BIG DAY

Today was a BIG DAY, readers. I know you probably think I’m the boy who cried wolf because everytime I say, “I’m finished!!,” I’m not really finished.

I defended my thesis: HUGE milestone. But that wasn’t it…

I sat for my comps exam and passed: EXTRAORDINARY. But that wasn’t it…

I donned my cap and gown and graduated. My family came from all around the country to help me celebrate: AWESOME! But, nope. Not done yet.

Today, though, my friends, I worked the last day of my last rotation, completing the last requirement, the last eight hours of the 1300 I’ve worked without compensation (save the gift of knowledge...), in addition to the hours of hours upon hours I sat in class, stayed up writing papers until 3 am, studying until 6 am for an 8 am test, endless hours of labs and practicals, late night hours in the cadaver lab…

At 4:45pm this afternoon, I walked out the door of my clinic no longer a student.

I am done. I am free. I am a Doctor of Physical Therapy.

Bring on the champagne!!

Design Daydreams

(Thanks in advance, April, for letting me hijack your blog title!)

So. I know we’ve only been in our new place for three weeks, but I’ve felt a bit aimless as to where to take my living room. The basics are there, but I couldn’t figure out where to take all of the little details.

Well, wouldn’t you know it, a quick trip to Pottery Barn on Saturday provided me all of the inspiration I needed to complete “the look” of my living room. In my head, at least…

So, here’s where I’m going. I thinking of one giant juxtaposition: Crisp white linen meets dark brown leather. Monograms on burlap pillows. White crown moulding shelves beneath distressed black wood mirrors. The southern Savannah coast meets a Rustic Napa Valley winery. Silver plated candle holders meet distressed terra cotta clay pots. Topiaries meet mason jars. Seagrass baskets and hammered bronze lamps. You feel me?

Okay, I’ll provide you a visual:

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Price Breakdown

Bronze lamp: $25 from Wal-Mart

Silver candle holders: $5-$12 from Ikea

Burlap pillow cases: $45 from Pottery Barn (Okay, a bit of a budget buster…)

Brown leather chair: $199 from World Market

White slipcover: $50 from Ikea (Yes, I realize the irony of pillows that cost the same as the custom slipcover….)

Crown molding shelf: $45 on Amazon.com

Terra cotta pots, topiaries, mason jars, and antiques pill jars will be found on a case by case basis.

This daydream soon to be reality! But before I leave you… Here are the befores!

(This I included just in case you were wondering what I bought at Pottery Barn the other day! (The placemats) Lemon overload? Possibly. But I’m okay with that…)

Afters coming soon—stay tuned!

I have a girl crush…

Her name is Bethenny Frankel.

And I l.o.v.e. her new tv show.  I should grab a pad and write down this girl’s one-liners. She is hilarious.

Check it out: Bravo at 10pm. Thursdays.

That song stuck in my head…

I have been loving my 20 on 20 XM radio dial these days.  Because of my ridiculous commute, I have been getting in a lot of radio time these days (At least 2.5 hours a day, to be exact…). Sometimes I feel like they play the same things over and over (for obvious reasons—I get it), but I feel like over the last two weeks there was a boom of new singles…

These are the songs I currently say, “I love this song!!” when they come on the radio:

1. That Airplane song “Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars? I couldreallyuseawishrightnow, wishrightnow, wishrightno-o-ow…” This song inevitably gets stuck in my head on the way to work every morning.  The 267 Toll Road sucks, but this song makes it just a little bit better…

2. That Will.I.Am/Usher collaboration.  “O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-my-God.”  Homegirl busts a car dancing move every time that song comes on. No lie.

3. That new Train song.  Who knew these guys would have a comeback? “Wheneveryoneelseisgettingoutofbed, I’musuallygettinginit.  I’m-not-in-it-to-win-it.  I’m just in it for yooou.”

4. Sarah Bareilles’s new song.  I love all of her stuff, especially her perky stuff.  The 267 Toll Road REALLY sucks at 5pm, so I’ll take the 3 minutes of perkiness out of the other 67 minutes of torture.

5. That Mike Posner song. The one about wearing designer shades to hide your face and “You probably think that you’re cooler than me…”  It’s a different kind of song.

6. Any song by Jason Derulo

7. Alejandro by Lady Gaga because…it’s Lady Gaga’s latest single. (For the record, it does sound like an old school Ace of Base song.)

Soooo… That’s what carries me through my mornings and afternoons—what about you??

Pretty nice little Saturday…

Since we moved two weeks ago, it’s been project city around here.  I just can’t sit still or relax when there’s a box to be unpacked or a corner that’s not decorated, so it is a BIG exercise in restraint to not have every inch of the house how I want it to be, right away.  I know in the long run, though, I want to take my time and find ideas and pieces that will really look great and allow me to be creative.

BUT, last weekend, we had friends over to grill out, so we tackled the back patio in preparation.

We previously had two adirondack chairs on our balcony and I’ve been on the hunt to find two more.  We bought our last two unfinished from AC Moore a few summers ago and I’ve been stalking them for several weeks in hopes of finding more…

I was on the verge of giving up, but wouldn’t you know it.  I found two chairs chairs in a back corner for $20 apiece. Twenty. Dollars. Sure, we had to assemble and paint them ourselves, but for twenty bucks?  C’mon.

One trip to Home Depot, fifty buckets of sweat in the hundred degree weather, and four paint brushes later…

Voila!Did I mention this was twenty bucks?Window boxes my mom and I planted last week (there are two others on the fence).

Lanterns on sale at Pier 1 and shepherd’s hooks at the Depot…I repainted this old nasty TV stand leftover from Tyler’s college days—it still needs another coat and will be sanded down and distressed another day…

Doesn’t look like much, but we love our new outdoor space!  There’s a Weber charcoal grill and a rolling ice chest hiding in there… And we found a great fire pit at Target recently that will remain put away until the weather warrants its use.If you peek over our fence, you can see how close we are to the pool! I love it.  Just walk out the back and there it is.  There’s also a basketball court to the left, tennis courts behind the pool, and a playground to the right.  I officially love Fairlington.

TGrass is a mean griller so we had ribs, grilled corn and fruit kabobs that night with our friends.  It was soooo good. I tackled dessert and we had mini peach pies and vanilla ice cream.

And of course, I don’t have any pictures of our friends—why would I take those??  But we had a great night hanging out on the patio with friends and are really excited for many more.  We’re already making plans for many a game watch party and s’mores over the fire pit this fall.

Hope everyone else had a great weekend too!  Happy Monday. :)

I’m pretty sure…

That Trader Joe’s puts crack in these suckers.

(And that it’s time for me to go to rehab.)

For real.

Progress…

Day 1(FYI, friends that help you move = the best friends in the world.)Day 2 Day 3Day 6

Day 8 (!)

Holy plaster walls, Batman!  My mom and Rick came in town last weekend to help us shop and get things together (GOD.SEND.).  My mom and I hung these shelves, which is good because I’m not sure T and I would still be married if we’d been left to our own devices…

So far, we’re loving every inch of our new place (including the attic…the patio…the linen closet…the built in shelves…the stairs…the outside storage…the grill…the full size washer and dryer…the hose…)!

Dear Neglected Blog,

I promise, I do love you and remain faithful to you.  There are no other blogs in my life and I have no readers so loyal and supportive.

I promise, I will post tonight, I will tend to your needs, I will remove you from the theoretical backseat of my life.  For better or worse.  Til death do us part.

Until then, I am off to work…for free…all day…

Yours Truly,

Barefoot Katie

O...M...G...

Moving sucks.