• I am amazed how happy a perfectly toasted piece of bread can make me. We got the toaster oven we registered for yesterday, immediately threw away our burning bread machine, and now can cook things as they should be. Evenly, not burnt and delish.
• We do not have salmonella infused eggs in my fridge. I checked.
• I really want to purge some stuff tonight. I just need to clean out my closet, bookshelves, etc…and get rid of some of the clutter that exists in my life. I’ve also been crafting in my living room, so I now have what is becoming a craft corner where it shouldn’t be. Guess its time to re-organize my ACTUAL crafting corner in the other room. Suggestions? I have an IKEA Expedit with a desk but cant seem to get it to where I like the organization. Your craft organizing tips are welcome.
• My dog has been waking us up at 3:30 am for either bathroom breaks or water needs, and while I understand that he is a dog, and thats what he does…it’s making for a very tired Lauren and Mick. I was up and outside at 3:00 am this morning while he did what he needed to. Kind of creepy outside to be honest. Mick actually woke up, realized I was gone, and came looking for me. Creeptastic.
• Is doing my best to become financially responsible. Ticketmaster, Livenation and Another Planet Entertainment are not assisting me with this process. I’m making the right choices and not buying the tickets, but seriously? How do they think that $42 for tickets to a concert, BEFORE fees is OK? All of these amazing bands that I wont see because its the cost of me going to a Broadway show. Call me bitter.
• Back to the kitchen thoughts, I dream of a day that I have a kitchen big enough where all my new appliances don’t have to sit in boxes until we use them.  I want counter space, I want an island, I want a functional space…not the closet we have in our apartment. I also just found THIS blog, and now I am wanting my own lovely kitchen even more.

We got our first wedding gift a few weeks back. It was our pots and pans set that we had registered for, and we couldn’t be more excited. We spend a lot of time in the kitchen, and love to cook…so it was perfect that we got a nice, new, shiny set.

Last October, we saw some heavy rain, and our apartment wasn’t ready for it. We had roof leaks, closet leaks, and floor leaks. We had to protect our stuff, so we used a few of the older, crappier pots and pans to catch the rain and protect our furniture. We threw those rusty and ruined pots and pans away after, making our collection significantly smaller.

Even with the smaller collection we already have, with this new, shiny set, we have no where to store them all! They are actually still in the box.  We won’t be in this apartment forever, so we will make do with what we have, but I would love to be able to display and hang my new, shiny pots in a convenient, space-saving and decorative way. So I started browsing. There wont be a place for it now, but I figured a girl can dream right? My two thoughts were hanging rack, and peg board. How do you keep your pots and pans?

This over the stove rack is nice to look at, and a good use of space, but would the pots and pans be affected by the grease?

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C’mon now…you know my blog is PG.

I found this great tutorial on Kaboose today on how to plant herbs and its a great way to do it indoors. I know if you are like me, and don’t have a yard, let alone a deck, it makes it tough to grow your own. This way, you can recycle old cans, AND grow herbs in a sunny place in your apartment (if thats the only way you can.) In order to make it super easy for you…I just pasted the entire tutorial under the cut!

Make these charming tin can herb pots and watch them grow all summer long!

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Introducing Leeloo Dallas Multipass. The newest addition to our family. She is a wee one at 6 weeks, and its going to take her some time to get acclimated. We are slowly introducing her to Brody and Gertie  (see photos below), and she is definitely the most squee worthy kitten I’ve seen in ages!!

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This might be the coolest thing I’ve seen in a while as far as furniture goes. Don’t know how much it is…dont care, as I’m going to just sit and drool. Resource Furniture is full of gems…check out the site. All of their space saving furniture is fantastic.

you would THINK its just a couch

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My life right now reminds me of one of those weird “confront your fear” episodes that Maury or Tyra used to have. You know, the one where some poor woman is afraid of balloons so they bring one out to her and have her use that aversion therapy to cure her fear? Yes…there was a woman who was afraid of balloons (apparently called globophobia) and she screamed and ran the second they came on the stage. Usually these shows involve snakes, pidgins, clowns and bananas or something else random.

Well, right now, I’m the same way but with Yorkshire Terriers. Thats right, the little cute dogs that people put little pink bows on, and appear to be relatively harmless. Yes this dog. Looks adorable and friendly..right? Well, I’m sure most of them are.

But one little bastard of a Yorkie has me turned off to the breed, and actually turning away when I see one, and immediately heading in the other direction. This is what I see.

My neighbor (who thankfully doesn’t read this blog), has a Yorkie that lives downstairs. Everyone knows the dog. He barks at everything that moves, and hangs out in the kitchen watching life happen outside while expressing his hatred of everything. His owner (also my landlord), keeps him tied up at all times. If he is outside, he is on a leash attached to a pole. If he is inside its the same way in the kitchen. This dog ONLY listens to his owner, and to everyone else, he is an asshole.

Case and point. The first time that he was off leash, out of nowhere, he came lunging after me, racing with his little legs and grabbing onto mine. Got a hold of my calf and wouldn’t let go. Broke skin through my jeans, and then latched on to my other leg, this time only bruising me. What do I do? We were heading to see Flight of the Concords that night, and it wasn’t hospital worthy. Just a scar waiting to happen.

The next few times he was off leash (you would think that after the first incident, that he would never be allowed off leash again), he came racing after Mick and I, but our feet met his head first and his owner got out in time to take him before he could do damage.

Cut to last night. I walk up our courtyard stairs after a long day at work, and see him hanging out…..sans leash. I immediately yell our neighbors name and the POS dog comes running toward me. First, grabs the toe of my Converse. I guess he realized he didnt have skin, so he went after my leg again. Didn’t break skin, but it hurt like hell and I had a few choice words for the guy who was supposedly there taking care of the dog while the owner was at work. Apparently he didn’t know better than to leave the door wide open and have the dog off leash.

I’m not lawsuit happy. I am being the biggest person I can be about this…but I’m not pleased in the least. The dog technically didn’t cause me enough harm to seek medical help. But what about the 1 and 3 year old that live in our complex too? What if the dog was off leash when they were hanging out outside? My question is why would anyone want a dog that a)barks ALL the time, b)cant be off leash for fear of hurting others, c)just sucks all around.

If his owner wasn’t my landlord, I might be thinking differently…but I’m not sure what to do. Short of suggesting that he get rid of him, I’m just not that type of person to call anyone. We warned him last night. Told him that we fear for the kids…and the potential lawsuits (not from us). He claims he has tried everything from classes to shock collars to god knows what else. Its not working. Maybe there is only one option left. A girl can dream.

But seriously…as a dog lover, I’m forever petrified of the Yorkie. I think that they all will just see me, and start running for a piece of juicy flesh. Yorkies are my balloons.

Anyone who has met my pet collection will tell you that they are absolutely adorable. “Your kitten is such a lover!” “Your dog is the perfect size and such a cuddlebug!” I mean…they are pretty cute aren’t they?

Its all very misleading however. Sure they put on a good front for guests, and actually most hours are pretty well behaved pets. But they plot. They scheme. And they try to figure out the best way to annoy us EVERY morning. So far…they have been pretty successful.

Lets start with  Brody. He is a great cuddle bug in the bed, but he HAS to sleep there. He makes a point of manipulating us into letting him. We have tried to have him sleep in the other room. He barks. We have tried to put him on the floor. He ends up on the bed anyway. No big deal though, I’ve gotten used to being in a sandwich at night,  but getting out of bed is a trick. I have to slip out from uptop the covers, because he doesn’t move, and I dont want to wake Mick up. He grunts and groans like a curmudgeon if we even think about switching his sleeping position. God forbid we mess with the prince.

We let him out every night to go to the bathroom. Yet, every morning, around 5 am or so, he decides he has to go again. He stands up on the bed, walks up to my face….licks it, jumps off the bed and paces. Just paces. Now we have hard wood, and the sound of his nails on the wood is probably one of the most annoying sounds out there. Not a big deal during the day…but in the morning, when I’m sleeping…Hell no.

Then there is Gertie. Sure she is cute. Sure she is a kitten (she will be one year old in March). Sure she sometimes wakes me up by walking up to my face and licking my face (not gross…actually sweet). All well and good. But…and there is a huge but. We have started calling her “6:30 Gertie”. Not only because its catchy and rhymes, but because thats when she decides its time to get up. She also decides its time for US to get up too. Sometimes its earlier…but its NEVER later.

A few months back in her kittenhood, she started successfully sleeping with us without issue at night. We keep our door open, so when she wants to she sleeps at the foot of the bed, sometimes in between us, and its fine. Till around 6:30, when she gets up and decides to play music with the mini-blinds. The sound of Brody’s nails on wood, is nothing compared to this. Its right at our heads, she reacts to us throwing her off by just coming right back to continue with her concert…and then she starts crying and letting us know that she is hungry. I think that she is teaching us a lesson. “You want kids? Well..this is nothing. Just wait till its a baby crying, and you have to get up to feed the baby! Get used to it.”

The animals win. Every morning. I’m considering moving the furniture around in the bedroom so she doesn’t have access to the mini-blinds, and I sit angry till I either work out or have my coffee. My mornings start off wrong. Because my home has become a place where the pets call the shots. So don’t let their cute little faces fool you. They are manipulative little bastards. Mick and I are planning a coup. Stay tuned.

Just look at her eyes...you can tell she is up to something.

He might be cute...but trust me, there is a deviant in there.

Hey all, Mick here.

In reference to Lauren’s post about the coffee table we re-did., I’m here to illustrate, and completely sell anyone out there WHY we (mainly I) need garage space.

And in this second installment of “Mick Rants On and On Bloggingly”, im going to take a stand. A stand as a man, and tell you all why i, (as a man) needs a garage.

1. Upgrading my Misery – Seriously. Look at that pic of me sanding the table. Well, you cant see my face, because of the way I’m bent over, and the SARS mask over my grit teeth,  but I’m ready to kill someone. Here i am bending over like some Jerk du Soleil just trying to sand a table. I’m doing this in a three foot wide brick corridor to my apartment. “Look at me! Im sanding something!” Goddamn it. I was miserable. I need a place to do this shit. I need ROOM.

2. My Beer - So Again, three foot wide corridor, im outside sanding this shit. Everything is within a close reach. My sander, my wipey rag to rid the saw dust, and my beer. My beer, happens to be too close. Cuz guess what, one plug of said beer, and i feel like I’m drinking a lumberjack’s beard. Had i had a goddamn garage, it would be across the way, out of sawdust range, waiting patiently to be slurped on, pulp-free.

3. Man Cave – Ahhh yes….those words some women dread to hear. “Ill never see him! Hes going to spend all his time in there! Why cant he hang out in the family room?” Because. Were animals. We have these blueprints. Look, let me clear something up. I want my own space where i can do the irritating shit in peace without having to worry about irritating shit. Does that make sense? I like to make random noises. Ask co-workers. Ask neighbors, ask Lauren. Shes used to it, but in my garage i can do this on my own. I can also count farts, pretend im a goat, chase flies with squirt guns and well, act like a jackass to my heart’s content.

4. Cars - Im not even going to go off on this one, because THIS is a reason i want my own garage. I want to build my own car. From scratch, ground up, the exact way my grandfather Bomp would want me. (He loved cars, so ill assume hed love me building them.) So yeah, assume this is a biggie for me.

5. Distillery - Yeah i said it. I want to distill my own bourbon. It isnt some crazy man’s man idea. Its mainly because i love bourbon, and i am sick and tired of making some Kentuckian rich and fat by paying them for it. If i make my own, win win win. (That is, rich, fat and drunk.) Plus, ill have a real reason for a crazy Beard and Hank Williams the III blaring from the garage. Pro - I get my own bourbon. Cons - The garage and all it contains explodes. Yeah, Mick…good luck selling this one.

6. Biggest Reason – It will give Lauren and i an opportunity to work on these awesome badass projects together, Furniture reupholstery? Never done it. But screw it…lets TRY. We got the room. We have this nice armoire were using as a bar (The Barmoire). Lets refinish that and add some new fixtures? Sure….saturday. Done. Hey, you wanna make a friggin jar of pickles? Ill one up you, Lauren. Lets make 30 of them. Why? We have these old bourbon barrels I’m not using anymore from when i almost set the street on fire. Lets use these and fill them all….cuz why? We have the ROOOOM.

So you see….garages are a necessity for everything i illustrated. There are also reasons i am keeping locked away because they are MINE. Any guys reading this will understand.

You ladies dont need to worry about it, because it usually ends with us guys saying “Hey, come look at what i did for you…..”

Many years ago I purchased a table off of Craigslist. It was solid wood, good condition and only $50. It wasn’t necessarily the color scheme I wanted, but I knew that eventually it would make a great project. 2 plus years later, we finally tackled the project head on.

With a brown wood top and a painted green bottom, the table had definitely seen better days. When our apartment had water damage, the table suffered, and the top got moldy and damaged. Good thing that the refinishing was already planned.

We sanded down the top of the table, and got it down to its original wood.

We then used stain to coat the top of the table. We didn’t want to paint it, as we wanted to still see the wood grain. It only took one layer of ebony stain to get the desired color effect.

We painted the green area with black paint. This dried much faster than the stain. A varnish was then sprayed over the top of the table, and its now all set to go and serve its purpose once again.

It all starts after Halloween. Soon enough we get the vacation days for Thanksgiving, only to be followed soon after by the December holidays, Hannukah and Christmas. Have you started thinking about presents? I have already started thinking about who would want what, and possibly how I can get away with spending a little money but being as thoughtful as possible. I have also thought about how I’m going to package my gifts this year, because in the past 12 months, I’ve found myself being more creative and conscious of how I want people to perceive what I give them. I want to have wrapping options. I want to get creative.

First, I want to get organized. I found this great idea for the storage of your ribbon. Makes it easy to find, easy to use, and keeps it all in one location.

I’d like to find different ways to organize my wrapping paper and supplies, my place isn’t made to have a lot of extra stuff lying around. I found this on Amazon. I think its actually pretty handy, and keeps your stuff organized in your closet. How do you organize your holiday gift wrap?