27 Birthdays

27 Things I'm Thankful for this birthday

1. For having matured up enough to fall in love with a husband who thinks I'm really really awesome.
2. The way Yogi sleeps in our bed and usually kicks me out of it by morning.
3. A house that's turning into a home.
4. The cubbiest (ok, ok, big furred) cat. ever.
5. The bravest cat ever. (Yogi is no calm bear)
6. A body that continues to let me destroy push it.
7. Finding a new job that surrounds me with encouragement and support
8. Engaging in volunteerism and charity. Two values that have helped define who I want to be.
9. Finally learning how to live without the credit card "safety net"
10. Finding a habit in making a weekly breakfast-lunch-dinner grocery list.
11. Living in a city filled with people who love it so much they will put up with a week-straight downpour
12. Having friends across the US that provide us somewhere new and fun to travel to.
13. Packing a lunch everyday to save calories and cash (over two months straight so far!)
14. Living minutes to hours away from the BEST wine in Washington
15. Talking to my mom, and always ending the conversation like it's the best conversation we've ever had. I really like being able to make her smile.
16. My dad joining Facebook and liking all my pictures and posts. I like to think it shows him how much I am my father's daughter.
17. Air popped popcorn with fancy salts.
18. Finding and Buying a 8 by 10' rug for under $300 this past memorial day wknd.
19. The cats running downstairs the moment they think yogi is gone.
20. Hearing the cats run and chase at all hours of the night in all areas of the house.
21. Yogi's very low, long  and sleepy growl to any imaginary or real noise at night. He's so goofy.
22. Having done some major, although unexpected, remodeling to our basement. & so far, so good.
23. Finding success and peace in a financial plan both Ben and I could agree to.
24. Free wifi at coffee shops
25.Warmer weather each day, fewer raindrops
26. Attending Ballets routinely since moving to Seattle
27. Cucumbers and Hummus to hold me over until dinner.

Feel Good Friday

Kimbra has some of the best music (and videos) out there. fact.

Quantity of clothes, closets, and needing to clense

 

National Geographic: Teenagers run and play on
large white sand dunes in New Mexico, 1957.

I've talked about going on a clothing cleanse before - and it was moderately successful. I learned about quality of clothes and how to remove items I wasn't wearing instead of just buying more clothes. I learned to try everything on, and if I don't LOVE it, that I should not bring it home. I learned that if I wouldn't have paid full price for it, that I should not bring it home. This was a valuable foundation to finally learn and grow on. Finally, not being able to use the credit card to purchase clothes has TREMENDOUSLY cut down on buying clothes (especially online).

Over the past year and a half I've been very picky about what clothes I buy - What is its purpose, can I wear it to work, Is having another sundress really worth it when I don't have summers off anymore?

Unfortunately, I still have a lot of clothes. As in: 

1) One White Ikea closet that holds 90% of my dresses.
2) One standard dresser that holds my Stockings, Tank Tops, Skirts, Sweaters
3) One Tall dresser that holds my knit/ summer dress, Unisex T's, summer swim and shorts, and PJ's including sweatpants.
4) Built in closet that has my everyday items: button up shirts, pants, jeans, shoes, work out gear, and a million v-neck pocket t's.

Luckily, and maybe the only thing going for me, is that most of the drawers aren't packed or stuffed with clothes - so there's room for condensing.

What I think I would like to do is get a closet organizing system (like ben has!) to utilize 100% of my closet. 

This way I might be able to move a lot of my standard dresser items into the closet and move that dresser upstairs. I think I still need to sell or donate about a third of my clothes still, but I think it can be done. Right now our bedroom is just over crowded: three dressers, nightstand, cal king bed, and X-Large dog crate.

What are your spring cleaning ambitions?

Really Snazzy

My baby's foolin' around with some space cat...

Weekend Links

source here

Article I'm Reading

Gender Norms

Dress I'm loving

Grecian V-Neck Dress by L'Agence at Gilt 

Blog I'm following

writingchapterthree

Item I'm eyeing

 

Dinner I'll be cooking

Chard and white bean stew

Trend: Floral

Trend: Floral by sonodana featuring steve madden shoes

Dorothy Perkins / Topshop / Lined jacket / Warehouse jumpsuits and romper, $38 / Keds / Leather boots / Steve Madden shoes / J.Crew j crew jewelry / J.Crew vintage jewelry / J.Crew j crew jewelry / J.Crew j crew jewelry / Charlotte Russe fedora hat

Delicious Prints

found at: ANEK

yum!

Iceland Day 4: Golden Circle (Part Two)

Let's catch up Day 1, Day 2, Day 3. 

And now it's day four that we'll break down into two parts.
Part One: Þingvellir, Geysir, and stood in awe of Gullfoss.
Part Two: Local horses, Skalholt cathedral, and Kerið crater

We finished out the golden circle with a drive through the countryside, a stop at the historic Skalholt Cathedral, and lost our keys (briefly) at Kerið crater before returning back to our hotel.

The pictures hopefully speak for themselves. everything was gorgeous although pretty cold - around 32F but with bright/clear skies.

Dogs. In my experience.

I've spent a lot of time, in Yogi's youth (he's turning 5 in September!), finding the perfect dog boarding place. It also took me a year to figure out what type of place Yogi needed.

I would first like to point out that Yogi wasn't always crazy, I think. You see - owning an active/ smart dog is a lot of work and more than I thought it would be. As a soon-to-be college graduate when I got Yogi, at the ripe age of 8 weeks old (End of October 2008), I thought dogs just had an "instinct" to do what dogs are supposed to do. Turns out - No.  So I was constantly learning and reading about what to do -- the internet is full of conflicting information, so it wasn't much progress on my part.  Anywho, his first problem was the crate - Oh gosh, he hated it. And he hated it until we got a trainer in Spring 2009, after I made the transition and move to Seattle from Pittsburgh. Among other things he counter-surfed, chewed on anything with a corner (bedding, rugs, chairs), and had major separation anxiety (yes, that's why he hated the crate).

Long story short, when I made the investment in Yogi's training, he was really, finally manageable. I super highly recommend lifelong training. 

After I moved to Seattle, I just couldn't find the time, living by myself, to wear Yogi out enough to put up with the crate when I left for work. Also, I didn't want to leave yogi in the crate/at home for longer than 8-9 hours so I couldn't do anything after work. Life was very stressful to say the least. So I found a close Doggy Daycare place and set up a 3 days/ wk plan until I could get his separation anxiety (constant barking in the crate) under control.  This is where I think Yogi picked up his dog anxiety at. The close quarters, lots of dogs, and lots of chaos makes Yogi one very stressed out dog. So when I hear "I love my Daycare, my dog leaves exhausted!" It makes me nervous, because that's not always a good thing. Unfortunately I didn't have any other options between being a Single dog mom and his separation anxiety.

Finally, around Spring 2010, I got smart and had figured out what made Yogi tick and what Yogi needed to not be anxious or stressed out when he was boarded.

a) space!  Lots of boarding places have one big yard and kennel them in a dog run at night. I knew I needed a place that was comfortable (kennel-less or standard crates you can tuck away) and a large yard Yogi could run around in, only play with equally energetic dogs, but also give him a place he could hide or zone out in (i.e. needed trees or hills or distractions).
b) Owners/ Handlers that knew how to actually handle a dog. Oh, you love dogs and that makes you able to open a boarding place - not good enough. I wanted former trainers, certified handlers, and people who knew how to break up a dog fight and see the signs of aggression. Handlers should never step between dogs or put their hand between fighting dogs, that's the stupidest thing to do. I literally interviewed a half dozen places and asked how they handle dog fights. The answers were a great measurement guide to their training style (Cesar Millan vs. Nicole Wilde).

FYI - We found that at Dogs-A-Jammin had what we needed - acres of land, sectional fencing, lots of movement, and skilled handlers. 

Working with Yogi is a never ending project. We are constantly adapting and training; whether it's on a walk or learning how to live with the cats, there's always a training opportunity available. 

Some other great resources on owning a crazy dog - 
Nicole's Blog
Yellow Dog Project
YouTube videos for training
local radio show about dogs and cats