Weekend Update!

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend!  I had a fun one - though I feel like I need another weekend to relax after this one.

First of all, I have to tell you that my wonderful friend J got me some pajama jeans.  And I love J, and I love love love my pajama jeans.  They were definitely a large part of my weekend.  I posted a facebook status about them and got lots of comments from friends, many of which were along the "OMG, I can't believe you'd actually wear those things" vein.  Hilariously, I saw one of those friends when I was out shopping on Friday, and she said, "Well, you weren't wearing them today."  Actually, yes!  I was!  And you didn't know!  Ultimate pajama jeans win.  

I have no idea what is going on with my facial expression in this picture.  It is not a testament to my feelings about the pajama jeans.  Good photo job, PB.

So, pajama jeans affixed firmly to my butt, I went to lunch and shopping with PB, my mom and my grandmother.  I got PB out of the house by telling him we were going to eat cheeseburgers and go to the beef jerky outlet.  But instead we went to David's Bridal to pick up my mom's dress for my wedding, and to two different TJ Maxx stores in search of discount purses.  Poor PB.  But he was a good sport, bought us lunch at Red Robin, and honestly was hunting for purses with us.  PB has little dignity, it's one of the things I love most about him.  

Friday night, we headed down to the lake and did a low country boil.  I know, I've posted about this before - I'm officially obsessed with them.  It was just the four of us, so I just did it on the stove in a big pot, rather than going through the trouble of getting out the cooker and everything.  I added a ton of Old Bay to it this time, and it was just delicious.  

I'm trying to set a record for number of pictures of low country boil posted on a single blog.  Also, if you don't have corn on the cob holders like the pool ball ones seen above, you need some corn holders in your life!  Fantastic invention.

We had a relaxing night, hanging out, watching TV, and trying to process all that food.

Saturday, it was eighty something glorious degrees here in the Carolinas, so I pretty much spent the whole day in a bathing suit, even though I am in no shape to be in one right now.  I also tossed Peggy in the lake a few times in an attempt to try to teach her to swim.  Peggy Sue wasn't a big fan of such, but it made me feel better to know that she actually has the ability to swim, if not the desire.  Made me a lot more comfortable when she was running around the dock at full speed, whimpering because there were unattainable ducks swimming around just off the end of the dock.

The neighbors were having a little party, which was really more like a dog party, which Pegs loved.  Her BFF Reina was over, which meant lots of running around and stick sharing.  

Here's Peg and Reina sharing a stick.  Pegs ignored the little dogs - she much prefers to roll with the big guys.

Sunday, we went over for a birthday cookout at my parents' friends' house, and I ate more than the legal limit of banana pudding.  I was so exhausted from not sleeping at all on Saturday night for no apparent reason though, that I wasn't all that much fun.  All I was good for was coming home, cleaning the house, and getting in bed to watch TV.  I know, I'm so exciting.  But then of course, as exhausted as I was, and despite the fact that I got in bed at 9, I didn't go to sleep until after midnight.  This I'm-a-crazy-person-who-doesn't-sleep thing has GOT to stop. 

Before I became a useless bed slug though, I put out my new area rug!  We found it at TJ Maxx and I just love it.  My living room really needed some color, because my walls are tan, my trees are tan, the furniture is tan...I felt like I was living inside a cardboard box.  I could still use more color, but this is definitely a start!

The next goal is to start a photo wall.  It just intimidates the snot out of me, so I keep avoiding starting it. Soon, though.  Soon!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend.  Anything exciting happen?

trying to love fall like everyone else

On a daily basis, there are some things that just go wrong. I don't think I could tell you of a time in my life when I have had an empty laundry hamper. Giant success for me is if the laundry pile is small enough that it fits in the confines of the hamper. Unlike this situation, which is what we have going on right here at the moment:

Now you may remember the various laundry crises I've had in the past. I'm trying to be better. See these clothes in my dryer?

Well, I have to say that even if they've been hanging out in there, they're at least dry. And they don't smell like a moldy cheese wheel. And, as of tonight, a miracle of the dear sweet 8lb, 60z baby Jesus occurred, and I FOLDED LAUNDRY. I think the cats were a little perturbed by this, since it never happens, ever. But mainly, this is my vow. One load of laundry, washed, folded, put away every two days. I have GOT to be better. You know what a bad feeling it is to be scrambling for clean underpants three minutes after you were supposed to have been out the door? Not a good feeling.

Other parts of the house, however, have managed to not look like drunken baboons run my household. I've been trying to embrace this whole "fall" thing, even though I might be the only person in the world who really doesn't like fall. Fall just means the end of summer and imminent bleak, cold, yucky winter. I could pretty much hibernate from October to April and be just fine with that. But I figured that maybe a few fall decorations this year would perk me up. And lo and behold, I found what I was looking for on a recent trip to...wait for it....WAL-MART. I know, seriously, I found awesome home stuff at Wal-Mart! Crazy.

I got some fall garland (which actually was a Hobby Lobby find for $5 when I was there on a yarn run). Sticking it up on the mantle makes me want to have some kind of greenery up there all the time now, because I love the way it looks and also that it covers up my gross-looking DishNetwork DVR for the most part.
The fall garland is also Twyla's favorite. Doesn't she look sedate here? Let me assure you that that is not the case. Sometimes, Twyla will sit right underneath the garland and you can hear the voices in her head getting cranked up, and then all of a sudden, after hours or days of the garland being a non-issue, it MUST BE KILLED. So the garland and my picture frames get snatched down at once. And then attacked again, just for good measure. And then Twyla gets yelled at and sprayed, if I can find the water bottle in time. But even if she does, she just looks at me all indignant like, "Well, it was worth it anyway." I can't imagine what shenanigans are going to go down when I finally put up my Christmas tree. I'm foreseeing Twyla IN the tree for most of the holiday season. Probably I should just skip putting the tree topper on at all, since Twyla will likely be on top of the tree most of the time.

Fortunately, she has not yet discovered my bowl of $5 Wal-Mart vase filler. I didn't get a good picture of the bowl, but it was made by a friend of ours who lives at the beach and makes the most beautiful hand-thrown pottery. She's getting ready to start up an Etsy shop, seahagpotter, and when she does, you'll definitely hear about it from me, because she makes amazing things. This bowl had been full of keys, hair ties, random papers, and other ugly stuff until I found this and forced myself to clean it out and let the bowl live up to its potential as something other than an above-the-counter junk drawer.
Finally, I found these Better Homes and Gardens fall placemats at Wal-Mart too! Cheap! I just took them out of the dryer (I know, amazing) and they need to be ironed (ha, don't get me started on how ironing never happens!) But they do a great job of covering up my Craigslist-probable-dumpster-rescue-spray-painted table!

I would ordinarily already be getting in the spirit to put up Christmas decorations but I've been too busy what with my terrible law school schedule and such the past few weeks. I'm just going to fire up my pumpkin pie candle, make some butterscotch coffee, and try to relish the fall feeling for a little while longer, before we gear up for Christmas.

Do y'all decorate for fall?