Things that have inspired me this week:

Jaime Oliver's Food Revolution

If you haven't heard of this show yet, it is amazing. It comes on ABC Friday nights at 9pm. You can also catch it on hulu, or ABC's website whenever, where ever. This is something that everyone in the country needs to see. It is so incredible to realize that there are kid in this country that have no idea what a tomato is, or that french fries come from potatoes. I guess that it is hard for me to believe this coming from a mother who is a nutritionist and when I was young worked at a job where she had a desk full of fake food haha. There is something wrong with the food that we feed our children, and regardless of the decisions that we make for ourselves, raising a generation of children with nutritional habits that will kill them before they turn 40 is just insane. Plus, Jaime is adorable, has a British accent, and makes the yummiest looking food.


Food Inc.

I'm sure you have heard of this film by now, and I know that I personally avoided watching it because I was afraid it would make me hate all my favorite foods. It didn't quite do that, but it has opened up my mind to making better food decisions. One major point that I felt this film touched on was looking into where the foods we eat come from. I know that I definitely don't take the time to find out what is in my food and how far is travelled to get to me, and it was very enlightening to see how that affects the quality of the things we eat. I don't know exactly how this is going to affect our lives, but it has definitely planted a seed.

We watched this film today in my Art and Environment class, which may seem strange for an Art History course but we talked about it in an interesting context. Today we discussed how companies use packaging design to fool their consumers. On the package of butter that you just purchased, why was there such a nice looking pastoral scene, showing a farm maybe a barn with a tractor in front? The butter was most likely produced in a factory made from the milk of a cow breed specifically to make you that butter. It is strange to think about how as consumers we are constantly being manipulated, without much control.

OK.. my rant is over. Sorry for such a heavy load tonight, this is just what has been on my mind this week.

137 days to go.

As we fast approach the 4 month mark I decided to make a count down on our wall until August 14th. What I discovered though is when you write out all the days like that it makes it seem even further away haha. Regardless, for the entire month of April I will have to say goodbye to wedding planning and turn over that responsibility to Keith. I'm currently staring down three 20 page papers complete with presentations that will all occur in the next 4 weeks. I am very thankful that summer is coming soon, and I will get a break from all things academic for a couple months. Here's to the greatest summer of OUR lives :)

A few things to look forward to in the midst of a stressful school load?:

1. The possibility of Katelyn coming to visit this weekend. I miss my former roommate, she likes watching Disney movies on the couch with me, and eating junk food. That is something that I desperately need :)

2. My mom is coming next weekend! She's going to be here from Thursday until Sunday and I'm SOOO excited for her to get a chance to see our world here in Philadelphia. Also, I will be giving 2 of my presentation before she gets here, so I will have a chance to enjoy some downtime for the weekend.

3. Keith moving to a new store that is much closer to home. This is something that we're both incredibly excited about! Although he gets along wonderfully with the people at the store he currently works at, it is just too far away. Since we moved here we have had nothing but frustrating stories involving car trouble related to his long commute, and we're very thankful that he is going to be able to work at a store that is just 15 minutes away without any traveling on the highway. It has been and will continue to be a little bit stressful transitioning to his new location because his district manager has yet to find him a replacement at the old store (meaning he has to be back and forth between the two), but this is definitely an answer to our prayers. Hooray for spending less money on gasoline! and for Keith being closer to home! and not having to get home so late at night! Too many reasons why this is awesome :)

DIY dye

So I know I mentioned this after we painted, but our living room has recently been stiflingly beige. We definitely can't afford a new couch anytime in the immediate future so we thought about getting a new cover for the futon that we have, just to introduce a little bit of color. After making the trek to Target only to find that they only sold beige futon covers my next bet was just to dye the thing myself. Last night with some help from Keith I took on the challenge with surprisingly great results.

Here is the cover before it got dyed.

Here it is in this giant tupperware bin we conveniently own (Thanks Aunt Liz haha). This was definitely a labor intensive task; I had to stir the fabric in that bin constantly for at least 30 minutes. (I took a few breaks sshhhh) and yes, now the top of our broom stick is blue and my fingers still have a smurf-ish tinge to them haha

We chose blue.. why not, we haven't decorated anything else in the room so it doesn't really need to match anything. I really like the way the color came out, I wasn't sure what would happen with the beige base.

Keith found it ironic that I was wearing a shirt that was the same color as the futon cover. I obviously am a fan of dark blues haha. We don't have a lot of space in our little apartment, so this it the cover drying over the top of our shower. I really wish that our landlord hadn't gotten rid of our beautiful claw foot tub, because this would have been a MUCH easy process with that instead of me standing in the shower for half an hour trying to rinse this thing.

$3.00 bottle of Rit later and here is the finished product. I must say.. it is very difficult to put a futon cover on by yourself haha but I showed that thing who was boss. It is by no means perfect, there are some strange spots that I can't really explain but over all I'm very very pleased to have just a little bit more color in the room.

Theo already approves :)

And lastly, a SUPER HUGE AWESOME THANKS to Keith's wonderful mother Tami. She sent us a HUGE package this week filled with all kinds of goodies, including all our favorite Girl Scout cookies. Keith and I never have cash on us, so we didn't get to purchase many cookies this year, and now we need to savor every last one :) Thank you so much Tami, I'm going to be so spoiled on junk food now. Loveee it.

Dinner

Tonight I put my excellete fiace cooking skills to the test and made lasagna for dinner. I don't cook very often mostly because Keith enjoys cooking for us, so I took the opportunity and ran. It turned out great and even Keith admitted it was better than he thought it would be haha Now we just have lots of leftovers. Come over and have some!

NYC weekend

So as I explained in my last post, I was in NYC last weekend. It turned out to be a nice/semi relaxing visit with Amanda and Jake, and we were able to enjoy some of the wonderful weather that the Northeast has been experiencing.

Here is Leelou soaking up the sun and enjoying her cat grass.. we need to get Theo some, I'm sure he would devour it haha

I got to town on Friday morning and shortly after Jake, Amanda and I made the trek up to North Manhattan to visit the Cloisters Museum. If you've never been, I highly recommend it. Here are some photos from our day.











This is Amanda and Jake with a Narwhal tusk. No big deal haha





Here is Jake posing with one of Diesel's terrible subway ads

We passed a cat shelter and Amanda and I swooned over all the adorable kitties :)

Then we went and got some burritos for dinner, complete with $4 frozen margaritas mmmmm

On Saturday I went with Amanda to Chelsea for a gallery walk with one of her classes. We got to see some strange and interesting art, and above all got to enjoy more lovely weather. Afterwards we made the trek up to Queens to check out all the construction work Jake had done in his bedroom.

Here he is with his master piece of a recording studio/area to play drums without bothering his neighbors room. It smells a lot like wood in his room and it's a little cramped, but it's a pretty neat space and very practical for him

He now has his bed lofted with his desk underneath.. but alas! What is missing? Oh yeah, a ladder to get up on the bed. Amanda and I struggled to get up there.

She succeeded better than I did.. my pants just weren't as stretchy.

She then preceded to crawl on top of the recording studio box like a cat haha

Lastly, this is the tapestry at the MET that I'm writing a paper about, and essentially the reason why I went to the city. Now I just have to do the paper haha

Sunday I ended up having a lot more free time that I anticipated after I met up with my classmates at the Metropolitan Museum, Amanda and Jake met up with me midday and we got to check out the Whitney Biennial.

Wonderful weekend, although I did come home with a yucky sinus infection :( I'm currently recovering, unhappily and hoping the weather stays as nice as it has been.

Out of town

After a week filled with many trials I'm currently on a bus to New
York City for the weekend. This trip is slightly bittersweet because
while I do get to see my brother for the first time in months, I
didn't get to see Keith very much this week and that makes it harder
to be away from home. I'm going to be here to get some research done
for a paper I'm writing this semester and I'm pretty excited to visit
galleries with Amanda, expect a photo update later in the weekend.

It seems that we can't catch a break with our poor little car. After
Keith sat at a mechanic's shop for 8 hours and spent over $500 we're
still not completely sure what's wrong :-( I don't mean this to sound
like a pity party by any means, because in so many ways we are
completely taken care of. I can't thank our parents and families
enough for always being there to help us out when we're going through
tough times. Just little things like Keith's mom helping is out with
groceries this week goes such a long way.

Here's my short list of goals for the coming weeks:

1. STOP BITING MY NAILS! It only makes me more stressed, and I would
like to have pretty long nails before our wedding
2. Don't let our car situation bring me down. It's going to be fine,
we've done all that we personally can do and it's time to just take
things has they come.
3. Enjoy the incredibly awesome weather that the northeast is
experiencing. After the winter we just had I'm not sure if I could
ever take a sunny day for granted again, but I would really like to
take this oppurtunity to spend some time outside.

Ready for a long one?

So as I'm sure I mentioned, Keith and I were in Florida this past week. We weren't able to see as many friends as we wanted to, but it was a great time to relax, hang with family and enjoy the nice weather. Now it's back to work and school and wedding planning with zero time for much else. Here are some pictures from our trip!

After spending a year with no car and only a scooter to get around, Keith has grown quite fond of them. Kathleen and Renee have a scooter of their own now, so he took any chance possible to ride it around town.

The second night we got to town Keith shaved off the beard he had been growing all winter! I love him always, but I think he has the most adorable face, and love love love when I get to see it :)

My aunt has an adorable chocolate lab puppy named Maycee. I knew this would happen, but hanging out with her made Keith want a dog really badly... one of these days. He actually talked to Kathleen about getting one of her puppies when she has babies in a couple years. I know that's far away but get ready for lots of puppy pictures when it does happen!

Here's my dad, making guacamole. Love it.

Mom. She's coming to visit us in Philadelphia in a couple weeks! Can't wait!

Kathleen and Renee. We wish we could live closer to them :(

On Saturday my cousin Jack had a basketball game which just happened to be in the gym of my old high school and quickly flooded my brain with terrible memories of playing team handball ugh. Cousins David and Mark came along.

Mark, Uncle Chris and David.

After the game WE WENT TO THE BEACH!! Oh how I missed it :) After terrible thunderstorms on Thursday and Friday, Saturday could not have been any nicer.

The water was still a little too chilly for swimming but it was just so nice to be outside and feel warmth coming from the sun.

My cousins did eventually get Keith in the water, it seriously was so pretty there that day.

Things that I miss most about Florida:

1. My family and friends
2. The weather
3. The beach
4. All of my favorite foods and restaurants

If all of those things could just move themselves to Philadelphia, life would be perfect.

I rode the scooter with Keith, and looked outrageously cool in that helmet haha

Kathleen, Pam and I. Last year Kathleen and Pam both taught 5th grade together and had adjoining classrooms. I spent a lot of time substitute teaching for them or at their school, and definitely miss getting to hang out with them all the time. Sidenote: I forgot how humid Florida is for some reason. My hair was ridiculous the whole time we were there and I spent most of my time trying to brush my bangs away from my forehead haha

These are some weirdo alligator shoes that someone gave to my dad at a golf tournament. The first day we were in town Keith and I spotted them in the backseat of his car and had a pretty good laugh about them. We then preceded to nag him about them all weekend and Sunday as we were headed to the airport he actually wore them haha

After a wonderful weekend that was definitely too short we said goodbye to the Sunshine State with a beautiful sunset.

Keith and I definitely needed a vacation, and some time away from our Philadelphia lives. We ate lots of Moes, and Mexican food in general, got some wedding stuff accomplished (like putting down the deposit on our venue and getting my dress fitted!) and we got to spend some awesome times with family and friends. Since we've been home our little Theo has been SUCH a love muffin, I guess every once in awhile he needs to be reminded that he's got pretty cool parents that really appreciate when he doesn't bite them.

To those of you who we DIDN'T get to see (like Felicia :/ boo) we are very very sorry that our schedule was so tight. We will be back and that is a promise!

Until then, my fingers are crossed for more and more beautiful sunny days here in Philly that make this smile on my face bigger and bigger :)

Cat hat

I really wish Keith would let me get Theo a cat hat. The kitty on the
box looks just like him, too. Maybe for Halloween :-)

Heading out

Theo has settled in to my suicase and is ready to come with us. If
only it were that easy :-( I will miss him greatly this weekend, but I
promise I will try not to bother others with my constant grief like
the last time we left him haha

SPRING BREAK WOO!

In honor of being on spring break this week I am wearing my Key West shirt today. Even though this shirt was purchased during a trip in late November it makes me think of partying hard and endless good times. I know that Alyx and I purchased similar "Spring Break 2008" shirts in well, duh.. 2008, as modeled by Kelly Stapleton:

This may encourage me to invest in SB 2010 shirts when we get to Florida this week haha Anyone else want me to pick one up for them?

While I was looking for these pictures today I ended up getting really nostalgic and looking though my entire iPhoto collection. Lots of good times with great friends and family, miss you all so much!