27 Goals for 2010

In the style of everyone else who made one of these lists, here's my list of 27 goals for my upcoming 27th year:

1. Blog once a week
2. Do some semi-major work on the house
3. Investigate alternative proteins at Whole Foods
4. Unsubscribe to all the crap emails I get (15 down, about 1000 to go)
5. Sort out the storage disaster happening in the laundry room
6. Try to learn the basics of a foreign language
7. Take pictures for fun
8. Make a summertime wreath
9. Make a headboard

Wow. This is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Umm...

10. Use my stove top espresso pot
11. Use the vegetable steamer
12. Cook vegetable curry without burning everything
13. Buy a new flash
14. Read one book a month
15. Really mop (not Swiffer mop) every room in the house
16. Run a 1/2 marathon in the Spring
17. And again in the Fall
18. Hike some sort of mountain in Colorado
19. Visit the Stanley
20. Take pictures of all my nieces and nephews on their birthdays
21. Buy a button maker and make buttons
22. Drink more green tea
23. Finally clean my office
24. Reduce my book collection to only my favorites
25. Be a vendor at a bridal show
26. Throw a dinner party
27. Sell a bunch of my vintage clothes on Etsy

Real Estate Doesn't Make Sense

Real Estate in Omaha just doesn't make any sense to me. Look at this house.



8300 square feet
7 bedrooms
Historic landmark home

$289K

Excuse me? What?

And Now I Want a Shed for Christmas

I just saw this awesome shed on Design*Sponge and now I want one. Can't Santa just tie one to the back of the sled and drop it off?

Right now we have a nasty ass shed in our backyard that's currently housing spiders, a pile of fertilizer and an old computer monitor - courtesy of the former owners. I would love to have a studio or a little office back there. It would free up a lot of room in the house. Currently we don't really need the space, but in the future we plan to spawn and I hear kids take up a lot of room. I mean, I'm all for putting a crib in the spare bedroom with the book shelves, unused furniture and piles of clothes but I think it would be nice for our future children to have actual bedrooms.

I Feel Like an A-Hole

I experienced my first dining out meat trauma tonight. Matt and I went out to dinner with my family for our annual pre-Christmas family night out. We went with Mexican. Safe choice, right? Err. Ya.

I ordered a bean burrito and about five bites into it I came face-to-food with a pile of ground beef. I had my sister look at it to make sure I wasn't hallucinating beef, and sure enough. Beef burrito. I flagged down the waitress and told her I couldn't eat the beef burrito. I didn't say, "I don't eat meat" or "I'm a vegetarian." I just said, "This is beef and I can't eat it." She apologized and took it back. But I felt like a giant asshole. I sent food back. I hate sending food back.

She came back with a true bean burrito but I was too freaked out to eat it. Plus, I suspected that the beans weren't vegetarian. They were way too good. I took a few bites then passed it on to my sister to take home. I instead ate the remainder of my nephews cheese pizza. Yes, in Nebraska you can get pizza at Mexican restaurants. Don't ask me why.

Am I really one of those people now? Am I going to have to declare to my waitstaff that I don't eat beef, poultry or pork and to please I beg you make sure it isn't on my plate? I've always thought that people who make a big deal about being vegetarians while eating out were just assholes who liked to be difficult. But I'm seeing now that they're probably just doing it to make sure they don't get handed something with meat hidden in it. And even if I'm not really a vegetarian, is it safer to simply say that I am when ordering out? When I can't see the prep process of my dinner is it better to take the precaution and look like an asshole?

The Pioneer Woman...

...knows I exist in this world.

More or less.

I submitted this photo to one of her challenges and it got posted this morning right here.



My list of accomplishments in life is now as follows:

1. Marry a loving, talented, adorable man who thinks I'm the best and lets me shop without question.
2. Start myself on a path to self-employment.
3. Get posted on Pioneer Woman's blog.
4. That's pretty much it.

Hello, Nice to Meet You

I found this designer, Sam Edelman, yesterday. I'm sort of in love with him right now. I would wear any of the above were it not for the fact that I can't handle 5 inch heels, and I don't have several hundred spare dollars to spend on ankle-breaking shoes. But wouldn't any of them look fantastic with my $700 DVF dress that I posted below?

I also really like these for some reason:



I would wear the shit out of those umm... snow shoes? Cosmonaut boots?

I warned Matt that if he ever makes us rich I'll probably blow all of our money on furniture and clothes.

In other news, by the end of the week I should be listed as a local vendor on The Knot. I'm not really a huge fan of the way they go about pushing the "dream wedding" on girls, but I do think that it's a really great place to start your search for wedding info. They've got crap tons of resources on there.

I'd also like to have a feature on Offbeat Bride since the kooky gals need love too, but those are a little pricier and the Omaha market is considerably smaller on there. And by "considerably smaller" I think we're talking maybe 10 people total. But I love them and they don't discriminate against any type of wedding. Most of my weddings so far have been pretty unique: a park, a hospital chapel, an old school Italian restaurant... so I'd like to make sure my bizz has exposure the non-traditional market too.