Tuesday, September 20, 2011

childhood, revisited

it's 4:30 am and why (beyond the normal reasons for my night-owlishness) am i not yet abed?

this is why: huxtablehotness



he says it best in the subtitle-line:
"In which I review the sartorial choices of the characters on "The Cosby Show" one episode at a time."

... i could read the screen-shot captions alone and still fall off the couch laughing.
ENJOY

Monday, September 5, 2011

iPadded

I apologize for my absence of late and wish I could blame it on our recent computer problems, heavy work schedules, or lack of indoor/down-time, but in reality, I've just been lazy.

Any free time I've had has been devoted to sleeping, reading, and reading while feeling guilty about not being outside / cleaning / purging junk / or researching our next step in life, thus, no time to think up good post-worthy posts. Terrible.

On the upside, Jake finally caved to his iPad obsession and bought the 2, which is AMAZING. We're definitely smitten. I'm sure this is partly due to the fact that we don't have iPhones or even smart phones, so all this technology and the handy apps are all brand-new to us, but I think I've finally got a handle on it and can get back to sharing my inspirations and ideas, plans and projects with the blogosphere!

HOORAY!

For now, some pics to round up my blog-MIA-summer :)




essential backyard hammock time




lots of turnpike time



some rural exploration time



And our favorite, together time

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

new life goal

T h i s :


To live in a place remote enough for this to be useful much of the year.
Or at least where you're neighbors won't be walking up/by unannounced.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

WANT!

Globetrotter Pouf from UrbanOutfitters
combining my love of maps, leather, furniture, neutrals, globes...


... now let's just work on my love of "cheap price," UO.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Motivation Needed


Today was Easter.  Work all week was slow, plus I was training a new server, plus I was so looking forward to Sunday, being off and hanging out with family, that it was really a wringer of a week.  It all finally (slowwwly, but finally!) ended at about 1:30am Sunday morning when I arrived home, packed some clothes and drove out to the hub's grandparents' for the holiday.  I may have been up until dawn in a sleeping household washing church clothes in the basement, but I'm usually up until about 5am anyway, so what's the difference?  Waking up a 10 (ok, 10:30) was not that hard!

Church was long, but my after-mass nap was awesome, and we made an Easter miracle by saving us all from caffeine-deprivation (walmart with the assist)!  Great day with family, lots of meat, creamy veggies and more candy and cake than I care to remember, thank you very much.

All that said, I have declared our day off today as THE DAY for spring cleaning the apartment.  When we first moved in, it wasn't so bad because we only moved the stuff we wanted.  But when our other lease finally ended and we had to just grab the rest and cram it in, and so our poor new apartment has come to resemble... a house of hoarders!!  THE HORROR!!!!!

WISH US LUCK!
updates to follow!!!

Monday, April 11, 2011

dreaming of painting walls

i've recently discovered the term that best describes the color of the walls
 in our new basement rental and it is unfortunate indeed:
skin.
yes, skin color. it's a peachy, tannish beige color, neutral, i suppose.
but when you're stuck in a basement, albeit a cute one, you find yourself wishing you could brighten the place up a bit.

i dream of these two amazing color combinations:

 
 i love grey, though this could be a bit too dark for our situation

 
 look! tan! maybe i'll just paint our ceiling neon baby blue!


gorgeous royal blue

even bright white would be sooo much better

le sigh. it's only temporary.....

Saturday, March 26, 2011

obsessed


I've become slightly obsessed with this series of photos by Christian Chaize, especially this one titled Praia Piquinia 02/08/07 15h16


He's been photographing exclusively along the southern coast of Portugal for a few years, and this series focuses on Praia Piquinia at different times of day / season / year.

I'm in love with the light, the water and especially the details of all the beach-goers - I feel like you could stare at this picture a hundred times and find new bits of interest with every look!

NOW if it were only available for sale again and not SOLD OUT!

... he does have a new edition, hazier and more dream-like; definitely someone's cup-of-tea!

Life's a Beach!

Saturday, March 19, 2011

:/ Mark Menjivar :/

not sure i appreciate the realism here,
Midwife/Middle School Science Teacher | San Antonio, TX | 3-Person Household (including dog) | First week after deciding to eat locally grown vegetables.


Bar Tender | San Antonio, TX | 1-Person Household | Goes to sleep at 8AM and wakes up at 4PM daily.

har. har. har.
this is my life.

ok, not quite as bad, but i'd still like to cook at home once in a while!

Monday, March 14, 2011

ready for summer


caribbean return trip, please?

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

bathroom love

as some of you may know, this girl appreciates a good bathroom
..............
check out this AMAZING bathroom redo
i mean, was there even a window in the room before?!
click above and check out the "befores" to really appreciate the transformation!

GORGEOUS color combination; love this hidden pop!

and just LOOK at that toilet!
is it comfortable to sit on? couldn't tell ya.
but who cares? i WANT IT!

Monday, March 7, 2011

paul coco


found this beautiful studio house tour on AT


though i guess when you work for ralph lauren,
even as a copywriter,
you must have style coming out of your ears


jealousssssss


Sunday, March 6, 2011

a bar!

bare bones, work in progress, but i'm striving to get in the competition


watch out C&J, i'm coming for ya!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

a closet *sigh*

so I'm going through my google reader and up pops this post from stephmodo, one of my faves (she has a vacation home in southwest france, need I say more?) about the new collection at H&M. as I commented on her post, I have an H&M addiction, but have been clean since moving to the 'burgh.

let's not talk about the splurge that was practically the only thing I did in the 24 hours between my return flight from STT and the trip to Jamaica for the bro's wedding. the one in which I bought maybe 10 bikini seperates. after moving from a tropical island to the midatlantic. yes. anyway.

so, my money has been safe from the ravages of this euro-megastore for nigh on ... whoa! eight or nine months! (just counted - impressed with myself!!) and while I had a vague notion that there was a store somewhere in the vicinity, I didn't allow myself to dwell on the fact UNTIL I physically spotted it the other day!

luckily, we were in the car and it was in motion and I think we were late to meet friends... because otherwise, my wallet would have been in trouble! I contemplated a tuck-and-roll maneuver, but it was sorta a freak blizzard outside and I would have been risking insta-frostbite along with the road-rash.

but now, since that day (Feb 21st, pens v. caps, mark D in town, first H&M sighting - a date to remember!) it's all I can think about!! I mean, I'll wake up and have an hour or so before work and I'm all "hmm, maybe I could slip over to the south side and ... NO!" who am I kidding?! I would need at least a solid hour in the store itself! none of this "before work" crap!!

and then yesterday, my work buddy mentioned dropping clothes off at a consignment store and I jumped on the bandwagon. really, I sorta forced myself on said wagon, because, shamefully, I am currently using our spare apartment (woo, sounds fancy, right? PAY MY DOUBLE BILLS and call it that!) as a giant closet of shame for all the stuff I don't want to go through, including all the clothes I haven't washed (re: biting infestation) or don't want or are warm-weather. SO, I was super productive, all before work, went over, sorted all my clothes, put hopefuls into a small box and others (to get rid of) into a large one and was off to chuck 'em! I say "hopefuls" because we were headed to a trendy-hipster consignment shop, and so I put my hippest stuff in the little box.

... and they accepted exactly ONE item ...

seriously.

they only accepted ONE of my friend's items too, and she's WAY hipper than me!

consignment fail.

i'm now on the search for a more accepting, welcoming, less snooty shop that will take my cool, if not hip, gently worn articles of clothing.

it totally boosted my sorting-confidence, at least in the clothes department, and I plan a secondary sort when sentimentality and time will be less in the way!

anyway, back to the H&M topic, maybe it's late (only 3:15am!) but my brain is trying to tell me that maybe I should go to the store, perhaps leaving my wallet in the car (you better not be reading this, car-breaking-into-thieves! ... oh wait, this isn't bmore. maybe ppl don't normally break car windows in broad daylight on busy streets here!) and just browse around in hopes of maybe upping my sorting/getting-rid-of resolve! because I have noticed that I always seem to keep clothes thinking "oh, it's a basic" or "I'll need a suit blazer and 10 skirts for when I get another hostessing or office job" ...

BUT WAIT. NOTE TO KATIE: you are not getting an office job. and you're not hostessing again (not 16 anymore...) and even when you were a teacher you didn't wear this stuff! and, if/when the time comes that you need ____ piece of clothing, you are going to want to buy something new ANYWAY! TIME TO GO!

so, I'm nixing the wallet-less shopping trip idea, cause I'm sure to find something I just MUST BUY IMMEDIATELY ... in favor of more sorting! I'm off work for the next 2 days and Jake works one, so there is no reason not to go over to that dismal, creepy, empty-ish (except for the bugs and roach carcasses) apartment and sort through more stuff to lose!

now, WHO'S WITH ME?!!!!!!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Scandinavian gorgeousness

enjoying the pure, minimalist, white, scandinavian goodness
stumbled upon here.




it's interesting to see what you save when looking at such a specialized website as this - it seems I save the least scandinavian pictures of the bunch
(prove me wrong, enormous caribou antler!!),
but I need that bit of warmth some of the other starkly white/empty pictures lack. It countries with such loooong, dark winters, you'd think they'd want some coziness inside too!


disclaimer
: I don't believe all homes in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland are decorated in this sometimes severe style, but I get the feeling many of the population aspire to this aesthetic, perhaps.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

What Kate is....

listening to:


Radiohead
will I ever not like them?
no.

stream their new album here and read more about it here and here.
~ENJOY~

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Moving tomorrow!

SURPRISE!

i know, i know, we just moved to Pittsburgh! how can we already be moving again?!

all i can say is, i guess if you know us at all, it's less of a surprise, really. six months in this apartment, which, while it has it's good points (storage) it never truly felt like home. i've always been a little uncomfortable here. (and that has nothing to do with the mystery bugs!!! note: no bites in a while but we're still washing EVERYTHING before it goes into the new place!)

maybe it has to do with the fact that i had to rearrange a bunch of times until i found a good setup, and i still wasn't really happy with it. it was just what worked.

arrangement 1 - no workie

arrangement 2 - awesome, but impractical

arrangement 3 - sorta worked, but didn't feel right

final arrangement - okay

or it could have been that clause in our lease that mentioned "no pets allowed that cannot survive for one hour underwater." ... seriously. and i don't own cat-scuba-gear!

anyway, we're getting a truck tomorrow to move all the big furniture items, though i wouldn't mind changing a few of them up. and since we are stuck with our old lease until the end of March, there's no rush; i don't want to take anything to the new place that we don't REALLY want to keep in our lives!

the old place will be my storage shed. i shall think of it as my other job: every day i should get up and head to "work" to go through all our junk and get rid of things! if it's something we really love and want, it can move to the new place. but with all the traveling and moving we do, the less stuff we own, the better! it means less to take with us, less to store with friends and family, less to worry about! every place we go we accumulate so much STUFF! it must end HERE!

THE END!

ps. get psyched for new-place updates coming soon!


snorkel, yes; scuba, no.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

before...

we have a bit of an obsession, sort of a love affair, with a movie. well, two movies really, but the second is a continuation of the first, as it should be. if you've never seen Before Sunrise and Before Sunset with Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, these photos and the clip might not mean much to you, but to me, and the hubs, so much about them solidifies these two in our top movies ever. Please watch them (again) and enjoy!











Monday, January 24, 2011

itching to travel

Roma

the hubs and i just realized that we haven't lived in europe (glorious europe!) in almost 4 whole years now. FOUR YEARS! to be away from a place we know we love for that long is becoming unbearable, but we're trying to save up as much as we can before hop back across the pond for good. no vacations, no splurges, just workworkwork and savesavesave!

powder in Zillertal, Austria

Praha = true love

for now, amazing videos like Mike Matas' still frame movies keep us focused on our goals!

Morocco & Spain from Mike Matas on Vimeo.


this is the TRUTH!