My life is really boring right now.  Too cold for people to want to take pictures.  (And be patient with me in the cold as I try and take pictures.) 

No spend January. 

Blah. 

Not super hard, but I have my eye on several things...including some items from Etsy.  I am not happy with our living room and have been online shopping and pulling ideas from all over the web.  Particularly because our painting from Erica Eriksdotter is finished.  I am stalking each Fedex and UPS truck that drives by every day as I keep thinking today will be the day it shows up.  It's really inspiring me to think outside of what I originally pictured in our living room.  Mainly incorporating blue better, but also stepping it up to the next level.  We need a more defined conversation area.  My curtains are puny.  And, I can't rave enough about the bead board, but man do we need something else to add interest on our walls.  We have a lot of wall space.  I'm thinking of taking everything off of the walls that's currently there and starting fresh.  Sounds amazing.  Mood board time?

We (mainly me) are so bored we have been redoing our basement storage room.  And since there's nothing going on, it's blogworthy.  (That's even questionable...)

To get you up to speed, we have a partial basement - meaning everything under the bedrooms and bathrooms is crawl space, and everything under the living room, kitchen, dining room and family room is basement.  We have two pretty much equally sized rooms - one that's finished, complete with carpet and crown molding (weird, but we'll take it) and one that is just for storage and the important, but ugly stuff in our house - heater, sub pump, etc.

When we were house hunting Andrew had to have a man-cave space.  This could be a man-cave, but it's not really big enough to do anything especially man-worthy.  Big TV and couch, yes, but we already have two living spaces upstairs with TVs.  Not really lacking in that department.  So, at this point, the space is really just an extra space for guests.  

I actually painted back in October.  Completely forgot to take before pictures so just trust me on this one.  The walls used to be white, but it was a horrible yellow-tinged white.  With practically zero-natural light in this space, it was pretty gross.  I am obsessed with the creamy gray we repainted in this space.  So soothing and really makes the molding pop.  

So, as you come down the stairs, you see this...

Which is actually this...

 Which just a week ago looked like this...

Because we tore out all of the hodge-podge shelves in the storage room that used to be in the middle of the room.  Use your imagination.  Andrew = shelves.

But, instead now, they make a nice tidy u-shape on the right side of the storage room.  Like this...

Storage rooms are ugly to look at, but this is much better than what it was.  Especially since all of this is garage sale material and will be out of here by spring.

  

But back to the fun part of our basement.  Because this will most likely turn into a playroom pending we have kids in this house, we didn't want to spend a ton of money on an extra guest room we probably use less than a handful of times a year.  So, we just used the old platform frame Andrew made for college, added some extra bedding we had and did some dumpster diving for the screen door.  

Really.

Our neighborhood has a bi-annual clean up day where they bring in a huge dumpster we can all utilize for extra waste that doesn't fit in our own individual trash cans.  I sent Andrew down in his truck to drop off some stuff and he came back with this screen door.  He said it was just in great condition and shouldn't be thrown away.  Great.  We have no need for a screen door.  But, we also didn't have a headboard so old screen door + purple paint, plus K-State pics = make-shift headboard.  

 And, there you go.  K-State gear has a place in our home.  So glad because Andrew's anniversary present needed a home.  Jake, Frank, Rodney, Jamar and Jordan were tired of being stuck in the closet.

So until things pick up at the Moore house, you'll have to put up with the boring basement.

And, random - if you haven't tried the V8 soups, you are seriously missing out.  All of them.  Multiple servings of vegetables in one carton, very low calorie count, super filling.  Do it.  Buy them.  Enjoy.

I feel like I've been a little absent from the blog lately.  It's not because I'm purposely ignoring it.  I've just been throwing my creativity into something else. 

A wedding for these two that was going to be in October and is now in February.  

Of this year.  As in next month.  Yikes!  Jon works full-time for the Missouri National Guard and got a great promotion that includes relocation.  (And, I just can't write this post without saying how proud and thankful we are for his service!)  So decision time.  Move the wedding up and they are now moving together to St. Louie. 

Never fear, my super mom is pulling things together, and I think the winter-vintage-rustic theme is going to really come together. 

With this.

This.

And some of this.

And doilies.  Yes, doilies.  

Don't even get me started on this.  Love.

So not only are we planning this crazy-soon wedding, but I also decided to host a shower for my sister between now and then.  Crazy?  Maybe. 

The invitations came in yesterday morning, and I'm very pleased.  I ordered them from weddingpaperdivas.com, and chose a layout that included the dark purple Rachel's picked for the wedding color.

 The paper quality is better than expected.  The envelopes are signed, sealed, delivered. 

Next up - menu, decor, games?  I'm not a big shower gamey person.  Any suggestions?  The pressure is on!

Oh, and by the way, we've got a small reno project going on...stay tuned.  :)

One more day this work week, and I'm so needing this upcoming three-day weekend.  It's kind of like finding a $20 bill in your jeans pocket you haven't worn in months.  (Except I wear my jeans over and over way too much so that would never happen to me, but whatevs.)  I keep forgetting we get MLK Jr. day off, and I get excited every time I remember.

Other happenings:

As easy as it would be to turn my back on the Cats right now because of their lack-luster performances over the past couple of weeks, I can't.  We're fans, win or lose.  Probably one of the best and hardest thing about being K-Staters; we stand behind our team regardless of the outcome and too many times it's not pretty.  At least not lately.

We made the quick two-hour drive to Stillwater last Saturday, paid way too much money for our seats and were disappointed when we lost, but alas.  Still a good day.

Maybe I'm partial to the Okies since I've got red dirt in my blood, but I think the Cowboys are pretty good fans.  I guess we could ask Mikey.  He was surrounded by that blinding orange.

Regardless, their arena is pretty sweet.  Especially for those like Scot Gammill who sat directly behind the K-State bench. Can you find him?

And Eskimo Joe's always gives us a good time.  And a lot of cups.  We came home with 30.  What am I supposed to do with 30 plastic cups?  We don't even use plastic cups except to give Frank a bath.  Garage sale??  Seemed like a good idea at the time...

Franklin and I have been sliding our way around the neighborhood everyday so he can blow off some energy.  Otherwise he just destroys more and more throw pillows by the day.  Dang dog.  He's happy as can be, and I'm shivering in two pairs of pants, a long-sleeved shirt, sweatshirt, coat, hood, ear muffs, gloves, wool socks and boots.  On top of that I look like a marshmallow.

Andrew hasn't been cussing as much as I thought he would when we started this 25¢ challenge.  I have 75¢ in my jar (all because of the dog), and he has $3.50.  I thought he would have at least $10 by now.  So, I guess I'm glad because that means we won't have to earmuff our future children as much, but I was also kind of hoping for at least a dinner at Chipotle.  Oh well.  I can at least get Starbucks at this point.

Happy Thursday!

There's something different in my office.  And I've been keeping it from you.

We were improvising storage with an old desk squeezed into the closet and our bathroom linen closet from our apartment as a filing cabinet.  It didn't make much sense when we originally did it, but we were trying to work with what we already had.  So we did, but enough is enough.  I know when to throw in the towel.

I placed an online order with homedecorators.com and this showed up.

All 95 pounds of it.  Seriously, that's what the tracking had me prepared for.

I tackled a long afternoon of assembly and in the end, with Andrew's help once he got home from work, I had this.  And just for reference, it does matter what side the I and J pieces attach to the drawer.  

Pretty stoked for organization.  But not so fast.  After the file cabinet was complete and in place, I had to transfer everything, and I just can't transfer.  Not without going through everything first.  Every single piece of paper.  And then reorganizing.  And shredding.  And throwing away.

Sometimes, things get worse before they get better.

Like way, way worse.  Like shut the door and don't let anyone look behind it.

But when they get better, they're pretty great.

I'm still holding onto my linen-cabinet turned office storage since it's a great place for random things like stationary, extra supplies, etc.  Plus the white finish just works in the room.  So it got shifted to the left corner, our bill station got bumped from my desk and the printer is finally off of the closet floor.

Pretty great day.

And in other super off-topic news, Franklin has a weird problem.  He has peed on me.  Twice in one week.  We are all cuddled up in the man chair, I get up to go to bed and have a wet spot on my leg.  Nothing huge, so this isn't a full-on pee, more like a tinkle.  Like a mark.  But I don't think he is marking me because he is lying down.  Sleeping.  What the heck.

How does the saying go...?

Pee on me once, shame on you.

Pee on me twice, shame on me.

Shame!

P.S. Andrew thinks this song "goes" with every blog post.  So I finally succumbed to his influence and you can all be thanking him for the afternoon pick-me-up.  It goes on and on and onnnnnnnnn...

Our first snow of the season greeted us this morning as I peeled myself from our warm bed, not quite sure I was ready for the week.  I bundled up with extra layers and snow boots as my eager beaver waited impatiently by the front door.  Apparently he and our city don't take snow days.

Franklin and I made our way around the neighborhood seeing tire tracks in driveways that reminded us the world keeps going on days like this...we don't live that far south. People here handle the snow head-on.  We drive in it, shovel it, play in it, marvel at it.

I braved the crowds at the grocery store yesterday to do our weekly stock-up, and people were buying food like they wouldn't be able to dig out for days.  Wouldn't that be wonderful?

An excuse to huddle in and shut everything else out, drinking lots of cider and hot chocolate.  Piling on blankets and cheering on snow days.  Get mesmerized by the fire.  Survive on soup and roasted marshmallows.

For someone who doesn't like winter, I sound pretty convincing.  If given the chance between beach and mountains, I'd almost always choose beach.  But this is pretty great once in a while.

Hunting. 

Success.  Found a toy he hasn't played with in months.

Camouflage.

It's tough being Franklin.  The world at his finger tips and he's forced to sit by and watch.

Until Andrew comes home from work.

It's quiet when it snows.

Sleep tight.