I'm Baaaack!

So my last post on here was 2010. That is... crazy. Well, and downright lazy. But regardless, here is what I have been up to since I last posted-

First this happened- 

Then 9 month and 14 days later this happened-

                                

And then 1 year 6 months and 9 days later that beautiful, amazing baby girl grew into this beautiful, amazing little girl-

 

And somewhere in between all of that- I started working for my Dad's construction company, HDI Associates, Inc., and he helped me open my very own cabinet design and sales company; Total Kitchen Store by Kelly. 

It's been a very busy 4 years. 

And since I opened that company in 2012, I have grown so much in both skill and passion for what I do. These are some of my recent accomplishments- 

It's hard to believe that I have actually had this blog longer than I've known my husband. And to think that I've neglected you for so long.

My deepest apologies and promises to be better in the future. xoxo

Life on a Budget

So I'm sure that if you're anything like me you receive a lot of hand-me-downs or at least offers for hand-me-downs. I'm a fan of them and I can't seem to ever refuse anything. But, it's a shame when someone gives me a sturdy, beautiful piece of furniture and it's just "not my style". For example, I really don't like light wood. I don't know why. There are times when I see light wood highlight a room and I think it's stunning. But for my home, I simply prefer dark wood; combined with bright whites and vibrant color.

So I decided to do some research. I figured there had to be a way to transform the pieces of furniture I have in my garage into pieces that will nicely suit me and my style. I decided to start with a small project; a little end table that my parents bought years ago from IKEA that has been residing in the corner of my family room. I have various IKEA furniture in my family room and all the other furniture is black.

So this was my first adventure in furniture makeovers; this was my standard light-wood IKEA end table.

I started my project off by sanding the entire thing. This was extra important for me because of the water stains on the top of the table. They were pushing up and making the surface rough and bulgy.

Here is a line up of the products I used. I opted for spray paint over regular paint because I was concerned about streaks and I'm not highly skilled at this yet. I thought it would be an easier material to work with. I also bought two sanding boards; one to remove paint and one to smooth surfaces between coats.

My next step was to prime the whole thing. Lets talk about primer. So I hear you really have a choice; you can either sand something to oblivion and paint or you can prime and then paint. In my case, I like to do both. Why? I don't know. Call it over-kill. I also have a problem whenever I prime anything; I really love white and when I reach this step I always wonder if it's time to stop. But, it's not!

This was my last step (before the next steps this weekend). I spray painted the entire thing black. This was where I was going to stop and then apply the clear coat. But, I started thinking that I should add some designs on the upper side boards. So I'm going to do that this weekend and then I'm going to clear coat the whole thing.

*Please note that the table is still wet here. I opted for a "flat" spray paint so it is much less shiny once it dries.*

So lesson learned; if I can do it, you can do it. My total cost= $18. The newest end table that is similar to mine from IKEA would have cost me $99.99; see HERE.

I love saving money, don't you?

The Perils of Being Female

Since Andrew's mother has been in the hospital the outside of our house has kind of fallen into shambles. I do my best to keep the inside of the house looking respectable. I do this in spite of our animals and the laundry and the endless piles of chewed up who-knows-what that Harry leaves around. Point being, I don't normally handle the outside of the house and I believe the time has come.

I have given myself a chore list for the weekend, oh yes, yes I have. I'm going to even out the gravel in the driveway and I'm going to take down the Halloween decorations. I know! I know, Halloween decorations and it's almost Thanksgiving. I'm a mess!

BUT! my main goal is to start repainting a piece of furniture. What piece of furniture you ask? I haven't decided. But, due to my father's hoarding combined with Andrew's hoarding and the once large space that was my barn I am inundated with old ugly furniture that needs some TLC.

Pictures will be coming soon. Please cross your fingers that I don't break anything, pull anything or in other words... maim myself.

I'm going to call this "Kelly's Independence Day Weekend". Wish me luck!

And on a random note, I found MaryJane's slightly thinner, but in no way as adorable doppleganger.

I'm Back!!!

It's been a while, hasn't it? It seems like ages. I've missed you! Everything in general has been kind of crazy. So where can I begin? My last blog was on April 1, 2010. That was like nine months ago. Jeesh, that's almost the length of pregnancy... the things I could have been doing, haha. BUT, I do have lots of updates. Here we go:

• We took in a foster cat named Macy. Just last month she officially became ours. She is also my most well behaved "child". This is proof that I should not begin parenting anything until it is at least 6 years of age.
  

• Harry turned from the dream puppy into a demon child almost overnight. I don't know what happened. He knows commands, but refuses to listen. He hates cuddling. He'd rather bite your leg off than be petted. But, we're working on it. We still love him. My ripped apart couch and the fact that he's still alive is proof of this.
  

• Andrew and I took a relationship hiatus. I'm not proud of it. I wish it hadn't happened. BUT! I do have to say that we are stronger than ever. We are ready for our future together, we worked out some of our quirks and we appreciate each a helluva lot more. It's good times.
  

• I still have the same job, in my cube, be jealous... I know I am... of EVERYONE! ;-)
  

• On an unfortunate note, we had some family tragedy not too long ago. Andrew's mother was seriously hurt during a robbery. But, she is the strongest woman I've ever met and she is doing fantastically and we feel so blessed that she's here.
  

• As for me, well I'm a still a smart ass. Perhaps I'm a tid bit humbler these days. I think this is a good thing. I'm becoming a better woman every day.
  

  
  So what else did you miss? Well you missed one killer Halloween party. So I'm going to add some pictures to this post. Everyone likes pictures.

Alice in Wonderland theme; Andrew as the Mad Hatter, my BFF Olga as Alice and me, the Red Queen.

This is me and some of my favorite girls. That one all the way on the right? Yea, she's my uber favorite. But genetics has a way of doing that to you. That's my sista.

Me and Crusty. He wanted to be a ghostbuster, but we just couldn't find a costume in his size...

And here's my family; my mama, me, my littler and older sister and my daddy. Haha. :-)

To Have Or Not To Have, THAT Is The Question

I wish I had more readers on my blog so I could gather even more advice on this issue. But since my two most devoted readers, my very good friends Olga and Nic, both have pets that they love I hope to gather some information on the subject.

So my cat, Ms. MaryJane, had been acting pretty bizarre lately. She wasn't cleaning herself, she was being more lax than usual and, in general, she just looked downright uncomfortable.

Then I came home yesterday to find that she had leaked some sort of goo all over my bed and I was instantly hit with a wave of panic; not only for my sheets, but for the girl that I have loved for almost 6 years. Sorry Boyfriend, but she came first.

So of course I called the vet and made an appointment; but it wouldn't be until the following day (that's today in case you were wondering) Then I took her down to the basement and set her up with her bed (as seen HERE) and her litter box and I would have given her a tv, a magazine and a chocolate bar if she would have been into it; because for real you guys! my cat was not feeling well!

In all seriousness though, any animal parent knows that it breaks your heart to see your baby in pain. For me, I hate knowng that she shut off in the basement. So I went down to pet her and love her and give her some cuddling and then BOOM! I started balling my eyes. I mean really! she is the one thing that I have left from my days of independence. She is MY pet. She is MY baby. And I was NOT prepared for anything to be wrong with her.

And my wonderful, wonderful Boyfriend agreed to go with me to the emergency ER at 11:30 at night so that we could make sure that she was ok.

After a 10 minute assessment of her situation by the vet, we came to find that she was massively constipated. And instantly all my thoughts of cancer and tumors and kidney failure and all the bad things melted out of my mind and I started to breath again.

But then we got our estimate and I almost had a heart attack...

$1,300

Followed by a "well we can't be sure, it will probably cost even more depending on the length of her stay".

Whaaaaaat? That is almost as much as my mortgage payment! And believe me, I LOVE my cat. But, eh eh. NO go.

So the salesmen, I mean the vet, at the ER goes on and on about IV fluids and enemas and her 2 day stay (as if it was a spa or something) and yada, yada, DOLLAR SIGNS. That was all I heard.

Then they tell me that we can pay about $500 and they'll give her under the skin fluids and she'll get one enema and then I could pick her up the following morning. Followed by a, "you can take her to vet whenever they open, but if you come back here you'll have to pay another examination fee". Really?!

After talking it over with Andrew we paid our $250 for the visit and the X-rays, thanked the vet and took Ms. Fat Cat home. Because we knew, we just knew, that our vet would never cost that much money.

So today I took her to OUR vet and it turns out that she has a blockage of the colon. Sidnote: I know this is all really gross; please bare with me. Well, my vet tells me that they're going to set her up with IV fluids, sedate her so he can remove the blockage and that she'll be there until Saturday.

Get this; $700.

Am I missing something?

I will never recommend that anyone go to Gywnedd Animal Hospital. I will, however, recommend my vet at Montgomery Animal Hospital.

But thank you Gwynedd for your recommendation that I sign up for a line of credit to pay your exuberant hospital bill. AWESOME.

Well then my vet tells me that he's not happy, actually he's really quite annoyed, because he doesn't feel like they performed Ms. Fat Cat a service at all. The first thing they should have done was shave her bottom to assess the situation. He also tells me that there was absolutely no way the $500 enema would have worked.

Worse yet; he says "the vet would have known that".

For real? I'm getting ripped off by an ER vet?! Are you kidding?

Now I'm wondering if I should sign the pets up for health care coverage because for starters, I don't think Obama's plan well cover my animals (damn). It will cost us about $80 a month for both pets, but it will cover all accidents and regular routine work.

What are your thoughts?

Do you have health care coverage on your pets?

What would you recommend?

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Have you ever seen The Crow?

It was one of my favorite movies during my angsty teenage years; bested only by Bride of Chucky. I guess lovey dovey movies just weren't up my alley.

But more importantly, one of the most famous lines in the movie is: "It can't rain all the time". I try to keep that in mind while I attempt to survive what feels like a permanent state of precipitation around here; check this out.

Short story: I work in a building that is made entirely of glass. It's torturous, really. When it's beautiful out you are forced to stare through the dim glass at the gorgeous day. When it's gross out all you can do is hear the nasty weather encroach on your work space while the entire office exists in a dim realm of fluorescent light.

Today I heard a girl say, "days like this make me glad I don't have a window at my desk".

And all of this rain makes me long for days like this one:

This picture was taken of me and the Boyfriend at two very dear friend of mine's wedding, in August, in 95+ degree weather, while I was trying to survive one of the worst hangovers of my life.

And I'd still rather be there than here.

Random Thoughts of a Distorted Mind

This journey we call life endlessly fascinates me. Most curious to me is how we adapt and grow as we move along on our individual paths. It's amazing to me how many lives we live in our considerably short life spans.

Just imagine, for example, how many people you have met in your life. Then imagine how many of those people you really didn't pay much attention to, how many you just simply adored, how many you actually cared for and how many you took the time to know and love. Also imagine how any minuscule tweak in your life could have altered the states of those relationships entirely.

And the funny part, to me, is that the people and the situations that influence us also change throughout time, for no reason, and at any moment our lives can completely flip upside down without anyone so much as batting an eyelash. A person whom you once considered to be your best friend can easily become a stranger and someone you swore to loathe eternally can very easily become a lifetime friend.

But what leads me to all of this is really far more internal. I've been thinking a lot about my life and all the people I have known and loved and hated and how I've changed and grown along along my own path. I guess to summarize my point; a person who met me 5 years ago and a person who met me now would know two similar, but very different people. Isn't that utterly bizarre?

Our priorities and our meaning change just like the seasons. So when I consider my journey and I pinpoint the people that align with each particular phase of my life, I can't help but smile knowing the vast array of people who have come and maybe gone out of my life, but who, no matter how small or insignificant have all permanently left little imprints on the woman I have become.

It's awe-inspiring. Really.

I have also taken note of the fact that I haven't posted a recipe in quite some time. The Boyfriend and I have limited ourselves to mostly barbecuing (his mom bought us a shiny, new grill) or, for my part, concocting new omelettes. I figured I'd share our latest favorite.

Buffalo Chicken Omelette

Ingredients: (serving size: 2)

2 Tablespoons Butter

4 Eggs

Salt (to taste)

Pepper (to taste)

2 slices of Cheese (I like Provolone, the Boyfriend prefers Swiss)

1 Small Can Chicken (similar to tuna, but NOT)

1 Small Can Sliced Mushrooms

Mayonnaise (to taste)

Frank's Redhot Sauce (to taste)

Ken's Chunky Blue Cheese Dressing (to taste)

You Will Need:

One Small-Medium Size Frying Pan

2 Medium Size Bowl

Whisk

A Fabulous Spatula

1.) In a Medium Size Bowl, whisk together the Eggs, Salt and Pepper.

2.) In the other Medium Size Bowl, combine the Chicken with the Mayonnaise.

3.) Heat one tablespoon butter in the Frying Pan over Medium-Low Heat. (on my stove I heat it to 4 on a scale of 4-6)

4.) Pour a half of the Egg Mixture into the frying pan and place the slice of Cheese on the right half. Let it cook for about 2 minutes, making sure that the top remains a bit eggy.

5.) After the 2 minutes, begin to add the filling ingredients in the following order: the Mayo Chicken, Mushrooms (to preference), Redhot Sauce (to preference), and last, but not least, the Blue Cheese Dressing. (as shown below)

6.) Carefully flip the left side over so it will be on top of the right side. Allow to simmer for about 2 more minutes or until no egg is running out of the edges.

7.) Flip the omelette over and cook the other side for an additional two minutes.

8.) Enjoy! And remember, a messy omelette is a delicious omelette.