Our Summer So Far (from the other sister)

by Ang

Since I am a follower, I’m totally going to copy my sister and fill you in on what we’ve been up to this summer!

After my two late-spring trips (Nebraska and Colorado), I thought the summer would quiet down a little…but no. And that’s okay!

Here’s what’s been going on since then:

*In June, I had a very good friend of mine from Nebraska come to visit me and only me. Ha ha, just kidding. She was actually here for a work conference. But I like to think she came just to see me. And we did get to spend a lot of time together. We went to Old Town, had some great New Mexican food, and hiked to the top of the mountains. Kidding. Again. We took the tram. I think she had a good time! I know I certainly did. She had never been to ABQ, so I had fun showing her around.

*Hannah got her first ‘real’ bath. Up until now, she’s been getting the puppy baby wipe baths. We were instructed to not give her a ‘real’ bath until she was a few months old, because Chihuahua’s don’t retain their body heat very well. She did much better than we expected. She just had this startled look on her face the whole time. She was too stunned to do anything!

*Our computer died. Like, totally dead. In fact, this is what’s left of it:

We said our goodbyes, and welcomed him to the family:

And quite honestly, we’ve been so busy that we haven’t even had time to really sit down and play with it. Oh well. We’ll have it forever, so there’s no rush!

*We have been up to our ears in projects, cleaning, and more projects. I guess we’re a bit late on our ‘spring’ cleaning. Is there such a thing as ‘summer’ cleaning?

I’m constantly trying to find ways to improve the ‘flow’ of our house and maximize the space that we have. Our house is not huge, so when clutter and things start to accumulate, it is definitely a problem. I try very hard to stick with my ‘one in, one out’ rule, which applies to ANYTHING I bring into the house. Furniture, décor, clothing, shoes, handbags, etc.

I put this rule into place last night. We bought a new cabinet to hold our TV on DVD collection. What we were using before was not very functional or user friendly. There was lots of digging involved. Plus, it was showing some major wear and tear. So my husband put this together last night and I already like it so much better.

Technically I could have kept our other piece (it was like a storage ottoman/coffee table type thing, and this is a free standing cabinet), but we got rid of it. I don’t want the living room feeling too cluttered.

On Saturday I went to Hobby Lobby and got these hooks (for 50% off!) for my husband to hang his hats and suits that he plans on wearing again soon to court. I’m all for using vertical space. Plus, these things used to be draped over our closet doors in the bedroom (meaning we could never shut them).

In my never ending conquest to keep our kitchen counters clean, I added this mail sorter by our back door. I come home, check the mail, and then add my husband’s mail and any of my mail that I can’t deal with right away to the sorter. Thus eliminating the pile up of mail on the kitchen counter.

My husband did lots of work outside, especially out back. Weeding, trimming, general cleanup. We set up our bigger table that we bought a few weeks ago.

I also picked up this little guy at Ross.

I think he makes a nice addition (and adds some color) to the front. We named him Percival the Peacock. Am I the only one that names inanimate objects (particularly animals?). This is Samuel.

And Chester and Robert.

Please don’t think I’m crazy (even though I very well may be, ha ha).

There are still little things to do. Like attaching the closet pulls in the bedroom (aren’t they pretty? Thank you, Anthropologie).

And we have a drawer-full of stuff we need to measure and get framed. And many other little projects. But I’m glad we knocked a lot of it out, especially before our Chicago trip. It’s less than 2 weeks away!!!