I love this girl's style

Yes, I was the creepy girl on the bus the other day taking pictures of some stranger. But, oh my goodness, this girl had great style. Her boots socks had little charms on the back and the chambray dress was beyond cute. So, yes, I snapped a picture and yes, that's creepy! But I wanted to copy her style!

We're not grocery shopping until December!

Today I cooked all day--literally. My goal is Mike and I won't have to go grocery shopping for anything but milk and produce until December. After visiting four stores yesterday and a lot of couponing and planning (about 4 hours), we now have over 50 meals in our freezer!

From my last freezer meal cooking:

• 3 peanut stir frys
• 3 chicken enchiladas
• 1 buttermilk chicken

And then today:

• 4 lasagna soups for two
• 4 apple squash soups for two
• 4 french onion soups for two
• 6! butternut squash lasagnas (and we just had one and it seems to make 2 meals per pan! That's 12 meals!) (also, this is amazing!)
• 4 lettuce wrap fillings (PF Changs knock off)
• 6 frozen pizza doughs
• 4 pizza casseroles
• 4 white cheddar chicken casseroles

Plus! We have:

• 6 pizzas (from costco)
• 2 bags of potstickers
• 10 lbs of chicken

Combine that with the ridiculous deals I got on uncle bens side dish rice and cereal (hot and cold), we can pretty much survive a zombie apocalypse.

Oh and I got 24 yoplait yogurts with 4 coupons that were save .40 on 6, those coupons double (but I think it didn't, now that I think about it) and then I got $1.25 off my next transaction with the purchase of 12. So I bought my yogurts first and then used those catalina coupons ($2.50) off the rest of my groceries! I'm going to figure out how to be an extreme couponer for our December shopping trip.

Basically: couponing + once-a-month cooking = win! 

What a Friday

The day started out as just another beautiful day in Denver. 70s, sunny, nice breeze:

Then the rash on my neck started to itch, get more red and hot. Then my throat felt like it was going to close up and I couldn't breathe. So I got a nice little ride in the ambulance. (my paramedics were awesome)

After several hours and lost of drugs at the ER, the rash is going away and I was able to eat the chik fil a Mike got me for lunch. Breathing is back to normal and I slept all afternoon. I'm
lucky to have a few great nurses including Lucy:

The Clover!

Look what the Starbucks by my office got! You can only get their fancy coffees and it is ridic expensive ... But I'm still going to try it next time.

Everyone should have pink shoes

I still love SNL

I love SNL. No matter who or what they make fun of, they are right on the mark. When I ask someone at work "did you see SNL this weekend?" I often get "you still watch SNL?!?" Yes, SNL is an American institution. I watch it religiously. I dvr it and watch it Sunday morning.

Alec Baldwin is one of the best hosts and two weeks ago was no exception. The opening skit was one of the best EVER! It doesn't matter your political views, this is just hilarious.

Pom Pom Snap Scarf (Sneak Peek)

Here's a sneak peek (and obvious self portraits) of a new scarf I designed. It has four snaps and can be worn in a multitude of ways! I'll post more pics when I have a photographer (ie Mike) It has blue pom poms all around the edge and I'm wearing it wrapped three times.

My Mom is awesome

My Mom was in town last weekend and helped us TRANSFORM our house from 1990's stock gold fixtures to 2011. We love our house on Jackdaw, but you could totally tell it was put up at the same time as all other houses in the subdivision. The green paint that was put on the house a few years ago (before we moved in) upped it a lot from the original cream (I found pictures online). 

Mom and I tackled a ton of projects. We ripped out the wall in the dining area and installed an awesome built in bookshelf that looks like it was original to the house. Thanks to the new midre saw Mom got me, it was a breeze! 

Mom scoring the drywall before we jigged it out (that stuff is dusty!)

The hole! That's the vent for the fireplace and the back of the tv hole. 

Mom brought me a tool belt, it made me feel pretty badass. Here I am framing out the shelves. 

The finished product! Be impressed. 

It was really dusty, so I put Mavi's doggles on. 

Oh, and he got in the paint. 

We got a new TV for the man cave and wanted to put the LCD above the fireplace. We thought about taking out the entire built-in for a 1990s TV, but instead we decided to build an amazing mount for it. A couple of two by fours, L-brackets and a tv mount later and it looked like the TV was meant for that spot!

TV hole before (with the new mount!) 

TV above the fire place! Woo hoo!

 We also installed a ton of new light fixtures, which really updated the house! Mom and I took out the boring dome light and awful flourescent light box in the kitchen and put in amazing new light from Ikea.

I do love Ikea! These are Ikea Tidig series

And we took down the hateful, builder standard, 1993 gold chandelier. That thing was so stuck in there we didn't think it was going to go back in well... and we were right. After, primer, 2 coats of textured black spray, new black chain and 2 hours of trying to reinstall the damn thing, we finally got it back in. I'll deal with the 2 hours of hell (and accidentally smacking my Mom in the nose in the process) for a Pottery Barn look for only $5.

Hello Pottery Barn, goodbye crappy gold. 

We took the front entry from these lights:

To amazing wood textured lights:

Then we had an extra shade (they came from World Market as a set of three) and I really wanted some reading light in the corner above the chaise, so Mom and I took the metal from the fluorescent light box we ripped out in the kitchen and turned it into an almost invisible arm for the other shade. We took the light kit from the old entry lamp and spliced it with a extension cord to create another hanging lamp. It is probably my favorite project we did all weekend because it was completely unexpected and creative.

The perfect amount of glow for reading, watching TV or napping puppies. 

I couldn't have done all of this without my Mom joining me. We had such an awesome weekend of power tools, Lowes trips and knocking down walls.

First CU Game

For Christmas last year I bought Mike season tickets to the Buffs. Two weekends ago was the first time I've actually been able to go. I've been to Folsom several times (for the Bolder Boulder) but this was the first time I had been at a game.

Well, they lost... but!! It was family weekend and the entire Chip family was there. Vanessa and I missed several plays watching the hilarious Chip family prance around the field.

Ah Folsom, you're so pretty. 

Molly and Vanessa were cheering with us, thanks to Zach and Dana!

Chip's whole family! So frickin' cute. 

We also bought a giant inflatable Ralphie for the front yard on Saturdays, too bad it snowed this weekend.