I used PLANE tickets!

This is a follow up to my previous post on purchasing plane tickets.
1) Yes the first 1/2 of the school year is over.
2) My friend Ty had a blast in San Diego and he even went all out on the UGLY sweater party. We also saw many popular San Diego sites.
3) The Sweater party was a blast! Sadly I did not get a large group photo. But I do have a few with my girls!
4) Being with my friends made it the best weekend! We finished off our weekend with at the Shout House! a fabulous dueling piano bar in downtown.

I got the best of both worlds in SD. The relaxed Pacific Beach atmosphere for the sweater party and a dressier evening in Downtown. Thank you ladies for the fabulous weekend.

Shoes!

I love shoes! If you've seen my closet you know. My students have noticed that I wear a different pair every day. I have almost every color in the rainbow...I think orange is the only one missing.
However you must know that I never spend a ton of money on these fun shoes. I pick them up here and there on the clearance racks for 5 bucks or so. Most of the time there aren't a ton of size 10, but lately the pickin' has been very good.


These are two pairs that I picked up for $4.99. The white is nice and simple and the others will be added to my more wild collection



These are part of a buy 3 for $20 sale I ran across. I was in need of new red ones for the holiday season, and yellow is my new favorite color this year. Mostly because I discovered that when yellow is far away from my red hair or in just the right shade, I can wear it...(still unsure about orange) The third pair (not pictured) is a classic tan pair that will go with anything!

Almost Done! (The downstairs)

This is my living room. I especially like the candles in the fireplace. I am aiming to go with a lot of oranges in this room. I currently only have the loveseat, more furniture will be purchased in the near future.

On the opposite wall is a credenza (AKA my other dresser that doesn't fit upstairs). On it are my lovely music dishes! The black and white chair will go upstairs in the office when more furniture is acquired.

This is my cafe styled kitchen and dining room. I have done it all in blacks and reds.

Yes, I even have a tea pot and crock pot in red.

Almost Done! (The upstairs)

I have been in a rush to get my place put together for Christmas. Not decorated for Christmas, but put together to show my family. My room has pulled together nicely. I am going for a tropical feel, keeping just a little connected to San Diego. I have some great material to put together some pillows, maybe even a throw.



This is my guest room. So excited to have a place for guests and its a real mattress not a blow up! As I started pulling this stuff out I realized 'Wow I've got great taste!' It has been like Christmas early as I open up all the stuff I packed away 8 months ago.






I truly enjoy decorating for the holidays! I didn't have time for the tree, but I did pull out my snowflake shower curtain and accessories... When my ladies come up in February it will be decked out in pinks for Valentine's Day.




CLOSETS! So after living in a very small, old house and then the hall closet at my parents house I am very excited about my walk in closet...and even more excited when I realized the other two closets in the house were all mine too! Therefore, coats/jackets are in the spare bedroom and dresses in the office, and shoes, purses, shirts, and everything else in the master. I think I found a place for everything.


The last room upstairs is my soon to be office/sewing/music room. It will all be done in black and white, should be very cute. Downstairs pics to come....

UNaccompished

I set out to get several things done over the past holiday weekend. And sadly none of them got fully accomplished. I only finished 1 of 3 books. I still have my Redhead book and Accordion book. I didn't finish painting... still have one full room, walls in another room, and all the trim.

BUT!

I did buy a new washer and dryer for $499! and an over-the-range microwave for $150! Yay for the holiday sales. I plan to take pictures, place them in boxes, wrap, and open on Christmas!

Bright side: Painting should be done by the weekend (thanks mom!) new garage door on Friday, and hopefully flooring by Monday. I might live there by next weekend!

Top Musicals

Recently my friend Rachel posted about Musicals and she cited AFI's top musicals, I don't agree. Here is AFI's top 10 and my two cents worth:

1. Singin in the Rain (ok you got me here, this is a good one, especially when he dances with the doll, great dancing)

2. West Side Story (Ok I don't like this just because I don't like the Romeo and Juliet story. I need feel good, this is not feel good)

3. The Wizard of Oz (Cinematically this was huge, they have color, as far as music...I like it better with the sound track to Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd...have you tried it yet?)

4. The Sound of Music (Fabulous, just watched it the other day, sang along the whole way through...but its a long one and again not the happiest of endings. I'd be happy turning it off at their wedding)

5. Cabaret (Never seen it)

6. Mary Poppins (This is fun, but juevenile, I have a hard time watching it at my age)

7. A Star is Born (Judy Garland has made far better movies than this, like #10, or Easter Parade, or the Andy Hardy movies)

8. My Fair Lady (This is a good one, although Audrey doesn't even sing in this movie its Julie Andrew's voice you hear)

9. American in Paris (Both Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron have done better, #1 and Anchors Aweigh for Kelly and Gigi for Caron)

10. Meet Me in St. Louis. (Great movie)

And now for my tops
1. Calamity Jane (Doris Day)
2. White Christmas
3. Holiday Inn (this movie has White Christmas and Easter Parade as songs)
4. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (#21 on AFI)
5. Meet me in St. Louis
6. Gigi
7. Grease (#20 on AFI)
8. The Sound of Music
9. My Fair Lady

Time to Catch up!

One of the greatest things about Holiday vacations is that I can get in a lot of reading. Typically I read one book at a time, but for some reason I am currently between 3 books!

Book One: Accordion Crimes.

This book is a little dark for me. It starts with an accordion maker and follows the accordion through the centuries to come and all the crimes that are committed to get it. I must admit I picked up this book at a used book fair because it had an accordion on it...I'm a musician and I judged the book by the cover.

Book Two: The Roots of Desire: The myth, meaning and power of red hair
This is my first non-fiction read and I am loving it. I find myself nodding along, 'yes that happend to me, yes people think that.' From being teased to redhot temptress. Although I do kind of skim through some parts. The author is deep in genetics and Darwin at this point.

Book Three: I Heart Bloomberg

This is one of my free books that I get from Amazon to read on my Kindle app on my iPhone. Usually I go for the silly, romance novels that I have a bit of sexy...this one is not that. It is taking forever to get going, but I am intrigued that the characters are remodeling a craftsman style house. Guess that's because I am doing a bit of sprucing up on my own place.

My goal is to finish these before the weekend is over and to hopefully start on Caitlyn's book: Eat, Pray, Love. So that I can give it back to her when I head to San Diego next month. I better get reading.

I bought PLANE ticktets

The tickets themselves are not that amazing but the wonderful group of girlfriends I am going to visit are amazing! Here are just a few important points of my upcoming holiday trip:

1) I will be celebrating finishing the first 1/2 of the school year...it has been quite a year! And by Decemeber I am always ready for long two week break. What better way to kick-it off than with a great group girls!

2) I will be taking a San Diego virgin! My friend Ty just got back from deplyment and we will be meeting up in San Diego. I can't wait to show him all the wonderful old haunts.

3) Caitlyn and Cara are throwing an ugly sweater party. I went last year and it was a blast. Although I think I tried to be a little too pretty in my ugly sweater. Last year it was on a Tuesday, this year a Friday so I hope we get to take our ugly sweater out in Pacific Beach. The girls are walking distance to alot of great bars.

4) Seeing my friend Kim's new place. I've already seen it once, but she and I are going through home ownership for the first time this year, along with many other friends, so it's cool to see all the improvements and changes.

My New Fireplace

My new Townhouse was first built in the '80's, so of course the exterior is blue, the linoleum is blue... and the tile is pale pink (I guess to match the pink paint that was in the stairway). So I had decided the cost of re-tiling was way too much. But Casey, my lil brother, said, "No way Sis, I can't let you keep this horrible tile. I will retile it for you.

I hate to tell all of you this, but life is not like HGTV. It doesn't just work out. The old fireplace had 8" tiles but when I went off to Lowe's I discovered they don't make 8" tiles anymore only 6", 12" and a variety of smaller things. Well I looked at some tiles and selected a tile called Sedona and brought home samples in a whole varitey of sizes. Casey came in and went to take the old tile off and the tiles were glued to the wall board! So Casey, thank goodness, made the next trip to Lowes and purchased all of the necessary items: grout, wallboard, tools, tiles.

Depite all the bumps, I believe you will agree that the finished product is gorgeous! Amazing! I can't wait to see what it looks like with Carpet and all! Pink paint...gone! Pink tile....gone! Blue linoleum you're next!

So I Joined a band

As many of you know I've played flute now for 17 years. Yep, started as a little 4th grader. Well I got a degree in flute performance in 2004 and I've played for a few friends' weddings, but I haven't played in a band since college. Well I decided to join the Wattsonville band when I moved to Hollister and I love it! I forgot how exciting it is to play in a group and to play piccolo too.

We had our first concert last week and the uniforms...well...they are not that attractive. More like a neon mariachi than classic concert.

It's not like I'm not used to wearing a uniform. I've been dressing for concerts for years. At Davis I got to wear classic black. Even the UCD marching uniforms weren't that bad...smelled of mildew, but navy blue is classy. Yeah that's me playin' the sax. I even wore orange for UOP's pep band. (Yes, I painted my face like a basketball).

New Place!

I purchased my new home the first of November. It wasn't in perfect in condition. It needs new floors and a lot of paint. I've selected three paint colors: Hopsack (for the Kitchen), Natural (for most of the house) and Swiss coffee for the trim. We began painting a little over a week ago and I am shocked at the difference paint makes. Everything looks so much cleaner.

I'm replacing all the blinds and a couple doors, but I have run into a little problem...none of my doors and windows and doors are a standard size! But thanks to some family help it will all get done! Here are some before and after pics

This is the kitchen before paint. I thought it was a little too bright white. Also the sides of the cabinets are bleached a blue color from the sun.

This is the Kitchen painted Hopsack, after this pic was taken we painted the side of the cabinets Hopsack as well...it really warmed up the space and brought out the grout color. Can't wait to put my red and black Cafe decor in here!