Friday, September 18, 2009

wondering where I've been?

HERE... My friend Kira and I that I always tell you about.. we started our own company! That's right, we are the face of our new greeting card business, 'Yours Truly, Kira & Kate'. We design and create 100& handmade greeting cards for all occasions. You know I'm a crafter :), and one day we just decided to start making them for fun... and voila our company was born. We just started out at the end of August, but already we've been getting a lot of orders in for personalized cards and we just put up our first sale on Etsy!

I've been so busy with that, just trying to promote the company is hard enough. I've started at school full time again and I've picked up another day at work! So chances are you won't be seeing alot of me :( I promise that I will try not to go another month without checking in!
And since I always posted pictures of my crafts...
See ya for now!

Monday, August 17, 2009

rethink history...

First off, sorry bloggies for my inexcusably long absence! I've really just been trying to enjoy the rest of my summer spending as much time away from the house/computer/internet as possible. I figured separating myself from the blog for a few days would help :)

What have I been up to lately? Not too much, spending time with my puppers,
Getting a super fun new haircut with my bestie!
Spending lots of time jogging with the puppers with my new kicks...
and the new toy I raved about here.
Running is a breeze with this baby! I am slightly addicted, which I think is a great thing because it's got me running more miles a week than normal!

I've dove into an AMAZING book...
...almost done, but I want it to last so badly I've been taking my time :) If you haven't read it yet, you must, trust me.

And now, for vacation I spent the day reliving history. I am in Williamsburg, VA for a few days. Today we spent travelling through history in downtown Colonial Williamsburg.

A horse at the first plantation we visited totally tried to feel me up. I forgave him :) He did start licking my arm however and actually bit me. His teeth are really odd like two pieces of wood so it just felt like something was clamping down on my arm :D
After there we headed to the Governor's Palace which was about a 30 minute tour with an awesome tour guide who practically told us everything about the building, including where the floorboards came from!
Here's your personal picture tour of the place...
I love the crazy funky colors they used back then! We're talking late 1700's here, and the dining room is lime green and the ballroom is an aqua blue.. the tour guide said that was super common back then. After this tour we searched for somewhere to eat for about an hour (..and about 2 miles of walking in 90+ degrees heat) and gave up on the town for the day. Hungry Kate is NOT a happy camper :) We shall return on Wednesday, tomorrow we're headed to Busch Gardens!!

Hope all of you have been amazing! Enjoy the rest of you Monday!

Monday, August 10, 2009

home sweet home :)

Great news folks. After hunting for what feels like forever and being tired of with living with my mother :) Love you Mom! ... I think we finally found something!
It needs a little shaping up, and we haven't officially signed anything yet; but the owners are going to make repairs and fix it up for the rest of August and we'll move the beginning of September! I love that it's an older house and is very unique. The set up is odd, the rooms have those awesome diagonal ceilings and lots of windows. It has a lot of character and I'm really excited to share some of my life in it! Ahh Relief. I couldn't imagine starting a semester of college still looking for somewhere to live!! And I know what you're thinking, she's going to love having a whole house to decorate ;)

Today is an absolute scorcher, being outside in the 100 degree weather is not my fave but that didn't stop us from heading to Cross Street Market in the city for some half off Sushi :) Me and the madre headed to a few thrift stores looking for good reads. And here I am back in the AC blogging and catching up on yours! Hope everyone else Monday is going great!

Saturday, August 8, 2009

time flies!

I cannot believe how much time I have let fly by since I've posted. I feel like I keep saying that really, but wow! Work has been nuts lately... Keeping me from my crafting, and bloggy world. :( Someone was let go mid-week and I was called in to pick up a shift .. or two. So instead of my measly 24 hours or so a week I'm pretty sure I clocked in 2 extra shifts. Nice for my wallet, not so nice for my social life :) Well I just got off again, and have the rest of the day to hit the gym, and apartment hunt with my bunny!
Have a great weekend all!

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

busy days away and my new bff

I've been MIA for a few days now.. wait wait, I can explain :) Thomas and I are headed to Williamsburg, VA for a 4 days coming up and I've been tying the last few loose ends of the vacay! Don't worry it's not for another 10 days or so, I'm not leaving you so soon. The last few days, besides planning have been pretty relaxing. I haven't been crafting as much since my partner in crime is away again :) but I have been busy. Thomas bought me a new toy....
For any of my fellow iphoners/ipod owners out there, let me introduce you to my new best friend, The Nike+. This little baby is every runners dream. It is a non complicated way to track distance, time, pace, calories burned, and when syncing to your computer it even shows you the path you ran. All you have to have is an iPod Nano, or iTouch/iPhone the little orange device up top is sold seperately for 19$ (we didn't know that and bought the combo package with iPod hook up, for the Nano) The little orange and white thingy goes into the sole of your Nike shoes (too bad I have Addidas we still have to perform surgery so I don't have a rock in my shoe). You pick your music playlist and press play, the timer starts going as soon as the music starts playing.
That's a photo from the app you would have on your Touch or iphone. Choose your workout and go. I was a very happy camper when Thomas said he was going to get it for me! Now, I want to run all the time! I highly suggest this little friend to anyone who loves to run or wants to get into running!
Last night was a fun one, Thomas and I did a little date night- to make up for all the time he spent working last week- he took me to dinner and we saw Funny People at the movies :) Honestly, I am a huge Adam Sandler fan and I didn't think it was that funny. I'm not very rash or vulgur and there were a lot of male genitilia jokes... if you know what I mean :/ Maybe you have to be a dude to think those were funny but it was just okay for me.
Today I shredded and walked the dog. I'm ready for a post workout snack and a nap! :)
Bye for now,

Sunday, August 2, 2009

I seem to be...

...totally in love with everything wayyyyy outta my price range :)
For instance:


This lovely shower curtain from Anthro. Somehow, I don't see myself spending 118$ on this beau. Uh, correction: I could never see myself spending half of that on a shower curtain. Call me cheap, but that is one non-justifiable purchase. And for me those are hard to come by ;)












This one- much more doable at 24.99$ as part of the Shabby Chic collection at Target. And still in my opinion super cute :)

Now these...



















...might be a little harder to pass up ;)


Today's day at work/running errands with Thomas/crappy (sweaty) run and grueling Jillian workout has left me with no more juice for ya bloggies :) Night!

Friday, July 31, 2009

i promised you reviews...

So here they are :) Just wanted to share with you all some thoughts and opinions about books I've read, and some movies I've seen while I was away from my blogworld for that awfully long week! First up is a book that I personally struggled to read off and on for about 2 months. (I usually finish an average size book in a few days to a week)
The Host by Stephenie Meyer- First off let me say that I am a huge Stephenie Meyer fan. Twilight=amazing. This book should have scared me away when my boyfriend guessed that it was about aliens by the name of it. He said that aliens are referred to as hosts in a lot of video games he plays. Yeah, I should have put it back on the shelf right then and there. But because I am a huge fan and thought I would love anything she wrote after Twilight I gave it a shot. I don't want to say that it is a bad book, it's just not my style. If you're familiar with the author then you would know she has a hard time getting to a point quickly (look at the length of the Twilight books) and she has the same problem here except in this novel's case it was painful. If you like sci-fi this could be right up your alley. All in all for me it was a very hard read.

Since I rarely ever go to movie theaters to see a movie (not a fan of the obnoxious middle schoolers, and the rudeness of some people and their gum chewing) I normally just rent when I can watch them in the comfort of my own home. One of the most recent movies seen was a dud.

Knowing starring Nicholas Cage.
Again, I have to say Thomas and I are pretty fond of Nicholas Cage movies. This one was just bad. It had some pretty good ideas, for example if the entire movie was built around the list found revealing the dates of all major tragedies to happen around the world- the movie probably would have been awesome. But instead it went off on some odd tangents, leaving you to not really understand where the movie was headed, and questioning the need of some of the characters in the plot. That and the ending of the movie absolutely blew. End of story.








Beautiful Boy by David Sheff.
This book was a wonderful compilation of one family's journey through their son's harmful drug addiction. The story begins at his birth goes through his childhood and continues to present day. Sheff shares his emotions, his personal experiences with drugs and his thoughts on different types of treatments and rehabilitation centers. Having an addict in my family I highly appreciated this book, I loved the wisdom that the author shared as well as his feelings during periods of relapse. He shared both positive and negative stories about his son's addiction. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a good read, but specifically for parents, children or families of addicts, addicts as well as recovering addicts. I loved also the education that I gained from this read. (For example: I'm not very drug saavy, and had no idea that meth and speed were the same thing!) After Beautiful Boy came out Nic Sheff decided to write his story of his addiction called 'Tweak'. I can't wait to read that one. If you'd like more convincing to read here's a father-son video here.
And the one movie that I ALWAYS have seen the midnight premiere for.................
Harry Potter!! This particular release was Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince or the
sixth book. My review for this one will probably be very bias, since I am and have always been a huge HP fanatic. I thought that the director captured this book perfectly. The story line is of course fantastic, the acting is amazing as always. I love that they played up the little romances and jealousies between the characters. It was surprisingly very funny while being extremely dark and adventurous at the same time. Overall I'd hate to place a favorite but I'd say I think that this one did it for me. I think there was a few more things in the book that I wish they would have dwelled on longer but that's every recreation of a novel. Overall as a fan, I was very pleased with this movie!





Well guys, this was my first time doing reviews! If you'd like more posts like this or not, just let me know! Today has been filled so far with finishing up my mail holder, after it stops raining I think I'll head out for a jog and do day 3 of Jillian's Shred :)
Have a great afternoon!

Thursday, July 30, 2009

pier1 freebie :)

So first off I have to give credit to pier1 for helping me recreate these beautiful babies myself :)
Here's my inspiration pic courtesy of pier1.com
First terracotta planters were purchased for $.89 at A.C. Moore, so far that was the cheapest we found them. Kira and I bought chalkboard paint at Walmart for $7.99
Here they are with SEVERAL layers of chalkboard paint. Literally took some patience, we worked on other things while the paint dried :)
And here are my new herb pots ...





Seriously peeps it was that easy. They erase with your fingertips!

















Oh, and as for my awesome find......
The missing parts are the hooks which were taken off to paint, it's just going to be white with the right empty side being painted with chalkboard paint! Once I'm done I'll be sure to show you the awesomeness of my new mail holder.
I'm exhausted from my date with Kira, my workout with Jillian, and my run with Parker! Nighty Night Bloggies!
Tomorrow's post is going to be full of reviews!
Kate

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

kate's finally crafting again...

You heard that right, give Kate a day off, a few extra bucks and a Sweet place to work and she'll turn into Martha herself. :) So I spent all lovely day with my bestie, Kira, and wowee did we find some cuties. I must not have been in the mood to pull my iphone out of my purse (?? if that's possible) because I did NOT take any pictures of my finds. I know strange of me, right? I thought so too. Well I'll remind myself tomorrow or friday when I head back over to Kira's to reuinite with my items!
First to backtrack Kira and I created an awesome space for our crafts! She has an area in her basement which is virtually unused and we now have a makeshift table, a few shelves and lots and lots of craft supplies! That's where we took on one of a few crafts today...but unfortunately you're going to have to tune in tomorrow to find out what! I hate posting crafts without pictures :)
I did find a few books from the Goodwill store...
and
I also found what I've been looking for all my livelong life I feel like.....
a Mail holder :)!!! Oh and it was only 8 dollars, it was at the Goodwill so you bet it needs some TLC ( a new paint job and some sanding) but I guarantee I will love it when it's finito! Once again, bare with me for pics! I promise I'll post as soon as I take them.
Folks, I'm off to watch watchmen with my man hehe, See you tomorrow!
Kate

Monday, July 27, 2009

Great news!

My internet's back! And I've lost almost all of the weight that I've gained from summer ice cream! I had literally gained about 8 pounds since June simply from Boardwalk french fries and mint choco chip ice cream. Pathetic I know but I've really put my head and body and tummy to it the last 2 weeks and have officially kicked 6 of those pounds.. almost there :)
As for crafts Kira sent me awesome news this morning, a family member cleaned out their craft room and donated whole lots of fun to the Kira and Kate craft foundation :) And we are going to set her basement up as a craft station for all of our crazy extravaganzas! We have a craft date Wednesday and hopefully we'll finish up working on these...
We got the idea from one of our favorite blogs Life in the Fun Lane, you can find the post on her cherry blossom branches there.

Well folks, I'm about to head downstairs and do a couple exercises out of my new book...
then get ready for work! Have a great monday!
Kate

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Well guys this is probably the longest time that I've gone without blogging! Hi again, I almost feel like I need to reintroduce myself! To be honest I've kind of been putting this post off, :). I feel just simply like I have NOTHING to blog about. I know that seems crazy since I did take like a week off, but really I've just been working, moving everything into my Mom's house and DYING without internet. Gosh I really hate that part. We're finally in my Mom's, with just a few odds and ends to wrap up at the old place. We're looking at more places to move into but so far not really having any success yet.

Well as for blog world, I have been trying desperately to keep up with all of your blogs, but since not having internet that has become wayy harder.. obviously. And to make things worse they got rid of it at work as well! So if you're missing my comments bare with me, Thomas is working on fixing my Mom's as I speak. I do however have an iphone so when I do feel like reading an impossibly tiny screen I'll manage which is how I found out that I won my first giveaway!! I enter them on my favorite random blogs, mostly health foods (since they're so expensive) and because they often feature all natural body products as well. Well I entered the Mojamix giveaway on my favorite foodie blog eatliverun.com with Jenna and I found out via iphone yesterday that I won!! I got to make my very own cereal mix which was way cool, it's a little pricey for those of us on a budget... but I think I'll still invest in it every once in a while anyways. And also I think would be a really awesome gift to some one, you can personalize the labeling and everything! Just head to mojamix.com !


Well now to stop rambling. I'm not really working on too many projects, partially because of the move and the other part is because I can't find my hot glue gun. It's probably in a random box in
storage :( hmmph.Well all I'm just about to finish settling in my mommas and check out
a few places and hopefully hang out with Kira who finally came back to me!
Kate

Monday, July 20, 2009

man oh man...

What an interesting last few days. Well to make a long story short, (which I know I shouldn't do in a blog.. but I'm still a little stressed by the story so...) we did NOT move Saturday. Okay correction I did move boxes for a few hours but they were removed and relocated to our temporary residence as of Friday.. my Momma's :) Since I'm holding off on the whole story I'll just say that it was not what we expected. The walls were thin and we had a lot of loud rude neighbors. So thanks to the 3 day law in Maryland (you have 3 days to back out of a contract if you are not satisfied) we were able to get all of our money back and back out of the lease without question. We are now going to be with my Mom until we find something better! I don't have internet since we got all of that changed so blogging will be minimal in the next few days. Hopefully we'll find something better soon!
Kate

Friday, July 17, 2009

things I have wayyyy to much of...

Well folks this will probably be my last blog for a few days, I move TOMORROW :0 and will not have internet set up at the new place until sometime next week... boo. I promised you a post yesterday and did not sorry :)Yesterday was a busy day split three ways, shopping at AC Moore for craft things with Kira and starting a cherry blossom branch craft. Shopping with my Momma and sister at Kohl's.. twice. And packing. I've been doing alot of packing. Which leads me to the title for my post... I have way to many of a lot of things! For instance.
Picture frames.... I have soo many that Thomas made me put the last bunch in one of my baskets saying that I already have TWO boxes full and I need to stop wasting the boxes. Well obviously I don't seem to care that I have too many because I just bought two more as you know from my last post :/
Next obsession...
Wicker baskets... This isn't even all of them. Go ahead and laugh. This may be a normal amount of baskets... for someone who has a HOUSE I am moving from a bedroom into a one bedroom apartment. I think Thomas clocked them in at 34 baskets. Oh an not pictured is my collection of storage boxes too. I probably have about 10 of those. You can find a picture of what I'm talking about here when I fabric covered a few. If anyone one knows of someone I can see for help for a wicker basket/storage box addiction please leave a comment on this post.

Books, which most of them I have read a hundred times and am holding onto..
This is one of two large boxes! But I don't think I'm that bothered by this one. I love reading!

Shoes, once again not too upset about this I am a firm believer that one can never own too many pairs of shoes. I have about two boxes and a duffel bag full of those. However, Thomas owns three pair of shoes. One pair of tennis shoes, one pair of dressy/work shoes, and one pair of sandals. I don't know how he functions. That almost makes me mad that he thinks it's okay to only own three different types of shoes. Ugh, men.
I own one too many handbags. I have two very large trash bags of those. I have to say I will be discarding one! I took a good look through them yesterday and honestly I haven't used well over half of them in so long they've definitely gone out of style.

And now for the pictures that I am most disgusted by.... I have WAY too many CLOTHES






Even with the items in the closet, plastic bags and in the hampers... all of those are filled with my clothes...
I have more in the car. And I already donated 4 bags. I semi have a problem with clothes.

Well guys I'm gonna miss ya! Other than pack and move in I don't know what I'm going to do with myself for the next few days, Kira leaves for Florida today, and my nanny and entire family are all down the beach for two weeks!
I hope everyone has an awesome weekend! What are some things you have too many of?
Kate