Weekend Update.

Friends and Strangers,

Yes. I have been MIA in these parts. Life gets busy, blah blah blah...but I'm here now, and hope to be back more frequently in the future. I do have a lot to catch you up on (you're dying to know, right?!), but let's start simple. My weekend:

It started off with a farewell dinner party at my house. Cailin was heading back to Columbia on Sunday, so we made sure to get together one last time. I had big plans to use my grill for the first time...but that didn't exactly pan out. I couldn't get the f-ing thing started! I'm positive it's user error in assembly. I was so proud of myself for putting that thing together too. ANYWAYS, I broiled the kabobs and nobody cared that they weren't grilled (except maybe me). I also made an awesome Strawberry Shortcake cake, recipe courtesy of The Pioneer Woman. We drank lots of sangria and wine and enjoyed the lovely summer evening on the deck. (Thank god, because my AC is broken and the inside of my casa was a sauna...but that's a whole 'nother post) After all the ladies headed home, I got to work on the dishes. As I'm rinsing and scrubbing, I get a knock on my back door...it was my neighbor! They had seen that I was around and invited me over for a beer. It was so awesome to hang out with them. I have a feeling it was the liquid courage that got her to come over and knock on my back door, but I am SO glad that she did! We had a blast and finally at 3am, my head hit the pillow.

Saturday was pretty low key. Liz and I went to brunch at Pizza Luce and I took an amazing nap. (Daydreaming about that nap right now...) Saturday evening, I headed downtown to the Zentgraf's for their annual Aquatennial Fireworks party. They live on the 22nd floor and their balcony faces the river -- the perfect spot for Minneapolis firework watching!

Sunday I slept in later than I have in a long time...well, sober slept in. You know what I mean. But it was great, clearly I needed it. 3am Friday nights will do that to a 30 year old. I had an 11:45am soccer game, which was a great (and sweaty) way to get my day started. I played with a new team, and I have to say, I played really well! I just subbed this week, but they asked me back for next week! After soccer, I stopped by Liz's to feed/play/cuddle Murphy. Late afternoon, Lily and Ali picked me up and we headed to Psycho Suzi's for some Sunday Funday patio time. We met up with some other friends there...unfortunately, the service was off the charts awful. After one round of drinks (and 2+ hours of waiting), we decided to head to the patio at Aster Cafe. One more round of drinks there and we called it a day. I headed home and did nothing productive, watched a little Orange is the New Black (still catching up on season 2) and went to bed. Monday mornings always come too fast!

This week is another busy one, but I will try and blog more these days. Might even add pictures.

xoxo,
l

DIY hydrangea wreath

I saw these cute DIY wreaths on pinterest and decided to take a stab at making my own. CRAFTS!
So, I went to Michael's (20% off my entire purchase coupon in hand) and picked up my supplies. I bought 8 silk hydrangeas ($8 each, which were also an additional 40% off), the wreath made of sticks ($5) and a glue gun and some floral wire. My total was about $40, but I will be able to re-use the glue gun and wire for all the other wreaths I'm going to make now that I'm a home owner. So, without further adieu...

1. Here are my supplies:


2. I cut the stems off each flower, leaving about 6 inches. I shoved the stem through the wreath in the pattern and spacing that I wanted.
 

3. Then I bent the stems and tucked them into the wreath and wrapped wire around each stem.


4. Then I flipped it over, and this is what I saw! Obviously the spacing is all off, so I cut the wire all off and readjusted the placement. I ended up just using the glue gun to make sure the stem stays in place, for-ev-er.
 

5. Then I shoved leaves in the open-ish areas and hot glued them into place. I might re-do a few of these, but I think it turned out pretty cute! 
 

Now I just have to wait until April 23rd to hang this sucker on my very own house. YES! xoxo,
L

So this happened:

I did it. I bought a house...soon to be my home. I suppose it's not officially official until I sign my name 97 times when I close on April 23rd. That's 13 days from now and all I can think about is, "What am I going to do first?". That's a lie...I know exactly what I'm going to do first. I will mark my territory by hanging a DIY hydrangea pintrest wreath at my front door. Then, I will scrub my bathroom until the peach tiles sparkle. I've decided to embrace the peach tiles, at least for now. I'm going to first focus my time and efforts on the kitchen, living room and dining room. Then after those are up to par, I will tackle the 2 bedrooms, bathroom and hallway. Sidebar: if anyone knows how to deal with a peach bathroom, let me know. I've got my sledgehammer ready, I just need a project "sponsor"...Patti? Bob? I'm told gray will balance out the peach. Other projects to be done include (but are not limited to):

• I've hired a locksmith to re-key all the doors on the 23rd. It's my house now!
  
• Painting kitchen cabinets, trim and door "Benjamin Moore White Dove" and replacing hardware with oil rubbed bronze drawer pulls and knobs. Also painting the walls in the kitchen.
  
• Painting all trim and doors "Benjamin Moore White Dove" in the living and dining rooms...not the windows yet, but they do need re-staining. Also painting these walls.
  
• Purchasing a new stainless gas stove and fridge. The kitchen does have working appliances, but they are old and very uncute.
  
• Take down heinous curtains left by previous owners. I would rather be exposed to strangers than look at these cream fabric monstrosities for a moment longer!
  
• Replace all floor vents, outlets and light switches with nice, clean, new white ones.
  
• Adding gutter extenders and soil/mulch around the perimeter of the house to create a proper slope away, to keep moisture out. (I've hired Bob, it will cost me one day's worth of Budweiser.)
  
• Power washing the siding and the deck, then treating the deck. (Bob has volunteered to do this. I will thank him with one day's worth of Budweiser.)
  
• Dig up the 5 tiny evergreens that were planted in a row, smack dab in the middle of the front yard. You can see a couple of them in the picture above. (Bob also volunteered to do this. I will thank him with 5 tiny evergreens for his yard.)
  
• Replace front porch light with one that doesn't have the glass busted out of it. Gotta keep the place looking classy.
  
• Purchase patio furniture for the deck. We finally have spring and I'm gonna need to enjoy my coffee on the deck every morning.
  

I think that's all I have for now. This list gets updated in my head approximately every 3-7 minutes. I'll do my best to document "before" and "afters" and maybe even an "in progress" pic too. Maybe I will make one of those cute coffee table books on shutterfly...because clearly I will have a lot of free time.

xoxo,
l

i'm baaaack!

 Hello Friends!

I do realize it has been fooor-ev-er since I have written on here...but I'm back now and I hope to make more frequent appearances in these parts of the world wide web. I'm not going to update you on my life because that would take too long to write and wouldn't even be that interesting. Nut shell: Summer was too short, I turned 30 in Sonoma, I tried to buy a house but ended up walking away, the holidays happened and I got stressed and now the Polar Vortex has taken over my brain and I'm counting the seconds until we hit 25 degrees again. Moving on...

Last night, I met up with Greta at The American Swedish Institute for drinks and dinner, but the real reason was to see Pia Sundhage speak about leadership and team building. Pia is the former coach of the US National Women's soccer team from 2008-2012 -- that means she lead the team to TWO Olympic gold medals. NBD. She now coaches the Swedish National Women's soccer team. She gave a great presentation, relating to all aspects of life. The one point that really stuck with me was body language. Your words may tell one story, but your body can say something else. This is something I have really tried to be more aware of lately. Crossing my arms and letting my facial expressions get stuck in a b#!ch face holding pattern, just to name a few. All in all, a fun and inspiring evening!

Pia and me! (and my new specs. Once you turn 30, you go blind.)

Tonight is the last broomball game of the season. The current temperature is 2 degrees. So, I'm off to freeze my limbs off for the last time this winter. Go team!

xoxo,
l

What can I say?

This is an actual sentence from an actual email that i just sent to a friend of mine, as we are trying to get together this weekend.

Forgot that I have a pilates session on Sunday morning...can you golf on Saturday morning?

Over scheduled with pilates and golf? Talk about White People Problems...

xoxo,
l

My bachelorette tendencies...

Tuesday night I met with my trainer, Rachel. I hadn't seen her in a month and she took it out on my booty by ending our session with uphill sprints...FOUR rounds of them! I was feeling good until after we had stretched and cooled down...I started seeing stars and needed to sit down. Then my palms got all sweaty, I thought for sure I was going to toss my apples and PB2! I focused on breathing for a couple of minutes and got my shit together.
Then I had frozen yogurt for dinner, followed by half a bottle of wine. Why, you ask? More like WHY NOT! I'm not cooking for anyone and I'm certainly not "answering" to anyone (in the biblical sense :) ) so if I want to have fro-yo and pino grigio for dinner, I WILL!

Other things that suffer when I'm single:

• The cleanliness level of my room...it's just me in there, and I know where everything is.
  
• I will order pizza and eat it for three days straight. Cooking for one totally blows and pizza is the best.
  
• I watch SVU in bed. Probably not the best thing to watch right before trying to fall asleep, but Benson and Stabler are my buddies.
  
• I spend way too much time with my parents. In my own defense, my parents are pretty great. They also often buy me dinner :)
  

Some day, these things will be a part of my past. But for now, I'm embracing them (just a little bit). Tonight, I might even order pizza and eat it while watching SVU in my messy bedroom. Then I'll call my Mom.

xoxo,
l

My neighbor's cousin's friend's brother is the BEST realtor in town.

A while back, I set a goal for myself to buy a home in 2013. We are four months in and Spring is technically here...even though there is still snow on the ground and the highs are in the low 30's. I figured it was time to at least start looking. At this point, I'm just window shopping for houses. I probably won't take any real action until late summer or fall, with hopes to save boat loads of money between now and then. Good plan, right?!

Well, ever since I started talking about wanting to start looking (which is clearly a very loose commitment!), everyone and their brother has the best realtor ever and I should use their friend! Here is a list of potential realtors:

• Mustache Man
  I took a first-time home buyers class from him last winter. My cousin and her husband used him last fall and highly recommend him. However, they did say that they knew exactly what they wanted and he was great at showing them a bunch of houses. I'm not sure what I want yet...shocker! His chances with me: 6
  
• Co-workers high school friend's parents
  A married couple -- one grew up in the 'burbs, one grew up in the city. They are the best and many of her friends have purchased homes with their help. Their chances with me: 5
  
• Dad's realtor that sold Grandma's condo (after 4 years on the market and 3 other realtors)
  I often do take my dad's advice, even though I'm stubborn and like to pretend it was my idea to begin with...I don't know much about her and I would like to meet her first. Chance: 7
  
• Current roommate's family realtor
  I have met this woman a couple of times and she is lovely! My roommate was in a similar home buying situations as I am and I know that she was very honest about everything throughout the process. Roommate's parents have also used her for multiple real estate transactions. Chances: 8
  
• Couple that I met at Open House #2
  The man (also a police officer) was very honest and seemed very knowledgeable about quality of the house and neighborhood. The woman (the self-proclaimed handy woman) just rubbed me the wrong way. I don't know exactly why, it's like she was trying too hard to sell their services. I have also already gotten 2 voicemails from them and I went to that open house less than 48 hours ago. These two might make good subjects for a SNL skit. Yikes! Chances: 3
  
• College friend
  Talk about a small world. I went to college in Nashville and now live in Minneapolis. I knew that Emily had moved back to Minneapolis after college and was a realtor. I did not know that she would be hosting the first open house I went to as a potential home buyer. She is young and up on the trends of neighborhoods and city planning. She had a great energy and was eager to help me in my search. I got an email from her yesterday, suggesting next steps and offering her assistance...but not in a way that turned me off. The only thing that concerns me is her knowledge for structural issues and other house things that I don't know about that a realtor could bring to the table. Chances: 8
  
• Mom's hair stylist's neighbor
  He lives in South Minneapolis and is really really great (according to Heidi)! I do trust Heidi's opinion...she passed on his info to my mom. Maybe I will check out his website? Chances: 6

So, I have some options. I need to do a little research of these folks on my own and see what I like. Maybe I will make a Pro/Con list. But from now on, I'm keeping my trap shut about not yet having a realtor!

xoxo,
l