lost and found

mike and i were driving home from dinner with his parents and we saw a dog on the side of the road.  usually i don't know what to do in these situations, but because we were so close to main roads, i had to stop.  as soon as we stopped and rolled down the window, he ran right over to the car.  we opened the door, mike hopped out, and the puppy immediately and without prompting hopped in.

oh my gosh it was love at first sight! he was a pitbull, probably young, with a big spot on his left eye - adorable!!!  we tried to call the owner but the "if missing please call..." number was no longer in service.

we decided to bring him the last mile or so to our house, except he wouldn't get in the back seat... so mike rode in the back and puppy rode shotgun!

he ran around our house for a while, we called animal control, and they brought him home.  i loved having a puppy, even for just a bit, and now i want one!  i guess roxy will have to do.

spot [what i named him] in the front seat waiting for us to drive him to our house

he knew sit, stay, and loved being pet!

how can you not love that face?!?

my bedroom is organized!

after living in my house for just about a year, i finally have my room organized! while our house is 2400 square feet, my personal space is only an 11x11 box.  doesn't sound too difficult to arrange right? wrong. like i have blogged before, i have a lotttt of clothes so i need a lot of furniture to hold them as well as all my other junk.  

i originally expected to be doing some work at home, so i bought a desk, but over the past year, that has not been the case, so why not use what little space i have the best way i can?

a couple weeks ago, i went on a double date to ikea and bought this stuff:

expedit in black-brown

and 4 pjas baskets

and i love them!

here are the before and afters of my room:

before... with much less usable space 

and my old desk

and after: way better!

where the desk used to be

here's what is in all those boxes:

belts, gloves, winter hats

arts and crafts

clutches, wallets, and handbags

and everyone needs a junk bin: hair dye, golf spikes, headphones, umbrella, koozies,
furniture wipes, candy, golf tees, and so much more

and here is what i already had in my room:

hemnes daybed in white - awesome under-bed storage and it expands to a king 
so my friends don't have to sleep on the couch when they come to visit!

malm nightstand in black-brown

malm chest in black-brown - my tv also sits on it

malm vanity in black-brown - so obsessed with this. the fold-up top stores all
my jewelry and i can see it all at all times so i wear it more

we have a bar!

before mike and dave's birthday, the boys decided they wanted to officially finish our basement.  we have de-wallpapered, primed, stained, molded, and fixed the two upper floors of the house but the basement has always just kind of sat there.  and what's better to do with a basement then build a bar???

it was finished right before the guys' party, but i have neglected this post like crazy.  i finally got the pictures together and decided to share.  i'd have to say... we're pretty proud of our bar!

sorry i didn't get too many early-stages pictures, i neglected that too.

the bar side with the walls painted, moulding up, and bar frame put together

the unfinished side of the basement with all the white moulding torn off; in total chaos like always haha

jeff planing the 2x3 lagged boards for the bar top

grinding the ends of the lag bolts off

the bar with foam and felt stapled on

finished bar!

pretty nice stock!

proud of ourselves :)

and now roxy loves to hang out with us downstairs too! (you can also see where the painting stopped)

now what do we do with the other half of the basement??? [2nd photo]

mom's mean mac [and cheese]

since i can remember, every time my mom asked what i wanted for dinner, i always said mac and cheese.  hers is amazing; like really amazing. to put it in perspective, you know how most kids loooove mac and cheese out of a box growing up?  well, i despised it.  it was that good.  so, i thought i would share the recipe with you!

ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups milk

8 oz block cheddar

1 1/2 cups uncooked elbows

directions:

- boil elbows until al dente

- melt butter in large pot on the stove

- add flour and salt

- stir until bubbly

- add 2 cups milk until thickened

- add the cheese in chunks and stir until melted

- add macaroni to cheese mixture

- spray 9x9 pan with pam and add macaroni and cheese to it

- bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes

cooking the roux 

melting the cheese 

i made a double this time for all the roomies 

at my house, we eat it with right-out-the-fridge, rolled up lunch meat honey ham...
sounds weird but it's so good

music monday

here are some of the jams i listened to during my 15 hours of airplane flights this weekend.  

[disclaimer: i know they're super pop-y and somewhat lame, but i love upbeat songs for long, boring plane rides]

fine by me - andy grammer

drive by - train

starships - nicki minaj

what makes you beautiful - one direction [this boy band takes the cake for pop-yness lol]

and because i am incapable of doing only one thing at a time [for example, as i'm writing this i'm reading an l.l. bean catalog and watching 24] i also sketched from a magazine on the plane.  it's of pinehurst's clubhouse in north carolina.

fake it 'til you make it: coach training 2012

phew, finally home from my whirlwind business trip to phoenix.  it was such an amazing experience.  i met so many great first tee coaches from around the country.  we all had the opportunity to improve on our teaching of golf skills as well as learn new and engaging ways to the the first tee's life skills curriculum.

my boss and i got into arizona an hour ahead of schedule at 10:00 (their time).  the training didn't start until 2:00, so we played their 9-hole short course three times.  the scenery was magnificent.  we were at the base of south mountain, and the sun shined for three days straight... i got a tad bit burned.

on the first day we broke up into teams that we stayed with for most of the trip; we created lesson plans, participated in activities pretending to be our kids, and performed our lesson plan for participants from phoenix.  they loved it!

the first hole at phoenix's short course

3rd hole

how cute!?!

the green machine

craig's and my "hey mom, look i didn't have to take a photo of the scenery by myself because i made a friend" picture

awesome mountains and plateaus that just pop up across the city

3 hours early to the airport? buy a cactus and drink a few coronas

we left yesterday at 7:00 pm (pacific) and got back [by way of san francisco and new jersey] at 10:30 am (eastern).  phew, what a long day, but it was so worth it to have this experience.

[oh, and the title of this post was a funny quote one of the fellow coaches said on the first day when asked how to best teach the kids - awesome.]

arizona bound!

i'm off to arizona in 6 hours (yes, that's 3:30 am eastern time) for work training. i'm veryyyy excited! i spent all night organizing and packing and am now off to bed.

my coworkers left out a cute plate of my favorite girl scout cookies to wish us safe travels haha

how do i fit all of that into that suitcase? somehow i did it

lots of uniforms

baby wanted to come with me

love for etsy

so after looking and looking and drooling over a variety of etsy shops for a few months now, i finally decided to make my first purchase!  i found a beautiful necklace from a fellow 20sb'er and i just fell in love with it.  

here is jay's etsy story. and her shop. she told me that it took between three and four hours to make the piece i bought. serious dedication there, and i'm really impressed, the necklace is beautiful!

cute packaging

i love long necklaces 

here are a few of my other recent etsy obsessions [i have decided to limit myself to one etsy purchase per paycheck because i could easily spend a lot of money on etsy haha]:

beautiful recycled silver jewelry. 

dora went to my high school too! her artwork is amazing.

tutus, hairbows, and other accessories. 

i will definitely be purchasing one for myself for my next rundisney race 

as well as one for a cute little girl's birthday!

infinity scarves. 

diana makes such pretty pieces; i love wearing scarves to work, 

and she will work with you to try to make what you want!

thank you to jay, dora, trinketsandtutus, and diana for letting me share their shops!