Best Birthday Day Ever!

So yesterday we celebrated my birthday. (It's not actually until the 30th. I'll be 30 on the 30th - my golden year). It ended up being a surprise party and I was totally shocked! I knew Jill had a day planned for us and then I thought we were just going out to dinner with a bunch of friends...because that's what the email said that she sent out to everyone. Apparently this planning started back in April. Everyone had me totally fooled!

So our day started out with a lovely brunch at The Pantry. I love this place! Normally I would go with the omelette (because they are baked and delicious and fluffy and cheesy), but I decided on the cherry cheesecake crepes. So good!

Then it was off to get my haircut. Apparently Jill had planned for us to get a mani/pedi, but in passing conversation I mentioned that I'm not all about the "spa" type events. So I sort of put a damper on those plans, but I did get a nice trim on the hair and bangs. She got the pedi.

After that we stopped by Sonic to pick up a delicious cherry limeade and then it was off to Catching Fireflies. Cutest shop ever! I ended up getting a headband to wear at dinner (which I obviously totally didn't end up needing)...

and a cute little crystal to hang in my window...

On the way to our next stop, I received this gift...

It's a garden stone so I need to find the perfect place for it. Every time I look at it I'll remember my awesome birthday day!

Next stop was the International Gem and Jewelry show. (Oh, and by the way, with each planned stop, Jill had a little note card that I opened that sort of had a clue in it. Best idea ever! Those little note cards made me all excited and Jill thought that was hilarious).

So we stopped by the show and I picked up 6 more glass rings...

And apparently at this point, we hadn't quite used up enough time to let everyone prepare for the surprise back at her house so she was trying to keep us at the show longer. By this point I was pretty beat and just wanted to get back to her house to chill for a few, change and go out to dinner. Little did I know she was stalling.

After the jewelry show we stopped by Caribou Coffee for a little caffeine burst and Jill needed to "just sit and relax for a few". Oh, you mean stall?! LOL

So we finally start heading back to her house and I decide to text Jim and ask him what he's up to. He was heading over to Jill's, along with some of my other friends, to have a few drinks before we went out to dinner...or so I thought. So Jim tells me he had just left at it was like 6:45. I know in the fake email that Jill sent that everyone was supposed to meet at her house at 7:00 so I was kind of like, geez, way to leave so late.

So we get to Jill's house and there's a few cars in the driveway (including Jim's, hmmmmmmmmm), but nothing out of the ordinary since I knew people would be there already. But then Jill tells me I have to go around back first because those few people might want to say hi to me before I dart off and change. So I walk around back and I'm greeted with about 30 people all yelling surprise! My parents were there (which I TOTALLY did not expect), friends from work, everyone! It was so awesome! And I did get a little choked up (which is why I didn't take off my sunglasses Rachel, lol).

So yeah, they pulled of a surprise party and it was so much fun!

They even rented one of those bouncy/boxing ring things...

And then of course there was the delicious cake...along side my custom koozie which reads "it took me 30 years to look this good" lol.

Everyone put a lot of work into this and I'll never forget it. Thanks everyone for a very memorable birthday!

Thank you Netflix

Jim and I aren't big movie watchers. We don't even own a DVD player. If we ever want to watch a DVD, which is usually a comedy from the 90's, we pop it into the PS2.

Well I've been reading the Sookie Stackhouse books, which is what True Blood is based off of, so of course now I want to actually see the show. We don't have HBO either so that was a no go. I looked into how much the first season costs on DVD and it was like $40. No thanks.

Soooooooo, I realized it would be much cheaper for me to sign up for Netflix than to buy the season DVDs. And then since we have the Wii, we can instantly get shows/movies through that. Although I've heard that selection isn't that great. I haven't really checked it out yet.

Whatever, I was just super excited to watch the first two True Blood episodes last night!! And who knows, maybe we'll actually start watching some movies.

Garage Sale Finds

I've probably only been to a few garage sales in my life, but I had the urge to check some out with my mom the other day. I'm glad I did! I found some awesome stuff!

This little glass vase totally reminded me of chemistry class. What can I say...being a chemist I guess I'm kind of dorky like that. And $0.25? Yes please.

I was on the lookout for cool frames or mirrors and I came across these two. I'll be painting the frames just not sure what color yet. $2 for the pair.

Ok, so I knew those potato/onion storage bins existed but every time I looked for one to buy they were like $50! Um, no thank you. Well I was totally psyched when I saw this one at a garage sale. It needed some cleaning up, but Jim promptly took care of that when we brought it home. It now has a nice home in our basement.

And the best find of the day was this chair. After browsing various blogs and seeing all the cool things people do to old chairs, I was on the lookout for one. How awesome will this look painted (probably white) with some fun new fabric on it?! I'm so excited!

The first day I saw the chair they were asking $25 for it. I decided to leave it and come back the next day to see if it was still there. It was, and I got the chair and the above potato bin for $20! Now that's a sweet deal!

Super cute appetizer plates

Go ahead and add these to my list of things I have to have but don't need in the slightest.

oliver appetizer plates

Ikea purchases

I made a trip to Ikea today and like always, picked up more than a few things.

The main purpose of my trip was to get the Hyllis shelf that I saw in bryn alexandra's blog

I bought two and plan on putting them on either side of the desk in the office. I kind of like the stainless look, but I'm debating painting them white...or maybe black. I don't know yet.

Then I got two of these Ribba frames.

They have a silver foil finish on them so I might hang them in the office as well. And if I leave those shelves unpainted, it would add some more silver color to the room.

Another thing I picked up was this Lillholmen accessories stand.

I'm not quite sure where it's going to go yet, but I'm thinking either the bathroom or our bedroom, to hold some of my jewelry or other little items.

I picked up this cheap Bomull rug for our laundry room.

Not very exciting, but it'll get the job done.

Then I picked up these cute Godis glasses...like we don't have enough glasses. But for $6.99 I couldn't pass them up!

Another item I got was this Jonsbo Egby lamp.

I currently have it on the dresser in the office but I'm not sure if that is it's permanent home. It looks cute for now though.

I also bought this Ung Drill frame.

I'm thinking maybe that will go in the office as well, but I'm not sure yet. I don't know if I want to leave it black or paint it a really fun contrasting color. Still deciding on that one.

I also picked up some white curtains for the window in the office. I bought the Ikea Stockholm Figur curtains.

And last but not least, I bought the Kristaller chandelier. And this is definitely for the office!

Jim already hung it up and looks so awesome!

So that was my Ikea trip. The closest Ikea is almost an hour away, so the 2-3 trips I make there a year, I make worth the drive

Fun foodpod

I think I might need one of these...

foodpod

How fun is that?

Dresser makeover

This dresser has been around for as long as I can remember. I'm pretty sure my parents used it many moons ago. When I moved out and into the condo back in 2003, this dresser went with me and into our 9x9 closet. It spent many years hiding in that closet in its sad state but I wanted to change it up for use in our new office.

BEFORE

This was my second attempt at making over some furniture. I painted our desk as well which was a cherry wood color before, but I haven't taken any pictures yet. I'm not going to go into the details of how to paint furniture (a simple Google search will give you the answer) but it involved a little wood filler, sanding, priming with Kilz, painting and poly.

I used Benjamin Moore Cloud White in semi-gloss for the paint and it took three coats to get the best coverage. Since I used a latex paint, I needed to use a water-based polyurethane so I used the Minwax (in a blue can) semi-gloss finish. I did the first two coats with a can of the poly and a brush, but once it dried, it just didn't look right (and my dad warned me about that). I went ahead and bought a spray can for the last coat and it worked like a charm. A little more expensive, but much easier to work with.

And here's the finished product...

I went ahead and added glass knobs since there weren't any sort of handles/knobs before.

I also lined the drawers with a black & white patterned drawer liner that I found at Meijer.

It's being used in our office, which is SO not finished yet so a full office redo will be blogged at a later date.

I actually painted my nails

I'm not usually one to paint my nails. I work in the lab sometimes with solvents so that ruins it right there, plus I hate dealing with removing the nail polish once it starts to chip. So maybe like 2-3 times a year I actually paint my nails. I usually have paint on my toenails for sandal season but even those are still bare. But lately I've been on the lookout for one of those trendy lilac-pink pastel colors and came across OPI Panda-monium pink at Meijer yesterday.

I really like it! Maybe next up will be my toes.

Better ways to Google

I came across these Google tips the other day and thought it was a much better way to put Google to use than searching for song lyrics or those cute shoes I saw the other day. Some of them I already use pretty often like measurement conversions and calculations, but searching for files with certain extensions in them was a new one to me.

To Find:  PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, or PowerPoint Presentations

Use: filetype:pdf, filetype:xls, or filetype:ppt
Example: Canon manual filetype:pdf
Why: If you include the file type in your search, Google will turn up only relevant files. For example, entering filetype:pdf will find all the PDFs that have to do with operating your new camera. (For Excel files, use filetype:xls; for PowerPoint presentations, filetype:ppt.)

To Find:  Narrowed-Down Information

Use: a hyphen (minus sign)
Example: jaguar -cars -football
Why: You want information about jaguars―the animal, not the car or the sports team. Placing a hyphen before terms you want to exclude will omit pages with those words. Type a space before the hyphen, but not after.

To Find:  A Product You Saw Online (But Can’t Remember Where)

Use: intitle:
Example: intitle:“Frye boots”
Why: Using the term intitle: searches the words in the title bar of Web pages and can be particularly helpful if you remember the name of an item you liked but not where you found it. Just be sure not to put a space after the colon and to use quotation marks around the phrase.

To Find:  A Verbatim Phrase

Use: quotation marks
Example: “Bikram yoga”
Why: Using quotation marks around a phrase or a person’s name can eliminate many of the irrelevant links you would otherwise turn up, says Hock.

7 Things You Can Do Directly in the Google Search Field

• Perform calculations. To figure out what 15 percent off that $78 shirt amounts to, just enter “78 x .15” into the search field, click “Search,” and the answer will show up at the top of the results page. No clicking on a second link required.
• Convert measurements. How many cups equal a liter? Simply type “cups in liter.” You can also find out currency conversions (“15 dollars in euros”).
• Track flights. Find out if your flight is on time by entering your airline and flight number.
• Locate packages. Hunt down an MIA delivery by entering “track” plus the tracking number for a direct link to the status page.
• Look up addresses. Type in a person’s home phone number and, if he or she is listed, Google will turn up the mailing address.
• Find movie showtimes. Enter “movies” plus your city or ZIP code to see theaters and showtimes for the next three days.
• Listen to songs. Thanks to a Google partnership with the music site lala.com, you can type the title of a song and its artist and a playable file will appear at the top of the results page.