Chi Town Love Story

Happy Sunday, ya’ll!  This weekend was amazing and full of activities for Jaime’s wedding – I can’t wait to show off pictures.  I am so honored to have been able to help in all the ways I could in order to keep things running smoothly!  Despite how much I hated my own wedding planning and am relieved to never have to go through it again, I find myself feeling so happy and fulfilled helping others with theirs!  One of the vendors was even shocked when he learned that I wasn’t an actual coordinator!  (I’m sure he was just being nice) PLUS, I got to see my own photographer and his own beautiful wife/assistant, Glen from Pixel-This.  (I have more images here, if you’re interested)

Anyhow, while we’re talking about weddings, Chris and I have to split up for one this September.  He’ll stay here to be in a close friend’s wedding while I’ll be Chicago with my original half of the family for our cousin’s wedding.  Brian is the only “Oppa” I have (which translates to “older brother” in Korean), but he’s a truly hard working graduate of the University of Michigan – and still remains a die hard fan, by the way.  Anyhow, I cannot wait for their wedding (1) because I know it’s going to be incredibly elegant and beautiful, and (2) because I cannot wait until I get myself back to Chicago.  It’s an amazing city full of history, museums, and constant flashbacks to the newer Batman movies.

Anyhow, just wanted to share the wonderful story of Brian and Jenny, who were recently filmed and featured on WCIU, The U, a local Chicago channel.  Spoiler: He proposed.

I’m sorry that I couldn’t figure out to embed the video… the people at WCIU were also unhelpful, but what can you do?

http://assets.delvenetworks.com/player/loader.swf

He’s so handsome, isn’t he?  And Jenny is the prettiest cousin-in-law I could ask for… that, and I’d love to raid her closet!  Congratulations you guys!

This also reminds me, Brian will be Atlanta soon for a conference, but he’s coming during the weekend to spend time with all of us… I’d appreciate any suggestions for places to take him, places to eat, and places to drink.  I have a general idea, but I’m always open to new thoughts and suggestions! Thanks!

Tags: Atlanta, Chicago, family, Jaime, Pixel-This, proposal, WCIU, wedding

Spunky Mom

This morning, I got a text message from my mom with a link to a YouTube video…

 

Of course, I love the dancing baby!  It certainly puts a smile on your face… but I’m extra happy because my beautiful mother has enhanced her Droid skills (she’s got a Samsung S2) and learned how to send the link to me from her phone.  Making great strides here, people!  My dad, on the other hand, still can’t figure out how to check his voicemail – remember the days when you only had to hold down “1″?  Love you, Dad!

Anyhow… I replied, “Hahahahaha. That is CRAZY! How did he learn to do that???”

My mother’s reply? “I taught him this morning.”

WHAT?!?! If I was still working on my coffee, I think I would have spewed it everywhere.  Who is this hilariously spunky lady and where did my mother go?  Remember this sweet face?

Moments like this morning make me want to do this:

But they’re sadly 2 1/2 hours away…. Miss you Mom & Dad!!!  And yes, that is DavidK, who also loves my parents dearly… 

Tags: Niño Bailando, parents, spunky mom, YouTube

Shopping, Anyone?

I cannot believe that June is just around the corner… we are almost halfway through 2012.  All this realizing made me check back to the resolutions I made for 2012 – remember back when I promised to (try) sticking with our budget?  We’ve done okay – not great, but not terrible either.  There is definitely room for improvement for the next half of 2012.  Which brings me to saving while shopping.

This isn’t a post about anything fun, but just wanted to share that if you’re committed and plan ahead, you can save a great deal on stuff.  That said, we naturally stock on bulk items like eggs, shampoo/conditioner, toilet paper, and paper towels from Costco (along with other items).  Groceries and other everyday items, including my make-up, we are able to save about 20-30% on most grocery trips (every now and then, you just need something for dinner that isn’t on that list), but it requires me to flip through the Sunday ads and make a list of what I need to buy from Kroger, Publix, CVS, and Target.  Don’t get me wrong, I flip through many more ads than that, but those are 4 I usually end up making a list from for ease.  Most weeks, Chris and I will go to Kroger and Publix on Sunday and I’ll sneak to CVS and Target sometime during the week.  I can’t seem to save more than 45% on a “regular” grocery trip, but I do score some great deals every now and then elsewhere!  If you’re reallllly careful and keep your eyes open, you can also save on other things.  For example, Publix ran a deal about 2 months ago where if you spent at least $25 in groceries, you could buy a $50 gas card (I got mine for QT) for $40.  Which give me an automatic $10 in savings since $25 is easy to spend for a 4-person family like ours.

CVS has a great rewards program… I once was able to knock off $8 in cash just from built-up rewards cash.  On one of my most recent trips, I bought snacks, some Icy Hot for Chris, Febreeze Sit and Refresh for the boy’s/guest bathroom, travel-sized shaving cream for a work-related trip for Chris, and Olay’s Cleanser.  The cleanser alone rings up $20 regular price, but with manufacturing coupons and CVS coupons, I paid $20.68.  Total.  For all that stuff.  Boo-yeah!  That’s enough to make me do a little dance in my head, which suffices until I get in my car and do a real dance.

Aside from grocery stuff, I try to save a decent amount on clothes as well — that, and I get incredibly lucky.  For example, with Clearance + Banana’s Reward Cash + Memorial Day coupons + Human Error = Cheap Pants!

I was able to purchase these Banana Republic pants (valued at $89.50) for $7.55.

And the final toot-my-horn moment from this past week (no, this kind of stuff does not happen regularly at all) occurred at Target.  I love Target… it’s like a safe haven for me.  Nothing bad can happen to me there.  Except spending too much money, I guess.  Anyhow, NinaR and I went kayaking this past weekend, which meant that we both needed some soft-sided coolers.  I found a great one (by Igloo) that I knew Chris would love… but the last one on the shelf had no price tag.

Here’s a story of when being nice pays off.  I couldn’t find another one like the one above, but I grabbed it anyhow in hopes that the employees would have a way to look it up.  Just in case, I grabbed another one that would have been an okay alternative.  Since the nice check-out lady and I spent about 5 minutes looking everywhere for their alternative item number (still not sure what this is exactly), she rang it up as the same price as my alternative one.  However, she also adjusted the price to make it $15 instead.  I may or may not have said “I love you” while looking her dead in the eye.  Finally, because my previous purchase had gotten me a $10 Target gift card (like I said, I stock up and buy things by planning ahead to get the most bang for my buck), I used that to give me a grand total of $6.20.  The website states that the bag is on sale for $29something.  You can bet my brain had mini-seizures from all the in-my-head dancing I did!

It’s sad how excited I get about this kind of stuff, but it makes me feel so much better about spending!  Chris gets pretty excited for me too, which makes it that much more fun.  With my upcoming graduation, there is hope for me finding a job this year and not having to worry so much… but no worries, I won’t be giving up my couponing habits!  They will remain crucial during grad-school-debt-repayment-planning.  I just hope to be able to breathe a little easier.

Tags: Banana Republic, CVS, CVS Rewards, Febreeze, Groceries, Icy Hot, Igloo, Kroger, New Years resolutions, Olay Pro-X, Publix, shopping, Target

Spraying and Fanning – NOT an ode to Georgia’s heat

Like the title?  Let’s pretend it’s a working title.  This is what I was thinking of (from Amazon):

In the break between Spring and Summer semester, I immediately went to work with my favorite stuff: spray paint!  If you remember my home’s to-do list, you’ll notice that I had “paint ceiling fan” under the Office section.  Well, I did that. That’s all I have to say.  This post is done now.

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JUST KIDDING! You know I have too many words swirling in my brain than to just leave you with that!

For the record, I don’t always do the research I probably should do before tackling something…. not always the best thing to do.  But I like to just look at what’s before me and figure it out as I go.  Except when I purchase something that comes with instructions.  In those cases I actually fish out the instructions first, just like my dad taught me.  Consider me halfway there.

Anyhow, the weather was so glorious last week with nearly ZERO humidity (which is so rare this time of year…), that I took full advantage of spray painting.  I should mention that I wanted to paint this ceiling fan because we got it for $30 a couple years ago and that it’s a really unappealing color.  Unappealing colors do not float my boat.  Another reason it was a good time to make this change: if you’re spray painting and it’s humid, you have to wait SO much longer for between-coat drying time AND curing time… and no one likes to wait.  We are the fast food/instant gratification generation, after all.

Let me explain why instructions might have helped me along the way…. this is where I started:

Okay, that wasn’t entirely true.  I stared at the fan for about 10 seconds and wanted to just take the fan blades off.  But the bolts were on there so freaking tightly that I absolutely could not get the bolts to give.  I even asked Andrew to take a shot at it since he works out and all.  No luck = take the entire middle part off to get to the base of the fan blades.  So the image above is where I “started”… to get to the middle.

You see where each blade leads to the base that encircles the lighting portion of the fan?  The plan was to loosen the plate  in the middle (see the screws right above the wires?) in order to get the screws that would loosen the base of each  fan’s blades.  Note: the power had been shut off for the sunroom part of the house in the meantime. And here’s a shot from above…

In case any of you have either installed or uninstalled your own fans, you probably have already screamed out, “Nina! You’re so blind! Why did you go through all that trouble?!?!” multiple times by now.  As soon as Andrew and I have gotten one blade + connector-to-base down and I was walking to the door, the Techie grad, Allan, had suddenly appeared and had gotten one more blade down. Sans connector-to-base.  Say whaaaa????  In the 15 steps it takes to get to the door?  Yes… let’s take a closer look at the picture above.  Here’s one more I took when I was trying to loosen the screws from above:

If you will kindly take notice of a black clamp-looking thing at the end of each fan’s blade two photos above, you’ll notice just that. It’s. A. Freaking. Clamp. All I had to do was (1) unclamp and (2) turn the blade 90 degrees and (3) lift up.  See it now?  I do. And BOY did I feel dumb.  It also didn’t help that when I started to tell Chris about taking the fan down he immediately says, “You just lifted the clamp and got it down, right?”  NO, DEAR, I DIDN’T (not at first).  But then again, Chris was the one who installed the stupid thing.  Not me.  Therefore, I had no instructions that were read and lingering in my brain.

So yeah… I went ahead and got all of them down before I wanted to put the whole thing back together again.  A girl’s arms get really tired after holding them over your head for a half hour… which is why I can only attempt a braid a maximum of 2 times before giving up and tying it up into a normal ponytail.

You see how obnoxiously brown they are?  Yeah, that’s right.  The color is obnoxious and it knows.  That’s why they needed this awesomeness to glam them up:

I read repeatedly from Young House Love that this works super well, but since Lowe’s is my homeboy, I never got my hands on them until recently.  Sorry, homeboy, I had to give it a try and Lowe’s just doesn’t carry this product!  It’s a spray paint + primer in glossy white.  And I gotta say, I am hooked!  The handle of this baby alone is LOADS better than the stupid one that makes my finger feel like a major wimp.  Home Depot is officially my sugar daddy for spray paint… but I’ll keep Lowe’s as my homeboy. for now.  Note: The HD link is for a 6-pack, but they do sell them individually for ~$7 each.

This is where we stood after cleaning, sanding, and cleaning again before applying one coat.  With spray paint, you have to go super light with each layer and do multiple layers to really give your item a flawless finish in the end.  For example… I did about 9 coats and thought I was done, but noticed splotches after putting the blades up of glossy and non-glossy in bright sunlight, so I’m actually doing a few more coats as I write this.  But after a few coats, it really does get better!  This is after 5 coats – you can even notice the splotchiness here:

Always, always, ALWAYS sand with fine grit before spraying the next coat.  It’s another way to help ensure your flawless finish.  p.s. the frame will be saved for another day! …

And this is after 2 more coats and put back together!

Woot! No splotchiness: Check!  Glossy: Check! Cooling Effects: Check! A color I can tolerate: Double Check!

Tags: Lowe's, spray paint, ceiling fan, Home Depot, Rustoleum, sunroom

Garden Update

Thought I’d provide a garden update since it’d been a while since I’d planted my mini “garden.”

They’ve all been doing very well and I’m so pleased with them all!  With all the random summer showers, I can’t keep up with their growth!  I’ve made SO many strawberry mojitos using the mint — which, don’t you think the strawberries have been extra delicious this season??? And the basil and cilantro gets thrown into anything I can think of.  Although, I will say that I learned this morning that I’ve been picking the leaves incorrectly.  According to The Skinny Gourmet, I shouldn’t be picking individual leaves, but actually cutting the stem right above the newly sprouting leaves.  It makes sense this way — the basil has been growing really tall and the leaves are huge, so cutting the stem allows you to keep your desired height while preventing the whole plant from toppling over from the weight.  Also, didn’t know this, but according to The Skinny Gourmet, if you notice any flowers trying to sprout at the top, get rid of them! As for everything else, I’ve been cutting them by the stems because the mint and cilantro love to grow sideways.  Lastly, the lavender I’ve continued to leave alone.  The flowers have just started sprouting a couple of weeks ago, so I think she’s taking her sweet time.

As for all the vegetables:

Sorry! I couldn’t get my phone to stop focusing on the backdrop, making the jalapeños blurry….

And my mom gave me this last one a couple weekends ago.. they’re not spicy peppers, but they’ll look like jalapeños when they’re grown.  They’re super delicious and super crispy when you eat them raw with some GoChuJang (Korean chili paste).

Finally, on to flowers:

When I planted these, there were two types, Cosmos (the actual blooming ones) and Verbena.  However, in recent months, the Verbena have not been doing as well as you might be able to tell… nope, they’re pretty dry and I have one clump of flowers left in them.  I know I’ll have to take it out to let the Cosmos do its thing (still pumping out beautiful pink, violet, and white flowers on a very regular basis), but I haven’t quite decided if I want to repot the Verbena with the hope that the roots are just crowding vs. trashing them.  I knew I’d be taking my chances by mixing the two flowers into one not-very-big pot, so I’m not all that surprised. According to the labels, which my dorky self keeps, both of these need 6″ of spacing on all sides of them for adequate growing.  Again, I just took my chances.  But to stray you away from my risky behavior… see the delicious herbs in the background??

At least I know I’ll be saving these babies in the end either way:

What about Hank, you ask?  Hank’s hanging out and confusing Kade’s friends in the neighborhood.  Yes, I actually had a neighbor tell me that his medium-large size dog, Roxy, stared at Hank for a good 5 minutes to make sure Hank wouldn’t hurt said neighbor.

On a side note, if you’re Instagramming like me (ninasquared) and follow Lauren Conrad, she had recently posted a photo with lots of Cosmos.  But my dorky self got super excited about this…

Tags: basil, cilantro, Cosmos, garden, Instagram, jalapenos, lavender, mint, potted plants, red bell pepper, Verbena