Packing.

I hate packing. For anything. I don't like to pack for trips, I always feel the need to bring too many things, and ultimately end up forgetting to bring the one thing I really need. I hate unpacking from trips. Sometimes my things stay in the suitcase for a couple weeks.
I especially hate packing to move. I don't want to put things away too early, since I may need them before the move. And everything just looks like a big mess. Whenever I start packing, I feel compelled to take a nap instead. Now that I'm fully rested, I have no excuse. We have keys. We move one week from tomorrow. It's crunch time. I thought moving would be a lot more fun...

So unFATtering.

I admit, I was sucked in. I purchased huggable hangers. BUT, in my defense, I got the knockoffs, which are identical, and for half the price at Marshall's. I have always dreamed of the perfectly organized, perfectly presented closet. And since I'm going to be having one all to myself I figured this was my chance for cohesiveness. All hangers the same. Everything lined up in its place. Enter Lexi's problem:
I have created two piles. One of things to give away to Goodwill or some similar charitable organization, and another of things that I can't bear to part with, yet equally cannot bear to look at in my closet because they no longer fit. These will go aside somewhere nearby for safekeeping until I can lose the weight I've gained and fit back into my old glorious things. The problem? My closet's now empty. I mean nearly. I either had major lapses in taste or am a massive behemoth. Not much middle ground.
I need to go shopping. But I don't have expendable cash at the moment. So I need a job. But all of my wonderful work/interview clothes no longer fit properly. This is a vicious cycle. I suppose my only option is to lose 10-15 fast, but every time I think of losing weight, I get hungry. What's a girl to do in the meantime? I'd hate to spend a bunch of money on clothes that I really hope will be too big for me sometime soon.

Happy Birthday Bean!

My darling little Benny is two today! Happy birthday!
It seems like only yesterday you were a tiny little guy. You're still our tiny little guy!

Books by Crooks

I ran an errand to pick up a couple of textbooks for my hunny since he's furthering his education and all, and was absolutely horrified by what they're charging these days. One book looked thinner than my latest Victoria's Secret catalog, and the other was, get this: A BRIEF version of the textbook. Who knew that existed?! I would have much preferred this back in my schooling heyday. Anyhow these two nonsense little items were $148!!! Ridiculous. I need to get into textbook sales.

...and then I see something like this, which makes me smile. It's a chalkboard.

Rugs

Is this good?

Or how about this?

Or that one? I'm having the hardest time selecting rugs. They're effing expensive. And I feel once I select one I've narrowed down my decorating possibilities. We have dark hardwood floors and two olive green accent walls (not my choice, can't paint). I need one for the living room and one for the dining room. The blue one would be nice for the dining room, which is pale gold, but then I feel limited again! Which would you choose? And where would you go to get a rug? I've tried downtown and feel like everything there was too ornate and dark for my taste. My sofa looks like this:

And my furniture is distressed black. I wanted to be able to use bright, poppy prints like this:

But I guess that would clash with everything. All this stuff's my new obsession until I move on to the next. Why do I get so consumed with small details all the time? Ugh, I need to go watch project runway. All photos courtesy of Pottery Barn. Because I have a 20% off coupon there. That's why.

So my darling husband thinks this is rather outlandish of me, but I've created housewarming registries on my top 3 sites (Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn and Williams Sonoma). He thinks it's tacky. But it's not like I'm asking anyone to go to these registries and buy me things that would make my life so much easier and happier and bring joy to me that will last a lifetime. No! I just simply adore the registry-making process. It's like I'm shopping but not. And I secretly fantasize that some mysterious benefactor will stumble upon my registry and buy me things. Where are you secret benefactor?
Even Sephora has a registry. Come on! (I'm registered there too. But don't buy me things from there right now, since it's not at the top of my priorities. I'm stocked with beauty loot for the time being.)
I should just throw a housewarming party! But I wouldn't want to throw a party until my home is perfect, which would require things from aforementioned registries, which would then mean I would have no use for said party ruse.
Who am I kidding, I would love to throw a party just because. But I do need some things... BENEFACTOR!

Hugh Hefner and Holly Madison have split. Is it sad that I am shocked by this? I mean these women want real husbands and children one day I can only assume. Ahhh and just in time for the holidays too. Such a shame. My friend just had dinner with the 3 girls and a few other notable names and she said they were still together. Hmmm.
P.S. I was sooo jealous I was not at this dinner. Her dad hobnobs and it was a last minute thing.

Lighting and Fire

Bought a lamp VERY similar to this yesterday at Pottery Barn, on sale, plus an extra 15 percent off sale items. Felt good about ourselves. We need lighting. I also want the photographer's tripod lamp but hubby feels $299 is too much to stomach. He also questions if it provides enough lighting for the moola. I say you only live once. Next weekend I have a 20 percent off coupon for anything I buy for the friends and family sale so maybe an executive decision may be made. Mua ha ha!

On Sunday we ventured to the Rose Bowl flea market because I was inspired by a fellow blogger's great finds and all the potential she sees in them. But the peeps at this market were bonkers because they were selling their old shiz at prices I could find new things for! It was fun to walk around and check out the stuff though. We bought a jar of spicy minced garlic and cinnamon sugar nuts. Not to be eaten together. I also got bath fizzy balls. I love me a good bath.

Currently I'm monitoring the coverage of the fires in Porter Ranch and Sylmar. I hope it doesn't get any closer to Adam's grandparents' home, and that the smoke isn't too terrible near them. It seems to be moving away from there. The freeways are all sorts of closed so I don't know how anyone's going to get home tonight. All this fire nonsense reminds me of last October, when the fires were in Santa Clarita. I started getting sharp chest pains that never seemed to go away until finally I got diagnosed with cancer in March. I wondered if the fire caused it (really really likely not). Anyhow, I hate fire, and the destruction it represents.

San Fran pt. Deux

The next day in San Francisco we brunched at the top of the Hyatt, as recommended by the concierge from the Intercontinental. We enjoyed a lovely view of the city, yet I was unimpressed with my French toast. Adam's omelet was incredible though. Next we headed to the bridge! We had to do the cliche drive across (although I suggested getting one of those two people bikes). We enjoyed the view and snapped a ton of pictures from our vantage point on the other side.
But this one is my favorite.
After the bridge we checked out the capital of the hippie movement and summer of love, Haight Ashbury.Ahh, anyhow I am totally bored about rehashing this trip. I'm going to just post pictures and you fill in the rest in your little minds. This is what happens when I procrastinate too long on getting something done. Tsk tsk...

Beautiful Things

Williams Sonoma Home Lamp, Ballard Designs Mirror, Dirt Candles. They will need a home in my new home. And the candle won't smell like dirt.

I'm trying to figure out my decorating "style." Am I baroque? Am I french country? I'm not doing an overhaul here, but I really like spicing things up and having a fresh feel to our new home. I love most everything pottery barn does. Am I too simple? I used to love being creative and I feel like I haven't really done anything in that realm for a very long time. Now the tiniest things give me anxiety. But looking at some beautiful things calms me down, oddly. Until I realize I can't afford every pretty thing I see. Sigh. I ramble...

I so can't use the below table for my work table. I forgot to check its height. It's only 27 inches tall. That's like a coffee table. I hate Ikea for putting it online in the desks section. Back to the drawing board. Ha, that's funny. Because I don't have one. And that's what I'm looking for.

More house stuff.

So we (I) are getting ready for the move to the new house. Since we have all the living room, bedroom and dining room furniture already, the real project is the office/guest room we finally get to have. It needs to function as an office since Adam will be doing a lot of his work from home, and I would love to have my own extra space for my sewing machine and any crafts I may like to work on. And a little pull out sofa/futon that's actually stylish would be great to throw in there. All in a room that's about 10' x 13'. I know, right? I found this cute table from Ikea that would work as my table:
I just really like its legs. It says it's silver so I am curious how it actually looks in real life. I'd probably prefer white, but maybe it's nice. Or I can paint. I'm dying to paint something. Anything.

Oh and today while at Costco my dear daddy bought me Giada's new book! So thrilled!

I met her once. I made Adam go with me to a book signing all the way in Costa Mesa. When we got to the front, I became starstruck and red, so Adam had to step in and talk to her. Afterwards I got mad that he stole my thunder. She's so cute and I wanna cook just like her! I wonder what I'll make first... Maybe I should wait for the new house? :-P

Pftt.

Did YOU know that Neiman Marcus does not accept Visa or Mastercard?!

Slipcovers Stink

I loathe having a sectional sofa. When I bought it I thought, oh, how perfect! It fits just so in the corner and is lovely and a dead ringer for the ultra pricey pottery barn version. Now that we've had it for two years in of course a light beige color that naturally attracts stains like its life depends on it, I'm thinking it's slipcover time. Oh no no no. Not for a sectional. I'm finding tons and tons for regular sofas but nuppence for my L-shaped troublemaker. I just want something that's chenille-y and comfortable, perhaps in a chocolate color. I found an actual pottery barn one on ebay but it's for their small sectional, not the full L. How do I solve this conundrum? Anyone out there slipcover a sectional before?

Frisco (but don't call it that, or you're not cool)

So we left for San Francisco on Thursday morning, and we decided to take the "scenic route" (aka the really really long twisty windy route). It looked mostly like this:

We did stop to check out some seals that were either dead, or about to die, or were doing it. We couldn't tell.
We arrived at our Nob Hill digs, The Intercontinental Mark Hopkins, and were snooted completely. Now call me cheap, but no matter where I go, I always ask to be upgraded. Why not? What's the worst they can say? Besides, we were taking a minimoon, so I thought for sure we had something special awaiting us. We asked the check in guy, who clearly had pink eye or some other wretched eye condition, if he could possibly see about putting us in a better room. He clicks away at his little keyboard and comes back with "Ah yes, we can put you in a room on the ninth floor... for an additional $40 a night." I ask what room we are currently slated to be in and he says the third floor. What, no basement? Pff. I'm not about to shell out an additional 40 bucks per night for a few floors. How much time would we actually be in our room anyway?

Well, this is what we ended up with. Ha! Actually that is a cell at Alcatraz, which we visited the next day. Our real room I didn't get a shot of because we're pigs and disheveled everything the moment we got in. We ordered an obscene amount of food from room service and went to sleep on the most comfortable bed in the history of man. And I though our bed was amazing.

We visited Fisherman's wharf the next day, followed by a nice little boat ride to Alcatraz, which Adam surprisingly enjoyed. Apparently we visited San Francisco during the hottest time of life, because we were prepared for freezing temps and we shvitzed the whole time. I guess a ton of walking will do that to ya. It did momentarily get brisk on the island, which finally warranted my new F21 coat!



















I might add that for breakfast that day we devoured a glorious sundae at Ghirardelli. It was everything I'd hoped for and more. I felt vindicated.Later, for lunch, Adam noshed on some clam chowder and I had pizza from this cute little place that had bread shaped like animals of the sea. Great.That evening we headed to the Castro and dined at Mecca. I had two glasses of sparkling rose and was hammered. Here I am working on number two. I already have that fiendish sillyness in my eyes. I really enjoyed the warm yet industrial ambiance that Mecca had.
More on the next day coming soon!