Snow Day

I love these pictures. I think I finally managed to get photos so sweet even TJ likes them. I’ll post more later, these were some of the candidates I was editing last night to frame around the house.

TJ with pups at the pond, this is my favorite.





My Riley’s bear like claws.



Best friends.

I love pictures of trees in the winter, TJ took this one for me, if you look carefully you can see three dogs.

TJ looking very Justin Timberlake-esque. Poor Hopper is being blocked by Riley, she’s such a camera hog.

I'm finally figuring out how to use this blog, I need to get my photos uploaded to another server - I have a LOT of them.

Eclipse

I finished reading this about a month ago but haven't had time to post it - things have been crazy busy at work - I wonder if I'll ever dig myself out of the calculations.

Still going strong with Team Edward, but poor Bella, Jacob is such a good friend. *guilt trip*

I hope to post pictures of the closet soon, as with any project I've worked on I start out energized and towards the end lose momentum. The bedroom and bathroom are a virtual sea of shoes and clothes and I'm ready to get the house back in order - to any girl the closet is key to a zen like attitude.

Birthday Flowers

From the sweetest redhead I know. :)

The things you see at Café Java…..

Maegan’s New Home

I am pulling all kind of pictures off my phone during lunch break and you can tell how bad I am at keeping up with this sort of thing…..

….because Maegan’s house is already built.

They need to be posted anyway because it’s still fun to go back and see the progress that happened so slowly on a daily basis we forgot what we started with. I believe this was our second trip out to their lot, the first time Maegan drove us out there it seemed like there wasn’t a sign yet. The next time we went out there was a foundation and the next – a house! Building or buying a house can be so stressful but in the end you get to see pictures of yourself standing next to a ‘sold’ sign and it gives you a sense of validation. Funny thing about Maegan, when she walked us through the model home and told us the color she selected was Sherwin Williams ‘latte’ I almost shrieked because that’s what I picked for my house too! TJ hates it but we both feel okay with that. =)

In any case it’s endearing because as I mentioned in the IKEA post, we pick out virtually almost the same things whether or not we’re around each other. It’s fun once in awhile to be silly and excited over small details like a duvet or paint colors.

I ramble on and on, but I present the beginning of Maegan’s new house. More to follow!

Fun at IKEA

Well we really have to hand it to TJ.

Maegan and I shrieked and poured over EVERY detail in the Houston Ikea looking for things for her house. I think he exaggerated a little when he said that I would point something out, then Maegan would drag me into another room and point the next thing out, and then we’d drag TJ into the last room to point out the same thing we’d pointed out several rooms back. I suppose going through that store can be like moving two steps forward and one step back but we had a lot of things to look at. Like critical things.

What can really be said for it? I am a hopelessly interested in all things household related – redecorating, flooring, refurbishing furniture, etc. I can go to stores like that a million times and never get tired of imagining the possibilities – certainly it doesn’t help to go with someone equally interested and excited about everything they have. By the time we left the store Maegan and I had pledged to get the same bed, make the same bookshelf headboard, hang the same chandeliers, curtain panels, mirrors....you get the idea.
But come on, it’s going to be so super cute! And now when we stay at Maegan’s it will be just like home. Perks!

Oops, I almost posted this blog without explaining the picture but maybe there isn’t a logical explanation. When you go to Ikea and you’re pumped up, you naturally grab everyone in your caravan and take a picture in the model shower. It could have been worse, we had enough dignity not to pile onto the toilet at the same time.

I’m also including a picture of the bookcase Maegan bought in black brown for her dining room – it matches the furniture she has in there already! We were so excited, after getting Arby’s we ran home and made TJ put it together while we got onto http://www.ikea.com/. My sister has the same bookcase in pine – it’s so versatile and with clean, intricate lines - I love that store. =)

Schnitzel

Oh yes, it’s that time of year: the annual Shanahan Schnitzel extravaganza. I think mom made about 1,000 pork schnitzels (and a few chicken for the misfit) and spent hours preparing all of them. Her process has changed slightly, I don’t think she actually tenderized them time opting to buy thinner slices of meat, but she actually has a tenderizer now! This is an upgrade to when I was in elementary school in Germany. I remember the days of no central heat, one channel on television, a challenging academic curriculum, tagging along downtown with Ste-UH-nee, and mom tendering our schnitzels with a beer bottle.

It boggles the mind but I guess if anyone can pull that off without glass shards in your food it’s mom.

Fun to watch TJ eat his first schnitzel, I’ve never been as big of a fan as Steph but mom's are actually very good and I love anything that reminds me of Germany – but he loved it. TJ was pouring brown gravy and squeezing lemons over them like a pro.

Mom’s Projects Update

This is what my mom has done to the jacket so far – the pieces are cut out and just waiting to have her magic worked on them. I need to learn how to sew, I can’t even fully understand patterns and I envy mom’s ability to look at a pattern, figure out how to piece it, alter it if necessary, and transform scraps of tissue paper and cloth into something usable.

I’m including a fuzzy picture of the lint that was shed on mom’s new carpet JUST from taking the pieces out of the bag – she’s putting down a tarp before she starts sewing to protect the rug.

As TJ said, this is revenge for her treating me so badly when I was little.

Argh! Thank ye, Nana!

Maddie says thank you for the Christmas Blanket Nana! Now she can plunder and loot in fuzzy, stylish comfort.

A little something my mom made for her granddog, Maddie the Pirate. Why? Because nothing says Maddie like a skull and crossbones.

(A funny thing about dogs, only certain people understand there aren't bad ones.)

Mom's Latest Projects

I think my mom is turning into a one woman sweatshop.

Last week I called her to see if she could make a jacket to go with a dress I’m wearing in May and a few links patterns I found online. Mom called me back a few minutes later and said they looked pretty easy and she could do it, in fact she was running up to Joann’s and the patterns were on sale. (For those of you who don’t know, mom has all the craft store sale fliers memorized and phone calls inevitably start with, “I’m at Hobby Lobby/Joann’s/Michael’s, and they’re having a sale on their (insert item here).”

But I digress.

So Sunday I told her Steph and I were meeting at her house to go shopping and I’d drop the material off then. I picked the most outrageous, fluffy black fabric I could find with a warning from the sales girl: tell your mom this fabric is messy. When I showed up with said items in hand I told mom before I showed her the fabric she needed to keep an open mind – she showed very little surprise and said, “Actually, that’s about what I expected from you.” *smile*

Fast forward to an Express dressing room later that day – Steph wanted a cute, black blouse for work but it had a broken zipper and we couldn’t find any others on the sale rack. After much struggling I told Steph to call mom and see if she could replace it. So now mom has two more projects (on top of hemming my Juicy Couture pants courtesy Stephanie’s Charitable Contributions to Little Sister with No Clothes).

I think we’re probably supposed to start paying her soon but such is the price of having two girls.