June 06 - Cafes, Museums, and a Little Red Cardigan

I'm in Augusta, GA, for business for the whole month of June. I'm not going to lie and say I'm 100% thrilled with this - I miss MJ and my kitties (Buffy, and my two adorable foster cats, Buster and Bonzai). But still, there's fun to be had, exploring a new city solo.

Today I started off at the New Moon Cafe for breakfast. While I admit to a fairly serious Starbucks addiction, my preference is indie coffee shops and I always look for them when I travel.  The New Moon Cafe is in Augusta's not-quite-convincing downtown. Still, there was tons of parking outside, and the New Moon Cafe had tasty croissants, the best white hot chocolate I've had since my SoCal coffee shop closed down (Sad face) and free wi-fi. I will definitely be heading back there during this month (the fact that I wrote 5,000 more words of my novel there didn't hurt my impression, either).

Then I headed over to the Morris Museum of Art.  It's on the Riverwalk, which is very scenic - it was too hot to walk much (96 degrees) when I was exploring, but I might go back for an early morning run next weekend. Look how pretty it is:

 Loved the museum, which is quite small but lovely nonetheless. One of the docents told me all about some of my favorite pieces in the museum, which was a fun conversation. Unfortunately, most of my photos came out grainy, but here's one portrait that I think turned out decently. The portraits are always my favorites - I love seeing the faces from the past, and the way the artistic styles change dependent on culture and the standard of beauty for that time period.

Yep, I'm a sucker for anything with a cat.

After I finished at the museum, I headed over to the local movie theater. I've never been to a movie by myself before, and the idea was faintly uncomfortable, so I had to. I saw Letters to Juliet. It was a pretty predictable romantic movie, but I enjoyed it. I'm also going to have to see Easy A when it comes out; that's one of the few trailers for an allegedly funny movie that's ever actually gotten an audible laugh from me.


Also, as part of my "Let's pretend we have a style... or style at all... and maybe we will!" campaign, I took a photo of today's outfit.

Red cardigan from New York and Company, Black Dot Lace Cami from White House Black Market, cropped off-brand jeans, and red flip-flops from White House Black Market (doesn't it seem like they're cheating?)  I don't like wearing a 3/4 sleeve cardigan with cropped pants, but there's only so much I can pack/shop on one trip.  Outfits will only be showcased on days off from work, as on weekdays I pretty much am in my work uniform or pajamas only.

So that... was my day today. Now I'm off to run on the treadmill, swim in the hotel pool, and try to do some yoga (I'm not patient enough for yoga).

Shoes!

I wore these shoes today. Love them.

They're the black lace pump from White House, Black Market. Only I picked mine up at T.J. Maxx. In college, my girl friends and I would head to T.J. Maxx in our very dingy local mall to pick through for fun clothes and accessories, and I'm still addicted to the bargain-hunting. I dragged M.J. there recently - they also sometimes have La Creuset at a discount, which is another addiction of mine and something even he's willing to root through T.J. for - and this was the happy result. Alas, there was no La Creuset this time. I imagine we'll have to head back soon.

Of course, at the end of a long hard day (of shopping, mostly), I was glad to slip these old friends back on:

I'm trying to be more stylish lately, I really am.  I can't wear jeans, a t-shirt and flip-flops all the time.

But since I'm trying, why can't Style try and be a bit more friendly to one's feet?

Back!

I stopped this blog, shortly after opening it, to focus on my writing blog, This Is Not My Day Job. I've found lately, though, there are lots of other things I'd like to blog about - recipes, home decor, fashion, money, pets (Ok, I'm blogging about the kitties everywhere, let's not delude ourselves). I don't want to dilute my writing blog with *too* many unrelated posts.

So I'm back. :)

These are a few of my favorite things...

My handsome husband!

 

My crazy/adorable cat, Buffy!

Also, of course, raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm winter mittens, and a few other things. But when I think oy my favorite things, I think of my family, MJ and Buffy.

My favorite deal this season

I looove to shop. Now, I am by nature a bit of a bargain shopper. I stretch my holiday dollars as much as I can while still finding something moderately perfect. But my fave holiday bargain this year didn't involve a 20% coupon for BB&B or a big sale at the outlet mall to buy gifts for family & friends.

I check slickdeals.net every now and then to see what sweet deals they have, and I saw one for games at Toys-R-Us, on sale for as little as $4, with a $2-3 rebate available per game, and a $10 gift card if you spent $30. Normally I'd avoid Toys-R-Us like I'd avoid a stadium full of irritated lions (I'm not making a religious statement here. I just don't like little bouncing children all that much, and toy stores are so... full of children).

But this was too good to pass up. Handsome and I went out to Toys-R-Us, and bought six games. Here's my haul (and also, an accidental glimpse of my metallic toe nail polish):
Six games, with tax, came to $33 and change. We immediately received a $10 gift card back. Then I mailed off the rebate, which is for $14.

So for $9, I picked up six board games -- including my childhood favorite, Connect 4 -- that are all being dropped off at Toys for Tots tomorrow. The only thing better than a good deal? A good deal for a good cause.

My new direction

So my thing is not being domestic. I love to cook and bake (and so does Handsome, so we eat far, far too well). But beyond that, I've managed life so far without sorting colors from whites, dusting, hanging picture frames or knowing how to thread a bobbin. When you move every six months, as I had pretty much from college until a few months ago, decorating seems especially futile.

Except now that MJ and I own our first house, I am overcome with a sudden nesting bug. Not only do I want to paint stuff and make my own art, but I enjoy things that I really shouldn't: cleaning my beautiful kitchen, for instance, or tidying up the laundry room. If I didn't know better, I'd think my body had been inhabited by an alien from the planet Martha Stewart.

This desire to nest - and to fill my pretty house with pretty furniture, since my shabby college hand-me-downs are a little lacking in chic and there are several empty rooms - is in contrast with my other desire. The one to save money for a new car, vacations, future business ventures, and a happy retirement.

So I'm going to be writing a bit about my domestic adventures (I bought my first pattern! I'm going to try to make an apron! I don't know how to sew!). I'll also be writing about my journey towards frugality.

Hopefully you enjoy reading this blog -- which I'm hoping will satisfy my goals of being domestic, frugal and entertaining!

I've been terrible about keeping this blog up

Work work work, school school school, blah blah.

I really struggle with my tendency to overbook myself. I always feel like there's a lot to get done and a lot of goals I want to accomplish. Most of the time, I can handle a pretty intense job with some long hours and lots of travel, working on my Master's part-time, hitting the gym and spending time with Handsome all at once. Other times, responsibilities converge from all angles and I find myself in the midst of my own perfect storm (I love the phrase perfect storm. It's so overused in the media now that I feel deliciously obnoxious every time I use it myself).

Things should be dying down a little now, though. Work is uber-stressful at present, but should be pretty 8-5-ish, with only short business trips, until March. Yesterday was the last day of the semester for grad school. I should have a life again, for a little while, at least.

Which means it is time to attend to all the little things that have been shunted off until I could breathe. So far this weekend, once I dispatched my 30-page Strategic Finance paper to the professor, I've taken care of a few of them:

1. Applied to be a foster parent to cats for the local ASPCA. I'm hoping they'll take us despite our work schedules -- I really want to help. Our ASPCA doesn't have a shelter, so the number of volunteers willing to foster dirrectly corresponds to the number of animals they can rescue.

2. Ordered prints of some of our wedding and travel photos. I already purchased some frames from Ikea recently, and our entertainment center is coming Monday -- which means the living room is almost finished! I can't wait to put on the finishing details.

3. Ordered some Christmas presents for Handsome. I still need to make a mall and BB&B run to pick up some other things for him, and a sweater for my Mom that we saw in a store that she liked.

There's a lot of little things to wrap up in the next week or two, though:

1. Complete my big art project for the living room. I bought all the crafty stuff I need, but I haven't gotten the chance to actually put the thing together.

2. Pick up the rug for the living room

3. Send out Christmas cards. Actually, this is not going in order. First I need to find addresses to send Christmas cards to!

4. Buy a damn tree. Handsome and I are outrageously picky (which is probably why we only have three furnished rooms in our house - shopping is a lengthy process for us). We agreed to buy a faux Christmas tree due to some allergy issues, but if we can't find a tree that meets Handsome's exacting specifications sometime soon, we'll be piling presents under a wreath.

5. Set up and figure out my mom's hand-me down sewing machine. I haven't had time to confront the beast yet. I am a little intimidated, because I don't have any sewing machine experience, but we have a house now and damn it, I am going to learn to be crafty!

6. Make stockings for Christmas. Maybe. See Item 5 suggesting that I am not, in fact, crafty at present.

7. Register for classes for next semester and buy books. Sigh. I don't want to, but my employer is paying for any courses I take right now... it'd be foolish to waste the opportunity.

8. Try out for the 2010 triathlon team for work. Why yes, this does go back to my tendency to overbook myself.

9. Do some writing. I've been woefully uncreative in the writing department in the past few months. Writing about Steve Jobs or the role of the non-profit CFO for school does not count.

10. Send out some more poems and stories for publication. When I've done a big push and sent out some work, I've been successful in getting some acceptances back. It's just a matter of doing it.

Aaaand I doubt anyone really cares about my list, so this has just been an exercise for me to think through the things I have to do... all of which are more fun than my usual grind. Will post pics of the progress on the house when I get around to it.