Ta DA! Grand Opening

Yup, that's right.  If you noticed the little addition to the right of the blog, you'll notice that THE etsy store has been launched.

It's super small right now (3 items) but keep your eye on the number of designs as the store grows.  Also, the designs will go from just folded note cards to things such as correspondence cards, calling cards, note pads and such.

So introducing One Pound Designs!

Please visit the  Etsy Shop today!

Playing Catch-Up

The 10 biggest things that happened in absentia from the blogosphere

1 - I learned to make pasta... from scratch.  Yay for BB&B's clearance section and my husband being stealth finding the Kitchen Aid mixer attachments for a significantly reduced price.  I think he may have regretted the find the next day when all inches of our kitchen counters were covered with drying spaghetti, cappellini and fettucinne.  I didnt manage to take a picture, since my hands were covered in flour, but it was still pretty amusing.

2 - the shelves in the living room are hung.  We had issues w/ stuff falling off of them b/c of them being slightly not-level, but after additional bracing, we think everything's safe.  Let's hope

3 - I had my first post-grad interview.  It didnt go the way I'd planned (yes, I'm bummed), but talk about an awesome wake-up call!

4- Mr. Bama turned 28 and we had a really fun party for him that included King Cake.  Guess who got the Baby Jesus in his piece.?  Yup, you guessed right.

the cake's on fire

 blowing out the candles!

5 - Bear has gone from being shy wall flower of puppy playgroup to standout social butterfly.  He's also gained 5 lbs since we adopted him.  He's still small, but his ginormous paws tell a different story of whats to come.

Here he is as I'm trying to teach him how to sit by my side while I work at the computer (hence the leash.)  Its definitely easier said then done, but I dont like leaving him in the crate the whole time.

6 - Alabama won the National Championship (Mr. Bama says Bear was the good luck charm) and the Saints won the NFC Championship.  Next up - Saints winning the Super Bowl.  Who dat!?

7 - my computer's been revived from the dead.  My iPhone however had a tragic encounter w/ a friend's glass of Guiness at a bar.
+=

Two days and $200 later my phone's back (well, a shiny new replacement phone's back, better than it exploding from the constant buzzing and uncontrollable levels of heat it was emitting)

8 - I've decided to follow in my mom's late 90's steps and attempt to grow herbs.  Hopefully my venture is a tad bit more successful than hers.  Fingers crossed.

9 - we finally made a trek to the awesome bar/restuarant on our block and met practically all of our neighbors (who are either regulars or actual employees) .  One things for sure - our neighborhood is amazing because everyone knows everyone else and makes a point to introduce themselves to newbies like me and Mr Bama.  It really makes us love our neighborhood that much more.

10 - I'm 97% ready to open one pound design on etsy.  I just need to order some boxes and get a few formatting issues finished.  Then off we go!

so now everyone's up to date, phew! Lets hope I do better in keeping the blog updates coming.

keeping you posted...

Tomorrow= blog update, I promise.  So much has been going on that it's been really hard lately to keep the blog postings rolling in day after day!  Mr Bama and I literally pass out exhausted as soon as pup is put down for sleep each night.  Kind of like how our little Bear is demonstrating here:

But tomorrow will be different.  Til then, have a fabulous Tuesday! 

Finally, some home yumminess

So in the insanity of training the newest addition to our family (it has been a lesson, rather many many lessons in a row, more so for me and Mr Bama than Bear.) I realized that I never followed up on the decorational state of our home.  So here we go!

The bedroom- yes, i realize that the walls to the R & L of the picture are bare.  I'm still trying to figure out what to do there.

The window seat to the left of the bed -

 Before:

After:

the initials are from behind the bar at our wedding - Mr. Bama put those there bc we had no idea what to do with them.  The seat cushion was originally a sun-faded pukey pink but I took one of Mr. Bama's old twin bed sheets that was a pretty navy and just folded it around the cushion - voila, new cover!  I also love how the blue of the wall and the green of the tree outside are so complementary.

Our chest of drawers -

Another example of Mr. Bama's bachelor furniture.  While totally not my style, it does the job for now.

Our living room -

before

Now:

yeah it looks cluttered, but we're combining two people's stuff into approx 900sq ft (and one of us came from a 2,000 sq ft house).  Once again I LOVE the guillotine window that I FINALLY got to open completely.  When fully open, you can walk through it (!!)

Turning around, this is the view of the kitchen -

Before

Now

I was really hesistant about the bikes at first when Mr. Bama proposed them being hung like that, but it is definitely a conversation piece that is also practical since we don't have a garage to house them.  The galley kitchen isn't the best  use of space when you have two people in the kitchen at the same time, but I love having more space and SOOO much storage. 

We also have a second bedroom/office that is really a disaster because we have lots of books and papers, but no shelving.  Someday it will be organized.

So that's it for now.  We've still got alot of stuff to hang, shelves to mount and some places to touch-up paint, but all-in-all it's done, much to my relief!

2010 Surprises

Happy New Year!  Mr. Bama and I had a wonderful New Years Eve at the WWII museum and then hotel bar hopping.  I will share pictures from the wonderful night in a later post, but first I must share the biggest news:  The Bama family has expanded.  We had been discussing the idea of adopting a puppy from a local shelter for the past few months and I had kind of insisted that we tackle the house being completed and how we'd like it before we make such a big decision.  I also refused to visit any shelter because I knew I'd want to take all of the puppies home.  So after many many talks and prayers, Mr. Bama and I found a litter of Australian Shephard Mix puppies online that had been rescued on the northshore and needed a home.  We met him Saturday and ...

... without further ado, this is our baby Bear:

We know what the mom (a chocolate Blue Merle Aussie) looks like, but we think his dad was a Lab

Hanging out with Daddy

sitting nice and tall for the camera.

So far it's been a very interesting experience.  Bear has crate trained incredibly well, whining and crying the first time we put him in, but after that it has stopped.  The past 3 nights have been absolutely wonderful - no crying or whining, just passing out to sleep after a few minutes.  He even goes to his crate voluntarily to nap(Joy!)  On the other hand, housetraining has had its ups and downs.  Only a few accidents in the house, so lets just hope our persistence and the trips outside every 10 minutes keeps working.  The only huge issue has been biting -- Good HEAVENS this puppy bites.  We've tried so much, from yelping when he does it to getting up and just walking away, which is apparently shows the puppy that if he bites, their playmate will ignore him, which they hate.  But alas he still bites.  Any ideas?

So Mr. Bama and me plus puppy make three!  Can't wait til he gets all of his shots and then we can go out and experience the very dog-friendly world that is NOLA!