Weekend Recap X 3

Hello all!  Sorry for the radio silence these past few weeks (eek, going on 17ish days!)  I've been in town for a whole 12 days - I think it's my longest continuous stretch this summer - and I've been savoring every minute of it.

To catch you up since we last chatted.  I headed to Texas for my BFF's Tex Mex themed bridal shower.  Somewhere between the homemade sour cream chicken enchiladas and brisket tacos I completely forgot to take pictures of all the cute details but here's the gist: E's mom, Miss. T is basically one of the BEST cooks I've ever known and she also happens to be Miss Martha.  We had homemade Tex Mex spices in baby mason jars as favors and a chocolate carmel flan cake with homemade ganache for dessert.  DELISH.  A few margaritas and lots of pool time may also have gotten in the way of my ability to capture the moment.....

chips and 4 kinds of homemade salsa.  legit. also not my pic.

 E and her fabulous parents. and not my pic.

this might have also happened.  a late night texas tradition.

After a weekend full of festivities and a quick jaunt to Ikea, I headed from Dallas to Seattle for work (cramming some new 108" Ikea white curtains into my carry on).  I work for a CPG company, and I work on our Amazon business which is experiencing such an exciting growth period.  In the time I've worked on their account, they've built six, fully owned buildings in downtown Seattle, complete with several bars and restaurants on campus.

Visiting Amazon is like visiting a diverse little country.  Everything is so compact and insular like its own little ecosystem, and yet its bursting at the seams with diversity (still haven't been in an elevator where everyone is speaking the same language) and youth (EVERYONE is under 35) It's exciting to feel the buzz in their buildings and get the tiniest glimpse of their culture.  Even though they are a multi billion dollar company, they still all have the door-desks (this is the best written story I could find) and a very minimalist aesthetic.



their new offices, very green. and no I did not take this particular creepy full on pic.  I found it on the internet. but i HAVE taken similar creepy pics but much more covertly. duh.

Last note on Amazon, and probably the most important: every time I go there I see new kinds of dogs.  You can bring your dogs to work as long as they are well behaved and given the hours these people put it, it seems like its the only humane way of having a dog and still working there. BUT my point is I've never seen so many crazy cute pups and because people come from all over the world to work there, you see some crazy dogs that are not usually found in the US.  Case in point? This guy.

so obviously this is a glamour shot of a Pharaoh dog and not as seen in real life at Amazon,

but you get the point.

So since my Dallas/Seattle six day trip, I've been back in the Lou catching up on boring life chores (see laundry, buying dog food, dusting) and doing a lot of tinkering.  What's tinkering you ask?  It's moving things around and busying yourself without actually doing much of anything productive. 

Examples of tinkering include staring at your furniture and saying "this doesn't look quite right." and asking/begging your husband to help you move things around.  You complete this cycle at least three times.  Tinkering can also be taking items from one area of the house to another area, thereby filling one "hole" and creating another.  i.e. "we need another light in the office." and now there is no light in the family room, way to go.

We have zhushed the living room a bit more with two lamp additions, so me and D can see each other's faces and the whole world can now see inside our living room (Shutters are still a work in progress...)  Evidence below.

promise to take some real pics of this room not instagramed up soon. 

must purchase real blooms first.

So now you can add tinkering to the words I've taught ya'll. Go forth and spread this rediculousness.  I'll be back later this week with more of it - promise!

xoxo,

KC



Weekend Recap: Committed Couples

Sorry for the radio silence last week!  As predicted, work was INSANE.  Doesn't look like it will be slowing down much this week but I have some posts already in the hopper to keep us going.

Recently my father in law said that he's changed his wedding gift giving philosophy to reflect this "DIY craze" that people are in.  Instead of getting something off a registry, he now gets new couples a gift card to a restaurant, a gift card to the movie theater and a gift card to Home Depot, because "that's what people do now on Saturdays." He calls this "Committed Couples Weekends" 

Of course I instantly thought of the scene in Old School where Will Ferrell details his weekend plans of going to Bed Bath and Beyond and Home Depot, and instead of thinking that's lame (you know, how I did when I first saw that movie, circa 2002) now I'm like, "ya, great idea, we can hit Sam's Club on the way home."  such.is.my.life.

I reluctantly tell you that we've had TWO Committed Couples Friday nights in a row now.  Last Friday there was the trip to the Container Store, and this week we got Mexican food and after some margaritas, we headed to Lowes for boxwoods for the front porch, an additional hose, hose splitter and sprinkler.

SIDE NOTE: I am still a loyal Home Depot customer, but decided to hit Lowes with some of our moving coupons.  We went to Home Depot Saturday morning and spent twice as much, partly out of repentance.

It was somewhere in the garden section as we debated the merits of bronze splitters over stainless, that we burst into a fit of laughter both embarrassed and deliriously happy that this is our life now, and somehow, we're OK with it.

Saturday we helped our step-brother in law (also our baseboard installer!) move into his first apartment!  These are D's Saturday errand glasses that were from some free promo bag several years ago and look like fake Oakleys, but serve as great back up glasses to keep in my car.  My sister, M, says they look like running glasses that would "make you go fast" - I don't know about that one though.

After testing out our new hose stuff all day Saturday, we got a surprise thunderstorm Saturday night.  D went to turn off the back porch light and ran into this guy clinging onto the sliding door as the rain came down.  I have to note that he's not actually 5 feet large (as my in laws would later ask) it must be the perspective.

Yesterday we had our first gathering at our new house!  We LOVE to entertain (call it the southern in me) and were so excited to have a big huge farmhouse style outside dinner under our big trees in the back, but with the Saturday rain it got that nice (read disgusting) Missouri humid that we've been missing lately.  We moved the celebration inside and it was nice to have a house full of little laughs, glasses of blueberry-thyme lemonade and mint iced tea and a table full of lovies. We even snuck in some wiffle ball when it cooled down a bit.

It was lovely to celebrate with the in-laws but I did miss Big T, who's was actually visiting his Dad, my Grampa (that's how we say it, so that's how we spell it folks!) in Wisconsin.  The Mitchell clan plus us newly Cornwells will rendezvous north of Tornoto, Ontario over the Fourth (I know very unAmerican of us!) for a belated Father's Day celebration and mini vacation on the lake.  Can't wait to see my Mitchells and give hugs all around!

xoxo,

KC