People are kind of polarized on the Halloween issue. Some people are really, really into it while others just aren't.

I've always fallen into that second camp but in the past I could be bribed into slipping on my trusty old Wonder Woman costume (year, after year, after year) with a couple of margaritas and the promise of 21 year old boys in tights. Now that making out with sexy, sweet young things is off the menu I find myself lacking in motivation.

I kid! Last year Josh and I dressed up and hit the town. I'm not kidding about the motivation though, I have none. Also? Josh has none, so instead of dressing up and hoofing it up to the North Side this weekend we rented Halloween themed movies, procured pumpkins, and purchased candy to hand out to the kiddies in our neighborhood.

We will be holing up all weekend in our little love nest. See you on Monday.

This weekend I finally got my hands on our wedding video- shot by my uncle who never gets around transferring his videos to dvd, I had to beg, plead and blackmail him before he'd finally give me the tape so Josh could edit it on his computer.

The thing is, now I almost wish I hadn't seen it.

See, in my memory our wedding was BEAUTIFUL. It was glittering, magical and perfect- all from my perspective.

On video it's sort of... awkward.

You can't really hear any music, my friend Mak, who performed our ceremony flawlessly in my memory actually looks pretty nervous, and every time the camera lands on my father he just looks angry. My posture is terrible and I look about 6 months pregnant (my uncle shot the footage from about knee height, not my most flattering angle) and at the end of the ceremony I keep fussing with my veil.

I couldn't make myself watch our vows, and in fact I couldn't watch more than about 15 minutes of the tape. I need some time to recover before I dig in again and watch the toasts and our dancing.

On one hand I am so grateful that we have the video, the record, but on the other hand, I'm not sure that even a professionally produced video could live up to my memory of that day.

*Update: After some thought, I think the title of this post isn't quite right. I think the video doesn't quite live up, the reality, for me, is that our wedding was amazing, and it always will be because it lives in my memory. I think I wasn't quite clear- surprise- about my feelings. To be honest, I haven't thought much about the wedding since it happened, especially considering how happy Josh and I both were once it was over, and we could just go back to real life. I am only thinking about it today because last night was the first time either of us saw the video.

FAIL!

Dudes, I wish I had some fun update here, some amazing, artsy shots or a few fuzzy, underexposed pictures even, but yesterday when Josh picked up a few rolls of film from the developer- most of the pictures I shot last weekend- he got some bad news. None of the film was exposed at all, like my shutter didn't even open or something!

Rats! Time to get my camera fixed.

I did manage to get a few old b&w's I shot a few years ago... a couple of cute shots of one of my girlfriends with her daughter (when she was still a baby) that I'll throw in the mail box this weekend, and one shot of me that someone else took.

Now maybe it's because none of the others turned out, but I really love this picture! I guess I'm pretty easy to please.

This weekend Josh and I went to Maryland for my cousin's wedding. We stayed, along with my parents at my grandmother's house. It was a great weekend, but the visit was too short.

Josh and I in our finery, well, actually Josh is wearing one of my uncle's sport coats, his jacket mistakenly was forgotten.

Josh and I with my folks, it was a lot of fun attending a wedding where we really didn't have to do a thing.

My grandma looked beautiful in her silver dress.

And my cousin Julia made a beautiful bride.

My grandma and her sister, my Auntie Louise spend every minute together laughing.

Josh and I try to do the same.

Is the view from Josh's office...

I'm working from home today, Josh is helping me with a website- I, of course, defer to the expert.

We got up early, like always and got right down to work. It's only 9 am and already we're arguing about something.

I am relishing the opportunity to work with my husband, but I am glad we don't do it every day.

We would make terrible business partners.

Life partners though, well, that's another matter.

My husband is a super romantic little guy. Even though I tease and occasionally roll my eyes at him, I love it.

With the weather turning cold and autumn in full swing I decided to surprise him with a day of apple picking, something he'd wanted to do for some time.

We bundled up, jumped in the Prius and headed west.

On our way we stopped at Josh's favorite childhood restaurant for breakfast. In the car he'd been waxing poetic about how a-ma-zing the potatoes were so we made a detour. I'm sorry to say we were both disappointed.

Ain't that always the way?

We got to the orchard, and it was beautiful.

The trees were green, the sky was blue...

But the only apples we saw were on the ground, brown and crushed.

We finally decided to head in to the bakery where we found this...

They were done for the season! The pumpkin patch was open, but the apples were long gone!

That's what we get for dilly-dallying.

I think it's about time to check in with my Wish List

Wish List

32. Buy and refinish one great Craigslist find
It wasn't a craigslist find, but my recently thrifted and refinished bar cabinet totally counts. Josh and I spent a month's worth of weekends and several weeknights finishing this bad boy. I'm really glad it is done, and I have no plans to tackle another project this big for a while.

33. Make a piece of art for the house
When I set this goal I had an art piece for above the couch and a headboard in mind, and these two recently completed projects definitely fit the bill. I am really happy with how they turned out, and for someone like me (more analytical than artistic) I'd say they are a complete success.

Visit Three Branches of the Chicago Public Library
50. Avalon
I went to the Avalon branch of the CPL to look for a book on feng shui. It was, like so many things on the South Side, small, in need of upkeep and lacking in parking. However, it was also packed. I think it's awesome that so many people are taking advantage of the library's services.

Coming Soon
5.Carve Pumpkins
12.Visit an Illinois town other than Chicago
17.Visit my Grandma

Josh and I were looking for a bar cart, something old and unique, but then bar carts were all the rage and we couldn't find one anywhere. Instead I started looking for a cabinet of some sort that we could use as a bar, something rather narrow to fit in the empty spot in the dining room, and something that had door instead of drawers so tall bottles could be stored upright.

Josh found this crazy pepto-pink cabinet and we decided to strip it and refinish it. I had no idea what a process that would be. It took us forever to strip it, under every awful layer of paint laid another, and the wood underneath was a crazy mix of plywood and hardwood.

This simple weekend project ended up taking almost a month to finish, but it turned out really well.

If I'd known that it would take forever I probably would have passed on the cabinet in the first place and kept looking, but now that it's done I really like it.

Wondering what ever happened with this pepto-pink monstrosity?

Continue Reading The Bar

More completed projects!

Found this HUGE mirror at our trusty "Obama" thrift store, cleaned it up and spruced up the orange (yuck!) frame with some gold paint. Our living room is instantly bigger, sunnier and having something on that wall makes it feel finished.

The frame shelf was a quick project, a can of spray lacquer, and we're done. The black frames look better than the old yellow ones did, and I swapped out a picture of my dad and me for one of Josh and me. Don't laugh at me too hard, but I read that in a feng shui book I got from the library.

More completed projects!

Continue Reading Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

My eyes are really sensitive to light, so I always wear sunnies, even when it's cloudy outside, especially first thing in the morning.

Now, where I work, EnormousSteelCompany, they have a vested interest in keeping all their employees healthy, so we can keep cranking out steel, and as such they offer annual flu shots.

I stopped in this morning to get mine, and while I was waiting I couldn't help but notice that everyone in the waiting room was staring at me, and they all had the same, slightly disgusted, slightly incredulous looks on their faces. I couldn't figure it out until I caught my reflection in a mirror and noticed that I was still wearing my sunglasses and had been for about 45 minutes.

Oh, I had big plans for the weekend. I was going to finish up some projects, visit my in-laws and spend some serious QT with my hubby (hubba-hubba)...

But instead I spent the whole weekend doped up on Ny-Quil and Sudafed alternating between steaming up in the shower and staring at the ceiling in bed.

Last week I did finish up 4 (4!!!) projects, which puts me at 6 completed projects! Two more to go and I can dig into the big box of crafting supplies my mom sent my way.

I hate being sick on the weekends, I feel so robbed, but at least I didn't have to take a sick day from work.

Yay it's finally Friday. This weekend Josh and I are going to visit his folks (whom I adore, no pity needed here), work on finishing a few more projects, clean the house, and spend as much time on the couch as possible.

This cold, rainy weather mandates snuggling under a big blanket, hanging with the pets and I'm thinking a big pot of green chili would round out the weekend quite nicely.

Yes! I finished a knitting project too!

This scarf is made from some rainbow fleece I picked up on a whim a few years ago.

If you're about to tell me how short it looks- don't.

This scarf is for one of my little friends, she's only about two feet tall (I'm guessing) so a full sized adult scarf would be too long.

Inspired my self-pep talk on Friday I approached the weekend in earnest, cranking out projects left and right. For a year I've been dithering about what to do with the bed.

Continue Reading Headboard Project

Inspired my self-pep talk on Friday I approached the weekend in earnest, cranking out projects left and right. For a year I've been dithering about what to do with the bed.

Do we bite the bullet and buy a bed? No, we're kind of poor,
How about refinishing a thrifted headboard? I tried. For a year. I didn't find one I liked.
What about a DIY tufted headboard? This was the plan I settled on, but I just kept putting it off because the materials are still a couple hundred bucks, and I'd rather keep that money in the bank..

I finally had some inspiration last week. I'd build something with materials we already have; leftovers from other projects. That's sort of the ultimate recycling, right?

The materials I found in our apartment to use on this project included:
Two pieces of hardwood plywood
Ferm Living Bindweed Wallpaper I got on the cheap
Clear acrylic paint

Additional materials I bought to complete the project:
Mod Podge
Brackets

It was a pretty easy project, and all told took about 24 hours. I sanded the plywood and wrapped it with the wallpaper, just like wrapping a present, making sure to glue down all wallpaper surfaces with the Mod Podge. Once it was dry I coated the whole thing with two coats of clear acrylic to protect it and had my trusty side kick hang it up.

All told we spent about $24 and I am extremely pleased with the result.

Of course, the downside to finishing a project is that I start to look at the rest of the room like; "wow, those nightstands could use a little sprucing up", and "hmm, I need to iron my shams..."

Since I went off the pill a few weeks ago I can feel the chemicals working their way out of my system. It's nice to know that if I'm mad at Josh for something, I'm genuinely mad, not just crazy. Actually, it's just plain nice to not feel so crazy all the time.

Almost immediately I began to lose weight, so now I don't care what that doctor said, the pill did make me gain weight. It kind of rocks, that little bit of validation.

You know what doesn't rock? In about three weeks I've gone down an entire cup size, but my thighs are still the size of rather large tree trunks.

Hello pear-shape. I now look like a very sexy soccer mom. I don't even get carded anymore.

Yes universe, you have humbled me.

Blame my short attention span, compulsion to stay busy or simply my need for a little variety, but I am I the middle of too many projects.

Eisenbergia has run amok with half-finished and started-then abandoned projects. I didn't realize how many until I took stock of them:

Sewing and Knitting Projects
I have four knitting projects started and several sewing projects in progress.

Two large scale art projects- one is a headboard for the bed and one is for the living room.

The bar we've spent the last three weeks refinishing in this beautiful yellow just didn't look right in the dining room, so we're stripping it again (groan, sigh) and finishing it to match the rest of the dining room furniture.

This mirror was an alley find that is destined for a place in my office...

And speaking of my office; right now it is in full furniture refinishing mode. Covered in tarps and completely sans office furniture, I couldn't work on those sewing projects even if I wanted to. Hopefully this weekend we'll finish up that cabinet and then I can start working on this room.

My closet needs organizing, to say the least.

I am building "doors" for the TV cabinet to keep our electronics out of sight. That woven thing you see was a prototype, but I don't like how it held up over the past year, I'm doing something a little sturdier.

And the last thing that needs finishing id this picture shelf. It is "this-close" to being finished, I'm going to paint those picture frames a glossy black and call it good.

That is more than a dozen projects-in-progress. I am committing to finishing 8 of them before I start any new ones.

Hold me to it internet.

I think, because I've spent my whole life working toward a goal (first there was college, then grad school, then moving, then the wedding, etc.) I'm a little unsure how to just relax and be in the moment, without "something" on the horizon. Right now things just are. I mean, things are good, but nothing is moving or shaking in my universe.

This is not a complaint. I have a good job, a great husband, a little money in the bank, things are good, I just find myself without an until.

I mean, I'm not planning any big life changes for a while. Josh and I want to have kids eventually. But right now the emphasis in that sentence is on eventually.

I just go to work, come home, try to live peacefully and happily with one other human being and our two pets and things move right along.

(See, just two years ago that would have read "try to live peacefully and happily with my two pets", I had no idea that one other person was just on my horizon.)

Time always seems to fly faster than I expect, so I know that this little respite between the last until and the next one will be over before I blink. Next thing I know I'll be surprised by a life that right now I'd be hard pressed to even imagine.