May 27, 2011

Friday Favorites

Let's start a new tradition here on I Thought I Loved You Then, shall we??

I save "favorite" images I find all over the internet throughout the week, so on Friday's I think I'll start sharing a few of the things that have inspired me lately with you all!

Months and months ago, I created a folder on my desktop called "Someday." Its where I stash reminders of things that I love so that someday I can purchase, create, or emulate all of the lovely things that catch my eye. My folder is organized into other folders... like "Accessories," "Nurseries," "Home Office," "DIY Crafts," "Entertaining," etc. {I'm Type A, have you noticed?}

Here are a few of the images I loved most this week:
I'd die for a home office this cute and organized!
via
Someday I will have a bedroom this tranquil...
via
I'm not normally drawn to shades of blue, but this is gorgeous.
via
I daydream about an outdoor living space this perfect every.single.day!
via
This chalkboard-top game table is genius. I must make one!
via
I have an unhealthy obsession with buffet tables and wine storage. This is perfection.
via
Omg. I'd actually be excited to do work in an office space this quaint and organized!
via
These gorgeous spaces make me wish I had a home of my own to beautify! There is only so much you can do in an apartment with drab carpeting and beige walls. Someday :) In the meantime, I'll keep filing away these lovely ideas so that when we're out of grad school and ready to buy (and renovate) a house I will have a game plan in place! And I'll keep on sharing my fave's with you on Fridays - or at least every Friday I'm not an airhead and can actually remember that I started this "tradition" ....!

Hope you enjoyed this eye candy as much as me... enjoy your long Memorial Day weekend!

May 26, 2011

Thinspiration

Let's be honest. Sometimes all it takes to jump start a diet or a workout plan is a little inspiration.

I've been doing ok with exercising lately. But the pint of fro-yo I downed in one sitting this weekend probably has settled nicely somewhere on the back of my thighs... canceling out any miserable wall sits or squats I've done lately.

Insert: thinspiration.
via FOX
via USA Today
These pictures really don't do her stems justice... but did you see Carrie Underwood's legs on the AI finale last night?!?!?!?! Ok, so they were a little greased up for my liking, but d.a.n.g. I had some serious leg envy. So much so that did lunges all the way from the couch to the kitchen to refill my glass of wine! Jk.

While there is serious doubt that my 5'2'' frame will ever be supported by anything but the shapeless stubs I am currently walking around on, I would honestly consider trading both of my legs for just one of Carrie's. Mad props to her. And her trainer. And her nutritionist. And, presumably, her live-in chef.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should probably admit that if I were that rich and famous I think I'd forgo the trainer/dietitian/chef and opt for some good old fashioned lipo. But in the meantime, I'm totally hitting the treadmill after work and Googling her leg workout ASAP!

May 23, 2011

Fried Kitty

Little Miss Bella had an unfortunate mishap this weekend. She, however, didn't even know that this near-fatal incident even occurred. What she did know: her mom is a maniac... a total spaz. I'll give you the recap in iPhone pics... Here's what went down:

I had class Saturday morning (don't ask - I'd rather forget it ever happened than explain!), ran a few errands, and came home to indulge my OCD tendencies and do my weekly cleaning. I was also bitten by the decorating bug recently, so amid my other errands I picked up a new centerpiece for our coffee table. I'm trying to rid our living room of all red accents, and playing up the greens. {Another post, another day.}
What do you think?
Unfortunately, the little accent balls look more like kitty toys than I realized at Home Goods. This little creature just couldn't resist batting them around the house one at a time... 2 days later I think she is finally losing interest. But I digress. This was not "the incident," just a funny little Bella-ism.
After the excitement of the new centerpiece wore off, I got to cleaning. Toilet scrubbing, sheet washing, vacuuming - you know the drill. To rid my clean house of the lovely aroma of pizza from the night prior, I lit a couple of my favorite candles while I went about my cleaning frenzy. Instert: disaster.

From the title of this post, you likely know where this story is going... but at the time, I couldn't have predicted what was about to happen. Somewhere between putting away laundry and dusting, I started to smell the most disgusting burning odor. I started running around like a total lunatic sniffing each room of the apartment trying to figure out what was on fire. I ruled out the office and our bedroom, so after I put out both candles I had lit I started flipping over pillows and ducking my head under tables and behind furniture to see if an outlet somehow sparked and caught on fire. My mind was racing: should I run and tell my neighbors that the building is burning?! Why the heck isn't my smoke detector going off?? Should I stuff Bella in her stupid pink carrier in case I need to make a mad dash with her to safety?!?!

I took a deep, smoky breath and pulled myself together. I texted Andrew - who was away at an all-day Chiropractic seminar - that the house might be on fire. (Just what any husband wants to read when they're sitting in an 8-hour lecture 45 min away.)

That's when I saw it: Bella.
Sitting on the counter.
With her little butt up in the air and her face in the sink waiting for water droplets.
And smoke coming off her big ol' puffy tail.

That is when I went into full.on.maniac.mode!!! I ran at her. I was shrieking "omg omg omg!" I scooped her up and ran my hand down her tail... what rubbed off onto my hand was the same black, chalky residue that you make a mess of when lighting a candle that is down to the bottom of its wick.

Her puffy racoon tail had accidentally swept across the candle flame and caught on fire. And in the same instant, it must have just gone out! Because for all the stink and all the smoke, only a teeny tiny patch of her fur was singed! I was amazed. And relieved. And she was just staring at me like "I knew this lady was a nutbag, but she has really lost her mind now..."
The smell was unbearable. Have you ever smelled burning hair? This was worse. Burning cat hair = grossest smell ever. Even so, I was terrified to light another candle. I'll probably be scarred for life.

Ya right, I love candles... I'll get over it. But I'll put them high up and out of reach from now on! Poor husb got about 15 texts in a span of 3 minutes.

After my heart stopped racing and I caught my breath from the psychotic sprints I did around our apartment, I went back to cleaning.

And Bella went back to napping in her favorite crevice.
Bella napping. Me cleaning. And my poor husband simultaneously learning about how to cure chronic illness and un-velcroing his spastic crazy cat lady wife from the ceiling.

Ahh... all is right in the world :)

May 19, 2011

Whirlwind Visit

Last weekend I went "home" for a wonderfully busy weekend, filled to the brim with family and friends! And food. Ohhh so much food! I still call Ohio "home" because its where our families live, its where we grew up, and its the place where we plan to eventually make our own home when the time is right...

But truth be told - Atlanta is really what feels like "home" to me now. Its where my hubbs was while I was away for the weekend. Its the only home my kitty has ever known. Its where our friends live... the ones who have really become more like family to us. Its weird to be back where you call home, visiting with the people you miss most of the time... and at the same time be missing your other home and the people (and pets) you are anxious to get back to.

Despite missing my little family, and feeling like I needed a whole week to recoup from my busy busy weekend, I had the greatest time with my fam and friends! I caught up with my high school besties over breakfast, celebrated my little SIL's birthday over brunch, saw Water for Elephants with my in-laws, laughed until I cried with my mom and sisters, ate my favorite Mexican food with my real family and so-close-they-might-as-well-be-family neighbors, and went on a date w/ my daddy. I got hardly any sleep. I read less than a page of the 200 pages I needed to read for school. And I'm pretty sure I gained at least a few lbs. It was awesome :)

The highlight of my trip - the real reason for my long weekend trek up to the Midwest - was that we celebrated my mama-to-be cousin, Erika, and showered her with gifts for baby Rylie Lynn due to arrive on the scene in July! This lucky little girl is already loved by soo many people and I can't wait to meet her!
I have never seen so much pink in all my life. It has been a few years since I was at a baby girl shower so I think I forgot just how overwhelming all that pink can be! In the cutest way possible, of course! All the itty bitty outfits with their ruffles and bows... and the sweet pastel bedding... almost made me wish we could have a little nugget of our own! Almost. Then I snapped back to reality and reminded myself how much I love sleeping til 11 on Saturdays, and lounging by the pool all weekend, and skipping class for a mani/pedi when I feel like it. And sushi. And wine!


But it sure was fun watching my cousin be showered with gifts, and love, and well-wishes! And I can't wait to meet the chubby-cheeked doll when she makes her debut this summer! Even more fun than watching her open miniature pink gifts? Spending the afternoon with my mom, sister, aunts, cousins and grandma! Without this little lady, there would be no me. And no sissies. Because there would have been no dad! There also would have been no Ryan (my cousin) to marry Erika (mama-to-be)... and no baby Rylie cookin' away in her belly. Crazy how that all works out...
I'm so thankful for this lady. She is the quintessential little grandma and has touched the lives of so many people just by being who she is. Rylie Lynn will be her eighth great-grandbaby. How many people can say they are a great-grandma to 8 (and counting) babes?! And what lucky little kiddos they are!

So much fun and so much love packed into 4 short days! My heart is full... and I'm counting down the weeks until I get to see all these fabulous people again next month!

May 18, 2011

A Doctor's Wife

I'm becoming one. Or I'm working toward becoming a good one I should say. The best Chiropractor's wife (my own personal opinion, of course) is the one who really takes an interest in her husband's field and strives to be a living example of his life's work: health and wellness! Lucky for me, I have a couple of years to perfect this role before my husb transitions from Chiro-in-training to Dr. Hubbs. First order of business: start reading! I put my library list of NY Times Best Seller's on hold, and picked up this sucker...
Per Dr. Hubbs' instruction, this book, the latest by Dr. James Chestnut, had to be my very first read. It revolutionized his thinking, and his hope was that it would get me on board with his healthy environment, organic eating, positive thinking way of life! So far, I've been persuaded. This guy knows his stuff! While I'm only about halfway through after a couple weeks of reading (remember, I have 5 books for summer school to read + 48 hours of work to complete each week... I'm pacing myself!) I thought I'd share a few tokens of knowledge I have gleaned thus far:
  • Your state of physiology and your state of cell function are the genetic expression of your environment. Your state of health is the genetic expression of your past and present environments.
  • We are not sick because of bad genes or innately pathological cell function. We are not sick because of bad genes, bad cells, or bad luck. We are sick because of bad choices. We are sick because we have created, and choose to live in, pathologically stressful environments that force the chronic genetic expression of unsustainable adaptive physiology that inevitably leads to fatigue and early death.
  • Adopting a healthy lifestyle, a genetically congruent lifestyle, is the only viable solution for wellness and prevention.
  • In order to get and stay well, humans, like every other species, must eat, move, think, and interact in ways that our genome requires to express health and vitality.
  • Both basic physiological, biochemical, and genetic science, as well as historical data, indicate that using drugs and surgery to change physiology and biochemistry has not been, and will never be, successful at restoring health or ever be a viable solution for wellness and prevention.
These ideas are not all novel. But Dr. Chestnut presents this information in a way that a layperson can understand - and rather than criticize our health care system and providers for spending so much time and $$$ just diagnosing and medicating illness, he educates his readers (most of whom are likely Chiropractors) about ways to create wellness in order to prevent illness from ever occurring.

It has been an interesting and inspiring read so far! I highly recommend it to all Dr.'s-Wives-In-Training... I feel more qualified already ;) But Dr.'s wife or not, it would certainly be worth reading if for no other reason than to improve the quality of your own life and the lives of those you love! I'm so proud that my husb has chosen to devote his life to helping people get and stay well and I am excited to help promote the wellness and prevention lifestyle with him!

Do I sound like a Mrs. Dr. B yet??? I'll keep reading!

Perfect Summer Pasta Salad

{This post was deleted when Blogger went all crazy last week so I'll do my best to recreate the post in case you wanted the recipe!! Thanks a lot, Blogger...}

Ok, so we all are familiar by now with my obsession with Pioneer Woman. Right? Right. I have never tried a recipe of hers that I didn't love. This time, she had me hooked at "feta cheese crumbles." I love this recipe and definitely plan to make it all summer long with a variety of veggies and pasta shapes! If you are in the market for a fun, fresh, colorful summer pasta salad for all of your upcoming BBQs, bday parties, and get-togethers..... You MUST try this one!

What you'll need:
- 1 Box of Pasta (whatever is your fave ~ I chose Whole Wheat Bow Tie)
- 1 or 2 Zucchinis 
- 2 to 3 Tomatoes (or 1 package of Grape Tomatoes)
- Feta Cheese Crumbles
- 2 Lemons
- 1 Bunch of Fresh Parsley
- Olive Oil
- Salt and Pepper if you're into that...
Start by washing your veggies. Then chop them up into bite-sized pieces and toss them into a big mixing bowl! You could use any vegetables you like... I stuck w/ PW's suggestion of zucchini and tomatoes, but any bright, ripe veggies would be fine in this pretty little summer salad!

Once you have your veggies diced and set aside in a bowl, you can mince your parsley. I usually cheap out on the "fresh" herb part of most recipes... but this is one of those times where I recommend using the real deal. The fresh parsley is really what makes this recipe ~ the dry stuff just won't do this time!


Toss your minced parsley in with your veggies and slice your lemons in half. Then use your stubby, weird lil fingers to smoosh the juice out of them (or just one at this point) and squeeze it allllll over your chopped up ingredients. Although it should be fairly obvious, you should also be boiling your pasta while you do all this chopping and squeezing. You knew that already though I'm sure......

Rinse your cooked pasta with cold water to cool it a bit {Related: I know it is totally gross that we "let" Bella on the counters... but 1) That spot where she sits isn't a surface we cook on or eat from 2) Have you ever tried to train a cat??? No such thing. and 3) She loves watching the steam rise when I cook pasta soo I indulge her!}and ignore my wine stopper from the night before!

After your pasta is rinsed, drained, and cooled a little bit - I, naturally, gauged my pasta temp based on Bella's staring at the steam... when she lost interest, it was no longer piping hot - put it back in your pot (or a bowl, whatever), drizzle some olive oil over it, and mix it up! I saved 1 of my 2 lemons to squeeze over the pasta.
Combine all of your cut up veggies, parsley and cooked pasta in a big bowl. Then add in the delicious feta cheese crumbles...... yummm I love cheese..... stir it all up...... and voila! Add a little salt and pepper, to taste, if you want. Cover and refrigerate for 4+ hours before serving (personal preference) and enjoy!!!
The aftermath of this recipe is really not much to clean up - which is always a plus in my book! It tastes even better than it looks and is sure to be a crowd pleaser at any summer gathering you plan to make it for! Fair warning: this makes a lot of pasta salad. If you are cooking for two, like I was, you may want to half the recipe... but the leftovers did not go uneaten in our house!
Cook-out season is officially upon us ~ stay tuned for more of our favorite summer grilling and BBQ recipes! And let me know what you think of any that you try :)

May 9, 2011

Back!

Back to normal. Back to real life. No more of that sleeping 4 hours a night, walking around looking like a crack head nonsense!

"Normal" means actually crawling into bed at the same time as your husband instead of creeping in using the flashlight iPhone app hours after he has gone to bed. It means drinking just one (or none) cup of coffee per day. It means showering on the reg and wearing clothes that don't have an elastic waistband! It also means reacquainting yourself with the hair dryer, flat iron, and eye make up that were stuffed in a closet since your birthday dinner in mid-April.

I spent my first weekend back in real life sleeping in late, lounging by the pool soaking up the hot Georgia sun w/ my hubbs, wining and dining (mostly dining), and catching up on movies and TV shows. It was good for my soul! And it was especially good for the bags under my eyes and the pastiness of my skin :)

This week - my first official week of "summer" - I am back to working full-time, wife-ing full time {read: cooking, cleaning, laundry}, and am on a mission to get my life back in order! First things first: work out routine and summer reading list compilation. Nevermind that silly online class I start next Monday... it's summer people!

May 4, 2011

Fun Memo Board!

Disclaimer: this is not a craft blog - so don't judge my lame tutorial or pics! I just saw these cute memo boards on a couple other blogs I follow. Some people have used them as idea/inspiration boards. My goal is to use them 1) to brighten up our boring office walls and 2) as vision boards! Not like creepy voodoo vision boards... don't stop reading because you think I'm a witch, please ;) I just think it will keep us focused and motivated if we can see our short- and long-term goals displayed visually in our workspace. We'll see how that works out... the purpose may or may not change as time goes on.

Here is the breakdown of my materials:
  Cork Boards (Target) $7 each
Fabric (Ikea) $6 for 1 yard
Thumb tacks (Home Depot) 4 boxes at $1.59 each
3M Adhesive Spray (Home Depot) ~$9

To be fair, I should warn that this project was tedious. But I did it while hubbs watched some miserable movie about Ryan Reynolds being buried alive, so it was a welcome distraction! I'm a fish out of water at Home Depot, so I couldn't find the nailhead trim used by Emily and by the end of the project my thumbs were killing me! But you don't have to make 2 boards... one would be enough... and then your thumbs wouldn't be falling off I don't think.

Onto the good stuff! Start by ironing whatever fabric you decide to use so there aren't creases on your boards.
The faster you can put your fabric to use after ironing, the better... otherwise you might end up with a nosy little helper who thinks its a new kitty bed plopping down on it and getting it all crinkled again.

I cut my fabric in half, but depending on the size of the fabric you use... just cut it to fit your board(s) and a little extra to wrap around the edges. Then spray the cork part of your board with a light coating of adhesive and center and smooth your fabric over the surface.


Push a thumb tack in each corner to secure your fabric. Then comes the fun part. Not. Grab some sort of ruler and start pushing in one thumb tack every inch. And then repeat. And repeat. And repeat. Until you have tacks all around the wooden edge of your cork board.


This task is marginally more fun if you have a furry friend who watches your every move, lays on your fabric to hold it still, and then occasionally runs off with a thumb tack in her mouth :)


Once you have your 1" apart tacks in place, go back around the border of your board again and place another thumb tack in between each thumb tack. At this point, your thumbs will start to throb and your kitty will be bored and fall asleep.


When you have all your tacks in place, wake up your cat and flip your board over so you can secure the fabric. I used staples and a few left over thumb tacks, but you can really do this any way you like because no one will ever see it!

Thennn... flip it over and voila! You've got a super cute memo board/inspiration board/vision board to hang in your office, your bedroom, or wherever else you need to post reminders or visual inspiration!
I haven't made room on our office walls yet to hang these babies... they are obviously deserving of some prime wall real estate so I will do some re-arranging of my decor this weekend {after finals, relax MOM!} and show you where they are going to live next week! Until then, I'll just let Bella keep sniffing them.
This was seriously such an inexpensive and easy to complete project! How much more fun will these look on my walls than a plain, drab cork board?! It was definitely worth my sore thumbs. And while *this is not a craft blog* I have to admit... it was sort of fun to let a little crafty energy flow after a week of being buried in my law books! It won't be a regular occurrence I'm sure, but I just might dabble in another home decorating DIY project or two after finals! Stay tuned... and happy memo board-ing!