sometimes i don't like being an adult...

...like when i become suddenly aware that i need to grow up and take care of things on my own. today's unwanted adult moment was finding mouse droppings in the drawer below my stove and on the windowsill in my living room and chewed up bags of food in my pantry.
realization: i don't have my dad here to set traps.
realization: i don't have my dad here to clean up the remains.
realization: i have to do things on my own.

reaction: tears.

yeah, i'm not quite so sure i want to grow up just yet.  i think i'll go have 5 guys for dinner.

classes and chairs

classes start tomorrow, and yet i'm dreaming about pretty things....surprise, surprise.

next on the docket of pretty things is this soon-to-be pretty thing. i found an empty corner in my bedroom when i finally unpacked/redistributed some of my boxes (yeah...better late than never...). then i found this beauty for $10 on craigslist. i'm pretty sure one can never go wrong with a reading nook. all i'll need is a lamp and to re-do the chair, and i'll be in reading nook-heaven!

maybe someday my apartment will be complete (and clean) and you'll actually be graced with a proper tour!

giving thanks to deliciousness!

thanksgiving this year has been an interesting one. first off, since i was just home a couple of weeks ago for cornhuskin' at MC, my family opted to come visit me. and by visit me, i mean the four of us have been living in my little 1-bedroom apartment in Fort Collins for since this past saturday. trust me, i love my family--a lot; however, we are definitely in tight quarters with my brother and me sleeping in the living room and my parents in my bed. nonetheless, it's been a great week...a good break from school and a better bonding experience.

with thanksgiving, obviously, there is also the cooking and the turkey. oh, and did i mention that we were in my apartment? it's fine...it worked out well enough...but i definitely don't have the space or the amenities like my parents' house does for cooking a thanksgiving dinner. oh, and another roadblock...we fixed everything on monday (the family flies out on thursday and i didn't want too many left-overs) only to find out at about 5pm (yeah...we're late turkey dinner-eaters) that the turkey was still frozen, too frozen to cook. so, there may have been a few stress-related tears shed, but we made it all work by eating a quick thanksgiving lunch on tuesday, and it was delicious. so delicious, in fact, that i felt it necessary to share our recipes and inspiration.

because we were cooking in my apartment, we decided to switch up our dinner a little bit. we had the staples--turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, rolls, and cranberry sauce--and a few new things--roasted brussels sprouts with grapes and broccoli and gruyere gratin; everything was delicious!

i thought i'd share a little bit of our thanksgiving dinner!

 I may be that weird girl who likes brussels sprouts, but our whole family loved these from real simple. they're super easy to make and likely delicious year-round.

 if you don't like gruyere cheese yet you should. this is the yummiest gratin i've ever had.

 black olives are a staple at our thanksgiving meals. our grandma never quite favored the way my brother and i would eat them off our fingers, but i mean...it was tradition. 

also in the background is some of the yummiest cranberry sauce i've ever had. i kind of used this recipe, but as per my usual tendencies, i didn't follow the directions exactly. i added a splash of OJ, about a quarter cup of blueberries, and cinnamon and nutmeg. YUM.

 yummy garlic smashed potatoes: mom makes these sans recipe, just with a little half&half, salt and pepper, parmesan, garlic, yum.

 another real simple recipe--mushroom and rosemary stuffing. we decided we'd take out one egg because it was a little too runny, but otherwise the mushrooms were deee-lish. this one will happen again.

 here's a little demonstration of the tight quarters. it worked...but it was tight.

and happy holidays from me (and the fam)! after dinner yesterday we did a brew tour at new belgium brewery (fat tire) in fort collins. there's more of that to come, but we actually got a good family pic! 

happy thanksgiving!

ooooover half-way there.

okay, so it appears that grad school has about gotten the best of me. i turned in a huge paper today and have been working on a presentation all evening, so i'm going to think about something besides school for a minute. and as a means of letting you inside my brain for a moment, here's some fun inspiration...tis ALMOST the season, which means 'tis the season to prep for the season!

i'm so excited to decorate for christmas. i know i never really showed you my completed apartment because, well, it really isn't even close to completed. but my parents and brother are coming to town on SATURDAY, so i'm hoping they'll help me get a few more things on my walls and perhaps a few curtains.

so...here's some christmas inspiration. break + much less school work for the next few weeks leaves me lots of time to decorate. i'm excited!

garland...murdock designs

best tree skirt - martha stewart

OchristmasTree

mrbutton

i mean, really, how cute is this stuff? so...i may splurge on the stocking, but i intend to make the rest. i may need to invest in a tree here soon! 

okay...so i promise to update soon. for real. because i'll be freer! 

the coffee table

i'm loving that my blog updates have been in high demand lately...unfortunately, though, my projects have been taking a little longer than i'd anticipated. storm clouds tend to roll in around 3pm every day, so that interferes with projects that have to be done outside. nonetheless, the coffee table, turned out GREAT.

do you remember this table? this week i sanded and primed it...and then it rained and got messed up...so i had to re-sand and re-prime a bit. then i got to paint. i pulled the light aqua/cotton candy blue from the fabric on the kitchen chairs, and i LOVE the color. After several coats of "lake shore blue," i distressed some of the edges and polyurethaned the top. now all that's left is a bit of drying time!

i think it looks pretty good, if i may say so myself. especially since it initially cost $5 at an estate sale. the pictures are kind of sneak peeks because my walls are semi-empty and the room is a little messy in its incompletion; however, i promise that more better pictures will be on the way soon!

the next projects to tackle are things for a gigantically empty living room wall and the chair & desk. oh and school starts two weeks from tomorrow!

a high altitude learning opportunity

if you've never lived at high altitude, you've probably never noticed that every boxed baking mix includes high altitude instructions. scientifically, the usda tells us that altitude causes water to boil at a lower temperature (and therefore be unable to become as hot) and that leavening in breads and cakes expands faster. fortunately, when you're using a boxed mix, the instructions also tell you specific instructions to work with cooking at high altitude. it does not, however, lend itself to tips on every sort of cooking disaster that may happen due to the altitude.

well, fort collins' 5003 feet above sea level lent itself to me this morning. in such a way that my oatmeal simply exploded. and it wasn't even cooked. it was just one of those UGH moments where i wanted to cry and laugh at the same time.

so, next time i fix oatmeal i'll be more careful with my chemistry--and i'll definitely use a bigger bowl.

chairs!

the last 7 days have been absolutely nuts! my parents and i moved all my things into the apartment, assembled a few pieces of furniture, made lots of walmart/target/Ace shopping trips, and then hit the projects. the week has been a huge learning experience for me as i helped (and mostly watched) my dad drill hooks galore into my outdoor storage closet, bathroom, and other various places. my mom and i are good at disassembling, putting things away, and my mom rocks the shelf liner. he, on the other hand, anchored my bookshelf and (still empty) wine bottle rack into the walls, and was much appreciated for every job he managed this week.

most notably, he and i reupholstered the chairs i brought from home. these chairs are part of a dinette set that was in my great-grandma's house in western new york. my parents have had these pieces in their home since they were married, and although i don't exactly remember when, i began eyeing them and was promised the set for my first place. as you may expect, the table and chairs were a little grungy. the chairs, in particular, were covered with a blue vinyl that had begun tearing and fading. it only made sense to re-cover them.

i'll spare you all the diy details, but in a nutshell, we removed the seats and backs, cleaned the chrome, added two extra layers of batting to the cushions, and covered them. the most interesting part of this project was an internal battle between my dad and me as to whose project these chairs were. i like to think that i was in charge of the artistic end of things (and the staple gun), but my dad certainly handled the majority of the labor and assembly. i'm pretty sure my mom got a big kick watching her two favorite type-A perfectionists perform this task, but our personality types kicked butt in the end, if i may say so myself.

 

what do you think?

next up: repainting the coffee table.