New furniture

Yesterday my mom and I went to get new furniture for my place.  I'm very excited about it!  My parents had said that they would get me a bed and sofa for my birthday and you bet I cashed in on that.  Unfortunately, this morning we found out that the condo floors aren't level so the hard floors can't be installed.  I'm really disappointed.  At least we didn't have to pay a restocking fee since we didn't know that it wouldn't work.  I find it irritating that we had to wait all this time to get approved, measured, the wood to acclimate to the apartment temperature, and on installation day that is when we find out that it won't work.  Why didn't they check that before they ordered 50 boxes of laminant for us?  I'm trying to look on the bright side though. At least now I don't have to worry about all of the sound problems from downstairs that could have occurred and I don't have buy a ton of area rugs.  I will probably be picking light colored carpet to compliment my new furniture.

I have a chocolate brown duvet cover that I'm going try to make
work with the bed.  I'm going to try to lighten the whole thing
up with cream color accent pillows.  If it doesn't work and it
looks too dark I will be on the market for a new duvet cover.

Love Seat

Sofa

Additional chair for my bedroom so I have somewhere to put
socks on.

I also got a ton of stuff from TJ Maxx yesterday.  It seems like I spent a lot, but the quality on all of my stuff is pretty nice so I was willing to spring for it.  I can't even imagine trying to furnish a whole house.

I got the toilet bowl brush to match the chrome light fixture and faucet head
that my dad put in the bathroom for me.  The sheets will look and feel nice
on my new bed!

For salt, sugar, brown sugar, and flour.

I was disappointed that Corelle's designer plate sets run at around $50 for a
set of 16.  I decided to go with plain white, but got the little square bowls ($5.50/set) on the
bottom left as accent bowls.  I will probably use them as rice bowls, but may revert to
the traditional round.  The other serving bowls were really reasonably priced at:
Large Round: $13
Contoured Oval: $10 (clearance)
Slim Oval: $5.50 (clearance)
The mixing bowls, I got two, were only $4 each.

For some reason this is upside down, but it's just my silverware
tray, shower caddy, and hand towels.

This was a more frivolous purchase.  These are crystal paper weights in the
shapes of diamonds ($10/set).  I bought the container for $10 and plan to get those clear
pebbles that are made for fish tanks as additional filler.  I'm going to mix all the
bling together to go around the green candles that I got at the dollar store.
They smell awesome.  This will be my coffee table centerpiece.  

Pixarpalooza

On Friday night Nick and I went to Pixar for Pixarpalooza.  It is an employee appreciation event that they have every year for family and friends to come and enjoy themselves on their campus.  We had a great time and I got to meet Nick Pitera who you may know for his pretty famous Aladdin cover.  If you haven't seen it, you definitely should.  As soon as he got on the stage I reverted to my fan-girl ways.  We had a great time, but I got a little over zealous with the open bar.  I don't think I need to say much more about that.  Hehe.

I was soooo excited.

I got this hat for my Uncle David because he had wanted
a wine glass like the one I got the first time I went, but the
gift shop was closed.  

Birthday Card

Thank you everyone for your nice birthday wishes on Facebook, texts, calls, and cards.  My supervisor, who is a fantastic scrapbooker, made me this card and had everyone sign it. Isn't it awesome?!

BBQ Pictures

The party was a huge success!  We weren't able to take a lot of pictures because we were so busy, but here they are!

I was pretty bummed that the paint came off when people were holding
their glasses.  The box said that it was permanent, but clearly not.  I might write
to the company to complain because I spent a lot of time personalizing the
cups as favors. 

We had so much more food too, but no pictures of it.  Oh well.  Everyone really enjoyed the party and kept tell me how good of a job I did, but Nick hosted it too!  All-in-all it was a complete success.  It's a good thing that Christopher and my dad put together the outdoor heater because it was cold!

Anniversary BBQ Menu

This weekend Nick, Christopher, Briana and I are hosting my parents 40-year anniversary BBQ with some of their friends.  This is only the first of two as we will be having one with our family too.  Yay for BBQs! Here is the menu that Nick and I have planned out.  It was a little bit difficult, not to mention frustrating, because two of our guests decided on a whim to become vegetarians for a month just to see if they could do it.  Not only that, they're picky eaters to begin with.  So I've planned a couple of things that normally wouldn't be on my party menu.  I'm fully prepared to pick up BCR burritos for them in the morning to throw on the grill to reheat, but I'm hoping that the appetizers and sides will be enough to fill them.

Appetizers:
Eggrolls
Bacon-wrapped scallops
Brie and smoked salmon
Edamame
Veggie Platter 

Entree:
Filet mignon topped with shallots, garlic, and rosemary butter
Spicy garlic shrimp
German potato salad
Home-made Mac and Cheese with crusty buttery topping
Baked beans (my Dad's choice...simple as always)
Chinese gai lan
Berry platter 

Dessert:
Grilled Cling peaches with vanilla ice cream 

Beverages:
Wine
Wine
More wine
Beer
Cucumber-lemon water
Soda (for the underaged)

I've made each guest a wine glass as a favor using glass paint and white wine stemless glasses.  When I have the time, which better be soon, I will take pictures of them all to post.  Nick will be cutting his own filet mignon, which he is very excited about.   That is his project.  Mine, well, is the rest of the meal. Christopher and Briana are commissioned with cleaning before and after as to many cooks in the kitchen is always a bad thing.  So, I'll be starting my grocery shopping tonight after I try to get myself to paint the kitchen in the condo, then Costco shopping tomorrow, and food prep on Friday.  No wonder I've been so tired!

Table Top

This weekend we went out to the City to take my grandma to dim sum since we haven't seen her in a while.  My parents had saved me table legs from an old outdoor table that they had, but I wasn't sure if I wanted it.  I figured that it would be more expensive to buy a new table top than to just get a fabricated set from Ikea.  I had just told my parents the night before that they could get rid of the table legs when I came upon a free table top!  I was walking Emmy so that she could stretch her legs before she had to stay in the car during lunch when I saw it propped up against a tree with a pile of old carpet.  Emmy was marking, but I was getting so excited I started tugging her even though there was no one else around to steal it from me.  I started wheeling it back when Nick yells, "What are you doing?"  and all is say is, "Come help me!".  Sometimes I wonder why he stays with me.  I picked a table top off the side the street in San Francisco...classy, I know.

Since we were going to lunch I ran upstairs to my grandma's flat and had my dad open the garage door.

Me: Can you open the garage door please?
Dad: For what?
Me: I found a table top.
Dad: On the street?
Me: Yeah, when I was walking Emmy.
Dad: That's my daughter!

I do have to say, my dad sounded quite proud of his cheap-skate daughter!  My plan is to glue little embellishments onto the side of the table so that it has some charm and then paint it black.

These are about an inch in length.  Hopefully it turns
out the way I want it too!  

Wicked Poster Frame

I finally got a frame for my autographed Wicked poster.  Now that I will actually have room to put things on the wall, I figured I should get it done.

Daiso Japan

On Saturday when Nick and I went to the wedding reception in Union City there was a Daiso Japan in the shopping center.  Before everyone was seated I headed over there with Nick's cousin and Aunt.  Oh what a wonderland of Asian goodies.  It's probably a good thing that we couldn't stay for long otherwise I would have bought soooo much stuff, but at least everything was only $1.50!

How ridiculous and cute is this?  It's a sponge that attaches
to you sink so that it can dry.  I got this for my mom since it's
not everyday that you see a sponge shaped like a pig.

I'm going to take these to the apartment. 

For work

I've been wanting to try one of these exfoliating pads.
Maybe it will help get the paint off!

Paint

I am probably the messiest painter out there.  Now that the floors have been measured and we're just waiting on the flooring company to get the laminant I want into their facilities, I'm really on the move to get the place painted and floor boards removed.  I'm removing the floor boards myself so that the flooring company doesn't charge us for it.  I'm giving them all a fresh coat of white paint for when we go to put them back on, but the way I'm going they are all going to be broken before we can put them back!  The living and dining rooms are pretty much done, but need some touch ups.  I'm not working on the master bedroom and will move on to the spare bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen afterwards. My upcoming weekends are pretty busy with birthday parties and social events so I'm really plugging along after work.  By the time I get home I'm so tired that I don't even want to eat.  I'm hoping that I can get the rest of the place done quickly, but we'll see how it goes.  I haven't been taking any pictures since at this point it's kind of hard to see the difference.  Once I get the floors in and the kitchen counter, backsplash and stove done then I will post more pictures.

I even had some on my eyebrow.  How did I do that?!

Walmart: Hard Candy

On Saturday night Nick and I had to go to a wedding of a distant cousin of his.  On our way home we ventured into a Walmart so that I could pick up some hand lotion and Nick some screws.  I figured that since we were there I would check out their Hard Candy display as they are the only store that carries the line (that I know of anyway).  A lot of the stuff was picked through, but I had heard great things about their boxed blushes and fiber mascara.  One of the makeup gals I like to watch really enjoys the Hard Candy blush so I got the same color as the one she showed.  It looked pretty bright in her video, but when she applied it the color was pretty subtle.  Well, let me tell you, it is bright.  I seriously looked like a clown when I first put it on.  This blush will last me a while because I found that all you have to do is tap your brush in it once and you have enough color for both cheeks.  I would also advise getting any excess blush off the brush on the back of your hand first before applying it to you face.

I had also heard some pretty good reviews about their fiberized mascara so I purchased that as well.  Upon first use, I thought that the formula was pretty dry with little color pay off and I didn't see any fibers sticking to my lashes to make them appear thicker.  They looked thinner and more natural, in fact.  I did notice, however, that even though the mascara has little fibers in it, there was very little fall out throughout the day.  I saw a little bit right before I went to bed, but it held up pretty well for having it on from 7am-10pm.  I tried it again today and found that the formula must have settled onto the brush because more product came out this time.  I'm not sure that I would purchase this again, but will use it until it runs out.  I will stick to my Loreal Voluminous mascara.

$6.00 each

  

Garage sale finds

This weekend it seemed like everyone and their mom was having a garage sale.  Literally.  Briana's mom is moving to Arizona for a new job so she was having a garage sale to get rid of some of their furniture.  Ever since NY, I've been in love with lift top coffee tables.  Lo and behold, Briana's mom had one and was selling it for $15 when they run $200+.  Woo hoo!  The hinge is a little bit broken so the table doesn't lay completely flat, but I'm going to see if my dad can fix it.  If not, it's not that big of a deal.  I also got an awesome giant mirror that I plan to hang in my tiny dining room to make it look bigger and the perfect microwave stand for my microwave and Kitchen Aid mixer.  For $50, I got some great stuff!

The top is a little bit worn so I'm considering sanding it
down and staining it.  I just don't know if I want to put
that much work into it.  Since it's real wood I don't really
want to paint it and cover up the nice detail.

 

ELF Shipment

Makeup, makeup, makeup, I love makeup.  I finally got my shipment from ELF in this weekend.  I had originally wanted more tinted lip balms and lipsticks for my collection since I always just wear chapstick, but needed to reach the $35 coupon that I had purchased.  With ELF, since it's so inexpensive, it was actually a little difficult to do.  I was limited to only purchasing their mineral products for the promotion I had purchased.  I'm not sure if they are new or not, but they could be since the promotion was only for their mineral products.  Anyway, I got some loose eye shadow powders, which I generally don't like much because they make a mess, but I love these.  What a steal!  $3.00 for quite a bit of product and they are pigmented, long lasting, glittery, and gorgeous.  I was so pleasantly surprised and have been wearing them the last couple of days.  I figured I was just ordering some eye shadows to fill up my cart, but I ended up with some great products.

From Left: Wild, Elegant, Caffeinated, Socialite

From Left: Pink, Natural, Guava, Cherry

These have SPF 8 and are actually rather moisturizing for lipbalms.  I'm quite
picky when it comes to lip products, but so far these make the grade.  They
also have a sweet flavor to them. 

From Left: Bare Brown, Cool Coral

Cool Coral and Bare Brown