You know you're grown up when you become Costco members.

Happy Monday!

This weekend was a perfect mix of productive and relaxing.

On Saturday, I got my hair and eyebrows done, we explored Whole Foods, then had lunch with friends at Souper Jenny. We also got our first carwashes since moving (yes, we have lived here for 8 months), and paid an interesting visit to Cactus Carwash in Buckhead.

Buckhead is one of the wealthier areas of the city, and lets just say there were literally NO cars like ours (a 97' Camry and an 02' Sentra) in the vicinity. I can honestly tell you that I've never seen so many BMWs, Mercedes, Lexuses (Lexi?) or Audis as we saw this weekend, and I did feel a little embarrassed when the carwash guys popped my trunk only to find the mini-Christmas tree and snowman ladder I've had in there for over a month now:]

 These sunflowers from Whole Foods were so pretty. I resisted buying them, but not by much.

My lunch at Souper Jenny. I had My Dad's Turkey Chili, and the California Love sandwich (avocado, goat cheese, sprouts, tomato and spinach on a french baguette). 

 Thomas had the Creamy Cauliflower soup and a turkey sandwich with swiss and arugula. So good.

Sunday was a day of giftcard spending! We went to Bed Bath & Beyond (I spend my giftcard on a new coffee mug), Ulta (I spent my giftcard on the polish below), and Costco.

Becoming Costco members made us feel like such grownups. I've been stubborn about getting a membership, even dragging Addy to order contacts with me so that I could get a discount. This weekend we broke down, and decided to just join already.

We did set some strict spending boundaries (based on the time we used our Sam's membership to buy a lifetime supply of Toaster Strudel), and on our first trip we bought only some essentials. Also, hotdogs...

Left: Alpine Snow (a pure white used for nail design) and Did It On Em' (a bright green from the Nicki Minaj collection). 

A 'restaurant' after my own heart--two Costco dogs and two drinks for $3.

I hope everyone had a great weekend, and that you start off the week well!

Kinsey

2011 Taxes: Check

Can you imagine sitting at home on a cool, cloudy February Saturday, with this going on in the background while you try to file your taxes (for the first time as a married couple)?

I didn't think so.

I'm proud to say, however, that our 2011 taxes are complete! Now, on to celebrate my birthday tonight:]

Enjoy your 3 day weekend!

Kinsey

One small step for man...

This weekend was a big one for us as we joined the rest of the world and had a DVR installed!

It's something we've wanted to do for months now, but couldn't justify spending wise. Fortunately we got some Christmas money this year that--instead of spending it right away--we deposited into our bank account as a "this will cover the DVR upgrade for the next 12 months" kind of thing. As an added bonus, we upgraded to the U-200 package (we have U-Verse), which got us around 70 more channels and a DVR for only $10 more per month!

One of our favorite new channels is the Cooking channel. We absolutely love the show Two Fat Ladies, mostly because the fat ladies remind us of Jack and Charlotte (or how we think they would be if they could talk). Here's an excerpt, if you haven't seen the show:

Funnily enough, now that we have a DVR, we keep forgetting to use it. As soon as the commercials start, Thomas will revert to his usual habit of flipping channels and a few seconds will go by before the lightbulb of "oh wait we have a DVR now" comes on. Nevertheless, I'm sure we'll end up wondering how we ever lived without it for so long.

I hope you're having an excellent Sunday--here are some cute animal photos to tide you over until next week.

-Kinsey

2011 Recap

2011 was a great year. We accomplished lots of things, went lots of places, and met lots of people. If I had a bucket list, I would have kicked lots of the things on it as of this year.

Lets recap a bit about what went on, shall we?

The 21st birthday

The engagement photos

The showers

The graduation(s)

The wedding

The move

The tree

The kitty

The job(s)

It was a scary, exciting, adventurous, memorable, out-of-our-comfort zone type of year! And do you want to hear my new years resolution? To spend 2012 napping and recovering.

I hope you all have a safe and fun New Years Eve, and that 2012 finds you happy, healthy, and hopeful.

-T, K, J, & C

The Christmas Card Saga: A Sad Tale

Since this year was our first married Christmas, I decided early on that I wanted to send Christmas cards. I originally planned on sending out a silly card, but was too tempted by Shutterfly's 50% off sale. So, I hounded Thomas about sitting down with me to pick one out.

We're pretty picky about Christmas cards and the like, so it was tough to find a template that we liked. When we finally did, we built out our card and put it in the shopping card. It wasn't until then that I remembered a site I'd used before, Peartree Greetings. So, I headed over to PTG, where I found a much, much better selection of Christmas cards. The cards from Peartree are so much more our style, but they're also more expensive. Nonetheless, I chose an amazing card and spent an hour or two perfecting it. I put it in my cart, and went to apply a $10 off coupon code I found online. 

Unfortunately, that code didn't work. The only code available was for free shipping ($8 off) and I just knew I could do better. (This is the part where always feeling like you could probably save MORE money bites you in the rump). So, I decided to hold off because I was sure that the cards would go on sale for Thanksgiving.

Alas, Thanksgiving rolled around, and there were no sales. A week or so after, a coupon code cropped up! I think it was something like $10 off, which was great. Yet again, my hopes were dashed when I noticed that you could only get $10 off if you had $50 or more in your cart--my total hovered somewhere around $36 without shipping, $42 with.

So, I backed out again. "Surely something will come up before Christmas," I thought. After a couple of weeks, I gave up hope. Then, last week, I saw on PTG's Facebook that there was a free shipping deal for last minute orders! The coupon that sounded so 'meh' just a short month ago suddenly sounded like the best deal around. So, I rushed back to my shopping cart--where they save orders for 30 days--and entered the coupon code. As a final stab to my little Grinchy heart, I received a message that my order didn't qualify for the free shipping deal because it only applied to orders of $75 and above. 

While I know this story has probably depressed you beyond belief, I was able to throw together a little something for our first Christmas card. This way, the card was completely free and I didn't have to pay for postage;]

Merry Christmas!
-T, K, J, & C

Pumpkins out the wazoo.

I have now officially worked my first 40 hour week! Overall I really enjoyed myself, and I definitely feel like I'm getting into a routine. Everyone I work with is really fun and nice, and it's been really nice to finally start making some new friends. 

As you all know, I've been really looking forward to decorating for Fall for a few weeks now. I'm sure you can imagine my disappointment when I opened the box labelled "Fall" and found only a couple of things:

This light up pumpkin...

And this squishy one with a huge schnoz, buck teeth, and his tongue sticking out.

Thomas wasn't super impressed with either (particularly the squishy pumpkin, but I've had him for literally my entire life), and we both agreed that it would be nice if we could add to our Fall decor selection. Because right now, it's kind of pitiful.

I have to admit, I find decorating for holidays overwhelming. I look at tons of magazines--and now Pinterest--pages upon pages of gorgeous homes all decked out for whatever season, and at first I'm really excited. Then I remember that we're pretty poor budget conscious, and it's a little intimidating to imagine decorating every room of the house.

Instead of setting huge and expensive goals to begin with, we decided to start out small. So this morning, we set out into the world of craft stores to gather the supplies for a few DIY projects. Don't get too excited...there aren't any featured in this post, but there is one in the works.

To start off our "Fall decor palooza," first we headed to Hobby Lobby. They had some great sales going on, but I'm sad to report that our trip was a complete bust. We didn't find a single thing we wanted/needed there! Pretty unbelievable. So we moved on to Michael's.

While at Michael's, we found two scarecrows that were only $4 each. Thomas apparently doesn't like scarecrows, but I DO, so we bought 'em. And I proceeded to pretend that they were children for the rest of the trip.

First they rode in the kids' part of the basket...

And then they sat in Jack's car seat. Because I believe in protecting scarecrows. Safety first!

After what seemed like a long morning of shopping on an empty stomach, we asked Scoutmob where we should eat (for 50% off). It told us Alvarado's Taqueria! We've been there before, and I have to say that our food was even better this time.

I had a chimichanga. It was covered in sour cream and guac, and I was in love.

Thomas got the adobado plate, which he says was amazing.

After lunch, we made our weekly trip to Walmart. Oh joy! We've decided that we'll be grocery shopping on Friday night from now on, because there's something about Walmart that makes us feel like we're wasting our Saturday. We grabbed lots of pumpkins and gourds while we were there, and even got some Fall flowers. Then it was home to decorate.

 Here's our cute little gourd centerpiece.

And here's our front steps! Please disregard the lack of real flower pots...it's a long/sad story:[

Our little scarecrow couple. They're even holding hands!

 My favorites, the striped pumpkins.

We also got the supplies for a DIY wreath, which I'll be posting about within the next couple of days (assuming everything works out well). 

For now I'll leave you with a video of Charlotte getting into the Halloween spirit:

Have a great weekend everyone!

-Kinsey

Things about me you never knew you wanted to know.

Sup guys?

Today I'm talking about myself. I was thinking earlier about what to post about today since I won't have recipe tutorials until early next week, and I realized that I'm kind of quirky and could easily write a post on weird things about me. Because you know you wanna know.

1. I have never had a cup of coffee in my life. I have kind of a weird thing about it actually. One of my biggest pet peeves is to hear people say things like "I'm useless in the morning without my coffee" or "Oh, sorry I screwed up and/or was rude, I haven't had my coffee yet." I just think it's ridiculous to blame mistakes or personality flaws on something like coffee (probably because I don't know the wonders of the drink myself). I mostly feel that way because I've had run ins with people in the early morning who neeeeed their coffee, and I've had to compensate for them. Don't think that I haven't ever considered drinking it--working 20 hours, going to school 15 hours, and planning a wedding would have made it justifiable--I'm just afraid of becoming a coffee zombie (no offense coffee zombies).

2. 90% of the time when I'm at home, I'm wearing Thomas' clothes. Maybe this is a regular wife thing,  I have no idea, but it's one of my biggest habits. I hate wearing regular clothes (i.e. pants) when I'm sitting around the house, so the second I get home, I throw on a baggy t-shirt and some comfy shorts (the shorts are always mine, the shirts are almost always not).

3. I feel compelled mute the TV when I read (which is a lot). Recently Thomas asked me how often I sit on the computer with the TV on mute when he's not home. I started paying attention, and I noticed that it's a lot. I'm on my computer allll the time, reading random things (Facebook), job postings, blogs, etc. And whenever I get into something that I'm reading, I will pretty much always mute whatever is on TV, even if I was watching it, regardless of who is home. Golden reading silence.

4. I'm cheap about dumb things. Unlike most girls, I rarely go shopping. I actually kind of hate shopping, because it means spending money. My dad obviously made me this way. I learned about "post purchase dissonance" (aka buyers remorse) at a young age after I bought a Shirley Temple paper doll set from Barnes & Noble. My mom told me I wouldn't use it, but of course I didn't listen. Immediately after punching out my first outfit--making the book nonreturnable--I cried and wanted to take it back. This has translated into clothing items, big purchases, and even groceries. A few months ago, I bought a box of taquitos at Walmart (marked $6) and when I was checking my receipt I noticed that I was charged $12. I sure did return those taquitos immediately. Sometimes I even punish myself unnecessarily. It would have only cost us $7 per month to have DVR through U-verse, but I knew I'd feel guilty if we added one and didn't have jobs. So here I sit, waiting patiently through commercials and adding alarms to my phone for Flipping Out.

5. I HATE styling my hair. Maybe this isn't a little known fact, because more often than not my hair goes unstyled. I have no idea why I feel this way, but I blame it on the afro I developed at age 9. If you think I'm joking, click the picture to the right. My hair was fairly unstylable for a good while there (as in, I had no idea how to style an afro and neither did anyone else), and to this day it takes longer for me to fix than I typically care to spend--we're talking at least an hour. If I have somewhere important to go, I'll fix it, but otherwise I just let it have its way. It worked out ok though, because I obviously convinced someone to marry me who just happens to like my hair unstyled. BONUS.

So now you know. I can think of lots more "pieces of crazy" but that's probably enough for today. I don't want to unload all my cool secrets at once.

In other news, our little bird found a home in the laundry room!

 The thing on the right is a bag holder from IKEA that was $2. It holds those scraggly little bags that I use to clean out the cat box, hopefully not for much longer.

On that topic, Charlotte's litter box has continued to get taller.

So far there have been no mishaps, aside from the fact that Thomas can't remember to leave the lid up. I ended up taping it open though, so no worries.

-T, K, J, & C

A Little Bit Famous

Yesterday Thomas and I participated in one of our most exciting Atlanta adventures so far--being extras in a movie! Because of confidentiality agreements, we can't give too many details...but I can tell you about our experience as a whole. I will say, because I know you're curious, that the movie isn't a huge budget film and hasn't been highly publicized. We didn't recognize the actors or even know the premise of the film, but it was still fun and we get paid. We'll let you know where to look for us as soon as we know:]

We had to get to the set at 8:30 a.m. and it was very very emphasized that we needed to be early (or at the very least on time). I had prepared during the days before, and read up what extras should/shouldn't do, etc. We were asked to bring 5 outfit options each with a late summer, early fall vibe but that didn't include colors that were super bright, red, white, blue, black, or purple. We left our house an hour and a half early, which put us getting up at around 5:45. Since I haven't had a job to get up for, I've been sleeping in a bit (ok, a lot) and 5:45 felt really early to me. It didn't help that I couldn't sleep the night before, and I ended up staying up til 2:30. Oops! We did get up on time, got ready, and I happened to have an awesome hair day. Sometimes you get lucky. We made it out of the house on time and headed on our way.

On the way to set, I reread the e-mail telling us where to go for the millionth time and worried that it wasn't very clear. Again, I can't say where we were, but it was at a location roughly 30 minutes away (without rush hour traffic) from our house. I was super anxious and sick feeling; worried about our clothes, being on time, and accidentally doing something wrong that would ruin the movie. Obviously dumb, but everyone knows I worry about things--especially if they're out of my control. We got to the location about 45 minutes early, but weren't sure where to park. The e-mail didn't specify a parking location, it just said "where directed." After driving around for a while, we noticed what looked like a roped off area where we assumed the set would be, but got no direction. We looked for close parking spots, but ended up having to park in a garage around a 10 minute walk from the set. 

We parked, got our bags of clothes, and started walking. Once we got there, we were told that extras were supposed to park at a location called 'base camp' where trailers and such are parked. We were given terrible unclear directions on to how to get there, and sent back to our car. By this point, I was VERY concerned that we were going to be late. I hate being late, and the e-mail I had gotten made a huuuge deal about being early, so there was a mild panic (read: I was completely freaking out) about getting to the location on time. We practically ran back to the car and somehow managed to find our way to base camp by following small yellow signs that we hadn't spotted before. To be fair, these signs said nothing about a movie or extras, but now we know that yellow signs are to be followed.

I was relieved that everyone we met was super nice. We were even 5 minutes early! The wardrobe people said we had "great options" and chose three outfits each that they thought worked best. Then we jumped in a van and headed back to the actual filming location. Thomas and I were both in a couple of scenes (nothing big, we were just somewhere in the background) and then hung out watching the production process.

After the initial scenes we filmed, we were taken to change for our next scene and then to a room called 'extras holding' where extras wait until they're needed. The room was big, and it was also freeeezing cold. This also happened to be where lunch was served to the crew. We waited there for around 5 hours total, reading, sleeping (Thomas), talking, and snacking. We had read that being an extra involved a lot of waiting, but we did get pretty bored and sleepy sitting there in that cold room for that long.

After lunch, we continued to wait around for a bit until they needed us again. We finally headed back to set and filmed there for around 3 hours. Thomas and I got to be a couple in the background, which was nice because it meant we at least had each other to talk to while we waited (before we had been split up, and funnily enough they actually put him with another girl for a scene). We walked back and forth holding hands as background people for a solid 2.5 hours. It was fun and interesting, but towards the end we started to get really tired. Our walk distance was pretty lengthy, and my shoes that started off being comfortable became pretty uncomfortable after 20-25 takes from different angles. All and all we had a great time though! In fact, we're going back Friday to film again because it pays pretty well.

We finally wrapped (aka finished) around 7:10. We took a van back to base camp and headed home. On the way, we splurged and picked up a pizza from our favorite, Mellow Mushroom.

When it comes to being an extra, there is a lot of hurry up and wait and it's a long (10-12 hour) day. We had been told that and were expecting it, but we also don't want to break into the movie business, so it was kind of a one time (or two time) thing that we did just for fun. It's not necessarily something I'd want to deal with regularly, but it was fun to see for a while.


Sorry I don't have any pictures! We were told not to take photos of anything at all or we could be sued, so I wasn't going to take that chance. Someday we'll be able to give you more info on what we did where! We're pretty sure there were some fairly close up shots with us in them, so maybe someday you'll see us in a movie!


In other news, last weekend we began our newest pet training feat: teaching Charlotte to use the toilet instead of a litter box. I know some of you (all of you?) will think we're crazy, but I read an article about the idea and then watched YouTube videos of countless cats actually using the toilet, and I started to feel like it was possible. This isn't the first crazy animal related thing I've done, and I'm sure it won't be the last! Thomas is a litter box hater, so he of course went along with my plan willingly. 

The process we're using is step by step and takes anywhere from 2-8 weeks, depending on how willing your cat is to try new things. So far we haven't had any trouble, but we're just in the first stage of raising the box. I never really thought I'd be showing you pictures of my litter box or bathroom, but alas, here they are together:

One of the most important aspects of the training, making it a habit to leave the lid up and seat down. I made this sign because we have a habit of putting the lid down. It will also be here for guests if our training is successful.

Sunday, Day 1: Move the box to the bathroom.

Monday, Day 2: Put something steady (a small box) under the box to gradually begin raising it.

Today, Day 3: Put a taller box under the litter box to raise it even higher. Ultimately the bottom of the litter box will be level with the toilet seat.

The basic premise is that you start by moving the box into the bathroom, raise it a few inches every few days (making sure that your cat has used it normally in between moves) until the bottom of the box is toilet bowl height, and ultimately remove the box all together. We look forward to that step because having a big litter box in our tiny bathroom is sort of style cramping, but if it ultimately saves us the trouble and money of cleaning out a litter box, it would all be worth it! It's obviously more in depth than I described, but that's the basic idea. If you want to know more about our training tactics, read this article.


I know you're wondering if we're going to try to teach Charlotte how to flush (you're probably not really wondering). We've read controversial opinions on that subject--it can be done using a weight on the flush handle that you train the cat to pull down--but we decided against it since lots of cats never associate the flushing with using the restroom and instead just do it all the time to be funny. Sassy cats!


We'll see how the toilet training works out. Rest assured, I'll keep you informed every step of the way. For you doubters out there, a woman we met yesterday trained her cat to use the toilet, and there is video proof! It is possible, and hopefully it works for us.


Here's a video of Charlotte investigating a disturbance in the Xbox. Disclaimer, this is sort of long and has bad lighting. MY BAD.

-T, K, J, & C

Framed keys: bad for unlocking doors, good for hanging

It's Monday again!

We hope you all had a great weekend. Ours was pretty exciting, starting on Friday when we went out for sushi! Pretty much everyone who knows us well is aware that we don't eat seafood. Of any kind, any way. I know--crazy! But it works out that both of us feel the same way. We kind of think we're allergic because we throw up whenever we try it. It might seem strange that we went out for sushi being non-fish eaters, but we discovered while in Atlanta over spring break that there are lots of great vegetarian and non-fish sushi options to explore.

Of course, we used a Scoutmob 50% off coupon for our dinner date, and we headed to a restaurant called Maki Fresh to try it out. We got a small appetizer and two different non-fish rolls all for $10.81! 

While at dinner, Thomas did lots of fiddling with his chopsticks.

The appetizer, tempura onion rings with a spicy sauce. So good!

I got the BLT, which had hickory smoked bacon, lettuce, and tomato (duh), as well as avocado. It was super tasty! Of course, ginger and wasabi on the side.

Thomas got the Vulcan, which had grilled chicken, yellow bell pepper, sun dried tomato, cream cheese, and spicy sauce. It was also great! We'll definitely go there again.

After dinner we headed to Baskin Robbins to share a kid's scoop of coffee ice cream. There was a big crowd and live music, so we sat down for some people watching. This little sign was taped to Thomas' side of the table, and it got in the way when he tried to put his arms down. So he cried.

Saturday morning after our sushi adventure, we decided to run some errands. First we went over to Bed Bath & Beyond to furnish our guest room with pillows for my mom's upcoming visit. We got to use coupons and gift cards, which always makes me happy. 

 I begged Thomas to let me buy this dog trash can (not really, but it is kind of awesome).

Next we went back to Hobby Lobby (two weekends in a row!) to get supplies for my newest DIY project, which I'll talk about in a sec. We bought three frames at 50% off, and used a gift card, so our total was only $7!

Finally, we stopped by a really cool grocery store called Super H Mart. They have lots of specialty Asian items (which is what we were there for) and they have a great produce section with low prices. I found a couple of things I thought were interesting there...

Just read the directions.

Prawn crackers!

Finally, we headed home to make a delicious tomato pie!

 We had green beans on the side (broiled with onions, olive oil, salt & pepper, the only way to eat them!)

So tasty!

Now, for the DIY project I mentioned earlier. Quite a while back (4 months ago maybe) we bought a set of 7 vintage keys from Pottery Barn with a wedding gift card. I'm embarrassed to say that they've sat on the end table in our living room gathering dust for a solid 2 months now:[ BUT, I finally got motivated and bought supplies to make them into a cool wall hanging. Check it out:

We used three frames of varying sizes, with the glass taken out. Based on the size of our keys, we chose 3 frames--one 8x10, one 7x7, and one 14x7.5ish (weird size, whatever).

You also need some sort of fabric to back the keys with. I used scrap from the bottom of our IKEA curtains (after I hemmed them, I had lots of extra and randomly saved it). You also need fabric scissors, and a hot glue gun. The stapler is optional.

First, figure out how you want to layout your keys.

To get started, remove the back of a frame and use the hot glue gun to tightly secure the fabric around it.

 First I glued the shorter sides, and after that I wrapped it like a present (folded/cut the corners and just made sure it was taught).

 I replaced the fabric covered backs in the frames, then I hot glued the keys to the fabric. I found this part a bit challenging because the keys are sort of heavy. I didn't want them all hanging the same direction, so I opted to glue them instead of pinning or wiring them. I'll let you know if they fall off...

Then, hang the frames however you like, and bam. I wanted them to have that "perfectly imperfect" vintage look, and I think they do.

Our house is kind of awkward because we have a serious lack of wall hangings/art, but we're slowly remedying that.

Here's a view of where they are in the room. I know, that chair isn't cute. It was left by the previous owners and is very functional--I have aspirations of reupholstering it at some point.

So there you have it! I love old keys, and we're happy with how the project turned out. It was really only $7, not including what we spent on gift cards, so it was budget friendly. If you didn't have gift cards, the keys were $19, the frames (50% off) were $18, and everything else, most people already have.

This was my final weekend hurrah. Yes, Jack is wearing a place mat (left over from last weekend's DIY project) and a hat (from his cowboy costume). Fake 'staches drawn by me! 

Check back later this week for info on some interesting cat training we're trying out!

Charlotte is skeptical.

-T, K, J, & C