Chicago!

Ian and I went to Chicago to visit my family and we had a great trip!  So great we only managed to take two pictures...but they turned out really good!

At the "beach" in Winnetka

The Bean at Millennium Park

Here's a Fun Fact: Denver Gets Tornados

As I type this I'm in my basement listening to the tornado sirens blare. I'm in DENVER. Not Joliet or Winnetka or Oklahoma...DENVER.

For those of you that are unaware, I grew up in Florida and while I have lived through many hurricanes (Andrew? Pshh..I was there) and loved that in Denver we got some thunderstorms, the ocassional thundersnow but other than that nothing too crazy. I really enjoyed it that way. We have heard the tornado sirens in Denver way more times than I care to count this season and quite frankly, I'm getting a little tired of trying to figure out where the water in my basement is coming from.

So until further notice I am sitting in my basement with Holly Golightly (my dog, not some crazy person claiming to be Audrey Hepburn) watching 9News loop footage of the weather.

Happy Friday indeed y'all.

Our House, in The Middle of The Street!!

Many people have asked for photos of the house so without further ado...

Front of the house

View from front entryway

Left side of Living Room

Right side of Living Room (complete with Holly)

Office/Spare bedroom

Dining Room

Kitchen/Breakfast Nook

Kitchen

Master Bedroom (again with Holly)

Master Bedroom

Backyard

I didn't take pictures of the basement because for as little furniture as we have upstairs we have LESS downstairs! The house is a definite work in progress with updates needed in the kitchen, new bedroom furniture and new bedroom drapes. But it's all ours and we love it!!

Not So Great News

I have been released from working.  Pretty much a bummer but I do know that I will find something.  I've been sending out a million copies of my resume and I've had an interview with a staffing company as well as tapping into industries that I would consider working in.  Even with buying a house we were smart savers and still have enough to make it through 4 months of me not working before we tap into our real savings.  

With that being said, if you do know of a job, even part time let me know.  I will probably want it.  

Oh and one final thing:  this isn't an economy related lay-off.  It's a "my boss moved to Florida and there's no need for me since I'm in Denver" lay-off. 

Never Again

So we officially bought our house on Friday at 4 and set to working on it right away.

We had already decided that we were going to paint because, really, a brown bedroom and orange/red/coral dining room with attached avocado green kitchen didn't really work for us. Oh yes, and we also wanted to paint the whole basement.

Well here we are, two days later and incredibly sore. We managed to pain the dining room, bedroom, hallway and basement. We hired someone for the kitchen and bathroom after numerous breakdowns.

I'll post pictures of the finished product but even though I'm exhausted and still covered in paint after several showers I'm so glad to say that we did it (well most of it) and we were able to make our house feel more like ours. Now to moving in allllll of my stuff. Oh and Ian's too.

Bleary Eyed and Bushy Tailed

I get to work at 6:30 in the morning. Pause for effect. I live with my mom (score!) and my room in her house used to be my brothers and I'm kind enough to let him claim it when he comes back. Unfortunately this means that I have to stay at Ian's house. Which stinks. Literally. 3 boys does not make a pretty house. So when I stay there I get up super early and go home to get ready before going to work.

I went home this morning and made coffee and went to the fridge to pack my lunch and realized I didn't have any more yogurt for breakfast. Not a problem, there's Special K in the pantry and soy milk in the fridge. I make my cereal, eat said cereal and rinse out my bowl. I open the dishwasher and put my spoon in. I open the fridge and place my bowl in. Closed the door and walked away and then realized what I did so I quickly turned and took out the bowl to put it in its rightful place in the dishwasher.

*Sigh*

Maybe I should have more coffee before breakfast.

Do You Have A Sewing Machine? Tell Me About It!

After much consideration I'm going to get a sewing machine. I love to sew and I'm not going to be making a ton of stuff here but I'd like to get one that will be able to go through towels (for when I sew on my decorative edging, obvi) and perhaps programmable with an option for doing monograms. This of course for adorable onesies and grocery bags and anything else I can get my hands on. And of course, hemming items because I'm short. What do you have? Do you like it?

We Bought A House!

I've never spent that much money on anything. Seriously. Not even my wedding Manolo Blahnik's that were 4 digits. And then two decimals. But I digress. We bought a house and we close on Friday. We're painting and making it ab fab before we move in on the 18th. Even though it's basically final I don't want to get too excited until Friday at 4 when we have our closing and we can take on more debt than we ever thought. YAY!

I Get All Excited...

And then life gets in the way!!  This past week or so has been crazy and by that I mean crazy GOOD!!

To start with, Ian was accepted to the University of Denver for the Masters in Business Administration program, a feat that has not come easily.  After taking the GMAT numerous times and working his butt off on his essays and an out of the park interview he was accepted and we can finally relax and enjoy the final months leading up to our wedding and getting settled into what will soon be our new life together!!

We also were fortunate enough to get to go to a Nuggets playoff game where we sat Club Level and watched the D-Nuggs finally make it out of the 1st round of the playoffs!!

Finally...more house hunting.  If your house is for sale in the Washington Park area, I've probably looked at it.  And I've probably hated it.  All in all I've looked at 16 houses and found one that we finally both LOVE and bummer...mis-listed and is actually a 2 bedroom house that they want to list as a 3 and the asking price reflects that.  So our search continues...lucky Ian gets to join on all now since he has no excuse for missing like studying or doing applications!!!

Just Call Me Bailey Crocker

I loooovvveeee to cook. It's really fun, soothing and a great source of entertainment for me. I like to freeball it though and sometimes things just turn out kind of ehh...and Ian has put in numerous requests for me to start using a recipe. Some things he is right about, but this particular dish, no need for a recipe!

I went to Sunflower Market this past weekend and stocked up on some of the canned goods that were on special. $00.79 cans of tomato sauce and diced tomatos are just too good to pass up!! I bought some large shells, spinach, ricotta and mozzarella cheeses, and a huge loaf of bread. We'd been planning on having Friday night dinner in and with the weather rain/sleet/snow-ing it seemed like the perfect meal!!

I put the sauce with garlic (YUM!) basil, oregano, onion powder, salt and pepper to a simmer for a few hours to get the flavors going. Then, I simmered the spinach adding salt, pepper and garlic until it was soft. I then split the spinach into 1/3 and 2/3 parts and added the 1/3 into the sauce. I shredded the cheeses and mixed them together with the 2/3 spinach for the stuffing. Boiled the shells until they were al dente and could be seperated easily to stuff. I drained the shells and put some of the sauce in the bottom of an 8x8 Pyrex dish (enough to cover) and filled the shells and put them in the pan. I covered with a layer of cheese, then more sauce, then more cheese. I'll bake it for 20 min covered and 10 min uncovered until the cheese gets crispy and browns a little. I also whipped some butter, parmesan cheese and garlic together and sliced the bread to make some garlic bread.

I've gotten everything all made so the flavors can develop more and it can get really ooey gooey!!

Eyes Are The Window To The Soul...I've Got Good Drapes

I wear glasses. I've worn them since I was in 4th grade and I tried on my super cool friend Emily's glasses and then I realized that I could finally see. I've been wearing them ever since and I love my jazzy glasses and how they change my look and make people take me seriously as well as looking smarter. I love my optometrist and think he's pretty funny too. I saunter in for my appointment and get tested and he mentions that oh yes, my eyes are worse and I need reading glasses. Pause for effect. Yes readers. The kind my mom and grandmother wear. I almost lost it. How can my eyes be so bad that I need readers?? I did find some super cute hot pink ones so that makes it better but I'm a little bummed that I need these.

When It Rains It SNOWS??

Oh the joys of living in Colorado.

It was beautiful and sunny yesterday. I sat outside and read, got some sun...lovely! Today, rain, fog and the forecast for snow. A lot of snow, actually. 8-12 inches between midnight tonight and noon Saturday. It's not that I have anything against moisture just not in the form of white sticky grossness. Give me a great thunderstorm with lightening and I'll be a happy camper but snow?? April showers bring May flowers but I think this was meant to be in the form of rain.

Lovin' Lilly

I love Lilly Pulitzer and always have. Love the prints, love the cuts, love love love. So one of my fabulous friends works at Lilly and all of her family gets to partake in her 75% discount. Needless to say, I've taken advantage of the discount as gifts for my wedding. Among my recent purchases are these two darling dresses:



Now also along with these dresses I bought a Bermuda Bag, as pictured here:The bag comes with 3 covers that are reversible as well as a super cute base layer. The second cover shown is the same as the print as one of the dresses. Would it be overkill to pair the two together? I can't decide if it'd be cute or "WOAH". The pink dress has a super cute patternetd lining that is an option on one of the reversible sides as well. I think that option would be better, but again, I don't want to be too matchy matchy. Just one matchy :)

So...opinions greatly appreciated!

The Inspiration For My Title

Home, Home on the Front Range

I know you're out there...right??

Ian and I have started to look for houses. In a perfect world, we'd be so excited about our first house that we'd buy the first one we looked at and it'd of course, be exactly what we wanted. In the real world, however there's been fighting, crying and panic attacks induced by the state of some homes.

So we've been starting to reevaluate our situation and if we want to buy now and we decided to wait, which of course means pros and cons, the biggest con being no doggie for us, at least right now. The biggest pro is that by waiting and being patient, we'll be able to save enough to get a house in either Washington Park, Bonnie Brae or Cory Merrill.

In the end I know that we made the right decision to wait and we won't end up upside-down in a house or stretch ourselves too thin financially but it's still a bummer. Playing house was a lot more fun that finding a real house.

And Away We Go!

Well, I've decided to start a blog about my life and what I've got going on right about now.  To start it off, here's a little background:

This is me, Bailey.  I'm 24 and I was born September 30, 1984 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  I live with my mom (score! free rent!) and my dad and brother live in Florida.  My mom is a graphics designer and computer programmer and my dad is an attorney .  

This is my whole family at Cameron's graduation from Kent Denver.  He's really smart.

This is my fiance, Ian.  He's also incredibly smart and will be starting grad school for his MBA this fall.

These are my darling dogs.  They are really my parents' but I just love them.  And I named them.  Tiffany is on the left and lives in Florida with my dad.  You can't tell here, but she's a solid 70 pounds of pure lap dog.  On the right is Holly Golightly who lives with me at my mom's house.  Weighing in at a spry 25 she's the guard dog.  Clearly.

Some more information on me:

I love the color pink and I think it makes me really happy.

I hate wearing pants at all costs.  I would wear a dress or a skirt everyday of the year if I could.

I love shopping but I don't like going to the mall.  People there annoy me and after working in retail for so long, sales people REALLY annoy me.

I love candy.  It's a problem.  I've had 14 cavities in my life.

I would love to move away from Colorado and go back down below the Mason-Dixon but only when it's cold.  I get depressed and angry when it's cold out. 

So there it is!  My first blog post!! Hopefully I haven't scared you off too much and you'll become a regular reader!!