TV Time

Before we had MonkeyToes, we had a TV schedule. Every week we watched our shows when they aired. We had a lot of shows. After he was born, we lost all sense of time and just couldn't keep up with the TV. We spent a lot of time watching shows that were on DVD. We've just gotten back into watching a few things as they air (like normal people) but we always appreciate having something new to rent and watch. So here are some of my favorite shows if you are looking for something that's still on the air or you can just rent.

Seriously, this is definitely in the top 5 of my favorite currently running shows. It's so freaking hilarious. If you've never watched before, Modern Family follows three connected families, mockumentary style. All three families are actually related and the show highlights how family doesn't mean our picture of traditional family any more. Hands down, my favorite character is Phil Dunphy. This is the first show we've started watching again at it's regular time.

Eureka is actually off the air now but it's really really fantastic. The show is about a secret town filled with geniuses that get to build futuristic stuff for the government. There is always something going wrong in Eureka and it's up to Sheriff Carter to fix it. You don't have to watch all the seasons in order. There is a plot to the story but not all of the episodes majorly depend on it and it's easy to get the gist of the plot if you need to. My favorite character is Deputy Andy who appears later in the series.

 I just had to include this one. I have the whole series on DVD and I can watch it over and over. The Tudors was a drama on Showtime about King Henry VIII. This show captures everything we imagine the king and his court to be. Jonathan Rhys Meyers is PERFECT. My favorite of the queens is Anne. Every scene is lush and full of beautiful details. As I said, this was a Showtime drama which should tell you a few things. 1. The episodes are LONG. 2. Probably something you should watch when kids/prudish people are in bed.

BBC's Sherlock isn't a series in the traditional sense. While most have 20+ episodes per season, Sherlock has three 90 minute episodes per season. And it's just incredible! They have succeeded in bringing Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to 21st century London. The episodes are clever and witty. The second season is a take on some of the more popular stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. We devoured these over a weekend and actually rewatched the last episode just to make sense of it. Even if you aren't sure you will like this, I recommend trying a couple of episodes. My boyfriend thought he would hate it but he was totally hooked.

Can you tell I love historical fiction? This is another British drama. Downton Abbey is about the Crawley family and their servants. Robert Crawley has three daughters and the show puts a big focus on the drama of who will inherit Lord Crawley's titles and estate when the time comes. Maggie Smith is awesome as the Dowager Countess and provides comic relief at the best times. Honestly, I was worried this would be slow and boring but it's so much fun to watch! This show is technically in it's third season but those episodes won't air until January for the US.

If you try these shows and enjoy them, let me know! We haven't watched anything I would recommend in a while so if you know of something I might like, let me know!

I Can't Make Decisions (aka Finding A Christmas Card)

Now that Halloween is over we can really get into getting ready for my favorite holiday, Christmas! Actually, I love the entire season, November and December. So many fun days packed into 2 months, Thanksgiving, my birthday, Christmas and New Year's. But Christmas is definitely the crown jewel.
This will be our first Christmas in our new house and MonkeyToe's second Christmas. In an effort to feel like real grown ups, we've been looking a Christmas card! I thought it might be fun to show you some of our frontrunners.

I started my search on Vistaprint, because there was a great groupon. Plus with Vistaprint, I could customize it to list our first names instead of just putting a family name. This was the one for a long time but ultimately, rumors that Vistaprint jacks up shipping costs for those using a groupon made us shy away from the company.

 

 Next, I turned to tinyprints. I regularly swoon over stationery from tinyprints and their sister brands so I knew I would not be disappointed. Both of these (here and here) caught my eye but really, even the studio basics line is out of my price range so I sadly gave up my dreams of a tinyprints card.

I knew Etsy wouldn't let me down. I found these beautiful cards from DeanWorks Studios and Pink Coconut Designs. The idea is that you purchase the design, send your info and picture to the seller and they send you the file so you can get it printed wherever you want. I am so close to pulling the trigger on one of these but I have just one more idea I can't shake.

I love the idea of making a footprint card with MonkeyToes and just putting wallets of our pictures in. I think it would be so much nicer to give to family but boyfriend wants to feature our professional pictures. I think the penguin would be easier than the tree.

Any opinions or suggestions? I have to be the most indecisive person ever.

Inspiration: Master Bedroom

I would love to give you guys a tour and post pics of what I'm working with house-wise but we are still in the purchasing process. After it officially belongs to us, I will post pictures. Until then, let's all just use our imaginations.

I have a pretty clear vision for what we want our house to look like. I've been looking for one piece to embody that style and make it easier to pick things to go along with it. But I haven't found it it yet so I'm just going to throw out some words for you and hope the pics in each inspiration post give you the idea.
For the bedroom, I'm going with blues, slate grey, silver, bone and maybe some sandy colors. We are trying to hit beachy without also going into kitschy. I gravitate more towards modern than traditional and I think that will help prevent it from looking like a beach house.

When I said modern, I meant it! We decided to go with the Malm line of furniture for our bedroom. We already have the Kullen dresser and the Malm desk for my vanity set up. We decided to go with the higher bed and two three drawer chests instead of the two drawer chests for nightstands (the Malm nightstand is not compatible with the higher bed). I wish we could do the rolling headboard storage thing but I don't think that's compatible with the taller bed either. We haven't decided between the longer 6 drawer dresser and the taller 6 drawer dresser yet.

 I'm in love with this duvet from West Elm. The pattern is big without being overly commanding. It's definitely feminine without being so girly that it intimidates my boyfriend. On top of that, the blue is exactly what I was looking for.

I love the look of a couple different throws at the end of a bed, which is good because we have to have one. The boyfriend has a favorite throw and would be devastated if I banished it from our bedroom. It's a slate blue microfiber throw so I think adding an off white or gray chunky knit throw would be beautiful! This one is from Pottery Barn but it would be simple enough to make. I'm undecided on whether I'll buy or make one.

A couple of pieces we already picked up from World Market: the Mediterranean Sea potpourri and this turtle bowl/tray thing (which apparently discontinued? image via Houzz). I know the potpourri looks very beach house but I think it's acceptable since it's not like I'm doing a ton of beach house things. I still need to find a bowl or something to put it in. The turtle tray will be on my vanity, probably holding my project pan stuff! I love turtles but again, trying to keep from venturing into kitschy beach house, so I will be trying to limit myself. I love that this one is silver because I love silver above all other metallics. I just feel like it goes with everything!

As far as artwork, accessories and all of that...I'm at a loss. Maybe a light gray for the walls? I also need to figure out what I want for flooring before we move in. Obviously, I won't be setting out to finish this in a week or two so I've got plenty of time to figure out more of what I want for smaller items. Any suggestions?

Let's Chat

As I said in my last post, I'm very aware that I've not blogged with any frequency lately. Part of that is, in fact, technical problems. But combine that with being so freaking busy, I've not been wearing a ton of makeup or even doing my nails this month, well... I just don't have any makeup or beauty related posts to bring you between project pan updates. I'm hoping to rectify that situation in the next few weeks.

Even if I start posting more makeup and nails posts, I have to admit there are several other topics occupying me. We are preparing to move and it's a combination of extremely stressful and super exciting. We will be going from our apartment to first time home ownership! We will get to do all the fun home improvement stuff like painting and decorating but we also have a lot of the not so fun home improvement stuff to take care of as well. I'd like to start writing about that as well.

In an effort to get back on the blogging train, I'm going to be posting once a week about something not makeup or beauty related. I promise than in addition to those posts, I will be working on posts actually about what you are here for. I just don't like being boxed in. There are so many things I enjoy and would love to write about and I don't want to have lots of one topic specific blogs. Maybe one day I will figure out how to separate them via different tabs (and different feeds). But for now we will have a mishmash of what's going on in my head.