the one to get this for her.. but I'm glad my sister was awesome enough to do this.  I think it will mean more than you would think to Jessica.

*UPDATE*

I tried to catch Jessica when she got home.. but was about 2 second late.. da well..

AN AMAZING DEAL!!!

I LOVE THRIFTING, but since Grant and I are on a budget, we have been trying to not buy anything which includes thrifting. When Simon was in town, he needed some clothes, so this was a good excuse to go as well. We went to two different thrift stores that we like here in Austin, and I would have to say that we found a pretty good haul. I got 3 banana republic shirts, 1 hollister t-shirt, 2 express shirts, an awesome pair of indigo shoes, and an amazing pair of jeans.

The jeans are Brand 7 for all mankind which I knew was a very nice brand, but since they fit great I figured why not branch out and buy my first ever pair of skinny jeans. So I bought these jeans for $6.99.

After a few days of wearing them, I was wondering how expensive this brand was... come to find out this pair of jeans brand new costs $155.00... I could never pay this much for jeans, but it made me very excited to own such a nice pair of jeans!

http://www.7forallmankind.com/store/productdetails.aspx?productid=1001&colorid=101

Thanksgiving 2009

For Thanksgiving this year, we had a very laid back, fun, and family filled event. It was planned pretty last mintue because none of knew what this week would hold since Tanya's pregnancy was up in the air. So, in the end, we ended up having this awesome celebration with Tanya, Wilson, Mia, Ally, Emily, Shea, Anthony, Simon, Grant, and myself. The men decided that they wanted to eat steak, the females had chicken, and then everyone else brought different kinds of sides, and the rest of the time we played games, ate, talked, and cooed over Emi-chan!




We picked up all of the meats on the way to Tanya and Wilson's here is Grant's Steak that they grilled at Shea and Anthony's house.

Tanya and Wilson provided their home, their beverages, AMAZING cranberry fluff, and Mashed potatoes.

Here you can see Anthony's Steak and Ally ready to go and get some food. Anthony and Shea provided their grill, and two different casseroles.

Grant and I brought the meats, 2 pies, and my favorite wine that we brought to Thanksgiving this year. It is a 2008 Saracco Moscato D'Asti Wine.

Here you can see Tanya drinking now that she is allowed... woot the baby is out.

I think this is a picture of Antony's Steak which I heard was also Great!

Ally and me just chilling... She ate some of my food, but more than anything wanted to see what was going on.

Mia and ally wanted to join the fun! they love being involved with whatever is going on.

Finally me holding Emi-chan, I was trying to not hog her so much, but I could just watch her for hours, even when she is not really doing anything.

Simon sporting his new shirt from the thrift store holding Emi-chan.

Here you can see Emi-chan sleeping. She was so chill that whole time it was awesome!

Things that I think are great!

There are a lot of different things that I like, but lately with Christmas coming closer and closer, I just keep seeing beautiful Christmas type decorations! Here are some of the things that if I had money, time, and a place to arrange them would love to do! It is funny how I have a very modern taste in furniture and art, but tend to like more traditional type decorations for Christmas. I am a sucker for Silver and Red so sorry about the repetition.

Here you can see some beautiful vases being used for ornaments. Now I tend to not use gold very much,but it is the idea that I like not their actual ornaments.

Here is my all time favorite wreath that I have found so far! They are selling it at Pottery Barn for about $85.00 which I know is expensive which is why I don't have one, but I think it is AMAZING!

I don't know if I would do this quite they way they do, but I thought it was a fun way of displaying some fruit rather than using a fruit bowl.

This was to me a GREAT Idea! I love making chocolate chip cookies, so I thought it would be a fun gift to give people pre-homemade cookie dough that is frozen and then they can cut and bake just like store bought cookies only 20xs better!

I think lanterns are always fun, and always look nice. I recently put two lanterns into my sister's room for the make over, and she could easily add some pine leaves like shown above, put them outside on her stairs, and they would look great especially when lit up.

I always like home made wrapping paper, but if you do not have a lot of time then it doesn't always save money. They look nice, but a lot of work.

Here again you can see burlap used to wrap gifts which I guess could be recycling if you just have burlap laying around,but it still looks classy I think.

A kind of Random picture compared to the rest,but I have been looking everywhere for a watch I like, and I still won't get this one for a LONG time, if even at all, but these are very nice and they have them in LOTS of colors for only $65.00 at Dillards.

Most of the things in this room I don't like at all, but I love the three wreaths on the front door, and I really like the garland going up the banister.

Again in this picture, the furniture I find is very horrible, BUT I like all of the windows which probably makes the room so cold you never want to be in there, but anyway, I love the wreaths on all of the windows!

This is the outside view of the room above, and again, I like the three wreaths on the door. I

normally like the garland around the entry way,but in this picture it is not my favorite way.

I would never want this on my house, but I thought it was a nice natural take on Christmas decorating, and since there are no Christmas lights it is more energy efficient I guess.

This picture just looked very classic to me, some parts I like, and some I don't but I thought it was a pretty nice representation of what I normally like for Christmas Decorations.

The Make Over

Grant and I were lucky enough to be able to live with Tanya and Wilson for about 6 months after Grant and I moved to Austin to find jobs. Tanya and Wilson had been in a similar situation, and they definitley made life awesome by letting us live with them. We wanted to show them how grateful we were in a way that would really help out. We could have just given them money, but then since they have kids it would have most likely gone to helping the girls instead of using it selfishly. This of course is a good thing,but since we lived with them, I knew certain pieces of furniture that they were saving up for which made my job a lot easier.

So, I knew that I wanted to do this make over, but first I had to convince Grant. But before I could do that, I had to figure out how much everything would cost, but I had mentioned it to my mom and told her not to tell anyone because I didn't want them accidentally finding out, but of course, EVERYONE knew about it then. So, I kept getting calls with more and more funding coming in which I was not going to refuse, but made everything a little bit more confusing. So, eventually I had a plan with everything that I wanted, and when my older Sister Kira was in town for a visit we went shopping and got pretty much everything but the furniture. My older brother Daniel went and picked up a bed frame in Houston for us that we had found on Craigslist.

Then came the whole dilemma with Tanya said she would be induced to have her 3rd child (Now Emily Ashlyn Robertson) the 27th of November, so everything was planned around then. My mom and sister were going to visit at that time to help with the girls and the make over, while I was working on the room, etc. But Tanya was induced on Monday the 23rd which was acutally my cousin's birthday which made him happy,but it threw off our schedule! HOW dare Tanya have her baby when it doesn't fit in with my schedule!!!! ;p So anyway, I went to work Monday morning, Tanya went to the doctor's and then the hospital to be induced while awesome neighbors watched the girls. My mom and younger sister were on their way from Houston to watch the girls while my sister was in the hospital. During this time Grant was at our house getting all of the furniture and accessories that I had bought packed along with 200+ other items that I needed. My cousin Simon was also on his way from Houston to Austin with the bed frame from Houston.

When I got home from work to Tanya and Wilson's and all of my stuff had been brought to their house, it looked like a total mess, my nieces kept telling me that they wanted to paint, and Grant and my mom had taken before pictures, had moved everything out of the room, and they had taped everything off! Shortly after me, my cousin arrived and we started painting the walls.





Here you can see the before pictures of their room.

This set up was our problem set up, because of how pictures would hang above the bed, it would mean that once we moved the glider and the crib thingy back in it would look bad. So, we did the reveal so they would see it normally, and then we mess it up and move it back.

Here you can see that everything is taped when I got home from work which was VERY awesome because I had work on Tuesday too, so after work was all I had.

We were trying to take pictures throughout, but we just weren't fast enough since we were all in a hurry to take pictures every couple of moments. We painted and had lots of help! This was the first time that Grant and Anthony had painted, so I hope it wasn't too bad of an experience. We had one little hiccup where the bed frame that we had gotten off of craigslist was adverstized the wrong size. We weren't ripped off price wise, but now we have a full size bed frame in a style that we don't want to keep and are trying to sell it now.

So, Monday we took pictures, moved stuff, taped, and painted. Then we put the wrong bed frame together, took it apart and had had enough for that day. Tuesday I went to work, but Simon and Grant had to go to Ikea to pick up the correct bed frame, so once that was done putting furniture together was most of what they did.

Here you can see my nieces wanting soooo badly to help, but pretty much just being in the way most of the time. But this is what I came home to on Tuesday.

Then I started making dinner for everyone while Grant and Simon followed my instructions on where I wanted everything in the room to be hung. From mirrors to pictures to curtain rods. Here Simon is using the Laser Level.


There were a few times when I thought that Tanya and Wilson might find out what we were up to. For instance, on Monday Mia talked to Wilson on the phone and told him that she is painting with Grant and Simon, but luckily she has a painting set of her own so they didn't think anything of it. Wilson came home on Monday to put the girls to bed, and he realized what we were doing, but he only saw the paint color, and he made sure not to see it while we were doing the other work. Then when I was at the hospital with Tanya seeing Emily for the first time, she kept asking me questions and it was really hard getting around some of them to not make it sound suspicious, but in the end we pulled through it and Tanya was surprised in the end.

Here are the After Pictures!

Here you can see how close the bed and the chest of drawers are, this was not how I wanted it, but this was one of those pieces that Tanya and Wilson wanted in their room for sure. No matter how we moved it, it would not fit better, so we gave them options if they wanted it moved somewhere else, but at least all of the drawers open completely without hitting the bed.

Here you can see everyone in the room after the reveal and the girls fighting over their new little sister. Then we had to move everything to fit the crib and stuff, but eventually it will look nicer again.


And here is the Video with Tanya's Reaction!

 


Another view from my iphone