Cinemagraphs

 I was introduced to .gif's or cinemagraphs a couple of month ago by my friend who's roomate actually knows how to make them. They're amazing. The subtler, the better in my opinion. So Harry-Potter-moving-photos-magical...

Fantasyland Friday: The Dining Room

Okay so it's actually Monday, but all the more reason to escape to fantasyland right?

Some of my favorite memories from holidays and birthdays are of conversations and meals at my parent's giant oak dining table. Call me a traditionalist, but I still love the idea of a formal dining room. No TV in the background, no distractions, just delicious food and fantastic conversations.
I've had an unhealthy crush on this salvage wood pedestal table from Restoration Hardware for a while. I've even blogged about it before... I definitely want a pedestal table (no legs to have to maneuver around and can seat more people if needed), some oversized drum shades or lantern pendants, and taller wing-backs at the heads of the table. I would love to have upholstered chairs, with easy-wash and no-iron slipcovers of course :) Why upholstered? Well, it really comes down to my chipped tailbone, which I got from razoring down the gully by my parents house in high school with my friends. As anyone who's seen it can attest, it's super steep--we were pretty smart.

Wait, is that......?

Now I must say that I do not regularly watch The Bachelor because it is all that is wrong with female-kind. However, when I heard that they went to Park City for the last episode, I was curious so I Hulu'd it. But honestly, all I could think about was how much the guy looks like Nadal. It's eery.

Park City was beautiful though, it made me miss it. Especially knowing that Sundance is happening right now without me :(

The Chicken and the Egg

I've been in one of those "ehhhh" funks for the last week or two. Not sad, not unhappy, just blah. I'm not sure why... it just feels like I have no motivation right now. To borrow a phrase from Office Space, "It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care." I'm not sure why I've felt this way, I just do. And it's kind of a vicious cycle, I'm blah because of the mundane, but the mundane persists because I'm too blah to break out of it, did that make sense? It's the chicken and the egg.

But I do care. I do care that I'm healthy and exercise more than once a week. I do care that I have clean clothes to wear tomorrow. I do care that we eat a home-cooked meal every now and then (I think). But when I get home from work, after having to care about so many other people's issues and take care of them, sometimes there just isn't any left for me. It's so easy to just care about it tomrorow. Sure, I could go do a few loads of laundry and wash those dishes and vacuum and got through the mail and run on the treadmill and a million other things...or I could just put on my sweats, cuddle up next to the space heater with Brody and watch the shows in our Hulu queue. Gee, that's a real hard decision.

I'm going to go ahead and blame this funk on a few outside influences--because I'm an American and why would I take responsibility for my actions?

First: It's winter. I think a fair portion of this blah can be blamed on SAD, and the fact that it looks like 10 pm every night when I get off work. And it's been rainy and cloudy and actually snowed over the weekend, so we haven't seen the sun in a while.

Second: It's winter. And it's really cold, and getting up to do all the things on my list means not being wrapped up in a quilt.

Third: The whole getting robbed by someone who we've spent months and months helping. That was just a downer, and not super easy to recover from. Especially when they have the stones to show up again last week. It was the second most uncomfortable situation I've ever been in.

Fourth: It's winter.

Fifth: South Carolina. Really?! Gingrich?!? REALLY????!!!! The man is the epitome of a Washington-insider, d-bag who has cheated on every wife he's had, and got paid craploads from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Yes. That Fannie and Freddie that ruined the economy a couple of years ago. But you're right South Carolina, he's really good at dodging debate questions and re-directing focus away from his HORRIFIC track record and reputation and all-around UNELECTABILITY in a national election. No, you're totally right. Way to be smart. You just went with the candidate that Sarah Palin endorsed. Yeah.

Sixth: The new responsibility. I'm going to be vague here, but let's just say I inherited a new, big, responsiblity at work from a girl that quit at the New Year, and it's trying my patience pretty bad.

But really, the answer to the whole chicken and the egg question is that a circle has no begining. So I just need to make a sharp left and jolt myself out of it.

And I have a plan to kick-start my motivation. I've given myself a rule that I can't buy any new clothes until I'm back on the daily (or at least tri-weekly) exercising wagon. Any time I feel frustrated at work, I just think to the future and how this stupid issue has absolutely no bearing on mine (that's why I don't get paid the big bucks). The thief will pay eventually and it will be sweet vindication when they do. As for the whole winter issue... I can't exactly fix that, but I can daydream about spring and scroll through beautiful, sunny photos on pinterest. I may even make myself a list of resolutions (because I definitely didn't at the New Year) tonight for Family Home Evening (which is also something that will be on the list, because we seriously struggle with it----i.e. we've never had one). And if you have any bright, inspiring ideas-- please do share :)

Hurry

If you "like" LOFT on facebook you can get $50 off your $100 or more purchase but it's today only! So really if you do it right, you can get half off.

I may have bought these....they are essentially my blog header in clothing form and perfectly me.

Typical

Oh ya know just your typical street parking signs here in the city...

Not confusing at all, right?

Fantasyland Friday: The "Me Time" Room

I think we all have that one dream room that we'd LOVE to have someday. The craft / laundry / mom office room where you can start a project and leave it unfinished without having to clean up. Where you can keep all your wrapping paper, ribbons, art supplies, cards, party decorations, DIY projects, scrap-booking stuff, and everything in between. With a huge island where you can fold clothes while watching tv or lsiten to music, with slots for individual laundry baskets underneath, or work on that quilt you've always meant to make. With a computer, desk, and storage in the corner where you can blog, or write, or pin, in peace. With endless shelves for storage and fabrics, and inspiration boards to keep you dreaming.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

"The phrase 'No good deed goes unpunished' is a sardonic commentary on the frequency with which acts of kindness backfire on those who offer it. In other words, because life is inherently unfair, those who help others are doomed to suffer as a result of their being helpful." - Wikipedia

Perhaps I spoke too soon about 2012.

Every week Brody and I are in charge of the tutoring program for our ward. There are a lot of at-risk youth that can't always get homework help at home so every week we do dinner and tutoring where they get one-on-one help from a volunteer tutor--most of which come from the single's ward out here. It's been such a great and rewarding experience...

And if you don't want to hear the "downer" part stop reading here.

Last night we had another tutoring session. One of the boys' birthday is today so we had a cake and party for him. Towards the end of the night I went to grab some keys out of my purse and noticed that my phone wasn't in its usual pocket. Frantically I search my whole Poppins purse and didn't see it anywhere. Panicking, I ran and asked Brody if he'd taken it. Nope. So we roused everyone and started questioning them if they'd seen it (the whole time I knew someone had taken it out of my purse because I hadn't gotten it out all night). Miraculously one of the girls "found" it on the floor in one of the rooms. Yeah I was relieved but it was short-lived.

The wallpaper had already been changed and that chizzler had put a freaking passcode on my phone! So I had to restore it to the factory settings last night and lost a bunch of numbers, photos, etc. THEN, the poor kid whose birthday is today found out that someone had taken $4 cash from his wallet and someone had taken his sweater. SO ridiculous.

I was so discouraged last night. Who steals in general, let alone at church, let alone from their friends and people that are volunteering their time and energy for their benefit?!?!

But wait, it gets better.

Today I kept getting calls from an (888) and an (800) number. I ignored the first ones as per my usual, but after they kept calling and I did a Google search to find that they were fraud prevention numbers I finally called back and yep, the little rat-bastage stole two of my credit cards too.

Apparently they went on quite the shopping spree today, but luckily I won't be liable for any of the charges. And I've spoken to most of the stores they went to and almost all of them have video footage and hopefully we'll be able to recognize the thief. We've already pretty much narrowed it down to two people anyway so we'll see what the security footage has to show us.

Season 2

Just watched the 2-hour season 2 premiere, amazing. If I didn't love Maggie Smith before (and I DID), I certainly do after this series

Watch Downton Abbey 2: The Critics Can't Stop Talking on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.

That's More Like It

First of all let me just say...Downton Abbey is pretty fantastic. I may have watched the entire first season last week on Netflix (don't judge too harshly it's only 7 episodes). Who would have thought a BBC/PBS show would be so good?! Watch it. Thank me later.

It was a gorgeous weekend. Weirdly nice for the first week of January anywhere. I took the snapshot below of the temperature on Saturday afternoon while I was taking a break from Downton and perusing some after-Christmas sales.

And just like that, it snowed today for the first time since we've been in DC and I have to say I was rather happy to see it. It wasn't much, and wasn't sticking at all but that didn't stop a few co-workers from wondering weather we were going to have work tomorrow...so funny. I can count the number of snow days I had as a kid on one hand. Two. We had two.

Things are looking good

Each time I've had to date something this week, I struggled to remember the "12" at the end of 2012. Every year it takes a little getting used to but I can't help but feel like this is going to be a good year, and here are some reasons why:
-It's leap year. It doesn't really have any direct impact on anything...but it's just a quirky little tidbit, like a full moon or Friday the 13th, that makes it seem just a pinch less mundane than the norm.
-It's an election year, and all signs are pointing to a Romney/Obama showdown and it's going to be a close one. Regardless of the outcome, I'm so excited to be in D.C. for a presidential inaugeration (another one to check off the list!). Plus, the potential to visit-teach the first lady is just fun to think about.
-Unemployment is down! All the way to 8.5%, which is still high, sure, but it's the fourth month in a row that unemployement has fallen and this is a very positive and welcome piece of news for all of us. Particularly when Brody will entering the job market in a few years :)
-The London Games. I LOVE the Olympics and London has always been near the top of my "To Do" list. It's a match made in heaven if you ask me. Go USA!
-I got business cards today! I've never had my own, and although I don't anticipate handing them out very much, it's still a fun little milestone and a good omen for 2012.
-I'm getting at least 3 more nieces/nephews this year! Thanks to Lacey being pregnant with twins (we found out yesterday they are a boy and a girl), and Lisa being pregnant as well. Can't wait to meet them all!
-Movies. I've found the older I get, the more picky I am about which movies I watch, (it's a rarity for Brody and I to shell out the money to see one in the theaters when we can just wait and buy the blu ray for the same price) so I'm thrilled that so many movies are coming out this year that actually look really good. First and foremost, the Dark Knight Rises of course. Brody is borderline obsessed with the Christopher Nolan Batman franchise and I can guarantee this will one of the few films we will actually go see in the theaters. Some others that I'm really excited for: The Hunger Games (the first book is by far my favorite of the three), The Hobbit (again, my favorite Tolkien book---a much better read than Lord of the Rings), The Woman in Black, saw the trailer on Katherine's blog the other day and it looks super creepy and good, and it's PG-13!, Snow White and the Huntsman - love the new take on a classic fairytale...although I wish they would have picked a better actress for Snow White. Sorry, but not even in a fairytale is Kristin Stewart prettier than Charlize Theron). I'm hoping the new Spiderman movie will be more in the vein of the Batman movies, let's keep our fingers crossed. The Great Gatsby, I can't wait to see Baz Luhrman's take on this classic tragedy and how can it not be good with Leo playing Gatsby? Speaking of Leo, Titanic is being re-released in 3-D!!! haha okay there's no way I will pay money to see that, I almost died when I saw a preview for it over the Christmas break. Quite frankly I think James Cameron is way over-estimating how good the movie was. It did well because of freak-show 13-year-olds like myself that saw it 7 times in the theater. And lastly, I'm excited to see Lincoln by Steven Spielberg. He's my second-favorite president after all and I'm hoping the movie lives up to all the hype it's already gettting. I think it's a pretty safe bet though with Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Tommy Lee-Jones, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt among other great cast members.
-Oh yeah and the whole 2012-world-ending-Myan-Calendar mayhem. That's sure to be entertaining.
Happy New Year everyone, let's make it a good one :)