Carnies are more reliable than weather experts

One of my favorite stories to tell is about the time when me and my friends went to the Davis County Fair when I was in high school. We went to enjoy the fair food, the carnival, and more specifically: the carnies. We were about to learn that carnies are very wise and intuitive. When the storm clouds started to hover above the fair, one carnie warned us:

"Take cover! There's a storm a comin'!"

I believed him, but I don't think my friend Mark did, because he started laughing in front of him (yeah, Mark needs to learn a little respect toward carnies). The carnie replied, "You think I don't know what I'm talkin' about? I've been doing this for years!!" Sure enough, the thunderstorm hit, and it was a good thing we heeded the carnie's advice and "took cover."

The point of this story is: when the carnies warned us, the storm didn't disappoint. When the meteorologists warned us about the hurricane Irene that was sure to destroy the east coast, they greatly exaggerated, and to be honest, left a lot of people disappointed. Here in northern Virginia, hardly anyone lost power and we only a had a few fallen branches for proof of damage. Our friends in Annapolis got hit a little harder. And our family in New York reported a power outage that lasted only an hour and a fallen tree in their neighborhood.

I should be glad, I know. There were places that actually did get hit pretty hard. But you see, I went and bought water, batteries, candles and food. We made sure our cars had gas, I brought in our patio furniture, and I even made sure that our bathtubs were full of water. We took our last hot showers Saturday evening, not knowing when would be our next.

And what did we get? A car still full of gas because we didn't go anywhere most of the weekend, and a waste of water in the bathtubs. And while there was wind and rain, it wouldn't have been strong enough to move my patio furniture even an inch.

I think there is something romantic about power outages. I was actually looking forward to have the house lit up only by candles and I was excited to read a book by candle light. Didn't happen, though.

And one more thing: why did the hurricane have to conveniently hit only over the weekend? Not cool.

So basically, while I am grateful that we are all safe and sound with no damage whatsoever, my first hurricane experience was disappointing to say the least. The storm that the carnie warned us about was better than the storm I experienced this weekend.

Tour of the apartment: fourth (and final) part

So, you've seen the everything up to this point, although in a really weird order, I realize now. Sorry! If you want to see it the way you would really see it in a tour, start here, then go here, then read this post now, then read here. Got it? Good.

We now embark down the hallway from the living room to the guest [insert your name here!] bedroom and bathroom. The guest bedroom is also my newly created sewing room, music practicing room, and also my husband's occasional dumping ground (see this post) and also his dressing room (to avoid waking me up when he gets up at the butt crack of dawn: such a considerate husband....I love him).

Anywhay, here you go. So the second door on the left is where there is a washer and dryer. I'll let you use your imagination rather than show a picture.

 

 

Don't mind the empty picture frame above--you get the idea though.








And also don't mind the husband's pull- up bar thingy in the pic to the left.

This is a sofa bed. I love it because it reminds me of Romania!

 This is my new desk and chair from Craigslist. I want to change up the desk though. Any suggestions?

I'm thinking new knobs, for sure...but I don't know what to do with the color. I thought about changing the chair too, but I just love the way the wood looks. 

So there you go! It's all ready for you to come and visit. BTW: someone, aka my sister, said that I sound "desperate" for visitors. To that I say that I am doing just fine, and that there are a lot of cool things to see around here. Is it such a crime that I want to share it with all of you? I don't think so. 

Except don't come visit this weekend. Apparently, the hurricane of doom is going to be sweeping through these parts. Stay tuned, and have a good weekend!

Love, Annie

I get my craft on...and survive an earthquake

So yesterday, I got to spend the day with my friend Holli who lives about an hour away from me. We go way back to the days of teaching English together in China..so many good times! Anyway, she has been inspiring me on her blog to try my hand at refashioning--a verb that means seeing the potential in a cheap thrifted something and turning it into something cute. Last week I went on a thrifting rampage and bought a ton of crap, including a new desk and chair for my own craft space--all for less than $100: score.

So, I bought a bunch of dresses from my local Goodwill, and refashioned it yesterday with Holli's help. She also reminded me to take a before picture so you can see your end results. So, here you go with the before shot:

The good thing about buying a size 20W dress is that you have plenty of fabric to work with!!
I decided to keep it simple for my first refashion and turn it into a skirt. All it took was a little cutting and sewing, and VOILA!

This cost me a total of THREE DOLLAS. Sweet! I really like this fabric and still have some leftover, so I'm trying to see what else I can do with it.

Anyway, in the midst of this, Holli had put her her babay down for a nap, and soon after, we started feeling the building shake. When it started to get worse, Holli immediately booked it to the baby's room. I look out the window to see if anything outside is shaking, and seriously it looked like nothing was happening outside, and the construction guys outside looked completely unfazed. This had us questioning our sanity for a while because there was still nothing online posted about there being an earthquake. Sure enough, we finally find out that it was indeed an earthquake.

After it all happened, I said to Holli, "look at you being a good mom and immediately running to protect your baby!" Her answer was, "I just didn't want her to wake up from her nap!" Well, either way, you're a good mama, Holli.

So yeah, that was my day. Full of plenty of excitement. And I got more phone calls and texts that day from people than I usually get in the course of a week. Nothing like an earthquake to make you feel loved.

For when you come to visit

This is how you can know that you're close to our house. Get on interstate 95 south out of Washington DC. It will look something like this:

 Pretty open. Then you start to approach some more trees, like this:

 And then, when you are surrounded by forest, that means that you are in our neck of the woods. Literally. 

But it's pretty, isn't it?
Come and visit!!
Love, Annie

Tour of the apartment: part three

Time for the dining room/area and the kitchen! I take these photos as I clean them, so understandably, the kitchen is close to last on the list. It's a small little kitchen, so it gets messy very easily. Also, it took me so long for the dining room pics because I finally got the blasted parts from Ikea to finish up the last chair. Speaking of which, the table and chairs were a gift from my parents. So that means that our parents basically helped us furnish our apartment: yep, we're pretty lucky and loved.  Anyway, here you go:

the view from the living room

featured on the table are some fake flowers (maintenance free!), my Romanian shepherd boy, and cute bird salt and pepper shakers. 

 




As you can see, it's a one person kitchen. That's probably Victor's reasonings of why he doesn't help cook, and it's most definitely my reasoning of why I don't help him do the dishes.

the view to into the living room, featuring my favorite nesting doll measuring cups that I bought from World Market 

Just to prove that I am learning how to be a good little wifey, the picture above features the handmade tomato soup that I made, and under that black cloth is some homemade rosemary bread rising. I'm on my way to becoming a domestic goddess!

Mormon night at Camden Yards

I love summer baseball games. I don't love stupid traffic that makes us miss all the Mormon festivities before the game for Mormon night. I guess one of the starting pitchers for the Orioles is a returned missionary and he was signing autographs before the game. That would have been cool. But we missed it. They also did some family history presentation. Sounds blah, but we're in Baltimore, not SLC, so that would be cool to see too. But nope, we missed it. DARN YOU, I-95. DARN YOU TO HECK!!

I spy a missionary

more missionaries. there were lots.

Speaking of mormons, have you seen this yet?

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Yahweh or No Way? - Mormons & God's Poll Numbers
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

It's been going around facebook like crazy, but it's so funny. My favorite line (well, one of them) is the one about Mitt Romney and John Huntsman:

"One of these guys could be our next president: the other one is John Huntsman."

Am I a Mormon? Yahweh! Am I weird? In the words of Colbert, "I don't know-weh!"

Tour of the apartment: part two

Alright, so here is the entryway/ living room. We just got curtains up in this room, and it helps a lot. But we still want to get a painting and pictures up on the wall above the couch to bring in more color. I also want a couple of lamps.  I love the furniture: that was a wonderful wedding gift of Victor's parents. Anyway, this is the view right when you walk in:

I love my rug from Williamsburg! And the curtains are some we bought from Ikea. Then there's the view of the front door, and my little Dominican house that I bought.

 

 Some of my traveling treasures are featured on the coffee table including my mini terracotta warriors from China, sand from the Dominican Republic and the Black Sea, a stacking doll from Russia, my Romanian painted eggs, the Dominican woman figurine, and my new flower vase from Williamsburg (my mom has the same one: I copied her!).

 What's that on tv, you might ask? Well, that is a dance aerobics dvd I bought this week, and it was HARD! I got half way through, and then got distracted and took these pictures instead. Oh, and that's a storage/pantry to the left of the tv. To the right of the tv is the entryway, and me no likey right now. I've been looking everywhere for some kind of coat rack/shoe rack/entryway piece. No luck yet. So right now theres's just a mini fridge that we don't need. Interested?

This picture shows our back porch and our "backyard" aka the woods. Don't go playing around back there unless you want some ticks. But it's pretty to look at. And there's some blackberry bushes too!

So there you go. Right now, I feel like red is the dominant color, so I also want to bring in more blues, and maybe a little yellow. What do you think?

Happy weekend! Love, Annie