12.31.2010

Adios, 2010. Thanks for the memories


 
January.2010: We made an annual trek to Truckee, California for a weekend of snow, skiing, and fun with friends. We also took over as managers of our apartment building.
February.2010: We celebrated our 7th Valentines Day together with another trip to Truckee.
March.2010: I began training for my third half marathon with my mother (which I later ran in May). 
April.2010: We took a cruise to Mexico and enjoyed sun, food, drinks, and cheesy entertainment. 
May.2010: We stayed busy with many DIY projects. Nick began his new job and thus we began to spend weekends and evenings together, for the first time in our marriage (aka, he had a lot more time for honey-do projects!). 
June.2010: We enjoyed several A's games from Diamond Level seasons, perks of the husband's job.
July.2010: We celebrated Nick's 25th birthday with a small party at home. We were also featured on Apartment Therapy!
August.2010: We painted our bedroom and continued DIY-ing around the home. I also began my job at a new school, completing my third  move in four years. (I can't help it- All my schools keep closing!)
September.2010: Some of our best friends, John and Christian got married in Mt. Shasta, CA. Nick was a groomsman.
October.2010: We welcomed our niece, Hayley Elizabeth into the family as well as our kitten, Henry.
November.2010: We transformed an ugly cabinet into something we loved and started this blog!
December.2010: We witnessed the graduation of my sister Emily, from Cal Poly University and the marriage of Nick's sister, Emily to Matthew. We also decided to move from out first apartment/home to one with a little bit more space. 

2010 has been a great year for us and we truly feel blessed with the lives we lead. We are looking forward to even more possibility and adventure in 2011. Happy New Year Everyone!

12.30.2010

Taking a break from it all..


I have a little confession... this week I haven't been blogging from our disheveled, half-moved apartment. No, no I've actually been writing from Carmel, CA- land of expensive shops, amazing bungalows, delicious food and wine, and one-of-a-kind cars (which makes my hubby very happy). Carmel is a beautiful beach town, only an hour and a half south of the Bay Area. We come here every year at this time with Nick's extended family, as his grandparents generously house the ever-growing Reisfelt Clan. This year, as in several years past, we are staying in Pacific Grove, another beach town a couple miles north of Carmel.  The house is bursting at the seams with 16 adults and 5 children under the age of four. It's been a pleasant interruption from the not-so-glamourous ordeal of moving. 
Carmel has extra special memories for Nick and me. We got engaged here in Carmel three and a half years ago. We love the beach town and like to fantasize about someday having the money to buy a little cottage here (haha). Anyway, I thought I'd share some of the pictures of our vacation thus far (just to make you jealous- kidding!!).
Here are some pictures of the absolutely amazing houses down here. I seriously am in love with about 90% of the homes and could spend long hours walking around looking at them.
This year we had a very important event to celebrate with the family. Last night we celebrated the marriage of my sister-in-law Emily and her husband Matt with a belated reception.
And I couldn't be happier, getting so much face time with my favorite (only) niece, Miss Hayley.
All in all, a much needed break from moving! Anyone else enjoying a post-Christmas vacay??

12.29.2010

The Case of the $5 Chair


Sometimes we like to go garage-saling early on Saturday mornings. It's a gamble- sometimes you end up with a potential find, and other times, nada. This past summer, I made a great discovery at one such garage sale. People tend to sale mismatched dining room chairs- for super cheap. You can buy an old dining room chair for oh, about $5. Some people would wonder what to do with a lonely chair. However, if you like the whole mismatched, Monica Gellar-ish look, then buying one chair at a time at garage sales may be the way to go.
So last summer I found this beauty at a local garage sale for $5. 
Why would I buy it? Well, I wanted to add some more seating to our apartment, because whenever we had parties, inevitably someone would end up sitting on the floor (more often than not, it would be my brother-in-law Mike, for some strange reason). 
Anyway, remaking this chair was super easy and very budget-friendly. The first thing I did was clean the chair off with a dust rag (you never know how long it has been sitting in someone's garage, collecting dust). Then I unscrewed the seat from the chair. Next, I painted the chair with two coats of glossy white paint. You can be more adventurous in your paint choice if you'd like. I, however, had extra white paint laying around, so white it was! 
[You may notice this is a different chair than originally pictured. I did this project twice, with 2 different chairs and only managed to photograph various steps of each project, so I apologize!]
While my paint dried, I set to work "reupholstering" the seat. I use this term loosely because reupholstering sounds like a big job and this involves little work (or know-how for that matter!). Anyway, the first thing I did was pull off the nasty old fabric. This required some needle nose pliers and a hammer. I pulled out staples with the pliers and then pulled out the upholstery nails with the hammer. (Lucky me! Someone had reupholstered right over the original fabric, leaving double the grossness for me to remove.) 
After I pulled off all the fabric, staples and nails, I laid out the seat on top of my new fabric and cut around it roughly, leaving myself an inch or so of extra fabric to wrap around the bottom of the seat. 
Then I set to work stapling. Much like that canvas project, I started in the middle of each side with my staples, and continued to pull taut all the way around. I saved the corners for last and folded them so they stick up, as inconspicuously as possible. 
Last step: reattach the seat to the frame of the chair.
And there you have it! A brand new chair, for five smackaroos (plus the cost of fabric...)!!



12.28.2010

Oops... I did it again

Well. Not like Britney... However, I did spill tea. On my laptop. Again. Yes, this isn't the first time I've had this little situation. This past summer I spilled an entire glass of iced tea on my poor laptop.  I pulled out the battery and used my hair-dryer to dry it out and stuck it under the radiator overnight and prayed with all my might that it hadn't died forever. And miraculously it came back to life. (Cue happy dance with Lucy and the promise to my husband that I'll never drink tea around my laptop again.)

Then Christmas Eve I was walking toward the desk with a mug of tea in my hand, and I tripped over little Henry and, like a slow-motion scene where you want to close your eyes, my mug flew out of my hand and doused my poor laptop in tea yet again. I knew the routine this time... I pulled out the battery, dried it out and stuck it under the radiator. I didn't even want to hope for it to come back to life a second time... That would be too lucky,  right??

Well after church and a Christmas Eve Enchilada dinner at the Reisfelts', Nick and I held our breath as we turned on my computer.  It came back to life again! I'm so happy! Nick stayed up late Christmas Eve to back up all my pictures and files to his computer. "Just in case."

You should probably know something about me. I'm reallllllly bad with electronics. I try and be super careful and somehow it just doesn't happen. I've lost one Blackberry and a digital camera (with our honeymoon pictures still on it- sob) in the movie theater. In college a shelf fell on my laptop and broke the keyboard. I accidentally sent my phone to college with my sister and had to have it mailed back. And now this whole laptop incident... twice. Moral of the story: Don't buy me electronics, and if you do, make sure you get one heckofa warranty.

12.27.2010

I'm Dreaming of a Turquoise Christmas...

Well, we live in California, so no one was expecting a white christmas. We got a traditional Northern California rainy winter day. However, when you are inside enjoying time with family, rainy Christmas days can feel especially cozy.

Nick and I had a very happy Christmas, and Santa was oh-so-good to us. I'm just going to highlight the home-related gifts that we received this year...

I have to say, someone (my mom, hubby, and mother-in-law) must be reading this blog because I received an awful lot of turquoise-colored loveliness. Thanks, you guys! My mother-in-law, Susie picked out some fun kitchen accessories from Ms. Martha herself, all in a beautiful shade of turquoise. These new accessories will work perfectly in my pinky pink kitchen! (Which I'm still waiting to move into, but that's a different story....)
I also got a fabulous Vera Bradley bulletin board from my in laws. I really like the darker turquoise accents that will work perfectly with the green color scheme we have going on in our office.
Mr. Nicholas did such a good job remembering the West Elm duvet I had my eye on, since it was under the tree Christmas morning! I love, love, love it! It's the perfect shade of pale blue.


My mom, who is ever so crafty, made me a beautiful pillow! I love it so much and can't decide which room of our new apartment gets the honor of enjoying it. One of my favorite gifts this year is a beautiful framed calendar (also made by Mom!). She printed, decorated, and framed this beautiful calendar page for us. Each month we will receive a new very personalized calendar page. What a great idea!


Santa must have decided we were in the business of DIY or something... We also received a couple Home Depot gift cards, a Black and Decker Mouse Hand Sander (which Nick called "a moose" when we opened it), and a table saw from my father. Wohoo for home projects and decorating!


So how was your Christmas? What kinds of fun presents did you get? Anyone else receive a slew of themed-gifts?? Do tell!
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