Christmas, New Years, and Gadgets, Oh My!

It's almost January 3rd, so this is coming a little late, but I think it's worth the recap!

Christmas was awesome! Brian and I woke up early and took Kevin downstairs to have our own little family celebration. My main gift hadn't arrived yet, but Brian had plenty of other fun gifts for me in the mean time! And I hid Brian's gift and then sent him on a scavenger hunt to find it, so that was fun! And before too long, it was time to split up to go to our respective parents' homes for gift exchanges. We were apart for the rest of the day until the evening when Brian left his grandparents' house to come to my mom and dad's at the end of the night. Good times were had by all! And today, my big gift finally arrived...

Garmin 405!!!

My very own gigantic Garmin watch! SO exciting! So now I can set measurable goals and actually know if I'm reaching them without having to run 10 billion laps around the track at work. Whew! Awesome! I love Brian. Oh, and I got him a Bowflex (that we still need to put together!), so we should be looking A-M-A-Z-I-N-G by wedding time!

Side note- It's January 2nd. The wedding is June 11. My dumb ass was thinking that I still had 6 months to freak out plan, order, sign contracts, etc, when my mom informed me that no, I only have 5 (read: FIVE) months for said planning. Oh crap!

 New Year's Eve was a blast! Brian and I invited some of our best buddies over and I couldn't have asked for a more fun way to start 2011. Our friend and groomsman Mike said that the first hour you spend in the New Year is how you'll spend the rest of the year... like, if you're alone, you'll be alone for the year, if you're happy, you'll be happy, if you're resentful, well, you get it. Well I spent the first hour happy, surrounded by wonderful people, my house was lit up and filled with love, I was tired but excited. That sound like a good year to me! Needless to say, I am definitely looking forward to everything that 2011 holds for me!

Brian and I in front of our tree on NYE

Me, Maid of Honor Alexis, and Bridesmaid Rachael

The whole group!

My new Garmin wasn't the only new gadget I have in my possession... I added a new blog gadget to the right--->>>... now this may not be exciting to you, but it's my blog and it's exciting to me! :p  I'm going to be keeping track- along with the help of my Garmin- of all of my runs/walks/hikes. (Part of a New Year's resolution, perhaps??) 

We went on a 3 mile hike in Runyon Canyon  with Rachael and her boyfriend Kevin, our Kevin, and Rachael's Boxer Bailey. Kev and Bailey were quick best friends and the hike was a lot of fun! Everyone was out there with their families and dogs. And we even saw Oscar from The Office getting his workout on! Good for him!

I'm just guessing at the 3 miles based on what other websites have listed the trail at, because that beautiful hunk of a watch was not in my possession yet. But I'm going to count it because I did it and I deserve to! It was a great start to the new year- great company and a great work out!

Me, Rachael, Dog Kevin, and Bailey

Brian, Me, Rach, and Human Kevin :)

Unfortunately, the weather in LA is not up to it's usual awesomeness (yeah, I make words up). It's been dumping rain. It's even snowing just north of the valley, which is really weird. Needless to say, I did not get in a workout today. I'll be back tomorrow though- that's a promise!

Good night!

Sorry Dad: Quick and easy bathroom re-do

I am preempting this post with a note about my dad.

I love him. He's always worked hard to provide for me and my younger brother. Not only is he a hard worker, but he's a perfectionist, so it's like he's working twice as hard to make sure everything is just right. Especially when it comes to projects around the house. He takes such pride in everything he owns and everything he does. He's caring, he has patience. He bends over backwards for our family. I've learned a lot from him throughout the years.

He was especially helpful when I bought my own house almost 3 years ago. He helped me paint everything from my 14 foot walls to my (now) pristine white baseboards. He's taken numerous trips to Lowe's and Home Depot with and/or for me to find knobs, light fixtures, paint colors, tools, ideas, and more. He has spent tireless hours working, lifting, painting, demo-ing, hauling, attaching, hanging things in, to, and from my house. Of course, I've thanked him and taken him out for dinner a couple of times, but nothing could truly repay him for the time he's spent at my house helping me make it a home. And the extra time I've gotten to spend with him is priceless.

And with that, I want to apologize to him. Partially because I'm about to re-paint a couple of the walls he helped me with and I feel guilty for not telling him about it first. And partially because I am nowhere near as patient as he is, so while I am paying very close attention to detail and taping and cutting in and doing all of the techniques he has taught me throughout the years, I'm not laying down all of the paper he does to catch paint drips and I didn't get paint samples to put on the wall first. I just bought the paint and started. And with that, whenever I do a project without my dad's consent, knowledge, or advice, I am adding it to a segment called 'Sorry Dad'!

On that note, I have a pesky little guest bathroom that's pretty much the smallest, darkest room in the entire house. When I first began decorating almost 3 years ago, I was really into bright colors and a Hawaiian theme. That's cool for a large room, but not such a great idea for the world's tiniest bathroom. My inspiration was these cool little vintage postcards I got in Maui a couple of years back...

Framed vintage Hawaiian postcards

My original idea was to pick up the pink in the hibiscus flowers in the top postcard. I picked out a bright pink to create an accent wall in my mini-room. I forgot to take a before picture, but here's one of the wall after I primed it...

You can see the pink through the white, so you get the idea of the color. People would walk into the bathroom for the first time, and I could hear them gasp even through the closed door. I figured it was time for a change!

Green!

I picked out a soothing sage green color. It's the one on the middle of that card in the pic above. I would have LOVED a more of an olive green, like the one on the right side of the card, but again, the darkest room in the house needed to be lighted up a bit. The end product was pretty sweet. (I think so, anyway!)...

Finished!

To give some perspective on just how tiny this bathroom is, I was standing in the doorway and that toilet is centered on the wall... yup. THAT small.

And this might shed some light on both the personalities of myself and my lovely fiance... a couple of days before I painted this special little wall, I told him what I was thinking about doing. I actually started the conversation by saying, "If you came home from work one day and I painted a wall in the house, would you be mad?" And he said, "No, that's the kind of thing I would expect from you. You get a wild hair up your butt and then you just do whatever it is that you want to do."

At first I was a teensy-weensy bit offended, but then Brian assured me that that was a good thing. He says I'm not boring and he likes that I'll keep him guessing. Hooray for being spontaneous!