Other

So it’s Monday.

Actually it’s Sunday night as I sit here typing this. P and I are watching the last five minutes of the Super Bowl after the big power outage brouhaha.

(Is it just me or is brouhaha a totally underused word?)

And I also left the room for an hour to watch Downton Abbey in the other room because I needed to see how the Crawley family was doing after all the events of last week. The answer? Not good.

However, the Dowager Countess had some lines that were solid gold and made me laugh out loud a few times.

We’ve had a pretty low key weekend. On Friday night Caroline and I went to eat with Mimi and Bops. P opted to stay home because he’d spent every evening of the past week taking Caroline to soccer boot camp and then basketball practice. And so when he finally came in after work and laid down on the living room floor he announced he wasn’t moving until it was time to get in bed.

And I didn’t blame him.

So Caroline and I went out to eat but then she decided she didn’t feel good at the restaurant and when you’re waiting to see if your child is going to throw up it kind of puts a damper on your enjoyment of some tacos nortenos.

But by Saturday morning she was feeling better and had a basketball game at 10:00 a.m. I’d instructed P to wake me up at 9:10 because my desire to sleep in a little far outweighed my desire to not look like a hag.

Caroline played a great game and then we celebrated by driving through Sonic for breakfast burritos. I’m not sure why I decided a breakfast burrito from Sonic was a better choice than a real breakfast taco from a real Mexican restaurant, but sometimes my Southeast Texas roots come out and I can overlook a flour tortilla that’s thinner than tissue paper filled with what might be fake eggs. Especially if it comes with a side of tots.

And then we spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out until Caroline’s friend Sadie came over to play. The girls gave each other manis and pedis and then made what can only be described as informational videos on the computer in the kitchen. If you consider informational videos to be anything that describes the importance of saving the narwhals or talking in a voice at a decibel level dogs can’t hear.

Later that evening we went over to Gulley’s house for dinner. And the kids played and the adults talked and laughed until way too late. Which is why Caroline cried on Sunday morning when P woke her up for church. She sat, tearfully eating her Cheerios and asked, “Don’t you people know that a kid needs at least ten hours of sleep?”

Which is ironic coming from the child that has caused me to lose countless hours of sleep over the last nine and a half years.

After church Caroline went to hit golf balls with Mimi, Bops and my niece Sarah. Gulley and I made a quick trip to a few stores to see if they had anything cute and she found a few things. And then I came home and fell into a dead sleep on the couch for about thirty minutes because apparently kids aren’t the only ones who need at least ten hours of sleep a night. So do forty-one year olds with head colds that won’t go away.

And then we had a big Super Bowl party. By which I mean that I made chili and P, Caroline and I sat around the coffee table. For dessert P ate about forty-two mini Snickers out of the candy jar because everything in moderation.

That pretty much sums up our weekend. I apologize that I can’t make it any more interesting than this, but some weekends are just like that. A whole lot of nothing with the people you love.

And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Yes.

The Super Bowl is Sunday. And I’m pretty sure the Ravens are in it but I couldn’t tell you the name of the other team right now if you paid me cash money. That’s how much I care about professional football.

But I’m sure we’ll cook chili and P will watch the game and I’ll watch the commercials and then he’ll decide he doesn’t care about the halftime show and turn it right as Beyonce is taking the stage which will be the only thing I’m really interested in.

Anyway, I’m really excited today because I have a great bracelet to give away to one lucky winner. The nice people from The Impeccable Pig contacted me and said they would like to give away a piece of jewelry. And so I chose this bracelet because it was my personal favorite.

I love a cuff bracelet. I love gold. I love turquoise. It’s the perfect bracelet trifecta.

And one of you can win one for yourself. All you need to do is go visit The Impeccable Pig website and tell me about something cute you found in the comments.

As for me, I am loving this cathedral top. I think it would look so cute with white jeans or shorts in the summer.

And I also love this blue sun necklace.

Here are some other things I’ve found this week:

1. towne and reese deep teal & turquoise earrings

One of the reasons I love Carol & Company, other than because they have gorgeous jewelry, is that they are so generous. The owner has a friend who is currently fighting breast cancer and they are giving her 20% from all sales on February 1-2 to help ease the financial burden.

If there was ever a good excuse to go buy some cute jewelry for yourself, this is it.

2. zig zag chiffon scarf

A good scarf can change an outfit. This is one of those scarfs.

3. all roads embroidery tunic

I saw this in person yesterday and am still thinking about it. It’s the perfect thing to throw on with jeans or shorts during the spring and summer.

4. fitted boyfriend teacup shirt

I like this shirt. The teacups might be a little precious for me, but they’re small enough that I can deal. Also, it seems like it’s a versatile length.

5. studded swing dress

Gorgeous color. And perfect to wear with leggings and a denim jacket right now. And then maybe with white skinny jeans this summer.

Or maybe with bare legs if you’re younger than me.

6. matinee chevron blouse

I know. Chevron. Every week.

But this is a shirt not a dress so it’s TOTALLY DIFFERENT. It comes in aqua or black.

7. canvas trench coat

Tim Gunn once said every woman needs a trench coat. I don’t know if that’s true. But I do know that I have a black trench coat that I bought almost ten years ago that I still wear from time to time.

And this one is cute with the pop of color in the lining.

8. denim shirt

Denim shirt. If you don’t have one, I think you need one. It’s versatile.

9. printed tank dress

Honestly, I threw this in because I was having a hard time finding ten things I wanted to feature. And I’d never actually wear this because it’s not really my style. But I think it would be cute on someone.

10. 3/4 length sleeve t-shirt

I ran in Zara yesterday and tried on this shirt. And almost bought it. And now I wish I had so that’s my tale of woe for the day. Anyway, it’s a great length and super soft.

That’s it for today.

Y’all have a good weekend.

And I hope Beyonce wins the Super Bowl.

Don’t forget to leave a comment for a chance to win the bracelet from The Impeccable Pig.

Well I think my cold has officially turned a corner. I woke up yesterday morning and only felt a little bit like Bugs Bunny had dropped an anvil on my head instead of feeling like the Roadrunner just ran me off a cliff.

I have no idea why I’m speaking in Looney Tunes terminology.

And, honestly, I was just glad I was able to start the morning sitting on my couch with a cup of coffee instead of rushing out the door to chaperone a fourth grade field trip like I did on Tuesday. Not that spending the day with fifty fourth graders isn’t my idea of a good time. It’s just that spending the day with fifty fourth graders isn’t my idea of a good time.

Although I did hear a lot of information spouted as fact that I’m pretty sure was either completely made up and/or fear tactics used by their parents. Things like “Did you know if a dog eats even ONE GRAPE he will die immediately?”

I know this to be untrue because Scout has eaten a grape and lived to bark about it.

(Disclaimer: I have heard that grapes are bad for dogs. Scout ate the grape before I could grab it. I was not intentionally feeding him grapes like he was Cleopatra or anything.)

So I spent the morning trying to catch up on email while drinking a large cup of coffee. But then I had to leave the house to run errands because I had some things to return to Target and World Market and you don’t really care about any of this.

However, the other reason I had to leave the house is that some insurance guy had called a week ago and told me he’d been contracted by our home insurance company to do an external and internal survey of our house to determine if we had the proper coverage level. And so I scheduled a time for him to come by.

But then I mentioned it to P last night and he thought the whole thing sounded fishy. Did I know this guy really worked for an insurance company? Did I know if our company required this? Was I planning to let a complete stranger just walk in and look around our house?

This is why I married P. I would end up on the unfortunate end of an episode of Unsolved Mysteries without him. I am trusting. I do not ask pertinent questions. I assume people are who they claim to be.

I’m still waiting to receive money from Mr. Umara Nihaji from Nigeria who had no heirs and decided to leave his fortune of one hundred and twenty million American dollars to me. I mean I even got an email from his lawyer.

So I called our insurance company this morning to ask a few more questions. And it turns out it was a legitimate thing. However, it was not a required thing. They tried not to give this away on the phone, but I could tell by the terminology that she couldn’t legally tell me it was required but still wanted to imply that we needed to have our house inspected to make sure we have enough coverage.

But we’re comfortable with the amount of coverage we have and so I told them we didn’t want the guy to come by our house. She wasn’t sure she could contact him to cancel the appointment and that’s why I left the house. So that I wouldn’t be home in case he still showed up. I basically employed my time-honored technique of avoiding a potentially awkward situation.

Avoidance is a real strategy. Trust me. I’ve used it for years.

The only problem is sometimes it requires you to leave your home for a few hours while you hide from some insurance guy that you don’t know. And I felt bad that he was coming by the house for no reason but I did everything I could to get the appointment cancelled.

Anyway, I went to the Target that’s seven extra stoplights away from my house because I also had to return something to World Market and that Target is closest to the World Market. None of this matters in your life one bit.

After I made my returns and perused the aisles at Target, I still had some time to spend avoiding the insurance guy and I decided to run over to Barnes and Noble. I could make up a reason why I went there because I’d like to think I’m cooler than this, but I’m so not. I totally went to see if they had my book on the shelves yet.

The official release date is February 8, but several people have emailed or tweeted or let me know by carrier pigeon that they bought it at various bookstores already. And so I was curious to see if it was there. Plus I keep thinking it might seem real if I see it in an actual bookstore.

I looked around for a minute but didn’t see it anywhere. But then I turned to my left and was greeted by a big sign with my picture on it announcing that I’d be signing books there on February 12.

Y’all.

I couldn’t have been more shocked if I’d seen a giraffe.

I mean I know I have a book signing scheduled there, but I didn’t think about there being a sign with my picture on it or anything. And so I turned around and walked right out of Barnes and Noble with great haste.

There is no explanation for my reaction other than I am weird.

And I apply my avoidance strategy to various aspects of my life. Including signs with my picture on them.

This is going to be brief because I’m determined to be in bed by 9:45. My cold is so much better but I am still so dang tired. And I helped chaperone a field trip yesterday which didn’t really help my energy level. However, I did learn more than I ever wanted to know about the Pecos Indians.

So there’s that.

And now here’s a numerical list of things:

1. Here are a few answers to questions y’all had about the living room yesterday.

The trim color is Behr Ultra Pure White.

The fabric on the chairs is Richloom Cornwall Garden.

The red bird plate is from Pier One. The rest are a mix of Anthropologie, World Market and antique shop finds.

The picture frames are all from Target.

The large glass jugs are from World Market.

The Nest pillow came from Pottery Barn a few seasons ago.

And I think that’s it. The antelope is spoken for and, although I know many of you want it for your own, I cannot give it away.

2. Several of you have inquired about Larry the frog and wondered how he is doing.

(That is a total lie. Not one of you has asked about Larry. It’s like none of you care that he barely escaped death as he made his way on a palm leaf from Florida to Texas.)

But I’m taking it upon myself to share that Larry has taken up residence in our kitchen because we (P and Caroline) were concerned it was the only room warm enough. And we’ve done our best to give him an environment with proper humidity.

However, Larry appears to be on a hunger strike. He hasn’t eaten since we got him. So either he doesn’t care for meal worms or he’s protesting immigration issues. We aren’t sure which.

3. There’s still time to sign up for the DotMom Conference in Dallas on Feb. 22-23.

I don’t want to be pushy on this, but this conference is so good and filled with so much good information that I want to make sure you don’t miss out. How often do you get to hear so many good speakers on one stage?

And not that this is any real incentive, but I’ll be signing books at the conference on Friday night.

Anyway, it’s filling up fast, but you can still find registration information here.

4. The new Dallas

I realized yesterday that I missed the season premiere. And I am having a hard time caring because I know J.R. is obviously going to die and then what’s the point of the whole thing?

As much as I hate to end with four, I think that’s all I have.

See y’all tomorrow.

So I’ve been so busy whining about my cold that I haven’t even told y’all what happened last Thursday.

My dear friend and interior designer Holly Mathis came to visit to help me make a few final tweaks to my living room. Which means she was also subjected to spending ten hours with me while I was all jacked up on 120 mg of Sudafed. She’s too sweet to say it, but I’m pretty sure she feared for her life when we pulled into the parking lot of Goodwill and I jumped a curb.

Anyway, Holly started helping me with my house so long ago that it’s hard for me to remember. But then I got completely sidetracked and ended up with a book deadline and that tends to mess with the amount of time you have to spend at Target.

And when I was finally ready to start painting and changing things up, you may remember that P decided that was a good time to get our walls insulated in his ongoing quest to make our home a large Igloo cooler. Which resulted in much drilling of holes and mental anguish.

So it was early December before the walls ever got patched and painted and the built-ins were finally built (hence the name built-ins) and the furniture came back from the upholsterers and things in general began to finally all come together.

And so Holly drove into town to help me figure out what to put on my bookshelves because I’ve never had a place for tchotchkes before and I was suddenly in need of tchotchkes. There’s a good likelihood that I also just enjoy saying the word tchotchkes.

Tchotchkes.

We still need to add a rug in the living room but it’s more than $15 and I need to wait a while. And then there are a few more things I need to do in the dining room and kitchen, but I thought I’d show you the living room because chances are good you don’t want to hear anymore about how I sound like a three pack a day smoker named Hazel and yelled at some kids to GET OFF MY LAWN today.

First, this is a before picture.

I realize it’s small and doesn’t really show the whole thing but you get the gist. It was very maroon-y and serious. And there was an enormous picture of an urn above the mantle.

And here are some after pictures. Please keep in mind that I am a terrible photographer and I have no idea how to really style any of this. I just put the pillows on the couch and considered it a win that I remembered to take the remote control off the coffee table. Which reminds me that Holly told me I need to find a shallow basket for the top of the coffee table.

Also, the walls are painted Revere Pewter by Benjamin Moore which may be my new favorite color. It’s very soothing.

If you’re wondering what those are pictures of then I will ease your curiosity and tell you they are the people who pose for pictures for frames that come from Target. I have real pictures ordered to put in the frames but they’re not in yet.

And this is the mantle. You may remember that P painted those lanterns red for me almost a year ago. The wooden sign with the grace quote was made by Andrew and Tara Lowry at Between You and Me. I love it so much and they can make a sign with any quote you want.

I guess this is the neighbor’s weird kid that photobombed my photoshoot.

And here are the built-ins with the newly upholstered chairs in front of them. It’s my favorite part of the whole thing. Holly said built-ins would change the whole look of the room and she was totally right. Before, this room was always so hard to arrange, but now it makes sense because it has a focal point besides the fireplace.

(I have no idea if that’s why. But it sounds good and I like the way they look.)

You may notice that the antelope of the Lord is MIA. He has been relocated to the playroom because Caroline loves having him in there and WHY WOULD I DEPRIVE MY CHILD OF AN ANTELOPE?

I know. I’m a giver.

And here are a few little things on the bookshelves that I especially love.

This pear print by Jones Design.

This old picture of P’s grandfather and dad with friends and a limit of fish.

This bird print that Holly randomly found in some book at Barnes and Noble because she just knows how to find good stuff. I promise I could have looked at that same book and just thought “Oh look. Some birds.”

The antique birdcage I already had, some red books we found at Goodwill for $1.00, a framed photo of my great-great grandparents and some fun Orla Kiely paper in a pattern I’ve always loved.

(I don’t think the red candle is supposed to be there, but I set it there and took the picture and hopefully it’s not all ruined.)

This Janet Hill print that I knew I had to have as soon as I saw it because HILARIOUS.

And another picture of my great-great grandparents from Sicily hanging on the wall under the deer. I’m sure it’s just how they imagined their great-great granddaughter would commemorate them.

When we (Holly) finished with the shelves, she stepped back and said, “We just need a piece of coral or something to put on top of these books”. And I was thinking the same thing.

(No I wasn’t. You could have given me a million years and I wouldn’t have thought about a piece of coral.)

P happened to overhear, remembered that his mom used to have some coral and called her. Ten minutes later, my mother-in-law was at my house and gave me her coral. It was like an early birthday present.

And I think it adds the perfect, quirky touch.

Holly had also mentioned we were going to hang plates on the dining room wall. And so we’d bought a few plates during her last visit. Then after the painters finished I texted her and said, “Do you think I can try to hang those plates?” She said, “Yes. Just lay them out on the floor and text me a picture.”

So I did.

And then she texted me and said, “Yeah. Wait until I get there.”

I was a woman in search of a vision.

But I was glad I waited because Holly came and hung the plates and even found a fun pillow to add to the mix.

I can’t wait for the whole dining room to come together.

Anyway, I’m so happy with it. The thing about house stuff is I know what I like when I see it and I can pin things on Pinterest all day long, but I want to pull my arm out of the socket when I think about trying to figure out how to do it myself. I can put outfits together all day long, but house stuff ends up with me lying on the couch eating chocolate staring at the holes in my wall. That is to say, I get overwhelmed.

That’s why Holly is so amazing. She knew exactly what I wanted and helped me come up with the right mix of quirky and fun and bright but with pieces of our life and family everywhere. It’s comfortable and casual and totally us.

And now I can sit back and enjoy the feeling of not having to think about decorating my living room for another ten years. While I continue to cough and sound like Hazel and wonder why kids today are so opposed to pulling up their pants.

Oh, and I needed to discuss Downton Abbey so bad yesterday that I wrote a post about it over on Ree’s blog. Please feel free to click over there and leave a comment if you are like me and need therapy over the whole thing.

Also, tchotchkes.

(Edited to add that Holly Mathis does online consultations since so many of you have emailed to ask. You can find her at Holly Mathis Interiors for more information.)

Here’s what I learned this weekend.

Puffs Plus tissues with lotion and Vicks are a head cold game changer.

I mean, I still spent most of the weekend feeling pretty miserable, but they were a bright spot in the midst of it all.

Thursday night ended up being a bad night. Caroline had a slight fever and my head started to feel a little bit like it had one of those blood pressure cuffs around it like they use at the doctor’s office. And so we didn’t even go through the motions of getting up for school on Friday.

When we finally woke up around 9:30, I made the decision that we both needed to see the doctor. And so we went to the med clinic down the street for efficiency’s sake. I paid two co-pays and we sat and waited to see the doctor while Caroline seemed to feel increasingly better and I began to feel increasingly worse.

As it turns out, we both have bronchitis. Even though I was running a fever so I got the added bonus of having a cotton swab stuck up my nose to test me for the flu. I believe this is also how they get criminals to confess to crimes.

Fortunately, I tested negative for the flu and we left the doctor’s office with prescriptions for antibiotics, steroids and cough medicine. We dropped them off at HEB pharmacy to get filled and then I made the decision to go home and pick them up later that afternoon because I didn’t want to die in those hard plastic chairs at the pharmacy. I preferred the comfort of my own couch.

Later that afternoon Caroline and I ventured back out because I decided the only two things in life that would make it worth living is guitars that tune good and firm feelin’ women.

(I don’t need my name in the marquee lights
I got my song and I got you with me tonight
Maybe it’s time we got back to the basics of love)

I’m sorry. What was I saying?

Oh, two things in life I needed. A mixed berry parfait from Red Mango and my cough medicine. So we made a quick stop at Red Mango (Caroline likes her mixed berry parfait sans berries. I don’t pretend to understand.) and then ran in HEB to get our meds.

Which is where I made the sad discovery that we haven’t met our prescription deductible since it’s only January and prescription cough medicine costs A LOT OF DOLLARS. Like maybe they put in shards of gold and essence of unicorn oil in it kind of money.

And so I found myself in a quandary. Spending money on an antibiotic is necessary. But spending money on prescription cough medicine when I could probably make due with Robitussin or Mucinex or cutting up dollar bills and flushing them down the toilet seems like a waste.

But then I remembered a friend of mine had told me she had somewhere in the neighborhood of a gallon of prescription cough medicine that her grandmother had left her when she passed away. Because, clearly, her grandmother knew that stuff was CASH MONEY. So I texted her to see if I could borrow about three doses of cough medicine to get me through the next few days. She immediately brought it over and I realize you shouldn’t take other people’s prescription medication and blah, blah, blah I don’t care because I quit coughing and slept like a baby.

Of course after all that, I explained my frugal cough medicine ways to P and he said, “It would be worth any amount of money to not have to listen to you hack away all night. Go get the cough medicine.”

He’s a romantic.

On Saturday, I got myself dressed long enough to go watch Caroline’s basketball game. They won and she made a basket so that was fun. And then I sat on the front porch enjoying the warm weather while she raked every leaf in our yard so she could do this.

A little bit later, Mimi and Bops picked her up to take her to dinner and I took a hot bath and then stumbled into Caroline’s playroom to lay on the bed curled up next to my Puffs Plus with Vicks and watched a show called Sherlock that a friend told me about.

It’s another BBC show. Apparently I’m into British T.V. right now.

Which reminds me that I need to go watch Downton Abbey.

And grab another box of Puffs Plus.