Enhancing My Luck

I am still unpacking and displaying random tchotchkes around my house on a daily basis.  This past weekend I unpacked Buddha.  My parents brought back my Laughing Buddha from their travels.  At the condo he just sat on a shelf, without much thought put into his placement.  I decided to research his preferred placement before finding him a spot in my new home.  He is the feng shui symbol of good luck and prosperity so I want him to be happy.

According to my diligent research, Laughing Buddha likes to face the front door, is comfortable in the living room, and  does not like to be looked down upon (or on the floor).  Perfect!  I plopped him on my fireplace mantle where he is now 1) looking at the front door, 2) chilling in the living room and 3) right at eye level with me.

Rub my belly!

Buddha's view from the mantle

Now that my negative Chi is being absorbed, I have big hopes for 2012!

Bring On The Rain

I'm welcoming the rain not just because the state is in a drought but because it is giving me a chance to take my rain gauge for a spin!  The rain started Sunday night and by Monday morning I had about 3/4".  Not bad, but that rain continued!  And I'm happy to report that according to my backyard weather station we got...

Almost 2 inches!  Not too bad.  I'm sure my grass is loving it.  And by grass I mean green weeds that have taken over my backyard.  Now here's the question, Dad.  When do I dump it out and start over again?  Each night?  When this storm passes?  My rain gauge did not come with instructions.

Got Blanket?

No, I haven't redone my master bedroom again.  This is how Pablo and I slept last night to stay warm since my heater went out this weekend.  I gathered blankets from every room and piled them onto my bed.  We both slept burrowed completely underneath everything.  And it worked!  We survived the night and the repairman got my heater up and running by 10am this morning.  This is good, because Pablo was starting to worry about how long I was going to keep making him wear his sweater. 

Master Art

Only two weeks with the new duvet and I'm already inspired to hang things on the wall.  That is a good sign.  The only thing I've had on the wall so far was my cheap paper art.

The outer two pictures now hang in the guest room.  I was liking the way the middle one looked with my new duvet so last weekend I painted its frame white and decided to hang it sideways.

Next I found an awesome original print on 20x200's website.  It is an image of the Dallas/Ft.Worth area done in bright colors.  Sounds odd but I'm a Dallas girl and I thought it was beautiful and fun.

Above is a good picture of it from the website.  I ordered mine unframed and framed it myself.  The print came with a signed and numbered certificate as well as an explaination of the piece from the artist.  I love the colors it uses!

I still need to find 2 8X10 prints for the empty frames above my bed but I'm finding the art search so much easier now that I have my neutral gray bedding. 

After Christmas Decor Stock Up

I was almost excited about after-Christmas as I was for Christmas.  I was so eager to get new holiday decorations for my new house but didn't really want to spend tons of money.  I did buy a couple of things, namely a new tree, but for the most part I held off.  And it paid off!  I hit the after Christmas 70% sales and snapped up a few things.

This is my new loot stockpile.  The ginormous ornaments will be hanging from my oak tree out front next year!  They were 70% off $5 each.  I also got some more ball ornaments in blues, silvers, and other funky colors, pink garland, a blue and silver ornament garland for the fireplace, and a few other items.

How cute is this tiny blue tree?!?  I almost bought it full price since it was only $5 but I'm glad I held out.  It will be great for a centerpiece next year. 

I also couldn't resist this 3.5' prelit purple tree.  For those keeping count at home...yes, that brings the total of trees I own to 5 (oh wait, 6 if you count the live one that I'm planting in the backyard).  But I think that's perfectly fine.  They all serve a different purpose.

I also snagged some more ornament hooks and outdoor light clips at bargain prices.  The only thing I wasn't able to get was the blue or green tree skirt from Target I was eyeing.  They were all gone by the time the sales started.  They look just like the silver one on my mini blue tree, but they're for a full sized tree.  Maybe next year...

Bathroom Facelift

When I was nabbing bedding bargains at West Elm, I also pick up a couple of bathroom items to give my bathroom a facelift.  I've had my shower curtain for 10+ years and somewhere along the line I managed to shrink it by about 8 inches.  Since in the new house, I just lowered the tension rod to get it to semi-cover the tub.

It may be a little hard to see but even lowered it still hung about 5" above the floor.  It's a shame because I liked that shower curtain.  My new curtain matches my duvet.  Also, my new bathroom is too small for a toilet rug (or whatever those are called) and a shower mat.  I opted for get a new shower mat and retired the yellow one.

As you can see the new curtain comes all the way to the floor and the rod is even hanging about 5" higher.  Eventually I will tackle painting the bathroom but that is pretty low down on my to-do list right now.  Instead I hung some $8 wall art from Walmart for a pop of color and called it a day!

A little morning motivational speech while brushing ones teeth never hurt anyone.

New Year's Resolutions

After six months of exercise off-time while decorating and moving into the house, I decided it was time to get back in shape.  My old gym was too far from my new house so I never went.  The gym by my house that I wanted to join wanted me to pay $100 a month.  No thank you.  So instead, I took my gym budget and bought a new Elliptical machine.  My first thought was to get a machine for my office but then I decided that the nook in my bedroom would probably be a better space since that room is already set up with cable.

First thing I had to do (while diligently researching elliptical makes and models) was move my big chair to the office.  Like the couch that it used to match, this thing is massive.  I was almost worried it would be stuck living in my dining room.

Luckily, after removing two of the legs I was able to get it through all the neccesary doorways.

I ordered my ellipical from Amazon.com to save on tax and shipping and it showed up a week later.  I went with the Livestrong 10.0E after weighing reviews and features such as the weight of the flywheel.  I'll give the people at Livestrong one thing, they sure know how to efficiently pack a box.

Not an inch of space was wasted.  I took the parts out one by one and layed them out in my bedroom.

I will give Livestrong yet another thing, out of all of the items I've assembled in my house in the last 6 months this was the most practical packaging for parts I've ever seen.

Every part was grouped according to which step is was used in and it was labeled.  I just cut out each section as I got to its step.  It took a little over 2.5 hours to fully assemble and I had no leftover parts.  This is always a good sign!

I was too exhausted to use it after I got it together Friday night, but since then I've put several miles on it.  I think it's going to be the perfect answer to cool weather workouts.